A/N: Hey guys, so I learned a lot from my previous fic (which happened to be my first one as well). For starters, I learned that using the present tense was a bad idea. It doesn't capture thoughts as well without sounding weird. I've been reading a lot of other fics and I understand why past tense is used most of the time. Secondly, I'm going to start uploading chapter by chapter, rather than type it all out and then publish it. That way, I can get your guys' feedback and suggestions to kinda help influence the story as it goes along. I'll start by trying to get at least one chapter in every day or two, depending on how much I can get done with my schedule; I do a lot of volunteer work where I live. But, I digress. Please enjoy, and reviews would be helpful!
Dean sipped on his beer, the chilling touch of it numbing his hands while he crosses his legs down the bed in their shoddy hotel in Dallas, TX. Job well done. Sammy got his soul back, vampire's next was cleaned out last week; the only thing left to take care of was that son of a bitch Raphael. What the hell was Cas thinking, trying to stand him up like that? Freakin' angels. He'll never understand their motives or thoughts.
"Hey, Dean? Did you just hear me?"
"Huh?" was the only thing Dean could say. He hadn't noticed Sam, holding a newspaper in one hand and the fork to his salad in the other, was trying to get his attention for the past ten seconds. He straightened himself out a little bit, setting the bottle on a coaster. "What?"
"Would it kill you to just pay attention every once in a while?" Sam snapped at him, twisting his face into a 'Dean I'm disappointed in you' expression. Dean had seen that face a thousand times; sure, it worked the first two times. Now it's freakin' annoying.
"It might if you keep eating that rabbit buffet shit," Dean retorted. He pointed his finger at Sam, shaking it as if Sam was a small child and he was the grandmother. "You need to get some meat on your bones."
Sam raised his eyebrows, obviously challenged by his older brother's comment. He lifted up his shirt halfway to reveal a hard-lined six pack of abs. "Does it really look like I need a double bacon cheeseburger?" he said as he glared back at Dean, who appeared sarcastically defeated. "Anyways," Sam continued, "I've been reading the papers. Peoria, Illinois. A 25 year-old woman named Jessica Pool was found dead in a local park."
"And what does that have to do with us?" Dean spoke, uninterested in the topic. He retrieved his beer from the table and began to sip on it. Sam paused and looked back up at him.
"Well, the coroner's report claimed that she clearly died of asphyxiation. However, an autopsy revealed that every bone in her body vanished."
Dean almost choked on his beer. He could feel the alcohol lingering in the back of his throat, leaving a burning sensation that he can't shake off. "Vanished? How the hell does that even work?"
"I don't know, but we should check it out."
Dean stood up and walked into the bathroom, calling out to Sam, "Sounds good. I'll call Bobby, you look into this Jessica chick. See if she has any family we can check up on." Sam nodded and opened his laptop to check her files. Dean pulled his cell phone from his pocket, a cheap Motorola he got in Sioux Falls after Sam's soul was returned. He flipped it open and dialed Bobby's number. It rang three times before a familiar old voice greeted him on the phone.
"You boys best have somethin' important to tell me, since you idjits felt it necessary to interrupt my studyin'." Dean smiled to himself as he heard that. Bobby had been working on finding a way to make any gun work just like the Colt, before that bitch Bela stole it and it didn't do shit against Lucifer. Dean forgot that he was dead serious on his studying too, and should only be called in an absolute emergency.
"Glad to hear you're still conscious over there, instead of passed out under your desk."
"Get on with it."
"You ever heard of a creature that could cause bones to pull a disappearing act out of a human?" A long pause on the other line trailed the question. Dean could almost hear the old man thinking, imagine his facial expression.
"I ain't ever heard of something like that, but it sure ain't natural."
"We figured so too." Dean switched the phone to his other ear, staring at the mirror in the bathroom and picking at hairs that he missed while shaving. His deep, forest green eyes reflected the overheard light. "We're gonna head to Peoria, Illinois and check it out. Think you could hit the books for us and let us know what you find?"
"I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks Bobby, I owe ya." He hung up the phone and turned towards Sam, who was sitting on some social media website he didn't recognize. What the hell was with Sam and the Internet? He's on it wherever they go, and whenever Dean looks up, his brother's face is constantly lit up by this same dark blue color. Dean walked over to where Sam was sitting, intently focused on the computer.
"What the hell is 'Tumblr'? And what the—" Dean tried to finish, but Sam slammed the laptop closed and spun around to face his older brother, his cheeks blazing red.
"Shut up now, you saw nothing," Sam warned. Dean's eyebrows were raised high, complimenting his widened eyes and taken aback stance.
"Was that a moving picture of kinky bondage porn?" Dean said quickly, awaiting the onslaught of lectures on how he shouldn't be looking at his stuff and should be minding his own business somewhere far away.
Instead, Sam stood up and shifted the topic. "I looked into Jessie's history. Only child, both parents died in a car crash when she was 19, but she was in a relationship for about three years."
Dean sat down on the queen-sized bed, placing his wrist on his thigh. "We got a place to start. Any intel on where the boyfriend lives?"
"Girlfriend."
Dean cocked his head in confusion, eyes riddled with shock. "Come again?"
Sam slipped on his coat and walked towards the door. "I said she had a girlfriend, not a boyfriend. And yes, I have her address. Let's go." Dean sat there for a moment. Not the first time he's encountered a lesbian, but attacking a lesbian couple? He's heard about it but never heard of any monsters doing it. He threw on his leather jacket, grabbed his eyes from the nightstand, and strode out the door to the Impala.
On a back road somewhere in Missouri, the Impala sped down the gravel, her engine rumbling muffled within the car as Dean turned up the radio when Highway to Hell played. Sam stared out the window at the passing trees, pondering the case. What could this thing be? He'd ruled out every possible monster in the book from vampire to shrtiga to vetala. It didn't make sense; what can vaporize bone? He thought about it harder when an idea came to mind. He turned to Dean, who was singing horribly off-key to AC/DC, and turned down the radio a bit. Dean snapped his gaze over to his little brother, who just touched his baby without permission.
"What the hell was that for?" he nearly shouted, the sound of irritation clearly present in his voice.
"You think we should call Cas down? See if he's heard of this thing?"
Dean turned the radio down a little further, Cas's name striking interest in his mind for an unknown reason. "Sam, you know he's in the middle of a war upstairs right now, he doesn't have the time to help us with our homework."
"But I just thought—"
"No. We won't bother Cas unless it's last resort. We'll wait for Bobby to tell us what he found, and if he can't find shit on this, THEN we'll call down Feathers."
Sam scoffed under his breath. Typical of Dean to take control of a situation, he thought. He returned to his post of staring out the window, trying to read signs that whiz by. His eyelids began to grow heavy, and soon enough he was dozing off to the hypnotic sound of the Impala's purrs around him.
A/N: So like I said, one chapter at a time and no more present tense. If you're following the story then thank you! It really means a lot! I will try to update this as much as I can!