Disclaimer: I own nothing but my over active imagination that keeps getting me in trouble when I should be paying attention to shit. Oh well.

"You know he'll follow us right." Sam stated when they parked the car at the edge of the woods they'd been searching before.

"Yeah, but he won't find us." Dean said confidently. He got out of the car, circling around the back to open the trunk. He and Sam loaded their guns with silver bullets, grabbed some flashlights and whatever other weapons they could think of. Dean nodded to Sam and closed the trunk.

Sam pulled out the map, pointed to one of the circles on the map, "This is closest to where we are now."

"Probably least likely place too, if the guy's smart he won't hide so close to where he dumped the bodies." Dean said.

"True, but we can't afford to skip anything." Sam said.

"Can't afford to waste time either." Dean mumbled more to himself than to Sam. Sam heard it anyway.

They'd lost valuable time due to their late start and having to evade any cops. This weighed heavily on both men. The sun was already setting and neither wanted to bring up the fact that they had no way of knowing which night of the full moon this monster liked to dispose of his victims on.

The snow covered ground lent an eerie calm to the woods. In the light everything looked too pristine to be home to such sinister things. As the sun dipped lower though, it looked like a dead zone. Even the animals were silent. The area they headed to was over grown, the trail was hard to make out. Dean moved ahead of Sam when they approached the wooden dwelling that was little more than a shed, rotting away where it stood.

They took positions on either side of the front door and Dean started a count of three on his fingers.


Jack shook with the cold, the only warmth was from the fresh wounds Brian kept inflicting on her. He' made it very clear that this was something special just for her. He'd worked the other victims over good, but he was taking his time with Jack. She distanced herself form the pain and thought instead of what the boys were doing. She had no concept of time in the cabin, there were no windows there. Brian had left her alone again, without explanation. She was dazed with hunger, lack of sleep and blood loss she tried wriggle loose from her restraints anyway. She almost managed to get one of her rams loose when she heard footsteps, deadened by the snow but real, she was sure of it.

Jack went very waiting for the door to open.


Dean kicked the door off its hinges., walking in cautiously with his guns pointed in front of him, Sam covering him back to back as the surveyed the dilapidated room. It was empty. No big surprise, Dean was pissed at the waste of time.

Jack could be…….the killer could be- Dean thought of the question he should have asked Officer Bradley. He couldn't bring himself to ask it back then and he kept thinking that he really should have.

They moved on to the next spot, very much aware that they'd just wasted another two hours chasing the dead end lead. Now the full moon was shining brightly overhead.


"Miss me?" Brian walked into the cabin carrying a plastic bag which he set on the table and came forward to inspect her. That was when he saw her left hand was halfway out of its bond.

He grabbed her by the chin and glared at her. "Don't. Do. That." He punctuated each word by tightening his grip so hard it would bruise. He let her go and untied her hand and twisted it hard behind her back, tying it tighter than before and did the same with the other hand. He didn't give her enough time to take advantage of the opportunity.

While he was behind her Brian tore away the tattered remains of Jack's shirt. She flinched when he ran a hand up the back of her arm, the way she always liked to be touched. Now it made her stomach turn.

He came around her front and knelt in front of her.

Jack looked him in the eye and spoke around her busted mouth. "I am going to kill you." She closed her eyes as he reached back to launch his fist into her stomach. Her mouth filled with bile, her body wanted to give in and let her eyes close. Everything hurt. But Jack refused to let go.


They were a mile from the next circle on the map when they heard voices and saw flashlights. They turned off their and Sam quickly ducked behind one tree while Dean crouched low using a rock as cover. Scattered scraps of a whispered conversation made its way to their ears.

"This where they found-"

"I heard it just a head and-"

"Lets go this place gives me the-"

'Fucking teenagers.' Dean thought. He got to his feet and walked stealthily to where the kids were walking from, Sam following him.

"Hey!" Sam barked stepping into their flashlight range. The kids, a guy and a girl, jumped and the boy looked like he was about to piss himself.

