AN: For some reason I can only see the old version of my last chapter. Apologies if I'm repeating myself: the standalone story Periphery can be read before this chapter, though it absolutely doesn't need to be. You won't miss any plot or story developments by not reading it. Thank you!
The location was different, and though Sam wasn't restrained this time, he instantly realised it was another dream. For one thing, he wasn't in the garishly decorated motel room that he'd been sharing with his brother when he'd gone to bed the night before. Instead, he was stood in the large drawing room of a very pleasant home, tastefully furnished and with wholesome framed family photos lining the fireplace. No puce coloured walls and chipped Formica table in sight.
A young girl, no more than 10 years old, sat on one of the plush cream sofas a few steps away. She wore a blue gingham dress, had long blonde hair held back with a white ribbon, and looked for all the world the embodiment of Alice from Wonderland. Her head was bent downwards as she cooed at the bundle swathed in a pastel blue blanket cradled in her arms. She seemed oblivious to Sam's presence initially, but when he took a step towards her, she glanced up and grinned at him.
"Sam! Finally! Your brother has been so pesky with hiding you, I thought I'd never get the chance to speak with you again."
Her inflections and cadence matched her age, but the eyes gave her away. They were completely white, like oversized pearls stuffed into child-sized eye-sockets.
"Lilith," Sam addressed, edging closer. "Where's my son?"
"Oh boo! It's always the same thing. You want him so badly? Here, catch!"
She flung the bundle towards him, and Sam scrambled instinctively, lurching forward in desperation. But he wasn't quick enough, his fingers only managing to clasp a small corner of the blanket, which unravelled in his grasp and as the bundle crashed to the ground his heart tumbled uncontrollably with it. He felt instantly sick with panic and fear and the little girl laughed.
The instant the bundle hit the ground, the contents seemed to disintegrate, and after a moment a dozen or so rats spilled from pile of fabric, scrambling and scurrying across the floor in all directions.
"Silly goose!" Lilith trilled, still laughing. "That wasn't really your son!"
"Where is he?!" Sam demanded, barely recovered from the shock as he took another step towards her.
"You'll get him back soon."
"I swear if you've hurt him–"
"I haven't done anything to him." Lilith pouted. "You're not being very fun you know."
"What the hell kind of game are you playing? Why do you look like that?"
"Don't you like me? Everybody likes little girls. And this one is so pretty, don't you think? Everybody is so nice to her, that's why I chose her. She just looked so pretty when I saw her playing on the swing, I knew I had to have her. I like being her."
It was with a belated sickening comprehension that Sam realised Lilith wasn't simply projecting an image within the dream, but that she was in fact possessing a child. He felt the bile rise within him, but Lilith had already slipped off from the sofa and run up to him, wrapping her arms around his legs in a childish hug.
"I missed you so much," she looked up at him. "Did you miss me too?"
"Tell me where my son is," Sam repeated, trying to untangle himself from her embrace.
"You're not being very fun!" she repeated tersely, looking up at him in annoyance. "I don't like it when people aren't fun." She stared at him coldly for a moment, an unspoken threat very palpable in the air around them, before she grinned again shaking her head. "It's okay silly. I forgive you. Now let's go play. If you're nice to me, I'll tell you how you can get Kyle back."
Lilith grabbed his hand and dragged him towards a door. It was disconcerting how much strength she possessed; Sam found himself incapable of either wrenching his hand from her grasp or resisting as she led them towards the swing set in the garden. Dream or not, everything felt real, and Sam realised perhaps to an extent, it was. He tried to focus on the surroundings, on the street, on the houses. Even on the girl Lilith was possessing, trying to spot anything which he could use to help him determine her identity or the location.
"Push me," she ordered as she settled on the swing, and Sam tentatively obliged.
"This girl you're possessing," he ventured. "Have you hurt her?"
"No," Lilith replied, almost absentmindedly. Then she twisted around to look him. "Least... not yet." she smiled and shrugged, straightening again. "I'll see how I feel when I'm done. Push harder."
"What about the last woman, the dental hygienist?"
"Oh, I got bored with her. But I wouldn't worry about these people Sam. I brought you here to talk about Kyle, remember?"
Sam twisted the chains on swing around so that Lilith faced him again. "So, talk. Stop with all these games. You said before you wanted me, and I told you I agree. That hasn't changed. Tell me where you are, give Kyle back and I'll do anything you want."
"You promise?" Lilith asked in a coquettish singsong, smiling mischievously before continuing. "There is something I want. Something you can do for me."
"Let me guess, something to do with Lucifer, right?"
"Sort of. But not what you're thinking silly. It turns out someone is trying to spoil my fun," she stared at him wide eyed. "Can you believe that? All I'm trying to do is save my father. He's been trapped for ever so long, and I don't think it's very fair. I just want to free him. You can understand, can't you? Your daddy was trapped too. Wouldn't you have done just about anything to get him out? I know your brother did. He did all sorts of horrid things," she smirked at him knowingly, a sickening smile teasing her lips before she shrugged dismissively. "I'm just trying to do what I need to do. But somebody's being mean. Somebody's trying to get in my way, and I don't think that's very nice, do you?"
