Lawrence, Kansas

22 years ago

There are crickets chirp. From a window there is a large deciduous tree with no leaves stands outside one of the several suburban homes. A woman, Mary Winchester, wearing a white nightgown, carries a small child, her son Dean, into a dark room.

"Come on, let's say goodnight to your brother," Mary states, turns on the lights: the room is a nursery of a baby, Sam, who is lying in his crib and looking over at Mary and Dean. Mary sets Dean down. Dean leans over the side of the crib and kisses Sam on the forehead.

"Night, Sam."

"Good night, Love." Mary leans over Sam as well, brushing Sam's hair back and kisses his forehead.

"Hey, Dean."

Dean turns seeing a man in the doorway wearing a USMC T-shirt, John. Dean rushes over to him.

"Daddy!"

"Hey, buddy," John states scooping Dean up. "So what do you think? You think Sammy's ready to toss around a football yet?"

"No, Daddy." Dean shakes his head, laughing.

"No." John laughs.

Mary passes John and Dean on the way out of the room.

"You got him?"

"I got him." John relies, hugging Dean closer. "Sweet dreams, Sam."

John carries Dean out of the room, flipping off the lights. Sam watches them go, gurgling, then tries to reach his toes. The baseball-themed mobile above Sam's crib begins to spin on its own while Sam watches. The transportation-themed clock on the wall ticks, ticks, stops. The moon-shaped nightlight flickers.

Lights flicker on a baby monitor sitting on a nightstand next to a photo of Mary and John. Strange noises come through the monitor. Mary is asleep in bed, stirs. She turns on the light on the nightstand.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"John?" she says sleeply, she turns: she's alone. She gets up.

Mary walks down the hall to Sam's nursery. A silhouette stands over Sam's crib.

"John? Is he hungry?"

"Shhh." the silhouette, turns his head.

"All right."

Mary heads back down the hallway. The light by the stairs is flickering. Mary frowns and goes to tap at it till the light steadies. More flickering light is coming from downstairs: Mary investigates. A war movie is on TV and John has fallen asleep watching it. If John is here, Mary realizes, then the man upstairs cannot be John and Sam must be a danger. She runs back upstairs.

"Sammy! Sammy!" she yells as she enters Sam's nursery and stops short.

Upstairs, Mary screams waking John up.

"Mary?" John scrambles out of the chair. "Mary!"

John runs upstairs and bursts through the closed door of the nursery.

"Mary."

The room is quiet and appears empty except for Sam awake in his crib and John. John glances around and pushes down the side of Sam's crib.

"Hey, Sammy. You okay?"

Something dark drips next to Sam. John touches it. Two more drops land on the back of John's hand. It looks like blood. John looks up. Mary is sprawled across the ceiling, the stomach of her nightgown red with blood, staring at John and struggling to breathe. John collapses onto the floor, staring at Mary.

"No! Mary!"

Mary bursts into flame. The fire spreads over the ceiling. John stares, frozen. Sam wails reminding John that he's not alone, gets up and scoops Sam out of his crib and rushes out of the room.

"Daddy!" Dean calls, awake and coming to investigate.

"Take your brother outside as fast as you can and don't look back! Now, Dean, go!" John states, shoving Sam into Dean's arms.

Dean turns and runs. John turns back to the nursery.

"Mary!" John yells as he re-enters the nursery, the entire room is on fire. Mary herself can barely be seen. "No!"

Dean runs outside, holding Sam.

"It's okay, Sammy," Dean states, turning to look up at Sam's window, which is lit with gold.

"I gotcha," John says, scooping up Dean and Sam, and carries them both away just as the Fire explodes out of Sam's nursery window.

The Lawrence fire department has arrived. A firefighter gets out of a fire truck and takes over at the gauges for another firefighter.

"I got it. You go hold the line up."

The second firefighter goes to the back of the truck and takes a hose from a third firefighter. That firefighter takes the hose towards the house where a fourth firefighter is spraying through Sam's nursery window. A paramedic opens the back of an ambulance. A police officer waves some neighbors back.

"Stay back. You have to stay back."

Across the street from the house, John and Dean are sitting on the hood of John's Impala, John holding Sam. John looks up at the remnants of the fire.