Chapter One: The Pilot
A small, little child ran through the streets of New York. She couldn't have been any older than four. Her hair was a dark brown and matted with what seemed like blood. Her eyes were a brilliant hazel color. Unlike a normal four year old girl, this child's skin was dirty and littered with fresh cuts. Her clothes were old and two sizes too big on her. She was barefoot, with her small feet slapping against the cold asphalt. Her eyes were wide with fear.
The little girl tripped over a loose stone in the road and hit the side of her head on ground. The child cringed as she heard a low growl. Then, a gutshot reached her ears. There was a whine. The girl looked back up to see the thing retreating away. She felt blood trickle down her face.
"Are you okay?" said a voice, "Can you hear me at all?" The girl pushed herself shakily to her feet and nodded. "Oh dear god, are you alright?" She shook her head. "What's your name sweetheart?"
"V-V-Veronica…" she stuttered. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head before the small child collapsed on the ground.
"Ver….Ver… VER!"
Veronica opened her eyes and sat up with a start. She wasn't four years old anymore. Veronica was a beautiful nineteen year old girl with her brown hair cut short, and her hazel eyes full of defiance. Her clothes had changed as well from those too big clothes. She wore a fitted gray t-shirt, a pair of jeans, combat boots and a leather jacket.
Next to her was a man that had green eyes, freckles on his face and short-cropped hair that was a dark blonde. He hand his hand on her shoulder. Veronica brushed him off.
"What?" she muttered, still tired from the sleep she was just forcefully woken up from.
"I've heard of you falling asleep possibly anywhere, but in a diner booth?" the man said with sarcasm and surprise, "Really?"
"Shut up, Dean." Dean laughed and stood up. "I thought you were going to work your magic on the waitress so we wouldn't have to pay. We ran out of money a while ago."
"Yeah, about that. Turns out she's married. So, we gotta go before anyone sees us!" Dean grabbed Veronica's wrist, and the two ran out of the diner.
"So, what's your plan to get money now, genius?" Veronica asked as the two drove down the highway.
"I still have the card Dad gave me. I'll use that. Simple," answered Dean. Veronica turned over and looked out the window.
"Your plans are never simple. It was John who-"
"Why don't you call him Dad? He practically raised you."
"First off, I may have amnesia, but I know that John isn't my father. I'm adopted. You know, as in not flesh and blood."
"I know what adopted means."
"And secondly, it wasn't him that raised me. It was you. Do you want me to call you Dad?" Dean laughed and shook his head. Veronica looked back out the window. She looked at the signs that passed by. She raised an eyebrow. "Dean, you're going the wrong way. I thought we were heading to Jericho?"
"We are. I just need to pick something up." Veronica took a closer look at the signs. She whipped around to face Dean.
"No. No no no no no! We are not going there!"
"Oh yes, lil' sis, we are. I'm driving us to Stanford, and you can't stop me."
Veronica did not speak to Dean for the rest of the drive. She was pissed off. Her eyelids ended up dropping and she drifted into another memory induced sleep.
Dean held Veronica by the shoulders. Two people in front of them were arguing loudly. The first one was her stepfather and Dean's birth father, a man with brown hair and eyes named John Winchester. The other was their brother, a man with shaggy brown hair and brown eyes. They were yelling, throwing insults at each other. Veronica was close to tears.
Soon, their brother walked out of the door, with John yelling at him not to come back. Veronica broke free of Dean's hold and ran out of the room, chasing her brother.
"SAMMY!" called out the teenager, "SAMMY!" Sam turned around as the teary-eyed girl ran up to him. "Please don't go."
"I have to go Ver," Sam said to the girl, "I don't want to hunt anymore! I just want a normal life. Can't you understand that? I'm pretty sure you had a normal life before Dad picked you up off the streets!"
"I don't remember, and you know it!" Veronica snapped, "I need you… You're my best friend, Sammy."
"Veronica, I'm leaving. There's no way you can stop me… … … Come with me."
"What?"
"I know you want to live a normal life again. Come with me." Veronica shook her head.
"No! I want you to stay," she muttered, "With me and Dean and John! Please don't go…"
"Dad already tried to get me to stay. I am leaving. Goodbye, Veronica."
"Sammy!" As her stepbrother walked away, tears leaked out from Veronica's hazel eyes. That was the last time she actually cried.
Veronica looked at herself in the motel mirror. Her hair. It was long and reached mid-way down her back. Sam had always loved it...and she didn't like it. Sneering at her reflection, Veronica picked up a pair of scissors sitting on the sink. She pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail. She took the scissors in her hand and put the blade around her hair. With one quick cut, Veronica's dark hair fell to the floor. Her dark brown strands fell at her shoulders. Veronica smiled.
"What. the. Hell?" Dean said as he saw the brown hair on the bathroom floor. "Did you seriously just cut your hair?" Veronica nodded.
"Yes. Now's a time for change. Sammy's gone, I have short hair now, things are changing, Dean."
"Does that mean you'll forgive Sam for leaving?"
"...Not in a million years. He abandoned me. Just like my mom and dad…"
"Wake up." Veronica felt a sharp jab to the shoulder. Her eyes opened and she turned to face Dean. She groaned and turned back over. "Guess you don't want to see Sam again." Veronica shook her head. "Come on, Ver. It's been four years. You can't avoid Sam forever."
