Chapter 1

2nd November, 1983

Lawrence, Kansas

'The fire was caused due to a short- circuit, sir,' the fireman said, for what seemed the hundredth time.

'But, but are you sure? I mean, did you check and recheck everything?'

'Yes, sir we've done everything and we're absolutely sure it was a short- circuit,' the fireman was getting annoyed now. He could understand this man was in a shock, but that didn't mean he could ask the same damn questions again and again.

'But, my wife…she, she was on the ceiling, she was pinned to the ceiling. How did she go up there? She was there, with blood all over and…'

'Sir, we understand you're in a shock. It's normal, but please, come inside the van. You need help.' The guy from paramedics was patient; he knew how to deal with these situations better.

'But what about my wife? She was on the ceiling. And then this monstrous fire engulfed her…' the man kept on blabbering the same things.

'Sir, you must've imagined that. It's not possible for someone to get pinned onto the ceiling. Now, please come with us. Your sons need you,' the guy from Paramedics said in a gentle voice.

His sons. He'd completely forgotten about them. His eldest son was just four and his younger son; he wasn't even a year old. The guy from Paramedics was right. His sons needed him, they needed their father. After all, their mother just died in front of their very own lives. They were in as much pain and shock as he was, probably even more. They would need him, now that he was the only family they had. This thought compelled this unfortunate man whose wife had just died, leaving him with two kids to look after, to go with the Paramedics guy inside the van.

He trudged along the front yard of his house- part of which was burnt to ashes- and went inside the van to get to the hospital.

The guy from paramedics handed the man a form and asked him to fill it up. These formalities seemed meaningless, unnecessary. But he filled it out nonetheless.

He wrote down his name with great difficulty, his hand quivering at the curve of every letter. After struggling with the pen for a few minutes, he handed back the form. The guy from paramedics, whose name, apparently, was Matt- the man just noticed it printed on his rectangular badge- took the form and squinted at it, trying to decipher the nearly illegible handwriting.

'Okay, um…Mr. John Winchester. Let's get you and your sons to the hospital,' Matt said, half- smiling.