Title: Psycho Circus
Full Summary: Casefic, when a new attraction to a Circus in Florida escapes into the public, it's up to the Winchester brothers and an unlikely source of assistance to track down this horrid menace.
A/N: Set during early S3, this little fic here is the beginning of a much larger series I am working on, playing with canon as well as the larger series will be AU when the time comes, as for now enjoy a story set between the events of Fresh Blood & A Very Supernatural Christmas
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Supernatural but if I did, well, let's actually not go there.
Jacksonville, Florida
It was an average night, except for the rain but of course any local knows that it actually rains in Florida. It's the damned tourists who don't think so, unfortunately it wasn't the whethers that folks should be worried about though, what they should have had to worried about what was coming into town. A force of terror that was being brought to something as friendly as a simple circus.
This particular circus though rolled through the entire state once a year, starting in Gibsonton and hitting every major area in the state and then some, however this year would be different as there was a new attraction set to arrive from Central, Alaska via two locals from there who claimed that the owners of the circus this new attraction was a live beast, steeped in centuries of lore and myth. The very thing they neglected though was that this "attraction" was also a dangerous predator who when left unchecked would go on a blood soaked rampage, a rampage that would effect anyone and everyone who got in this thing's way.
The two men, one with black hair wearing a dark tan leather jacket and the other was a bald fellow with a Harley Davidson shirt, both in their mid-30's had been driving from highway to highway to deliver the package as they had promised, for an undecided amount of money depending on how astounding their capture was, as part of a deal they had made over the phone with various folks.
The two men drove down in a 1990 Ford truck, a tarp covering a crate in which their discovery was kept in, whether or not this was a good idea was up for discussion.
"Hey, are you sure that freak of nature in the back is alright?" The first man asked, looking bac at the tarp in the back of the truck.
"Yes, I'm sure, we're almost there so how about shutting the fuck up? we're gonna be some rich sons of bitches when they see what we brought them." The second man replied, keeping his eyes on the road.
"You wanna know something suspicious? that bastard didn't tell us how much he's willing to pay us for it." The first man said, looking away from the back of the truck and out the window.
"You know why dumbass? because they think we're lying to them, us, two honest to god folks from a town full of hicks, they should be begging us to tell them what it is." The second man said.
"Even I don't believe us and I saw that thing in the back there with my own eyes."
"And I was the one who brought him down."
"Okay, point taken but you know, if we get screwed on this, can we take those bastards to court?"
"I don't know, under circumstances as they are now, the courts would just rule in their favor like the cheap suited bastards they are." The second man replied, a loud thud coming from the back of the truck.
"Did we his a pothole?" The first man asked, startled by the sound.
"Yeah I think so." The second man said, parking the truck on the side of the road, noticing a cable that kept the tarp on the crate had gotten loose.
"Fuck." The first man muttered, when he looked where his partner was looking.
"It's alright, it can be re-attached." The second man said, exiting the truck and heading to the back.
"Just remember, make it by Friday and we can kiss their ass." The first man said, turning on the truck's radio, the first song coming on being The Prisoner by Kris Kristofferson.
The second man walked to the back of the truck, to his complete shock not only had a cable snapped, but a piece of the crate had been broken open, as if it were by bare hands, the thuds getting louder and louder as another pice of the crate broke open, the man rushed over to the passenger's seat of the truck to get his partner to assist him.
"The son of a bitch is breaking out, get the tranquilizers." he ordered, motioning towards the glove compartment, where the second man pulled out a gun.
"You sure about it?" The first man asked as he hurried out to the back of the truck.
"No, I'm trying to screw with you, yes I'm sure about it." he answered back sarcastically, before a loud cracking sound came from the back of the truck, their capture escaping off into some nearby woods which lead to a local park just outside the city.
"Come on, let's go and get our prize back!" He shouted, barking orders at his partner and grabbing a firearm of his own from his back pocket.
The two men followed the capture on foot, before long they had stopped hearing the sound of the beast running from them, unbeknownst to them, they had become the hunted by this creature as it originally intended.
"This would've been much easier if you let them take it by plane George!" The first man shouted.
"Oh really? you know these Florida types? they're snake oil salesman and whatever amount they promised us we weren't gonna goddamn ever see and they'd have taken the credit for it themselves, DARREL!" George shouted, pickingup a rock and throwing it across the woods.
