Back in Black

Chapter 3

It had been a year since John found them at the Roadhouse, and to the open relief of Dean and Sam, he didn't try to make them come back to living on the road with him. Instead they came to a tentative peace. John would visit with them occasionally, leaving new information about the things he hunted, and they would send him onto new hunts along with any info they had about what it was.

It wasn't perfect, but it was a damn sight better than what they had been living with.

During that time, Dean slowly started to form a suspicion about who the pale man was that kept visiting him. Little clues started to add up to one crazy impossibility. Things like how the reapers who occasionally dropped by reacted to him asking about the man, or the symbol.

It wasn't until he was almost eighteen that he finally confronted the pale man. He might not have, had he never found that book in a used magical bookstore about European fairy tales.

The man took one look at Tales of Beedle the Bard and knew that the day Dean figured out his name had come. He idly wondered who had sold their copy at just the right time for Dean to find it.

He waited patiently for Dean to speak. Finally the silence grew too much for the almost eighteen-year-old.

You're not a reaper, are you? You're Death.

Ironic you figure it out at the exact same age that you finished the set, said Death. Harry had been about this age when he first completed the Hallows centuries after he had released them.

Why me? Why do you only appear before me?

Because of who you were. Before you summoned me specifically to ask for a second chance.

The symbol you showed me. It was the Hallows wasn't it?

Yes. Several years ago you completed the set, and then nine years later you summoned me asking if I could give you a second chance away from the destiny that had been thrust upon you. I couldn't take the title or the magic away, but I could give you something else. Anonymity.

How bad was it? How bad could my life have been before that I would give up everything just to be another face in the crowd?

The person you were before had never known love. In any form. You had been denied it by everyone around you, and it took some time for you to realize that the life you had wasn't worth the price you had paid for it. So I took pity on you and sent you someplace I knew you would have that chance.

Dean considered that. He couldn't imagine a life without his brother, Bobby, Ellen or Jo.

To give you an idea of how bad it was, imagine living alone with John Winchester after he found out you had magic, without anywhere to run to. Living every day in fear that he might snap and kill you just because of what you were.

Dean shivered. He had nightmares about that sometimes. That thought scared him more than any monster he had ever hunted.

I told you before, your next life would be filled with darkness and pain, but there would be love in it. You felt that love was worth more than anything else in your life and you were willing to pay for it. Tell me, do you think it was worth it?

I sacrificed everything for love. And considering my life now, I can honestly say...I don't regret it. I would rather have Sammy, dad, mom and even that pest Jo around than all the gold in the world.

Good. I'm glad you're happy with the situation, because in a few years or so I'm going to need your help dealing with a pair of spoiled children who had a rather massive argument over who daddy loved best.