00 || Prologue

„Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
and sorry i could not travel both
and be one traveler.
long i stood
and looked down one,
as far as i could,
to where it bent in the undergrwoth."

Smoke.

Smoke everywhere.

He woke up to the high-pitched sound of the fire alarm piercing the once silent air of the house. Eyes full of horror and body pumped with adrenaline, he jerked up in his bed and was soonfully aware of the situation he was in.

There was a fire.
A fire in their house.

This couldn't have been real. This coudn't have been happening.

"MUM?!"

Sprinting out of the bed and into the hallway, he noticed the smoke and the red and orange blending to dance mockingly against the walls. He'd never though that he'd in a burning house. He'd read about these horrors in the newspaper from time to time, yes, and thought about how terrible it must be to lose a home to the flames like this, but he'd never known that this was how he'd die as well.

"DEAN?! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

That voice belonged to his father. John Winchester. Through watering eyes, he saw the older man run in and grab him by the shoulder, turning him forcefully so he could look at his Dad.

"What is happening? WHAT HAPPENED?" he asked his was rampant fear in his tone.

"There is no time to explain that, just get out of here. GET OUT OF HERE!"

"NO, I CAN'T! Where's Mum? And what about Sammy?!"

No sooner had the little boy uttered these words, they heard a cracking sound out of Sam's room. A loud and ominous cracking noise which made Deans blood freeze inside his veins.

That couldn't have been a good sign

Not wasting another minute, John rushed by Dean and ran into his younger son's room screaming his wife's name.
His screams became louder after what he saw confirmed his fear; he saw something that he would never forget. Something thatwould burned itself onto his lenses and would haunt him every night from now on, giving him nightmares that ended in tears.

Because the thing that he saw, was a crying Mary hovering over Sammys unconscious and unmoving body, sorrounded by flames that gave them no chance of any rescue.

No, no, no, no, no.

This is wrong.

So wrong.

Wake up.

This is a bad dream.

He was in shock.

They could die. They could die now, and it would be his fault, because he couldn't do anything.

John shook Dean hard; fingers clenching tightly into his son's shoulders. Dean barely noticed.

So when he looked up and saw his Fathers screaming features that seemed to yell something at him, he couldn't hear anything. The only thing that he could hear was Mary's bloodcurdling scream.

Not able to move he watched how John ran into Sam's room once again and tried to fight his way through the flames to his wife.

This was pure suicide.

He heard John's screams as the heat of the fire stung and burned itself onto his father's skin. He would never understand how his father withstood this moment of pain. Maybe it was because of the shock, or maybe because the only real reason that was in his head: to save his love and his younger son.

And he almost made it. He almost made it.

And he couldn't believe what he saw next.

John reached Mary and Sam in time and Dean could see how his mother pushed Sam into John's waiting arms. He saw how John screamed at Mary and that his mother was in tears and screaming as well. Dean has never seen her like that. She seemed to be totally desperate, keen to save Sam. And it hit Dean when he saw that Marys legs were stuck underneath the cupboard that fall over when Dean and John were standing in the hallway. That was the loud crack.

"Mum...", barely a whisper he looked at her. He looked at his mum and hold back the tears. He couldn't cry.

Not now.
Not in this moment.

There was no time for tears.

John fell backwards, with Sam in his arms, through the flames. On to the ground beneath Deans feet.

In the next seconds the time stood still.

Everything went silent around him.

No screams. No crackling oft he fire that sorrounded them.

When he glanced at his mother for the last time, she gave him her sweet, sweet couldn't smile back. He'd never thought that he would be in a situation like this. He'd never thought about losing his mother. Because he couldn't imagine a world without Mary in it. It just wasn't possible.

After that everything happened very fast.

There was a loud crack. This one far louder than the one that they'd heard as they stood in the hallway.

It was a horrifying sound.

He didn't wanted to believe his eyes.

Because after Dean blinked, the ceiling broke down and fell down on his mother.

And all he could do was scream.

He screamed so loud that his lungs hurt, that all the air was pressed out of them, and that the hot heat of the fire was sucked in it, burning everything inside of him.

He wanted to save her with his voice.

He could feel the tears sting as they made their way down his face. They were boiling hot because of the flames. And the pain was nothing compared to the pain inside his heart.

This couldn't be true.

He wanted to run inside the room, wanted to push the burning and glowing rubble away from his mothers body. He wanted to save her.

But he couldn't.

John was behind him in a flurry, dragging him with a strong hand out of the room.

Screaming and struggeling and clinging to the doorframe of the bedroom, trying to hold on, wanting to fight against the flames, which he barely had a chance against. Which he didn't have the strength for.

So he let go.

He let himself be dragged out of the house by John and he ended up lying on the now crowded sidewalk. There were so many people who watched the burning house with wet eyes, hands about their mouth with shushed voices behind shaking fingers.

Dean couldn't hear a thing.

He knew that Sam was with his Dad who stood a few feet next to him, and he saw him break down on his knees, crying and shaking hard, cause his mind couldn't believe what just happened. This night would change everything in his life. And it would build roads which he never thought that would be able to be build.

And then he looked to the side and saw Cas.

Starring at the house with pure shock. Wide eyed and in panic and searching for Dean.

While his older brother Michael behind him just turned his backto the tragedy and talked to a strange man, covered in a dark coat, Cas continued to stare. He couldn't see a face, and even if he could, he wouldn't have been able to recognize him. Dean had no idea who he was back then. He saw Cas's older brother smiling at the man and nodding seriously to something that he'd just heard. Then they dissapeared into the layered darkness, decorating the road.

And then he felt hands on his forehead and Cas's gentle and loud voice and tears and burning skin and at last, his mothers sweet, sweet smile.

And then he passed out.

"..two roads diverged in a wood,
and I,
I took the one less traveled by.
And that has made all difference."

- Robert Frost