Forgot to give my thanks to the people who followed/faved last chapter, so here it is! Thanks PhoenixKylie, DarkerThanBlack1209, The Blood Cloak, ktlv, Jovie Black, and VampirDarius for the faves and follows~ as always, reviews are very much appreciated
Episodes in this chapter include : The Girl Next Door, and the Borne-Again Identity
Supernatural is owned by Eric Kripke
When they arrived at Bobby's house, they never expected the place to be burned down. It was reduced to a tarnished black. They ended up being ganked by a Leviathan, and Bobby was nowhere to be seen.
The Winchesters were beat up so badly, that they ended up in a hospital. That was where they found Bobby, who had discovered that the place was just another Leviathan beehive. Neither of the siblings were in any shape to fight, and they had to find a safe house.
Of course, Bobby knew of a nearby cabin that they could lay low in for a while and recuperate, so they headed there.
Sam still saw Lucifer in the corner of her eye, but with a squeeze of Dean's shoulder, he ended up flickering into nonexistence. She knew that her life was real, that she had escaped the cage and was living on this earth. Whenever that happened, Dean would look back at her offhandedly and she would just shrug in response.
In fact, when she was sent on an errand (while Dean was engrossed in a spanish soap opera) she never ran into any issues. She just picked up an interesting article, but couldn't find the pie that Dean was craving, so settled for cake instead.
When she came back, Bobby had already left, and Dean was reaching for the food she had brought. Sam turned off the television and asked, "Where's Bobby? He take off?"
"Yeah. Hey, Sam, how you doing?"
"Fine." She answered automatically.
"I mean, you still… you know…" He said cautiously.
"Yeah, no, I – I know what you mean. Yeah, I'm – I'm still seeing crap that's not real. But, yeah, I'm fine. I mean, I can tell the difference." She admitted.
Dean sighed. "Think it's getting better?"
"Honestly? Uh... I don't know. I just know I'm managing it, so... So don't worry." She tried.
Laughter, she heard laughter. He was mocking her, she realized. She squeezed her hand until the laughter faded.
"Where's the pie?" Dean asked.
"They… they didn't have pie, so I got cake. Close enough." Sam replied, taking the article and sitting next to Dean on the couch in order to read it.
She recognized the case, it reminded her of an old case that had to do with a friend named Amy, who was actually a Kitsune. Of course, after some hunting, she still let her friend go.
Dean highly disapproved of this, she could tell.
Several cases and Leviathans later, Sam found that she couldn't eat, sleep, or breathe without Lucifer making her life unbearable. In fact, she was currently running. Running away from all of it, in the hopes that he may get tired of her eventually.
She bumped into someone, but just pushed him aside and continued on her nonexistent path. Eventually, she found herself in a sketchy alleyway, filled with graffiti. However, she found someone. Maybe he could help?
She doubted it. "Girl, get the hell away from me." The man said. Sam wiped her face, which was brimming with sweat. "You speak friggin' English? Go away!"
"It's ok. No one's after me." She said, panting. Mostly, it was for herself.
"Why are you running up in here like that?" The man asked.
Sam glanced up at him. "Just… just leave me alone." Tired, exhausted, she leaned against the graffiti wall and slid down, closing her eyes. Maybe if she took a power nap...
"What the hell did you take anyway?"
"Nothing." Sam said. She didn't understand this guy's deal.
He scoffed. "Shut up."
"No, she's telling the truth. Burned through that last beer hours ago. Right about the time Dean passed out. Come on, Samantha. Tell the nice tweaker. You'd be sleeping by now if the devil would just leave you alone for five seconds. Stupid Satan. Chasing you all the way to... Where the hell are we?"
She clutched her head. "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE."
Lucifer knelt down beside her. "Hey, Samantha. Try the scar on your hand."
Sam groaned. The hand scar wasn't even working recently.
"How many days you've been up anyway?" The man asked.
Oh yeah, someone else was here.
"Four. Oh, wait. Scratch that." Lucifer said, checking his watch. "Five."
That's it, Sam thought. She stood, and walked away from the devil. "Hey, hold up! Wait, hold up!" The man called after her.
Sam turned around without saying anything. Truly, she had no patience for anything right now. He smiled. "You want to knock out? I can knock you out."
Wait, was this guy a drug dealer?
Either way, she took the chance. She couldn't go much longer without sleep, anyway. Plus, it might just drive the devil away.
It was during her stupor on drugs, however, that the devil still drove her insane. "Pills? You do get that you're just bringing free drugs to the party, right? I am inside]you, Samantha. Hey. Samantha. What's the longest a normal human being has ever gone without sleep? 11 days." He chuckled, as she turned to run from him again. Her vision was impaired, yet she still didn't care where she ended up. She just wanted to be away from him. "Hey. You always wanted to be normal, Samantha!"
