Daddy's Little Hunter (SPN Season 1)

Nightmare [5]

Sam and Max sat in the lounge.

Max stared at a letter opener and it raised on its point and began twirling slowly.

"Look, I can't begin to understand what you went through," Sam reasoned.

"That's right you can't," Max snapped.

"Max, this has to stop,"

"It will, after my stepmother..."

"No. You need to let her go,"

"Why?"

"Did she beat you?"

"No, but she never tried to save me. She's a part of it too,"

"What they did, to you, what they all did to you growing up, they deserve to be punished..."

"Growing up?" Max scoffed "Try last week," he got up and lifted his shirt. Max's chest and side were a mass of bruises. "My dad still hit me. Just in places people wouldn't see it. Old habits die hard I guess,"

"I'm sorry," Sam said softly.

"When I first found out I could move things it was a gift. My whole life I was helpless but now I had this. So last week Dad gets drunk. The first time in a long time. And he beats me to hell, the first time in a long time. And then I knew what I had to do,"

"Why didn't you just leave?"

"It wasn't about getting away. Just knowing they would still be out there. It was about...not being afraid. When my Dad used to look at me, there was hate in his eyes. Do you know what that feels like?"

"No,"

"He blamed me for everything. For his job, for his life, for my Mom's death,"

Sam became confused "Why would he blame you for your Mom's death?"

"Because she died in my nursery, while I was asleep in my crib. As if that makes it my fault,"

Sam became shocked thinking about his mother and Jess's death "She died in your nursery?"

"There was a fire. And he'd get drunk and babble on like she died in some insane way. He said that she burned up. Pinned to the ceiling!"

"Listen to me, Max. What your Dad said, about what happened to your Mom. It's real," Sam said the memory of Jess still fresh in his mind.

"What?"

"It happened to my Mom too, exactly the same. My nursery, my crib, my Dad saw her on the ceiling,"

"Your Dad must have been as drunk as mine," Max scoffed.

"No, no. It's the same thing, Max. The same thing killed our mothers,"

"That's impossible,"

"This must be why I'm having visions during the day. Why they're getting more intense. Cause you and I must be connected in some way. Your abilities, they started 6-7 months ago right, out of the blue?"

"How'd you know that?"

"Cause that's when my abilities started Max. Yours seem to be much further along but still, this has to mean something right? I mean for some reason, you and I...you and I were chosen,"

"For what?"

"I don't know. But Dean and I, my brother and I, we're hunting for your Mom's killer. We can find answers, answers that can help us both. But you gotta let us go Max. You gotta let your stepmother go,"

Max thought for a moment before shaking his head "No. What they did to me. I still have nightmares. I'm so scared all the time like I'm just waiting for that next beating. I'm so sick of being scared all the time, I just want this to be over!"

"It won't." Sam admitted "Don't you get it? The nightmares won't end, Max. Not like this. It's just, more pain. And it makes you as bad as them. Max, you don't have to go through all this by yourself,"

"I'm sorry," Max used his powers to fling Sam backward into the hall closet and slammed the door. He looked across and a tall, heavy, hallway bookshelf slid in front of the doors, blocking them.

Sam banged on the doors "No. Max!"

***

Ms. Miller sat on the bed, Dean crouched beside her, holding a facecloth to her bleeding forehead.

"Daddy!" Natalia screamed.

"Nat, shh. Daddy will be up in a few," Dean went to grab her but Natalia pulled away.

"No! I want daddy!" Natalia screamed.

The door creaked open on its own and Max walked in.

"Nat, get behind me!" Dean ordered as he rose and moved purposefully toward Max as the door closed behind him.

Max sent Dean flying and he crashed into the wall.

"Unkie Dean!" Natalia cried out.

"Max!" Ms. Miller exclaimed as he raised Dean's pistol, Max's hand shaking.

"Son of a..." Dean rose, freezing when he saw the gun, then again began to walk toward Max. He stopped when Max let go of the gun, leaving it floating in mid-air.

The gun cocked, then turned to point at Ms. Miller.

Dean stepped in its way.

"Stay back." Max warned "This is not about you,"

"You wanna kill her you gotta through me first," Dean said.

"Ok,"

The gun fired. Blood splattered over the wall.

Dean had a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead, eyes blank. He wavered and crashed heavily to the ground.

Natalia's voice screaming out as she witnessed her uncle sprawled on the ground, eyes open.

Dead.

***

Sam came back to himself, gasping and holding his head.

"Daddy!" Natalia's voice screamed in his head.

"No." Sam panicked "NOOO!!!"

The bookcase in front of the closet doors slid away.

Sam froze, then pushed the door with his hand.

The door swung open.