Chapter 8

Things were awkward between Dean and Jessie after they got back to Bobby's. Both Bobby and Sam noticed it, but neither of them said anything. They all ate, talked, joked, drank and had a good time, then Jessie took her medication and went to bed.

She had a difficult time sleeping, tossing and turning for a few hours, before she decided to forget trying to sleep and went downstairs. She was sitting on the couch in the livingroom, surfing the web, when Sam came into the room, sitting on the opposite end of the couch.

"Hey, Sam," she greeted him with a friendly smile. "You can't sleep either huh?"

"No. Not really."

"Well, are you up for a hunt?"

He eyed her suspiciously. "You mean us?"

She smiled, shaking her head. "No. I mean you and Dean. I'm not up for hunting yet."

"Whatcha got?" he asked, moving to sit right beside her.

She felt a tingle on her skin as his body made contact with hers. "There's this story here about a house. It seems every ten years one person in the house dies mysteriously. Never any fingerprints, signs of violence or forced entry. I checked and it goes back at least eighty years, the first one seems to have happened in 1931. No one's pieced it together before now, because the deaths rarely made the paper. Each death was ruled natural causes because there was absolutely no trauma to the body, the people just seemed to up and die for no apparent reason. They could never find a cause."

"That's strange," he said. "How did you find the pattern?"

"Well that's the thing, it's a really strange pattern. Except for the deaths occuring on the same date every ten years. Each person who died was of a different sex and age. The last one was in the paper because it was a young child, only three years old."

"A three year old dying of natural causes. That's definitely not normal."

"No. That's why I checked in to the house. It took me awhile, I had to check through tons of obits."

"There's only one problem."

"What's that?"

"If whatever it is only shows up every ten years, than we've probably missed our window."

"Maybe," she said thinking. "But it wouldn't hurt to check it out."

He leaned closer to the laptop screen, looking for the address. She felt her heart begin to beat faster as he came close enough she could smell his manly scent. "Here," she said, handing him a flash drive. "I put all the information on this, in case you wanted to look into it."

He smiled brightly, taking the drive from her hand, letting his hand linger a moment longer on hers than he should have. "You think of everything, don't you?"

"That's what makes me a good hunter," she smirked.

"You should probably try and sleep, Jessie," he said with concern. "You don't want to have a setback, do you?"

"You're sweet, Sam," she said, placing her hand on his. "I think I should."

"What, no argument?" he joked.

She smiled. "Not unless you want me to argue with you."

He grinned and stood up, reaching his hand out to her. She took it, glad for the help getting up from the couch, she was stiff from sitting still so long.

"Good night, Sam."

"Good night, Jessie. Sweet dreams."

She smiled back at him, before going up to bed. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Jessie slept in, waking late in the morning. She immediately jumped out of bed and took a shower. She was happy to see her arm was healing, she desperately wanted to go out and find something to hunt and soon. She walked down into the kitchen but no one was there. She poured herself a glass of orange juice, drinking half before she set it on the table and went into the livingroom.

Bobby was sitting on the couch, reading an old book. He smiled at her as she walked in.

"Where is everyone?" she asked curiously.

"Sam and Dean left early this morning on a hunt."

"Oh," she said, sounding dejected.

He glanced at her knowingly. "I'm sure they'll be back soon."

"I wasn't worried, Bobby," she lied. "I'm just upset they never said goodbye."

"Are you leaving too?" he asked concerned.

"Not until tomorrow at the earliest. I was hoping you'd finish stitching up my wound now that it's healing."

"Of course. Just let me finish reading this passage."

"No need to rush. I'm gonna go eat some cold pizza for breakfast."

He nodded, turning his attention back to the book. She took that as her cue to leave.

She went into the kitchen and ate some pizza, took her antibiotics, then took out her laptop and began searching for something to hunt. That was how she ended up spending the entire day. She'd been used to spending her days that way for a very long time, but today she felt bored, restless and lonely.

Bobby stitched up her wound later in the day. He told her it was looking good, but it was going to leave an ugly scar. It didn't bother her, she had a few other scars, it was all part of the job, plus, she wasn't vain. Each scar told a story of how she'd survived something nasty and dangerous, so she wore them with a sort of pride.

