April 10th, 2007

We had been in Illinois for a few days. We picked up a case about people who had been going missing. Sam was able to narrow it down to a fifty-mile stretch of road.

While Sam stayed back in the motel researching what we could be going up against, Dean actually agreed to let me drive around with him. He figured the drive would be safe because we wouldn't be in one place for too long. The only concern I had for the three of us not sticking together was that Sam and Dean escaped prison about a week prior. Dean didn't seem too worried, though, because we had gotten rid of anything that could be used to track us down.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Dean answered his phone. "Yeah?" (...) "You think it's for us?" (...) "I don't see how. I mean, we ditched the plates, the credit cards." (...) "Well, see. Nothing to worry about." (...) He chuckled. "Hey man, chicks dig the danger vibe." (...) "Are you kidding me? How could I? You got me sifting through like fifty-square-miles of real estate here." (...) "Yeah, well, I got diddly-squat. What about you?" (...) "A friggin' genie?"

"What about a genie?" I asked.

"Sam says we are hunting a genie," Dean whispered.

"Like Robin Williams genie?" I asked.

Dean thought for a second and started talking to Sam again, "Like the genie from Aladdin? You think these suckers can really grant wishes?" (...) "My god. Barbara Eden was hot, wasn't she? Way hotter than that Bewitched chick." (...) He cleared his throat. "Yeah. So, uh, where do the Djinns lair up?" (...) "Ya know, I think I saw a place a couple miles back. I'm gonna go check it out." (...) "Nah, I'm sure it's nothing. Maddi and I've got it covered. We'll just take a look around." He hung up and then took a U-turn back to a large warehouse that we saw a few miles before.

He parked in front of the warehouse and turned to me. "You know the drill, stay close."

I nodded, and then we both got out and opened a door on the side of the building. Dean pulled out a flashlight and his knife and led us into the warehouse.

Inside, the warehouse was very dark and had an unpleasant smell to it. It was littered with garbage and broken furniture.

As we walked through, Dean turned to me and put a finger up to his mouth, telling me to be quiet. He cautiously turned around and, with a swift motion, turned the corner to the next hallway with his knife ready.

A glowing blue light appeared in front of my eyes, and I drifted into darkness.

I woke up to an annoying, beeping sound. When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a pink bedroom. I quickly hit the alarm on the nightstand and jumped out of bed.

I was extremely confused when I looked around the room. It was pink, frilly, and had stuffed animals everywhere. There was also a poster of teenagers jumping off of a stage with the words, High School Musical underneath them.

A moment later, the bedroom door opened, and my dad walked in. "Come on. Breakfast's on the table."

"Daddy?" I looked at him, completely astonished. I ran over and hugged him. "Is it really you?"

He rubbed my back. "Yeah, peanut, of course, it's me."

"I've missed you so much." I squeezed him.

"What do you mean? We just made cookies last night," Dad said, pushing me away with a confused look on his face.

"Cookies?" I asked.

"Yeah, you know, for Christmas." Dad smiled and put his hand on my forehead. "Look, I appreciate the enthusiasm and hugs, but are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." I nodded, still completely confused.

"All right. Your mom and brother are downstairs." He turned to leave. "You might want to hurry up before he eats all of the food."

I watched Dad walk down the hallway, and I followed after him.

Dad turned back to me. "What are you doing, goofball? Go get changed for school first."

"School?" I asked.

"Yeah, what did you think? You could skip the last day just 'cause Christmas is in two days?" Dad asked with a chuckle and walked down the stairs.

I laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, I wish." I turned around and walked back into the bedroom.

Whatever was happening was really weird, but I felt like I needed to play along until I figured out what was going on. After I entered what I assumed was my bedroom, I closed the door behind me and opened the closet.

Unfortunately, when my wardrobe was revealed to me, I wanted to vomit. There wasn't a single flannel, T-shirt, or pair of jeans in sight. It was all pink, purple, frills, and dresses.

I walked over and opened the door a crack. "Dad?!"

"Yeah?!" he yelled back.

"Can you come here for a sec?!" I asked.

"I'm kinda busy at the moment, kiddo!" he yelled.

"I'll be up in a second!" a woman's voice yelled.

