Chapter 03 - Bad Day at Black Rock
"Because 'demon,' that's why. I mean, the second you find out this Ruby chick is a demon, you go for the holy water. You don't chat," Dean angrily exclaims. Addison looks out the window at the dark passing scenery.
"No one was chatting, Dean," Sam counters.
"Oh, yeah? Then, why didn't you send her ass back to Hell? Why didn't you send her right back to Hell, Ads?"
"Because she said she might be able to help us out."
"How," Dean demands. Sam and Addison are both quiet. "No, really, Sam, how? How could she possibly help us?"
"She told us she could help you, okay?" Dean shoots him a disbelieving look. "Help you out of the crossroads deal."
"What is wrong with you two, huh? She's lying! You've gotta know that, don't you? She knows what your weakness is: it's me. What else did she say? Dude?"
"Nothing," Sam answers and Dean glares. "Nothing, okay? Look, I'm not an idiot! I'm not talking about trusting her. I'm talking about using her. We're at war, right? And we don't know jack about the enemy. We don't know where they are, we don't know what they're doing. Hell, we don't even know what they want. Now, this Ruby girl knows more than we will ever find out on our own. Now, yes, it's a risk. I know that. But we need to take it."
"You're okay, right? I mean, you're feeling okay—"
"Yes! I'm fine! Why are you always asking me that," Sam asks Dean as a phone starts ringing. "It's not mine."
"Nope."
"It's not mine," Addison replies, speaking for the first time.
"Check the glove compartment, it's Dad's."
"John's?"
"Yeah, I keep it charged up in case any of his old contacts call."
Sam rummages through the glove compartment and takes out a cell phone. "Hello," he greets. "Yes? This is Edgar Cayce. No, no, no, no, don't — don't call the police. I'll handle this myself. Thanks. You know, can you just, uh, can you just lock it back up for me? Great. Um, I-I, uh, I don't have my — my book in front of me..." Sam motions for a pen as he grabs a old receipt. Addison grabs a pen off the floor and hands it to him. "Do you — do you have the address so I can...Sure, okay. Go ahead. Right, thanks a lot." Sam hangs up and shoves the phone back into the glove compartment. "Dad ever tell either of you that he kept a container at a storage place?"
"What?"
"Outside of Buffalo?"
"Seriously," Addison asks.
"Yeah. And someone just broke into it."
The storage facility was an old warehouse that been converted. The elevator that the three of them riding in slowly makes it way up to the fifth floor. Dean sighs. "Man..."
Sam glances at his older brother. "What?"
"Just Dad. You know him and his secrets. Spend all this time with the guy and it's like we barely even know the man."
Addison shrugs as the elevator comes to a stop. "Guess we're gonna learn something about him."
Dean lifts up the doors and they walk out. They reach another door, with a padlock on the bottom. Dean unlocks it and pushes it open. Sam and Addison ready their flashlights. A devil's trap was painted on the dusty ground. And there were numerous footprints in the dust. "No demons allowed," Sam states.
Dean motions to the blood on the ground. "Blood." He kneels down and lightly touches a barely visible fishing wire. He takes Addison's flashlight and moves it along the wire to where a shotgun was aimed at the door. "Check this out."
"Whoever broke in here got tagged."
"Dear old Dad. I got two sets of boot treads here, looks like it was a two man job. And our friend with the buckshot in him looks like he kept walking."
"So, what's the deal? Dad would do work here or something?"
"Living the high life as usual."
Addison looks around the dark storage container. All kinds of weapons were spread throughout the area. She joins the brothers where they were overlooking a desk. "1995," Dean questions. She notices a small trophy in his hand.
"No way," Sam exclaims, taking the trophy from him. "That's my division champion ship soccer trophy. I can't believe he kept this."
"Yeah...about the closest you ever came to being a boy. Oh wow!" Dean picks up a dusty shotgun off the top of a filing cabinet. "It's my first sawed off. I made it myself. Sixth grade."
Addison rolls her eyes and carefully walks around the room. She notices a cut chain hanging on a chain link door and enters the room. "Guys!" They join her and Sam shines a light around the room. More weapons from land mines to hand grenades were spread out on a work bench. "They didn't take any off this stuff."
