Summary: After losing her family, the tragedy kept haunting her. She was her only trusted guardian but that trust was soon betrayed. In came Dean and Sam, the miracle she was hoping for. But would it be too late to save her?
Categories: Fanfiction > TV Series > Supernatural
Characters: Dean, Sam
Genres: Adventure, Angst, Horror, Supernatural
Warnings: Death
Challenges: Series: None
Chapters: 8
Completed: Yes
Word count: 28712
Read: 16004
Published: 07/24/06
Updated: 08/04/06
1. Chapter 1 by Gal1015
2. Chapter 2 by Gal1015
3. Chapter 3 by Gal1015
4. Chapter 4 by Gal1015
5. Chapter 5 by Gal1015
6. Chapter 6 by Gal1015
7. Chapter 7 by Gal1015
8. Chapter 8 by Gal1015
Author's Notes:
Special thanks to the Winchester Brothers for inspiring me to make this story. This is not the best Supernatural fanfic so far but i'll try to improve on my future Supernatural writings. Reviews and comments are highly appreciated, thank you!
Saint Town
4 April
The blue wagon squealed and slid for about a hundred yards, then spun around. He frantically pressed on the wheel, trying to bring the wagon out of its spin. The moment the wagon stopped spinning at the other side of the road, his mind went blank and his eyes stark at the emptiness that laid in front of him.
In a deep, heavy and fast breath, he tried to gain composure of himself as he blinked a few times to recall what had just happened to him. He remembered vividly of talking on his cellphone with a friend and decided to take that route because of less traffic congestion. It was in the mid of the chat when suddenly out of nowhere a white figure stood right in front of his moving wagon.
He remembered of continuously pressing the horns to warn whoever was standing out there to move away but it was too late. There was no other way to avoid the collision except to sway the steering wheel away from the figure resulting to the spinning of the wagon.
Slowly he felt beads of cold sweat on his forehead and in an instant, he felt a sharp pain coming from slightly above his forehead. He wasn’t sure if he had suffered a cut or that it could just be some soreness due to the strains in trying hard to control the wheels. Whatever the reason was, he ignored the pain and turned around to look at the road at the back of his wagon. There was no one else out there except for his only wagon parked at the sideway.
“What the fuck?” He whispered as he wet his lips.
He was definitely sure that he was not seeing things when he saw the white figure stood still in the middle of the road. Even though the sparsely positioned lampposts dimly lighted up the road, the luminous white cloth was bright enough to alert any other road users.
Finally after getting his composure back, he decided to check it out. Stupid decision as it was, he quickly unbuckled the seat belt ignoring as much pain and fear as possible. He admitted that fear had indeed taken its effect in his mind as his hands were still shaking and his legs were trembling. In a soft cursing mannered, he reached for the small flashlight from the dashboard and at the same time trying to find his flying cellphone.
“Damn!” A soft curse slipped off from his lips when he could not find his cellphone from underneath his seat or even the seat next to him. Must be on the floor of the back seat, he thought.
So far, the night has not been kind to him. He got a ticked off from his boss for his poor performance lately, the lift broke down and due to some heavy traffic congestion he was forced to take that route. Earlier on he remembered of seeing a few vehicles overtaking him so he was hoping to see more coming soon as he made a quick scan on the surroundings before he stepped out of the wagon.
The moment he closed the door after deciding not to lock it just in case something cropped up and he could easily made his way back inside the wagon, he felt one kind of spooky similarity, which almost made him changed his mind and jumped back into his wagon. Perhaps it was the silence. Or perhaps it was the whole thing about him standing and freezing alone on the road because he thought he had accidentally knocked someone down, just like the one in his recurring nightmares that he has been having for the past few days.
Slowly he took a few steps away from the wagon. Surprisingly, the road that used to be so alive even though it has never been a popular choice by the road users had suddenly became so dead. That was not the first time he took that route. In fact, he has been using the same route back home whenever there was heavy traffic congestion or whenever he wanted to unwind himself from the stress in the office and during those couple of times too, he will simply shut down the air-con and let the cool breeze brushed through his hair. His journey back home was then accompanied by the busy noise from the crickets, the rustling sounds of the leaves, fade echoes of horns coming from a nearby highway and the busy train station but somehow that night, all he heard was his own heavy breath.
“Hello?” Hello… Hello… His voice bounced back as a fade echo and began to play repeatedly in his own head as he stopped walking. Must be the wind, he thought even though the air was humid and still.
He continued a few steps ahead with lights on the ground.
“Anybody there?” Anybody there… Anybody there… “Hello?” Hello… Hello… “Its not funny alright!” Its not funny alright… Its not funny alright…
Then he stopped and knelt down.
He was surprised to find huge lump of sand on the ground. The sand looked extremely fresh as if someone had dug it out from a nearby farm or bushes he thought. There were no traces of blood or any clue to show that someone has been knocked down by his wagon, but somehow he just had a strong hunch that somewhere out there in the dark someone was watching him, waiting for the right time to lunge and pounce on him.
“Okay! That’s enough! You are just sick!” He said to himself as he stood up and shone the flashlights to the woods at both sides of the road hoping to see a wild animal to comfort himself that at least he was not alone. To get attack by a wild animal was never his choice, but he knew he would just feel better to see someone else or some animals nearby.
“Hello?” Hello… Hello… He called out again and waited for someone to reply. In his head, his creative mind started to think of different scenarios. Whoever that person was out there, he could be a robber who wanted to scare him off and run away with his wagon, or it could be some wild animals that escaped from a nearby farm. Or worst still, it could just be no one but purely based on his wild imagination especially with his nightmares haunting his sleep lately.
He continued flashing the lights from tree to tree until he came upon this large tree just next to his wagon. Believe it or not, he recognized that tree. It was the same tree in his dream. The same tree that appeared on the local newspaper where the police found dead bodies of his friends.
“This is impossible…” He said as he took a quick steps back to his wagon.
Out of a sudden, he felt extremely cold as if the temperature has dropped drastically. It was so cold that it almost frozen his heart and with fears gripping him, all the more he felt freezing. Once he reached his wagon, in a full self-confidence he tried swinging the door open but after a few rushing attempts, only then he realized the door knob was pressed down to indicate that the door was locked.
“What the fuck! I know I didn’t lock it just now! How could its locked now? I know I didn’t lock it just now!” He kept muttering as he frantically searching for the keys in his pockets but was surprised to find it hanging from the keyhole inside the wagon. “Fuck! This is fucking shit! I know its with me just now!”
Like someone who has been possessed, he used the flashlight to hit the window pane. That was the last resort that he could think of and he couldn’t care less anymore on whether he could get fired for vandalizing the company’s property. All he knew and cared about was his own life.
The howling sound of the wolves started to fill the still air as he pulled up the knob and brushed the shattered glasses away from the driver’s seat. He ignited the engine and started to blast the road with a full gear. The howling sounds became clearer and louder as he pressed on the accelerator to get away from that road as fast as possible. He knew he was racing against time and so were his guts in trying to overcome his fears.
Occasionally he would look at the rear mirror hoping that nothing else was following him and at the same time, wishing that he could find other vehicles on the road. It was only after ten minutes of driving that he realized, he actually driving in circles. He kept passing by the same road and was not sure for how long but the shattering of glass on the ground gave the big hint.
It was upon his realization on his driving in circles that his wagon slowed down and eventually died out just at the same spot as it did earlier on.
“Oh fuck! This can’t be happening!” He tried igniting the engine again and again. The howling sounds were both scary and irritating at the same time. He looked at his watch. It was dead.
Not sure what will be his next step but he was definitely not going anywhere near that huge tree. He was cracking his head hard when he remembered his cellphone. He jumped to the back seat and his hands practically went wild underneath the seat to search for the cellphone until he felt a cold object. He found it.
He has never prayed before, not even when his mother and wife brought him to the church. He went simply because he had to be their chauffeur for the day or to attend a friend’s wedding and lately, he went because of his friends’ funerals. This time, he was praying hard that his cellphone works and it did.
After pressing the redial button, he waited for someone to pick up his call.
“Hello?”
“Hell-” The batteries went flat. “Fuck! Fuck this shit! Fuck!” He cried as he threw his cellphone back to the floor. He hung his head low ignoring the howling sounds but it was the soft laughter coming from the woods that caught his attention.
It was a soft eerie and mocking kind of laughter.
His eyes went berserk among the big trees in the woods as he moved slowly towards the window hoping to catch a glimpse of someone out there but it was empty. Then he turned to look at the back of the wagon and again, there was nothing. By the time his head turned back to the front, it felt like someone had just nailed his head to the seat. There she was sitting at the driver’s seat with her back facing him and her head down.
She was humming, crying and laughing at the same time. Her low hums were enough to eat him up as he struggled to breathe. In a struggle to keep himself alive, he noticed her long curly hair that dropped down to her waist gave out such a scent that was so strong till he felt the urged to vomit. The same bright luminous white dress, which he saw earlier on was actually tainted with mud, sand and blood. It was a constant flashback on what had happened a few years back. A sacred secret which he had promised to keep together with his other friends and soon it will be his turn to be buried with that secret.
He tried to move his hands to open up the door but they were numbed. He wanted to run but his legs were not giving the same reactions. He felt the need to scream but in a flash, it seemed like he has lost his voice. There was nothing that he can do except to wait for his death, a pathetic way of dying he thought as tears began to roll down his cheeks.
Soft moans and groans escaped from his dried lips as his eyeballs almost gobbled out from his eyes. Each time she cried, his nose and eyes will start to bleed profusely. Even though her laughter was not loud, it was enough to bleed his ears. He was basically struggling and fighting without making any move as all his limbs went numb at the same time. The moment her clear blue eyes met his, he heard and felt a snapping sound of his bone.
“No… please… no…” He muttered but it was too late.
Author's Notes:
Hope you guys like it and reviews are highly appreciated, thanks!
Meneva
5 April
Enter Sandman by Metallica gave no chance for silence to fill up the car as Dean blasted the volume the moment they sped off to the next destination. They had spent the last three days in a cheap motel about 500 miles away from Saint Town where they had just discovered about the recent gruesome killings been going on from the local news and papers from a nearby news stand. The first time they heard about the news, they knew Saint Town will be their next destination. What truly caught their attention was how those victims were brutally murdered and what made it even more interesting was how identical those deaths were to one another. From the report given by the police spokesman, it classified the cases as unnatural deaths and still under further investigation but so far the police had made no arrest or revealed the motive of the killings.
Many speculations been made though by the locals whom the Winchester brothers had met and interviewed. Mad man and wild animals were their prime suspects.
“So you think its some mad guy out there going around with an axe or chopper killing these guys?” Asked Sam as he stared and examined the newspapers of the latest victim found two days ago.
“Not sure about the mad guy but opting for wild animals sounds pretty interesting to me.” Dean chuckled softly as he turned to Sam and back to the road.
“But so far… no murder weapon has been found-”
“Maybe there isn’t any in the first place.” Sam looked surprised. Not sure if he was surprised by the fact that his brother was not making sense or that his brother was indeed looking at things in a different perspective like he always did. Look at things in a supernatural way.
“You mean…”
“I mean, what else could have caused it. Even from the pictures showed clearly there are only slight bruises but no wounds, no cuts, no weapons… imagine, if its from wild animals… then there would have been physical wounds, cuts, scars… and so far nothing.”
“Oh hear this… The police in Saint Town are still investigating the brutal killing cases happening recently that gripped fear out of the local people. So far no arrest has been done but they are not ruling out foul play by a mentally disturbed individual or wild animals escaping from the woods. Doctors from the local hospital said that the cause of death was due to hypertension and late treatment was given to revive the victim. The latest victim was pronounced dead between 11.30 p.m. to 12.30 a.m. the night before but was found by a motorist early morning at about 8 a.m. Police are seeking local help to assist in this case. Those who have any information are to come forward and it will be kept strictly confidential.” Sam then closed and folded the newspaper into half. He shook his head lightly as he bit his finger and turned his attention away from the newspapers.
“What?” Dean asked when he noticed that Sam was biting his nail. A sign to show that either Sam was afraid or he was engaging himself into some deep thoughts. As much as Dean was afraid himself, he tried to think of the latter. With Sam around, he felt more confident and better. Perhaps that was the reason why he insisted on having Sam with him throughout this journey because he wanted to make sure that Sam was sound and safe right before his eyes.
“Nothing…”
“Nothing?” Dean asked with more persistent in his voice.
“Yeah… nothing… its just that… that…”
“What Sammie?”
“Oh stop calling me that! I’m already -”
“What? Old?” Dean chuckled. “Can’t help it when I was the one who changed your diapers when you were still a baby! So you better tell me what’s wrong now…” Sam knew nothing escaped from his brother’s eyes. Even though Dean was the one who took care of him for most of the time during their father’s absence, sometimes he felt weird and strange to be a part of that family. Dean literally knew what went in his mind even without him having to say it out loud. His brother even knew the main reason why he decided to go to college and spent most of his times there instead of helping him during the short hunting trips. Family tradition Dean called it but to Sam, its more like courting your own death kind of game. For the past two years, Sam tried his best not to get involved in any way but Dean’s sudden appearance in his apartment changed everything.
Dean’s presence and persistence together with Jessica’s death made him changed his mind. Guilt trip of leaving Jessica’s alone despite of having those nightmares few nights before almost made him given up on living but it was Dean who gave him a new fighting spirit. While he filled his heart with vengeance, Dean was the one who helped to tame down the wild side of him. Dean was the one who brought him back to the right path each time he wanted to break free to find Jessica’s killer on his own.
“So?” Dean’s voice snapped into Sam’s deep thoughts as he cleared his throat and released a deep breath.
“Nothing… I’m just worried about dad.” He said without looking at Dean. Sam was taken aback by his own words as well. Worried about someone whom he hardly knew all his life sounded fishy but a part of it was true. Though they seldom shared the same point of view, still he respected the man as the one who was responsible for their strict and independent upbringing. Another part of him wanted to get everything done once and for all as soon as possible so that he can move on with his life as a normal teenager.
Dean smiled as if he knew what was on his little brother’s mind. “Don’t worry, I’m sure dad would be fine and…” Now it was Dean’s turn leaving his sentence hanging in the air.
