The sky was dark, the clouds an ugly grey as they rolled in on each other, rumbling angrily. The rain was falling hard and heavy making everything colourless. Dean stood in the cemetery staring at the headstone, the force of the rain making it impossible to read the inscription. His leather jacket gave him little protection, he was soaked to the skin. His hair was plastered to his head as the rain fell in rivulets down his face and small waterfalls ran from his fingers. He didn't know how long he'd been standing there but his boots had sunk into the dull yellow grass and he was starting to shiver. The rain kept falling, it was relentless. He tried to take a step towards the headstone but his feet wouldn't move. He tried to raise his hands to his face but they wouldn't obey either. The only thing he could do was stare. Stare and shiver. He felt the rain start to ease and the inscription on the headstone started to blur a little, to come into focus….
He woke with a start, Sam shaking his shoulder "Dude, dude…wake up". He looked over at Sam "Eyes on the road, Sam. And could you have waited five more minutes?" Sam shook his head and smiled weakly "You were shivering like crazy and muttering something about not being able to move. Nightmare?" Dean rolled his eyes "No dude, I was skipping down a garden path picking pansies" . Sam grinned "Pansies?" Dean slapped him on the back of his head "Just drive" and he settled back into his seat and closed his eyes.
He woke to Sam shaking his shoulder again "We're here, sleeping beauty" Dean rubbed his hand down his face and looked over at Sam "You're not gonna try and kiss me are you, dude?" Sam gave him the finger and got out of the car, Dean following him a moment later. As Sam went to get them a room as Dean leaned against the Impala, hands in pockets as he thought back to the dream. He remembered it vividly…only there was nothing vivid about it. It was like a filter had been placed over everything, making it all dull. But the headstone…he knew he had needed to see it but a part of him knew it was also something he didn't want to see. He looked up as thunder sounded in the distance, a storm was coming and it looked nasty. He shivered. Sam came out of the manager's office with keys and looked up at the sky as the thunder rumbled again "Storm's coming". Dean shook his head "What gave it away, genius?" And Dean grabbed their bags and followed Sam to the room.
They stood staring at the door. Sam turned to Dean "You open this one, I opened the last one and that was shocking enough". Dean looked at him quizzically "It was a nice room" and Sam raised an eyebrow and grinned at his brother "Why do you think I was so shocked?". Dean shook his head, grabbed the keys from Sam, put them in the lock, turned the key and flung the door open "Well things are back to normal" and he walked in and threw his bag on the table.
Boats. Boats everywhere. The wallpaper was covered in boats of all kinds, sail boats, steam boats, dinghy's, battleships, yachts…you name it, it was there. The bedspreads had little waves with sail boats on them, and the lamps were masts with sails as the shade. He looked into the bathroom and the shower curtain was clear with speed boats spread intermittently over it. The toilet seat cover was clear with little fish (not real ones, thank the lord) floating about in it. He came back out and sat on the bed and it rippled underneath him "Dear God, I feel like I'm four". Sam walked in and sat on the bed "I think I'm gonna get sea sick". Dean got up and sat at the table, he turned to Sam "So tell me why we're here again?" Sam lay back on the bed, then got up quickly and sat opposite Dean.
"Drownings. This town has had an unusual spike in drownings lately" said Sam. Dean looked at his brother "Anything like what happened in Wisconsin?" Sam shook his head "No. I mean yes with the drownings but different in there seems to be no link between the families and each drowning occurred while the person was either sitting or standing up". Well that peaked Dean's interest "How the hell can you drown sitting or standing up?" Sam shrugged his shoulders "But each victim was found outside, and from what I've read in the local papers, rigor had set in so there was NO way they were horizontal when they drowned. The coroner doesn't understand it." Dean shook his head "I don't understand it." Sam grinned "Well if you don't understand it, then something must be wrong".
Dean didn't respond, he was watching as the dark clouds rolled in bringing thunder and lightening with them. "You alright, dude?" asked Sam. "Dean?" Dean seemed to snap himself out of it "Yeah, fine. Let's go see the coroner" and he stood and walked out the door.
