A/N..Well, I have a couple of weeks off work, annual leave, yay! This does mean, however, I might not post as regularly, as I have so much to do around the farm. My long hours mean that things have fallen to dissaray, and my animals are looking at me with confusion. They are used to being alone all day, they don't understand why the feeding lady is here during the daylight!
Dean looked at Nick, and checked his clip. Nick nodded, and they both exited the sheriff's car, one synchronized movement, quiet, guns drawn, carefully following the girl. As they got closer Dean heard the sheriff let out a long breath, and holstered his gun. He turned to the blonde man, and mouthed a 'What the fuck?'
Nick gave a nervous laugh "It's not her"
Dean looked at the girl. She was short, had long, blonde, flowing hair, tight jeans and a t-shirt. And she was about thirteen, with buck teeth and freckles.
"Damn, that was not cool" Dean laughed, and he tucked his gun back into his waistband. "Okay, Nicky boy, which trailer are we after?"
Nick nodded to the white and blue double wide just ahead. "I believe that is our den of child pornography right there"
They walked up to the trailer, and found the door wide open. Guns once again in hands, they looked at each other, and Nick took point.
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Bobby coughed, stretched, and got up. "We're no closer to finding a way to gank these things. We don't even know who summoned it"
Sam sat upright, and stretched his back until it popped. "There's gotta be a link. The first deaths were pedophiles. The burners started soon after. Maybe the second harvester piggy backed on the first?"
"Yeah, maybe" Bobby answered. "You hungry?'
Angie smiled at this "I am very hungry. Would you like me to get food for us?"
Sam reached over for his cell phone. "I'm thinking we need to order in. Dean'd get pissy if you left us alone. And I don't wanna split us up right now. We seem to have attracted the harvester's attention a bit."
Angie nodded, and went back to her book. Sam grabbed some fast food brochures from the motel's little info rack on the window sill, and Angie thumped her book down in front of him, giving his a start.
"I believe I may have found something"
"Really? Show me"
Bobby leaned in while Sam traced the passage with his finger, as Angie watched them, her face showing no emotion. Bobby straightened, and clapped her on the back. "I think that's a break through, girl. You sure have a knack for research!"
She smiled and ducked her head a little. "I like to read" she softly replied.
Sam smiled at her. "Good for us! Food can wait, for now. Do you have anything on the child that first went missing?"
"I do, but not here. It will not take me long to get it. I can be quick"
"Okay, then, we need it, so yeah, be quick" Sam told her.
She disappeared, the soft rustle of wings heralding her departure, and Bobby shuffled through some of the papers on the table.
"Here, I found what we have" Bobby said as Angie reappeared, and handed him a manila folder containing her own research.
He opened it, and started sorting through everything. "So, according to the lore, the mother of the broken child can summon the harvester, and place a coin to gain her revenge. If you're right, it's the mother of the first child you were trying to save, and according to this" Bobby turned a clipping for Sam to see, with a very detailed note written in the margin by Angie "the body was found not far from here. You're thinking that the kid's mom summoned the harvesters? And there pedophiles it killed were the ones that took that first boy?"
Angie nodded, and pulled out a police report from under some papers. "The first man to die was the police's prime suspect. He had been convicted many years ago for similar offenses. I was going to come to him the first day that you saw me. He was already dead, by then"
"This is good" Sam laid the papers out in order. "Where's your list on ways to withdraw the harvester from the summoner?" Bobby pulled the writing pad from the pile.
"Here. There's a couple of ways to end the task. We just gotta figure out which one's the right one.
"I think I'd better let Dean know, and we can maybe finish this thing before dinner" Sam said, and hit speed dial on his cell.
The phone rang, but went to voice mail. "He must be busy, or out of range" he tried again, with the same result. He tried Nick, and got the same thing.
He rang Dean's again, this time leaving a message, then put the phone down, a very worried frown creasing his brow.
"I would know if he was not all right" Angie told him.
"Are you sure?" Sam looked at her, eye to eye, sitting, he was the same height as her standing.
"If he was hurt, I would know" she reassured him.
"Really? Every time, or just now, that he's close?"
She gave him her sad smile, her huge eyes bright with memories. "Every time"
Sam looked at Bobby.
"Everything?" Bobby frowned. "You can tell every hurt?"
