Title: The Boys Went Down to Georgia
Author: Razorbackgal0225
Rating: PG-13--A little language, but that's all
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, cars or situations from Supernatural, but I sure wish I did. Anything you don't recognize is mine.
Author's Note: I apologize for the cliffhanger in the previous chapter. Well sort of :-) I hope this chapter makes up for it. Please let me know what you think about how the story is going.
Dean was thoroughly confused. All the way back to Commerce, he and Sam had bounced ideas off each other regarding why Jacob was appearing and attacking the children in town. Even Sam, with all his freakish amount of random knowledge, had exhausted all thoughts and had leaned his head back against the seat in defeat. Every ghost they had faced before was around for a reason. Whether it was revenge or anger, a motive could always be found. As much as he hated to admit it, it helped them out if they knew why the spirit was acting the way it did. He had developed into such a 'shoot first, ask questions later' guy that waiting to make sense of the situation was driving him crazy.
If a piece of Jacob, be it blood or whatever, hadn't been left when he died, there shouldn't be anything holding him to this world. And when Sam had suggested that maybe he was looking for his murderer, Dean had reminded him that Jacob had only assaulted children. Children that in no way could have had anything to do with Jacob's death. Again, just another way that this case made absolutely no sense.
And then there was Lilly. The cute little girl had grabbed ahold of his heartstrings and tugged as hard as she could. She was sweet and innocent, everything that he had wished for Sam during his childhood. He had tried for so many years when they were younger to shield Sam from the painful truth of the things that hid in the dark. His failure to do that was just one more that he added to his mental list of how he hadn't fulfilled his duty as a big brother. Now Lilly was learning the same truths and Dean again felt the sting of defeat. Little kids shouldn't know about ghosts and demons. He only hoped that the events over the last couple of weeks hadn't scarred her for life.
Of course, he didn't want to dwell on Lilly's aunt even less. Katie had a good head on her shoulders to go along with being girl-next-door cute. A killer combination as far as he was concerned. Dean wasn't the introspective type, but he also wasn't an idiot. The girls that he normally chased after, not that it took a lot most of the time, had three things in common. Willing, able and completely uninteresting outside of the bedroom. He had learned a painful lesson from Cassie. He would never again trust himself enough to form a connection with a girl. That only led to ugly goodbyes and a slightly thicker skin. Katie was that type of girl, he could tell. In the few days he had been around her, he had enjoyed talking to her. She was funny, smart and nice. The complete trifecta of things he couldn't have.
Instead of thinking about issues that made him sound like Sam, Dean replayed the conversation they had with Mr. Bennett in his head. He had done this at least five times since they had left Watkinsville. He remembered the list of names the old man had given them. As they passed the '5 miles to Commerce' sign, he asked Sam,
"Hey, did you look over the list of kids that were in the orphanage?"
Sam roused himself from his zoned out state and rustled through his computer bag. "Oh, yeah, I forgot. What are the chances any of them are going to look familiar," he commented sarcastically. Dean grinned at this, noticing his brother had just sounded exactly like him. Maybe he could bring the kid around. He waited patiently as Sam read over the list.
"Adams, Cook, Evans, Forester, Hayes, Jones, Jones, Jones," Sam took a deep, tired breath and continued, "King, Lee, Mayes, Myers, New…" his voice trailed off as he realized what name he had said. "Myers!" The exhaustion had disappeared from his voice. "First name, Franklin, age 14, orphaned at the age of 6."
"Holy shit," Dean muttered. "The guy who bought the old orphanage lived there before. That sounds like bad news."
Sam's blue eyes sparked a little as he looked at his brother. "Dean, what if Myers killed Jacob? Wouldn't him moving back to the scene of the crime be enough to bring Jacob out of the woodwork?"
Dean shrugged his shoulders, then quickly executed a u-turn in the middle of the road. They had passed the gravel road to the petting zoo two minutes ago. "Could be," he answered. "It certainly is weird and I'm guessing not a coincidence. Call Katie and tell her where we are going," he commanded, handing Sam his cell phone. For once, Sam didn't argue. He found the phone number and dialed.
"No one's answering," he said after a minute. He hung up as the voicemail picked up. "I'll try again in a few minutes." Sam saw the frown cross Dean's face. "Dean, I'm sure she's just busy and couldn't hear it. If anything had happened, she would have called." Even as he reassured his brother, he redialed Katie's number. Still no answer. An idea came to Sam. "You know," he started, "this kind of reminds me of that ghost in Baltimore."
"The death omen?" Dean asked. "You think that's what Jacob is?"
"What if it's not Jacob that's attacking these kids? What is Myers is the bad guy and Jacob is trying to warn them?" Sam guessed.
