Chapter 3

"Hey," Sam called to his brother as he stepped onto the deck and found Dean sort of zoned out. "Are you okay?"

"What?" Dean grunted letting his feet fall to the deck and straightening up in the chair. "I'm fine." He cleared his throat and coughed lightly pulling himself back to reality.

"My program finished running," Sam offered eyeing him thoughtfully for a moment. "You wanna see what it found?"

"Great, lead the way. Let's see what it came up with. Maybe it'll give us a clue what we're searching for."

Sam went in first, followed by Dean, and they joined Grant in the dining room. Sam pulled the laptop to him and clicked a few keys to get the results of his program. His eyes moved back and forth as he started reading the information.

"Well," Dean asked a little annoyed with his brother's silence. "See anything that might be useful?"

"There's actually a couple suggestions that might be the monster," Sam replied looking up at Dean. "All can blend in with humans but two stand out, ghouls or Djinn. Both feed off humans in different ways. But my money is on a Djinn. Think about it, a Djinn kidnaps people and holds them somewhere putting them in a dream world so it can feed. They usually have numerous captives at one time."

"Yeah, but would a Djinn be bouncing from town to town like this taking people?"

"Why not?" Sam shrugged. "Maybe this one is more organized than the ones we've delt with before. He has a plan that's working and keeps using it."

"Wanna fill me in on this Djinn thing?" Grant asked. "I've read about all sorts of monsters, but I don't think I've run across that one yet."

"Djinn are immortal beings who can make a person's deepest desires become reality. They come from Arab folklore. These beings can be good or evil or neutral but are usually thought of as tricksters who put negative effects on a wish," Sam explained to Grant. "They feed on human blood like vampires, but a Djinn reaches into a person's mind with their touch to find their deepest desires and release powerful hallucinogenic poison into victim's system. This poison raises the dopamine levels causing them to believe they are living out their fantasies. While like this, the Djinn will feed on the victims for long periods of time. Time passes slower in the fantasy world and the victim feels like they are living their lives out until the Djinn drains them and they die."

"That sounds like one nasty monster," Grant surmised. "Any idea how we find and stop this Djinn from kidnapping more people?"

"Finding the Djinn may be a little harder than killing it," Dean offered. "We know how to kill one, silver knife dipped in lamb's blood will do it."

"Let's look at the places where those people disappeared from again," Sam noted laying the two maps side by side and comparing them.

Dean looked at the maps upside down and let his eyes go from one to the other. He noted the red x's on Grant's map and the black ones on Sam's map. Something seemed to click in his mind as he pulled Grant's map to him.

"What Dean? You see something?" Sam asked knowing the expression on Dean's face because he had seen it before when something seemed to click with him.

"Look at this," Dean pointed to two areas. "It seems that there are two places where the victims seem to have been abducted from. They look random, but I don't think they are." He picked up a pen and connected the x's at both places. "Doesn't this look like some type of symbol or sigil?"

"I think you might be right," Sam mumbled seeing now what his brother was seeing. He tried to copy them and opened a search engine to see if he could find what the symbols meant.

"The Djinn must pick its victims and observe them for a time before deciding the best time to kidnap them. I say we split up, Sammy you take one section and I'll take the other and we check it out, see if we spot anything or anyone out of place."

"Guess it's a start," Sam huffed looking at the map too.

"I'll drop you off at one and head over to the other," Dean instructed. "We'll give it a couple of hours and if neither of us finds anything, call me and I'll come pick you up. Tomorrow we'll maybe check some of those places you found that might be the Djinn's lair."

"What about me?" Grant asked.

"We need you to stay here in case one of us runs into trouble or needs help," Dean told him getting up from the table. "You're our backup."

"I could help you search."

"No, you haven't been trained for this, we have," Sam told him. "Like Dean said, you're our backup."

"If that's the case, you need my cell number," Grant replied writing the number down on a scrap of paper. He handed it to Sam who added it to his contacts on his cell before passing it along to Dean who did the same.

"Okay, Sammy while we're out, we need to tract down some lamb's blood to coat our silver knives, so we have some protection."

