"Man that felt nice." Dean pointed out as he exited the bathroom with nothing but a towel around his waist. The long steaming shower he'd recently taken had been much longed-for.
"I bet", Sam stated. "Leave any hot water for me?" he asked and his question was quickly answered by a satisfied smile from his brother. "Yeah, I thought so."
"Find anything on this chick yet?" Dean asked as he limped towards one of the two single beds.
"Nothing."
"What about Bobby?"
"He's never heard of a young female vampire slayer before, but he's gonna look around." Sam answered looking up from the book. Dean nodded and sat down at the end of the bed. He winced at the soreness in his back when he carefully leaned backwards.
"Man this hurt." He whined.
"You took quite a few blows tonight." Sam stated while keeping his eyes on the book in front of him.
"I'm telling you Sam, I'm getting real tired of this." He said closing his tired eyes.
Sam sighed and put down the book on the table. "Me too." He said rubbing his eyes with his sore palms. He left the chair he'd been sitting on for the last hour and a half and walked up to the small window facing the parking lot. The lot was not surprisingly empty when he opened the blinds with one of his fingers and peaked out through the narrow opening. "Dean." He said still looking out into the dark night.
"Mhmm." Dean mumbled half asleep.
"I've been thinking."
"About what?"
"About the ghosts."
"What about them?"
"You know how strangely powerful they were. It made me think that maybe there are more to this than meets the eye." When he didn't hear an answer from Dean he continued. "Do you remember the zombies we came across a couple of months ago. That was just a few miles away from this place."
"How can I forget? They nearly ate me alive Sam." Dean answered and shivered at the memory.
"Don't you remember how hard it was to kill them? None of the spells in the beginning worked."
"So?"
"So, don't you get it? I think something in the area is giving them more strength than usual?" He gave Dean a chance to think about it.
"Maybe." Dean said. "But we won't be able to do anything until tomorrow so we might as well get some sleep." Sam heard him say. He knew he was right, there was nothing they could do about it. Not tonight anyway.
"I'm gonna take a shower." Sam said and started walking towards the bathroom, very well aware of the cold water that awaited him.
The next morning they drove in silence to a diner they'd been passing by the previous night on their way back to the motel. It had been a long night and neither one of them had gotten a lot of sleep. Dean glanced at his watch. Almost 9.30 AM he recognized before he continued observing the empty road in front of him.
"This really is a ghost town." He stated.
"No kidding." Sam said looking out through the passenger window. "Where is everybody?"
"Maybe they've come to their senses and gone home to pack their belongings and leave this godforsaken town." His car came to a stop in front of a low brick house and both of them glanced at the big yellow bold letters above the door. Jerry's it said.
"Well, here it is. Let's hope they have something good because I'm starving." Dean said and got out of the car while Sam followed his move. "I could probably eat an entire cow right about now." Dean shut the car door forcefully behind him before he joined Sam on the sidewalk.
As soon as they entered through the door and heard the tinkle of the doorbell every eye in the diner were on them. No one trusted a stranger in a small town like this. Especially not in a town where weird things were happening to its people.
"I guess we solved the mystery with the missing people." Dean said quietly to Sam when he saw the crowded room. He smiled uncomfortable as they desperately searched for a place to sit.
"You've got to be kidding me." Dean suddenly mumbled when he caught sight of a familiar face further back in the room.
"What?" Sam followed Dean's gaze. Back in the far corner, next to the window, sat a young blond woman and smiled at them. She waved them over as soon as she knew they'd noticed her.
"Wait!" Sam said grabbing Dean's arm when he saw him move in her direction. "You're not going over there, are you? She could be a demon for all we know."
"A demon that spends her time killing vampires? Come on Sam, don't be ridiculous." He said and continued to walk towards Isabelle as soon as Sam let go of his jacket.
"Hi, I figured you would come so I saved you a seat" She said and nodded her head at the empty seats in front of her.
"Isabelle right?" Dean asked.
"Please call me Bella," she answered with her soft British accent. "No one ever calls me Isabelle anymore."
"So Bella…," Dean said and looked at Sam "… how'd you know we would come?"
She shrugged her shoulders while they suspiciously joined her at the table. "Only diner in town. I figured you would show up sooner or later." She said and tucked her long blonde hair behind her ears before taking a quick sip of the hot coffee in front of her. "You should order something." She continued and waved friendly her hand at someone, most likely one of the waitresses running around between the tables. "You must be starving after a night like that. How are you feeling by the way?" She asked and nodded at Dean's black eye.
"Don't worry. It's nothing I can't handle." He said proudly and leaned against the table with his arms crossed, he hated when people patronized him. "I guess it could have gone a lot worse if you hadn't showed when you did. What exactly were you doing out there?" Bella smiled at his attempt to sound tough and looked out the window. Dark clouds were beginning to cover up the previously blue sky. It shouldn't be long now before the rain would start falling she predicted. She looked back at the two boys sitting across the table, eying her, waiting for her to give them some answers. What could she say? That the end of the world was near and that the people around this very table were the only ones that could prevent that from happening.
"Bella?" A harsh voice brought her back from her thoughts and she smiled at the slightly overweight middle-aged women looking down at her. She was thankful for the interruption.
"Hi, Ruth. I thought you were off today?"
"So did I," she said with a hint of sadness in her deep voice. "Sally is home sick today, someone had to cover for her."
"I'm sorry. I know you were looking forward to seeing your granddaughter."
"Don't worry about it. Jerry and I are visiting them this weekend instead." She said and turned her entire attention towards Dean and Sam. "So…," she started. "Who are your friends?"
