In the Dark

 

Dean couldn’t get to sleep that night. Even the knife under his pillow didn’t comfort him. He kept being jerked awake by the sounds of scurrying rodents, the occasional car travelling through the dark streets or the creaks of the floorboards. Eventually, he gave up on sleep. And tried to work through the eventful day.

His first instinct after killing the shifter was to track down another case and go kill something, but there was something missing. Or, rather, someone. Dean didn’t want to sift through more news articles looking for anything out of the ordinary. He would much rather sink his teeth into a bacon cheeseburger while Sam did all the research. He turned his phone over in his hands, recalling his conversation with Elena. She’d asked him why he didn’t just find Sam, and he’d told her that he couldn’t.

But he had been wrong. After spending a lot of time trying to actually contact Sam, he had finally arranged a meeting and reunited with his brother. That was a good thing, right? He tried to tell himself that, but he wasn’t convinced. Sam was different now. He’d quit hunting again and tried to settle down with a girl. It wasn’t exactly the first time Sam had run away—when wasn’t that kid running? He was always running away, leaving Dean to track him down and clean up whatever mess he’d made in the process.

Only, this time was worse because while Sam was off trying to fulfil his fantasy of having a normal life, Dean was fighting tooth and nail in Purgatory. Sam never even lifted a finger to look for him. He just assumed that he was the only one left and ran off with some girl. Dean couldn’t let that go. He’d always believed that Sam would turn over every last stone trying to find him, even sell his soul as he had done for him, but that wasn’t what happened. Sam never even tried.

Sam should have known by then that it was impossible to get out of the life. He’d tried and failed too many times. Maybe some things just never change. But Dean wasn’t the only one Sam had betrayed. While he had been in Purgatory, Kevin Tran, the prophet, had been having some troubles of his own.  He’d left voicemail after voicemail, and Sam never even bothered to pick up the phone. Dean could only hope there was still time left to save him.