Darkness, confusion and pain. Three things that everyone hates and three things TJ experienced when he woke up. He opened his eyes, the room was dimly lit and as his eyes focused, he could see a figure hunched over against the wall. He crawled closer and saw it was the younger of the two strangers he had met earlier that day. He edged closer still and heard the steady breathing of sleep. He was alive.
"You're awake." A voice said, startling him.
"Ugk." Was all TJ could muster as his voice cracked from lack of use and the brutal fall.
Dean chuckled and sat down next to his brother. "I don't know how we all survived this fall, but I know we're not getting out the way we got in."
TJ glanced around and his eyes shifted towards the ground, soft cushiony grass that as it got further from the wall, dispersed and was replaced by black and white checkered marble tiles. On the wall closest to him, there was a mural painted which depicted a wonderful white castle, with a flourishing garden, a vast labyrinth and in the background, a trailing assemblage of frosted mountains that could make even an avalanche beautiful.
"Listen, um…," The man said hesitantly. "I guess I should come clean. My real name is Dean and sleeping beauty over there," he pointed to his brother. "That's Sam."
"So," TJ began, finally finding his voice. "You lied. Why?"
Dean seemed to process these thoughts and opened his mouth to answer, and then shut it again after thinking better of it. "What's that?" He asked instead.
TJ cocked an eyebrow and turned to see what Dean was looking at. It was his book bag! He looked down and saw his maroon and grey uniform covered in dirt with grass stains on both knees and elbow. He rummaged through his bag and thanked god for gym class. Inside, were the gym clothes he had stuffed in the night before. He tossed them aside and rummaged some more, inside he found; his cell phone, his note book computer, his room key, a pair of sun glasses, a long sleeved shirt in case the heat broke in the school again, a granola bar, a few scraps of paper, some pens and pencils, his sketchbook, and two dollars plus a few pennies.
Completely forgetting about his investigative chat with Dean, TJ turned on his cell phone and raised it above his head. He circled all his belongings, eyes never leaving the tiny plasma screen on his phone.
"Damn it."
"What?"
"No service." TJ chucked the cell phone back into his bag, not really caring if it broke at this point. He was who knows how far under ground and he couldn't call anyone for help. But what about an e-mail?! He kneeled down and opened up his notebook, only to have his stomach drop when he saw a crack in the glass of the monitor. He pushed the power button just in case, but it failed to even make the low whirring sound that it usually did when he turned it on.
"That broken too?" Dean said, slightly amused with the kid's franticly collective personality.
TJ tossed the broken note book onto the ground, resulting in a large crash and probably another large crack in the screen by the sound of it. The noise had another outcome, and as TJ shoved everything else back into his book bag, Sam stirred and awoke.
"Wasat Dean?" Sam slurred, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
TJ turned and his stomach dropped. "Oh, I'm sorry." He mumbled. "I forgot he was sleeping." He finished, turning to Dean.
"It's okay," Dean replied. "Alright, Sam, I'm going to check some of these doors. See if maybe there's one that's unlocked."
Sam nodded and turned to TJ. "Hi," he said with a weak smile.
Sam got up and looked down the wide hall to see his brother trying to force open doors, pulling on a door handle about 30 feet away from them.
"Dean told me everything." He said calmly, trying as hard as he could to be passive.
"Dean told you what?!" Sam exclaimed, looking over at his brother in disbelief.
"Everything," TJ said, suppressing a smile. "While you were asleep he decided that, since we're stuck here and it's obvious we'll need to work together to get out, he'd just tell me why you guys were here."
"So he told you about why we were looking for the missing kids?" Sam asked, under the impression that if TJ knew their real names, it was possible Dean trusted him enough to tell him what else when on, especially when they were in this kind of situation.
"Yep." TJ said, looking up at the dirt ceiling, the gaping hole they had fallen through looming above the two of them. "This happen often?"
"No, hunting demons doesn't usually get us eaten by trees." Sam replied, following TJ's gaze and straining his eyes up into the darkness.
"No, I suppose not," TJ mumbled. His three years of drama class in high school had finally proved good for something other than the possibility that he could one day be a lawyer. He put his head down, hiding a smirk.
"But Sam," he started, not looking up. "Why did you come here?"
"The disappearances," Sam said, sitting back down and leaning up against the wall again. "We had nothing to do, nothing else really seemed to jump out on the daily news, so we just came here to check it out."
TJ followed suit with Sam and sat against the cold wall. "You think the tree ate them too? Maybe, it eats people who come too close… Like a venous fly trap or something."
"Could be," Sam agreed. He was starting to really like TJ, he felt easy to talk to, he was younger and shorter, about the same size as dean, but not as buff. "But how would it lure that many people into the middle of the forest."
"Well, these disappearances, they only started recently right? And this tree, it could have been there for ages… so maybe something's luring it in there. In here, I mean. Just think, All these door have to go somewhere right?" TJ said, letting his thoughts flow.
"Yeah," Sam replied.
He was impressed with TJ. He seemed to catch on fairly quick, and unlike most, was completely accepting when it came to the "weird stuff" that most people rejected.
