Chapter Seven
"I tried scrying once." Autumn said conversationally. She was much better off than yesterday, not so forced in her movements. "It don't work."
"Maybe you did it wrong." Sam offered. Dean didn't comment. As long as the two were talking he didn't have to worry about them too much.
"Thought of that. So I had Athena try it, she didn't get anything. There was a physic I knew back then, he didn't find shit either." Autumn shrugged.
"You know a physic?" Sam asked hesitating a moment. Autumn shook her head.
"Only one I know is you. I knew one. He was a closet physic, but came out to the wrong guy, got himself locked up in a nice padded cell for a while, something something something he's dead now."
"Something something something?" Sam repeated. Autumn brushed past Dean into yet another empty room. They'd discovered a homeless family, a few junkies, some stray cats, and a lot of nothing.
"Yea, like blah blah blah. It's a long boring story, that really don't need telling right now. Just another old friend that bit the dust." Dean looked over the large room Sam following behind him.
"There's nothing here either." he set his jaw.
"We are chasing our freaking tails!" Autumn buried her face in her hands, the gun pressing into her forehead. Dean moved to disentangle the gun from her hands.
"Aut" again he couldn't find the words he'd never been able to find. The ones his dad had never had either. Last time he'd heard the words, Autumn needed now, he was four. She looked up at him.
"What aren't we doing?" she sounded so small. Sam was shifting around behind him, his little brother was so much better at this stuff.
"Let's go back to the bar." Sam said. "We'll see if Aiden is a regular. If so someone will know where to find him." Dean nodded.
"Exactly." Autumn looked between the two of them.
"Can I have Harold back now?" she asked the hint of a grin teasing at her lips.
"Harold?"
"Yes, Harold's my gun and he don't like the way you're holding him." Dean gave back her gun shaking his head.
"You named your gun Harold?"
"My grandfather." she said.
Since they hadn't gotten to town until shortly after lunch time, and then had been sucked into the hunt it put them in town a little more than 24 hours now. Making it Happy Hour at the bar. The bartender smiled sweetly at them, he was a small, endearing, older man. Autumn slid up onto a bar stool and leaned forward to talk to the man.
"Hello, honey." he greeted. "Can I get you anything?"
"Yea, three beers."
"Of course little lady." he produced three longnecks and handed them to the red head. Autumn distributed amongst her group. "Anything else, honey?"
"Yea, my sister and I were in here last night, and a man bought her a drink. Tall, dark hair, good looking."
"What happen, sweetie? He nail your sister and leave?" the bartender asked. Autumn nodded.
"Something like that. He a regular 'round here?"
"Yea, every night, same time for the past two weeks. Well he missed a day last week." the old man recalled. "Said he had to pay his aunt a visit." Autumn stiffened a little realizing what this meant.
"Thanks."
"You need anything else Sweetie you just come here and find me." Dean led them to a booth in the corner where they could see the whole room. Autumn repeated the information.
"Think he'll show up tonight?" Sam asked.
"We could report her missing." Autumn suggested, for the first time ever she wanted the cops involved. "He would have to show up then. Unless he wanted to finger himself."
"He'll show up." Dean told them taking a swig of his beer and thanking God that neither of them questioned him.
"If you don't stop fidgeting I'll knock you out to do this." Athena scolded the older woman. Sage stopped squirming and let Athena work the needle through her skin. "Before, I didn't know who he was."
"He looked like my Rick." she was silent a moment. "I love the strategy don't you?" her voice dripped with sarcasm, almost drowning out the pain and exhaustion.
"What? Pretend to be someone you trust to break you down? It's just like the bullies on a playground. You find a person's weakness and hit them there. If the kid is upset because they wear glasses you call them four eyes. If you're a shape shifter and your victim is/was head-over-heels for a guy you become that guy." Athena bit the thread after she tied it off.
"I didn't think he'd give you that stuff after what you did to him." Athena laughed, and wished she hadn't immediately afterward, because of the earth shattering pain in her ribs.
"I've told you before. I get whatever I want." She wasn't about to tell the woman how bad she'd gotten it in order to get a first aid kit. But at least he'd kept away from all sharp objects and anything with projectiles. Fists hurt but they didn't blow your insides outside or slice through your skin as if it were hot butter.