I knew that I recognized the voice, but I couldn't place it.

A moment later, Renee walked up the stairs and into the hallway. My heart sank because the last time I saw her, she turned out to be some evil crazy person. She was different though, she didn't have a ton of makeup on, and her hair was left naturally curly like mine. She also seemed genuinely happy to see me when she smiled down at me.

"What's going on, baby?" she asked.

"Um, are there any... not pink options?" I asked.

"You picked every outfit in that closet," Mom said, completely astonished.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah, of course. I just want something a little more relaxed today. Ya know, last day of school and all."

"Uh." She shrugged. "I guess you can grab something from your brother's room." She turned to walk out. "But hurry up, I don't have time to drive you to school if you miss the bus." As she walked down the hall, she yelled back, "And don't use that as an excuse to skip school!"

I walked down the hallway, looking for Sam or Dean's room, but I stopped in front of a door with a sign that read, Isaac's Room Keep Out. I was confused but figured it was all part of whatever was going on.

I shrugged and opened the door, but when I walked in, a nasty odor hit me. I flicked on the light and realized that the carpet I thought I was standing on was just dirty laundry strewn around the room. I looked up to see that there were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle posters and multiple WWE posters, but the Spirit Squad poster was framed.

So, I knew that if my "brother's" favorite WWE stable was the "Spirit Squad," we probably weren't going to get along. I searched his closet and found a flannel and a pair of jeans that I felt were suitable.

Once I was finished, I made my way down the stairs to see my mom, dad, and a boy about my age, who I assumed was Isaac, eating breakfast.

Isaac looked up at me. "Why are you wearing my clothes?! Who said you could go into my room?!"

"I did," Mom said, "Finish eating."

"Mom!" Isaac shouted. "She has her own clothes."

"She felt like being a little different today." Mom walked over and handed me a bowl and a spoon. "Eat up, honey."

"Probably realized Nate isn't into pink dresses." Isaac scoffed under his breath.

"What?" I asked as I sat down.

Isaac rolled his eyes. "Nate. From next door."

"Nate?" I asked, still wondering if we were talking about the same one.

"Harvelle?" Isaac shook his head. "The one you've had a crush on since... forever."

"Isaac..." Dad warned.

"What, Dad?" Isaac put his arms out. "It's true. She always acts weird around him and wears those dumb dresses."

I poured myself some cereal and milk and started eating, not saying anything, but I was secretly excited to see Nate. I was hoping that maybe he would know what was going on, but seeing as everyone else was acting normal, I kind of figured he wouldn't. Either way, it would be nice to see another friendly face.

I finished my bowl and went for another, but before I reached the box of cereal, Mom snatched it up.

"Sorry, baby." Mom walked over and grabbed my bowl. "There isn't time. You have five minutes to get to the bus stop. You two better get going."

After Dad handed Isaac and me our backpacks, I followed Isaac down the street to the bus stop. Nate was already standing there.

"Maddi... uh..." Nate looked me up and down. "Nice outfit. And your hair's not straight and frizzy today."

"Yeah, she looks like a freak." Isaac scoffed.

"Nah, I like it. It's different than usual," Nate said, nudging me. "Not your usual, talkative self today?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess not."

I already knew that the djinn had caused something weird to happen. The only thing I wasn't sure of was if it was really happening. I mean, were they really powerful enough to make wishes come true?

Maybe the people that had been going missing were just people who had made a wish to the djinn. Maybe they weren't missing. Maybe they were just in an alternate reality. If that were true, though, why would it force me into an alternate reality against my will?

I needed to figure out how to go back. I needed to find Sam and Dean, but I wasn't sure if they would be any help either. With how everything was going, they were probably completely different people too.

A minute later, a school bus that read, Palo Alto Unified School District on the side pulled up in front of us. At least now I knew where I was. Dad said it was almost Christmas, and the only Palo Alto I could think of that would be warm and sunny without snow was in California. The only problem with that was the only Djinn hideout that I knew of was in Illinois, which would be about a two-day trip, non-stop... if I had a car.

After I hopped on the bus, I picked an empty seat, not wanting to be bothered while I tried to figure out what my plan was. A moment after I sat, Nate sat down next to me.

