Chapter 3

The motel room was quiet with only the soft tapping of keys on a laptop as Sam researched the lake that the bodies were in. He had picked up a map at the diner they ate at and used the police reports to mark where they thought the boys disappeared from and then where the bodies were recovered from.

"Are you finding anything?" Dean asked after reading the police reports a second time and dropping the pages on the table. He rubbed his tired eyes feeling the weariness catching up to him. It had been a long day for him, especially since he had done all the driving to get there.

"Nothing that's telling me what did these killings," Sam sighed. "I've been racking my brain trying to find some monster that fits this case and so far nothing."

"Two things we know, it likes kids and drinks blood."

"Yeah, but what if the kids were just easy prey? Maybe an adult would have been taken if they were in the vicinity."

"My heads starting to hurt and I'm exhausted. I'm heading to bed," Dean decided getting up. "Don't stay up too late Sammy, you need some sleep too," he told him before walking away to get ready for bed.

"I won't," Sam lied knowing sleep was the last thing he wanted. He decided to check out the lake to see if there were any strange drownings or deaths connected to it, wondering if it could be a vengeful spirit, but the drinking of blood didn't fit. He knew a wendigo wouldn't leave the bodies and werewolves went for the hearts, which all the bodies still had. A ghoul drinks the blood of victims but wouldn't have the claws to rip a body up since they usually took the form of a person they killed. Sam rubbed his temples as the annoying ache started behind his eyes.

Deciding he shouldn't let the headache get away from him, Sam got up and looked through his bag for some extra strength Tylenol to take. He got a soda from the mini fridge thinking the caffeine would give him a boost and he could stay awake longer. He took the pills and sipped on the cold soda before pulling the map back over to him.

Sam let his eyes roam over the area around the large lake finally noticing that all the bodies were found in the less used areas away from any populated places. He went back to the police reports and looked at them again, catching a note that one of the boy's bikes had been found about three miles from where the body was found. It was in the weeds near the edge of the water. He made note of that on the map and marked an area as a starting point to search.

Hours later, Sam couldn't keep his eyes open, and he kept nodding off, straining his neck when he'd jerk awake. Knowing he couldn't put it off any longer, Sam got up and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. He crawled under the covers and hoped the nightmares might stay away.

spn

Sam walked warily through the graveyard with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. He stopped at a newly dug grave and knelt beside it as tears welled up in his eyes. 'Jess', he mumbled, his grief building up inside of him. 'I'm sorry…' he cried reaching to lay the flowers on her grave when suddenly a female hand sprang from the soft soil to grasp his wrist in a steely grip.

"Sammy!" a voice far away called to Sam as he cried out and sat up in bed. "Hey man are you okay?" Dean asked him.

"What?" Sam gasped as he tried to slow his racing heart.

"I went and got us some breakfast," Dean replied holding up the bags. "Another nightmare?" he questioned.

"It's nothing. I'm fine," Sam lied looking around to orientate himself to where he was. He absently rubbed his wrist and looked for scratch marks or bruising but didn't see any.

"Are you getting up or what?" Dean asked him as he sat food out on the table. "You should eat something while it's hot."

"Okay," Sam mumbled easing up onto the side of the bed and sitting there until the dizziness passed. He slowly stood and got stable before walking carefully to the bathroom. Sam came out and took a seat at the table to look at the selection Dean had gotten. There were bagels, biscuits filled with bacon, tiny containers of cream cheese, pastries, cups of coffee, container of instant oatmeal, two apples, and two bananas.

"Didn't know what you'd want. There's hot water in the coffee pot to make the oatmeal," Dean offered as he bit into a biscuit stuffed with bacon.

"Thanks," Sam answered, pouring some creamer into his coffee with a little sugar. He stirred it before taking a small sip, trying to decide what looked appealing. He finally took a warm bagel and smeared cream cheese on one half and took a bite. After chewing and swallowing, he spoke again. "I went over everything last night and I think I found the best place to start checking around the lake."

"Good, did you find anything else?"

"No, but I ruled out the most common monsters so it must be something new or that has been dormant for a long time and hasn't been seen before."

"That doesn't sound ominous at all. Hopefully it won't be hard to kill. Eat up Sammy so we can head out." Dean took another big bite of his biscuit and sipped on his coffee.

