35; Found

Being locked in a dark and damp room made it hard to keep track of time. Mackenzie wasn't sure how long she and Sam had been missing- even though it felt like days, she was hoping for just a few short hours. She knew the longer they were missing, the more worried Dean would become. She just hoped he didn't do something reckless while trying to save them.

She knew he wouldn't worry about himself enough and would risk anything to find them. She knew he would never stop searching for them, but so much could go wrong during the search; while distracted with worry for them, something could jump him or he could piss off the wrong person while questioning them. Another real fear on her mind- what if he didn't find her in time?

Laying her head against the bars, she felt her eyes flutter shut as a tear rolled down her cheek as more memories of Dean crossed her mind; every smile, every eye roll, every argument- everything flashed in her mind like a picture book.

Her breathing picked up and her chest hurt as she thought about how much she was missing him. They went years without seeing each other and survived, but now, just being away from him for several hours was too much to bear. She wasn't used to needing someone like she does Dean, and she hated the thought of never seeing him again- on missing all the time they thought they were promised.

Hearing a cage door creak open, she quickly sat up with a short gasp when she realized it was the door to her cage. Her heart raced in her chest as she kept her eyes on the opening of the cage; if one of the men from before came into the cage she honestly didn't know what to do. She didn't have any weapons and it's not like she could run far on her injured leg- she was stuck and would be an easy kill for them.

Catching a glimpse of long brown hair, her eyes widen in shock as she realized who it was. It was someone way worse than the crazed hillbilly rednecks- it was her worst nightmare.

"Quinn?" she breathed out.

"I told you we would meet again, sister." Quinn held out her arms and flashed her an evil grin.

"Wh-What do you want?" Mackenzie tried to back away from her, but couldn't go any further- her back was already pressed against the bars.

"To finish what I started." Quinn rushed toward her, gripping her upper arms and pulling her up to her feet.

"Quinn...Quinny, don't do this." Mackenzie let out a pained groan as she put pressure on her bleeding leg. "You don't want to do this. This isn't you."

"You don't know who I am, Mackenzie." Quinn narrowed her eyes. "I'm not the loving sister you hoped I was. No, instead, I'm the monster you wished you never met. You're gonna wish you never messed with my life, because I'm gonna haunt you every day of your life until you're begging me to end your miserable existence."

"No, Quinn, it doesn't have to be that way with us." Mackenzie shook her head and kept her tone soft as she tried to get through to her. "Quinn, all you have to do is remember...remember who you really are. Remember your family...your real family."

"I do remember my real family..." her tone matching hers.

She flashed her a warm smile, making Mackenzie think for a minute that her words had reached her. It was only a moment though, then the smile quickly fell before she felt a stabbing pain in her stomach.

Mackenzie glanced down, seeing a knife sticking out of her stomach, then jerked her head up when she heard her sister chuckle.

"I have a family, Mackenzie, and you're not it. You're nothing to me." Pushing the knife in a little further, she leaned closer to whisper in her ear, "Hm, I changed my mind. Instead of waiting for you to beg me to end you, I'll just take matters into my own hands now and do the world a huge favor."

"Kenzie... Kenzie!" Sam called out from the cage beside her. He slapped the bars, frustrated that he couldn't get to her to save her- all he could do was watch and feel helpless as the heartbreaking scene played out in front of him.

"Goodbye, sister," Quinn softly said, before pressing her lips against her cheek.

With a twist of the knife, she heard Mackenzie cry out in pain before her body slumped forward against hers. Pulling the knife out, she took a step back, a smirk on her face as she watched the blood pour out of the wound and down her body to pool around her feet.

Mackenzie laid her hands on her stomach as she took a staggering step forward before her knees went weak and she sank to the floor. She gasped, trying to catch her breath as the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth, almost choking her. She coughed, feeling it pour out of her mouth and drip onto the front of her shirt.

Quinn watched her fall face forward on to the cold floor of the cage, her breathing shallow and knew she would bleed out and be dead soon.

"Say hello to Daddy," she taunted as she turned to exit the cage with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Kenzie... Mackenzie!" Sam yelled out desperately. "Open your eyes. You have to stay awake." He paused for a moment, trying to listen for movement from her cage. "Can you hear me? Open your eyes!"

Mackenzie snapped her eyes open with a gasp, realizing she had been dreaming. She scooted back, her back crashing against the bars of the cage as she glanced down at her stomach. She lifted the tank top and ran a hand over her skin, the only marks she saw were from older wounds that never quite healed right. The dream had felt so real though, that she was sure there would be a new wound.

