Pushing through the crowded foyer, Dean tried to keep a close eye on Aggie while scanning the room. Spotting Santiago in a corner of the room near a door with his cell phone pressed tightly to his face. Dean lifted a hand and began waving at him trying to get his attention.

As soon as Santiago saw Dean, he said something into his phone before hanging up. Waving to Dean to come over he exited through a door he was near.

Letting Aggie know he saw Santiago and that they should follow him Dean began forging a path to him. Reaching the door Dean stopped and read a sign on it.

“Not an EXIT,” it said.

Dean pushed open the door letting Aggie through first before slipping through it. Santiago stood on the other side texting someone before putting his phone back in his pocket.

“Boss says you guys pissed off a lot of people with whatever you did,” Santiago said. “and that he can’t help you anymore beyond getting you to your car.”

“That will work,” Aggie replied.

Santiago took off in a slow jog down the hallway before stopping in front of a normal looking door. Opening it up to some rickety stairs that lead underground.

“Follow this tunnel until you come to a metal door with a keypad,” Santiago said. “Code is 1337.”

Dean chuckled a little at the passcode before muttering, “leetspeak.”

Aggie looked up at Dean confusedly. Then spoke to Santiago saying, “Tell Dorios that his help is greatly appreciated and that we are in his debt for any issues to his rule we caused.”

Aggie took off down the stairs as Dean nodded his head in thanks to Santiago before following him down.

The door shut and locked behind them after they started down the stairs. Dim lights hung along the wall casting dynamic shadows across the brick walls. As they went deeper the wall became rough hewn rock before the stairs leveling out.

Aggie padded ahead stopping at an intersection of the tunnel before moving on to the next tunnel to listen. Dean followed behind closely. Stopping whenever Aggie stopped and straining his own ears to try and hear anything.

Making it to the door without incident Dean decided to ask, “What did you hear?”

Aggie replied, “I don’t know, but something is down here hammering.”

Entering the passkey and opening a door they were met with a ladder. Climbing the ladder Dean struggled with a manhole cover that opened up to an alley next to Dorios’s Starbucks. Heading straight to the car they heard sirens in the distance. Looking towards the sound Dean could still see smoke coming from the building they had escaped.

A short car ride later, Dean burst through his front door stripping out of his crusty suit. Tossing it in a tiny BBQ he doused it liberally in lighter fluid and burned it. Still feeling grimy he still had to wait for Aggie to finish showering.

His eyes suddenly heavy he couldn’t believe the day they already had. Checking the time, it was barely past 9 am when it felt like 9 pm. With little to do but wait for his turn Dean sat at the kitchen table and closed his eyes for a little rest.

Dean was 11 again. Running from the monster that took his best friend from him. Looking over his shoulder to see how close the monster was but it had changed. It was the Spirit of the Forest now wielding a tree like an ax. The blade of the ax was made from the hood of an old car. Flattened and sharpened but for sure the hood of an old car.

As the Spirit chased him, he could feel the wind from the swing of its ax ruffling his hair. Pushing himself harder, Dean ran up the impossibly steep hill thinking that salvation was ahead. Cresting the hill he stumbled onto the train tracks. Cutting his hands and knees and bleeding on the trellises.

Pushing up to his hands and knees he felt the Spirits footstep on him. Pinning him to the tracks as it laughed at his pitiful struggles to free himself.

As Dean fought and squirmed his hand felt a loose train track spike and he suddenly remembered what happened next. He would pull that spike out with his powers and impale the monster with it. His tormentor would scream and thrash as the iron burned it letting him escape.

Once home he would cry to his mom about what had happened. How a monster attacked him and took Bo. That they needed to go back and help Bo but none of this would happen. Instead, police were called then Bo’s father. Dean would repeat his story of the monster in the drainage pipe to them and beg his mother to believe him.

Dean was told that whatever took Bo was a monster but not a real one. It was a man and that they would find whoever took his friend and attacked him. But Dean knew the truth and he never changed his story no matter how many times he told it.

