The guy who precedes the storm - Chapter 6
Sam never saw Rain again after that emotionally charged day and it worried him that she had just up and disappeared. When he tried asking Mr. Taylor where she had gone the only answer he ever got was that she had finished training. For some reason this explanation worried him even more, it just seemed so odd that one day she was here and the next she was gone.
Over the next few weeks Sam had finally learned his way around the maze that was his school with Dean by his side the entire time. It seemed that the longer he spent with his roommate, getting first hand experience of Dean’s quirky funny serious thoughtful irreverent personality, the more he liked being with him. He knew how hard and how quickly he was falling but every time he found himself looking into Dean’s eyes, so alive with possibility, he didn’t care. Even if it mean that he ended up getting them both hurt.
Dean still left their room in the night a couple of times a month but Sam was relaxed enough that he didn’t follow him anymore. His exit always woke Sam up and he was always still awake when Dean returned but he never spoke of it to Dean.
One particular night however, Sam heard the door to the room open but instantly knew something wasn’t right. He glanced across the room and saw Dean’s eyes gleam at him from his bed across the darkness - he had obviously woken to the noise of the opening door as well. Whoever it was who had entered the room was moving slowly, cautiously, stumbling slightly in the dark. In a flurry of motion Dean had the trespasser pinned to the bed and Sam had the light on.
"Alright, I give." Michael grinned from where his face merged with the bedspread. With a grunt and a final impatient push on Michael’s back Dean released the trapped man and stepped back cautiously knees bent and hands raised in case he tried anything as he stood up.
"What the hell, Michael?" Sam asked bleary eyed as he sank into the bed again.
"Come on guys, its Halloween. Time for scaring and shit."
"So you thought you’d come and jump us in the middle of the night?" Dean said testily. He obviously didn’t like missing his sleep, but at least he relaxed his stance somewhat.
"No I thought I’d come and get the only people who hadn’t come out to tell ghost stories." Michael grinned and blew some of his long blonde hair out of his face. He saw matching disapproving looks on both Sam and Dean’s faces and knew he was on to a losing battle. "Come on, you guys, one ghost story. The other members of our group look too boring to be scared by a ghost if it jumped out at them and threw a hissy fit."
Michael’s voice was irritating after just being woken up and Sam sighed knowing that Michael would never get off his case if he said no, so he caved in and agreed. After another minute of grumbling and pouting Dean did too.
For someone who, initially, hadn’t wanted to come Dean thrived with the attention of an audience. He mixed stories from some bad Stephen King novels together and Sam could barely hide his laugher behind his hand as Dean held most the group enthralled with the convoluted stories.
He told them of a haunted Impala he had bought when he was seventeen and how it had killed all his family leaving only him to get away. Sam was just happy to watch all the different facial expressions that Dean pulled as he got to each part of the story and he memorised each expression for future reference. He never usually got the opportunity to stare for so long at Dean’s face without creeping the guy out and he was relishing it.
"Where’s the nearest bathroom," Sam leaned over and whispered to Michael not wanting to interrupt the flow of Dean’s story.
"There’s one down the corridor to the right. It’s the school’s old public one from when it was still a unisex school. I’d let you use ours but Kevin came out of it looking rather smug earlier." Sam grinned and wondered which of the guys was Kevin.
The corridor was dark and empty as he entered it. He hadn’t been outside his room at night except when he had been following Dean and even then he hadn’t been completely alone so he found the closed dark spaces eerie and a little unsettling, all quiet except for some laughter coming back from the room. In Sam’s mind there was nothing creepier than an empty school at night. Not even the ice blue moonlight pouring through the windows made an impact on the dark but he was damned if he could find any sort of light switch anywhere. Suck it up Sam.
He finally got to the toilets without any problems and he was cursing himself for being such a pussy. Then as he was leaving to return to the ghost stories he heard it: gentle crying coming from next door, the girls toilets.
Sam felt half terrified and half curious. The ghost stories he had heard flowing through his head warring with his natural inquisitive instincts. But he couldn’t just go back to the party and not check. What if someone was hurt in there? He couldn’t just leave checking it out until he had the luxury of full daylight.
Sam opened the door slowly, trying to steel himself with deep breaths when all he wanted to do was run.
"Hello? Is anyone in there?" Sam whispered thickly. The crying stopped and Sam stepped inside the room eyes adjusting to the gloom. His inside’s felt ice cold and a shiver ran down his spine. It had been a girl’s voice crying he was sure of it. "Rain, is that you? It’s Sam."
The silence was deafening and as he opened each cubicle door there was no one there. He was feeling more and more on edge, nervous even. He turned to leave.
"GET OUT!" A girl’s voice screamed behind him. His heart hammering in his chest he swung round facing the girl who was definitely not Rain and who had quite clearly appeared from nowhere.
"GET OUT!" She screeched again her face twisting horribly. "YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!" The mirror on the wall to his left cracked with a sickening sound and Sam swung towards it to see something black pouring through, something similar in every way to thick dark blood.
"GETTTTT! OUTTTT!" Sam found his feet again and stumbled hard into the hallway, the girl’s sick and screeching laughter following him as he ran from the room. He didn’t stop until he launched himself into his dorm room and into arms that tried to grab for him.
He shouted and kicked out but then he heard a voice he recognised. "Calm down Sam! It’s me. It’s Dean!" Sam collapsed against Dean and clung to him, with panicked heaving breaths. He tried to concentrate on his breathing as Dean awkwardly soothed him with "It’s okay, It’s okay."
When he had calmed down a little Dean pulled back "Sam?" Dean asked and he could see he was scaring Dean with his behaviour. He needed to calm the hell down; there must be a rational explanation for what just happened. There’s always an explanation.
"Your not going to tell me what happened, are you?" Dean said after a moment.
Sam shook his head when he realised there wasn’t one. Dean wouldn’t believe him any way. Hell, Sam wasn’t sure if he believed himself and that was when he still couldn’t stop shaking.
"Sam you’ve been gone for over an hour! Everyone was worried about you." Dean reasoned.
An hour, Sam mouthed. He couldn’t have been gone that long. It had all seemed to happen in a matter of minutes. Dean read his stunned impression and decided not to push it.
"Never mind… just try to calm down for now. Wait! I know…" Sam could still see that girls face even when he scrunched his eyes shut and he didn’t even realise Dean had let him go until he pulled Sam to lie on the floor with him on some blankets he’d laid down.
"My sister always used to do this for me when I was scared." Dean explained.
Sam could understand why Dean’s sister hadn’t let him sleep alone when he was scared because being alone was quite the last thing Sam wanted right now. But he very much doubted that Dean and his sister had been fully-grown at the time and been wedged tightly in a narrow strip between two beds.
He blushed from the tips of his toes to the top of his head in embarrassment. First, he had petrified Dean and now he was using him as a human blanket to keep him safe.
"Go to sleep. Whatever it was will probably seem silly in the morning." Deans said with that familiar self-assured grin. Sam ducked his head and closed his eyes as he tried to avoid thinking about the girl in the bathroom and the way Dean was so close he could feel his breath teasing his hair.
Both these things were impossible but when Dean pulled him closer to his chest he finally managed to cease worrying about anything and fell fast asleep. His last thought was of how safe he felt with Dean around.