The title is based around the concept of a "New Game+" that is common in most games. For you non-gamers, New Game+ is when you create a new game save file after beating the game once and receive certain bonuses or extras as a result which make playing the game from the beginning a lot more interesting.
Waking up in his old room wasn't too weird...he had been through worse. What was weird was waking up and coming to the hard shock that he was a baby.
What was more, Sam realized with some disbelief that he could still feel the angelic powers bestowed upon him by Chuck...or rather God...after he and Dean finally died and were allowed to stay dead.
It was supposed to be an apology gift for leaving them to clean up everything, but it felt like Chuck had taken the easy route out.
Though after further inspection, Sam found the same warding he once sensed on Castiel. Even more odd, he knew how to apply them not only to himself, but to others.
He thought about tuning into Angel Radio, as Anna had once called it, but realized that would be stupid as it would give them a method of tracking him down. He cast a glance at the old calendar on the wall. And the moment he calculated the date, a plan came to mind.
He could allow events to happen like they did before. Or, and he was leaning heavily this way, he could make a few tweaks and piss off a lot of assholes who had lead him and Dean around the nose just because they were 'convenient'. Zachariah's smug face came to mind, as did a number of demons.
Since he wasn't sure if this was a dream or not, Sam decided to wait and see.
And, if he took some pleasure in enjoying the motherly love denied him his entire life because the chosen brothers couldn't have an experienced Hunter for a mother to show their father how to do things properly and came with a support base in the form of her extended family, well that was his problem.
The longer this went on, the more sure Sam was that he had somehow ended up in his past before the incident that changed everything. And, this could not be stressed enough, that his brother had not come with him. He was alone and would have to alter things himself until he found some support.
Sam knew very little about how to use his new angelic powers, beyond altering or adding wards to himself to hide his new abilities. If above or below knew about it, it would make things exceedingly difficult. However there was one thing he did know how to do quite well, even if he couldn't use it himself because of his physical age.
Sam had the date when the demon showed up almost engraved in his memory, thanks to John. When he saw the smug face of Azazel staring down at him, Sam knew exactly what he had to do. Playing up the 'innocent baby' routine he had perfected over the past two months, he reached out for Azazel's outreached finger.
The demon didn't think twice about humoring the kid...he'd infect him easily enough after all. That was when Sam struck... internally he was cackling and already planning to discreetly listen in to the Angel Radio to hear their reactions.
While he couldn't smite Azazel on the spot...not that he would, it was too messy and noticeable...he could teleport him away. It had to be a place Sam knew, and he had used it before with the help of Cas before waking up in his infant body.
One moment Azazel was about to drop the blood in Sam's mouth...the next he was sent, rather bewildered mind you, to the deepest Sam had ever been in Heaven that wasn't Joshua's garden. He liked Joshua...he wasn't an arrogant ass like the majority of the angels Sam had encountered.
He kept his ears open and was darkly satisfied at the shock, confusion and outrage he heard from the angels upon finding a high ranking demon in heaven. Azazel didn't stand a chance, as the rank and file killed him without a second thought.
He saw his mother come in, and gurgled happily. Served that prick right.
His mother Mary kept a wary eye out for any demonic activity. He knew why...Azazel had forced her into an unofficial demon deal to save his father's life, though why he needed consent to enter the house Sam had no idea.
Over the next couple of months, Sam kept a watchful eye on his family. Apparently both sides assumed Azazel had infected him before his impromptu demise, so they left the family alone.
For the next couple of years, Sam made sure his mom survived and they had a relatively happy family life.
Sam did not like their new house. After Mary discovered John had cheated on her with what he could only presume was Kate Milligan. His mother was understandably apoplectic about the issue, considering she did her best to raise their sons while he was out traveling for work.
To that end there was a nasty divorce, though John was permitted to see his sons on special holidays. Considering Sam knew exactly why the two had gotten together in the first place, it didn't surprise him overly much.
However due to the divorce settlement, John ended up with the house. Whether he would sell it or move in with Kate was debatable. Which meant Mary was stuck moving to another house, though at least John had been nice enough to leave her enough money to put a down-payment on a decent one.
The problem? Sam couldn't even take ONE step into the new house without being able to tell something awful was lying partially dormant there.
Sam was a hunter...he had been in enough haunted homes dealing with ghosts to know that something was definitely haunting this home. And it was a nasty one too. Just being this close to the front door was sending ALL of his instincts as a hunter screaming to break out the salt and possibly even the lead crowbar. And he wasn't entirely certain that it would be enough.
Dean was already inside, but Sam could see his unease. Even his mother looked uncertain, but she couldn't explain what it was that was setting off her instincts.
Sam was really leery of going anywhere near the house. At least without doing proper research about it. So when he spotted what looked like an innocent tree house, an idea came to him.
"Mom, can I sleep in there tonight?"
Mary looked a little worried...however they had sleeping bags in case there weren't any beds, and she had no idea what the state of the couch (if there was one) was in.
"Let me check it out to see how structurally sound it is, alright?"
The tree house, while old, was still sound enough for a full grown woman like Mary to get into it. All four walls were sturdy, and the lone window could be easily closed off with some curtains or something. More importantly the hand-holds were firmly attached and were surprisingly clean. There were no pests that could pose a threat, so she saw no reason not to humor Sam for now.
To be fair, they never had a tree house and sometimes Sam got in the mood to avoid Dean for a bit to do his own thing.
Dean, enamored by the idea of a tree house and not wanting to sleep away from Sam for too long, dragged his sleeping bag up the tree as well.
Mary spent an uncomfortable night on the couch. It was old, dusty and there was an odd smell to it. She could only envy her sons a little.