But they didn’t believe him.

Nobody did.

Ever.

He became the kid who believed in monsters. The boy that was still afraid of the dark and things that go bump in the night. But the worst were the whispers and rumors. He was the kid who killed his only friend. The murder. The sadist.

Dean remembered all of this in his dream and still reached out for the spike to protect himself but it didn’t move. The creature on his back laughed at his pitiful attempt at grabbing a weapon and brought the ax down into his back.

Startled awake from his impending doom Dean sat straight up. Only to be looking straight at Aggie sitting on the kitchen table. He could feel the streaks of tears on his face and quickly wiped them away as he coughed a little to clear his throat.

Aggie chose to speak first, “Whatever happened to your friend was not your fault. You were a child face with a monster that was insurmountably stronger than you but you managed to escape and your friend didn’t.” Aggie sighed a little and continued, “Don’t feel guilty about that. It hurts to survive when your loved ones don’t but you can’t let that guilt hold you back. Take it from someone who knows about survivor’s guilt.”

Dean sat there for a minute and absorbed what Aggie just shared. He never talked about his past or why he was a talking cat or called the grimoire. Or the fact that he could turn into a human either. Dean realized that he knew nothing of Aggie and his past but he knew so much about his.

“How do you know how I feel,” Dean asked.

Dean felt like Aggie was starting to open up to him. He caught a glimpse of what it must be like to be so old. So ancient. To see generations begin and end as he continued to live.

“When you’re older I might share more about my past,” Aggie said then added, “Go shower so there is nothing left for us to be tracked by.”

Dean obliged and headed straight to the shower. Cranking it as hot as he could stand so that the water would dispel any magical tracking on him. But also purify the guilt he still felt from his dream.

Exiting the steamy bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist he looked to see what Aggie was working on.

The hand of Nameless sat palm up in the middle of a circle surrounded by 4 symbols. Each symbol, equally placed matching a cardinal direction. Walking a little closer Dean could see a fifth symbol carved into the palm of the hand.

“What are you doing?” Dean asked Aggie. A little disgusted to see the cut in the hand bleeding as if it still had a heartbeat.

“She is still alive and still connected to her hand,” Aggie began. “It's how that simulacrum spell of her dead fooled everyone.”

“Ok but that isn’t explaining anything to me,” Dean replied.

“It will if you let me finish,” Aggie replied back sharply. “Someone abducted Nameless and made it look like she was dead using a mixture of magics. The wooden doll was the representation of her to anchor the spell to that spot.”

“Like a voodoo doll?” Dean asked.

“Yes and no,” Aggie said before continuing as if he was not interrupted. “The doll is what created the simulacrum that we saw, felt, and smelled. The rats were for the dead organic mass that made the spell feel real. And her hand was added to make it smell and look like her.”

“But that still doesn’t explain what you are doing,” Dean said but intrigued with where this was going.

“I’m using this as a lesson,” Aggie replied in his commonly use patronizing voice he used while teaching. “What are the three most common parts of a spell?”

“Physical, mental, and spiritual,” Dean answered back.

“YES EXACTLY,” Aggie yelled excitedly. “Physical are the rats, mental is the carved foci, and her hand is the spiritual aspect! That means she is still alive and connected to this hand! This was a wizards spell that used Nameless’s magic as a part of it!”

“OK but,” Dean began before being interrupted.

“That means with this spell circle and a little power from you we can turn her hand into a compass,” Aggie ranted. “We can find her and whatever Fay cast this spell!”

“OK, but does that mean whoever has her can track the hand back to us?” Dean asked.

“Only if she is helping them,” Aggie said. “Between the bathtub and the sprinklers, any tracking spells they could use would need her to give them directions to us.”

As he finished his rant and lesson something pounded on their front door with the force of a giant. The room shook from the violent knock as Dean swallowed his scream.