IDENTITY CRISIS CH.21

Dean followed Sam into the room with the security cameras, and set his duffel on a chair. "Alright, so where do you think they are?" Dean said scanning the different screens.

"Dean, it could just be a coincidence that Maz also isn't here right now. He probably went on a break or something." Sam suggested as he started looking at the screens.

"Yeah, well my mind is set on the 'or something' part."

When they had went down to the front desk, Maz wasn't there or in his office. Sure, it made looking at the cameras easier, but now the young manager of the hotel was missing and nobody was at the front desk.

"Does this have to do with what I said about his odd behavior?" Sam asked looking over at Dean for a second.

"Come on, Sam. The guy was being a jerk this entire time and all of a sudden he's mister nice-and-trusting? I don't think so. Something is definitely not right here." Dean continued looking at the screens on the right, while Sam was looking at the ones on the left. "Found him." Dean pointed to the top right screen.

"Where?" Sam said looking over at Dean's half.

"The pool." Dean turned to Sam with an odd look. "He's swimming."

"Looks like he's not alone." Sam pointed to the screen as Dean turned around.

"Morana. Well that's going to make things..." Right before Dean could finish his sentence, Morana dived into the pool. They saw Morana swim under Maz and drag him under water. He struggled out of instinct, but lost the battle. "D*mn it!"

"Come on." Sam said as he ran towards the door.

Dean grabbed his duffel and followed Sam out of the room and into the lobby. "Which way is the pool?"

"Uh, this way." Sam pointed to the opposite direction of the elevators.

The guys both ran down the long hallway that ended with two glass doors. As they got closer they slowed down, knowing that it was the pool. Dean set his duffel on the ground and pulled out a blow torch.

Sam was keeping watch, but noticed something was wrong. "Dean, Morana isn't in here."

"What?" Dean stood up and looked into the pool area and didn't see her either. "Where did she go?"

They both carefully entered the large glass room, looking around for Morana. Dean and Sam looked in the water and saw Maz at the bottom of the pool, not moving.

"Here, you go after Morana." Dean handed the blow torch to Sam then pulled out his pocket knife. Getting a running start, Dean jumps into the water and swims towards Maz. At the bottom of the pool, Dean could see Maz was tied down to one of the drains. When he reached him, Dean took the knife out of his jaws and started to cut the rope.

Meanwhile; Sam was checking the restrooms, but didn't see anyone. As he started checking one of the empty showers, he noticed that the room was starting to get colder. Knowing that temperature changes were never a good sign, Sam slowly walked out of the shower. He checked the pool, but didn't see anything and decided to check the men's shower. Right before he walked in, a chill ran up his spine and he let out a breath which he could see. Sam quickly turned around with the blow torch in hand.

"Hello Sam." Morana smiled at him. She was now wearing tight jeans and a black tank top. Being the goddess of winter made the weather have no effect on her.

Sam noticed that the ground around her bare feet was crystallized with ice and frost. Each step she took would freeze the ground around her.

"You weren't planning on using that on me, where you?" She motioned towards the blow torch.

"I was thinking about it." Sam said aiming it at her.

"Aww, why would do that? I never did anything to you." Morana acted like she was offended by the comment. "Wait. Does this have to do with what I did to Alex?" She smiled at him.

Sam's anger rose and he took a step closer to her.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you." She told him with her own anger rising.

The whole time she had been standing between Sam and the pool. Unfortunately, Sam wasn't close enough to hit her with the flames, so he gradually walked closer to her.

Under water, Dean had just finished untying Maz. They both started swimming to the surface of the eight foot deep pool.

Morana was now standing by the edge of the pool with Sam still aiming the blow torch at her. Sensing that Dean was rising up in the water behind her, Morana placed her foot on the tip of the surface. Right as her bare toe touched the surface, the water around it froze in place. The ice started to spread further, growing and expanding.

Sam watched as the pool completely froze over, trapping his brother inside.

Dean felt the water get colder and bumped his head on ice. On impact he instinctively opened his mouth and let in a little water. When he looked up, he saw the bubbles from his breath stop in little clear beads on the surface. Reaching up and touching the solid object, Dean's hands froze at the touch. By now Maz had also noticed the problem and they both started banging on the ice, hoping to break free.

"Let them go!" Sam yelled and walked closer to Morana, who had now stepped away from the pool.

"Why? So you both can kill me?" She said as she took two steps closer to the door. "I don't think so."

Sam watched the young woman walk backwards and grinned. "No. Just so I can kill you."

