Lost and Found
Chapter I: Into the Woods
"She hasn't given us anything."
"Are you telling me you can't accomplish this?"
"No, she hasn't given us anything yet." A chilling silence came from the other end.
"Try harder." A controlled, precise click informed him that the caller had hung up. He pulled his cell phone down from his ear, the plastic frame cracking in his too tight grip. He wasn't used to failure. If he were honest with himself, and he usually tried to be, he was having a tough time with this assignment. But sometimes, a lot of times, his personal views had to be sacrificed. She was the puppet master and had to accept the consequences for playing that role.
He walked into the next room; she lay unconscious on the cement floor. His shoes scuffed a gritty, steady beat as he approached her for inspection. She was a far cry from the pretty picture she had painted when he first met her. All shaky bravado and bitten back tears. No one would even recognize her now. He hadn't done too much, most of it was superficial, his tactics were designed for pain, bruising and swelling disfigured her flesh and angry cuts patterned her skin. When he had started cutting into her with a knife dipped in concentrated capsaicin, she had passed out from the pain, but not before spitting at him. However, he had hardly begun and that fiery spirit that he almost admired would be crushed like a bug under his heel. She would break eventually, everyone did, he just had to find the right motivation.
"Get her up." Weasel slung her limp form onto the metal chair, tying her hands behind the back of the chair to keep her in place.
"Wake her." He dumped a bucket of water on her, soaking her through and shoved a wet rag in her mouth. Picking up the red handle of a pair of jumper cables he touched the end to her neck, watching as her body arced in pain as the electricity coursed through her and she groaned awake. Weasel backed away and he approached her to remove the rag.
"Welcome back." He greeted her with a smile. She glared at him with one eye, the other covered by her wet hair. The faint smell of burning hair and flesh hit her airway and she wrinkled her nose in distaste.
"Missed you." She rasped out, her voice hoarse from previous screaming. He ran his hand through her hair, smoothing it back from her face. He would have to change tactics; he needed to move on to bones and joints.
"Let's begin again."
"Sammie!" he hissed out, searching the dark shadows for his mammoth form. He heard nothing but the creepy sounds of bugs and nocturnal creatures ferreting about their nightly rituals.
"Sam?" he tried again. A faint "over here" echoed back to him and he headed in the direction of the response.
"You find something?" he asked, silently cursing as he stumbled down the ravine where Sam was kneeling over something.
"Yea, a body."
"Same MO?"
"Too dark to tell." Dean pulled out a flashlight and shined it down on the body and let out a low whistle.
"Someone put this girl through a whole lot of punishment."
"Jesus, Dean, she's alive!" He looked over to where Sammie's gaze was fixated and saw that one of her fingers was twitching ever so slightly. Sam whipped off his jacket, his large size covering the majority of her naked body. Sam picked her up, wrapping his jacket firmly around her and followed Dean back his car. Pitiful whimperings came feebly from her mouth as she gradually gained consciousness.
Sam kept her in his arms as he slid into the passenger seat; she needed all the body heat she could get, her body was still giving off icy chills. Dean cranked up the heat and started the car.
"I think the closest hospital is twenty miles back." She grunted in response and Dean, fluent in nonverbal communication, interpreted this as a "no."
"Listen lady, you need a hospital."
"No hospitals" she whispered out. Her eyes were swollen shut but she managed to open them a hair to look at him. A glimmer of green stared him down as she commanded, "Promise." Dean looked at Sam, feeling inexplicably compelled to give in to her request. She was hurt and she was scared.
"Castiel." Sam mouthed silently to him. Dean watched her slowly slip back to oblivion and nodded his head.
"Hotel it is."