"I can and I will," said Veronica, "He's a bitch."
"Ver."
"No. You go get Sammy. If I go in there with you, someone's going to get bitch-slapped like the freakin bitch they are." She stuck her tongue out. Veronica heard Dean groan and leave. She smiled. Well, she would be able to get a little more peace before trying not to blow up four years worth of anger at Sam.
Veronica lay there in silence. Her mind knew what to say to Sam. But did she really want to say it?
"The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets?" questioned a faint familiar voice that got louder as it approached. "Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors."
"So what are you gonna do?" said Dean, "You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?"
"No. Not normal. Safe."
"And that's why you ran away."
"I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."
"Yeah, well, Dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already. I can feel it." There was a silent pause. "Ver and I can't do this alone."
"Yes you can."
"Yeah, well, I don't want to." There was a sigh, followed by someone tapping on one of the windows. Veronica looked over and saw Dean. "You want to come out now?" She groaned, but complied. Veronica opened the Impala door and stepped out. She slammed it, making Dean cringe. Her eyes narrowed upon seeing the youngest Winchester brother. No one said anything as she leaned against the car. Sam eventually sighed.
"What was he hunting?" he asked. Dean walked back over and opened the trunk of the Impala, then the spare-tire compartment. Veronica knew what was inside. A monster/demon hunting arsenal. Dean propped the compartment open with a shotgun and dug through the clutter as Veronica walked around and over to the boys.
"All right, let's see, where the hell did I put that thing?" Dean muttered.
"So when Dad left, why didn't either of you go with him?" Sam asked. Veronica leaned against the car.
"Dean dragged me along on his own thing," she explained. "It was some weird voodoo thing down in New Orleans. It was a big mess."
"Dad let Dean take you on a hunting trip?" Veronica glared at Sam.
"I'm not a little girl, Sammy. I can handle myself." Dean straightened up, pulling some papers out of a folder.
"All right, here we go," said Dean. "So Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy-" Dean handed one of the papers to Sam. Veronica leaned over to get a look at it, being a midget compared to the brothers at her height of five foot seven. Anyway, the paper was a printout of an article from the Jericho Herald, headlined "Centennial Highway Disappearance" and was dated Sept. 19th 2005; it had a man's picture, captioned "Andrew Carey MISSING".
"They found his car, but he had vanished," continued Veronica, "Poof. Gone. It was like he never even existed." Sam read the article and glanced up.
"So maybe he was kidnapped," he said, trying to get out of this.
"Yeah. Well, here's another one in April," said Dean as he tossed down another Jericho Herald article for the date he mentioned. "Another one in December 'oh-four," He threw another. "'Oh-three, 'ninety-eight, 'ninety-two." He threw down three more articles. "Ten of them over the past twenty years." Dean took the article back from Sam and picked up the rest of the stack, putting them back in the folder.
"All of them have the same two things in common," said Veronica. "All the victims are men, and all of them disappeared on the same five-mile stretch of road." She pulled a bag out of another part of the arsenal. "It started happening more and more, so John went to go dig around that area. And that was about three weeks ago. We've hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough." Dean grabbed a handheld tape recorder.
"Then I get this voicemail yesterday," he said as he pressed play. The recording was staticky and the signal was clearly breaking up.
"Dean...something big is starting to happen...I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may... Be very careful, both of you. We're all in danger." said the recording. Dean pressed stop.
"You know there's EVP on that?" said Sam.
"No shit," muttered Veronica. She looked up at Sam. "It looks like you didn't forget about all of this, huh? But you did forget about something else." Sam shook his head, but didn't say anything to her.
"All right. Ver, cool it," Dean said before turning to Sam. "Ignoring that little outburst, I slowed the message down, I ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got." He pressed play again.
"I can never go home…" said the recording, this time in a voice of a woman. Dean pressed stop.
"Never go home," Sam repeated. Dean dropped the recorder, put down the shotgun, and stood straight. Veronica shut the trunk, then leaned on it.
"You know, in almost four years, I've never bothered with you, never asked you for a thing. Mostly 'cause you pissed me off and left me alone. You remember that, don't you Sammy?" Sam looked away and sighed, then looked back.
"All right. I'll go. I'll help you find him." Veronica smirked. "But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here." Sam turned to go back to the apartment.
"What's first thing Monday?" Dean asked. Sam turned back.
"I have this...I have an interview."
"What, a job interview? Skip it."
"It's a law school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate." Veronica covered her mouth, holding back a laugh.
"Law school?" she repeated. "Never thought you of all people would a lawyer." She smirked. Sam sighed.
"So we got a deal or not?" Neither sibling said nothing, implying that the answer was yes. As soon as Sam returned to the Impala, the three were off.
Veronica caught up on some very much needed sleep on the drive to Jericho. When she awoke, the Impala was parked at a gas station. One of Dean's CDs was playing, and was most likely the cause of Veronica waking up. She looked over the edge of the seat of where she sat. In front of her was Sam, and Dean was nowhere to be seen. She looked at him through the mirror.
"Morning," she said with a yawn. Sam looked up at Veronica's reflection in the mirror.
"Why and how you can even sleep back there is something I'll never know," he muttered to himself. There was a very awkward silence for a moment before either one of them spoke. "You cut your hair." Veronica toyed with one of the short pieces of her dark hair.
