1Chapter Three

Nia sniffed back her tears and tried to think. Her brain was hazed in a fog that the adrenaline had yet to break through. She clenched her eyes tight shut and probed further trying to find the answers that he was asking for. There was a fleeting moment when she almost accessed the memories. There had been a bright flash of light, loud pounding music, had she been at the club? The feel of a cool drink against her hand and the sound of her own laughter came over her in an unnerving echoing sort of shade of reality.

"We were going out tonight. My roommate and I. We usually hit the clubs late." The memory was still clouded but she thought she remembered a flashing sign that said "Hell's Delight."

"There's a noble aspiration." An uneasy smile seemed to enter his voice as he pushed his feet against the bottom of the box and groaned trying to shove his foot through the bottom of it. Dean's muscles felt like lead. He was relatively sure that he had been drugged. He tried to access his own memories and found them broken up in bouts of confusion.

There was a club. He and Sam had just salted and burned a corpse and they had gone out for a celebrator drink. The outside of the bar came into a wobbly focus in his vision. "Was the place called Hell's Delight?"

"Yeah." She whispered against his neck.

Dean stiffened as a shiver raced down his spine. It was as if his body finally recognized the fact that he had a woman on top of him. Under normal circumstances, torching some bones, getting a drink and having a woman this close, sounded like the perfect end to a job. Unfortunately, this wasn't a normal situation. He swallowed hard and kicked at the bottom of the box in frustration feeling her tense against him again. "Should have known that was a bad omen, the name of the club." He shook his head and felt her hair against his face. It smelled like honey and vanilla, two very popular fragrances that he had intentionally committed to memory as a pick up.

She shifted as he kicked out again and used her left arm to hold her up - shoulders pressed firmly against the wood. She then used her right hand to feel around the edges for something that resembled a latch. Some weakness to exploit in their tiny prison. Her breathing became ragged under her movement as she realized how stiff and sore every muscle seemed. Like she had been through one hell of a work out. She slid her hand across it feeling him go lax below her so that they didn't hurt each other.

She gasped bringing her hand away as she felt a slice across her finger and the pain slowly spread up her hand. She fell on top of him near knocking the air from both of them. "What?" He asked quickly.

It took her a moment to answer through another choked off sob. "We're nailed in." She finally got out through her labored breathing. To make the point she reached down and took his hand in her own slowly guiding it to the nail that had cut into her finger a moment ago.

Dean ran his hand over the nail and felt the determination to use brute strength to get out exhilarated yet stifled at the same time as he found it difficult to do that with someone on top of him. He pulled his arm back around her pulling her closely to his chest as he shoved his fist into the wood at the top again. "Let's try to do it at the same time. I'm going to hit the wood while you shoulder it near the same spot." he finally whispered after a few more tries. He felt her nod against his t-shirt clad chest and then she raised up on top of him again. "1...2...3..."

There was a simultaneous groan from the both of them as they hit the wood at once and it didn't give an inch. As if in perfect congruity of mind they both tried again, and again, and again until they were so exhausted and out of breath that she collapsed on top of him and they fell silent listening to their breathing again.

"It's ok." Dean got out in a pant. "We may still be weak from whatever we were given. Do you feel like you were drugged?" She didn't answer save to nod against his neck. Dean returned the nod against the top of her head and licked at his lips as he starred into the blackness looming overhead. "I remember walking in. My brother was in there with me. He would have been the one that looked uninterested in everything but the book he had under his nose. He had a corner table. We got our drinks and I was talking to a few people." Women, he was talking to a group of three. He remembered having a feeling at the time that things were going to work out in his favor tonight. Oh how wrong could one guy be?

"The last thing I remember was being on the dance floor with Michelle. There was something after that, I just ..."

"Can't quite make it out." He finished for her. "Yeah me too."

"God, I wonder where Michelle is." She suddenly exclaimed. Dean's chin grazed her forehead as he nodded in agreement with her concern. He was worried about Sam too. Suddenly the box shifted and he instinctively wrapped both arms around her to keep her from shifting upwards and across his face. He pulled her in tight as they lurched head first slowly picking up speed. "Oh God." She breathed.

"Look on the bright side...at least we're not buried." Dean shifted his head trying to make out anything that he could, but the wood was sealed well enough to keep even a pin prick of light from illuminating where they were. Suddenly it felt like the box was turning up on end getting and they were about to drop headfirst. She wrapped her arms around him now as it finally sank in that if they weren't buried that maybe someone could hear them. Dean could have kicked himself. He had been operating under the assumption that they were buried because of the weight against the top of the box. Now it was time to try a new tactic. "Hey!" he screamed freeing on hand long enough to pound on the box. "Hey!" He screamed again as a mechanical whir caught his attention in the background. She screamed with him the next time but that sound was so loud that he had a feeling no one would be hearing them.
All at once the box pitched downward. They were falling. There was a sudden jolt as it connected with something hard and the both of them hit the top of the box with Dean's body crushing into Nia's. They screamed again, this time in pain. The box was sliding fast though and Dean kept thinking that it was going to hit something and break open. There was another jolt and a split second in which he thought his luck had changed.

No...

The box flipped over and over and over as they cried out with each bump and bang until suddenly it was over. They were still. Dean now rested on top of Nia with both so out of breath and that neither could get out a word. They were at an odd angle with the head of the box angled slightly downward making it seem as if they could topple over something at any minute. They both stayed perfectly still. "You alright?" Dean panted.

"Yeah, you?" She thought a rib was broken, but she really wasn't going to add to their situation by voicing that just yet. "What happened?"

"I don't know. Feel around though. That fall may have knocked something loose." They both started pawing at the interior of the box looking for any weakness and came back with nothing again. Dean eased himself down on top of her as he saved the strength in his arms so that he could try to shoulder the damn top of in a moment. "We have to be able to remember something." he insisted in frustration.

"I know...I keep trying but it's like I hit a wall." She breathed feeling his forehead rest against her cheek as his breath nicked at her neck and the low cut tank that she had worn to the club.

"Me too." Dean couldn't understand it. He could remember the group of women and then walking away to talk to Sam for a moment before going after more drinks. When he'd gotten to the bar there was a measure of realization that was trying to get through the haze, something off that he noticed, something nagging at him, but unable to resurface. There had been a girl there. He could see the back of her black hair shining down her back. He had reached for her for some reason. Why? Did he know her?

"It was weird." Nia suddenly whispered. " I thought I saw someone I knew tonight."

"Me too. I think." Dean shifted as if to look to her face but there was still no light to see by. "Why would that be weird though. People see other people they know all the time."

"I don't know. I can't remember who it was."

"Maybe this will wear off and we can figure it out." He suddenly pushed up and slammed his shoulder into the top of the box feeling Nia flinch under him. "Until then." he grunted out and hit it again.