All Magic Comes With A Price

The Devil You Know

"Here come the man / With the look in his eye / Fed on nothing / But full of pride" --INXS

"Sam. Sam. Sam. Sam."

Ugh, what the hell is that?

"Sammy. Sammy. Sammy. Sammy."

Seriously?

"Moose. Moose. Moose. Moose."

Jesus Christ. Fine, I'll open my freaking eyes.

"Sasquatch. Sasquatch. Sasquatch- Oh hey! Sleeping Beauty has finally opened his pretty peepers!"

Sam squinted against the harsh white light of the room, made all the more painful by the boring paint scheme and the irritating voice rattling around in his head. If he didn't know any better, he would have sworn that voice had belonged to-

"Saaaaaaaaamy," Lucifer said, wiggling his fingers and getting Sam's attention. Sam jumped where he lay and scrambled as well as he could to the side of the bed furthest from the man currently seated in the visitor's chair. As though someone flicked a switch, the room was suddenly thrown into a negative version of itself; dingy, dirty, chains and meat hooks dangling from the ceiling. All the while, Lucifer sat pleasantly in his chair, grinning wickedly. "Hi, Sam. Long time, no spooning."

Terror was written clearly all over Sam's face, and his hand gripped the hospital bed rail tightly. He wished he could sit up better than he could, but his middle was bandaged and extremely sore, making it difficult to even just lean forward. He was still far too close to him for comfort. "You're not here. You're in Hell."

A smirk was the response. "Now, that you're right on."

Sam's eyes darted around the room before stopping again on Lucifer. "Meat hooks... Chains... You. It's not real," he gasped desperately. "It's just my brain leaking memories from the cage 'cause of the wall breaking down. That's all."

Lucifer made a fake pout at him. "Hmm. That's very good, your little theory." His expression evolved into a smirk. "But it's wrong. Sam, this isn't you going guano." The smirk grew more wicked. "Everything else is."

Staring back in disbelief, Sam whispered a hollow, "What?"

Lucifer waved his hand absently at the surroundings. "Everything... From the second you sprung out of that lock box."

Sam shook his head slIghtly. "That's impossible."

"No," Lucifer said, his eyebrows furrowed, looking at Sam with an expression of pity. "Escaping was impossible." He smiled evilly at him again. "I have to say, I think this is my best torture yet -- make you believe that you're free and then..." He made a snatching movement in the air with his hand. "Yank the wool off of your eyes. You never left, Sam. You're still in the cage..." That damned grin. "With me."

Sam's heart was beating a mile a minute, and his hand gripped the bed rail as hard as he could. He couldn't pull his eyes away from the terror of hell that sat before him. He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry.

"Oh good, you're awake," a female voice said from the vicinity of the doorway.

Suddenly the room was back to normal, as if Satan himself hadn't just been seated in that very chair. Sam blinked, and he watched the woman come into the room anxiously.

"You're in the hospital," she said in answer to his unasked question. He had actually been watching for Lucifer to pop up randomly again, but luckily it didn't seem he was going to. "My name is Dorothy, and I'm a volunteer here. I'm here to make your stay comfortable."

He now dropped his eyes to look at her, as he'd been taking in the room, expecting for the bastard to reappear. She was cute, really pretty actually, with brown hair tied into a loose ponytail, and blue eyes. "Uh, hi," he said awkwardly.