Chapter 26 - The Benders
"So the police have not ruled out foul play, apparently there were signs of a struggle." Sam was saying from the little round table. We had blown into town earlier that morning, signs of a new case had sparked our interest. We had talked to the only witness, a young boy who was about ten, who had heard the victim before he went missing. All we got out of him was that he had heard a whining, growl sound. Now we were stationed at some smoky old bar figuring out our next move.
"Well it could just be a kidnapping." Dean was saying as he throw his darts at the board on the wall. "Maybe this just isn't our kind of thing."
"Maybe not." I agreed taking my turn with the darts. I threw them perfectly, each one hitting their intended target.
"Damn it." Dean muttered under his breath.
I pulled the darts from the board and put them in his hand with a smile. "Maybe you should just stick to your strengths baby." I patted him on the arm and joined Sam back at the table; he pulled out John's journal and opened it up.
"Maybe, but Dad marked the area. Possible hunting grounds or phantom attacker." Sam said told us as Dean joined us back at the table.
"Why would he even do that?" Dean asked picking up his beer and taking a drink of it.
"Well he found a lot of local folk lore about a dark figure that comes out at night and grabs people then vanishes." Sam said. "He found this too, this county has more missing persons per capita than anywhere else in the state."
"That is weird." Dean said picking up the darts from the table and going back to the board.
"Don't phantom attackers usually snatch people from their beds?" I asked. "Jenkins was taken from the parking lot."
"Well their are all kinds you know, they take people anywhere...anytime." Sam said. "I don't know if this is our kind of gig either."
"Yeah, yeah, you're right we should ask around more tomorrow." Dean said.
Dean pulled the darts from the board and went back to throwing them again. I came up behind him and put my arms around him and kissed the back of his neck lightly. "That's distracting." I heard him say.
I laughed and walked back to the table. "You're right, I should leave you alone. You need all the practice you can get." I called back.
"Hey, I saw a motel about five miles back." Sam said.
"Whoa, whoa, easy." Dean said turning around. "Let's have another round."
Sam shook his head and stood up from the table. "We should get an early start."
"You really know how to have fun don't ya grandma?" Dean said.
"He's right Dean." I said finishing off my beer. "One more round is never just one more round with you."
Dean sighed and threw the last dart. "Alright, I'll meet you guys outside, I gotta take a leak."
"My boyfriend the charmer." I said following Sam out the front door.
The parking lot was dark and foggy as Sam and I walked through it. I stopped and grabbed Sam's arm when I heard a rustling sound in the distance. "Did you hear that?"
Sam nodded his head and took a look around. He placed John's journal on the hood of a near by car and pulled out his flashlight, shining it through the fog. We looked at each other and I motioned towards the car, he sighed and slipped down to the ground to shine the light under it. I heard a loud hiss and he jumped back away from the car right into my legs. I laughed and helped him to his feet. "You good?"
'Yeah." He answered with a laugh. We walked around the car to the side of the Impala while Sam pulled the keys from his pocket. Suddenly I felt something grab my ankles and before I knew it I was pulled roughly to the ground, hitting my head off the car in the process. That was the last thing I remember before blacking out.
I felt someone shaking me and I opened my eyes slowly. "Bree, are you okay?" Sam asked, panic in his voice.
I sat up slowly and touched my head with my hand, I pulled my hand away and looked at the dry blood on it. "What happened, where are we?" I asked as my eyes adjusted to the darkness in the room. Sam and I were sitting in what looked like a giant cage in the middle of an old barn.
"I don't know." Sam said, a look of mixed confusion and concern on his face. "How's your head."
"Feels like someone hit me with a hammer but I'll live." I said leaning back against the cage and closing my eyes for a second, the burning in my head slowly disappearing.
Sam stood up as best he could in the low cage and began pulling on the door, but it wouldn't budge. I looked over beside us and saw another cage, a man was lying unconcious on the floor of it. "Sam to the right." I said.
Sam turned around and looked at the cage beside us. "Think that's Jenkins?"
"That's a good possibility."
Sam sighed looked around the cage again, he placed both hands on the top and started kicking at the door as hard as he could. He kicked about two or three times before falling down beside me, breathing heavily. "It's no good, it's solid."
"Thanks for trying." I said leaning my head on his shoulder.
A low groan filled the room and I sat up to see the man slowly rising from the floor of the cage. "You alive?" Sam called. "Are you okay?"
The man used the sides of the cage to pull himself up. "Does it look like I'm doing okay?"
"Where are we?" Sam asked.
"I don't know. Country I think. Smells like the country."
"You're Alvin Jenkins, arn't you?" I asked.
"Yeah."
