The Woman in White:
"How could he not tell me? He lied to me for twenty damn years!" Dean Winchester ranted. Dean was a young man of twenty six years of age with short dirty blonde, almost brown, colored hair. His eyes were deep green coloring and he was tall, just passing the six foot line. His body was hard with muscle after the work he'd done his entire life.
"I know this is a shock for you, Dean." Bobby Singer told the adult pacing through his house. Bobby was a man in his mid forties who used to watch Dean and his younger brother Sam often for weeks at a time as they grew. Bobby had became like an uncle, a family friend, someone they could trust, a second father.
"He told me that I never had a sister, why couldn't he just say the truth!" Dean shouted. Dean was talking about his father, John Winchester, who had lied to him practically all his life. He was also talking about his little sister, Christina. Dean's mom had died in a house fire when he was four. Dean's little brother Sammy had been a baby, about six months. Christina though, she'd been about two when it happened and a few weeks later, her and dad went on a trip.
He never saw her again and dad kept saying he didn't have a sister. He should have known, should have realized dad was lying. He couldn't have imagined a whole other person for two years of his life, no matter how young he'd been.
Heck, Sammy didn't even know he had a sister, being so young when she'd left. "When you were sixteen, your daddy told me to tell you should anything happen to him. I think now is a pretty good time." John had been officially declared missing a week ago.
Dean had been on a hunt in New Orleans, Louisiana when he realized he hadn't heard from his dad in three weeks. He never went that long without hearing from him. Last he heard, John was doing a hunt in Jericho, California. And by hunting, he didn't mean bear or buck.
He meant vengeful spirits, black dogs, shapeshifters, demons, and every other nasty that go bump in the night you may have heard about or seen in your nightmares. The Winchester's weren't an ordinary family.
"And where are you going, you idjit." Bobby demanded. Dean was grabbing up the folder of information researching had brought up on his long lost little sister and stuffing it in his duffle bag.
"I'm going to find my sister, grab my brother, and then we're going to Jericho." Dean said, heading down the stairs.
"Dean! Get back here! You just can't drag them into this!" Bobby shouted after him. "You idjit!"
In Minnisota a few days later, a high pitch feminine scream echoed throughout the small apartment. A woman sat up in her bed panicked, breathing hard, clutching the covers to her chest. "Just a nightmare, just a nightmare." She muttered, breathing hard.
Christina Mary Winchester put a shaky hand to her sweat covered forehead, ignoring the banging in the next apartment telling her to shut up. "It seemed so real, not again." Chris kicked off her blankets, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. It was the same. She used to have it every night when she was little. A lot of screaming, the burning flames, a small hand taking her even smaller hand, before being picked up in strong arms and the wind as she was carried away as glass shattered overhead. It had slowed down when she was a teenager, only happening every few months but it picked up to every few weeks to every week the past year.
Now Chris as she was called, was twenty four and it had been happening every night for the past week. She climbed out of bed and headed towards her small kitchen connected to her living area. Along the way, she passed a cracked mirror.
It revealed a woman just under the six foot line with lithe muscles in her arms and legs. She wore a sky blue tank top and striped pajama pants. The top was short enough to see a sliver of tan skin. Her hair was deep dirty blond and usually fell down her back but was now in a messy bun pinned to the top of her head with bangs sticking to her sweaty forehead. Her eyes were a hazel green color.
"I'll be okay, I just need...something to eat." Chris grabbed her box of tea and a chocolate cupcake. She stood at the table, slowly twirling her spoon around in the steaming liquid while chewing on her cake.
Then the air dropped and she shivered from the sudden cold. Chris sighed, wanting her warm bed. She sipped her tea one last time and turned around. Chris didn't even flinch when she came face to face with a pale figure. Her lips were blue tinted and her hair that was clearly blonde was also very damp, clothes torn with a blood stain in the center of her chest.
"It was nice to see you again...and thank you." Chris said calmly. The woman's name was Brooke and she was a ghost. Brooke had been her best friend, the two practically sister's since growing up in the same foster home at age fourteen. Brooke had been violently assaulted and murdered about three months ago. She wasn't a vengeful spirit though, she was a death omen, she had come back from the grave to warn her, to warn Chris.
It turned out the murderer had been Chris' now ex-boyfriend who had been planning to do the same to her. The only reason he hadn't earlier was because he'd seen grown men twice her size fail against her by being outsmarted and out maneuvered. But then Chris got to close to the truth with Brooke hinting at it. Alexander was now in jail and Chris had a bandage wrapped around her forearm where she'd been stabbed by a knife, and a black eye from when he surprised her by bursting through the front door when she went to answer it.
Brooke seemed to smile before vanishing like mist. "Rest in peace, Brooke." Chris sighed, blowing out the candle on the counter she lit to save on the light bill. Chris went to bed, her heart not as heavy, her nightmare set aside in her mind. Chris wasn't surprised about the spirit, she'd known about the supernstural world since she was thirteen and her teacher ended up being a werewolf.
