Dean was swaying in misty waters when he awoke. His body jerked and he found himself kicking his legs suddenly through the water in order to stay afloat. The hunter's hair and pajamas were clinging to his skin as he gasped for air and spit out the grey water that was around him.

"What the hell?" he whispered.

What was he doing in the middle of the ocean? Last thing he remembered was that he had been sleeping in bed and then…

Follow the dark, Dean…! They're gone…! But not for long…!

"Oh, son of a bitch!" Dean snapped as his head whipped back and forth, scanning his endless surroundings.

The hunter suddenly remembered the terrifying nightmare he had had of Sam and Cas being taken away by black, swirling shadows. His breathing hitched in fear of the memory and he began darting his head around his surroundings.

With ragged breathing and heart pounding, he called out across the ocean that was beyond the fog, "Saaam!" Dean waited for a response, hoping and praying there would be at least some sign of his brother. "Caaas!" Even at the second name he called, however, the hunter received no response from his lost brothers.

In desperation to find them, Dean then plunged his head into the deep, misty waters. He had to find them, he had to! There was nowhere else they could be but here! They had been taken away from him so many times, Dean didn't – Dean couldn't give up on them this time! Especially after all he had done to them….

The sight he was met with beneath the waves, however, was not Sam or Cas, but something that sent chills down his spine. Right below him, swimming and climbing towards him, were thousands of human skeletons. Their bony hands reaching out to him, clawing one another in order to be the first to grab him. Flesh still hung from some of their bones, jaws closing and shutting, tattered clothes still clinging to their figures.

Dean jumped and his arms and legs shot forward, trying desperately to swim away from the hideous creatures. The hunter spun around and frantically fought his way up to the surface, which seemed so much farther away than before.

When Dean's head finally tore up out from the ocean and onto the surface, making him spit out water and gasp for air as he shook the grey liquid off his face, he was suddenly met with a strange sight. Not even a minute ago, he had plunged into the water with no one and nothing around, but now, Dean found himself staring at the rickety, old planks of a long, wooden boat.

He felt a gasp come from his mouth as his eyes flew up to see an eerie, robed figure standing on the boat in front of him. The robe that the man wore was tattered and old, and, with bony hands, he held a long stick that was partially submerged in the misty water.

Out of desperation to get away from the terrifying creatures that were waiting for him below the water, Dean reached his hands out to the boat and grabbed onto the side as he pleaded to the robed figure, "Please, old man, bring me to shore! I'm being chased!"

The figure stood still for a while before finally rotating its head to stare down at the young man before him, only for the hunter to go pale white in fear at the horrifying sight. Instead of a face of flesh, the robed figure was made only of bone and darkness. A skeleton, just as the creatures below him were, except where the beings in the water had flesh, this figure had the same black shadows curling around him that had taken Sam and Cas away.

Upon seeing the hunter hanging to his boat, the skeletal ferryman fully turned towards him. His movements were slow and strained, but when he finally was facing Dean completely, the ferryman towered high above him, a low breath uttered from between the teeth on his face that lacked any movement whatsoever. The tall, lanky skeleton gradually reached out a long, thin arm towards the young hunter, the coarse cloth that had been covering his hand slid upward as to reveal a pure white, bony hand, each finger clicking against each individual bone as his palm slowly opened as if he was asking him for something.

The ferryman froze in place. Dean drew in a quick breath as he looked down at the ferryman's hand and then back to his face once more, stopping instantly in fear as he was once again taken aback by the horror of it. The darkness no longer seemed like an absence of light, but instead a poisonous fog that loomed and billowed up around the skeleton's head. Dean finally breathed, "Yeah… Yeah, I don't know what you're-"

"Obol…." The ferryman interrupted him with a raspy and strained voice in a sort of tone that Dean had to think twice on whether or it was a word or if it was just the wind howling high above him.

Dean blinked at the skeletal figure before saying, "Um… Yeah, I don't have anything for you, buddy. I just need a quick ride to-" Dean was cut short on his words again, but unlike the last time, it was not the ferryman who interrupted him, but a sudden object that appeared in his mouth.

Surprised by the cold thing on his tongue, Dean reached one of his hands down to his mouth and spit it into his palm. The hunter looked down at the object to find, sitting in his hand, an imperfect, bronze coin that had a horned man on one side and the shape of a cat on the other.

