I sit up and look around, then stand. Someone bumped into me and I shrieked, jumping around.

"I'm so sorry," The man said, grabbing my arm. "Are you okay?"

My heart racing, I looked up and saw he was freakishly tall, compared to my 5'5" frame. He had long brown hair and green eyes. "Yeah. Where are we?"

"I don't know. What's your name?" He asked. "Mine's Sam."

"I'm Lynn. I was walking home from a friends house, and all of a sudden, I'm here." I looked at my outfit and saw dirt covering it. I wiped off my black skirt, pink shirt and jacket, then looked back up. "How'd I get here?"

Sam was going to say something, but there was a creak from a building close by. Sam put his finger to his lips, signaling me to be quiet, grabbed a board from the ground, and went to the corner, ready to swing the board. A man came from behind the building and Sam stopped as the man jumped back. Sam cocked his head, confused.

"Andy?"

"Sam!" Andy exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know."Sam dropped the board and wiped his hands.

"What am I doing here?!"

"I don't know."

"Where are we?!" I stepped up to Sam's side and Andy didn't even look at me.

"Andy, look, calm down."

"I can't calm down!" He threw his hands up in the air. "I just woke up in freaking Frontierland!"

"What's the last thing you remember?" I asked.

Andy finally looked at me. "Honestly? My fourth bong load. It was weird. All of a sudden, there was this really intense smell. Like, uh…"

"Like sulfur?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, that's what I smelled." I looked at him.

"How did you know that?" Andy asked.

Sam stood still, thinking. His face smoothed out and he sighed. "Dean."

"Your brother," Andy said. "Is he here?"

Sam shook his head. "I don't know where he is. I don't know if he's…"

He was interrupted by a scream from a woman, coming from an abandoned building. We made our way to it and I called out.

"Hello?

The woman's voice came from a door to the left of us. The three of us made our way there. "Help me! Help me, please!"

"Okay, I'm here." Sam said. "We're gonna get you out, all right? Just hold on a second."

"Please!" She said. I recognized the voice and gasped.

Sam grabbed a rock off of the ground. "All right, one second." He smashed the lock off of the door, opens it, and reveals the last person on Earth I'd thought I see.

"Ava?" Sam and I said simultaneously.

"Oh my God! Sam!" She pulls him into a hug, sobbing. "Lynn!" She hugs me.

"So, I guess you guys know each other."

"Yeah. I met her not long ago. How do you know her, Lynn?"

I was stroking Ava's hair, trying to soothe her. "She's my little cousin."

Ava finally pulled back from me and turned to us. "How did you—I mean, how did you—"

"Ava, have you been here this whole time?" I demanded.

"What whole time?" Ava asked. "I just woke up in there, like, half an hour ago."

Sam stepped in. "Ava, you've been gone for five months. My brother and I have been looking for you everywhere."

"Wait," I said. "So you reported her missing?" Sam nodded.

"Okay, that's impossible, because I saw you two days ago." Ava said.

"You didn't." He shook his head. "I'm sorry."

Ava furrowed her eyebrows. "But…that makes no sense. That's not—" She widened her eyes. "Oh my God! My fiancée, Brady! If I've been missing for that long, he must be freaking out!"

Sam and I exchanged glances. "Well…" He said.

We didn't have to explain, as Ava saw Andy and furrowed her brows.

He waved. "Hey. Andy. Also freaking out."

"Okay." She turned to Sam. "What's happening?"

He shook his head. "I don't really know yet. But I know one thing: I know what the three of us have in common." He turned to me. "Do you have an ability?"

I paused, surprised, then shook my head. "Point out something movable."

"Uh," Sam looks around, then points to a large plywood board on the ground.

I focused on it, then raised my hand. The wood moved with it. I flicked my hand and the wood flew into the woods.

"Okay, then." Sam smiled at me.

There was a man calling out suddenly. "Hello? Is anybody there?"

Sam furrowed his eyebrows. "Maybe more than four."

We run to the side of another building, and see a man in a army uniform, accompanied by a blonde dressed in all black.

"Hello?" Sam said. "Hey! Hey, you guys all right?"

"I think so." The man said.

"I'm Sam."

"I'm Jake."

"Lily."

"Are there anymore of you?" Sam asked.

"No." Jake shook is head.

