Obviously I like the idea of Hellhounds and what Hell could really be like because I keep writing different stories about it.

This one is actually a request from Hotshow, who deserves most of the credit for it because she has it all plotted out. Girl has an awesome imagination. I just get to flesh it out the best I can. So Valerie, hope this comes close to what you are looking for.

Even though it begins with Sam in Hell and has dealings with Hellhounds, it's not a continuation of my story "My Hellhound" where Sam adopts one of Hell's puppies. This story stands completely on its own and is of course AU since all the fun stuff Season 6 is doing with missing souls doesn't apply here.

Usual disclaimer of not owning anything belonging to Supernatural, yadda yadda . . .

Hell's Angels

Sam got it now. Why Dean was always so ready to throw himself into the path of danger, because now that Sam had a younger brother to protect . . . he understood. Sam sat in front of Adam who had wedged himself in the tunnel's rocky corner, shielding him with his own body. Exhausted, they'd been running for days, maybe weeks. Who could say with any certainty?

The Cage was a pit of illusion.

Tucked within the far reaches of Hell, the Cage became a fluid flowing prison that, depending on Lucifer's whim, could expand for miles and miles or be condensed into a tight box with barely room to house its four inhabitants. The Cage sometimes was an elegant mansion with plush furnishings, the softest pillows for their heads. Sometimes it was rivers of blood and flesh, groping Sam, ropes of intestines holding him tight to the rack while the Devil played. More often than not it was the rack. As Ruler of Hell, Lucifer had the power to manipulate the Cage into anything he desired, wave his hand and view any other part of Hell, watch the world above as the great Apocalypse dredged on without him . Lucifer had all power here, except the power to escape.

Right now, at least for Sam and Adam, the Cage was an endless labyrinth filled with ill-shaped monsters Satan had conjured that appeared to be slapped together from varying beasts, driven into a frenzy with the brothers' human scent.

Encumbered by their weaker human vessels, the two Archangels had immediately left the brothers ' bodies and tried to wing out of the pit before the fiery gate burned out, but even they couldn't make it out in time. At first Michael wouldn't tolerate Adam being hurt. Adam had been his willing vessel and being an Archangel, The Archangel, Michael was above such things. He'd go off alone, trying to seek revelation from the Heaven that had forsaken him. Apparently with enough time and solitude, even Archangels could drift into depression until Sam's shouts and pleas for the angel to get the Devil away from Adam fell on despondent ears.

"Sam?" Adam's voice quivered. His fingers curled around the hem of Sam's T-shirt. Growls and the heavy stomping of running feet echoed through the tunnels. The hoard had picked up their trail again.

Turning, Sam looked into a lighter version of his own eyes, his throat tightening. He hadn't known Adam in life, but they'd spent a lifetime, several lifetimes, together here, bringing small moments of respite to the other as they whispered about their lives before, each desperately trying to hold on and ground themselves to the person they once were. Sam grasped onto every word Adam spoke about John, a completely different man than the father he had known. And every once in a while the kid would say something outrageous that sounded so much like Dean, Sam's heart would clench.

He never tired of hearing of Kate and what it was like for Adam to have a mother, even after Lucifer overheard them and devised a little game of have-Sam-relive-being-eaten-by-ghouls, forcing Adam to watch versions of himself and his mom chow down.

The growls grew closer. Sam pushed himself to his feet, pulling Adam with him. They were beat to hell and wouldn't be able to take more than ten steps, but Sam vowed to do whatever it took to keep his younger sibling from getting torn to shreds again, despite it being inevitable. So yeah, even though it was hopeless and stupid and beyond pointless, Sam stood in front of Adam, pushing the kid back with his own body. He understood Dean now, because even though he'd seen Adam endure horrendous things and knew he was tough enough to stand on his own and would be brought back in one piece again anyway, that instinct to protect overcame any pragmatism.

And just like Sam would have roared at Dean to not be stupid, to let him help, Adam was shoving at Sam's back, trying to break free, but it was too late, the monsters were on them.

Except . . . not the monsters. Worse. So much worse. Every muscle in Sam's body suddenly locked up in paralyzing fear.

Hellhounds.

Racing straight for them. Midnight black, glistening, gigantic hounds, flashing red eyes and wide gnashing teeth, but all Sam could see was Dean on a hardwood floor sprouting blood and gashes. Lucifer had finally found the one game that Sam's mind wouldn't be able to recover from. He could not watch this again. He could not survive Hellhounds ripping into another brother.

A guttural snarl cleaved the charged air as the monsters burst out of the blacker darkness. The first upon them, an ox-headed grizzly type of beast, slashed out at Sam at the same time a Hellhound flew across the cavern, taking the ox-head down, and it became a savage free-for-all, Hellhounds and monsters in a brutal struggle to see who could get to the brothers first.

Another monster broke free, serrated beak and stiletto claws, racing toward the boys, a Hellhound inches behind, muzzle snapping.

"Noooooo!" Sam screamed, turning to fold Adam into his own body, offering what little protection he could as the thrust of pain speared his back, followed by the second and third, more, spreading across his body as his screams jumbled together with growls and shrieks and snarls spitting through the air behind him until he couldn't differentiate between the noises and he felt himself falling, dragging Adam down with him because he wouldn't let go, not ever, not when his own body could keep the beasts off of his brother. He curled in tight around the kid while his flesh was gouged away from his back and arms and legs and Adam screamed his name, trying to push him off, but it didn't matter anymore because there were too many monsters pressed over them now, crushing them both down, so while Adam cried and Sam was torn to pieces above him, Sam's hand clawed the dirt beneath them in defiance. He had kept the Hellhounds off of Adam. Lucifer wouldn't win this one.

Lucifer wouldn't win.

TBC