Rivers Deep | Sam Winchester

20. Beautiful Lie, Painful Truth

" Life asked Death, 'Why do people love me more than you?' Death said, 'Because you're the beautiful lie, and I'm the painful truth.'" - Unknown

• • •

Dean burst into the hotel room, whipping his head around. Noah sat straight up, reaching for his pistol beside the bed as he turned with a startled look in his eye. He observed the pure panic written all over Dean's face as Delta seemed to ready herself in case she needed to jump on something, a conditioned response from years of hunting.

Noah stared at Dean for a moment, reading his expression. Dean ran a hand back through his hair, panicking. He and Sam had only left to grab a bite to eat and bring it back to the room while they slept for the night... What had happened?

"What?" Noah asked him cautiously. "Sam disappeared," Dean panted, "At the diner, God, there was blood everywhere." Dean raked his hands through his hair, sighing.

"Woah, Dean, slow down," Noah raised a hand to motion for him to calm down, "Start from the beginning."

• • •

Sam gasped, opening his eyes. He looked around as he sat up, his surroundings were completely unfamiliar. He felt that he was sitting on a piece of wood and as his gaze moved across everything it could find, it seemed that he was in an abandoned town.

He sat back on his hands for a moment as he processed it. One minute he was standing in the diner, ready to order food for the three of them, and the next... it all went black. He could swear he heard screams right before he blacked out but he wasn't sure.

He slowly stood up, eyes sifting through everything in his proximity. His jacket was covered in dirt and damp, like it had been left outside in a storm and then to dry for an hour. He looked at all of the buildings, it looked like an old gold town from the wild west. And it looked like nobody had touched it in years.

He thought to Noah and Dean, he could feel his head pounding as he patted his pockets. Back ones were empty but then he remembered that his phone was in the front of his jacket. He pulled it up but it made a quiet metallic screeching noise as it found no available signal.

All of the wood was dark brown with rot as a windmill creaked, spinning from the light gust that blew through the air. Sam felt helpless as he stood in the middle of nowhere, with no cell service, no one around him, and no clue where he was, or when or how he got there.

• • •

"This is it," Bobby stretched the map out over the hood of the car, "All demonic signs and omens over the past month." Noah stared at it, nothing was on the map. Delta pawed at his leg, she was sensing that something was wrong.

"Are you joking?" Dean deadpanned, "There's nothing here." Nearly twelve hours had passed since Sam had disappeared, and the only thing any of them could come up with was the yellow-eyed-demon.

"Exactly," Bobby nodded. "Come on, there's gotta be something, I mean, what about the normal low-level stuff? Exorcisms and all that jazz?" Noah furrowed his eyebrows. A strong gust of wind blew past the group, making their shirts and jackets flap like flags in the wind as it ruffled Delta's fur.

"That's what I'm telling you, there's nothing, it's completely quiet," Bobby explained. "Well then how are we supposed to look for Sam? What, do we just close our eyes and point?" Dean sassed, before sighing. He couldn't think about anything other than finding his brother at the moment, and Noah was on a similar page.

Before Noah could say anything, Dean's phone rang. He answered, putting it on speaker, "Ash, what've you got?"

"Okay, listen, it's a bit negatory on Sam," Ash warned them. "Oh come on man, you've gotta give us something, I mean we're looking at a 3,000 mile haystack here," Noah crossed his arms.