She hadn't realized it, but she'd been holding on to her phone a lot during the day, hoping for a phone call. She knew it was silly, no one was going to call her, but she was secretly hoping.

She went to bed early that night, hoping to leave first thing in the morning. She hadn't told Bobby her plans, but she was sure he knew. He'd been asking her for help with some things the next day, as if he was trying to get her to stick around. But she couldn't. She needed to get back out there and do what she was meant to do. Hunt.

Jessie slept restlessly through the night, but still managed to wake up just after dawn. She packed everything she had at Bobby's into her dufflebag, making sure she didn't forget the antibiotics. She was having a cup of coffee, when Bobby came into the kitchen looking weary eyed.

"You're leaving, aren't you?"

"Bobby..."

"I knew you were going to leave as soon as you were better. I guess I was just hoping you'd stay a couple more days."

She smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Bobby. For everything you've done for me. I know I haven't made it easy on you."

"It was a labor of love, darling," he said with a smile.

"You've made me realize something. I was wrong. There is more to life than hunting. But I also realized, I can't just stop hunting, it's in my blood. But, I promise, I'm going to make more of an effort to get along with people, maybe even make some friends."

"Is that what you consider Sam and Dean, friends?"

She narrowed her eyes shrewdly, trying to figure out what exactly he was asking. "Yeah. I guess besides you, they're my only friends."

"We're more like family."

"You're right, Bobby. Family doesn't have to mean blood. I wish I'd realized that years ago."

"You're still young. You're only thirty. You have so many years still ahead of you."

She nodded her head. "I see that now. Maybe one day I'll want more from my life, but for now, I need to hunt," she said with finality.

"Can you at least tell me where you're going?"

"I'll call you from the road," she said and stood up.

Bobby approached her, hugging her tightly. "Take care of yourself, kiddo."

"I will. I promise."

Jessie grabbed her dufflebag, glancing back at Bobby, before leaving the house. She stood for a moment, looking at her car, before she unlocked the door and got in. She began to drive away, feeling a new sense of loss for the first time in a very long time.

She drove for eight hours, only stopping once to grab a very quick bite to eat and use the bathroom. It was late in the afternoon when she pulled up to an old familiar farmhouse that she used to call home. It had been her grandfather's house, before he passed away, but it was hers now. She hadn't visited it in many months, the long grass was a testament to that. She paid someone to cut the grass every week, but it looked like she was going to have to find someone new, they didn't seem to be doing their job.

Other than the dust and cobwebs, inside was exactly how she'd left it. The house had heavy duty iron doors with dead bolts, bars on the windows and a security system, complete with cameras she could check with her laptop. It would take a lot of effort for someone to get into the house uninvited.

It hadn't been her intention, but Jessie ended up spending the night, staying up late to clean the house of dust and cobwebs. She left midmorning, heading towards the destination of her hunt. She stopped once, late afternoon, to have something to eat. That was when she got a phone call.

"Sam?" she said with surprise, feeling her heart skip a beat.

"Yeah. I just called to tell you about that house. I thought you'd be interested."

"Of course."

"It was the spirit of the first home owner, Harold Levins. We never figured out how he killed the people, but we figured out why he only killed every ten years."

"Why?"

"He was OCD. He could only kill every ten years because of it."

"He had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?"

"Yeah. It was the craziest thing."

She was at a loss for words, not sure what to say.

"Where are you right now?" he asked.

"I'm at a diner right now, having dinner."

"Bobby said you were heading out to a hunt. Where at?"

She sighed. "I'm not telling you that, Sam. I told you before I hunt alone."

"I thought maybe that had changed is all."

She snorted. "You left Bobby's without a goodbye and this is the first time you've called me since, and now you want to join me for a hunt?"

"I thought you would've assumed we were leaving right away. I thought we'd be back before you decided to leave."

"You were wrong."
"I'm sorry, Jessie. I guess we're all just used to doing what we do with no thought of anyone else."

It was true. But that didn't make her feel better right away. "I gotta go, Sam. I want to find a motel before it gets too late."

"If you change your mind about needing help, call me. Or Bobby."

"I will. Bye, Sam. Say hi to Dean for me."

"Good luck, Jessie. Stay safe."