"Hey, what's up with you?" Nate asked, "Does it have something to do with what I said yesterday?"

I furrowed my brow, having no idea what he was talking about. "No?"

"Are you sure? You seem pretty annoyed with me," Nate said.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Good, 'cause I don't want to lose one of my best friends over a joke." Nate smiled.

I nodded. "Right."

Nate laughed. "Are you ready for the history test today?"

"We have a test?" I asked, already not super amused that I had to go to school, to begin with.

Nate shook his head and smiled. "Oh, dude. You are so screwed."

After the bus pulled up to the school, the bus driver opened the doors and let us off. A sudden realization came over me that I had no idea where I was going or where I needed to be.

I decided I would walk with Nate, hoping that if we had history together, we would have other classes together too. Except when I turned to wait for him to catch up, he completely blew me off, sped past me, and stopped at a giant group of boys.

"Hey, Nate?" I asked when I caught up with him, but he ignored me. "Nate?" I asked a little louder.

He turned to me, looking annoyed. "What?"

"Would you mind walking to class with me?" I asked.

Boys in his group made taunting "Ooo's," but that just seemed to make Nate more annoyed.

"No, what is it? Your first day?" Nate asked and then laughed.

The rest of the boys laughed at me, mockingly, so I quickly turned away and walked into the building.

I wandered through the halls completely confused until a loud bell rang, and the hallways cleared out.

An older woman popped her head out of one of the rooms. "Miss Winchester. Get in here, you better not be late for my class. That'll be the third time this week."

I looked at her, confused. "Uh..."

She raised an eyebrow. "Don't argue, let's go. Or you'll be headed to the principal's office, young lady."

I put my head down and walked into her room.

"Take a seat." She clapped her hands. "Let's go."

"Look, everyone. Frizz is dressed like a dude," a familiar voice said with a laugh.

I looked up after the room erupted into laughter to see Nate pointing and laughing at me.

"Mr. Harvelle! There will be none of that," the teacher scolded.

I made my way to the back of the room, where I spotted an empty seat.

The teacher cleared her throat. "Oh no, we've already talked about this. You're sitting upfront. I want you paying attention... not doodling."

Everyone started laughing again because as I turned to head toward the front of the room, my bag caught on a desk and opened a pocket, causing books and papers to fall out onto the floor. I bent over and started picking them up.

"Quickly now. Quickly. I don't want you delaying my class any longer," the teacher scolded.

The rest of the day went basically the same way, and I'm sure I failed that stupid test I took. None of what was on it was even valuable information. If this is what a normal life was like, I wanted nothing to do with it.

I had no idea that kids my age were so mean for no reason, even when they called you their "best friend." I wasn't having any more of it, and I definitely wasn't going to let Nate walk all over me anymore even if that's what my alternate reality self was supposed to let happen.

Once the bus dropped us off, I sped off, leaving Nate and Isaac behind.

"Hey! Wait up!" Nate called after me. Once he caught up to me, he put his hand on my shoulder. "Hey, what's wrong?"

I pushed his hand away. "What's wrong? Really? It was bad enough that people laughed at me on their own. They definitely didn't need your help."

"You're really mad about that?" Nate asked. "You know how it is."

"How what is?" I asked, "You literally humiliated me all day, are you like that to other kids too?"

Nate shrugged. "I'm one of the cool kids, and you're not. We can be friends outside of school, though."

"Usually, if you have to tell people you're cool... you aren't," I said.

"Yeah." Nate shrugged. "If it was you."

My body filled with rage, and I pulled back, punching him square in the nose. He dropped to the ground, grabbing his face and crying.

"You shouldn't peek in school." I turned and stormed off to my house.

"Holy crap! Maddison!" Isaac ran up to me. "That was awesome!"

"Thanks." I shook my head, still annoyed.

"Can't wait to tell Mom!" He ran off, laughing maniacally.

As soon as I closed the door behind me, Mom called for me.

"Maddison Leanna Winchester!" she yelled.

That wasn't the middle name I was used to, but I could tell by her tone she was not happy. I walked into the living room. Mom was standing there, looking furious, while Isaac was standing next to her, smiling.

