Supernatural Odyssey: Death and Rebirth

Chapter 21

Sam strolled through Lucien's Library, his eyes scanning the rows of bookshelves that extended to the skies, all of them packed full with books. "Feel free to take whatever you'd like," said Lucien, the Sandman's librarian, "the Dreaming is a public domain. All beings with the capacity to dream may enter this library. This knowledge is yours to learn."

"Thank you." Sam reached out with his mind, feeling the molecule configuration of ink on the covers of the books, feeling the shapes they formed...letters. Waving his hands, he began to pull any books he found even vaguely relevant from the shelves, levitating them around himself telekinetically before examining them all more closely.

Transmutation...telekinesis...teleportation...from there, any titles he found to be less relevant, he sent back to the shelves. Soon, all that remained were books detailing rituals of necromancy, resurrection, and soul-manipulation. Collecting a stash of the ones that he liked the best, he sought out Lucien once again.

"How do I get a library card? I want to take these home."

"There is no check-out required," said Lucien, "just take them."

"Wait, what? Then what if I--"

"The Dreaming is an ever-shifting, archetypal realm," explained Lucien, "these are books of pure thought. While beings like you can bind these thoughts to reality to bring with you, the knowledge they contain will always remain in the Dreaming. Look." He pointed up at the bookshelf from which Sam took the books from; miraculously, a copy of the books he had taken were right back where he found them.

"Well...thank you very much." Sam gathered up the books and with a wave of his hand, he opened a gateway into the Wake. As he passed the threshold, he felt the substance of his body change, as well as the substance of the books when he bound himself to reality.

"My pleasure." replied the librarian.

Sitting down at his desk, in his home, Sam began the tedious task of reading through the thick pile of books he brought. He worked day and night, making pages upon pages of notes. Every book he read met him with disappointment...the power required to raise the dead to a state of fully living is immense and near-impossible to obtain. "Near impossible is not impossible..." he reminded himself, "not impossible..."

Returning to the Dreaming, he took out yet another stash of books, this time on the acquisition of power. "You read all that already?!" Lucien commented.

"Every word of it."

After many long grueling hours of studying, he finally got a reliable and feasible answer; immense power can be gained through the absorption of other beings...for the first time in weeks, Sam's dull eyes brightened. He would succeed...even if it took him a million years.

For the next few months, Sam worked day and night on learning the various incantations, sigils, and spells needed to accomplish such a feat. He was amongst the most gifted magic users of the 5th Dimension, but the amount of sigils and spellwork he needed to learn was simply immense.

After nearly half a year of unrelenting labor, toiling, and mental fatigue, he was finally ready to do his first test run--nothing too hard, all he planned on doing was to absorb the power of a car battery he found in his basement. Levitating it telekinetically, he began the spell...

Raising his hand, he drew the sigil in the air and concentrated on imagining every detail of the object he wanted to absorb...picturing...feeling the energies that lay within...and suck. Mentally, of course...

~CLUNK!~

The battery dropped to the ground, the sigil faded away, and Sam didn't feel anything at all. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" He finally snapped, his eyes glowing red with a burning, passionate hatred for pretty much everything. The pile of books spontaneously caught fire and burned to ashes in seconds. Clenching his fist, he telekinetically crushed the car battery into a tin can before tearing a giant hole in his roof, taking off into deep space. "FUCK!"

As he floated weightlessly in the empty void, he could feel the fire in his heart growing hotter by the moment--literally and emotionally. Soon, he would be hot enough to be his own star. "Go fuck yourself, goddamn it!" With a shout of fury, he tore his private universe apart at the fundamental level, erasing it from existence retroactively.

"So...let me guess; shitty day, huh?" A familiar, gentle, feminine voice rang in his head.

"What?" Sam tilted his head around to see who, or what, was addressing him. "Yo what are you saying?!"

"Hey. Over here." A hand tapped him gently on the shoulder. "And you know sound can't travel in space, right?" Death was floating in the space beside him, her messy, black hair floating crazily, and she still wore the same kind and compassionate smile she did the last time she met. "Hey Sam, remember me? You took advantage of my sexual high, and you hijacked my brain."

"I did what I had to. And you can't claim me because I'm not dead yet." Sam replied bitterly, this time switching to telepathy instead of regular speech. "But I don't suppose it matters now, does it?! I might as well be dead."

"Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that." shrugged Death, "as Death, I know for a fact, every moment in life matters...even if it's your last." This time, he noticed she was wearing a cute top hat which she kept strapped down to keep it from floating away in space. "No, correction; especially your last moments."

"So you're just here, waiting for me to bite it then, huh?"

"Well...yes...I mean, waiting for people to bite it is kind of my duty...so..."

"But you're manifesting yourself to me!" said Sam, "so surely there's got to be a reason for that."

"Well, yes."

"So..."

"So...it would be a lot more comfortable to talk if we weren't floating in a freezing vacuum, all while being practically roasted alive by that blue supergiant star...just a little thought." She gestured down to her tank top and skinny jeans, then at the blue supergiant that was just a mere 70 million kilometers away, "you know?"

"Whatever." In Sam's hands, a ball of matter began to form. His will forced to condense down, smaller, smaller...until it became a singularity; the beginning spark for a big bang. Then, he unleashed it.

The blue supergiant they were besides was instantly obliterated by the vast expansion of matter and energy from the big bang. Sam's will carefully shaped the matter into atoms...then the atoms into molecules...then the molecules into masses. By a series of random chances that wasn't random at all...a yellow dwarf was birthed from the explosion, and orbiting it, was a planet, not too close, not too far.

"I was hoping for something a bit more...lively," Death shrugged, "or at least something that's not a barren wasteland like this planet you created."

"Very well." The matter around them began to shift and change. Atoms rearranged their structures to morph from one element to another, then into compounds. Slowly, from the barren planet, a structure was born.

The walls of a mansion rose around them and a hardwood floor materialized beneath their feet. Tables and chairs formed from space dust, windows and curtains took shape, and finally, a blazing fireplace materialized under the chimney.

"Wow." Death looked around the antique-looking room that now surrounded them. "You know? You have a gift, Sam. You really do..." She picked up one of the many antique toy cars that rested on top of the fireplace and examined it. "Not everyone can create something as beautiful and as well rounded as this room."

"Okay!" Sam growled in frustration. "You said you wanted someplace comfortable to talk! You got it, now let's talk! What is it you want to talk about?!"

"Woah, chill out, Mr. Winchester." Death said calmly, still examining the cute little toy car in her hands, "I'm just complimenting your work. Say...where did you get inspiration for this stuff--"

"ENOUGH!!!" Sam stomped up to her, ripped the toy out of her hands and threw it across the room. "Stop wasting my time! You brought me here to talk, so what do you want to talk about?!!"

"Would it be so hard to believe that I'm here to help?" The young goth girl replied gently, "you're frustrated with your spell-work and I get it...magic is hard to do." Her hand caressed his face gently. "Focus, Sam, focus and peace of mind."