(Untitled)

[smilelikesteel]

Sidestep. Duck. Resist a roundhouse kick, because it might shake up a vampire or a demon in corporeal form, but it won't do shit against a ghost. Doesn't seem fair, does it? A ghost can be corporeal enough to come after you with a rusty skinning knife, but it's not corporeal enough to kick. Hunters have two modes with pissed-off ghosts: "avoid" and

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[unchosen_son]

Sam and patrol were one thing. This was seeing if Lilly might just be hanging around still and when he comes across the girl, she seemed familiar, like he'd seen her in some old picture or something. Or from somewhere. "Hey," he called out, letting his voice drift.

[smilelikesteel]

The person making their way up the beach seems familiar. Too familiar, in the sense that it was the last person I want to see right now. Possibly ever.

I point the gun at him. It's only rock salt, and he probably knows it, but if it's a demon again, not that it would be, it wouldn't like rock salt. But a demon usually isn't stupid enough to possess the same person twice. But... I am seriously out of my league here.

"Come any closer, and you won't be able to sit for days."

[unchosen_son]

Sam raised his hands, eyes wide. Okay, what the fuck? Both hands were in the air, but he could make a move for his gun. "Okay, so, I'm sorry you're here?" he offered slowly, in confusion.

[smilelikesteel]

"Yeah, me too." He seems genuinely confused. But then again, he also seemed to genuinely care for me - right before he slammed my head into the bar. That was one hell of a headache.

Keeping the gun trained on him, I climbed to my feet, glancing around quickly for the duffel bag. Good, right where I'd fallen on it. "Did you have anything to do with this? Because I swear to god, Sam, if you did..." Okay, so I'm not in the top condition to be making threats and having them sound really convincing, but I'm hoping the gun will make him think twice.

[unchosen_son]

Confusion flickered over Sam's eyes, but he kept his hands in the air, taking one light step towards her, just to test his boundaries. How did she know him? Maybe the whole familiar thing wasn't so off. "I had nothing to do with this," he swore. "I wound up same as you did, but with me, it was eighteen months ago. Okay? Look, I'm gonna put my gun on the ground," he told her, slowly reaching behind him, no fast or sudden movements, setting it down.

"Who are you?" he asked now, as he rose back to full height.

[smilelikesteel]

"Eighteen months ago?" I repeat, raising my eyebrows. No. He's lying. He has to be. "No, that's not possible. I saw you just weeks ago. You smashed my head into a bar and then tied me to a pole in an abandoned warehouse? Maybe you forgot, Sam, but it's not the sort of thing I'd forget anytime soon."

I don't care if he put his gun down. I don't care if he's demon-free. He could be lying. He could be... Christ, I don't know what he could be. It's nice to see a familiar face, but it's not nice to see Sam, especially when he claims not to know who I am.

[unchosen_son]

Oh, crap. Sam's eyes widened as he remembered now, remembered his own journals and Dean's telling of the story and his eyes went wide with guilt and surprise. "You're Jo, aren't you?" he asked, brow furrowed as he tried to make sense, keeping his hands high up in the air. "Look, Jo, if you are her, there's a really weird temporal displacement thing going on here and I don't know if you believe me or not, but I've been here eighteen months, but there's still a me back in that universe."

Splitting hairs with hunters. Definitely not what he'd intended to do when he'd woken up. "I'm sorry," he said, genuinely. "For whatever I did to you, whatever that me did, but I don't remember any of it. The last thing I remember is St. Louis, Missouri. A shapeshifter took over Dean and then he was legally dead and then I was here and I've been here the whole time," he insisted seriously.

[smilelikesteel]

Curioser and curioser.

"Well, it wasn't actually you," I relented, slowly lowering the gun. But it stayed out, in my hand, not that it would do much good against him anyway. I know from experience that Sam can take me, easy. "You were possessed. But how do I know you're not possessed now? You were pretty damn sincere the last time I saw you, too."

I'd like to trust him, really, I would, but it seems like all the problems in my life connect somehow to the Winchesters and the last time I trusted Sam, I ended up on the sharp end of a knife.

"A year and a half ago, Sam?" I raise my eyebrows. This just doesn't make any sense. I don't know what to think anymore. "I'd heard of disappearing in one place and waking up in another, but not when there's two of you. Does that mean there's two of me, too?"

[unchosen_son]

"Maybe," he offered. "Maybe not. It's not like I've got a handle on this and Dad's book doesn't really talk about weird island kidnappings and Dean's got no clue and I've got nothing. If you don't know, we're sort of screwed for information," he admitted. "I don't remember meeting you. I only know you from my own journals that Dean brought me."

