This is a tag to Dark side of the Moon. Did it for a contest so had to stick to some basic rules. The contest was that we were to make a story about the time when Sam ran away to Flagstaff. As they never mentioned at what time this happen I made Sam into 10 year old boy, turning 11 in November. And as it take past in the beginning of spring Dean has already turned 15.

Hope you like ;)

A Promise not Kept

Sam had turned grumpy as soon as dad had left. Honestly, Dean didn't understand why. It wasn't like Sam wanted to go with on the hunt. Most of the time all they did was fight anyway. Still, he knew if he didn't ward of Sam's bad temper early on it would just escalate, making the next couple of weeks a living hell. So he had devised the cunning plan to treat Sam to a great evening of fun, hopefully deflating the pout at an early stage.

After bringing Sam home from school he had gone out to stock up on Sam's favourite food and snacks along with renting some of Sam's favourite movies. Sure he often found them lame and a bit too much on the chick-flick side, but he wouldn't really be paying attention to them anyway. His eyes would instead be riveted by the beaming bundle that was his little brother who practically glowed with delight whenever they did something that he loved. Tonight would be no different, so the movie choice was irrelevant to him as long as it procured a happy Sammy.

So here he was, heading home, arms laden with delicious food and several movies, prepared to give Sam an evening to remember. He couldn't wait to see his kid brother's reaction.

He put the bags down in the sofa, laying everything out on the small rickety table in front of the TV. It wasn't a big TV and it didn't have any channels, but as long as they had a working VHS player, none of the other stuff mattered. "There" he thought as he finished decking the , he called out for Sam to join him in the sparse living room. No answer. He figured he was in the bathroom so he sat down to wait.

Ten minutes later, and still no Sammy. Dean was getting antsy. What was taking his brother so friggin long? Could something be wrong?

The slight flicker of fear in his chest was enough to propel him over to the bathroom door, his hand giving a light tap before calling out to his brother once more. Nothing.

Dean tried the door handle, it opened easily. But to his surprise the bathroom was dark, and worse, empty. The slight hint of fear bloomed into full fledged panic. Sam was gone! All kinds of horrid images assaulted him. Sam being kidnapped, taken by monsters, or worse killed! He needed to find Sam, and fast!

He made quick work of checking the apartment, but there was no sign of Sam. He was on the verge of hyperventilating, the fear for his sibling steadily growing for every minute that ticked by. This wasn't working. He had to get a grip on himself. Sam could be in real trouble and here he was panicking which of course wasn't helping Sam at all. Focusing on taking deep breaths he managed to slow his racing pulse down. He needed to think reasonable rationally, not panic if he were to make any headway on this.

He took in the room once more. There were no signs of a struggle or a forced entry. As Sam was smart enough to not just let anybody in, that put the human kidnapping scenario towards the bottom of likely alternatives.

Looking for creature activity he came up blank again. There were no signs of sulphur, spirit activity or any other creature activity for that matter. And the fact that there was no sign of a fight also told him that it most likely wasn't a creature. And if it were it would have had to have been stealthy as hell if it had managed to sneak up on Sam. Sam might not yet have perfectly honed senses, but he was no slow pock, that was for sure.

Maybe he had just gone for a walk?

He looked around for a note, but found none. That in itself wasn't all that unusual as Sam often forget to write one, his mind too preoccupied with friends and other stuff. Could this be what had happened this time also? He looked for Sam's shoes and jacket, they were gone. It seemed Sam had just gone out for a bit with friends, everything was all right after all, had to be it. Still, something felt off, not quite sure he decided to comb the apartment once more.

The only other thing he managed to uncover was that Sam's duffle was gone, along with some of his clothes. He didn't quite know what to make of it. Sam usually never took such stuff with him. But then again maybe he was sleeping over at a friend and just forgot to tell him about Sam wouldn't just pick up and leave, not like this. Even dad wouldn't do that to him. Had to be the first one. Sam might even have told dad earlier, just forgot to mention it to him as well. Must have been what had happened. .

But no matter how hard he tried convincing himself that everything was all right, the niggling fear in the back of his mind wouldn't go away. The ever present panic simmering just beneath the surface. He hoped he was just overreacting and that Sam would walk through the door any minute now. Having nowhere else to turn he sat down facing the door, intent on waiting till Sam returned. His heart jumping at every sound, hoping it was Sam returning home.

Another chapter around the corner if you're still interested :)