20 || HELL

Turns out that finding a portal in Hell, that leads directly into Purgatory, was a lot harder than Dean or Sam could have ever predicted. And it didn't help that Dean kept leading them around in circles after having taken charge of operation rescue Vanessa.

"Dean, we've been down this way already." Sam found himself saying for the third time in the space of thirty minutes. He was beginning to regret letting Dean take charge as it was clear that he had no idea where the hell, no pun intended, he was going. "Do you even know where you're going?"

"No not really." Dean chuckled out a little nervously, a sheepish smile creeping up on his face as he scratched the back of his head and avoided eye contact with his brother.

"Dean." Sam said with an exasperated sigh as he came to a stop, not wanting to walk any further down the dark and eerie corridor, one which was filled with the stench of burning flesh and was making his nose tingle any time he inhaled.

"What? It's not like I was given the tour last time I was here." Dean replied defensively, holding his hands out to his sides. "Maybe if this place wasn't such a maze, it would be easier to navigate."

"Yeah well you take that up with Crowley when we find him." Sam muttered, running a hand down his face all while he tried to think of what to do next. He had no idea where they were or even how far they were from the place they'd entered from. He had no idea where Castiel or Balthazar were either, the two of them having split off from him and Dean to search a different part of Hell.

Although Sam was regretting not pairing up with Balthazar like he'd originally planned, least that way he wouldn't have wasted time walking around the same part of Hell multiple times. But of course Dean wanted Sam to go with him as, unknown to Sam, he'd made a promise to Vanessa that he'd keep an eye on him when it came to anything Hell related as there was still that lingering worry that the wall inside Sam's head would break and he'd spiral out of control.

"When you read through Ness's notes..." Sam began, ignoring Dean's mutters of how he didn't know what Sam was talking about and how he'd never read Ness's notes. (He did. And everyone knew it. Vanessa included). "Did they say anything about Hell? Anything we don't know already?"

"Not that I can remember, I mean, half of her notes are written in Gaelic and those that aren't are mainly stuff we already know." Dean sighed out as he leaned against the wall, which he then remembered was in Hell and quickly pushed himself off of, scrunching up his nose and wiping the sleeve of his jacket, his hands getting covering in dirt and God knows what else.

"Yeah..." Sam sighed, on the verge of feeling defeated before he shook his head and stuffed that feeling down deep inside him. This was no time to dwell on stuff he couldn't control. Right now he just needed to find Vanessa as he didn't know how much longer he could take knowing that she was trapped in Purgatory and he was out here feeling utterly useless. "Let's just... Let's go this way."

Sam gestured with his head for Dean to follow him down a corridor that didn't look as familiar as all the others. Dean nodded his head briefly before he scurried after Sam, subtly wiping the ash and dirt off his hand onto the back of Sam's jacket, which had him swat his hand away when he realised what he was doing.

"Are you..." Dean began hesitantly as he figured out how to ask Sam if he was okay without bringing up the whole cage scenario and potentially cracking that wall. "Are you doing okay? I mean, you're not... Remembering anything, are you?"

"Remembering what?" Sam asked, looking left and right as they came to a crossroads. He took a second, while Dean was trying to figure out how to reply, to debate which way to go before something in him told him to go left, as if something was tugging at him and enticing him that way.

He was just hoping that feeling was something to do with Vanessa and not something to do will Hell itself trying to lure him deeper into its fiery pits.

"You know... Stuff." Dean said vaguely, making Sam furrow his brows a little before he realised what Dean was talking about.

Honestly Sam had forgotten all about the fact that he'd been to Hell before as he'd been much too focused on Vanessa to worry about what being here might do to the wall inside his head.

"Trust me, I'm not even thinking about that." Sam replied as they turned right at another crossroads, once again feeling that tugging inside him that guided him blindly through the dark and eerie corridors of Hell. "And you know, even if I was, I don't think it would do anything to me. I don't think it would crack the wall."