“And what?”
“And I promise you that once all these things are over and once we find dad… I’ll take you to your college.” Sam reciprocated his brother’s side smile with a blush. “I know this is hard for you… but its not been easy for me either… we need to find dad before they do.”
“They?”
“Yeah… before they do. I’m not sure if they were the one who killed mom or… Jessica… but they are going after dad coz dad has something that they’ve been looking for.”
“Wait a minute… who are these they? And how come you know about this? Dad told you?”
“Read here.” Dean reached for his father’s journal from the back seat and handed it over to Sam. He told Sam to flip directly to the page with a red marking. “These ‘they’ are not any ordinary men Sam, they are demons… demons dad had once destroyed but was summoned back because they were thought to have the powers to help people who believed in them…”
“And just what is it that they want from dad?” Sam asked as he frowned reading the entire page.
“His soul and the colt.”
“What?”
“They wanted his soul as revenge but before that, they need to find the colt.” Sam’s face became more intense and glowed with curiosity.
“What colt? How come you never told me before about this?” And this time round, it was Dean who had a thousand lines on his forehead. Wished he had the chance to share and tell Sam everything that he knew, the hunting trips he had gone through all by himself, his father’s secrets if… if only had Sam given him the chance to.
“Because you never give me the chance to Sammie. You were too mad at that time and left us for college.” Dean continued.
“That’s because I don’t like the way dad ordered us around… giving orders without thinking about us. He didn’t even bother to ask us about our well-being even when he left me in your care. How old were you when he left me in your care? 10?”
“5 Sam. I was only 5 when dad told me to carry you out of the house… that was when mom died in the blaze. He left not because he wanted to but because of his responsibility to keep us alive. He had to leave us because he knows if he sticks with us, he will only get us killed.”
“Then why are we looking for him?” For an instant, Dean felt hurt with Sam’s question. The pain was unbearable like thousands of bees stinging on his flesh.
“Because he’s our dad Sammie… Whether you like it or not, he’s our dad and he has done so much to keep us both alive… if its not for him, I doubt we would even be here today.”
Sam shook his head in disbelief as he bit his fingernail and looked out of the window. Wished he could make Dean see the hurt in his eyes and the pain in his heart to have always been compared by his father. That it always hurt not to get as much attention and private time with his father like Dean did, and worst when they both seemed to be seeing things at a different and opposite point of view that sometimes ended up in huge misunderstanding between the two. It was Dean who then became the peacemaker.
Yes, he appreciated Dean’s kind act but at the same time he hated to be treated like a small kid. To Sam, the only reason why his father treated him differently from his brother could be that he was the cause of his mother’s death in his nursery room. Even though Dean had told him countless of times before that their father had never blamed him for the mishaps, Sam always felt otherwise especially in his father’s presence.
For the rest of the journey, both brothers were busy entertaining to their own little world. It was only half way through the long stretch of road that Dean saw a faded green signboard showing “WELCOME TO SAINT TOWN. 200 miles away.”. The moment the car passed by the signboard, he felt a new edgy feeling inside him. It was the same old feelings whenever he knew something supernatural was going on in that area. Both the brothers exchanged glances as Sam unfolded the map and told Dean about their first pit stop of the day.
They knew it was not going to be a pleasant stay because firstly, they came with the intention of wanting to help. They wanted to dig out the real cause of those mysterious deaths if its true those deaths were caused by any kind of supernatural acts. Secondly, they wanted to accomplish whatever mission coming on their way before they proceed on to their next destination until they finally find their missing father.
“That should be the gas station as on the map.” Said Sam as he pointed out to a small area with a few other cars flooding the compound.
Dean made a smooth turn to the left side of the road and parked his car not far from the café next to the gas station.
“Alright… here is the deal… you go and find whatever you can in that café. I’ll go and ask around and see what I can find.” Dean suggested as he locked his car.
“Alright.” They both went on separate ways the moment they entered the café. There were not many patrons around, basically a bunch of youngsters and a few tables of old men chatting their way with only two waitresses standing behind the counter.
Dean saw Sam taking a seat at the far end of the café with a few magazines and laptop on the table. So he has settled down, he thought. While he was scanning the entire place, a beautiful brunette passed by in front of him with a tray of empty glasses in her hands.
“Hey!” He called out. The waitress stopped and turned to him.
“Yes? Is there anything I can help you?” She asked with a friendly smile.
“Oh yes… hmmm… I need drinks…” The brunette gave a short giggle as if Dean’s answer was amusing her. After passing the tray to her colleague, she went behind the counter to take Dean’s orders.
“Well, actually you can just call us if you need to place any orders… and if we are all busy, then you can just press the ringer here.” Dean was simply mesmerized by her natural beauty because he noticed that she was not wearing any make-up but yet her face gave such a flow.
“Sorry… I didn’t know about that.”
“You are new here?” She asked again.
“Oh yeah… I just came from Meneva.” The waitress gave a short nod and still wearing her smile on.
“That’s a lovely place! I had friends from there, so are you here on vacation or work?” If its not for the killings happening in the town, he would have chosen the first one but its more like a job to him now.
“Both… I’m at work but since my work requires me to travel so I can do some sightseeing in between the time you see…” Dean said.
“That sounds pretty fun! So what actually draws you to come here? I mean, ours is just some isolated town.” The killing my dear, that was what brought me here, Dean thought as he smiled.
“I’m supposed to finish up some work but since I’m already here… I might want to pay an old friend a visit but recently… I heard about these killings going on in this town… you know anything about that?” Dean asked.
“Almost everyone is asking me the same thing! I think you visitors just love reading about those killings happening in here huh? Those gruesome killings! I wonder who would ever want to kill someone like that!” Dean flashed a smile and she has to admit that Dean had such a beautiful eyes. Occasionally she would pretend to wipe the glass or the table even though it has been done before to avoid from looking at him in the eyes.
“You know any of the victims?”
“Nope…”
“Not even one?”
“Yeah… except for the last victim… Mr. Benny. He was such a nice man.” Benny? That did not ring a bell to Dean. He thought the last victim was Simon.
“I thought the last victim was Simon Crane?”
“That was two nights ago… this morning they found Mr. Benny’s body. What a poor thing! His wife is pregnant with their first child and now that he’s gone… people are speculating that he must have got drunk while driving… but weird though…”
“Weird? What do you mean?”
“From what I heard, the killings took place at almost the same time and place… that’s the scary part of it all.”
“I’m sure the police would have noticed that.”
“I don’t know but so far we heard nothing from their side on these cases… after Mr. Benny’s death, I heard they are going to impose a curfew for the locals here…”
“Do you know where the scene is?” Dean asked.
“Yeah… you just need to follow this road and go straight all the way… along the way you will come across a busy town and that’s what we called the heart of the town, turn left at the junction will lead you to another route… a short-cut back home they called it but I would say it’s a short cut to your death. Can you imagine 4 victims in two weeks? At the same place? That place must be cursed or something!” She continued as Dean scribbled down the notes on a piece of paper and slipped it inside his pocket.
“Thanks for the information Ms…”
“Fern. Just called me Fern.”
“Nice name! Just like you… I’m Dean.”
“I like your name too… so Dean, do you want any drinks?”
“Oh yes… two cappuccino please?”
“Sure thing!” Fern smiled upon hearing his order. Two drinks would mean he had a company and in a way she bit her lips in disappointment. After keying his order inside the computer, she disappeared into the kitchen. Dean turned to Sam who was so engrossed in scribbling some notes into his little notebook.
It didn’t take long for Fern to come back with the drinks.
“Here you are… hope you have a pleasant stay in Saint Town.” She said as she took the money from Dean for the drinks in exchanged with a small piece of paper scribbled with numbers. Dean smiled and slipped it inside his pocket.
“Thanks! See ya around!”
“Sure! You know where to get me!” She said seductively before someone called for her attention.
Dean stood up from his seat and walked towards Sam. He took the empty seat next to Sam and gave his brother the drink as he read Sam’s handwritten notes.
“They found another body this morning.” Sam said in an almost whispering mannered but Dean was not concentrating on writing instead he unfolded the paper and stared at the number. “Are you listening?” Sam sounded agitated.
“Yeah, yeah… I heard you bro… I heard about it too.”
“From where?”
“The waitress over there… she told me the police found another body this morning, belong to this guy by the name of Benny…” Dean was explaining and flirting with Fern at the same time. Sam noticed this and gave a short sarcastic chuckle.
“Right!” Sam shook his head as he switched off his laptop and cleared the mess on the table.
“What?”
“You were flirting with that girl!”
“So?” Sam rolled his eyes up as he sipped his drinks. “Come on Sam! You need to lighten up… you can’t be serious and grumpy all the time… cheer up and have some fun…”
“Right! Fun!”
“Yeah… you know, its at times like this you need to have some fun and I would say… THAT is a big fun!” Dean pointed to Fern. Sam continued ignoring his brother as he continued clearing the mess on the table and slid his notebook inside his sling bag.
“I’m done so are you coming or what?” Sam asked as he stood up.
“Yeah, yeah, of course… hmmm… maybe you go ahead first and wait for me in the car… I’ll be right there…” Dean left Sam and walked towards the counter with his flirt cap on.
“Jerk!” Muttered Sam.
“Hey! I heard that!” Shouted Dean without looking at Sam.
“You’re leaving already?” Fern asked.
“Yeah… need to finish up some work… thanks for the number.”
“No problem… if you need a place to stay in, you can just call me… that must be your…”
In a flash, Sam came from behind and gave Dean a peck on his cheeks leaving wide stares from her colleagues; and as for Fern, she was controlling herself from gaping with disgust.
“Honey, I’ll wait for you outside ya! Nice to see you… Fern.” Sam said as he looked at Fern’s nametag and gave Dean a loving pinch on his cheeks.
“Hey… nice to see you too…” After short handshake, Sam made his way to the door.
“Look… I can explain it. He is my-”
“Dean, come on! We’ll be late!” Sam’s calling from outside made Dean blushing even more that for one second he wished he had his head buried in the ground.
“I think I got to go now… I’ll see you around…”
“Sure… don’t have to force yourself really…” Continued Fern as she forced a smile. As Dean made his way out, he overheard Fern whispering to her colleagues behind the counter. He saw Sam flashing a megawatts smile from afar and for once in his life, he wanted to kill his brother.
The minute they stepped inside the car, Dean turned to Sam with a red face.
“Why do you have to do that?”
“What?”
“Why do you always have to do that?” Dean asked as he kept brushing his cheeks with his palms.
“Oh come on Dean! Lighten up! You told me yourself that eer… ‘we need to lighten up Sam’… am I right?”
“Right!”
“So… you should feel proud that I’m such a fast learner.”
“And what? I should take it as compliment? Right! Being kissed in a public, in front of a babe by a guy who people didn’t even its my own brother… I feel so flattered now!” Dean said sarcastically as he drove along the quiet road.
“Oh, you should Dean.” Sam said as he gave Dean a pat on his shoulders whereas for Dean, he wished he could twist that hands and tie him on his seat. Sam’s smirking made his blood running wild in his veins. He stared at Sam from the mirror and out of a sudden, something evil popped out from his head. Something to justify what he did in that café. Dean gave an evil smirk as he planned things out in his head.
“So, did you get anything from there?” Dean asked trying to be subtle with his plan in his head.
“Pretty much the same info like you have… same murdered scene, same cause of death, almost the same time of death… too much for coincidence to happen, unless if…”
“If they happen to know each other or related to one another.”
“Precisely.”
“And that is what we are going to find out.”
“What do you mean?”
“Benny’s body was found this morning and definitely the family is going to have a wake for him… that would be the best time to get some crucial info from the family and friends.”
“You sure this is the right time to do all these questioning?”
“Or perhaps you have a better idea how to get other info?” Sam kept quiet. “Then I guess in the meantime we’ll have to stick to that plan.”
“So what are we going to be this time round?” Sam asked recalling his act in those role-playing of being a plumber, a mechanic and even a pest controller from their previous pit stops.
Dean stopped the car at the side of the road and walked back to his boot. He came back with a plastic bag.
“We are going with this now.” Sam took out the clothes from the plastic bag and was amused by it.
“You must be kidding me!” Dean simply reciprocated that with a short laugh and started the engine.
Author's 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!
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 Notes:
Chapter 4 is up and i hope to hear more of your reviews/comments on my story so that i can improve more on it. Your reviews are highly appreciated and thanks in advance for spending some time reading this!
“Please grandma… please stop this… I… I really can’t do this anymore…” Pleaded the girl in her cries as she sat at one corner of the room holding both her legs closer to her chest and rocked herself softly back and front like a little girl begging for forgiveness for a crime, which she did not even commit.
“Stop this? After what I have gone through? When we are reaching this close? Have you forgotten how your sister died? Have you forgotten what they did to her? Have you forgotten all this Selena?” Her voice had this one influential factor that made Selena shivered
“But… but I can’t go on and kill them… please… I don’t want to do this anymore… please…”
“You think I really want to do this Selena? I know its hurting you… you think I really want to hurt you? I will never let anyone hurt our family anymore… no more…” Said the old lady in a consoling mannered as she approached the poor girl and brushed her long brunette hair lovingly as she touched and wiped the tears away from her granddaughter’s cheeks.
Selena only watched as her heart gripped with fear, an unleashed fear.
“Then… then… why… why… why are you making me do this?” Asked Selena in her sobs.
“Hush now… I know… I have to make you do this for me… I’m sorry my dear… I… I’m just doing my duty as your guardian… I am doing my job and my responsibility to take good care of you as what I have promised to your parents before they died… to take care of you and Sabrina… Sabrina was such a nice girl… she never hurt anyone… she loves me… how could anyone be so evil as to kill my precious baby… she is so innocent… they killed her and I’m just punishing them for what they did!” Her grandmother’s calm and consoling tone changed in a split second into a loud and fiery one. It was darkened with vengeance.
Her grandmother stopped her loving touch on Selena’s cheeks, instead she stood up and walked towards Selena’s dressing table where she took out the sacred dagger out of the drawer.
