Sympathy for the Devil

victorious1314

Warnings: Depression, Self-Harm, Suicidal ideation/actions, Violence, references to Child Abuse.

Sam has forgotten exactly how long it's been since he began seeing the blond haired boy. He thinks he started actually seeing him at a rest stop in Michigan as he ate burgers and fries with his older brother Dean. Sam had probably been six at the time and thought nothing of the slightly older child who watched him intently as he ate. He assumed the boy was hungry or he lost his parents, but when Sam opened his mouth to call the boy over, he vanished. Sam put it off as his mind playing tricks on him because he was tired from the long car ride, but couldn't shake the feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach.

The next time he saw the boy was in his dream that night as he lay in his shared motel bed with Dean. The seemingly innocent dream turned sour when the boy continued to do nothing but watch Sam with his strikingly blue eyes. Anxiety pooled in his chest as shrill screams filled the air around him. The blond boy smirked and his eyes slowly lifted to the ceiling above Sam. Sam's childish curiosity got the best of him and he looked up to see a beautiful woman with a bleeding stomach engulfed in flames. Sam jerked awake with a strangled cry and Dean was immediately holding him tightly. John, their father instantly became alert as well when Sam's crying didn't die down.

"Sammy, what's wrong?" Dean asked, worry thick in his voice. John came over to the bed and pushed Sam's sweaty hair from his eyes. Sam hiccuped a few times, trying to get the words out and finally said, "T-The woman. She was o-on-" Sam lost control once again as he remembered the smell of her burning flesh. Dean rubbed his back gently, "What woman, Sammy? What about her?"

Sam's tears fell faster and he finally managed, "She w-was on the ceiling!" Another wave of tears took him under. The blood drained from John's face and he pushed a shocked Dean out of the way. He held Sam in his arms and fearfully said, "Who was on the ceiling, Sammy?"

"T-The pretty lady, on f-fire!" John began shaking like a leaf along with Sam as he held his head against his chest protectively. Dean's eyes were as wide as dinner plates when they finally met John's. Not long after they finally managed to get Sam to fall asleep, his six year old mind not able to handle the stress and trauma of what he witnessed.

Dean and his father stayed up late that night, checking the salt lines and waiting, on guard for some unknown creature to attack. The next day, John, Sam, and Dean packed up the Impala and drove off, leaving the poltergeist case for another hunter to take care of.

Months passed and Sam appeared to grow more and more distant from John and Dean. John wrote it off as Sam growing up because he couldn't handle the thought of something being very wrong with his son but Dean knew something was strange about his baby brother's behavior. Even though Dean had only been on the planet for ten short years, he knew that six year olds weren't supposed to have bags under their eyes and flinch when touched. When he finally brought it up to his father, John miraculously agreed to take a break from hunting and stay with their close family friend and fellow hunter, Bobby.

What John and Dean didn't know was that the nightmares kept coming when the boy, whose name he'd been told was Lucifer, let him sleep. They became more grotesque and violent as time passed until they consisted of nothing but torturing Sam. Faceless shadows did the torture but Lucifer would always wake him up after a couple of minutes of it. Sam desperately wanted to tell his Dad and older brother about what was happening but Lucifer assured him that doing so would make them leave him because they would think he was crazy.

Lucifer would often follow him around all day, commenting on just about everything and singing songs until Sam hated them. Even though Sam refused to admit it, he had started becoming used to Luce being around. During his family's stay at Bobby's house, Sam started feeling normal. And with his growing childish happiness, the nightmares disappeared. Before he knew it they were back on the road again, but there was one detail that neither Dean nor John knew about, they had a new passenger named Lucifer.

- Five Years Later -

Sam groaned as he wiped the sleep from his eyes and stumbled into the dingy motel bathroom. Luce was sitting on the lip of the tub, examining a bottle of orange complementary shower gel. Lucifer watched patiently as Sam gets washed up and ready for another tedious day of school. Lucifer would be lying if he said he didn't get bored during Sam's fifth grade classes but he knew this would all pay off in the end. Sam combed out his hair and left the cramped bathroom. Lucifer sat next to an unknowing Dean and watched the usual morning cartoons. He groaned in annoyance when Dean turned them off and watched over the couch as the elder brother ruffled Sam's hair as he passed by and entered the bathroom.

