~29th April 2006~
"Hey,Sammy. Check this out!" Dean called to the other side of the room to his brother. "Canaan, Connecticut. Serial arson. Police got no clue, no evidence. Out of seven only two survived. What do you think? Sound like a case?"
As a reply the younger one grumbled an animal-like "nnng" and turned to the other side of the bed. Dean chuckled at Sam's child-like behavior, but left him to have some rest nonetheless. He knew Sammy had a serious problem with his visions and was trying to find a way to help his baby brother, though he was completely clueless.
At around 13:30 they left the tacky motel and started the way to Canaan. Late in the afternoon they arrived and decided to take their time in choosing the next motel they'll be staying at. The arson had been happening at night around a local bar and, as a logical answer, they decided to go check the scenary, the mood. They deemed it best to go check out the crime scenes the day after.
Before Dean could park his Baby in the small parking lot behind the bar, a loud thud sounded from the front of the car. Looking up to the hood of the Impala, the brothers saw a girl sprawled on it with her eyes moving wildly around the scenery. And a man in a police uniform caught her by the collar of her jacket and pulled her roughly back.
The boys looked at each other and climbed out of the car as quick as possible. The girl didn't seem to struggle much as the officer cuffed one of her hands behind her back after that taking the other to join them.
"C'mon, Jawn! You can't be serious!" Her thick Irish accent stuck out in the quiet night air. "Aren't you tired of always arresting me?" She whined childishly as she tried throw a side look at the officer, John, behind her.
"Aren't you tired of always causing trouble?" He retorted back as if he had trained it.
The man looked towards the Winchesters and pulled at the chain holding the girls wrists together seemingly to remind her that she couldn't go anywhere and that struggling would only cause her more inconvenience.
"Sorry you had to see this, boys. Now, would you like to lay charge about the car or..."
"No, no, no ! No charge, officer!" Sam demanded.
"What's she done anyway?" Dean looked the girl from head to toe and concluded that she was somewhere around Sam's age. She was dressed in loose ripped (more like torn) jeans, folded to the middle of her calf, that showed off the muscles in her legs with low seemingly oversized Ethnese sneekers, a white bralet and a black leather jacket with many thin and not-that-thin chains with charms around her neck. The girl's hair seemed almost white in the weak street-lighting and was pulled in, what seemed, like a bun of medium-thick dreadlocks, destroyed from running. From the exposure the bun gave, the brothers could see her many ear piercings and also the ring on her septum. She gave off a troublemaker aura, but to Sam she looked like a friend, in a way.
"Her neighbors called because she was having a pyromania party in her house." He stated disinterestedly.
"Jawn, seriously. You have no evidence against me. You've got nothing. And you know quite well that this old bat just hates me for the heck of it." The Irish defended once more only to have the officer ignore her.
"I have to take her in for the night." The officer looked at the boys once more and threw the girl a look of suspicion. "You look like someone she'd rob. Or does she owe you money?"
"I don't owe anything to anyone, Jawn." She stated coldly trying to turn back and look him in the eyes but John pushed her head back.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot." He rolled his eyes and pushed her to the police car.
"Welcome to Canaan boys." John smiled small and left with the girl.
"C'mon, Jawn, really? When did you become so nice? Why do you seem to be mean only to me?"
"Don't get on my nerves, Aidan. Walk and don't cause me anymore trouble. Just walk, God damn it!"
So that's what she's called? Aidan? To Sam this girl seemed more than just a good friend. She was probably one of those friends that your parents told you to stay away from, but you had the most fun with. She was a troublemaker, that was for sure.
What nagged at his mind was what that officer had said. Having a piromaniac party? What the hell did he mean? And just then the suspicion formed into his brain. What if she stood behind this all and there wasn't anything supernatural after all? A simple pyromaniac who is clever enough not to leave any evidence? At the moment it sounded good enough to him.
~30th April~
The next day Sam and Dean went to check out the crime scenes. They found completely nothing: no smell of gasoline or inflammable substances, not even a match to support Sam's assumption about the whole deal but then again, there wasn't anything against it either, so it remained an option. It looked as if it had lit up on it's own, without the help of anything else. In all of the seven houses.
At noon they gave up on the idea of finding whatever evidence they needed at the scenes and decided to meet the only two survivors. Marie-Claire Lero and Connan Brooks.
The local hospital was an empty and eerie place with the smell of death. The brothers had to pretend to be one of the victim's family and the receptionist let them in exceptionally easy. It seemed that she didn't want to be there either.
She told them the room number where was supposed to be and left them alone, which for the Winchesters seemed very much okay. They found the room out of many in that empty creepy building and were met by a middle aged woman with greying black hair and a very exhausted exterior. Her skin was tanned and her hands were shaking.
The story Marie-Claire told them almost seemed unbelievable to them. A girl had come to ask her something and not even minutes after she left the fire started as if out of nowhere. It spread through her house so quickly that she couldn't react on time. The woman told them she barely survived as well.
When asked about the name or appearance of the girl, she called her the 'Town Freak' and described her as a punky brat with white stoner-hair and strange clothing. Her exact words sounded like 'She had more metal on her head than you can find on a plane.' and gave the brothers enough to have them jump to conclusions.
The other victim was apparently in a mental asylum. Connan had come to the facility with loads of unreluctance, struggle and an officer's broken nose. He had been a mess when he arrived and needed special treatment.
When the boys came to talk to him he refused to share anything. At first he recalcitrated, denied to have seen anything, lied-unsuccessfully, and even tried running off to somewhere. The man seemed scared for real. He finally caved in and told them about everything that had happened that day.
Firstly, was the fight with his girlfriend, then after that the electricity shutting down, and finally the girl who had come to ask for a favour. He didn't name her directly but when Sam asked he called her Aidan Callaghan, 'the town's very own walking freak show' . Not a minute after she left the fire had started, burned his whole house down.
It seemed suspicious to Sam that there was a girl in both of their stories and in one of them she had a name, but in both she was affectionately called 'town's freak'. There can't be many people with that description. Sam thought.
The girl that had been arrested before their eyes and had been accused of being a pyromaniac. The boys were already done with her verdict but needed time to figure out what are her motives, and what she was. The ideas of her being a demon didn't sound too realistic to them as Aidan had seemed almost too human.
They visited the officer that had arrested her the previous night and asked casually about her. The officer, John, seemed to be harsh with his words saying that she just loved to disturbs the piece in the small townand often bother him when he was working, but then he started talking about her as if she was his own child.
"She's a good kid, no matter what. She's just been through a lot, with her parents and her family, the whole mess. One thing's for sure, though, she is very clever. If she doesn't want you to know something you'll never figure it out."
That line caught the brothers off guard. How would they figure out if she was lying or not.
"And now that her brothers hadn't come to visit her, she's been hurt and upset, and at the same time furious. There are some things my department is trying to blame her for, but they need evidence, and they don't have it.
"I've always tried to save this kid from trouble, but apparently she doesn't want me saving her." He chuckled to himself looking in the distance as he leaned on the police car.
For the time being the Winchesters left it alone as it was getting late. They said their farewells and left for their hotel.