“But she’s already dead grandma… even by killing them won’t bring her back… you know that and we all know that-”
“Shut up! You should be in this with me and not going against me… you have seen it yourself how I punished those people who are responsible for Sabrina’s death… anyone who is going against me will face the same fate, understand!” Selena had no choice but to nod in fear. She knew her grandmother too well to even think of going against her wish or command. The icy stare from her grandmother was enough to tie up all her intestines into one big knot.
Four years have passed and within those painful four years, Selena remembered how her grandmother changed. She spent most of her time locking herself up in the room learning and practicing black magic spells, which she had learnt during her younger days. Ever since she had her own family, she had promised Selena’s late grandfather that she will stop practicing those spells but because of Sabrina’s death, she broke her own promise.
In that four years too, Selena realized that she had not only lost her beloved twin sister but also her grandmother. The figure standing before her was no longer the cheerful, loving and forgiving sweet old lady who lived her life in simplicity but instead, the one standing in front of her was an old woman with evil plan who will go to any extent as long as her revenge be accomplished.
Selena was not sure how long she has been in a daze and by the time she faced the reality bites, she felt a sharp pain slicing through her palm. There was nothing much that she can do, in fact she was powerless and weak. The process of filling up the faded golden bowl was exhausting her and she knew sooner or later, she will die for losing blood. After having the bowl filled up with the sweet virgin blood of her twenty-one year old granddaughter, she pushed the helpless girl aside and walked out of the room with great satisfaction glowing on her face.
“Please… help me… please grandma…” Cried Selena but none of her cries or pleads were heard as the door was shut leaving her alone to console herself with her tears.
Selena forced herself up from the floor and looked out of her window, which was secured by metallic grills so as to prevent her from running away. Even if the window was bare and naked without any grills or wooden planks, there was no way she can ever escape from her grandmother. She had tried before and it turned out to be one fatal mistake. Everything was planned a few days before the attempt and she thought she had it well prepared.
She will go to her twin sister’s grave a day before the actual killing took place to make some offerings and chanted some mantras as a source of summoning her soul from the other world. After chanting and did the usual rites, Selena kissed her sister’s tomb as to bid her final farewell. She wanted to leave the house, the town and those dark memories. She wanted to start life afresh but just as she thought she was about to lead a new life, a sudden major punching pain began to attack her maliciously that she felt her eyeballs almost goggled out.
Each time the pain attacked her, it was like having the hole drills drilling her temples at the same time. It was then she realized, her grandmother had discovered her plan and put her on a spell. The only way to relief the pain was to go back home to her grandmother. Knowing how precious she was in that crucial project, her grandmother did not punish her for trying to run away from home, instead she was locked in her room for days without food as a sign that nothing escaped from her grandmother’s eyes.
Those were the moments she hated most in her life. To be kept as prisoner in her own home and to be used by someone whom she trusted most was like having a sharp knife stuck at her back for the rest of her life.
Selena released a soft sigh as she stared at the dark sky outside. It was beautiful glittered with thousands of stars. Selena used to wish upon those stars but not anymore. She has lost all her hopes for a miracle and there was nothing left to wish for. Even if she makes a wish for each star high up in the sky, she knew none would come true.
Slowly she wiped off her tears. It was not the first time she felt that way of being hurt and betrayed but each time had always been a first-time for her. If it was not for the pain that gave her a constant reminder of her living in death, she would have lost sight of herself. Even the reflection on the mirror showed a stranger instead of her. Sometimes she wondered how much more tears she had to shed before everything will finally be over.
She shook her head lightly and stared at her palm. The blood had dried up but that did not bother her at all as she focused on other visible ugly marks and scars to prove what kind of a life she had as a teenager. While other girls of her age had all the time to enjoy and savour all those precious moments with their friends, school and family, she was being outcast simply because her grandmother wanted to protect her from suffering the same fate as her twin sister. She shook her head again and steadied herself to her bed. The jabbing pain in her head had stopped and in a slow motion she laid her head down on a soft pillow. The cut was left unattended. Perhaps she was too hurt in her heart to even mind the cut. In her tears too, she slowly fell asleep.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The moment they stepped inside the hospital, almost all eyes went on them. There were a few patients waiting at the lobby for their turn to be consulted by the doctors on duty, a few nurses stationed at the reception area and two security guards making their usual rounds before they went back to their respective patrolling station in the hospital. Sam and Dean exchanged looks before Dean raised his eyebrow as a signal for them to move on.
Even though it was the first time they were in that hospital, they were treated with wide smiles and warmth friendliness from some of the staff there.
“Night Doctor…” Greeted one of the nurses who was believed to be in her mid thirties.
“Oh good night…”
“Angie.”
“Oh yes… night to you too Angie…” Dean reciprocated with a smile.
“Thanks… I’ve never seen you both in here before… who are you and which department are you from?” Sam turned to Dean who gave him a raised in the eyebrows as he tried to shoot for a name on the department part.
“Oh… we’re actually from eerr…” By this time, Sam knew Dean needed help.
“We are from the Health Records Department. I’m Doctor Maney and this is Doctor Steve.” Sam replied as he showed his ID.
“Right right… so you guys are from the Health Records Department… but I thought the HR Department has closed for the day?”
“Oh yes they… I mean we do but we are here on an assignment… we are from Alexander Hospital actually… we were sent to look at the recent killing cases. You know how they want us to submit a report and stuff… I hate reports.” Dean said in his casual mannered. It was not the best acting from him but enough to convince the nurse.
“I see… well, then I guess the best person to show you around would be Professor White but he’s not in at the moment… why are you coming this late? Can’t wait for tomorrow?” She asked again, not leaving the suspicious stare away from the brothers.
“I wish we can but the reports kinda urgent… they want to finish up with the other records and stuff… you know these people, they can hardly wait. If they want it that day, then you need to finish it up on that day itself… not a minute later. So where can we find this Professor?”
“Well… Doctor Steve… you can take the lift here and go to the 2nd floor and turn to your right. You will then see a Post-Mortem Laboratory… I think he should be back in half to one hour’s time… maybe you guys can take a rest first at the cafeteria?”
“Thank you so much for your assistant… we really appreciate that!” Dean said as she took the nurse’s hand and gave her a warmth handshake. Pleased by Dean’s action, the nurse gave him a pat on his shoulders and shone a smile at Sam.
“Do look for me if you need any help.”
“Sure we will! Thanks!” Dean gave a short wave and led Sam to the lift. The moment they were inside the life, Sam gave a short relief sigh.
“What was that all about? Alexander Hospital? Where did that come from?” Sam asked as he continued to breathe in deeply.
“I saw the name from one of the files… speaking about me, where did that Health Records Department come from?” Chuckled Dean.
“I watched ER alright.”
“Haha… someone is watching TV afterall.” Dean teased his younger brother as they walked out of the lift.
“Haha… is that even supposed to be something amusing?” Sam asked as he rolled his eyes.
“Well… at least to me!” Dean said as he fastened his pace and walked ahead of Sam.
After following the earlier directions given by the nurse, the two brothers walked on until they came across a medium-sized green board with dark green letterings of “Post-Mortem Laboratory”. Sam kept a lookout while Dean used his expertise to break in the laboratory by just slotting a card.
“You sure the body is still here?” Sam asked as he closed the door softly behind him.
“There’s only one way to find out.” Dean said as he walked towards the movable metallic bed at the centre of the room. Occasionally he would stop and turned back at Sam wondering sometimes why he had to do the dirty job. Sam gestured with his hands for Dean to move on and Dean reciprocated that with a “I know” kind of smirk. Then he took out his EMF meter and pointed to all directions to detect for any paranormal activity in the room. The reading indicated the temperature to be as normal so Dean kept the portable instrument back in his pocket.
“Quick Dean! We don’t have all night!” Sam had no intention of interrupting but if Dean continued to take his own sweet time, he afraid that they might be caught for trespassing and worst still if they had to spend the night in the cell.
“I know I know… don’t hurry me!” Whispered Dean as he pulled up the white cloth.
Watching a pale dead body was never a beautiful sight for both of them. They had seen blood splattering around and body parts been dismantled but the sight before their very eyes indeed took them by surprise. Dean studied the motionless figure lying cold on the operating table with stitches on the body and compared it with the picture he had brought along with him earlier on.
Weird how the man in the picture who once looked so suave and full suddenly became deflated as if something else has sucked his entire flesh. Even though it was merely left with thin layer of skin covering the white bone, still he cannot figure out how his death was linked up to be the cause of sudden heart attack or hypertension of blood pressure. In fact his lips were purplish and his eyes were all white. Not a sign of a natural death to them. Dean turned to Sam and Sam shared that look as they both knew something else killed him.
“I don’t think… any doctors can verify the actual cause of his death huh?” Whispered Sam.
“Come on Sammie! You don’t expect them to go all out and say “the victims were being sucked up by some supernatural force”? All these are just cover up… you know to keep the record clean.” Continued Dean.
“So… what do you think we should do now?”
“I think for a start… maybe you can take pictures of this body and…we’ll see what we can find from there.” Suggested Dean as he walked around the table and took the report file hanging next to the bed.
Without protesting, Sam took out his digital camera and began to snap pictures of the dead body from all different angles. Once in a while he would stop to gain more composure of himself. He wondered how much have Dean seen in his so-called short hunting trips. How many dead bodies have he witnessed and how many demons have he killed.
“Sammie? Sammie! Are you alright?” Dean asked when he saw Sam stood still looking at him.
“Yeah I’m fine… so, what do you get from there?” Sam asked as he continued with his photographing.
“Not much… just some scribbles here and there… I wonder how people can actually understand a doctor’s handwriting?” Dean was busy browsing at the information when suddenly the door opened.
“Who… who are you people? How did you get into my lab? What are you doing with my corpse? And you… put the report down before I call for the security!” Threatened the old man as he pointed at Dean with his walking stick.
“Look Sir… please… we can explain-”
“Explain what? You barge into my lab without my permission and that is enough to land you both into deep trouble!” Said the man as he continued raising his voice in a threatening mannered.
“Please let me explain… we’re from Alexander Hospital and we were-”
“I knew it! I knew it!” Interrupted the old man as he shook his head.
“Sorry?” Dean asked again.
“I knew those people over there thought we were fabricating stories about the dead bodies here and thought I am not doing my job just because I am going to retire soon… they thought I can’t handle these stuff… what a joke! I’ve been in this line for more than twenty-years and yet they still send some… fresh amateurs to look at the things here.” He continued without giving Dean a chance to finish up his explanation. The situation would have not been in their favour if its not for that crucial give-away.
“Sorry to make you feel that way but… you know, just like you… we are merely doing our job… it sucks that we need to drive all the way here just to see these fleshless corpses… but… we do have a few questions for you if you don’t mind…” Dean wet his lips as he approached the older man.
“What is it?”
“After looking at the body, we realized that… its not a typical symptom of someone dying due to lack of oxygen in the head or heart attack as per to the report we received the other time.” Dean tried to be more careful with the information he gave so as not to arise any suspicious thoughts from the old man. The old man shook his head and limped his way to the body.
“You boys are still young… there are many things that you need to know when you get into this line. Things that you need to know as to when and how to cover up so that the media as well as the higher authority can stop bugging us with questions as to why and what all the time. And you… you are right my boy… that is not a typical symptom of lacking of oxygen in the head or heart attack but due to the blood being sucked out in one great force.” The explanation fascinated Dean as it proved his guess was right all the while but what could have caused that. So far he has not heard of any demon capable of doing that, or maybe there is now since the evidence was clear-cut right in front of him but what was it and how to kill it.
“Blood being sucked up in one great force? That doesn’t make sense to me.” Sam said.
“Of course… its not something that a man can do… its more like… I know this sounds a little bit stupid and silly but…”
“Its okay… you can say it, we’re listening.” Sam continued.
“Its just something that a supernatural force can do… killing someone without causing much pain but at the same time, sucking all the air and blood from a victim’s body… that alone cannot be determined by any Scientific reasons or medical explanation.” Explained the old man with full of hands gestures.
“So in other words, can I take it that the other three victims were suffering from the same thing as well? Air and blood sucked out from the victims?” The old man hung his glasses down from the beck of his nose after getting that question from Sam. He smiled at the brothers.
“That’s what I figure out. I’ve been in this line for more than twenty years… and this is the first time I am seeing such corpses… ironic that these victims were friends in life and suffered the same fate in death.”
“You know them?” This time, it was Dean who asked.
“Of course… I mean not personally till the day I got to cut them up for post-mortem.” Laughed the old man as he walked back to his table with the brothers followed him from behind. “I know them since the day they were put on trial for the raping and killing a young girl.” As though they could understand each other through telepathy, both brothers gave each other a quick smile before they turned back to the old man.
“You mean as… the girl being raped and murdered by these four victims?” Dean asked to confirm.
“Yes but I guess it pays off to have an influential parents in the town so they managed to escape from the gallows or life imprisonment.” Then the old man paused. His short pause cause a weird atmosphere in the room, as if the air was filled with regrets and grieves.
“Are you alright?” Dean asked.
“I’m fine… its just that… now that you mention about the case… I can practically see the poor girl lying on that same bed.”
“You mean…”
“Yeah… I was in charged of making the post-mortem report on the girl. She was raped and killed. I took the DNA and sent it over for process but…”
“What happen?” Sam asked again.
“But I was told that the only strong evidence has been tampered with and that its tainted with other DNA that the Court ruled that out as part of the evidence. The five of them went on trial but managed to escape when the magistrate decided to dismiss the case… now, four years later, four of them are already dead…”
“So you think its something to do with that case?” Dean let Sam did all the questioning until he can find a question himself.
“I don’t know young man… I’m not a magician or someone who can tell you what or who caused the deaths of these men but as a human being, I could have that as my first guess.”
“You know the name of the girl who was raped and murdered?” Dean took out his pen and waited for the old man to mention a name.
“Now… you need to give this old man some time to remember…” The old man then stared hard in the empty space in front of him as he creased his forehead and then bit his upper lips to recall the name. “I really need to apply for an advance retirement I guess… let me see…” He laughed and stopped abruptly to put on his thinking cap again. Sam and Dean forced a short laugh as they exchanged glances and waited anxiously.