They left the coroners office even more confused. The man had been little help. Dean had asked the man again and again how he could possibly be sure they were upright when they drowned he'd been unable to give them a definitive answer, he just kept saying he knew. Everything he'd seen, the bodies, the crime scenes…none of it had fit with standard drownings.. Dean kept at him Could they have been drowned elsewhere and moved? But the coroner had shaken his head, each victim was where they'd told their families or friends they'd be. There was nothing out of the ordinary…well apart from the vertical drownings that is. Dean badgered the man and the coroner was starting to get annoyed. He may have been old, he'd said, but he'd been doing the job a damn long time, long before either of them was a glint in their father's eye. He knew what he was saying was true, he just didn't understand it. He had shown them the door and told Dean he was lucky he didn't give him a kick up the ass.
They walked out and Sam turned to Dean "What the hell's the matter with you?" but Dean ignored him. It had started to rain and he was getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He walked quickly to the car and Sam ran after him. He put a hand on his shoulder and Dean turned on him "Leave me the hell alone, Sam" and he got in the car, gunned the engine and sped off, leaving Sam staring after him, bewildered.
Dean drove around aimlessly, making turns that didn't register and taking no notice of his surroundings. The rain was falling hard and heavy and the thunder clapped loudly as lightening ripped through the sky. There was so much water on the road that the Impala aqua-planed every hundred metres or so. The roads were empty and to Dean it seemed the place was a ghost-town. Ghost town…, that phrase kept echoing through his mind as he drove. He couldn't shake it. He made a turn and cruised down a tree-lined street, that sick feeling rising again in his stomach.
The rain started to fall even harder, fat rain as he liked to call it and he hunched over the steering wheel, wiping at the windscreen as it fogged. As the windscreen cleared, he slammed on the brakes and the car slewed, hit a patch of water and aqua-planed again before he regained control. He sat, staring through the windscreen as the storm built around him. He looked down at himself, leather jacket, jeans and boots. He looked back at the sign and turned to Sam… "SAM!!" Jesus, he'd left Sam. He turned the car around and headed back to the motel. He didn't notice the rain-soaked figure wearing a leather jacket, jeans and boots watching him from the cemetery.
He turned into the parking lot of the motel, Sam was sitting on the floor next to the door of their room. Dean got out of the car and walked towards him. Sam stood "Alright! What the hell is going on?" Dean took the room keys from his pocket "Are you alright?" Sam glared at him "I had to walk all the way back and it was pissing down! How do you think I am?" Dean opened the door "Wet, I'd imagine" and he walked in. Sam pushed past him, "Asshole" he said as he went to the shower.
Dean sat down heavily at the table and got out the laptop. He turned it on and stopped, he didn't even know the name of the damn town they were in. What the hell was going on with him? He went to the bathroom and opened the door "Sammy, what's the name of this shitty town?" Sam stuck his head around the shower curtain "Are you kidding me?" Dean just stared at him. Sam sighed "I wondered why you hadn't made any cracks about it" he grinned "It's Gaylord. Gaylord, Michigan" Dean nodded and shut the door.
Sam stared at the closed door, something was up with Dean. He was distracted, well more than distracted. He wasn't concentrating and Sam had noticed a few times that he appeared to be running on auto-pilot. Not quite there. And Gaylord? How many damn jokes could you have with that? No, something was definitely wrong.
When Sam came out, Dean was sitting at the table, the laptop open and he was hunched over his journal scribbling furiously. Sam dressed and came over "What'd you find?" but Dean kept scribbling…"Dean….Dean….DEAN!" Dean started and looked up at Sam, surprised to see him there "What?" Sam sat at the table and looked at Dean, he looked alright… "What'd you find?" and he pointed to Dean's journal. Dean snapped the journal shut, turned off the laptop and stood "I gotta go see someone. Stay here." Sam stood quickly "No. I'm coming with" Dean ignored him and went to the door, he put his hand on the knob and turned back to Sam and said angrily "You stay here Sam, do you hear me? You damn well stay here!" and he opened the door as Sam grabbed him by the back of his jacket "What the friggen' hell is going on? What's the matter with you?" Dean grabbed Sam and slammed him against the wall "STAY HERE!" he let go of Sam, walked back to the door, stopped but didn't turn around "Just stay here, Sammy. Don't go anywhere and don't open the door to anyone but me" and he shut the door behind him.