Chris' only got a few more hours of sleep. Her eyes snapped open when she heard something, like her bedroom window being open. Feeling adrenaline pumping through her veins and trying to hide fear and remain calm, she slid her hand under her pillow. There was a creak as a grown man, from how heavy the creak sounded, told her. Eyes pressed tightly, she could practically sense someone looming over her, a shadow over her unmoving body.
It was when she felt a man's hand cautiously touch her shoulder that she acted. Knife clenched in her hand, she clearly surprised the stranger as she swung at him. But he was quick to react, backing out of harm's way as she rolled out of bed. She swung again and he grabbed her arm in a tight grip. She hissed when he grabbed her bandaged wound but brought her leg up and kicked him square in the chest. She shrieked when she was suddenly lifted and slammed into the floor, one hand pinning her wrist with the knife to the floor and the second holding her down by her neck although not actually hard enough to choke.
Chris had a bad habit of attacking people who weren't supposed to be in her room. When she was sixteen, she had this boyfriend who decided he would surprise her by sneaking in her bedroom window after midnight. Needless to say, he dumped her that night.
Chris could see now due to the moonlight shining through her still open window. A man in her mid twenties stared at her with an unreadable expression. His eyes were somewhat familiar but she couldn't place remembering him.
"Get off me," she hissed, struggling with her free hand to pull him off but he was clearly stronger than her and not above using his extra muscle.
"Calm down, I just want to talk." He insisted while Chris glowered at him.
"People talk by going out for drinks. Not attacking them in the middle of the night." Chris said firmly, mind already racing with how she was going to get out of this one.
"Now hold up, you attacked me." The man tried to defend himself. He didn't even notice she wedging her leg out from under him.
"What do you expect when someone breaks into your house." She surprised him by managing to wrap her leg around his back and flipping them so she was on top. "Now, what are you? A demon possessing some poor bastard? A shapeshifter sneaking on unexpecting young girls?" She dug the knife close to his neck.
He glanced at what he could of the knife and then back at her, "Sweetheart, you don't want to do that."
"Give me one reason not to." Chris demanded, two seconds away from drawing blood.
Dean swallowed hard around the knife, "Because I'm your brother." Chris' eyes widened, feeling her grip on the knife slacken. She had been an orphan for years. She was left at an orphanage when she was almost three with nothing but a pink blanket she was holding with her name engraved on it.
Chris never bothered searching for her family or went looking for them after she was legally allowed to leave. She figured they were either dead or wanted nothing to do with her. If they did, they would come looking for her.
It turned out twenty years had to pass for it to happen. At least now she knew why his eyes were so familiar. She saw them in the mirror everyday in her own face.
When the sun was actually up, "I can't believe I'm doing this." Chris sighed, leaning against a 67 Chevy Impala. Damn, it was a good looking car. She was now dressed in jeans, dark blue sneakers, a red midriff showing shirt, and a black leather jacket, the kind with multiple amounts of pockets.
"Yeah, well believe it." Dean said, tossing my couple duffle it on top of his own. It took a while to convince her this was true. Including Chris talking about the nightmare that had woken her up after explaining why she had been left. About the nursery fire, the demon killing mom, and how dad couldn't stand to be around someone who's face looked so much like the woman he had loved. Plus she was a girl and he knew squat about little girls. It took many weeks before he finally sucked up the nerve he was going to do. Some nerve, abandoning his baby girl and then telling his sons she didn't actually exist.
"And where are we going again?" Chris asked, climbing into the front seat. Damn, she wanted to drive this car so bad.
"Stanford." Dean answered slamming his own door shut.
"And that's where Sammy is." Chris remembered. She had started calling him that after hearing she had a little brother.
"Yep, and we gotta go get him." Dean said, starting up the car.
"And if he doesn't want to come?" Chris asked, flipping open the folder of people missing from Jericho, California. Why would he want to come back to this life when he got something going on. He had to leave for college for a reason. The main reason people went to college straight after graduation, to get away from mom and dad. Chris know that's why Brooke went, she worked hard to get that scholarship.
Dean shook his head and he pulled out the partner building. Chris had left the key on the table and a notice saying she was moving out and to sale her stuff pinned to the door. All she brought was a bag of clothes, an old photo album filled with the silly teenagehood of Chris and Brooke mainly. Her second bag held her weapons; box of sat, bottle of holy water, a few shot guns with silver bullets, a flare gun, a could pistols, and long sharp silver knifes. She had an anti-possession silver chain necklace around her neck that she never took off.
"How'd you get that anyway?" Dean said surprised, seeing the papers she held.
Chris glanced up and turned back to the papers, "I've learned the slight of hand trick since I was ten." She used to pick pocket her foster dad's and strangers off the street before she started going to bar's. The locals were happy enough to teach her pool and poker and she picked it up quickly. Her favorite thing to do was hustling people to get extra cash. Beside, that was how she paid her half of the rent since she was never good at getting an actual real paying not illegal job.
Dean started driving down the street while Chris mentally said her good bye's to the place that had been her home for the past year. "So...can I drive?"
Dean nearly crashed into the car pulling out in front of them and Chris smirked. She had a feeling, as they put the town in the rear view mirror, that this was the moment her entire life was going to change.
She didn't realize just how right she was.