"Yeah, what's the point?"
"When did you do that?"
"Four years ago. Right after you took off." Sam fell silent. "You didn't have to leave me there."
"And there's that attitude of yours."
"What attitude?! Sammy, you left me with Dean and John for four years! I didn't even hear a single thing from you."
"Well, I couldn't exactly send a letter to you guys, now could I? Dad would have probably just kept it from you, anyway."
"A phone call would have been nice."
"Can we please not start a fight?"
"No, you're going to listen to me, you little son of a-" Before Veronica could get out another word, she caught Dean approaching the Impala out of the corner of her eye. She slumped back against her seat. Dean tapped the window on the shotgun side. Sam leaned out and looked at him.
"You want breakfast?" Dean asked.
"No, thanks," replied Sam. Dean shrugged and threw something at him. Sam caught it, but Veronica immediately snatched the food away.
"Thanks," she said, unwrapping it.
"So how'd you pay for that stuff? You and Dad still running credit card scams?"
"Hunting doesn't make a lot of money, Sammy." Veronica's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "That and I'm an excellent pickpocket." She laughed. "Besides, all they do is apply. It's not our fault they actually send them the cards."
"Yeah? And what names did you write on the application this time?"
"Uh, Burt Aframian," said Dean as he got into the driver seat and put his things down. "And his son Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal." Dean closed the car door.
"That sounds about right." Sam picked up a box of tapes from the off of the Impala's floor. He rifled through it for a second. "I swear, man, you've gotta update your cassette tape collection." Veronica leaned over and took out one of the cassette tapes from the box.
"Why?" Dean asked.
"Well, for one, they're cassette tapes. And two." Sam held up a tape for every band he named. "Black Sabbath? Motorhead?" Sam took the tape Veronica had. "Metallica?"
"What's wrong with Metallica?" Veronica asked, snatching the tape back.
"It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."
"You know the rule about the Impala, Sammy." She handed the tape off to Dean. He popped the tape into the player built into the car.
"Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole," Dean finished as he put the tape in the player.
"You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old," Sam said after a moment."It's Sam, okay? You need to stop calling me Sammy. Same goes for you, Dean."
"Sorry, I can't hear you, the music's too loud." Veronica laughed as Dean drove off.
"You heard Dean, Sammy," she said. "Shotgun shuts his cakehole."
The drive continued on as the Impala drove onto the Centennial Highway. So far, Sam had avoided speaking to his stepsister by talking on the phone instead.
"Thank you," he said as he finished up his call. He turned to Dean. "Alright. So, there's no one matching Dad at the hospital or morgue. So that's something, I guess."
"It's nothing, Sammy," groaned Veronica. "All we know is the John's not dead." Dean glanced over at Sam and then at Veronica, before looking back at the road.
"Is she still not calling him Dad?" Sam asked. Dean nodded.
"I heard that!"
At a bridge ahead of them, there were two police cars and several officers.
"Check it out," said Dean. Veronica leaned out to the front to see the scene up ahead. Dean pulled the Impala over. The trio took a long look before Dean turned off the engine. He opened the glove compartment and pulled out a box full of ID cards with his, John's, and a limited number with Veronica's, faces. Most of the visible ones included FBI. Dean picked one out and grinned to his siblings. Veronica made a reach for one of hers. Dean stopped her.
"Too young to be in the FBI," he reminded her, flashing the ID. "Let's go." The Winchesters got out of the car. They walked unto the crime scene like they belonged there, as was now instinct. They walked up to two officers.
"You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?" Dean affect said. One of the officers looked up when Dean started talking and straightened up to talk to him.
"And who are you?" he asked. Dean flashed his badge.
"Federal marshals."
"You three are a little young for marshals, aren't you?" Veronica laughed.
"Why thank you," she said, masking her usual personality. "That's really sweet of you to say." She walked over to a car that seemed to be abandoned on the bridge and cleared her throat. "But what my partner is asking is that you had another like this before, right?"
"Yeah, that's right. About a mile up the road. There've been others before that."
"So, this victim," asked Sam, "you knew him?" Veronica shrugged when she noticed that no one was paying any attention to her actions and began looking at the car on the side of the road.
"Town like this, everybody knows everybody."
"Any connection between the victims, besides that they're all men?" Dean asked.
"No. Not so far as we can tell."
"So what's the theory?" Sam asked. Veronica could hear him approach behind her. She turned her head, shooting a look at him.
"Honestly, we don't know. Serial murder? Kidnapping ring?"
"That's the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of guys like you..." Veronica muttered as she knelt down to take a look under the car. Sam stepped firmly on her hand. Veronica jumped as Sam removed his foot. She stood up to her full height, glaring intensely at him.
"Thank you for your time," Sam said to the officer before Veronica could say a single word to her stepbrother. Sam took her by the wrist and walked away. Dean followed them.
"You know, that was really unnecessary!" Veronica snapped as she pulled herself from Sam's grasp. "You have no right to go and step on my hand like that!"
"I do when you speak to police like that." Dean suddenly moved in front of them, forcing Sam and Veronica to stop walking.
"Both of you, quit it," he said. "It's like you're little kids again. Sam, Veronica's right to act like that."
"What?!"
