Chapter 1
Dean Winchester sighed heavily, and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. As usual, this was taking way too long. He glanced at his wrist watch for the seventh time in less than twenty minutes, and then heaved another sigh...
"DEAN! If you huff any louder, you'll wake the dead!" Sam Winchester hissed at his impatient sibling, and gave him an irritated glance from the corner of his eye. He then continued to scan the research materials that he had collected over the past four hours.
His elder brother snorted impatiently, "Yeah? Well, at least we'd have some action...I'm bored out of my friggin' skull!"
Sam ignored his brother's complaint. He'd only heard it a solid thousand times in the past two years that they had been traveling together.
Sam really couldn't blame Dean though… research had never been one of his brother's strong suits…
In fact, it wasn't even on his brother's list of strong suits.
'However short it might be…'
Sam grinned as the thought crossed his mind. Dean noticed the look that flashed across his brother's face, but was too busy being bored to care…
"Ohh-kay, dude. That's it, I'm gonna get out of here before I start throwing punches just for the fun of it." Dean stated emphatically as he rolled his neck and stretched his muscular arms in an attempt to ease the stiffness that had settled there.
Sam sighed at the inevitable breakdown, and looked up at his brother, "Yeah, figured that was coming. What are you going to go do?"
Dean's emerald eyes took on a mischievous gleam, and he adopted an impish grin.
Sam groaned inwardly. It was never good when that happened.
"I'm gonna do some…research." Dean stated slyly.
Sam cocked an eyebrow at the highly unlikely truth of that statement. He followed his brother's line of sight, and was not all that surprised to find that it landed solidly on the attractive blonde librarian behind her desk.
"Jeez, Dean, do you ever think about anything besides…" Sam paused and he glanced around the small library, noticing a few patrons close by, he chose a tactful approach to the question, "…besides girls?"
Sam didn't really need a response, since he already knew the answer, and he really should have seen the barb coming from a mile away…
"Well, one of has to, Sammy. You have your methods, and I've got mine"
Dean grinned as Sam curled his lip at him and mouthed the word "Jerk".
The eldest of the two noticed that the curvaceous librarian was heading towards the front door, and so without giving his usual response, he tossed a parting wave over his shoulder and popped the collar on his black leather jacket, as he headed off to pursue a more…active approach to research.
Five hours later…
Sam glared at the small device in his hands, frustration contorting his handsome features…where on planet earth was his impetuous brother?
Only two hours ago Sam had discovered the key to their hunting hang-up. The boys had been chasing a Chupacabra across three states for the past two months, and although they could track it easily enough, there was one problem. They didn't know how to kill it.
There simply wasn't enough information on the creatures, and so they had tried…and failed to kill the thing several times now. The last time, they had nearly been lunch for the massive beast, so Sam had insisted they do more research before they tried to go after it again.
Now he knew what they needed to know, and Dean had disappeared.
'Of course…can't ever be easy…'
Sam had tried to call his brother's cell phone six times, and had only received his voicemail so far.
He decided to try again, and sighed in annoyance as he heard the familiar message replay itself for the seventh time…
"This is Dean. Leave a message." *beep*
"Dean, where the heck are you? Look, I've found out how to kill this thing…and it's gonna take some pretty weird stuff. Looks like we might need to call in some favors to get some of it, so… dude, just callme back, okay?"
Sam snapped the phone closed a little harder than necessary, and tossed in onto the twin sized bed in the small motel room that was the boys' current home-away-from-home. He ran a long fingered hand through his wavy brown locks, and gave another sigh.
Flopping onto the paisley patterned comforter, he grabbed the remote control to the small television and pressed the power button. It came to life with a short electrical buzz, and the younger hunter began idly flipping through the channels. He finally settled on an old black and white station playing classic horror flicks, the current of which was entitled "Night at Terror Mansion".
Sam wasn't all that interested in the movie, but he was beginning to worry about his brother, and he found that it was easier for him to relax if there was some background noise…a by-product, he realized, of falling asleep countless times in his brothers '67 Chevy Impala with Rock and Roll classics blaring through its speakers.
That stuff really used to bother him…but it had become one of the few familiar constants in Sam's highly tumultuous lifestyle. One of the very few.
He stretched his tall frame across the too-small bed, and began to go over the mental checklist of materials that they would need to gather for this hunt as the cheesy movie played out in the background….
Copper spikes, ground cinnamon, rose oil, lambs blood…
He cringed as he recalled that last item, and he could only imagine the look on Dean's face when he told him about that one. "Man. That one's going to be fun to track down…" he gulped, "…and collect."
Neither brother had a real problem dispatching the evil things that they hunted, although Dean was a little more of a natural at it, but neither brother really liked to kill non-evil living things…especially animals.
Speaking of Dean and tracking things down, Sam realized that his brother had now been gone for nearly six hours, and without so much as a text message. Sam picked up his cell from where he had tossed it earlier and cast it a pleading glance.
'Come on, dangit…ring…please ring…'
The device remained stubbornly silent, and Sam decided to give his brother one more opportunity to pick up.
"This is Dean. Leave a mes-"
Sam snapped the phone closed once again and ground his teeth in frustration. There was obviously no point in leaving another voicemail. Dean would never be gone this long without letting Sam know he was okay….something was wrong.
Sam chewed on his lower lip as he decided what he should do next. He flipped open the phone once more, selected the number, and punched the 'send' button.
"Hey, sorry I can't get tothe phone right now. Leave your name and number and I'll get back with ya." *beep*
"Bobby, its Sam. Listen, we're on a hunt in Ohio, near Stephensville. We ran into some trouble with it, and Dean went off with some chick, and now he's been gone for a while ….I think he might be in trouble. Look, Bobby, if you haven't heard back from me by tomorrow, come looking for us. Thanks."
Sam hung up the phone and stared at it for a long moment. Seemed like no one wanted to answer their dang phone today. "It's going to be a long night…"
He quickly turned off the television and grabbed his pearl grip .45 off of the small table next to the door. He flipped off the lights, checked the salt lines around the windows, and cast a last worried glance around the tiny, hideously decorated room…
The door latch clicking in place was the last sound that would be heard in it that night…