The bag of half melted ice slid off the sleeping man's face landing with a thump onto his lap, jarring him awake. He felt the comforting thrum of the tires beneath him before he grabbed the bag to shake it and place it back on the throbbing swelling over his right eye. He cautiously rolled his head toward the driver, noting the dried streak of blood starting at the man's scalp running behind his ear, where it had soaked the neck and shoulder of his well worn gray t-shirt.
"You good?" Dean said, watching his brother adjust his ice pack
Sam groaned and rolled his eyes at the stupid question. "So are we calling that a shape shifter or a witch? I don't think we have research on anything like that, There is something just unnatural about a monster that bleeds yellow. " Sam said, tossing the bloody towel resting between them into the back seat.
"I'm calling it dead." Dean said with a smirk. "Nothing like that in Dad's journal. Makes you wonder if the guys down stairs are putting out some new models, recycling with spare parts."
"I could use Bobby's books right now, too bad they are 10 hours away and in the opposite direction . Where are we now?" Sam asked with a squint, looking out the Impala's window for any highway sign.
"Maryland, north on I 95. Figured we would stop once we hit Connecticuit." Dean said, reaching under his seat for a cassette, hoping to pull out Metallica. AC/DC came out instead, good enough, he thought plugging it in.
"I was thinking, we could take a detour to Dad's storage unit in NY, see if he has any books we could use, this stuff is just too obscure to research on the internet." Sam said, sitting up higher in the seat, tossing down his ice pack.
" NY it is then" Dean said
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The impala rolled to a stop behind Castle Storage. Wordlessly the boys got out and circled to the trunk, each scanning the parking lot before pulling out their weapon of choice. Dean pulled a semi automatic glock, checking the clip before he shoved in his waistband at his back, Sam, a well used sawed off shotgun he loaded and rested against his right leg. Both silently remembered their last visit here, the confrontation with Zachariah, angel of the Lord. Dean half smiled remembering putting down the bastard a few short weeks after. Good riddens.
Sam raised the door cautiously. Dean headed in with military precision, Sam following to cover him. Back to back they scanned the room, listening for any sign of a hidden threat before reaching to switch on the lights. A devil's trap covered the empty floor dispersed with blood stains. Shelves lined the walls holding warded boxes containing cursed objects. Land mines and weapons hung against the wall to their left, a casket draped in a flag to their right.
"Lets get to it." Dean said, returning his gun to his waist band.
Dean surveyed the weapons stored on the wall, weighing the option of taking a few with them while Sam began to open the few boxes on the back corner. Minutes later Sam resigned himself to the fact that there were no books stored here, this little detour had apparently been a waste of time. He stood, wiping the dust on his hands onto his shirt and turned to his brother.
"Nothing." Sam stated scanning the shelves for anything resembling a book.
"S'ok, lets lock it up." Dean said, pulling a particularly vicious blade from the wall, testing its weigh with a smile.
"Whats with the coffin? Doesn't seem like something Dad would keep." Sam said, pulling off the flag draping it and tossing it on to the shelf. A mushroom cloud of dust exploded into the room.
Sam fumbled with the lock and lifted the half lid as Dean moved closer, still fondling the jeweled handle dagger he had decided to take with them. It looked like old tarnished copper, he didn't think they had a copper blade in the trunk. He wasn't sure what it killed, but if Dad had kept it, it killed something. Deans eyes rose to his brother then dropped into the coffin as he stored the blade in his belt.
Sam reached into the coffin pulling out several ancient looking books bound in leather, passing them to Dean who disregarded them on a near by bench.
"Jackpot." Sam said with a smile. "Dead language, gotta love it."
Two casette tapes in cracked plastic boxes were pulled out next, one marked Deano. Sam's eyebrows raised as he snickered and said "DEANO?" passing them behind him. "
What? Thats not me, come on." Dean stated in an embarrassed voice.
A molding miniature teddy bear lay in the coffin like a corpse, it had masking tape wrapped around its chest with the name ROCKO written on it. A tag was tied to its arm. TO: SAM FROM: ROBIN
Strange, Sam thought...Robin, he couldn't place it but something nagged at him. He tried to stuff the bear in his jacket pocket but when it didn't fit, he tossed it back into the casket. Sam opened the opposite end of the casket and saw it was empty, but before he closed the lid he noticed the padding at the bottom was bulging. Folding it back easily, he pulled out two flat duct tape wrapped bundles.
" Whats that? Arts and crafts?" Dean said flipping the packages over looking for any clue to their contents. " These come with us." he said., "the Deano cassette and its buddy can stay here."
Dean deposited the offending plastic boxes on the shelf and walked away.
" Yah, right" Sam said slamming the casket shut, spreading the flag back over it. Covertly he picked up the two casettes and jammed them into his back pocket, just dying to hear what was on them. He hoped whatever it was he could use it to antagonize his brother for months to come. Even better he would save the info to use the next time they were in a practical joke war. Ya, that would be sweet.
"What are you smiling at?" Dean said popping the trunk and replacing the guns in the arsenal before tossing his blade on top and slamming it shut.
" Two packages and you got a new toy, just like Christmas" Sam said with a grin.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO O
Three hours on the highway found them pulling into dank lime green painted motel in Milford Connecticut, chosen for its "free wireless internet" sign. Dean went in to pay for a room while Sam jumped into the drivers seat offering to head out for supplies. As he pulled out of the parking lot he ejected AC/DC and pulled out the Deano tape with a wide smile.
The tape was obviously home made, low quality. He heard a woman's voice addressing his Dad.
"Hey John, its me. Just filling you in on the boys, they are doing fantastic. They train with the kids most of the day and then they hit the lake at night, they're working hard. Sammy has a real talent for fencing, he is amazing! He is going to do a tournament this week with my kids, if any of them win the New England tournament is right in Pourtsmouth, I'll take them down. The reason that I'm using the tape is I wanted you to hear Dean. He started playing around with my guitar after you left, picked it up super fast. He would never let me tape him, but I'm gonna do it on the sly. Don't tell him! I'm so proud of him and I figured you would be too. Hope you are being safe, Vosh is hovering here behind me, she says HI. The boys miss you and so does she..."(a scuffle could be heard in the background with laughter) A second lightly accented voice chimed in, "I do miss you Papa Bear.."
Sam cringed...Papa Bear? his Dad? no, that was so wrong.
"Ok my friend, the next thing you hear will be Deano, See you in a few weeks...you know where we are." oh... I sent a picture of the kids, proof they are training. I'm a slave driver, ask anyone.
After a pause and some interference Sam could hear kids talking and kidding around, a muffled voice could be heard that he was sure was Dean, then music. The guitar was simple but clear, a woman's voice started to sing with it, then two... then...Dean. Wait... this was so familiar. He could almost picture it, it was just on the edge of his mind... Dean was singing? He was on key! Impossible. This was alternate universe kind of crazy. Anxiety pooled in his chest. He pulled out the cassette and jammed it back into his pocket. As soon as he had some time away from his brother was going to listen to the other one. He popped the AC/DC tape back into the deck, Back in Black blasted. For once he found it comforting.
O0o0o0o0o0
Sam wandered into a dive near the water. He walked to the back and ordered for them, then sat down with a two dollar draft to wait. He thought about what he heard on the cassette and decided he needed to hit the liquor store before he headed back to the Motel.