Sam stirred beneath the covers and turned to glance at his sleeping brother. Dean had refused to talk to him for several days now, and the silence was agonizing. He was always so used to Dean running off his smart assed mouth for hours on end without shutting up. Now, Dean wouldn't say three words to him. It was hurting.
He was still having those reoccurring dreams about Jessica. He'd fall asleep, only to have the vivid and gory images run through his mind like a freight train. Her bloodied, white blouse and angelic face bursting into blue flame. Her screams. Her high, agonizingly painful screams. They played tricks on his weak, deteriorating mind. He was slowly going mad. Sam's eyes became weak and heavy, attempting to sag and relieve the headache throbbing in his forehead. But he didn't want to blink. Not just yet. He wanted to leave them open. Soak in the dark. Reason being, not even HE knew.
Dean stirred again, this time, releasing a low groan and burying his face in his pillow. It was 5:00; or so the alarm clock said. This out-of-date hotel had a tendency to forget to change their clocks back every once in awhile. It could be 6:00 for all he knew. The time didn't matter. He wanted to get up and go. Go find more clues as to what killed Jess. As to where his father was. The answer to life. By god, he had been traveling with Dean for over 1 month now. He was getting anxious. Nothing. They had still found nothing. He hadn't wanted to wake up Dean, but they needed to get a move on pinpointing their next case. He struggled out of bed and sauntered over to Dean's bed.
"Dean." Sam whispered, nudging his brother ever so slightly. "Dean." He didn't stir. "Goddam it, Dean!" He cried out, only to receive a sharp, stinging pain on his left cheek as Dean swatted him.
"What the-" Dean rubbed at the sleep below his eyes and narrowed them at Sam. He hated his brother. The week before, they had gotten in the biggest fight of their trip, both ending up with a deflated ego and a different attitude towards each other. They consisted of the same old, same old. Complaining about how Dean had to stay home and watch after dad, and how pretty-lil-smart-boy got to go off to college and party till he was practically purple.
"Dude, you've slept in till 7:00 for every day since we've been out. You think it would hurt you to get started a little earlier this morning?" Dean just rolled his eyes. He rolled out of bed, slipped on his white tank and ran his fingers through his dishelved hair and slipped on his leans over his dark green boxers. The fact was, he hadn't been sleeping. Something had been bothering him. Tugging at the strings of his mind until it hurt like Hell. He had such a huge headache at the moment, and it showed no sign of leaving.
"Jesus Christ." He muttered, "How long have you been up?"
"So you're talking to me now."
"I figured the silent treatment wasn't good enough. I'll just kick your sorry ass later, and then we'll be even." Dean struggled into his leather bomber jacket, ushering one of his killer smiles and winking. "Gotta watch out for little Sammy, you know." He straightened his collar. "Where we headed, the local library?"
"Well, dad gave us the coordinates, the rest is up to us."
Sam and Dean maneuvered into the Charger, Dean shoving the keys into the ignition and starting it. The engine gurgled, spit and then began to run smoothly. They pulled out of the nearly empty motel parking lot and onto Highway 60. They drove in silence along the way, the light gone from both their crystalline eyes. Soon, Sam spoke up.
"Hey, Dean..." He stuttered. "I'm really sorry about-"
"Oh, Sammy. If you're going to start the day off by attempting to sucker up to your big brother, forget it." He bit his bottom lip and made a right turn on Barnes Ave., his stiff, leather bomber wrinkling and pucker on his firm arm muscles. He again fussed with his hair, pulling his elongated bangs over his sweating forehead.
"Dean, you okay?"
"Yeah." He sighed. "Just- Just not feeling quite up to par, kid." Dean swerved passed a parked vehicle on the arm of the road, and cocked his head to one side, letting out a deep, sorrowful sigh. The library approached on the right, and Dean turned into the parking lot. The library looked extremely old, almost ancient. The stones were crumbling and the siding was peeling away from the frame. Vines climbed its aging walls, twisting and curling around the corners like a set of giant hands. Dean killed the engines, grabbed the keys in his pocket and fisted them tightly. They entered the building, greeted by an old lady at the front desk.
"May I help you two young gentleman?" She asked, removing her gawky, bottle coke cap glasses and smiling sweetly. Dean smiled sweetly and nodded.
"Yeah. Um, we need access to your internet service for a little project we're working on. The- the recent killings in Bakersville?"
"I can get you the news articles from the last three weeks. Would that be suitable?" Dean nodded, curling his lower lip under.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's great." The old lady hobbled out from behind the desk, revealing the naked stump where he leg used to be. After she was out of site, Sam nudged Dean.
"Hey, you know it's not nice to stare, Dean." He joked. "What do you think happened? Do you think she might've lost it as a result from what's killing as these people?" Dean shrugged.
"I dunno. But that's what we're here to do, isn't it, Sammy?" Dean winked and followed the old, hobbling woman out of the lobby and into a neatly placed computer lab full on Dell hardware. The room was practically empty, except for a scrawny girl in all black with her headphones on in the far corner. She looked up at the two strangers and smiled, tapping her fountain pen on her lower lip, than returning to her work, diligently scribbling answers. The old woman opened her mouth to talk,
"Each of these computes have the information of the Bakersville killings. Keep in mind that these are police records. Don't screw with any-"
"I think we've got it handled, thanks." Dean interrupted, scratching the bridge of his nose with his middle finger and sighing. The old woman nodded and limped out of the room, shifting her weight onto the cane she carried with her. Sam sat down in a plastic chair at a computer, flicked the power switch and begin searching the database for the most recent Bakersville killings articles. Dean, in the meantime, found himself quite preoccupied.
"Excuse me, Miss." Dean sat backwards on the plastic chair next to the young woman in the corner, mounting the back of the chair with his muscled legs and propping his leather-clad arms on the seat back, smiling. She removed her gawky headphones and turned to look at him, her glinting bright Green eyes coming to meet his. She smiled, her pale, yet rosy lips forming a petite smile. A golden beaded chain hung limply around her fragile neck, a gold pendant that Dean didn't quite recognize dangling loosely from it's clasp.
"May I be of any assistance?" She jokingly replied. Her hair framed her pretty, yet drawn out face in a halo like piece. Dean found himself almost speechless.
"Um, yeah... I was wondering if you knew anything about the recent murders happening around town?" The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Something about her made him feel uncomfortable, and if you knew Dean, you knew that this happened quite rarely around females he found himself attracted to.
"Oh. Well, I've read over the autopsy reports just last week for a project. Would you be interested if I showed you and college geek boy over there were I found the info? It's actually quite helpful." Dean shook his head yes, his ego slightly regaining it's power.
"That would help immensely, thanks." The girls skinny digits scrawled over the black heys on the board as she typed in the URL. The autopsy reports popped up in a great big black window and the scanned over the screen with her fingertip.
"Most of the helpful info is in this first paragraph." Sam scrolled through the information, one eyebrow raised and his lips flinching slightly as he mouthed the words to himself. After he was finished, he turned to Dean.
"This sounds like..." He looked up at the girl and smile sheepishly. "This sounds like something we deal with. Listen to this." He scrawled over the screen. "Each of the murdered peoples were found Thursday afternoon on August 18th at Miller's park, all the bodies in tact, until autopsies proved that each body was missing an organ; a heart. More information will be released in the near future when the town consult see fit." Both Dean and Sam sighed in unison. What kind of grim and ghastly thing were they to fight face to face this time?