Chapter 2
Sam looked sideways at Dean who was in the unusual position of the passenger seat of the Impala; his head gently resting against the window – eyes closed.
Their last hunt had been a pretty severe haunting. The spirit had taken a particular dislike to Dean and tried on every occasion to smash Dean into several pieces. He was now covered in bruises and abrasions from head to toe. But stoically didn't complain too much as Sam had tended all the abrasions.
Sam reached out for the volume control to cut off the gravelly and rough tones of Bonn Scott screaming his way through "High Voltage Rock and Roll". As his fingers found the control, Dean's hand snaked out and grabbed Sam's wrist.
"Don't touch Sammy." Dean said, his eyes now wide open.
"Aw c'mon Dean! What happened to your old motto about the driver picking the music?" Sam protested.
"Well now," Dean shrugged. "My car – my music – my rules. New motto. End of story."
"Sometimes Dean, I swear that there is no way we could ever possibly be related." Sam sighed.
"So Sammy! How long until we get there?" Dean asked as he sat up, changing the subject.
"Huh? What did you say? Can't hear you over the music Dean." Sam said with a small grin as he kept his eyes planted firmly on the road in front of him.
"Okay, okay, enough, Mister smartass college boy!" Dean said turning off the music. "So how long then?"
"I'd say maybe another hour." Sam replied.
Within the hour they had reached their destination of The Border Inn at Baker, Nevada.
Dean unlocked the door and swung it open, surveying their 'home' for the next few nights. "Not bad. Not bad at all." Dean smiled his approval.
Sam walked in and deposited their bags on the floor. "Seems more up market than what we're used to." He said, as he checked out the bathroom.
"Considering it's the only place to stay within a 50-mile radius." Dean said, throwing himself down on one of the king-size beds. "How about we just hang around here and go visit the caves after lunch? Which reminds me, I'm starving!"
Sam shut the door to the cabin and then began to fish around in his bag for his laptop. "You and your stomach Dean! Don't you think we need to go and see the only survivor first? See if we can get her side of the story? That is," Sam shrugged, "if there is any side to her story."
Dean shrugged. "If you say so, boss. But I say we have something to eat first."
Sam rolled his eyes and sat down at the table, opening up the laptop. "Lemme do a bit of research first,"
Dean sat up and swung his legs off the bed. "C'mon Sam. I'm staving over here!"
Sam looked over at this brother, a frown creasing his brow. "Gimme a minute Dean."
Dean rolled his eyes and sat on the bed, tapping his foot.
After several minutes of silence, Sam came up with the relevant information he had been hoping for. "Melody Grainger. They're holding her at the local police station pending the investigation into the other killings. Says here that she claims to know nothing of what happened that night. She claims the last thing she remembers is hearing a child-like voice calling to her. When she came out of it, she was surrounded by the dead bodies of her friends."
"Okay then. Guess it's time to go FBI. But first we eat!" Dean said, getting up off the bed and grabbing the keys to the Impala from the small cabinet by the door.
SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN
As they climbed out of the Impala, Dean tugged at his tie for what seemed like the hundredth time to Sam. "Dean! Will you leave your damn tie alone! Anybody'd think it was choking you!"
"It damn well is! Or it's tryin' to! They should've called these things nooses, not ties!"
Sam sighed and began to walk towards the police station.
Upon entering, both Dean and Sam walked straight up to the front desk where a junior police officer was sitting and staring off into space.
"Excuse me." Sam said pushing his fake FBI ID card into the young policeman's face. "I'm FBI detective Taylor and this is my partner detective Young. We're here to interview a suspect you have in custody by the name of Melody Grainger."
The young constable blinked several times before speaking. "Oh! Yeah! Sure! I'll just let Sergeant Mercer know you're here." He picked up the phone and pushed the correct buttons to contact the Sergeant. "Ah yeah Sarg, I've got two FBI agents out here….yeah….they're here to see Melody Grainger….yeah, sure." He hung up the phone and turned back to Sam. "He's coming out – won't be long."
Literally within seconds, a door at the other end of the room opened and a very large and extremely well-muscled police officer crossed the room towards them. "I'm Sergeant Dan Mercer. Young Paul here tells me you're here to see Melody Grainger?"
