"Sure," Dean answered hesitantly. Letting a stranger borrow his phone wasn't the best idea, but this man seemed genuinely worried about his wife. He handed over his phone.
The man walked far enough away that Dean wouldn't hear him. He searched through his contacts until he found the name Sam. He pressed the enter button and put the old phone up to his ear.
"Dean?" The voice over the phone asked.
"Try again," the man said.
"Who are you? Where's my brother?" The man on the other side seemed fairly calm, considering a stranger just called him from his brother's phone.
"Oh I wouldn't be too worried about Dean. He's a little busy at the moment. But what I need you to do is follow my directions very carefully." The man looked behind him to make sure Dean couldn't hear him. "You're going to write down an address, and you're going to go to it. You're going to go alone, and without weapons, or a bullet goes through your brothers brain. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Sam answered, defeated. He had to get his brother back, but how? They were going to kill him if he came with anything that even resembled a weapon.
"Alright, make sure you have a pen and a paper ready. I'll give you the address. I need you to go to (insert address here). You got it?"
"Yes."
"Now, if you try to track this phone, or even send texts or call it, your brother dies. Got it?"
"Yes."
"Great. Now just remember all of the instructions I gave you, and you'll see your brother again."
The man hung up. Almost as soon as he hung up, he started dialing a new number. The man on the other end answered on the first ring. "Is he on his way?"
"I just got off the phone with him. Based on his location, he should be there in an hour. I'll be there sooner. Wait for me."
"Got it." With that, the man hung up. He walked back over to Dean, handed his phone back, and thanked him. He headed for the address that he gave Sam.
Sam didn't know what to do. How did Dean get himself into this mess? He was very capable. He couldn't figure out how one guy got him, unless he had a gun. That must've been it.
Sam took all he weapons he had on him and put them in the trunk of the car. He didn't know why Dean hadn't taken it, but he'd insisted on taking a rental and leaving the car for Sam. He didn't even think he would need it.
He got into the car and started driving to the address the man gave him. It would take him about an hour to get there.
Once he got there, he started getting out of the car. He looked at the building in front of him. It looked old, like it hadn't been used for a while. Sam hoped that they were keeping Dean here. He just wanted to see him and make sure he was okay. He should've asked for proof of life when he was on the phone. He didn't even know if Dean was really alive.
He walked up to the door. He didn't have his lock pick, since it could technically be classified as a weapon. He tried opening the door. It opens without a problem, so Sam started wondering. They wouldn't leave the door unlocked unless they were waiting for him.
Sure enough, as soon as he walked in, he felt a gun barrel placed on his back.
"Don't move. I have a text ready to send to the person with your brother. One press of a button, and he's dead."
Sam complied, and stayed where he was. "Where's my brother?" He asked, not expecting an answer.
"If you behave, you'll see him soon enough. Now, I need you to sit in the chair over here."
Sam did as he was told. There was a wooden chair not that far in front of him. The man placed the gun into the holster. "Remember, one wrong move, and down your brother goes."
Sam figured that the best way to get both him and Dean out of this mess was to do everything they said. Maybe they could negotiate.
The man walked across the room, his eyes never leaving Sam. He picked up some rope. He walked back over to Sam, his eyes still trained on him.
He set the rope on the ground. "Stand up. But remember," he said, and waved the phone he was holding.
Sam stood up. The man started searching him for weapons. Once he was sure there were none, he ordered him to sit back down. The man picked up the rope and started tying him to the chair. He tied his wrists to the arms, his ankles to the legs, and his chest to the back of the chair. He's done this before, Sam realized. The knots are way too secure for it to be his first time. After he finished with the rope, he picked up a cloth and tied it in his mouth and around the chair. He couldn't move at all, not even his head. The man stepped back and admired his handiwork. He took out his phone, and Sam panicked. When he lifted it up and said, "Smile!" He calmed down a little bit. He wasn't killing Dean, at least not yet. He started pressing buttons.
"Now, I'm going to explain something to you. You're going to listen." He pulled a chair up to face Sam.
"When I called you from Dean's phone, there was never a gun on him. Hell, there wasn't even a weapon on him. I saw him on the street and I borrowed his phone. I asked if I could call my wife, since my phone died. I said I wanted to see if she was okay. When he gave it to me, I called you. We had our conversation. I gave his phone back, and we both went our separate ways. See, your brother is still out there, probably looking for you. Now I'm going to send him a picture of you, the one I just took. He'll come looking for you, and I'll get him, too. I'm supposed to kill you both right away, but I think I'll have my fun, first."
Sam was stuck on one sentence. ""I'm supposed to kill you both right away."" What did he mean by that? He's supposed to?
The man started talking again. "My name's Marian Bennett, by the way."
Marian took out his phone again, and Sam assumed he was sending Dean the picture. "Based on his location, Dean should be here in an hour."
How long had he been watching them?
After the man borrowed his phone, Dean tried calling Sam. When he didn't answer, Dean knew something was wrong. Sam always answered, unless he was in trouble. Maybe he was just asleep and the phone ringing didn't wake him up. He went back to the motel to check.
The room was empty when he got there. Sam wouldn't just take off like that. Someone had to have taken him. His phone buzzed, and he hoped to God that it was Sam. He looked at the screen. He didn't recognize the number. There was a picture attached to it. Dean opened it, even though it wasn't a good idea. He's already made a lot of bad decisions today, what's a couple more? The picture he was looking at horrified him. It was Sam, tied to a chair. Dean didn't have much time to look at the picture, because another text came in right after.
