Chapter One: One Step Closer
"One step closer….One step closer….And I swear I will stab you!" Her blonde hair blowing straight backwards, the young woman's hand holding the butcher knife shook. Her gazed fixed on the ruggedly handsome Trent.
"Calm down," His hands in front of him motioning her to relax. What's going on with her?
"Stay back!" Voice trembling she took several steps back until the small of her back rested against the bridge railing. "I don't know what you are, but you better stay back!" A large wind from the North stirred up leaves. Being encircled by the red, orange, and gold blur, Stacie panicked and swung wildly with the knife. She leaned back avoiding an unseen assailant, falling backwards over the railing into the chilly river.
"Nooo!" Trent ran to where Stacie once stood. As he leaned over the railing, he searched for what he hoped he wouldn't find. It took several minutes for him to visualize the lifeless body floating in the moonlight.
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The impala pulled up to an old wooden bridge outside of Panora, Iowa. In order to reach the secluded bridge, the brothers drove down a winding country road. Large multi-colored oak trees lined the 4 mile dead-end road. An old farmhouse is the only building located on this road and is located ¼ of a mile south of the bridge.
The brothers slowly approached the wooden bridge. The scene would be country picture-perfect except the obvious disarray. Unconnected crime scene tape hung off the East railing and flapped in the wind. Multi-colored leaves scattered the bridge. Assorted deserted beer bottles and cans littered the sides of the river bank. Stray evidence of teenage follies was left carelessly in the soft grass along the riverbed.
"Looks like the local teenage romance hotspot" Dean grinned as he pointed to the beer bottles and along side a used condom. "If only we had somewhere this pretty where we grew up…" He looked longingly at the fall landscape.
"Where did we grow up? On the road, Dean. And this is a little disgusting" Sam exaggerantly picked-up his foot to step over the discarded beer bottles. "I would think someone would want to clean-up this mess."
"Yeah, but teenagers can't be that picky. Raging hormones and no where to go..." He was interrupted by the sound of an approaching car. The brothers hiked up the hill to the road; arriving just in time to see the red Yaris suddenly stop, spraying the impala with gravel. Dean swore under his breath.
A young man wearing loose fit, faded jeans with a vintage t-shirt over a red long-sleeved shirt stumbled from the car. Swaying as he stood, he leaned heavily on the Yaris's door.
"Dude, he just sprayed my car" Dean confronted the man.
"Hmm?" Gaining his balance, "Oh is that yours?" Each word running into the next, "Sorry about that. I don't think I hurt it." He ran his hand through the brown spiky hair, and cocked his head examining the side of the impala.
Dean made his way over to the car and squatted next to it. He ran his hand over the side of the car, looking for any dents or divots in the paint. "You're lucky I can't find any problems with this prestige paint job".
"Yeah, whatever." While the Dean was examining the car, Trent stumbled his way onto the bridge and leaned against the railing folding his arms. He started humming a off-tuned version of Amazing Grace.
Sam, worried about Trent's balance, stood next to him with one arm resting on his shoulder. "You ok? I think maybe you should come over and sit down. Maybe sober up a bit?"
"Nah. I wanna stay here" He turned around to hide the tears welling up in his eyes. "I have a few more to drink yet. I bought a couple of cases. Only made it through one. I should finish 'em. Yeah that sounds good. A beer, you want one?" He turned back around and unsteadily starting walking back toward the cars. After three steps, he stopped and slumped forward. Sam barely caught him before he passed out.
Dean and Sam struggled to put the young man into his car. His tall body was slumped over the steering wheel with his legs crammed into the leg space. "Should we leave him here?" Sam felt bad for him, the young man didn't look comfortable.
"I don't know what else we can do for him. We don't know where he lives. Plus we're watching the bridge all night anyways. Can't imagine anything will happen to him."
The two settled in for a long uneventful night.
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The next morning the Sam and Dean checked into a hotel. They were exhausted and had nothing to go on. Dean brought the supplies in while Sam talked with the clerk in hopes of getting a lead. The clerk's daughter knew the girl from high school but hadn't kept in touch since graduating and going to college. Jessica had gone to a State University and met Trent at the college. Trent and Jessica had come back to visit for the weekend. Jessica's best friend in town was a girl named Rebecca. After returning to the room, Sam filled Dean in on the details.
Sam and Dean rang the at Rebecca's parents house, a boy of fifteen answered the door. He was quickly followed by a slightly older girl. "Are you Rebecca?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, who are you?" her eye brows narrowed with suspension over her hazel eyes, "If you're another reporter, I swear I'll throw you off this porch myself!"
"Well, you're a feisty one," Dean was amused. Rebecca grabbed the two by their shirt collars and began pulling them toward the stairs. "Whoa, whoa, whoa" Dean struggled to pull his arm loose, "Stronger then you look!"
"We're friends of Jessica's. We thought we could ask a couple of questions." Sam quickly interrupted his brother.
Rebecca loosened her grip enough for the brothers to work out of her grip. "How did you know Stacie? Tell me quick or you're done." She turned to walk back into the house.
"We met at college…well, I was in college. This is my brother. He came up to visit a lot," Sam shrugged toward his brother. "He's not swiftest, couldn't get into college."
Dean shot Sam a look that convinced Rebecca the two were telling the truth. "Move out the way Ronnie," She motioned for the younger boy to let the two in. He reluctantly moved just enough for them to slide in sideways.
The three sat in the living room sipping on Diet Coke. Dean would have taken anything else to drink, but it was all she had. And Sam had made it quite clear that Dean would take the drinks and be polite. Rebecca didn't trust them yet, but she couldn't figure out why. She wanted to talk with them and then get them going as soon as possible.
"I was so shocked when it happened. We went to high school together." Her upper lip trembled, but she didn't shed a tear.
"You guys were together the night of the accident?" Dean asked.
"Yeah. We went to Frankie's for a Halloween party. It's a little early, I know. But it was the only time all of us could get together. It was a really great party. Frankie really went all out this year for the decorations. Halloween was always our favorite time of year. It was defiantly Frankies."
"What do you mean he went all out? Frankie gives good parties?"
"Yeah" She wiped a non-existent tear from her eye, "She bought all these supplies off an internet site. It claimed to real stuff you know. It was so bogus, I told Frankie that. But the stuff looked great." She shrugged and continued, "Who wouldn't want a real cauldron or broom. It was great for stories. We made up some great Halloween story about the stuff."
"Thanks for talking with us. Do you think we meet Frankie? Jessica told us so much about everyone, we feel like we know them. It would help with closure." Sam gave her his best smile.
"Yeah, closure," Dean added.
"Sure. She works tonight. So you can't talk to her until tomorrow morning." Rebecca wrote down Frankie's phone number on a post-it note and gave it to Sam. After the two left, she picked up the phone and called Frankie.
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Meanwhile, on the bridge, a young brunette stood holding a butcher knife screaming at an unseen follower. She waved the knife wildly and fell off the bridge. Her body was found the next morning.