He had been staring at the dirty ceiling for hours, willing for sleep to come, but the million things that were running through his mind at the moment chased it away. Sam jumped when the shrill ring of the motel phone filled the room. Who could that be? It was the middle of the night. Nothing good, he knew for sure.
Mary got to the phone in a second, seemed like she had no luck with sleeping either.
"Hello?"
Sam gave up trying to rest and swung his long legs out of the bed.
"You're looking for Sammy?"
Okay, first of all, his name was not Sammy. Sammy was a chubby twelve-year-old. Second, how did anybody even know where they were staying?
"Mom?" Sam motioned for the phone.
"No, John Winchester is not here."
"You're…what?!" Mary exclaimed suddenly.
"Mom!" Sam snapped his fingers, "Looking for me? Who is it?"
"Hang on," Mary handed the phone over to Sam.
"Hello?" Sam pressed the phone to his ear.
"Hello? Are you Sam…Sammy?" An unfamiliar, young voice filled his ear.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Adam Milligan. I assume you know John? John Winchester? I'm his son."
Sam was speechless for a second.
A Son? Dad had…Oh wow. That was news. Sam wondered if Dean knew.
"Um…you…uh…" Sam stumbled.
"So you are Sammy right? I can't believe I'm doing this but this is important," Adam sounded hesitant.
"I'm Sam. Sam Winchester. John's my dad too."
Sam could hear the sharp intake of breath at the other end of the phone.
"He never…Huh. I didn't…"
"Yea, me too," Sam ran his palm across his forehead, "So, how did you get this number anyway?"
"The motel manager gave it to me. It's not his fault though. I said that it was a family emergency."
"And how did you know where I'm staying?"
"I…uh…this is the crazy part," there was a pause at the other end of the line, "I saw you."
"What do you mean you saw me?"Sam looked out of the motel windows instinctively.
"I had this dream about you. About you, dad, and your mom. Only that it was not only a dream. Things that happened in my dreams…they kinda…become real afterwards. You know?"
Wait, what?! First he learned that he had a half-brother, and now his half-brother was telling him about having psychic visions?
"No…I don't…actually." Sam dragged.
"Whatever. Look, sorry to bother you. I should never have called," Adam was about to hang up.
"Wait! No, Adam! I…tell me about this dream of yours."
"It happened in the motel room," Adam sighed, "That's how I knew where you were. Dad was there. At least, he looked like dad, but it was not him. His eyes. They were the wrong color."
Was Adam trying to tell him that a John was going to show up at their doorstep, possessed?
"What happened?"
"There was a fire…on the ceiling. Your mom…was on the ceiling."
"Oh my god," Sam gasped.
Azazel. It was Azazel's MO, burning people while they were being pinned to the ceiling.
"So you believe me? Dude, seems like you are crazier than me," Adam let out a breathless chuckle.
"Bobby, we have a problem."
"Of course we do. I'm coming over right now," Bobby slammed the receiver down before starting to put on his shoes.
Bobby wrapped his jacket around himself as he strode over to the next room. Sam opened the door on the second knock.
"Bobby! Azazel got dad!" Sam yelled the moment Bobby stepped into the room.
"Calm down boy. Start from the beginning. What happened?" Bobby glanced at Mary, her worried frown a splitting image of Sam's.
Sam launched into the story right away, and he went on and on about his new-found half-brother and how he was having visions about the demon.
"How did you know if the kid was telling the truth?" Bobby asked.
He did not get named The Paranoid Bastard for nothing.
"He must be. I mean, there is no way he could have tracked us. And what good would it do to the demons if we knew that they were coming," Sam mused.
"Alright, alright. Let's assume that he's telling the truth. You said it yourself, there was no way anyone could have tracked us down. So how exactly did Azazel get the jump on John?"
"You left your duffel at the hospital," Mary suggested.
"Balls," Bobby cussed.
"Dad's got the colt too," Sam mentioned.
John must have summoned that thing. Bobby assumed that John would be smarter than this. Looked like he was wrong. That stupid, stupid man.
"Then what now? We got nothing against that demon," Bobby sighed.
"Not nothing. We have information. We know that he's coming," Mary stated.
Bobby could hear the gears turning in Sam's head.
"Bobby, you should go back to the hospital. We don't know when this is going to happen, if it haven't already. Maybe you'll get there in time to stop dad. Mom and I will stay here and get ready," Sam started to unpack his weapons.
"You sure? You could sure use an extra set of hands around here if Azazel shows up," Bobby checked.
Bobby had no doubt about Mary and Sam's skills, but it was Azazel after all, not to mention who the demon was wearing at the moment.