"I can take care of that for you. I know a neighbor that raises sheep and sells them. I can call him and get the blood for you before you leave. He doesn't live far from me. I can run over and pick it up."

"Alright, that sounds like a plan then. We'll wait here on you to get back."

"Let me get going then," Grant nodded happy to be able to help. He pulled his cellphone out and placed the call as he grabbed his keys from a rack by the door and headed outside.

"Why don't you go get the silver knives out of the weapon's bag Sammy?"

"Alright," Sam nodded. He headed toward Dean's bedroom and rummaged in the bag finding two silver knives that they could use. He stopped by the bathroom to look for a hair dryer before heading back to the kitchen to wait for Grant's return. Sam figured they could use it to dry the blood quicker on the blades.

When Grant returned with a pint jar of lamb's blood, Dean did the honor of coating the blades with the blood and Sam used the hair dryer on them so Dean could put another coat over the blade. He gave them back to Sam and let him dry them and then checked them before nodding that they looked good.

Grant stored the remaining blood in the fridge in case they needed more later. He bid the brothers goodbye and told them to be careful while out there looking for the Djinn.

spn

"Alright Sammy," Dean spoke as he pulled into a parking lot. "I'll let you out here."

"Okay," Sam replied opening the door to get out.

"Bro, watch your back and no heroics. You stay in touch if you see or feel anything," Dean told him in a stern, brotherly voice.

"The same with you," Sam told him leaning down to look into the car interior. "I'll call you in a couple of hours."

"Or sooner if you need me."

"Yeah, I know." Sam closed the door and tapped on the top of the Impala before stepping back to let Dean pull out and head to the second location. He waited until the Impala was out of sight before walking across the parking lot to the sidewalk that ran along the street. He walked slowly down the sidewalk looking around his senses on high alert for anything that would be useful to them.

It didn't take him long to find the last place one of the victims was seen and could see how easily someone could snatch a person from the spot. It was a side street that didn't have very much foot or vehicle traffic on it. If someone was taking a shortcut, especially if it was getting dark would be an easy target.

Sam moved from that location toward another one and didn't sense the stranger watching him from a distance. The stranger started to follow him as he walked down the sidewalk studying the people and their surroundings. It wasn't hard for the stranger to recognize Sam as a hunter since he had been eluding them for years.

He knew if there was one, there was probably another somewhere around since they usually traveled in pairs. The Djinn decided he was a good specimen to add to his collection and it would be the perfect revenge for all the hunters that had killed his kind. He could snag this one and no one would be the wiser. Whoever this hunter was with would never find them once he got the prey under his control. He kept the young hunter in his sight and knew where he was going the closer Sam got to the place, he had taken another person. The Djinn ducked down a side alley and hurried ahead of Sam to set a trap.

Sam looked out across the parking lot that was set back from the main road. It was half full of vehicles and another good place to take someone and no one would really see or pay attention to it happening. There were shady corners at the back of the lot that wouldn't be seen by anyone walking by it.

Movement in the middle of the lot caught Sam's attention as a middle-aged man stumbled around a car, moaning and clutching his chest like he was in distress before sliding to the ground in a heap. Sam's instincts kicked in to help and he ran toward the fallen man. He squatted down and carefully rolled the stranger to his back when suddenly a strong hand gripped Sam's throat as tattoos began to appear down the stranger's arm as he infected Sam with his poison.

Sam gasped in shock and tried to break away as he pulled out the blood coated knife. The Djinn knocked Sam's hand aside in disgust making the knife skitter across the pavement and lodge under a dumpster. Sam's arms felt like lead as he tried to pull the Djinn's arm from his neck, but the hold was too strong, and his mind fell off the abyss into a sea of blackness as the poison raced through his body.

When the Djinn saw Sam was unconscious, he hurried to a van parked nearby and pulled it in front of the body to block the view. He got out and opened the side door to hoist Sam's body into it so he could drive away without anyone being the wiser. The Djinn headed out of town to his lair, anxious to get the hunter set up and start draining him for food.

A/N: Sam's been taken, and his nightmare will begin. Can Dean and Grant find him and save him? What dream world will Sam be put into? Things are going to get intense. Reviews/Comment would be great. NC