She ran, and focused on her ragged breathing, but not much else.
"You'll be dead in a week, Samantha!" Lucifer laughed.
Not noticing where she was going, she felt something large ram into her, and she blacked out.
When she awoke, she was on a hospital bed. She had been given medications, and was told to rest. Lucifer sat on a nearby desk, playing with some string he found. "I'm just sayin'. Back when you had no soul… you never had to sleep."
Just then, Dean entered the room with the Doctor. "Ah, Mr. Helpless. Pull up a six-pack, buddy." Lucifer stated.
Dean sat on the edge of her bed, and Sam tried to incline herself. "How are you feeling?" He asked, green eyes deep with worry.
Sam scoffed. "Maybe you should cancel my UFC fight."
Dean struggled to crack a smile.
"Yeah. Keep that sense of humor, Samantha. It'll get you through this."
Sam inhaled sharply. "Sam, I'm going to find you some help." Dean said.
"Now, that sounded a little cynical." Lucifer said.
Sam glanced to the devil, who only waved at her. She sighed, and said, "I don't think it's out there, Dean."
"We don't know that." Dean said, taking her hand. "Maybe… maybe Gabriel can do something."
"I've been praying, Dean, but nothing. He hasn't responded. Maybe it's Lucifer, stopping the message or something." Dean squeezed her hand. "I'm… I'm just saying don't do this to yourself, Dean."
"But… Sam, if I don't find anything-"
"I'll die."
Lucifer frowned. "Oh, you're upsetting me."
Sam sighed. "Dean, we knew this was coming." He shook his head in protest. "When you put my soul back…"
"No."
"...Cas warned you about all the crap it would –"
"Screw Cas! Quit being Dalai frickin' Yoda about this, okay? Get pissed!"
Sam sighed again, looking to the hand her brother held oh so tightly. "I'm too tired. This is what happens when you throw a soul into Lucifer's dog bowl. And you think there's just gonna be some cure out there?"
She was going to try to pray to Gabriel again. It may work, who knows?
Dean looked down, biting his lip. He nodded slowly, as realization hit.
She looked after Dean sadly. There wasn't really a way out of this, she knew that much.
When Dean left, a nurse took Sam's blood pressure, and gave her meds. She knew they were never going to work, but she took them anyway in order to make the doctors happy.
When she was alone, she prayed. "Gabriel, please come. I need you. I'm… I'm dying, and if there's any possible-"
"Ahh, shut up. He's not going to hear you. You know why?" Lucifer said from his lounge spot on the desk. "He doesn't care for you. He's probably off with some minor goddess right now, because he doesn't want to deal with you and your psychotic tendencies."
Her lips trembled. "Gabriel, please-"
Black ooze started to fall through the cracks of the walls and floor.
"Please, I need you."
Suddenly, everything was gone. "I'm here, don't worry. Man, you've certainly pulled yourself into a mess." The angel went to sit on the edge of her bed. "You look so bad, Samantha. You need to rest."
"I… I know. Can you do anything?" She asked. Gabriel reached out to caress her face, and she leaned into his touch.
He closed his eyes, but nothing happened. "Something is blocking me off, but I'll find a way. Where's Dean?"
"Ugh." Lucifer sighed.
Sam looked over to where Lucifer sat on the desk, and he just grinned.
"Hey, look at me. Where's Dean?" Gabriel asked again.
"I don't know, he went off to find a cure."
Lucifer laughed. "Like that'll end up well."
"Samantha, who did this to you? Who let the wall down?" Gabriel asked.
"Cas." She admitted hesitantly, then she remembered how he exploded in the middle of a reservoir. "But he's gone now."
"Damn… he's lucky he got out of this one, then." Gabriel muttered. "This damage is left by my brother, he's much more powerful than I am."
Gabriel ruffled her hair, which was greasy but he didn't seem to mind. When she looked up to him, his eyes were gone and his sockets were bleeding. That smile didn't help either.
She cringed, sinking back into her bed.
When she blinked, he was normal again. He sighed. "I'm sorry Samantha, I'll think of something."
With that, he was gone.
Lucifer hummed, picking up the nearest book. "Notice that he didn't declare his profounding love to you."
She turned away from him.
This was no better than the cage.
They tried to feed her a sandwich, but it was filled with maggots, and so she dropped it in fear and repulsion.
Not much later, Lucifer somehow found a loudspeaker, and began yelling into it. "I'm Samantha Winchester, I love Gabriel!" He shouted mockingly. "But he doesn't really love me back!" Sam curled on her bed, and clamped her hands over her ears. "Oh, my head hurts! Make it stop!"
"Hello?"
She heard a gentle voice from the doorway, and slowly rose from her position. A girl stood in the entryway shyly, holding out a chocolate bar to Sam. "You want this or not? I saw you before."
