Urban Legends
Dean pulled up to the empty gas pump and hopped out to fill up on gas. Sam cracked open the passenger door for fresh air and began to look through Dean's tape collection. "He hasn't changed one bit, has he?" Sam chuckled to himself.
"Nope, splitting image of Dad still" Troi mumbled from the backseat. "First the jacket, then the car, now the music too. Sadly you get used to it."
Sam smiled down at the box in his lap and at Troi's words. There was once a time when Sam and Troi knew each other better than they knew themselves, but now it seemed like miles were stick between them. "Guess familiar will do that to you" Sam mumbled.
"Yeah guess so" Troi answered back. She had also picked up on how Sam was feeling right now. "Jess seemed nice, you lucked out finding her."
"Yeah, yeah I did" Sam smiled back at Troi. "Has it really been all work for you? No fun?"
Troian sat up in the back seat of the impala and leaned on her forearms on the front bench seat. "You know how it is with Dad. You were lucky enough to get away and have the good life. I just fought monsters."
Sam felt bad for the life he stuck Troian with, even felt bad for walking out on her. But he had to get out before he and John tore each other apart.
Dean came back from the mart connected to the gas station with a full grocery bad in tow. Dean opened up the driver's side door, interrupting his younger siblings' catch up time. "Hey! You want breakfast?" he asked, poking his head into the car.
"No thanks. So, how'd you par for that stuff anyways?" Sam questioned, but secretly he already knew the answer. "You three are still running credit card scams."
"Yeah well, hunting ain't exactly a pro-ball career. Besides, all we do is apply. It's not our fault they send us the cards" Dean chuckled as he tossed a bag of beef jerky and a Dr. Pepper back to Troian before tossing the rest of the bag at Sam.
"Yeah? And what names did you write on the application this time?" he chuckled as he glanced into the bag.
"Burt Afraim" Troi spoke up around a mouthful of chewy meat. "And his son, Hector. They got two cards out of the deal."
"Sounds about right" Sam acknowledged. "I swear Dean, you've gotta update your cassette tape collection."
Troi tried as hard as she could to stifle her laugh, but it came out in the form of a snort instead. She had told Dean the same thing many times over, and it always earned her the same reaction. Sam caught Troian's eye from the rearview mirror and suddenly felt like he was put into a practical joke TV show.
"Why?" Dean asked curtly over his shoulder.
"Well, for one they're cassette tapes. And two, Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica?"
Dean snatched the old show box off Sam's lap with a huff and carefully made sure each tape was in one piece and its proper place. "So?" he whispered under his breath.
"It's the greatest hits of mullet rock" Sam laughed at Dean's slightly pained expression.
"He does have a point" Troi spoke up from the backseat.
"Your taste in music needs an update just as badly as Troi and I need a car of our own!"
"Well, house rules you two," Dean spoke up with his new found confidence "driver picks the music, shotgun shuts their cakehole."
As Dean drove past the sign that read Jericho was in 7 miles, he couldn't help but think they were all back where they were supposed to be. Troian was leaning against the backdoor updating her hunting journal while Sam curled his long legs up in the small space he had in front of him. He was also on the phone with the hospitals and police stations on the area. "Alright, thank you" Sam said into the phone before closing it. "So, there's no one matching Dad's description at the hospital or morgue."
"Well, that's something at least" Troi sighed from behind her brothers as she spotted a large to do on a bridge over a large river.
"Check it out" Dean cheered as he dug out a tin box from the glove department. As he dug around, he found three matching badges each with their own picture on it. "Let's go" he said once he handed out the badges to their perspective owners.
Sam and Troi followed after Dean as he rushed forward to the scene swarming with deputies mumbling about whose daughter was dating the missing owner of the abandoned car. "You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?" Dean hollered out in front of him.
"And who are you?" Deputy Jaffe called out to the three young adults dressed in street clothes coming under the yellow police tape.
"Federal Marshalls" Dean replied as he flashed the fake badge at him.
"Aren't you three a little young to be Federal Marshalls?" Deputy Jaffe asked, skeptical but still believing to some degree. After all, who would lie about that?
"Aw thanks. Awful kind of you" Troi purred back at the deputy. She often enjoyed being flirtatious towards the authorities they encountered simply because she was pretty enough to. It also played well when her family got in a jam or found themselves hitting a blockade. "You did have another one just like this, correct?" she asked again.
"Yeah, that's right. About a mile up the road. There've been others before that" the deputy smiled at Troian. "I can show you if you'd like."
"So, this victim," Sam spoke up, feeling suddenly protective over his twin sister "you know him?"
"Town like this, everybody knows everybody."
Sam nodded as Dean shot out another question. "Any connections between the victims, beside that they're all men?"
