Jo eyed the blade in his tight grip and watched as he took a step forward. "Dean please, I don't know what you're talking about. Let us help you, once we kill this Djin everything will go back to the way it was." She paused for only a moment as she took a step back and he took another one forward. "You'll get your memories back, you won't hear and see things that aren't there anymore. We can still save you, but you need to let us."
"Clever." He went on, trying to separate the memories of the woman he once knew, from the stranger standing there in front of him. "You knew family was everything to me, the second you put your hands on me and dug into my memories, you knew messing with my family and killing Sam off would dredge up all kinds of nasty shit."
"Dean, please!" She pleaded, her shaky voice echoing in the quiet building. "I have no clue what you're talking about or who you're hearing. There's no one else in here but us." She continued as she took yet another step back.
"The victims that get away don't truly get away, do they?" He growled, his grip on the blade tightening. "Because all the emotions you dig up, eventually lead them to suicide. You get them worked up to that point they can't deal anymore and once you push them over the top, once you drain them of everything they have worth fighting for... they die and then you just move on to the next one."
"None of this is real." Jo repeated, knowing all too well that she wouldn't be able to convince him otherwise. Now that he'd gone back to the place where he'd been attacked, it was already too late and he was far too gone. "The voices you're hearing in your head, the memories you swear are real, the..." She silence and turned away as the crack of a gunshot tore through the night and the window to her right suddenly shattered. Even though she'd been anticipating it, it still made her jump. The moment the other man hit the ground, she reached down to grab the gun from the back of his belt and raced for the stairs.
With his focus on the woman in front of him, Dean didn't realize he'd step into view until the window next to them had disintegrated. A fraction of a second later and he was on the floor among the broken glass, a stabbing pain radiating from his left side. It had been a simple mistake but that moment of inattention had just cost him a lot. If Jo was indeed the Djin Castiel had warned him about, then the chance to kill it and break free from its hold, had just slipped through his fingers. He listened as her footsteps echoed down the stairs and raced across the factory, knowing it was now only a matter of time before the other hunters moved in.
Dean swore to himself as he carefully sat up and leaned against the wall behind him, the shards of broken glass digging into his skin the least of his worries at the moment. His eyes closed as his breath caught in the back of throat and a sudden sharp pain tore straight across his chest. For a moment, he could have sworn he'd been hit by a truck, the pressure of impact preventing him from drawing in a full breath. His hand instinctively reached for his chest as the deep breath he took turned into a short, almost desperate gasp for air. "Son of a bitch." He hissed, doing what he could to deal with the pain that had suddenly taken hold of him. He swallowed hard, his shaky hand moving from his chest to his side. Blood was already soaking through his clothes and although his ribs hurt as he applied pressure to stop the bleeding, that wasn't what had him worried. The shot had punctured a lung, leaving him short of breath and in much worse shape than his encounter with the Djin had in the first place.
He was trying hard to stay calm but his heart was pounding like a hammer, and his mind was racing. The group of hunters were about to move in on him, the Djin was still on the loose and he was in no condition to fight. Gritting his teeth and steeling himself against the pain, he forced himself to his knees and turned to glance out the window. The hunters were no longer standing by their vehicles, which meant they were already making their way to find him. Even with that chilling realization sinking in, he couldn't help but let the smile creep up from the corner of his lips, as he caught a glimpse of Jo and Ellen making their way to a truck at the far end of the lot. He knew it was nothing more than a memory pulled up from his subconscious and twisted by a Djin, but seeing Ellen with her arm wrapped around Jo was almost enough to make him forget what was going on around him.
"Alright you son of a bitch." Came a voice from the darkened factory floor. "I tried helping you, tried to keep you safe until this hunt was over, but you don't mess with my family."
Dean froze as Bill's voice resonated in the large building, cutting him right to the core. He turned from the window, wincing in pain as he felt his chest tighten and the breath catch in his throat. With a hand still pressed up to the bullet wound in his side, he got to his feet and leaned heavily against the wall behind him. He could now hear their footsteps echo and see the quick flash of their lights break through the darkness like spotlights on the factory floor.
"I know you're in here and we're not leaving until you're dead." Bill went on, eyeing the old machinery in front of him. "You'd better pray that damn Djin gets to you before I do."
Sam moved along at a steady pace, eliminating one room after another as he made his way down the long dark hall. He'd barely caught a glimpse of Castiel and Dean on the floor of a small room, when he was pulled into an adjacent doorway and press up against the wall. His flashlight hit the ground at his feet and his grip on the blade in his hand tightened. Instinct kicked in and he was quick to overpower the Djin that had attacked him, stabbing it with the silver blade and dropping it to the floor before it could administer a dose of its powerful toxin. He reached down to grab the flashlight and had barely straightened out when a second attacked, this one dodging the blade and delivering a kick that sent the young hunter to the floor.
Swearing under his breath he was back on his feet in an instant, lashing out with his blade at the creature that had caught him off guard. He took a punch to the face and another to the gut before finally being able to plunge the silver blade into its chest. Pulling his blade free, he watched as the Djin fell dead to the floor at his feet. He was still trying to catch his breath and calm his racing heart when a hand reached out from behind and wrapped around his throat.