"Ooh. Aren't we-Ahh!" Morana screamed as she fell backwards. What she didn't know was that her foot had just stepped into a large puddle of water, that was made when Dean had jumped in the pool.

Knowing that she would fall, Sam ran towards her and fired the torch at her. She screamed as the fire quickly engulfed her entire body. The fire was working on her clothes and she tried to get up, but Sam just shot at her again. She crawled towards the water to put out the flames, but it was all frozen over because of her.

"Fine! You win! But keep this in mind!" Morana said before the flames reached her head. "I wasn't controlling Alex!"

This statement shocked and confused Sam. But most of all it angered him more, so he shot the flames directly at her face. He watched as she finally stopped moving, then he turned towards the water.

"Dean!" Sam yelled as he saw his brother struggling to get out of the still very frozen water. The ice was too think to break by kicking it in, so Sam looked around for something that would work. Looking down at the torch, Sam got an idea. He rushed over to an area near Dean and Maz, then fired the gun at the ice. The ice started to melt fast, then eventually water seeped through. Now there was a hole big enough for them to climb through.

Sam tossed the torch to the side and crawled down next to the hole. Not wanting to risk falling in, he sat on the edge of the pool and reached his hand into the water.

Dean let Maz swim through first since he had been under water longer. Now that the panic of getting out was all over, Dean started to feel his lungs were getting tight and cold. His body started shaking to get warm, but it wasn't helping. After he saw Maz's feet slipped through, Dean quickly reached up and grabbed Sam's hand. As he was pulled out and onto the surface of the ice, Dean started shaking uncontrollably.

Sam then helped pull Dean onto the concrete and saw that he and Maz were both very pale. When he saw Dean attempt to stand up, but start to fall over from shaking too much, Sam rushed to his side and helped keep him from falling over.

"S-Sam, I'm f-fine." Dean said pushing his brother's hand off of him.

"Oh really? Try saying that again without stuttering." Sam watched his brother lean against a wall.

"S...am, I'm f...ine." Dean tried not to stutter, but it just butchered up his words.

"Yeah, right. I'm calling an ambulance." Sam pulled out his cell phone and started to dial.

"Sam!" Dean yelled and tried to grab his cell phone, but Sam used his height to his advantage and raised the phone out of his reach.

"Dean, you can't stand on your own." Sam pointed to the wall then said, "And you are shaking more then a vibrating bed."

"Like the M-Magic F-Fingers." Dean smirked.

Just after he said that, an operator answered the phone. Sam explained to the woman that the pool was frozen over because of a recent break in. Then he explained that Dean had went to save Maz, but fell through the ice along with him. After she told him that an ambulance was coming, Sam hung up his phone.

Maz was laying on the ground trying to steady his breathing and Dean was still leaning against the wall. He watched as his brother ran over to the one of the large glass windows.

"W-what are y-you d-doing?" Dean's hot breath passed over his cold lips and was visible in a small cloudy mist in front of him. Not only was he pale, but his lips had a hint of blue in them.

Sam pulled out his gun and shot the window open. Glass shattered and fell to the ground as multiple bangs rang through out the room. "I told the operator that there was a break in."

Dean nodded his head, but it looked more like he was just shaking from the cold. "Is sh-she d-dead?" The stutter was starting to annoy Dean, because it proved that something was wrong with him. And if something was wrong with him, then Sam was right, and he hated when Sam was right.

As he walked over to Dean, Sam looked at Morana's charred body. "Yeah. I'm gonna get Alex, she should go with you guys."

After Sam left, Dean slid down to the floor in relief because he couldn't hold himself up any longer. He didn't want Sam to see him being too weak to stand.

While entering the room, Sam had pushed some salt around when he stepped into it. He put his key back into his pocket and walked over to Alex. Her head was hanging down with her chin touching her chest.

Before he started to untie her, Sam shook her shoulder to wake her up. "Hey, Alex. Wake up, we have to get you to the hospital." She didn't answer and her eyes stayed closed.

Sam unties her feet from the legs of the chair, then starts on her wrists. Once she was free Sam tried waking her up again. "Come on." He shakes her knee, but she doesn't respond. "Alex."

He patted her arm, but it fell off of the arm rest from the shaking.

"Alex?" Sam repeats again but Alex still doesn't wake up, so he checks her pulse and it was very weak. "Alex!" Sam shakes her again, this time grabbing both of her shoulders. The only response he gets is Alex falling forward into his arms as he catches her, preventing her from hitting the floor. "Oh no."