Author's Note: WARNINGS apply for this chapter – torture (Sorry, Cas!)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Now, Castiel, I want you to keep in mind that Dean was my guest for over seven months," Jeremy said. "I was able to take things nice and slow with him. Unfortunately, you're not going to be able to get the full experience because I doubt it will take Dean long to remember and it is important that when he works up the nerve to come back here that he finds you a bleeding, dying mess. But I'll do my best to give you a taster of what your husband went through, okay?"

"Dean won't walk into your trap."

"Of course he will. No one can think straight when it comes to their significant other. He might be terrified of me, but that won't stop him from charging in here, trying to be your knight in shining armour. He'll delude himself into thinking he can handle it. But he'll freeze up, and it will be almost laughably easy to disarm him."

Cas wanted to tell Jeremy that he was wrong, that if Dean did show up it would be all guns blazing and Jeremy wouldn't stand a chance against him. But he had seen for himself how crippling Dean's panic attacks were. He didn't want Dean to come here. He didn't want him to see this place and be reminded of what had been done to him. He didn't want Dean to try to confront this monster. He wanted Dean to stay away, far away… because he was afraid that Jeremy was right.

"It would take very little effort to throw him in there with you," Jeremy continued. "But I think it will be more fun to invite him to trade places. You'll die anyway, of course, but Dean will have to face the fact that he gave himself over to me willingly. That will be what finally pushes him over the edge, and I cannot wait to taste that victory." He rolled his eyes rapturously. "I tell you, Castiel, it is going to be better than sex."

"Are you just going to talk at me all day?" Cas tried to sound bored and disinterested.

"Oh, you are a curious puppy, aren't you? You're so eager to know what I did to your husband. I only wished I had thought to film it so you could listen to the sound of his screams. The pitiful sobbing was delicious too. And when he begged…" Jeremy licked his lips. "Oh how I've missed him. But it won't be long now, and I'm sure you'll be more than enough to tide me over."

"I won't let you hurt him."

"Big words, coming from a dog in a cage. What do you think you're going to be able to do to me from in there?"

"You can't hurt me either," Cas pointed out.

A slow smile spread across his face. "Oh, can't I?" He reached up and grasped some loose wires that were hanging from the ceiling; it looked like one of the light fixtures had been ripped out.

Cas eyed the length of cord and shuffled backwards a short distance. "You can't reach me with those."

He didn't like the way Jeremy was grinning at him. "I don't have to." He dragged the wires down and let them hover over the metal frame of the cage.

Cas hunched lower, making sure that none of his skin was touching the metal.

Jeremy chuckled. "You're cute." He let the bare wires touch the metal and there was a sharp snap of electricity.

Too late, Cas remembered that he was kneeling in a puddle.

The jolt hit him and every muscle in his body seized. He felt like he was burning from the inside out but he couldn't even scream past the tightness in his throat.

When the current released him, he dropped to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.

He gasped for air.

"Gotcha," Jeremy smirked. He was standing a step up from the floor, safe and dry. "Elegant in its simplicity, don't you think? When I brought down the wires Dean would scurry around like a rat, searching for a patch of floor that wasn't wet. He rarely made it on time. I never held the shock for long enough to trigger a heart-attack, of course. That would have ended the fun far too quickly."

The rage burned hotter than the electricity had. "You son of a bitch!"

A second shock ripped through him.

"Language," Jeremy said mildly.

"Motherfuck-"

This time Jeremy held it longer. When he finally released him, Cas could smell charred flesh. The knowledge that it was his own was almost enough to make him regurgitate what little was left in his stomach.

"I wonder, did you get your filthy mouth from Dean, or was it the other way around? The more I hurt him, the more viciously he cussed. I told him up front that I'd use the wires every time he said something I didn't like, but he was remarkably stubborn. Even had the nerve to insult my wife. But I exhausted him in the end; he just couldn't muster up the energy to keep at it. I found it endlessly amusing, the way he would start to swear and then cut himself off – he would look at me with wide-eyed terror, wondering if the slip up had earned punishment. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't – I liked to keep him guessing."

"You're a fucking bastard," Cas spat.

His muscles were screaming at him before the current let up, and the pain didn't stop. Little after-shocks kept running through him. He could feel every hair on his body and the rough press of concrete was unbearable against his hyper-sensitive skin. Every inch of his body ached. He hadn't even known that his toes could hurt like that.

Jeremy shook his head. "Peas in a pod, you two. You know what I'm going to do, but you push me anyway."

"Is – that all you've got?" Cas rasped.

"Electro-shock torture does grow dull after a while, but it was an effective training tool. I couldn't take Dean out of the cage for some more intimate sessions until he learned some obedience."

Cas pushed himself back onto his hands and knees. "Admit it, Jeremy; you kept him in here because you knew full well that he could kill you with a single blow."

"Oh, he certainly thought so. The first day I let him out, I told him he had to crawl like the dog he is or he'd be sent right back into his cage, and what did he do?"

"He stood up," Cas said proudly. He knew Dean.

"He did. He launched himself at me and tried to get his hands around my neck. Poor thing didn't realise that his body wouldn't work for him like it used to, after spending so long cooped up in his cage with very little food to eat. One blow knocked him down like a house of cards. The next time I let him out, I thought he might have learned his lesson."

"Dean doesn't give up that easily."

"No," Jeremy sighed. "I'm afraid he didn't have much better luck the second time. He busted his nose and sprained his wrist pretty badly. Wouldn't even let me bandage it for him. I hoped that by the third attempt he would have realised the futility of his actions, but the fool tried it again. Unfortunately, I had to resort to harsher teaching methods."

Out of nowhere, another shock took Cas to the ground.

"No, not that. Too much repetition is boring, after all. No, I let him stand up – even gave him to chance to find his balance on those weak, wobbly legs of his. I invited him to join me upstairs, and would you believe it, he actually made it up there? It took such a gargantuan effort, I almost felt bad for punishing him. But I did what I had to."

Cas was trembling with anger (he refused to believe it had anything to do with the pain still reverberating through him). "Which was?"

Jeremy's face morphed into a falsely apologetic expression. "I took his knees out with a baseball bat."

Something cold clenched in his chest. He saw Dean's face, the pain and frustration he'd felt every time his knees gave out on him, the distress in his voice as he admitted "The rat bastard fucked up my knees and now I can't-"

Jeremy had crippled him. Dean's knees were never going to heal properly, and it was Jeremy's fault. He had inflicted that damage deliberately, maliciously, and he had enjoyed it.

"I'm going to kill you," Cas growled. "But before I do, I'm going to make sure you feel the same pain that he felt, you fucking asshole."

"Oh, don't be that way, Cassie. I didn't hit him hard enough to shatter his kneecaps completely, but – well – he didn't stand up again after that. Which was the point, of course. He called my wife a bitch, so I made him mine."

"You're a sick bastard."

Jeremy shrugged. "I suppose so. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm getting bored of all this talking. I was patient with Dean, but I don't have the time to train you to heel like I did with him." He pulled a gas mask and a small canister out of his pocket. "Don't worry, this won't knock you out for long. I wouldn't want you to miss out on any of the fun."

Cas tried to hold his breath as the medicated smoke hissed towards him, but his lungs demanded oxygen and he was forced to suck in the contaminated air.

Darkness rushed over him.

When he regained consciousness, he found that he was spread-eagled on top of the cage. His wrists and ankles were chained down tightly, and Jeremy was bending over him.

"Now where were we?" he smiled.

ooOOoo