Defying Gravity (Book One: Supernatural fanfic)

Family Matters

Castiel and Dean thought they knew what was wrong with Sam's behavior.

I stood in a motel room with the boys.

Sam was bleeding and bloody, tied to a chair.

"You're right," I told them. "He looks terrible." Sam groaned, waking. I looked at Dean. "You did this?"

Sam looked at Castiel and me in confusion. "Cas? Ava? What's—" He noticed he was tied to the chair. "Let me go."

Castiel looked at Dean. "Has he been feverish?"

Dean looked at Sam. "Have you?"

"No," Sam answered. "Why?"

Castiel looked at Dean. "Is he speaking in tongues?" He looked at Sam. "Are you speaking in tongues?"

"No," Sam answered. "What are you... Are you diagnosing me?"

"You better hope they can," Dean told him.

"You really think that this is—" Sam started.

"What, you think that there's a clinic out there for people who just pop out of Hell wrong?" Dean asked. "They ask, you answer. Then you shut your hole. You got it?"

Sam relented.

"How much do you sleep?" I asked.

"I don't," Sam answered.

"At all?" I asked.

"Not since I got back," Sam answered.

"And it never occurred to you that there might be something off about that?" Dean asked incredulously.

"Of course it did, Dean," Sam answered. "I—I just never told you."

"What?" Dean asked.

"Sam..." I trailed off. "What are you feeling now?"

Sam scoffed. "I feel like my nose is broken."

"No, that's a physical sensation," I told him. "How do you feel?"

"Well, I think—" Sam started.

"Feel," I told him.

"I... don't know," Sam told us. I looked at Dean and Castiel, taking a belt off the table. "What? Uh..."

"This will be unpleasant," Castiel told him.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Bite down on this," I told him, putting the belt between Sam's teeth. "If there's someplace that you find soothing, you should go there. In your mind."

I pushed my hand into Sam's chest, making Sam scream in pain, glowing from the inside.

Sam's screams were muffled by the belt. He gasped, groaned and screamed in agony.

I took my hand out of his chest.

Sam let the belt fall out of his mouth, breathing heavily.

"Did you find anything?" Dean asked.

"No," I answered.

"So, that's good news?" Dean asked.

"I'm afraid not," I answered. "Physically, he's perfectly healthy."

"Then what?" Dean asked.

"It's his soul," I told them. "It's gone."

We looked at Sam.

Sam looked at us in confusion.

*