"I guess they knew what they were after."
"Hey, check this out," Sam calls. Dean and Addison join him by a shelving unit. Sam motions to the symbols pained on some boxes. "See these symbols? That's binding magic. These are curse boxes."
"Curse boxes? They're supposed to keep the evil mojo in right, kinda like the Pandora deal?"
"They're built to contain the power of the cursed object," Addison states.
"Well Dad's journal did mention a whole bunch of stuff, you know? Dangerous hexed items, fetishes, he never did say where they ended up."
"Then this place must be his wardrobe to Narina." Dean stares at her. "What?"
"Nerd," Dean replies. Addison rolls her eyes. "Well, maybe they didn't open it."
The Impala stops next to a beat up to Honda that was parked in the alley of a apartment building. They climb out and examine the license plate on the front bumper. "Connecticut. Last three digits, 8-8-0," Dean comments and Addison nods.
"That's them all right," she replies, looking at the photo Sam had gotten off a security camera.
"Should have blacked out the plates before they parked in front of the security camera." The three of them make they way into the building and up to an apartment on the forth floor. They burst in, each holding a gun. "Freeze! Freeze! Nobody move!"
"Don't move," Sam shouts. Addison's gaze goes between the two men.
"Don't move," Dean repeats, when one of the starts to move.
"Stop!"
Addison's gaze lands on the opened box on the small coffee table and she lets out a groan. "All right, give us the box. Please tell me that you didn't—"
"They did," Addison says, interrupting Dean.
Dean slams one of the men against the wall. "You opened it?!"
"Are you guys cops," the man asks Dean.
"Huh?"
"Are you guys cops?"
"What's in the box," Dean demands and the man gestures to a rabbit foot on the table. "Oh, is that it? Huh? It was, wasn't it? What is that thing?" The man punches Dean and his gun drops to the floor, causing it to go off. Addison ducks as the bullet bounces off the radiator and Sam runs into her, causing her to drop her gun on the floor. The men go for her gun making Sam run into Addison again, which causes her to fall to the ground dragging Sam with her since she had grabbed the back of the jacket he was wearing to stop from falling. She lets out a groan when his heavy weight lands on her.
"Sorry," Sam quickly tells her and starts to get off her until one of the men decides to start choking Sam. Addison tries pushing Sam off, but is unable too and sees him reaching for the rabbit's foot which had somehow landed near them. She reaches out for the rabbit's foot but Sam grabs it before she can.
"Dean," Sam exclaims, scrambling to his feet. "I got it."
"No, you don't," one of the men shouts and aims a gun at Sam. From her position on the floor, Addison watches as the man keeps pulling the trigger, but nothing happens. Dean stands up and moves towards the man, who stumbles and trips causing him to fall over the couch. The three of them exchange a confused look.
Addison notices the other man aim her gun at Sam. "Sam!"
Sam turns. The man moves, bumping into the wall. The bookshelves above him fall and knock him out. Addison's gun flies out of his hand and Sam catches it. "That was a lucky break," Dean states. "Is that a rabbit's foot?"
Sam holds up the foot. "I think it is."
"Huh."
Addison's sitting in the backseat of the Impala watching as Sam goes through John's journal. Seeing that Dean was still in the gas station across the street. She leans forward and wraps her arms around Sam. "It's just a rabbit's foot, Sam," she says. He glances at her with a disbelieving look. "That just happens to be cursed."
Sam sighs and turns his attention back to John's journal. The driver's side door opens and Dean climbs in, carrying a paper bag. "I'm not finding anything on it in Dad's journal," he says. Addison laughs when Dean holds up a pile of scratch cards. "Dean, come on."
"Hey, that was my gun he was aiming at your head and my gun don't jam so that was a lucky break," Dean argues. "Not to mention them taking themselves out, also a lucky break. Here, scratch one. C'mon, Sam, scratch and win!"
Sam reluctantly takes one of the tickets and scratches at it. "It's gotta be cursed somehow otherwise Dad wouldn't have locked it up." He hands the card back and turns to Addison. "Did Patrick's journals mention anything?"
"Twelve hundred...you just won twelve hundred dollars," Dean exclaims. Addison laughs at the excited look on his face. "I don't know man. Doesn't seem that cursed to me!"
