This place, it ain't like any other place. There isn't variation here. Topside, the sun shines bright or the night settles dark. The breeze dances on a spring day. Mornings are cooler. Shades are nice. Afternoon's are hot. The sun warms your skin. Even the dead warm in the rays of the sun. I can't say how heaven works. I've never seen it. If I had to say, to guess, Heaven is probably a cold place. Hell, I've heard tale, is mostly hot. This place, though? Here?

It's nothing.

It's not hot or cold. It's no where in between. It's not sunny or deeply dark. It's this overcast twilight all the time. Sometimes brighter, sometimes not.

Time. That's another thing about this place. There is no time here. There's no morning. No noon. No real night. No real changes. This is an eternal forest frozen on a day dreary sometime in the fall, just before the sun sets and just after.
No time. No change. No hunger.

This place. It didn't take long to notice it. My first breath of the stale air was the first I'd taken in near a century without even the slightest twinge of hunger. A sweet relief nearly worth losing my head for. Well... That's a story for another day.
This place? Ain't nothing but existing. There's no love here. No hate. No friends. No family. No great battle or quest for redemption. It's just existing and fighting to keep on existing.

I landed here hurt, angry, and confused. Ain't supposed to be nothing once your head is rolling on the floor and the one you love is screaming your name. Yet, here I stand on this soft bed of dead leaves, breathing this dead air and looking around at these dead trees.

Where do bad things go when they die?
We go here.
Purgatory.

I wasn't no sweet thing then. I came in swinging. Didn't encounter another monster for a while but when I did, I attacked and it felt good. Not just good. It felt great. It felt right. I hadn't tore another thing apart like that since my time as a newborn. Obliterated, I left that monster strewn in pieces. I looked down on it, wiped the sludge from my chin and set off to find another one. Wasn't no kind of plan. It just felt good to fight. It felt good to win. It felt good not knowing if I would win. It just felt good.

Truth be told, Purgatory's the happiest I've been... maybe ever. Things get simple here. The anger I came in with? Destroy enough monsters and that ebbs away. The hurt? Same. The confusion fades as you realize this place ain't got rules. It's whatever you want as long as you fight. Everything that was so important top side? That all just slides back. It slips further and further away from you till you hardly remember why it was important at all. And there's that added perk of no hunger. No thirst.

Ever felt more and less yourself at the same time?

I never felt more a vampire than in this place, where my base vampire drive isn't here with me. Without that hunger, there's no need to hunt. Now, I hunt because it's fun. Not to eat. Now, I hunt and fight because there's jack all else to do. Now, I hunt because I'm good at it. Now, I fight because I win.

Without hunger, without time, when this place is full of nothing but monsters just like me? What better way to stay entertained than killing everything you meet? And that's just what I did.

Then this place of constant sameness suddenly changed.

Imagine a place with no temperature. Imagine a place that's dead, through and through. Then imagine dropping a hot coal with a heartbeat right in the thick of it. That's the moment Dean Winchester landed in Purgatory.

There was the heat, the heartbeat, and a reverberation I could feel in my bones. For a moment, it was all in the same place, then the vibration blinked out, leaving just the heat, the heartbeat and the curiosity driving to hunt it.

I'd no more than felt the draw when I find myself on the ground, my body vibrating and a light, brighter and clearer than any sun, shining down on me like a spotlight. Center stage, I'm covering my eyes and cowering into the ground. Every part of my body humming. Then the voice, like nothing I'd ever heard before, says to me about Dean Winchester. Find him, it says. Protect him and lead him to the way out. Gives me directions. Says this spell, a way I can hitch a ride out with the human. Says to get him out, and alive, quickly. Then it's gone and I'm laying numb and near blinded thinking what the hell is going on. It doesn't last long, though. The vibrations, light, noise drawing every monster for a mile my way. I fought my way through an onslaught, every throat I ripped out wondering who this Winchester is.

I found him easy enough. Feverish drumming in the silence, how could you not? Every other monster near found him too. I hung back, watching. This kid, he's not soft. When I see him, he's already left a trail of dead. He's human, alright, but to see him fight you know there's monster in him. His jaw set, hard, his eyes burning yet cold. He fought bare handed and used the monster's own weapons against them. He moved aimlessly, skillfully killing everything he met. I followed him for a while, just watching. He fought fiercely. He moved through the forest with purpose. He sought out lone monsters and would question them, "Where is the angel?" No matter the answer, he killed them. He was righteous.

Outside of the question, he did not speak. He did not rest.

