A/N: Cas is continuing his case. He gets to meet the original character now. I hope you guys don't hate her. I promise she grows on you.
Ardent, Virginia
Castiel didn't have much he could do to research. He didn't have a ride and still relied on other people to move from place to place. And, he unfortunately didn't know anybody out here. It was frustrating and really limited his ability to hunt. Let alone figure out what the angels were up to and figure out a way to fix heaven. He stepped outside, a couple coins in hand, so that he could find something in the vending machine. Perhaps after he ate something, he'd feel good enough to work through what he could do in his situation.
When he got to the vending machine, he saw a woman wearing a long, green skirt. She was draped in necklaces of all lengths and several types of gemstones. She reminded Castiel of a Christmas tree. He saw that she was without a bra, just by seeing the shape of her breasts underneath her top, which was a simple dark-colored camisole. Her mousy brown hair looked wild and free as it cascaded down slim shoulders. She pounded against the machine before she sighed and pressed her forehead against the glass front of the machine, her Babe Ruth stuck.
She glanced at Cas. "What?" she asked, a bit of a bite in her words due to machine vexing her.
"I was going to get some crackers." His gravelly voice was deeper than she had expected.
"Don't. This machine's a piece of shit trying to cheat me out of my money. That's the second time this week." She gave it one final kick in an effort to somehow best the vending machine.
"The machine is not sentient."
"What?" her tone of voice was more from the utter disbelief that Castiel had to point that out, but the former angel read it as her not knowing the definition.
"It does not have a mind or free will. It is unable to perceive or feel…"
The young woman glanced at Castiel with an incredulous look to her gray eyes. "No, really? I wouldn't have guessed."
"It's a good thing I came over then to explain," the former angel said with a straight face. He thought of the first time he had to use a phone to contact Dean. He continued, "Like you, electronics, machines used to perplex me."
"Hon, I was being sarcastic." She tilted her head and studied him. "You aren't from around here?"
"No."
"Me either." She smiled and stuck her hand out. "Well, then, I'm lively."
He took it and then said, confusion in his voice, "I am also alive."
The young woman laughed and then said. "My name's Lively. Well, my nickname anyways, but I'm fond of it." Her expression was bright as she spoke.
"Oh, my name is Cas-" He shut his eyes and sighed, feeling stupid for slipping up already. He blamed the strange conversation they had for disorienting him. "I mean Steve."
"Huh," she said flippantly. "You're weird." Lively slapped the vending machine one more time. Her candy did not budge so she pouted.
"It's stuck," he observed.
"Well, no shit."
"So it doesn't work?"
"Out of order," Lively confirmed. "So, do you have money?"
"Yeah."
"Wanna order a pizza?"
Hartford, South Dakota
All that the Winchesters knew from interviewing Slim, the homeless man who had seen one of the victims disappear, was that there was a blue flame. Now, they were focused on following the other lead: That all of the victims so far had gone to the same church: Good Faith Church.
Dean and Sam sat across the desk of Bonnie Futchko. She folded her hands on top of the desk, all smiles. She was modestly dressed. Her red hair was down and the headband she wore gave her a chaste, and rather naive appearance. "We hope you enjoyed the tour. Any questions before we get you boys registered?"
Dean sniffed the air and then his face screwed up in a suppressed grimace, which earned a jab at the ribs from Sam. He wiped at his nose and glared at Sam. My nose was itchy.
Miss Futchko watched the two of them carefully, waiting for either a question or a confirmation that they didn't have questions.
Sam awkwardly began: "Uh, yeah, uh, look, um, Ms. Futchko-"
"Oh, please... Bonnie will do just fine." She remained chipper.
"Bonnie. Okay, um, we...love the church. We do. But...Well, we've heard that a few members have gone missing, and, to be honest...that kind of scares us."
"Let me assure you, with our increased security, Good Faith has never been safer. And those people who have gone missing, well, they are front and center in our prayers." She said, putting too much enthusiasm in her words.
Dean jumped in, to prove to Sam that he was fine, "What a relief. Now, you must have been, uh, close to them." Sam, of course, watched his brother.
"Well, we do share the A.P.U. bond."
"The A.P.U. bond?" Dean's eyebrows lifted, curious that this could be a new direction.
Bonnie nodded and continued. "Our chastity group... Abstinence Purifies Us. "
The Winchesters exchanged a glance. Virgins. Dean gave a lewd grin. Sam, of course, remained on task. "Oh. W-wow. You mind if we sit in on that, maybe see if it's for us?"