"How did we even get here?" Lily asked. "A minute ago, I was in San Diego."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I went to sleep last night in Afghanistan." Jake stated bluntly.

"Let me take a wild guess: you two are both twenty-three?" Sam said. "We all are. And we all have abilities."

Lily and Jake looked surprised.

"What?" The soldier asked.

"It started a little over a year ago? You found you could do things? Things you didn't think were possible?" They nod at Sam's questions. "I have visions. I see things before they happen."

"Yeah. Me, too." Ava said.

"I move things with my mind." I said.

"Yeah, and I can put thoughts into people's heads. Like, make them do stuff. But don't worry, I don't think it works on you guys." Andy moves in between the two groups. "Oh, but get this –- I've been practicing. Training my brain, like meditation. So now, it's not just thoughts I can beam out, but images, too. Like, anything I want. Bam! People see it. This one guy I know –- total dick, right? I used it on him: gay porn. All hours of the day. It was just like…you should have seen the look on his face."

We don't say anything.

"Uh…okay." Andy said.

"So, you go, "Simon says give me your wallet", and they do?" Lily asked. She looked at Sam. "You have visions?" She turned to me. "You move stuff with your mind? That's great! I'd kill for something like that."

Sam tried to calm her down. Looks like he's going to be the voice of reason in this situation. "Lily, listen, it's okay."

The blonde shook her head. "No. It's not. I touch people? Their hearts stop. I can barely leave my house. My life's not exactly improved. So, screw you. I just wanna go home."

"And what, we don't?" I ask.

"You know what, don't talk to me like that—" Lily started.

Sam interrupted. "Hey, guys, please. Look, whether we like it or not, we're all here, and so we all have to deal with this."

"Who brought us here?" Andy asked.

Sam sighed. "It's less of a "who". It's more of a "what"."

"What does that mean?" Ava asked.

He paused. "It's a demon."

I laughed and shook my head. "You're crazy."

"No, let me explain." Sam said. And he did. He told us how we got our abilities, and how his mother was killed by the demon in a house fire. It was silent for a moment. The Jake spoke.

"So, we're soldiers in a demon war to bring on the Apocalypse?"

Sam shrugged. "When you put it like that—"

"And we've been picked?"

"Yes."

"Why us?"

"I'm not sure, okay? But look, I just know—"

"Sam, I'm sorry. Psychics and spoon-bending is one thing, but demons?" Ava scoffed, shaking her head.

"Look, I know it sounds crazy, but—" Sam tried to speak.

Jake shook his head. "It doesn't just sound it."

"I don't really care what you think, okay?" Sam groaned. "If we're all gathered here together, then that means it's starting and that we've gotta—"

"The only thing I've gotta do is stay away from wackjobs, okay? I've heard enough. I'm better off on my own. FYI, so are you." Jake shook his head, then walks off.

"Jake, hold on. Jake!" Sam tried.

I stepped up to him. "For what it's worth," I said. "I believe you. My mom died in a fire too. Was it the d-" I stopped, then tried again. "Demon?"

"Probably." Sam put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm here, okay?"

I sighed and nodded.

Suddenly, we heard Jake yell. Sam grabbed my hand a led me to a building that looked like a school. A little girl with claws was standing over Jake. Sam looked around and and grabbed a poker, and hit the girl with it. She dissolves into a cloud of black smoke, and the other three join us.

"Just so you know?" Sam said, breathing heavily. "That was a demon. Now, that thing –- I'm not sure, but I think it was an Acheri. A demon that disguises itself as a little girl. That still doesn't tell us where we are. Andy, are you with me or what?"

Andy stood, stunned. "Give me a minute. I'm still working through, "Demons are real"."

We walk through the town, and I look at a building with a big, rusty bell hanging from the wood.

Sam paused. "I've seen that bell before. I think I know where we are now: Cold Oak, South Dakota. A town so haunted, every single resident fled."

"Swell." Ava said, sarcastically. "Good to know we're somewhere so historical."

"Why in the world would that demon or whatever put us here?" Lily asked.

"I'm wondering the same thing." Sam muttered.

"You know what? It doesn't matter." Lily crossed her arms. "Clearly, the only sane thing to do here is get the hell out of Dodge." She started to the woods.

"Wait, hold on." Sam stopped her. "Lily, the only way out is through miles of woods."

"Beats hanging out with demons." Lily said.