Dean sat outside the house. This was the third house, the third family he'd been to see so far. He looked at the house, typical suburbia. White weatherboard, blue trim, neat garden and a goddamn white picket fence. At least there was no maritime paraphernalia scattered about the place. He opened the glove box, rifled through the fake i.d.'s until he found the one he wanted. He got out of the car and walked through the rain towards the house. He heard the sound of a dog barking in the distance as he rang the door bell. He waited and was about to ring the bell again when the door was opened by an old woman…..he looked at her again, she wasn't as old as he initially thought but her face, she seemed worn, worn out. She looked out at him from under greying hair that was coming loose from a haphazard bun at the back of her head, her brown eyes were red from crying and she looked like she hadn't smiled in a long time. Dean smiled at her and took out his badge "Afternoon, ma'am. My name is Agent Bonham, I'm with the FBI. I was wondering…" The woman sighed and flapped her hand at him, turned and walked into the house.
Dean followed her to a sitting room where she sat down heavily in one of the overstuffed armchairs. She motioned for Dean to sit also. He took the chair opposite hers and looked around the room. There were photos everywhere. Photos of her and her son. There were so many of them they seemed to be fighting for space on every available piece of furniture and all over the walls.
Dean looked back at the woman "Ma'am.."
She looked at him "Ma'am doesn't sit well with me, sonny."
Dean nodded "Mrs Wiltshire, I'm here investigating…"
She sighed "I know why you're here and don't give me this bullshit about being a Fed, you're no Fed and I'm not an idiot."
Dean stammered "I didn't…and I'm…"
She sat forward in her chair "Don't you lie to me, Sonny Jim. I may look like a doddering old fool, but you should know better than anyone that looks can be deceiving" she paused and the two stared at each other. "What's your real name?" she asked.
He looked at her, he hadn't noticed the intelligence behind her eyes, all he'd seen was the redness and deep sadness in them. "Dean Winchester".
She nodded "Well, Dean Winchester ask me what you want to ask me, don't beat around the bush…I don't think time is a luxury you have" she stared at him, into him before she shook her head slowly "You haven't quite figured it out yet have you? Well tell me, what have the others told you?" Dean stood and she said sharply "Sit down" and he sat automatically then grinned at her self-consciously. She smiled at him "Your parents taught you well. Now tell me, the other families you've been to see, what have they told you?"
Dean looked at her "I don't know where to start..."
She smiled at him again, it was a nice smile "Well you start at the beginning Dean Winchester, you start with the dream" She laughed softly at the shocked expression on his face.
Sam paced the motel room. This was all wrong. He tried to think back to the last time Dean was Dean, and as stupid as that sounded, it was the only way he could explain it to himself. They'd left the werewolf kill and the Remington woman and although Dean was a little quiet after that he was still making cracks and taking the piss outta Sam at every opportunity. They'd lain low for a week and then Sam had found report on the drownings in Gaylord and they'd headed to Michigan to check it out. Dean had started the drive, Zeppelin blaring and refusing to turn it down so Sam could get some sleep. They'd swapped the driving and Dean had crashed out almost immediately. He had woken Dean from the dream…no, nightmare. The nightmare. That had to be it. He thought back to it…what had Dean been muttering? I can't move, I can't move, dammit! and there was something else too…what was it? He sat on the bed, got up quickly as it rippled underneath him and went and sat at the table. He drummed his fingers as he thought back…that was it! I can't see it…I don't want to see it….I can't see it… and the shivering. He opened the laptop and turned it on and tried to find what Dean had been looking at while he'd been in the shower.
