The monsters were pounding furiously on the other side of the door, and Sam knew it wouldn't hold for much longer. He and Leandra took off running, looking for another way out.

"Up there!" Leandra urged loudly, pointing. One of the ceiling tiles had fallen off, revealing a hole up above them. "We can get out through there."

Sam nodded. "Help me move one of those tables under the opening."

They both darted over to a table and dragged it over. Sam crawled up onto the table first, reached his hands up to grab onto the lip of the opening, and managed to heave himself up through the hole. He quickly shone his flashlight around, revealing that the space was empty. He turned back to the opening and helped Leandra climb up. The two of them crawled quickly but quietly through the narrow passage, trying to make as little noise as possible. Eventually the passage ended at a dead end. Sam carefully pried the last ceiling tile up and slid it away to make another opening. He shone his flashlight around again and saw that they were above a small, empty room. He and Leandra jumped down.

"Where are we?" Leandra whispered, looking around. "This can't be the mall—It looks like someone liveshere…"

Sam stared at the room, looking at everything around him, and his breath caught in his throat. "No way…" he breathed, stunned. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Leandra caught his shocked gaze. "Sam?" she questioned, concerned. "What is it?"

"This can't be right." He said, deep in thought. He walked toward the door, swung it open, and walked away into the next room.

"Sam, wait!" Leandra called after him, running to catch up with him. She caught him in what looked to be like a kitchen. "Sam!"

Sam didn't even look at her, and instead darted out of the room and up a staircase—

Leandra found him sitting on a small bed, staring around himself as though he were lost. "I don't understand…" he whispered. "How can we be here?"

"Sam…what is it?" Leandra demanded.

He finally looked at her. "This is the house where I grew up."

Leandra blinked. "What?"

"This was my bed…and that was Dean's." he continued quietly, still looking around. "I haven't seen this place in…forever. Years and years, anyway…but it still looks exactly as it did all those years ago."

"That doesn't make any sense, Sam."

Sam walked over to his dresser and ran his hands over its surface. He opened the top drawer and smiled faintly. "And here are the clothes that I wore when I was a kid…I grew so fast that I don't think my pants were ever long enough…" he slid the drawer shut, paused for a moment, and then carefully opened the bottom drawer. The drawer was full of sweaters. Sam reached his hand under the clothes and then felt his hand close around a heavy object. He pulled it out.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked Leandra excitedly as he sat back down on the bed.

"…should I?"

"It's my old photo album…" he said, a smile on his face as he started flipping through the pages. "When I was little I collected every picture I could find of Mom, Dad, Dean and me. Most of these were taken before the fire—Mom's there, see, and Dad's smiling." His face darkened. "He never seemed to smile much when I was around." He shrugged and shut the book. "When we moved away…I left it here. It hurt to look at the happy people in the pictures."

"Why?" Leandra asked, sitting down beside him on the bed. "What happened?"

Sam sighed. "Long story short, my Mother was killed by demons, my Father spent his whole life seeking revenge, and Dean and I…well, we've just always been caught in the crossfire."

Leandra raised her eyebrows. "Demons?"

Sam shrugged, "After all you've seen in the past eight months, I don't think demons should surprise you."

She shook her head. "I'm not surprised Sam…" she said, "I just wish you could have had a happier childhood, that's all." She watched as Sam moved to put the album back in the drawer. "Maybe…maybe you should keep it this time." She said thoughtfully.

Sam stopped and looked up at her. "Why? Nothing in these photographs is real anymore." He said sadly. He stood there deep in thought for a moment, and then sighed and placed the album in his pack.

They sat there in silence for a few moments, and then Leandra looked at him, "Well, even though I'm not sure how we managed to appear in your childhood memory…at least we haven't been attacked for a little while."

Sam grinned. "Imagine that…nothing has jumped out at us for at least ten minutes—that's gotta be a record."

"It's nice." Leandra said softly, leaning up against his shoulder. "Maybe we can just stay here until we get to go back to reality…that'd be nice."

"Yeah." Sam said, thinking, "About that…you know my phone got destroyed during that water incident, but I want you to have Dean's cell number so that you can contact us when you get back so we don't get separated again."

Leandra grinned and handed Sam her phone so that he could input the number. "Sam…" she said teasingly, "Are you giving me your phone number? Does that make this a date?"

Sam laughed, "No, I'm giving you my brother's phone number…but dear God don't go hooking up with him. And if this were a date it would be a real disaster." He shut her phone and handed it back to her.

"Aww…you're only saying that because we've been attacked and almost killed by monsters in a freaky alternate reality…"

Sam nodded, "Yeah…I'd say that's a far stretch from dinner and a movie."

"True…but you score points for originality." She said, smiling at him. Sam smiled back at her, and their eyes met—

Something crashed loudly downstairs.

Both Sam and Leandra jumped at the sudden noise. "Talk about ruining the moment…" Leandra muttered as she stood up and pulled out her gun. "Let's check it out."

"Can't wait…" Sam said sarcastically. He turned and led the way down the staircase and into the kitchen, prepared for anything—

A woman was standing alone in the center of the kitchen, and she turned to look at them as soon as they entered the room.

Sam's mouth dropped open. "Mom?"

Mary stood there, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Oh Sammy…" she whispered, and let out a sob. "Sammy, sweetheart, I'm so sorry."

"Mom…" Sam choked out a second time. "Are you really here? W-what's going on?"

The woman raised her eyes to meet her son's. "I'm sorry….I never….I never wanted…" She stammered, and then broke off, unable to finish the sentence. Her eyes filled with tears, and she placed a hand on her stomach. "Look."

Sam's eyes narrowed in confusion as he stared at the image of his mother, trying to understand what was happening. Suddenly, Mary's stomach began to swell—it grew larger and larger, showing that she was pregnant.

"What's going on, Sam?" Leandra breathed beside him.

Sam ignored her, his gaze fixed firmly on his mother. "What is it, Mom? What are you trying to say?"

Mary shook her head, "It's my fault, Sammy…everything is my fault. The hospital…the hospital…" she broke off and let out another sob. "The hospital is the key."

"Mom, what are you talking about? Please just tell me!" he demanded, stepping toward her.

She looked at him, her eyes full of pain. "I'm so sorry."

"Mom—" Sam began, but before he could finish Mary burst into flames. Leandra screamed and grabbed onto Sam in horror.

"NO!" Sam shrieked. He stepped forward to try to help his mother, but the flames shot to the ceiling, spread across the floor, all over the counters, so quickly that it was as though the place had been soaked in gasoline—

In seconds the whole house was in flames, trapping Sam and Leandra in a burning inferno. Smoke swirled around them as Sam spun around to face Leandra. She was staring around frantically, "There's no way out, Sam!" she shouted, coughing. "The fire's everywhere—we're trapped!"

Sam coughed as the smoke penetrated his lungs, the heat burning them from all sides. He pulled Leandra close to him and then crouched down on the floor. She buried her face in his shoulder, shaking. "So this is it, huh?" she whispered with false bravado, her arms wrapped tightly around him.

He tightened his grip on her, concentrating on each rise and fall of her chest, his face buried in her golden hair. "I've got you…" he whispered back, squeezing his eyes shut. "It'll be over soon…"

Sorry it took so long to post this chapter. I'm going to keep the chapters coming, but I'm at school now so I won't update as often (Sorry!!) So that means you have to wait a few days to see if they survive or not…ohhh the suspense! Review, please.