It took many hours and it was late at night, "Dean, it can't be heathy to drive this long." Chris said getting worried. The two had only stopped to get food and bathroom breaks before they were on the road again and that had been going on all day and late into the night. Chris had briefly fallen asleep for an hour but she was use to all nighters, what, with her local hunting activities and helping Brooke study.
Dean yawned, "Doesn't matter, we're already here." They were pulling into a garage in the apartment building Sam lived in. The garage was nearly empty, only about a dozen cars spread around.
"Do you even know what room he is?" Chris asked as they climbed out, slamming the doors in the cover of the night.
"Of course...I called admissions, said I was police and needed Samuel Winchester's room number for an investigation." Dean explained.
Chris shrugged, adjusting her jacket, "You're not the only one who's lied and faked their way to get information."
"Come on, he's on the third floor." Dean said, leading the way around the four floor apartment building.
"And why can't we take the elevator." Chris finally asked as they passed the second floor on the fire escape.
"This way is much better, besides, I want to see if Sammy still has the old moves." Dean explained as they reached Sam's window. "Where's my paper clip?"
"Move over, let me get it." Chris had pulled her hair into a tight ponytail and was now pulling a hair clip from it. There were some good things about being a girl. Nobody thought differently when you wore a hair clip. It wasn't for a fashion statement, it was if she needed to get into a locked room and quick. She learned how to when she was seven and her foster parents enjoyed locking her in her room. She would break out and sneak food from the fridge. Nobody was ever the wiser.
It took only a minute to hear the lock click and she easily slid the window up. Dean raised an eyebrow, "Impressive."
"Well I wasn't spending twenty years being bounced around doing nothing." Chris moved aside, allowing Dean to climb through first. "I got it," she slapped his hand away, easily climbing through the window. The floor creaked slightly with her sudden one hundred and twenty pounds. It looked like an ordinary apartment, nothing that suggested a once hunter had lived here. Not even salt lining the windows or demonic protection symbols carved into the wood.
"Where are you going?" Chris hissed as Dean started towards what clearly wasn't the bedrooms.
"I'm seeing if he has any beers." Dean grinned cockily. Chris shook her head, "We're here for Sam, you could have stopped at a bar if you wanted a drink." Chris turned back, studying a picture on the dresser. It was of a woman in her early twenties with long beautiful blonde hair. She stood beside a man with short brown hair hanging in her face, extremely similar to her own despite the difference in length and slight coloring. His eyes Chris could could just barely detect a brown with a hint of greenish in their depths.
Samuel Winchester..,Sammy.
Her little brother.
Chris was knocked out of her sentimental thoughts when she heard what sounded like a struggle. With a hand on the pistol she always carried in the back of her jeans under her shirt, she hurried into the next room. Two men, one of them Dean, fighting with another figure. Dean finally landed on top, pinning the other to the ground similar to how he had Chris the day before. "Whoa, easy tiger." Dean grinned cockily again. Chris had a feeling the cockiness was something Dean could be known for.
"Dean," the figure Chris guessed was Sammy said surprised. Dean laughed, grinning in the way only a big brother could after successfully scaring the crap out of their little sibling. Sam continued, "You scared the crap out of me."
"That's because you're out of practice." Dean announced. To prove him wrong, Sam slammed the heel of his foot into his back, rolling them over so he was on top.
Chris could no longer handle being in the background. It was only all to easy to find a light switch in the nearby wall. Chris smirked. "Well this is an interesting sight to see." She clicked on the light.
Sam jumped off of Dean in surprise at the unfamiliar voice. He turned to see an unfamiliar woman in his home. "Calm down Sasquatch, she's with me." Dean said, standing up.
Sam, if possible looked even more confused. He looked at his older brother, "What's with the girl."
Chris flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and answered before Dean could, "Why don't you just ask me that yourself." Bangs flopped into her eyes.
"Sam?" Somebody else entered the room. This was the woman with long blonde hair from the picture. She wore very short shorts and a cropped smurfs shirt tightly around her chest.
"Jess," Sam swallowed hard as the three occupants swirled to face the woman. "Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."
"Wait, your brother Dean?" Jess smiled surprised. She had always wanted to meet the family Sam was so secret about. Chris coughed.
"And who is she again?" Sam glanced at Dean.
Chris plastered a fake smile on her face, "Hi, I'm Cristina. Call me that and I'll kill you, I go by Chris. I'm also the older sister given up for adoption that you didn't know you had." Sam's jaw dropped gaping. Chris smirked crossing her arms, proud of the reaction.
Dean clapped Sam on his shoulder, "She's right. Meet your older and my younger sister."
Sam shook his head, getting his bearings back, "Hold up. Since when did we have a sister."
"Oh, I'd say about twenty four years ago." Chris commented, leaning against the wall.
"Anyway, Jess, if you don't mind, we have to borrow your boyfriend here. Talk about some private family business. But uh, nice meeting you."
"No." Sam said firmly after a few moments. He stood beside Jess with a protected arm around her. "Whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her." Props for the attitude.
Dean looked at Chris who shrugged in response. It wasn't like they could just grab him, drag him out, and run.
"Um, okay. Dad hasn't been home in a few days."
