Warning: Mentions of past rape and torture in this chapter.

"Sam….maybe he went out further. There's no sign of him. He's bound to come back on his own."

Sam clenched his fists around the steering wheel. "No. Something is wrong. I can feel it."

"How do you know though? It's probably just your worry for him coming into play."

How could he explain to Sadie that he drank his brother's demon blood and therefore, didn't just have strange powers, but could usually communicate with Dean via telepathy?

He had been trying and trying to contact Dean only to get the same result, his thoughts refused to leave his own mind. Dean had been right, the more fragile their bond was, the less the chance was that they could communicate with each other.

"I just have this connection with my brother Sadie. I can tell when something isn't right." It wasn't a lie, he and Dean always kind of had that sort of bond. "The angel Cas…he told us that Dean and I are soulmates. Not the typical romantic definition but…"

"But a unique bond only two people share with each other?" Sadie stated. "Two people willing to go to any lengths for each other and not willing to live without the other. I believe that Sam. There's no doubt in my mind when it comes to you two. If he could come back from Hell and not be evil…"

"Yeah," Sam nodded, running a hand over his face as he drove. "I need to find him Sadie. I'm not turning around until I can. If you want, I'll drop you off back at the hotel."

"No." She shook her head. "You're right. You have to get to him and I want to help. I just hope he's okay."

Sam sighed. "Me too."

Dean came to at the sound of two people arguing.

"But you promised me!" a voice was saying.

"True. But you should know never to trust a demon, especially not one that is the current kind of Hell."

It was Alastair with his typical creepy serial-killer voice of his. Great. Dean must have somehow gotten knocked out by him and dragged to whatever liar the demon was residing in. He tried to move his arms, only to find them stuck behind his back. He was handcuffed, and considering the way Dean felt weaker than usual, he figured the handcuffs were enchanted so that he couldn't use any of his powers.

Regardless, he shifted his body so he was staring in the direction of the conversation. Alastair stood hovering over the teenaged boy.

"I did exactly what you told me! I helped get him here! It worked! Now let me go please!"

It was the stupid kid that had helped Alastair to trick him. Heh, like begging was going to work. The boy really didn't have any idea with who he was working with, how sneaky the demon could be.

Alastair smirked evilly. "You showed some promise, but still…you couldn't get him to completely snap. It would have made my job much easier if he attacked or killed you. So...you still have some learning to do."

"No! I did everything I could! Did you see the look on his face? He wanted to kill me, but he's weak, just like you said!"

"But he didn't. You failed me and you need to learn to get better. Now you can learn the proper techniques…." Alastair pulled out a knife from his jeans. "In Hell."

The demon plunged the knife into the boy's heart. Stupid kid should have known better.

Dean was waiting for the ghost of the teen to appear, but it never did. Apparently, Alastair could kill and send the soul to Hell in one motion. He probably taught a lot of demons this technique.

Alastair looked down at the body mockingly and snapped his fingers. Immediately, it began to burn.

Great, now Dean was captured and had to smell burning flesh. How fun.

The white-eyed demon didn't waste any more time on the body, he turned and walked over to Dean with a sneer.

"Finally, you're awake. Took you long enough, it was just a simple iron bullet to the heart. You really weakened down here on Earth."

"What? Gonna send me back to Hell then?" Dean tried to give Alastair his best glare from the awkward position he was at.

"Now why do that when it didn't work the first time? I've learned from my mistakes Dean."

"Try whatever torture techniques you've got. You haven't learned anything that can break me."

Alastair shook his head as if he was disappointed. "Oh, don't you think I know that? This isn't going to be any physical torture. I went among the wrong path all those years ago. It may have helped carve you into a demon, but you're an exception….it didn't break you. Luckily, I did my research this time."

Dean tried to shift himself so he was sitting, but felt an intense pain in his chest. The iron from the bullet was still affecting him, probably would for another day or so. "You act like you know everything. What makes you think you can break me now when it took you this long to find me?"

The demon began chuckling, flashing his eyes to that eerie white film and Dean fought not to flinch at the memory those eyes brought. "Oh Dean! I thought you were smarter than you made yourself out to be. Apparently, I was wrong. I've known where you've been for a long time."

Just as Dean had suspected. He wasn't that dumb, but it may work in his favor if Alastair thought he was.

"How?" This was a question he actually didn't know.

