AN: Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, even though I'd love to, and I'm not making any money off this. Don't sue or whatever.

What might have been hours later, the three creatures came into the room Sam and Dean were sharing, shutting the door behind them and blocking it well. "We're about to tell you what's going to happen over the next however many weeks," said the shifter who had held the gun to Dean's head. "First, to make things easier, my name is Dante. This here is my brother Adriano. That's Azrael. Now, the reason you're here is that a few years ago my other brother, Zeke, was killed by hunters. We did all we could to find out which hunters, and finally we did. It was the Winchester brothers. The time has now come for us to take vengeance."

Now Adriano picked up the story. "Here's what's happening. We put that note Sam wrote in Sam's room, and we took away all your belongings and stashed your car. Castiel is going to be of the firm belief that the two of you are on a hunt. Then, about a week from now, we'll either get Sam to call Castiel, or one of us will do it posing as Sam, and tell Castiel that the two of you are going to be gone for a little longer than planned. If Castiel asks about Dean, he will be informed that, for whatever reason, he doesn't want to talk right now. Hopefully, if we do this right, Castiel will start getting worried when the only one he hears from is Sam. Then, a month from now, after you've both had plenty of time to anticipate the breaking of your dear angel's heart, we're going to have Dean – the real Dean – call and break up with Castiel. He'll tell him it's over, they won't see each other again, and that's the end of it. Not only will this eliminate Castiel from our list of ways the two of you might be rescued, but it will put all three of you in pain. Then the two of you will spend the rest of your lives being tortured, because just killing the two of you would be far too easy. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why we have the angel here. He's here because he also reduces the risk of you two getting away, and he'd like to see Castiel suffer. Any questions?"

"How do you know we won't try to get a message to Cas?" Dean couldn't help asking. He wanted to make sure there wasn't a way to do that without getting himself or his brother killed. "I mean, can you go into a little more detail on the whole communication thing?" Dean ignored the 'are you insane' look Sam was giving him.

"Well, we're having Sam call him in a week because he's less likely to notice a change in Sam's demeanor over the phone than yours. Now that I think about it, I believe I'll pose as you, Sam," Adriano said. "Just to keep the conversation nonchalant and all. Then there will be no communication until it's Dean who calls him, the real Dean, on his phone. The fear that will surely be in his voice as he sees his younger brother with a gun to his head will be interpreted as regret, I'm sure. And Castiel will be on speaker. We may or may not have Azrael delving into your mind to make sure that you don't do anything stupid."

"Any more questions?" Dante asked. The Winchesters shook their heads and were soon left alone.


Over the next days, all they saw of the three holding them was when they were brought food twice a day. Sleeping was torture on the cold floor. Waking up was even worse. Life was over all pretty sufferable. All Dean could think about was the phone call he would have to make. He knew it would break Cas's heart. That was already crushing him. All Sam could think about was the pain he saw on Dean's face daily, the pain he knew was brought on by the thought of what was to come. He couldn't help but feel pain at it as well. Cas was his friend too, almost like a brother to him, which he had always had to stop himself from looking into too deeply, because then one of his brothers was dating his other brother…

It was two days before Dean was scheduled to make that call when he finally just broke. He and Sam had just finished their first meal of the day when he started looking angry. Having a vague idea of what might be coming, Sam waited for it to arrive on its own. "I refuse," Dean finally said. "I'm sick of this. We are literally just sitting here, wasting away. This isn't doing anyone any good. I know you look exhausted and I can't look much better, but we have to do something. We haven't even tried to get out. We've just accepted that they know what they're doing and there isn't a way out, but I can't just wait around to die after breaking the heart of the man that I… that I love. Sammy, we have to do something." Dean sounded undeniably desperate when he said it.

Sam looked at him. He knew good and well that Dean loved Cas, but hearing him say it, which was rare, somehow struck something inside of Sam. Maybe it was just the blunt honesty behind the statement. Whatever it was that caused it, Sam knew in that moment that Dean was right. They has just given up, and quickly at that. He was suddenly disappointed in both of them for letting this continue for so long. "Alright, what do you have in mind? Whatever it is I'm game."

"Let's try to get the door open," Dean decided as a good starting place. "For all we know it may not even be locked." That got them nowhere. "Ok, forget Plan A. now for plan B. Why don't we just try to make a break for it the next time they bring us food?" Dean took a pause before taking off his flannel shirt. "I'll throw this at whoever it is, create a diversion. As soon as it comes in contact with his face, we run. Sound good?"

"I don't have any better ideas," Sam said, although he was secretly skeptical. He wasn't going to say anything though, because he'd prefer an unlikely plan that might work to just doing nothing and accepting their fate.

The next time the door opened, Dante walked in. Dean's plan was initiated. It almost worked, but Adriano was standing directly outside the door and heard his brother's yell of surprise. He apprehended the Winchesters before they could make it three steps out the door and effectively knocked them out.