"Could you want us both out of here then?" Athena unscrewed the lid on the alcohol and poured it over the stab wounds on her stomach. "Son of a bitch." she hissed.
"I'm sorry."
"Just hurry up. Besides the infection they're not bad." Sage had already assessed her wounds in the dim light provided by the keychain flashlight they're captor had given them.
"They're nasty though, Sagie." Sage looked up at her locking her sharp yellow-green eyes on the younger girl's blue ones.
"Sagie?"
"Yea, I mean we're all friends here right?" Sage gave her a smile that she couldn't see. Sagie was what her folks had called her, what Rick and John called her, on rare occasion when really fearful Autumn would call her, but never Athena.
Athena hummed while she worked. Every so often she'd look up from her small stitches and ask about the lyrics or see if Sage knew what song she was humming. For the most part the blonde stuck to what she'd been raised on, which meant is was a lot of heartbreaking, cheating, lowdown, drunken, lover songs.
"The Opossum, was always my man." Sage whispered into the silence. The bleeding had stopped for the time being, and as long as she didn't move too much the dizzy spells staid away.
"George Jones?" Athena sighed. "Autty, says our mom like him."
"You remember you're mom?" Sage asked hesitantly.
"Not really. I remember her at the end. You know, hooked up to IV's, bald, whiter than her sheets." Athena closed her eyes and fought off the memories of her mother's last days on earth. "But the pain is the worst. Dad and I were clueless as to how we were supposed to make it stop hurting. But Autumn was always so good at that. She'd give mom her pills, and then sit with her holding her hand and talking. She'd tell Mom the dumbest things." Sage sensed the need to discuss the topic, now that Pandora's box had been opened.
"Like what?" she pulled herself closer to the younger woman.
"Like she'd tell mom about school, or the animals. Tell her what the priest had said on Sunday or what she'd dreamt about the night before."
"That stuff don't sound so stupid." Sage's parents had just cut her out. She wasn't supposed to get a life of her own, she was supposed to settle down with the man they chose and live the life they wanted for her.
"No, Mom would always perk up afterwards. She'd laugh and dispense some age old wisdom and Autumn would go out back with her gun and shoot until her trigger finger was blistered or her shoulder was busted."
"Autumn's one hell of a girl. So what would you do?" Athena shook her head before leaning into Sage's arms.
"I would crawl in bed with my mom and listen to her breath. Not that I could ever really hear her breathing over my own tears." Sage stroked the blonde's hair.
"You two shouldn't of had to deal with that." Athena shrugged.
"Know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away and know when to run." Sage took a steadying breath and joined Athena's song.
"Never count you're money when you're sittin' at the table there'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done."
Autumn nearly jumped out of her skin when he walked in. Dean and Sam both tensed up the three exchanging looks. To confirm they had the right man. He was tall, maybe even taller than Sammy, dark shaggy hair, and dressed like any college kid on a Saturday night. Sam reached across the table and caught Autumn's had before it could reach her gun. Dean shook his head.
"Not yet, Aut, get him outside first." he told her. She pulled her hand away from Sam and crawled out of the booth.
"I'll get him out if you'll follow." she said pulling her shirt down, and readjusting her sleeves. Dean noted this, she was getting nervous again.
"We'll follow you anywhere, Autumn." she raised a brow at him before turning on her heel and walking up to Aiden. Sam and Dean hung back.
"Hey Aiden." she smiled.
"Do I know you?" he asked looking her over.
"How quickly they forget." Autumn reached up playing with a lock of hair just behind his ear.
"Maybe you'd like to make me remember?" Aiden asked his hands going to her hips.
"Maybe, my backseat or yours?"
"Have to be yours babe." she smirked.
"Why?"
"I'm ridin' a hog."
"Mmm" she bit her lip. "Let's blow this joint big boy."
"She's good at that." Sam said looking over at Dean.
"Shut up." Dean gave his brother a shove toward the door. Autumn had already gone out Aiden in tow.
"Where the hell is my sister!?" Autumn had the much larger man pinned to the wall just deep enough in the alley that no one would see when they passed by. Her gun was pressed deep into his gut, her hazel eyes wild.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"My sister! Blonde, yay tall" she waved her hand around at her own height.
"Oh yea, that really narrows it down, Red." she jammed the gun deeper in the man's stomach.