"You don't?" Dean asked curiously as he followed behind Sam, unsure how he seemed to know which way he was going, but after having led his brother blindly through Hell for hours, he wasn't about to say anything about that.

"No... I mean, I've thought about Lucifer a lot since then." Sam began as they followed a long a winding corridor which was dimly light by burning torches and thankfully free of damned souls. "It's kinda hard not to when he's inside my girlfriends head... But even after all that. After finding out he left his grace in Ness, it doesn't seem like it's affected the wall...

"It hasn't felt itchy, like Death said it might. I haven't felt tempted to go poking around it... I mean, honestly, it's like it's not even there anymore."

"Wait." Dean said as he held out his hand, it hitting against Sam's chest as the two of them came to a stop. "Are you saying you think you're healed... Like fully healed? No wall. No chances of visions or... Hallucifer as Ness called him?" He continued with regret over saying the word Hallucifer, honestly it was ridiculous. "You think it's all gone?"

"Maybe, I guess." Sam shrugged, his eyebrows knitting together as though he was thinking to himself. Which he was, as Dean had asked a valid question, one that Sam hadn't even thought about himself. He did feel like he might be healed, like there might not be a wall in his head anymore and that what he went through in the cage was nothing but a story. But he just didn't know how that would even be possible.

"Do you... Do you think Chuck had something to do with it?" Sam asked after a brief moment of silence. Actual silence as there was no screaming souls surrounding them right now. "Do you think he healed me?"

"Chuck? Oh you mean the useless God?" Dean replied bitterly, making Sam roll his eyes as little as he knew that wasn't something Dean was ever going to let go of. "No, I don't think he healed you... You know why? Because he doesn't care about us.

"Because he'd rather write books and go to fan conventions than bother to help clean up the mess that his children have caused." Dean finished with a sigh before he turned on his heels and continued down the corridor, which was thankfully just one big long walkway with no other paths leading away from it otherwise he wouldn't know where to go.

Sam didn't say anything else on that topic as he knew it was no use arguing with Dean about something when he'd clearly made up his mind on it. So instead he just sighed quietly to himself and continued on down the corridor, his long legs and wide stride meaning it didn't take long for him to catch up with Dean.

The brothers kept walking, for as long as they possibly could until eventually they came to yet another crossroads. Honestly, they'd be having a serious word with Crowley about the layout of Hell as there was absolutely no need for it to be the way that it was. It was there that Sam suddenly found the directional tugging inside him had ceased.

"Which way?" Dean asked as he turned to Sam, who had his eyes closed and his finger held out in front of him as if he was telling Dean to wait while he listened for something. But Dean being Dean, he didn't quite do what Sam was subtly telling him to do. "Sammy?"

"Shh." Sam shushed, his other fingers unravelling so that his hand was held out as if he was stopping Dean. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Dean questioned, puzzled as he began to look around him. His hand subconsciously grabbed the handle of the demon killing knife as he half expected a swarm of them to come running towards them, but they never did. "Sam, what are you hearing?"

"It's like wind... Or, water." Sam replied as he opened his eyes, turning to Dean who just looked confused. He wasn't sure why or how Dean couldn't hear the noise as it was pretty obvious once they remained quiet but he knew it wasn't something he could, or should, ignore as it could very well end up being exactly what they were looking for. "This way."

Sam hurried in the direction of the noise, his hair flapping behind him in the wind that he created by running as fast as he could down the corridor. His feet splashed in puddles of something that he didn't exactly want to know what it was, but at the point he didn't care.

He was close to Vanessa. He knew he was.

Skidding on his heels as he rounded a corner, Sam soon found himself back in the occupied areas of hell as he quickly started to run past souls of those unfortunate to end up in Hell. Most of which were shackled and chained to the walls of the corridor or locked behind the bars of their cells.

