"What happened?" Dean snapped irritably.

"W-what do you mean?" Jo asked, stuttering as fear of Dean's anger gripped her.

"You said you'd watch him!"

She dropped her head, unable to look Dean in the eye. "I'm sorry. I was tired and I really didn't think anything could happen."

After a moment of silence, she dared to glance at him. He was taking a deep breath, trying to calm himself before speaking to her again.

"It's more my fault than yours," he finally said softly. "I was supposed to watch out for him." He paused, then added, "Well, forget this blame game. It won't help us find my brother before he does something stupid."

Jo nodded, grabbing her gun and jacket to leave. "We'll find him, Dean."

"We'd better," the Winchester replied as he headed out the door. "I'd hate to have my dad and my brother haunting me at the same time."

"Well, we have 24 hours," Jo said brightly. "Where should we start looking?"

----------------------

After three hours of calling people and talking to people and asking around, Jo and Dean dejectedly stopped at a park to rest. They had been running nonstop and were tired, hungry, and upset. They had been sitting in an awkward silence for about ten minutes when Dean's cell phone rang. He ripped it out and answered it without thinking about who would be calling him.

"Yeah?"

"Dean?"

Dean suddenly sat up straighter, drawing Jo's attention. "Sam? Is that you?"

"Yeah, uh . . . listen, I need help." Sam's voice was beyond exhausted.

"Are you you?"

"I'm me, Dean. I've been trying to fight it but I'm getting too tired and I need help. You have to stop it before I do something."

"I will, Sam. I will. Tell me where you are."

"I have no idea. I've been trying to figure it out for a while. I've only been in control for about an hour. I could have killed somebody or something . . ."

"Sam!" Dean shouted, as his brother's voice trailed off. "Sam, stay with me here and concentrate. I need you to tell me what's around you."

"Uh . . . trees."

Dean waited patiently for more, but nothing came. "That's it?"

"Yeah, Dean. That's it. There aren't any people or buildings or roads or anything. I'm completely lost here."

"Are you okay? I mean, are you hurt?"

Sam sighed impatiently. "Dean, my heart was nearly ripped out of my chest last night. I feel like I got run over by a steam roller. No, I'm not okay." He waited a beat, then said, "I assume it was last night because generally people die in 24 hours after being possessed. It was last night, correct?"

"It was last night, all right," Dean answered. "Look, we'll find you, okay? Just hold tight and try to keep fighting it."

"I am, Dean," Sam said, suddenly groaning through his teeth. "Just hurry."

"Maybe we can have someone trace your phone," the elder Winchester said.

"Ash," Jo added from beside him, having gathered a lot of what was being said from Dean's half of the conversation.

"Yeah, Ash," Dean repeated to his brother. "So you have to stay on the line."

"I am on the line," Sam ground out, obviously in some kind of pain. "But please hurry."

Jo was already using her own phone to call Ash and ask him for a favor. "Jo is on it," Dean said. They waited for the other conversation to be over.

"Ash can trace it to within a mile," Jo said as she closed her phone. "He'll call when he has it."

"A mile? That won't help if he's stuck in a forest!"

"Dean, it's better than what we have now, which is nothing.. At least we'll have somewhere to look."

"Okay," Dean said, nodding his resignation. "Did you get all that, Sam?"

"The important stuff, I think," Sam said on the other end of the phone, groaning with some sort of attacking anguish.

"Okay, then just hang on, buddy. We'll be there soon. In the meantime, don't leave the forest."

There was no answer. Dean waited, but he couldn't hear anything from his brother. "Sam?" he asked. "Sammy!"

No answer.

Dean pulled his phone away from his ear, looking at it as though it was the reason he could no longer hear the younger Winchester.

"Dean?" Jo asked from his side. "Is everything okay?"

"No, it's not," he growled.

"Ash should be calling back any time now," she said, trying to ignore his anger.

"I hate being useless."

Jo nodded slowly to acknowledge him but said nothing in response. She didn't know what to say, never having heard a Winchester sound this defeated before.

They sat in silence until Jo's phone rang. "Ash?" she said quickly. "Did you find him?"

"The signal is coming from Granville Forest, about seventy miles away from you," Ash answered. "I can't get it much closer, but I know he's near the south end of it . . . the end away from the road."

"Got it. Thanks, Ash. And please don't tell my mom yet."

"Whatever," Ash said as he hung up.

"Granville Forest," Jo repeated to Dean as she closed her phone.

"Just point me in the right direction," the elder brother said as he headed for the car. A slight sound drew his attention back to his phone, which was still open and connected to Sam's. He put it to his ear. "Sam?"

His answer was a low, primal growl. Even though it sounded completely animalistic, it still sounded like his brother. "Sam?" he said louder. "Fight this, Sam! And don't go anywhere! Even if you can't stop yourself from being possessed, DON'T LEAVE THAT FOREST!!"

A slight whimper came across the phone line this time, and he trusted it enough to know that Sam would do everything in his power to stay where he was.

----------------------

Sam groaned as he felt the demon inside him attack again. Every time brought new levels of agony to his already exhausted body. But he'd heard Dean tell him not to walk away, and somewhere in the back of his brain, he knew this was wise. He'd even tried to promise his brother that he'd stay, but it had come out more as a cry of pain than any sort of words. But he knew Dean would understand. Dean could read him like a book.

He allowed himself to collapse, knowing it would be a lot harder to leave if he wasn't on his feet. He even considered trying to tie himself to a tree, but knew that wouldn't help. He'd be able to get out of it in seconds. His phone fell out of his hand and he lay on his back, praying to fall unconscious. That would keep him here. His hazy mind suddenly registered what he thought was a fantastic idea. He could hit himself in the head with something to knock himself out!

Normally, he would have realised that this was one of the dumbest ideas he had ever had. But in his current state, nothing overruled his desire to keep his promise to Dean, and this was the only solution he could come up with. He crawled around, looking for a branch or a rock or something, and finally discovered a river running through the forest. Surely there would be rocks there!

But the demon attacked again just as Sam neared the river, and the agony lancing through his body made him lose his balance. He slipped down the side of the bank and into the water. Luckily, the water was so cold that it jogged his brain and he realised what was going on. He dragged himself back to the bank and tried to climb out, but the water was colder than he thought. His fingers were already numb and refused to grip anything long enough for him to get out. He knew Dean wouldn't be coming for a while, and he wouldn't last more than ten minutes in this water. He fought the demon's attack and the darkness that was now rushing in around the edges of his vision. And, too late, he remembered that he had dropped his cell phone before he crawled away.

"U-uh o-oh," he muttered out loud, his teeth chattering as he started to lose the strength to keep himself awake.

"H-hurry, Dean," he said softly.

----------------------

Note: Thanks again, for reading, everyone. I made up the name of the forest, so if there's really a Granville Forest out there somewhere, I'm sorry. It's just a work of fiction with borrowed characters. Please tell me what you thought so I know how to make the story better.

Oh, and I hate to make excuses, but I was half-asleep when I wrote this chapter, so I apologise for the many mistakes I'm sure I made.