Sam glances at where Addison was standing next to Dean by the Impala. They were counting the scratch tickets they had made him scratch. Out of ideas, Sam had called Bobby, who was currently yelling at him. "Now look, Bobby, we didn't know," Sam interrupts.
"You touched it," Bobby exclaims. "Damn it, Sam!"
"Well Dad never told us about this thing. And Ads said that she didn't remember anything in any of Patrick's journals. I mean, you knew about Dad's storage place at Black Rock?"
"His lockup? Yeah, I knew. Hell, I built those curse boxes for him. I built a couple for Patrick too. Listen, you have got a serious problem." Sam spots something shiny on the ground. He moves a newspaper to find diamond tennis bracelet. "It's real Hoodoo, Old World stuff." Sam picks up the bracelet and shows it to Dean and Addison. "Made by a Baton Rouge conjuror woman about a hundred years go."
"It's a hell of a luck charm."
Addison bounds over to Sam and takes the bracelet from him. "It's not a luck charm," Bobby argues. "She made it to kill people, Sam! See, you touch it, you own it. You own it, sure, you get a run of good luck to beat the devil. But, you lose it, that luck turns. It turns so bad that you're dead inside a week."
"Well, so I won't lose it, Bobby."
"Everybody loses it!"
"Well, then how do we break the curse?"
Bobby sighs. "I don't know if you can. Lemme look through my library and make some calls. Just sit tight."
Sam shoves his phone into his jacket pocket. Addison's eyes widen. "It's real," she softly says. Her face breaks out in a grin.
"Dude," Dean exclaims. He too was grinning. "We're up fifteen grand!"
Addison was still grinning when they walk into a local restaurant. The bracelet now gleamed from it's new home on her right wrist. Dean was just as giddy over the money he had won. Sam explaining about the curse hadn't even ruined their moods. "Don't worry, Bobby'll find a way to break it," Dean says. "Until then I say we hit Vegas, pull a little Rain Man. You can be Rain Man."
"I'm in total agreement," Addison says.
"Look, we'll just lay low until Bobby calls back, okay," Sam counters. He turns to the host behind the podium. "Hi, uh, table for three please."
"Congratulations," a man exclaims as an alarm goes off.
"It's exciting, I know," Dean mocks.
"You are the one millionth guest of the Biggerson's Restaurant family!"
Restaurant employees gather around them and start singing. Balloons and streamers fall from the ceiling. One employee puts a large check in Sam's hands. Another employee takes pictures. Addison and Dean grin while Sam looks on in embarrassment.
Addison sips on a chocolate milkshake as Dean rapidly eats a sundae. Sam was sitting next to her, researching the information that Bobby had given him earlier. He sighs and closes his laptop before putting back in the bag. "Bobby's right," Sam says. "It's lore goes way back. Pure Hoodoo. You can't just cut one off any rabbit. Has to be in a cemetery, under a full moon, on a Friday the thirteenth."
"I say from now on, we only go to places with Biggerson's," Dean replies. He winces and puts his hand on his forehead.
Addison laughs. "That's what you get for eating it too fast."
A waitress walks over, carrying a pot of coffee. "Can I freshen you up?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Thanks," Sam tells her.
The waitress smiles and pours some coffee in Sam's cup. Then she accidentally spills some on the table. "Oh!"
"Oh! Oh I uh—"
The waitress pulls out a rag and starts wiping the table down. "Let me mop up here."
"No, no don't worry. It's okay. It's okay. I got it."
"It's no trouble, really."
"Okay."
"Sorry about that."
"It's all right."
Addison rolls her eyes. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the waitress was flirting with Sam. The waitress finishes wiping up the coffee and walks away. The waitress glances over her shoulder and smiles at the guys. Addison frowns when the guys lean in and continue to watch the waitress. "Dude. If you were ever gonna get lucky..." Dean trails off.
"Shut up," Sam replies, smirking. He catches Addison rolling her eyes. He goes to pick up his coffee up but knocks it over in the process. The hot coffee spills all over the table and himself. "Oh! Oh geez, uh..." Sam quickly stands up and crashes into a waiter, knocking over a tray of food. "Sorry!"