"Are you two aware that there is an ongoing investigation of this area?" Sam said in his best ball buster voice. Dean always said it brought back memories of getting arrested in high school, or last week for that matter.

"You could be contaminating evidence just by being here." Dean chimed in turning on his flashlight and shining it in their faces.

"And I believe there's a town wide curfew in effect." Sam said hands on his hips. Any other day and Dean would have been laughing his ass off at the looks on the kids' faces.

"We-we" The boy was stuttering something out.

"We'll leave, just please don't arrest us." The girl asserted. The boy nodded along enthusiastically.

"We'll cut you a break this time but you need to get out of here and get home. Right. Now." Dean ordered them. They nodded looking intensely relieved and turned to go.

"Do you think its safe to let them walk through these woods alone, especially tonight?" Sam asked watching them go.

Dean wanted to say yes, he wanted to turn away from the little bastards and keep towards the second place on the map. He didn't. The memory of his last fuck up with not making sure a kid got home was still too close to the surface for him. Damn demon.

"I hate this town." Dean huffed turning off his light and walking in the direction the kids had retreated in to make sure they got safely back to wherever they were going.

They followed at a discreet distance till they got to a break in the trees a half mile from where they'd spotted them and watched the teenagers get into their car and drive away.

"There, I think we can assume they're safe now." Dean said walking swiftly back through the trees with his flashlight on.

"Wasting another twenty minutes on some dumb kids…" Dean mumbled. Sam walked behind him silently agreeing and wondering if it would be considered bad to track down the two kids if Jack ended-

'Don't even think that.' Sam told himself forcefully.

He looked up at the moon, back at his brother, set his jaw firmly and pulled out the map so they could find the trail again.

Dean stopped mid-step and dug around in his pockets. Sam turned and sent him a questioning look that Dean ignored. He finally found the book of matches, wondering why he hadn't thought of it sooner.

Realization dawned on Sam when Dean struck up a match letting it burn down to his fingertips, staring straight into the fire till it he had to frop it to the snowy floor.


Jack couldn't use her abilities anymore but she could still feel the intangible aspects of it. She felt the match strike and saw the brief reflection of Dean's face in her mind's eye. She saw the grim expression and the hint of desperation as he looked into the fire.

He was telling her he was near. That he and Sam were on their way. True she couldn't discern how far they were, but just knowing gave her some fresh hope.

And dread. Brian knew these woods better than them, better than her. He looked at her oddly where he stood and she thought for a second he could read her thoughts. He smiled that damn smile again and reached out snatching the choker from around her neck.

He knew they were coming. Somehow he knew it too.


The second place was a bust and Sam let his temper get the better of him and threw the lone piece of furniture, a broken down three legged table across the room through a window.

"You done?" Dean asked with understanding. He was just sorry he hadn't gotten to it first.

Sam mumbled an affirmative.

Dean and Sam searched till dawn and couldn't find the third dwelling. The kept going, despite hunger and exhaustion all through the morning and afternoon. Their old friend Officer Bradley showed with his cop buddies and dogs and they had to duck out and lay low. The search party finally gave up as early evening broke. Another day missing.

Sam sat on a rock waiting for the last of the cops to retreat with his head in his hands. Following t he search teams seemed like a good idea at the time, but the dogs didn't pick up anything. Something about t he incense used in the rituals, Sam surmised. Their guy was smart.


Inside the closet Jack sang to herself, lullabies, nursery rhymes from her youth, songs she heard everyday in the car. Anything to keep her mind off of her surrounding. She'd panic if she let it set in. She never should have told Brian this about herself, she'd been too trusting. Even Sam and Dean didn't know this phobia.

"Jack be nimble, Jack be quick…" As she tried to force her hands out of their bonds in vain. "Jack jump over the candle stick…" Her voice cracked as her wrist twisted painfully and she couldn't get it back the way it was.

