A.N: just an intro, I'll go into it later. Sort of based on the last episode, 'Malleus Maleficarum', but tweaked a bit.

Sam Winchester felt his lungs constricting, and he suddenly just felt so tired and bruised. His vision became dotted and blurry as the demon standing in front of him squeezed the air as if her hands were around his throat. Sam tried to move every cell in his body and try to get out of her death grip, but it seemed like a futile situation. He pushed but nothing in his body would budge. He felt the wall behind him, supporting him, cracking and crunching with the force of his body pushing against it, straining. He tried again, hopelessly, to wiggle out of the invisible grip, but again he was hopeless, so he just deflated, and clenched his teeth, not willing to fight anymore.

He had been in plenty of close to death situations, but today he felt a new sense of hopelessness overcoming him, he figured that he couldn't do anything about death now. His mind tried to argue with him, Dean's life and effort to get him out of death would mean nothing to him if he just died, and wasted his brother's remaining year. He had to be around even if Dean wasn't, if not for himself, but for Dean. Dean had tried so hard to keep Sam alive, but Sam felt a strange new feeling of welcoming death all over again.

He did not want to continue the brutal killing of demons and their human hosts, every time he saw the innocent expressions of death on innocent human faces, he felt sick, they had not asked to be taken over, and they had no way of knowing that they would die and they weren't expecting it or asking to die. He just wanted to stop, so he stopped fighting, and put on a brave face. The last corner of his vision was blackening when he was suddenly released.

He lay crumpled on the ground, his aching back against the wall, breathing hard and slowly, clearing his head. He heard Dean's voice and saw him charge at the coven witch bitch demon or whatever. He heard some crashing and saw the bitch standing over Dean; he knew what would probably happen next. Sam closed his eyes, feeling the force creeping back to his body, and then he heard the most melodious sound, like singing in the raspy or tough voice of a girl.

Sam breathed out, he never thought he'd hear that sound again and for some reason, he felt mightily relieved, he even enjoyed the rough sassy little attitude and words of deception he heard, he never thought he'd miss that annoying voice. But then it turned into little yelps and screams as her petite body was slammed against the walls. Sam felt himself cringing even more at the sounds of her body falling, than when he felt the pains of himself.

He felt a newfound hope and effort and struggled more than ever. He struggled valiantly to get out of Tammy's death hold, and felt himself sweating as he tried to strain every muscle in his body. He heard the little yelps of pain and they motivated him to try even harder, he didn't want to open his eyes and see Ruby's body all mangled, he didn't think he could handle it for some reason. He heard her breathing hard and tried harder to break his hold, he needed to get out. Her little cries were so human and demon or not, it was unbearable for him to listen to her being tortured and pained.

There was dialogue going on and Sam strained to hear it. He saw the demonic smoke rising from Ruby's mouth as she tried to suck it back in. Then he heard the soft muttering of spells from the woman who had unwittingly given her soul away and he heard the gagging of Tammy who coughed up a handful of bloody pins. Sam opened his eyes up just in time to see Dean rushing the knife into Tammy's body, several times. Then Dean was at his side in an instant, lifting him up. Sam was shaken, he remembered what Tammy had said, how Ruby had worked for her and had been human once, and he couldn't believe it, he had assumed all demons were just forces of nature spawned from evil. He never saw them as human at all.

Sam stared wide-eyed at Ruby, who seemed indignant, struggling to get up, he felt a new pang of something unlike pity, but guilt. He was quickly at her side without thinking, grabbing her arm and trying to hold her up, she ripped her arm away from his forcefully, giving him an evil eye. He grabbed her arm again, firmly, and lifted her up.

Ruby finally stood at full height and glared up at Sam's towering. He looked into her face without prejudice, thinking for the first time, that even if she was a demon, she could have just been another girl as well. He cupped the side of her face with his palm and wiped away the blood from under her nose with his rough thumb. She looked up at him, surprised at his sudden burst of kindness, but mistook it for pity.

Sam could feel Dean nudging his arm, pulling him away from her, signaling them to leave. He pulled Sam out the door, but Sam stopped and began to make his way back to Ruby, who hissed, "Go, I can clean up the mess, just leave." Sam just stared at her with tortured puppy eyes and she turned her eyes inky black and hissed again, "Go."

Dean sat on the edge of his hard motel bed and thought hard about his close encounter with the demon chick that wasn't so demonic after all, and her words kept shaking him up. She had told him how she just wanted to help Sam be a hunter and killer like Dean when he was no longer around, she wanted him to be able to kill brutally without remorse if need be, like Dean. He thought about how she described Hell and how she really could not break the deal, and how he would be just like her or the others. And Sam, she didn't think he was ready, she wanted him to become hardened, but he was too soft, couldn't handle the fight or the killing, he had too much of a conscience.

Dean looked over at his brother who was sleeping soundly in his own twin bed, and he felt a sudden loneliness edging into him, he dreaded the thought of hell waiting for him.

And then again he pondered the events of tonight, how Ruby had rushed in to rescue them from the house witch. How she had been alive during the time of the plague, she had been a human just like them, a girl with a life and a past. He didn't know whether he should hate her for being so weak into giving her soul for evil, but he did think she was wrong about everything. She thought Sam was too weak and couldn't be motivated to kill regretless even if it was a demon he was hunting, that he would think about what and who he was killing. Dean knew Ruby was wrong about that part, if only she had looked over to Sam while she was being thrown around by Tammy, could he have seen the scary rage and anger and merciless drive in him as he suddenly felt strength to struggle with Tammy's invisible grip. If only she had seen how he clenched his teeth, blood thirsty for Tammy's life or death.

The sudden blackness in his eyes darkening with each whimper that Ruby's pain brought out, if only she had looked. She could have seen the sudden effort and the hatred in his eyes that told that he would do every little thing possible to draw blood from Tammy's body, regardless of who he was actually destroying. Oh if Tammy had loosened her grip, Dean was sure that Sam would have been on her like a freight train.

Dean chuckled at the thought and scary being that had taken over Sam's face. He looked over at his younger brother and thought, "Well, now we know what Sammy's little weakness is, what would drive him to kill like she wants."

He shook his head and laughed out loud to the still darkness, if only she knew how close she was to getting Sam to be a killer, if only she knew that she was the motivation.

A.N.: Tell me what you think, sorry if I might have made the characters a bit uncharacteristic, but that's how I'd like to see themmm.