"Lily, look, we don't know what's going on yet." Sam shook his head. "I mean, we don't even know how many of them are out there right now."

"Yeah, he's right. " Jake said. "We should—"

Lily shook her head. "Don't say "we"! I'm not part of "we". I have nothing in common with any of you."

"Okay, look, I know—" Sam started.

"You don't know anything!" She paused and held up her hand. "I accidentally touched my girlfriend."

"I'm sorry." Sam said.

"Whatever. I feel like I'm in a nightmare, and it just keeps getting worse and worse."

I go to giver her a hug, but she steps away. "I can kill you."

"Maybe it won't work on me." I gestured to Andy. "His ability doesn't work on us, right?" I focused on Sam and tried to push him back. He didn't budge. "See?" I turned to Lily. "We can't do anything to each other." I held out my hand. "Touch me."

Lily hesitated, stretching her hand to mine. She touched my skin and I felt a little jolt of electricity go through me, but my heart kept beating. She gasped and grabbed my hand. I smiled.

"See?" I pulled her into a hug. "Still alive."

She hugged me tightly, sobbing into my shoulder. I looked at Sam and he was smiling at me. I smiled back and shushed Lily.

"It's okay, Lily." I stroked her head.

After a few minutes, Lily pulled back. "That's the first human contact I've had in a year."

"Better?" I asked.

She nodded. "Thanks."

We continued to walk down the street, me holding Lily's hand.

"We're looking for iron, silver, salt –- any kind of weapon." Sam said, leading us around.

"Salt is a weapon?" Jake asked.

"It's a brave new world." Sam said.

"Well, hopefully there's food in your world, because I'm frickin' starving." Andy grumbled.

Lily let go of my hand and paused outside a building. I just continued on, thinking she would follow.

We went into the abandoned building and started searching for weapons. I look through a trunk and find a dagger, as long as my arm. I put it on the ground and search more.

"Hey, you all right?" Sam asked.

I look up and saw Sam looking at Ava, who was massaging her head.

"Yeah, I'm just…" She sighed and put her hands in her lap. "I don't know, a little dizzy."

"Are you sure it's not some kind of—"

"What?" She interrupted. "Some kind of freaky vision thing? No, more like I'd kill for a sandwich. I haven't eaten since…well, who knows? No, don't worry. I'm fine. Except for every single thing that's happening."

I laughed. "Don't worry Avs. I'm hungry, too."

"You guys!" Andy yelled from the other room. "I found something!"

Sam, Ava, and I go into the other room, where Jake and Andy were standing, a Andy holding two bags of salt.

"Salt!" He grinned, and I grinned back.

"That's great, Andy." Sam smiled. "Now, we all can…" He paused. "Where's Lily?"

We all called her name, looking for her. A little girl giggled and I shook my head, horrified. I run outside and the others follow. I see Lily, hanging from a noose on a water tower. I sobbed and turn into Sam's chest. He hugs me as Ava speaks.

"Oh, my God! Okay, that's officially—Sam, she's dead! She's dead! You said we were chosen for a reason. That is not chosen! That's killed! Okay, we have to get out of here."

"Stop." Sam said.

"Yeah, I second that motion." Andy said.

"Not sure that's an option." Jake said.

"What?" Ava gasped.

"Lily was trying to leave." I sobbed into Sam's chest. "The demon's not gonna let us get away that easy."

Sam's voice vibrated beneath my ear. "Lynn's right. We've got to gear up for the next attack."

"Oh, gear up?" Ava said.

"Yeah."

"Okay, well, I'm not a soldier. I can't do that!"

"Well, if you wanna stay alive, you're gonna have to. Let's go." Sam pulled back, but kept his arm around my shoulder. We started walking back to the building.

"I'll get her down." Jake said, walking to Lily.

"You know, I was just thinking about how much Dean would help right now." Sam said, shaking his head. "I'd give my arm for a working phone."

"You know, you may not need one." Andy said. I sniffed and looked at him. "I've never tried it long-distance before, but do you have anything of Dean's on you? Like, something he touched?"

Sam pats his pockets with his free hand and pulls out a small piece of paper. "Uh…I've got a receipt. Would that work?"

Andy takes the receipt and looks at it."Yeah." He paused and looked up. "D. Hasselhoff?"