Bonnie smiled apologetically, "I'm afraid it's members only. I'm sorry, but it can get pretty personal."
"Then count us in."
The cheerful woman clapped her hands together in eagerness. "Well. I'll be a squirrel in a skirt. I'll be back in a jiff with the papers."
The brothers quietly discussed the possibility that they were hunting a dragon due to the flames and the fact that it seemed that an important component to this hunt was that the victims were virgins.
In a short time, Bonnie came back with some forms that she retrieved from a filing cabinet. She handed each brother a clipboard. "All righty. Just sign here and your purification can begin."
Sam read the form. "Purity pledge?"
"It's a commitment to your virginity," Bonnie added helpfully.
Dean laughed and then said, "I don't think we can really un-ring that bell. You know what I mean?"
The woman seemed a bit taken aback, but continued, "Oh. I see. Well... If you just ask for God's forgiveness for your sins and make a new vow of chastity, well, then, you'll be born again as a virgin in his eyes."
"So, you just hit the 'virginity do-over' button, and all is good with the man upstairs?" Dean asked. Mostly because it seemed a bit ridiculous.
Bonnie gasped. "It's not a button! And...this isn't just a piece of paper. I mean, this is your clean slate, your chance to be a virgin until marriage."
Dean smiled and said, "Well, you had me at 'clean slate.' Let's do this."
Both Sam and Dean signed their names on the forms and then handed them back to Bonnie.
"Congratulations. You are now virgins."
Dean smiled at Sam. He wondered how long that would last.
The boys left the church and sat in the Impala. Dean glanced at Sam. "You kept looking at me in the room there, Sammy."
"I'm just trying to be careful."
He started the car. "Sammy, I'm fine. I'm good. You should be worried about yourself."
"Why do you say that?"
"You look tired. From the trials and all," Dean replied, but he refused to look Sam in the eyes. He tried to make it seem like it was because he was too busy keeping his attention on the road ahead. "The potion's probably wore off by now."
Sam drew his mouth into a line. "Sure Dean, that's what you've been saying for the past few weeks. And then you rolled in a mud puddle at Sonny's, remember that? Oh, and then you chewed my wallet. My wallet, Dean."
"Oh, come on!"
"It was bad." Sam would have given Dean bitchface if he wasn't so concerned for his brother's mental state. "Look, Dean, I'm worried."
"Don't be. I'm fine." Dean shrugged. He didn't want to admit that it took a lot for him to not grimace at the scent of Bonnie's too-heavy perfume and how it masked the subtle scent of smoke. There was a reason hunters didn't smoke, it'd make them too easy for monsters to track. Though, when he thought about it, the scent reminded him more of a fireplace than cigarettes.
Castiel opened the box of the freshly delivered pizza that he had purchased. He quickly grabbed a slice and offered one to Lively, but she was distracted by the container of salt on the table next to his flashlight and lighter.
She tilted her head toward it. "Yours, I presume? I didn't get the complimentary sea-salt with my room."
He grabbed it quickly along with the other items and put it on the kitchen counter.
She noticed that there was a scattering of salt on the table. "One hundred thirty-four," she said as she wiped the salt away with her hand.
"What?"
She shrugged. "That's how many there were. I'm like Rain Man when it comes to counting things."
"Rain Man?"
"Really? You know. With Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman?"
He looked lost and simply shrugged.
"Wow." Lively said. "Really?" She finally picked up a slice, took a bite. "At least it's still hot."
Castiel ate the pizza quietly with Lively. They were at the small table beside the window. The light from the afternoon sun filtered through the window. The shadows from the panes cast long lines on the floor and table.
"The pizza guy just delivered our pizza," Castiel remarked, trying to make conversation.
"Uh, yeah. That's what he does. Were you expecting something more?" the young woman asked.
"Uh, sex, maybe," Castiel replied, bluntly.
"Sex?" Lively said slowly, trying to confirm if she heard that right.
"Sex is quite enjoyable. So is this slice of pizza," he took a bite.
Lively laughed. "You're a weird guy, Cas-or-Steve."
"You can pick one, you know. My name, I mean."
"Then Cas. It's a lot more interesting than Steve. And I'm sure it's your real name anyways. Or, rather, what you'd prefer to be called if given a choice."
She was right. Dean called him Cas. He wasn't sure how much he liked her calling him that yet.