Sam seemed unconcerned, "So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift. He'll stumble back sooner or later."
"Little more to worry about then a time shift." Chris said, picking at her nails.
Dean clarified, "Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days." Sam's expression didn't change but Chris noticed him swallowing hard. Jess glanced up at him seemingly confused.
Sam said quietly, "Jess, excuse us." It took barely a moment for Sam to tug on a pair of jeans and a hoodie. The conversation continued going down on the staircase just outside the apartment. "I mean, come on! You can't just break in middle of the night, tell me I have an older sister I never knew existed, and expect me to hit the road with you."
"Join the club, I didn't know I had brothers." Chris said.
"We need you're help to find dad." Dean said, as they reached the bottom of the stairwell.
Sam didn't seem all to thrilled to go, "You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the devil's gates in Clifton? He was missing then too. He's always missing and he's always fine." Dean pulled to a stop, Chris almost running into him.
"Not for this long. Now are you coming with us or not?"
"Not," Sam said firmly.
"Why not?" Dean said, clearly not expecting it.
Sam explained, "I swore I was done hunting. For good."
Dean didn't seem to get it, "It wasn't easy, but it wasn't bad." He continued down the stairs.
Sam followed quickly while Chris brought up the rear. "Yeah? When I told dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45."
They stopped at the door at the bottom of the stairs, "Well what was he supposed to do?" Dean asked.
"I was nine years old!" Sam exclaimed loudly. "He was supposed to say...don't be afraid of the dark."
Chris let out a low whistle, "When I was afraid of the closet monster, my foster father at the time made sure I was never afraid of it again." He had done so by locking her in the closet for multiple hours, sometimes all night.
"Well you both should be afraid of the dark!" Dean exclaimed. "You know what's out there."
"Like I could forget." Chris muttered, toying with her nails again.
"The way we grew up after mom was killed and dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her. We kill everything we can find but we still haven't found the demon."
"We save a lot of people doing it too." Dean said. Chris thought that was the most important part of the job, and most rewarding when another life was rescued from certain death.
Sam continued his protest, "You think mom would have wanted this for us?" Chris could barely remember their mother. Just the faint feeling of contentment and safety long forgotten.
Dean rolled his eyes, slamming the door open. The three siblings finally reunited after twenty years outside in that parking lot. Sam said, "The weapon training and melting the silver into bullets?" Chris actually found that part soothing once she managed to learn how to do it. "Man Dean, we were raised like warriors."
"Better than being a damsel in distress." Due to her history and pass, Chris refused to be such a thing again. The three didn't even stop as they automatically crossed the parking lot to the shiny black Impala in the center.
"So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, Apple pie life? Is that it?" Dean didn't seem to understand the concept of most normality, not surprising for someone raised a hunter.
"No, not normal, safe." Sam said firmly as they reached the impala.
"Supernatural or not doesn't mean you're safe." Chris said, leaning against the car crossing her arms. "Monsters I understand but people...people are crazy."
Sam raised an eyebrow, for someone who didn't know they existed, he could remember Dean saying the exact same thing multiple times. "I was just going to college. It was dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's why I'm doing."
"Yeah, well dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already. I can feel it." Sam was silent and looked at Chris.
"Hey," Chris raised a hand, "I may not have been raised with this family but we do share blood. And I couldn't just sit back and wonder if you ever found him."
"We can't do this alone." Dean said. It was the sound of a man begging to reconnect with his baby brother now an adult.
"Yes you can." Sam said quietly. Chris wondered if they could ever get Sam to agree to come with.
Dean looked away, "Yeah, well I don't want to." That seemed to do something to Sam, cause a reaction that made him swallow hard.
Finally, "What was he hunting?" Sam joined his siblings. Chris straightened up so Dean could open the trunk. Inside he opened up what was the spare tire compartment but there was no tire inside. It was a full on arsenal filled with everything you may need for a supernatural hunt. He propped it open with a shotgun.
Dean started searching through the guns and bags, "Alright, let's see where the hell did I put that thing." It was almost amusing to see him searching so intently.
"So when dad left, why didn't you go with him?" Sam asked curiously. That was a good question.
"I was working my own gig. This uh, voodoo thing down in New Orleans. After that I went to Bobby's who called me. He told me where to find Chris." Dean explained.
"Dad, let you go on a hunting trip by yourself." Sam said surprised. Dad would have never done that but then again, Sam hadn't heard from him since he was eighteen.
"Dude, I'm twenty six." Dean said, clarifying that they were no longer kids.
"Bout time your joining the big kids, Sammy." Chris smirked. Sam scowled at the name Sammy but didn't bother correcting her as she pulled the papers Dean was still looking for from the inside of her vest. "Anyway, dad was checking out this job not far from here near Jericho, California. It was nearly a month ago when this guy vanished, finding nothing but his car." She showed him the database page on this guy.
"You could have told me you had them." Dean scowled, just now noticing as he grabbed the papers from his hand.
"But it was to much fun watching you get mad." Chris blinked innocently as the conversation turned back to the case.
"Maybe he was kidnapped." Sam shrugged. Anybody would think that...anybody but a hunter who could read the signs.
