A Long Hunt

Nightmare

The black ripped through the angel’s mind and he was frozen in place by violent dreams. Only moments before Cas been watching Dean drift peacefully off to sleep. Once the hunter had fallen into the land of dreams he had begun to twitch restlessly.

Cas assumed that the hunter was just feeling the stress of returning from death so he tried to sooth his mind.

The angel delved onto the hunters mind to calm him down as his dreams turned sour.

What Cas saw when he opened his eyes inside the hunters head was utter chaos. The dream was dark, twisted, and uncomfortably familiar. The sheer power seething from the dream was enough to stop the angel in his tracks. Cas could not physically move his body, nor could he recede from the nightmare itself. He was stuck.

Cas's eyes scanned the room looking for some indication of where he was.

A wild array of screams began from all corners of the dream. When the screams started Castiel’s heart froze as a reddish black light began to illuminate the dimly lit area.

Cas suddenly knew where they were...... This was hell. Dean was dreaming of one slice of hells thousand layered torture chambers.

As the eerie light became brighter and brighter Cas saw a shadowy figure standing in the center of the room.

The figure was Dean.

As Cas watched the dream form of Dean flicker eerily. Dean suddenly wasn't alone, there standing before him was a woman dressed all in white with long, blonde, flowing hair and a face that used to be kind.

Cas knew who this woman was, he had seen her before in Sam and Dean’s photographs.

Mary Winchester was standing before her son with an evil sneer spread across her face.

Fire shone behind her eyes as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Dean Winchester. My Son…. A hero?” Mary spat as she glared down at her son. “A great hero my ass. How can someone who hates them self so much see themselves as a hero?  Why do you care about other people when you don't even care for yourself Dean?"

Dean stood rigidly in front of his mother and listened to her stony faced.

"You couldn't protect your family! Hell, you still can't seem to protect them! I died Dean. A demon killed me! You should have killed the bastard that night Cas sent you back into the past. You could have saved me Dean! You were so close. You can’t seem to save anyone can you? Hell you even killed John! Your own father Dean! He sold his life and soul to save his sorry excuse for a son! It’s your fault Dean! He should have just let you die!  See how great you are at carrying on the Winchester bloodline?” She laughed bitterly and added “Sam is actually working toward something. He wants to go somewhere in life! What do you have? A car, some music tapes and broken memories! Sammy actually tried to go to college until you screwed it up for him!”

Dean was now staring at the floor by Mary’s feet. Shame and sadness shone from the hunter’s body as he shrunk away from the pain.  He seemed small under the crashing weight of his mother’s words. Hell was trying to show Dean dark, twisted, versions of reality and the hunter was falling right into its evil trap.

Mary started screaming at her son again, which made Dean twitch ever so slightly.

“Speaking Sam, how many times have you let him down? How many times has he died because of you? You’re his big brother! You’re supposed to keep him safe! Not let him die! What kind of brother are you?” This dream representation of Mary was quickly tearing down the protective walls around the hunter’s mind and was turning him into a submissive scared little boy.