"What did you do to Nate?" she asked.

I shrugged.

"Maddison!" Mom yelled.

Dad came out of a side room. "What's with all the yelling?"

"Maddison, why don't you tell your father what you did," Mom said.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I punched Nate."

Dad shook his head. "Why? What happened?"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't have done it if he didn't deserve it."

Dad smiled. "Well, atta girl then."

"John!" Mom yelled.

Dad cleared his throat. "I mean, you should never use violence to solve your problems."

I held back laughter, never expecting to hear Dad say that.

Mom shook her head. "How am I going to face Ellen tomorrow at dinner?" She sighed and looked at me. "Go to your room, I'll call you when dinner's ready."

While I waited, I decided to make my room a little more bearable, especially if I was going to be stuck here for a while.

So, I ripped down all the posters on my wall and set anything I didn't want in the corner of my room. At the back of my closet, I found a box of acrylic paints and paintbrushes. I grabbed the black paint and a few brushes and walked across the room to the wall on the opposite side of my bed.

It was the biggest wall that was completely free, with no furniture in front of it. I found a small container and poured some of the paint into it, and started painting the Impala on the wall.

After I finished the base, I started to work on my shading when my door opened.

"Oh, wow. That's awesome, but your mom's gonna kill you," Dad said as he walked in.

I shrugged. "I thought my room needed something a little less pink."

"Hey, I had a car like that..." He thought for a second. "A 1970 Chevrolet Impala. Passed it down to Dean."

"It's a '67." I corrected.

"Oh, yeah..." Dad nodded. "How'd you know that?"

I shrugged. "Just a guess."

"Good guess." He stared at my painting with an oddly sad expression. "Still makes me sad to think about it..." He cleared his throat. "Dinners ready, so clean up and come on down."

After he left, I cleaned up my mess and washed up in the bathroom. As I made my way downstairs, delicious smells hit me

"Smells amazing, mom," I said as I sat down at the table with everyone.

"Thank you." She looked at me. "I'm glad you've come down with a different attitude."

After we finished eating, Isaac ran off into the living room with Dad, and I helped Mom pick up. I walked back up to my room, changed into comfy clothes, and continued working on my painting.

A while later, a weird feeling washed over me that I was being watched. I turned around slowly to see a girl in a white shirt, skirt, and shoes standing in the corner of my room, staring at me.

I stood up and walked over to her slowly, knowing that she was some sort of spirit or something. She looked scared, and I knew she needed help.

"It's okay." I put my hand out to her, but she disappeared when my door opened.

"Who are you talking to?" Mom asked.

I turned around. "Uh, just myself."

Mom looked at me strangely and walked in. "Are you feeling all right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Well, it's time for bed. We have a long day tomorrow." She shooed me to my bed. "Set your alarm. I'm going to need help getting everything ready for our guests."

I got into bed, and she tucked me in. "All right, goodnight, sweetie." She kissed my forehead and turned to leave. "Oh my god. What did you do to your wall?"

"Ah, don't worry about it, hun," Dad said as he walked in. "At least it's nicely done."

Mom sighed and shook her head. "I guess you're right."

Dad kissed her on the cheek and then walked over to me. "Goodnight, peanut." He kissed my forehead, and they both left the room.

I set my alarm and fell asleep.

When I woke up, Mom urged me to change into something nice and then rushed me down the stairs.

I helped her get food ready, we cleaned the house and decorated it all before our guests got there. Mom kept calling the day our "Friend Christmas."

Around 5 o'clock, everyone started showing up, a bunch of random people I had never met or seen before, and the Harvelle family, consisting of Ellen, Jo in an overly tight dress, chomping on gum, and a fat-lipped Nate.

Everyone talked for a little bit, and then we sat down to dinner. The whole time, Nate avoided me at all costs.

"So, Maddison. Did you see what happened to Nate?" Ellen asked after she loaded her plate with food.

I cleared my throat. "Uh..."

"Oh gosh, Ellen," Mom said, "I'm so sorry about—"

"It's not your fault Renee. They need to keep a better eye out at school." Ellen shook her head. "They should keep the older grades separate."

"What?" Mom asked, looking confused.