The text said, ""So, here's your brother, in case you were looking for him. I figure you want him back. You can see him, if you follow my clear instructions. You will come to (insert address here), and you will come alone. You will come with no weapons of any kind, or even anything that resembles a weapon. If you violate any of these rules, I will kill Sam. I hope you understand. See you when you get here.""
"Son of a bitch," Dean whispered. He raced out to the rental car he was using, since Sam had the Impala. He didn't know where it was now, but he figured he would find out soon enough. It would take about an hour to get to where they were hopefully holding Sam. He started the car and drove out of the parking lot of the motel as fast as he could.
Dean pulled up to the building that the man sent him to. It was an old building, probably hadn't been used in a while. He obviously didn't have anything to pick the lock, so he tried to open it to see if it was unlocked first. It opened on the first try, so Dean knew something was wrong. They were waiting for him. He opened the door and saw Sam, still tied to the chair. A man was standing behind him, a knife at his neck.
"Sammy," Dean whispered. He could see the pleading look in Sam's eyes. He wanted him to do whatever the guy said. Before he had time to think, he heard the unmistakable click of a gun.
"Don't move," said the voice behind him.
Dean saw a chair next to Sam, and he figured it was meant for him. Sure enough, the person with the gun pushed him towards it. Dean walked, following Sam's orders.
"As you can see, there's a knife on your brother. One wrong move, and it goes in his throat." Dean nodded slowly. The man checked him for weapons. Once he was done, he told him to sit down. He did. He looked over at Sam. The knife was still there.
"Don't worry Sammy, I'm gonna get us ou-"
"Shut up!" The man with the knife said. Dean did. He watched as the man tied him to the chair, the same way as Sam. Once he was sure Dean couldn't move, he sat down in a chair across from him. The man with the knife sat in a chair across from Sam.
It was only then when Dean recognized the man who had just tied him up. He was the man that borrowed his phone to call his wife. He knew it wasn't a good idea to let him use it.
"Now, I'll explain everything to you, since I'm going to kill you anyway. Your brother here has already hear everything." The thought of him being alone with Sammy for that long have him chills. What had he done to his little brother? "First of all, my name is Marian Bennett. You don't know me. You know my friend, though. I'll tell you more about him later. Do you remember when I borrowed your phone?" He waited for answer, which Dean obviously couldn't give him. He chuckled as he realized. "My bad, you can't give me an answer. I'll just assume you do. Well, I called your brother here. I told him that we had a gun on you, and if he didn't do whatever we said, we would kill you. Now, of course there was no gun on you, but he didn't know that. He thought we were telling the truth. So, he did whatever we told him to.
"Then we sent that nice picture of him to you, and, well, you saw the text. We got both of you here, willingly, by threatening the other. There was a little white lie involved, but I think we can see past that."
Dean was angry at himself for falling for everything. Angry for letting Marian borrow his phone. Angry for not being close enough to hear him talking to Sammy. Angry for not being more prepared. He should have called someone and told them where he was going, in case he didn't come back. All of this could have been avoided.
"We're going to leave, since it's pretty clear that you can't even move. We'll be back soon enough to start."
""Start what?"" Dean wondered. The two men left. Sam and Dean were left alone with the their thoughts.
It had been awhile since Marian and his partner left. Dean wasn't sure how long, since he had no way of telling time. They had both lost hope, there was no way of getting out of this. Marian was right; they couldn't even move.
They heard banging on the door, so they assumed Marian was back to start whatever he was planning on doing. When the door burst open, they were surprised to see Bobby standing there with a gun.
He ran over to Dean. "Who the hell was that?" He asked as he took the gag out of his mouth.
"Which one?" Dean asked.
"What do you mean, which one? There was only one."
"Bobby, there were two people here."
Bobby finished untying his hands and chest and moved over to Sam. Dean bent down to his ankles.
"There was only one guy out there. He was sitting in front of the door, so I shot him."
Sam looked at Dean. "That must've been the one that didn't say anything."
"Marian's little pet." Dean commented.
"So this other guy, the one in charge, he'll be coming back?" Bobby asked them.
"Yeah," Dean said, getting up.
"We should go before he gets here then," Bobby said.
"No. We need to stay." Dean and Bobby gave Sam a confused look. "He said he's supposed to kill us. Which means he won't stop until he gets the job done. We need to make sure he's dead before we leave," Sam explained.
"So we wait him out. When he gets here, we kill him."
The door opened silently. Marian saw the Winchesters standing next to an older man.
"Bobby," Dean said, wide eyed.
"What?"
Dean grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around. "Son of a bitch," Bobby muttered before shooting at Marian. He fell immediately.
"Why didn't he fight back, or at least run?" Sam wondered.
"He was a coward. He lured us here by using our weaknesses because he couldn't get us any other way. He was smart, but a coward," Dean told him.
"We need to get out of here. I saw the Impala outside when I got here. There was another beside it, and since you two didn't come together, I'm guessing that's a rental one of you were using."
"Why didn't he get rid of the cars?" Sam said to no one in particular. Nobody knew the answer to that.
Before anyone asked more questions, Dean walked out, Sam and Bobby right behind. They each got into their cars.
Dean stopped before he climbed into the rental. "Hey Sam, do you mind if I take my car?"
Sam got out of the Impala. "Go ahead." He walked over to the rental. Once Dean was inside his car, he felt safe, like everything was right with the world, even though he knew it wasn't.