This time it was Dean who awoke first. He surveyed the room he was in, grateful that it was empty except for him and Sam. Unfortunately, he soon realized they were both tied with their hands behind their backs and their ankles together. "Great," he muttered. Then Sam was groaning, so Dean turned his attention to his younger brother, who was apparently beginning to wake up.

"Dean?" he mumbled.

"Right here, Sammy," Dean said. "You ok?"

"Fine, you?"

"Sure," Dean said, even though he wasn't. He had a headache and he was going to have to break up with the love of his life and quite probably his soul mate in a mere two days, and he was hungry, and their food apparently hadn't been left behind for them, and he had no plan, and he was going to die in a few weeks.

"That went well," Sam commented.

"Shut up," Dean groaned. Sam just gave him an unsure smile, like he was trying to act like things were ok, even though they weren't even close. "Well," Dean started, "I'm fresh out of genius escape plans, so it looks like I'm going to have to do it."

Sam looked at him sadly. "I think you might be right, and then it's over; for all of us. Dean, we've faced demons and the devil himself and so many things that should have turned out bad, that seemed worse than this, but now we can't get out of this. I mean, with all the other things we'd been through, you'd think we could survive this, but it doesn't look like we can, and it's going to be the end of not only the two of us, but also, possibly, probably, the end of Cas, and there's not even anything we can do about it."

Dean examined his brother. "Sammy, that's not like you, to just give up like that." Then a thought crossed Dean's mind. "Or are you Sam?" The thought that it could be one of the shifters looking like his brother again chilled Dean.

A wicked smile came across not-Sam's face as he quickly cut through his bindings and stood over Dean. "How clever," he said. "I was hoping I could play with you a little more, pretending to be your brother, but I can certainly still play with you now."

That was the last thing the shifter said to Dean before he began to cut into him with the knife he'd used to cut himself free. Dean refused to cry out, but the creature kept cutting and Dean wondered when he would be done. It was hard, but Dean forced himself to remember that this wasn't Sam, Sam wouldn't do this to him. Finally the thing went behind Dean, after he had been turned into a bloody mess of cuts and gashes. He didn't leave the room though. He got something from the floor behind Dean, and the next thing the hunter knew, there was the sound of something hissing through the air before he felt an impact on his back, then the burn of a whip lash. He received 15 stroked before the creature untied him and left him on the floor, alone and bloody. Dean had a moment to wonder which was worse before welcoming the darkness overcoming him.

Two storage rooms away, in an identical room, Sam woke up around the same time Dean had. He looked at the figure lying on the other side of the room, awake. He thought it was Dean.

"You ok?" he asked Sam.

"Yeah, you?" Sam asked in return.

"No, I'm not. I'm days away from breaking Castiel's heart. How do you think that feels? Or maybe you know. After all, you've done the same to me on several occasions, starting with when you left us when you were 18. Then there was that time you chose that stupid demon over me. And of course you allowed Lucifer to take control of you after you said he could take your meat suit, which resulted in me getting the beating of my life. And you didn't even have the decency come back with a soul after that."

The words were harsh, and they made Sam crumble for a moment. He never would have thought he'd hear those words in that tone from his own brother. Then he realized – Dean would never say that to him. "You're not my brother," he said, hoping with all he had it was true.

"Well, that ended sooner than I hoped. Oh well, that means more time to cause you physical pain. Isn't that fun?" It wasn't long before Sam was given the same treatment as Dean. Darkness consumed him as well once the monster in his room left him in a puddle of blood and solitude.

The next time Dean woke up, he was untied, but whenever he moved it cause stinging pain to radiate through his body. His shirt was in tatters, but his jeans were still intact. He noticed someone that looked like Sam on the other side of the room, but he couldn't be sure. He almost hoped it wasn't, because he almost looked worse than Dean felt.

"Dean?" Sam (?) asked. He sounded like he was in pain.

"Yeah, it's me, but is that really you?" Dean asked suspiciously.

"I could say the same thing. Last time I woke up, one of those shifters made himself look like you and started torturing me," Sam said.

Dean winced in sympathy. "Same here," he said. "I figured it out after he started saying how it was over for everyone. He sounded too hopeless to be you."

"Yeah, I figured it out after he started saying how I was a failure as a human being," Sam said.

A look of anger came across Dean's face. "He said that?"

"Not in so many words, no. Look, I guess you're acting like yourself, so let's just assume we are who we look like."

"Ok," Dean said.

"Listen, I just had a thought," Sam said.

"Ok, I'm all ears," Dean said.

"Well, we both figured out that the shifters weren't who they were posed as. Maybe Cas will too, in which case we might have a shot."

"Well, let's look at this for a minute. All they've been telling him is basically that we aren't coming. That doesn't take much acting, and they're getting the real thing to break up with him. So he doesn't have as much to go on, but I hope you're right all the same."

Silence fell over them after those words were spoken.

AN: The end to another (hopefully) great chapter. I'm going on a trip soon and I won't be able to post anything while I'm gone so I'm thinking about posting another chapter tonight. We'll see what happens. Please let me know what you think about this. A Review would absolutely make my life.