"Let's just say I have some….inside sources."

It clicked that the thing Dean had been concerned about all along, having a spy for the demons in their hotel, had been true.

"So someone's been contacting you. Telling you where I'm going?" It would even explain the demon bowl. Although why would someone sneaky enough to spy for Alastair leave the bowl sitting out in the middle of the room?

"I've had ideas where you were all along. I knew you'd be with that hunter Bobby. But I had other issues to deal with at the time. We were keeping watch. Then the place burned down, didn't it?"

Dean simply glared at the demon. He tried not to gag as the rancid smell of the burning body continued to float through the air.

"Don't give me that look, that actually had nothing to do with me!" Alastair spoke as if he was reprimanding a child. "But once we learned of the fire, we figured we may have to capture you sooner than we thought in case you'd get away. Reinforcements were sent out to search the area and try and kill your people. Yes, the wendigos were working for me."

"You mean for Eve, who you're in cahoots with." Dean smirked.

Alastair actually had the decency to look shocked that Dean knew about this news. "Yes. And as you can see, I shouldn't have trusted her minions. Even under her orders, they weren't able to do as they were told. We lost track of you for a while, but we knew you'd come back to the city…"

"Your story is boring me," Dean stated. He had to play it cool no matter how much Alastair was actually scaring him. "Try and hurry before I fall asleep."

"That's right...sleep. You still need it. Another sign of how weak you are." Alastair shook his head as if he were ashamed. "No matter, we'll fix that. Now, as I was saying...I knew you would come back to the city. What a stupid decision. We may have lost track of you if you didn't. You should have known we'd be on the lookout for you."

"I can sense when you bastards are near and you can't sense me."

"That's true. When you're on the top of your game, even weak demons like you can sense others nearby. That's why my lookouts weren't demons."

Oh right, the spies. Just great. "So your spies told you when we came in town?"

"Of course, all they had to do was look for a black Impala. Really stands out. You took shelter in a house and I sent one of my most promised spies in there to gain inside access."

Dean couldn't help it as his mouth dropped open. "That woman...Hayley...son of a bitch!" He knew there was something off about her from the beginning!

Alastair smirked. "Yep, let the enemy right into your safe haven. She even planted a tracking coin in your car. That's how I knew where you were driving off to today."

"So...she's the one that had the blood bowl. She was contacting you...and purposely planted one there to get everyone framing me..."

"So you would storm out and leave. She was excellent in updating me and blending in. I bet you never assumed it could be her."

He was right. Dean had an odd feeling about her, but he had never considered she had been working for the demons.

"You see Dean...," Alastair continued, walking circles around him slowly. "You're never going to be safe away from us. We'll always find you. If you join us...there won't be any more worries and well...you'll be on the winning side."

Dean smirked. "You think I'll really just say 'yes' and go prancing around with you and murdering everyone?"

"Figured I'd give you the chance to admit you're just as much of an abomination as the rest of us. Now, you'll just have to suffer until you realize."

"Alright, then bring it on."

"Oh, it's not what you're expecting Dean. It will be much, much worse."

Alastair moved to walk behind Dean and pushed him down so he was lying on his stomach.

No. No he better not... Dean began to struggle, his breathing picking up.

The demon's laughter filled the empty room. "Now, now, relax Dean-o. I did tell you this won't be your typical torture." Alastair unlocked the handcuffs and Dean immediately tried to teleport away. Of course it didn't work. So the handcuffs weren't the only thing halting his powers, this room was too.

Dean wasn't stupid enough to try and run or attack. He had the demon knife on him when he got captured, and now it was in Alastair's possession. He was completely defenseless and should consider himself lucky that Alastair didn't intend to kill him.

But was the reality of what was going to happen to him any better? No, it was probably worse.

If he could survive it long enough for Sam to get to him...

Sam would still come looking for him, right? No matter how much doubt Sam had in him...he wouldn't let him suffer. Sam even said in the journal that he could never kill him...he wouldn't let him die either.

But how would Sam even know Alastair captured him? Dean didn't even know where he was, so how would Sam?

There was a violent kick to his head and Dean felt his vision blur for a second. Physical attacks by a demon could be extremely painful to others, especially if the demon in question was white-eyed.

"Pay attention Dean," Alastair growled, no longer talking in his mock-friendly tone. "It's important to know what you're going to be expected of."

