In to the Shadows

“What do you mean he’s not coming?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and staring Hayley down.

“He’s with Lisa and Ben,” Hayley replied, the venom in her voice when she said Lisa’s name caught me by surprise.

“So, his make-believe family is more important than his actual family?” I scoffed. “Typical Winchester move.” Hayley just glared at everything and nothing at the same time. “You know what? Fuck it, we’ll have a girl’s night. Sam’s on his way to pick up Chloe and take her night fishing.” Hayley looked up at me with a startled expression. “Yeah, I know, it confused me, too. Didn’t even know the dude liked fishing, let alone wanted to take our daughter out to try it. Anyway, since Sam’s gonna have Chloe, and Max is taking Cole front-yard camping, let’s have a horror movie marathon in the living room,” I suggested. Hayley’s blue eyes lit up.

“Yeah, and we can make a pillow fort in front of the TV to make it darker,” she added. I nodded in agreement.

“I’ll have Sam get us some snacks before he gets here.” Hayley nodded, and walked out of my room. I pulled out my phone and dialed Sam’s number.

“Hello?” He answered.

“Hey, Sam. Can you do me a little favor before you get here?”

“What?” He asked, sounding wary.

“Can you get some snacks for me and Hayley?” I questioned, sticking out my bottom lip in a pout, even though I knew he couldn’t see me.

“I can hear you pouting,” he commented making me laugh. “Yeah, I’ll get you two some snacks. The usual things you two like?”

“Yep. Thanks, Sammy,” I cooed.

“Don’t call me Sammy,” was all he said before I heard a dial tone.

“Love you, too, shit-face,” I grumbled, sliding my phone back into my pocket.

“Who’s a shit-face?” I jumped, startled, and turned around to face Max. He had a dark eyebrow raised and was leaning against the doorframe.

“Ever heard of knocking?”

“Ever heard of answering a question?” He fired back.

“Touché,” I smirked. “And Sam is a shit-face.” His smirk dropped.

“Please tell me he’s not bailing on Chloe like Dean did to Cole?” As calm as his voice was, I could hear the underlying anger in his voice that sent a chill down my spine. Mental note; Never get Max angry at me. Ever. Never ever.

“No, he’s still coming,” I assured him.

“Then why is he a shit-face?”

“Who’s a shit-face?” Hayley asked, sticking her head through the door.

“Sam,” Max answered. Hayley frowned in confusion.

“Why?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Max shot back and they both looked at me expectantly. I rolled my eyes.

“I called him Sammy, and he said, ‘don’t call me Sammy’ and then hung up on me,” I explained with a sigh. “That’s why I called him a shit-face.”

“Oh,” the two said in unison. “I was hoping for something more dramatic,” Max added in complaint. Hayley and I chuckled.

“So is he picking up snacks for us?” She inquired, plopping down on my bed. I nodded. “Sweet.”

“Snacks for what?” Max asked.

“What’s with all the questions today, Maxy?” He glowered at the nickname.

“Max attack?” Hayley tried.

“Maxafrass?”

“Maximillion?”

“Max-“

“Please, stop,” he begged, effectively cutting me off. “Just stick to ‘Max’. Please.”

“You got it, Maxi-pad,” Hayley and I said in unison. I shot a sideways glance at her. Did you read my mind?

The smirk she shot me definitely answered that question. “I hate you both,” Max growled, stalking off down the hallway.

“Love you, too, honey bunches,” we called after him.

“Fuck you!” He yelled back. I chuckled.

“Hope Chloe and Cole didn’t hear that one.” Hayley let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Knowing them, they probably did.”

“Son of a bitch.”



“Do you have an extra change of clothes?” I questioned, running through a mental checklist. Sam was looking extremely annoyed with me.

“Yes.”

“Snacks in case she gets hungry?”

“Yes.”

“A first aid kit incase she gets bit by something?”

“Yes.”

“Her epi-pen?”

“Her what?” Sam asked in a bewildered tone.

“Epi-pen, Sam,” I stressed. “She’s allergic to mosquitos.”

“How in the world did you figure that out? Everyone itches and swells with mosquito bites,” he asked. I shot him a, ‘how dare you question me’ look.

“Let her get bit, and you’ll see. Speaking of that, repellent?” He held up a bottle that he just pulled from his bag. I looked at the label and turned around, digging in my own purse. I pulled out the bug repellent that I usually used for Chloe, since it worked better than any other kind that I’d tried before, and tossed it at him. He caught it easily. “Use that instead. It’s stronger.”

“Thanks.” He stuffed it in the bag that held everything else for Chloe and slung it over his shoulder. “Everything’s going to be fine, Riley,” he soothed. “I promise. She’ll have fun.”

“She better,” I warned. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“Relax tonight, okay?” He ordered. “Everything will be fine. I’m also sorry about Dean,” he added lowly since Hayley was in the room digging through the bag of snacks Sam brought us. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Don’t be sorry, Sam. You’re his brother, not his keeper. You can’t force him to do anything.” He let out a sigh that made me think that he was so done with Dean’s shit.