"Oh, do you not know?" Ellen asked. "A junior boy was tormenting my poor Nate."

Mom looked at me quickly and then back at Ellen. "That's awful."

Ellen nodded. "Yes, but that's not the worst news I've heard today. Another group of kids is comatose in Dane County." She shook her head. "I can't believe they haven't figured out what's going on over there yet. They've got families moving out by the hundreds."

My heart sank when I heard that news. It couldn't be, but it made sense. If we were never hunters, that would mean that we never stopped the shtriga, and those kids were going to die.

Did that mean more of the creatures we had killed were still out there, killing people? What if more people died because we weren't there to save them?

We all finished eating and cleaned up. Once everyone was done, they all stood around chatting.

I walked up to Dad. "Dad?"

"Yeah, peanut?" he asked.

"Could I use your computer?" I asked sweetly.

"Honey, you know that I don't want you kids going into my office," he said.

"Please... it's— it's for school." I lied.

He nodded. "All right, but quickly."

I ran off into the living room and opened the door to Dad's office. I sat down and started searching for any more stories of people we had saved.

Unfortunately, I found a lot more than I had hoped for. I found several articles... Flight 424 Crashes, 108 Dead... the demon. Parents Mutilated in Bed... the rakshasa. Girl Drowns in Hotel Pool... the vengeful spirit. There were so many more, and I just couldn't bear to look anymore. All of the people we had saved had died and so many more on top of that. I knew I needed to reverse what had happened.

I needed to get to the djinn and kill it. So, I started researching how to do that and eventually found that djinn could be killed with a silver knife dipped in lamb's blood.

Then suddenly, I heard the snip of scissors behind me. I spun around to see Isaac standing there with a chunk of my hair in his hands.

"Oh my god!" I yelled.

He quickly ran away, laughing hysterically. "Look, Nate! It's payback!"

"Isaac!" Mom yelled, "What did you do?!"

I ran out of Dad's office after him.

Mom grabbed me. "Come with me. Come with me."

"Isaac, up to your room now!" Dad bellowed.

Mom pulled me into the bathroom and checked the back of my head. "Okay, okay. It's not that bad, you'll just have to pull your hair back for a while."

"Ugh, I'm going to bed." I groaned and pushed past her out of the bathroom.

She sighed. "I'm sorry, baby."

As I walked through the kitchen toward the stairs, I grabbed one of Mom's nice silver knives that she brought out special for our dinner. I slipped it up my sleeve before anyone could see and ran upstairs, now all I needed to get was lamb's blood... somehow.

I walked into the bathroom upstairs and splashed water on my face, but when I looked up, the lights started to flicker. Each flash of light revealed two decaying corpses hanging from their arms behind me in the mirror. I jumped at the sight and turned, but no one was there. I looked back in the mirror, and they were just gone. I shook my head and walked into my room, and I went back to work on my painting.

Later, my parents walked in and kissed me goodnight again. I decided to just go back to sleep, not knowing what my next move would be.

The next morning my brother woke me up.

"Maddi! Get up! It's Christmas!" Isaac shook me awake.

"What?" I asked groggily.

"Get up! Mom and Dad won't let me open presents without you." Isaac whined and shook me again.

"Okay, okay," I said, pushing him off of me and following him out of my room.

When we walked down the stairs and turned the corner to the living room, my parents had hung stockings and put presents under the tree. They were both sitting on the couch in robes waiting for us while sipping on coffee.

"Merry Christmas, my babies!" Mom smiled cheerfully.

After opening our presents and taking everything in, since this was a whole new concept to me, we sat down for breakfast.

"Mom, Santa brought us so much stuff," Isaac said.

"I know, it's 'cause you've been such a good kid this year," Mom said, gently squeezing Isaac's cheek.

"Trust me. If Santa was real, you would be lucky to get coal from him." I rolled my eyes.

"Maddison..." Mom scolded.

"Santa's not real?" Isaac asked.

I shrugged. "What are you? Thirteen? You should know by now anyway."

"Maddison, what has gotten into you?" Dad asked, completely shocked.

"Nothing, I'm just being honest," I said, "You of all people should understand that."

