Sam was trapped in a nightmare.
Fire and blood filled his nasal passages, cloying and thick enough that it coated the back of his throat. The screams resonated within his brain, rattling his soul to the very core.
Catapulting upright, his heart pounding in his chest, Sam forced himself to wake up. It took him a moment to separate the dream and reality from one another but finally the motel room came back into focus.
Great Falls, Montana.
It took Sam a moment to remember they had stopped here last night. It took him even longer to push the last vestiges of the nightmare from his mind.
Dean…
Sam didn’t want to recall the dream again, he didn’t want to see his brother like that. He dragged a shaky hand through sweaty bangs and kicked the blankets back, swinging his legs out of the bed.
The motel room was small, tiny in, fact. It barely warranted the amount of money it was costing. It was also dirty and the décor verged on a visual assault – not that Sam gave a damn about the decoration. Without his brother, it could have been a hole in the ground. Since Dean had died things had been hard, impossible even. Between the stomach curdling nightmares and the new found posse he’d developed, Sam wasn’t sure if he was losing his mind. Dean’s words resonated in his head.
“She’s a demon, Sam! You don’t stop to chat. You reach for the holy water!”
He’d not given that much thought over the intermittent weeks. If the truth was told, he’d wanted – no needed – Ruby’s support. He’d needed someone to latch onto, to help him find Lilith but he was starting to wonder if he’d lost his mind. It had been months since Dean had died and despite all of Ruby’s promises to help Sam free Dean, they were no closer to getting him out. In fact, Sam was starting to wonder why the hell she was even helping him. He kept her around because they had a common goal: Lilith. But he wasn’t entirely convinced he trusted her. Carson had proved that demons weren’t exactly the promise-keeping type. What the hell made Ruby any different? She’d lied to him in the past, and as far as Sam could tell she hadn’t exactly brought any other of her promises to fruition.
Sam fumbled in the darkness of the room and, finally locating his sneakers, slid them onto his feet. He cast a glance across the room to the other queen bed. Travis was sprawled on his front, the blankets tangled around his legs, snoring softly. Sam frowned. It should have been Dean… and it hurt like hell that Sam hadn’t been able to save the one person who had spent his entire life saving him.
Grabbing his sweatshirt off the back of the chair near the door, he reached for the handle and slipped out into the cool night air.
It was just after 3am and the parking lot was silent. The bright green neon sign that declared Vacancies flashed obnoxiously in the murky pre-dawn light. Sam moved from the door way and began a slow aimless walk down the porch. There were several rooms packed down this side, and a handful more followed around the back making an L shape around a courtyard of vehicles. With a deep sigh, Sam pulled his sweatshirt over his head, and then leaned against the railings.
“Couldn’t sleep, Princess?”
He didn’t even bother to turn around and instead kept his gaze locked on the Impala. The sleek black classic car sat silently in the lot, a sentinel, the only link Sam had to a past lost to him.
“Go away, Ruby,” he muttered irritably. She was the last person he wanted to speak to right now.
“Wow, you’re a bundle of joy. What? You get out of the wrong side of the bed, grouchy?” She sounded pissed, but Sam didn’t care.
“I’m just wondering what the hell we’re even doing here.”
“I heard the Falls here are really beautiful,” she drawled sarcastically. “Ok, so it’s not Niagara, but hey, it’s on the to-do list. You know, between killing Lilith.” She dropped her hands onto her hips and scowled at him. “What the hell do you think we’re doing here? We’re hardly on Trek America, Sam.”
He gave her a dark glare. “For months all you’ve been saying is we’ll get Dean out of hell, Ruby, and we’re no closer now then we were back in May.”
She practically rolled her eyes out of her sockets. “What do you want me to do? Catch the Hell Express into Tinsel Town and roll your brother out? This isn’t a walk in the park, Sport. We’re playing with fire. We screw this up and we’ll do more than get burnt. After Lilith’s lapdogs are done with us, they won’t find enough of you to bury, and I don’t even wanna think about what she’ll do to me.” Her tone was scornful, verging on patronising. It only pushed Sam’s irritation further.
“I’m not even sure I trust you,” Sam growled.
Her expression was incredulous as she folded her arms over her chest. “Well that’s gratitude for you.”
“You’re a demon. You’re not exactly noted for helping humans out.”
“Gee, and I thought we’d gotten past all that racist crap,” she muttered sarcastically.
“How do I know you’re not screwing me over?”
She scowled at him.
“We’re not all liars, Sam.”
“In my experience, you are. Demons lie, Ruby. It’s as instinctive as breathing.” His mind jumped to Carson. How many times had he played them like idiots? How many times had he lied about his intentions? Offered to help them only to stab them in the back? Would Ruby be the same? Would she screw him over in the end? What was her end game? Sam wasn’t an idiot. He didn’t wholly trust her, but he’d use her while she was useful. Sam fixed Ruby with a humourless smile. “Knife in the front, knife in the back… what’s the damn difference?”
She let out a frustrated breath. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be fertilizing the ground right now.”
