Three
When Sam first regained consciousness, he did not open his eyes.
He had a vague sense of floating, suspended without restraints or harnesses to hold him above the ground, but his earth-adapted mind argued that such things could not be possible. The laws of gravity simply would not allow it. His muscles were sore and ached from their very bellies, and his skin tingled with a low burning sensation that crept throughout his body. In the back of his skull, a deep throbbing headache was growing.
When he did look upon the world where he now resided, he knew that he would probably never want to open his eyes again. So it was that he tried to sort things out in his mind before he opened his eyes, hoping to give himself some mental stability before everything collapsed. There had been a man who had called himself a god, and this man had offered the Winchester sons their mother back. The catch was that one of the brothers had to die in return for this, and Sam had stepped forward before Dean could argue with him, before Dean could foolishly jump through the portal between life and death himself. Dean had screamed, Sam remembered now, and Dean wasn't a screamer. Dean preferred to swear and shoot, rather than bellow and rage. But, as Sam had teetered on the edge separating two worlds, Dean had screamed. Hell, Dean had cried. If the situation hadn't been so serious, Sam would have laughed.
Yet the situation had been serious, and Sam went forward to give Dean the mother back Dean had always wanted. It wasn't any secret that Dean thought of their mother on a daily basis and that the pain of her loss ate away at him. While Sam, too, desired to have his mother back, he knew that being motherless took a much harder toll on Dean than it did on himself.
The man who called himself the god of the underworld had nearly pushed Sam through a large split in the air. The glow that spilled like blood from the gash had blinded Sam so badly that he was forced to close his eyes, as the man placed his hand on Sam's back and guided him to the other side of life. Now, reflecting upon those past events in silence, Sam could only assume that the light had burned his skin also. As the illumination had grown brighter around them, piercing through Sam's closed lids, Dean's cries faded into the distance and loud wails began to build. They were unearthly screams of pain and pleas that built in such great volume Sam would have raised his hands to cover his ears. But, he had been unable to move any part of his body, and so the shrieks ripped through his body, sending reverberations throughout his pained flesh.
Sam had then lost consciousness, which had been a blessing, because no matter how terrified he had been of what would happen to him if he did faint, he could not bear the screams any longer. And now he was awake, even if he still refused to open his eyes, and the world around him was silent and cool. He remembered the man's words before he had crossed over about how the brother who went to the underworld would not be in any pain. What a liar, Sam though bitterly as he attempted to flex the muscles in his arms only to discover the searing agony that scurried through him. He remembered too, how the man had told Dean and him that the brother would not even recognize the fact that he was dead, as the brother's thoughts would cease, and he would exist in a dreamlike state. Now this was a more interesting concept that the man had lied about.
Sam could understand if the man would lie about the brother not being in pain when he had died, because the man certainly wouldn't have been truthful about that. To make the brothers go with him, he wouldn't have openly admitted to the searing pain Sam was now feeling. But the fact that Sam still maintained a rather decent grasp on reality, considering his circumstances, confused him. He remembered crossing through the vortex back on earth, and he even understood the idea that he very possibly could be dead. Sam's inner sense immediately realized that something in the trade between his mother and him had gone askew.
Perhaps the deity did not even realize how wrong things had gone yet.
Terrified of the notion that the man may return to further torture him if necessary, Sam decided that he should open his eyes. He braced himself, trying to think of every horrid evil creature that had ever laughed in his face and spat in his eye. He thought about blood dripping from ghosts' eyes and flesh burning off a possessed man. Forcing himself to remain strong, Sam slowly opened his eyes.
At first, the world was black, and Sam immediately feared that he was blind. Gradually, though, colors began to flood back into his vision and fuzzy shapes in the distance became outlined into distinct objects. The picture in front of Sam became clear, and as Sam took the vision in, he felt an overwhelming terror beginning to build inside him. He struggled to keep it down, to keep himself sane, but he could not.
It was then that Sam screamed.