Fear of a Happy Face

Summary: Sam's fear of clowns becomes a serious thing while on a hunt. So serious that it might just cause him his life. Preseries.

AN: I was asked to continue my oneshot (Where Do Nightmares Come From?) by couple of people so I thought that well, maybe I should. You don't have to read it to understand this story but it wouldn't hurt either... :D Anyway, I hope you like this story, I'm gonna make it as long as I can without making it boring. And off to the story.

Disclaimer: Sadly, not even the Impala is mine.

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Chapter one

"Dean! Dean, guess what?" seven year old Sam yelled as soon as he came through the door. His face was glowing with excitement as Dean appeared from the kitchen.

"What? And come on, your dinner is getting cold", the eleven year old said. Sam followed him back to the kitchen, getting off his jacket and shoes.

"Mrs.Taylor, Matt's mom, told that she is taking Matt to the circus that is coming to the town tomorrow. Matt asked me if I wanted to go with him. Can I go, Dean? Please!!" Dean looked at his brother's pleading face. He knew that if John was home he would never let Sam go. But as Dean was left responsible, he found it impossible to deny Sam this joy.

"Sure, buddy. Will mrs.Taylor be picking you up?" Dean asked. Sam nodded, moth full of food.

"I'm suppose to tell tomorrow at school am I allowed to go", Sam explained. Then the smile that had been covering his face this whole time dropped from his face. "Do I have to call Dad and ask him?" He knew as well as Dean what John would think about this.

"Nah, I don't think so..." Dean said. Man, I'm gonna be in so much trouble if he comes home tomorrow... "I mean, it's only for few hours, you have an adult with you and besides, what could possible happen in a circus?"

--

Dean heard the doorbell ringing. He sighed. He was watching Godzilla, something that he couldn't watch when Sam was around and now someone dared to diturb him. Groaning he went to the door when the doorbell rang again.

"Sammy...?" As soon as Dean opened the door, Sam flew to his arms, putting his arms around his weist so tightly that Dean had trouble breathing. Mrs. Taylor was standing on the porch.

"I'm sorry, I thought it was for the best that I brought him home."

"Why?" Dean asked, confused. He put his arms around the little boy, looking at mrs.Taylor for explanation.

"We were buying popcorn when I suddenly realized he was missing..."

"Missing?!"

"But we found him not more that ten minutes after that. He was scared to death of something and kept saying that he didn't want to play anymore. I'm really sorry, but there was a lot of people there, he just vanished from our side."

Dean nodded, tightening his hold of Sam. "Thank you..." he said quietly. Mrs.Taylor smiled a little and left as Dean closed the door. He lead his brother to the couch and sat next to him. "Sammy? Hey, what happened?"

"It was so scary..." Sam whispered. He was wiping tears from his pale face with one hand, the other still holding on to Dean's shirt.

"What was, Sammy? What was scary?"

--

13 year old Sam should have known that his weekend would be ruined as soon as he heard Dean talking to the phone on the sunny Saturday morning. He tried to ignore it, tried to convince himself that it was just a salesman or something as he went to kitchen to get some breakfast. He found a box of Lucky Charms Dean had bought yesterday and sat down to eat. Let it be a salesman, let it be a salesman, let it be a salesman...

"Yes, sir", came from the living room and Sam had to put all his willpower to work so he wouldn't throw his plate to the wall. He kept eating, chewing so hard he didn't hear the rest of the conversation. He didn't look up when Dean came to the kitchen with a bag on his shoulder.

"We're leaving in fifteen minutes", he said.

"Where?" Sam asked, still not looking up.

"Chicago. Dad needs our help on a hunt", Dean answered, getting a handful of Lucky Charms and eating them straight from the box.

"He said he wouldn't need our help", Sam said, unable to hide the bitterness in his voice.

"Yeah, I know. But it turned out to be harder than he had thought. He needs someone to the audience, to see if the spirit tries to attack during a show", Dean said, taking another handful of Lucky Charms.

"Huh? Dad's looking for spirit in a movie theater or something?" Sam asked.

"No, a circus, I thought he told you..."

The spoon Sam was holding fell from his hand as he turned his wide eyes to Dean. "A... a circus?"

