Sam Winchester loves ghost stories.
It's not because of the ghosts, really. Part of it is the rich history and lore of a place. Ghostly remains longing to be free, to return or communicate with their loved ones, or... something. The house is always a home at one point, and the ghost usually represents something else. It isn't a real ghost. Not like the ghosts that live in Sam's life.
But it's also the memory. Ghosts are memories. Lovely memories, usually. Something in life that anchors them there, and it's usually someone who loved them. Who was loved by them.
Sam sometimes wishes his mom was a ghost. So that she would be here. So that her phantom dress would trail the lonely motel rooms and her cold touch kiss would press against his forehead. Maybe it's a good thing that she isn't, though, because Dad would kill her, wouldn't he? Salt and burn her memory.
Years later, when Sam is older, and would never wish a ghost story on anyone. When ghost stories represent horror. When they represent loss and despair. When it's lonely and desolate. He is lying in bed, wide awake after Dad has walked out. Again.
He hears footsteps and thinks of those ghost stories. Of creaking houses. But he knows what real ghosts are like, and this isn't that.
Instead, he recognizes the heavy footfalls of his brother. Dean paces the motel room. He eventually settles in front of Sam's bed. He must stand there for a moment, and Sam feels his skin prickle like goose flesh in response.
Dean moves beside the bed, hand resting on the mattress right next to Sam's shoulder. There's a phantom touch of cold fingers that brush Sam's bangs out of his face, and Sam fights not to show any indication that he is awake.
His brother leaves just like he came. A haunting trail of footsteps and a cold, echoing touch in his place.
Sam loves ghost stories. Except when he realizes he's living in one. Not the one he lives where he salts and burns the remains of people long since buried. The one where his mom was always haunting him.
He just hadn't known she was possessing his brother.
