Dean popped the trunk of the Impala, propping it open at its full height as he deposited the guns he and Sam had used on their last hunt. It was a run-of-the-mill hunt, really. Hit and run. He and Sam were just packing up to begin the trip home, and were currently debating whether to hit a motel in state or drive a couple hours before finding one when Sam's phone went off.

He glanced at the caller ID before flipping it open. "Hey, Bobby." Dean watched his brother's face while the other man spoke, trying to figure out what was going on. "Huh. Doesn't sound like – oh. Yeah, okay. We'll check it out. Bye."

"More?" Dean asked, one eyebrow raised as he slammed the trunk's lid.

"Bobby says there's a desert town a couple hundred miles over that's been having a lot of people go missing near one of their wells," Sam replied.

"And that's demonic how?"

"Well," Sam answered, "the only guy who's made it back returned half mummified."

"Mummified?"

"Toilet paper and all."

Dean rolled his eyes and headed toward the Impala's driver door. "Great. Did Bobby have any tips on hunting mummies?"

"He suggested fire," Sam said. "Similar to stopping ghosts: burn the bones, what else is left?"

"Heaping pile of double-dead-man," Dean agreed. "Let's go."

xxxxxxxx

"You sure this is right?" Dean questioned, leaning on the open door as he surveyed the apparently empty town.

"Ikana Canyon," Sam repeated, pointing at the nearby sign designating the town's population. "This is it."

They wandered down what seemed to be the middle of the town – they couldn't quite tell, as the buildings were few and spaced with some distance among them. Soon enough they came to a break in the houses and spotted what looked to be an old, decrepit well. They looked at each other for a moment, gripping the weapons they'd pulled from the Impala's trunk a little tighter as they approached.

Dean took point, but Sam was first to notice the sign next to the well. He rolled his eyes a bit, pointing the sign out to his brother. "'Entry prohibited due to ghost sightings'," he quoted.

"I've never been a fan of prohibition," Dean grumbled, stepping over the ledge and onto the rungs of the ladder. Sam pointed his flashlight down into the well, and the beam stretched on at least several hundred feet into the ground before hitting stone again. They both sighed a bit before starting the long descent.

Once they hit the bottom of the well, they noticed torches lighting the way forward down a narrow corridor. "Since when do ghosts take the liberty of lighting their haunts?" Sam asked, tucking his flashlight back into his jacket.

Dean mimicked the movement, shrugging as he did so. "People have gone missing, right?" he posed, taking a few careful steps down the path. "Maybe they followed the torches."

"Followed them to what?" Sam asked, raising his gun a bit as they proceeded forward. The first corridor seemed entirely empty, but up ahead they saw that the torches split off into what seemed to be a bigger room. They drifted closer to the wall as they approached, peering into the semi-darkness in an attempt to see if anything was waiting for them. Once they were sure nothing was waiting – though they were never really sure – they crossed the threshold into the space.

Immediately, a large stone slab slammed down into the entryway behind them, closely followed by a set of metal bars. Sam pressed a hand against the surface while Dean examined the room ahead of them. "Hey Sammy," he called, having taken a few steps into the room. "Check it out."

Sam turned, making a mental note that the door behind him was the way out, to see what his brother was seeing. Ahead of them stretched an enormous room, massive expanses of stone formed into hallways, with a different carving in the center of each giant rock. Dean carefully poked his head around one corner, then looked back again and cursed, "Three rocks, then it turns. Same going the other way."

He waited a moment, then tilted his head slightly. "Did you hear that, Dean?"

"Hear what?"

"I don't know, sounded like…" he paused again, trying to will the sound to make itself known. "Some kind of groaning."

"Great," Dean sighed, glancing around the corner again. "Well come on, we can't check it out if we don't move forward."

"Hang on a sec." Sam pulled Ruby's knife from his belt and scratched a very faint 'E' into the stone beside the door. He tucked the knife back into its place, "Just in case."

Dean shrugged his agreement and then stepped carefully around the corner, Sam right on his heels. Dean stopped suddenly and Sam tossed a hand out onto the wall to keep from overbalancing, but found nothing solid to hold on to. As a result he accidentally swatted Dean on the shoulder, and his brother turned to fix him with a 'what the hell' glare. "The wall didn't…" he mumbled, reaching out a hand again. "… act like a wall."

"Wanna try that again, genius?" Dean asked, thoroughly confused.

"I tried to use it for balance, and my hand… my hand went right through," Sam clarified, pressing against what should have been a solid surface. His fingers sank through the stone, and Dean immediately grabbed his wrist and pulled it back.

