Is this while Dean is dead? I love that the compass is too dirty to read. It's a great image for how (emotionally?) lost Sam is.

Nice fresh stitch description. It's such an interesting scene. Neat to come up with so many reasons he'd be stuck there, but mostly, Dean WOULD be back. Nice that he's so sure of his brother.

Sounds like survival training gone bad. Good thing we all know that Dean will save him.

Oh, really intriguing. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this...

Hang on, Sam!

Dean is coming!

Beautiful imagery.

UH, I kind of LOVED THAT. AWESOME!

I don't think such a short story has ever required me to reread it so many times, just trying to squeeze out as much information as possible. Just a 'wow'ing story, and so...

Captivating. I'm still going over it, wanting to know more!

Oh poor poor Dean talking to Sammy. I definitely picture Sam having a running conversation with Dean while he was in hell. This makes so much sense to me too, Dean begging Sammy to come back.

Ouch. Great job conjuring up Bobby's awkwardness and Dean's grief after Sam's death.

Oh OUCH. Great use of the word to, y'know, bruise my heart ;-)

That was overwhelmingly beautiful. Filled with such raw emotion in such short words.

I love that the oars are mismatched.

Great sensory details, nice sense of yearning.

Awesome! I love that Dean is sweating but somehow cheerful, and Sam's crankiness by comparison. Did you ever watch Homicide: Life On The Street? There was a really quiet episode mostly just about how the air conditioning was broken and it was stifling and there were no cases, and the boss kept saying to one of the detectives, "It's so hot, how can you not be hot, take off your tie. Take off that tie, Frank." And Frank was all, "I choose not to let the heat bother me." And it drove his boss nuts. Very funny. This made me think of it. Sam's cranky "How can you not be hot??" and Dean's cheerfully not letting it bother him. "Take off that tie, Dean." :)

You made my heart hurt a bit. I love Sam thinking, knowing, exactly what Dean would do. What he'd say and think and just what Dean would mean.

Excellent descriptions of the boat, I love "nearly rotted through." Beautiful.

*having trouble breathing*

So, I don't know if I have subjected you to my endless ramblings of the comparison of SPN to my favorite ever epic: Gilgamesh... which features the two characters Gilgamesh and Enkidu... aka Dean and Sam. But this Drabble fits it to a T. I love it. I am IN. You successfully painted a fresco in my mind that melds right into that world. Sam in the dark. Ugh. With the oars. And... the darkness. And I kind of feel like crying. It is so perfect. Okay. So. Sorry. I was trying to avoid the rambling. But I am afraid you are going to get it anyway.

Your story draws to mind one of my favorite scenes from the epic... Enkidu was injured while hunting a spirit and that night... well, let me just find it:

It was a restless night for both. One snatched at sleep and sprang awake from dreams. The other could not rest because of pain that spread throughout his side. Enkidu was alone with sights he saw brought on by pain and fear, as one in deep despair may lie beside his love who sleeps and seems so unafraid, absorbing in himself the phantoms that she cannot see - phantoms diminished for one when two can see and stay awake to talk of them and search out a solution to despair, or lie together in each other's arms or weep and in exhaustion from their tears perhaps find laughter for the fears. But alone and awake the size and nature of the creatures in his mind grow monstrous.

So Sam. Alone. In a hunt where Dean would laugh and chase away the phantoms. But where without Dean there is just darkness and cold and the lack of light.