Chapter three. Fresh eyes

"Damn it!" Shae cried out in frustration. She threw away the pen she'd been obsessively chewing on for hours, and only distantly heard the noise it made when it hit the wall. "This is driving me nuts!"

Kira was spread out on her bed, nose buried deep in books. "Yeah," she smirked, "I kinda noticed."

Shae got up and started pacing up and down their room, trying to walk off her headache.

For three weeks, they'd been cooped up in this creepy motel room, trying to figure out the case Kira had found. Looking back, Shae wished she'd just gone off on her own. Now, she couldn't just drop the case before it was finished. If only she could, though… if only… But even if her conscience had allowed her too, she knew Kira would kill her for walking away. So there was no escape until the hunters figured it out.

Except that they'd been brainstorming for three weeks now, but the killings had gone on without them getting any closer to the answer. Nothing made sense in this case. They had simply never seen something like that, and it was terribly frustrating to be getting nowhere. Internet had offered no answers so far, neither had the books the girls had gotten their hands on. It was just too strange.

Kira was good at researching, but Shae wasn't. She loved action. She couldn't stand this, and every second, her control on her temper was getting weaker and weaker.

Kira looked up, annoyed by her friend's pacing. "Shae," she said coolly, "walk it off. Go outside, come back in an hour or so."

Shae huffed, but left without a word. She would never admit it, but she was incredibly grateful to the other huntress for letting her breathe some fresh air. She needed it badly. She closed the door roughly behind her, and walked away.

Kira, left alone in the motel room, sighed in relief. God knew she liked Shae, but that temper… the woman had no patience.

The blonde buried herself back in her books. However, she was still incapable of finding anything that even remotely made sense. This case was so weird. She loved solving puzzles, but this one – if she didn't know any better, she would think it was unsolvable. Except that NO case was unsolvable. There was always a monster behind the curtains, she just needed to find it. But even though Kira would never admit it, she was starting to feel a little desperate. She never gave up, but she was starting to wish she could.

The worst part was that she knew something about those deaths were familiar. She knew she had come across this creature before. But she just couldn't remember. It happened to her sometimes, and she hated it. A couple of years back, she had fallen from a window while fighting a nasty ghost. After a while in the hospital, she was back on her feet. But her head had been hurt, and although Kira felt fine, sometimes she forgot things. And she hated it, more than words could cover.

If only she could remember… what her mind had let slip away could be the key to this case, the key to finally putting that god dammed town in her rear-view mirror.

The first victim had been in jail when the thing got to him. The man was a serial killer. He had hanged all his victims, for a long time everybody had thought the deaths were suicide. Then he was caught, and one day, he was found hanged in his cell. The security cameras didn't show anything. The death was a mystery, that was what Kira had spotted in town in the first place.

Then a hunter was found in his home, ripped to shreds by what seemed to be a bear – his favorite prey, according to his friends.

A couple of days later, a woman in her late thirties had died in a car crash. The huntresses heard the deceased had run over a kid a few years earlier, while drunk.

The strange deaths had gone on and on, all ironic in one way or another. The huntresses had been helpless, incapable to stop it. No hex bags, no sulfur, not a single clue to identify the creature. No link between the victims, no link between their deaths except their irony. So, a monster with a sense of humor.

Kira closed her eyes or a moment. This was pointless. She never gave up, and she wouldn't today, but this was pointless. They had investigated every lead they had found. This place, this room, this town was driving them crazy. They needed fresh eyes.

Shae would not like this… It didn't matter. Kira wondered who she could call as backup. Someone with experience, someone who was good at the job, someone who would see what the girls hadn't been able to.

Well, there were always John, Hugh and Joseph. But another thought kept nagging at the back of Kira's mind. What if…? No, Shae would kill her. But Shae wasn't here, couldn't stop her – she had probably stopped at some bar to get drunk and maybe pick up some poor guy. It would almost be a bad joke, but after all, if monsters started developing a sense of humor, why couldn't a hunter do the same? Kira chuckled and got up.

She hurried to the table. Shae had left her handbag on it. Kira shuffled through the mess which reigned inside, and found what she was looking for: her friend's cell phone. The blonde had always thought the woman missed the whole point of a cell phone, since she never took hers with her.

Kira scrolled through the numbers, eyes narrowed slightly, until she found the one she was looking for. She pressed the "call" button with a little mischievous smile. After a few seconds, a male voice answered:

"Hello?"

Kira cleared her throat. "Yeah, is this Sam Winchester?"

"Yes," said the man. "Who is this?"

She didn't hold back her grin. "My name is Kira, Kira Johnson," she answered. "I'm a hunter. Are you and your brother working right now?"

"No, we're looking for a new case. Why?"

"I've got one that's… pretty puzzling. Could use some fresh eyes."

There was a moment of silence.

"Where are you?" he then asked.

She told him, then heard a muffled exchange between Sam and another man, certainly Dean. A moment later, Sam was back on the line.

"We're coming. We're not far from you, we should be there in an hour or so."

"Great. Thanks."

