"Good job, Sammy!" the Devil complimented, his smirk evident in every syllable he spoke, every applaud he clapped. Sam stayed where he was, his gaze fixed on the necklace, as the Devil circled around to take it from him. Sam jerked his hand away before he could.

"Mind explaining all of this -- any of this?"

The Devil's expression slipped into one that would've appeared sympathetic had it not been so cocky. "Oh, I guess I should. I would've told you the details sooner, but given the circumstances --"

"What circumstances? The kind where you conveniently don't tell me about an escaped soul so you can jerk me around?"

The Devil chuckled. "I wasn't jerking you around, Sam -- not this time."

"Then what --"

"Cindy wasn't an escaped soul," he cut in flatly. "Not technically."

Sam watched as the Devil pulled out an old newspaper from his suit. When he unfolded it, the main article stunned him -- or, more accurately, the picture adjoining it did, since he was used to the Devil showing him headlines about murder. "That's Cindy!" he said, his voice tinged with confusion. Obviously, Cindy had to have died in order to be a capture-able soul in the first place, but she looked so young in that grainy pic -- twelve, maybe thirteen at the most. She wore the same cross Sam now held in his hand.

"Her twin, actually," the Devil corrected. "Cops caught their dad before he could kill her as well, although it was too late to save her from the other things he'd done." He grinned, lethally toothy. "Good thing, too. It would've been a shame for the world to miss out on the effects he had on her."

Sam turned away. "I don't want to hear this."

"But I haven't even told you the best part!" The Devil waited, and when Sam neither relented nor protested, continued, "Cindy became…mentally disturbed. Not even years of therapy could stop her from wanting vengeance, even if none of the bad guys were her bad guy. She would've gotten away with the murders, too, had she not offed herself in the end. Too much guilt over what she'd done, or some stupid emotion like that."

"So she's an escaped soul." Sam didn't understand why the Devil would suggest otherwise.

"No, Sammy," the Devil said. "Cindy was never in my possession. Because of her mental state, she couldn't be held fully accountable for her sins, so they assigned her to limbo."

"They?"

The Devil glanced skyward.

"Oh," Sam mumbled. "So, she's an escaped soul, but from limbo, not hell."

"It's not quite escaping when the Higher Ups let you go freely."

Sam frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"No one sent to limbo stays in limbo; they're eventually sent to heaven or hell. In death, Cindy was freed from the mental state that ailed her, so they sent her to Earth to study her actions, to see if she could be redeemed."

"But she started consuming escaped souls instead."

The Devil reflected the frown Sam was still sporting. "Foolish girl had it in her head that sinners didn't deserve to be tormented. She still loved her dad a little, despite everything he'd done. She didn't want them to meet the same fate as him. Can you imagine that?"

Sam said nothing.

The Devil shrugged. "No matter. What she did was still sinful, but you didn't get in her way too much, so they can't accuse me of having any influence on her actions."

"That's why you wanted me to avoid her?"

"Well, you are my property. It would be just as unfair to have one of His people influencing her as well."

Sam held up the necklace, remembering how adamant Cindy was to get it back. "And the importance of this?"

"None, really -- not until I had my minions turn it into a proper vessel. Cindy was just really attached to it after stealing it off her sister's body." He plucked the necklace free from Sam's hand, admiring it. "Mine, now."

"So I'm guessing they already made their decision about her?" Sam asked, surprised at how queasy he felt at that thought.

The Devil grew stern. "She was a sinner, Sam. Don't start moralizing over whether she truly deserves this fate."

"But with what happened to her…can she really be at fault for her actions if outside factors push her over the edge?"

"Yes. Yes she can."

"But…everyone was good once…"

"Please. With that logic, everyone should go to heaven, including Hitler. Do you want Hitler to go to heaven, Sam?"

"Well, no…"

"Good." The Devil nudged him, beaming another one of his trademark grins. "You should feel proud. I usually have more experienced reapers deal with assignments like this. In fact, I think I'll have you take the rest of the day off. That other soul can wait until tomorrow to be caught."

"Gee, thanks." Sam stomped off, not bothering to glance back at the Devil; he probably wouldn't have been standing there anymore had he done so, anyway. He knew, ultimately, that he'd done the right thing by capturing Cindy's soul; he just wished that it felt like he had.