Addison and Dean stare in shock. Sam looks at them, equally confused. "How was that good?" Realization hits Sam and he searches his pockets for the rabbit's foot only to find it gone. "Son of a bitch!"
It only takes them a couple of minutes to gather their stuff and rush out of the restaurant. They run towards the Impala. A thump causes Dean and Addison to stop and turn around. Sam was pushing himself up off the ground. "Wow! You suck," Dean comments.
Addison rolls her eyes and helps Sam up. "You okay," she asks.
"Yeah," Sam embarrassingly replies.
"So what, now your luck turns bad," Dean asks.
Addison winces seeing that Sam's knees had been scrapped and were bleeding. "Apparently so," she answers.
"I wonder how bad?"
Dean kicks open the door to the apartment of the men who had stolen the rabbit's foot from the lockup. They had heard about one of the men who died in a freak accident over the police scanner Dean kept in the glove compartment. Addison stands besides Dean, while Sam stands a couple of feet back. "Oh, man," the remaining thief moans. "What do you three want?"
"Heard about your friend," Dean says. "That's bad luck."
The thief glares. "Fuck off."
"We know that someone hired you steal the rabbit's foot," Addison states. "A woman."
"Oh yeah? How do you know that?"
"Because the bitch just stole it back from us."
The man laughs. "Listen, man, this is serious," Sam begins, stepping forward. He trips on a wire and falls to the floor, pulling a CD player down with him and knocking over a lamp in the process.
Dean rolls his eyes. "Sam, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good!"
Sam stands up and Addison looks him over. "I want you to tell us her name," Dean demands.
"Screw you," the man exclaims.
"Look, it wasn't a freak accident that killed your partner," Addison tells him.
"What?"
"It was the rabbit's foot," Dean says.
"You're crazy, man."
"You know I'm not. You saw what happened, what it did. All the flukes, all the luck. When you lose the foot that luck goes sour. That's what killed your friend. And my brother here is next. And who knows how many more innocent people after that. Now if you don't help us stop this thing that puts those deaths on your head. Now, I can I read people and I get it. You're a thief, and a scumbag, that's fine. But you're not a killer. Are you?"
"No."
Addison keeps her distance from Sam as they walk out of the apartment building. She was worried that he would trip again and pulls her down with him. Dean's phone rings and she catches up with him, avoiding the gum on the ground. "Hello," Dean answers. Addison motions for him to put the phone on speaker.
"Dean, great news," Bobby greets. "Wasn't easy but I found a heavyweight cleansing ritual that should do the trick."
"Bobby that's uh, great, except Sam, uh..."
"He lost the foot," Addison finishes.
"He what," Bobby exclaims.
Addison raises an eyebrow watching as Sam looks at the bottom of his shoe and sees the gum. "Bobby, Bobby, listen this, uh, this hot chick stole it from him," Dean starts. "I'm serious. In her mid twenties and she was sharp you know, good enough at the con to play us. And she only gave the guy she hired a name, probably an alias or something. Uh, Luigi or something?"
"Lugosi," Addison and Sam correct at the same time.
"Lugosi," Dean repeat.
"Lugosi," Bobby questions. "Lugosi — aw crap, it's probably Bela."
Addison scoffs. "Bela Lugosi, that's nice."
"Bela Talbot's her real name. Crossed paths with her once or twice."
"Well, she knew about the rabbit's foot, is she a hunter," Dean asks.
"Pretty friggin far from a hunter, but she knows her way around the territory. She's been out of the country. Last I heard she was in the Middle East someplace."
"Apparently she's back," Addison says.
"Which means seriously bad luck for you."
"Great," Dean replies.
"But if it is Bela at least I might know some folks who know how to find her."
"Thanks, Bobby. Again."
"Just look out for Sam, ya idjits," Bobby tells them before hanging up.
Dean puts his phone in his pocket and they look at Sam, who had a depressed look on his face. "Sam," Addison questions.
"I lost my shoe," Sam tells them. They look down and find that he was indeed missing a shoe. Dean rolls his eyes and continues walking to the Impala.
Addison walks over to him and wraps her arm around his, leading him towards the Impala. "You look like a sad puppy."