"Yeah, that's Dean's signature." There was a pause. "It's hard to explain."

Andy shakes his head. "All right."

I sighed and cleared my throat. Andy concentrated a little bit, closing his eyes. It took about ten minutes, but finally he opened his eyes.

"It's done, I hope."

"Alright." Sam nodded. "Let's go find whatever we can and get some sleep."

About an hour later, Sam, Jake, and I were at the bell. They were trying to get bars off from inside the bell. Sam was sawing at one with a crow bar. Jake flexed his hands and pulled one off with his bare hands.

"I'm not Superman or anything. " Jake shrugged. "It's no big deal."

Sam shook his head, then cleared his throat.

"You were in Afghanistan when this started?"

"Yeah, I started getting headaches. And then there was this accident. This guy flipped his vehicle on a bad road. He got pinned underneath. I lifted it off him like it was nothing. Everybody said it was a fluke adrenaline thing."

"But then you did it again, right?" I asked.

Jake looked at me and smiled. "Bench-pressed 800 pounds, stone-cold calm. I never told anybody, of course. It was just too crazy."

"Yeah. Crazy's relative." Sam laughed.

"I'm starting to get that."

"Yeah."

"By the way, I appreciate what you're doing here." Jake said.

"What am I doing?" Sam asked.

"Keeping calm. Keeping them calm. Especially considering how freaked to hell you really are. I've been in some deep crap before myself. I know the look."

"You wanna know the truth? I've got this brother, right? And he's always telling me how he's gonna watch out for me, how everything's gonna be okay. You know, kind of like I've been telling them."

"Yeah?"

"I don't know if I believe it this time. I mean, the size of what's coming –- it's bigger than anyone has ever seen. I mean, it's gonna get bad. And I don't know if—"

"If we're gonna make it?" Jake nodded. "It doesn't matter if we believe it. Only matters that they do."

I sighed and went to Sam. "Let me try." I gestured at the bar.

He nodded. I focused on the bar and held out my hand. The bar creaked and groaned, then bent and broke, flying into my hand. I handed the bar to Sam, groaning. I collapsed, and Sam caught me, dropping the bar.

"Lynn! You okay?"

"Yeah." I clutched my head. "I've never done anything like that before. Must've taken a lot strength at of me.

A little while later, we lined all the doors and windows with salt. After Sam and Ava talked for a while. Sam told Ava about Brady, and Ava curled into me, sobbing. I soothed her, and after that, we sat around a fire built in a building. I leaned on Sam and fell asleep quickly, despite all that happened.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Lynn, Sam, wake up!" Jake's voice pulled me from a dreamless sleep. "Ava's missing." I stand and stretch, then follow the boys outside. "I'll take the barn and the hotel. You take the houses."

"All right." Sam grabbed my hand. "Meet back here in ten minutes, okay?"

"Okay." We go our separate ways.

"Sorry for falling asleep on you." I yawned.

"It's okay. I didn't care. At least you got some sleep."

I smiled at him as we searched the houses.

"What's your full name?" Sam asked

"Lynn Berkley." I said. "You?"

"Sam Winchester."

We smiled at each other, then heard a scream. We ran back to the house we were staying at and say Ava standing over Andy's bloody corpse.

"Lynn, Sam!" Ava said, crying. "I just found him like this!"

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"I don't know!"

"How'd that thing get in?" Sam demanded. "Where were you?"

"I just went to get some water from the well. I was only gone maybe, like, two minutes!"

"You shouldn't have gone outside. Ava, we have to stay in here." While Sam spoke, I looked around. I noticed a line through the salt. Nudging Sam, I nodded at it. "Who did that?"

"I don't know, maybe Andy—" Ava said, crying.

"Andy wouldn't do that. Ava, that line wasn't broken when we left. Ava."

"What? You don't think that I—"

"I'll tell you what I think: five months." Sam interrupted. "You're the only one with all that time you can't account for. And that headache you got? Right when the demon got Lily."

"What are you trying to say?" Ava demanded.

"What happened to you?" Sam demanded.

"Nothing!" Sam just stares at her. She dropped the scared expression a moment later, sniffing. "Had you going though, didn't I?" She wiped the tears from her face. "Yeah. I've been here a long time. And not alone, either. People just keep showing up. Children, like us. Batches of three or four at a time."

"You killed them?" I asked, disgusted. "All of them?"