"Don't encourage it, Sammy!" he whisper-yelled, "It could be trying to eat you or something."

"Doesn't feel like it," Sam countered. "It feels like empty space. The exact same as where my other hand is." He thought about it for a second before he remembered the reason for his discovery. "Why'd you stop anyway?"

Dean looked momentarily worried, but the expression was quickly gone from his face. "Same as you, actually. Went to put my foot down and didn't meet anything. Damn lucky I didn't fall through."

"Fake walls and floors? How are we supposed to explore with that? It's not like we can see through these things…" He thought about it for a second while Dean toed at the imaginary floor, inching his foot along to see if the hole spanned the entire hall or cut off at some point. "Wait. Maybe Cas could see through them!"

"What d'you mean?"

"Well, he's got super angel senses," Sam said, shrugging off Dean's snort at his wording, "so if we can't see what's real and what's not, maybe he can."

"Worth a shot," Dean conceded. "Cas!"

After a brief pause, there was a light brush of wings in the dark space and suddenly Castiel stood beneath the torch on the wall opposite Dean's position. He eyed them quizzically – or at least they interpreted it that way, he looked pretty much the same as he always did – before saying, "Why aren't you stepping around that pit, Dean?"

Dean grinned, giving Sam an approving arm punch before turning back around. "You can see these, Cas?"

"See what, Dean? There's a hole in the floor; it's quite difficult not to notice."

"We see solid floor, Cas," Sam interjected. "And solid wall."

Castiel looked momentarily confused, then simply responded, "That's not right. There's a large pit directly in front of Dean, and a doorway to your left. You mean you can't see them?" They shook their heads and he crouched next to the pit, studying it carefully. "It… doesn't appear to be a malicious curse," he finally concluded, "though I don't recognize it from anywhere. It's simply a misdirection."

"Misdirection?"

"You would have fallen in if your reflexes were worse, Dean," he said matter-of-factly. "Same for you, Sam."

"So there's something down there?"

"Presumably," Castiel answered, walking around the side of the pit and coming up to where they stood, "though I can't say what for certain. I would advise against falling into one."

Dean rolled his eyes, miffed, but bit his tongue. "How about the doors, then?"

Castiel shrugged a bit. "They're doors. They lead to other rooms."

Sam stepped in before his brother could make the comment he knew was coming. "Can you help us get through here? People have been going missing."

Castiel looked between the two brothers, finally agreeing, "Of course. The room through the door to Sam's left looks exactly like this one."

Sam glanced sideways. "So we just… walk through?"

"You put a hand through already, didn't you?" Castiel asked. "From what I can tell, it's just an afterimage of the stone that used to rest there. A shadow. Nothing physical to it."

"And you don't see any threats on the other side?" Dean added, holding his gun tighter as he stepped up next to Sam.

"Not in the corners I can see." His eyes darted between the brothers, resting last on Dean before he took a few steps closer to the wall and poked his head through.

"Cas!" Dean reached for the collar of his trench coat, but he had already straightened up again. "What the hell was that?!"

"You may want to keep your voice down. There's a creature on the other side of this wall."

"A creature?" Sam asked. "What kind of creature?"

"It… resembles a mummy, but it isn't one," Castiel answered after a pause.

"It is but it isn't?" Dean repeated. "What kind of crap is that?"

"Any normal mummy should have seen me and attacked immediately. This one seemed… curious?" he said, as if thinking to himself. "Almost as if it wanted to ask me something."

"I don't speak mummy."

"They don't have their own language, Dean."

"Sarcasm, Cas."

"Okay so what, the not-mummy is just waiting around to have a chat?" Sam said, suspicion etched on his face.

"It seems so."

"What if we say something it doesn't like?" Dean asked, flexing the gun in his hands.

"Then we find out whether it fights like a mummy," Castiel answered, squaring his shoulders. "If we move slowly enough it might not notice us, so let's hope for that outcome."

With that, he turned again to the wall and stepped through the seemingly solid surface. Dean clenched his teeth and followed, immediately flanked by Sam. Castiel was right – this room looked exactly like the last, but there were two clearly defined doors in this room. One lay directly across from them, and the other on the right wall, guarded by an immobile figure. They hesitated for a moment. Dean locked eyes with Castiel, very obviously moving his gaze to the floor, and then back up to his face. The angel paused a second, then shook his head.

