Disclaimer: Sadly, not mine.
The Science of Torture
Is it possible for fire to drown; water burn? Can a soul scream in agony if its tongue is cut out and its vocal cords are carefully and surgically severed? Is a cry heard if there is no one alive to hear it?
These are some of the questions to which Dean discovered the answers while in hell.
And they are all yes, for the laws of physics and other laws of nature on Earth do not apply in hell—except when they are instrumental in creating more pain. Then, the pull of gravity becomes stronger, pulling him down, down, straining and tearing against the chains and meat hooks embedded in his flesh.
The laws of the earth above pertaining to force increases tenfold and he is torn apart, over and over again, drawn and quartered like in some movie he once saw—he thinks. It's hard to remember parts of his life now through the haze of eternal agony. The constant fiery ache in his muscles and joints elicits wordless screams.
And the clincher in all this? He can't die. At least with the release of death comes a moment of quiet and calm nothingness, no pain. Dean discovered that when he was mauled by Lilith's hellhounds when his deal came due, the first and only time he remembers dying.
But down here, the agony is never-ending. The torture is applied ceaselessly, and his screams of pain are relished by his tormentors, who goad him on even more. It never stops. When all the hacking and slicing has carved away all his flesh and there is nothing left but bones and white-hot pain, his body—no, it's not a real body because I'm dead!—is rejuvenated and he is whole again. They continue with the cutting—or burning or lashing—as soon as it all painfully grows back.
And Dean can do nothing but scream.
"Somebody help me! Please! Sammy!"
Is a cry heard if there is no one alive to hear it? Yes, if everyone else around you is dead, too.