"Yeah. You go Bobby. Go check out the hospital," Mary nodded.
"Don't do anything stupid, you hear? Having one idjit is enough in the family," Bobby warned.
Although Bobby was sure that his words were falling on deaf ears.
"Don't worry, Bobby," Mary assured.
"Don't worry my ass," Bobby muttered after the door closed behind him.
Sam sat at the foot of his bed, playing with the bottle of holy water in his hands. He was still thinking about his half-brother Adam, and of course it hadn't distracted him from their impending doom. Why would Adam be having visions? Unless he was one of…
"You got the holy water? Salted the windows? The traps?" Mary looked up from her book of exorcisms.
What was the plan again?
"Mom what are we supposed to do?" Sam nodded in response to her previous questions.
"What do you mean?"
"We're kind of backed up in a corner, don't you think? We don't have the colt, we don't have anything to fight against it," he sighed.
"We get the demon trapped and get it out of your dad. And we'll figure the rest out later."
Yeah right. When did anything ever go their way?
"Mary, it's me! Open up!" John bellowed outside the room.
"He's here," Sam froze.
Mary inched towards the door and looked through the peephole. It was John, but they knew better.
"John?" Mary shouted.
"Yeah! Open up!" Azazel-John pounded the door a few more times.
She smoothed the carpet with her feet uneasily before opening the door. Sam had moved beside Mary, ready and poised to fight.
"What took you so long?" Azazel-John stepped into the room, but stopped before the doormat.
Mary swallowed thickly, her heart racing in her chest. She turned to Sam, who stared back at her with flustered eyes.
One more step. Please.
Azazel-John did a double-take on the piece of carpet, before he smiled.
"Did you really think that this is going to work?" he flipped the carpet with his boots, revealing the devil's trap painted onto the underside.
No, Mary thought. She knew that they did not stand a chance from the start.
With a wave of his hand, Azazel-John threw and pinned the two of them against the wall.
"But I must give you credit. How did you know I was coming anyway? Hmm?" Azazel-John clapped and sat down on one of the chairs beside the door, "So, are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?"
"Go to hell," Sam spat.
"Mmmm…speaking of hell, I'm sure your brother's going to enjoy it there. He's running out of time," Azazel-John tapped at his watch.
Mary felt her stomach drop.
Azazel-John lifted a knife out of his coat, "And maybe your daddy is going to have a taste of it too."
He sauntered over to the two of them and raised the knife above his head.
"No!" Mary yelled.
No, not John too!
"Or what?" Azazel-John plunged it into his own abdomen.
"Dad!"
They were running out of options, but there was something else that she could do…
"John! No! Take me! Take me and leave my family alone!" Mary cried.
"Mom! What are you doing?"
"Really? Years of running and fighting. And you're giving up now?" Azazel-John smirked and traced her collarbone with the bloody knife, "Well, well. I must admit that I expected more from you, Mary Winchester."
"Mom? No! You can't do this. Don't please, Mom," Sam pleaded.
"It's what you want isn't it? Take me, and let them go," Mary was surprised at how calm she sounded.
"There is something of yours that I would very much like to have too," Azazel-John turned to look at Sam.
Mary will be damned if Azazel so much as lay a finger on Sam. She fought against the invisible restraints as he stepped closer to Sam.
Sam shrunk back as Azazel-John leaned closer.
"Do you have a better offer for me? Sam?" Azazel-John grinned, "Oh, do you need more incentives to make up your mind?" Azazel-John held a hand out towards Mary, and she could feel herself being lifted up against the wall.
Oh no. No. No. No.
The ground grew further and further away from her, and it was not long before her head connected with the ceiling. But her body continued to be dragged across the dirty ceiling, until she was fixed to the centre of it.
"Sam! Don't," Mary wanted to shout, but all that came out of her mouth was a strangled scream when she felt her abdomen being split open.
Sam watched helplessly as Azazel pinned his mother up on the ceiling. Crimson dripped from the growing patch of red on his mother onto the carpeted floor with sickening thuds.
It had been because of him from the very beginning. The reason why Mary left. Because of Sam. The reason why they were in this mess. Because of Sam. The reason why Dean, John and Mary were dying. Because of Sam.
Maybe it was time for him to stop running and hiding, and let Azazel have what he wanted.
"Alright! Fine!" Sam avoided Mary's piercing gaze.
He could not bear to see his family get hurt anymore because of him.
"I would say that it is the righteous thing to do, giving yourself up like that, for your family," Azazel-John clapped a hand on Sam's shoulders, "Exactly what we need."