Disclaimer: Most of the stuff doesn't not belong to me.

Where Have I Been?

Chapter Ten

After about a twenty minute argument, Richie finally told me about the missing girls. Too bad it wasn't really anything I hadn't already known, all he had was something that could be a possible connection other than the age. It looked like all the girls so far had gone to the same party at some frat house, if they were being targeted than it looked like I was in the clear as far as becoming a victim. Thankfully that little fact got Richie off my back and he let up on making excuses about me going to look at Rachel's house. Which turned out to be another bust, whatever it was that attacked her at the house, showed no sign of ever being there. There didn't even look like there was anyone living in the house anymore, her parents just up and left.

I walked down the road a little before calling Jack; I gave him a short version of my parent's diner outburst and asked that he come pick me up. I was in a bit of an odd location, somewhere I normally wouldn't ever be found but to get around that I just said to Jack that I needed to go for a walk after the glimpse of family drama and looking at my car. I sat on the curb until I saw a black Chevy Silverado pull up in front of me.

"Why are we sitting out here again?"

"Because, Dean, we need to see if anyone is home before we start to lurk around their house."

From where I sat the place looked totally dead, I'd bust in there without a second thought but doing things like that is usually what got me in trouble. Thank god for Sam sometime I guess, his thought process was what kept me out of jail half the time. Mine, if I even really had one other than 'let's go', was what gets me almost killed every other day.

Steak outs have always been the worst part of the job, especially after a long day and today was no exception. The blow out between Meg and me was enough to stress me out but it all happening with Tyler there made it worse. I just walked into this girl's life again and now one of the first things that happen when she's with me is a fight, essentially about her, with her mother.

While Sam gazed into the house of this things latest victim, I leaned back in the driver seat and closed my eyes. "Look away Sammy, I can't keep my eyes on a dark house for more than five minutes."

Sure enough, no more than ten minute after I close my eyes, Sam nudges me telling me to open my eyes. "Dude, get up there's someone coming out of the house."

"Where?" I sat up looking out the window, seeing nothing around the house.

"Right side there, coming from the back yard. Looks like a young girl; it's not that Rachel girl who's supposed to me living here is it?"

I leaned forward, feeling like I'd fall right out of the car, to get a better look at the figure walking from the back of this house we'd been scoping out all night. She walked around to the front of the house and onto the sidewalk, stopping for a second under a street light. I watched her put something in her back pocket, looking very similar to the EMF reader I kept in my own pocket, and putting what looked like a flash light. She pulled something else out of her front pocket, turning her heard to the side before putting it to her ear. After a few minutes a black truck pulled up and the girl climbed in and left.

"Sam, that defiantly wasn't Rachel; that was Tyler and I think that was Jack in the truck that just picked her up."

"What was Tyler doing here after 11?"

"I have no clue but we better get back to the house before her because I sure as hell plan on finding out what she was doing."

"Hey babe," He leaned over kissing me just as I hoped into the truck. "Rough day?"

"The whole thing was so stupid; I don't know what happened between them all that time ago for them to be at each other's throats within a few minutes. The weird thing was my dad seemed mad at my mom and my mom just seemed like she was guilty of something. She gets really defensive when she does something wrong that she regrets, she covers up by fighting with someone."

"I'm sure it's just something stupid, they haven't seen each other in almost 15 years right? There's bound to be some tension after a separation of that length."

I nodded numbly. "Yeah, I guess so but it'd be nice if they didn't go at it in front of me. Give me one day of piece with my dad in town, a man I don't even remember ever seeing. I think she'd afraid I'm going to leave her and want to live with him and my uncle."

"Would you? Leave I mean, whether it's to live with your dad or on your own, would you leave?"

"Well, at some point I'll leave yeah but not anytime soon. Why are you worried I'll leave you all alone with just Ryan?"

Jack laughed lightly, glancing over at me with a soft smile. "A little yeah."

"If I decide to go anywhere anytime soon I promise I'll let you know."

"Well, as long as you're okay with it I'm coming with you if you go anyway. I mean you'll need someone to get you out of trouble with your temper."

We pulled up to my house and I noticed my dad's car in the driveway. "That's a good sign I guess right?" Jack shrugged as we both got out of his truck.

He came around, closing my door, and walked me up to my front door. I said my goodbyes to him then walked inside expecting to see my mom sitting on the couch with a scowl, but when I walked in the place was dark except for a glow coming from our spare room where I'd guessed my dad or uncle was sleeping.

"Tyler?" I heard my dad's voice speaking in a low tone, obviously trying to be quiet. Then I saw a shadow moving in the doorway and heard his footsteps walking toward the hall. "It is you; could you come here for a second, I need to talk to you about something."

"It's kind of late, I wanna get to bed now and wake up early tomorrow to start working on my car. I could probably have it back to the way it was in two weeks; it's not really all that bad."

