Sam and Dean were at a small burger joint called Glenn's when Dean received a call from Lynn. Sam was still doing research on his laptop while Dean stuffed his face with the loaded burger the waitress just brought over. Dean quickly began to ask questions with his mouth full.

"So its probably not attached to the place then. But I'm not even sure that demons do that. Maybe they just go around wrecking havoc."

Sam stared at his brother and Dean struggled to talk around his food. Did Dean really have no manners?

"Yeah seems like that must be it cause the area is clean. There hasn't been a death that wasn't of natural causes in forty years. And I already told you Lynn's history is clean too. I'm not finding anything at all."

"Well what do you know about her? Other than what she looks like naked of course." Dean smirked and wiggled his eyebrows as Sam scowled at him.

"Look I said I didn't wanna talk about it. We have a past and that's all you need to know." Sam closed his computer, suddenly ready to leave and escape his brothers questions.

"Well yeah, but did you see her? She looked like she saw a ghost." Dean took a gulp from his soda, " That was more than a old one night stand look. What were you seeing her and Jess at the same time? She find out?"

Sam was appalled. "No! I never cheated on Jess!" Sam exclaimed, gaining a couple looks from the the other patrons. "Look. I knew her for about a month. We had a thing and then I left. Cut contact."

Dean sat there for a minute, chewing his food and pondering Sam's words, until suspicion grew on his face.

"Wait...she is from Florida right? Weren't we down there when you told us about the scholarship?"

Sam's face paled as he struggled to find a way to change the subject. He really didn't want to dredge all this up. Especially not with Dean. How would Dean ever understand what had been going on when Sam made his decision to leave? He opened his mouth to restate the fact that it wasn't Dean's business, but he was saved by Dean's phone as 'Smoke on the Water' cut through their uneasy silence.

Dean's greasy burger hit his plate with a 'splat' as he dropped it, wiped his hands on his napkin and pulled his phone from his pocket. His face was slightly confused as he looked to see who was calling, but it quickly grew into a smirk as he turned his attention back to Sam.

"Its your girlfriend." He grinned as he answered the phone with a casual "What's up?" Sam just frowned at his brothers comment and waited to hear what was going on, but Dean's face went right back to confused.

"Hello?" He asked again, but apparently no one was there.

Dean pulled the phone back to check if the call was still connected and when he saw that it was he put the phone back to his ear. He repeated himself and then suddenly he heard someone. It was a man talking in the background and he must not know that he could be heard. Heard yes, but not understood. His voice was muffled beyond recognition, even when Dean crushed the phone to his ear. The thought crossed his mind that Lynn had a man over, accidentally dialed and he might be hearing something he doesn't want to, but what kept him listening was that he didn't hear Lynn at all.

"What? Whats wrong?" Sam asked, but Dean held up his hand to silence him. He tried harder to hear the speaker, but suddenly a cry rang out that practically left his ear ringing.

"ITS THE DEMON!"

The blood drained from his face as Dean put the phone back to his ear.

"Lynn?" Dean growled into the phone, but he was only answered with the same mysteriously creepy voice that came in crystal clear this time.

"Don't make this any harder for yourself."

Then the line went dead. The look Dean gave his brother was all the communication that was needed as Sam crammed his computer and books into his back and threw a twenty on the table and they barreled out of the little burger joint to the impala.

Lynn POV

Its funny how much animal instinct we humans have. I mean I guess we are still animals, but we've gone way beyond instinct into reasoning and logic. But time and time again we've shown that when it comes down to it our bodies and our minds loose control of that logic and we revert back to our primal sides. Which is what I was beginning to do now.

The demon had released his death grip on my neck and I was know hacking up a lung on the floor, the shattered pieces of my phone next to me.

The only thing I could do was hope that Dean had heard my yell. The demon was walking around my apartment, touching my things, tainting my things with his very being. If I lived to ever clean my apartment again I was going to throw everything out. I wanted to jump to my feet and spring for the door, but my fear had my butt rooted to the floor. The major flaw in the production of animal instinct. It should be fight or flight, but I wasn't stupid. I could never fight this creature disguised as a mere man in my living room. So the only thing that was left was flight, but my fear was to great to move. Why give him another reason to lavish his attentions on me? What if he goes all mobster on me and busts my kneecaps so I can't run?

"Everyone has secrets Lynn." He was saying to me in that totally smooth, totally...normal voice as he examined a picture of me and my brother that was taken last Christmas. "Everyone has things about themselves that no one knows. And everybody revels in the fact that only they know everything about themselves."

Was he being cryptic on purpose or was this another way that demons tormented their victims? Make you struggle to figure out what they were saying before they killed you. What sick bastards.

"But you cannot, for Lynn Marlin doesn't know everything about Lynn Marlin. I happen to know one thing you do not."