"Come on. They don't really know what's going on. We're all alone on this. I mean, if we're going to find Dad we've got to get to the bottom of this thing ourselves." Sam cleared his throat and looks over Dean's shoulder. Dean turned. Veronica pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned as a Sheriff and two real FBI agents approached them.
"This is going to be a long day..." she said rather harshly before putting her nice girl act back on.
"Can I help you three?" the Sheriff asked.
"No, sir, we were just leaving," Dean said as the FBI agents walk past them. He nodded at each of them. "Agent Mulder. Agent Scully." Before anymore words could be exchanged, Dean, Sam and Veronica headed past the Sheriff, and quickly back to the Impala.
Dean drove the Winchesters into Jericho. He pulled up near a movie theater. Outside of said theater was a young woman who was tacking up posters. The brothers got out, as did a confused Veronica.
"I'll bet you that's her," said Dean
"Yeah," Sam replied.
"Who is she?" Veronica asked out of pure confusion.
"You need to listen more," said Dean. "That's Amy. She's the victim's girlfriend." Veronica nodded wearily as they approached her. "You must be Amy." The woman, Amy turned to face the Winchesters
"Yeah," she said.
"Yeah, Troy told us about you. We're his uncles, and this is his cousin. I'm Dean, this is Sammy, and that's Veronica."
"He never mentioned you to me." Amy walked away. Dean and Sam went to walk with her, but Veronica stopped them.
"You two, go find some info or something," she said. "This is a woman's job." Veronica turned on her heel and jogged up so she was walking besides Amy.
"Well, that's Troy, for you," she said, picking up the conversation. "We're not really around much. We live up in Modesto." Amy said nothing. "My... uncles and I are looking for him, too. We were kinda asking around town." Then, another young woman came up to Amy and put a hand on her arm.
"Hey, are you okay?" The woman asked.
"Yeah," Amy replied.
"Hey, Amy," cut in Veronica. "Do you mind at all if I ask you a couple questions?" Amy agreed. The three went to a nearby diner to talk about Troy's disappearance. Veronica slid into the booth opposite Amy and her friend, who had introduced herself as Rachel.
"I was on the phone with Troy," Amy explained, going over the events from the last time she saw him. "He was driving home. He said he would call me right back, and...he never did."
"And he never said anything strange or out of the ordinary?" Veronica questioned. Amy shook her head.
"No. Nothing I can remember." Veronica sighed. Well, this was a dead end. She looked up at Amy, and noticed something around her neck.
"Cool necklace," she said. Amy held the pendant she was wearing, which was a pentagram in a circle, and looked down at it.
"Troy gave it to me. Mostly to scare my parents-" She laughed. "-with all that devil stuff." Veronica laughed a little.
"You know it actually means the opposite?" Amy looked up at her with a weird look. "A pentagram, believe or not, is actually a protection against evil. It supposed to be really powerful." Veronica caught her mistake. "I-I-I mean, if you believe in that kind of thing."
"Do you believe in it?" Veronica shrugged, keeping her act on.
"Not really." She grabbed her arms. "My parents did... I guess..." Amy blinked. Veronica sighed. She really didn't want to do it, but she guessed if it was to help with the job, then it was worth it.
Veronica slid off her leather jacket and held out her right arm to the friends sitting across from her. Right in the middle of the girl's arm was a scar shaped in a perfect pentagram in a circle, and was the remnants of what someone had burned into Veronica's skin a long time ago.
"That's going a little overboard, isn't?" Veronica shrugged as she put her jacket back on.
"It doesn't really matter," said Veronica. "Look, getting back on topic, the way Troy disappeared isn't normal. If you heard anything, I need to know." Amy and Rachel looked at each other. "What?"
"Well, it's just..." said Rachel. "I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk."
"About what?"
"It's kind of this local legend. This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago. Well, supposedly she's still out there. She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever." Veronica nodded. In her pocket, her phone went off. She took it out to find a text message from Dean.
Dean: Find anything?
You: Yeah. Give me a sec.
Veronica looked at the girls and stood from the booth. "Pardon my sudden exit, ladies, but Dean needs my help." She began to walk out of the diner. "Hope you find Troy soon!"
Veronica had gotten a text from Dean to meet the boys at the library. It took about fifteen minutes to find it, and another ten to find the boys. They were at a computer, with Dean typing into the search browser for the Jericho Herald. With smirk, Veronica walked up to them.
"Hey, boys," she said, placing a hand on the chair Dean was sitting in. "What's up?"
"Tell me what you got," said Dean almost immediately. Veronica sighed.
"Hello to you too. Anyway, Amy's friend said there was this chick who was apparently murdered on the Centennial Highway. Supposedly she still hitchhikes out there, and whoever picks her up gets-" She drew a line across her throat. "I think you get the point." Dean nodded and typed the words "Female Murder Hitchhiking" into the search box. He clicked GO, and the screen popped up to show zero results. Dean replaced "Hitchhiking" with "Centennial Highway", only to come up with the same response.
"Let me try," said Sam, who was sitting next to his brother. He made a reach for the keyboard, but Dean smacked his hand away.
"I got it," said the oldest Winchester. It was then that Sam shoved Dean's chair out of the way and took over. However, he sent Veronica falling to the floor in the process. "Dude!" Veronica stood with a look that could kill. Dean hit Sam in the shoulder. Veronica followed by slapping the back of his head.
"That was unnecessary!" She hissed."You're such a control freak, you can't even tell if someone else is leaning on something!