“Well… you know what… I think its okay Mr….” It was Dean now who tried to remember his name as mentioned by Nurse Angie earlier on.
“Just call me Professor White… everyone calls me that in here.”
“Yes yes… Professor White… I think its getting late and we better make a move first… if we should need anymore information about these… we’ll get back to you again.” Dean stretched out his hands for a shake.
“Sure… just come in and perhaps a knock beforehand the next time you come in would be nice.” Said Professor White in sarcasm but still with a wide smile on his face.
“Yeah sure… sorry about that… we’ll definitely give you a knock first before we enter next time.”
“By the way… what’s your name?” Professor White turned to Dean.
“I’m… I’m Doctor Steve… and this is my colleague, Doctor Maney. Thanks so much for your time… I think we better get going now and won’t disturb you with your work… ”
“Sure… no problem at all…”
Just when Sam and Dean made their way out of the post-mortem laboratory, Professor White called out to them.
“Doctor Steve… just out of curiosity… how did both of you get in here without my key?” Dean looked at Sam and Sam gave him the you-are-on-your-own-dude kind of look.
“Oh… we… the door was not locked earlier on.” The professor gave Dean an unconvincing look on his face.
“It was not lock?”
“Yeah… we asked around and someone showed us to your room and said you most probably be in and that’s when we went in. We were surprised too that its not lock.”
“Oh… I am really getting old now… I need to retire early before I forget to do anything else…” Mumbled the old professor as he closed the door behind him.
The minute the door was shut, they both released heavy relief sighs. Dean could still feel his heartbeat drilling to the maximum rate whereas for Sam, each time the old professor turned to him, he felt a long pause in his heartbeat.
“That was good.” Dean said as he patted on his brother’s shoulder.
“Yeah right… we were this close just now… this close of spending the night in the station.” Continued Sam as he shook his head.
“Oh come on Sammie! Everything just turned out fine isn’t it?”
“And its all thanks to your smart-butt talking cap!”
“Yeah, thanks to my smart-butt talking cap that it saved your butt and mine earlier on.”
“You should cause you are making me put my butt in this one!”
“Right… talk as if I’m not putting mine in it-”
“Night Doctor Steve… night Doctor Maney.” Greeted one of the nurses who walked passed by them.
“Night…” Dean and Sam greeted in unison. Her sashay attracted Dean as he continued to look at her without a blink.
“Did you see that?”
“What?” Asked Sam anxiously.
“Nice butt!”
“Oh stop it Dean-”
“Hey! We are still in the hospital so call me Doctor Steve.”
“Yeah yeah yeah whatever…” Said Sam as he rolled his eyes and fastened his pace to exit the main lobby and walked out towards the parking lot. Dean walked and making full use of the attention he got by some of the nurses at the reception counter as well the ones in the main lobby before he finally got himself out of the hospital and walked to his car with a huge grin on his face.
“Let’s go!”
“Where are we going?”
“We’ll go back to our room, take a hot shower… enjoy supper and sleep well for tonight before we go and pay Annie a visit to know more about this guy… and then we’ll work things out from there.”
“Sounds logical to me.”
“As always.”
“I know I shouldn’t have said that.” Sam said as he rolled his eyes for the second time that night and shook his head lightly while Dean laughed at him. After spending three weeks on the road together, in a way they both managed to adapt to each other’s way of handling things. Dean felt their relationship as brothers became closer than before while Sam began to realize what he had missed in their relationship as brothers.
Author's Notes:
Hope you like it and yes, as usual reviews are highly appreciated! Thanks!
Dean knew he was sleeping, and in fact he was too engrossed in catching up with his sleep until a soft creaking sound woke him up. He did not move or even tried to move fearing a fatal move could endanger Sam who was still sleeping on the other bed. Since his face was hidden under his arm and both his hands were always underneath the pillow holding tight to a weapon, he was using his guts feelings and his sixth sense in getting ready as to when and how to pounce on whoever or whatever it was in the room with them.
Remember Dean… shoot first and ask later. His father’s words kept playing in his head.
Then he felt a weight at the edge of the bed. He wondered if he should slide the weapon out right there and then or wait. He took the latter suggestion and waited. No further movement from whoever or whatever it was on his bed. Then the moment he felt a hand or something trying to reach for his shoulder, he forgot all about the weapon and grabbed whatever he could to make a sudden counter-attack.
“Ouch! Dean! My arm!” Groaned the voice as Dean pushed him down and twisted his left arm to the back.
“Sam?” Realizing that it was Sam, Dean released the grip and helped his brother up.
“What the hell was that about?” Shouted Sam as he stood back on his feet and pulled his arm away from Dean who looked totally apologetic.
“Sorry… I thought it was-”
“What? Demon?” Snapped Sam as he massaged his own arms and sat on his own bed.
“Fine… I’m sorry alright… but where the hell did you go? Sneaking in like that… you can’t blame me for… for that you know…” Dean said as he sat back on his bed and rubbed both his eyes.
“That was indeed a nice thank you from you.” Sam said sarcastically. “Here, I got this for you.” He continued as he reached for the paper bag and handed over a cup of hot drink and a small bag of muffins for breakfast.
“Hmmm… what’s this?” Dean asked as he took a sip of the hot drink. He was not sure if he liked the taste but its definitely tasted weirdly nice.
“Local speciality… that’s what they called it… Hot Blended Mocca I think. Here… muffin for you and guess what?”
“What?”
“Benny’s body is going to be buried this morning and not sure if now is the best time for us to get to Annie.”
“How did you know that?” Dean asked as he licked his lips in enjoying the drink.
“I asked around and they said Annie requested for the body to be buried today because she wanted to leave this town before giving birth to her first child.”
“Well… whether its appropriate or not, we still have to do it Sam… you know that. Its either we ask and save a life or we wait and someone else get killed.”
“I know that Dean but you saw what happen to her yesterday.”
“Look Sammie… I know its hard on her Sammie but we don’t much choice either… we have to do what we have to do.”
Sam nodded his head without looking at Dean. That was the one thing about Sam that Dean worried most. He was too soft-hearted and because of that he often ended up being the target of those flirting demons out there. Not that he was jealous of his brother, not with the demons of course but sometimes he wished he had that sense of sensitivity like Sam.
“Well… enjoy your breakfast, I’ll go and take my shower first… then we’ll go and visit Annie.” Dean said as he walked towards the bathroom with a towel draped on his shoulder.
Sam switched on his laptop and began to search for any newspaper articles on the raped and murdered trial mentioned by Professor White on the net. While waiting for the results to show, Sam took several sips of his drink. It took a while for the browser to finally came up with thousands of such cases around the world and Sam narrowed it down by giving a country name and the number of search results became smaller until Sam tracked it down specifically down to Saint Town.
There were fifteen search results and Sam scrolled down until he came upon the last search on page two.
“The rape and murder trial of Sabrina Ash began today…” Sam clicked on the said article posted by one of the local residents. The link brought Sam to a personal site where the poster put up newspaper articles of the said trial from day one till the end of the verdict.
As he scrolled down and clicked on various links, he finally came upon a page where it showed a clear picture of Sabrina Ash in her favourite white gown as stated on the papers.
“This can’t be…” Sam whispered as he leaned forward closely to the screen. Those clear blue eyes looked familiar as he tried to find a sense of recognition in them.
“Sam? Sammie? Hey Sammie!” Dean’s voice broke into Sam’s deep thought. Sam gave Dean a shocking look as if he saw something flying out of the monitor screen. “What?” Dean asked again.
“I saw HER the other day.” Sam said, pointing to the screen in front of him.
“What?” Dean asked as he walked over to Sam. “This girl? Who is she? Is she a nurse?” Dean asked and walked back to his bed to look for a pair of new shirt from his bag. Sam looked away from the monitor and turned to his brother who only had a towel around his waist, baring his chest and six-abs. Though the abs were not as firm as the ones he had, still he had to admit that his brother was looking good for someone who hardly had the time to do any workout.
While trying to get the right words out from his mouth, Sam sub-consciously engaged in deep thoughts again as a picture of the same girl on the screen came flashing back in his mind.
“Sammie? Sammie!”
“What?”
“I should be asking you that! What are you looking at?” Dean asked warily as he raised his eyebrow.
“Eeerr…. nothing…”
“Nothing? You were looking at me without a blink dude… now you are freaky me out!” Continued Dean as he put the shirt on followed by his faded jeans.
“Remember the other day… outside Benny’s house… I told you to wait for me in the car… I saw this girl standing behind the tree and I swear Dean… I saw THIS girl!” Sam continued as he pointed to the Sabrina Ash on the screen.
“Okay… so is she a nurse?”
“She’s dead Dean… she is Sabrina Ash, the girl whom Professor White told us about…”
“Wait a second… you mean the raped and murdered case that happened four years ago?” Sam nodded his head. “Okay… and you said you saw HER the other day.”
“Ditto that!”
“Does that mean…” Dean turned to Sam and without any further explanation, they both seemed to understand what went through in each other’s minds.
“I don’t know… but if she IS really the one who has been raped and killed… then we definitely have to find her before she starts killing again.”
“You know what… this reminds me of this one case in dad’s journal… the only way to kill such bad spirit or soul from wandering and disturbing the livings is by burning their dead bodies into ashes… so I guess, you know what to do right?” Dean said.
“No wonder she said ITS not meant to be caught.” Sam said softly recalling those words from their first encounter the other day.
“What did you say?”
“Huh? Nothing…”
“You ready to go?” Dean asked as he put on his jacket and slipped in a small bottle of Holy Water in his jeans pocket.
“Yeah.” Sam said as he grabbed his jacket from the chair and followed Dean out of the room.
--------------------------------------------------------------
That morning was filled up with silence and grieves lingering in the air. Occasionally it was broke by the cries and wails of some of the visitors at the burial ground. The place that used to be empty by the presence of visitors recently seemed to be attracting a lot of attention locally and from other towns as well due to its mysterious killing news. Dean and Sam did not join the crowd for the burial ceremony, instead they waited till the whole procedure was over before they walked over to extend their condolences as well as to get the information from the anguish widow.
“Hi Annie…” Annie looked up and saw Dean approaching her with someone whom she recognized as Father Chris.
“Oh Fathers… thanks for coming.” Annie said as the brothers stood in front of them to give their condolences and a short hug.
“We are sorry for your loss Annie… on behalf of everyone from the welfare and church, we extend our deepest condolences to you.” Said Dean as other guests keep coming and leaving, giving their short condolences and warmth-wishes to the widow at the same time.
“Thank you… this is just so unbelievable… it seems like only yesterday we were so happy when he found out about my pregnancy. We were supposed to buy a new crib for the baby… but now…” Annie tried to control herself from breaking down as she kept clearing her throat to get her voice out without much shaking in them. Once a while she would cover her nose with a piece of tissue and wiped the tears away from her eyes.
“I’m sorry Annie… but you’ve got to be strong… at least for your baby…” Sam said as he gave her a short hug again.
“Thanks Father.”
“Annie… I know this is not the right time yet but… we need to ask you a couple of questions about… about Benny’s death.” Annie gave Dean a peculiar look. How much insensitive could he be, she thought as she shook her head and looked down at the ground. “Please Annie… we need to know a few things from you…” Dean insisted again.
“What do you mean? I… I don’t get it.”
“We need to ask you about Benny’s death and… and…”
“And what?”
“And we believe that his death is related to the other deaths before him and if we can get your help… then we believe that we can stop the next death.”
“What? What do you mean by the next death? You mean… there is going to be another death?” Annie asked in deep curiosity wondering how much further can she absorb the news.
“Well… that provided that we are right and that you can help us with few crucial information that we need from you.”
“Hey Annie! Are you coming?” Called a lady from afar who was waving at Annie. They notice it was the same lady who stood next to her throughout the entire ceremony but was told to leave first when they requested to talk to her in private.
“Coming!” Annie replied but still did not budge at all. Seeing Annie was with some guests, the lady continued walking to the black Mercedes.
“Annie? Please?”
“I don’t know…”
“Please Annie… we really need your help. We promise we won’t come and disturb you ever again once we get these information from you.” Said Sam.
“But why me?”
“Because we believe Benny did tell you something or that you do know something about what is going on right?” Dean continued.
“Please Annie, we need to know what is it that he told you or at least what is it that you know.”
Annie heard the persistence in Sam’s voice and the determination on Dean’s face that she felt she could no longer keep the secret. Perhaps the two gentlemen who stood before her were fated to be her saviours or someone whom she can entrusted the secret to.
“Annie?” Dean’s voice got into her head like a jab.
“That night… before Simon’s death, he came to our house looking for Benny. His face was pale and white as if… as if he has seen a ghost or something. I woke Benny up and they both went into the study room. They were talking so loud… more like arguing and I overheard them saying that Tim and Andy had died and Simon keeps on mentioning about his nightmare and Benny told him… not to worry, they will be alright… but ever since that day, Benny had a recurring nightmares about someone chasing after him and wanted to kill him.” Annie then stopped to catch her breath.
“Then what happen?”
“I thought he was just being too pressurized with work and imagining things… so I suggested him to go and see a psychiatrics.”
“Did that work?” Asked Sam again.
“The psychiatrics did not mention anything wrong except that he told me Benny needs to rest from work and he’s emotion is badly affected though I have no idea why.”
“Did Benny ever tell you anything about his past?” Dean’s question caught her by surprise.
“What do you mean his past?” Annie asked feeling a little bit agitated to be pressurized in giving information. She thought she had enough with the policemen coming to her every now and then with various constables every time asking the same old thing. Now she had to deal with the two “fathers” who insisted on knowing about Benny and his past.
“Sorry to pressurize you like this Annie.” Dean said as if he could read her mind. “But we feel there’s a connection to everything that is happening in here right now… and we need to at least get to the bottom of this thing before we can help Benny.”
“Well… I…”
“Annie… we can help you if you be frank with us.” Sam said.
“He did have a bad history… or rather a very horrible one.”
“You mean the raped and murdered trail that happened four years ago?” Annie nodded her head and then shook her head in disbelief as she turned to look at Sam.
“Yeah… it was a famous case in here isn’t it… almost everyone knows about it…”
“What did he tell you about that case?”