Dean hurried after him, one hand holding his jacket against his chest as he didn't want the demon killing knife to fall out as he ran. He rounded the corner, not nearly as frantically as Sam did, and when he saw what was around it, he slowed to a stop.

Not only where the souls of the damned incredibly unsettling, but he found that Sam was nowhere to be seen.

"Sammy?" Dean called out in a hushed whisper as he slowly crept down the hallway, avoiding looking into any of the eyes of those chained to the walls surrounding him. He pulled out his knife, it providing a lot less comfort than he would have hoped. "Sam."

The banging of hands against metal bars made Dean jump a little as he passed by a cell, the face of a rather pretty looking woman coming out of the darkness and into view.

"You came. I knew you would. I've been praying for it forever." She said sweetly, her smile rather unsettling to Dean who couldn't help but stop in front of her.

"Sorry lady, but I ain't who you think." Dean said nervously, a sheepish looking smile creeping up onto his face as he backed away from the cell, only to jump forward again and spin around when he realised he'd almost backed into one of the shackled and bloody souls behind him.

"I'm... innocent. Help me." She pleaded, looking Dean directly in the eyes and sending a chill down his spine.

Dean spun slowly in a circle, not sure where to go from here as he hadn't the faintest clue where his giant brother had run off to, that was until he heard it. The exact sound that Sam had described only this time it was louder and a hell of a lot closer than Dean expected it to be.

"You came. I knew you would. I've been praying for it forever."

"Afraid you're gonna have to pray longer." Dean mumbled before he tightened the grip he had on his knife and made for the direction of the noise. And thankfully, it didn't take him long to find what they'd spent hours looking for... the portal into Purgatory.

Sucking in a breath as he readied himself to step foot into a place he would have spent a year in had it not been for Vanessa, Dean closed his eyes briefly and moved through the portal. The whooshing sound around him went from overwhelmingly loud to quiet as it began to fade the more he pushed through. And after what felt like way too long, he was all but spat from the portal, landing hard and wobbly on his feet in a pale and sickly looking forest.

Taking a split second to regain his balance, Dean looked around him as his guard lifted up more than it had done when he stepped into Hell. Purgatory wasn't at all what he expected it to be, not that he even knew what he expected it to be as he'd only learned of its existence not too long ago, but he didn't have time to admire the ugly view as he needed to find Sam before one of the monsters they'd sent there did.

"Sam?" Dean called in a hushed yell as he began to move forward, taking in his surroundings as he needed to make sure he knew where the portal was incase he got too far from it.

"Dean." Sam's voice came from behind him and Dean spun around just in time to see Sam stand up from where he'd been sitting on a rock. "What took you so long?" He asked with a touch of humour, making Dean frown to himself a little and decide not to answer that question.

"This is Purgatory?" Dean said instead as he changed the subject, it wasn't his fault he wasn't as fast as Sam with his long ass legs. "Looks... Dull."

"What do you expect from a place meant to house the souls of monsters after they die?"

"Fair enough." Dean shrugged, his eye catching what looked like a handmade axe which he bent down to pick up. "Dude... Awesome." He said in awe and with a smile as he tucked his now boring seeming knife into his pocket and tossed the axe in the air before catching it in his dominant hand.

"How do you suppose we find Ness? I mean, she could be anywhere." Sam said as he held his arms out to his sides and spun in a slow circle. He was more lost now than he had been earlier when Dean was leading him blindly through Hell.

Maybe they should have done a little more research on Purgatory before they decided to take a field trip there.

"...no doubt they left Ireland to fend for themselves. Bunch of posh, pantsuit wearing feckers the lot of them." Came the all too familiar, and incredibly, incredibly missed voice, and accent, of the one person Sam had never been so glad to hear in all his life.

"Ness?" Sam said in disbelief as Vanessa emerged from the trees, followed by a man he didn't know but assumed was the vampire she talked about in the vague letter she'd left them about what to do if she ended up here.

"Sam?" Vanessa breathed out as she came to a stop, her eyes quickly finding the face of the person she'd longed to see. The person Crowley had grown bored of hearing her think about.