"So, how much do I owe you for the pizza?" the woman asked, wiping her hands on a paper napkin.
Cas shook his head. "It's okay."
"Well, now I owe you a favor."
"A favor," Cas repeated. "Well. Do you have a laptop?"
"Yes."
"Can I have it?"
Lively looked crossly at Castiel. "You know, three slices of pizza is not worth a laptop."
"Oh. Right," he said, seemingly lost in thought. He was thinking about what favor could possibly be worth three pieces of pizza.
"Look, I can bring it over if you wanted to look something up." She got up to retrieve her laptop from her room. "But I'm the only one touching it."
Cas put the leftovers away in the small fridge. He started cleaning up and then heard a knock on the door. He let Lively in. She had a small white laptop tucked under her arm. She sat at the table with Castiel, who pulled a chair up. She typed her password and logged into her laptop. "So, what did you need to do with the laptop?"
"Research," Castiel answered, simply.
"Of what?"
"Local legends or something." He wasn't sure how this hunting thing worked. At least on his own.
Lively typed something into the search engine, but couldn't find anything that caught Castiel's eye. She sighed in frustration. "More specific, Cas."
"Specific?"
"What are you looking for exactly?" she clarified.
"Deaths. Or missing persons." Castiel said after thinking things through. If there was some electromagnetic interference, that usually met a ghost. He tried to remember what Dean did when he was watching him. "Someone lost in the forests here?"
The girl brought her right leg up and propped an arm on her knee. Her skirt was long enough that it draped and hid everything, even in this awkward position. Castiel sat stiffly, watching the screen, his cobalt eyes flicking back and forth as he quickly read the links that Lively was clicking on. There had been several missing persons actually. The deaths in the forests weren't too common, but seemed to be what one would expect for people lost in the woods: Animal attacks, exposure to the elements, et cetera. It seemed random. The distance they were from the local towns and villages. How they died. It could really just be people who had wandered into the woods and gotten lost. There would be years when the rate of it increased, and then that was usually after one of the towns expanded or bought property. Perhaps it was a ghost that was an environmentalist?
The former angel was not one to be deterred. He knew that there was something out in the woods. A ghost or something, but he didn't know who. But if these people had their bodies found, then they would have been haunting closer to town, not out in these woods. Castiel was racking his brain. He did not have a hunter's instinct just yet. And it just turned into a game of What would Sam and Dean Winchester Do?
"Any of this what you're looking for?" The young woman asked.
He sighed. "I think I'll have to go into the woods to figure it out."
"Can I come with?" Lively asked.
"No." The answer was immediate. Final. No negotiations. Castiel was going to bring salt, some matches, lighter fluid, and his angel blade. He knew it was risky, but he would survive, surely. He had survived worse after all.
Lively pouted.
Jody was typing away on the laptop when Sam came in from the A.P.U. meeting. There was no Dean. She had hoped that both Winchester brothers would come because there was quite a few things she had wanted to ask them. For example, that awkwardness between the two of them when they first met up with her.
But, once again, Sam was on top of things. "Hey."
When there was something to talk about, it seemed that neither Winchester allowed anybody an opening.
Jody saw that she'd have to force one. She wasn't as good as Dean had been, easily just asking her what her issue was. But, then again, she wasn't as guarded as the two of them. "So what's going on between the two of you?"
Sam looked shocked that she had asked. "Nothing. I've been worried about Dean lately. He keeps telling me that I'm worrying over nothing."
"What happened?" Jody asked, concerned.
"Nothing bad. A case shook him up a bit." Sam tried to change the subject. "He's afraid of flying, you know." It had nothing to do with anything they had done recently, but Sam hoped that Jody would just connect the two and stop asking questions.
"So where is he now?" Jody asked.
"With Suzy, the chastity counselor. Dean swears he's seen her somewhere before. I'm pretty sure he's just going to try to have sex with her."
"The chastity counselor?"
Sam smiled and then said, "Yep. Only Dean would go to a church abstinence meeting and try to hook up with the counselor." He segued quickly into the subject of the case before Jody could comment on the topic further, "So, about the church meeting. It turned into confessional. Two of our vics-Honor and Pastor Fred-did the dirty."
"Oh, well. They're not the only ones. Barb Blanton, our missing bride to be-"
"Yeah?"
Jody continued, "Her mom said she heard Barb and her fiancé in Barb's bedroom."
Sam could see where this was headed. "Going at it?"