Dad shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

I sighed. "Never mind, I'm gonna go take a shower." I stood up and walked up the stairs toward the bathroom.

"That sounds like a good idea! Take your attitude upstairs! Your brother's going to be here in a few hours anyway!" Mom yelled at me.

A tinge of excitement ran through my body, wondering who I was going to see. I hopped in the shower, got changed, and then went back to painting until Dad called up to me.

"Maddison! Sam and Jess are here!" he yelled.

I was so excited. I never had the chance to meet Jess before, I couldn't wait to see Sam with her.

After greeting them and basically getting the cold shoulder from Sam, we sat down to dinner a couple hours later.

"So, when's Dean getting here?" I asked.

Sam looked at me, disgusted. "Oh, that's really rich. I knew we shouldn't have come here, we should've just stayed at mom's."

"Sam!" Dad yelled.

"What, you actually expect me to believe that the family you replaced us with cares?!" Sam yelled.

"Sam..." Jess said quietly.

"Sammy, I didn't replace you," Dad said.

"Really? 'Cause we really could've used you the night Dean died, and you were nowhere!" Sam yelled.

I choked on my food

"Sam! I couldn't just pack up and leave," Dad said.

"Yeah, like the night he called you for help? You know, he was driving around drunk to come see you that night, right?" Sam asked.

"Sam!" Dad slammed his fist on the table. "This is not the time!"

"Then, when is?! It's been two years, and we've never talked about it!" Sam yelled.

The rest was just screaming and yelling. I was not going to live in a reality where either of my brothers were dead.

I made my decision and jumped up from the table and ran upstairs. I could still hear everyone yelling, not even realizing that I had left.

I quickly got changed into Isaac's clothes, grabbed my backpack, dumped the books out, and put the silver knife in it. I walked into my parent's room, shouting still coming from downstairs, and snatched Mom's wallet out of her purse and put it in my bag.

I knew that the second floor was too high to escape from, so my only exit was out of the front door, which was right across from the stairs. Which meant I would be walking right by the dining room table, so I needed to move quickly before anyone could stop me.

I took a deep breath, and ran down the stairs to the door, opened it, and took off running.

"Maddison! Maddison!" I heard multiple voices yelling from behind me, but I didn't look back.

I cut away in between some fences and kept my speed until I made it into town. All of the places were closed, but I needed to find lamb's blood.

Eventually, I stumbled across a butcher shop, hoping that they would have something useful. I made sure the coast was clear and then picked the lock.

I walked in and searched around, but all I could find were pre-sliced pieces of lamb, packaged, and put in the cold case. There were small pools of blood on the bottom of the styrofoam plates the meat laid on. I grabbed a small container and a plastic top off of the counter and went to work. I started opening all of the packages of lamb meat and pouring whatever blood I could get into my container.

Once I was finished, I left my mess, closed my container, and popped it into my bag.

I had made my way to a bus station and stopped at the counter to buy a ticket.

"Can I help you?" an older man asked.

"Yeah, I need to get to Illinois," I said.

"Well, let me look," the man said as he typed into his computer. "It won't take you to Illinois, but it'll take you as far as Salt Lake City. The bus leaves in fifteen minutes."

"Utah?" I asked.

The man nodded.

"I'll take it," I said.

"Unfortunately, I can't let you purchase a ticket without an adult," the man said.

"Yeah, my mom is just in the bathroom. She asked me to grab the tickets," I lied.

"Well, we're just going to have to wait for her then." The man smiled.

"Ugh, thanks for your help." I groaned and ran through the station to where the buses were parked.

Luckily, there was a group of people about Sam's age waiting in a line to get onto the bus with a destination sign flashing, Salt Lake City, Utah, across the front of it. I waited in line with them while they joked around with each other, and then the bus driver opened the doors to let us on.

As we got closer to the bus, I tucked myself into them, hoping that the bus driver wouldn't notice me. When the guy in front of me handed the bus driver his ticket, she looked down and checked it, and when she did, I slipped by him and found a seat toward the back.

Once everyone was settled on the bus, we started moving.

After a few hours, a cold breeze blew through the bus, and the lights started to flicker.

Then the bus went dark, and everyone disappeared. I looked around to see what was going on, but when I looked at the back of the bus, Dean was hanging from the ceiling by his hands.

