Sam watched with slack-jawed amazement as Dean picked up the Impala, shaking it slightly until his duffel tumbled out onto the bed.
Even at the size of a mountain, Dean was good enough with his hands to handle his miniature duffel bag, managing to not crush any of the items inside as he spilled them out onto the bed. Sam stared with an identical expression of shock as Dean as his brother gingerly held up one of his own t-shirts, dwarfed by the fingers holding it.
Hearing Dean's theory, Sam shot a dubious look up at his brother. A virus causing him to shrunk? Unlikely... especially since the last demonic virus they'd encountered hadn't affected Sam, even when covered the blood of one of the afflicted.
He kept quiet though, humoring Dean as he watched the huge fingers gingerly pick through the tiny belongings. Dean found what he was searching for, pinching something between the massive fingers before Sam could make it out.
Understanding blossomed when a few seconds later a tiny flask of holy water was lightly dropped into his lap. He picked it up dubiously. "If you say so..." he muttered, still doubtful.
Twisting off the cap, he took a small mouthful, swishing around the stale water for a moment before swallowing it down.
Nothing.
He glanced up at Dean, silently shaking his head.
Dean couldn't hide his disappointment. He tilted his head mournfully at Sam, curling his fingers towards his tiny brother protectively. Both of them were at a complete loss, and the fact that it hadn't worn off overnight didn't go amiss. A new, terrifying question surfaced: What if Sam was stuck this small permanently? It was something neither of them were willing to voice, but the shadows in each gaze gave away.
The hair on the back of his neck rose as a familiar chill ran down his spine, the kind of gut sensation he had developed through a lifetime of living through people's worst nightmares. Not a heartbeat later, a round of laughter came out of thin air. It felt more real this time, less ghostly. Dean started to look around, only to come nose-to-nose with a tiny person perched on his right shoulder. He yelped and swatted it off on pure instinct. Dean cupped Sam close to his front, accidentally pressing him into the folds of his shirt as he leaned down to rummage through the sheets.
"I told you!" The voice- it was a girl's voice- was now back on his shoulder. "You should have seen the look on your faces-Priceless! "
Dean grimaced, desperate to get a good look at her as she leaned shamelessly on his neck for support. While the boys remained stony-faced, her cute rosy cheeks bore evidence of having been laughing for quite some time.
Sam flinched slightly as the huge fingers curled around him, unable to prevent a small sliver of intimidation from worming its way into his mind. He'd probably never get used to being this small.
The hand beneath him tensed with the introduction of a familiar laugh, filling the room with gleeful peals. Sam tried to see where it was coming from, but before he could do anything, Dean gave a start of surprise above him, a deep cry filling the air.
At the same time, the hand cupped around Sam suddenly smooshed him against Dean's chest, luckily not hard enough to get squashed. "Ack, Dean!" he tried to cry out, but it was muffled by the soft fabric surrounding him. He had trouble getting free of the fabric even after Dean loosened his grip, still too distracted to notice Sam's plight.
Finally managing to kick free of the fabric, Sam went to stalk to the side of the hand away from the flannel wall rising behind him. He was so distracted, he didn't notice the intruder until she materialized on the fingertips nearby, showing no sign of fear at her proximity to a giant.
She was much taller than Sam, easily three or four times his height. Which still put her tiny compared to Dean, but Sam didn't like his own chances taking her on. She had rosy cheeks full of laughter and a smile that could light up a room. But, Sam's eyes were drawn to her back, to a pair of red bat wings that flickered in and out existence continually. And even when they were there, the room could be seen behind them without a problem. And her head... when it caught the light just right he could almost make out two midnight black horns, curving around the shadow of her skull.
Then they vanished, leaving a teeny girl that was mostly human, standing perfectly balanced on fingertips.
She giggled at him. "You are the most adorable little toy! And with your own car, too! I could just eat you up! You're so much more fun than the last girl, always with the running and the screaming!"
She went to reach for Sam, making him dive back on the hand.
Dean jolted into action, flicking the tiny girl right off his hand. She yelped, plummeting all the way to the floor.
