Shawn folded his arms. "Crowley, you're lying to me. I was going to help you because we're friends, but friends don't lie to each other, do they?"

"What?" was all Crowley asked in mock innocence. His face was eagerly pressed against the bars, beady eyes searching Shawn for an answer, waiting for Shawn to respond.

Shawn's face remained utterly pokerfaced. "You've got to tell me the truth, Crowley. I can tell you're trying to trick me, and that's not very nice. Maybe I'll leave you here and go back and look for the dragon instead."

"NO!" Crowley barked at the threat of being left in the cage. "What is it that you want from me? I'm just a small..." he looked down at his sagging, filthy diaper and then back up at Shawn as if that somehow explained it.

"I know the way!" he croaked. "Ok! Ok!" He said, reaching his hand out through the bars, sharp fingernails waving at the air as if to prevent Shawn from going away. It wasn't clear what he was saying 'OK' to.

"OK! I'll do what you want."

Bobby and Ralph took a step back from the cage, which was now swinging to and fro, the metallic parts creaking.

Shawn tried to keep up a hard, tough front, as if he didn't care about how beat up Crowley looked. "Not until you explain the trick. You were going to rip me off, right? Tell me how." He tried to sound unphased, like this sort of over-the-barrel negotiation was something he was experienced with.

"Is this about your friend?" Crowley asked, looking at Bobby. "I was just trying to get the best deal so I negotiated you down to whatever I could get. Surely you can't say that's my fault because you didn't know." He said, all innocence.

"I was just trying to get the best deal!" He pleaded to Shawn.

"Shawn, what's he talking about?" Bobby asked.

"N..n..n..nuthing." Ralph said, giving Bobby a shove to be quiet.

Shawn was grateful for Ralph’s backup, and tried to steer the conversation away from Bobby. “This isn’t about him - it’s about you! What aren’t you telling us about letting you out! What could happen?”

"Nothing." Crowley cried. "Nothing! I was planning on just....eating Ralph. Well, not eating, but just taking a bite. I'm hungry." Crowley said, dropping to his baby knees and pressing his face yet again against the bars.

"What!?" Bobby cried.

"What!?" Ralph cried.

Shawn hid his shock and disgust behind his poker face once more. “Well, I think you owe Ralph an apology. And a sorry gift.”

"I'm sorry." Crowley said in a desperate voice. He sounded like a child that was going to say anything the parent might ask, without actually thinking about the words being spoken. "Will you let me out now?" He asked, short arms extended through the bars, long fingernails pawing at the air in vain. And then. "What's a sorry gift?"

Shawn could tell Crowley didn't really care, but it wasn't like he could make Crowley mean it. "It means you have to give Ralph something nice to make up for what you were going to do!"

"What!!!?" Crowley cried out indignantly, arms spread wide and through the cage, a gesture of injustice. "Why!? And what do I have to give? Look at me!" Crowley said, looking at his own filthy body, down at his chest and grimy feet, diaper heavy and sagging.

Shawn tried to look sympathetic, but unmoved. "How about this - I'll try to get you out if you swear an oath. You swear that you won't ever try to hurt or trick me, Ralph, or Bobby ever again. And that if you ever get your shop back, I can pick out one thing for free."

"I swear! I swear!" Crowley cried out before Shawn could finish. But then he pulled his arms inside the cage when he heard Shawn speak about the last part, the part about getting something from his shop for free.

Crowley retreated into the darkness of the cage, only to reemerge seconds later with a decidedly unpleasant look on his face.

"I get to pick it out." Crowley rebuffed, a tone of indigence in his voice as he settled into a negotiator's cadence, his face now all business.

Shawn was already in full negotiation mode, and ready for the counteroffer. "I get to choose two things, and you get to choose which one of them I can take."

Crowley ground his teeth, yellow needles chaffing together in a bristly gesture of annoyance. "One object. You get to pick it. And if its too much then you don't get anything." Crowley countered with rising petulance.

Shawn saw Crowley's annoyance, but the weird goblin was in the cage and needed him. "One object, and if it's too much, I get to pick something else. And it can be whatever I want."

"One object." Crowley pointed a finger up at the sky in growing anger. "If its too much, then you get to pick another. But only one time!" He said, nearly yelling.

Normally, Shawn didn't like anger, especially people being angry at him. But he understood, in an elemental sort of way, that negotiating was kind of a performance. Both of them had to act angry, it was how they might get what they wanted. So he furrowed his brow and looked disgusted enough to just walk away. "No! Because then you can just say what I want is too much no matter what, then I don't get anything!"

"Exactly!" Crowley shouted grimy baby-hands curled around the bars and yelling now in a toddler's voice. "And that's what you deserve! Nothing! Because of you everything has been destroyed! You know what's going on here. I know you do! Ever since you arrived things have been going wrong. I'd be surprised if my wares were still there or whether or not everything has been looted and set on fire."

"You tell me what has happened! Was it you!? Was it you who stole the Fortune Teller's Ball? Is it you who put me in here!?"

Shawn felt confused, and let his face show it, but the anger hadn't gone away either. "How would I even do that? I don't know anything about balls or cages or weird magic stuff. You know that; I sold you a quarter of my soul for some berries!"