AN: I am heading out to meet with friends ... five minutes ago. lol. So, I will say the changes to chapters 25 and 26 have been made, please re-read if you get a chance. And I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter Twenty-Nine
December 29
"Well, Deer supposedly symbolize grace, compassion, gentleness, meekness and natural beauty," Sarah muttered, rubbing her tired eyes, as her cell phone buzzed for the hundredth time that morning. Her legs ached a bit from dancing all night.
"Right, because swallowing sewing needles is the height of compassion and gentleness," Dean groaned, his head tilted back.
"Maybe we're thinking of this wrong," Sam said. He and Katie were the only ones really awake, having gone home in good time last night. "We first thought it was a witch."
"Yeah, but none of these girls crossed anyone," Katie pointed out.
"Everything seems connected to their trip," Sarah added, barely looking up from her cell phone, as she kept texting someone.
"So ... maybe they crossed a witch out in the forest," Dean muttered, leaning further back on the back legs of his chair.
"Most witches don't just live in a wildlife reserve Dean," Sam shook his head and pushed his hair behind his ears.
"It's the only thing that connects all the victims," Sarah sided with Dean. "Well, that and the gym."
"I say," Dean said standing up, "that we interview the other people from the hiking group."
Sarah laughed, causing everyone to look at her. "What?" She asked.
"Nothing," Katie dismissed it.
"Yeah," Sam agreed, closing his laptop and arching his back. "Let's go."
The hiking party was ten people strong. It had consisted of six men and four women. All of them were the sweetest people anyone had ever met – according to the secretary Dean charmed into getting the contact information for the ten hikers. Katie and Sarah had to go outside because their cheeks hurt from trying not to laugh. To make matters awkward, there was nothing really funny about the situation, but they just couldn`t stop laughing. To keep from busting a gut in front of the poor lady and not getting any information, they waited in the freezing cold beside the car.
As soon as the boys came out, it was time to talk to the surviving members of the hike. By noon they had talked to five of the men. None of them had seen any deer or been acting oddly. Though one kept hitting on Sarah and Katie, much to Sam and Dean`s discomfort. It was a bit disheartening. There were no leads. By the time they were finding a cheap dinner to eat in, Katie was starting to find her attention drifting. Sarah kept texting someone. Katie did not know who, but it was starting to bother her. Every time she tried to ask her, Sarah would just deflect the question. It was driving her crazy.
"If you don't tell me who you are texting, I will steal your phone and find out myself," Katie threatened, glaring across the backseat.
Sam and Dean sent amused glances at each other, but had learned over the past twenty-nine days to just stay out of the small arguments the girls had. Much like how they stayed out of disagreements Sam and Dean had.
"It's no big deal," Sarah said, not even looking up as her fingers kept texting.
"Then why won't you tell me?" Katie whined.
"Because," Sarah muttered, flipping her phone shut.
"Fine, I'll just figure it out," Katie said, eyeing the front seat as Sarah's phone to vibrate again. "It's not me, and obviously it's not Sam or Dean. We don't know anyone else in this dimension, so it must be either Bobby or Cas ..."
Laughing, Dean shook his head.
"Bobby doesn't text and Cas ... I'm not sure if he would know how to," Sam explained, also chuckling a bit at the thought of Cas or Bobby texting.
Katie pondered it for a moment, eyeing the Sarah`s phone before using her quick reflexes to snatch it from Sarah`s hand.
"Hey!" She yelled.
"You tell me who's texting, or I start reading – aloud," Katie threatened.
Smacking her hand against her shoulder, Sarah ordered her to give it back.
"Fine, first text is ... no," Katie said. "Well, that doesn't give a lot of information."
"Katie, I said to give it back," Sarah shouted, leaning over the backseat to try and wrestle the phone out of Katie's hands. Their flailing hands whacked Dean on the back of the head by accident, making him swerve for a moment.
"That's it! You two settle down," Dean yelled. "Katie, give the phone back."
Feeling properly chastised, Katie handed the cell back to Sarah.
I wonder if this is how he will act with Ben, Sarah wondered, sad that she wouldn't be around to see. Her thoughts were cut off as Dean once again swerved.
"What the hell Dean!" Sam yelled, grabbing hold of the dashboard.
"What did you say?" Dean asked his face completely white as he stopped the car and looked around to face Sarah.
"What?" Sarah said, completely caught off guard.
"What did you say about me with Ben?" Dean demanded.
"Oh god," Katie groaned, sinking down in her seat.
"I didn't say anything," Sarah said, but with a sinking feeling in her stomach she realized that she might have thought aloud.
"No, no, you said I will act with Ben. Will act. Why would I be acting anything with Ben?" Dean demanded.
"Dean, maybe this isn't the right time," Sam muttered watching the traffic zip past their windows.
"I already told you, I can't say," Sarah said, wide-eyed.
"Bullshit, if this has to do with Ben ... is Ben dragged into this? Is Lisa in trouble?" Dean questioned roughly.
"No!" Katie said. "After the apocalypse you live with them!"
"Katie!" Sarah shrieked. "We agreed!"
"Well, he was thinking it had something to do with the apocalypse and it doesn't," Katie shrugged. "This way, at least it is one thing he won't have to worry about."