“I only got to know about the case two years ago when we got back here in this town… sadly it didn’t come from him but from the neighbours… they said he was involved and ever since they were acquitted, he left the town. When I asked him… he said he was innocent and was framed.”
“Did you believe him?” Sam asked.
“At first I thought yeah… maybe he was framed or else… how would he be able to be freed from the case… but recently… he kept talking in his sleep that made me wonder if he is really the innocent party.”
“What do you mean by that?” Annie turned to Dean and then she massaged her tummy lightly.
“Look I’m really worn out right now… I think I better go-”
“Wait Annie! Benny is already dead and another person’s life is at stake if you don’t help us… at least even if its true Benny had made a mistake in his lifetime… we need to know what is it that he did so that we can make his soul rest in peace and… that he will have no difficulty in the other world… we need to correct what he has done.” Annie stopped again as she turned away from Sam.
“That night… the night before his death, he had that dream again. He screamed a name… and begging for his life. He said he was wrong to do it but he wanted to atone his crimes and sins towards her by taking care of her family… when I woke him up, he was perspiring hard and hardly can breathe… that was when I realized all these while… he lied to me.”
“Do you still remember whose name he called out?” Dean asked.
“Sabrina.”
Author's Notes:
Hi Supreme Overlord! Thanks for dropping by and yeah, i can see that my story is pretty long and since English is NOT my first language too so i hope in a way what i am trying to describe and tell the readers are quite understandable and readable. hee... Anyway, Chapter 6 is up and its dedicated to everyone who takes the time to read it. Reviews are highly appreciated and thanks in advance!
Apart from the nightmare, there was no further information even on the trial, which he once was taken into custody as one of the accused in the trial stand because like what Annie had told them earlier on that she only got to know about the whole trial when they came back to Saint Town after Benny was transferred back to his homeground for a business reason.
Johnny McWright was the last name given by Annie. The name they both been looking and searching for. Annie had mentioned names of Andy, Tim, Simon and of course the latest victim was her husband and hearing Johnny McWright’s name was something new to the brothers. In an instant, the picture came clear in their heads.
“So where is this Johnny McWright?” Dean asked.
“He came early and left.” Annie said.
“Why?” Sam exchanged glances with his brother before he turned back to Annie. .
“I don’t know… he says something about work and that he needs to go back home immediately and stuff... like I care!”
“Did he mention anything weird before he leaves just now? Maybe something similar as to Benny?” Now it was Dean who asked.
“I don’t know… I really don’t know… but one thing I know is that… its only after death you get to know who is your real friend and partner… to think that my husband has always sing praises of him, idolize him but he can’t even have that patience of waiting till the whole ceremony is over to leave.” Said Annie in a regretful mannered.
“Do you know where he lives Annie?” Dean asked again.
“Yeah… for someone who doesn’t like to socialize with people he lives further from all of us. Once you get out from here, take the road leading to the Smith’s farmyard. Once you find Smith’s farmyard… you are not far away from his home…. But… not sure if you can still catch him there though coz he sounded pretty urgent to leave just now.”
“Its okay Annie, we’ll try our luck there. Thanks for your help-”
“Wait… why all these interrogations? I thought its supposed to be the police’s work? Why… I mean why would a Father want to go through all these things? Are you both really Fathers? Or…” Annie asked in curiosity.
“No.. no… we are from the Church but because they suffered such a… a terrifying death so… we decided to help them out so that… their souls can rest in peace once their work here is done. You know sometimes its quite a pity to see a restless souls out there wandering about the Earth because they have no one to turn to and because of that both Father Chris and myself… we decided to help in whatever way we could.” Preached Dean confidently while Sam nodded his head in agreement.
“I’m sorry… I’m… I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have such doubts-”
“No no… its okay… we are used to it already now.” Continued Dean with Sam forcing a convincing smile behind him.
“Right then… I guess I better get going…”
“Sure… thanks once again for your crucial help. It means a lot to us. Do take care.” Annie still wore that suspicious mark as she nodded at Dean, turned to Sam and walked towards the black Mercedes. It did not take long before the black Mercedes sped off and left the burial area.
“What do you think?”
“About what?”
“That she’s telling the truth?”
“I don’t know Sammie… maybe there’s one way to find out.” Dean said as he took out his car key and walked back to his car.
After getting a more detailed instruction on how to get to Johnny McWright’s home, both brothers got themselves ready for the unexpected.
“So its true this is a case of a spirit seeking for revenge… ” Exclaimed Sam as he turned to his brother.
“What’s new? If you are brutally killed… you think you can rest in peace with no justice being done upon your death. And what’s worst when you are just like what? 17? Its like having your long life cut short.”
“No wonder she warned me the other day…” Muttered Sam softly.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing… its just that… there is one thing that I don’t get it.”
“What?”
“I mean… Dean look, she died four years ago and the killings only happening this year… four years later… the big question is WHY now?”
“Hmmm… maybe she has just graduated from some seeking revenge course or something. You know… seeking revenge is not an easy task.” As someone who was truly satisfied and amused by his own answer, Dean flashed a smile at Sam.
“Funny Dean!” Dean’s answer was reciprocated with a deep glare from Sam.
“What? Alright alright… but we really need to get to this Johnny guy before she does.”
“You think this Johnny guy believe us?” Asked Sam as he knew how some skeptical some people were when they were told of such things.
“I don’t know but with what is happening right now, he has to coz we’re just trying to save his ass afterall!” Dean said as he made a turn at the road junction leading to Johnny’s residence.
“Okay, what IF… he doesn’t believe us, what are we going to do?”
“We’ll tie him up and keep him in the wardrobe.”
“I’m serious Dean! What are we going to do if he doesn’t believe us, what if we didn’t get to him on time today… what if he has already left.”
“Then I guess we can see Sabrina booking for the flight ticket as well…”
“Dean this is not the time to joke around alright!” Sam sounded annoyed at his brother as he threw his hands in the air as a sign of giving up. Dean only smiled. What else can he do? That was his style of doing work and he knew if he had to take everything seriously, he would eventually one day end up in the asylum. Dean shook his head to brush that thought away.
“A soul is more powerful in a place where she was killed and by having all four of them back in the same town will only strengthen her motive for revenge. Johnny can’t escape from this even if he leaves but for as long as he’s still in this town, we’ll have to make sure that he’s unharmed.”
“But don’t you think he deserve it Dean? I mean… as if you have not done enough damage with raping her, you killed her, and worst still you escaped from the gallows just because of the double-standard in the society. I feel that I am helping a killer.” Sam said as he bit his fingernails and faced the green field outside.
“Hey… maybe he’s the killer, maybe he’s not… and if he IS really guilty, I doubt the police would want to re-open that case and having him up for trial again… we need to know the truth not to help him but the poor soul… prevent the soul from killing more people but at the same time try to rectify some things so that she can rest in peace.” Dean said in both consoling and convincing tone. Sam nodded his head lightly as he leaned back to his seat and promised to himself that he will try his best to help Sabrina.
“Alright… here we are…” Dean parked his car outside the gate of the house. It was a huge four-storey house in faded blue paint, had a large statue of a dolphin decorating the pond at the center of the open space and the sight of his car in the garage made them smile in relief.
“Thank God we’re not too late.” Sam said as he closed the door behind him and walked up to Dean.
“You bet!” Dean pressed the red button and waited for a response.
“Yes?”
“Oh hello! Is Mr. Johnny McWright in? Can we see him?” Asked Dean from the speaker next to the red button.
“Who are you?”
“Oh! I’m Father Mahoney and this is Father Chris. We need to see Mr. Johnny McWright… regarding Benny.” Not long after that the metallic gate gave a creaking sound as it opened up for the guests.
“You sure you wanna do this Dean?” Whispered Sam.
“Do you have to ask me now when we are already in?” Dean whispered back.
They passed by a green and polluted pond with dolphin-sculptured statue that they saw earlier on from afar. The water in it had almost dried up and had turned green with mud, soil and dried leaves as well as dirty green moulds on the walls. The house looked welcoming and grand from outside but as they got closer, they noticed that the house was barely being taken care of. It looked like it has been deserted for years.
While they were looking around at the surrounding of the house, a tall thin man stood at the doorstep caught their attention. He looked weary with black bags underneath both eyes, hair was messy, unshaven beard and it was the mole that made him looked familiar.
“Who are you guys? What do you want from me?” He asked in a deep husky and unfriendly voice.
“I’m Father Mahoney and this is Father Chris-”
“Yeah yeah yeah I saw you both this morning.”
“This morning?” Sam asked.
“At the graveyard. What do you want?” Sam exchanged turned to Dean and gave him a wary look.
“But we didn’t see you just now-”
“Because I have to leave early to pack my things. What is it that you want? I don’t have all day for this.” He snapped into Sam’s sentence sounded impatience and irritating mannered.
“We need to ask you a few questions about your friends… Tim, Handy, Simon and… Benny.” Johnny took the picture from Dean. His hands were trembling and so were his lips. They were moving as if they were trying to say something.
“Mr. McWright… are you alright?” Sam asked.
“Yes…yes… I’m perfectly alright… until all these things happen.” He said hesitatingly.
“Maybe you wanna tell us what happen?” Johnny looked at Sam and shook his head lightly as he walked to the veranda.
“Please Mr. McWright… we need to know what happen.” Dean said as he peeked through the glasses and saw a lady feeding her child in the dining room.
“Why does that matter now? They are dead anyway-”
“Yes, they are dead but you are not… yet… thought there’s a possibility that you could be next-”
“Who are you? What did you say? Don’t tell me its you guys who killed them?” His eyes scrutinized at the brothers as if he could get the truth out of that.
“No! No! You’ve got us wrong! We just want to help-”
“If you really want to help then why didn’t you help them before? Why did you let them die? Why?”
“The answer is not with us Mr. McWright, its with you. You do know the reason why they were killed, aren’t you?” Said Sam and he enforced certain kind of persistence in his tone.
“You DO know what is going on in here aren’t you Mr. McWright? Now that your other 4 best friends have died, no doubt that you are the next target… whether its based on foul play or not, you know you are going next which is why you plan to leave this place as soon as possible.” Dean’s voice convinced and scared him at the same time.
Johnny McWright kept quiet and remained silence for a few moments before he finally opened up.
“I just want to have fun.” He began his story. “I… I… I really have no intention of hurting her… I truly admire her… she is beautiful and drives most of us crazy with her beauty…” Then he received an instant flashback on what happened that night. His whole life changed because of that night, a night that has been haunting him for years.
“What happen that night?” Sam asked when he saw Johnny McWright got into deep in his thoughts.
“We were drunk that night and… Sabrina… yeah, her name was Sabrina… I heard her friends called her a few times… so that was how I got to know of her name… we were drunk and we saw her walking back home alone… so we thought of giving her a lift… you know… trying to act cool and stuff… but Tim was out of control… he grabbed her from behind and took her to the bushes. We ran after him… then I saw Handy… Simon and even Benny… taking turn to taste her… she was crying for help, she was bleeding… she was in pain… I tried… I tried to calm her down so that I can… let her go… but then she bit me.” Johnny stopped and showed a pair of teeth marks on his right arm that looked like an inerasable tattoos on his skin. Perhaps that was one obvious thing that gave him a constant reminder of the whole incident.
Dean and Sam looked at the marks and nodded their heads.
“Then you killed her?” Dean asked.
“I… I… I really didn’t mean to… she bit me and that made me angry… even though I was drunk, I know I am still in control of myself… but after she bit me… I… I became wild and started slapping her and hit her head a few times to the ground and then… then I… I…”
“What did you do?” Sam asked.
“I strangled her. I strangled her to death.”
“What? So its true that you guys raped and killed her-”
“No! They did the dirty part… and I merely trying to cover up everything in my anger.” Said Johnny in his most remorseful mannered. “I know its my fault… I should have controlled myself but… but I was too mad at that time… I just don’t know what to do… everything just happen you know…”
“One more question Mr. McWright… how did you guys manage to get away from the gallows? Apart from the statement that the entire evidence of DNA has been tainted.” Dean asked as he slipped both his hands in the jacket pockets.
“My father was an influential man. He has the power to change everything… even the name of trees in this town… tampering with the evidence to save his own son is his responsibility-”
“Responsibility… then I guess she is just carrying out what she believed to punish those who are responsible for her death.” Sam said.
“I know its my fault… I know… but please Fathers… please save me… please help me…” Dean was shocked to see him kneeling before him and slowly Dean took him by his arms. If it was not for that softer side of him, he would have kicked the man away and let him suffer to death for his incorrigible acts on such an innocent girl.
“We are not God Mr. McWright but we are trying our best to save you provided that we get to her before she gets to you…” Dean continued.
“Please… I’ll do anything… anything at all if you save me… I’ll accept any punishment for this! Please!”
“Just want you to know that we are doing this not only because we want to save you but because we pity the soul and because of them…” Dean said as he pointed to Johnny McWright’s wife and son aged two years old who were standing at the back of the glass panel looking at them.
“Its best that you stay indoor tonight Mr. McWright –”
“But I have a plane to catch…”
“Well, if you insist on risking your own life by all means…” Dean threw a smile on the lady and waved at the little boy as he walked away with Sam.
“So what do you want to do now?” Sam asked.
“Its already 3… we’ll get something to eat and then we’ll go and find this Sabrina Ash’s grave and burn her body.”
“You think that is going to end it all?”
“I don’t know Sammie but to be sure… I want you to stay and keep a lookout for this Johnny guy while I go and burnt the body.”
“Why must it always be me who keep a lookout? Let me burn her body.” Dean stopped and turned to Sam.
“Don’t you get it? I don’t want you to go because I don’t want anything bad to happen to you alright! I’ve promised dad that I’ll take care of you so now… nothing is going to change that.”
“What makes you so sure that she is not going to get me first before you?” Sam smirked hoping to get back at Dean.
“Well… look at who is at the graveyard trying to destroy her? If she is good, then she’ll have a strong hunch that someone is trying to burn her down.”