When she ran out of songs she talked to herself, telling herself old stories and jokes. Soon it disintegrated into nonsense. She sounded crazy even to herself. She counted out the seconds, the long unending seconds. When she counted past two hours she tried to move one of her legs and she couldn't feel it.

That was when the terror started to set in. She threw her weight backwards into the wall and forward again, wincing at the sharp pain in her ribs. Pain is good, she told herself, aloud or silently she didn't know. Pain means you're still here.

Jack held onto that when she started to feel dizzy with fear and began hallucinating. She thought she felt the dark choke down from her blacked out eyes to her nose and mouth, slowly devouring her taking the air from her lungs. She swore she felt something or a thousand somethings crawling up and down her body, trailing blood to what little untarnished flesh she had left. She could taste the air, stagnant and rotting, taste the ice on it and the fear of everyone who'd been in this room before her. She tasted it like starbursts of crimson on her tongue She knew she was loosing it when she 'saw' charms and symbols melting off the body she wasn't sure she had anymore. Jack started crying, the salt burning the cuts on her face, mingling with the joy of finding she still had one and the knowledge that she was drifting in and out of lucidity.


"This is taking too long." Dean said after another of their marathon stretches of silence.

"I know." Sam replied rubbing his forehead. He'd give anything for a vision right then. He felt like he was on the verge of something since night had fallen, like there was something watching them from the shadows, waiting.

"He's watching us Dean." Sam said stepping closer to his brother hoping t hat he wouldn't be overheard.

"Are you sure?" Dean asked. The back of his neck was prickling like someone was staring a hole in his head.

"Yeah." Sam said. He let his flashlight rove over the area while Dean scanned the ground. He didn't know what he was looking for just that he'd know when he found it.

Then he did.

"Sammy!" Dean growled bending low to the ground to scoop up the shining piece of metal that was nearly invisible. He held the light to the object. The medallion's and the leather band were half covered in sticky blood, half the engraved word indiscernible till Dean ran his thumb over it to wipe away the red.

'Veritas' it read Dean clenched his fist tight around the necklace.

"Sam!" Dean tried again when Sam didn't respond.

He heard a crack in the trees to his side and aimed his flashlight and gun towards the sound. He walked slowly forward.

"Sam?" He asked. He barely caught the movement but he crouched low just in time dodge the attack. Wood cracking a against wood and splintering. Den rolled away focused on the near invisible shadow and fired a shot.

"Dean!" Sam yelled a few feet in the other direction.

"Sam stay back!" Dean yelled back.

"Where the hell is Jack?" Dean asked the person he knew was somewhere near him.

"We're going to find where she is sooner or later, freak show." Dean said. "You picked the wrong fucking girl to snatch."

He wasn't getting any response. He knew the guy could hear him. Dean made a snap decision, one he would have killed Sam or Jack for making. He three his gun to the ground, his flashlight next to it and stood slowly with his hands in the air. Surrendering. Sam was close enough that he would see the action. Dean hoped he got the point of it not try not try anything stupid. He needed Sam be able to follow the trail of the killer and get him and Jack out.

Dean braced himself when he saw the hit coming, pocketing the necklace fast so he wouldn't lose it in the snow. Next thing he was on the ground, his head aching and being picked up by his attacker.

Sam stayed behind a tree watching his brother give himself up. He was fighting the urge to run forward and protect Dean, then throttle him for this cock eyed, half thought out plan. He heard the sickening crack of something heavy colliding with Dean's skull then the rustle and drag of Dean being picked up. He gritted his teeth. This guy had Jack, he was right in shooting range. All it would take is a couple of well aimed shots, get Dean back…….but then he might not find Jack.

Sam waiting thirty seconds and followed them. On his way he told himself that if Dean ever made comment about his and Jack's plan to get him back from the demon in Tucson at least he'd have ammo against him now.

TBC……………………

AN: This had nothing to do with the story but….. AHHH! 4 hours and 59 minutes till Supernatural Premiere. Yes I'm counting down the hours, shut up, I know I'm obsessed and I've made peace with that. I am, as always a feedback whore, so indulge me darlins.