Glancing over at the door, she lowered her shirt and breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw it was closed. She never thought she would be so happy to see a closed door in her life.

"Kenzie, are you awake?" Sam questioned when he heard her pull in a sharp breath.

"I am now, sorry." Mackenzie rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"Nightmare?" he questioned after a few minutes of silence.

"What?" She looked over at his cage, only catching a glimpse of the concerned look on his face.

"Were you having a nightmare?"

"No, just resting my eyes," she lied.

Blowing out a breath, he slowly shook his head, knowing she wasn't being honest with him. He knew Dean wanted to believe she had bounced back from what happened with her sister, but he knew it had affected her deeply- deeper than the wounds she inflicted on her that day.

"You know how I told you about my girlfriend? About how she died?" He heard her mutter out a response. "Something I never told you- Well, I never really told anyone is, days leading up to her death, I dreamt it…down to the detail, but I never said anything to her."

"I never warned her or anything because I wanted to believe they were just nightmares. I told myself over and over that it couldn't be true."

He paused for a moment to get control of his emotions. "I don't talk about that much- the guilt I feel about her death, but it's there; it's always there and I know it's not easy to deal with traumatic things like that alone. Things like that will haunt you, Kenzie."

Hearing the emotion in his voice, she swallowed hard, then whispered, "My sister."

"What?" he asked, barely hearing her.

"I had a nightmare about Quinn," she softly admitted. "I've been having nightmares about Quinn."

"Why didn't you tell us?" he questioned.

"'Cause-cause I'm a hunter. I'm not some whiny cry baby who needs to be comforted every time something goes wrong," she stated. "That's not how our world works. When something gets the best of us, we dust it off and move on."

"But you're not moving on from it, Kenzie. You're not dealing with it at all," he pointed out. "It's like you're trying to pretend it never happened, but it did."

"Trust me, Sam, I know it happened!" she snapped. "I have the cuts to prove it."

Even though he knew she couldn't see him, he still held up his hands. "I didn't mean it like that. I just mean you're avoiding it and it's affecting you, but you don't have to deal with these things alone. We're here for you, Kenzie, me and Dean...we're both here."

"It's just...I don't..." Blowing out a breath, she admitted, "I'm just not used to this- reaching out to people and opening up to them. I'm not used to showing weakness."

"There's no shame in asking for help...plus, I would never view you as weak, Kenzie," he promised. "You're one of the strongest people I know. I've seen it first hand- no matter how many times you are knocked down, you keep getting back up and fighting."

"Why?" she questioned, her tone low and shaky as she tried to hold back tears. "Why is it up to us to keep getting up and fighting, Sam?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say a word, she cut him off to rant, "I mean, I'm not saying I'm giving up the fight, 'cause honestly, I don't know how to do anything else, so I keep going and I keep fighting, but sometimes I wonder when is it going to stop? When is enough enough?"

Sam thought about answering her question, but instead, he kept his mouth closed and laid his head back against the bars as he remembered their talk recently in Fitchburg, Wisconsin.

She was all worked up about her feelings for Dean and what she should do since she was scared about opening up to him again; he had tried to give her advice, but at first, he couldn't get a word in as she paced back and forth. He was starting to realize the best thing to do was to let her ramble and get everything out, then he could step in and try to help.

"And all of this with Quinn? I try to tell myself that it was just like any other case...but, it's not. It's different, she's family- she's blood, she's all I had left and I thought...I searched so hard for her, Sam. I did things- things I never thought I would do just to find her and when she showed up that day at my motel room door, I thought this is it...this made everything I've done worth it 'cause she's finally here; my baby sister is back."

Reaching up to wipe a tear from her cheek, her tone turned bitter, "But I was wrong, 'cause she's not my baby sister- not the one I remembered or imagined. And I can't help but feel...everything I did was pointless. The last two years of my life are pointless."

"Your life isn't pointless, Kenzie," Sam spoke up, sensing that she was finished. "You've told me about the people you've saved- the cases you've done in the last two years while searching for Quinn. If it wasn't for you, there are kids out there who would grow up without parents like we did or siblings that would never be reunited and you know how that feels; but you gave that to these people, Kenzie, you save people- in more ways than one."

When she turned her head to look at him, only seeing half of his face- the other half in shadows, he gave her a soft smile. "You've saved Dean, Kenzie. I saw it all those years ago, running into you twelve years ago, you became this little ray of hope for him- something for him to hold on to and believe in. As long as you were out there somewhere, then that meant he always had somewhere to go."

