Fic: If I Have Freedom (8/15)
Chapter VII: Things which Cannot Be
Chapter VIII: Phantoms Grim and Tall
"Here's the boy. As promised."
The first thing Sam heard when fire and pain receded was a strange voice. It made his gut clench, because, although at some level he'd known everything was wrong, he'd been hoping that feeling was just a result of the memories and when it ended there'd be strong arms around him and a voice whispering comfort in his ear and he'd smell leather and sweat and gunpowder and Dean.
Then another voice, the voice of the stranger who'd invaded Bobby's house that morning - was it only that morning? It felt like a million years ago - said, "I told you not to hurt him."
This time Sam could put a name to the voice: Samuel.
"Collateral damage," the first voice said. "I tried not to, but he was kicking and screaming. It was his own fault, trying to take my knife and use it on me. It's not serious, anyway, just a scratch." Sam felt himself being passed to somebody's hands, probably Samuel's - they had that uncaringly competent touch he'd noticed earlier. "So I can go now?"
Exhausted as he was, the question made something click in Sam's brain, as did the short phrase his grandfather spoke in what he had a vague idea was Sumerian.
Samuel was binding demons to do his bidding.
Stupid, was the first thought that came into Sam's head. Stupid stupid stupid.
Making deals with demons was bad enough, but using ancient Mesopotamian spells that nobody even really understood anymore to force demons into slavery? That was as dumb as it got. Sam didn't know much about how that worked, but he knew the demons had to hate it and they'd be looking for anything, any loophole in the spell, that would let them break it and likely as not kill Samuel.
"I really didn't want to do this, Sam," he heard Samuel tell him.
Sam managed to tilt his head back enough to look at the man. "You're an idiot," he managed to say, although he was so tired that he was slurring the words. "Dean's going to come for me."
"Dean's not going to have any idea where to find you. You can make this easy on all of us, Sam. Just tell me what I need to know, I'll take you back to your brother, and we can part as friends. Nobody needs to get hurt."
Sam huffed a disbelieving laugh. "You… took me. No way… you're getting… Dean… to part as… friends."
"Dean will understand."
Sam shrugged, not bothering to answer. There was no point arguing, and in any case he didn't want to prolong the discussion in case his fear showed.
Sam didn't doubt that Dean would come for him - he knew his brother wouldn't rest until he'd found him - but Samuel was a good hunter, a lot more experienced than Dean, and if he decided that he didn't want to be found… Sam suppressed a shiver, hoping Dean would get to him before it was too late.
"I don't want to hurt you, Sam," Samuel said, as though reading his mind. "I just want my daughter back. Is that so hard to understand?"
"It's wrong."
"And Dean making that deal to bring you back?"
"That was stupid… Think we've proved that." With a huge effort, Sam managed to get himself coherent enough to go on. "But it's done, one way or another it's over. We need to stop now."
"She was your mother."
"I know."
"And she died trying to save you."
Sam felt his throat burning. "I know."
"And instead of doing everything you can to help her you're giving me lectures about how I shouldn't be doing this?"
"I don't know," Sam ground out. "I don't know how to help her. I don't know if Michael ever told me anything. If he did, I don't remember. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."
"Oh, you'll tell me," Samuel said, and Sam felt a chill run down his spine.
"And you have no idea what it was?" Bobby asked.
Dean had run back and forth through the woods, yelling with increasing desperation for Sam, before he'd realized that it wasn't getting him anywhere. That was when he'd called Bobby. The older hunter had told him to get back to the Impala and wait there until he came.
Bobby had driven up half an hour later, having broken every speed limit to get there.
"There was sulphur," Dean said. "But no black smoke, no physical form. If it was a demon, I couldn't see it."
"Tell me again what happened."
Dean sighed. "I had Sam and I had my gun and I was looking for it - it kept making noises behind me but it was always gone before I could turn. Then it hit me on the head and knocked me out. I woke up and Sammy was gone."
He felt his eyes burning and turned away. Sammy had trusted him. Sammy had agreed to let Cas take down the wall because he'd thought Dean would be there for him. He'd let Dean decide whether to go with Gabriel's idea. When the freaking whatever-it-was had shown up in the clearing he'd run straight for Dean, trusting his big brother to keep him safe.
And Sammy had been taken.
On Dean's watch.
Again.
Dean felt fury building.
"CAS!" he yelled. "Cas, get your ass down here now!" Nothing. "CASTIEL! Sam's missing and I need help finding him. Where the hell are you?" After several seconds' silence, Dean tried, "Gabriel! We've run into trouble and we need some help."
Still nothing.
"Bloody angels," Dean growled.
"That's polite."
Dean spun. Gabriel was standing behind him.
"Where's Cas?" Dean asked.
"The President of the Angelic Host? The last I heard, he was trying to get through the barrier from Hell into Purgatory. He's having some trouble. It's not nearly as easy as he thinks it is. There's no point calling for him. He won't hear you. The noises of Hell tend to drown out any prayers that come from here."
"Wait, you knew about that? Why the hell didn't you tell Cas? It would have saved us a lot of trouble!"
"He didn't ask me. I think he's still under the impression that I'm dead. Besides, it was best this way. That wall in Sam's head was a stupid idea."
"And this is better? He's a mess."
"Give it time. He'll be fine, or at least coherent most of the time, and you won't have to walk on eggshells for fear of saying the wrong thing and making cracks in the wall… In any case, you didn't call me for this discussion. What do you want?"
"Sam's missing."
"Oh! Careless, aren't you?"
"Can you find him?"
