𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 || 𝐒𝐚𝐦 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫

Chapter 24 ~ End of an Era?

I didn't ride home with the guys, instead I chose to teleport back to the Bunker. I considered going with them, I could Sam wanted me to but...I couldn't shake my feelings of worthlessness over the events. I felt like a failure, like all that had happened was because of me. And...I didn't know what to say to Sam about it. It felt like someone had ripped my un-beating heart from my chest when I thought...

And now? Now he was fine and I didn't know how to explain anything I did since. Or what had transpired.

I glanced down at my hands then, flipping them over, palms up. I wasn't the same person I had been when I arrived here. Sighing, I briefly let my eyes close, focusing again...but nothing happened. My powers were just...gone.

Slowly, I trudged through the empty hallways - for the first time actually alone in the Bunker. It was a strange feeling in itself. My fingertips grazed the walls whilst I walked, as if doing so could etch the feel of it into my memory. Maybe this way I wouldn't forget my life here... But sooner than I had hoped, I arrived at the room I had called my own for the past eight months now.

I almost smiled at the memory, albeit bittersweet now... It was completely bare except for a bed and table lamp when I had first been given it. It came back in flashes now.

"Wait...this is it? I come all the way here from The Empty itself and I get...this?" I asked in disbelief as I surveyed my new room.

The walls were of a bland white-washed coloring, completely bereft of decorations of any kind. And the only thing to even make it considered a bedroom was the single bed in the center of the room alongside a table-lamp on a nightstand. In a word? It was kind of a disappointment.

"You do realize you're living here for free, right?" Dean grumbled but I only shrugged in response to that before he left me to my own devices and I was alone again.

Frowning, I sat down on the bed, glancing at the bare walls surrounding me. This place was going to need a complete make-over, in my opinion. A light knock on the wooden door jarred me from my reverie though and my gaze flicked over to lock onto that of Sam's. He sent me a small smile but I didn't exactly return it. Don't get me wrong, this Winchester was...different. In a good way.

But...I still wasn't 100% sure I could trust him. Not yet anyway. Besides, it's not as if I was here to make friends anyhow - I was only here to keep the two numbskulls out of trouble.

"Uh, can I-?" he trailed off, gesturing to the empty seat beside me on the bed.

I shrugged and somehow, he took that as a yes, stepping lightly into the room.

"How, um...how are you doing?" he asked me gently, his voice holding traces of concern.

I pursed my lips in thought, "Fine, I suppose. Not that your brother makes me feel that welcome, I might add,"

"Yeah, Dean...has that effect on most people,"

I briefly arched my eyebrows in mock surprise at that.

"But...I hope we can at least be on good terms while you're here," he said slowly, "I mean, I don't see why not anyway..."

My gaze scanned his face then for any trace of fake sincerity but was pleasantly surprised when there was none to be found.

And slowly, a smile began to form on my face, "I'd like that, Sam. I'd like that a lot."

Tears pricked my eyes at the memory but I blinked them back as I began to pack up the things I'd acquired - a Van Halen poster from Dean's stash (borrowed or given, we'll never know), a trench coat from Cas so that we could, in his words, 'match', even a teddy bear that Sam had won me on one of our cases that had taken place at a carnival. Hugging it to my chest, a single tear escaped my eye, sliding down my cheek as slowly, I put it away as well. It was all over now. I knew it had to end someday but I just...I didn't know it would be this soon. Or this way...

But just as I zipped up the suitcase, all my belongings stuffed inside, someone cleared their throat behind me and I froze.

"What are you doing?"