Chapter 4 - Stitch

This night she refused to sleep, but somehow Sam was too tired to stay awake. After some fighting hours sleep finally got to her and she dozed away into another even more scaring nightmare.

This time her dream took her right to Baal's torture chamber.

She was standing right behind the Goa'uld while he was torturing somebody else. Sam looked up into the prisoner's direction to see with shock who it was: Colonel O'Neill!

Jack!

Sam called out his name, but no one seemed to hear her. Neither Jack nor Baal noticed her shouts. Tears shot into her eyes as Carter kept on trying and trying and nothing changed.

With every blade that cut through the colonel's body she herself cramped together with great pain. She saw him die once, then everything started over again; she saw him die for a second and a third time. Which every death and every dagger Baal aimed at Jack Sam's pain grew more severe.

Finally she sank down to her knees burying her face in her hands. No longer could she stand to see him suffer so gravely.

Suddenly the image of Jack fade away and as she looked up Samantha realized that she was lying right to the feet of Baal.

His piercing glance and the cold smile he gave her made Sam tremble.

"You left him alone", he stated scornfully.

"No..." she rejected looking away from him.

"Don't lie to yourself."

"This is not true", her reply was not more than a whisper.

Baal pulled Sam up to her feet. His grip around her wrists was so tight, she was not able to wind from it. She was forced to look right into his eyes. They seemed to consume her.

"Do you really hope for forgiveness? You weren't at his side when he needed you the most", he paused adding an icy smirk to his words before he went on: "He has to hate you. Accept it."

Sam felt how her legs started to give way under her. She was on the verge of breakdown as the dream fade away into nothing.

Baal was more than pleased about the result the intervention into the Tau'ri's dreams had. With every tear and every cry of hers his contentedness grew. Not much longer until she would be all his. He left her alone before she started to wake and got aware of his presence.

As she started up from her bed Carter did not feel as if she had slept at all. The threatening dream she had just experienced seemed more than just real to her; the pain and the tears, she seemed to have truly suffered from them, but as she looked at her wrists there were no marks of Baal's grip to be seen. She was almost sure that he was manipulating her mind the same way Osiris had done it with Daniel.

That moment Samira burst into the room. She acted the usual way as if nothing had happened merely remarking: "You look horrible. Are you unwell?"

Carter eyed her closely. "Don't you know what's going on here?" she questioned.

"What do you mean?" the girl responded innocently. "All I know is that you don't seem to sleep at night."

"You know the reason for that", Sam snapped a little too harshly.

Samira looked at her as if she had just gone mad. "I don't have a clue, honest", she said calmly.

The truth was that Samira really knew what was happening. She knew exactly about her master coming to alter the Tau'ri's dreams at night. She was just following his orders by lying to her. It was her task to gather the Tau'ri's confidence and to complete the work Baal had begun at night. She loved this part of her work because she could satisfy her master best by doing it conscientiously and intelligently. Her next step would put a deep stitch right to the other woman's heart, she planned to play with the most valuable thing Baal had ever given her.