Dean walked out of the house, his mind doing somersaults as it tried to process the information Reggie Wiltshire had given him. He hadn't believed her at first, he'd argued with her and she had damn well argued back. He smiled to himself as he remembered her getting up from the chair and slapping him across the side of the head "Use what God gave you, Dean Winchester! He didn't put it there for show…although you aren't all that hard to look at". He walked to the Impala, the rain still falling heavily, he didn't notice it. He sat behind the wheel for a long time before starting the engine and heading back to the motel. He didn't need to see any of the other families, Reggie had told him all he needed to know.
Nothing. Sam could find nothing. Dean had cleared the laptop and there was no history of visited sites that he could find so he went over the crime scene photos again. He picked up the photos of a Seth Wiltshire, he had been found at the local park, sitting on bench near the pond. His hands were resting in his lap, palms up, his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles, his chin resting on his chest. He looked like he'd just fallen asleep while feeding the ducks. He re-read the coroners report, there were no external injuries of any kind on him. There were few identifying marks on him. A birthmark on his left calf-muscle, an appendectomy scar and another small scar at the base of his skull that looked like an upside down triangle. He picked up the police report and read it. The man still lived at home with his mother who, by all accounts, was a little unbalanced. She had said Seth had often gone to the park to reflect, to try and balance himself…..and to feed the ducks. He liked the ducks. She had notified the police when he hadn't returned for dinner. The police had shrugged off her concern, he was a grown man and the fact he hadn't returned for dinner was not something they could investigate. She was adamant that they look for him and after the seventeenth phone call they had sent someone to the park.
Sam returned to the crime scene photos and was flicking through them when he thought he noticed the slight indentation of footprints behind the bench. They were barely discernable and could easily have been mistaken for small furrows in the ground but to him, they looked like boot prints, combat-boot prints. He looked at the photo of Seth sitting on the bench…he was wearing combat boots. He grabbed the crime scene photos of the other victims as he heard the door open and he looked up as Dean came in. "Dean, where the hell have you been?"
Dean shook his head "Not now, dude"
Sam stared at his brother, something had happened "What? What happened?" Dean lay down on the bed and put his arm across his eyes "Not now, Sam. Please…"
Sam watched him, trying to figure out what was going on in his head "You hungry?" he asked and Dean nodded. "There's a pub around the corner that's supposed to make good cheep food, and I could do with a drink."
They'd eaten some pretty decent food and were nursing their beers at the bar. Dean had thrown back a couple of tequila's but hadn't done the yelling that accompanied it the last time he'd drunk the stuff. Sam ordered two more shots and Dean had thrown them back in silence. Sam was hoping to get Dean drunk enough to talk about what was going on but he'd noticed a pretty woman checking Dean out and thought that might be the better option for his brother. The woman had come over and tried her best with Dean but he'd just smiled at her and said he was with his boyfriend and pointed to Sam. The woman had walked away mighty disappointed.
Sam had stared at Dean incredulously "Okay, so now I know something's definitely wrong. Jesus, Dean…"
Dean stared at his beer, ordered another two shots of tequila, threw them back and got up "Time to go" and he walked out of the bar leaving Sam to pay the bill.
Sam woke in the early morning hours to Dean's mumblings. He got up from the floor, turned the lamp on and went to wake Dean. He was about to shake him awake when he noticed something. Dean was lying on his stomach, the pillows had been thrown to the floor and his hands were clenched into fists but it was the mark on the back of his neck that stopped Sam. An upside down triangle. Dean started to shiver and Sam shook him by the shoulder "Dean…dude…wake up" Dean woke suddenly, turning over quickly and grabbing at Sam's throat. Sam jumped back "Easy! Easy, Dean…" Dean shook his head as if to clear it and looked at Sam "Sorry" he said and turned back over.
Sam grabbed him "Oh, no you don't. Not this time, Dean. You have to tell me what's going on…all this solo crap you're doing has to stop"
Dean shook his head "It's too early in the morning, Sam." .
"Bullshit! You tell me now, Dean."
"I'll tell you tomorrow Sam, I promise, okay? Just let me get some sleep" and he turned over and went back to sleep. Sam sat on the floor watching his brother for a long time before going back to sleep.