"Fuck you."

"I thought you had enough of demons fucking you in Hell," the demon stated snarkily. "Too bad I can't conjure up a fake Sammy to have..."

"You shut the hell up right now!" Dean was up off the ground and right in Alastair's face, ignoring the pain in his chest, not caring if the demon had Ruby's knife on him or not. "This is between me and you. You leave him out of it."

"Still caring for someone who doesn't care for you back...how pathetic..." Alastair paused when a few demons appeared in the room suddenly. Between them was a woman, crying and blindfolded. Her arms and legs were handcuffed to a metal chair.

"Took you long enough." Alastair glared menacingly at the demon cronies. "Now be gone."

In a split second, they vanished. Obviously, whatever Alastair had done to this room only prevented him from teleporting out of it, he was the only demon being affected. White-eyed demons were capable of greater powers like that.

The disgusting demon sauntered over to the woman, looking like a predator admiring his prey. He snatched he blindfold off of her, causing her to cry some more. "Recognize this little lady?"

Dean narrowed his eyes, she looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place her...

"I'm ashamed. I thought with your 'humanly' behavior, you would remember those you saved. This just shows that it's all an act Dean, you can try and try to pretend you're one of them, but it will never be who you really are. Poor, poor little Heather."

Heather...Heather...oh! The woman that had lived at Bobby's with the son that got bitten in the forest when they escaped from the farmhouse. Heather had stayed with her son. Dean had assumed that she would have gotten bitten once he turned.

"After those wendigos failed to kill you, we visited the house, hoping to capture you. We were too late, but we did pick up this sad excuse for a woman."

"And you decided to take her and tie her up because...," Dean did his best to sound bored.

"We tried to get someone you shared a past with...but when we couldn't...well I figured it didn't really matter, did it? As long as it was an innocent person."

Dean glared at him. Ellen and Carl...that's why they had been captured and kept in the cages. Alastair had originally wanted to use them. He didn't like where this was going, but it was best to play dumb. "And you're using her for what exactly?"

Alastair's white eyes gleamed with twisted joy. "You've never murdered an innocent soul. In order to truly break you...you're going to kill this woman or rot in this room for the rest of your life."

Sam saw the Impala as soon as they approached the town. He jumped out of the car he was driving the moment he parked it.

Dean had been here. He knew Dean hadn't left for good! He was here somewhere, he had to be!

As badly as Sam wanted to yell out Dean's name, he knew he couldn't. If someone else was here that was putting Dean in danger, it would cause them to go on alert. Also, if Dean was here alone and didn't want Sam to find him, he would try running away.

Sam just wanted to find his brother and never let him out of his sight again. They would fix this and work on what went wrong so nothing like this would ever come between them in the future.

There were Croat bodies lying about a hundred feet north of the Impala. Dean had probably fought them to release some aggression. Sam was familiar with that; Dean often did this to keep his mood in check and to let out some of that demonic frustration that came from being in Hell for so long.

But where would Dean have gone after he took care of the Croats?

"Sam?" Sadie had gotten out of the car and was slowly walking over to him. "Are you sure it's safe?"

"I don't know and I don't care. I have to find him."

Sadie didn't seem offended by his short response. "I…it's too quiet...I don't think he's here."

"Then we'll keep looking until we find out clues to where he could be!"

"Sam, hey..." Sadie approached him calmly and Sam realized just how quickly he was breathing. What if they couldn't find Dean? Find any hints to his whereabouts?

"We'll check every single one of these buildings," Sadie continued, her voice gentle. "There has got to be something. We won't leave until we know what to do next."

"He would never leave his car," Sam stated.

"I know. So he's either still here or someone got him, and we're going to get him back. I'm not losing any more of us, I won't allow it."

The fact that Sadie recognized and accepted Dean as one of their own, as part of a group, and not some tag-along demon gave Sam some strength. He could do this. He'd have help. He'd rescue his brother.

He led Sadie into a few empty buildings to no avail before noticing a small trail of blood. It was hardly recognizable in the dirt, and it wasn't demon blood because Sam would have been able to smell it. But it might still be a clue; it could have dripped from Dean's machete that he would have used to behead the Croats.

Sam slowly walked over to the building even though all was quiet. It didn't hurt to be safe even though everything in him was telling him to run inside and see if Dean was in there. But if it were a trap, getting himself killed wouldn't help Dean at all.