Angie shrugged. "I could feel him die, I could feel when he was brought back to life, when he loved, hated, and when he lost someone. There were times when he was so devastated I wanted to take him away. I can feel everything he feels. Sometimes, when I am not too far away, I can feel when he is hungry"
"That's just, um….don't tell Dean that, maybe. It'd freak him out" Sam looked a little freaked out himself.
Angie frowned. "I am a little freaked out. I have never had a bond like this, with anyone. If someone is in thrall to me, I can feel things, but he is not enthralled to me, nor I to him"
"What does it mean?" Sam asked her.
She shook her head. "I do not know. I do not think he has the same connection to me, unless he is close. That, at least, is a relief. Perhaps we do share the same bond, I just have a stronger affect due to" she looked down, at her hands, and shrugged "what I am"
"Well, nothin' we can do about that right now. At least it'd give us a heads up if something goes south." Bobby patted the chair beside him. "Take a seat, and let's figure out the best way to get the harvester to withdraw, and end this mess once and for all"
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Nick rolled slid around the door frame, gun pointed towards the living room area when he heard a noise the other way. He turned, gun in front, as he heard a sob. He felt rather than heard Dean behind him, a reliable back up: the man was surely military trained, he thought. Dean moved beside him and Nick indicated ahead, where he'd heard the noise, a closed door preventing them seeing what was going on. He stalked forward with Dean at his shoulder and kicked the door open. There, on the bed, was the man they had been coming to see. He sat, wearing only his paisley print boxers, as the woman before him reached out and touched his fore head. He fell back, convulsing, white foam frothing from his mouth.
"Put your hands in the air" Nick yelled, his most authoritive police voice on show.
The woman just watched the man on the bed until he died, his eyes popping like penny crackers, his last twitches a snap of static electricity. She turned, then, as she placed her sunglasses back on her face, and tilted her head.
"The Sheriff" she stated. She tipped her head to Dean. "I do not know what you are. But both of you stink like that thing"
Dean cocked his gun "Sister, that thing you're talking about does not stink. Not like you. Now step back, and .." she raised one hand and he slammed against the trailer wall with enough force to send a shudder through the structure. Nick let fire, his blessed iron bullets cutting through her small frame, her body jerking with each puncture of metal. She fell back but did not quite lose her footing as Nick emptied his entire clip. She stood upright as the hammer clocked on an empty chamber and took in a shuddering breath.
"That hurt" she said, then shook herself like a dog, all signs of the bullets damage disappeared. "But not as much as this will, Nick Haliday. You have much sorrow. You are a tasty feast for one such as me."
She looked at the hunter pinned to the wall, his feet dangling as he struggled to break free. "You, my boy, are different." She approached him, her head tilted to one side, nostrils flared as she took in his scent. Nick lunged at her, but she calmly raise done arm, holding him at bay not two feet from her. "You are indeed a prize." He ran a finger down Dean's face, then licked it. "Yes, a prize! So much sorrow, in one man, I have not felt this for a millennium." She smiled, her face predatory, her features twisted with evil. "You, I will take my time to savor and enjoy the sorrow you have pushed down into your soul. This will be a very fruitful day for me, indeed!"
She turned back to Nick, as he stood helpless, trapped by her power, unable to move a muscle. "First, though, I think I shall start with this motherless boy whose sorrow over his lost childhood and family is just crying out for me to devour it!" She leaned forward to the sheriff and removed her sunglasses.
Dean struggled as hard as he could, but he was held fast, he could do nothing as his friends screams rent the air, a sound filled with pain, horror, and most of all, as the cries changed to ones of agony, was the sorrow…..
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Sam knocked on the bright blue door, the cherry color subdued with a wreath of condolence hung in its middle. A small woman opened the door, her face drawn, eyes red, her mouth a permanent downturn. "Mrs. Willpot?" he asked, and she gave a little nod. "Uh, this is Agent Plant, Agent Wait, and I'm Agent Walker, FBI" the two hunters and their female guardian held their badges for the woman, but she didn't look at them. She opened the door wider and beckoned them in.
The house was filled with flowers, all in baskets, wreaths and arrangements, cards of condolences poking out from each one. The woman led them to her sitting room and the hunters stood in front of the sofa, watching as Angie walked over to a little shrine on a side table. "This is your son?" she asked, and pointed to a picture of a freckly red haired boy, a crooked smile and bright blue eyes beaming out of the black frame. The woman nodded and a sob escaped from her as she held a tissue to her mouth.