"So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?" Sam said, ignoring Veronica completely.
"Yeah," Dean replied.
"Well, maybe it's not murder."
"What?" Veronica questioned. Sam replaced "Murder" with "Suicide" in the search bar. An article entitled "Suicide on Centennial" popped up. Sam opened the article.
"April 25, 1981," Veronica read aloud as Sam scrolled through the article, "A local woman's drowning death was ruled a suicide, the county Sheriff's Department said earlier today. Constance Welch, 24, of 4636 Breckenridge Road, leapt off Sylvania Bridge, at mile 33 of Centennial Highway, and subsequently drowned last night. Deputy J. Pierce told reporters that, hours before her death, Ms. Welch logged a call with 911 emergency services. In a panicked tone, Ms. Welch described how she found her two young children, 5 and 6, in the bathtub, after leaving them alone for several minutes. She reported that their complex-... and that part is unreadable. I'm pretty sure that the kids weren't breathing,though. 'What happened to my children was a terrible accident. And it must have been too much for my wife. Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it,' said husband Joseph Welch. 'Now I ask that you all please respect my privacy during this trying time.' At the time of the children's death and Ms. Welch's subsequent suicide, Mr. Welch was at the Frontier auto salvage yard, where he works the graveyard shift as associate manager. 'Connie might have been quiet, but she was the sweetest, most caring girl I ever knew,' said Deanna Kripke, a neighbor. 'She just doted on those children.'"
"This was 1981," Sam explained, "Constance Welch, twenty-four years old, jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in the river." He gestured to the picture of the woman featured in the article.
"Does it say why she did it?" Dean asked.
"Yeah."
"When?" Veronica asked with slight anticipation.
"An hour before they found her, she calls 911. Apparently her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back, they aren't breathing. Both die." Dean raised his eyebrows and hummed a response. Veronica looked at the article. There was a picture of Joseph next to a picture of Sylvania Bridge. Her eyes widened. It was the same place where Troy had died.
"'Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it,' said husband Joseph Welch,'" Sam repeated.
"Boys," Veronica pointed to the bridge. "Tell me that doesn't look at all familiar?"
The Winchesters waited until night to check out the bridge, knowing very well that the police would just bother them if they did it in broad daylight. Dean parked the Impala on the bridge. The trio got out and began to walk along it. They came to a stop in the center, leaning on the railing.
"So this is where Constance took the swan dive..." muttered Dean. Veronica whistled and mimicked the sound of something hitting the water below.
"That's a long way down..." she added.
"So you think Dad would have been here?" Sam asked as he looked over at Dean.
"Well, he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him," Dean said as they continued walking.
"Okay, so now what?"
"We keep digging, Sammy," Veronica answered. "We have to find John. It might take a while but-" Sam stopped, cutting his stepsister off.
"Guys, I told you, I've gotta get back by Monday-" The other two stopped and turned.
"Monday. Right. The interview," Dean said.
"Yeah."
"Yeah, I forgot. You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just going to become some Lawyer? Marry your girl?"
"Sammy has a girlfriend?" Veronica said. Sam nodded.
"Maybe, and yes, I do," he said, answering both questions. "Why not?"
"Does Jessica know the truth about you?" asked Dean. "I mean, does she know about the things you've done?" Sam stepped closer to his brother.
"No, and she's not ever going to know."
"Well, that's healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are." The three continued walking.
"And who's that?"
"You're one of us," said Veronica, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her jacket. "You're a Winchester. A hunt-" Sam stepped in front of his siblings
"No. I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life." Veronica narrowed her eyes.
"You have a responsibility, Sammy. A responsibility to-"
"To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what my Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, my mom's gone. And she isn't coming back." Without warning, Dean grabbed Sam by the collar and shoved him up against the railing of the bridge.
"DEAN!"
"Don't talk about her like that," Dean said through his teeth. Dean released Sam and walked away. Veronica looked at him.
"Your mom must have been a fantastic woman for Dean to act like that..." Veronica muttered.
"I wouldn't know," said Sam. "And neither would you. You can't remember your parents. I bet they must have been-"
"Complete assholes? They burned a pentagram into my arm, Sammy. That isn't exactly good parenting."
"Sam. Veronica." Both siblings looked over at Dean. Veronica's eyes went wide. Standing on the edge of the bridge was a beautiful woman with dark hair and in a white dress. They came to stand next to Dean and got a good look at the woman's face. It was Constance.
Constance looked over at them, then steps forward off the edge. The Winchesters ran to the railing and looked over the edge.
"Where'd she go?" Dean asked.
"I can't see shit in this dark..." said Veronica as she searched the water below. Behind them, a car's engine turn over and a blinding light illuminate. Slowly, the Winchesters turned around to see someone had started the Impala.
"What the-"
"Who's driving your car?" Sam pulled the keys out of his pocket. Sam and Veronica glanced at them. The car jerked into motion, heading straight for them. They turned and ran. However, the Impala was moving faster than they it finally got too close, Sam and Dean dived over the railing. A force pushed Veronica onto the ground, sending her tumbling to the other side if the bridge. The Impala came screeching to a halt. Veronica stood in a frenzy, running over to the edge of the bridge. She relaxed when she saw that Sam had caught himself on the edge of the bridge and was hanging on. Veronica reached down and helped to pull the younger Winchester brother onto the bridge. She looked over the railing.