The next morning, Mary took the boys into town to get some food. There was nothing edible in the cabinets at all, let alone kitchen utensils.
Sam, rather than be dragged around for several hours, convinced his mother to leave him at the library for a while. Considering that it would take at least another decade for parents to develop hyper-paranoia regarding their children's safety, Mary allowed it without a second thought. She knew Sam was a good child who would stay at the library until she came to pick him up.
And the first thing he did (since the internet wasn't available, to his dismay) was to research the house that his mother had bought.
It only took five minutes...most of which was asking the librarian help on how to use what he considered antiques...to hit paydirt.
What he found gave him a massive headache.
The house was possessed. Whatever entity was inside definitely had it out for children, and he had found several articles dating back over a hundred years where families had suffered tragedies.
Children younger than thirteen would suffer from mysterious deaths, sometimes more than one from the same family. There were even cases where the mothers went insane and killed their own children, before committing suicide shortly after.
Unfortunately Sam couldn't find the oldest story about the house before his mother returned. However now that he was suitably alerted to the issue, the real trick was warning his mother.
The feeling inside the house was undeniably more foul than the limited amount he sensed from the front door. The malevolent force took notice of him and Dean with dark glee. Sam shivered...this was going to be a pain to deal with. He might have to call in reinforcements if this entity was too much for a Hunter or a priest to deal with.
Two weeks later...
The whispers were back. They were quiet at first, but now Dean kept hearing them even in his sleep.
Sam had looked up their old home after hearing weird stories about it from the kids in class, and his mother had gotten a strange look in her eye when he presented the evidence.
Unfortunately, they didn't have the money to move out. And there was no way they could move back, because their dad had moved his new wife in to their old home. She was already expecting their first child.
The problem was it was too late...Dean had already responded to the whispers, and now they wouldn't leave him alone.
The thing that bothered Dean most was the way they had tricked him into talking back. They had whispered of a dark force that wanted to hurt Sam and his mom, and by the time Dean figured out that the whispers were the dark force, it had already attached itself to him.
Sammy was especially paranoid whenever he was inside the house. He would talk very little and he always seemed to be watching for something.
The only time Dean was able to sleep without worry was in Sam's tree house. Under any other circumstance, it would be their tree house. But Sam preferred to sleep there whenever he could get away with it, and after Dean started hearing the whispers he could understand why.
Unfortunately he couldn't bear to leave his mom alone in that house, so he ended up sharing her room. She took some of the weird paintings Sammy made and hung them up so that every corner (including the ceiling and floors) were covered.
Though Dean had to wonder if they had an ant problem, because she also dumped a ton of salt all over the floor and made a circle around the bed. He had to be careful whenever he got out to go pee, because his mom would scold him if he accidentally broke the circle. She also kept an iron crowbar under her pillow, and gave Dean a knife made from the same metal.
It wasn't until they were in the house for a full month that Sammy said something unexpected that had their mother tense.
"I figured out what's haunting this place. It's a witch who got caught and cursed the house," said Sammy.
"Come on Sammy, witches aren't real," said Dean.
Sammy, for some odd reason, ignored him completely and focused on their mother.
"What did you find out?" asked Mary seriously. Something told her not to dismiss her son and to listen to him.
"A witch by the name of Agnes Gillespe was caught by the local constables after several young children in the area went missing. They figured out she was the culprit and executed her through burning, but not before she swore she would have her revenge on anyone who dared to live on the lands she owned. About fifty years later, someone bought the property and built this house, unaware the local legends were referring to his newly bought property," said Sam. "No more than a year after moving his wife and children in, his two youngest were killed in tragic accidents. Ever since then, it's rare for any family who's lived in this house to stay more than ten years...particularly if they had children under the age of ten. Which coincidentally was also the rough age range of the children Agnes supposedly targeted the most."
Mary was silent, though Dean had an incredulous look on his face. There was no way witches were real...right?
"How did you find this out?"
Sam looked a bit shifty.
"I can sense things. I knew something was wrong with this place when we first arrived, but it wasn't until my classmates mentioned something about local legends that I was able to track down what it was," he said.
Mary had a sympathetic look on her face. It hadn't occurred to her that her youngest son might have inherited psychic powers. Or at the very least was more sensitive than most. Then again, considering that deal she made which she had almost forgotten about did make her wonder sometimes why the yellow-eyed demon hadn't shown up like he said he would.
She still had no idea Sam had taken matters into his own hands and had been discreetly teleporting any demon stupid enough to come near his family straight into heaven, pissing off a number of angels in the process.
Dean had a strange look on his face, realizing his mother wasn't dismissing Sam's story out of hand like most adults.
"Mom...are witches real?" he asked quietly. He was so certain she would claim Sam was making this up, so finding out she was treating his words as truth was scaring him big time.
Mary had a sad look on her face.
She seemed to be conflicted, before coming to an internal decision.
"Yes Dean...a lot of the monsters in fairy tales are real. Including witches. However there are also those who know how to fight those monsters and protect little boys like you two from them," said Mary quietly.
Sam, for some reason already seemed to know about the supernatural. However Dean had apparently been oblivious this whole time.
Once they dealt with this mess, she was going to find out exactly when her youngest had learned about Hunting and how he had known what to look for to find out what was haunting their new home.
Unfortunately they couldn't just up and leave. Dark forces like the one in their home sometimes had a nasty habit of latching onto people, not just locations.
She was worried for Dean, and once she was assured the dark energy wouldn't follow them to hurt her oldest son, she was going to take them to a trusted friend.
Mary had a feeling Sam and Dean were going to love meeting Robert Singer.