"No," Deputy Jaffe answered "not so far as we can tell."
"So then, what's the theory?" Troi spoke up again as she walked away from her brothers and closer to the deputy.
"Honestly?" he whispered "We don't know. Serial murder? Kidnapping ring?"
Troi walked back to her spot between her brothers while she and Sam thought everything over.
"Well, that's exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys" Dean chuckled in an attempt to break the silence, but unfortunately earned himself a swift kick to the shin from Troi and a stiff glare from Sam.
"Thank you for your time" Sam quickly put in, expressing their gratitude.
"Deputy Jaffe" Troi purred before turning to follow Sam back to the Impala. As she was walking, Dean dropped back by a step to get a better angle for the quick slap he gave Troian upside her head. "Ow, what was that for?" she spat into Dean's face.
It made Sam happy to see Troian finally began to stand up for herself and became more assertive towards Dean as he sternly lectured her for kicking him. AS much as he was relieved to see Troian was stronger, Sam prayed it was the same with John and her.
Sam and Dean agreed to check out the town while Troian drove the strip of highway a couple times. As always, Dean was upset to part with his beloved car nicknamed Baby, by the trusted Troi's driving.
While Sam and Dean walked along the sidewalk, they noticed a pair of girls walking towards them holding a stack of papers they were posting everywhere. "I'll bet you that's her" Dean pointed out.
"Yeah" Sam nodded as he followed Dean towards the girls.
"You must be Amy" Dean said recalling some talk on the bridge between the deputies.
"Yeah" the girl named Amy replied very unsure about who was approaching her.
"Yeah, Troy told us about you. We're his uncles. I'm Dean, this is Sammy."
"He never mentioned you guys to me" she answered with a nervous tone.
"Well yeah, that's Troy I guess. We're not around much, we're up in Modesto" Sam filled in. "So, we're looking for him too, and we're kind of asking around. You mind if we ask you some questions?"
Troian was upset to see there wasn't anything specifically strange about the strip of highway everyone was disappearing on. After the third drive past, Troi stepped out of the car and began to look around the area on the side of the two laned blacktop. She paced for a few minutes, but decided it was just grassy area and it was time to rejoin her brothers.
Sam had texted Troian where to meet them once she was done and joined them right as they themselves began to talk with who she assumed to be Amy.
"This is our sister, Troian" Dean introduced her as she pulled up a chair and sat at the head of the booth.
"A-are you two twins?" Amy stuttered at Troi and Sam.
"Yeah, fraternal" Sam answered matter of factly.
"But uh, personally I think we look nothing alike" Troi smiled as she offered her hand out to Amy.
"So," Dean interrupted "you were saying?"
"I was on the phone with Troy. He was driving home- he said he would call me right back and… he never did" Amy said quietly as she fiddled with her hands.
"He didn't say anything strange or out of the ordinary?" Sam asked carefully so as not to frighten her, but she shook her head as tears began to form in her eyes.
"I like your necklace" Troi smiled at Amy after a few moments of silence. "Where did you get it? Sam made me one a couple years back, I haven't ever seen another like it" she gushed as she pulled her own out from under her shirt.
Amy instinctively reached for her own and began to finger it. Her necklace was a leather string holding a tarnished silver pendent. The pendent was an upright pentacle surrounded by a thin circle. "Troy gave it to me, mostly to scare my parents with all that devil stuff" she told Troian.
Sam couldn't help but look down and laugh. Seeing her brother laugh put a smile on Troian's face, but she bit her tongue to give him the spotlight. "Actually," Sam said "it means just the opposite. A pentagram, like what you and Troi are wearing, is protection against evil. Really powerful, I mean if you believe in that kind of thing."
"Alright" Dean cleared his throat. "Thank you, Unsolved Mysteries." Dean sent a glare over to his brother as he leaned closer to Amy and her friend. "Here's the deal, ladies. The way your Troy disappeared, something's not right. So if you heard anything-".
Amy and her friend Rachel both began to shift and look at each other almost on cue. Once they both remembered there were other people with them, they both dropped their gaze.
"What is it?" Troi asked softly as she too leaned forward.
"Well it's just…I mean with all these guys missing people talk" Rachel said for the first time.
"What do they talk about?" Sam and Troi asked at the same time, earning a proud smirk from their older brother.
"It's kind of this local legend. This one girl, she got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago" she answered. "Well, supposedly she is still out there. She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well they disappear forever."
Troi looked across the table at her brothers as they looked back at her, now knowing what their next step was.
AN: Sorry for the slow updates, I'm writing as I post this time. As always please leave a review telling me what you think. I haven't gotten much feedback, so I may just do a couple episodes and call it quits. Enjoy!