"Well, she said she heard sex noises, then Barb crying, then Neil telling Barb it didn't count because it was under 30 seconds."
He chuckled.
"And then, two hours later, she heard a smash and saw a flash of light under the door."
"Blue light?"
Jody nodded and then added, "You know, I'm thinking whatever this thing is, it's not going after virgins, even born-again virgins."
"It's taking virgins who break their chastity vow. So dragons are off the list."
"Dragons?" Jody said. She shook her head in disbelief. "I'm sorry, those are a thing?"
"Yeah," Sam replied.
Dean was looking through one of Suzy's drawers, finding a stash of Casa Erotica DVDs. He raised his eyebrows. He did not expect that. His phone rang and he answered it now that Suzy was in the bathroom. It was Sam. "Hey," Dean said as he realized that the girl on the front of the DVDs was Suzy herself.
"What's going on?"
"I found something big. "
There was a lewdness to Dean's voice that caused Sam to sigh on the other end. "Yeah, well, so did we. So, get this: It's not a dragon."
"Huh. Hmmm." Dean pinned the phone between his shoulder and his ear as he studied the DVD covers. He heard Suzy coming out of the bathroom. "Hey, gotta go."
She came into view as he hid the DVDs behind his back. He smiled. He knew that there was only one way tonight was ending and that was sex with a porn star. And, as predicted, his virginity was not going to last very long.
Castiel was in the woods, holding the cellphone, he had packed salt, matches, some lighter fluid, and he had his silver angel blade hidden up his sleeve. The sun had set. He stepped through the woods, his feet still sore, but he was determined. "Hello?" he called into the woods.
No answer. He had been walking forever and cast his flashlight from tree to tree. Not finding anything he went to turn around, following the same path he was on. Except it didn't lead back to the motel.
His feet were hurting and he just wanted to sleep. Perhaps ask Dean what this strange entity in the woods was if he was so inclined. Then, his flashlight started to flicker. He put it away. So, now the ghost was here.
His phone chimed. Someone was calling him. He picked up the call and put the phone against his ear, trying to concentrate on the garbled words.
"Are you lost?"
He put it on speaker phone. "What's your name?" Castiel said.
"Why do..." and then the whisper was lost to static. "-sss-"
The voice on the other end stopped talking, then there was the first clear sound on his phone: a giggle. And then, Castiel could only hear the dead silence.
He glanced up and saw a small blue light flickering behind some trees like fire. Its movement was erratic and caused the shadows to dance confusingly. Castiel gripped the angel blade in his hands, cautious. Was this a ghost then? He slowly went to follow it and as he did so, it darted in the trees. As he passed some, he noticed what looked like scratches on the trees. Keeping his eyes open, he noticed that there were portions underneath the scratches which were always carved into the trees. There was some sort of symbol carved into the bark of the trees and someone or something had defaced them all. He pulled his phone out, but it wouldn't work in the way he wanted. Electromagnetic interference. He put his fingers against three evenly spaced holes, reminiscent of the points of a triangle.
As he moved, he noticed this on more and more trees. Three holes in an area where someone had scratched out a symbol.
"You still there? Look, I just want to figure out… what you are."
"I like it here." The voice came through Castiel's phone in its soft whisper. "Forbidden-" The voice disappeared with the interference again. Seconds passed of nothing but white noise and then, clearly, "-Castiel?"
"Do you remember your name?"
The fire stopped darting away from him. Castiel approached the fire and was close enough to touch it, but he didn't.
The whisper was quiet as it answered, "Y-sss."
"What do you want?"
"Be honest," this time, the voice sounded whispered into his ear. Castiel could swear he felt the hot breath on his right earlobe. It prickled the hair on the back his neck.
"Honest about what?"
No answer.
All Castiel could think was to offer a confession to the spirit. Perhaps he needed that to be the right answer because right now, he felt guilty for everything he had done. "I… am no angel. I've made mistakes. Mistakes that hurt those I cared about. My family. My friends. And I'm ill-equipped to even attempt reparations. And I just want to fix things."
The blue fire suddenly started moving quickly. He chased after it doggedly and then, when it disappeared, he saw the motel. The neon sign flickering with the missing letters, but proudly proclaiming that there was still vacancy. "Huh," Castiel said. He went to his room, feeling like an idiot for not finding anything and then settled on his bed, sound asleep. He was exhausted.
Lively knocked on the door later that night.