Dean looked forward again instead, taking a very slow and tentative step forward. He felt the others follow after him, each moving with the careful soundlessness that had been instilled in them since childhood. Another step, a careful glance to the mummy. A third step, check again. And then suddenly Sam heard it – the same low groaning he had heard earlier. His head whipped to the mummy this time, which was now moving just enough to show that the noise was coming from it. "Dean," he hissed. "Dean!"

The older brother looked over his shoulder and followed his sibling's eye line to watch the mummy as well. "What's he saying, Cas?"

"I… can't understand him," he responded, baffled by the concept. "This is a language only understood by its kin."

"In that case," Dean muttered back, "run!"

But as they took a step, suddenly the groan disappeared and was replaced by a lone, sharp shriek. It pierced into the semi darkness, and suddenly all three men found themselves frozen in place. All of their muscles locked down, and Dean could see in his peripheral vision that the mummy was slowly lumbering toward them.

Castiel was somehow already free. He placed a hand on Dean's shoulder, but nothing happened. "Struggle!" he ordered, apparently unfazed by his power's lack of effect. "It's the only way to break the curse!"

So Dean fought. He wasn't even sure if his efforts were working – did he fight by tensing and trying to move or by relaxing? – but suddenly he jerked free and found himself turning immediately to Sam, who was only a foot away from being mummy chow, despite Castiel's efforts to free him or stop the creature.

Seeing his brother in trouble, Dean did the first thing he could think of: burn the bones, what else is left? He wrenched the lighter from his pocket, flicking it to life, before pushing past Sam and shoving the flame into the face of the mummy. It recoiled as its wrappings caught on fire, and finally Sam pulled himself free. Together they moved toward the far door, watching as the flames spread across their host.

But when they finally dissipated, rather than leaving behind a pile of ash they left behind an unwrapped mummy. Its head lolled slightly from its neck, muscle and sinew exposed beneath rotting flesh, but it simply stood. The three watched it carefully, but it didn't seem to notice them. It turned (away from them, Sam noted) and slowly made its way back to its post at the door.

Sam looked at Dean and Castiel, the former instantly knowing what he was thinking and both praying the latter would at least follow by example and not make noise. From what they could tell, this new whatever-it-was was blind, so if they were quiet again they wouldn't be noticed as they snuck past. They turned and walked carefully, but when they reached the door they stared at the blank stone for a bit, trying to determine how to open it. Castiel confirmed it was solid rock, and there wasn't any sort of switch next to it.

Dean sighed a little – it would have been a groan or curse in a situation calling for less stealth – and looked at the door again. Slowly he reached a hand out toward it, catching Sam's eye. He made a small pushing motion with the hand, cocking one eyebrow slightly. Sam's face scrunched a bit in worry, and he cast a quick glance back at the corpse, but pointed the gun at it anyway and nodded to Dean, who reached out and pushed his palm flat against the stone.

Immediately the door slid up – with the grating crunch of stone against stone. The creature's head turned much faster than its body moved, and it let out another piercing scream. Everyone froze, this time immediately beginning the struggle to free themselves as the creature dragged itself from the wall in their direction. Castiel got free, but as soon as he took another step toward the thing it cried out again, refreezing him. Dean broke free next, careful not to make a sound as he did so, and looked back, carefully shuffling toward the door. They couldn't directly confront it – it would just keep freezing them until it caught up and then do who-knows-what to them. Sam came to this conclusion at the same time that he and Castiel freed themselves, and together the three moved as quickly as they could while remaining soundless through the door and into the next room.

They breathed a soft sigh of relief as the stone slid back into place, looking each other over. "So apparently fire doesn't do squat to these sons of bitches," Dean commented off hand.

"To be fair, we didn't manage to try fire on the second incarnation," Castiel pointed out.

"We wouldn't have a chance," Sam agreed. "How are you supposed to fight it if it screams you stiff?"

"They've gotta have a weakness, Sammy," Dean argued. "Everything does."

"Okay, like what?"

"Can't see, for one thing."

"So we just have to stay silent the entire way through this place?" Sam rephrased, incredulous. "This is a well, Dean, everything's going to echo like—"

"That's it, Sammy, we're in a well!" Dean cheered, barely managing to catch his voice from growing too loud. "We're in a well, and from that ladder we used I'd say we're pretty deep in one. So what can't reach us here?"

"Sunlight," Sam agreed. "But like you said, we're in a well. Where are we going to find sunlight down here?"

"There's actually a beam of it in the next room," Castiel supplied, motioning a hand toward another section of wall that looked solid to the Winchesters. "A crack in the roof foundation, I suppose."

