October 26th, 2014

While Sam and Dean went away on a hunt, I decided to take a few days to see Garth and Nate. Once they finished up with the hunt, they gave me a call.

They explained that once they tracked down what was going on, it ended up being a crazy story. Three friends went from roommates to werewolves in just a few weeks, and they watched it all play out on a home video.

Apparently, one of the friends got attacked by a werewolf and didn't realize until he started changing. It all resulted in only one of them surviving. Kate had killed her boyfriend's roommate after he killed her boyfriend.

Sam and Dean ended up getting there too late and walked in on a horror show in their apartment, and Kate had packed up and left.

"Wait, so are you going after her?" I asked. "She's a new werewolf. She killed her friend."

"What, she's got about a half-day jump on us?" Sam asked.

"Mm-hmm," Dean agreed.

"Look, Kate's right. She hasn't hurt anybody… well, anybody human at least.

"Yeah, she didn't… she didn't choose this." Dean hesitated for a moment. "Let's give her a shot."

"Seriously?" Sam and I asked in unison.

"Yeah," Dean said.

"And, look, if Kate pops back up, I mean, if she strays, then no questions asked," Sam said, "We do what we got to do and, um, we take her down."

"Okay, sounds like a plan," I said.

"When are you coming back?" Dean asked, "You want us to meet you somewhere?"

"I can meet you guys somewhere now if you want," I said.

"Yeah, we can go out for pie after," Dean said.

I chuckled. "Okay, I like that idea."

November 25th – November 26th, 2014

We had followed a trail to Kevin in Enid, Oregon. Our hope was this time, he would actually be there. It wouldn't be the first time he set clues to throw us off.

Dean picked the lock, and we walked in. It didn't take us long to see that Kevin wasn't there, and it looked like the motel room was freshly cleaned and untouched.

Dean shook his head in disappointment. "Well, that is twice that he's burned us. Shame on you."

"Not entirely true. Sam did say he thought he was setting us up," I said.

Dean shook his head. "No, he said, 'I wonder if Kevin is setting us up,' and then he started in with the— the technobabble. That was like two states ago."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, whatever. Either way, that's another room billed to one of Kevin's false credit IDs. And the motel ran his number today." He sat down on the bed and brushed his hand through his hair in frustration.

Dean turned and started going through the minibar. "Just like he actually checked in?"

Sam nodded. "Yes."

Dean scoffed. "Kid's like Rain Man. He's like a crappy little credit-card-counting… criminal prodigy Rain Man."

Sam shrugged. "Well, he was in advanced placement."

Dean furrowed his brow in annoyance. "Shut up." He handed Sam one of the beers he had pulled out of the minibar. "When's that little idiot gonna stop running from us?"

Sam shook his head. "I don't know, Dean."

I shrugged. "I mean, you did try to kill his mother."

Dean looked at me. "I was trying to kill Crowley, okay?" He shrugged. "Who happened to be wearing Kevin's mother at the time."

Sam and I both stared at him.

He shrugged. "Well, there's a difference."

"Apparently not to Kevin," Sam snapped. "Oh, I know. Maybe because— oh, yeah— it's his mother."

Ring! Ring!

Dean pointed at Sam. "Hold that thought," he said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. "No, actually, you know what? Don't hold that thought." He rolled his eyes and answered his phone. "Hello?" (…) "Hello?" (…) He quickly glanced at his phone. "Uh, hang on. There's not enough bars." Then he walked outside.

I sighed and collapsed down on the bed next to Sam. "We'll find him."

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, well, you're a hell of a lot more optimistic about this than I am."

I shrugged. "I don't know. Would you want to be on the run forever? It's not like he's just running from us. He's got demons and angels after him."

"Yeah, but it's been months," Sam said.

"I know, but if you had demons, angels, and the Winchesters coming after you, who would you pick?" I asked.

Sam stood up and sighed as he walked over to the window. "Honestly, if I was Kevin, I might take my chances."