He motioned for Sadie to stay back. She nodded and aimed her gun at the doorway; it didn't help Sam to feel any safer. She wasn't even standing correctly and her arms were shaking. He actually hoped she wouldn't accidentally shoot him. He or Dean really needed to give her shooting lessons and at least teach her the proper stance. If they needed to leave the hotel, she'd never make it out in the world.

Sam figured it was now or never. He pointed to the door, letting Sadie know he was going inside and stealthily entered, prepared to fight off an attacker.

Instead, he found himself in an empty and dusty general store. At first glance, it would seem like just another ransacked building with debris and knocked over supplies everywhere, but there was something off about the corner of the room...

"What's over there?" Sadie asked, slowly walking into the building and following Sam's line of vision to the area he was looking at.

Sam walked closer and knelt down. There was a little bit of blood….demon blood.

And Sam would know that blood anywhere. Just the familiar smell of it created a calming effect on him. He didn't even have to taste it to know that is was the blood he drank every day. It was Dean's.

"It's Dean's blood," Sam stated, trying not to cause his voice to shake. There was just a little blood, so it wasn't like Dean had been fatally injured. Probably just hit or stabbed enough to knock him out.

"How do you know?" Sadie asked.

"I just do. I can't explain everything right now." Sam looked around the area some more, trying to find any other possible clues that could explain what happened to Dean. It didn't take him long before he found an odd substance on the ground, five feet away from Dean's blood.

"It's sulfur…," Sam told Sadie.

"Demons leave sulfur right?"

"Yeah, when they teleport."

"So Dean teleported away?"

Sam shook his head. "Dean can't teleport far distances. He only leaves a little sulfur behind, if any at all. The further they teleport the more sulfur they seem to leave behind. Look at all this. This demon was more powerful than Dean and just…." Sam rubbed some on his fingers and smelled it "…the sulfur is different from that of regular low ranked demons like Dean…it smells so much stronger and it's a thicker consistency."

"Do you think…," Sadie began to say carefully. "That with the blood…and now this…another demon took Dean away?"

Sam swallowed. His mind could only think of one possible solution.

"Alastair. He was always angry he couldn't break Dean like before. I know he's been looking for him." Sam looked around the room some more. How did Alastair corner Dean in here? Glancing at the ceiling in a desperate attempt to find a clue, he found his answer in the form of a devil's trap right above the spot with the blood.

He pointed it out to Sadie. "Look! A devil's trap. It's broken now. He somehow tricked Dean and trapped him in here and then broke it to get him out." Sam turned around and swiped his hand angrily against a table that was still upright, causing everything on top of it to shatter on the floor. "He took my brother and he's going to torture him and try to break him! He's the strongest demon there is right now and I have no clue where he took Dean!"

"Sam…relax…"

"I can't relax!" Sam stared at Sadie incredulously. "He's the demon that tortured Dean in Hell! The top torturer! Do you have any idea what Alastair's probably doing to him right now? I should have talked to him….he never should have been allowed to leave…" Sam paused for a moment, considering something. "Wait…Dean left because of that blood bowl…and somehow Alastair knew and was just waiting for him? He had this devil's trap already set up…."

Sadie shook her head. "No…you don't think someone placed the bowl it there to frame him, do you? Knowing that he would get upset and leave..."

"And walk right into the trap. That's exactly what I think happened." Sam ran both of his hands through his hair and over his face. "They…wanted him to be upset. They wanted people against him to get him even more angry. Dean was right all along…someone was framing him…someone is spying for Alastair from inside the hotel."

"Please let me go!"

Heather was nearly hysterical from the moment Alastair left and Dean rubbed his temples, trying to calm himself. He'd free her to shut her up if he could. But he couldn't even do that because he had no use of his powers. He only had the strength of a human...the lack of power made him feel uncomfortable and irritated.

He tried to push back that feeling and turned his attention to the table the minions had brought into the room after dropping off Heather. On top of it were a bunch of torture instruments, much like Hell.

Alastair had only said he needed to kill Heather, not torture her, but Dean knew all too well why he brought out the weapons. It was becoming clear.

The burnt body in the room filling the air with a rancid stench, the threats, the mention of Sam, the torture instruments…it was all to remind Dean of Hell. To get him to fall back into the same demon he was down there.

