The brothers are asleep in their beds after a fulfilling dinner of steak, seasoned potatoes, and some beer. Dean is happily lying in his bunk, content that this food will not upset his stomach. Zoom in on his face as the smile fades and is replaced with a frown and sweat as strange sounds begin to arise. Cut to Sam who is also resting peacefully, but begin to squirm and sweat as he hears similar noises and the camera zooms in on his tortured face.
Cut to a super close up on Dean's eyes as they open and he finds himself in a swirling mist. The sounds have intensified and he hears multiple screams and crazed, deep laughter. The voice is almost impossible deep. His dad stumbles out of the mist with a scared look on his face.
"Dean! Quick, help me!"
A figure wrapped in moldering rags appears behind John Winchester and cleaves his head open with a large, ancient ax. The mist quickly devours them before Dean can even take two steps forward to help his dad.
"Dean, son… Please… Help me."
He spins around to see his lovely mother emerging from the swirling gray and rushes back to save his mom. Just before he reaches her, the stranger pops out behind Mary Winchester and brings the ax down on her back. Once again, the mist covers the scene and Dean is left alone with the screams and the laughter.
Cut to Sam who is in the same mist. He spins on the spot and yells out, "Who's there?"
"It me, Sam. Please… Help me before he gets me."
Beside Sam, Jessica, his first girlfriend, stumbles out of the mist and fixes him with tear filled eyes.
"Oh Sam, he's after me," she sobs.
Sam rushed forward to hold her.
"Jessica, who is-"
An comes out of the mist and catches Jessica in the hip and bring her down. The same ragged man from Dean's dream reaches out of the gray and pulls Jessica out of sight.
"No!" Sam yells,
"Sam… No," John's voice says from behind. Sam looks back to his father.
"Dad," he says breathlessly. "What is going on here? What is this place?"
Before John can respond to his son, he is beheaded by the rag-clad man and the mist swallows them up.
Cut back to Dean, who has had to watch Bobby, Kevin, Charlie, and Benny all get slain before his eyes by the same man.
"What is going on here! Stop killing these people and face me yourself! Come on you coward! Let the dead rest in peace!"
The laughter and screams die down and a sweet voice cuts through the mist, "Dean, you and Sam need to find the Beast. Stop him before he kills more people ruins more lives."
"Who are you? Are these visions your doing?"
"I would never try to cause you so much pain. These visions are from another. Please, go with Sam. Stop the Beast. Beware the Vortex…"
Dean looks confused and angry. "Can't you give me more than that?"
"Good bye, Dean."
Dean hears something behind and spins around once more. He sees Sam fall out of the mist and look up at his brother. "Oregon," he says, before the ax takes him the chest and he is pulled back into the mist.
"Sammy no!"
Cut back to Sam, who watches Bobby get slain by the ax bearing man.
"Whoever, or whatever is doing this, show yourself," Sam calls out, fidgeting while raising his fists.
The noise dies down as Sam hears the same voice as Dean heard, "Sam, find the Beast. He will try to kill you, but you have to stop him or else…"
"Or else what?" Sam calls out to the mist. "Just who are you?"
The deep voice returns even stronger and begins to sing, "Come wayward souls, who wander through the darkness, there is a light for the lost and weak. Sorrow and fear are easily forgotten when you submit to the soil of the earth!"
Sam looks really disturbed by this message and begin to back away until he realizes that he is still surrounded by the mist.
"Show yourself," Sam calls again. "Are you the Beast, or something else?"
"Grow tiny seed, you are gone from the tree. Rise till your leaves fill the sky, until your sighs fill the air in the night. Lift your mighty limbs and give praise to the fire," the deep voice sings in response.
"What does any of that mean," Sam asks.
"It means, it's time to die," Dean says as he walks out of the mist in front of Sam. He is carrying the large ax and a strange lantern. Dean smiles wickedly at his brother as he bounds forward and swings at Sam's neck.
"No Dean, stop!" Sam yells to his bedroom ceiling. he is covered in a cold sweat and rolls out of bed, beginning to dry heave a little. He manages to quickly compose himself, before he gets up and walks to the door. He opens it to find Dean standing there, looking as ragged as he feels. He jumps back a little in fright.
"Dean, what's the matter," he stammers.
"I just had a… never mind, what's the matter with you!?"
"You first, you look like you had another attack of the Juicy Joe's."
"We promised that we would never talk about that again."
"Fine, I just had a really, really bad dream," Sam begins. "I was in a place with tons of mist. like I mean fog, everywhere. I saw… I saw Jessica, dad, Bobby, Charlie, everyone close to us get brutally murdered with an ax. And the guy with the ax, he was… I dunno… Just-"
"There was something really off about him. Like a mummy, or something like that."
Sam looks up in shock and says, "Wait, you had the same dream?"
"Probably, but continue. Did you hear that crazy laugh?"
"Yeah, and the voice also sang to me…"
Dean gives Sam his skeptical and incredulous half glare. "Wait, you got sung to? Like a demented lullaby?"
Sam looks concerned, "No, it was a song about… Wayward souls… and a tree…. Wait, I know where that sounds familiar!"
Sam takes off down the hall to where the briefcase and the case's details are still on the table. He begins rifling through the paperwork and the files. He finds what he is looking for and says, "Look Dean, there are two reports about a song being sung in the woods about wayward souls. Did you have the same dream, hear the same song?"
"No, There was just the crazy laughter, and everyone getting killed, and then there was this young woman's voice."
"You heard that as well?"
"Yeah, she warned me to not go to the Vortex. Wherever or whatever that is… She also said that what I was seeing was from someone. Her voice was familiar, but I swear I've never heard that girl's voice before."
"Same here," Sam says contemplatively. "She never mentioned the Vortex to me. She was cut off short by the song. But she said that we need to find the Beast."
"Yeah, apparently it's something we have to gank," Dean grumbled. "How the hell did this happen to us. We have similar dreams, but with certain, subtle differences. How did your dream end?"
"Well, it… It ended with you trying to kill me. You were then the one wielding the ax, and not the mummy guy, and you had some kind of ancient lantern. Like… Like the one here in the case."
"Really? Was I trying to cut you up for talking about that heathen diner?"
"No… You said, 'It's time to die.'"
Dean looks more concerned now and says, "You know, you were also in my dream. But you weren't try to gank me. Instead you screamed, 'Oregon.'"
"Why would I say that," Sam wonders
"I have no freakin' clue," Dean grumbles. "Normally I would chalk this up to some bad dream, but there are too many similarities for this to be a coincidence. Arg, it looks like it's time to do research."
Hurray," Sam says wearily.