A/N: Hey guys, I'm back :D I KNOW people hated the ending of the last story, so hopefully this makes up for it :) I typed it super fast so nobody came to kill me in the night ;) Anyway, this chapter is a little shorter but it should pick up next chapter and stuff! Thanks soo much for all your continued support guys! I love seeing people favorite, follow, and review my stories :) Much luv everyone!


The forest was silent. It was undisturbed for a while until a boy shot through the woods, desperate as a form of what once was a man chased after him.

He breathed heavily as his feet got heavier and heavier, and he was beginning to feel dizzy but he never stopped.

"Stupid flare gun." He muttered before he tripped over a root. Never before had he felt like such a girl, and he struggled to stand up when a loud growl stopped him and he turned onto his back and crawled away as he stared the beast in the eyes.

"Dammit." He cursed and aimed the empty flare gun at him, hoping it'd feel threatened at least. That wasn't the case however. It slapped it from the teen's hands and the boy watched it go flying into a tree.

The beast raised it's clawed hand, ready to strike down on a deadly hit when a shout came from behind and diverted it's attention from it's prey.

It whirled around to see the boy's father holding his own flare gun, and fired off a flare straight into the beast's chest. It let out a loud shriek and struggled around as it immediately lit into flames.

The boy watched with wide eyes as the body became ash quickly and the air stank badly. He gagged and watched the body become a heap of limbs and ash on the floor.

"Sam are you alright?" John questioned his son as he walked over and helped him up.

"Yeah.. Damn Wendigo." Sam winced and went over and grabbed his abandoned flare gun.

"I guess we need more training and more flare guns." John sighed as he noticed Sam's empty gun and led them out of the forest. They got to John's truck and John opened his organized compartment to put the flare guns in. He quickly closed it since he didn't want any police spotting him with a huge artillery of dangerous things like guns and knives.

They got into the truck drove off to the nearest motel to crash for the night. Not much was said between the two male Winchester's. They didn't have much to talk about anyway. They were with each other nearly all 24 hours a day and they knew what happened in each other's lives.

After.. his death Sam dropped out of school to do hunting full time. He couldn't keep up with his assignments and projects when his father would keep him out in the environment for most of the day.

At first, he was more than annoyed that he had to drop out of school, but he was doing it for Dean. For his dead, older brother.

They arrived at the motel and John went to get the room while Sam pulled out his phone and dialed Mary's number. He was about to push "call" when he stopped himself. He hadn't spoken to his mother since.. Four months ago when Dean died. He had received a text message from an anonymous number that stated she was alright, and she was on Alaistair's trail.

Sam knew John was pissed at Mary, but he understood both of his parents. Mary was out there to avenge her son. Although he didn't understand why she had to do it on her own.. They would all be stronger as a family, he was sure.

A sudden knock on his window shot him out of his thoughts and he jumped to see John smirking at him as he grabbed his and Sam's duffel bags from the back.

"We got room 12. I call first shower." John told his son and led them to the room. Sure enough, as soon as they got in John took a sweeping glance around the room before he dumped the duffel bags on the ground by the beds and walked into the bathroom. A minute later, Sam heard the shower turn on.

The teenager fell back on his bed, and let a loud relieved sigh slip through his lips. He's been working back to back jobs for the past month, and he knew his father was getting close to his limit as well, so they should be taking a break soon.. He hoped.


Darkness..

Screams..

Pain..

His eyes snapped open and he looked around fast and panic settled in when he realized there was no light.

He ran his hands along the closed space he was in and he realized he was in an extremely small wooden.. room? Box?

He kicked the top of it, and he gasped when dirt caved in and filled his mouth. His panic suddenly transformed into desperation and terror as he dug. He wasn't even sure if he was digging up or down. He just needed to get oxygen fast.

He felt his hand break though and he quickly rose the other one, thankful that the earth was soft and he brought his head out and breathed in deeply. His eyes squinted and hurt like hell against the bright rays of sunshine.

Wait.. Sunshine?

He started to drag himself out of his grave, and he realized that he now understood why zombies had it so tough. Being dead then coming back to life wasn't easy. Everything ached and your body felt heavy and numb for not moving for so long. When his feet dragged out of the grave, he turned himself over onto his back and panted as every muscle in him ached a dull pain. Like he'd been running for a year.

Millions of questions filled his mind and he looked around and blinked in shock.

All around his grave, he saw that trees were toppled over and all pointing towards him. Shivers went up and down his spine and he rubbed at his arms as he got to his feet. Damn, he needs a phone or something. He needs to contact his family, or Bobby?

Then he froze and bit his lip. Had forty years really passed? Was Bobby even still alive?

He felt sick with that thought and he decided to start walking. He had no clue where he was but he could see a nearby highway so he walked until he saw a small gas station.