"Dean!" She yelled. "You alive down there?!" Out of the murky water below, a filthy and annoyed Dean crawled out of the water and onto the mud, panting heavily.
"What?" He yelled back up.
"Hey! Are you alright?" Sam yelled as he joined Veronica at the edge. Dean held up one hand in an A-OK sign.
"I'm super." Sam laughed, almost sounding relieved, and scooted away from the edge. Dean trudged back up onto the bridge and went immediately to his car. He shut the hood of his car and leaned on it.
"How's your baby?" Veronica said with a laugh. "Is it alright?"
"Yeah," Dean answered. "Whatever she did to it, seems all right now. That Constance chick, what a bitch!"
"Well, she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure," Sam stated. "So where's the job go from here, genius?" Sam settled on the hood next to Dean. Dean threw up his arms in frustration, then flicked mud off his hands. Veronica gagged as some of it landed by her feet.
"You smell like a toilet," said Sam.
After a mute agreement, the three headed over to a nearby motel to stay the night. However, Dean had discovered that John had been at the exact same motel before he disappeared. After getting the room number, he rallied off the information to his siblings.
Veronica was currently picking the lock to John's motel room. Eventually she got it, and the door swung open. She dug the hairpin back into her pocket. She turned to see Sam dragging Dean into the room. He pushed Veronica inside and slammed the door shut.
Looking around the room, the Winchesters saw an abundance of maps, newspaper clippings, pictures and notes on nearly every surface of the wall. Books were piled onto the desk, with even a few opened. Assorted junk lay on the floors and bed, which included something that held a hazardous-materials symbol. Dean turned on a light by the bed and picked up a half-eaten hamburger sitting there. Sam and Veronica stepped over a line of salt on the floor. Dean sniffed the burger and recoiled.
"I don't think he's been here for a couple days at least," he said. Sam bent down and fingered the salt on the floor.
"Salt, cats-eye shells...he was worried," he added. "Trying to keep something from coming in." Veronica's eyes danced across the papers covering one of the walls.
"These are the Centennial Highway victims," she stated, pulling one of the papers off the wall. The boys looked up at her. Dean crosses over to the wall.
"I don't get it," he said as Sam crossed the room as well, "I mean, different men, different jobs, ages, ethnicities. There's always a connection, right? What do these guys have in common?" Unable to take the smell of Dean anymore, Veronica wandered over to another wall, looking at the papers John had put on it. There were things about the Bell Witch, two people being burned alive, a skeletal person blowing a horn at several scared people with the note "MORTIS DANSE". There was a column about "Devils + Demons" and another about "Sirens, Witches, the possessed". There was a wooden pentacle, and a note that said "Woman in White" above a printout of the Jericho Herald article on Constance's suicide. That's when it clicked, causing Veronica to grin.
"John figured it out..." she said. The boys looked at her.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked her.
"He found the same article we did, the one about Constance Welch." Veronica tore the paper off the wall to show the boys. "Turns out Constance might be a woman in white." Dean looked quickly back at the photos of Constance's victims.
"You sly dogs. All right, so if we're dealing with a woman in white, Dad would have found the corpse and destroyed it."
"She might have another weakness," Sam pointed out.
"Well, Dad would want to make 'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?" Veronica quickly skimmed the article on Constance before shaking her head.
"No," she said. "But I have an idea about who might." She tapped the image of Constance's husband. "The caption says he's thirty, and the article dates 1981. So... he's about... what? Sixty-four? We can still question him."
"If he's still alive," Sam pointed out.
"All right," said Dean. "Why don't you two, uh, see if you can find an address, I'm gonna get cleaned up. Try not to kill each other." Dean started to walk away.
"Hey, Dean?" Sam said suddenly, causing his brother to stop and turn back."What I said earlier, about Mom and Dad, I'm sorry." Dean held up a hand.
"No chick-flick moments." Sam laughed and nodded.
"All right. Jerk."
"Bitch." Sam laughed again before Dean disappeared into the bathroom As soon as he was gone, Veronica looked around the room. Her eyes widened a little bit as she crossed over for a closer look. A rosary was hanging in front of a large mirror, and stuck into the mirror frame was a photo of John sitting on the hood of the Impala. Next to him was a younger Dean. Sitting on John's lap was a younger smiled a little bit, wondering about Sam's and Dean's life before she had met them. Sliding the photo in her pocket, she made a mental note to give it to the boys later.
As dawn had broken about three hours later, the Winchesters still hadn't found anything. Veronica watched as Sam paced across the room on his phone. Eventually he sat down beside her. Her head turned as a clean Dean walked out of the bathroom and grabbed his jacket. He shrugged it on one shoulder as he crossed the room.
"Hey, man. I'm starving, I'm gonna grab a little something to eat in that diner down the street," he said, "You want anything?"
"No," Sam said almost instantly.
"Aframian's buying." Sam shook his head.
"Just something I can eat quickly. Like a sandwich or something," Veronica responded. Dean nodded before leaving the room. It wasn't even ten minutes when Sam got a phone call from his brother. Sam stood up immediately, looking over at Veronica. The call quickly ended and Sam darted to the window.
"What is it?" Veronica asked. Sam darted away from the window, not answering his sister's question. He grabbed her hand and lead her to the bathroom. Soon, the two step-siblings were running from the motel and the police.
