"Dean, Dean, Dean." That familiar voice echoed through the blackness, the comfort in the mans tone had now turned chilling with the ash deep within the mans soul.
"Did you really think you could get away with what you and your pretty little lover boy did?" The voice drawled. Each word felt dirty, like the man was dripping poison and sin straight into Dean's soul just by speaking, it was so unnatural. Deans eyes grew wide in the darkness as the words dawned on him. "Lover b-, Cas? What have you done to Cas you son of a b-" Dean's words were cut short by the man as he waved his hand effectively silencing Dean. "You dare to insult my father! Do you forget who I am, you pathetic human? Has even my story been forgotten by you filth like the rest of my father's stories?"
"Oh no, we haven't forgotten you and all that you have done. Now tell me, what have you done with Cas!?" Dean spat back.
"My, my Dean. Such impatience, but then again I remember from your time down in the pit that you were quite impatient to get off Alastair's rack." Dean flinched away from those words, they cut him deeper than any knife or claw ever had and Dean had had his soul ripped apart piece by piece from the outside in.
"Hit a nerve there did I Dean?" The voice drawled, the monster was enjoying this far too much.
"Why don't you stop hiding yourself and come over here so I can hit some of your nerves." Dean yelled towards the blackness that still surrounded him. A soft chuckle sounded around Dean.
"As if you could hit my vessel and didn't you learn the hard way to not punch angels?"
"You may be in my brothers body but that doesn't mean I wouldn't still give it a go. But you still haven't answered me, What have you done to Cas you filth?"
"Oh yes, my baby brother. I'll let you see for yourself just what I have done to your little love sick angel." Suddenly light flooded the room and it took a while before Deans eyes could adjust to the change but when they did, Dean froze up. A few feet away from him lay his angel, his Castiel or rather what was left of him.
The body was curled up in a defensive position, his hair was soaked with blood and he wasn't moving. As soon as his feet would work Dean rushed over to the angels side, his eyes shining with unspilt tears. "Cas! Cas? Come on Cas." Dean fell to his knees in front of the broken angel, it was all to much to take in. Castiel's face was covered in cuts and was swelling from bruises, his whole body was covered in dried blood and bones were sticking out in horrible angles but worst of all was his wings. The once proud, elegant black wings were stripped bare and Dean could see the breaks in the bones along the wing span.
"Oh God! CAS!" Dean didn't care that Lucifer was still there any more, the sight of his beloved angel crushed his soul. Dean broke down, tears streamed down his face as he clutched what was left of the angel as close to him as possible ignoring the blood that was now wiping all over him and the putrid smell that drifted throughout the room from the dead body. Flashes of memories swept through the man's mind as he cradled Castiel rocking back and forth, memories from before. Before any of this had ever happened, before that demon bitch ruby had his baby brother Sammy addicted to her blood, before Bobby, the man who was practically his second father's death, before any of the seals to bring upon the apocalypse were broken, before Lucifer was set free from his cage in Hell, before Sammy had been forced to say yes to allow Lucifer into Sam's body. Dean could feel the bubbling of anger build up in his stomach, everything had been taken from him and now the final thing close to Dean was lying in his arms, nothing but a mess of blood, ripped flesh and broken bones.
Suddenly Dean felt himself being pulled away from the body but he couldn't find the strength to struggle against it, he just closed his eyes and let what ever was about to come, come. What did he have left to survive for? A man hunted by police, demons, angels and every other kind of paranormal creature alive. A man with no family and friends, no one to love. Dean was tired, nothing could save him now, especially not from himself. When Dean opened his eyes he found that he was strapped to a wall in a darkish room, not as dark as before mind you. Everything about the room assaulted his senses, the stench of pain, sweat and blood filled his nostrils. The echoing whispers of screams still could be heard even though it was obvious that the room had been abandoned for years now. The cold, clammy walls that stuck to his skin were wet and felt as if they were covered in slime. The room was dirty, so much so that he could taste it, he could taste the grime that plastered the stone. The oddest thing about the room though was that there was light yet no windows, torches, candles or light fittings. But Dean wasn't paying any attention to any of these details, all he could see is his angel. The mangled mess of his once beautiful angel that he had left back in wherever he was previously. Dean could still feel the dried tear stains that ran down his face, they just added to the empty feeling within his chest. "Are you ready for some fun Deany?" The voice drawled, practically dripping off the mans lips. Dean couldn't do anything, he just kept his head hung on his chest, what use would it do struggling when all it would do was exhaust him even more. "Look at me when I talk to you Winchester!" Lucifer spat, jerking his head up to stare into the mans eyes. A wave of emotion hit Dean, those eyes. Even though Dean knew it wasn't Sammy doing this it his sub-conscious still told him that Sam was still in there. Dean mentally kicked himself, how could he think his beloved brother would purposely hurt him like this. Then a voice in his mind too much like Alastair's spoke, "He purposely hurt you the minute he said yes to that ass of an angel."