“Maybe we should do this together Dean… you and I… we should do this together.” Sam suggested but Dean only gave a strong headshake. “Fine! I just don’t get it… why, why you can’t let me make my own decision Dean? I’m old enough to take care of myself.” Sam asked furiously.
“We’ve gone through this before Sam and this is just not the right time to argue about this alright!” Dean said as he started his car and drove away from the McWright’s home.
Author's Notes:
The final 2 chapters are coming right up and right now i'm working on another destination [sequel] of the Winchester Brothers... VOICES DEEP WITHIN is coming soon...
That was not the first time she stood in front of the tombstone with her favourite white Lily as a gift to decorate the pale and plain grave. Slowly she picked up the dried flowers from her previous visits and threw them away; and tucked in the new fresh ones as she sat and faced the picture in front of her. She was lovely she thought of her twin sister. In fact, they were both gifted with the same height, same crystal blue eyes, same rosy cheeks and same long curly brunette hair. They were almost identical if its not for the small and distinguished mole on her left cheek to separate them both. Other than that, its more like seeing a reflection on the mirror.
Each time she went there, she felt her routine was more like a burden than having to do it out of her own willingness. She used to love going there, spending most of her time as if her twin sister was still alive but recently she felt more like having it as a chore. The reason why she had to go was not because she had to offer her prayers so that her twin sister will rest in peace but because its one of the procedures that they had to go through in order to bring her soul back for the unfinished job.
Selena had to bring a full bowl of her own blood to the graveyard and poured it down the tombstone and chanted a few spells as being taught by her grandmother the moment she poured it down so that her soul will listen to the instructions given later on. As she read and chanted the spell, she will cry her heart out wishing and hoping that her twin sister will listen to her cries and pleas more than the spells.
That day, was like any other day. She knew that would be the last time she had to do that but at the same time, she knew after killing the last person her twin sister’s soul will remain on earth as a restless and lost soul because from what she heard, her grandmother only had the power to summon her soul back to Earth but might not be able to send her back to the other world.
“Why is this happening to you… not enough that you’ve suffered so much on Earth… now you can’t even rest in peace there… I’m sorry that I have to do this… I wish I could be stronger to fight all these Sab… I wish I was dead so that we both can be together again…” Cried Selena as she hugged Sabrina’s tomb.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
“You sure you got it right Sam?” Dean asked as he stopped to catch his breath. He carried a haversack filled with his guns, bullets and Holy Water. In his hands, he had a spade and a soil digger.
“Yes Dean… you heard it yourself right? The grave-digger said once we find a huge tree then it means we are somewhere nearby… we just need to keep on moving.”
“Huge tree eh? Right… did he mention anything about counting the huge trees around? Like maybe Huge Tree 1 or Huge Tree 2 coz so far I haven’t come across any small tree yet.” Dean said sarcastically.
Sam threw a smirk and moved on. While they were walking and searching for the names at every tomb, they heard soft cries coming from afar.
“Did you hear that?” Sam asked.
“You think I’m deaf? Or course I can hear that…” Dean said as he took out the gun from underneath his shirt and held it tight while Sam kept hold of the bottle.
“Where do you think it comes from?”
“I don’t know…” Dean then took out his EMF box and inserted one of the earpiece in his ears as he pointed the box in different directions to sensor a presence. Then the needle pointed to his west and gave a loud scanning noise. “There!” Dean said as he pointed to his west.
True enough, after passing by this one huge tree they saw a figure hugging on to a tomb and with such melancholy cries they felt chill running down their spines.
“Is that her?” Sam asked.
“You’re asking me? You’ve seen her before right? Maybe you wanna ask her?” Dean joked as he smiled. Sam forced a sarcastic smile as he moved to the other side of the tree to peek at her.
“I think its her…” Sam whispered.
“How do you know?”
“I’ve seen her before right?” Dean nodded knowing that Sam had truly learnt the sarcastic traits from him well.
“So… are we going to wait for Christmas or what?” Dean whispered as he aimed at the figure.
“No Dean! Don’t shoot… we’ll go to her… I think she’s harmless.”
“Sammie, she killed FOUR guys and the fifth one is soon-to-be… what makes you think she’s harmless? I am not going to take any chances.”
“Please Dean! Listen to me… if she wants to hurt me, she would have done so the other time right? But she didn’t… instead she warned me to leave… that means she just want to kill those whom she thought is responsible for her death.” Whispered Sam in more forceful tone.
“You are just nuts you know that!”
“I’m learning that from you Dean!”
“Right!”
“Right!”
“Are we going now or what?” Dean asked again.
“Okay… here we go… one… two… three…”
“Sabrina?” Sam called out as he signaled to Dean to lower down his gun so as not to scare her off.
Selena stopped crying and was surprised to find she was not alone at the graveyard. She saw Sam and recognized him in a flash but when she saw Dean holding on to a gun, she stood up and tried to run away.
The two brothers gave a tight chase. Selena was fast to jump, skip and run at the same time as if the cemetery had always been her playground while the brothers had a tough time in trying to balance themselves from the uneven ground, position of the tombs and trees. Knowing that they could not possibly catch up with her, Dean and Sam went on separate ways hoping to catch her halfway before she reaches the gate.
Dean was still running behind her and occasionally commanded her to stop but Selena continued running until she lost her balance and tripped. Her forehead suffered a cut when she tripped and hit a tombstone. She must have hit it hard that she difficulty to stand up due to the pain and sudden giddiness. Dean ran over to her and began to sprinkle some Holy Water on her while Sam who managed to catch up with them from behind helped his brother by holding Selena down.
Seeing the Holy Water having no effect on Selena and her forehead was bleeding, both Dean and Sam exchanged their puzzling looks. Firstly, if she was a spirit or a soul perhaps the Holy Water would have taken its toil on her and they would be able to see smoke coming from her or worst still, she would have vanished by then. Secondly, she shed blood. Real red blood.
“Let me go! I say let me go! You are hurting me!” Groaned Selena as she retaliated from the hard grips by Sam.
“Look missy! If you keep on moving, there’s no way we can stop the blood isn’t it? We are not here to kill you so please… let us help you.” Dean said as he continued draping his small towel along the cut and on her cheeks to wipe the blood away. Selena could no longer feel the pain, she had gone through worst than that so what’s in the slight cut on her forehead she thought.
Selena stopped retaliating and Sam had stopped gripping her hands. When Dean had finished cleaning up the blood and dressing the cut, Dean sat in front of her and saw a glimpse of the fresh slicing cut on her palm as she pulled her hand down.
“Who are you?” Dean asked again.
“That’s not important. I have to go now-”
“Wait!” Sam took her by the arm and pulled her back.
“What else do you want?”
“Do you still remember me?” Selena recognized that face. Its not like everyday thing that she can actually memorize a person’s face because of her living situation.
“I do remember you.”
“Good… you warned me the other time remember? You said… ITS was never meant to be caught… what do you mean by that? And… how are you related to Sabrina Ash?” Sam asked releasing the grip on her arms.
“Why… why are you asking me all these questions?” Selena asked as she looked deep in Sam’s eyes.
“Because you know what is going on here… aren’t you?”
Selena walked away a few steps from Sam and sat on the ground with her head hung down in shame as she cried. She wanted to help them, she wanted to end all these miseries as soon as possible and she wanted to get away from all these as far as she could. She missed her life so much that she felt has totally lost contact with the outside world.
She wanted to tell them everything about her guardian, about Sabrina, about the revenge and about the last victim but she was afraid. Too afraid to be exact. Even though her grandmother was at home, she always has the feelings of someone watching her from afar so as to make sure she did not screw up the plan.
“I’m sorry… but you’ve got to leave.”
“Why? You’ve got to tell us…” Dean said as he looked at Sam and back to Selena.
“What… what you are dealing with right now is not something usual… you… its… I doubt you will believe me even if I tell you.”
“Try us.” Sam said.
“I’m not Sabrina… I’m Selena Ash… she’s my twin sister.” Dean thought it was a good brief introduction but they had to hurry up before its getting late to start on digging the grave.
“Go on… we’re listening.” Sam continued.
After giving the brothers a summary of what was going on in the house and revenge as the main motive of the serial killings going on in that town, Selena felt a sharp throbbing pain in her head. The pain was excruciating that she felt like shooting herself with Dean’s gun. The brothers were shocked to see her sprawling on the ground with pain and cries. Sam held her head up while Dean washed her face with the water. She felt relieved but only for a short while before the pain started to attack her head again.
“What is wrong with her Dean?” Sam asked in full alarmed.
“I don’t know… Selena! Selena! Are you alright?” In one great force, Selena pushed both of them away as she knew the sign behind those jabbing pain in her head.
“Selena? No!” Sam tried to stop her from leaving but she was too fast. She ran towards the gate and within seconds, she was out of sight.
“What the hell was that?” Dean asked as he coughed up due to the push on his chest that landed him somewhere in the middle of the graveyard.
“Are you alright there?” Sam asked as he walked over to his brother and helped him up.
“I’m still coughing, what does that tell you?” Dean asked as he cleaned up the soil from his jeans. “Where did she get that strength from?”
“I think… she has been summoned.” Sam said, grabbing the haversack and helped Dean back to Sabrina Ash’s tomb.
“I think you better go now Sammie… I can handle things here…”
“But you are hurt Dean… maybe we should switch place-”
“No… no… I can handle this… you just go and do as plan.” Sam refused to budge but with much persistence in Dean’s voice, he had no choice but to go ahead as accordance to the plan.
“Anything just call me alright…” Sam said as he took the car keys from Dean.
“Hey!” Sam stopped and turned at Dean. “Take care alright… and take care of my car.” Sam managed to flash a smirk back at Dean who was left at the graveyard.
“Mole? How do you know?”
“I saw Sabrina’s picture from the internet… she doesn’t have any mole but I’ve seen you in person before and today… it proves me right that you are not Sabrina…” Sam continued.
“Okay… so now this someone else who did this… you know that person?” Dean asked.
“Yes… I know her very well…”
“Then why didn’t you go to the police and tell them?” Selena gave a short chuckle listening to Dean’s question.
“You think the police have time to listen to me… you think they will believe me if I say my grandma summoned my dead twin sister’s from the grave so that she can seek revenge and justice for her? You think they will believe me if I say I am Sabrina’s twin sister? Both my sister and I are just outsider and we came in when grandma promised to take care of us after mom and dad died… but a year after that… Sab left me… and grandma… she… she…” Dean and Sam kept quiet when Selena poured out her grieves.
“What’s wrong with your grandma?”
“She’s too engross to seek revenge and so she sought to black magic to get my sister’s soul back from the grave and kill those men.”
“How did you know that?” Dean asked.
“She summoned Sab’s soul back from the grave to get inside… inside my body… since we were twins so… it will only strengthen the whole procedures if she can find someone who had the same birth date as her to increase her power… and since we are twins she told me to do something that will make Sabrina proud of me but…”
“Hush now…?” Consoled Sam as he wrapped his arms around her.
“But I honestly have no intention of killing them… the moment Sabrina entered inside my body… I don’t have control of myself… I tried the last time… I tried to control myself from listening to her and my grandma but she was just too strong for me…”
“Look Selena… I know this is hard for you but we need your help… we are not doing this to save a criminal from being punished but its not up to us to punish him… and at the same time we are doing this to save your twin sister’s soul from continuing remain restless on Earth. We want to make she is safe in her journey there.” Continued Dean.
“What must I do?” Selena asked.
“We need your help to stop your grandmother from summoning Sab-”
“Argh! Aaaaah… my head! Aaargh!!! My head… its painful… I need to go now… please!”
“Wait! Selena wait!” Called Sam and Dean as they tried to run after her but this time round, she was more forceful as if she was being possessed.
“So its actually her grandmother who did it.” Sam said as he turned to Dean.
“At least now we know who did it right?” Dean said as he walked back to take his tools. “Sam! Come on! We need to do it before its getting late.” Called Dean as he waved at his brother.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this Dean.”
“Me too… but hey! Get your head straight alright… I think for now Selena is going to be alright… her grandmother still needs her for the last victim and if we are fast, not only do we get to save Johnny, we’ll save Selena too.” Dean said as he gave a pat on Sam’s back.
“Do you think we should-”
“No Sammie! We’ll stick to the plan alright… don’t worry I’m sure and I know she’ll be fine for now… but if we take any wrong steps, not only do Johnny gets killed but Sabrina can’t be stopped from killing more people in the near future.” Sam nodded in agreed. As much as he wanted to protest but he trusted Dean so things were carried out as planned.
It was almost seven that evening and Dean had dug one-fifth of the graveyard while Sam was told to keep an eye on Johnny McWright. Their only source of communication was through their cellphones and every thirty minutes, Dean would call Sam and asked for any updates.
The time showed eleven and Dean had covered half of the graveyard and if he could get his calculation right, he should be able to find the body in half an hour time. Perfect timing before the soul went killing as being summoned, Dean thought as he continued digging the graveyard.
“You are just too clever aren’t you Dean? Should have gotten that grave-digger boy for help!” Whispered Dean to himself as he wiped his sweats on his forehead using the sleeves of his shirt. It was so hot that Dean knew after taking off his jacket, soon to be would be dirty white shirt. Should have wore a black one, he groaned as he continued digging and throwing the soil away from the hole.
On another occasion, Sam waited patiently in his brother’s car as his eyes kept looking at the house and its surrounding. Any slight movements from the bushes or noise from a nearby tree would get his full attention.
“Come on come on…” Whispered Dean as he rubbed both his palms together and blew some hot air in between them. He was busy trying to keep himself warm from freezing to death that he missed a glimpse of black shadow passing by behind him and flying towards the house.
It was then he saw the lights flickered and the wind started to blow heavily as if someone had just blew a heavy sigh and leaves started to fly in the air. The flickering of lights looked normal for some as they took it as the bulb might need to change but for Sam, it’s a sign.
He reached for his cellphone and dialed Dean’s number.
“Come on come on Dean! Come on pick it up!” He said to himself as he looked at the house.
“Yeah Sammie? What is it?”
“Dean… I think she’s here…”
“What?”
“The lights went flickering and the wind is blowing heavily here… not a good sign… I need to get inside Dean…”
“I thought the time of death ranged from 12 midnight to 2.30? They changed the schedule?”