He saw a faint smile on the small part of her face he could see. "You've also saved me." He paused for a moment. "You've kept me from strangling my brother more times than I can count."

She let out a snort before a chuckle escaped her lips from his joke. "Well if that's the case, then you've saved me too, Sam, because there are times I want to strangle your brother too."

"He should thank us," he pointed out, keeping the joke going.

"He really should," she added. "He should appreciate us more. If we didn't stop each other from killing him, then who knows what could happen."

Despite the situation they were in, he couldn't stop himself from laughing at their playful banter. Laying his head back against the bars, he slowly shook his head- maybe there was something wrong with them all to be able to find humor in a moment like this. Most people would be crying and freaking out, but yet, here they were laughing and joking around like their lives weren't in danger.

For the next several minutes, the two made small talk as he tried to keep her distracted and awake. He could tell by the tone of her voice that she was fighting sleep, but he needed to keep her awake- between the nightmares and the blood loss, he felt like it was safer for her to stay awake. He was in the middle of telling her about a case they did weeks before they ran into her- it involved a demon possessing people and causing plane crashes.

"So I'm sitting there beside Dean on a plane and he's freaking out because he's scared of flying- which is something I never knew until then, but he's sitting there humming Metallica because he says it calms him." He laughed, then paused when he didn't hear any noises from her cage.

Not seeing her sitting up anymore, he leaned to the side a bit, seeing her laid out on the floor. He called out her name in a panic, then breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her body twitch as she jumped awake.

"I know you're tired, but you have to stay awake."

"I know." She yawned and rubbed a hand over her face. "I'm trying, Sammy."

"Tell me a story," he suggested, thinking that if he had her talk instead, maybe that would work better in keeping her awake.

"Hmm," she hummed as she racked her brain for something to say.

"It can be anything," he added. "Tell me something real, make-believe, just whatever you want to tell me, Kenzie."

"You started that, you know." She let out a soft chuckle.

"Started what?"

"The whole Kenzie thing." Knowing he was confused, she added, "That day at the pizzeria, you're the first one who ever called me Kenzie."

"Really?"

"Yeah, before that it was just always Mackenzie or sometimes Michael called me Mac, but I never really liked that," she said. "But that day, you called me Kenzie and I just liked it- it made me feel normal for a moment, you know? Because that's what happens to normal little girls; they hang out with friends and are given nicknames and just do regular things that don't involve monsters and demons.

"After that, I just kinda kept it as a nickname, I guess to kinda remind me of what could have been."

"Well, I'm glad I gave you your nickname, Kenzie." He smiled.

"I'm glad you did too, Sam." A dimpled smile appeared on her face. "This means I need to give you a nickname now, right?"

"God, no," he groaned. "Sammy is bad enough."

"Don't lie, you know you love the nickname Sammy," she teased.

"Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old," he pointed out, causing her to laugh. "But, you and Dean refuse to stop calling me that, so I kinda gave up."

"That's probably for the best. You know your brother is stubborn."

"Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black?" His lips twitched as he tried to hold back a laugh.

"Shut up, Sammy," she joked, hearing him let out loud laugh.

He opened his mouth to say something else until they heard a door open from across the room, causing them both to jump to attention as they tried to crane their necks to see their attackers- the last thing they wanted to do was be caught off guard.

"Kenzie, no matter what, stay in your cage," he said low enough for her to hear.

"What?" she hissed as she whipped her head to the side, catching a small glimpse of him.

"I'm thinking that's what they want," he explained, his tone still low. "They want us to run so they can hunt us. It's all a game to them."

"You think?" she questioned. "I mean, I'm not saying you're wrong, it does make sense, but how sure of this are you, Sam?"

"Pretty sure?" he said back, lowering his eyebrows in thought.

The truth was he wasn't sure about any of this and was mostly guessing, but he knew with the shape she was in there was no way she could run if the opportunity came up. But he hoped if his theory was correct then they wouldn't want to hunt her- she would be an easy kill; while he would be more of a challenge.

"That doesn't make me feel any better, Sam," she whispered as one of the men got closer to the cages.

While still laying on the floor, she scooted back some until she realized he wasn't coming to her cage, instead, he went to the empty one that Jenkins was in earlier as the door swung open. Realizing the man was holding someone, she tried to push herself up from the floor to get a better look at the woman over his shoulder.

