"Tell me about your scars." Jessica asked one night as we sat snuggled watching the movie credits.
I laughed at her. "I don't even remember what happened with most of them." I lied. I remembered each and every hunt and injury to myself and my brother.
"I'm sure you remember what happened here." She insisted as she rubbed my burned hands. It was difficult for me to move my fingers the way I wanted them to ever since they had been injured but I didn't let that stop me from anything.
"Jess." I said in a low voice. I didn't want to have to lie to her but I couldn't tell her the truth. I couldn't tell her that Dean had been too close to a ghost when we lit it's body on fire and his clothes had gone up in flames also. I had received worse burns than my brother that night due to trying to save him. "I don't like talking about it." That at least was honest. "I don't like thinking about the past. You know that."
She looked into my eyes and pressed forward. "You need to open up sometime Sam. If you don't trust me why should I trust you?"
"I'm trying to protect you!" I shouted at her, suddenly desperate for her to stop pushing. "I don't want you to know my horrors. I don't want you to have nightmares from stories of scars and I don't want anyone to come after you to get to me."
"Those are lies Sam and you know it." She said while glaring at me before stomping out of the house.
I stared at the closed door. "No, they aren't lies but they're not the real reason. I just don't want to lie to you but I will it it makes you happy."
I was half asleep on the couch when I heard the door open again. "Jess!" I mumbled as I wobbled sleepily towards her.
"Sam, I'm so sorr-" but I wouldn't let her finish.
"I was at a bonfire, we were all rough-housing and seeing who could jump over the fire. I tripped into it and caught myself on some coals." I said as I showed her my hands. "Here, I fell off a cliff during a hike and my bone protruded from the skin." Really I had run right off of it trying to get away from the Werewolf intent on biting me. Dad had popped the bone back in himself and gotten me a sling until it was healed but no trip to the hospital was required.
I pointed down to the scars wrapped around my ankle. "I stepped in an old bear trap while I was camping with my brother." I stepped in it during dad's survival camp, he had just left us alone to take care of ourselves for a whole week. I had been taken to the hospital and had multiple surgeries then woken up from them only to find myself in a crappy motel room with a bunch of stolen drugs.
I lifted my shirt to show the nasty scar on my stomach. "I was in a bus when it got hit by a semi truck and got impaled by a pole." Really a poltergeist had thrown me into a rotting piece of wood. Even dad knew I needed a hospital for that one. Jess had her hand over her mouth and I had no idea how or when it got there.
"The scars on my head. Are from getting attacked by a bear." It was really a Wendigo. I had had short hair for a while. Dean had had to cut it to give me stitches and I wasn't conscious to complain.
"A stray dog bit my thigh." I said, unconsciously rubbing my left thigh where the shapeshifter had sunk its teeth.
"The scars on my back and the words carved all over are from when I was kidnapped and tortured." Dad had been possessed when Dean was out hunting a black dog with Caleb. I had been twelve and there was no way I could defend myself against him even when he only had human strength.
"All the other knife scars and gun shots and broken bones are from living in bad areas." I lied again, I could defend myself against any human ever since I was eight. My scars were from hunting down monsters and rogue hunters who all needed to be put down one way or another and it was always another.
"I was hoping to escape it all by coming to college. I worked for that my whole life." I told Jessica Moore, the girl of my dreams. "Please don't ask about them again." Because I will lie again.
"I won't honey." She promised. "We'll start a new life together."