The trip down was sickening, as were the sounds that echoed around them once they'd landed. Souls crying, screaming, and moaning up and down the dripping, gritty corridors.

Dean had never been in this section of hell. The meat hook suspensions and the rack platforms stretching up and down for infinity, surrounded by fire and swarming masses of bloody tortured bodies above and below, waiting their turn, was all that he knew of the underworld.

In comparison, this level of hell seemed like the fucking penthouse suite.

Dean stabilized himself to carry the weight of the mission with resolved surety as he took point. They had to get to Limbo before Cas could do anything as an angel.

Cas handed the demon blade over. It'd been carefully stashed in the folds of his trench coat during their journey through purgatory as only weapons from purgatory could injure those in purgatory. The rules changed in hell though. Here, the blade was the only weapon they had. The demons here were... pure, for lack of a better word. No vessels… and exorcisms certainly didn't apply, nor would holy water or salt work, their properties immediately corrupted upon entry by hell itself.

Dean started forward with Castiel trailing behind him, both adept and competent as they moved.

Neither spoke or made a sound as they wended carefully down the center of the wet, dungeon-esque hallway they'd found themselves. Dean heard snatches of chilling words and phrases at times and did his best to block them out. They passed a cell with a man reaching out at them.

"Eddie! Eddie!" he muttered viciously, seething.

Another direction found a woman burning in a fireplace, laughing maniacally.

"Come with me! Into the fire! Come!"

"Honey-" Dean started to quip, but broke off when Cas jolted against his back. Dean turned around to see what spooked the angel when he registered the high-pitched words of a young woman.

"I've been praying. You came - I knew you would," she trilled softly. "I've been praying. Came. I knew you would. Praying," she chanted incoherently, eyes blazing as she stared at Castiel, "for forever!" she suddenly screamed, raging and shrieking, pushing against the bars of her cell reaching for Cas like she wanted to tear him apart piece by piece.

"Waiting forever! Forever!" Her blackened teeth gnashed and snapped.

Dean pulled Cas behind him by the scruff of his collar, clipping his neck, and Cas fell back gracefully. Dean gripped Castiel's arm sharply with his free hand and pulled as he picked up their pace to get out of this weird section of hell.

"What is this," Dean muttered disapprovingly as they pushed down the hall, past all the shrieks and moans.

"They seem to be insane," Cas observed, keeping up. Dean huffed and rolled his eyes.

"The abandoned dregs of hell... nobody even wants to torture them much..."

"Well. You were a special case," Cas replied evenly. Dean came up short and turned around, disgruntled. Cas stopped. "What?"

"Nothing," Dean said pointedly, eyes digging into Cas. Cas looked baffled, Dean rolled his eyes, "c'mon," he said, turning back around.

They turned a corner and Dean stopped, awestruck at the sight of a massive, elaborately decorated room reminiscent of a Gothic cathedral. Vaulted arched ceilings and carved statues of demons and souls screaming out in pain spanning all along the walls.

There was a center aisle staging area that ran the entire length of the hall, various medieval torture equipment set out at stations.

It was empty.

Castiel stepped one foot ahead of Dean, looking on.

"The Inquisition heavily influenced this area's designs," Castiel said implacably.

Dean didn't know how Cas could make him laugh at a time like this and, to be fair, he actually didn't. It was just that it was exactly what Dean needed to hear. He needed to be as impenetrable to what they were seeing down here as Cas was and he could do it.

With Cas here, he could do it.

"C'mon," he whispered, and raced past everything without a single glance, their footsteps hollow. They had to get to Limbo.

A/N: This is all I'm posting for tonight. Thank you so much for reading and please feel free to comment/review! ~ Alex