He gave her a wry grimace. “I could say the same thing about you.”
Sam pushed off the railings and gave her a brief glance before shoving his hands into the pockets of his hooded sweatshirt.
Ruby watched him walk towards the motel room with a heavy feeling in her stomach. Her survival depended a hell of a lot on Sam’s graces, and as much as she wished that wasn’t the case, she was a realist. She hadn’t survived this long without being so.
“Fine,” she growled under her breath at his retreating back. “You want to get your damn brother back? All you had to do was say the magic word, Dorothy.” She glanced down at her feet, tempted to click her heels together for a moment before she sobered. “I must be crazy,” she muttered. The thought of summoning Lilith made her throat constrict, but Sam didn’t trust her, and an untrusting Sam made things a little too uncertain for her. Scowling, she pushed her blond hair behind her ears and tilted her head to the side before saying flatly, “I guess there’s no place like home.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I know something’s goin’ on,” Travis said for the third time. “Ruby’s AWOL and you’ve barely said a word since I woke up.”
Sam gave him a long suffering sigh. “Nothing is going on,” he murmured, returning his attention to the text he was reading. After their spat, Sam had returned to the motel room and dug out his research on the Crossroads demon, hoping he could find something new to help Dean. All it had resulted in was a muggy head and itchy eyes.
Travis snorted under his breath and continued to push his belongings into his duffle bag. He’d half-heartedly made the bed, pulling the comforter up over the pillows but the surface was littered with an assortment of clothes, books and weapons. Sam wasn’t sure if he was redecorating the room or attempting to tidy it up.
“Dude, you were up at the ass crack of dawn pouring over those damn books. Don’t try telling me everything is a-ok.”
Sam closed the book over and turned his full attention to the black man, trying to keep a foothold on his frustration.
“Travis… Everything is fine. You know Ruby; she’ll crawl back when she’s ready to.”
“For someone who made a career out of lying, Sam, you suck at it.”
“Doesn’t he just?”
Sam and Travis both glanced up at the open doorway. Ruby was leaning against the frame, her curvy body draped like she was part of the building.
“Where the hell have you been?” Travis demanded, then gave her an apologetic shrug. “No… uh… pun intended.”
She gave him a sarcastic smile before turning towards Sam. “Ok, so I found a way we can summon Lilith here without being deep fried.”
Travis snapped his gaze between them both. “Are you insane? You want to summon Elvira, Child of the Dark here?” He narrowed his eyes at Sam. “Is this the ‘everything’ that’s supposedly fine?”
Sam ignored Travis, his gaze locked on Ruby. “What do we need?”
“Aside from a bucket full of crazy?” she asked dryly.
Sam shifted his shoulders, uncomfortable under both Travis’s and Ruby’s scrutiny. The thought of his brother pushed him on, however. He couldn’t let Dean rot in hell. “Just tell me what I need to do.”
She let out a defeated breath. “You might just be the death of me – again,” she added sullenly, but she was already pulling her shoulder bag around to her front to root out the equipment. Carefully, she laid a host of herbs on the table. Sam recognised all of them. They were powerful ingredients in creating protection charms.
“This is it?” Travis demanded, glancing between the table and Ruby. “A bunch of plants is the best defence you got against Damien Thorne’s evil twin sister?”
Ruby gave him an irritable glare, “Don’t look at me. I’m on the ‘this plan sucks’ bandwagon.” She returned her attention to the table and let out an angry sigh. “I pulled a binding spell from The Key of Solomon. It might hold her, but honestly, I have no idea – and I’m not entirely convinced this is an area we should be experimenting in, but if it’s gonna make you trust me, then whatever.”
“Thank you,” Sam said simply, taking the book from her and skimming over the invocation, ignoring the scorn in her voice. It looked simple enough and it was definitely a job he could do alone. “You can both leave.” Sam didn’t look up from the text but he could feel the pointed glares being directed at him.
“Are you off your meds?” Ruby snarled fiercely. Sam glanced up to meet her gaze and had to admit he was a little wary of the petite blond demon. “She will peel the flesh off your bones, Sam, and feed you what left. You can’t take her on alone.”
“I don’t need your help with this.”
“So we’re supposed to just take off and let that bitch have you?” Travis snapped. “Screw that dude. There ain’t a chance in hell I’m walkin’ away.”
Sam appreciated the sentiment, he really did, but he wouldn’t have any more blood on his hands. Unfortunately, that decision wasn’t his to make. Making a grab for the Key, Ruby scowled at him.
“You can’t do this alone anyway. You’ll screw up the reading.”
Sam gave her a level glare. “I can read an invocation, Ruby.”
“I’m sure you can, Poindexter, but it’s not your run-of-the-mill hocus pocus crap. You screw this up and we’re all checking into new pastures, and I gotta tell you where I’m going the room service sucks, so please, don’t pull the martyr routine, Sam. There’s a hell of a lot more at stake here than your pride.”
Sam sighed, frustration lacing the gesture. “Start reading.”
The End…
