Dean wasn't sure if he agreed. Fear was a powerful thing, and even if he could he convince himself not to be afraid of one thing or another, some new fear always rushed in to take its place. He'd even died a few times, so he was no longer afraid of that in and of itself, but he never stopped fearing the absence his death left in the world. And even if people stopped being afraid of the obvious scary things, like fog monsters, more mundane fears would eventually take over and they could be stalked by giant past due notices and tooth decay or whatever normal people were scared of.

But Airy had made a good point. If the mall was feeding off things they were afraid of, it'd have to do a hell of a lot better than monsters and weird patrons as far as Dean was concerned. He was annoyed, yes, and definitely bored, but not scared. He was troubled that he had no way of reaching his brother, and concerned about what was happening without him back in what he thought of as the real world, but not actually fearful.

Ah, well, back to the drawing board.

"No, you're right. It's too simple to be the case." Sullen, he plonked a few quarters into the chair and leaned back into it as it began to pulse in a soothing manner. His next words carried a hint of vibrato. "At least we're not alone with these automatons." He managed a weak smile at her, more grateful than he was letting on that they'd met. They could make a good team if there was actually something to team up against.