Sam woke to pounding at the motel door. He opened his eyes and sat up from the floor, he looked over at the empty bed and got up. He pulled on his jeans yelling at the person at the door that he was coming. He opened it and noticed that the Impala was gone. Damn you, Dean! he thought angrily. He looked down at the woman in front of him, she had greying hair and brown red-rimmed eyes that were darting frantically from side to side. "Can I help you?" asked Sam.
She looked up at him "You're Dean's brother", it wasn't a question. He noticed the woman jumped as a thunderclap sounded overhead, shaking the windows in their frames. She looked at him "Well are you going to ask me in or are you going to stand there with a kicked-puppy expression on your face wondering where the hell your brother's gone?" He stepped aside and she walked in. "Coffee" she said.
Sam walked towards the kitchenette before stopping and turning around "Aaah, who are you and why should I make you coffee?"
She stared at Sam "My name is Reggie Wiltshire and you'll make me coffee because I damn well told you to" Sam stared back at her, Reggie Wiltshire…Seth's mother,. "Well, off you go. I don't tell stories unless I have a good cup of coffee to go along with it" she said. Sam turned and went to make coffee for both of them.
Sam bought the coffee over to the table and sat down opposite Reggie. She looked at him "What's your name? And don't bother with the fake one's" .
"Sam Winchester".
She nodded "Well Sam Winchester, you're brother has just done a very stupid thing."
Sam sighed "I'm not at all surprised. What's he done this time?"
She reached over and slapped him "Wake up!"
Sam gaped at her "Hey! What the hell was that for?"
She leaned forward in her chair "For thinking this is trivial. Your brother is in trouble, sonny." Sam stood up. "Sit down" she said sharply and Sam sat, smiling self consciously. "That's better" she said. "Now what has Dean told you?"
Sam shook his head "Nothing. He won't tell me anything but… ." He looked at the woman.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Your son, Seth…"
She nodded "They got him"
Sam looked at her quizzically "They?"
Reggie nodded and looked at the photo's that were lying over the table and Sam quickly grabbed them and put them into a folder. "I'm sorry"
She nodded "Did you see anything unusual?"
Sam returned the nod "The scar…and the footprints."
"Has Dean got the mark yet?"
Sam stared at her incredulously "What the hell is going on?" and Reggie began the story.
"The mark. The upside down triangle, it's one of the many symbols of water. Not one that is commonly known to most people but it's a powerful symbol, the symbol of a particularly nasty water wraith. Your brother was drawn here…"
Sam interrupted her "No, I was the one who bought us here"
Reggie shook her head "It was Dean or rather the wraith" she paused "Why did you come here?"
Sam shrugged his shoulders "There was an unusual amount of drownings lately and they all drowned while either standing or sitting"
"And how did you find out about it?"
Sam thought back on it "A local paper that….."
Reggie smiled "That Dean gave you"
Sam nodded, he'd forgotten all about that. "Why does it want Dean?"
Reggie looked at Sam "It wants to finish the job"
"Finish the job? What job? What are you talking about?"
"Can you swim, Sam?" and Sam nodded "Can Dean?" Sam nodded again "Dean taught me, he made sure I could swim after…." And he looked up in shock at the woman "After he almost drowned when he was five" he stared at the woman "Where is he?"
"He's gone to try and kill the wraith. But he can't do it"
"Why not? Dean can kill just about anything"
"Because he won't see him coming" she replied.
Sam stood up "Then I need to go find him. What does the wraith look like?"
Reggie stood up wearily and sighed "He looks like Dean"
Dean stood in the cemetery staring at the headstone, the force of the rain making it impossible to read the inscription. The sky was dark, the clouds an ugly grey as they rolled in on each other, rumbling angrily. The rain was falling hard and heavy making everything colourless His leather jacket gave him little protection, he was soaked to the skin. His hair was plastered to his head as the rain fell in rivulets down his face and small waterfalls ran from his fingers. He didn't know how long he'd been standing there but his boots had sunk into the dull yellow grass and he was starting to shiver. The rain kept falling, it was relentless. He tried to take a step towards the headstone but his feet wouldn't move. He tried to raise his hands to his face but they wouldn't obey either. The only thing he could do was stare. Stare and shiver.