"Thank god." Dean breathed as he jogged over and looked in the window. It was closed, so Dean figured it was either a Sunday, or a holiday.

He licked his lips, and knew he couldn't walk another couple miles so he broke the window and began to raid the store. He chugged an entire water bottle, and breathed heavily when he finished it and crushed the bottle under his grip. He ate some of the beef jerky there before he decided he needed to keep moving.

Just as he was packing things, he heard a loud ringing noise around him, and it grew to an extent where he gripped his ears hard and collapsed to the ground and saw glass shatter around him from the windows. He didn't know what to think, and he tried to shout over the pain but his voice was completely drowned out.

After five minutes it quieted down but he was still nervous to get back up yet just in case it started again.

"Dammit." He muttered and decided he'd do better on the road than sitting around.

After calling Bobby three times and getting threatened half the times he did, he managed to get to the Salvage Yard in a day after stealing a car.

When he reached the house, he knocked continuously until Bobby finally answered and Dean was both relieved and confused to see that the man hadn't changed a bit.

"Hey Bobby." He greeted awkwardly, and the man stared at him with wide eyes.

"Wh.." The hunter tried to form a sentence but failed to. Dean opened his mouth to say something more like "how have you been" or whatever, but instead he got a mouthful of holy water.

He paused, and spat it out. Both annoyed but he also understood why Bobby was testing him.

"Alright, get in here and lemmie cut ya." He gestured to the teen and Dean strolled in and rolled his sleeve up. Bobby pulled his small knife out of his pocket to test Dean. He always kept his knife on him just in case something like this pops up.

He ran a smooth, short line along his wrist and checked it to see any reaction other than bleeding.

Blood dribbled smoothly from the cut, and Dean rose an eyebrow at Bobby.

"Satisfied?" He asked, before he was brought into a tight hug that immediately squeezed all the air in his lungs out. He hugged back anyway though, because he breathed in the familiar scent that made tears prick his eyes. It's been years since he's felt any comfort.

Bobby pulled away and stared at him, smiling widely and Dean smiled back at him.

Dean looked around the house, and grinned.

"Man Bobby, you really gotta change the atmosphere. I mean, nothing's changed! How long was I gone for? A day?" He asked as he sat down on the couch and listened to the familiar creak.

"Well.. Dean you were gone for four months, boy." Bobby grunted and Dean stopped and stared at him with wide green eyes.

"You're kidding." He exclaimed, not in a question because he was so sure it was forty or something years down in hell.

The hunter handed him a calendar and Dean quickly looked at it and felt sick. September 18th.. He checked the year, and noticed it was still the same as when he had died and he rubbed a hand through his hair.

"Is something wrong?" Bobby asked, trying to make sense of his behavior but he brushed it off as a question for later when Dean shrugged.

"Where's my family by the way?" He asked, looking around the house still as if he couldn't comprehend the situation of it all.

"Well.. The last time I heard about Mary was a month ago and she was somewhere in Nebraska, and I think Sam and John are somewhere in Minnesota or something." Bobby shrugged and winced at the shocked look in Dean's eyes.

"What?! Why is everybody split up? Did my parents break up?" Dean's questions came out fast and Bobby tried to calm him down.

"Don't worry son, I haven't heard about any divorce papers. After ya died, Mary left to go avenge ya and John and Sam have taken up the hunting life." Bobby explained and Dean gripped his hair, muttering angrily and quickly under his breath.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit! I tried so hard to keep them from this life, yet they want in it anyway!" Dean shouted and Bobby let him get his anger out. He sat down at his desk and watched Dean pace back and forth quickly, growling things.

"What about Cas?" Dean shot his sharp gaze over to the hunter who shrugged.

"Dunno. Cas disappeared when you died. He's been completely off the grid." Bobby reported and Dean sighed, trying to calm himself down.

"Has anything been doing okay up here?" He grumbled and Bobby snorted.

"When is it ever? Demon possessions have been going up in numbers, more jobs have been coming in for me, and I've been out of contact with yer family." Bobby explained as he grabbed his abandoned beer on his desk and took a swig.

"Well I need to go find them." Dean said quickly as he was already going to the door and Bobby raised an eyebrow.

"How do you plan to do that?" He asked and Dean shrugged.

"I've got my ways."


Dean had expected a hug. Or a punch even.

Not a god damn gun cocked at him when John opened the door.

When Bobby first knocked on the door and John answered, he had the gun trained on the hunter. When John spotted his eldest son, he clicked the safety off.

"Jesus dad, I was kinda expecting a "welcome back" or something." Dean rolled his eyes and shoved the gun down but John quickly countered with the punch Dean was expecting and the teenager reeled back, cursing lightly.

"Dammit John, it's him. It's really him!" Bobby intervened, glaring harshly at the oldest Winchester who looked ready to shoot them both in the head.