"I'm the undefeated heavyweight champ." She popped the 'p'.

"Oh, my God." Sam mumbled.

"Don't think God has much to do with this, Sam."

"How could you?"

"I had no choice." She smiled. "It was me or them. After a while, it was easy. It was even kind of fun. I just stopped fighting it."

"Fighting what?"

"Who we are, Sam. If you just quit your hand-wringing and open yourself up, you have no idea what you can do. The learning curve is so fast, it's crazy, the switches that just flip in your brain. I can't believe I started out just having dreams. Do you know what I can do now?"

"Control demons."

"Ah, you are quick on the draw." She puts her hands to her temples. "Yeah, I'm sorry, Sam. . .Lynn. But it's over."

A cloud of black smoke comes to the window, but before it can squeeze under the crack, Jake comes up behind Ava and snaps her neck. She falls to the ground, lifeless.

"Sorry about Ava." Sam looked at me.

"It's okay." I looked up from the corpse. "This girl wasn't Ava. She may have looked like her and had her name, but this wasn't her. Let's just get out of here."

Sam nodded, grabbed my hand and led the way out of the house.

"I think we can make it out of here now." He said.

"But the Acheri demon…" Jake said.

"No, no, no. Ava was summoning it, controlling it." Sam explained. "It shouldn't come back now that she's dead. We've gotta go."

Jake shook his head. "Not "we", Sam. Only one of us is getting out of here. I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I had a vision. That Yellow-Eyed Demon or whatever it was, he talked to me. He told me how it was."

"No, Jake, listen. You can't listen to him."

"Sam, he's not letting us go. Any of us. Only one. Now, if we don't play along, he'll kill us both. Now, I like you, man. I do. But do the math here. What good's it do for both of us to die? Now, I can get out of here. I get close to the demon, I can kill the bastard."

"You come with me, we can kill him together." Sam tried.

"How do I know you won't turn on me?" Jake said.

"I won't."

"I don't know that."

"Okay, look." Sam takes the knife I found earlier out of his jeans and sets it on the grounds, hands out. "Just come with me, Jake. Don't do this. Don't play into what it wants." Jake puts his weapon on the ground and paused. "Okay."

When I knew what was going to happen, and I released Sam, then back away a few yards. Then, Jake punched Sam, making him fly and crashed into a fence. I didn't stay to find out what happened. I turned and ran, as fast as I could, down the road. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going and crashed into someone. I screamed and thrashed in their arms.

"Hey, hey, hey!" A voice I didn't recognize said. "Calm down."

I stopped moving and pulled back. I saw that I ran into a couple of guys with a duffle bag. I looked at the man who caught me and saw he was handsome. He had short brown hair and green eyes.

"Dean?" I asked.

"How'd you know?"

"Sam talked about you." I let out a sob. "He's gonna kill him!"

"Who?"

"Jake! He's another guy we woke up with." I grabbed Dean's hand and pulled him back to where I saw them last. "Come on! Sam needs help."

"Sam!" Dean yelled, when we got close to the area.

"Dean!" We saw Sam, grinning.

Suddenly, Jake came up behind Sam, a knife flashing in his hand.

"Sam, look out!" I screamed.

Sam starts turning too late, and Jake stabs him in his back.

"No!" Dean shouts, running forward.

Jake does something, then runs. The other guy chases after Jake and Dean drops on his knees in front of Sam. He drops his bag and grabs at Sam, trying to keep him alive.

"Sam!" Dean says through his teeth. Sam falls forward onto his brother's shoulder. "Whoa, whoa, Sam. Sam! Hey! Come here. Let me look at you." Dean puts his hand on Sam's back, and when he pulls it back, it's covered in blood. "Hey, look at me. It's not even that bad. It's not even that bad, all right? Sammy? Sam! Hey, listen to me. We're gonna patch you up, okay? You're gonna be good as new. I'm gonna take care of you. I'm gonna take you care of you. I've got you. That's my job, right? Watch out for my pain-in-the-ass little brother? Sam? Sam! Sammy!"

Sam stops fighting for life, and slumps forward. I sob and turn away.

"No. No, no, no, no. Oh, God." I hear Dean say. Not caring about getting dirty anymore, I sink to my knees and put my arm around Dean's shoulder, sobbing myself. "Sam!" Dean yells.