"Okay then genius, lead the way to our road to fortune and fame...or we're both going to the Cuckoo's Nest." Darrel argued.
"What makes you think they'd lock us up?"
"Because, you really think we go to cops and tell them we captured whatever that thing is and they'll believe us? no, they're gonna call us crazy drunks and have us institutionalized."
"To be fair, you did drink half a six pack on the way here."
"That isn't the point."
"Okay, okay, what is the point? we captured something that's not supposed to exist and we should've kept it to ourselves?"
"Well, who's the one who read an ad online for something to bring here? okay, we've been on the road for hours, days at the most and what do we have to show for it? NOTHING, WELL I GOT SOMETHING TO SAY TO YOU GEORGE! UP YOUR'S I'M DONE!" Darrel screamed at the top of his lungs as he exited the area and headed back to where their truck was parked; this however would prove to be a fatal mistake.
As Darrel exited the near by forest, his faith in the endavor had been decreasing due to the incident, tossing his gun into the back of the truck when the truck had flipped over entirely, without warning. Darrel's legs had become trapped underneath the wreckage that was their truck, Darrel looked up in horror as he saw the beast that had escaped the crate as it stared at him methodically, he begged for his life with it, however the animal simply responded by devouring pieces of his body. Darrel screamed in pain as he died at the hands of a literal monster.
"Darrel! you okay!?" George shouted as he ran as fast as he humanly could discovering the horrid sight of a friend's mutilated body, most horrific of all was the fact Darrel had half of his face chewed off and bitten into by this creature, yet unbeknownst to George he was still being stalked by the duo's former captive.
"COME ON YOU BASTARD! SHOW YOURSELF YOU BIG UGLY BASTARD SON OF A WHORE!" George shouted at the top of his lungs, no responses from around him except for grunts and howls of the beast.
The creature came back for it's last victim as George watched off in the forest, taking his gun and shooting at whatever his ears picked up on from the woods, except for the terror behind before grabbing him and twisting his neck in a complete 180 degrees, George's death was instant and not as horrid and painful as his friend, however the creature's hunger for flesh had not been satisfied as it began to eat away at the new deceased man known as George.
2 days later
The two men were labeled John Does by city police, however an investigation began into their deaths, not by regular law enforcement, not by a long shot; this particular investigation would be undertaken by two "Professionals" of sorts when it comes to the weird and evil...long story short is that their professionalism is a family legacy of sorts and not a pretty one, yet these two particular weren't just any as they call themselves "Hunters" however, they were the Winchester brothers and this was just another day at the office, if there was such a thing for people like them.
"So, Sam, what do we know that does the kinda damage we saw in there." Said eldest brother Dean as he exited the local morgue.
"I have no idea, Wendigo? Rugaru? ten-thousand different other things." Said younger brother Sam, following his brother.
"Well, that's a good start." Dean smirked, walking towards their car, a 1967 Impala that the boys had inherited in a way from their father.
"Dean, why did we take this job again?" Sam asked, confused as to why they took the current case from a less the helpful source.
"Because, nothing else is going on in DemonLand...well 'cept for your girlfriend." Dean said, starting the Impala.
"Dude, can you really lay off those jokes for just one day?" Sam asked, having heard all of his brothers quips about their alliance with a Demon.
"It's rule number 1 of being the big brother, I have to tease you about almost everything." Dean said matter-of-factly.
"Really Dean?"
"Yes, really."
"If this job is a bust and it's some wild animal th-" Sam attempted to say before he was cut off.
"What kind of wild animal turns a guy's head completely around?" Dean asked, skeptical of the idea they were dealing with some run of the mill wild animal.
"Well, what's even weirder is that these two guys were labeled John Does by the authorities and yet, the coroner told us he found IDs on both of them."
"Yeah, that's suspicious, but in a city like this and tourism season dying down, do they really wanna run the risk of freaking them out?"
"That's low, even for cops." Sam said, looking at some papers that they managed to get ahold of inside.
"They're cops Sam, it's their job to be shady pricks." Dean said, backing the car out of the parking lot and to the nearest motel room they could find.
"I'm just asking you, when did we start trusting her?" Sam inquired, puzzled by why Dean was so eager to take the job.
"We didn't but it's been weeks since we hunted something down and I want something to kill." Dean explained.
"You want something to kill? Dean, if we should be killing anything it's the Demon who owns your deal." Sam said, concerned his brother wasn't taking their current situation seriously.