"You need to back the fuck off!" Dean shot his hand under his pillow, clutching the handle of the demon blade in a practiced hand. He barely caught the shout of surprise from his hand as he walled Sam into nearly darkness, curling the hand holding him into a loose fist. Despite light pouring in through his fingers, there was still a decent amount of breathing room inside his protective grasp.
He stood up with the knife held at the ready, but the floor was clean of tiny girls.
"That seems a bit harsh. I'm just having a little fun!" the girl's voice scoffed behind him. Dean whirled, and she was now lounging on his pillow. He wished she would pick a friggin' spot. All this teleporting was making him dizzy. He swung the blade down, pushing the serrated blade up against her throat. Leaning down close, he addressed her in a low voice, knowing he was looking at the source of their troubles dead-on.
"You fix my brother, you little bitch."
Sam gave a shout when the hand he was standing on suddenly curled into a fist, trapping him inside of a wall of flesh. He tumbled down a steep slope of skin, falling into a divot in the fist. "Dean, what the hell!" he cried out, off balance from all the massive movement around him. It was like being on a roller coaster, with nothing holding him down. The fist sealed around him, light leaking through a few tiny cracks.
Sam punched the wall, frustrated at his helplessness in the situation. He couldn't even help Dean out with a girl less than a foot tall. Frickin' useless.
Another shift from Dean outside sent him flying into the wall of fingers behind him. He could hear the girl taunting his brother distantly, oddly fearless for her size. Another shift from Dean, and Sam could actually see out, the massive bed stretching out underneath the hand holding him safe.
The girl gave a smirk as she caught sight of Sam, then glanced up at Dean, ignoring the knife as big as she was Dean was holding to her throat. "Fix? Why would I 'fix?' We only just started to play, silly!" Another jump and her voice came from behind and above Sam, on Dean's back. Dean almost stumbled forward, the knife plunging into the pillow in shock. "Unless you wanted to play too? Don't worry, I won't leave you out! I love making new friends! And you're both so adorable!"
Sam felt his pulse pounding as he realized she could easily make Dean just as small, leaving them helpless and vulnerable to anything that caught their scent, including her. Whatevershe was.
Dean gasped, the knife plunging forward into the empty air the tiny girl had only just occupied. Before he could get a bearing on where she had evaporated to, he suddenly felt a tiny pair of legs settle upon his shoulder blade. He kept the fist bearing Sam locked against his stomach to ensure he wasn't jostled more than necessary. He whipped his head around, stiffening to see her draped across his shoulder, looking up at him with a lazy smile. He shuddered to think if any other hunters could see the infamous Dean Winchester now- dazed, confused, and losing a battle to a fucking Barbie doll.
Dean stilled, understanding the thinly veiled threat underneath her sickly sweet tone. She'd shrunk Sam... shrunk Baby... There was no stopping this little creep from screwing them over worse. She crawled up onto his shoulder, making herself at home while sending a smug little smirk down towards Sam, where he was tucked out of sight in a heated prison. Dean clenched his jaw, clutching the knife still in his right hand.
"What is this, play with your food crap?" he growled towards his shoulder, silently willing Sam to stop squirming below. He adjusted his fist carefully around him to compensate.
The girl smiled widely. "Oh no, sweetie-pie. I don't eat my friends. Not my style." She blinked, unveiling a pair of soulless black eyes. The muscles she sat upon tensed in realization. Another blink that they were baby blue once again.
Dean scoffed, lowering his voice to a dangerous tone. "Oh, we are not friends, sister."
She pouted. "We could be... if you'd just loosen up a little."
Dean narrowed his eyes at her. "Aren't you a little shrimpy for a demon?"
She scowled, crossing her arms across her chest. "I may not be one of Lucifer's more preferred staff, but I do know how to have a hell of a time." She leaned over and called down, "isn't that right, Sam?"
Sam struggled against Dean's grip, the small area he was in growing smaller as he felt Dean fighting with the little creature… girl thing. It was unsettling that nothing he did even phased his brother… Dean didn't even seem to notice he'd clenched his fist tighter, holding Sam in darkness.
He could distantly hear the girl arguing with his brother, but her voice was almost drowned out by Dean - even his breathing was loud held right against Dean's stomach like this. And his voice was practically deafening. With a threat in front of him, Dean had forgotten how delicate Sam's hearing had become.