Knowing that Dean would be fine, the pair continued searching for John. Sam took the Impala and drove to where they had found the address for where Constance's husband, Joseph Welch, lived. They got out of the car and knocked on the door. An old man answered. He introduced himself as Joseph Welch. Sam introduced him and his stepsister. The three walked down the driveway, talking. That's when Sam asked about John. Remembering the photo, Veronica dug it out and handed it to Joseph, showing him what John looked like.
"Yeah, he was older, but that's him," said Joseph as he handed the photo back to Veronica. "He came by three or four days ago. Said he was a reporter."
"That's right," said Sam. "We're working on a story together."
"Well, I don't know what the hell kinda story you're working on. The questions he asked me?"
"About your wife Constance," Veronica clarified.
"He asked me where she was buried."
"And where is that again?"
"What, I gotta go through this twice?"
"It's just fact-checking. It's mandatory."
"In a plot. Behind my old place over on Breckenridge."
"And why did you move?" Sam asked the old man.
"I'm not gonna live in the house where my children died." Sam froze, relaying the action to Veronica and Joseph.
"Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again?" He asked.
"No way. Constance, she was the love of my life. Prettiest woman I ever known."
"So you had a happy marriage?"
Joseph hesitated before answering. "Definitely."
"Well, that should do it. Thanks for your time," said Sam as he and Veronica turned toward the Impala. Joseph walked away. Veronica stopped and turned back to the old man.
"Mr. Welch, have you ever heard of a woman in white?" She asked. Joseph turned around.
"A what?" He said.
"A woman in white. They're also sometimes called a weeping woman." Joseph just looked at her. "It's just a ghost story. Well, it's actually more of a phenomenon, really." Veronica walked towards him slowly. "They're um... they're spirits. They've been sighted for over hundreds of years, and in dozens of places, like Hawaii and Mexico. Lately they've even been seen in Arizona and Indiana. All these sightings have been with different women." Veronica stopped in front of Joseph. "You have to understand, all these women share the same story."
"Girl, I don't care much for nonsense." Joseph walked away. Veronica followed.
"When these women were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them." Joseph stopped. "And these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity forced on from the heartbreak of the affair, murdered their own children." Joseph turned around. "Once they realized what they had done, the women took their own lives. Now their spirits are cursed. They walk back roads, and haunt waterways. If they find an unfaithful man, they will kill him, no matter what. And then that man is never seen again."
"You think...you think that has something to do with...Constance? You bitch!" It was by this time Sam noticed his sister's absence. He heard what Joseph had said to her and went over them.
"Leave Veronica alone," he said in a rather firm tone. "She has this thing about the supernatural. But that's no reason to call her a-"
"I can take care of myself, Sammy," Veronica growled. "As for you, Mr. Welch, you were unfaithful to your wife. Weren't you? I'm not stupid. I can tell."
"I mean, maybe..." stuttered the old man. "Maybe I made some mistakes. But no matter what I did, Constance, she never would have killed her own children. Now, you get the hell out of here! And you don't come back!" Sam took Veronica by the arm and the two walked back to the Impala.
They drove one for a while in complete silence. Well, not complete. Sam had called 911 in order to bail Dean out. But the silence had fallen again. A little while later, Sam's phone rang. He pulled it out and answered it, putting it on speaker.
"Fake 911 phone call?" A familiar voice said on the other end. Veronica perked up. "Sammy, I don't know, that's pretty illegal."
"You're welcome," Sam replied with a grin.
"Listen, we gotta talk," said Dean.
"We found out that the husband was unfaithful, not to mention a complete asshole," Veronica cut in. "Constance is a woman in white."
"And she's buried behind her old house," picked up Sam, "So that should have been Dad's next stop."
"Would you both shut up for a second?" Dean snapped.
"I just can't figure out why Dad hasn't destroyed the corpse yet."
"Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you. He's gone. Dad left Jericho." Veronica pinched the bridge of her nose.
"And how do you know this?" She asked.
"I've got his journal."
"He doesn't go anywhere without that thing with him."
"Yeah, well, he did this time."
"What's it say?" Sam asked.
"Ah, the Same old ex-Marine crap, when he wants to let us know where he's going."
"Coordinates. Where to?"
"I'm not sure yet."
"I don't understand this," Veronica said, worry wavering ever so slightly on her usual confident tone, "I mean, what on Earth and in Hell could be so important that would cause John to just skip out in the middle of a job? Dean, what the hell is going on here?" Suddenly, Sam slammed on the brakes, sending Veronica into the dashboard. "What the hell?!" Veronica looked up. Her eyes flickered into the mirror. Sitting in the back seat was a dark haired woman dressed in white. Veronica could hear Sam's heavy breathing.
"Take me home," said Constance."Take me home!"
"No," stated Sam. Constance glared, and the doors locked themselves. Veronica tried to unlock them, but the lock wouldn't move. Suddenly, the Impala revved forward. Sam tried to stop it, but Constance was in control, just as before on the bridge. He turned his attention to trying to unlock the doors. Their efforts were fruitless, as Constance drove the car to her home. The engine shut off, and the step-siblings were encased in darkness, with only moonlight surrounding them.
"Don't do this," Sam said to the spirit. Constance's image flickered.
"I can never go home," she said, her voice filled with sorrow. Veronica's eyes widened.