"Well I would but we have no idea who it is and where they are but if you have any suggestions other than let's go looking for a needle in a haystack be my guest." Dean said, his tone suggesting he didn't want to talk about the deal he had made with a Crossroads Demon.
"Well, we usually start with nothing, unlike this where there is nothing." Sam argued in defense of them leaving Jacksonville.
"Okay. know what? we'll stay here for a couple days and see if there is something or nothing here, sound alright?" Dean asked.
"You have any idea how much time we'd be wasting?"
"Sam, drop it and shut up." Dean said, parking the Impala at a motel called The Corning Inn
"Fine, we'll stay here for a few days and if it's nothing then...whatever, am I right?"
"Yes, you are actually." Dean answered as he exited the car to get the key for the room they would be staying in this time.
Sam simply sighed, he'd been trying everything he could to stop his brother's deal from coming due, Dean was his brother after all and the only family he really had left and he was not gonna let what happened to their father happen to him.
"Hey Sam, you coming or not?" Dean asked, showing Sam he had gotten the key.
"Yeah, sure." he said, exiting the Impala and following his brother to their room, the theme this time was like something out of Woodstock, very trippy and complete with water beds and colorful paintjobs on the wall.
"Dude, is this room a time machine of some kind?" Dean joked, looking around the room.
"I suppose." Sam shrugged, tossing his bags on the table besides the door.
"Think these beds have...magic fingers?" Dean grinned.
"Dude, you should really consider seeking help with that." Sam said, legitimately concerned about his brothers obsession.
"Course I will, when they stop making quarters."
"Let's hope that day comes soon then."
Suddenly, Sam's phone began to ring, it was a call from the coroner whom they had spoken to earlier.
"Hello, am I speaking to Agent Burton?" The coroner asked.
"Yes, that would be me, what can I do for you?" Sam replied with his own question.
"Well, some papers from my folder on the case went missing and I'm assuming you and Agent Spiner took them, if you wanted the full folder you could've asked, I mean the cops are suspending their investigation on this matter for the next two weeks." The Coroner answered.
"They're what?" Sam asked, shocked.
"Yeah, they want these people to be under some idiotic illusion that all is well, but this story is going to the papers, just goes to show what's more important." he chuckled.
"Alright, well, all we need is the papers we took, I apologize if we hurt your autopsy report at all." Sam said.
"It's alright Agents, I'm guessing the P.D. thinks everything will be better now that the FBI showed up." The coroner said.
"Must be, listen, I can come down to the morgue and get the entire folder since the case is on us." Sam suggested.
"That'd be much appreciated I get so tired of the double standard regarding tourists and safety." The coroner sighed.
"Okay, I'll be right there." Sam said as he hung up. "Dean, I'm going back down to the morgue for the whole folder on the murders, don't hurt yourself, okay?" He added, jokingly.
"I won't..Bitch." Dean said, unpacking his stuff.
"Jerk." Sam said as he left the motel room.
It was only a few minutes when he heard a knock at the door, but Dean decided to answer it anyway, expecting it to be Sam who had forgotten something, yet upon opening the door he was greeted by the person who had tipped him off to the case he and his brother were working on currently.
"Bela...What are you here for?" Dean asked, unsure why she had come.
"Because, I thought you wanted to see if you actually followed up on what I called you about." She said, inviting herself into the motel room.
"You mean the case about the two John Does who got eaten?"
"That'd be the one, by the way they aren't John Does, they had names." Bela informed him.
"We figured that out by now, their names were George Bensol and Darrel Grames...or at least that's what their names were according to the IDs the coroner had on him."
"And there's more to the story than that."
"Really? and you neglected to tell me that?"
"Well, I told you that I found a possible case for you and you wanted the quick details darling, in fact I recall you saying that you and Sam would be here and then hang up."
"Well I kinda wasn't expecting you to drop by."
"Well I dunno, maybe I felt as though you were gonna go elsewhere, as I recall last time we met was that Werewolf you decided to track down on your own in Maine."
"Well, you could always just stop tipping us off with random jobs." Dean said, seeming disinterested in arguing.
"I'm trying to repay the debt you said I owed you is all." She said in a way that seemed like she was defending bringing the Winchesters to the sunshine state.
"So you're idea of repaying is setting me up with all sorts nancy drew mysteries?" Dean smirked.
