Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Meeting
CRAWFORD, IOWA – 5:20pm
Dean looked down at his brother as he twitched in his sleep. Dean wasn't really sure how Sam could sleep in that position but upon considering it, both of them had learned to take their sleep when they could. The Impala's motor hummed and Led Zeppelin sung quietly on the stereo in a rather lulling fashion.
Dean studied the horizon. There was nothing but fields of corn on every side of him. You had to love Iowa for its unwavering devotion to corn. The only problem was that with nothing to break up the monotony Dean was starting to feel fatigue sneak up on him. He resettled himself in his seat trying to energise his weary body and looked in all the mirrors just for something to do. As he glanced away from the rear view he saw a spec on the long black road behind him.
Thinking his tired eyes were playing tricks on him he looked again. Sure enough he could see a car on the horizon some distance behind him. It wasn't really that notable it was just something that he could occupy his mind with to make sure he was still awake. Every minute or so he would look to the rear view mirror and see that the car was behind him. Not only was it behind him, but it was gaining on him. Considering that Dean only knew two speeds, stop and 'bat outta hell' he was fairly impressed. Who ever was driving must have had the pedal glued to the floor.
As the car got closer, Dean looked at it again in the mirror his jaw dropped. Just behind his bumper was one of the most pristine 1969 Mustang Fastback he had ever seen in his life. In the afternoon light he could see that the Mustang was painted in a French Blue and while he couldn't see the detailing he imagined that it would be in grey or silver to offset the rich blue.
In an out of character gesture, Dean eased his foot off the Impala's accelerator just to let the Mustang get a little closer so that he could get a better look. As if sensing his intentions the driver of the Mustang pulled close to the Impala then crossed to the other side of the road to overtake the black beast. Dean watched as the piece of American motoring history drove past him. The windows were tinted too dark for him to see inside, but just looking at the beautifully preserved car made him feel that there were still a few good things in this world.
Dean was tempted to wake Sam as the Mustang pulled in front of him, but then he thought better of it. The moment would certainly be lost on his brother, but Dean was grateful that he had been driving so he could see it. Not wanting to loose the Mustang, Dean hit the gas again and the power under the hood pulled the Impala eagerly forward.
The driver of the Mustang must have been watching him in the mirror because in response to his sudden burst of speed the Mustang jumped forward as more power was applied to the ponies under the bonnet.
"Son of a bich…" muttered Dean pushing the Impala to keep up with the Mustang. This was now a matter of pride. The Mustang was pretty and all, but there was no way that it could ever outrun the grunt of the Impala.
Sam stirred in the seat next to him looking blearily out at the landscape flying past them.
"Hey Man" he questioned his voice groggy "We're are we?"
"About 40 miles out of Aspinwall."
Sam looked at his brother who was leaning forward in his seat in an effort to make the Impala go faster.
"Is there some reason why we are trying to set a land speed record?"
Dean glanced sideways at him, feeling slightly frustrated that he had to fill him in on the situation.
"That Mustang passed us a little while back; I'm just trying to catch up."
Sam starred at his brother a little confused "Um….Why?"
"Because." said Dean in a manner that suggested that was all the answer that was required.
"Dean man…just let it go." said Sam trying to settle back into his seat, but feeling somewhat perturbed by the excessive speed that his brother was doing. Dean usually drove fast, but what he was doing now was well beyond Sam's comfort zone.
"Dean! I'm serious" said Sam starting to get slightly irritated. "We don't want to draw the attention of the local authorities."
Dean looked at his brother irritated again as he backed his foot off the accelerator. If there had been anything that Sam could have said to convince him to slow down, he had found it. The logic of Sam's words had gotten past Dean's pride, but he wasn't happy about it.
"Fine, but I wan't you to acknowledge that if the situation had been different I could have taken that Mustang."
Sam laughed slightly "Whatever man."
"No. No," said Dean banging on the steering wheel "I want you to say it, or I floor this baby until we catch that son of a bitch."
"Ok" said Sam still working hard to suppress a smile "I'm sure if circumstances were different you would have kicked that Mustangs arse. Are you happy now?"
"No" muttered Dean feeling the flow of adrenaline circulate through his body to revitalise him.
They drove on in silence, the sun getting low in the sky as they travelled. Half an hour later they pulled into Aspinwall, a tiny little town surrounded by massive expanses of farm land. Main St ran right through the centre of town and as they headed down towards the tiny gas station. Sam nudged Dean to look across the road at the Mustang parked out the front of the Mom & Pop Diner.
Dean had whipped the Impala around so quickly that Sam was thrown around awkwardly in the seat.
"Dean…What are you doing?" he protested righting himself in the seat.
"We gotta eat don't we?" said Dean his focus purely on the Mustang.
Sam shook his head slightly "I thought the plan was to stop in Manning. It's only a few miles down the highway?"
"Yeah! Well I'm changing the plan." said Dean as he pulled into a car space two down from the Mustang.
Sam let out a heavy sigh. There were just some things about his brother that he would never understand.
"Look Sammy, I just want to check out the guy who's driving – that's all."