“Well, you two enjoy your movies, ladies,” he said with a smile before gathering up Chloe into his arms making her giggle.

“Have fun, baby,” I smiled, pressing a kiss to Chloe’s cheek.

“Bye, momma!” The two walked out the door literally two seconds before Max popped into the living room between Hayley and I.

“Is Cole ready?” He questioned, though Hayley and I glared at him. “What’s with the twin glares? Seriously, what the fuck did I do?”

“Don’t scare us like that,” Hayley grumbled, pushing the Angel lightly on his shoulder.

“Really? That’s why you’re glaring? Jesus, both of your glares are terrifying.” I shared an amused glance with Hayley.

“Yeah, he’s ready,” she finally answered.

“Hey, where’s your dad? And Kiley for that matter?” Max asked after looking around for a few moments.

“He took her on a hunt,” I explained.

“Wow, that’s surprising. I thought he didn’t like it when the three of you hunted.”

“He doesn’t,” Hayley stated. “Though, he would rather us be with him when we hunted.”

“I am kind of mad that he took her hunting,” I admitted. “He never took us hunting with him.”

“He never took you two hunting?” Max inquired with a raised eyebrow. Hayley shook her head.

“No,” she answered. “He just taught us how to defend ourselves and what to do in a situation if he wasn’t there.”

“Interesting,” Max mused. “Hey, can you go get your kid now? I want to go camping.” Hollering for Cole, Hayley handed Max the boy’s duffle bag full of things.

“He’s going to want the full experience,” Hayley informed at Max’s look of confusion at the bag. “He’s not going to want to come inside to get something, so he packed this for himself.” Max nodded in understanding and a couple seconds later, Cole came barreling down the hallway.

“Bye mom, bye Auntie Riley,” he called as he ran out the back door. Max followed at a more leisure pace.

“Why did I agree to this?” I heard Max ask himself before he shut the door behind him.

“Ready for the movies?” Hayley asked, turning to face me with a grin. I nodded.

“First one back from getting ready gets to pick the first movie,” I announced before the two of us raced up the steps.

I got changed as quickly as I could, but Hayley still beat me. She looked over at me with a smug smile. “Ready to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre?” I groaned loudly. I hated chainsaws. “I know,” she laughed, reading my mind. I hate you, I thought as loudly as I could. Hayley playfully pouted. “No, you don’t. Don’t lie.”

Using pillows, blankets, and chairs we constructed our fort. The TV got covered to make it darker in the fort, and tossed in the snacks that Sam brought us. I put in Texas Chainsaw Massacre and then laid down on my stomach next to Hayley, grabbing a handful of sour skittles.

After that, we watched Scream, Jaws, and three of the Saw movies before I passed out.



If you knew, knew what the bluebirds sang at you,
You would never sing along
Cast them out cause this is our culture
These new flocks are nothing but vultures

Because they took our love and they filled it up
Filled it up with Novocaine and now I’m just numb
Now I’m just numb
And don’t mind me, I’m just a son of a gun
So don’t stop, don’t stop until your heart goes numb
Now I’m just numb
I don’t feel a thing for you

I groped around for my phone blindly, and put it up to my ear when I found it. “Hello?” I answered groggily.

“Hey, Riley,” Sam’s cheerful voice flowed through the earpiece.

“How are you so cheerful so fucking early?” I hissed.

“Someone’s cranky,” he teased. “Anyway, I was just calling to tell you that I’m on my way back with Chlo.” He just called her Chlo, I thought blankly. How sweet. “She passed out about an hour ago.” I looked at the time and saw it was five in the morning. Normally, I would’ve been pissed that Chloe had stayed up so late, but he was taking her night fishing.

“Did she like night fishing?” I questioned, lowering my voice when Hayley gave a groan next to me and turned over with her back towards me.

“She loved it,” Sam answered, sounding surprised. “She did really well. Caught more fish than I did.”

“It’s the Shadows in her, of course,” I joked. We talked for a couple more minutes and then hung up. I crawled out of the fort and stood up, stretching. I checked out back, and saw a tent set up. It was a little crooked and I was pretty sure that it was Max’s fault.

I walked out to the front, and sat down on the steps, waiting for Sam and Chloe. When he pulled up, he walked around to the back and pulled Chloe out, holding her close to his chest. When he reached where I was, I took Chloe from him, and smiled. “Thanks for taking her, Sam. I’m glad she had fun.” Sam smiled back.

“It was no problem, and I really enjoyed spending time with her.” He bent his head and pressed a kiss to Chloe’s forehead, and then kissed my cheek. “See ya, Riley.”

I watched him drive away, and then walked inside to take Chloe to her room. I tucked her in, and then walked back into the living room to go back to sleep in the fort.