"My Dean has been dead in the ground for months, Bobby! He must be a shapeshifter or something!" John spat as he glared at them both.

The teenager was unfazed however, and pulled up his sleeve and revealed the arm that wasn't cut.

"Fine. Cut me." Dean stated and glancing to Bobby who returned the look with a fiery one. The two silently argued until Bobby caved and passed the silver blade to John. The father rose an eyebrow, before he cut Dean's wrist and watched the blood drip from his new cut, but not sizzle or burn.

He looked to Bobby now and ordered Bobby to roll up his sleeve now since he wasn't completely convinced. When Bobby got the same outcome, he looked to his son.

"How?" He murmured as he felt like he was staring at his son for the first time in years. Hell.. That's what it felt like. It felt like he was walking through a dark forest for years, and now he'd finally found his beacon.

He enveloped Dean into a tight hug that choked the younger Winchester, but he hugged back nonetheless. It brought a tear to Bobby's eye to see John shaking as he hugged the boy as if he was a lifeline.

"Dammit I'm so.. so sorry Dean." The other stiffened and Dean pulled out of his grasp and slapped him across the face.

"So you should be! I swear to god dad if you weren't family, I'd be putting you in your own grave!" Dean shouted as his dad touched a hand to his cheek and blinked like it was the first thing he'd felt in a while.

John opened his mouth to respond when a new voice jumped into the conversation.

"Dean?" They all turned to see Sam Winchester standing in the doorway from the bathroom. Steam rolled out from behind him and his hair was all messy and wet. He also was starting to look different as teenage years were obviously taking it's toll on him. Dean could see every pimple from where he stood, and he noted to tease and mock him later.

"Heya Sammy." He smiled and he seriously expected a hug, but instead he was slammed up against the wall with Sam glaring into his eyes.

"I don't know what kind of game this is but-" John smacked Sam over the head before he finished the sentence and yanked him off of his eldest son.

Dean was alarmed, and shocked of how dark and brutal Sam sounded. It was nothing like the fourteen year old boy he saved months ago.

John spoke in a quiet, hushed voice to his youngest and Dean walked over to Bobby and frowned.

"Damn.. I wonder how mom is gonna react when she sees me." Dean tried to joke, but it sounded dry and unused. He wasn't familiar with the thought of his mother being threatening still.

When John finished explaining, Sam stared at him with an unreadable expression for a couple of seconds before it melted into warmth and he hugged his brother tightly.

Dean hugged back, and smiled. Sam was almost taller than him. If they stood face to face right now, their foreheads would be leveled.

They separated and Sam stared at him quizzically now and started asking the exact same questions that Dean had already asked himself a couple times.

"Dean, sit down and explain everything." John ordered, and Dean frowned before he nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed and blinked as he recalled all of his memories.

"Well.. I was in hell. Then suddenly it all disappeared and I was in my grave in the ground. Nearly suffocated thanks by the way." He smirked at the hopeless shrugs from the three of them.

"I insisted that I wanted you to be just buried." John explained and Sam looked like he agreed. Dean already knew that Bobby wouldn't be the same although. They'd both spoken times about their deaths and what to do, and they both agreed that they'd rather be put out in a hunter's way on a fire.

"When I got out I noticed all the trees around me were all fallen over and pointed straight at me. I left pretty fast since it was obviously something supernatural and ransacked a gas station and found this beauty." He removed his shirt this time to show a hand-print on his arm. John's eyes narrowed on it and he pressed a hand softly to it.

"Well it's human." He answered the obvious and Bobby stared at it.

"I think I'll do some research on this." Bobby announced and Dean looked at his dad and brother.

"I want to go find mom." He told them and John grunted and turned away.

"Good luck. I've been looking since she left." He grumbled and Dean smirked slightly.

"Except I'm a hunter and I've been running before too. I'll know how to pick up her trail. Just give me a little bit and I'll find her." He said as he noticed Sam's laptop and grabbed it. He made Sam input the password before he continued with opening up around ten tabs for "GPS tracker" "credit card usage" and all of those kind of things.

"We'll find her." He swore to them, and leaned back in the seat, ready for a long night.

Bobby decided to go home to his Salvage Yard, but he made Dean swear to him he'd call if anything happens.


Darkness..

Screams..

Pain.. Oh god the pain.

He desperately tried to hold onto the chains and the hooks around him to keep himself sane. To grip something real and show that there was still humanity.

He gritted his teeth when another swipe came down on him but he refused to scream.

"Oh c'mon Dean-o, if you're here for the rest of your life, wouldn't it be so much better to scream for me?"

"Never!" He shouted and he felt a whimper in his throat rise up until he finally let out a small yip. He cursed when Alaistair let out a loud laugh before the hits stopped all at once and he knew something worse was going to happen.

