This time there was no mistaking his dream.
When Sam awoke abruptly in the motel, clutching at his chest and breathing heavily, the key aspects of the nightmare stayed with him in vivid detail, the imagery fresh in his mind like the aftermath of a flash grenade imprinted on his retina.
The woman had been there again and he had known instantly that she was evil incarnate. He didn't know if he registered their dream-location, the surroundings being the least of his concerns the moment he realised what was held in the woman's arms. She was cradling a child and instantly Sam tried to reach for it, only to discover his inexplicable inability to move.
His effort seemed to draw the woman's attention however and she looked up to face him. Perhaps she would have been pretty in another light. But there in his dream, the nightmare cast her in a grotesque pallor and Sam felt his stomach sicken and turn at the sight of her. Her wideset eyes were blue and large, almost to the point of seeming maniacal, and her mouth was wide and red, a crimson slash cutting grotesquely across the cool paleness of her blonde complexion.
She tilted her head to one side and her smile spread a little wider across her face, revealing a row of small, perfectly aligned teeth.
"Sam Winchester," she addressed, her voice seeming to drip from her lips to ooze and coil around Sam's spine. "You're not an easy man to get a hold of. I suppose we have your brother and that feathered pet of his to thank for that." She sneered, as though mentioning Dean and whoever else she'd referred to had left a bad taste in her mouth. "What with all those bastardised wardings he tries to keep you hidden behind. Makes it almost impossible to get through to you. Not for lack of trying I might add. But I knew if I could get you out from wherever he has you holed up, I could get through to you eventually. Just had to find something interesting enough for you to venture out for. Like dear old Stacey. And voila! Here you are!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Sam demanded, finding his voice. "Who are you?"
"Do you mean this body?" she asked sweetly, stroking her hair as if preening for a photo. "Or do you mean me?" With a blink her eyes became completely white, and her smile deepened as she gauged Sam's reaction to it. Then she blinked again, and her eyes returned to normal. "This meat suit used to be a dental hygienist from Bloomington. Probably still is, somewhere inside. A little too old for my tastes but still, pretty don't you think?" She smiled a sickeningly sweet smile, before shrugging and continuing. "As for my name, well, I've gone by many names. Though I suppose Lilith is my first, as am I, the first. You can ask your brother about me when you wake up."
"So this is just a dream." Sam confirmed, trying to let that knowledge ease him a little.
"Call it a dream. Call it a phone call. Point is, I'm finally through to you. And I've been trying to get your attention for such a very long time now, Sam. You're out from that cloak your brother's been hiding you under. Or Heaven's no longer shielding you; those chicken scrawls on your chest aren't nearly as strong as they used to be. I guess Heaven's thrown you aside. And they call us conniving."
Sam knew he didn't understand even half of what she meant but before he could ask, the baby in the woman's arms fussed. She looked down, cooing over the child and Sam felt a prickle of terror and disgust at the gesture.
"Let go of my son!" he shouted, trying to muster some command behind his voice, even though he was still paralysed and knew he could do nothing to enforce the demand.
Lilith looked up at him, a joyful smile on her features as she laughed at him playfully. "Oh this? Oh this isn't Kyle, don't worry." She tilted her arms so that Sam could see the child more clearly as being a new-born and clearly not his son. But then the sweetness left her voice and her eyes seemed to reveal an insatiable, demonic hunger as she looked back down at the child. "This is just a snack."
Dream or not, Sam felt as though he were about to throw up. The air seemed to leave his lungs and he felt with every fibre of his body the desire to kill this woman, whoever or whatever she was.
"Where's my son?" Sam demanded, his voice conveying more control than he would have thought he could possess right then.
"Don't worry about Kyle. I wouldn't harm him. He's far too precious." And then for the first time during their exchange, the playfulness seemed to leave her, and she seemed deadly serious. "But he's not as precious as you, Sam."
Sam shook his head. "I don't understand. What do you want? Where's Kyle? Where's Jess?"