Jessie wanted nothing more than Sam and Dean to help with her hunt, but she needed some time to herself. It wasn't easy to change, especially after spending eight years being something next to inhuman. She need time and space to deal with her emotions. Emotions she'd kept locked up for so long, she couldn't remember what it had been like to feel them. Now that she let them loose, she found she felt something like she once did when she was a teenager, awkward and confused.

She finally made it to a motel in the town she'd been heading for, late that evening. She checked in to a room, then headed to the nearest bar.

She sat at the bar and ordered herself a beer. She was busy scoping out the room, looking for anything suspicious. She ended up spending two hours there, being hit on by many men, but no valuable information.

Jessie went to sleep immediately after she arrived back at her motel room, only waking early the next morning. She grabbed a quick bite to eat, before driving around town looking for clues.

Several children had gone missing in the past couple of weeks as well as several bodies of adults completely drained of their blood. She knew there had to be a nest of vampires somewhere nearby, but that didn't explain why there were so many missing children, all different sexes and ages. But she hoped that the vampires weren't involved with the missing children as well. It made her sick to think about it.

She managed to talk to a few of the parents whose children had been missing, by posing as an FBI agent. It was one of the most difficult things she'd ever had to do, and she'd done many difficult things. But still, she had no idea what was going on. She'd thought at first it could just be the work of some pervert, but pedophiles almost always took kids of the same gender and around the same age. There was something strange about this and she wasn't going to leave until she figured it out.

She checked in with the coroner about the dead bodies, still posing as an FBI agent. The way he characterized their injuries, she knew it was the work of vampires, without seeing their bodies, but she did manage to have a look at one of the corpses, she was positive it was vampires.

She went back to the motel in the midafternoon to have a nap, she needed to be awake and alert most of the night. She hadn't been asleep very long when her phone began to ring incessantly. She tried to ignore it, but whoever it was had been calling over and over again. She sighed loudly, answering her phone.

"Hello?"

"You said you would call me from the road."

"Bobby. I'm trying to sleep."

"I'm sorry, but I was worried."

"Why are you worried all of a sudden? I used to go months without speaking to you."

"I know. But I can't help shaking this feeling I'm having."

"You're such a big teddy bear, Bobby," she teased.

"Ha, ha," he laughed sarcastically.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'll send you some info on my hunt. It's very, very strange. I could use the help figuring out what's going on."

"As long as you're going to send it right away."

She sighed. "I'll send it before I go out tonight. I'd like to go back to sleep right now."

"As long as you promise."

"Yes," she said impatiently.

"Be safe."

"Bye, Bobby."

After she hung up the phone, she tried to get back to sleep, but she had no luck. She gave up after half an hour, emailing Bobby the info she'd promised, so he couldn't say she'd broken her promise. She had a feeling he was going to let the Winchesters know where she was, but she knew she'd sent them on a hunt on the opposite side of the country, so it would be some time before they could make it to where she was. She hoped to find what she was looking for well before then.

She looked through her information again, hoping to figure out what was going on, but she was still stumped. Her best bet was to go in search of the vampire's nest. She grabbed the map of the area she'd bought at the store in the morning, and began marking where all of the adults bodies had been found with one color and where all the children had been taken with another color. She soon realized all of them were found close to the same area.

She opened her laptop, loading an aerial view program she had installed on it. She wanted to see if there were any old farms, barns, abandoned buildings etc., in the area of the missing children and dead bodies. Unfortunately there were several. She marked where they were on the map so she could find them easier when she went out.

Once she was done with the map, she decided she had all she needed, so she packed up the map and her laptop, stowed them in her car, then drove to the nearest funeral home.

It was difficult, but she managed to score a small amount of dead man's blood at the funeral home without getting caught. It was something else she hated to do, but it was another necessary evil. It was one of the reasons she hated hunting vampires and normally avoided them at all costs.

It was getting late, so she grabbed something quick to eat, before she headed out to search for the nest. She initially drove by a few houses and buildings, doing her best to avoid looking suspicious. It was getting dark, she knew they'd be out soon to feed.

It was the third building she drove by that seemed the most likely to be harboring the vampires. It was back far on the road. It was isolated. And it seemed to have some activity going on, but not a single light could be seen. She knew it had to be the place.

