Chapter 29

Dean woke up to the sun burning his eyes, even though they were closed. He opened his eyes, peeved he was awake this early in the morning. Why iss it that the light always manages to shine right into my face no matter where I sleep? Whatever. I won't be falling back to sleep now. He looked over to his side with a groan. Sammy wasn't in bed anymore. He looked over to the corner of the room. Sammy was sitting, still clad only in his light blue boxers, having a staring contest with his laptop. Dean watched. At this rate, it seemed like Sammy might actually win.

"Blink, dude." Dean said. Sam looked at him like he was doing something wrong, and nodded his head toward the other bed. Dean looked over. Leon and Cassie were still sleeping. Dean mouthed "Oh" as he nodded his head in understanding and climbed slowly out of bed. He cringed as each part of his body ached from the various bruises. Now he knew how Rocky must have felt, only this was real. He smirked. At least his face was still intact. At least I hope it is. The thought worried him. He needed a mirror. He didn't know what he'd do if he looked as messed up as Rocky did after his big fight.

He looked over at Sammy, who was just watching him as he struggled out of bed. "What?" Dean asked giving Sammy his best "Lay-off" face. "Hoping for a tip slip?"

Sam puffed out air and shook his head. "Not in the least." Sometimes he couldn't figure out how they were related. He went back to his laptop, but kept one eye on Dean as he moaned and groaned through each short movement he made. His body must have been stiff from sleeping as his aches and pains worked on healing.

"What are you looking at?" Dean asked. "Porn?" He smirked. He cracked himself up sometimes.

"Hilarious." Sam said flat-faced, dismissing his joke. "I'm researching."

"Looking into our sea monster?"

"Yeah."

"Was it just me, or did that thing seem a little Disney to you?" Dean asked with a smile.

"You mean, like a mermaid?"

"Exactly. Whatever the little red-haired mermaid girl's name is." Dean said, spinning his hand, index finger extended, in a circle like he was trying to jog his mental cogs into action.

"Ariel." Sam said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, you always did like that girly stuff as a kid." Dean walked to Sammy and looked over his shoulder at the laptop.

"Dude, your breath smells." Sammy said, waving his hand in front of his nose. Dean leaned in to Sammy and breathed out heavily like an old smelly dragon, all over his face. Sam coughed and pinched his nose closed, but couldn't hold back his smile. "Gross!"

"You know you love me."

"Do I?" Sam laughed.

"You do." Dean placed a hand on Sammy's shoulder. "Watcha' got on our little mermaid."

"There's a lot of lore. It's hard to make out what's just popular fiction and what's the real deal."

"What's out there?"

"Well, this website says that they are only vulnerable when the tide's low. Another says on a full moon, like a werewolf. Others talk about various herbs and plants acting like poison to them." Sam explained, sounding a bit overwhelmed by all the information he'd read.

"You don't sound convinced." Dean looked at him questioningly.

"I'm not." Sam said plainly. "It all sounds too farfetched."

"Yeah, cuz we're in the business of normal." Dean jested.

"I did find this website." Sam clicked up an old, but legitimate looking website. "It isn't written like the others. All the others sound like Wikipedia articles, but this one is written at a more professional level. It just seems more serious."

"So we go with this one?"

"That's my bet."

"And what's it say?"

"Well, it says mermaids are vicious creatures, closely related to sirens." Sam explained, sounding a bit too much like a college professor for Dean's taste. "Like sirens, the mermaid's song has mystical powers too. See, sirens used to lure ships into dangerous or rocky waters by singing-"

"I know what sirens are, Sam." Dean grunted defensively.

"Okay, anyway, the mermaid is similar. They also can sing to lure people in. But it says, that unlike the siren, the mermaid can also use its appearance to lure people in. It has an unnatural beauty that entrances people to it."

"But if that's the case, why didn't she entrance us?"

Sam's brows furrowed. "I'm not sure. But it might be how she got the rest of the victims..." His voice trailed off as he read more on the laptop screen. "It also says that they eat the flesh of man."

"Typical." Dean scoffed.

"Yeah... This story here says that fishermen would know that a mermaid was around when the fish were all missing." Sam looked at Dean.

"So? You think it's like when we didn't find any fish around the reef?"

"They called it Aquarius' Song."

Dean's eyes lit up. "Isn't that what that old fisherman said to me the other day? They didn't catch any fish either."

"Exactly."

"So maybe this website is the real deal." Dean praised.

"Maybe..." Sam mumbled as he read more. "It doesn't say anything about a mermaid laying eggs or cocoons or whatever."

"So they don't have everything. Do they ever?" Dean dismisses. "How do we kill it?"

"Says here that a mermaid carried a conch shell that it carried its own mortality in. As long as that shell is around, the mermaid is invincible."

"But we killed a few of the babies just the other day."

"Yeah, I guess they were too young to have gotten a shell of immortality or whatever."

"Speaking of them..." Dean paused. "I think those were the missing people."

"Me too." Sam sighed. "I could see the people's features in the mermaids, they were just a bit mutated or whatever. Do you think there's any way to save them?"

"You're the one with the research." Dean shrugged. "You tell me."

"There's nothing on here about children or cocoons or anything."

"Doesn't sound good."

"I know. What do we do?"

"They're monsters now, Sammy. We gank 'em, just like any other job." Dean stretched his arms out in the air showing he didn't like what he had to say, but there was no other option.

"I guess."

"So after this shell or whatever is taken care of..." Dean trailed off to let Sam fill in the blanks.

"Then we get ourselves a legitimate shark's tooth." Sam sighed the words. "However we're going to do that."

"I'm sure there's a store that sells them." Dean said straight. "We just buy one."

"It's gotta' be real and it's gotta' be fresh, Dean. It says it's the shark's life force in the tooth that kills the mermaid. Not just the tooth itself."

"Any chance either of them know how to deep sea fish?" Dean faked a smile and nodded back at the sleeping siblings.

Sam laughed in disbelief. "For sharks? He shook his head. "Doubtful."

"Yeah, I figured not, too." Dean sat next to his brother at the table. "So, I guess we figure out how to get a shark's tooth."

"Like you said: fishing." Sam said plainly. Dean had a devilish grin, like he was too excited about something. "What?"

"We'll be like that show, Deadliest Catch."

"No, we won't." Sam couldn't understand the way his brother's mind worked, but played along. "More like America's Funniest Home Videos."

"Maybe we'll win the cash prize. You gotta' camera?"

Sam stood up, shaking his head. "We're not filming this." He walked into the bathroom. "I'm getting ready. We need to get started. Today is 'officially' the first day of tourist season. Things are about to get more serious than they already were."

Dean watched as his brother turned the shower on and closed the door. "You might want some clothes. We have a girl here, remember?" He grinned as Sammy cracked the door open, peering over at Cassie, making sure she was still asleep. She was. He crept out, holding a towel loosely around his waist with one hand, and went to their duffel bag. Dean whistled at him. "Hey sexy, remember me? You sleep with me and don't even stay for breakfast?" Sam gave Dean his 'Sam's annoyed face' and grabbed his clothes before retreating quietly back to the bathroom. "Call me!" Dean winked just before the bathroom door slammed shut. He laughed. I really do crack myself up.

Sammy, having heard his brother laughing hollered back through the closed door. "It wasn't funny."

"It was a little funny." Dean threw out his catch-phrase and smiled. He knew Sammy was smiling on the other side of the door.

Sore, he lay back down on the bed and exhaled a deep breath and mumbled to himself. "Sharks. I guess we're hunting sharks... why couldn't it be guppies or something..."