"All right, Bobby, thanks. We owe ya another one," Dean says as he parks the Impala in a motel parking lot. Sam shots his older brother a confused look. "All right Bobby's got it on pretty good authority that this Bela chick lives in Queens. So it'll take us about two hours to get there?"
"So what are we doing here," Sam counters.
"You, my brother, are staying here cause I don't want your bad luck getting us killed," Dean replies, opening the door.
They watch as he passes an RV to walk into the main office. Addison pats Sam on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Sam, we'll break the curse and all your bad luck will go away."
Sam turns to look at her. "You were jealous."
Addison blinks. "What?"
"When that waitress, Bela, stole the foot. How she…" Sam trails off when he realizes that she didn't know what he was talking about. He shifts. "You know, the only times you really flirt with random guys, Ads, is when you're trying to hustle 'em." There's a knock on the passenger window and they look to see Dean. He holds up a key. They climb out and follow him to the room. Addison flips on the light to reveal a flowery blue room. "What am I even supposed to do, Dean," Sam questions.
"Nothing. Come here. I don't want you doing anything. I want you to sit right here and don't move, okay," Dean tells him, grabbing a chair. "Don't turn on the light, don't turn off the light. Don't even scratch your nose."
Addison apologetically smiles at Sam, then follows Dean out of the motel room. The drive to New York was silent. Neither of them knew what to say, since it was the first time they had been alone together since the events in Wyoming. Dean reaches over and smacks her arm. "Dean," Addison snaps. He grins at her. She rolls her eyes, but smiles.
The apartment of Bela Talbot in Queens, New York was near the water and heavily secure. Neither of which were a problem for Dean and Addison. The apartment was mostly empty, but what was there were very dangerous artifacts. Addison silently waits with Dean. A woman with brown hair stands next to the security panel. They step out of their hiding spot as the woman turns around. Dean has his gun pointed her while she had a gun pointed at them. "You left without your tip," Dean coldly greets. "You're gonna give it back."
The woman laughs. "Sweetie, no, I'm not," she replies in a English accent.
"Yeah, we'll see. Bela, right?"
Bela smirks. "That's right, Dean. And Addison."
"You know the thing's cursed, don't you?"
"You'd be surprised what some people would pay for something like that."
"Really," Addison questions.
"There's a lucrative market out there. A lot of money to be made. You hunters with all those amulets and talismans you use to stop those big bad monsters. Any one of them could put your children's children through college."
"So, you now the truth, about what's really going on out there and this is what you decide to do with it? You become a thief," Dean replies.
"I procure unique items for a select clientele."
Addison scoffs. "A thief."
"No, a great thief."
"Look, Bela, my brother, he touched the foot. And when you took it from him, his luck went from-" Dean begins.
"I know how it works."
"Then you know that he'll die unless we destroy it," Addison states.
"Oh, you can have the foot." Addison and Dean exchange surprised looks. "For one point five million."
"Nice," Dean angrily says. "Yeah, I'll just call my banker. How'd you even find the damn thing? Stuck in the back of some storage place, middle of nowhere."
Bela glances a ouija board behind her. The two hunters see it setting on the mantle of the fireplace. "I just asked a few of the ghosts of the people that it killed. They were very attuned into it's location."
"So, you're only out for yourself, huh? It's all about number one?"
"Being a hunter is so much more noble? A bunch of obsessed, revenge driven sociopaths trying to save a world that can't be saved?"
"You're a positive person," Addison sarcastically says.
"We're all going to hell, Addison. Might as well enjoy the ride."
"I actually agree with you there," Dean replies. "Anyhoo, this has been charming but uh, look at the time. Oh and this?" Dean pulls the rabbit's foot out of his coat pocket and smirks. He had gotten it while Addison had put a post it on the security alarm. "Looks like you're not the only one with sticky fingers. If it's any consolation I think you're a truly awful person."
Bela shoots at them, causing Addison to duck behind Dean. He holds up the rabbit's foot, mocking her. Bela keeps shooting at them as they run out of her apartment. Addison hits Dean's arm, annoyed that he had decided to taunt Bela before they left.