“Funny Dean! Look… I’m going in now… make sure you get her body and burnt it straightaway alright!”
“You bet! Hey!”
“What?”
“Be careful alright!”
“I know… you too!” Sam said as he flipped his cellphone and slipped it down his pocket. He stepped out of the car and walked towards the gate. Slowly he climbed over the gate and walked towards the door. It was locked but in a swift, he managed to open it up. The living room was dark and was only lightened up by the flickering of lights from outside.
The house was soundless as if it was soundproof to all noise even to the heavy wind howling and the buzzing sound of the flickering lights outside. Everything was still until he heard a scream coming from upstairs.
Author's Notes:
Finally "The Guardian" is completed and thanks for reading it and for your kind reviews...
It was already dark, and the sky was becoming heavy with clouds, an apparent confirmation of the forecast they have heard during the news that morning. Sam looked at his watch and its only 7. Just like in all scary movies, paranormal and supernatural activities happened with different signs coming together. The wind started to howl like hungry wolves in the desert hunting for food while creating one kind of spooky scene with the branches and leaves rustling and flapping against each other. The more he tried to remain calm the more intense he became. Even though he thought it was safer to be inside the car, he was not sure for how long he could stand the test. The wind was so strong and powerful that he could almost see invisible hands slapping on the windows insisting to come in.
“Okay… okay… this is nothing… be brave… be brave…” Muttered Sam as he breathed in and out heavily holding tight to his gun.
Within minutes, Sam heard claps of thunders followed by bolts of lightning slicing the chest of the dark sky. The wind continued to swirl dusts and dried leaves outside on the road and in fact he could see a shadow of Johnny McWright running over to his garage to close the door and then back to his house. Sam continued to observe the house and its surrounding until the lights on the second floor went out followed by the ones in the living room. Almost all the lights in the house went out except for the two dim wall-lights at the main doorsteps and the ones at the gate. Sam turned his attention back to the empty road ahead of him and occasionally checked at the stretch of dark isolated road behind his back. Its darkness was somehow looked pretty much disturbing to him.
The thunder continued to show its merciless power as it roared arrogantly in the sky adding up to his sense of discomfort in the car. He wished Dean was there. Even though his smart-ass talking irritated him sometimes, he admitted it was actually the smart-ass talking that kept him brave, confident and calm all these while. How he missed his brother.
Dean on the other hand, had a hard time digging the hole. It was more difficult than expected. After a few minutes of digging, his jacket was already off somewhere in the dark. Wearing one layer less meant less restriction in his movement, as he kept pushing and digging the soil. If things were getting on smoothly as planned and if he was right in his calculation on his present rate of digging the hole, he might be able to make it even before midnight. Just nice, he thought. The road of thunders and flashes of lightning in the sky was a big threat at first but that did not pull him back or hindered him from moving on. In fact, he hated the growling sound so much that he kept digging and digging hoping to end it as soon as possible.
Once in a while he would stop digging and looked up. He could sense someone watching him from behind or something was observing him from afar. He was not sure who or what it was but he had no intention of checking it out. Past experiences taught him a lot on that one. His attention was more on the spade and the hole rather than to pay attention to the angry rustles of leaves as the wind was getting harsher that he could feel sharp stinging of the breeze brushing against his face.
“Oh come on Dean… just a little bit more… come on…” Dean muttered to himself as he continued digging the hole with no intention of stopping at all even though his arms and back were aching and pleading to stop.
It must have been awhile since he started the first dig and the last time he stopped was to wipe off the sweat from his face. A few more diggings and he would have covered two-third of the hole. His white shirt soaked with his sweat and dirty soil all over it and even on his jeans. In his mid-obsession in wanting to finish up the job fast, something peculiar about the surrounding caught his attention. Weird as it sounded but the wind had stopped its rage. The howling had stopped and so were the rustles of leaves. Even the clapping of thunders had ceased leaving with nothing but pure silence. With one full force Dean kicked the spade deep into the soil and thought he had knocked onto something hard.
---------------------------------------------------
“Tonight… is the last night for you to bring justice back for your sister Selena… tonight is the night of victory for us… you shall free your sister’s soul from unhappiness and miseries and you shall be rewarded…” A smile shone outlined her guardian’s wrinkled face as she combed her hair down and dolled her up like she always did when she was young with Sabrina.
The word “reward” came as a surprise. A huge one. Selena did not know that by committing a serious crime such as killing would bring about a reward. To be rewarded for snatching a person’s husband, someone else’s father was such a big joke to her. Even by committing herself to make good deeds for her lifetime can never be enough to atone those sins of killing others. Perhaps her grandmother had learnt from the past experience and how those experiences turned her into such a bitter woman. Selena tried to put herself in her grandmother’s shoes and wonder if she would ever react the same way. Just three months after her grandfather was shot, her parents were killed in a car accident and followed by the tragic death of Sabrina who was raped and killed. The ones who were responsible for the misfortunes happening in her family were either awarded with only a short number of years in prison or better still, they were acquitted with no charges against them. Those people were awarded with applauses while Selena and her grandmother commemorated the grief of their loss with painful tears for months.
Selena had no idea what the reward was all about and she refused to acknowledge whatever reward her grandmother was going to offer her unless if its her freedom, something which she doubted so. She knew her grandmother too well. Her grandmother will never let her go, not after what had happened to Sabrina. She was the only kin her grandmother had left and all the more she will be protected against all evils as what her grandmother often told her. Why must it hurt so much just to get a small amount of justice? Why must she be the chosen one to carry that torch of justice? Why her? Thinking about the reward and endless questions stirring up in her head, made her giddy.
“Now now… you look just exactly like your mother when she was young… beautiful and intelligent… I am so proud of my girl. She has never given me any problems, not even one. she has such a blessing life ahead… especially when she chosen Ash, your father… he came from a fine family, always take good care of her… if its not for that accident… they would have been here staying with us… don’t you think? But…” Then her grandmother stopped and clenched her fists as her eyes became red. It must be about Sabrina, Selena thought as she turned and touched her grandmother’s hands gracefully hoping that her love could change everything that was about to happen.
“Grandma…”
“Hmmm… they should have been punished long long time ago but this world is ignoring our pleas for justice… so now, they shall pay for it… nobody and no one can ever stop me… you know what I mean Selena?” Selena nodded her head as her grandmother smiled in full satisfaction. “Come my dear… Its time… ”
While getting ready for the final ritual, Selena felt warm tears at the corner of her eyes. She tried hard to prevent it from falling down. She was not afraid of shedding tears but she was more afraid of getting another beat-up by her grandmother like she had that early afternoon when she came back late from the graveyard. Though she was in terrible pain of getting whipped on her back, she did not mention anything about the brothers or even had that in her thoughts because her grandmother was good at reading thoughts.
“Grandma…” Selena cleared her throat and braved herself up to call her grandmother.
“Yes Selena…”
“Do… do you love me?” The old lady stared hard at her as if she was admiring her face like she never did before. Her eyes sparkled with tenderness, the same tenderness she had missed for the last four years. Slowly she planted a short kiss on her granddaughter’s forehead and smiled.
“Of course I love you… Sabrina…” She whispered as she walked away, unleashing an horrifying scar to bleed once again.
“Grandma… its me… Selena…” Selena muttered as she closed her eyes in great disappointment. Her heart was aching with torment. She wished she was dead in Sabrina’s place rather than to be hurt in such a way. At least, she knew her grandmother would have loved her more then.
“I shall now summon you to come back to where you shall belong… come back home… come back home now…” So it had started. Her grandmother’s loud voice kept drifting in and out of her consciousness. Her mind and body were going against each other. She tried to keep awake but something else was disturbing her concentration. She was fighting in a battle she had never done before. The battle to survive in order to save herself and her beloved sister from being drowning in the quest of vengeance. Her body was throbbing on the bed that she could feel herself flying and bouncing on the bed at the same time. She clenched on to the rope that was used to tie her down and clenching it so hard that she felt a piercing cut through her palm by her own fingernails.
Selena knew she had to fight and in fact she was putting up the strongest struggle ever to keep Sabrina out of her body and to prevent her twin sister from controlling her mind.
“Sab… please… don’t do this…” Pleaded Selena in her heart with tears running down her cheeks like a smooth flow of water from the tap. Sabrina was in the room and she was right above her looking down at her other half. Their eyes met and for the first time, it sparkled with indefinite unfamiliarity.
The lights in the house flickered as if someone was playing with the switches. Sabrina’s shrieking laughter came in between of Selena’s wails for mercy as they were sharing her body. Selena could feel thousands of needles being jabbed inside her body at the same time that it felt like tearing her apart. In the end, Sabrina took a complete control of her body as she broke free from the ropes and sat at the edge of the bed facing the one who summoned her back from the grave. She was swaying her body sideways as she hummed to a song. After chanting a few spells, Sabrina stood up and in a split second she vanished into thin air, leaving her grandmother laughing in hysteria.
------------------------------------------------
Sam looked at his watch and it showed exactly at 11.30 a.m. and if the time given by the report was right, the spirit or whatever it was, should be there by then. He held the gun closely to his chest while the other hand on the steering wheel. As planned and promised, Sam was about to reach for his cellphone when he detected something bizarre happening outside. He touched on the window with his palm. No more slapping. He observed the trees and dried leaves on the ground. They were unmoved and looked dead as if someone had clicked on the pause mode. No more leaves flapping and wolves howling could be heard. Everything was in peace. Not even a single sound was heard except for his own breath in the car.
The still in the air frozen the blood in his veins even though he felt warm in the car despite of the air-con was on all the time. Reaching for his cellphone in the pocket, he pressed for Dean’s number with his fingers shaking.
“Yes Sammie?”
“Dean… I think she is here…”
“Sammie? Hey Sammie? Are you there? I can’t hear you!”
“Dean! I said she is here! Are you done with the grave?” Asked Sam who was practically shouting at the top of his voice in the car.
“Samm…ie… what…” Then the conversation ended with error message stated as no connection available. Sam turned on the radio and the speakers were blasting with loud irritating buzzing sounds. Then he turned to the house. The lights were flickering vigorously. The signs were there and Sam knew what it meant.
“I guess… this it is…” He said as he took a deep breath before he opened the door and stepped out of the car.
Sam ran and climbed over the metal gates without much difficulty. He knew he had to be fast and hoped Dean had gotten to the body or at least reaching to it soon. Sam fastened up his pace and tried to break down the door but thought of taking another alternative when he noticed the glass sliding door at the veranda was ajar. The moment he stepped in, he smelled something sweet. In fact it was too sickening sweet to Sam as he could feel a wave of nauseas building up in his stomach. Occasionally Sam would brush his nose to sweep the smell away.
He was flashing the lights at the living room and then moving over to the kitchen he suddenly heard a loud screaming coming from upstairs.
-------------------------------------------
“Hello? Sammie? Sammie are you there?” He heard a loud buzzing sound followed by an engage tone. Dean redialed Sam’s number but the line was dead. On the screen stated as error in connecting due to no network available. Dean released soft curses as he slipped his cellphone back in his jeans pocket and started to dig the soil as fast as he could sensing that something must have gone wrong at the McWrights.
Each time he dug, he felt he was getting close to the coffin but it was deeper than he thought. A picture of his brother in deep trouble worrying him as much as he wanted to get out of the hole right there and then.
“Hanging there buddy! I’m getting to it… hanging there!” He said to himself as he used his bare hands digging and pushing the soil away. His knuckles blistered with blood dripping down but he ignored the bleeding and continued digging. Finally it was paid off.
Dean stepped at the side and reached for the spade to dig up more soil so that he easily gets accessed to the coffin. The moment he heard a creaking sound coming from below, he stopped digging and pulled out the first wooden plank. It was one of the worst and disgusting sight he ever seen in his entire life. The smell of fresh blood offered by Selena earlier that afternoon had penetrated through the soil and down to the corpse was getting stronger as he bent over to check on the corpse by using his small flashlight. There were millipedes crawling in and out of her eyes, centipedes that were the size of his palm was all over the hole and not to mention the presence of the rats, cockroaches and other indescribable insects living together in that hole.
“Oh man… why do I have to do this all the time?” Groaned Dean as he used his feet to push the scorpions and centipedes away from the chest.
He remembered Selena mentioned something about the chain. Burning the body alone was not enough to kill Sabrina’s spirit, because her grandmother had summoned evil demons coming in place of Sabrina’s soul. They had to get the chain, summoned the demon back and trapped it inside the red ruby locket presented by her grandmother during the burial ceremony before burning it.
“Damn! Just move away damn it!” Muttered Dean as he lowered down to reach for the locket. He tried hard not to look at the skull but whenever he felt something crawled on his hands, he had no choice but to turn and looked down. “Oh come on Dean!” With all the might he had left, he grabbed and pulled the chain away from the corpse leaving a short snapping sound from below. “Oops! Sorry…”
Despite of his legs aching, Dean had no problem in climbing up the hole. He poured a small bottled of diesel on the corpse as he took the chain and slipped it inside his pocket. Reaching for the lighter in his other pocket, Dean squatted down next to the hole and hung his head low in respect for the last time. “I’m sorry…”
The lighter dropped into the hole and within minutes, the hole was in a blaze. “One is down… one more to go…” Uttered Dean as he took his jacket from the ground, grabbed the spade and his haversack. He looked at his watch. It was 11.45 p.m.
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“Johnny? Johnny McWright? Johnny are you there? Talk to me Johnny!” Shouted Sam as he took one step at a time. At a crucial time like this, Sam knew he had to be careful. There can never be any room for clumsiness or mistakes. At least not until Dean comes, he thought as he took a deep breath per to his step.
There was no answer from Johnny McWright or even his wife or anybody else in the house. His heartbeat started to race and he could feel chills running down his spines as he tried to take control of the whole situation and not the other way round. Though the screaming had stopped, Sam could still hear it inside his head playing on a repeated mode.
“Johnny… Hey Johnny! Talk to me… where are you?”