"Well let's go," Dean agreed, walking toward the wall at which Castiel was looking.

But Castiel caught his shoulder. "Wait. There are four more of those creatures in that room."

"The mummies?" Sam asked

"No," Castiel corrected, "the corpses."

"Where are they?" Dean asked.

"They're all… sitting in the middle of the room," Castiel answered, tilting his head slightly. "The sunlight is at the back corner."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Great, so what, we have to sneak into the light?"

"So it seems."

"Okay, but from what we know so far these things can't see," Sam interrupted, looking between the two. "So as long as we move carefully and quietly—" he threw a pointed glance at Dean "—we should be able to get across just fine."

"What then, though? Do we scream and yell until they come after us?" Dean sighed.

"Well, yeah, unless you have some sort of mirror with you."

"Son of a bitch," Dean mumbled. "All right, yeah, let's go. First person to make a sound gets his head ripped off."

"We think," Sam amended.

Castiel looked between the two for a moment, seeming as though he would say something, but they were already moving toward the door. Dean motioned at the wall and glanced back at Castiel, who nodded that yes, he was right in front of the door. Dean took another step and walked through it, almost holding his breath as he passed the illusion.

In the room ahead, he hesitated slightly at the sight before him. He wasn't sure what he'd pictured when Castiel said "sitting in the middle of the room", but he wasn't expecting it to be quite as creepy as it actually was. They sat in a square formation, each creature designating a corner. Their legs were pulled up to their chests, arms wrapped around them, foreheads on their knees. If they hadn't been red and rotting, they could have been mistaken for statues.

Sam and Castiel had joined him by now, also taking in the eerie sight, before they all began a careful navigation to the other side of the room. Once, Sam moved to take a step and Castiel threw an arm out at him, halting his progress. Wordlessly, he pointed at the ground, then shook his head once. Pit, it meant. Sam nodded in understanding, and he and Dean carefully dropped into a line behind Castiel. 'Follow the guy who can actually see where he's going,' Dean thought sarcastically, sparing a glance for the creature nearest him.

They were within a yard of the sunlight when it happened. Castiel stepped a little too close to one of the pits, not making it clear to Sam where the boundary was, and so he overstepped and began to fall. Dean caught his arm in time to pull him back up, but the extra commotion had already woken the creatures. Their heads snapped around in unison, letting out identical screams that froze them all instantly. They began their immediate struggle, Castiel breaking free first – Dean mentally cursed his angel mojo – but instead of moving into the light, he grabbed Dean's wrist and pulled, throwing his (albeit still frozen) body into the beam instead. He hit the ground hard, slamming into the wall. Quickly he rolled onto his feet, watching the corpses lurch after their targets, becoming slightly confused when he still locked down at the next scream.

Sam freed himself only moments after Castiel, though not quite fast enough to avoid also being tossed into the sun. Dean managed to sidestep him by half a second after he unfroze, helping him up once he'd hit the ground. Castiel joined them quickly, shaking off two more shrieks before he did so. "I thought—" Paralysis swept over them again, the creatures still shuffling forward as they spoke.

"Damn it!" Dean yelled when it wore off next. "Why isn't the sun helping?!"

"The sun is—a physical barrier, Dean. It can't—stop sound."

They all looked up quickly as they realized the first of the creatures had reached the perimeter of the sunlight. It lunged at them, but flinched away instantly when it felt the sunlight against its arm. Dean raised his gun quickly and planted a bullet squarely between its eye sockets. The shot echoed deafeningly off the walls, mingling with the new cries of the other creatures. They continued moving forward, but rather than stumbling into the light they dropped gracelessly to its side, moaning.

"Are they… Are they mourning it, or eating it?" Sam asked, tilting his head in confusion.

Dean gagged a little, raising his weapon again, "Long as they stay still, what does it matter?"

Soon the four creatures lay dead on the floor, and the three men sighed their brief respite. "So we gank one, the others line up to join it," Dean summarized. "Not as bad as we thought."

"Still gonna take forever to get through," Sam countered. "We have no idea how far this place stretches, and the people could be anywhere."

"I think we should also consider the possibility that those were the people," Castiel pointed out, the Winchesters flinching a little at the idea.

"We'll never find out if we stay here," Dean agreed.

They murmured their agreement and headed for the next door, and Dean made a mental note that, when they finally got out of the maze, he needed to make a change to the entrance sign:

Entry prohibited due to the presence of seriously screwed up re-dead things.