Dean continued, "Yeah. Well, here's another one in April." He threw each paper down. "Another one in December '04, '03, '98, '93. Ten of them over the part twenty years. All men, all the same five mile stretch of road."
"Which means I'll be safer then you two if they're going after just men which they seem to be." Chris yawned.
Dean pulled a smaller bag out of the trunk, "It started happening more and more so dad went to go dig around. That was about tree weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since which is bad enough." Dean pulled out a handheld tape recorder. "Then yesterday I get this voicemail."
"Wait, I've been with you all day yesterday. When did you get a voicemail?" Chris said surprised.
"While you were busy sleeping and drooling in my car." Dean answered, pressing play. Chris scowled, she didn't drool. Before Chris could protest, the recording started to play, cracking and breaking up but unmistakably the voice of John Winchester; widower, father of three, and supernatural hunter.
"Dean...something big is starting to happen...I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may...be very careful, Dean. We're all in trouble."
It took Chris two seconds to realize there was an EVP on it. Sam apparently came to the same conclusion. "Not bad, kinda like riding a bike isn't it?" Dean smirked pleased. Sam shook his head.
"Alright Dean, let's just hear it already." Chris said, patience waning.
"Alright," Dean agreed. "I ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss and this is what I got." He pressed play on the tape recorder again.
Although eerie, it was unmistakably a woman's voice. "I can never go home..." Dean pressed the stop.
"Never go home." Sam repeated.
"Well that's weird." Chris twirled a piece of loose hair around her finger. Dean finally closed the trunk now that everything was explained and leaned against it.
"You know, in almost two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing." Dean said.
"And I've never asked you anything in over twenty years." Chris mentioned, hopping to sit on the trunk of the car now closed.
Sam looked away as he thought for a moment before giving his answer. "Alright, I'll go. I'll help you find him." Dean nodded and Chris big back a smile creeping up. "But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here." He started walking back towards the stairs.
"What's first thing Monday?" Chris called after him from her spot sitting on the trunk.
Sam stopped and turned around, "I have this...I have an interview."
Dean didn't seem to concerned, "What, a job interview? Skip it."
"He can't do that!" Chris snapped, resisting the urge to hit her older brother for suggesting such a thing.
"It's a law school interview and it's my whole future on a plate." Sam said firmly.
"Law school?" Dean said impressed.
"A Winchester in law school, well that something new." Chris commented. She herself had never even thought of the possibility of going to law schools
"So we got a deal or not?" Sam asked. Dean said nothing but that seemed good enough for Sam. The youngest Winchester headed upstairs to pick a duffle bag the way only a hunter could, with few clothes and more weapons.
Now bored, Chris looked at Dean. She blinked and tilted her head to the side. And then stared again.
"What?" Dean finally snapped, feeling exposed under his sister's intense stare.
"I'm bored." Chris said, laying down on the car with her hand behind her head. The siblings lapsed into silence until the door opened again. This time it was Sam. He had a dark green duffle bag slung over his shoulder.
"Bout time." Dean straightened up.
"It was only a few minutes." Sam scowled as Dean unlocked the trunk.
"More like twenty." Chris sat up on the hood. Sam tossed his bag on top of her dark blue duffle.
"Okay sweetheart, get your ass off my car." Dean called to Chris.
"So pushy." Chris grumbled, rolling off the hood. She climbed into the back seat and off they were to their first trip sibling hunt. None of the three knew it wouldn't be the last or that this first one would be the easiest compared to all those that would come.
Meanwhile, miles away on Centennial highway, a young man named Troy was driving home late at night. He was the only car on the highway. Troy was talking to his long time girlfriend on his cell smiling away. "Amy, I can't come over tonight. Because I've got work in the morning, that's why...yeah, okay. I miss it and my dad's gonna have my ass." Troy squinted down the road and slowed down as he noticed something pure white, a woman with long dark hair and a tattered white dress was walking along the highway slowly. He blinked and didn't notice her flickering form. "Hey uh, Amy, can I call you back." He hung up as he slowed to a stop.
Troy got distracted, jumping surprised when his radio suddenly turned on. 'I got the feeling and it makes my rump shake I said ho!' Troy tried multiple times but the radio refused to turn off. 'If I should touch you, might be electrocuted I said ho! Deep in your body.'" Troy gave up when he realized he had stopped next to the woman. He didn't even notice how torn up or how olden looking her dress was. Curious driven, Troy rolled down his window so they could talk, "Car trouble or something?"
There was a long tense few seconds before the woman actually spoke. "Take me home?"
Troy grinned a little, leaning over further to open the passenger door. "Sure." The woman took her sweet time climbing in, the door quietly shutting behind her. "So where do you live?" Troy asked so he would know where they were going.
The woman took a shuttering breath before answering, "At the end of Breckenridge Road."
Troy glanced at her dress, "You coming from a Halloween party." He swallowed hard when he noticed how low cut that dress was. He glanced away nervously, swallowing hard. "You know...a girl like you really shouldn't be alone out here."
