Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural.

Spoilers for All Hell Breaks Loose: Part One.

When Sam turned away from Jake after their fight, clutching his arm as humanly possible to his body, he thought It's over. He knew that Jake was still alive - Sam didn'tcouldn'twouldn't kill him, not to fuel some sick demon's game - but it was over. He was walking away from this...whatever it was. This game. This contest. This...search.

It was finally over.

A smile tugged at his face as he thought that, his body stumbling along the packed-dirt road as he headed who knows where - maybe back to the school-house, or to the hotel they'd squatted in for the night. All he knew was that it was over and he could rest.

"Sam!"

The sound of his brother's voice was almost a dream, one that Sam didn't want to wake up from if it was. He grinned, his teeth a flash of white against his skin, and he called for the one person he cared for in this godforsaken world. "Dean!"

In that moment, for Sam Winchester, things were perfect. In that moment, he had won. He didn't know exactly what he had won, but a sense of victory was in him all the same. His grin widened more and he started to walk faster, ignoring the twinges of pain in his side, mind going fuzzy, senses losing their sharpness...

Then pain. Searing pain, like flash-fire stabbing through his back. White flashed in front of his eyes and he coughed out a breath, barely feeling the warm splatter of blood that followed. He felt himself bowing forward - like he had any other choice, like he would ever fall backwards - but he never touched the ground. Arms were around him, familiar arms, and the scent of warm leather and car oil and alcohol and bacon surrounded him. He heard a buzzing sound, somewhere above him, but he couldn't really make it out. The only thing at the moment he could make out was...was a person, standing in front of him. It was a girl, with pretty blonde hair, so lovely she could've been an angel...

Jess. It was Jess! Sam felt his smile widen more, though a sense of panic went through him for...some reason. Something about Jess? Something wrong about Jess? But what could be wrong? She was smiling at him, her arms reaching out for him, but they weren't the arms he was in, were they? He remembered Jess's arms being slighter, and she had smelled of cookies and jasmine, with the faintest hint of vanilla always following her around from the perfume he'd bought her. That wasn't what he smelled now, but it was, and god, there was pain! Pain in his head, pain in his back, pain in his heart, and Jess was in front of him now, whispering for him to come with her, but the other voice was begging him to stay...

"Sammy. SAMMY!"

"Sam," Jess's voice whispered. "Follow me...?" Her hand was held out to his, and, for a moment, he hesitated. But then she whispered again and his hand went into hers...

And everything went white.