"Not a bad theory." Dean gestured with his head toward the phone. "Try her again," he ordered. Sam sighed and dialed again when he saw that Dean's knuckles were white from the death grip he had on the steering wheel.
Lilly hummed quietly to herself as she entered Katie's house. She was tired from all the playing she had done at Casey's house. It had been a lot of work, but they had finally finished Barbie's fashion show, instead of getting halfway through and calling it quits. She was looking forward to a grilled cheese sandwich for supper and talking to Mr. Dean and Mr. Sam again. Walking into the living room, she called,
"Aunt Katie, I'm home!" Not getting an answer, she first checked the laundry room. Then she went part of the way upstairs and yelled again for Katie. Still no reply. Normally, Lilly wouldn't have been that worried. Katie had been known to hide from her when she got home, starting a game of hide-and-seek. But with everything that had happened, especially this morning's near accident with Joey, she was immediately nervous. This time, her shout was a little more anxious.
"Aunt Katie, where are you?" Anyone hearing her voice would have noticed the note of fear in it. "Aunt Katie?" This time it even cracked. She approached the kitchen slowly and heard her aunt's cell phone ringing. She quickly moved around the island, searching for the phone. She found it on the floor, next to shards of broken glass. Even though she had been told repeatedly to not ever touch a mess such as this, she broke the rule to pick up the phone.
Luckily, Katie's phone was just like her mom's, so she could answer it with no problem. Pushing the button, she held it to her ear. "Hello?" she answered shakily.
"Lilly?" Sam was surprised to hear the little girl's voice instead of Katie's. And something sounded wrong. "Lilly, are you alright?"
"Mr. Sam?" Lilly whispered. "Is that you?"
Dean glanced worriedly at Sam when he said Lilly's name. A hundred reasons ran through his head of why Lilly would be answering the phone and not Katie. 999 of them weren't good.
"Yes, Lilly, it's me. Is everything okay? Where's your aunt?" Sam questioned gently.
His response caused a dam to burst in Lilly. "I can't find her," she wailed. "She's not in the house, and her phone was on the floor in the kitchen when I walked in and there's broken glass everywhere!" By this time, she was crying.
Lilly was loud enough that Dean had heard her comments through the phone. Frustrated with himself for not having foreseen this, he claimed the phone from Sam. He should have known they wouldn't get away with their trip to the petting zoo that cleanly. Sam gave an understanding nod and began preparing for their arrival at the old orphanage, reaching into the backseat for their weapons.
"Lilly, sweetie, it's Dean. Are you okay?" he asked. Sam recognized the tone in Dean's voice. It was the same one his older brother had used on him since he was little. It was his 'I'm going to take care of everything' voice.
"Mr. Dean, I can't find Aunt Katie!" she repeated, her sobs getting louder by the second.
"Alright, munchkin. I need you to do something for me. I need you to take you aunt's phone and go to your nearest neighbor's house. Who's the closest one?" he instructed, as he turned the car into the petting zoo's drive. Sam continued collecting guns and knives.
"Mr. Frank lives next door," Lilly said, still sniffling.
"Good girl. Go next door to Mr. Frank's house and tell him that Aunt Katie's been kidnapped, okay?" When he heard Lilly say yes, he continued. "Ask Mr. Frank to call the police."
Lilly was still crying, but not as much as before. "Was it that little boy who took her? Do I need to tell the police about him?"
Dean's jaw clenched at the fear he heard in Lilly's voice. "No Lilly, don't tell them that. What I need you to say is that Mr. Myers took your aunt. I know it sounds strange, but I need you to trust me, okay? Can you do that for me?"
"Mr. Myers from the petting zoo?" she said. "Why would he take Aunt Katie? He doesn't even know her."
By this time, the boys had reached the petting zoo. "Lilly, listen to me. I need you to get the police to come to the petting zoo, alright. Do you understand?" His tone was firm but kind, not wanting to scare the little girl any more than she already was.
"Okay, Mr. Dean. I'm on my way next door right now," Lilly stated, walking out the front door.
"Good girl. Keep the phone with you, munchkin, and I'll call you back as soon as we find her. We will find her, I promise," Dean vowed. Sam nodded in agreement, even though Lilly couldn't see him.
"I know," her trusting answer broke Dean's heart. She hung up the phone and knocked on Mr. Frank's door.
Dean shoved his phone in his pocket and took the gun that Sam handed him. "Myers must have thought we were on to him when he caught us out here," his comment was mostly to himself. "This is our fault."
"No, it's not," Sam countered, his tone inflexible. "This is Myers doing, not ours. We couldn't have known." He tucked a knife into the waistband of his jeans. He had one gun in his hand and another in his pocket. Dean had the shotgun, his ever-present hunting knife and a bottle of holy water ready to go.
"We've got to find her," Dean said as he reached for the door handle.
"We will," was Sam's response.