"I live with them?" Dean said softly, losing a lot of his righteous anger.
"I told you, remember? After our snowball fight, I told you that you were practically married and it was something I hoped wouldn't be affected by us being here. That not everything in your future was doom and gloom. I like Lisa, a lot, and I think it was something you needed," Sarah said softly. "But that only happens if you don't screw up the apocalypse."
Sam, not sure what to say just looked pensively out the front window, as Dean silently eased back into traffic. It made him happy to know that Dean would have a chance at a family life, a normal life. In many ways, he thought Dean was longing for it more so than Sam himself ever did. With Sam, it had been a show of rebellion. With Dean, it was his love of family which made him want to settle down. If they got out of this thing alive, he would make sure Dean promised to go to Lisa and Ben. It would be the least he could do for his brother who had given everything for him.
It also greatly unsettled Sam that they did not mention what happened to him. Not that he could imagine settling down, maybe once upon a time, but not anymore. It also reminded him of what he and Dean had pieced together – he would be soulless. Sam was no closer to understanding that then he had been when he first heard it.
They ate in a local bar which had paintings covering every wall space. One painting in particular caught Sarah's attention more so than any of the others. It was a snow white deer which almost seemed to glow in the twilight background. The grace and agility of the creature was caught in the painting, as it lifted its hind legs in flight, the tail sticking up as it ran. Sarah had heard of albino deer before, but had never actually seen a picture of one. A friend of hers had worked for a summer in Ontario Parks, and she had sent a postcard of information of the white-tailed deer.
As Sam, Dean and Katie went to sit at their table, she walked over to the painting to see who the artist was. It was for sale, only two hundred dollars, and it stated the artist was A. Greenleaf.
"Admiring my work?" A smooth voice asked her. Turning around she was face to face with a young woman, probably the same age as Sarah herself.
"Yes, it's simply beautiful," Sarah complimented. "I love the colouring; the deer just seems drag the eye to him."
"Thanks," She smiled.
"Yeah, I honestly don't know much about art, but I really like this piece," Sarah laughed. "You have quite the talent."
Blushing and shaking her head, the girl shrugged. "I guess you could say it runs in the family. My mother and grandmother were amazing artists."
"Sarah Nadeau," Sarah introduced, shaking hands with the artist.
"Andrea Greenleaf," Andrea said.
"So, are your family from here?" Sarah asked.
"Yep," Andrea responded. "More generations than you can count."
"What made you paint an albino white-tail?" Sarah asked, intrigued by the painting. "Aren't they extremely rare?"
"Yes, but it's a staple of the area. Every twenty years we see the albino deer in our forests; of course, there's not a lot of forest left." Andrea said, examining her own work.
"Andrea!" the barman called out. "I got your meal here!"
"I better go get that; I need to bring it home for my grandmother," Andrea apologized.
"Oh, no problem, so you live with your grandmother?" Sarah asked politely.
"Yeah, Grandmom, mother and I, in the old ancestral home," Andrea said, rolling her eyes. "Grandma hasn't been feeling well, so I moved home from University to help out."
"Oh, well, tell her that I wish she gets better," Sarah said kindly, noticing the two large bags on the counter. "Would you like any help with that?"
"No, thanks, I can manage," Andrea shook her head, hoisting the two bags into her arms. "It was nice to meet you."
"You too," Sarah waved, before walking over and sitting down with her friends.
"Who were you talking to?" Dean asked, finally speaking to her since the car fiasco.
"Andrea Greenleaf," Sarah said, frowning as she watched Andrea leave. "she painted that albino white-tail in the corner over there."
"Huh, those are really rare," Sam pointed out.
"Yeah, but she says that they are seen here once every twenty years ..." Sarah muttered. "Does that not seem odd. Like, it's kind of a specific time for a wild animal to appear, right?"
"Like I said before, not bad," Dean sent Sarah a little smile. "That does seem a bit odd."
"Well, I think I found something," Sam said, looking up from his computer screen. "It looks like, not only has a white deer shown up every twenty years, but at the same time the women who report seeing the deer have all died of mysterious causes. It's always five women, and listen to this; the first one gets sewing needles down the throat, the next one boiled to death in her bathtub, then choked on nothing, then covered in leeches and the last one is always drowned ... but get this, drowned in a dry living room, another was a bedroom and this one was in a meadow."
"So, the same thing must be killing all these people," Dean said. "Well, that rules out witches. No one who killed these people in 1890 would still be alive."
"What if it is witches, but like a family of them?" Katie asked, looking up from a book on her lap of local folklore.
"Why do you say that?" Sarah asked.
"Well, I found this local legend about the a certain family, whose ancestors were witches, according to legend. And get this, it's said they could turn into white deer who brought death where ever they go." Katie read.
"What's the family name?" Dean asked. "Do they still live here?"
"Yep," Katie said, looking pointedly at Sarah. "It's Greenleaf."
"Shit," Sarah muttered. This did not sound good.
AN: Hunt wraps up tomorrow, then only one chapter left ... CRAZY! Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers who are officially the coolest, most awesomest people in the entire world. It's a fact. That's right, a fact. ~Ella