"No. I didn't turn back time, I just altered Sam's body a little… But I didn't take the marks off his ribs. I can't find him. Anyway, even if I could, what do you have a brain for?"
"Well, can you tell us anything?"
"I can tell you a lot of things -"
"About how to find Sam!"
Gabriel looked around, a slight frown creasing his face.
"Fine. I'll see what I can tell from the residual - oh!" The archangel actually look started. "How incredibly stupid. I thought your race had learnt better by now, but apparently not."
"Gabriel?"
"There's been a demon here - a bound demon. Do you know what that is?"
"I'm guessing you're going to tell me."
"You really are woefully ignorant, even for a mortal. In a lot of ancient civilizations - Mesopotamia and Egypt, especially - mortals learnt to bind demons to their will. It was very complex and dangerous and it frequently ended in disaster. Most civilizations that vanished for reasons unknown owed their demise to a priest trying to get too clever."
"Wait, bind a demon? You mean -"
"Force it to do what you want, like a slave. But demons don't like being slaves, so if you try something like that they'll look for every opportunity to thwart you and kill you. Eventually they tend to succeed."
"So you think one of those bound demon things took Sam?"
"I suspect so. But if it was a bound demon, it was acting on orders from a human."
Sam looked from his grandfather to Gwen. He'd been taken into a building - it wasn't Samuel's usual place; Sam couldn't tell where they were. They'd strapped him to a chair - or they'd tried to. For the first time Sam was glad to be so short because they hadn't been able to get his hands up to the ends of the chair arms, so Samuel had tied his hands behind his back and strapped him down at the waist.
It wasn't much of an improvement, of course, but it gave him a little wiggle room. Sam would take anything he could get.
"No, OK?" he said. "No. I don't remember, and you need to stop trying. It's stupid and it's dangerous - and what you're doing with these demons is dangerous."
"You're telling me dealing with demons is dangerous?" Samuel asked.
"Yes!" Sam snapped. "I've made mistakes. There's no need for you to make bigger ones."
"You have no idea what I'm doing."
"Yes, I do. I'm not an idiot. What you're doing is dangerous. Even back when people actually understood how the spells worked, it was dangerous. People who tried to make demons their slaves usually ended up messily dead. You know better than this!"
"I want my daughter," Samuel said. "If this is what I have to do to get her, I'll do it."
"I understand."
"Do you?"
"Believe me, I do. But this is not the way to do it."
"Why not?"
"Well, for one thing, Dean's going to kill you when he gets here."
"Dean is not going to find us. I don't want to have to force an answer out of you, Sam, but if you push me, I will. Just tell me and make this easier for all of us."
"Come on, Sam," Gwen urged. "I'm sure you want your mother back, too."
Sam sighed. He and Dean had done the good cop/bad cop routine enough times that he'd been expecting it.
"Look, I don't know what he's told you," he told Gwen, "but this is wrong. You're right, she's my mother, and I never knew her, and I want her back. And I'm still saying it's a stupid idea. Doesn't that tell you anything?"
Gwen hesitated. "Samuel, maybe -"
"Don't listen to him," Samuel growled. "With Sam, you can't be sure if he's even human. We're going to get Mary back."
"Don't you ever pay attention?" Sam yelled in frustration. "We've done this, OK? Dean and me, we've done this, and it's never led to anything good. Mom's at peace and Mom's happy, and if you bring her back it's going to be to a miserable life! I don't know what will go wrong, but I can promise you that something will go wrong. You have to stop trying." Samuel just scowled at him, and Sam sagged back in despair. "Fine. But I'm not helping you."
"Sam, don't make me do something we'll both regret."
"You're going to try to torture an answer out of me?" Sam asked wearily. "Knock yourself out."
"If you insist."
"Samuel!" Gwen protested. "You said you were just going to threaten him."
"Yes, but that doesn't seem to be working."
"You can't - he's a child."
"No. He's twenty-eight." Samuel's eyes were cold. "Or… Exactly how many years did you spend in Hell, Sam? Don't let the body fool you, Gwen. Whatever Sam is right now, he is not a child."
"But - no, he's still your grandson."
"If he's human."
"But still -"
"Trust me, Gwen. Don't waste your sympathy on Sam. He doesn't deserve it. I don't know why he doesn't want Mary back, but I'm sure it's not to preserve the natural order of the universe. Sam's already disrupted it more times and more thoroughly than anybody else. Besides, he doesn't believe in just accepting things he doesn't like… Do you, Sam?"
"Samuel, please. I know how tempting it is -"
"Do you?"
"But it's stupid."
Samuel shrugged. "I'll take my chances."
He spoke again, something too soft for Sam to hear. The air next to him shimmered and coalesced into a young woman with gleaming black eyes.
"He's yours," Samuel said. "Just… Leave him alive. I don't think Mary would like it if he died."
"You think?" Sam growled. "Samuel, please, just let me go before this goes ten ways to hell."
"Samuel," Gwen tried. "Really… I'm sure there's an easier way."
Samuel ignored both of them.
"I will need to call a couple of… friends… to help me," the demon said.
Samuel nodded. "You know the rules. They don't try to kill me or any human being, they don't do anything other than the job, and they disappear when they're done. Come on, Gwen."
He left. Gwen, with one last, dissatisfied glance at Sam, followed him out.
Left alone with Sam, the demon smiled and crouched down to his level. Sam tried not to react, but he had a very bad feeling that if Dean didn't find him soon, it was going to be too late.
"Just you and me, Sam," the demon said seductively. "I hope you're ready for this."
Chapter IX: My Soul is Dark