Anna felt more depressed than she had in a long time. She hadn't expected to feel like this. She thought about the brothers but whenever she did, Dean's loathing look returned to haunt her. Why did she care anyway? They were just people. The lived, and died. Just like everyone else. Nothing different about them. Then why were they hogging her thoughts?! They only departed a short while ago though all she could think of was – were they okay? Where were they now? What were they doing? Searching for a hunt most likely. Should she tell them the truth? No. She never told anyone the truth.
Anna stormed from the motel, completely irritated by her thoughts. She needed to her mind and what better way than a breath of fresh air?
She hid a silver-bullet gun in her boot, just in case anything decided to attack her. Standing across the road from the forest, Anna shut her eyes and drew in a long breath, then breathed it out through her mouth. She repeated this. A new feeling overcame her. Like she wasn't alone. Anna opened her eyes, and froze. A pale child was staring at her with pale blue eyes. They were so x-ray like that it felt as if she was staring right through her. She felt like she was been burned on the spot.
The child looked no older than 10 – she had a gentle face; pale lips, perfect eyebrows, button nose... she was mumbling something Anna couldn't hear. Anna felt cold, and somewhat afraid. But why? The girl didn't seem harmful – yet. That was the last thing going through her head, before she was plunged into darkness...
Drip... drip... drip... water? Where was it coming from? Was it raining? Her eyes flickered open. She saw a bronze pipe. How did it get there? No... How did she get here?! Anna sprung up, alarmed by her new surroundings – a copper-coloured, rusty, square room with piping on the ceiling.
"Calm down..." Anna turned to the voice. She breathed her relief. Why would she do that? She was looking at a serious-looking man, with dark hair, dark eyes and he wore a trench coat with a suit underneath.
"Oh, phew! It's you!" Wait – did she know him? Who was he? The man gave a curt nod. Anna moved to sit beside him.
"What a girl..." she wondered aloud. She must've been talking about the child. Anna now understood that she wasn't speaking or acting of her own accord – but she could still see, hear, and think as herself. The man nodded again in agreement.
"Who is she Castiel?" she asked.
"She's... a demon. But a more powerful sort -"
"A demon?"
"She has matching powers to Lucifer."
"Lucifer?"
"The De-"
"Say it and I'm going to have to hurt you," she warned. The common use of his name scared her. It was a word she used in the incident with Benton. Anything that reminded her of him hurt – the betrayal, the lies... all of it. A moment's silence passed, and Anna spoke up.
"So, we're here because of her?"
"Yes."
"How? I don't remember black smoke or been knocked out..."
"We were teleported... I don't know how. She's blocking my signal with my people... also, she's holding some sort of spell, so I can't teleport no one knows where we are..."
"Angels have signals?" Anna's eyebrows were raised.
"Yes."
"Oh..." Anna's eyes widened as she looked away. 'What the hell?' she thought. "Okay... um... then why us?"
"I don't know."
"Great – let's all be stupid..." she mumbled.
"What was that?"
"Nothing!" She bit her lip, hoping that he hadn't heard her.
The silence dragged on. Anna noticed herself examining the pipe above. What was so interesting about it? It wasn't like it was going to save them somehow... or would it? Anna couldn't tell what she was thinking.
The silence still remained. Castiel was either asleep or really deep in thought – his eyes were closed. But never mind that. Anna kept her eyes on the pipe.
She jumped to her feet. Had she noticed something she hadn't? She was scratching away the rust on the pipe. Tiny dashes were embossed into the metal. But those dashes weren't simply there, they were random. They spelt a name. Her name. Anna could feel the smile on her face. Grasping the pipe, Anna pulled with all the strength she could muster. It wouldn't budge. The tighter she held on, the more the rust scratched, giving off a burning pain. Anna could hear herself cursing. Her hands bled lightly, but she still didn't give up. Eventually the pipe loosened a little but was too stubborn to break off.
Anna jumped as a pair of hands closed on her waist. It was only Castiel. Whatever her plan was, he was willing to help. Anna pulled on the pipe and Castiel on her, giving the pipe a little more force.
3 things happened then: the pipe broke off, water spewed from where the pipe was and Anna flew back onto Castiel, face to face. How that happened she had no idea and was sure that neither did he. Before, Anna hadn't realized how deep his eyes were, how dark. But she managed to roll off without showing her reluctance.
The room was already ankle-deep in hot-warm water.
All of a sudden everything went black. Beeping and voices filled Anna's ears. The voices were alert and troubled. Anna couldn't understand what they were saying. The voices were too distant and mixed – though no voice was a voice she knew.
And just like that, Anna snapped back to the square room. She was attempting to pull something out of the pipe. It was small and metallic. Castiel was using his powers to evaporate some of the water. He wouldn't use his powers completely – something was stopping him. More blood squeezed from her fingers as she constantly tried to pull the object out.
"Got... it!" she mumbled to herself. It was a bronze key. A bloody bronze key. Where did it go? Her eyes darted to every direction. No keyhole was visible. But then again, the room was coated in rust so the keyhole could be anywhere. She traced her fingers across each wall quickly, for the room was filling fast despite Castiel's powers. On the third wall, Anna's fingers bumped into a small curved hole. Not caring whether it was the keyhole or not, Anna slotted the key in and turned – they were out.
Darkness again. The beeping returned and so did the voices. They were less alert. There were conversations but Anna still couldn't figure out what they were saying. She caught a few words – 'medication', 'tests', 'scan'... What was this? Where was this?
They were sprinting down a pitch-black path. Her eyes couldn't adjust to the darkness. There were a few specks of light but none strong enough to light even a little bit of the path. It felt like forever as they ran in the dark, hand-in-hand, one afraid of losing the other. They hoped to emerge into the light soon – the dark was making them sick and claustrophobic. Anna slowed down, exhausted and Castiel with her. Deep down Anna felt it wasn't safe to stop, but they couldn't push themselves any further. They needed to rest.
Beep...
Anna frowned deeply. Had she heard..? "What was that?" She could hear distant beeping – steady and repetitive. Castiel's expression was unfathomable but Anna could tell he was confused.
Beep...
"What?" he asked.
Beep...
"That... c-can't you hear it?"
Beep...
"Hear what?" She expected that answer.
Beep...
The air suddenly became chilly, and hard to breathe.
Beep...
"Something's not right..." she concluded fearfully. Then Anna realized something. Something crucial – only one sound of breathing could be heard.
Beep... beep...
"Castiel?"
Beep.... beep... beep....
"Castiel?!" Suddenly her mouth was forced open as wide as it could, as something forced itself down her throat...
Beep... beep... beep.... beep...