Before he could react, his arm was pulled and twisted behind his back, the silver blade pinned between him and the creature that had come out of nowhere. Sam knew he had to act fast, but the more he struggled to free himself, the tighter the grip around his throat became. So he took a sudden step back, forcing the Djin to do the same and then elbowed the creature in the gut. The grip around his throat loosened as the Djin stumbled back, giving Sam the chance he needed to free his pinned arm. The moment he was free, he spun around and took a swing with the sharp blade still tucked in his tight grip. He came within inches of the creature but didn't land a blow as it backed out of reach and then quickly moved up on him, kicking a leg out from under him. Sam fell to his knees as the Djin snuck around him and headed out the door. "Damn it." He muttered under his breath, picking himself up and giving chase down the tunnel after it.
He didn't make it far when he passed the open door where he'd first caught a glimpse of Dean and Castiel. He froze in his steps, his heart jumping to his throat as his attention turned from the Djin, to his older brother. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he entered the small dark room, the creature's footsteps quickly fading away. Dean lay motionless on the floor, a puddle of blood nearby, while Castiel was slumped against the wall beside him. "Cas, Dean..." He started as he quickly made his way over, his eyes catching those of the angel for only a moment, before Castiel's gaze fell to the man on the floor next to him. Dean's face was cut and bruised; his clothes were soaked with blood.
"He's gone." Castiel replied simply, his coarse voice just barely above a whisper.
The words passed right through him as Sam knelt down next to his older brother, a shaky hand reaching out to place a finger against the side of the other man's throat. He swallowed hard as he searched for a pulse he knew he wouldn't be able to find. "Cas what happened." He asked, pulling away as the tears threatened to fall.
"I couldn't heal him, there was nothing I could do to save him." The angel quietly started, watching as Sam took a seat on the floor next to the other man. "There's more than one Djin down here and their toxin is more than I can handle. It's taking everything I have just to keep myself..." Castiel trailed off as the young hunter reached for his silver blade.
"How long do you think we have before that damn mark on his arm makes of demon out of him?" Sam asked bluntly, glancing up at the angel. "How long before he wakes up with black eyes?" There was a moment of silence as his gaze drifted down to Dean on the floor next to him. "I can't watch that happen to him again. I just can't." He continued, his grip on the blade tightening as the memories came flooding back. "The demon he becomes, his dark side... it's everything he's ever fought so hard not to be or to let me become."
"Sam we fixed things the last time it happened, we'll fix them again." Castiel started, his voice doing little to get the other man's attention. "Sam you listen to me." He continued, his voice rising as he watched the hunter turn the blade in his hand, studying it carefully before pulling the sleeve of his coat up "Sam!" Castiel shouted as the young hunter turn his wrist over and shut his eyes. "SAM!"
Sam's eyes flew open as he felt the needle pull free from his arm. It took a moment for his eyes to focus, but once they did, he was surprised to see Jody kneeling on the floor beside him.
"Sam!" She repeated, her voice suddenly pulling him back to reality. "Damn it kid, I thought I'd lost you." She said, tossing the empty syringe aside. "How you feeling?" She asked, watching as he sat up and glanced around, the confusion clearly visible on his face.
"Jody? What happened?" He asked, eyeing the dead Djin scattered on the floor around them.
"You tell me." She was quick to reply. "I got attacked, went on one hell of a bad trip, woke up in my truck and then came back in looking for you and Cas."
"They got to Cas while I took you outside." Sam started as he caught her eyes. "Jody, I gave you two doses of that antidote before leaving you in your truck. These Djin, their toxin is powerful stuff, I wasn't even sure you'd snap out of it when I left you there."
"Well, lucky for you I did." Jody replied with a crooked smile as she helped him to his feet. "I dropped two more of them on the way down here, so that makes five of them so far." She said, watching as the young hunter once again took a glance at the small room around them and at the bodies strewn across the floor. "Everything alright, Sam?"
"It happened so fast; all it did was put its hand around my throat and what was real and what wasn't just blended together." He swallowed hard, the sight of Dean dead on the floor flashing in the back of his mind. He knew it hadn't been real, but the emotionally loaded punch it packed still had his stomach twisted in knots. "We need to find Dean." He started, pushing the distressing images aside. "Right before I was attacked, I saw him and Cas in one of the rooms across the hall..."
Dean knew it was only a matter of time before the other hunters would find him and he was in no condition to fight. He could actually feel himself weakening both mentally and physically. It was a feeling of dread and despair in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't ignore, one that only seem to be growing with each passing second. With nowhere to go as the sound of footsteps started coming up the steel grate stair, he made his way to the small office room where it had all begun. He stumbled through the darkness and slid down an overturned desk to the floor, knowing he was trapped but unable to do anything about it.
He sucked in a ragged breath as he pulled the silver blade from his pocket, flipping it open as the beam of a flashlight bounced off the wall in front of him. Fear, panic and desperation set in all at once and his grip on the blade tightened. He'd been through this before and wondered if taking his own life would be enough to break him away from the Djin's tight grip. He knew the creature was feeding off his emotions, but he couldn't bring himself to calm down when it felt like the walls were closing in around him."None of this is real." He whispered to himself, his eyes closing. "It's not real."
"Yes, it is." Came a chilling reply.
Everything that followed happened in the blink of an eye. He heard the deafening sound of Bill's gun fire as he felt the blade of his own knife sink into his flesh, and Castiel's hand fall down upon his shoulder.