A/N: Some of the plotlines for this story is actually from a book that I have written, so if I should ever publish (and did you know that it also snows in Hell?) this story will of course be taken down, but until then I will just happily write it.
I hope that you enjoy reading this...
A distant noise rang in his ears, prying him to wake up. He felt his mind slowly returning to consciousness, but could not find the strength to open his eyes. Great, he thought to himself as his even his mind began to feel heavy, just freaking great. The noise was getting closer and he tried desperately to try and get his body and mind to cooperate. Even though breathing was difficult he tried desperately to try and draw a deep breath, though it came out more as a strained rasping.
He thought he heard voices, but when he again tried to move away from the noise, pain erupted in his body and he drew a gasping breath. There was definitely someone there – he was sure of that now. What was that noise? Footsteps? Oh no. Please no. Or was it voices? How could it be voices? He had learned not to say anything; simply to shut up and take it – what had he said? Oh yeah – like a man.
"Mal?" The voice cut through his mind a like a piercing knife. Well, maybe not that hard, but you get the picture.
He knew that voice from somewhere, but he had not heard for what felt like an eternity. Warm fingers touched his throat and he tried to shy away from the touch, but his body simply refused to listen.
"He's alive." Another familiar voice informed the first. He felt his mind starting to loose its grip on consciousness, but he fought for it frantically. "Mike? Mike, what do we do?"
Mike! He knew he had heard that voice before.
"Peter, we got to get out of here and get the cops and an ambulance. Peter! Snap out of it!"
That was Mike's voice again. So Peter's with him. NO! He fought against the mist swirling in his mind harder than before. They had to go and never come back. If he found them here…
He managed to pry his eyelids open, but it did not really make a big difference – the darkness was just the same.
"Mike?" He whispered. Well, I think I said something, but I'm not quite sure.
The voices around him had died down without him even noticing. He fought unconsciousness feebly for a few more moments, but gave up and let it overtake him again. It was a familiar feeling, slipping into unconsciousness, almost like going home.
Dean heard Sam typing on the keyboard of the laptop even before he entered the motel. Great walls. Going into the for-once-not-so-shabby motel room, he found Sam, as predicted, typing away on the laptop with a frown of concentration on his face. Oh dear, what now? It always worried him slightly when his brother went into freak mode, but he hoped that this time it was not because of anything too serious. There had been enough seriousness around lately.
"I brought the coffee and doughnuts." Dean informed Sam as he closed the door behind him.
"Great, thanks." Sam said, looking up from the screen momentarily. Dean handed him one of the coffees and watched as Sam dazed into nothingness for a moment while holding the cup between his hands. "Dean?" He said as he finally looked up. Oh no, here it comes. Well, I can't really come up with any quick escape plans. "Dean, do you think we should do this job?"
"What job?" Dean asked, momentarily interested, as he sat down opposite Sam.
"Well, I did some research this morning," Sam began as he turned the laptop around to face Dean, "and I found this."
As Dean leaned forwards to get a closer look at the screen, his eyes were met by a slightly blurry photograph of a teenage boy. The boy was potentially handsome with dark brown, almost black, hair and greenish-blue eyes. There was something there that startled Dean though. A boy his age would normally look joyous and maybe slightly mischievous, but not this one: there seemed to be nothing in his eyes; they held no joy and what Dean thought, no hope.
Dean tore his eyes from the photograph and instead started reading snippets from the article aloud, "Mal Johnson, teenage boy of sixteen, was found in his own basement by his two friends Michael Cobb and Peter Williams last night, after they had not seen any sign of him for a week. Information on the cause of the disappearance of the teenage boy has so far been withheld." Dean lifted his gaze to rest on Sam who looked at him intently. "You think this is a job for us?"
"We could at least check it out." Sam said in his oh-so-brilliant-matter-of-fact tone. "There is just something about this that seems…wrong, if you know what I mean."
Dean smiled at his brother and grabbed a doughnut.
"I know exactly what you mean, Sammy." He said, not really bothered that he was chewing while talking. "It's quite a drive, so I say we leave after breakfast."
"It's Sam." His brother informed him as he too took out a doughnut. "And after breakfast sounds fine."
It was on the third day of travelling that things started getting a little bit tense. Three days in a row, Dean had played the same music and they had been having a few friendly conversations now and again, and everything had actually been going, well, okay. Now, however, Dean could see that his brother was starting to get uncomfortable, or quite simply, irritated.
"You okay there, Sam?" Dean asked, turning down the music slightly thinking that maybe that would make his brother happier.
"I'm fine."
"You are?"
"Yeah."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah."
"Are you sure you're sure?"
"Yes."
Now he's just getting touchy. Dean thought that maybe it would just have been best to drop it there, but they needed to work this through now or this journey would be very long indeed.
"You know, I could turn the music off for a while if that would be better." Dean said. Come on, Sam. That's really very kind of me.
"Dean, are you sure you are okay?" Sam joked as he turned off the stereo.
"Sure I am, Sam."
At least when he falls asleep I'll just turn the music back on.
They finally arrived at their destination that evening, both very grateful to finally be out of the car, though Dean was rather reluctant to admit it. They decided that it was probably best to get something to eat and find somewhere to stay before doing much else.
"Well, I don't think we can do much else until morning." Sam said truthfully as they headed towards a diner. When they entered they were met by rather loud music. It was first when they had sat down in a booth that Dean recognised the song as What About Love by Heart. Sam did not really seem interested when Dean pointed this fact out to him. He only raised his eyebrows at Dean and said, "Yeah? So?"
Dinner…he definitely needs dinner.
Dean was rather pleased that dinner lightened Sam's mood considerably, so when they headed back to the Impala to try and find a motel, Sam was almost pleasant company.
"What do you mean I am almost pleasant company?" Sam enquired as they settled in the Impala.
"Nothing." Dean smirked.
Sam rolled his eyes but let the matter drop.
It did not take them as long to find a motel as Dean had first thought and were quite happy to find that it was only about five minutes from the hospital that Mal Johnson was at.
"Hey Dean?" Sam said as they dumped their stuff on the floor in the motel room.
"Yeah?"
"We forgot to arrange a fake cover."
"Nah, don't worry, Sammy. You're big brother is well organised." Sam snorted loudly at Dean's remark, but merely suppressed a laugh when Dean sent him a look. "I thought we could be from Child Welfare or something."
"That could probably work. You got any badges?" Sam asked as he took off his jacket and threw it on one of the beds.
"The man of resources, that's me." Dean said happily as he pulled out to badges from his satchel and threw one to Sam who caught it instinctively.
It was sometime later when they were both in bed and Dean was starting to doze off that Sam's voice brought him back to consciousness.
"Dean?"
"Yeah."
"What do you think we will find tomorrow?"
"I don't know Sam." I don't even know if I want to know.
Thank you so much for reading! Please review and tell if this is worth continuing with or even if you think that it is complete...well you get the picture!
I know that the chapter is way, way too short, but I thought that at least the story has been set up and I (hopefully) have somewhere to go with it.
Anyway, as I said, please review: the good, the bad and the ugly. ;-)
Disclaimer: I do not own the Supernatural or any of its characters. I do, however, own the characters of Mal, Mike and Peter.