"Oh, sorry. Ruth, this is Sam and Dean. Sam and Dean, this is Ruth." She introduced them. "Ruth owns the place." She explained.
Ruth gave them both a friendly nod. "What happened to your face?" She asked curiously and regarded Dean's bruises.
"I was hit by a car." He said not caring whether she believed it or not.
"Ouch. It wasn't someone from around here, was it?" She asked and wondered why nobody had mentioned anything about this to her.
"No," Dean started. "No one from around here."
"So…" She thought for a second, "… what brings you boys to town?"
"Just visiting a friend." Sam lied.
"Anyone I know?"
"I doubt it." He said, not liking her nosiness.
"Sam and Dean are going to stay in town for a while." Bella said trying to prevent the conversation from taking an ugly turn.
"We are?" Dean and Sam asked simultaneously and looked awkwardly at each other.
"Well, aren't you?" Bella asked and gave Dean a harsh look.
"Of course." He played along. "Of course we are staying for a while. We have some business to attend to."
"Riiight..." Ruth trailed off, now more curious than ever. She'd never bumped into anyone who willingly wanted to spend more than one day in this insignificant little town. Maybe, they are related to Joan Wilkings who passes away last week? She made a mental note to ask her neighbor. She always seemed to know everything about everyone around here. "… so, are you ready to order?" She asked the young group and armed herself with a tiny notepad and a sharp pencil. She could find out what these two boys were up to later.
"We'll have three toasts and some more coffee, please" Bella said before neither Dean nor Sam had a chance to open their mouths. She waited patiently for Ruth to make her notes and fingered in the mean time on the empty coffee cup in front of here.
"Anything else, dear?"
"No thank you, that's fine for now." Ruth gave Bella a friendly smile before she disappeared behind the counter.
"You're really gonna like this, they have the best toast ever." She told Dean and Sam when they were left alone again.
"Right."
"What was that about?" Sam wondered with a hint of irritability in his voice.
"What was what?" Bella asked. "Oh, you mean the staying in town part? I just assumed that with everything going on around here you would stay for more than just one night."
"What exactly is going on around here?" Sam wondered and let his eyes wander through the crowded room.
"Look," Bella started and leaned forward. "I don't really have It all figured out just yet. Right know I probably don't know more than the two of you, but what I do know is that there is a lot more to this than a few angry ghosts and some very pissed off vampires." She looked at a spot behind Sam's head and leaned herself back against the seat again. Ruth and another waitress, Susan, were eying them from across the room with curiosity written all over their faces. She sighed. "After breakfast I'll tell you everything I know," she told them still keeping her eyes on the two chatterladies. "I promise. These walls have too many ears for this kind of talk."
"And you'll tell us everything? About who you are and what you're doing here?" There was a hint of frustration behind Sam's words.
Bella chuckled lightly. "Who I am is not important." She said and gave them a secretive smile that told them she trusted them as much as they trusted her. "The important thing is that we stop whatever the hell is happening... before it's too late."
"If this is a trick I swear to god…" Dean hissed between his teeth.
"No trick. I promise." Bella interrupted him lifting her hands in a protecting manner.
"Here we go." Ruth interrupted them. "Coffee and three toasts."
"Thank you Ruth. And I'm buying so can you please put the tab on me?"
"Sure, no problem honey", Ruth said and reluctantly left Bella alone with the mysterious boys again.
"Now… let's eat." Bella continued and tried to lighten up the horrible atmosphere between them. This was going to be tougher than she thought. She reached out for the ketchup bottle standing in the middle of the table. Gently she squeezed the bottle and let the red purée land between the two pieces of bread in front of her.
"Man, this is good." Dean said sounding surprised after taking a first bite of the toast.
"I told you." Bella said and took a big chunk of the warm sandwich in her mouth. She closed her eyes to savor the taste. "Mm, I've been coming here every day for the past month or so just to order these toasts." She continued with a full mouth and wiped her hands on a napkin.
"A month huh? Do you live in the area or are you just visiting?" Sam wondered.
She looked up at him. "A little bit of both actually." She said and took a sip of her coffee.
"How can you do both? Either you live here or you don't."
"Fine. I'm visiting." She admitted. "But I've been living with Jerry and Ruth for a couple of weeks now. I rent their garage."
"You mean Mrs Sherlock over there?" Dean said referring to her nosiness. "How does that work out for you?" he asked mockingly.
"Yeah, Ruth is, for the lack of better word, this town's very own tattletale." Bella responded. "But at least it's better than staying at a motel. Where are you staying by the way?"
"Fisherman's motel next to the main road."
She wrinkled her nose. "You can't be serious. It looks like a bloody shed ready to fall apart at any minute." She burst out, making her British accent sound even more evident.
"At least it's cheap." Sam defended it, but was very well aware of the condition of the building.
"I guess so."
The rain was rattling on the window as they finished the rest of their breakfast in a somewhat uncomfortable silence. Bella gazed occasionally on Dean's half battered face. He looked tired she noticed, as did Sam. No wonder, she thought and remembered her first meeting with a vampire at the age of fifteen. She knew she wasn't ready and still she'd taken her father's crossbow and gone into the woods alone one night, determined to try and make this world a better place. She'd been so naive. The first thing the vampire had done was to knock the crossbow right out of her small hands. She'd probably not been alive today if it hadn't been for that hunter. While she had been lying on the ground, floating between life and death, the hunter had without hesitation ended the creature's life. She knew she'd been lucky that time. A shill went through her body and she looked across the table again. Dean and Sam had already devoured their sandwiches and were now waiting for her to finish up.
"Shall we?" She said and rose from the chair.
