Cal's brother joined him with Sam. "Did he do it?" Cal asked.
"He did."
Sam wanted to cry. He had heard the instructions. Now they were both prisoners.
"Well, we got what we wanted from you, Sammy. We don't need you any more," Cal said.
Good. He was ready to die. He just hoped they made it quick. There wasn't any real reason to torture someone if you didn't want anything from them.
Cal's brother took out a syringe and approached Sam. Sam's eyes widened. He had always hated needles. He felt the prick and then he felt sleepy.
"I think that was too much," Cal said.
"Oh well," his brother responded. And that was all that Sam knew as he slumped out of Cal's grasp and down to the floor.
SSS
Dean had to give it to him, or possibly them. He couldn't decide if the voice sounded different because of the different medium, or because it was a different person. But, anyway, having him strip to his underwear ensured that he had nothing to pick any of these locks with. He was in complete darkness now. They apparently weren't even going to watch him die, because 5 mintues after the lights had gone out, the red camera light went out also and it hadn't come back on. Of course, he wasn't sure how long he had been down here. Sitting in complete isolation tended to distort your perceptions of time.
"Dean!" he heard.
"Bobby. I'm down here," Dean yelled back. He was glad he sent that text telling Bobby to come out here the next day if he hadn't heard from him. He wanted to obey the kidnapper's instructions of coming alone,but he hadn't wanted to completely doom himself and Sam.
He heard crashing sounds and figured Bobby was breaking down the door. Good old Bobby. You could always count on him.
The light turned on and he saw Bobby framed in the doorway. "Sam's not with you?" Bobby had found nobody upstairs and had been assuming Sam and Dean and possibly their kidnappers were downstairs, but he decided to hell with stealth.
"He was never here, Bobby," Dean said. "This was a trap to entomb me while they torture Sam to death."
"Do you know where he is? Do you know how took him?" Bobby asked as he went to work on the shackles.
"I have no idea. Something was said about eye for an eye, but that doesn't narrow it down that much."
"Let's go," Bobby said. "Why are you almost naked?" Bobby just realized that if nobody else had been here Dean did this to himself.
"They told me they would let Sam go if I stripped and locked myself up."
"You idgit," Bobby yelled.
"I had to, Bobby," Dean said
Bobby realized that was probably true, but it didn't make him any less an idgit. "Go get dressed," he said in a softer tone.
SSS
Sam heard voices but he couldn't open his eyes. He groaned.
"I think he's waking up."
He tried to open his eyes again. Nothing. He tried to open his mouth. Nothing would work. He felt the darkness coming back. He tried to fight it but eventually let it take over again.
SSS
Dean and Bobby sat down in a nearby motel room trying to figure out their next move. "He's going to figure out you're not dead at some point," Bobby pointed out. "What do you think he'll do then?"
"I don't know. The big question is will Sam still be alive when he figures it out? Is he alive now?"
"And you have no idea who took him?"
"For the millionth time. No!"
"And there's no trail?"
"I found the car he stole, but there was nothing else there. It was in a remote area, so no cameras. No sign of a struggle, which I find really odd, but does nothing to help find him."
"Sorry, Dean. I'm not sure where to go from here."
SSS
Two days later.
"He's waking up again." Sam didn't know if he wanted to wake up. He was so tired. But, he figured he should. He was a Winchester. Winchesters always keep fighting. At least according to his dad. He tried to open his eyes. This time it worked. He was lying on a bed, there was a bright light shining in his eyes, and a doctor and a nurse by his bed. Good. Maybe they could make him feel better.
"How do you feel?" the doctor asked.
"Bad," Sam said, keeping it short and to the point.
"I'm not surprised," the doctor answered. "You seem to have had a couple of knocks to the head and you didn't have any ID on you, so can you try to answer a few questions."
Sam went to nod his head, but thought better of it when the nausea came on. "Yeah."
"What's your name?"
"Sam."
"Last name?"
That was a good question. "Smith," he said the first thing that came to his head. If that turned out to be a bad idea, he'd try to blame it on the head injury.
"Do you know where you are?"
"Hospital?" Sam guessed.
"What's the date?"
"May something, 2006."
"OK. Do you know how you ended up here."
"Not exactly."
"Well, do you know why you're here?"
OK, that one was easy enough. "Car accident."
The doctor looked up from his notes. "Sam, I know that you got at least a couple of those questions wrong."
"Which ones?" Sam asked. He figured his last name and maybe they were in some sort of clinic instead of a hospital.
"It's November and you weren't in a car accident."
What was he talking about? It was May and he definitely knew he had been in a car "accident." That demon had plowed into the Impala. "What about my dad and brother?" he asked. They had looked worse than him and he felt like he was dying. Which probably meant he wasn't. Just wished he were.
"I don't know anything about that. We're going to run some tests on you and then the police wanted to know when you were awake."
"OK," Sam said. But, it wasn't OK. He had to find out what happened to Dad and Dean. And apparently a missing five months.
SSS
Dean and Bobby were still trying to figure out what to do. The last time he had this few leads was when he was trying to find his dad. His phone rang. He looked at the display.
"Who is it?" Bobby asked.
"I don't recognize the number. Do you think it's him. Do you think he knows I'm alive? That he's going to taunt me with Sam's death?"
"Only one way to find out."
Dean had never been so afraid to answer a phone in his life. "Hello?"
"Dean?"
"Sammy?" Was it really him.
"Are you OK?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine. How about you? Where are you?"
"I'm at the hospital."
"What hospital?" Dean asked.