Lucifer patiently waited until he heard the shower turn on to start speaking, "Ok, so we should ditch today an-" Sam cut off his words with a sharp glare, "We aren't ditching, I'm actually not interested in being homeless," he said angrily. The tall blond boy scoffed and said, "You wont even need to worry about a job, Sammy. You only have one job and that-" Sam cut him off again, "Luce, I already told you I don't like talking about this. Can we just drop it?" Lucifer rolled his eyes and turned the TV back on.

They'd been fighting a bit more often lately and Luce was considering bringing back the night terrors, just to remind Sammy whose boss. The shower turned off and Dean stepped out fully dressed in jeans and an AC/DC t-shirt. His short hair glistened with water droplets as he grabbed a handful of stale potato chips and stuffed them into his mouth. Dean tossed Sam his bag and asked with a voice muffled by food, "You ready?" Sam wrinkled his nose in amusement at his brother's full cheeks that resembled a chipmunks and nodded.

Dean dropped Sam and Lucifer off at the front of the Elementary school that they had been attending for the past month and started walking down the block to the high school.

"Sammy, C'mon!" Lucifer whined, "This place is boring! Let's go somewhere fun, please!" Sam silenced his companion with a slight jerk of his head in annoyance. The day went on as normal as can be expected until lunch time came around and Brian and Nicholas came over the Sam's table. Sam sat alone at the table in the far corner of the lunchroom so he wasn't surprised when these other boys decided he was a good target two weeks ago. Ever since then they've been taking his food and teasing him relentlessly. Lucifer had remained silent about it so far up until that day.

"Hey loser, you got lunch for us today?" Nicholas, a lanky kid with a beanie too large for his skinny head, said. Sam moved to wordlessly give them his sandwich when Lucifer's voice filled his ears, "Brian's mommy doesn't get out of bed anymore since his dad died and Nicholas' foster daddy puts out his cigarettes on his good ol' Nicky's arms."

Sam frowned deeply at the information, not sure what to think of it when Luce continued, "They're mean to you because it makes them forget about their own problems, you now have the power to remind them. You know I would never lie to you Sammy, put them in their place."

Brian stepped forward and twisted Sam's pointer finger backwards painfully while Nicholas smirked and said, "Are you ignoring us, Winchester?"

Anger coursed through Sam's veins, "Sure, Brian. Hurt me all you want, it won't make your mother love you," He spat venomously, "And Nicholas, you're nothing but an over exaggerated ash tray."

Lucifer burst into laughter beside him but Sam could only see red. Brian let Sam's hand go abruptly and Nicholas had tears filling his eyes.

"Y-You're a freak, yeah. You're just a freak and nobody likes you." Brian stuttered, aghast. Sam smirked and Brian grabbed Nick's arm to pull him away from Sam's table. Lucifer patted Sam on the back, "You'll make a fine vessel Sammy." Sam flinched at that.

Brian and Nicholas didn't even look at Sam for a whole week until one Friday they approached him on the playground. Sam sits on a bench in the shade, avoiding the hot, germy play equipment at all costs. The bullies walked up to him and Sam heard Luce mutter, "This'll be interesting."

Nicholas grabbed Sam by his collar and pushed him against the side of the brick school building. Brian punched in the stomach and the air was quickly knocked out of him. "How did you know about that stuff, Winchester? Are you a stalker? We always knew you were a freak but we didn't know you were queer!" Brian laughed.