"NO!" Dean silently yelled to the voice in his mind, "You've done enough damage to me already, Sam wouldn't have done it purposely without reason so just shut up neither me nor Sam are anything like you."
"Ahh but Dean, surely you don't forget our time together in the pit. Everyone said that you were a little clone of me, grinning with every cut and slice you made to those souls." Dean cringed away from those words, the time he had spent in hell as payment for bringing Sammy back from the dead wore him down day by day.
Lucifer seemed unaware of the argument going on in Deans head. He was now standing next to an old looking trolley, like the kind a tea lady would use. Dean scoffed when he saw the instruments presented on the trolley he couldn't believe that Lucifer thought physical pain would hurt him anymore. If anyone else had been in Deans position they would have blanched at the sight and begged for mercy before any of the tools had been used but to Dean, he had grown accustomed to them. "You really think that you can hurt me with those petty little tools? Wow and here I was thinking you knew what you were doing." Lucifer smirked at him.
"Well, it's all to do with leverage Dean. You don't think that I have realized that you have had everything taken away from you? Little Sammy here can tell me all of that. It's quite amusing really, he's such a strong boy but he cant break through. No I'll be in this vessel for years to come and maybe Sammy can learn the joys that you learned back down in hell." Dean sighed, he hadn't any fight left in him to send a come back. That alone was evidence enough that Dean had given up. "Look, can we get this over with?"
"Dean, Dean. What's wrong? You tired already? I want this fun to last a nice long time, I don't think you know how rude it was of you to send me back into that cage. Why not take our time." Lucifer cooed sarcastically. The ex-angel was lapping up every second of this, how could he not? He had been the one to break the great Dean Winchester, he had turned the hot headed righteous man that his oh so perfect brothers loved into a broken, submissive shell of a man. 'And this is the vessel destined to be my brothers. Pitiful, how could this be Michael? Oh yes, the big brother, forever loyal to an absent father. Why couldn't he see?' Lucifer shook his head as if to shake out his thoughts and then looked back at Dean with a smile. "I have a special treat for you today Dean." The man in question barely registered that the other had left the room, he was too occupied with his thoughts but when he came back Dean looked up in confusion as the ex-angel was stood next to the mangled body of Castiel. Lucifer smirked at Dean, "You didn't think I would have made this easy for you, did you Dean? Why don't we bring back your precious little angel and have ourselves some fun?" Dean lifted his head, his eyes wide with shock. He had forgotten the powers that angels have but he didn't know angels could bring other angels back from the dead. "What?" Dean replied, his voice a hoarse whisper. Lucifer merely ignored him turning instead to look at the bloody mess at his feet, sneering at it like it was a dog who had just defecated on his shoe. WIth a click of the mans fingers Castiel gave a deep inhale of breath and lay panting trying to replenish the oxygen that had left his body. "CAS!" Dean screamed, the angel looked up at the man tied to the wall, confusion knitting his brow. Dean watched as the angel took in his surroundings and noticed when it dawned on him who the people in the room were.
