Dean rubbed at his eyes as he stared down what was quite possibly the most boring stretch of highway he'd been down yet. The open fields, the hills that were only slightly rolling, the full moon above casting an eerie glow on the low hanging, midnight fog - were all working against him. He was getting drowsy, but they'd come to far to stop now. The town they were heading to was supposedly only five more miles, but Dean was beginning to have his doubts.
His eyes were starting to get heavy and before he knew it, the car began to swerve off the road. Hitting the divots on the side of the highway caused the Imapla to vibrate and the tires made an awful noise against the intermittent holes in the blacktop.
Dean jerked awake just in time to see a large animal - or something - dart onto the highway directly in front of the oncoming car - and stop.
Dean slammed on the brakes and jerked the wheel hard to the right. "God dammit!" he shouted as the precious black Impala jumped wildly into the shallow roadside ditch.
Sam Winchester had been lost in a world of evil lollipops and killer candy-canes. Damn himself for ever making that joke to Dean!! The horrible sound and vibrating under his ass, then Dean shouting and the car jerking off the road woke Sam with a start. "What the hell?" he half shouted back at Dean.
Dean's heart was racing and his breathing had quickened with the sudden adrenaline rush. He spun around in the seat, looking up and down the highway in search of whatever that had been that ran out in front of him. He was more than fully awake now.
"Something," he said in answer to Sam's grunted question.
"Out here?" Sam asked, confusion in his voice as he looked around at the landscape around them.
"I don't know," Dean said quietly as he killed the engine and got out of the car. Sam wasn't far behind. Dean surveyed the road. He took a few steps to where he was certain he'd seen it. He squatted down and pulled the ever present flashlight from his inner coat pocket. He shined the light first to the left of him, then to the right across the street. The beam disappeared into the darkness. He pointed the light to the ground in front of him as his hand reached down to feel lightly of the grass.
"You see that?" he asked Sam and waited for Sam to squat down beside him. Sam pulled out his own flashlight and shown it on the spot. The second Sam's beam joined Dean's, Dean broke away and stood up, walking out into the street where he thought it had crossed.
"The grass is bent, but not a blade broken," Sam said as he also reached down to the grass. "It's a perfect foot print of some kind, though," he said as he stood and used the flashlight to follow the prints. "They started here!" he called out to Dean. He used the flashlight to look around him. Nothing. Not a tree. Not a building. Not a fence. Absolutely nothing that a creature could have been hiding in or resting on when they drove by. The prints just started.
"They stop here," Dean called from the other side of the highway separating them. His flashlight scanned the ground around him, but he couldn't see anything. Not a tree. Not a building. Not a fence. Absolutely nothing that a creature could have hid in or jumped up on to rest. They just stopped.
"What the hell is going on here, Sammy?" he shouted as he started to cross the highway again.
"I don't know! It doesn't make sense," Sam replied as he also started walking, but in the direction of the Impala.
It happened before either of them could take a breath. Dean's eyes involuntarily followed the beam from Sam's flashlight as it shot straight up in the air. The worst part about that is that it was still in Sam's hand.
"Sam!" Dean screamed as he ran the rest of the way across the highway to the spot where Sam's feet had left the ground. The flashlight came tumbling down through the air, landing at Dean's feet and shattering to pieces that flew in every direction.
"SAM!"