Chapter Ten
Later that day, while Dean went into a Copy Jack to get some fake I.D., Sally went over to talk to Sam.
"Hey, Sam," she said, leaning against the car beside him.
"Hi," he replied looking down at her.
"Listen, I heard about your girlfriend. If there's anything you want, just let me know," she told him.
"Thanks," he said.
"I do know what you're going through," she assured him.
"I know, probably more than anyone I know," Sam said. She gave his arm a reassuring pat and got up, wanting to leave him alone with his thoughts.
"I just, I feel like it's my fault," Sam said. This made her stop and turn around.
"How could it be your fault, Sam?" she asked him.
He shook his head. "You wouldn't understand," he replied.
"Forget it," he continued.
"Believe me, I know what it feels like to think a loved one is dead because of you, but Sam, you know that it wasn't you're fault, really, don't you?" she asked him.
He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess," he replied.
Just then the door of the store opened and Dean came out. He eyed the blonde who passed him by before turning towards the car.
"You've been in there forever," Gillian said to him in annoyance when he reached the car.
"You can't rush perfection," he replied, holding up two I.D. cards with a picture of him and Sam. Sam picked up the one with his picture and read it.
"Homeland Security? That's pretty illegal, even for us," he told his brother.
"Yeah, well, it's something new. People haven't seen it a thousand times," Dean replied.
"So, what have you got?" Gillian asked, turning to Sally.
"Well, there's definitely E.V.P on the voice recorder," Sally explained.
"Yeah?" Dean asked.
"Listen," Sally said, opening up her laptop. She played a slowed down version of the recording from Jerry.
"No survivors," a raspy voice said.
"No, survivors? What's that supposed to mean. There were 7 survivors," Gillian stated. Sally shook her head.
"Got me," she said.
"So what are you thinking? Haunted flight?" Dean asked.
"There's a long history of spirits and death omens on planes and ships like phantom travellers. Or remember Flight 401?" Sam pointed out.
Gillian nodded. "Right and the airline salvaged some of it's parts, put it in other planes, then the spirits of the pilot and co-pilot haunted those flights," she said.
"Right, maybe we got a similar deal," Dean agreed. He picked up the list of survivors, scanning down the page.
"All right, which one do you wanna go talk to first?" he asked.
"Third on the list, Max Jaffey," Sally replied, pointing to the name.
"Why him?" Sam asked.
"Well, for one he's from around here and two, if anybody saw anything weird, he did," Sally answered.
"What makes you say that?" Gillian questioned.
"Well, I spoke to his mother and she told me where to find him," Sally answered.
A few minutes later, they pulled up in front of a sign which read "Riverfront Psychiatric Hospital", beside the entrance to a large building.
xxxxxx
"I don't understand. I already spoke with Homeland Security," Max Jaffey said. Dean and Sam were seated in front of him in the hospital.
"Right, some new information has come up and if you could just answer a couple questions," Dean told him. Sam turned to him.
"Just before the plane went down, did you notice anything unusual?" he asked.
"Like what?" Max replied.
"Strange lights, weird noises maybe, voices?" Dean asked him. Max looked at him.
"No, nothing," he answered.
"Hmm, Mr. Joffey," Dean began.
"Jaffey," the man corrected.
"Jaffey," Dean repeated. "You checked yourself in here, right?" he continued. The man nodded.
"Can I ask why?" Dean said incredulously, looking around him.
"I was a little stressed, I survived a plane crash," Max replied, sarcastically.
"Uh huh. And that's what terrified you. That's what you're afraid of," Dean said.
"Look, I-I don't wanna talk about this anymore," Max said, shaking his head.
"You see, I think you did see something up there. And we need to know what," Dean told him.
"No, no, I was delusional. Seeing things," Max replied.
"Oh, he was seeing things," Dean told Sam.
Sam nodded his head. "It's okay. Just tell us what you thought you saw," Sam said to him in a comforting voice.
Max sighed. "There was this man. And, uh, he had these eyes. These, uh, black eyes. And I saw him, I thought I saw him," Max stopped, staring into space.
"What?" Dean asked.
"He opened the emergency exit," Max stated.
Dean looked at him in surprise.
"But that's impossible, right? I mean, I looked it up. There's something, like, 2 tonnes of pressure on that door," Max said.
There was a pause.
"Okay, did this man seem to appear and disappear, rapidly? It would look something like a mirage," Sam asked him.
"What are you, nuts? He was a passenger. He was sitting right in front of me," Max stared at him, incredulously.
Sam and Dean just looked at one another.
xxxxxx
Later on, when Sam and Dean had related everything to Sally and Gillian, they looked up the man who was sitting in front of Max Jaffey.
"Here we go," Sally exclaimed. "George Phelps. Seat 20 C," she said.
"I don't care how strong you are. Even if you hooked up on PCP or something, there is no way you could open up an emergency door during a flight," Dean said.
"Not if you're human," Gillian replied.
"Maybe this guy, George, was something else. Some kind of creature, maybe, in human form," Sam said.
xxxxxx
They got his address and decided to pay his wife a visit. As they pulled up in front of the house, Dean pointed to it and said, "Does that look like a creature's lair to you?"
"Look, I think me and Sally should go in. I mean four strangers at once….that might be a little hard on his wife, don't you think?" Gillian pointed out.
"Why do you get to go in?" Dean asked, indignantly.
"Well, it's our turn. You talked to that Max guy," Gillian pointed out.
"Yeah, but-" Dean began before Sam cut him off.
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea," he said.
Dean shot him a look as Gillian looked triumphantly over her shoulder at Dean. "Dude, why'd you go and do that?" Dean rounded on Sam.
Sally was doing something similar to Gillian.
"Gillian, that was really rude," she scolded her sister as the walked up the path.
"What? It was our turn. Why should they get all the fun?" Gillian replied.
Sally just shook her head in reply.
xxxxxx
A few minutes later they were seated in Mrs. Phelps' living room. Sally looked at a picture of George Phelps.
"This is your late husband?" she asked the woman seated in front of them.
She nodded. "Yes, that was my George," she replied.
"And you said he was a dentist?" Gillian asked.
She nodded again. "He was headed to a convention in Denver," she continued.
Sally looked at Gillian.
"Do you know that he was petrified to fly?" Mrs Phelps asked them.
"For him to go like that," she said softly.
"How long were you married?" Sally asked.
She smiled. "Thirteen years," she replied.
"In all that time, did you ever notice anything strange about him? Anything out of the ordinary?" Sally questioned.
"Well…" Mrs. Phelps began.
Gillian sat forward eagerly.
"He had acid reflux, if that's what you mean," she finished.
Gillian and Sally again looked at one another.
xxxxxx
After retelling what had happened to the others, Gillian said, "I mean it goes without saying, it just doesn't make any sense."
"Yeah, a middle-aged dentist with an ulcer is not exactly evil personified," Dean replied.
"You know what we need to do is get inside that NTBS warehouse and check out the wreckage," Sam said.
"Okay but if you're going to go down that route, you better look the part," Sally told them, smiling slightly.