"Who?" Sam asked, even though in the back of his mind, he'd already guessed.
"You mean apart from your annoying brother and his flying pet rat?" She squinted her eyes spitefully at him for a moment before continuing. "There's another mean boy named Jake. Him and his ugly, mean girlfriend, have been spreading horrid lies about me. We used to be such good friends before, but now they're just a pair of meanies and they're getting in my way. People can be so horrible."
"That's why you're hiding out as a child," Sam surmised. "To protect yourself. Some kind of twisted disguise."
"I'm not hiding!" she snapped indignantly. "I simply don't have time to waste on them. Breaking all the Seals has been so much harder than it should have been. And that's partly your brother's fault too. But it doesn't matter, I'm almost done."
"I thought Jake was on your side? One of Azazel's special children. Why is he trying to stop you now?"
Lilith looked at Sam a moment, seeming almost impressed.
"Someone's been catching up on homework," she mocked. "It turns out Jake is a spoilt meany baby," she spat. "He wants to have all the toys in the toybox, but they don't belong to him, so now he's being a big cry baby about it. Trying to get rid of me, as if that would help."
"He wants to take control from you?" Sam guessed, trying to make sense of Lilith's ridiculous childish prattle.
"It doesn't matter what he wants. All I need is for you to get rid of him for me."
"You' want me to kill him? I'm not a murderer."
"But your brother is. Dean's practically a monster. Deep down you know that, you know he's barely human anymore, all the things he's done. You could get him to do it and he won't even mind."
"I can see what you're trying to do, but it won't work. I'm not gonna turn on my brother. And we're not gonna do your dirty work for you."
"Not even to get your son back? I guess you don't love him as much as you thought." Lilith stared at him, feigning sadness, though her maliciousness cut straight through the expression. "I don't really care about you and Dean. And when my Daddy gets out," she shrugged again. "It won't matter anymore anyway. But Jake is being annoying. Get rid of him and you can have Kyle back. I don't even care who does it so long as it gets done. One simple little thing, and you get Kyle back. Isn't that what you want? And besides, I don't like your baby anymore. He's no fun. All he does is cry."
Sam tensed his grip on the chains, every instinct in his being wanting to grab Lilith and inflict damage on her, force her to tell him everything he wanted to know. He pushed those urges down, gritting his teeth to maintain some semblance of calm as he spoke again.
"You expect me to believe you'll just hand him over? What about all that talk about wanting me in Kyle's place?"
"Oh, that'll still happen silly. When Daddy gets free, he'll talk to you himself. And Daddy can be very persuasive, I should know. But for right now, I just need you to kill Jake."
"Why don't you do it yourself."
"I told you, I'm busy. I don't have time to go chasing after mean boys. And your brother's a mean boy too, so why do it myself when I can get you two to do it for me? And you'll do it, won't you Sam? I'll make it a deal if you like. I promise, if you kill Jake, you can have Kyle back, and then everybody will be happy, and we'll all be friends again."
"Where is Jake?"
"If I knew that, I wouldn't need you, would I?" she laughed at him. "You're such a silly billy."
She jumped off the swing in a quick sudden motion and skipped away.
"I'm going to eat some cake now. It's my birthday every day here," she sang happily over her shoulder. "Remember Sam. Kill Jake and you get Kyle back. I'll know when it's done, and I promise you'll get him back... Sam! Wake up! It's on the move!"
Sam's eyes snapped open, the sudden jarring awakening leaving him alarmed and disorientated.
"W... What?" he stammered, sight and mind not fully adjusted to his newfound surroundings.
From the foot of the bed in their motel room, Dean threw a shirt at him as he barked his orders again. "What, you wake up deaf? I said it's moving! C'mon princess! Chop-chop! Let go!"
Sam scrambled off the bed, barely having time to slip into his boots and grab his gun and a taser before chasing out the door after his brother.
With a Rawhead on the loose, there was no time right then to process Lilith's new ultimatum, even if he'd known where to start with it.
tbc. Thank you for reading!
This is not the chapter I had originally planned to post (that's coming up). But it must be plot-bunny mating season or something because, when I sat down to post that, well, this just spilled out instead from out of no-where and so... well here it is! It's created a whole other thing to deal with but thankfully, that's sort of written too. The story is getting there (from my writing point of view), so I hope you guys stick with me. Thank you SO much for your patience if you're still reading it, I know I've not been the most consistent, but we'll get there. :-) The delays are mainly from these random bits I keep spontaneously writing and then the remedial patchwork I have to do with what I've already written/plotted to make it all fit, but I'm kinda excited about it all :-)
Will update soon - stay well and safe out there my friends :-)