supernatural au; a pact made.
when diana reid was pregnant with their first child, william reid saw the signs in his wife. days locked away behind a closed door without setting foot outside. barely eating. speaking to herself in the mirror and chalking it up to just rambling about nothing. night after sleepless night of pacing. subtle at first. an episode here. an episode there. their doctor blamed it on 'pregnancy brain' and made her promise to take better care of herself. they smile said they would. she didn't because she couldn't.
slowly, her lectures began to taper off. her mind a million miles away more than ever in their zip code much less their house. william couldn't reach her where she was. so, he went digging. further back into her family history past her parents and grandparents. then began to see a gut wrenching sign. genius runs in the family. with it? madness.
upon speaking with experts and receiving barely any help other than medical testing that neither one of them were willing to do. he went looking elsewhere. in places diana would say weren't real. weren't science. william never told her. holistic healers. spiritual counselors. anyone that might have some alternative medicine to help where traditional medicine and theory failed.
he found it in a man who promised him he would guide her back to brilliance and erase the dark. friend of a friend of a self-proclaimed witch. helped dozens and dozens of people who were lost find themselves again. old medicine and self enlightenment. all he had to do was promise that his son would follow in their path. they'd even unlock the unborne's mind to a potential that most humans could only dream of achieving. genius? he would inherit that from his parents. a wholly open mind? one they could call upon if needed? power only they held. in turn? they'd look after him, too.
it took months of convincing. months of proving to a man of logic that this was real. that this would work. time after time, he was allowed to see the potential of healed minds, bodies, souls. hopes granted. dreams lived. that kind of hope when you're three sheets to hopelessness corrupts.
his wife back. son protected. william, eventually in desperation, gave in.
part ii. wiki.