One vampire, he has her pinned to the ground, knee on her chest and her own blade to her neck. "Where is he?" the force in his voice, the blade pushing into her throat. She laughs, her vamp teeth out, this manic wide smile. "Where," he says more slowly, "is the angel?" The vamp, she retracts her teeth and spits in his face. The blade meets the ground beneath her neck and her head rolls before she could have seen her own saliva hit him.

He stood, running a hand roughly down his face. Wiped his palm on his jeans. He stalked a circle around the headless vamp then geared up and kicked her, hard, in the side. He tossed his shoulders and head back, face to the pale sky, and let out a growling scream. This kid, already so primal, the sound of it sends a shiver down my spine.

"Sam!" he barked, yelling vaguely into the sky. "I don't know what is going on but you had better find me and get us out of this hell hole!" He dropped to his knees, then, and nearly curled in on himself. So hard, so cold, he's balled up like a child now. He says a name, I don't catch it, much quieter, almost to himself, "I will find you and whoever took you and I will kill them all. One by one. I swear to God." His fist hit the ground and he's on his feet again, moving through the trees.

I followed him until the right moment. Had I just walked up to him, he'd have fought me in a instant and that was a fight I wasn't willing to take after I'd seen the damage he could do. So I waited till I had an opportunity. He's fighting these two monsters and one's about to jump him from behind while he's manhandling the other. The kid's got it. He could handle it but it's a perfect chance. I come out, take down the second one and sink my teeth into his throat. The sludge is gritty, black, and tastes like shit but I've swallowed so much of it by this point. I tear the monster's throat out, then turn to face him.

Dean Winchester. This kid who is important enough that someone who is a light source wants him guided out of here and he's staring down at me with this cold glare. He's reading the situation faster than I can stand. I picked up the dropped blade. A weapon might be handy if this goes south. He's judging and weighing if I'm going to attack him. He's poised and ready to fight. If he comes at me, it'll be the first fight I don't want in this place. It'll be the first fight I'm sure I'll lose. This kid? He doesn't fight because he's bored. He doesn't fight because it's fun. He doesn't fight because he wins. This kid fights because he's got a purpose. He fights because he's got a drive. I don't want to go up against that. And, don't act surprised, I'm starting to like him.

"What?" I ask. "No 'Thanks' for saving your hide?"

"Sure." He raises a blade stolen from some monster. "I won't shove this up your ass." He isn't attacking and that's a good sign but his face is hard and he's still prepared for anything. This is going to take some smooth talking.

"Hmm. Awful strange way to punch your meal ticket friend." I step, gauging him and he steps, too. "I got something you need."

"Yeah, what's that?" I hear it but he could give a fuck less. He's already killed me nine ways from Sunday in his head and this conversation isn't really slowing him down. We're circling like wolves about to fight. I know what this kid is capable of.

"A way out." I offer, hoping he listens to reason but he just laughs.

"Even a dental apocalypse like you knows there's no such thing." He's casually pointing his blade at me and that's the sweetest thing anyone's called me since I dropped into this place.

"There is if you're human." His silence is deadly. "God has made it so." It's nearly a joke when I say, " At least, that's the rumor."

"Bullshit." He's said it but, oh, I've got him now. This dance we're walking, this circle, he's inching closer with each step. Predatory. He doesn't trust me. Hell, I don't trust him but he's hanging on my every word and this is the longest conversation I've had in a very, very long time.

"Suit yourself," I say with a shrug. "Maybe you've gone native. Maybe you enjoy being man meat for every Tom, Dick and Harry."

I laugh but he shifts. What I've said or what he's thinking, he's weighing if I'm telling the truth. Weighing if he's willing to work with me if I am.

"Prove it."
"Nah, you're either in or you're out."
"So you just want to guide me out of Purgatory out of the goodness of your undead heart?"
"More or less."

"What's in it for you?"
"I'm hopping a ride."

"What?"
"It's a human portal, jackass. Only humans can pass through. I show you a door, you haul my soul to the other side."

"So you looking for a soul train?"

"Sure, if that's what you're into."

"How do I know this isn't a set up? How do I know I ain't gonna end up like your friend over there."
"He was my friend. Now you are. First rule of Purgatory, kid: You can't trust nobody."
"You just asked me to trust you!"
"You see? You're gettin' it now."

There's that blade pointed in my face again. "First, we find the angel."
Ah, I've got no interest running around hunting down this angel of his and besides the bright and shining voice didn't mention no angel rescue mission.

"Three's a crowd, chief."

"Alright," He jaunts forward, "either you're in or you're out."

Well, wouldn't you know? I'm in.