"You know it was quite a surprise to learn of your existence," Lilith informed him, ignoring his questions. "Actually, your whole family. And I don't just mean you and your brood. I mean your brother and parents as well. Azazel truly slipped up where your mother and father were concerned. But I suppose it's all worked out for the best. I mean, here I am after all, so truly I should be thanking Azazel and your father, if they were still alive. Especially your father, for bringing you to our attention. And your brother too, of course, for setting in motion my release. I suppose even mangy curs have their occasional uses before you have to put them down."
"I don't care about your life history." Sam growled.
"You're right, it doesn't really matter now. Forget I even mentioned it." She flicked her hand as though physically brushing the thought aside, then paused, stopping to run her index finger over the squirming child's face and licking her fingertip, savouring whatever it was she tasted, before looking up to face Sam again. "But it hasn't all worked out as smoothly as we'd have liked. Your boy for example. Oh we've been quite lucky to have him. And the timing has worked out quite exquisitely. Though if you want to know the truth," she continued, leaning towards him a little, voice lowering as though sharing some mischievous confidence. "We had a little something to do with all that."
She gave Sam a knowing smile but he couldn't decipher what she meant.
"Not that Jessica needed all that much work to convince her it was time to pop another little Winchester bun into her oven. But Stacey played her part well don't you think? Or… his part. As much as I hate your brother, I have to admit, he really did some exquisite work to create that one. When he created him that was the one that did it you know, the one that broke the Seal, the one that set me free. And when his creation wore Stacey, oh! Such fun! Did such a good job! Sacrificing that boy of hers, eliciting your wife's sympathy to give her that extra little nudge in the right direction. Kicking those maternal instincts into overdrive. And merely 15 months later here we are! Reaping the fruits of your loins."
Sam fought against whatever invisible restraints were restricting his movements, but to no avail and Lilith barely paused to acknowledge his struggles.
"And of course, all the other little things Stacey did along the way. Planting the idea in Jessica's head to renovate your home for example, allowing the wardings to break so that we could finally walk right in and take that precious little boy of yours. And you know Sam, it's been so delicious, having little Kyle here at that perfect age. Jessica however, I could have done without. Though I admit, the bitch has bite, I'll give her that. But your boy! Oh! He has been truly precious…" She sighed wistfully before continuing. "But, as precious as he is," she looked Sam straight in the eye then, the sudden coldness of her gaze causing a shiver to pass through him. "He isn't you."
"You dare touch a hair–" Sam shouted, but Lilith spoke over him as though he hadn't even reacted.
"I thought he would do. We thought his conception, his creation would be the key. But he's just not taking to the blood as naturally as you would have done. Not taking it at all, actually. Might be the warding or the fact that he's impure, what with Jessica's worthless blood sullying his veins. He's a slightly diluted version of the Winchester-Campbell union after all, and it turns out that's just not good enough. Had we known about you from the start of course, this would have been so much easier. Azazel would have marked you all those years ago when you were a mere morsel, would have prepared you as was needed and by now you would have been ready. But as it is…" she shrugged, dismissively. "Well, c'est la vie. We can't change the past. But it changes nothing, really, because we still want you Sam. It's you, your bloodline that holds the key. Consider this your birth right. And it will be glorious, when you join us Sam, it truly will."
"I don't understand what you're telling me." Sam said, his voice betraying his agitation. "Tell me where my son is. Tell me where Jessica is. If any of this is even real."
"Oh, it's real. And this time I'll prove it to you. To show you my sincerity, I'll return your precious little bitch to you. Whatever's left of her, anyway. Consider it a sign of good faith. Or better still, consider it a warning, evidence of what I'm capable of. Because I still have your son, don't forget. And if you want to save him, if you ever want to see him alive again, you'll give us what we want. And what we want is…" she left the sentence dangling, giving Sam a pointed look.
"Me," he finished for her, forcing the words out, pushing through the dread of whatever fate Jess may have met. "You want me. Fine. Take me. Just give me back my family."