Dean knew that if he did give in and kill Heather, an innocent, it would release something in him that wouldn't be able to be contained without Sam. It would open the dam, so to speak, and he would give into torture that much easier, into the demon Alastair was determined to craft him into.

He turned back to the woman that was still busy crying. "I can't let you go. Are you that stupid that you can't understand he trapped me here?"

"But you can escape and take me with you! Please!"

"Alastair is the most powerful demon alive and you think I can just waltz out of here somehow? You do realize he probably has cameras all over this room."

Heather cried some more. "You're saying I'm never going to get out of here?"

"I'm saying our best chance is my brother. So sit and wait quietly so I don't have to deal with you. Or just talk calmly, it's not that hard."

Dean walked around the room, trying to get a feel of where they were. If he could just find out and then get in touch with Sam….but Dean hadn't been able to connect with him, to get his thoughts sent to his brother. What if…what if Sam wasn't looking at all? What if he did know Dean was missing and figured it was best to let him go? He did mention leaving him in the journal…but Sam wouldn't leave him when he was captured, would he? He'd at least look for him.

At least Dean thought so. Sam was his only hope.

"Do you know where we are?" Heather asked, sniffing.

Dean spun around to face her. "You don't know? Haven't you been captured for over a month?"

"They kept me blindfolded! They tortured me! They told me it would stop if I gave up the direction that you left the farmhouse."

"You know they were lying, right?"

Heather glared at him. "Well I know that now! They also told me they'd let me go. And they said….they said that the souls of people that die of infection…they go to Hell…please tell me they were lying about that too!"

Dean gave her a wary look. She had let her son turn after all. There was no way she was going to take this well…did he really want to deal with her crying again?

Then again, maybe if he did tell her the truth, she would finally trust him and cooperate with him if he needed her participation on possibly trying to escape from here.

"Sorry lady, that's the truth."

Heather's eyes watered up and her breathing hitched. "So my son is really in Hell? They promised me if I gave them information, they would free him too and I would get to see him! I never did see him…so I was hoping they made up the story about Hell…"

"Nope. They just gave you false promises to get your info. Never make a deal with a demon unless it's a crossroads one."

"My little boy…it's all my fault! I should have let you kill him when you offered!" She began to cry once again.

No…no more crying. Dean didn't think he could take it. He had to keep her talking to prevent her breaking down and driving him mad.

"Why did you let him turn?" he asked.

"I…there could be people that were immune right? I thought that maybe…and I didn't think it would hurt to wait it out. If he did turn I could…take his life then…I didn't know anything about Hell!"

"We don't know what they do to kids," Dean told her in an effort to calm her down. It was true anyway. "When I was down there, I never saw any. And even if you killed him before he turned…the demons found you guys anyway and would have captured his soul and taken it to Hell."

"Why? Why are they taking all of us? Don't they have enough souls down there? Look at how many people have died! Why do they want more? You're one of them, you know why!"

Dean approached her, a rage behind his eyes. "Don't you dare compare them to me. You know they hate me, you see what Alastair's doing to me, do you honestly think they would tell me anything?"

Heather shook her head wildly, the only thing she could do while cuffed to the chair. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just want to get out! I just want my son back!"

Dean backed up slowly, he couldn't allow himself get carried away. "If you want to get out, then chill out and help me try to figure out where we are."

But Heather only continued to cry.

"Okay, we've got to think this through," Bobby was saying.

"Think this through?" Sam's voice rose more than it already had. "This is Dean, Bobby! Alastair has him! Someone purposely let him get caught…it could be anyone here! We can't just sit here and think this through!"

When he arrived back at the hotel with Sadie, he immediately called for a mandatory meeting with Ellen, Jo, Carl, Bobby and Marcy. He explained the situation as quickly as he could, with Sadie jumping in to fill in information when Sam became too frantic.

"Sam, we know you're worried…" Ellen began.

"Damn right I'm worried! This is my brother we're talking about! In the mindset he's in right now…"

"Sam is right," Carl spoke up. Thank goodness someone saw his reason to panic. "Dean's probably in a lot of trouble. We need to figure out what happened, but we need to do it fast."

"I just don't want us going into this without going through everything," Bobby said. "Trust me, I want nothing other than to find Dean and bring him back. But if we make decisions without properly thinking them through…we could get hurt, and so could Dean."

