After settling down in their rented room in a small motel, they prepared themselves for the wake and with the help of the local residents they started off their journey with a new identity.
It was almost six when the two brothers reached at the latest victim’s home by following the instructions and directions closely so as not to waste more time. Since the house was right at the far end of the town with small parking space so visitors were requested to park their cars outside along the road so that the open space can accommodate more guests who wanted to pay their last respects to Benny, who was brutally murdered the night before.
Dean and Sam received warmth welcome and greeted by the family members of the deceased at the gate who introduced themselves as Benny’s uncles and aunt. Since both of them were in their undercover, no doubt that their presences were highly acknowledged by most of the guests outside the house. Later, they were showed to the house where the widow was seen being comforted by another relative. After exchanging a few words, the old man called out another relative from inside the house to welcome the two special guests.
“Sorry but… I don’t seem to have seen you before…” Greeted a man who looked like in the early thirties as he approached them with swollen eyes. Perhaps he was a close family member, relative or friend, Dean thought.
“Sorry to come at this time but… I’m… I’m Father Mahoney and this is Father Chris and we are here for the service… heard about the tragic from the newspapers and thought maybe we can bid farewell to-”
“Welcome Fathers… welcome… thanks for coming… its very kind of you both.” They heard a female voice interrupted from behind.
“Annie… go inside and rest… you are not feeling well.”
“Its okay Jack… I’m fine… why don’t you go and attend to other guests, let me bring the Fathers in.” She gave a weak assurance smile as he gave her a short kiss on her cheeks before he walked away.
“We’re sorry about this.” Sam said.
“No, no… I should be saying sorry cause I didn’t get to greet you and my other guests outside… you know with this baby around, I can’t really walk too much…” She forced a smile as she gave a light massage on her heavy tummy.
“You are…”
“I’m Annie… Benny’s wife…”
“I’m Father Mahoney and this is Father Chris… we hope you don’t mind us asking you a few questions…” A second introduction by Dean as Sam continued to keep a lookout for any suspicious objects or persons in the house.
“Sure… what is it about?”
“Look Annie… we just want to help… you know, to bid Benny a final farewell so that he can continue his journey in another life in more peaceful…”
“Well… please take a seat… I don’t know what I can do to help you but… I’ll try to help with what I could.” Dean and Sam took the empty seats opposite of Annie’s as they tried not to break the ice of calmness on Annie’s face with their questions.
“Its like this… we… hmmm… we were just wondering before Benny’s death, did you find or see anything strange or suspicious on Benny?” Annie frowned upon listening to the question.
“Suspicious such as?”
“I mean, did he ever tell you anything? Like maybe someone is trying to kill him or maybe he was in a sort of trouble?” Dean asked again. Annie continued to massage her tummy lightly as she leaned back to the sofa and pouted as if she was trying to remember anything she could possible think of at that time but eventually she just shook her head.
“I’m sorry… I don’t recall anything right now… my mind… my mind just went blank… I’m sorry…” She apologized with a short rub on both sides of her temples.
“Its okay Annie… don’t force yourself… maybe… we’ll just take a look around if you don’t mind.” Said Sam as he leaned forward.
“Sorry… I… I really cannot find anything strange or suspicious on my husband. I’m sorry…” Annie said as she shook her head in disappointment. Tears soon began to roll down her cheeks and she wiped off it off with the back of her palm.
“Its okay Annie… its okay… we’re sorry that we need to ask you that… well, here is my number… if you happen to remember anything, anything at all… please give me a call.” Dean handed over a white card over to Annie as they both stood up and excused themselves.
Just as they were about to walk away, Annie called from behind.
“Father Mahoney!” Dean and Sam stopped and turned. “I think I remember something.”
“What is it?” Dean asked.
“That morning… before he left for work… he told me he had that dream again… scary dreams…” Then she began to weep softly.
“Now Annie… do you know what the dream is all about?” Asked Sam.
“I… I… I don’t know… but I know that ever since Simon died a few days ago… he has been having this sleepless nights… always screaming in fear… he even told me to go back to my mom’s place for delivery while he takes care of things here but now… now… it looks like its me who have to take care of things here…” Annie’s soft weeps turned into loud melancholy cries as a picture of her husband dying kept appearing in her eyes. Hearing her loud cries made a few other ladies who were in the house stopped talking and came around her to console her.