After a few moments held that way, the fist loosened around him, letting in fresh air. He caught sight of the tiny girl, standing on Dean's shoulder far above Sam, grinning down at him.
"I don't know about you," he said, hoping his voice was loud enough to be heard. "But almost being crushed twice in a day doesn't fit my definition of 'fun.' "
Her lips turned pouty. "I was watching the whole time!" She winked. "I didn't want to miss a second of the fun."
When the girl seemed to have given up grabbing his little brother, Dean uncoiled his fist enough that Sam could sit up in the cupped space. Still, he kept his curled fingers at the ready to shield him from her greedy little fingers again. He had no clue what to expect from a demon of this stature. To his knowledge, none of them possessed the abilities to alter reality like this.
Dean practically winced at the merciless reminder that Sam had almost been killed at his own hands twice in the last eight hours. And from such ordinary, supposedly harmless things like walking and sleeping! He was beginning to see the sick irony. Tearing his gaze from his minuscule brother, Dean sent the little demon a death glare, wanting very mic to shrug her off his shoulder, but afraid she would decide sitting sidesaddle next to Sam was the next best thing.
"What the hell do you want?" Dean hissed.
The girl caught her reflection in the demon blade below and started fixing her choppy brown hair. "Just some good old fashioned entertainment. Eternity is kind of a rip-off. It's boring. And that's where you guys come in!" Satisfied with her hair, she planted her head in her hands and sighed happily at the sight of Sam's glare. "You're going to love my next game."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Sam growled out, trying to come off as intimidating despite his lacking stature. He was happy to be free from the imprisoning fist, out in the fresher air of motel room.
Her size was deceptive - none of the demons they'd encountered thus far had anything close to this kind of juice. He would have bet his chips on the Trickster, not some strange little girl with demon eyes and wings and horns that flickered between realities. Something nagged at the back of his head, like there was something important he'd forgotten. Like he should know what she was.
"What kind of games are you playing?" he demanded, keeping his eyes hard as he stared up her. Dean still had his hand cupped down near his stomach, forcing Sam to have to look almost straight to see what going on.
The girl sighed, disappointed by their lack of vision. "See? This is why I have to do all the work. You two boneheads have no imagination. We'll start with something elementary." She stood up and somersaulted off Dean's shoulder, her bat like wings flicking to life before she disappeared entirely. Dean shot to his feet, looking around wildly.
"The hell?" he murmured, green eyes wide and scouring the motel room for any sign of her. He didn't like the note she had ended on... Like she had more plans for them- particularly Sam, who for all purposes was as helpless as a baby bird right now. He cupped Sam protectively closer, unable to see the invisible hands that wound around Sam's waist and seized him into thin air. There was a small shout, and the weight in his hand was suddenly gone.
"Sam!" Dean bellowed, swiping the knife through the flickering image of the tiny demon-girl. Instead of falling to the ground, she smiled, pulling Sam back in the air, over to the Impala left in the bed. He glanced at the knife. No blood. It hasn't even cut her.
The second he felt far more delicate hands than Dean's wrap around him, Sam started to struggle. He gave a shout of surprise when all of a sudden he was catapulted into the air, unable to see the girl who had him in her demonic clutches.
She flickered into existence midair, grinning down at him. Seconds later, a massive knife the size of the Impala slashed through the air, safely over Sam's head. He couldn't help flinching at the sheer size of his brother as Dean tried to rescue him without accidentally smooshing him. It wasn't easy with Sam barely two and a half inches tall. The strange girl flickered out of existence the second the knife passed through her, except for the grip she had on Sam. That continued to be as solid as ever.
Flashing back into sight, she stretched out her large bat-wings, flapping away from Dean quicker than the older Winchester could react. Sam found himself placed down next to the Impala on the bed, without a scratch. Not bothering to question his good fortune, Sam dove into the car, grateful for the slight sense of security she provided. He was starting to see what Dean saw in her.
The door slammed closed behind him, helped by a petite hand (compared to Dean's) that then twisted in midair, gesturing. The locks clicked around Sam and he realized she had him just where she wanted him.
Seconds later, the world went black.