"That's right. We're conducting an investigation into the deaths of the other 5 kids." Dean said.
"Funny thing is, I received a phone call yesterday saying you guys weren't due down here until early next week." Sergeant Mercer said as he gazed at both Dean and Sam in turn. "Care to explain gentlemen?"
"Change of plans." Dean said quickly. "Look, sergeant, we don't have time to keep explaining ourselves to people, so if you could just take us to the Grainger girl, we'll get our job done and be out of here before you know it."
The air hung heavy with silence as the Sergeant deliberated over what Dean had just told him. His stared went in turn from Dean to Sam and then back to Dean again. "Follow me." He finally said and turned to walk down a corridor. At the last door, he once more turned back to Sam and Dean. "You two take it easy on this girl – she's a complete mess. Her family are my neighbors and friends." He fished into his pocket and produced a keyring. He selected the right key and pushed it home into the lock.
He opened the door slowly and stepped inside. "Mel? I've got some people here from the FBI who want to ask you some questions."
As Sam and Dean entered into the room, they took in the sight of Melody Grainger lying huddled on a small cot. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweater. Her hair was unkempt and her face was pale with dark circles standing out under her eyes.
She looked up at the Sergeant and slowly sat up. "More questions." She said quietly, a sigh escaping her.
"We'll try not to take up too much of your time. I'm Detective Taylor & this is my colleague Detective Young." Dean said.
Mel looked up at him, a weak smile playing on her lips. "Time? I've got more time than I know what to do with at the moment. So you go on and ask me your questions."
"I'll leave you to it then." Sergeant Mercer said quietly to Sam as he left the room.
Sam and Dean sat down as Mel joined them at the table.
"I guess you want me to tell you what happened up at the cave." Mel said
"As much information as you can provide us with will help with our enquires." Sam said as he flipped open his notepad.
Mel went through the whole night as she remembered it. "…and the next thing I remember I standing there in front of…of… Mike and Lisa. They, they were….." Mel's voice turned into a whisper as she thought about her two friends and then she instinctively ripped several tissues from the box on the table. "I tried to find my way out of there but I got lost in the forest for the rest of the night." She stopped and looked up at Sam and Dean in turn. "I got lost in the forest! The forest that I've tracked through hundreds of times before! The rangers found me the next morning not far from the entrance to the cave."
"And you don't remember anything at all about what happened?" Sam asked.
"I just told you everything I can remember!" Mel said, beginning to tear the tissues into shreds. "But there is something that I think I remember… but I'm not sure….." Mel's words trailed off.
Sam and Dean looked at each other. "Go on." Sam said.
"Sheksah." She whispered.
Dean frowned. "Shreksa?"
Mel looked at Dean and repeated the word slowly "Sheksah. I don't know why but that word keeps coming to me. What does it mean? Do you know? Am I crazy? Did I kill all my friends? Perhaps I need to be locked up!"
Sam offered Mel a weak smile "Let's get to the bottom of this all first. We 'll look into it and see what we can come up with." Sam said, as he wrote the word down in block letters. "We really appreciate your co-operation in this matter."
"What other choice do I have?" Mel said with a strained smile.
Both Dean and Sam stood up. "We'll be in touch." Dean said.
Sam rapped on the door and it immediately opened to the Sergeant. The brothers filed past him and stood waiting as he checked on Melody and then locked the door again. "So, how did it go?" He asked.
"We've got the whole story. Now all we have to do is go over the details and check it all out. The next thing we need to do is see the remains of the victims." Dean said. "Can you arrange that for us?"
"I'll call through to the hospital and arrange it for you now." The Sergeant shook Dean's hand and then Sam's. "I gather's you're staying in town for a few days then?"
"Yeah. We're staying at the The Border Inn." Sam said.
"Couldn't do worse than the Border Inn. Nice place and nice family business – Paul and Marina will look after you. Well, I'll give you a call to fill you in on the details for your hospital visit soon," Sergeant Mercer gave them a smile and disappeared up the corridor.
"Sheksah." Sam said as he looked at the word he had written on his note pad.
"Any idea about it genius child?" Dean said as he turned the car into the parking lot of the Border Inn.
Sam looked perplexed. "Nope. Guess I'll have to do some research."