She drove a few minutes away, stopping at the side of the road. She opened her trunk, pulling out her favorite custom made machete. It was unique, made specially for hunting vampires. There was a small reservoir in the handle made to hold dead man's blood. It included a small button to dispense it as needed, just in case she missed the kill shot.

She filled the reservoir in the machete with the blood she'd pilfered from the funeral home, then sharpened it slightly, it had been awhile since it was last used. Once she was happy it was sharp enough, she spread a special salve on herself, it was specially made to hide her scent from the vampires. Once she was finished, she packed up her car again, throwing the machete in the front seat, and drove back the way she'd come, parking her car in front of the laneway just before the house she suspected the vampires were nesting in.

She grabbed her machete as she got out of the car, closing the door quietly. She made sure the ringer on her phone was turned to silent, before pocketing it again. She was going to take a few more weapons and the extra blood, but she decided against it. She was only planning on watching them tonight. She would come back in the daytime when she had the advantage, not during the night while they did.

She crept as silently as she could through the grass and brush and around some trees and bushes, until she came to some bushes that were close enough to the house to see, but far enough away there was little possibilty of being seen, or smelled. Many people would still have had a problem being able to see from such a distance, especially in the dark, but all the years of hunting creatures in the dark had honed her eyesight.

Jessie sat quietly observing the house for almost an hour before seeing any sign of a vampire. There were three of them. One male and two females. They were standing in front of the door of the house, watching a car that was driving down the driveway towards the house. The male turned, speaking to the females, then one of them walked into the house.

She watched as the car stopped near the front of the house, a male vampire stepping out, then opening up the back door of the car, dragging out two bodies. She knew they were alive, because vampires can't drink blood from a dead man, but they weren't moving. She wanted to do something to save them, but she wasn't sure how many vampires there were yet. She felt helpless.

She continued to watch, as the vampire dropped the bodies of two men at the front doorstep, then stopped to talk to the male and female vampire that had been waiting outside. They hadn't talked long, when the front door of the house opened, the female who had went inside earlier appearing, but she wasn't alone. She was holding onto a tiny hand of a child. Jessie had to bite her tongue from gasping out loud.

She watched as the female vampire led the child out the door. He couldn't be a little boy of more than three. She gave his hand to the other female, then walked back to the door, once again appearing with a child, a little girl of maybe five. Then a couple more children, a boy of around seven and a girl of around six came running out the door, stopping beside the other children.

The next thing that happened appalled Jessie so much, she nearly threw up. She had to close her eyes and continue to bite her tongue so she wouldn't scream. All four of the children, jumped on the bodies of the men lying on the ground, each finding their own place to bite, sucking their blood for sustenance, they'd been turned into vampires. Four innocent children. The thought completely enraged her.

Jessie wanted to attack the vampires so badly, but what was she going to do, murder four children? She didn't think she could do that, even though she knew she had no choice. They had to be killed. They were monsters. But that wasn't going to make it any easier on her. They were still innocent children who'd been turned into monsters against their will. What she knew for sure was, she couldn't keep watching what was happening. She turned her body about ninety degrees so it would be more difficult to look in that direction, if she was tempted to. She would rather have closed her eyes, but she knew at some point she might fall asleep, she definitely couldn't let that happen.

Jessie sat in the bushes until dawn. By then, everyone had retreated back into the house and all was quiet. She was stiff and sore from sitting on the cold, hard ground, but there was no way she was going to stay where she was longer than she had to. She would of dragged herself out on her hands and knees if she had needed to, but thankfully that wasn't necessary.

Once she was back at her car, she threw the machete in the trunk, then drove back to the motel. She was hungry, but she was more tired than hungry, so she didn't bother worrying about grabbing something to eat before reaching the motel. All she wanted to do was climb into bed and forget everything she'd seen in the past few hours.

Upon arriving at the motel, she immediately climbed into bed, but sleep was evasive. She couldn't get the image of the monstrous children from her head. Eventually, she did fall asleep, but it was a restless sleep, full of nightmares.

A/N: How do you think she's going to handle monster children? I know it would make me heartsick for sure. Will update again soon.

Thanks for reading!