Why is Dean afraid of flying?

After practically all his life in the front seat of a car or with two feet planted firmly on the ground, Dean liked to think he had a very valid reason to hate flying.

How is a hunk of metal carrying hundreds of people expected to float, anyway? His many teachers had just told him it was physics, the law of gravity, some had even tried to explain it to him, but he barely listened. It wasn’t like he ever listened in school anyway. He knew the rest of his life was going to be dedicated to hunting, right alongside Sam and their father.

This was the second time in his life he had stepped onto a plane. The first was years ago, and most other people would probably have forgotten the details of the experience by now. But most other people weren’t terrified of flying.

He was eight and Sammy had just turned four. He had been pretty excited to actually experience flying, soaring through the clouds while watching the world go by from a large, comfortable seat, just like his current classmates had related to him after a few weeks off school. The airport wasn’t bad; a bit smaller than he had expected. He had felt fine when he walked through the front doors, but the closer the time had come to boarding, the sicker he felt. But that was normal for any first time flyer, or so his dad had reassured him.

He didn’t look forward to stepping on the plane as they passed passengers that had recently landed. They looked tired, messy, pale, and practically every kid under the age of five was bawling their eyes out. He couldn’t help but wonder if that was going to be his family in a couple of hours.

His dad sat them down while he went to buy bottles of water. Before long, a woman hushing a crying baby was seated on their right while a large man sat noisily slurping a soda was on their left. He had cringed and had tried to pull a content Sammy closer to him as an unexplainable wave of fear overcame him. His little brother had pushed away, wanting to finish off his scribble of the plane they were about to get on.

As soon as he had placed a foot on the airplane, a thousand scenarios flashed through his mind of how the next seven hours could go wrong. The plane could crash. There could be a problem with the engine and the might have to do an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere. The pilot could be drunk. They could take a wrong turn. Something bad could be on board: a shifter or a vampire. Something they wouldn’t be able to do anything about because there was no way they would’ve been able to get a single weapon past security. The hunter’s place they were staying at would provide everything you need to hunt a werewolf with. They had nothing to protect the passengers or themselves with.

He had demanded the aisle seat when they sat, with Sammy in the middle which left their dad next to the window. As soon as the plane had started taxiing, he had tensed, knowing there was no escape now. There was absolutely nothing in his control apart from the ability to not throw up, but even that was something he was struggling with.

When the basic meal of potatoes and congealed meat had been served, he had pulled out the cute act. He widened his green eyes and asked every passenger within ten rows to hand over there little sachets of salt. Most had given in (no one would question a little kid’s strange yet innocent hobby) and he had ripped them open one by one, collecting the tiny grains into an empty cup. His dad had raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question the action. If anything, he had looked proud of his son.

Seven long hours later, once the doors were open, he had released his firm grip on the armrests. He stood up shakily, trying to ignore Sam’s pleas to their father to let them go on a plane again sometime soon. Fortunately, there was a woman who was willing to pay them a good amount of cash to drive her sister’s car back to California, an offer their father and he had jumped at.

Now, nearly eighteen years later, Dean was experiencing it all again. But what was worse was the fact that he knew something was on board. Something that would stop at nothing to crash the plane and kill all these people. And there was absolutely nothing Dean could do about it but hope his geek brother didn’t muck up the exorcism.