Bobby popped the top on his beer and sat down in front of the aging dinosaur that had once been a desktop computer. The monitor and tower still worked, but nothing had been updated on the machine in over a year – not since the last time Sam had fixed up his virus protector and took off all the spyware. The beast ran slower by the day, and eventually Bobby figured it would just give up and die a proud death. He planned to give it full hunter's honors when that day rolled around, and he kept a lighter in the drawer especially for that occasion.

Pulling on the beer, Bobby clicked on his email and waited a full two minutes for the page to load. He had one new message. The hunter clicked and waited, and a simple, cryptic message appeared:

"This him?"

That was all – a simple line of text. Then he noticed the attachment at the bottom.

"Balls!" he exclaimed when he realized it was a video file. But he clicked on it anyway, and then stepped away while it took its damn good time loading. It was the perfect opportunity to sample the peach cobbler he'd picked up at the little local market on the square. God knew – he had nothing but time.

Once he'd cut a generous slice out of the cobbler and warmed it in the microwave, the file had loaded. The old hunter sat back down at his desk and clicked a final time to get the video started.

It looked like high-quality nighttime footage shot from a parking lot security cam. The lot was empty except for the occasional stray leaf or piece of trash blowing by. The camera was one of those pricey contraptions that caught and zoomed in on movement, and Bobby was treated to a close up of a jittery possum family and a renegade Walmart bag before the djinn suddenly stepped into the frame. The camera zoomed and focused immediately. It clearly showed what looked like an alpha djinn dragging a dead or unconscious man across the lot by his feet. The unfortunate soul was on his back, feet tied together - the djinn pulling him effortlessly along. The man's hands were flung wide above his head as he was bounced mercilessly over the asphalt.

"That poor son-of-a-bitch." Bobby uttered, setting his saucer down and leaning in to look closer at the screen.

The djinn suddenly stopped his forward motion, causing the camera to zoom back out. But then the man on the ground flapped his arms uselessly, and the cam swung back in, focusing on his face.

"Well, Balls!" Bobby exploded, as recognition dawned. At first, he thought he was looking at a fucked John Winchester, but then the man opened his eyes and he realized that the man was really only a boy and that the boy was clearly Sam. His hair was longer and he had a shit ton of facial hair, but Bobby would know those soulful eyes anywhere – even cloudy and tear-filled as they were.

In the video, the boy seemed to suddenly realize that whatever was happening to him wasn't good. He began struggling in earnest to free himself, causing the djinn to drop his feet and back up a few paces. The creature stood looking down at the boy for a heartbeat – at his arms flailing in a desperate, confused way that posed no real threat. Then the djinn lifted one powerful leg and stomped squarely on his victim's neck, stilling him instantly.

"You son of a bitch!" Bobby yelled, jumping to his feet and sending his beer flying. It was all he could say as the djinn moved back to stand in front of Sam, picked up his feet again, and continued his merciless march until he'd crossed the parking lot and moved out of the camera's range. The angle instantly swung wide again, showing a nameless parking lot next to a nameless building that could have been located in any of a hundred-thousand nameless cities.

Struggling to collect his wits, Bobby glanced at the address of the sender of the horrific message. He swore once, then turned to pick up the phone. He punched out the number he knew by heart and growled when Rufus picked up.

"What the hell?" He snarled, "You send me something like that with no details?"

Rufus coughed. He had obviously been sleeping. "Bobby?"

"Yeah!" Bobby exploded. "Where'd you get that video of Sam, and where the hell was it taken and when?"

"Aw, so it is your boy." Rufus sounded genuinely bereft. "I'm sorry, man. Truly I am."

"Can the niceties," Bobby barked, "Give me details, dammit!"

"Steve Wandell put me on to it. We ran into each other two nights ago, and he told me about a hunt he took down in McLeansboro a week or two back. Steve said he'd be dead if it wasn't for this tall, rangy kid that came in storming the place like the Damned Lone Ranger."

"He was hunting djinn?"

"Hell yeah. You know Steve. He's fearless. Even I won't touch a damn case that spells djinn."

"So what happened?"

"Well, to hear Steve tell it, kid had a death wish or something. Just kept putting himself out there in the thick of it over and over again. He charged a group of six of the bastards, took out three single-handedly with a knife that looked like something a damn boy scout would carry – and that's after he took out the one that had Steve cornered."

"What about the alpha?"

"Well, that's where the story goes dark. Steve says him and the kid had the thing cornered, and then it just honed in on the boy and flicked Steve away like a gnat. He hit the wall and went out, and when he woke back up, the kid and the djinn were gone."

"Son of a bitch."

"Yeah, well, Steve felt bad, you know? So he went lookin' and found the security camera out in the parking lot. He got someone to hack in and that's the file I sent you."

Bobby closed his eyes and shook his head. "So this was in McLeansboro, you said? Any chance that's in Illinois?"

"Yeah, southern Illinois, down Benton way."

"I need the address of that parking lot."

"Call Steve. You still got his number?"

"Yeah." Bobby growled and hung up.

Author's note: Thanks for the comments :) A kind reader asked for Sam whump, so I did :)