"You're a Hunter, Dean, I assumed you'd at least appreciate it." She shrugged.
"Yeah, well the last jobs you've tipped us off to haven't been anything special, two Ghosts in Wisconsin and Oklahoma, a Revenant in Massachusetts and a Kalanoro in Colorado." Dean said, listing off the hunts the brit has alerted him to in his recent memory.
"Dean, I remember we made a deal, I would repay you for the Walker thing in anyway I could, and you just happen to hunt and kill monsters and ghosts for a living...and then I put two and two together." She defended.
"And, you want to find something I really want to track down, try finding Demonic omens, would you?" He said, grabbing a beer out of the mini-fridge.
"You know you seem more obsessed with them actually." She said, noticing his personal Hunter's Journal, the contents having more on Demons than any other creature he's hunted.
"You would be to if you had a history with them." He said, cracking open the beer bottle.
"And you would be surprised by just who I have history with." She said under her breath.
"Learn something about you more and more, don't I?" He smirked, taking a swig of cheap motel beer.
"Absolutely, but unfortunately everything you don't know could fill a series of 20 books and then some." She smirked.
"I'm not gonna hear a story about reincarnated witches, am I?"
"No, that's just plain idiotic."
"Thank god."
"I'm shocked you aren't pissed that I'm reading this y'know." she said, noticing that usually he'd have already grabbed it from her, and given a speech about other people's privacy.
"Yeah well, maybe I've stopped caring..y'know since it's always the same song and dance."
"You're such a bucket of sunshine." She said sarcastically, flipping the page and seeing more notes on Demons.
"Thank you so very much." He said, sarcasm in his voice as well.
"Well, if you need to ring me you know my number." She said, closing the journal and heading out of the motel room. "By the way, my offer still stands." she winked, closing the door behind her.
"Well, that wasn't weird at all." He muttered to himself, having no clue what her "offer" was.
Meanwhile at the Morgue
"Dean pick up your phone" Sam said as he dialed his brother from the morgue, having taken the entire casefile folder.
"Sam, what's up? anything new came in?" Dean responded, finally answering his phone.
"Well, another body came in today and ironically it was a tourist who according to witnesses was yanked down into the sewer last night, his body happened to have been found by people who were working down there."
"Same M.O. that he'd be eaten by our cellar dwellar?"
"Not just eaten but ripped to shreds, I've already seen it and the guy was missing an arm and it according to the coroner it chewed into his gut."
"Okay, we can totally write off Werewolf."
"Well, I can say whatever it, it isn't nothing."
"Got that right, so, we're going down to meet psycho master splinter or what?"
"You got it, by the way, wanna know an interesting factoid about our two John Does who were being kept out of the papers?"
"Lay it on me"
"The cops are keeping everything hush hush because of the city's mayor."
"And you wonder just why I don't vote."
"Well, also another little piece of trivia is that Mr. Bensol and Grames were both in contact with a thing called the Universe of Mystery circus, it happens every summer apparently."
"Universe of Mystery, I went there once when you were at college while I worked a case on my own in Miami, some freaky stuff they have every year."
"You think whatever's running around in the sewers is what they were bringing to the circus?"
"Well, it's not the weirdest thing that's ever happened."
"But yeah, sewer diving is definitely on our agenda for tonight."
"Good, you have a map of where the tourist was abducted and found?"
"Just where he was found, but I'll get back to the motel as soon as I can and we can map out our course of action then."
"Sounds like a plan to me."
"Alright, I'm on my way." Sam said, hanging up his phone and exiting the morgue once again.
Sam once again made his way out of the morgue carrying a folder the coroner had put together regarding the three vicitims to the parking lot where the car was, to him this case became more and more bizarre, obviously this isn't an ordinary animal and whatever it was they were after...It was a large predator and it found an all it can eat buffet and everyone was on the menu.
As he got in the driver's seat and made his way out of the car, he had a feeling go up his spine that someone else was in the car with him, he usually got that kinda vibe before something had shown up out of nowhere, like a Ghost or something similar, he looked into the back seat and saw nothing before he heard a voice from the passenger seat.
"Sam, doesn't that seem kind of like a chliche for me to be in the back seat?" the voice said, startling him.
"Ruby, what are you doing here?"
To Be Continued...
A/N: Yeah, I'm gonna just end it here for now, I'll be writing the second part of this as soon as this one is up, thank you for your time.