TJ got up. "I'm going to change out of these clothes. You can go help your brother," he said, starting to get his clothes out of his bag. Sam left, went down and found his brother hauling on a door handle.
"How's it coming?" He asked through a smile.
"They're all locked," he grumbled. "Every single one of them. That one doesn't even have a handle." He pointed to the end of the hall, a large door with only a lock in the center of both doors was placed in the wall. The door was plain looking, there was nothing too special about it, but the lock itself looked like it was made of solid gold. They both drew closer, examining the door. On inspection, they saw that the door's cracks were covered in salt, and the thick wood was greened with age and rot.
"Hey guys!" TJ screamed. "Come here!" The two jogged back over to him to see him holding out a small golden key. "Check it out," he said as he passed it to Dean. "I found it in the grass."
The boy's looked at each other and rushed back to the large door, TJ trailing behind. Dean took the key and placed it in the lock. A perfect fit. He turned it, and when it clicked the entire chamber rumbled.
It all happened so fast. The door burst open and the three were swepped away and bashed into the wall with the mural by the rushing water that had broken through. The salty water filled their lungs and when the rushing was over TJ could see Dean turning in the water looking around.
"SAM!" echoed his deep voice on the walls.
TJ felt something graze his leg and looked down. It was Sam struggling to swim up. TJ dove own, grabbing Sam around the middle and hauling him to the surface, where he choked and coughed up the sea water.
Dean swam over and grabbed his brother by his collar then grabbed TJ with his other arm. "WE HAVE TO STICK TOGETHER!" he yelled to them over the crashing of the water against the walls. The torches began to flicker out one after another until the three were quickly engulfed by darkness.
They waded there, waiting for the water to still. When it finally did, it went placid. There was no light, and the only sounds were that of drips throughout the room and the heavy breathing of all three boys.
"What are we going to do?" TJ asked Dean, his voice cutting through the silence and dark. He couldn't see Dean's face, but he could feel his arm around him. "We won't be able to stay above water for very long."
The water pulsed. Ripples danced up and down the submerged bodies of the three before a low gurgling could be heard. The level water began to lower, and the boys could feel the pressure tugging at them, pulling them under. The water swirled, creating a whirlpool that, in the darkness, looked like a gaping black hole.
The three splashed over towards the nearest wall in panic trying to grab onto something but the walls were bare and smooth. They tried swimming against the current and evaded being sucked under the water but they soon grew tired and soon Sam slipped from Dean and TJ's clutches and was swallowed by the hole.
"No! Sam, hold on-" Dean groaned. But it was too late, and his attempt to save his brother caused him to slip and he too was eaten by the darkness.
TJ was tired. He could barely keep his eyes open as he continued to swim, hoping that the water would drain and he would find himself on the floor again, but he was too weak. He couldn't keep fighting the currents, so he too, drifted into the spinning hole.
The current threw him around like a rag doll. He could feel his body being sucked through the door and into a cooler body of water. His body was spinning rolling and thrashing, his lungs burning. He needed air.
His face collided with sand, and he could feel the water retracting in anticipation for the next wave. When it came, TJ was sent rolling onto the beach. He coughed up water and sand, and then inhaled for what felt like the very first time ever.
He crawled up a beach of black sand, eyes closed and itching with the pain that fatigue brings. His hands dug into the sand as he hauled himself out of the reaches of the waves that were still lapping as his feet. The sand felt dry and dead between his fingers, which was soon replaced by the feeling of half dried blood and rotted flesh.
He sat up quickly and took his hand out of the rotting carcass. He was jolted awake, his eyes now round with fear. He crawled backwards and the two brothers came running from one side of the beach, still dripping wet.
"What's wrong? " Sam started before his eyes landed on the mass of blood and meat that was not two feet ahead of them. His hand went up to his face as if to stop himself from gagging and then he grabbed TJ under the arms and dragged him up past the corpse and onto a patch of brown grass.
TJ was shaking, half from the cold of the water he was just in and half from the fear. He mumbled and frantically wiped his hand on the grass. "What the hell was that?" he asked, his voice as shaky as he was.
"It looks like it was an animal." Dean said, taking a closer look. "Like, a seal or something."
"No it's a walrus." Corrected Sam. "See, it has tusks."
"Well, what is that, exactly?" TJ asked, looking at the rags that were wrapped around the thing. "Is… Is that a waistcoat?" he said with confusion upon reaching the place the other two were standing.
In front of them was the body of a walrus, or, what was left of one. The tail was half eaten and only bone could be seen. The ribs were exposed and a pool of blood was surrounding the mass of it. The waistcoat was ripped and stained scarlet, the ivory tusks were scratched and dried from the heat of the sun beaming down onto it.
The water splashed and a huge oyster broke through the waves and shimmied up to beach. TJ fell backwards and the two brothers grabbed him and pulled him behind a tree. He kicked his feet to help move faster as the faceless oyster clamped down on the walrus' body and tossed it, along with its self, back into the ocean.
"Holy crap." Dean breathed.