"If you want to live you won't call me that." Dean grabbed Autumn at the waist and pulled her back.
"Take a chill pill, Aut." he whispered in her ear taking her gun away. Sam had moved to keep the man in place.
"You picked her up here last night." Sam reminded their captive.
"Dude, I wasn't here last night. My aunt's sick. I'm in town to take care of her."
"We saw you!" Aiden shook his head.
"No you didn't. Here, call the hospital. I fell asleep in my aunt's room." he reached into his pocket to produce a cell.
"He's bluffing!" Autumn yelled.
"No! I'm not! Go ahead call!" Dean grabbed the phone flipping it open. "Just hit send, man, I just got off the phone with the nurses station not ten minutes ago." Dean hit the little green button and waited on the nurse to pick up.
"Hey, I'm with the Covington Police, and we need to confirm the whereabouts of a Aiden," he paused looking at the man Sam had trapped against the wall.
"Cane." the man supplied.
"Aiden Cane." Dean finished.
"Oh, the poor dear." the nurse cooed. "He sat with his aunt all day yesterday, then after her dialysis they both fell asleep. I was on duty, and just couldn't wake the poor guy up. He's barely left her side the past two weeks. She raised him you know?"
"Thank you ma'am." he hung up. "He's not lying."
"Damn it!" Autumn cursed slamming her fist in the nearest solid object, which happened to be a dumpster.
"What's going on?" Aiden asked.
"No of your business, kid." she said. Dean motioned for Sam to let him go.
"You were ready to blow my liver out my back. I think you owe me an explanation."
"Her sister has gone missing, and you're evil twin took her." Sam said. Aiden pinched the bridge of his nose and bent over.
"Okay," he sighed. "Did you report it?"
"We don't go to the pigs." Dean told him.
"What, you gang bangers from up in Cinci?" Autumn laughed at him.
"Do I look like a gang banger?"
"I don't know, lady. You handle that gun like a pro, and none of you are without your scars."
"We've run in to some trouble a time or two." Sam told the man.
"Right. So what the little guy you're pimp?" Aiden asked Sam nodding at Dean.
"We're not whores either, get your mind out of the gutter, Gulliver." Autumn scolded. "And since you don't have my sister on hand, we're out of here."
"Wait, if someone is walking around with my face and hurting girls I want to stop him." he grabbed hold of Autumn's arm as she walked past.
"Buddy, let go." she jerked her arm but he held on.
"No, not until you tell me what you know."
"I know I'm going to kick your ass if you don't let go."
"You're a little pixie how much damage can you do?" Aiden countered tightening his grip.
"I bite." she snapped at him.
"I'm scared." he said boredly. "So you gonna tell me what's going on?"
"Let her go." Dean put a hand over Aiden's wrist, and the taller man let go of Autumn immediately.
"We hunt things." Sam started. "Things that aren't… human. This thing took one of our friends, then called us out here. It's a shape shifter best we can tell."
"Wait, you're not serious."
"Do you want to know what's going on or not?" Dean asked. He'd swept Autumn behind him as soon as she was released and she was now leaning into is back, chin resting on his shoulder.
"We have reason to believe that it used your skin to take Autumn's sister." Aiden ran his hands through his hair and started pacing.
"So what are you going to do to it if you catch him?"
"We will catch him." Dean said.
"And we'll kill him." Autumn drawled licking her lips. Aiden looked at her wide eyed and fearful. Dean had to admit she looked crazy at the moment.
"Then what?"
"We take our friends and skip town. If there are others we dump them off at the hospital." Sam shrugged.
"And you find something else afterwards?" Aiden pressed.
"What we do afterwards isn't your concern." Dean replied.Aiden nodded slowly soaking all of this in as he paced.
"I'm helping you."
"Stay with you aunt." Dean told him. "From what the nurse said, she needs you more than we do."
"What about your sister?" he asked Autumn.
"Nobody and nothing gets between me and my baby sister without my permission. Anything that tries goes up in smoke." Autumn answered with a smirk. "Literally most the time." Aiden eyed the three of them, calculating his options.
"Make him hurt a little for me." he requested.
"Only if you keep your mouth shut." Dean haggled.
"Like someone would believe me." Aiden chuckled.