The drive back consisted of a comfortable silence. Addison had tried calling Sam, but there was no answer, which caused them to both worry. The Impala passes an RV as the pull up to the motel room. Guns ready, Dean quietly opens the door. A man was aiming a gun at Sam's head, who was duct taped to a chair. "Shut up! It's God, Creedy. He led us here for one reason. To do his work. This is destiny," the man argues with the other man in the room.
Dean cocks his gun, causing them to see him. "Nope. No destiny, just a rabbit's foot."
The man aims his gun at Den. "Put the gun down son or you're gonna be scraping brain off the wall. You too, sweetheart."
Addison sighs and puts her gun down on the dresser. "This thing," Dean mocks, holding up his gun.
"Yeah, that thing."
Dean sets his gun down next to Addison's. "Okay. But you see there's something about me that you don't know." Smirking, he picks up a pen.
"Yeah? What would that be?
"It's my lucky day." Dean tosses the pen and it goes into the barrel of the man's gun. Addison stares in shock, while Sam looks impressed. Dean laughs. "Oh my God, did you see that shot?!" The other man goes to punch Dean and he moves to the side. The man hits the wall, head first, and knocks himself out. "I'm amazing." Dean grabs the remote and throws it at the man trying to pull the pen out of his gun barrel. The remote hits him on the forehead and knocks him. "I'm Batman."
Sam scoffs. "Yeah. You're Batman."
"I was thinking you're more like Robin," Addison remarks, smirking. Sam laughs as Dean ignores her.
Sam sprinkles the remaining mixture onto the small fire. The three of them were in a cemetery, getting ready to do the curse breaking ritual. Addison glances at Dean and finds him scratching more scratch cards that he had gotten. "All right. Bone ash, cayenne pepper, that should do it," Sam says, standing up.
"One second," Dean replies, not looking at them.
Sam takes a step towards him. "Dean, you—"
"Hey, back of, jinx. I'm brining home the bacon." Addison rolls her eyes. Dean puts the cards into his jacket that was laying on a headstone. He holds up the rabbit's foot. "All right, say goodbye 'wascally wabbit.'"
A gun cocking causes them all to turn. Bela was standing there, aiming her gun at them. "I think you'll find that belongs to me. Or, you know, whatever. Put the foot down, honey."
"No. You're not going to shoot anybody. See, I happen to be able to read people. Okay, you're a thief, fine, but you're not—"
A gun shot rings out. Addison screams and falls down. Her hand flies to the wound on her left shoulder. Dean goes to take step towards Bela, but she raises her gun again. "Back off, tiger. Back off. You make one more move and I'll pull the trigger."
Sam kneels down next to Addison. "Ads, you okay?"
"For the most part," Addison answers and Sam helps her up.
"You've got the luck, Dean. You I can't hit. But them? I can't miss," Bela states.
"What the fuck is wrong with you," Dean exclaims. "You don't just go around shooting people like that!"
"Relax. It's a shoulder hit, I can aim. Besides, who here hasn't shot a few people. Put the rabbit's foot on the ground now."
"All right! All right. Take it easy." Dean goes to put the rabbit's foot down, but at the last second tosses it to Bela. "Think fast."
Bela catches it. "Damn!"
Dean smirks at her. "Now, what do you say we destroy that ugly ass piece of dead thing?"
Bela glares at him, then drops the foot into the fire. "Thanks very much. I'm out one and a half million and on the bad side of a very powerful, fairly psychotic buyer."
"Wow. I really don't feel bad about that. Ads, Sam?"
"Not one bit," Addison coldly says.
Bela leans agains the headstone that Dean's jacket was on. "Hmm. Maybe next time I'll hang you out to dry."
"Oh, don't go away angry. Just go away."
Bela smirks. "Have a nice night."
They watch as she walks away before looking at the fire. The rabbit's foot was mostly burnt up. "Ads, you good?"
Addison nods. She removes her hand to revel that the bullet only grazed her. "Yeah, just a graze."
"I guess we're back to normal now, huh? No good luck, no bad luck. Oh! I forgot we're up forty-six thousand dollars. I almost forgot about the scratch tickets." Dean searches his jacket, but finds the pockets empty. A car drives past the cemetery and they exchange angry looks. "Son of a bitch!"