"Yeah. Why?" Dean asked but then realisation hit him. "Aw, come on, clowns smile and they have a red nose and the walk around in ridiculous costumes, what's so scary about them?" he asked. Sam mumbled something unaudible, picking up his spoon and finishing his breakfats.

"I'll go pack..." he said quietly, almost running away from the kitchen. Once he was in his room, he slammed the door shut and slid down agains it. He was angry. He was angry at his father for ruining his weekend, he was angry at Dean for not trying to get out of it, he was angry at himself for being such a baby. Dean was right, clowns were absolutely nothing to be scared about! There were incarnations of happiness, how could Sam even think they could hurt anyone?

Sam almost jumped when he heard his brother knocking on the door. "You done yet?"

"Uh... no, not yet. Hold on..." Sam yelled back, got his bag, threw few clothes in it and came out. "Now I'm done. We can go." Dean eyed his little brother for a long moment until Sam got annoyed. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing. Now come on, it's at least a five hour drive."

--

"Do you want some popcorn, Sam?" mrs.Taylor asked.

"Yes, please", Sam answered, though he was looking around the circus area, not really paying attention. The laughter in the air, the smell of candy and salty popcorns and the atmosphears made Sam sigh in satisfaction. He only wished that Dean could be there to share it.

"Come play with me..."

"Huh...?" Sam turned to look at Matt who was standing next to him. He was talking to his mom, trying to make her buy extra-big popcorns for him and Sam to share.

"Come play with me..."

Someone took Sam's hand. Sam didn't even stop to quetion it, he just went along. He didn't see who was holding his hand, but he wanted to play. Maybe this was a game...

"Come play with me..."

"Why are we going so far?" Sam suddenly asked, noticing that the invisible person had taken him behind the circus tent. "Who are you? Are other children gonna come play, too? Can we get my brother to play with us?" Sam asked, completely unaware of any danger.

"I only wanna play with you..."

"Yeah, but if we're gonna play games like hide and seek it would be more fun if we had more people, right? We should ask Matt and Dean to play with us, too."

"We're not gonna play hide and seek."

Sam stopped. No one was holding his hand anymore. "Hello?" Sam heard steps. "Are we gonna play or not?"

"Oh, Sammy. We're gonna play..." Someone took a hold of Sam's shoulder and turned him around. A person with big smile, red nose and ridiculous costume was standing behind Sam, holding something that looked quite a lot like a knife.

--

Sam shot up, just managing to stop a scream. It took a moment for him to realize that he was sitting in a car.

"You okay?" Now Sam screamed. He looked around and saw Dean behind the wheel. The older boy looked from the road to his brother, complete confusion written on his face. "What the hell, Sam? Do I look like a spirit to you?"

Sam put a hand on his face. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and the mumbled a 'sorry'. "Where are we?" he asked.

"About an hour away from Chicago. Dad told us to check into a motel near the circus. He'll meet us there as soon as possible", Dean said, still stealing glances at Sam.

"As soon as possible? Why isn't he there?" Sam asked.

"Well, you know, to fit in, Dad took a job at the circus", Dean explained.

"Dad took a job there? Geez, I can just a imagine the uniform he's wearing", Sam laughed.

"Well, smartass, won't be that funny when I tell you that he's a clown, huh?" Sam's smile faded.

"You're kidding, right?" he said, angry at the obvious shake in his voice.

"Of course I am, do you really think Dad would fit into the role of the happiest person in the world?" Dean said. He heard Sam letting out a sigh as he looked at road ahead of them.

"Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not gonna... tell Dad about..." Sam let the ending hang in the air between them.

"About what? Your little fobia? Nah, I'll just let him find out himself when you run away crying if one of those things comes too near", Dean said, rolling his eyes, making sure Sam knew how stupid he thought this fear was.

"Thanks", Sam said anyway. He looked out of the window, getting more nervous at each sign that told him they were getting closer to Chicago. Suck it up, you wuss! Sam turned his head towards his brother to say something, anything, that would convince the older that he was gonna be fine when he saw someone standing in the middle of the road.

"Dean, LOOK OUT!"

The Impala took a sharp turn to the left as Sam grabbed the steering wheel. He heard Dean yelling 'Jesus Christ!' just before everything turned black.

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AN: I won't say TBC. I will only continue if I get reviews. I promise, this will get more exciting, interesting and maybe even angsty as/if the story continues.

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Lots of Love!