Dean and Sam discreetly left the crowd and walked towards the door when Sam pulled Dean back.
“What?”
“Look..” Sam pointed to a medium size picture displayed on the shelf. Some of the faces looked familiar and in the midst of the crowd busy entertaining and consoling the widow, Dean slipped the framed into his long black coat.
The two brothers made their way out of the house by exchanging nods, smiles and words of consolations with the other guests who began to flood in and at the same time asking around about Benny. It was then Sam saw a figure standing behind the huge tree not far from Dean’s car.
“So… there are not really much that we can get in here... except for the bad dreams and this picture.” Dean said as he inserted the car key to its hole but realized that Sam was not paying attention at all to what he had just said.
Sam was looking or rather was studying the figure that stood behind the tree and from the way he looked at it, seemed like the figure was a girl and whoever she was, behaved in such a way that she was hiding from being seen by those guests going to the house.
“Sammie? Hey Sammie? Are you listening?”
“Sssshhh… did you see that?” Sam pointed to the tree. Dean turned and saw a girl.
“You jerk! You are worst than I thought!” Dean teased as he gave an evil smirk.
“Its not that Dean! Don’t you have anything better inside your head right now?”
“Yes!”
“And what could that better possible be?” Asked Sam in full of sarcasm.
“Food.”
“What?”
“Yes Sammie! I’m damn hungry right now and maybe I won’t be as this damn hungry if someone had not pulled me away from a stick of hotdog just now.” Dean said as he entered inside his car while Sam continued watching over the girl.
“I think she knows something… we need to ask her…”
“What?”
“I’m going over… you wait for me here.” Sam said as he shut the door behind him and fastened his pace towards the girl. Without protesting, Dean stayed put inside the car and observed the crowd coming and leaving the deceased’s house. Those who had just arrived, quickly fastened their pace towards the house giving them no chance to even notice his presence in the car. So in slow and steady motion, he took out the picture cautiously and used his special tools to examine it.
The girl was too engrossed in watching and observing the guests coming and leaving the house that she was unaware of Sam’s presence until he called out to her.
“Why aren’t you going in?” Sam’s questions startled her as she tried to hide her face from Sam.
No answer from her.
“You are not invited?”
“You don’t need invitation to pay your last respects for the dead.” She said without showing her face, creating that intensity and curiosity moments between the two especially for Sam Winchester. Sam walked to the other side of the tree hoping to catch a glimpse of her face but she was quicker than he thought.
“You know them?” She did not answer but looking from afar, Sam saw her shaking her head. “Then why are you here?”
“That’s none of your business.” Ouch. Her words were short and sharp.
“I just want to help-”
“Then leave this place!”
“But why?” Again she kept to herself ignoring Sam’s question. “You do know what is going on in here… aren’t you?”
“Stop asking questions and just go away… before its too late.” She said and this time her tone was calmer but full of insistence.
“Look… I don’t know what is it that you know but please… I need to know whatever that you know about this… I need your help to catch the killer.” Pleaded Sam as he moved closer and just like the change in her tone, she did not budge a step or even tried to move away from Sam.
“You won’t be able to.”
“Why?”
“Cause ITS never meant to be caught.” She released a soft sigh and slowly she turned around to face Sam for the first time. Judging from the way she tried to hide her face, Sam was expecting her face to be scarred with stitches or ugly marks due to some childhood or abusive reasons but what he saw in front of him proved him otherwise. She had this long flirty brunette curl hair, fair complexion to match her red lips and clear blue eyes. As their eyes met for the first time, she tried to confide in him but somehow something was pulling her back from doing so. Her clear blue eyes revealed it all.
“ITS? What do you mean by ITS? You really do know something is going on in here aren’t you?” Sam’s persistence made her uneasy.
“Please, don’t ask me anymore question. You need my help and I’m helping you now… leave this town if you still want to live.” She continued.
“But-”
“Sam!” Dean called out from afar as he horned his car at Sam. Sam turned to wave at his brother and by the time he turned back, the girl had disappeared. It felt like she disappeared in a blink of his eyes. Sam turned around and saw a glimpse of her shadow running among the thick bushes.