The woman looked at him, a mourningful, soulful look...seductive as she raised her skirt close to her thigh. "I'm with you." Troy looked away swallowing hard, trying to think of his girlfriend Amy. It wouldn't be there first time he was lured away but at least he somewhat tried not to be. The woman grasped his chin and his mind went blank. "Do you think I'm pretty." It took a moment for Troy to clear his mind and nod but by that time, his eyes were already glued to her cleavage. "Will you come home with me?"
Troy's throat felt dry as he swallowed hard, then grinning. "Hell yeah." And nobody was around to witness the car speeding down the road. They didn't stop till they reached a rickety old house in what seemed like the middle of no where's. It looked like it was about to fall apart at any given moment, the fact that nobody had lived their for years was very easy to see. The woman looked at it with a heartbroken expression, as if she was about to cry at any given moment. Troy scoffed staring up at the house, "Come on, you don't live here."
"I can never go home." The woman said mourningly, thinking back to what happened in this house nearly forty years ago.
Troy started thinking this was some joke the woman thought was funny, "What are you talking about, nobody lives here. Where do you live?" He stopped, jumping surprised when he realized he seat beside him was now empty. He was the only one in the car, but he hadn't even heard her get out or anything. Troy swallowed hard, a feeling in the pit of his stomach as he slowly climbed out of the car. "That's good, jokes over okay. You want me to leave?" Nobody was around unless you counted the crickets. Troy made his way up the rickety stairs that felt like he could fall through them at any second. He snuck a peek through the screen door of the house but everything was covered in dust or rotted through.
With a scream of surprise as a bird emerged shrieking from the darkness, he fell over. But just as quickly did he stand and rush to his car. He wasted no time speeding out of there as fast as he could.
Troy glanced in the mirror, just knowing he had to get out of there even though he didn't understand. Then his gaze rested to the back seat where the woman now sat. Troy screamed loudly, slamming on the breaks in surprise as he drove through a bridge closed sign.
Nobody was around to hear his cries or see the large amounts of blood that splattered across the inside of the car windows.
'Lord I was born a Ramblin' man," the radio played.
"Turn it off." Chris grumbled as she pushed herself off the leather back seats of the impala. Her hair was a mess and she yawned wide and unfemale like before rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
Sam chuckled in the front seat, "What, you don't like music?"
"Not when I'm trying to sleep," Chris scowled, now studying their surroundings. They were who knows where outside a gas station. Sammy sat in the front seat half hanging out the front door while flipping through Dean's cassette collection. That was when Dean was heading out the store carrying a large paper bag. 'Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can.'
"You want breakfast?" Dean called as he neared the car.
Sam looked disgusted at the multiple junk food peeking from the top of the bag, "No thanks."
"I'll take it." Chris said quickly, reaching through the window to take the bag. Two second later found her snacking on a doughnut. 'And when it's time for leavin'.
Sam asked, "So how did you pay for that stuff? You and dad still running credit card scams?"
"Yeah, well hunting ain't exactly a pro call career." Dean said pumping the gas. Chris wasn't surprised, it was tough making a living as a hunter. "It's not my fault they send us the cars when all we do is apply."
Sam smirked, "Yeah? And what names did you write on the application this time?" He slammed his door shut. 'Why was he complaining, the money got them places which helped them save lives,' Chris thought.
"Uh Butt Aframian and his son Hector." Dean said after a moment's thought, climbing into the car.
Chris laughed, "Seriously, you couldn't think of better names?"
"What's wrong with them?" Dean frowned.
"They're just lame, sounds like something you made us after some seriously thought."
"Like you could do any better." Dean grumbled.
"Cindy Snow, Cynthia White, Sandra Offman; and those are only a few alias I've used over the years." Chris smirked proudly as Dean grumbled under his breath.
"I'm sorry man but you have got to update your cassette collections." Sam said, digging through the box of music tapes on his lap.
"Why?" Dean asked confused. Chris shook her head, the music he had was before she was even born.
Sam seemed to share the same sentiment, "Well for one, they're cassette tapes and two," he skimmed the names. "Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica? It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."
"That's what I said!" Chris exclaimed, throwing herself back against the seats. Maybe she was more like her youngest brother than she originally thought.
"Well house rules that go for the both of you." Dean announced, grabbing the music box. "Driver picks the music and shotgun shuts his cakehole."
"What if I don't want to listen." Chris asked, crossing her legs.
Dean turned the music on loud, "Sorry, I can't hear you! The music's to loud!" And then they were off to Jericho, California.
It was another hour drive before they reached Jericho and soon they would arrive at Centennial highway. Check out the scene of the crime before actually getting a room. The music played, 'back in black I hit the sack. I've been too loose in glad to be back.'
"Thank you," Sam said hanging up the phone. Chris looked up from her small handheld journal on supernatural creatures she kept in her larger pockets. She wrote facts as she came across them. "Aright, so there's no one matching dad at the hospital or morgue."
"Well that means he hasn't been found on death road in Jericho." Chris blew a strand of hair from her face.
"Hmm, check it out." Dean pulled to a stop at the bridge. The bridge was overcrowded with police scanning the water or dusting for fingerprints in the car.
"Hey D, pop the trunk." Chris said, sliding over to her door as she saw him open the glove box. She already knew he kept fake badges in there. So she snooped, you didn't expect her to leave with the brother she didn't know existed before checking out his stash.