She hung up, and put Shae's phone back where she found it. She was actually kind of excited. Who didn't want to meet the Winchester brothers? They would figure out this case. And, more importantly, Kira was looking forwards to seeing Shae's reaction. Oh, she would be mad, but… something told Kira that this was going to be a lot of fun.

She went back to the bed to read, mostly in case her friend came back.

As it turned out, Shae was still absent when Kira heard a car pull over in front of the motel. She had given Sam the address before hanging up. She got up with a grin as she heard footsteps approaching the door, then opened after someone knocked.

She raised an appreciative eyebrow when she saw the boys.

It wasn't hard to guess which one was who. The ridiculously tall one was Sam, the shorter one was Dean.

Shae had gone on and on about how handsome Sam was. Kira had thought she was exaggerating, but that thought was quite mistaken. It was easy to guess why her friend had been attracted. But Dean wasn't bad, himself. Those boys must have broken quite a few hearts. Kira quickly took in Sam's shiny brown hair, hazel eyes and adorable dimples as he smiled politely; Dean's smirk, large leather jacket, cocky attitude and dirty blonde spiky hair. That guy was a player if she ever saw one. She could already tell Shae had been right: he was not the diplomat in this team.

"Hi," Sam said warmly, extending his hand. Kira took it, returning his smile. As she turned towards Dean, he waved vaguely.

"Yeah," he muttered, "hi. I'm Dean, this is Sammy."

She noticed Sam rolling his eyes, and her smile got bigger. She remembered the way her sister and herself used to constantly tease one another. That was a long time ago. She stepped aside so that the brothers could come in.

Dean had barely gotten inside when he slumped into the nearest chair, immediately throwing his feet up onto the table. Kira bit back a comment, but thought she and him were not going to be best friends. Sam's sigh didn't go unnoticed, either. He was probably used to this.

"So?" Dean called out roughly. "Care to fill us in?"

"Yup – but first, there's something I should tell you."

Sam frowned. "What?"

"There's another hunter working with me here." Dean shrugged. "You met her already… her name is Shae Robinson."

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Shae gulped down another glass, wondering vaguely for how long she had been here and if it wasn't time to head back to the motel. Then, she heard the noise of the stool next to her getting pulled, and she sighed, hoping some random guy wasn't going to hit on her. Dude, I'm not in the mood… She didn't bother to even glance at the person who sat down next to her. Well, until the sound of a familiar voice made her gasp in surprise.

"Shae. Long time no see."

Her eyes were wide when she turned to see Sam. He was casually leaning against the counter. She openly stared at him, gaping.

He seemed relaxed, almost amused, but Shae could guess that was just on the outside. Did she want to know what he was thinking? Probably not.

She thought she should say something, but her mind went blank. He was looking at her, what was she supposed to say?

"What the hell are you doing here?"

It had just slipped out of her mouth. Oh, great, she inwardly sighed with an urge to punch herself. Smart move, Shae. Very smart. Just be as unpleasant as you possibly can, pick a fight while you're at it…

Sam didn't seem offended, in fact he didn't seem to care at all. Well, maybe he really didn't care, but Shae was convinced he was just good at hiding his emotions. Usually, so was she.

"Well, aren't you just delighted to see me again?" Sam asked sarcastically.

"Yes," she answered, a little too quickly.

"Huh," he shrugged. "You never called, though."

"Neither did you."

He chuckled. "That's true. In my defense, though, you never did give me your number."

She felt her cheeks turn bright red, and she cleared her throat with embarrassment. Sam took pity on her, and looked away.

"So, what are you doing here?" she asked again, in a slightly more polite way.

"Kira called. Using your phone." He glanced sideways to see her reaction. Shae controlled the surge of anger which was pushing her to punch someone. All she had to do was wait until she was back at the motel, to punch Kira. Who probably knew what was coming. Sam went on: "She called to get fresh eyes on the case you're working on."

"That really wasn't necessary," Shae grumbled through clenched teeth.

"Of course it wasn't." His voice was heavy with sarcasm.

"So Dean's here too?"

"Yup."

"Wonderful."

He chuckled. "Don't worry, you won't need to put up with us for long."

Shae smirked, rolled her eyes. "Sam, we've been stuck here for three weeks."

"Yeah, that's what I heard." Sam grinned. "But we've figured it out, so you shouldn't be stuck much longer."

Shae gaped at him. "Excuse me?"

"It was easy," said Sam. "You're dealing with a trickster."

She stared at him blankly. "A what?"

Sam smiled at her. "Why don't we head back to the motel? We thought we'd wait until you got back, to explain everything."

Shae didn't hesitate more than an instant. She had no wish to remain alone with Sam, and if the boys really did know what they were dealing with and how to kill it… well, maybe she was finally going to get out of this town. She swore to herself she would never again set foot here.

"Yeah," she sighed. "Let's go. I'm so impatient to see your brother again…"

….

Hello there! I'm sorry it took me longer to upload this chapter. I had a bit of a writer's block, I guess, and I'm not sure I'm happy with how the chapter turned out, so let me know what you thought! I hope you liked it, and I'll try to be quicker for the next one! Thanks for reading!

Alice