Teardrops, falling from your eyes like raindrops,

Pouring from the skies,

Remember, you used to have the love I needed, back when we were young

Lovin' always came so easy, heaven shared our love,

Magic, the first time that I held you, you fit like a glove.

You'd soothe me, with a shrug of your heart you could move me,

It always seemed my love would find you, when you needed a friend

I would be the man who would understand you,

But I'm not that man anymore,

And I'm not gonna throw my heart away,

No, that's not me anymore,

Baby I've changed.

-I'm Not That Man Anymore, Survivor

Dean had no idea how long it had been since his last encounter with a monster, but the sudden lack of creatures trying to tear his throat out was starting to concern him. He had stopped coating the various layers of blood and gore over him just to see if there was anything out there. Dean started to seek out the very things that he had been avoiding.

Dean was walking through a section of purgatory that he had never been in before, one that was barren and isolated. There was nothing to break the barren landscape, the dry and cracked rock stretching as far as Dean could see. Dean didn't realize it right away, but he was looking at the edge of purgatory. It continued forever, those who tried walking it found themselves walking in what they could only call circles, eventually coming back to the dead forest that they were trying to get away from.

There was no color to the land, the drab grey's and brown's swirling into a mind numbing monotony. Dean didn't realize that he was longing to see anything other than an earth tone. Something to fill the gaping pit of hopelessness that flooded him as he scanned the empty land.

He was alone.

There was nothing anymore. It was gone. No life around him, no creatures to attack him, nothing to keep him sane. The only thing that Dean could do was walk. Find a new area that he hadn't discovered yet; carve symbols into trees so that he wouldn't forget, so he could keep his mind sharp for when he found a way out of here.

Dean hadn't given up, not yet, but his attempts were becoming more and more desperate. He had looked for the portal that the vampire had spoken about, searching for anything that even represented it. He had asked other monsters that he came across about it, before they all started disappearing that is.

Dean found himself wondering if Castiel was gone too, leaving him completely and utterly alone. He wasn't answering his prayers, but that was nothing new. He had started praying when he first arrived; screaming was a more accurate term. Yelling Castiels name into the darkness of the land till his voice was gone. His anger slowly morphed into fear, his yelling turning into begging, his voice not breaking from strain but from tears, his body shaking as the hopelessness of his situation collapsed onto him. Shuddering, the little bit of liquid in his body leaking out of the corner of his eye, Dean grimaced, whispering out the only name that had passed his lips since the moment he entered this new Hell, "Cas…please…"

Gripping the weapon that Dean no longer had a use for tighter in his hand Dean walked forward, not knowing why, into the wasteland before him, cutting his emotions back and becoming as dead as the land around him. He stunted himself, became colder with every step that he took way from what he knew and explored into the vast and unknown before him.

Dean didn't know how long he had been walking, just that his feet were throbbing and his thighs burning. He had strapped his weapon to his back, leaving his hands free to swing by his sides with every determined step that he took. His mind had one track, playing over and over again, three sentences that feed his determination: get out, find Cas, and then kill that son of a bitch for leaving him alone.

Dean was so focused on these things that he didn't even notice this tingling that had started crawling up his arms and into his torso. It was when the tingling became a buzz that Dean started to notice, shaking his arms to try and get rid of the sensation. No matter how hard he shook his arms, the buzzing wouldn't cease; in fact it grew stronger, becoming a low burn. The burning grew, spreading across his entire body and engulfing him, the heat boiling from underneath his skin. Dean gasped, falling to his knees and fingers pulling at clothes to try and get at the source of the flame, pulling back each layer until Dean had a clear view of his chest.

He was glowing, an orange light pulsing from inside of him like a beacon. With each pulse the light became more intense, the heat becoming more and more painful. Dean's insides were on fire, melting under the extreme temperature they were put under. A scream tore itself from Dean's lips, power and light flooding through him in a final surge, tearing his body apart.

Dean awoke in a motel room lying on a queen-sized bed. His head buzzed and his limbs were heavy, his mouth full of cotton. Squinting against the light that flooded into the room Dean put a hand to his head, trying to figure out where the hell he was. He knew one thing, he wasn't in purgatory anymore.

"Dean?" The sound of Castiel's voice made Dean turn, watching as the angel slowly regained consciousness in the bed beside him. Dean had no idea whether or not to be happy, relived, or pissed at the sight of him so he settled with indifference.

"Where the Hell are we Cas?" Dean took in the room around them, every single item in the room a tacky pastel. The walls were green, the blankets pink and the carpet blue. The trimming was purple, as was the sink and the towels. The furniture was an off yellow with what use to be orange cushions, making Dean think that Easter ejaculated into the room and then left without cleaning up the mess.

Castiel looked around the room, seeming to calculate their whereabouts just by the area around them, "We seem to be in York Haven Pennsylvania."

"Well done Castiel, right on the first try."