"Dean!" I got up and ran over to him.

He was pale, and when I touched him, my hand went through him, and he disappeared.

"What the hell is going on?!" I screamed.

"You should go back," a familiar voice said from behind me.

I turned around to see Dad standing there, and when I looked around, Isaac, my mom, Sam, and Nate were all sitting on the bus.

"Honey, we love you. We just want you home safe." Mom stood up.

I shook my head. "No, this is all a cruel joke. None of this is real!"

Nate stood up. "Yeah, but it can be. If you let it, it doesn't have to be the way it was. We can be friends."

"Dean looked like he was dying, what if I'm like him?" I asked.

"Out there, you'll die in a few days, but in here... it'll feel like years. You'll live a full life," Mom said.

Isaac stood up. "You can grow up like you're supposed to. With your family."

I shook my head. "No, this isn't how it's supposed to be."

Sam stood up. "It's what you wished for."

Dad put his hand out. "Come back with us, peanut."

Then the bus started shaking, and a familiar voice echoed through it. "Maddison... Maddison..."

When I opened my eyes, I was back in the warehouse, but Sam was crouched above me.

"Oh, thank god," he said, pulling me into a hug.

I winced, feeling so weak that it was almost painful, but when I saw Dean leaning against the wall, I jumped up and ran over to him, pulling him into a hug.

"I'm so happy to see you." I squeezed.

"That bad, huh?" Dean asked.

I pulled away and looked up at him, he was pale, and his eyes were rimmed red. "Jeez, do I look as bad as you?"

Dean chuckled softly. "Well, you don't look great."

"Dean..." Sam said.

When we looked over at him, he was looking at a girl hanging, tied up by her arms. It was the same girl that had appeared in my bedroom, but she looked worse than Dean. She was grey.

The djinn had her hooked up to an IV, which had been draining her blood to feed on.

"It's her..." I said quietly.

"You saw her too?" Dean asked.

I nodded up at him, and then we walked over to her. As we walked up, we passed by the djinn, who now laid lifeless on the floor. Dean put his hand to her neck, feeling for her pulse.

"She's still alive!" Dean yelled.

Sam came over and started cutting at her ropes, while Dean pulled the IV out of her neck and caught her when she was released.

"I gotcha. I gotcha. We're gonna get you out of here, okay?" Dean soothed.

The girl let out a small wheeze.

"I got you," Dean said softly.

After we dropped the girl off at the hospital, we made our way back to our motel room. Where Dean and I shared our stories of our alternate realities with Sam.

"So, are you two all right?" Sam asked. "You look pretty beat up."

I nodded.

Dean cleared his throat. "Yeah, I'm all right." He sighed. "You should have seen it. Our lives. You were such a wussy, Sam." He looked at me. "And you were such a brat."

Sam chuckled. "So, we didn't get along then, huh?"

Dean shrugged. "Nah."

Sam nodded. "Yeah... I thought it was supposed to— to be this perfect fantasy."

"It wasn't. It was just a wish. I wished for Mom to live. That Mom never died, we never went hunting and you and me just never uh... ya know," Dean said.

"Yeah, neither was mine. I wished for us to have normal lives... no hunting." I shrugged. "But Dean was dead and Sam... you hated Dad and me. I couldn't wait to get back here."

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Well, I'm glad we do hunt. And I'm glad you tried to dig yourselves out. Most people wouldn't've had the strength... would have just stayed." He shrugged.

Dean sighed. "Yeah... I gotta tell you, though, man. Ya know, you had Jess. Mom was gonna have grandkids... I was going to work it out with you and..." He turned to me. "I was going to set you straight."

Sam shook his head. "Yeah, but... Dean... it wasn't real."

"I know. But I wanted to stay." Dean looked sad and lost. "I wanted to stay so bad. I mean, ever since Dad... all I— all I can think about is how much this job's cost us..." He paused. "We've lost so much. We've... sacrificed so much."

"But people are alive because of us," Sam said.

Dean scoffed.

"It's worth it, Dean," Sam said, "It is. It's not fair, and... ya know, it hurts like hell, but... it's worth it."