Help Me to Sleep

Charlie opened her eyes, finding herself in Lila's home. The lights were dimmed and the only sound was the ticking of the clock on the wall. Charlie walked down the hall, searching for Lila's room. A growing sense of dread was slowly pressing at Charlie's heart for seemingly no reason with each step. She quickened her pace until she came to the end of the hall. At the end of the hall she came across the door to Lila's room. It was covered in posters and odd stickers she could have only found at comic con. The door was cracked open a little and a bright light was emitting from it. Shakily, Charlie pushed the door fully open and stepped past the threshold into the burning light. The light faded once Charlie entered and the girl gasped, eyes going wide. She wasn't in Lila's room. Lila's room was full of gaming posters, computers, and fabrics for cosplay. This place was something that sent shivers up and down Charlie's spine. It was a white room with several beds set in rows. Some were hidden by curtains and others were not. Each bed was empty, only the white sheets occupying them. The dread in Charlie heart swelled more to the point that it felt like her heart would swallow her whole.

Charlie moved forward, walking down three beds to one that was covered by a curtain. She held her breath and reached for the curtain, slowly pulling it back.

"Wha…what? N…no…NO!" Charlie screamed, jumping back from the bed, her mother and father's dead corpses were wrapped around each other in a bloody heap on the blood soaked sheets. They were covered in deep gashes and broken glass just like they had been that terrible night Charlie got scared at a friend's sleepover. Charlie ran from the bed, foot catching on another curtain covering a bed. Charlie fell face first into the floor and the curtain crashed to the ground. Charlie groaned and went to pick herself up, but stopped when she saw who were all on the bed. Dean and Sam were propped up against the headboard; angels sprawled limply across their legs. Bobby and Kevin were slung over the end of the bed like deer over the hood of a car. There was blood everywhere and no matter how hard Charlie looked she couldn't find where it was all coming from. Charlie struggled to her feet to run again, closing her eyes to keep the images of her dead family out.

Towards the end of the hall one last curtain hung and Charlie stopped in front of it. She thought about just running and ignoring the thing all together, but she couldn't do it. Her body wouldn't let her. It was like it had a mind of its own.

She reached out a hand, twining her fingers around the white curtain and pulling it back hard. A horrified gasp broke past Charlie's lips at the sight of the body that was resting there.

It was Lila strapped to thousands of wires and machines. She had once been bound to the bed, but the ropes and straps holding her there were all broken.

"Lila…" Charlie muttered, reaching out to her girlfriend. The heart monitor beeped loudly, making Charlie to want to cover her ears, but she resisted. Her hand pressed the girl's face and Lila's bloodshot eyes shot open. When Lila sat up, blood started to dribble from her lips and nose. Charlie jumped back, terror in her eyes as she watched. Lila tried reaching and calling for her, but Charlie kept stepping backwards. A hand gripped her shoulders from behind and Charlie cried out, spinning around and coming face to face with a cloaked figure. She screamed, but the thing held onto her tightly. She struggled, causing the thing's cloak to fall to the ground and reveal its face.

It had no face.

It was just a cloud of black smoke. A demon.

Charlie pulled away from it and ran, but Lila was standing in her way, bleeding all over. Charlie forced away her fears and grabbed at Lila, reminding herself that Lila was hurt and needed her not to be frightened. Lila clung tightly to Charlie and the two started to run. They were almost to the door again when Charlie felt Lila's grip vanish. Screeching to a halt, Charlie turned, searching for her girlfriend. Standing right behind her stood Lilah in the smoky arms of the demon they'd been running from. Charlie fell to her knees.

"Please…" Charlie choked. "…don't. Not her. Please don't take her. Take me," Charlie pleaded, tears streaming down her face. The smoke chuckled in a low, deep voice.

"Not yet," it cooed. "But soon, pet. Soon." Lila's body split in half then, blood and entrails splattering all over the room. Charlie wailed with grief and terror as her body was soaked in blood and her heart was scarred. She covered her face with bloody hands, willing for it all to end.

Charlie's eyes flew open and she bolted straight up on the couch. The angel resting on her chest went flying, falling into her lap. Charlie was too frightened to really notice though. She grabbed at her phone from her pocket and dialed in Lila's number.

"Charlie?" the angel in her lap muttered grumpily. Charlie's wide eyes glanced down, finding blue eyes staring up at her. "You okay?" he questioned. Charlie took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a second and just breathing before opening them and meeting Castiel's gaze again.

"Uh…yeah, Cas. I'm sorry. I was just having a bad dream," she admitted. Sympathy curled through Cas' blue eyes and he wrapped her into a comforting hug. Charlie hugged back and leaned back down into the couch, pulling at the angel so he was resting on her belly. The angel curled up, popping a thumb into his mouth and draping his wings over himself like a blanket. Charlie brushed at his feathers as she watched him slowly fall back to sleep.

"Hello?" Charlie held herself back from jumping, reminding herself that it was only the phone. "Charlie, is that you?" Charlie took in a deep breath.

"Uh…yeah, it's me, Lila, sorry," Charlie called into the phone.

"Are you alright?" Lila asked. "You sound like you've been running from a ghost or something." Charlie huffed. 'Or something'.

"It was just a nightmare," Charlie admitted. "I just…I needed to hear your voice." She could practically see the sympathetic smile over the phone.

"It was just a bad dream, Charlie. You're safe, your family's safe, I'm safe…we're all safe, Babe," Lila told her. Charlie hummed and continued stroking her fingers through Castiel's feathers. When she didn't say anything for a while, Lila sighed.

"I've got a copy of the Hobbit. Want me to read it to you until you…calm down or…"

"That'd be great, Lila," Charlie whispered. She heard rustling on the other end of the phone then and the turning of pages.

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit," Lila began. Charlie sighed, closing her eyes as her fear was washed away with the calming turn of paper and Lila's sweet voice. "Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole," Lila continued. "…filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort…"

Charlie fell asleep; her favorite tale and the comforting brush of soft feathers against her fingers carrying her to a land of peaceful dreams.