"Great, the cavalry has arrived." Crowley mumbled, not looking forward to the reunion that was about to happen as it would mean he'd have to feel Vanessa hug Sam, and worst of all, kiss him.

Bad enough he'd kissed Bobby, he didn't need to add anyone else to that list.

"You loved it." Vanessa mumbled in reference to Crowley's last thought as she hurried through the bushes that separated her from Sam and Dean, the former of which she launched herself at and quickly felt his large arms wrap around her. And literally pick her up off the ground as he held her so tight she thought she'd break in half. "Ow."

"God, I'm so glad you're okay." Sam breathed out, his voice muffled from where it was pressed into Vanessa's hair, which he didn't care was absolutely filthy and covered in blood. He also chose to ignore her last word as right now he needed to squeeze her this tight to make sure she was really there. "You have no idea how worried I was."

"I can imagine." Vanessa strained out as she began to flail a little in Sam's arms as he really was starting to hurt her. And thankfully he quickly let go once he realised that himself.

Sam's hands landed on either side of her face as he looked deep into her green eyes, one's he'd missed dearly these past few days. His lips rose into a relieved smile before he began to lean in, about to kiss her before her hand landed on his chest and pushed him back.

"Crowley... what did I tell you about controlling my body?" Vanessa muttered as she glanced up, something she often did while talking to Crowley.

"I'm not kissing him." Crowley replied bluntly, to which Vanessa scoffed quietly and rolled her eyes before they landed back on Sam.

"God forbid you have to kiss a man." She muttered before she smiled apologetically at Sam who quickly remembered that Vanessa wasn't alone in her body, and honestly he was glad Crowley stopped him from kissing her as he wasn't quite sure how he'd feel about that. "What are you eejits doing here anyway?"

Surprise surprise, it hadn't even been thirty seconds and Vanessa was already insulting them.

"You know, you really have a way with words." Dean mumbled as he stepped forward, keeping his eye on the suspected vampire who stood back amongst the bushes and looked warily around him.

"Yeah, yeah." Vanessa chuckled out, feeling the weight of the last however many days she'd spent in this godforsaken place lift from her shoulders as she soon heard the faint whoosh of the portal she'd spent so long trying to find. "You missed it."

"That I did." Dean sighed out, holding one arm out as he beckoned Vanessa forward. "Now get over here." He pulled her in for a one armed hug, his other hand still firmly holding his weapon as he made sure to keep his guard up. "It's real good to see you, Ness."

"You too." Vanessa mumbled as she pulled back, ignoring Crowley's protests in her head. "You have no idea how exhausting this was." She added, motioning to her head in clear indications that she meant it was the possession that was exhausting and not the Purgatory vacation.

"Rude."

"I'm guessing you're Benny." Sam said as he took a step towards the vampire, making Vanessa turn quickly on her heels and begin to move towards them as she remembered all too well what Sam's thoughts had been on Benny.

"That I am." Benny replied, eyeing up Sam who wasn't at all what he'd expected from what Vanessa had told him about one of the supposed best hunters in the world.

"...Thank you." Sam said to literally everyone's surprise, especially Vanessa who stopped dead in her tracks when the words reached her ears. "For keeping her safe." He added and to even more shock to everyone, Sam held out his hand.

"Well, you're welcome." Benny replied hesitantly as he tried to figure out whether Sam was sincere or not. But by the look on his face and what Vanessa had told him about her boyfriend, it appeared as though he was.

So Benny did the one thing he never thought he'd ever do... He shook the hunters hand.

"Well shit, who would have guessed." Vanessa whispered to herself as she felt one of the weights that hadn't quite lifted from her shoulders fade away. She had been worried about how Sam might react to her new vampire friend, so it's safe to say she was incredibly glad that he hadn't immediately tried to decapitate him.