He stepped out in to the hall, walking up to me. "It shouldn't take that long, I need to do it while your mom it asleep." He looked up stairs as if she was standing at the top listening.

"Can't we do it tomorrow? She'd working in the morning and won't be home until after six, I'm really tired."

My dad shook his head, walking back to his room. "This isn't something that can wait Tyler, come on." I sighed, rolling my eyes and followed him to his room. "Close the door please." He stood in the middle of the room with his back to me; it was kind of unnerving not knowing what he had wanted to talk with me about. "Where'd you go after the diner?"

"I went to check out my car, I didn't get the best look at it the other day I wanted to go back to day and actually look at the damage the was done."

"And after you were done there, what did you do?"

"I went for a walk then met up with Jack." This was not a conversation I wanted to have, I can lie better than a Politian but I hated to lie to people I cared about. Those lies almost always fell apart.

I watched my dad's body tense a little as he wiped a hand across his face. "Where did you walk?"

"I don't know just around a little, I didn't' cross state lines or anything."

"You couldn't have been at the body shop that long right? How long of a walk did you take?"

"Why do I feel like I should have my lawyer present?"

"Why are you dodging the question?"

"Why are you even asking the question?"

"Still dodging Tyler."

My dad and I had a short stare down; he knew something, I don't know how he knew anything but he did. "Did you go to Richie's to check up on my or something?"

"No, I was…it doesn't matter what I was doing, I'm asking you what you were doing. And I'd like to hear the truth this time, no bull shit lies about going for a walk. You didn't go for a walk just to end up on Maple Wood Lane, that's nowhere near the shop where your car it at. What were you doing there?"

"Me? This is my town; I'll go where I please. Why were you there?"

"I was driving home after dropping Sam off at the hotel."

Damn, Maple Wood was the fastest way back to the house from the only hotel we had here. "Why is Sam staying at a hotel?"

"He wanted to give the three of us some family time before he's really around too much. Answer my question, Tyler. I saw you walking out from a house there, what were you doing?"

Specifics. Damn, he saw me but he didn't need to know why I was really there; why would I be there? There's no reason for me to ever be there, ever. There were clearly no parties tonight on that street, I had no friends that lived there of course he didn't know that but that was something easily verified. There was something in his eyes; it was just a glimpse of something he was hiding from me or at least trying to. It was worry, something he was worried about but didn't want to tell me.

"Why don't you just spit out the question you're dying to ask me? You know the answer."

"Why were you walking out from behind Rachel Milton's house tonight? A girl who's gone missing along with four other girls around the same age and description."

"I was looking for something."

"Can I see what's in your back pocket?"

I hesitated for short second before pulling out the device from my pocket and handing it to his out stretched hand. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes. "What are you doing with this Tyler?"

"What do you think?"

"Tyler this isn't a game or something to do when you're bored with what's going on in town, this is serious. You could get hurt or killed. Do you even know what happened to Rachel?"

"Yeah, a demon."

"And can you handle a demon? Each one is different Tyler; yeah they all end up wanting the same end but the all work differently. Some have rules others are beyond any rules or laws set. What if you walked into that house and ran right into whatever is doing this? How would you handle yourself? Do you have any weapons on you?"

"Well…no but I would have figured something out."

"First mistake Ty; you have to make sure you're prepared for almost anything." My dad stepped back, falling onto the bed. "How did this even happen? Your mother left to keep this from happening."

All I could do was shrug; I honestly didn't know how it happened. "It just kind of…did, I never went looking for it. Some weird things were happening at the shop while I was there; Richie took care of it and was kind of forced into telling me what happened."

"When this happen?"

"Less than a year ago and no, mom has no idea."

"Less than a year and you're scoping out a victims house alone. I like Richie less and less."

"He was determined to keep me out of there; I thought there would have been something he missed."

"You realize you're done right? There is no way I'm letting you continue to work jobs like this, you were supposed to have a normal life your mom and I never wanted you to have any part in this kind of life."

"You can't just walk into my life and tell me what to do with it."

"I've lost too many people because of what I've always done, I'll be damned if I'm going to lose you too."

The only hunter I've ever known was Richie, he never talked about losing anyone. I wasn't stupid of course it happened but it was like I had blinders on about it, nothing would happen to me I wasn't in that deep. But that's was people say about anything dangerous they're doing.

"Okay, but I need to help in some way I mean I know these people I was in school with Rachel."

"Fine, any info you can find would help but nothing where you'll need any weapons at all. Just books and the computer."

"Research, I can do that."

"If you're mom finds out about any of this she's going to kill me you realize that right?"

"She won't find out, just this one job then I forget about all of this."

It was a deal he wasn't thrilled about but one he was willing to accept, one job than I'd be done; that simple. Besides, it wasn't like I was doing any of the dangerous life threatening parts of it.

TBC

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Jenna