He mumbled awake. Finally, he rose and then walked to the door to open it. He saw his newly acquired friend, though now she was wearing a gauzy nightgown instead of the long, patterned skirt and the top she wore earlier. Her hair was in a messy updo. And she was barefoot. She was braless and Cas could see the shape of her nipples through the pale fabric of her nightgown. She had no shame about how she looked.
"What is it?"
"So, what did you find in the woods?" she asked.
Castiel looked at her. "Couldn't this wait til morning? I need sleep now."
"Well, obviously it could," Lively said. "But I need sleep, too. And I can't sleep until you tell me about what you found. And a girl needs her beauty rest, you know?"
"Nothing. I was just lost for a few hours and then found my way back."
"You know, I can help, right? I don't know what you're up to, but it looks fun."
Cas shook his head again. "I can do this on my own," he said gruffly. He had to do this on his own. He couldn't just hand it off to someone else. Hunting was a strange and dangerous endeavor. It was a world that most people would be better off not knowing.
"You know, you don't have to do it alone." Her voice was sweet and small. "I can help."
Cas gave her a pained smile.
"Please, I insist," the woman said.
Reluctantly, Cas stepped aside and let her in. She made herself comfortable at his table, sitting with one leg up as she seemed to always wont to do.
Cas shut the door and then headed to the bed. Lively's head was canted and her eyes were staring softly at his feet. "You're limping."
"Blisters," Cas said simply.
"That's interesting."
"What is?"
"You seem like you're used to wandering. There's something hard about you. Weathered. Hurt and broken, but strong. You were a soldier perhaps? But your body isn't used to it. How can that be?" She mused aloud. "Sorry, I'm just observant. I've had a lot of practice."
"A soldier… yes." When I was an angel.
"How about this? Let me see your feet."
She was on the floor before Cas could actually give her permission. Her hands were gentle as she pulled off his socks and he let her. She winced as she saw his feet. They were rubbed raw in some places. She touched a tender area where fluid collected under his skin on his soles. Bad blisters. "Where did you serve?" She asked because he didn't have soldier's feet, yet there was honesty and pain in his admitting to be one. Memories so strong that one could not hide them.
"Uh." He averted his eyes. Castiel didn't know what to say. He wasn't a soldier in any branch of the military that he could name. He wasn't very good at lying.
She glanced up at him. "A deserter then?"
"I guess. Yeah." His mind was busy with the things he had done. With how far he had fallen. With how often he had hurt Dean and Sam with his mistakes. Did he desert heaven? All he knew was that he was separated from it. Did he want to get back there? Well, first he needed to fix it. He thought of calling them. Just to hear their voices. Especially Dean, who had banished him from the Bunker. Cas was at his weakest, but he didn't have his friends with him.
Lively understood that she might have overstepped her bounds when the silence lasted too long. "Forgive me, Cas. I didn't intend to make you uncomfortable."
"No, it's fine. I just. You reminded me that I need to call someone." He moved to stand up.
"Don't. Just stay there; I'll get your phone."
"Why are you doing this?" Castiel asked.
Lively looked at him. "Because. I owe you."
"For… what?"
"For the pizza," she said. She rolled her eyes, as if she couldn't believe Castiel had already forgotten.
"But, I thought we were okay. You did some research for me."
Lively shrugged, "Yeah, all I did was look up some things on the laptop for you. It didn't even really help you." She lifted her gray eyes to look at Castiel.
He looked back at her. The quiet air between them was stifling. Lively stood up from off of the floor. "You want me to leave."
The former angel nodded.
"Why didn't you say so?" Lively grinned.
"Uh."
"You're too polite, hon." She smiled as she left the motel room, leaving Cas alone again.
Dean lay next to Suzy after some really good sex. Or perhaps he could call her Carmelita because that was who she was in the Casa Erotica DVDs. "I gotta say… I really missed that," Suzy said. She stood up and Dean leaned to watch her naked ass as she bent over to pick up her clothes. She tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear and shyly looked to Dean, who finally got up to dress himself.
She walked over before he put his shirt on and put her hand on his chest. She tried to ignore some of the scars he had, but his chiseled body made her feel hot and bothered. She focused on the tattoo near her fingertips. "That's really cool." She wore just a well-fitted tee-shirt over a sports bra and some terry shorts.
Dean nodded. "It is."
"What does it mean?" Suzy asked.