Again no answer from Johnny McWright except for his own echoes bouncing back inside his ears and Sam hated that silence. Slowly he took another step up and left with a few more steps before he reaches the top landing but the short interval between the steps felt like forever to him. As much as fear terrorizing him, he gripped the gun tight and positioned it close to his chest. With Dean not around, he has to depend on the gun and a perfect aiming. There was no way he can wait for Dean, he was running out of time and he had to make his decision fast.
Sam moved a step closer and the smell got stronger. The pungent smell annoyed him so much for a simple fact that he hated that smell. Smell of death he thought. The moment he reached the top floor, he leaped to the other side where he heard some commotion coming from and leaned his back against the wall waiting for the right time to jump in and gave his first shot for the night.
“Please… I really didn’t mean to kill you… please… please… let my son go… please…” Son? The spirit got hold of the son? Now, that has reached the first degree of danger, Sam thought as he looked at his watch. 11.50p.m. and still no sight of Dean.
Johnny’s pleadings received only loud shrieking laughter followed by melancholy cries and lastly, humming of an unknown song.
“Please… kill me if you want but please… don’t do anything to my son… please… I’m begging you…” Sam heard Johnny McWright continued begging for his son’s life followed by a little boy’s cries. That was when Sam heard a loud crash of glass coming from inside the room. Stage one had passed and that has reached stage two of danger, meaning he had to take some actions.
“Sabrina! Stop! Don’t do it… don’t do it Sabrina…” Sam leapt out from the side and pointed the gun at the white figure standing near to the window with broken glass shattering on the floor.
Sabrina tilted her head sideway and looked at Sam. She looked confused but at the same time, he knew she was there not to save a life but to seek justice for her death and the last man who was responsible for her death was right before her very eyes. In a slow motion, Sam pulled the trigger and began to approach her in small steps. As he moved forward, he saw a figure lying in a pool of blood at the other end of the bed. It was a female figure. He was late, in fact too late to save Johnny’s wife. The boy’s cries caught Sam’s attention back as his legs were dangling in the air. Sabrina was holding him up using only one hand while the boy’s little fingers tried to reach for his father.
“Please Father… help me… please help my son… please save him…” Begged Johnny McWright who was already on his knees.
“Sabrina… let the child go… he is innocent… let him go…” Persuaded Sam hoping to buy over some time while waiting for Dean.
Sabrina did not answer but merely smirking at him.
“Sabrina please… let the child go… killing him won’t do any good to you… listen to me…” Sam tried to approach but she moved a step back. Then in a split second, the gun on his hand slipped and flung out of the window. “Alright alright… see… I have no more gun with me… now let the boy go… please…” Pleaded Sam as he put up his hands in the air to convince her.
“Please-”
“Ssshhh… let me do it alright…” Sam showed a signal for Johnny to keep quiet while he tried to pacify the angry Sabrina.
Johnny McWright remained on his knees as he cried looking at his wife.
“Selena… I know you are in there and I know you can hear me… please… please listen to me… you’ve got to fight it… fight it Selena… fight it-” Before Sam could finish his sentence, he felt his body being held up in the air. His feet were no longer touching the ground. His weight was going against the gravity pull that he had difficulty to breathe as he was getting higher and reaching the ceiling. “Please… Selena… fight it… you have to fight it…” Sam hardly heard his own trembling voice as he continued to plead with Selena who was trapped in her own body.
Sabrina continued to smirk as if Sam’s effort in order for her sister to fight her was fruitless but she was wrong. Her smirk soon turned into melancholy cries.
“Sam… please help me… please…”
“No! Shut up! There is nothing he can do for you Selena… so just shut up… have you forgotten how these men killed me? Have you forgotten all about me Selena?” Her voice changed into a deep growling one.
“No Sabrina… please… stop this… please…” Sabrina was about to drop the boy down when Dean jumped forward and grabbed the boy in his arms. He rolled over to the side and handed over the boy to his father as Selena and Sabrina began to argue with each other. In one second the room was filled with Sabrina’s growling voice and then it was Selena’s soft cries begging for help.
“Dean?” Sam said as he could see a glimpse of his brother saving Johnny’s son.
“Sam? What are you doing up there?”
“Ni…ce quest…ion Dean… now can… you please get me down?” Sam was clenching his fists trying to hold on as much as he can because he could feel his blood beginning to slow down in the veins.
“This is all because of you…” Sabrina released the press on her head as if she was fighting deep within herself and began to charge at Dean. Dean tried to save himself but Sabrina was quicker. In her anger, she held him up by his shirt and flung him to the wall a few times. She scratched his arms and slashed his back using her long fingernails. Seeing the blood on Dean’s lips and back satisfied her but her mission was not to hurt, it was to kill. When Dean was sprawling on the floor, she turned and in a flick on a fingertip, Sam was flung to the other end of the room and down to the floor unconscious.
With the two brothers down, it made her job easier. She turned and moved swiftly towards Johnny. She was not walking or running, afterall her feet did not touch the floor. Johnny tried to run but Sabrina had cast a spell on both his legs that led to his kneeling position. He wanted to push his son away but the boy kept on clinging to him. Sabrina was getting closer and he had no choice but to push his son away with all he could. Let him faced the music of his death for his own misdeed.
Sabrina knelt down in front of him and looked deep into his eyes. She was laughing and crying at the same time. Blood started to drip down from his nose and ears followed by his eyes. He can no longer control the blood, his mind or anything else. So that was how his death looked like, he thought. Just as she was about to suck up all of his air and blood, Dean quickly leapt forward, grabbed her from the waist and rolled over. In the midst of struggling and trying to pin her down, the chain dropped out from his pocket. By this time, Sam had regained his conscious and in a blur vision he saw two figures struggling not far from him.
“Sammie! Get the chain!” Shouted Dean as Sabrina kept pushing and kicking him away.
Sam tried to stand up but his legs were badly hurt. Even his back was aching.
“Sammie quick! The chain!” There was a punch of demand and persistence in Dean’s voice, forcing Sam to pay no attention to his own pain and slide his way to the chain.
“Nooooo!” Growled the voice when Sam took the chain and summoned whatever the evil spirit was to go back to the red ruby locket that he was holding. The task of summoning the spirit back to where it belonged was more complicated than they thought. The spirit refused to listen to Sam’s instructions until Dean splashed the Holy Water at Sabrina causing the room to be deafening with loud screeching screaming followed by a flash of light zooming inside the locket.
Dean let go of his grip and limped over to Sam who was holding on to the locket with an alien-look alike creature knocking on the locket.
“You need to burn it fast…before grandma starts to chant her new spell…” Whispered Selena in a weak voice as she gestured to the locket. Dean and Sam turned to Selena and then exchanged glances before they started searching for a lighter or a box of matches to burn the locket.
“Quick Dean… we have no time!” Hurried Sam as he looked at the creature inside the locket.
“I am searching for it dude…” Said Dean as he slipped his hands inside his pockets.
“I thought the lighter is with you?” Sam asked.
“Look dude! I’m not smoking why would I wanna carry the lighter with me!”
“Here…” Johnny’s weak voice calling out to them as he showed his lighter to the brother. Without fasting much time, Dean limped up to him and grabbed the lighter.
They tried to light it up but each time they lit up the lighter, they felt a force blowing it away.
“Dean… I think we really need to burn this thing right now!”
“What do you think I am doing Sammie?”
“Its not working or what?” Sam asked.
“I think it must be the wind… quick over there!” Dean pointed to the small area behind the door.
Sam held the chain up while Dean used one hand to light up the lighter and the other to shield the locket from the strong wind. They tried a few times and still failed to light it up.
“Eeeerr… Fathers…” They heard Johnny’s voice from behind. The trembling in his voice indicated a bad sign. Slowly they turned and saw Selena standing behind them.
“What the-” In a flash, they both collapsed to the ground with their eyes and nose started to bleed profusely.
“Sabrina… please stop… listen to me…” They heard a voice. It was Selena.
The pain had subsided but not the bleeding. Sabrina was no longer facing them but was looking at the almost identical figure that was moving closer to her. The brothers looked up and saw Selena and Sabrina facing each other, not in one body but two separate bodies.
“Sabrina please… listen to me… grandma is using us… she is using you… using me… please… you’ve got to stop this… I love you Sab… I really love you… I miss you so much…” Selena was about to touch on her twin sister’s cheeks when suddenly Sabrina grabbed her by her neck and pushed her all the way to the wall. “Quick! Burn the locket now!” Cried Selena as she fought her tears, her fear and her sister.
In one click, the locket caught fire. The creature inside the locket was screaming in its tiniest voice to be released. The fire soon engulfed the entire locket and the gold chain. Sabrina who was strangling her sister was screaming, screeching and growling as she had smoke coming out of her body. Just before she turned into ashes, she managed to stretch out her hands to Selena and carved a weak smile to her sister.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” Cried Selena as she cried on Sam’s chest and Sam wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
“You alright there Johnny?” Asked Dean. He tried to help Johnny up but it seemed that both of Johnny’s legs were broken.
“Oh my God…” The brothers were startled by Selena’s sudden cried out.
“What’s wrong?”
“Grandma…”
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Four days in Saint Town were enough for them to get to know the beauty of the said isolated town despite of its headlines recently. The people were friendly, the policemen were cooperative and most importantly, they had successfully solved another supernatural puzzle that was haunting the town before their arrival.
Dean walked out of the motel room with his bag on his shoulder leaving Sam behind to lock the door. After handed over the keys to Dean, Sam limped his way to the car while Dean had to go over to the counter to make all the necessary arrangement to check out before heading on to their next unclear destination.
“Hi Sam!” Sam turned and saw Selena standing behind him. She looked more beautiful than the first time he saw her.
“Hi… what are you doing here?” Sam asked.
“I called you up this morning but Dean said you were out and he told me that you guys will be leaving this afternoon.” Selena forced a smile and looked at Sam with hopes. She was hoping that Sam would stay behind though she knew she had nothing lucrative to offer him.
“Yeah… we’re leaving now. Dean is checking out. How’s your neck?”
“Oh this? Its fine… thanks… why aren’t you guys staying for a few more days?”
“I wish but… we have things to do and-”
“Hey Selena!” Sam turned and gave Dean a what-a-perfect-timing kind of look and then back to Selena who was biting her upper lips.
“Hey Dean!”
“How’s your neck?” Dean asked as he walked over to the two of them.
“Fine… its getting better, how’s your legs?”
“Oh this? Not to worry, I can already kick some ass now!”
“Glad to hear that!” Laughed Selena as she turned back to Sam.
“You guys sure you wanna leave… I mean now? Don’t you wanna stay a few more days?” Selena just felt the need to repeat herself and Sam got the hint pretty well.
“I wish my dear but we really need to run now… we still have things to do… maybe in the future, we’ll come back again…” Said Dean as he gave Selena a hug.
“Yeah sure! Hopefully I’m still around.”
“Oh! Where are you going?” Sam asked.
“I’m intending to go to the board school and leave everything behind.”
“What about your grandma?” Selena turned to Dean and released a short sigh.
“I think she’s beyond help…” Laughed Selena and they all knew, the laugh was faked. “They have taken her to the asylum and I doubt I can ever see her because they said I need to give her some time to adapt to that place before I can go over and pay her a visit. This whole thing… has taken too much of her I guess…” Then she looked down trying hard to swallow the fact that she was too ashamed of herself. If only she had been stronger, she would have been able to control and minimized the damages.
“I’m sorry…” Now it was Sam’s turn to hug Selena. Selena felt comfort and found solace in his arms. Strange. She has never felt like that before, not with someone whom she hardly knew. Somehow there was something about Sam that drawn her closer to him.
“Ahem…” Dean pretended to clear his throat with a slight cough. Selena pulled away from Sam as smiled at them.
“Well… I guess we’ll meet again then!” Selena said as she pretentiously scratching her forehead to hide the blush.
“Sure! You take care alright…” Selena nodded her head obediently and smiled at Sam.
“You both too and thanks for helping me!” It was one painful and tearing goodbye for Selena. Afterall, she had no one else in that town. Her application for the boarding school has yet to be approved so she had to spend the remaining of the days in that half-burnt house. The present sight was ugly but not the old memories of her and her family. She may have lost almost everything but one thing for sure, she was glad the nightmare was over.
Even though their car had left the premises, Sam could see Selena still standing outside the motel from the side mirror.
“She’s hot isn’t it?” Dean said as he pressed on the accelerator.
“What?”
“I said she’s hot isn’t it?”
“Who?”
“Stop playing dumb Sammie! I know you like her!” Dean said with a wicked smile.
“Bite me!”
“Nah! Not me! I’m not interested especially after that horrible kiss at the cafe… but she can.” Dean continued to tease his younger brother.
“Right!” Sam said as he wet his lower lips. “Hey… hmmm… actually… hmmm… thanks for saving my life yesterday.”
“You mean saving your ass?”
“Dean!”
“What?”
“I’m… I’m trying to thank you.” Sam said as he began to lean back and started to scratch his arms, his neck, his palm and his fingers.
“Well… you’re welcome then?” Then he saw Sam looked at him. “What? Not that mushy brotherly heavenly hug you called it!” Dean said with a straight face.
“No! My body!”
“Yeah I can see that!”
“Dean! My entire body is itchy… don’t… don’t you feel anything?” Sam asked as he kept scratching his thighs, legs and then his back again.
“No… I’m perfectly fine…”
“Gosh! I must have got allergic to those pies we had this morning…” Exclaimed Sam as he continued scratching his back.
“Oh! Need my help?”
“No! I… I… I can do this… myself…” Sam continued as he took off his jacket exposing the small rashes on his arms. “Gosh… what’s in the pie?” Muttered Sam, losing almost all of his cool posture in his attempts of scratching, rubbing and slapping his own skin.
Dean continued wearing a straight face while observing his little brother in his little cute act. He never thought revenge could be so sweet and it’s a wonder why people are going all out in seeking it. Dean maintained and tamed his vicious smile from being uncovered. He knew he had it all planned. Oh yes he loves Sam, his little precious Sammie but when it came down to payback time, oh he truly adores that silly look on Sam. If only Sam had stopped scratching for a second and looked at Dean, unmasked the face Dean was wearing then, he would have seen how the senior Winchester making a goober dance around the car with his hands right up in the air clapping and proclaiming his so-called ultimate victory.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.