"Aw, come on." I sat up. "We aren't that bad."

Sam shrugged as he looked out the window. "I don't know. I mean, most of our family and friends are dead."

I sighed. "All right, fair point, grumpy." I nodded at the window. "What's he doing out there?"

He shook his head. "Still on the phone." He looked at me and moved away from the window. "You know who it could be?"

"Nope," I said.

Dean barged in a moment later and grabbed his bag. "I gotta go."

"What?" I asked.

He set his bag down on the bed. "I gotta go."

Sam glanced at me and then looked at Dean. "And— And what exactly is that supposed to mean, you've got to go?"

Dean furrowed his brow. "Which words are giving you trouble?"

Sam looked at him stunned and shook his head. "We're on the case, remember, Dean? The— The Winchester holy grail, 'shut the Gates of Hell forever' case!"

Dean nodded. "Sure are. But in order to close the Gates of Hell, we need our prophet, am I right? So step one… find Kevin Tran. Well, he ain't here. But he wanted us to be, which means we're probably as far away from him as he could possibly put us. So step two… find Kevin Tran." He walked over to the minibar and started taking some bottles out. "You mind if I take the Toblerone?"

Sam and I exchanged a look of annoyance over the whole situation.

"Great," Dean said, "I'm taking it." He stood up and shoved everything he took into his bag and then walked out the door with it.

Sam and I followed behind.

"Wait. Dean, seriously?" Sam asked.

Dean shrugged as we approached the Impala. "Hey, the trail is dead, but the room is paid for. You guys got some research to do, and I got some personal crap I got to take care of. That's all."

Sam shook his head. "What does that mean— 'personal'?"

Dean furrowed his brow. "Did you have a stroke? Vocabulary? Personal, as in my own grown-up personal… I don't know… crap."

"You know that if either of us did this, you would have a problem with it," I said.

"Hey, last month, when you said you were gonna hang out with Nate for a few days, did I question you?" he asked.

"No, but I also told you what I was doing," I said.

Dean shook his head. "Okay. Listen, I don't need to tell either of you everything I'm doing every second of every day. Got it?"

I shrugged. "No one is saying that, Dean. Secrets have never worked in this family."

"It's not a secret… I already told you, it's personal," Dean said.

I rolled my eyes.

Sam shook his head. "Damn it, Dean—"

"What, Sam?" Dean snapped. "Last I counted, you took a year off from the job. I need a day."

"All right, whatever, go be sketchy by yourself," I said and turned back to the motel. "Come on, Sam."

The door to the Impala slammed, and the engine started.

"You are a wascally wabbit, Mr. Tran," Sam said as he typed on his computer.

"What's up?" I asked from the bed.

Sam sighed. "Just Kevin covering every track I can think of."

I got up from the bed and passed Sam on the way to the kitchenette. He was now looking up information on Amelia.

"Stalking now, are we?" I asked as I poured myself a cup of coffee.

"Concerned," Sam said, "Not stalking… concerned."

"Whatever you say," I said.

Suddenly, a whirring, rattling sound started up in the bathroom. Sam and I looked at each other and then slowly approached the bathroom. Sam clicked the light on, and we realized it was the fan making noise.

Sam walked in and started repairing it.

"So, what's going on with Dean?" Nate asked when I answered the phone.

"Honestly, I don't know," I said, "He said he had to go after he got a call from someone. Wouldn't tell us what he was doing or where he was going, just that it was personal."

"That is pretty weird, and not like Dean at all," he said.

I scoffed. "Yeah, you're telling me. He was acting all annoyed that Sam and I were even asking questions. Like what did he expect, ya know?"

"Yeah, seriously. I don't know though. He was stuck in Purgatory for a year. Maybe it really is personal," he said, "Maybe he needs some alone time to get his head together."

I sighed. "I guess, I don't know though. The phone call was really weird. He said he wasn't getting good service in the room and went outside, but I'm talking to you perfectly fine. Something just seems off."