Something inside Sam broke then and before he knew it Nicholas was pinned against the wall where he had just previously been held. The thing that kept Brian from helping his friend and kept him paralyzed in fear, was that Sam wasn't touching Nicholas. Sam's hand was simply outstretched in Nicholas' direction, as if he was using some unforeseen force to hold him there. Sam eventually couldn't take the pain in his head any longer and collapsed onto the ground, barely aware of the blood pooling on the ground from his nose. Images of fire and torture flashed through his mind and he yelled out in agony. He heard the muffled footsteps of Nicholas and Brian running away and curled farther in on himself. Somebody touched his back and he jerked away from the contact. A gentle hand rubbed this back in soothing circles and the pain slowly went away. He looked up with blurry eyes to see a young female teacher looking at him with concern evident on her features.

"Oh my god, you're bleeding. Let's get you to the nurse honey," she said in a squeaky voice. Sam nods lazily and Lucifer, for the first time in years was nowhere to be seen.

In the nurse's office an older woman helped him clean the blood off his face and took his temperature. The white, buzzing lights in the sterile smelling room hurt his eyes so he chose to keep them closed most of the time. That is until the nurse shined a flashlight in his eyes and he groaned in pain. She muttered something and scribbled some words down on a notepad, "What happened out there, Sam... right? Sam Winchester? You started a month ago?"

Sam nodded, "I started October first. I just got a really bad headache," he slurred. The nurse grunted in reply and said, "Yes, it seems you're having quite the migraine. Do you have migraines often?" Sam shook his head and answered the rest of her questions by doing that or nodding. She insisted on calling his father to come and pick him up so Sam gave her his current cell phone number.

John was out hunting a wendigo, that's why they were in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota. The nurse called Sam's father and looked worriedly over at the young boy whose face was twisted in unseen pain. Overall he seemed fine, aside from the bloody nose and dilated eyes, but it was obvious he was in excruciating pain. The phone picked up after the third ring and a gruff voice came through, "Hello?"

The nurse snapped back into reality, "Hello, this is nurse Edith at your son Sam's elementary school. I'm calling to ask if it would be possible if you or your wife could come and pick Sam up. He collapsed on the playground and appears to be exhibiting signs from a migraine." John rushed to assure her that he'd be there as soon as he can and hung up. Edith looked over at Sam and noticed him slumped in his chair, his eyes screwed tightly shut.

Thirty minutes later John came in and looked over at his eleven year old son's form on the plastic bed across the room. He filled out a form and moved to Sam's side, "Hey Sammy," he said softly, mindful of his headache but mildly annoyed at his son for pulling him out of the hunt. Sam looked up at his dad and grimaced at the light assaulting his eyeballs. John's breath catches in his throat as he saw Sam's eyes were no longer hazel but black, but when he blinked it's gone. He cleared his throat and continued, "You ready to come home, buddy?"

Sam nodded tiredly and sat up with his dad's supportive hand on his back. The world span for a minute but his gaze eventually settled on Lucifer sitting on the nurse's desk and staring at him with a smirk. Sam accidentally groaned in annoyance and John looked to where his youngest son was staring and asks, "What is it Sammy?" Sam's eyes widen and he mumbled, "Nothing, it just hurts." John seemed convinced and helped Sam walk to the Impala.

Back at the motel after he shut off all the lights, John remembered to call the High School to tell Dean that he doesn't have to walk his brother home that day. After he made the call, John sat on the bed in his conjoining room. He decided when Dean turned eleven that his sons needed to sleep in separate beds and while they seemed hesitant at first, they got used to the idea. Ever since Sammy's nightmare however, John had been keeping a closer eye on his youngest. There was no possible way that Sam could have remembered his mother's death. He was only six months old for Christ Sake! John was shaken from his brooding when he heard the hushed voice his son from the other room.

He held his breath and waited so he could hear better, fearing that Sam might be talking to somebody on the motel phone or worse, somebody in the room. John pressed his ear gently up against the door and he heard his son's next words clearly, "What happened today? I don't want to do this anymore, I'm scared." Sam's voice was high-pitched and nervous. After several moments Sam simply muttered an, "Ok," and John could hear the covers on his bed shift. After a minute or two John opened the door to their conjoining rooms quietly and looked at Sam, who had fallen asleep, tangled in the questioningly stained sheets of the bed.

Then in the classic John Winchester fashion, he drowned his worries in liquor, forgetting nearly everything.