"For what?" Dean called. She looked through the open window and said it in a way only a female with Winchester blood could, "Just open the trunk."
Dean did what was told and Chris shifted through her hunting bag side pocket as her brothers joined her. "What we going for, FBI?" She pulled out an FBI badge with her picture on it.
"Seriously?" Sam looked in the pocket overfilled with fake badges.
"Hey, you had college, I had hunting to occupy my life." Chris closed the trunk. Although it was the first time all three worked together, first time Sam hunted in four years, the Winchester siblings walked on it like they all had drilled in their heads.
Number one rule, act like you belong there.
It worked when nobody even glanced up at their intrusion.
Chris was a lot of things and she sure as hell wasn't above listening in on people's conversations. Eavesdropping had actually saved her life a time or two. "No sign of struggle, no footprints, no fingerprints. Spotless. It's almost too clean." The officer whose name tag had Hein carved across it.
Chris studies the car, looking for anything anyone else wouldn't have noticed. Maybe sulfer left from a demon. Maybe a calling card from a vengeful spirit. But she couldn't see anything. The other officer, Jaffe started talking, "So, this kid Troy. He's dating your daughter isn't he?" Chris filed that information away in her mind, it was always good talking to possible people close to the victim. See if anything weird or strange had been happening to him the last few days. "How's Amy doing?"
"She's putting up missing posters downtown." Shouldn't be to hard to find her then.
Dean decided to get their attention by asking something a cop may have done. "You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?"
Jaffe looked startled that we were there and straightened up. "And who are you?" 'Good, he was suspicious, now let's make him less suspicious'.
"Federal marshals." Chris said, her and Dean flashing their badges and placing them back in their inside pockets. Sam hung back a little since he didn't have an ID to flash but he was with them which should be good enough.
Jaffe looked even more confused, "You three are a little young for marshals, aren't you."
Chris threw back her inner Winchester pride and let out a high pitch giggle she'd perfected over the years. "Aren't you sweet, I bet you say that to all the girls."
Dean quickly moved on, not wanting to see his little sister clearly flirting their way in. There were just some things a guy didn't want to think about, "You did have another one just like this, correct?"
Jaffe nodded, now at ease with explaining to the three 'mashals', "Yeah, that's right. About a mile up the road. They've been others before that."
Going off of what they heard as the came up, "So this victim, you know him?" Sam asked.
Jaffe nodded, "Town like this, everybody knows everybody." Chris could relate. She spent over half her childhood in no named towns.
Dean walked past Chris and circled around the car, "Any connection between the victims?"
"You know, besides the fact that they're all men." Chris added
Jaffe sighed, "No, not so far as we can tell." There had to be a reason these certain men were taken compared to every other male that drove past.
"So what's the theory?" College boy Sam asked, getting used to the swing of things he'd long tried to forget.
Jaffe didn't seem to know that either, "Honesty, we don't know. Serial murder? Kidnapping ring?" Chris bit her lip as to say something incredibly unprofessional as an FBI agent and blow their cover. But seriously, was there anything these guys knew besides the men were missing.
Dean didn't seem to have that problem, "Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work is expect out of you guys." It would have been funny had she been watching away from it instead of actually part of it. Jaffe looked surprised at the comment. Sam seemed to agree with Chris and hidden by the car, stomped on Dean's foot.
"Thank you for your time." Sam said and quickly walked away. Dean followed behind scowling. Chris quickly hurried after them so she wouldn't be left behind. They were halfway back to the car when Dean slapped Sam hard across the back of his head.
"Ow! What was that for?" Sam hissed.
All three siblings asked a question: "Why'd you have to step on my foot?" Said Dean.
"Why else would be hit you." Chris sighed, this was her new life.
"Why'd you have to talk to the police like that?" Sam complained. It was official, Chris schooled her face so she wouldn't gap, Sam had been spending way to much time away from the hunter lifestyle.
Hearing this, Dean quickly stepped ahead, stopping his two younger siblings in their tracks. "Come on, they don't really know what's going on." He did have a point, Chris thought. "It's just the three of us. If we really want to find dad, we've got to get to the bottom of this thing ourselves."
It was a second before Chris realized Sam's eyes were now resting behind them. A sheriff and two actual FBI agents were standing there. Oops, maybe we should save those conversations when they weren't around law officials. "Can we help you?" The sheriff with a beer stomach questioned.
Chris sucked on her bottom lip, "Um, no, I think we have everything we need here." Wasn't like there was anything to find from the scene of the crime, at least not with all these policemen standing around here. Couldn't exactly wave an EVP around.
"We were just leaving." Dean said and we quickly climbed into the impala, ignoring the sheriff watching.
"So motel, research, or find this Amy girl?" Chris asked, leaning forward from the back seat.
"Well we can get a motel room tonight and the library should be opened for a few more hours. Let's go find Amy." Sam sighed looking out the window. Dean put the car into drive where they drove until they reached downtown.
"Oh, there she is." Chris pointed at a young women with messy brown hair pulled into a short ponytail taping a paper to the movie theater.