After Dean flipped the coin over in his hand a few times with curiosity and awe, the skeletal ferryman's hand reached slightly forward even more as he repeated in his raspy voice once more, "Obol…."

Dean's eyes flicked up to the robed figure. This scene…it seemed so much like some myth he had heard, of a ferryman who would give you a ride to…somewhere, but only if you had a coin that had been placed in your mouth. And this skeletal ferryman was demanding for something he had, something called an 'obol'….

Taking a chance, Dean reached over to the ferryman's hand and hesitantly placed the misshapen coin in the bony palm. Once the ferryman had the bronze coin, his fingers curled around the metal object, each bone clicking against the metal, and he then stepped aside, inviting Dean onto the boat with him.

Dean smiled in spite of himself, haven figured out how to catch a ride to shore. So, the hunter hoisted himself onto the boat and the skeletal ferryman began to push his long, wooden stick through the water, making his boat move forward. And, without a single word, the robed figure took Dean across the misty waters as the hunter let his wet pajamas dry off, not knowing at all what dangers awaited him on the shores of the Black Place.


Birds chirped and leaves swayed around Sam. His fingers curled, feeling the grass underneath himself as he did so. He moved his leg up slightly, letting the grass and leaves around him tickle his skin. He could feel the heat of the sun on the side of his face as his lips curled up in a grimace. It was so warm and calming. Life was just as it should be, it seemed. Everything would be so perfect and at peace.

If it wasn't for the terrible, painful throbbing in Sam's head.

Sam moved his hands down to his sides and his legs inward, and with one mighty push, hoisted himself off the ground and began making his way into a sitting position. Once he was upright, he found himself swaying a little bit. The world was spinning, nothing was balanced, and Sam couldn't decide if he was going to puke, pass out, or both.

"Oh, god…" Sam muttered. His head was throbbing more than it ever had before. It felt heavier than usual, too, but he assumed that was just the throbbing. He would have thought that this was either a hangover or a concussion of some sorts if it wasn't for the terrible, terrible pain on the top of his scalp.

It felt as if his head had been ripped open.

What had happened to him? Where was he? Why was he in the middle of the forest? Where was Dean? Where was-?

"Cas!" Sam's head suddenly shot up as he suddenly remembered being dragged into some dark portal with Castiel. They had been brought to…some…place… No, there had been water at one point, endless fog and water…and then the ferryman came and took them away for two coins… Ah, but there was a town as well… a town of…little…people? Or were they people? What else could they have been, then? And when had all that happened? In what order? What had happened first? How did he get here? Where was 'here'? And where was Cas?

Sam groaned and put his head down, all this moving and thinking was making the painful throbbing worse. He reached a hand up to his forehead, only to feel something wet and sticky on the top of his head. Sam's eyes shot open. He felt his heart beat faster in his chest. He knew he had to reach farther up his scalp to see where the bleeding was. But everything in his very being was screaming for him not to. He didn't want to know. He didn't want to know.

But he had to know.

Sam could hear his heart beating. Nothing else in the forest was making a noise. It was just him and his heart. With a shaking hand, his fingers made their way up his forehead, following the two trails of blood that were on each side of his face. They just hesitantly kept making their way up his face, all the way up until Sam's fingertips suddenly hit something. Something…hard…and…stick-like….

Sam never wanted anything more in the world than to put his hand back down. There was nothing to find on his scalp, it was just his head! But the kind of common sense that most people assume is insanity told him otherwise.

So, Sam's fingertips felt their way farther up his scalp, feeling the stick-like things on the top of his head. And the more he felt the objects, the more his hands shook and his heart pounded louder and his breathing quickened.

'No, it's not real. It's just a bad dream. That's all it is. That's all…!' Sam thought to himself desperately.

But, even with these pleas being repeated in his thoughts, Sam couldn't help a sudden, terrified scream. It was shill and long, the kind of scream that cries out for help, though they know it will not come. The kind of scream that begs for anyone to hear, so that their pain may be heard. And so, it was.

Welcome…

Sam's eyes widened.

Welcome, Cernunnos…

Shivers ran down his spine at the voices in the distance.

We hope you enjoyed your meal…

Sam whipped his throbbing head around, trying to find where the voices were coming from despite his pain.

We offered it so that you would come back to us, Cernunnos…

Suddenly, from behind the trees, wisps of yellow light emerged. Sam's eyebrows rose and his head moved back slightly in shock and awe at the dancing lights.

And come back to us you did…