Sam turned and smiled at his brother. Dean was a pretty cool character in most circumstances. He had seen and hunted things that most people couldn't conceive of in their worst nightmares, but something about this driver had really gotten under his skin.
"Ok fine…Whatever." Sam said with resignation. Smiling the brothers got out and locked up the Impala. As they approached the door to the Diner, Dean saw a woman approach from the other side and hurriedly opened the door for her.
An attractive well groomed woman emerged through the door carrying a coffee and paper bag. When Dean held the door for her, she gifted him with a smile and thanked him. At the sound of her thick British accent, Dean raised his eyebrow in acknowledgement and nodded slightly as she walked past.
Expecting Dean to then go in, Sam made a move forward but instead of clearing the door, he walked clean into his brother who had paused to admire the English woman's 'assets' as she walked down the stairs. It was then that he noticed that she moved to the Mustang and his face fell from a look of appreciation to one of absolute shock.
"Ma'am, is that your car?" he asked almost choking on his words.
The woman looked up from where she was unlocking the car and smiled at him again as she tossed her long auburn hair over her shoulder.
"Yes it is." she said, again her crisp accent ringing out each word.
"Its beautiful." replied Dean somewhat dumbstruck.
"Thanks" replied the woman before slipping in behind the wheel and disappearing behind the nearly black window tinting.
Sam chuckled as the Mustang reversed and took off down Main Street, Dean watching enviously as it went.
"Oh that's not right. That is so not right, Sammy." muttered Dean
"What? That the man you expected to be driving that car turned out to be a woman?"
"No" moaned Dean as he slid into the Diner with Sam close behind him "That a fine piece of American motoring history is being driven by a foreigner. I bet she doesn't even know what she has…probably picked it because the colour was nice."
The brothers sat down at the nearest available booth and looked over the menus.
"So tell me again what we're doing here?" said Sam as he ran his eye over the menus.
"Dad wrote in his journal about a string of disappearances in Patterson. All of the disappearances were children and they all happened in October. He figured this out in 1997, and when he did his research he noticed that every 10 years in October Children would go missing around Patterson."
The two boys went suddenly quiet as the matronly waitress wandered over and took their order. After she had gone Dean leaned forward on the table speaking in a quiet voice.
"By the time Dad figured it out in 97, the disappearances had stopped and he didn't have any leads to go on, so he made a note is his journal to go back there in ten years time."
Sam nodded thoughtfully "So we're going back there to check this out?"
"Exactly" said Dean "I was looking through the missing person's database and I came across a report of a child who went missing last week. That's what reminded me about the note in Dad's journal."
"Did Dad say anything about what he thought it was?"
Dean shook his head slightly as he took a sip of his drink "Nope. He only identified a pattern. Five children, every October, every 10 years, going back for almost a century."
"Huh. That is weird. Doesn't sound like something feeding or anything does it?"
Dean looked at his brother over the edge of his class. "What makes you say that?"
"Well" said Sam leaning forward "It's always five. Usually things that hunt will just hunt until they are full no specific number just whatever they need to satisfy their hunger. No this sounds like something else."
Dean lifted his eyebrow in consideration of his brothers words "Could be…but at this point I don't think we can discount anything."
Their meals arrived and Sam got stuck into his meal with gusto.
"Sam" said Dean watching his brother devour his steak "It helps to take a breath between each mouth full you know."
"Sorry man." replied Sam his mouth half full "I'm just starving"
"No Kidding" muttered Dean focussing on his own meal.
The brothers ate in silence, both consumed with their own thoughts, finally the waitress bought around the bill and the boys got up to leave.
"So you want to find a place to stay in Manning or do you want to keep going." questioned Dean as they walked out to the car
"Let's keep going. I think we should get to Patterson as soon as we can. I want to try and get there before another kid goes missing."
Dean looked at his brother "Good point. Ok…you can drive for a bit and I'll get some shut eye." With that he tossed the keys to the Impala to his brother and gave him a cheeky smile before sliding into the passenger's seat.
The boys quickly filled the car up at the tiny gas station down the road and headed back to the highway. Sure enough within fifteen minutes of leaving Aspinwall they hit the city limits of Manning. A decidedly larger town than Aspinwall but still only a small country town, the highway almost cut it into two equal halves and ran right through the centre of town.
Dean starred aimlessly out the window, letting the quaint country buildings pass by him. He took no notice of the scenery until he saw the blue mustang parked out the front of a gas station.
"Son of a…." Dean muttered "That Mustang is worse than a bad penny, turns up everywhere."
"She's probably going to Des Moines or something." remarked Sam but Dean's attention was totally focused on the Mustang and its pretty driver.
The driver stood by the petrol pump watching the Impala drive by, she just stood there following the car with her eyes, but Dean felt slightly unnerved by it. This wasn't just someone who was people watching for something to do, she was pointedly watching them as they passed by.
Dean shook off the feeling and focused his eyes on the highway in front of them, the white lines and the tarmac racing under the wheels was quite lulling and eventually he drifted off to sleep.