"He saved my life even though he didn't have to." Carl looked toward Sam. "I want to be able to do the same. Just tell me how to help and I will."

"What if it's Allen?" Jo suggested "He seems to hate Dean. It could have been him."

Sam had been thinking the same thing. If it weren't for the fact he had to inform everyone of the news, he'd be approaching Allen right now and threatening him to reveal anything he knows.

"Now Allen is an asshole." Bobby was looking at Sam in warning, as if he knew what he was thinking. "But we don't know if this was him. I don't think the man knows much about contacting demons. We need to talk to him, but not jump on him. Understand Sam?"

Sam nodded just to avoid argument. "Okay. Yeah, let's go find him now."

But before they could leave the meeting room, the door opened up and Castiel peered inside. Sadie had asked the angel to wait by the door because Ruby was due back soon.

"The female demon is at the door. She is yelling quite vulgar threats at me to allow her inside."

"Alright, stay in here and I'll let her in." Sadie left to undo the magical wards to the entry and in less than a minute, she was walking back in with an annoyed looking Ruby.

"What is this? I'm gone for a few days and apparently I hear that Dean's gone missing? Care to fill me in?"

"Finally, you're back. Please tell me you can help." Sam walked over to Ruby.

"Can't promise anything but I may know more than you idiots do."

Sam explained the situation to her, the blood bowl and Dean's behavior. Of him storming out and how they thought it was a trap, a set up.

Ruby looked thoughtful. "That's exactly what it sounds like. Someone wanted to get him mad and Alastair know about it. They wanted him emotionally unstable because it would be easiest to break him."

"He was already on edge before that too, and he wouldn't talk to me about it," Sam told her.

"He never talked to you? About the journal?" Ruby asked.

Wait, what? "Journal? What journal?"

Ruby looked at Sam oddly. "The shit you wrote about him in your journal. Something about how you couldn't trust him and were afraid he would snap? It's why he was so on edge."

Sam's mouth fell open. This was more than just a set up with the blood bowl; it went further than he had ever thought. No wonder Dean seemed so pent up, so frustrated and distant. He thought Sam didn't trust him….it all made sense now!

"Ruby…I never wrote anything like that."

The journal had been messed with. His brother was being emotionally manipulated; Alastair wanted to break their bond in order to get to his brother, to break Dean.

And if Sam didn't hurry…Alastair's plan may just work.

Dean forced himself to walk away from the obnoxious Heather and survey the room. There were no windows, the only door was completely bolted shut and had a devil's trap around it.

The room didn't look like anything spectacular. The walls were bare and the floor was a solid, single colored tile. It could be anything. Maybe used for storage, maybe an old meeting room that was cleared out.

Heather finally shut up...or cried herself dry, so Dean figured it was safe for him to talk to her. "The only thing I'm pretty certain on, is that we're in a basement." He waved his hands at the walls. "No windows. And we're most likely somewhere in Sioux Falls. But we gotta try and figure out what building this is. Then if I can contact Sam, I can give him an exact location."

Heather didn't even question Dean on how he would be able to get in touch with his brother. Good. He was too busy inspecting every corner of the room to deal with her. He was trying to see if there was any sign that could point him in the right direction to where they were. With nothing of any help, he walked over to the cart of torture tools, examining them.

"Don't! Please! We'll find another way!"

Dean glared at the woman. "I'm not going to use them, you idiot. I'm trying to see if there's any engraving on them to find out where the demons got them from. If there is, we're probably not too far from there."

Stupid woman still didn't realize he was different than the other demons? Did she not understand that he was resisting for a reason?

But Dean had to admit, just picking up the tools and having a victim sitting right there…it was tempting. He felt a pleasant buzz pass through him but he pushed it down.

Focus on the task. Inspect the tools. Don't use them…no matter how obnoxious this woman may be. Get back to Sam.

Dean forced his hands to stop shaking as put down the drill and picked up a saw. He squinted at the small writing on the handle.

"You…Heather…I think we got something. Please tell me you're from Sioux Falls."

"Yeah…," she spoke feebly. "What is it?"

"Handy Man Supply Company? That ring a bell?"

Heather's tear-stained face lit up. "Yeah! That's on 6th street. My husband used to go there to..."

Dean didn't have time for her stories. "What's near there?"

She sighed as she considered. "Well...there's a few shops next to it..."