After placing the woman in the cage, the man stepped out, then turned toward Mackenzie's cage, causing her to softly gasp at the look he gave her- it was a look of pure evil that sent chills down her spine.

Mackenzie held her breath until the older man left, then lowered herself back toward the floor as she released the breath. She had come face to face with a lot of evil creatures and monsters in her life, but nothing spooked her as much as her captors- they were something completely different; it was like they didn't have a soul or any humanity in them. When she had looked into the old man's eyes, all she saw was meanness, there was no ounce of good left in him.

"Looks like they grabbed someone else," Sam said, breaking the silence in the room.

"Yeah," Mackenzie said, her voice low as she looked over at the cage, but didn't see the woman move. "You think she's okay?"

"I don't know." He moved his head from side to side, trying to get a good look at her. "I can't see her enough to see if she's breathing or anything."

Looking back over at the cage, Mackenzie cleared her throat, before trying to call out to the woman. It took a few tries, but the woman finally let out a groan before her eyes fluttered open. She reached up to rub her head where she was hit with something from behind earlier while trying to question the young girl, Missy, who lived in the old dilapidated house.

"You alright?" Sam questioned, getting her attention.

Another groan escaped her lips as she squinted her eyes. "Are you Sam Winchester?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"Your, uh, your cousin's looking for you," Kathleen told him.

"Thank God." Sam blew out a sigh of relief at the news. "Where is he?"

"I, uh..." Kathleen thought back to everything that happened before she was knocked out. Remembering what she did before approaching the house, she groaned. "I cuffed him to my car."

Sam shook his head at her answer, then opened his mouth to say something back, but Mackenzie beat him to it as she confidently said, "He can get out of 'em."

Grabbing the cop's attention, Kathleen looked over at the other cage, catching a glimpse of the brunette for the first time. "I take it you're Mackenzie Cole?"

"Yeah," she breathed out.

"Your boyfriend is really worried about you," Kathleen told her, then looked over at Sam's cage. "Both of you. He's done some pretty questionable things." She paused for a moment in thought, she knew he was using a fake ID and that he wasn't working for the state police like he said; making her wonder what else he was lying about- not that that mattered now. "But he never gave up looking."

"Sounds like him." Sam breathed out a chuckle. He knew all along that his brother wouldn't stop searching for them. Now he just had to hope he could get out of the cuffs before one of the bad guys came back.

For the next several minutes, Sam and Kathleen made small talk, while Mackenzie fought sleep and failed at it, she didn't even snap awake when a door creaked open on the other side of the room.

Sam and Kathleen tried to see who had entered the room, but neither one could see enough from their cages. As a set of footsteps got closer, they felt their hearts beating in their chest- both thinking this was it; this was the end for them all.

"Sam?" he heard his brother's voice say seconds before he came into view, causing a wide smile to appear on his face.

"Damn, it's good to see you." Dean slapped at the cage. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm not, but..." Sam's voice trailed off as he nodded over toward the cage beside his where Mackenzie was laid out on the cold floor with her breathing shallow and her eyes squeezed shut as another nightmare filled her mind.

Dean softly swore, only seeing the back of her, which made him worry more about what kind of shape she was in. He scrambled over to her cage and gripped the bars as he called out her name. His eyebrows lowered in concern when she didn't answer or turn toward him. When she let out a pained whimper, he stuck his arm through the bars to lay a hand on top of her hair, the strands were matted and tangled with dirt and sweat, but it still felt soft between his fingers.

Feeling someone mess with her hair, she slightly jumped awake then slowly turned her head, blowing out a sigh of relief when she saw it was Dean. A ghost of a smile appeared on her face as she breathed out his name.

"Yeah, sweetheart, it's me," he said back, a tender smile on his face.

"Are you real?" she whispered, hoping this wasn't another dream.

"I'm really here," he promised her, his tone soft as he glanced over her when she rolled over to face him. Her pale, sweaty face worried him, but what scared him the most was the dried blood on her hands. Clenching his jaw, he tried to hold back his anger. "You're hurt."

"The wound on my leg opened back up," she explained.

"I told you I should have stitched it up the other day," he lectured.

Mackenzie blew out a breath as she slowly shook her head at him. "Now's not the time, Dean."

"Right. First things first." Dean glanced at the two cages in front of him, then looked over his shoulder to see Kathleen in another cage. He gave her a nod, then turned back to look at the lock on the cage. He quickly realized it wasn't gonna be easy to pick these locks. "Oh, these locks look like they're gonna be a bitch."

