The Story of Sammi

More Family Secrets

Being back in the house that I basically grew up in had helped me find out so much about my family (and myself) that I didn't know. My poppy and my dad were both hunters, and my mom didn't leave because she couldn't handle two kids on her own, but because she wanted to put our family back together. My parents may have kept many secrets from us, but it was because they loved us, not because they didn't trust us. I knew that I still had a long way to go to find out more about my background, but nothing could prepare me for the secret I was about to uncover. The boys had taken off to find an amusement park and I chose to stay home because, in all honesty, I wasn't really feeling that great. I found myself once again going through nana's old photos and stumbled upon a picture of my mom and dad holding a baby. Figuring it had to be my sister, I turned the photo over to see if nana had written a date down. "Anthony. 1976." Two things rushed into my head: First, this child was the wrong sex to be my sister. Second, this photo was taken 3 years before my sister was born. Was this child a nephew or something? I knew in that moment that the only one I could ask was my dad, since mom was gone now. I grabbed my phone and dialed his number. He answered on the first ring. "Hey honey," he said. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" "I found a photo among nana's things that I'm a little confused about," I told him. "I thought it could be Scarlett, but the caption on the back says otherwise." I could hear dad taking a deep breath, then he let out a sigh. "Anthony," he said. "Yes," I replied. "Was he a cousin or something?" "He was your brother, sweetheart," dad said. "Remember my reasoning for leaving you and your sister behind with your mom all those years ago? Anthony wasn't so lucky." "He was killed by supernatural forces?" I asked. "Unfortunately," he said with a sad tone in his voice. "And mom still never knew that you were a hunter and not in the military?" I added. "Your mom and I had split up for a little while, and Anthony was left with me," dad explained. "He had to go where I went because I wasn't on speaking terms with my parents and your mom was living with nana and poppy." "So you had to take this little boy on hunts with you?" I was in shock. "Dad, after seeing some of the things I have seen being with Sam and Dean, I am so sorry you had to bear that burden." "Thank you, darling," he said. "I vowed to never make the same mistakes again if your mom and I ever did have more children." "And that's why you had to leave us," I finished. "You did it out of love, not because you wanted to." "You got it, kiddo," he replied. "If it isn't too much to ask, how did my brother die?" I wondered. "Since you live with hunters now, I'm sure you've heard of something called a Wendigo?" Dad asked. "Oh wow," I responded. "Yeah," he said. "It wasn't pretty. I still have nightmares." "I'm sorry, dad," I said. "But thank you for telling me about my big brother. It means more than you'll ever know." "Anything else you want to know about your upbringing, you just call me," he said. "You deserve to know." "I will, I promise," I told him. We chatted for a few more moments (I needed to find out the full story of how Anthony died), said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone. I sat in that room for what seemed like hours just staring at the picture of my parents with the brother I never got to meet. My dad's leaving us was really starting to make better sense to me now. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't even hear the boys come back from their trip. "Sammi, baby!" I heard Sam yell from downstairs. "Where are you?" I stuffed the photos back in their box, placed the box back in the closet and headed downstairs. I ran to the boys and pulled them in for a group hug. "Did you two have a good time today?" I asked. "The best," Dean answered. "We found this amazing theme park about an hour from here. It basically had everything you could imagine, including go karts and an arcade." "I'm glad you two had fun," I smiled at them. Sam gave me a kiss and asked, "How about you? How was your day?" "Educational, to say the least," I said. "I found out today that I had a brother." "Had?" Dean looked confused. "He was born in 1976 and his name was Anthony," I told him. "He was the reason my father felt leaving us behind was his best option when he was protecting Marissa from whatever was chasing her." "What happened to him, sweetheart? Sam asked with concern in his eyes. "Apparently, my parents split for a while after Anthony was born," I said. "Mom left Anthony with Dad, who was estranged from his parents at the time, so he unfortunately had to take him when he went hunting." "Why couldn't he have left him with your nana and poppy?" Sam asked. "Because that's where Mom was staying at the time," I said. "So what happened to your brother?" Dean was curious. "Sometime back in 1978, Dad was out hunting a Wendigo," I told them. "He left Anthony bundled up nice and cozy on the front seat of his truck and went to go hunt this thing down. By the time he found the Wendigo, it had already found Anthony." "I'm so sorry, sweetie," Sam said. "Dad said it was not a pretty sight," I continued. "And that's why he had to leave us behind, to keep us safe from monsters like that. He didn't want to lose any other family members to these creatures." "And your mom never knew," Sam said. "That's why she chased after him. She thought he was leaving because of this other woman." "Exactly," I said. "It sounds like you had a more exciting day than we did," Dean said with a wink. I laughed and said, "And something tells me I still have so much more to learn about my family. But I've had enough learning for today. Why don't I go cook us up some dinner?" "With pie for dessert?" Dean's eyes lit up. "Why not?" I said with a smile. "Despite learning what I did about my brother today, any day that ends with pie is a great day."