"Boonville, CA. Look, Dean, the police are coming to talk to me and I don't know what happened, or what I'm supposed to tell them."
"Just do your best. We're on our way. Can you hold on for me?"
"Yeah, I used the last name Smith," Sam remembered to tell him.
"OK, we'll see you in a few hours."
Sam hung up the phone. He had forgotten to ask about dad, but Dean said 'we' were on the way, so Dad must be OK, too. He closed his eyes. Maybe if the cops thought he had fallen asleep they would leave him alone.
SSS
"Where we going?" Bobby asked.
"Northern California. Sammy's in the hospital. But he sounded more or less OK. Just scared, tired, and stressed."
SSS
"Mr. Smith?"
Sam reluctantly opened his eyes. The officer wasn't going to leave, and SAm would rather get this over with than feel like he was being stared at.
"Can you answer some questions?"
"I can try. I understand I'm missing some time."
"The doctor thinks you've been tortured. Do you remember that?"
"No." Sam figured the doc probably saw some hunting scars. Still didn't answer why he was here. Dean would know.
"Do you have any family?"
"Yes. I've called my brother. He's on his way." Hopefully that would reassure the cop.
"Great. I'll want to talk with him. Maybe he can shed some light on this situation." Crap. He should have seen that coming.
"He'll be here tomorrow." Sam figured Dean would be here before then and could sneak him out. He didn't think he could manaage it on his own power right now. "Can I go back to sleep now?" He was only half asking to get rid of the officer. He was exhausted.
"Yeah. Sure. You must be tired. Doc said he's never seen such a case of starvation and dehydration."
"Uh-huh," Sam said non-committally as he closed his eyes.
SSS
"Sammy." Sam felt himself being shaken.
"Maybe you should let him sleep, Dean."
Dean. Sam opened his eyes and propped himself up. "Dean!"
"How you doing?" Dean asked concerned. His brother had definitely seen better days.
"I'm OK, more or less. Hey, Bobby."
"Hey, kiddo," Bobby forced a smile onto his face. Kid really looked like crap.
"Where's dad?" Sam asked.
Dean and Bobby exchanged a look.
"What's wrong?" Sam asked.
"Dad's dead," Dean said. "You know that?"
"Was is the car accident?"
"Kind of," Dean answered. "Why don't you remember?"
"I don't remember anything after that accident. Apparently it was five months ago. Why am I in the hospital now? The doctor seems to think I was tortured, but I figure it was some kind of hunting thing and he just saw some old scars."
"No. The doctor was right. You were kidnapped and tortured for at least three days. We should get you out of here." Dean was openign the closet and the two drawers in the room.
"What are you looking for?"
"Your clothes. But, you were probably brought in here naked or close to. Bobby, can you grab some clothes for Sam out of the Impala?"
"Be right back," Bobby promised.
"Who kidnapped me?" Sam asked.
"I have no idea. I was kind of hoping you could shed some light on that."
"Sorry."
"Not your fault. Although it's weird you don't remember anything from the last five monhts. I would understand the last week."
"You said dad kind of died from the accident. What does that mean?"
"I don't really want to talk about that, Sam." Why hadn't he just said yes?
"Here you go, Sam," Bobby said, throwing a shirt and jeans at Sam. "We should hurry."
Sam went int the bathroom, changed as quickly as he could manage with his broken arm.
"Let's go."
SSSS
"So, what do you know about your kidnapping?" Dean asked.
"Nothing. I told you I can't remember anything after the accident," Sam was getting frustrated. He had lost months of his life. I mean since it was his life it was probably sucky, but it was still his, and he hated to lose it.
"Yes, Sam, I understand that. But, what did the doctors or cops say?"
"Oh." Sam thought about it. "I guess I got to the hospital because someone had called an ambulance. When it came, I was on the side of the road somewhere, wearing just a pair of torn, bloody jeans."
Dean shivered. That was pretty much the way Sam looked the last time he saw him on the screen. "Anything else?"
"Not really. I did notice this when I got dressed," Sam said, lifting up his pants leg to reveal an ugly purple mark around his right ankle.
"He was electrocuting you," Dean said, closing his eyes against hte memory.
"I'm confused about something," Sam said.
"Why any animal would do this to you?" Dean asked, angrily.
"No. How you know so much about what happened. Were you there?"
"The only thing I know about why you were taken was because it was revenge for something I did. I don't know what. But, he called me and showed me video of you being tortured."
"Then why did he just let me go?" Sam asked.
"Because he thought he had killed me. He didn't need you any more."
"Are you OK?" Sam asked in a panic.
"Yeah, he tried to starve me to death. Well, I guess dehydration would have come first. But, I had texted Bobby where I was going and told him to meet me there in 36 hours if he hadn't heard from. I didn't want to risk not going alone, but I didn't want to doom us both to imprisonment."
"Why don't we pick this up in the morning. Sam looks like he's going to pass out," Bobby observed.
"Sorry," Sam said.
"Don't be," Dean and Bobby said in unison.
Sam lay down and was snoring a few minutes later.
"You, too," Bobby whispered.
"No. Last time I fell asleep, I woke up and Sam was gone. I can't let that happen again."
"Dean," Bobby warned.
"In a little while. Just go to your own room," Dean said.
"Fine," Bobby said.
Dean watched Sam sleeping. He had no intention of falling asleep himself, but Sam sleeping was not the most riveting entertainment.
Dean awakened to Sam trashing in his bed. "No. No. Stay away."
Were Sam's memories of being kidnapped coming back?