"Well, you say this, but then every time you wake up, you dismiss me as a fanciful dream before letting it all slip away. This isn't the first time I've tried to reach you, you know that, right? Really Samuel, I'm hurt. I am the girl of your dreams after all, and yet, how easily you forget me. So this time, I'll give a sign you won't ever forget. So that you'll know this is real. You'll know what I've said is real. And as for Kyle, I won't hurt him, I promise... Provided you're willing–"
"I'm willing," Sam said cutting her off, not needing to hear any more. "Just tell me where my family is, and I'll be there."
"Good boy. And all in good time." She smiled again, then flicked a glance downwards to the baby in her arms, her tongue flicking over her lips as she did so. "Aren't you just the sweetest little thing?" She cooed. "I bet you're as sweet as sugar. Yes, you are! I could just eat you right up! Yes, I could." Then she looked back at Sam, eyes turning completely white again, like a shark about to devour its prey. "Unless you want to watch what happens next, I suggest you wake up. Oh, and Sam? I do hope your phone's not switched off."
As Sam abruptly awoke her face as it closed in on the child was the last thing he remembered seeing, her blood red smile seeming to have burned right into his retinas.
He sat up in bed disorientated, not recognising his surroundings. His heart was pounding and his throat was dry as sweat trickled from his forehead, stinging his eyes. He blinked several times to clear his vision, in time to catch Dean emerge from the bathroom, a toothbrush still lodged crookedly in his mouth and a frown worn openly on his face.
"Nightmare?" the older Winchester queried, not even bothering to hide his concern.
"What?" Sam asked, still finding his bearings. "No… I mean… Yeah. I guess…"
"You guess? You were thrashing around like Pogo the Midget Clown was pulling rabbits outta your ass." But then Dean's expression softened, and he nodded in sympathy. "It's understandable, given... everything"
"No, I mean… I mean I don't..." Sam squeezed his eyes shut momentarily, concentrating, trying to recall the dream, before focussing on his brother more clearly. "I don't think it was just a nightmare. I…I think someone's trying to contact me."
Dean raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" he responded, somewhat sceptically. "Who?"
Sam opened his mouth, ready finally to share with his brother the fact that he'd been having reoccurring nightmares involving the same mysterious, terrifying woman, and that this time the dream had finally stuck in his mind more cohesively than at any previous occasion. Before he could begin however, Dean's phone started ringing.
Dean glanced at the ID, then held up a hand to stop his brother. "Hold that thought," he told him, as he answered the call. "Ash. You got something?"
Dean froze in reaction to whatever Ash told him, but before Sam could ask, his own phone, resting on the small dresser beside the bed, began to buzz and trill. His heart began hammering once more as he reached for the cell, not recognising the number flashing across the screen.
"Hello?" he answered, voice almost shaking.
"I'm calling from County General Hospital. With whom am I speaking?"
"This is Sam Winchester," he said, voice faltering slightly, before he spoke hurriedly, dreading what was to come. "Have you found her? Have you got Jess? Is she all right?"
The voice on the other end hesitated a moment, a pause in which Sam and Dean, each holding their phone to their ear, locked eyes with one another and in that instant, Sam realised Dean already knew what was about to be said.
tbc - thanks for reading!
Long Live BRUCAS: Deanna saw the possession of Stacey, but she's ok. The previous chapter was a little difficult to make clear, I admit, but you're absolutely right, there were two different demons, albeit working together. The woman in Sam's dream, and the demon in Stacey, which Deanna saw, (and whose gender was male - don't ask me why I decided to do that, it just sounded better). Hopefully, this chapter clears up that the demon in Stacey and the woman Sam was seeing are separate. And hopefully we all kinda remember Lilith... Thanks for commenting, it's hugely appreciated :-)
Kathy: Well he's closer to finding out what happened now! There was a lot to digest in these past couple of chapters, wasn't there? I'm glad the previous one made sense though, and hopefully this one adds a little more clarity. Once again, thank you for reviewing! It's really useful for me in keeping on top of what I've been able to put across clearly and what I may have overlooked (and plus, it's really nice to hear from you guys) thank you! :-)
Stay well everyone, will update soon(ish! - probably early next week).
