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The Collector

Chapter eleven

Dean watched as the man looked around the room and could tell he was nervous because the other patrons were watching him.

"Don't worry about them; if you don't tell me what I want to hear it's me you should be worried about not them." Dean meant what he said. If this man had any clue to where Sam was he'd beat it out of him if he had to and he would take on the whole bar if it meant finding his brother.

The man looked back at Dean and could tell he was telling the truth, the men in the bar didn't scare him near as much as the look in Dean's eyes.

"Now what is going on in this town?"

"Where is your friend?" The man asked.

"He's missing."

The man shook his head sadly and looked down.

"It's got him; you'll never see him again."

"That's where you're wrong; I'm getting my brother back."

"Once someone is taken, they don't come back."

"Taken? By who?"

The man reached for his beer and this time Dean allowed him to take a sip. The man took a swallow then began his story.

"About forty years ago people from this town suddenly began disappearing and no one knew what was happening to them. Then one day one of the missing men stumbled into the town weak and half dead. He told the sheriff a story about being snatched off the highway while fixing a flat tire and taken to a house filled with bodies. Apparently a man had been kidnapping people off of the street and embalming them alive then keeping their bodies. The man said he was drugged and kept in a cell then watched as one by one others in the cell were taken out then slowly killed as the embalming fluid filled their bodies. He had somehow managed to escape and made it back to town." The man took another swallow of beer and looked at Dean who nodded for him to continue. "The sheriff and a few men from town went up there and found the house….they say there were bodies all over the place. This man had collected more then twenty bodies and considered them his family. He had some sitting in front of a broken TV while others he sat at the dining room table. He even kept a body in bed with him. They say it was horrible; half the bodies had started to decay while others were still pretty well preserved. But before they could have a trial the man was pulled out of the local jail by family members of the people he had killed and was killed himself."

"When we first met you, you said something about a mist. What's that about?"

The man once more glanced around the room at the other patrons before continuing.

"There's this mist…" He said leaning in close to Dean. "It appears every once in awhile and people began disappearing again….no one from town, just strangers passing through. The people in this town don't talk about it, they think the mist is the ghost of the man the town had killed and if they talk about it the mist will come after the people of the town again."

"So this man used to keep his victims alive for awhile before killing them?" Dean asked hoping it was true, if it was then Sam could still be alive.

"Yeah, or at least that's what the man who escaped had said."

"Do you know where they buried the killer?"

Dean knew if he could find the grave he could salt and burn the bones destroying the ghost and hopefully save his brother.

"No one knows, or cares. I heard the body was given to his son but …I'm not sure."

"This man had a son?"

"Yeah, nice man, a school teacher…lives out by the lake."

"What's his name?"

"Greg Richards, he lives in a house with blue shutters right off the main road leading into town, you can't miss it."

"And the house where Richards kept the bodies is it still there?"

"I'm not sure….I heard it was but I never looked for it. The only thing I heard was that it was an old farmhouse.which is now falling apart and covered by overgrown weeds….some say it's still there but… I can't say for sure."

"Where?"

"At the lake, about a mile from his son's house."

Dean took out a twenty and put it down in front of the man then walked out of the bar. He jumped in his car and sped toward the lake.

The lake

Dean spotted the son's house as soon as he got near the lake. He parked then ran up to the door and knocked. A skinny man with glasses opened the door.

"Yes."

"Are you Greg Richards?"

"Yes I am, why?"

"I need to know where your father is buried."

"My father? Why?"

"I know who your father was. And I know what happened in this town. I also know about the mist that seems to haunt this town. I need to find your father's grave so I can put him to rest." Dean came right out and said it even though he knew he sounded like a lunatic; he didn't have time to beat around the bush he had to find Sam.

The man looked at him like he was crazy and started to shut the door but Dean stuck his foot inside the door preventing it from closing.

"My brother's missing and I think your father has him, I'm not going anywhere till you tell me where your dad is buried."

"My father is dead…how could he possibly be involved in your brother's disappearance?"

"Look, I know I'm going to sound insane but your father's spirit is not at rest and is haunting this town and I think he has my brother. Now all I need you to tell me is where your father's grave is and the location of the house where he committed his crimes."

"My father was cremated….there is no body."

TBC