"How do you know?" Dean asked, slowing down to a near stop.
"Do you see anyone else pinning up missing posters cause I don't." Chris was already climbing out of the car. Dean cursed under his breathe but him and Sam hurried after her. Chris plastered a wide smile on her face, "Hi, you must be Amy."
Amy looked up but turned back to her bag pulling out another missing flier. "Yeah." She taped another flier to the local grocery store.
"Yes, my name is Chris. I'm Troy's cousin." Dean and Sam finally walked up behind her. "And these are his uncle's Dean and Sammy." Sam made a bitchy face at her while Dean fell into the role she dictated.
"Well we're here looking for him and just asking around. You wouldn't mind answering a few questions." Dean charmed his way.
"Hey, are you okay?" Another woman showed up. Not surprising with three strangers cornering her friend.
They went to a local diner down the street. Chris pulled up a chair and was nibbling on a plate of fries before they started. Amy explained, "I was on the phone with Troy. He was driving home. He said he would call me right back and...he never did."
"He didn't say anything strange or out of the ordinary?" Sam asked. 'Hopefully strange enough for us to figure out what we're dealing with'. Chris thought.
Amy thought for a minute and shook her head, "No. Nothing I can remember."
Chris' eyes zeroed in on the pentagram necklace Amy was wearing. She was a girl and it shines under the light, make sense Chris noticed it. "I like your necklace." Chris said. Dean and Sam looked confused and the girls looked startled.
Amy smiles sadly, "Troy gave it to me. Mostly to scare my parents." She laughed slightly. "With all that devil stuff."
"Well your wrong about that." Chris commented. "I have a tattoo of a pentagram and I know it means the exact opposite. A pentagram is actually protection against evil. But only if you believe in it of course."
"You have a tattoo." Sam frowned.
"Since when, where?" Dean exclaimed.
"Since I was sixteen for a dare and nowhere you're going to see." Chris said firmly. It was actually on the back of her shoulder blade usually hidden by her tank top strap but it was funner to make them think it was someplace far worse. She quickly turned the conversation so he boys didn't go all over protective on her just because of a tattoo. It wasn't like she was doing drugs. "Anyway, we need to know if you've heard anything that could help us with Troy." She stopped when it was clear Amy and her friend were looking at the other hesitant.
"What is it?" Dean had noticed as well.
The friend started, "Well it's just...I mean with al these guys going missing, people talk."
"What do they talk about?" Dean, Sam, and Chris asked. Chris and her brothers glanced at each other. For being so different, maybe they were more alike then they thought.
The friend sighed and explained, "It's kind of those local legend. This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago." Chris glanced at her brothers, this was sounding like what they've been waiting for. "Well supposedly she's still out there. She hitchhikes and whatever picks her up? Well they disappear forever."
This was it, it had to be some kind of spirit doing the killings. Now they have to figure out who exactly it was. Next stop, research.
It wasn't to hard to find the library. It was actually right across the street from the diner. "You suck." Chris sighed, chin in her hand as she stared at the computer Dean was on. Her mind was going numb like when she was in school. Dean couldn't find anything on the centennial murder. "If angry spirits are born out of violent deaths, then try something else."
"I got this." Dean insisted, staring at the blank screen.
"Let me try." Sam decided on the other side of Dean, reaching for the keyboard. Dean slapped his hands away so Sam pushed his chair. Chris made a sound in the back of her voice as he was wheeled into her.
"Dude!" Dean slapped his shoulder. "You are such a control freak."
"And now get off my foot." Chris hissed, pushing his chair away from her.
"Chris is right about angry spirits. It's probably not murder then." Sam rewrote into the search engine, 'Suicide female centennial highway'. One article came up and Sam clicked on it. Their was a picture of a beautiful woman with thick brown hair in her early twenties smiling widely.
Sam paraphrased what he read, "This was 1981. Constance Welch, twenty four, jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in the river."
Chris shook her head, "I will never understand why someone decides to kill themselves." She sure knew she could never do it. The closest she came was when her best friend died and she didn't eat until she wound up in the hospital when she passed out.
"Does it say what she did it?" Des asked.
Sam grimaced, "Yeah."
Chris cocked her head, "You mind sharing?"
Sam nodded and read what he saw on the screen, "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." Chris swallowed hard, it was so sad that a child should die.
Sam read, "Our babies were gone and Constance just couldn't bear it said husband Joseph Welch." He scrolled the screen down till they're was a picture of the bridge.
"That bridge looked familiar to you?" Dean said. It was the same bridge the men would disappear.
"Finally, some action!" Chris exclaimed standing up. The librarian angrily shushed her. They stopped to get something to eat till night fell. That way, less chance of people come out, and ghosts usually showed up more at night.
"So this is where Constance took the swan dive." Dean commented.
"Nasty jump." Chris shivered in he night air, leaning over the rail.
"So you think dad would have been here?" Sam asked hopeful.
"Well he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him." Dean said.
"Dad's probably at the end of this hunt." Chris suggested, toying with her hair.
"So now what?" Sam asked, looking around. But there was nothing, the trail ended here if they couldn't find Constance.
"Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while." Dean said.