"I'll be leaving you now for a couple days." Alaistair said as demons appeared in the room, all having malicious intent in their eyes.

As Alaistair was walking by, he paused and grinned at the pained hunter who barely rose his head.

"By the way.. Happy one year anniversary. These demons will treat you well." He smirked something twisted before he left the room and Dean turned his gaze slowly to the demons.

"N-No." He tried but hands soon came down on him and his screams soon got drowned out.


Sam woke to the sound of cries and he finally sat up when he heard his name. He saw his father also sit up and they soon were getting out of bed and Sam took a couple of steps before he realized it was Dean who was making the sounds.

Dean was laying in his chair, gripping the edges and twisting around in his sleep, his eyelids flinching and his mouth wide open as if to scream but nothing was coming out.

John quickly woke his son up who let out a scream this time and smacked John across the face.. Again but on the opposite cheek from before.

"Whoa Dean!" John immediately exclaimed as he fell back slightly and gripped his cheek and gazed at his dazed and terrified son.

"Stand down son!" He shouted at Dean who was still crazed from his dream and pushing the chair in front of him, to keep himself away from them and had his eyes clenched tightly, shaking his head and backing up.

"Leave me alone you son of a bitch! I'll never do it!" He shouted blindly and threw punches without knowing where they were going to land.

Sam suddenly shot past John and ducked under one of Dean's fists and tackled his waist and wrapped his arms around his brother to restrain him which only seemed to make him hyperventilate.

Sam never let go of his big brother and Dean soon became a sobbing mess in his arms, begging him to leave him alone and to stop hurting him. The entire time Sam had his arms around him, he rocked him and whispered nonsense in his ears, hoping that it'd help Dean to break out of this episode.

When Dean finally slumped and quieted down, Sam looked at John with teary eyes.

"Dad I-" His voice broke and he swallowed deeply.

"I think hell was worse than he's letting on." He guessed weakly and John nodded and helped Sam pick up the hunter and carefully put him in John's bed. The father knew he wasn't getting back to sleep tonight.

Sam soon went back into his own bed but John knew he wasn't sleeping either. John decided to distract himself and go to the computer to see that Dean's information on Mary had gotten through and he realized that the dot on the computer was where she was!

His eyes widened and he leaned in to the computer and noticed that she was indeed in Nebraska, and he could now see where.

He leaned back, and wanted to get up, grab the keys and make a beeline to Nebraska right now, and he got up to wake his son's, when he saw how utterly exhausted and little Dean looked.

Had Dean always looked like this? Or was this something new? Was he too oblivious to notice it?

He sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned over his son and kissed his forehead.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you son.." He murmured before he made up his mind on what to do. He wrote a note on a piece of paper, closed all of the tabs that Dean had opened and disappeared into the night.

"I'm coming Mary."


Dean awoke the next morning to see Sam pacing back and forth, looking absolutely livid.

He attempted to act like he was sleeping again to avoid his brother's rage but Sam caught his eye and paused to glare at him.

"Dad's gone." He ground out and Dean realized it wasn't him that Sam was mad at, but instead their father. Well. That's a new one.

He got up and noticed the note clenched in Sam's fist and he pulled it out of the iron grip and unwrinkled it to read the note.

"Sam and Dean-

I've left to go find your mother. Just stay here and try to figure out anything about Dean's escape from hell.

John."

Dean could see why Sam was pissed now. He was slightly offended as well that their dad just took off to go find mom when they all wanted to see her.

"Why did he do this?"

"Because he's a pig-headed fool and scared that Mary has become some kind of murderer or something so he doesn't want us near her." His little brother spoke with a dark tone that Dean had never wanted to hear from Sam, and he frowned, showing his displeasure. He also didn't like when Sam said Mary's name and not "mom."

"Look, let's just chase after him then. Do you know how dad got my GPS turned on before?" He asked as he properly got up and got dressed and packed his things.

"I think so." Sam said as he went onto his computer. As Sam did, Dean went to the bathroom to clean up and as soon as he saw himself in the mirror, he scowled. His hair was up in places he didn't even know it could reach and his bags under his eyes did justice to show how his night went.

He washed his face to help rid the bags but they were still present and Dean hated them.

When Dean washed his hands and looked back at his mirror, he was alarmed to see himself all bloody and beaten. He didn't feel the pain and he shakily reached up to his face but felt no blood, or bruises. When he blinked again, it all disappeared and he continued to stare at himself, scared to blink.

He rushed out of the bathroom and Sam was just packing.

"I got him. He's on the highway right now." Sam explained and noticed Dean's bewildered expression and wanted to question him but stopped himself. The last thing that he needed right now was Dean to go off in his own direction as well and leave Sam all alone.

They headed out onto the road after stealing a car and Dean was complaining about the music that was playing the entire time, but both of them felt good that they were reunited.