"That my body is my own." And he painfully remembered how he allowed an entity to possess Sam. While Ezekiel wasn't a demon, he was still within Sam and sometimes took control over his brother. He was putting a lot of trust in an angel that he didn't know too well, but who seemed eager to help.
"Huh," Suzy said as she pulled up her hair. "Now, that's something I believe in as well. It's sort of why I wanted to do this chastity vow thing. Reclaim myself…"
She looked to Dean because he wasn't answering her. His expression puzzled her. He was intently focused on the door. His nostrils flared and that intensity wouldn't leave him. And then a growl left his throat.
"Uh, Dean?"
It was like he wasn't listening to her; his mind was elsewhere. He grabbed her hand too tightly.
"Dean!" She snatched her hand away and that caused the hunter to let go of her. "What's wrong with you?"
His nose crinkled in a snarl. He couldn't speak at the moment, but his mind was sharp, thoughts whirring through it at a fast pace. Though how human those thoughts were, even he wasn't sure. Dean looked to Suzy, who was panicking because the man she had just had sex with was going insane, acting like a beast, and she had no clue why. He pushed it all back, trying to regain his human mind again and then said, "I'll protect you."
"From what?" Suzy said, confused and afraid.
And with that, the door was shattered open and blue fire filled their senses. And then, they were gone.
Jody glanced up from the laptop to see Sam putting his jacket on. "What's up?" she asked.
"This thing is taking people who break their vows, right?"
"Yeah."
"Dean and Suzy. It's been over an hour."
Jody stood up, realizing the implication. "Right." She started putting her jacket on.
Suzy came to before Dean did. She was lying down on the dirty floor of the underground room. She heard the hysteria of Barb, a victim who had been abducted before she was. She was crying and was attempting to claw her way out. Her fingertips were bleeding from trying to work through the stone walls. "Let us out! Let us out!" Her voice had gotten hoarse.
Honor crossed her arms and watched helplessly. "What are you doing?"
Neil tried to comfort his fiancée, Barb, but it was obvious that he was just as desperate as she was. However, he had, for the most part, simply given up.
"There has to be a way out," Barb said.
Suzy recognized the voices from people who she led in the A.P.U. group. She slowly lifted her torso off of the ground and her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She noticed Dean beside her. He was unconscious, but made small whimpering noises, as if he were being plagued by nightmares.
She was almost afraid of awakening him, remembering the strange change in expression he had and how he had seemingly become something other than completely human-mentally, at least. But then she remembered his promise to protect her. She touched his shoulder. "Hey Dean."
He jerked awake and looked at her with that strange, lost, and animal expression. She could see it in the barely light of the dungeon. In the way he lifted himself and in the weight of his silence.
"Dean?" she asked.
He shook his head, as if to shake that inhuman part of him out of his mind. It seemed to have worked because he asked, "Uh, where are we?"
Neil hugged his sobbing wife-to-be as he answered for the group. "Hell."
Sam was in Suzy's apartment. He had the Casa Erotica DVDs in his hands. He was trying to piece together what could have happened here, but there was scant evidence. At least he knew that Dean was here. And that they had definitely did the deed. Jody came into the apartment after interviewing the neighbors.
"Hey," Sam said.
"Hey."
"Neighbors see anything?"
"Flash of blue," the sheriff replied.
"Huh." His voice sounded far away. Sam had no clue where his brother was.
"You sure Dean was here?" Jody could see the weight of his worrying on his shoulders, but she also wanted to make sure that Sam wasn't holding onto any sort of false hope.
Sam held up the DVDs. "Oh, yeah. And I think he crossed someone off his bucket list."
In the dark room, Dean was up on a ladder, trying to work through the trapdoor. He pushed and pushed at it.
"It's no use," Neil said. "We tried. There's no escape."
"Are we going to run out of air?" Suzy asked.
Neil shook his head. "I don't think so. Somebody wants us to die nice and slow."
Dean noticed that there were only three victims in here, other than himself and Suzy. "There was one more, right?" He seemed too calm for the situation.
"Pastor Fred was in here," Honor said, a note of rising terror in her voice. "It took him after he, um."
"What took him?" Dean asked.
"We couldn't see exactly. It was… it was so bright. Like it was on fire."
"I'll get you out," Dean said. He looked around in the darkness, at the people below him, frightened out of their minds.
"How!" Neil said, his voice was strained with fear. It wasn't a question, more of an assertion that there was no way out.
Dean grunted as he tried and failed to open the trapdoor again, and then said, "I'm working on it."