He felt the rain start to ease and the inscription on the headstone started to blur a little, to come into focus. He heard someone walking towards him from behind, but he couldn't turn his head to see them. He felt them stop behind him, their breath hot on the back of his neck.
"Why are you here Dean Winchester?"
Dean tried to turn his head again but couldn't "I'm here to kill you, asshole"
The wraith laughed and walked around to face him "Do I look familiar?"
Dean stared into his own face and smiled "Damn! I'm better looking than I thought"
The wraith's eyes darkened and Dean smiled again "Ooooh, 'Surly Dean'…I'll be using that look on the chicks tonight"
The wraith smiled nastily "There won't be a tonight for you. You escaped me once before, now you're all mine"
Dean laughed at his other self "Look, I've a healthy sexual appetite and while it's most men's wish to be able to lick themselves, that's just a little too kinky for me. Do you think you could morph into…..say… a slim brunette with a great ass?"
"Oh you won't be making jokes when you slowly drown …they say it's a peaceful death Dean Winchester" and the wraith leaned in close "It isn't". He walked around behind Dean, giving him a clear line of sight to the headstone. Dean looked at it, he'd been right, he hadn't wanted to read it. The last thing you want to see is your own name on a headstone, especially if you're not dead. "Time to say goodbye" said the wraith and Dean screamed as the wraith entered him.
Sam and Reggie pulled up at the cemetery and they got out of her old Rambler to the sound of Dean screams. Sam took off at a run, following the sound of the scream. He dodged headstone after headstone, jumping over graves old and new before finding Dean. He was standing, arms out-stretched and head thrown back, the rain pouring into his mouth. He ran over as Reggie screamed at Sam not to touch him. Sam stood in front of Dean yelling his name, he put his hands above Dean's mouth trying to stop the rain falling into it but it seemed to part around his hands and flow steadily down his throat. Dean's screams started to turn into a gurgle and he looked at Sam, his eyes pleading with his brother to help him.
"DEAN!" screamed Sam. He turned to Reggie "Tell me what to do, tell me how to save him?" But Reggie only shook her head
"If he's meant to be saved he will be"
"BULLSH!I!!" screamed Sam and he took a step towards Dean.
"Step out of the way, son"
Sam turned to see his father standing behind him. "Dad…"
John smiled at him "Step out of the way, Sam. I need to help your brother"
Sam moved as John threw himself at Dean…through Dean, pushing the wraith out of his son. Dean fell to the ground and Sam turned him on his side as water gushed from his mouth. They looked up as their father fought the water wraith. It was no longer Dean, but a large bluish-green demon, stick thin with long, long fingers that glowed a bright green. It's face was long too, it's chin seeming to reach down to it's chest. It's eyes shone a brilliant silver and there were wave-like patterns all over it's elongated skull. It's figure seemed to ripple and change shape under their father's blows, absorbing most but the one's that did land caused the wraith to scream out in pain.
Sam pulled Dean into a sitting position as their father reached into the wraith's chest and pulled out it's heart…or what looked like it's heart, it was more like a mass of seaweed covered with a blue algae. The wraith screamed and burst into a millions of water drops that hissed as they hit the ground.
John turned and looked at his boys and smiled "Dean…Sam…." .
"Dad…" they said in unison and then he was gone.
Dean turned and looked at the headstone…it was blank.
Reggie had wanted them to stay but she'd understood when they said they just wanted to get away from the place. They'd got into the Impala, Sam insisting on driving. As they passed the town sign saying they were Now leaving Gaylord, Michigan, Please come again!
Dean turned to Sam and said "Gaylord? Damn, no wonder the chick at the bar didn't bat an eyelid when I told her you were my boyfriend" Sam smiled and placed a hand on Dean's knee. Dean smacked him upside the head "Just drive, Sammy" and he settled back into his seat and closed his eyes.