Sam continued to stay still even when her shadow was out of his sight. There were so many things bombarding inside his head. She, whoever she was, knew what was going on in that town. She knew who or rather what killed those men. She had to be the key to solve the mystery, he thought.
“Sammie? What’s wrong? Who is she?” Dean asked as he approached his younger brother.
“She knew what is going on Dean.” Sam said calmly.
“Who is she?”
“I don’t know…”
“You don’t know? Not even a name?”
“No… but she wants us to leave.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know Dean… so what is it that you got?” Asked Sam trying to avert Dean’s attention to the picture in his hand.
“This?” Dean handed over the picture to Sam as he slipped both his hands inside the side pockets of his long black coat.
“Did you get anything out of this?” Sam asked as he examined the picture.
“Well… 4 of the guys in the picture are actually the ones who died for the same reason and this guy over here is Simon and this guy is Benny, the latest victim. This is the first victim and this is the second one.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve checked and compared the picture with the newspaper articles about their mystery deaths except…”
“Except what?”
“Look Sam… its just common sense that if 4-fifth of these guys are related to each other not only as friends but also in deaths… don’t you think this guy has some sort of connection to this as well?” Dean was right, Sam thought as he looked at the picture and at the same time his mind was preoccupied on the earlier conversation with the mysterious girl.
“Then we might need to see this guy and find out something or anything from him.” Suggested Sam.
“That would be a great idea but what about the girl?” Dean asked as he pointed to the thick bushes.
“Yeah, we need to find her. I think she knows something that can help us.”
“You think?”
“Yes. I think. I could just be wrong but there’s no harm in finding out right?”
“Right… with no name, no address… not even a wave from her… I would say its definitely getting more and more interesting right now.” Dean said as he walked behind Sam towards his car.
“Hey! I thought you are always up for challenges?”
“What? Did I say I’m chicken out?”
“Nope, but you don’t sound enthusiastic today.”
“Right, after almost that narrow escaped from the wild boar and now we are going to hunt down a serial killer which could be something and not someone indeed makes me enthusiastic Sammie, oh don’t take note of my tone cause I really am enthusiastic.” Sam was not sure what else to expect from Dean because when it comes to words, he knew he can never beat him to that but at least he got the brain, he thought. As requested, Sam ignored the sarcasm in Dean’s tone and closed the door behind him. He hoped he was wrong to actually guess that Dean was afraid because right now he needed Dean’s bravery and strength to make him more confident.
“How are we going to meet up with this guy?”
“Don’t you realize the interval between each killing is about 2 to 3 days, happening at the same spot for the last two weeks and I would say its going to happen again within these 3 days.”
“That means… we still have 2 days left to track this guy down and warn him about this mystery serial killer?”
“Provided that the killer is willing to wait for the next 2 days before it or he strikes again… or it could just happen anytime from now.”
“Then we need to act fast. We need to get him before anything or anybody else.”
“Don’t worry Sammie… we’ll definitely do that but in the meantime… we need to go and see the body.”
“What? Now?”
“Well… you can wait for Christmas if you want to but I think by that time it would have been decomposed so yeah, tonight.” Dean said in his usual smart-cap talking mode.
“But how are they going let us in? At this hour?”
“Not to worry bro, I got everything in here.” After parking his car at the further end of the long stretch of parking lot meant for the hospital staff, Dean pulled up his special case and began to look for some suitable ID before handed it over to Sam.
“What?” Sam was surprised to see so many fake IDs inside the case. Some even had his photo on them. “When did you make all these?” Sam asked as he took one of the fake IDs with his photo.
“A few years ago. You know… just in case.” Dean said with a smile and winked at Sam as he continued digging for a suitable ID.
“A few years ago? You did this a few years ago? And what do you mean just in case?”
“You know… just in case if you get tired of facing those books and wanted to get some adventure or some hunting trips with me… okay, here it is. Here take this!” Dean handed over a fake pass as a doctor over to Sam.
“Doctor Maney?” Sam asked with a soft chuckle.
“Nice name.” Dean said as he put on his name pass as Doctor Steve.
“How come you get Doctor Steve?”
“Well… because you didn’t make any advance booking on the name for the fake ID? So are you coming or what?” Dean asked as he stepped out of the car.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks for the reviews and support, i'll try my best to improve in my writing. In the meantime, Chapter 3 is right up! Reviews/comments are highly appreciated!