"Well, look, I've gotta go. Garth and I just got to the motel, so we're gonna set up," Nate said, "Just keep me updated."

"Yeah, no problem," I said.

"Okay, I love you, D," he said.

I looked up at Sam hesitantly as he worked on his computer. "Yeah, same."

He chuckled. "I'll take it."

I laid back on the bed.

"How long do you think he's gonna be?" I asked.

Sam sighed. "I don't know. Here let me…" He pulled out his phone and put it on speaker.

It rang a few times, but there was no answer.

"This is Dean's other, other cell, so you must know what to do."

Sam looked at me and sighed as he hung up the phone.

About a half-hour later, Sam's phone started ringing, so he put it on speaker.

"Hey," he answered.

"Okay, what?" Dean asked.

Sam furrowed his brow. "What?"

"Why did you call me?" he whispered.

"Why are you whispering?" I asked.

"It's kind of hard to explain all right, but I'm sort of in the middle of cleaning out a vampire's nest, and it's sort of gone a little sideways on me," Dean said cautiously.

Sam and I exchanged a quick look of frustration and confusion.

"What?!" Sam shouted.

"Are you an idiot, Dean?" I asked angrily.

"You know better than to go into a vamp nest alone," Sam said.

"I'm not alone, damn it," Dean snapped. "All right? I'm not alone. I've got backup… guy who's been tracking the nest for a while."

"What guy?" Sam asked.

Dean sighed. "You don't know him. He's a friend."

Sam furrowed his brow. "A friend? Dean, you don't have any… all your friends are dead."

"Whoa." I raised my eyebrows. "Little harsh."

"I'm just being honest here," Sam said.

"That's not what I called to talk about!" Dean raised his voice but still remained quiet.

Sam shook his head. "I get the separate-lives thing, but this is a hunting thing, and we need to find that line—"

"Oh, my God, stop talking. I texted you my twenty," Dean said, annoyed.

Sam looked at the screen when the phone buzzed. "Yeah, I got it. Look, we're on our way. And, listen, if you handle it, great. I'll buy your friend the first round. But, Dean, listen to me. It—"

There were some shuffling sounds.

Sam looked at me and furrowed his brow. "Dean? Dean, are you there?" He looked at me, annoyed. "Dean. You kidding me?"

Then the phone clicked, and the call ended.

"Damn it!" Sam shouted and threw his phone on the ground.

"All right, well, let's go." I smacked his arm and grabbed my coat.

We cautiously hurried out to the parking lot to steal one of the cars. Sam looked around hesitantly while he started picking the lock. I stood guard while he got in and hotwired the car. Once it was started, I hopped in, and we took off.

"Can you try to call him again?" Sam asked as we peeled off down the road.

I nodded. "Yeah." I pulled out my phone and dialed his number.

It rang a few times and clicked. "This is Dean's other, other—"

I hung up. "Voicemail."

Sam shook his head and sped up from eighty miles an hour to ninety.

About twenty minutes later, my phone beeped with a text message from Dean. It was the coordinates of where to meet him. So, we took off in that direction.

We parked near a dock and got out. Out on the water, we could see two dark figures approaching us on a boat. A few minutes later, Dean pulled up with another man and threw the rope over to Sam to tie them down. Then he tossed a few bags on the dock before him, and the other man stepped out on the dock.

Sam and I watched as the man approached us. Neither of us recognized him.

"I'm Benny." He nodded at us and then held his hand out to Sam. "Heard a lot about you two, Sam, Maddison."

Sam took his hand and shook it for a split second before exchanging a look with Dean and going for the knife in his holster. Before Sam pulled it out, Dean shook his head. I furrowed my brow in confusion, and then Benny pulled his hand away from Sam.

"I can see you three have a lot to talk about," Benny said and patted Dean on the arm. Then he picked up his bag and walked away.

Sam glared at Dean with fury in his eyes.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked, completely confused.