Song Remains the Same

Chapter 75: Dust In The Wind

"All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity... nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky. Dust in the wind... all we are is dust in the wind."
- Kansas

*** CONTENT TRIGGER WARNING: Suicide and Self-Harm mentioned ***

...On April 17th, 1912, Pier Nine in New York City welcomed the arrival of the RMS Titanic without any complications. Two-thousand and twenty-three passengers disembarked the luxurious cruise liner amidst enthusiastic onlookers, laughter, and flashbulbs from newspaper cameras. It was heralded as a success and the ship would go on to sail the Atlantic many times without incident. Oh, how things changed with that narrowly avoided iceburg and the twist of fate brought about by angels...

Present Day

Sam and Dean walked out of Bobby Singer's home with packed bags and chastened expressions. It wasn't often that Bobby kicked them out, but today was one of those days. The older man was depressed about Rufus dying and wanted space, telling the boys to get lost and leave him alone. It was odd behavior from Bobby, but grief did odd things to people, Dean thought. It had sure done an odd thing or two to him throughout the years.

At least he and Sam had a job to go get on and occupy themselves with if nothing else.

People were dying off fast in Pennsylvania and it looked sort of like a family curse, maybe—should be an interesting job to say the least. Dean tossed his bag into the backseat of the good ole two-door Mustang. Sam got into the car and had to struggle to cram his freakishly long legs in, as usual. When Dean got in and cranked the engine up, Sam had this look of deep concerned thought on his face. "You know, maybe we should wait 'til Ellen gets back."

"Dude, she just called from the road, said she'd be here in two shakes." Dean gave his brother a meaningful look. "You really wanna sit around and smell him stew in his juices?"

"Yeah, not really," Sam conceded flatly then paused, scrunching up his face in something like deeply disconcerted confusion as a thought seemed to occur to him. "Hey, do you feel like we're forgetting something?" He looked at Dean with this expression of confused bewilderment.

The question caused Dean to take a couple beats—were they forgetting something? He was suddenly wondering the same thing. He looked around the car and sat back with a hand on the wheel, quickly becoming as mystified as Sam was. In his head, he went over everything. Bags, weapons, lead on a job, Sam in the passenger seat... that was it. "What would we have forgotten?" he asked, even though he now really felt like they were forgetting something.

Sam seemed unsure about the answer, but was coming up with an uncomfortable blank. "Yeah. No. I dunno." He took one more second to think then visibly brushed it off. "Let's just go."

Dean thought a minute longer, trying to put his finger on the itch that was suddenly inside of his mind, but he couldn't. As such, he scoffed at was probably nothing. He put the car into drive and the Mustang pulled out of Bobby's. As they hit the road, Dean glanced into the rear view mirror, almost expecting to see someone in the reflection. He frowned at himself. Who? Who would be there in the back seat? He shook off the strange sense of déjà vu, figuring it was the the lack of sleep, and returned his eyes to the road ahead.

Twenty Six Years Ago
Blue Springs, Missouri

The year was 1986. John Winchester glanced briefly at his kids as he drank straight out of the bottle. Ocean of Dreams Bourbon—John's favorite whiskey in all of existence. It got him drunker and more numb faster than anything else. The impossibly dark whiskey had been invented back in 1915 by new immigrants to America and was a mean, high alcohol content liquor... he didn't let himself have it too often because it often made him think very bad ideas were good ideas. But tonight, he needed it. His nerves were fried, the kids were getting on his every last strand of patience, and he was so damn frustrated with everything that he could barely function. The alcohol made it easier. But just barely.