Sam let out a laugh and leaned his head against the side of the cage. "We were looking for you."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Well no offence, but this is a piss poor rescue." Jenkins said angrily.
"Well my brother's out there right now too, he's looking for us so.." Sam said.
"So he's not gonna find us, were in the middle of nowhere, waiting for them to come back and do God know's what to us." Jenkins said.
"What are they?" Sam asked. "Have you seen them?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Whatever grabbed us, what did they look like?" I asked.
"See for yourselves." Jenkins said, sliding to the back of the cage as a door opened in front of us.
Sam and I slid down in the cage and watched as someone with their face covered came in. He unlocked the cage Jenkin's was in and opened the door. "Leave me alone, don't you touch me. Leave me alone!" Jenkins yelled as the figure stepped into the cage, placed food on the ground and closed the door behind him.
The figure hit our cage with a silver knife and we jumped back quickly. The figure locked back up the cage using a box o the other side of the room and left us once again. "I'll be damned." I whispered under my breath. "They're just people."
"Yeah?" Jenkins said, his mouth full. "What'd you expect?"
"How often do they feed you?" Sam asked.
"Once a day, they use that thing over there to open the cage."
"And that's the only time you see them?" I asked.
"So far, what do you think they want?"
"Depends who they are." I answered as Sam stood up in the cage and began pulling on an overhanging piece of the cage.
"They're a bunch of psycho hill-billy rednecks if you ask me, looking for love in all the wrong places." Jenkins yelled.
I sat on the floor of the cage and watched as Sam continued to pull. Everything was pretty quiet until Jenkins spoke up again. "What's your name again boy?"
"Sam." He answered, his voice strained.
"Why don't you give it up Sammy, there's no way out."
"Dont. Call me. Sammy." Sam said, gritting his teeth and pulling until, finally, the piece came off and Sam fell down into the cage. A small metal piece came down with it hitting me in the foot.
"What is it?" Jenkins called.
I picked it up and examined it in the low light. "It's a bracket."
"Oh thank God a bracket, now we got them huh?" Jenkins said sarcastically. Suddenly a low buzzer sounded and the door to Jenkins cage creaked open. "Must have been a short. Maybe you knocked something loose."
Jenkins got up excitedly and stepped out of the cage into the main room. "I think you should get back in there Jenkins." Sam said as we exchanged a quick look, the cage opening like that didn't seem to be accidental.
"Why?"
"This isn't right." Sam said shaking his head.
"Don't you wanna get out of here?" Jenkins asked, his voice hushed.
"Yeah, but that was too easy." Sam said.
"I'm gonna get out of here. I'm gonna send help okay? Don't worry." Jenkins said backing away from the cage.
"No!" I yelled.
"Jenkins I'm serious, this might be a trap." Sam said.
"Bye bye." Jenkins said slipping out the door.
"Jenkins!" Sam yelled, but he was already gone.
The cage door beside us slammed shut and automatically locked again. "Damn it." Sam said kicking the cage with his foot.
"His mind was made up Sam." I said gently.
"I should've tried harder." Sam said sighing.
"Nothing we would've said would have made a difference." I said as a distant scream pierced the air around us.
I took Sam's hand and squeezed it gently and he forced a small smile as we sat there, waiting. We sat in silence for the next couple of hours until the door opened again. The same two guys from last time walked in dragging a female body behind them, they opened up the cage Jenkins had been in and tossed her in before quickly leaving.
As the door slammed shut, the women began to wake up. "You alright?" Sam asked as she opened her eyes and looked around the room.
The women turned around in the cage and looked at us. "Are you Sam Winchester and Bree Matthews?" She asked groggily.
"Yeah." We answered, surprised.
"Your ahh...your cousins looking for the both of you."
"Thank God." I said smiling.
"Where he is?" Sam asked.
The women clutched her head and thought for a minute. "I ahh...I cuffed him to my car."
Sam let out a low breath and we heard the now familiar sound of the door opening. We bent low in our cages as footprints sounded in the room and a figure emerged from the darkness. "Sam, Bree?"
Dean walked over to our cage and pulled on the door. "Are you guy's hurt?"
"No." We both answered happily.
"Damn it's good to see you guy's."
"How did you get out of the cuffs?" The women asked and Dean turned around quickly.
"I know a trick or two." Dean said cockily before turning back towards our cage. "Alright, oh. These locks look like their gonna be a bitch."
"Well there's some kind of automatic control right there." Sam said pointing towards the box they used to open and close the cages.
"Have you seen them?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, dude, their just people." Sam said.
"And they jumped you?" Dean asked. "Must be getting a little rusty there. What do they want?"
