Thanks for the reviews throughout the story. This is the last chapter, hope its okay. I'm going on vacation for a week and will start posting my next story when I get back. If you decide to read it, I hope you'll like it.
The Headless Horseman of Monroe County
Chapter seventeen
This time the blade caught Sam across his chest. He gasped in pain as he fell backward waiting for the fatal blow, but instead of feeling the sharp blade across his throat he felt his brother's body covering him protectively.
"Dean no…get out of here…he'll kill us both." Sam said as he weakly tried to push Dean off of him.
Dean could feel his brother's blood soaking into his clothes and tears filled his eyes as he looked into Sam's blood splattered face. Dean could tell his brother had been gravely injured and would soon die without help. He knew if Sam died he'd be the next one on the list, but he wasn't about to leave his brother. If Sam died he had nothing else to live for and would die with him.
"Hang in there Sammy….Don't you go dying on me…Don't you go doing that." He shouted into Sam's face.
Sam looked into his brother's eyes and tried to focus, but his eyes were heavy from the loss of blood and he couldn't keep them open.
"Sam?" Tears ran down Dean's face as he felt Sam go limp underneath him. He couldn't believe he was watching his brother die, again. "Sammy!"
He turned to look over his shoulder expecting to see the Horseman waiting to finish Sam off with a blow to his throat, but instead he could see that the spirit's attention was directed somewhere else. He looked over and saw that Casey had taken his arm out of the sling and was pouring salt and gasoline into the Horseman's grave.
"I'm going to send you back to Hell you son of a bitch!" Casey shouted before he struck the match. But Dean knew as brave as the act was it wouldn't do any good. There weren't enough exposed bones to do the trick.
Dean felt a twinge of guilt as he remembered that he was ready to kill Casey if necessary to stop the curse and here he was trying to help them.
"Casey get out of here!" Dean shouted a warning as he watched the Horseman's attention turn completely toward Casey. He took that opportunity to roll off of Sam and grab the silver sword.
"Hey jerk off down here!"
The Horseman turned toward him and Dean leapt forward plunging the sword up to its hilt in the spirit's chest. The horse reared up on its hind legs and kicked out at Dean as a scream of rage and pain filled the air. Then as quickly as the Horseman had appeared it disappeared into a ball of flames and soon nothing remained of it but a memory.
Dean immediately turned back to his brother.
"Sammy? Sam?" He pulled his brother's body into his arms; he was unconscious and barely breathing.
"Is he going to be okay?" Casey asked as he walked over.
"I don't know…." Dean said as he checked Sam's wounds. "We've encountered a Horseman before and as long as it is destroyed before it can kill its next victim, the person, even if he's already been injured, heals and survives." He prayed that was going to be true in his brother's case as well, but with the amount of blood Sam had lost he wasn't sure.
"He looks hurt pretty bad."
"He is." Dean pressed his hands over Sam's chest wound trying to stem the flow of blood but it kept bubbling out through his fingers. "Come on Sammy…..I'm not losing you … not again…."
And then as if by a miracle the blood started flowing back into Sam's body. Dean and Casey watched in amazement as even the blood on Sam and Dean's shirt turned bright red and fresh again and flowed back into his wounds. They then watched as the wounds on Sam's body slowly grew shut and healed till there was only a faint scar where once there was a gaping wound.
Casey looked at Dean his mouth hanging open in disbelief.
"How…how could he…."
Dean gave Casey a small smile as he watched life flow back into his brother's body.
"I honestly don't know." He knew how it happened didn't matter, what did matter was that Sam was alive.
Sam began to moan and his eyes suddenly flew open.
"What….what's going on?" He asked as he sat up.
"It's over." Dean told him. "You missed it."
"It is?"
"Yep, and you slept through the whole thing."
"I did?" Sam looked around trying to remember what had happened. The last thing he remembered was trying to unearth the grave. "It's gone?"
"Right back in its grave where it belongs."
"Are you okay?" Casey asked still in shock from seeing Sam miraculously survive his injuries.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Sam looked down at himself and other then a torn shirt saw nothing to explain Casey's question. "What's going on Dean?" He knew by the way Casey was looking at him that something had happened that he was unaware of.
"We'll talk about it later." Dean said as he stood up then reached down and offered his brother his hand. Sam took it and pulled himself up. He then looked over and saw the fire in the grave just now burning itself out. Is that how they had destroyed it he wondered? He looked at Dean who just smiled; glad his brother was alive and as far as he could tell uninjured. "I'll tell you the whole story back at the motel."
Casey looked back and forth between the brothers.
"Who the hell are you guys?"
"It's better if you don't know….Just forget about us…..The Horseman's gone and we should just leave it at that." Dean reached out his hand and shook Casey's. All the brothers cared about was getting the job done and moving on before the cops became involved. They didn't have time, or felt the need to explain, who they were and what they did for a living.
The brother s packed up their gear then dropped Casey back at his friend's house making him promise never to perform any other ritual that might have been passed down by his great, great, grandmother. He swore he wouldn't, and they believed him. He had seen what one ritual had produced and they didn't think he was about to recite another one.
The brothers then went back to the motel and after washing up managed to get some much needed rest. The next day, satisfied that the Horseman was history, they packed their bags and headed west in search of their next hunt.
The End