CROSSROADS ☁︎ Supernatural

PART 23 - SAM AND DEAN

There was not much Sam and Dean could be doing while it was still dark out. They needed talk to people but everybody was home, asleep at that ungodly hour.

All they could do was study local lore and Dean insisted Sam could do that while they were driving around looking for their dad.

As expected, John was impossible to find if he didn't want to be found. He knew roads less traveled, where to hide his pickup truck or how to borrow another car instantly.

And that was why Dean couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Dad's truck parked by the old town cemetery. The chances were similar to winning a lottery.

"Dad!" They caught him on his way back to his car with shovel and pickaxe in his hands. Like he wasn't lying comatose in the hospital just hours ago.

"What took you so long, boys? Come on! We need to go." He said as he put the tools inside his truck.

"Where? What is it, Dad?" Dean was concerned about his dad. He felt like they had to stop for a second, take a breather and get on the same page with what the hell was going on. But John blindly pursued his path.

"Doesn't matter, we gotta get out of here, follow me," he said feeling on edge to get to the steering wheel.

"We can't! It's Riley, she's missing and we need ..." Sam tried to explain the situation to him.

"It doesn't matter," John shook his head opening the door to his truck.

"Yes, Dad. SHE does matter! You can't just ..." Sam raised his voice in desperation. They didn't understand anything what was happening.

"Riley's dead," John said as a matter of fact.

"What?" Sam's heart sunk. He spent hours and hours talking to Riley and even though it wasn't exactly her, she was still in there, she heard him. They bonded. "You killed her?"

"Had to be done," John wouldn't cave in an inch.

"What attacked you? What did she had to do with all that?" Sam refused to give up. He needed answers, explanations. What his dad told him just couldn't have been true.

"It's all done. Now, do as you were told." John opened the truck door.

"No, Dad!" Dean got between Dad and Sam and forced the door shut again. "We're not just your soldiers anymore! You lost your privileges when you went MIA for god knows how long! What is this all about?"

"You don't wanna know, Dean," John hung his head, "trust me."

"That's it ... I don't!" Dean shrugged. "I don't trust you. You keep everything from us."

John took a deep breath. He was losing them and he knew that. He had to give them something, anything that resembled the truth.

"There was this local lore about this big black hound... she woke it somehow, it was listening to her... the storms, killings, it was all them. She knew I was onto her, so she made it come after me but I somehow survived. You two wouldn't leave me. She knew you would find out about her eventually. So she let me go to save her own skin. But I already knew how to undo it. The only way to stop all this was to bury her next to the hound. So I did that and we gotta move on before she turns out missing. You know the drill. We gotta go and never come back."

And that was how the heart breaks. Two at a time, actually.

Both Sam and Dean crushed into the Impala, drove right after Dad and never spoke of Riley ever again.