"As touching as this is." Crowley said unamused, which made Vanessa look up and away from Benny and Sam. "Can we please leave so I don't have to spend any longer inside of you."

"What did I say about phrasing it like that?" Vanessa shivered, her nose scrunching up at little at Crowley's words before she found herself quickly agreeing with him. She would very much like to leave this nightmare fuelled and she'd very much like to have her thoughts and her head to herself again. "But yes, I agree. Let's leave before I knife myself for some peace and quiet."

"Hope you ain't forgetting about me." Benny said softly, making Vanessa look up at him. He wasn't sure whether she'd remember her promise about getting him out of there now that she was reunited with Sam and Dean, but from the smile that rose on her face, it seemed as though she had every intention of honouring it.

"I wouldn't dream of it." She replied, her eyes flicking over to Dean who looked a little confused. "You got a knife?"

"Do I even want to know why you're asking?" Dean sighed as he reached for his knife, knowing there was no use asking Vanessa any questions about why she needed one, or refusing to give her one as he knew that wasn't a fight he would win.

"Probably better if you didn't." She chuckled softly as she took the knife and began to roll up her sleeve, preparing herself to slice into her arm so she could pull Benny's soul into her.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Sam asked, his hand landing atop the knife as he stopped Vanessa before she cut herself.

"I'm getting Benny out of here. Like I promised." She replied, the look on her face telling Sam that he shouldn't even try and talk her out of it as there was no changing her mind. "He kept me safe in here Sam, he saved my life and for that, I owe him."

With Sam's hand still atop hers, Vanessa dug the blade into her skin, letting out a shaky breath as she began to feel the warmth of her blood roll down her arm. She took a second to get past the stinging pain of the cut before she moved past Sam and towards Benny, who she held the knife out towards.

"Ready to get back out into the real world?" She asked, a smile rising on her face despite the throbbing she now felt in her arm. God she hoped that knife was clean as the last thing she wanted was to end up with tetanus. Or worse.

"You best believe it." Benny replied, mirroring Vanessa's smile as he took the knife and did the same to his arm. He handed the knife back to Dean, who he seemed to already feel comfortable around despite not even having said a word to him directly.

Vanessa clasped her arm with Benny's and repeated the words she was thankful Crowley had memorised, and right before her eyes she saw Benny fade into light as he was pulled into her arm. And my, was that an excruciatingly painful thing to have to feel.

"You okay?" Sam asked worried as his hand landed on Vanessa's back as she leaned forward, clutching her arm and taking deep breaths.

"Yeah." She exhaled, nodding her head as she swallowed harshly while the sweat began to form on her body from the intense pain of Benny's soul in her arm, the skin of which was now glowing orange and wriggling as though there were worms beneath it.

"What now?" Dean questioned, cringing just a small bit as he looked at Vanessa's arm, not envying her at all as he realised that was most likely what he'd have had to do had it been him in here.

"Now..." Vanessa began as she turned to him, rolling down her sleeve and holding her arm to her chest. "We get the hell out of here, get Benny and Crowley back to their bodies. And then we figure out the next part of this unfortunate story which is your lives."

"The next part being what exactly?"

"Saving Gabriel, defeating Asmodeus... And trying to figure out how to stop a Knight of Hell."

-hi...🫣👋🏻

i know it's been a while and i honestly i don't have much of an excuse other than i fell out of motivation for this story and into a slump in regards to it, which honestly was really sad as i loved this story when i started it...

but i'm hoping now that i was able to push through this chapter, which i really hope was worth the wait but i can't help but feel like it wasn't... might make it easier for me to continue on with this story

it's likely that it will be coming to an end soon if that happens as i don't want to drag it out anymore and risk falling into that slump again

but in the meantime, i hope you can remain patient with me, which you have already and i love y'all for, as i slowly but surely try and bring this story to a close

if you liked this chapter then please don't forget to leave a vote and if you can, a comment, as i always like to read those

and i hope to see y'all again soon!