While Casey was gone on her date, Sam, Dean, and Cas were poring over research books, trying to figure out what was causing these attacks.

"This makes no sense," Sam said frustratedly. "There's no known Pagan Gods that could be doing this, no monster I know of, no creature of any kind! What is going on?!"

Without warning, Castiel stood up, his face darkening.

"Casey is in trouble," he said darkly. "She needs us to go to the Kearns household immediately."

All the researching issues they had been having were quickly set aside.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked, standing quickly and grabbing the keys from his coat pocket.

"Casey has simply said that she needs help and to get there as soon as possible," Castiel said vaguely.

Sam and Dean were out the door with no further questions asked. All three of them piled into the Impala as fast as they could. Dean gunned it out of the parking lot and down the main road, turning quickly onto the side road that led into the woods where Fisher and Harold lived.

"If that kid so much as lays a finger on my sister then so help me I will kill that son of a -"

Dean ranted angrily the entire drive there, not letting Sam or Cas get a word in edgewise.

Then, Sam had a thought.

"Hey Dean," he started.

"I should've never let Casey go with him-"

"Dean-"

"I knew there was something off about that kid-"

"Dean!"

"What?" Dean shouted angrily.

"What if Fisher and Harold are responsible for the bodies in the woods?"

That shut Dean up for a few minutes.

"It would explain why we cannot find any particular hunting pattern," Cas added.

Dean shook his head. "I've said it before, I'll say it again. Monsters I get, but people? People are crazy."

ooOOoo

Casey was running as fast and as long as she could. She could still hear Fisher, just a few steps behind her it seemed. She ran until she felt like she might faint, and then she ran some more. It seemed that the extra adrenaline pumping through her system was doing more than just increasing her fear. Finally, when she could run no more, she ran around the other side of a large oak tree and stopped to catch her breath. She didn't dare stay in one place for too long, but if she ran any longer without a break she would physically pass out.

She began taking in great gulps of air like she was a fish being put back into the water after staying out for an extended period of time. She was trying to be as quiet as possible, but it was hard to hear anything over the sound of blood rushing past her ears.

There was a gunshot through the night, signaling that Casey needed to start running again. She took off into the night once more, her breath not fully back but back enough to keep her going for a little bit longer. Her legs burned. When was the last time she had worked out this hard?

She saw a large amount of shrubbery ahead and slowed to a stop before climbing into the bush. Snakes and spiders be darned. She would rather them crawl all over her and live than stay out of the bush and die. She stayed very still (which was difficult, considering the fact that she was shaking so hard) and breathed as silently as possible. She thanked Chuck that she had decided to wear dark clothes on her date. She wouldn't be easily visible that way.

She could hear someone coming closer and curled closer into herself, trying hard to control her panic. She'd never been this afraid before.

"Casey… I know you're here, sweetheart… you can't hide from me…"

Casey fought back the urge to scream.

She saw him appear from around a tree, walking slowly. Casey closed her eyes, afraid that something as trivial as the whites of her eyes would give her away.

A minute later, she felt something clamp around her arm and drag her out of the bush. She opened her eyes to see Fisher's deranged green ones staring back at her.

"Hello there," he said with a wicked grin. "That wasn't very nice, running away from me, was it? I suppose we'll have to punish you before we have our fun…"

Without warning, he shoved her as hard as he could into the tree behind him. She slammed into it, hard, and felt her shoulder pop out of its socket. She stayed down, moaning in pain. She didn't have the energy to run away.

Fisher grabbed her bad shoulder and hauled her up to her feet again before socking her as hard as he could in the face. She stumbled back into the tree again, sliding down to the ground again. He kicked her in the stomach, hard. She was already covered in scratches and cuts from crawling into the bush and being subsequently dragged from it.

She felt rather faint, from both exhaustion and pain.

Help… woods… hurry…

She had lost hope that the boys were coming. It had to have been at least half an hour by now. The next time Fisher dragged her up, she stayed limp. She was too drained to resist at all.

"Now, do you think that was enough punishment, or should we continue?"

All she could do was glare at him.

He shrugged. "Fair enough."

He threw her back down to the ground, hard. She didn't make a sound. She didn't even cry.

He bent down close to her ear and whispered, "Now then… are you ready for the fun part?"

She didn't reply, just closed her eyes and hoped that the darkness at the corners of her eyes would take her before she had to endure anything too traumatic…