"And I kinda hope you believe that," he finished, a bit weak. "Look," he offered. "Dean's around too. You can talk to him, I swear that whatever was possessing me hasn't been here. There's no demons here, no ghosts, no spells work." Thinking fast, he rolled up his sleeves and showed her his forearms. "See! Look!" he said, a bit frantic now. "Dean told me the demon bound itself to me with a mark on my forearm. I'm clean."

[smilelikesteel]

I consider his arm. It was true, there was a burn mark on it, a demonic symbol that would've healed by now, but it would've left a scar. Sam's arm is scar-free. Maybe he is telling the truth. Stranger things have happened.

Well, other strange things have happened. In my twenty-one years, this one is currently taking the cake. Lots, lots of cake.

"Well, you're better off than me, then," I say dryly, "because I don't exactly have the most positive memories of you. I mean, I know it wasn't you, Sam, but something like that is hard to forget." I shiver, remembering the way the ropes cut into my skin, the stale taste of the gag in my mouth. It'll be a long time before I forget.

I laugh at the mention of Dean. "Great! It'll be like a freaking hunter party. And none of us have a clue. And you've been here for a year and a half? What have you been doing?"

[unchosen_son]

"Hunting," he offered weakly. "Finding a way out of here, even if there is no way." Doing some really immoral things. "There's some uh, dinosaurs," he gave her something that might be slightly cool. "And yeah, I wish...I wish I remembered, because I know I'd do anything to make it up to you and I still will," he said, brow wracked with wrinkles. "There's an IPD thing, like a police patrol. I do my rounds, see if there's anything weird."

[smilelikesteel]

"There's got to be a way," I shoot back, but even as I say it, I know I don't really believe it. Even as this is starting to seem more and more like a bad dream, I'm also starting to think more and more that it's not. And if Sam is telling the truth, and he has been here for eighteen months... then there might not be a way.

That makes me want to sit down in the sand and not move for a while. But what would be the point? I have to figure it out. Get my bearings. I hesitate for a while, then slip the gun into the back of my jeans. I can always draw it again, but somehow, for some really bizarre reason, I really think Sam's telling the truth. And that's the scary part.

"Don't," I wave off his apology. I'd rather not think about it at all. Forget and move on, that's my way. Not enough to get careless, just enough to stop being scared. Scared and hurt. "Just explain this to me. How did you get here? What were you doing, eighteen months ago?"

[unchosen_son]

"Like I said, me and Dean were driving out of town, trying to get away before the feds realized Dean wasn't as dead as they thought," Sam explained, eyes still on her carefully, not knowing if that gun was gonna come back out any second.

He gave her a wary look. "I thought we'd crashed. But, we didn't. I was just here, on my own." Sure, he'd found Dean, but why bring it up if the Dean he had now didn't even remember? It was pointless.

[smilelikesteel]

"And now Dean is here?" I don't apologize for holding him at gunpoint or bombarding him with questions. I think I'm pretty well justified, considering what had happened the last time we'd met and what was happening to me now. If what he was telling me was true, I think I was dealing with it pretty damn well.

"I was hunting," I say thoughtfully. "I shot the ghost just as he went through me." I shiver, remembering the icy cold feel of the spirit passing through my body... or my body passing through it. Either way, it wasn't pleasant. "I closed my eyes on the porch of a rundown house in Oklahoma and opened them here. Explain that one to me."

[unchosen_son]

At the telling of what she'd done, Sam had to offer a smile at that, shrugging. "Nice," he said with a lazy nod. "Ghosts pretty much aren't to blame. I mean, you won't find a trace of a vengeful spirit around here, let alone bones to salt and burn, so...you can rule that out," he said, taking another step closer, checking on his gun in the sand.

[smilelikesteel]

"So this place is kind of a supernatural vacuum?" I raise my eyebrows. I'd never heard of anything like it. Of course, I'd never heard of anything like what had just happened to me, either. I guess being a hunter doesn't mean you know everything.

Now I just feel confused. My body wants to punch Sam, or run away, but my mind, the logical part of it, wants to trust him. He's got this really sincere look, and there's no marks on him... but the logical part of my brain also wants me to pinch myself and wake up. And my gut's telling me there's no waking up from this.

What do I listen to?

"So... what do you do here?" I ask hesitantly. I guess, at least for now, I'm stuck here. If Sam's not possessed, then he's telling the truth. He's the honest kind of person, when there's not a demon inside of him. And if he's really been here for a year and a half, then it's going to take me some time to figure things out. Like how to get home. Meanwhile... well, I have to do something, right?