"Brother, what are you doing?" Castiel croaked, his voice jagged and torn. Instead of answering the angels question Lucifer growled and threw Cas against the opposite wall. Dean snarled in rage, his anger coming in sharp animalistic surges as he shook against the confines of the chains. Suddenly chains grew out of the cold stone floor, wrapping themselves around the weakened angel. Lucifer walked over to the trolley with a predatory grin, running his fingers over each tool as if they were precious diamonds and not weapons of torture. "Like I said Dean, it's time to have some fun." Picking up the smallest but sharpest knife Lucifer strode over to where Castiel lay bound on the floor. He bent over and whispered something into the broken angels ear that Dean couldn't hear and Castiel looked up into the ex-angels eyes in fear, pure unquestioning fear. Lucifer dragged the knife carefully over Castiels skin so as not to actually cut his skin more to cut his sanity. The ex-angel twisted his head to catch a sight of Dean, a malicious smile sliced into his face. "Let's start the fun shall we Dean?" With his words Lucifer sliced deep into Castiels chest, bringing a vile scream out of the angels lips. Fear shone out of his eyes, a fear of spending an eternity of torture, a fear of his brothers wrath, a fear of hurting Dean but worst of all a fear of leaving Dean to endure whatever cruel plans the universe had left in him. Castiels eyes flickered over to Dean, wanting to assure the man that everything would be okay but as he did Lucifer started engraving a sigil that would lock Castiels grace inside the vessel he was currently in and in the end his eyes were showing Dean the exact opposite as he had hoped. Lucifer was being smeared by the few drops of blood the angel had left in his body that were now being spilt onto the hard ground beneath him but the ex-angel reveled in his revenge and showed even more so as he produced a long blade that seemed to be glowing blue. Lucifer wasted no time in getting what he wanted as the enchanted blade burned at Cas's flesh as it cut, the poor angels screams caused bile to rise up in his throat and in a matter of seconds Dean threw up onto the floor beside him. By this point Lucifer was cackling like a maniac after getting his fix of drugs, dragging blades drowned in flaming holy oil over his brothers body. Castiel could take it no more, "DEAN!" he screamed to the world, not caring that his throat felt like it was being ripped from him. Dean froze, everything started spinning and before long the world became shrouded and black. Dean was slipping further and further from his poor beloved angel that needed his help, he tried to claw his way back into the dungeon but his efforts were in vain. All sense slipped from Dean as he gave way into nothingness.
A scream woke Dean up from the darkness he had slipped into, something was clawing at his eyes and pulling at his arms. The mans eyes flew open to get a view of what his attacker was, when Dean saw no one but himself and his brother in the room he took a moment to assess the situation. The claws that had been attempting to rip his eyes out were in fact his own hands and the pulling at his arms was Sam trying to keep Deans fingers from reaching their prize. After scanning the room and realizing that he was in the grimy motel room that he and Sam had hired out for the night did he allow himself to calm down, Dean let out a breath that he didn't even know he was holding in exhaustion. It was only when a muffled mumble hit Deans ears did he realize that Sam was talking to him, he focused in on Sam's words. "DEAN! Are you okay? You were screaming in your sleep and you were- were clawing at your eyes. What was that? It looked like you were in one of those shitty old horror movies and had been possessed!"
"I'm okay Sammy, just a bad dream's all." Dean grumbled, he really hated chick-flick moments and now really wasn't the time he wanted to talk. He had hoped that his frustrated tone would keep Sam at bay but it only provoked his curiosity.
Sam had pestered Dean all day about his dream but as usual the elder brother would wait until he wanted to talk and begging wouldn't persuade him in any way. After another day of fighting came to a close, Dean sank back into the cool sheets of the dirty motel. He would have shuddered at the thought of what lay on the sheets of this sleazy motel but he hadn't the energy. A Chimera was not on the top of Dean's list of common things to kill but however the Winchester boys were not known for giving up. It had taken a blade blessed by an Egyptian Mage and dipped in holy goats blood to kill one and not only was the blade and goat blood nigh on impossible to find, a Chimera would not give up on a fight. Anyway as usual the monster had been dealt with and they could sleep once more knowing that whatever small American town they were in could be safe for one night and not destroyed by an ancient Chimera.
Dean was exhausted, his head hit the hard pillow with a thud as he slipped further into the state of dreams. He had dreaded this moment but he needed sleep, they had barely survived today and Dean had enough claw marks to tell anyone that it was too close for comfort. The darkness once more swarmed around Dean.
"Well, well Dean. Ever the martyr. Thank you for coming back, Cas and I were getting lonely." Minutes later the screams rang through Dean's ears once more. If only he could place himself their instead of his poor angel, If only. Dreams took control over Dean and the cycle began again.