I shouldn't open my mouth. If I just ignore him will he go away? Will he just tell me anyway if I don't say anything? Maybe if I tell him I don't want to know? Oh but I did want to know. Who wouldn't want to know something about themselves that they don't know? My curiosity is only normal, but I'm afraid of what he is going to tell me if I ask him what he knows. What if its bad? Like I'm the spawn of Satan or something?

Ok maybe I'm being dramatic, but I have a fucking DEMON in my living room so I think I have a little license to think the worst. So I went against my animal instinct to remain quiet and he might stop paying attention to me and opened my mouth.

"What do you know?" My voice was raspy from when he almost crushed my larynx before and I immediately regretted saying anything. His empty black eyes snapped to my face and I wanted to shrink away. I could feel him trying to read me. Even though the necklace kept him out of my head it didn't keep him from picking me apart with his eyes. He was watching my every move and it was extremely unnerving to be studied like a bug. Like something he could tack down and dissect and I wasn't entirely sure that he wouldn't do that.

He was looking at me like he was deciding whether or not to tell me. The suspense was killing me, but I wasn't sure I wanted to know what he had to tell. Like I said before, what if it was something horrible.

BANG!

I didn't have time to think about what he was going to say because the door slammed open and Sam and Dean stood in the doorway, guns at the ready. What were you going to do with a gun against a demon? But they just stood there, aiming at him. I wanted to yell at them to do something, but I settled on trying to remain invisible now that his attention wasn't on me.

"Sam and Dean Winchester. You boys are always breaking down peoples doors aren't ya. Now I was talking to my friend Lynn so if you don't mind, let's not make this all about you." And with a flick of his wrist they flew out the door which quickly slammed behind them. I could hear them banging on the door, but the demon must have sealed it somehow so I did something crazy. Well crazy to me who didn't want the demon to kill me. But guess its either sit here and wait for it or die trying to get out.

I bolted from the floor and tripped into the kitchen. My apartment building might be small, but the window in my kitchen had a fire escape and that was my ticket out since the door was sealed. I almost made it when I felt a tug on my left leg like I'd been caught by one of those rope traps, but instead of hanging me in the air I was being tugged backward. I couldn't help it as the scream ripped from my throat and I felt as if my heart was going to come out with it. I can't even describe the feeling knowing that a demon had a hold of me and was pulling me back to him to do whatever he had in mind.

I didn't want to die. I was too young to die. I didn't do anything to deserve this so why was it happening? That was a question that I was not able to figure out because before I knew it the hand to my door was blown of with what I assume was a shotgun blast. The demon quickly abandoned me on the floor to turn his attention to the door which now held Sam and Dean again. Sam stood tall with the shotgun tucked to his side and Dean held his pistol at the ready. I was about to wonder what a gun was going to do to a demon for the second time, but I was cut short by the blast from the shotgun. I wasn't ready for it so it rattled my brain and left me stunned with my eyes closed and my hands clamped over my ears. This whole ordeal was just too fast to process and by the time I'd registered everything the demon was stunned, I guess, and Dean was pulling me out the door with Sam right behind us.

"Whats going on?" I hollered as we flew down the staircase, my right arm still in Dean's grasp.

"Just move!" Dean yelled at me as he pushed me faster down the hall and out the door. His grip was hurting my arm but I guess I couldn't complain. He basically just saved my life so I was gonna keep my mouth shut.

I was shoved into the driver side door of some kind of classic muscle car and became immediately uncomfortable as I realized my close proximity to both brothers. Not that I had any connection or reason to feel weird around Dean, other than regular shyness, Sam was a different matter. I still didn't know how I was going to get over this sudden blast from the past when it took me so long to get over it the first time.

My tension flew out the open window as we sped away from my apartment and I could feel the adrenaline seeping from my system and the ice cold shock taking its place. I felt like the time I got bit by a snake and I could feel the venom climbing my arm, using my veins as its ladder. The cold found its way to my very core and I was struck with the severity of my previous situation. I could have died. The thing...that demon was going to end my life. Lynn Marlin and everything she ever was and ever could be, almost disappeared in the little second floor apartment on the corner of Hillside and Bleeker.

The tears hit me like a brick wall and I couldn't control the convulsions that wracked my body. I was choking on my sobs and the bile rising in my throat when I felt a hand on my back, sliding around my shoulder and pulling me close. I knew it was Sam without even looking. I would never forget how his arms felt around me even if I had wanted to a couple hours ago. Now I could care less who was holding me as I cried. It could be a bum off the street and I wouldn't have the energy to care. I just knew that I needed to get out the tears that were overflowing and choking me. I'd never been in shock before, not the real kind that did this to you. The kind that left you in a messy puddle between your estranged ex and his rougheshly attractive older brother.