"Why can't you go home?" The teen asked. "C'mon woman, we're trying to help you." With a quick glance back, she caught that Constance had disappeared. She reappeared on top of Sam. She shoved him back into the seat hard enough to recline it. Sam struggled against her. "Hey!"
"Hold me. I'm so cold." Constance begged.
"You can't kill me. I'm not unfaithful. I've never been!" Sam shouted.
"You will be. Just hold me." In a flash, Constance kissed Sam as he continued to struggle, reaching for the keys. She pulled back and disappeared, a flash of something horrible left behind on her face as she vanished.
"You okay?" Veronica asked, with a little sarcasm in her voice.
"Now's not the time to be sarcastic!" Sam exclaimed. "Where'd she go?" It didn't around take long for the question to be answered. Constance reappeared on top of Sam, with her hand reaching into his chest. Veronica grabbed her by the shoulders.
"GET THE HELL OFF MY BROTHER YOU BITCH!" She pulled Constance off of Sam and onto herself. Constance easily flipped onto Veronica.
"Then you die, too," she said, wrapping her hands around Veronica's throat. Veronica's vision began to go black as she choked for air. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out. The window on Sam's side shattered. This startled the woman, as she loosened her grip. The gunshots kept coming until Constance vanished completely. Veronica gasped and coughed as air filled her lungs. Without a moment to think, Sam started the Impala.
"I'm taking you home," he said, and drove forward. Sam smashed through the side of the house.
"Sam! Ver!" Veronica coughed again as she caught Dean running into the wreckage Sam left behind. "You okay?"
"I think..."
"Peachy..." Veronica said in a hoarse tone. "Help me." Dean nodded and pulled both his stepsister out of the car. Veronica coughed again, as she caught sight of Constance. She was holding a large picture frame of her and two children. Veronica turned her gaze onto Dean as he helped Sam out of the car.
"There you go," he said as closed the car door. The Winchester looked around and saw Constance. She looked up. She glared at them and threw the picture down. A bureau suddenly scooted towards Sam,Veronica and Dean, pinning them against the car. Veronica prayed silently in her head for something to happen. The lights then began to flicker. Constance looked around, almost looking scared. Water began to pour down the staircase. She went over to the stairs. At the top were a boy and a girl. They were holding hands.
"You've come home to us, Mommy," said the children in unison. Constance looked at them with distraught. Suddenly they were behind her. They embraced her tightly, causing her to scream. Her image flickered. In a surge of energy, and still screaming, Constance and the two children melted into a puddle in the floor. Sam and Dean shove the bureau over and off of the siblings. Veronica creeped over to where the puddle was.
"So... she drowned her children here?" She asked. Sam nodded.
"That's why she could never go home," explained Sam. "She was too scared to face them."
"You found her weak spot," said Dean. "Nice work, Sammy." He slapped Sam on the chest where he had been injured and walked away. Sam laughed through the pain.
"Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"
"Hey. Saved your ass."
"You saved my ass," Veronica said,correcting him. "I'm telling you, remind me never to try and get put in a chokehold by a ghost ever again. Hell, that woman had some strong hands." Dean leaned over to look at the car.
"I'll tell you another thing. If you screwed up my car?" Dean twists around to look at Sam. "I'll kill you." Sam laughed. Veronica's throat still hurt too much to.
After clearing the Impala from the wreckage of the house- which took an hour since Veronica kept getting splinters from the wood- the Winchesters were off again. Sam sat in the shotgun seat. He had John's journal opened in his lap and was trying to find John's coordinates with a ruler with a flashlight tucked between his chin and shoulder.
"Okay, here's where Dad went," he said. "It's called Blackwater Ridge, Colorado."
"Sounds pretty good to me!" Veronica said, her voice returned to normal. "How far is it?"
"About six hundred miles."
"Hey, if we shag ass we could make it by morning," said Dean. Sam looked at him with slight hesitation.
Dean, I, um..."
"You're not going."
"The interview's in like, ten hours. I gotta be there." Dean nodded with visible disappointment. Veronica groaned.
"Yeah... I forgot..." she said, trying not to sound dejected. "You have that interview for law school." She sighed. Sam had come back, and now he was leaving again.
"I'll take you home," said Dean.
No one spoke for the remainder of the drive to Stanford. Dean let Sam out, and Veronica watched him leave through the rearview mirror. However, Dean and Veronica weren't even a half a mile away when they saw smoke rise from the apartment building. Without hesitation, Dean jumped out of the Impala.
"Stay," he said quickly to his stepsister before rocketing into the building. In a few minutes, he came back out with Sam behind him as flames engulfed the apartment.
The firemen were quickly called upon by a neighbor. The police were there as well, but it's not like the three siblings cared. Veronica watched as the flames were licking the side of the building, trying to stay a light. Her head turned as Dean walked towards Sam, who was loading a shotgun behind the open trunk. Sams face did very little to hide the anger he was feeling. Dean had explained to Veronica what had happened. Jessica, Sam's girlfriend, was on the ceiling. She lit on fire,which had caused the flames. It had been the same circumstances as the death of the boys' mother. And now, Sam had agreed to come with both Dean and Veronica to find John. And Jessica's killer.
Sam sighed, and tossed the shotgun into the trunk.
"We got work to do," he said as he slammed it shut.