Angie beckoned for the hunters to step forward to the table. She discreetly pointed to small pile of items at the front of the photo frame. There was a very old locket, a charm bracelet laden with little silver coins, and a condolence card. Bobby picked up the card, and opened it for Sam and Angie to read. There was a moving, old fashioned poem of sorrow interlaced with a cry for justice that just happened to be almost word for word the summoning spell for a harvester. Sam turned to the woman. "Who gave you this card, ma'am?" he asked her.
She turned her sad eyes to him. "It was a card I had for my father, when he passed. It meant so much to me then, and when they told me about… about.." she breathed deep, and composed herself. "Well, I found I couldn't put it down for the first few days. I cried all over it. Then I decided to put it here, with my mother's memory bracelet, and my son's lock of hair, and my gram's locket. My son's baby teeth are in the locket"
The three 'FBI' agent s looked at each other, and Sam put the card back on the little shrine. "We're very sorry for your loss. We won't bother you anymore"
She looked at each of them, tears running unchecked down her face. "You haven't found the animals that did this yet?" she pleaded.
Sam gave her a sympathetic smile. "The men that did this are all dead. They're the ones you might have read about in the paper. Vigilante killed them with some suped up taser. They won't hurt anyone else"
Angie stepped forward and gave her a serene smile, and placed her hand on the woman's cheek. "You will sleep, now. When you wake, you will feel a little better. Every day, you will feel a little better" she said softly, and both Sam and Bobby could feel a warmth from her, a soft feeling of well being that seemed to radiate from her, directed mainly at the broken mother before them. "This will never heal, but you will be able to go on with your life, and you will be okay" she removed her hand, and Mrs. Willpot looked up at them, confusion spreading over her features.
"If you'll excuse me, I think I need to lie down" she murmured, and turned and walked out of the room.
Bobby tapped Angie on the shoulder. "Ah, Dr. Phil? That was some weird mo-jo you laid out there"
Angie shrugged. "She needed it. She was broken. This spell, however" she indicated the shrine "I think that she did not even realize that she was summoning the harvester. She will not be able to stop it"
"Yeah, we agree with you" Sam turned to Bobby. "We gotta find some way to get rid of this thing on our own"
Angie picked up the bracelet, and looked at it. "Will we need this?" she asked.
Bobby nodded. "Can't hurt. You can always pop it back later, if you need to"
They turned to leave, Angie pocketing the bracelet. A gurgle sound made Sam turn, his eyebrow raised in question. Angie tilted her head at him.
"It is my stomach. I am hungry"
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Sam hung up from the pizza guy, and smiled at Angie. "Thirty minutes. Maybe then you're stomach will stop growling"
She smiled back at him. "I am very hungry. I haven't…" her voice trailed off, and she got a distant look on her face.
"Angie?" Sam touched her hand, but she didn't react. "Angie?"
Bobby leaned over and shook her, and she slowly turned to look at him then clutched her stomach and flipped her chair back, landing with a crash as she held her mid section. The hunters jumped up and grabbed her, placing her on the bed as she writhed in pain. "Angie? Angie, what is it?" Sam worriedly asked her.
Her eyes snapped open, and she sat up still clutching her belly. "Dean" she breathed. "Dean is being attacked"
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The harvester turned to the man pinned on the wall and smiled. "It is your turn now, boy. But first, I would like you to tell me about the thing that stopped me from feeding earlier today." She stepped closer to him and leaned in, her face pressed against his belly. He felt strange, at first, then a burning began, changing to a sharp cutting sensation that felt like his intestines were being sliced right there as he hung on the trailer wall. He gasped and moaned, the harvester stood back from him with a reptilian smile breaking over her features. "That pain you feel, that is something that happened to you before. I have just brought it back to let you feel some of what I can do to you. Now I will ask you once, boy, what is that thing?"
Dean spat in her face. "You're the only thing around here, honey" he croaked, the force compressing him to the wall stopping him from drawing a full breath.
She shook her head. "Silly boy. Do you not realize that I am so much more powerful than you could even imagine? I can make you feel every pain, every cut, every slice, every bullet hole and punch, everything that you have ever felt in your entire life. No man can withstand me. Do you think that you can? You cannot!" she tilted her head, and he felt the hell hound's claws rip his stomach to shreds.
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A/N...I promise, I really do, to get the next chapter up before a full week is through. The story is on its final descent, I know how it ends...just gotta get it outta my head and onto the laptop...