"We don't know." Sam answered.
"They let Jenkins go, but that was some sort of trap." I said. "It just doesn't make any sense."
"Yeah well that's the point, you know with our usual playmates there's rules, there's patterns, but with people they're just crazy." Dean said shutting the box and looking around the room.
"See anything else out there?" Sam asked.
"Yeah there's about a dozen junk cars back, plates from all over, so I'm thinking when they take someone they take their car too." Dean said.
"Did you see a black mustang out there about ten years old?" The women asked Dean.
"Yeah actually I did." He answered and a look a sadness crossed her face. "You're brothers? I'm sorry. Now let's get you guys outta here, then we'll take care of those bastards." He looked around one more time and turned back towards us. "The thing takes a key. Key?"
"I don't know." I said and Sam shook his head.
"Alright I better go find it." Dean said turning back towards the door.
"Hey." I called and Dean turned around. "Please, be careful."
"Yeah." He said dissapearing through the doors.
I let out a long breath. "He better not do anything stupid in there." I muttered.
I heard Sam laugh quietly before everything went quiet again. I was straining to listen in case anything happened and I knew Sam was doing the same thing. About twenty minutes later I heard footsteps outside and the door opened again. This time it was the two guys again, one of them put the key in the box and I heard the lock to our cage open.
"What are you doing?" Sam yelled.
The guy made his way over our cage, gun in hand. Sam and I crouched in the back and when he opened the door, Sam threw a piece of metal in his face causing him to mis-fire into the air. Sam tackled the guy to the ground roughly and began fighting him for the gun. He pulled it away form him and used it to knock the guy unconscious. He went to shoot him, but the gun was jammed.
"The cage." I said and Sam and I quickly dragged him into the cage. We let the women out and locked the cage behind us leaving the guy trapped.
We heard yelling and made a run for it, splitting up in the process. I hid behind a pile of hay and I saw Sam do the same on the other side of the room. Two guys entered the room and looked around, I heard a noise coming from another room and the younger guy went off in search of who made it. I bent down low and crawled across the floor when I heard gunshots from the other room. I looked up and saw the older man turned with his back against me and I made a run for it. I found the women on the floor with the younger guy aiming at her with his gun.
"Hey!" I yelled and ducked as the guy turned around and shot the older man by mistake who had run into the room after me. Sam jumed up from behind the younger guy and quickly elbowed the guy in the face and took the gun from him, using it to knock him out.
We dragged him back into the main room and locked him up in the cage alongside his brother. We walked back to where the women stood holding a gun to the old man who lay on the ground. "I'll watch this one, you two go ahead."
Sam and I hesitated, watching her. "Go ahead." She said firmly. We left the barn and slipped into the house where we found Dean tied in a chair in the living room, a young girl standing guard over him. We over powered the girl and Sam dragged her to the closet while I untied Dean.
"You know it's funny." I said as he stood up from the chair. "You come here to rescue us and we end us rescueing you."
"Please, I had a plan." He said.
"I'm sure." I said rolling my eyes and turning to walk away.
"Hey." he said grabbing my arm and pulling me around. He moved his head down and kissed me lightly on the lips. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Someone needs to kick your ass at darts." I said kissing him again before Sam came back.
We left the house and met up with the cop lady outside. "Where's the girl?" She asked.
"Locked in the closet." Dean answered. "What about the dad?"
She took a deep breath before answering. "Shot. Trying to escape."
We exchanged a quick look before heading out. "I think your cars at the police station." Sam said as we walked.
"So, state police and FBI are gonna be here within the hour." The cop told us. "They're gonna wanna talk to you. I suggest your long gone by then."
"Thanks." Dean said. "Hey, listen I don't mean to press our luck but were kinda in the middle of nowhere. Think we can catch a ride?"
"Start walking. Duck if you see a squad car."
"Sounds great to me, thanks.' Sam said and we turned to go.
"Listen," Dean said. "I'm sorry about your brother."
"Thank you. It was really hard not knowing what happened to him, I thought it would be easier once I knew the truth, but it isn't really." She said sadly. "Anyway, you should go."
We nodded our heads and began walking down the road. "Don't either of you ever do that again." Dean said.
"Do what?" Sam asked.
"Go missing like that."
"You were worried about us." I said slipping my hand into Dean's.
"All I'm saying is vanish like that again and I'm not looking for you."
"Sure you will." Sam said.
"I'm not." Dean said.
"So, you got side lined by a thirteen year old girl?" I asked.
"Ahh, shut up."Dean muttered.
"Your getting rusty there kiddo." Sam said and we laughed.
"Shut up." Dean said again sqeezing my hand tightly.