"Well, there's some kind of automatic control right there." Sam pointed over toward the control panel he had seen one of the men at before.

"Have you seen 'em?" Dean questioned his brother.

"Yeah." Sam shook his head, still in disbelief. "Dude, they're just people."

"And they jumped you? Both of you?" he teased as he looked over at Sam, then over at Mackenzie.

"Again, not the time, Dean," she warned as she shot him a playful glare.

"I don't know who I'm more disappointed in," Dean joked as he walked over to the panel. He flipped a switch and pushed a couple of buttons, then glanced back over to the cages, seeing that nothing was happening.

Growing serious, he asked, "What do they want?"

"I don't know. They let Jenkins go, but that was some sort of trap." A confused look appeared on his face, he still wasn't sure why they wanted to hunt them. "It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Well, that's the point. You know, with our usual..." He paused when he noticed Kathleen was listening in, making him realize he needed to change the way he worded things. "...playmates, there are rules, there are patterns. But with people, they're just crazy."

"They are crazy," Mackenzie spoke up. "But just about everyone and everything has patterns; even if they don't realize it." Pausing for a moment to try to sit up, she slumped against the bars Dean was standing by earlier. "They take people and lock them in these cages. Then later release them on their terms to- I would guess- hunt them. Those are their rules, those are their patterns."

"I did see about a dozen junked cars hidden out back," Dean stated. "Plates from all over, so I'm thinking when they take someone, they take their car too."

"Another pattern," Mackenzie pointed out.

"Did you see a black Mustang out there? About ten years old?" Kathleen gripped the bars- a part of her wasn't sure if she wanted him to answer or not, but at the end of the day, she needed to know. She needed answers after searching for her brother for the last three years. His disappearance was a lot like Sam and Mackenzie's- which was the only reason she agreed to help even after being lied to.

"Yeah, actually, I did." Dean turned to look at her and saw her face fall. "Your brother's?"

Feeling tears fill her eyes, she gave him a short nod, hearing him softly say he was sorry, but all she could think about was her brother going through this horror alone. Was this the actual cage he was in or was it one of the others? How far away did he get before they caught up to him and murdered him? What were his final thoughts in that moment?

Reaching up to wipe the moisture from her face, she knew she would never get answers to those questions, but she could make sure these monsters never hurt anyone again.

"Let's get you guys out of here, then we'll take care of those bastards," Dean said, basically speaking out the words she was thinking.

"This thing takes a key." He pointed at the panel, then looked over at his brother and girlfriend. "Key?" Wondering if either one had seen one or knew where it could be.

"I don't know," Sam answered as Mackenzie lifted a shoulder to shrug.

"Alright, I better go find it." Dean backed away from the panel, then began to walk past the cages. He paused for a minute at Mackenzie's to reach inside and lightly touch her cheek. "Just hang on a little longer, sweetheart, okay?"

He saw her fight to open her eyes and lean against his hand, taking comfort in his soft tone. Seeing her give him a nod, he pulled away and turned to walk away until he heard Sam call out to him. He turned to see what he wanted, hearing him say, "Be careful."

Sam saw him nod his head, promising he would before he heard his departing footsteps as he left to find the key to release them.

As the room fell into silence, he glanced over at the cop, seeing her sitting in a corner in the shadows. From the brief conversation between her and Dean, he picked up the fact that she had lost a brother years ago and figured learning the truth of his death was hitting her hard.

Deciding to leave her alone with her thoughts, he looked over at Mackenzie's cage. From where she was sitting now he could see her a lot clearer than before, causing him to pull in a sharp breath. She looked worse than he thought and he could tell it was getting harder for her to keep her eyes open.

"Kenzie?" he softly said, getting her attention.

"Hmm?" she hummed as her eyes fluttered open.

"Do you want me to tell you more about Dean on a plane?" he questioned.

He heard her let out a soft chuckle.

"Yes, tell me more, Sammy."

•••

A/N; Thank you to everyone reading- old and new, as well as the ones adding it to your faves or following it. I'm happy to see there is still interest in this story because I've got a lot of good things planned.

If you're not already, you can follow me on tumblr (missecharlotte) anything I make for this story or things others make, will be on there. Earlier I even posted a video for Mackenzie and Dean- just showing their ups and downs as a couple and maybe even clues for future stuff I have planned.

Huge thanks to adaddario, Love. Fiction. 2016, sarahdee1255, Guest and Guest for reviewing the last chapter.

Happy reading!
xx