"What building would be large enough to have a basement with rooms this big?"

"Umm...the library is just around the corner from there..."

The library! Of course. That was the place that Ellen and Jo almost got ransacked by demons...where Dean had to turn the Impala around because he sensed too many nearby.

And if his powers were working...he would be able to sense a bunch of them right now.

The good news was that Dean knew the room wasn't preventing his telepathy with Sam. It was only blocking his demonic strengths and the telepathy was fueled by something different...by his bond and connection with Sam.

He could feel the thoughts trying to send to his brother, they just weren't reaching him. It was probably because they had been fighting and their bond was currently damaged that they couldn't communicate. But how would he try and repair that bond when Sam wasn't here to talk to? When he was still so upset with Sam for the journal entries?

"So this is good then right?" Heather interrupted Dean's moody pondering. "You said you'd be able to tell Sam somehow? Can you do it now?"

"No." Dean grumbled.

"But you said..."

"It's too damn difficult to explain. I said if I could get in touch with Sam. I'm trying."

"What if you can't? What if we're stuck here..."

Heather let out a yell of surprise and Dean jumped in place at the sudden teleportation of Alastair into the room.

"You two are chit chatting? What about?"

Dean was suddenly feeling very lucky that the demon couldn't hear them over the cameras that he knew had to be recording them.

Alastair walked over to the torture tools and looked back and forth between Dean and Heather, shaking his head in disgust.

"I have to say Dean, I'm very disappointed in you. You showed so much promise."

Dean shrugged carelessly. "That's right, I've disappointed Dad, Sammy and now you…gotta keep the streak alive."

"Don't worry, you've got the rest of…well eternity to prove yourself to me. And all it's going to take is…." Alastair picked up one of the knives from the table, walking over to Heather. He slowly dragged the blade down her forearm, causing her to scream. "…just one little kill."

"Well I've got to say I'm disappointed in you." Dean tried to ignore the woman's screams; tried to push down the urge to cause her pain and focused his rage on the demon. "This is nothing. I thought you had more in you. I'm perfectly content to just sit here. This technique of yours isn't going to break me."

"Oh Dean…." Alastair turned his attention from the knife to the other demon in the room. "You forget I know you better than anyone….even your precious little brother."

"Just because you tortured me for decades doesn't mean you know me more than my brother, or know me at all." Dean clenched his fists, every time this damn demon mentioned Sam; it just made him angrier, allowed more rage to fill him.

"But I do. I know that you are actually scared right now, hanging on by a thread that's getting closer and closer to…snapping. I know exactly what will get you to break and I don't care how much time it takes."

Alastair walked back over to the table, placing the bloody knife down. "Every time I come in here and you haven't done anything to her…I'm going to hurt her."

"Go ahead. I don't care about her." Dean knew that wasn't the point though, the point was to have him viewing torture, to make him crave it. Still...he'd be able to push down the urge just fine...he'd just sit there and watch, it wouldn't cause him to break. Alastair knew this though...he probably had something else up his sleeve with this plan.

The demon ignored his statement. "And another thing…when's the last time you ate Dean?"

Dean looked at his tormentor warily. "Why the hell would you care?"

Alastair smirked. "I can hear that stomach of yours growling. Weak failures like you don't have the power to ignore hunger, thirst or sleep. Not being able to eat or drink…it's going to wear down on your body, you'd be stuck in a body that's slowly dying. It would…well….drive you insane, don't you think?"

Oh shit. "You're going to starve me out."

"Just figuring that out? Weak and stupid, you'll break in no time." Alastair folded his bloody hands in front of him, a stance that didn't match his dangerous tone. "I may be feeling generous though. Every time you do get closer to hurting her…you'll be rewarded. A glass of water…a snack…"

"Well then keep your food and water for you minions, because it won't be used on me. I'm not that desperate."

"We'll see Dean…we'll see…"

And with that he was gone.

Dean may have attempted to put up a brave front but deep down…he knew…

He was already unraveling. He might be able to hold on for a while but…without Sam….knowing he didn't have his brother's trust and support…Dean was losing it.

Sam's companionship and belief in him was the one thing that kept him going, kept him away from any urges and helped retain whatever humanity he had left. Without that…

It was just a matter of time.

Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing. I loved reading everyone's reactions to what happened. Please leave a note to let me know what you thought of this chapter.