Sam silently took the chocolate bar. "You didn't look too happy with your in-flight meal."
Sam remembered the maggots again. "Thanks… uh…"
"Marin. No problem. Sam. Right?"
The loudspeaker blared, making Sam wince. "I'm Sam." Lucifer said, once again.
Sam covered her face.
"I'm Sam. Just Sam. Hi." Lucifer said. "Don't call me Samantha yet, I don't trust you enough. Only Dean can call me Sammy."
She never noticed Marin leave.
She tried to lay down and fall asleep, with the occasional nurse checking on her. However, sleep wasn't happening because the occasional crack of a firecracker interrupted her slumber. The constant drone of music ended up as background noise, which she became used to because sometimes she would sleep in her brother's car while the radio was on.
"You know, you're actually keeping it together better than I thought. Kind of... the way someone pinned under a bus keeps it together." Lucifer said.
Sam inhaled calmly. "None of this is real."
"And yet... you know what really sucks?" Lucifer tossed another firecracker, closer to her bed. "It doesn't really matter." He turned off the music. "Because I won. Your madness won. I mean, look at you. It's hard to believe you were the girl that saved the world once."
One of the doctors… Marcus, she learned his name… came in to bring her meal. "MMM! Sammy! What'll it be today? Maggots? Or maybe tapeworm?" Lucifer said, rubbing his hands together.
"Thanks." She said, taking the food but not really looking at it. She put it off to the side.
"No problem. Hey, how are you doing?"
"Uh, a little better." Sam lied. "How's Marin?"
"Look, I'm not really supposed to talk about it. Let's just say, unlike you, she didn't get here 'cause of no accident." Marcus said, leaving.
Then why was Marin here?
Sam decided to put it off and try and sleep on it, so she lay back down in her bed. However, Lucifer threw another firecracker, the noise making her flinch.
The next day, Marin came back offering Sam another chocolate bar. Sam asked her things as she tried and failed to open the bar. She's been in the hospital for weeks.
Sam ended up with a case. Turns out, Marin's brother died in a house fire and had been haunting her to the point where she was driven insane. Sounds like her brother turned into a vengeful spirit.
Sam helped Marin deal with the ghost, and Sam felt like herself again. However, until the doctor came in suggesting they go into some surgery. She temporarily blacked out, and when she was awake again, she was being wheeled down a hallway by Marcus.
Marcus explained she was going to go into Electroshock therapy. He gave her a mouth guard to bite down on, and she got strapped down. Something seemed off from the start, especially when he suggested raising the level.
She screamed into the mouth guard in protest, as he raised the electric shock level. Her body writhed in pain.
Suddenly, Lucifer appeared and took off the electroshock machine, laughing. He removed the electrodes and took away the mouth guard, leaning over her. "Why would I let this interesting machine induce pain on you, when I can do it myself?"
Sam flinched. "You're not real!"
Then, Dean and Gabriel rushed into the room. When she blinked rapidly, Lucifer's form morphed back into Castiel. However, Lucifer appeared off to the side, shrugging. "Well, it was fun while it lasted."
They took her back into the hospital room, and put her back in bed.
Sam couldn't sleep. Lucifer sat in a chair beside her bed, reading "Three Little Pigs" and constantly making side comments. "I see that third little pig was smart. Went out and got some bricks."
He put the book down, and rose over her. She shrank back into her bed, writhing and struggling. She had to get away.. "You know, I've just had the grandest idea. This may hurt. And if I can't tell you again, then know that I hate you so much, Samantha."
Suddenly, everything turns dark and it gets hard to breath.
When everything became clear again, she gasped for breath. "Samantha?"
Sam turned to Dean. "Dean?" She looked around quickly. Everything seemed normal. Lucifer was gone… the devil had finally disappeared.
She rose from her bed weakly, and approached Dean, tears in her eyes. It was over. "Samantha!"
"It's over, Dean… he's gone, he's finally gone."
"No thanks to Cas, though. We owe it to him." Gabriel said, who had been standing next to Dean.
"Cas?" Sam said, turning back around. Castiel sat silently beside the empty bed. Then the angel stood in horror, backing away from some invisible force.
Gabriel nodded. "I'll stay and look after him. You two go." He kissed her forehead. "I love you, Samantha."
Sam smiled. "Thanks for everything, Gabriel."
Dean took Sam's hand, and guided her out of the hospital. It was very hard for her to walk, since she hadn't eaten, drank, or slept much in days. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest. "How about we get something to eat, huh?" Dean said as they loaded into the Impala.
Castiel was going to be ok, Sam had to keep telling herself that. Gabriel was there to look after him.
"Yeah, I'm starving." Sam agreed.
On the way to the nearest take out, Sam fell asleep. It was the greatest nap she took in days.