"I do like to taste my food," Sam shot back, shaking his head at Dean's table manners. After finishing half a bagel and his coffee, Sam felt full and didn't want to chance eating anymore. He wrapped the other bagels up for later and laid the fruit aside with the container of oatmeal.

"Get ready so we can leave," Dean told him as he checked his handgun before settling it in the small of his back. He added a couple of knives deciding that would do for now.

"I just need to change clothes," Sam replied, annoyance in his voice. He wiped his mouth before getting up and finding clothes to wear. Once he had changed, he armed himself and looked to his brother who had a sour expression and was tapping his foot on the floor impatiently. "Okay, I'm ready." He grabbed the map before following Dean from the motel room and to the Impala. They got in and headed to the lake to investigate the area.

spn

Sam stood by the lake and looked out across the vast expanse of water. He watched the sun play off the surface as fish jumped from the water nearby, ducks swam away from him quacking, insects flitted around, buzzing and humming, and other critter sounds echoed from the forest behind him where Dean was walking along the edge looking for clues. He listened to the lapping of the water at his feet and opened himself up trying to pick up anything odd.

The nature noises were suddenly interrupted by a ringing of a cell phone, snapping Sam from his thoughts. He blinked rapidly when something splashed in the water and a dark shape seemed to sink into the water. He tried to look closer, but the sun blinded him when the light bounced off the surface distracting him.

"Sammy, let's go," Dean called to him as he quickly walked toward him with an angry look on his face.

"What happened?" Sam asked sensing something major had happened.

"That was the sheriff," Dean started. "Another body was found."

"Crap!" Sam growled as he hurried after Dean to the Impala. "Where?"

"About seven miles from here." Dean got in the car and waited for Sam to settle before cranking it and heading around the lake to the crime scene. It didn't take him long to find the place with sheriff cars, ambulance, and CSI van on site. He parked and they got out of the car to head toward Sheriff Savage.

"Officers," Sheriff Savage greeted them in a dull voice.

"What have you got here?" Dean asked looking toward the edge of the water where a body was draped with a sheet.

"Another boy, eleven years old. He lives across the lake in another county, so we didn't connect his missing to our cases since he went missing at another lake called Lake Winchester. It's about ten miles from this lake," Savage started, looking toward the body. "His name was Clay Wilson."

"Did anyone see anything?" Dean asked nodding to Sam to go look at the body.

"No, Clay was with a church group at one of the camps by the lake. Several of the boys went bike riding and Clay got separated and wasn't seen again. They set up search parties but didn't find anything. We went over to help, but nothing was ever found until now. The other three boys were from this county and were found a few days later…"

Sam moved down to the water's edge and squatted to carefully pull the sheet up to look at the body of the young boy seeing he had the same injuries as the previous victims. He stood and moved away from everyone and looked out across the water. He tuned everything else out and focused on a small ripple that spread outward, squinting trying to see better. His eyes widened when a long dark body moved slowly just under the water. Sam stepped back when what looked like a head broke the surface of the water just enough to see the red, glowing eyes staring at him as red hair fanned out around it. Sam blinked quickly and looked again but the face was gone, and something disturbed the water for a moment before it was gone.

"Dean," Sam interrupted the sheriff in an urgent voice, his face pale. "We need to go now," he insisted giving him a frightened look.

"Excuse us Sheriff, we'll be in touch," Dean told him as he grabbed Sam's arm and hurried him away knowing he had seen something. "What is it?" Dean hissed.

"It's in the water, I saw it," Sam rushed not knowing the sheriff had heard him. "We need to head back to the motel so I can run a program I created and see if I can find what we're looking for."

They hurried to the Impala and drove away leaving a puzzled sheriff staring after them. He had a gut feeling they knew more than they were telling him and thought it would be a good idea to find out where they were staying and go talk to them. He didn't want to find another young boy dead on his watch.

spn

Dean sped into the parking lot and squealed to a stop in front of their room. Sam was already out of the car before she barely stopped, running for the room. He opened the door and went straight to his laptop, booting it up and waiting impatiently for it to come online.

Dean followed Sam into the room and didn't bother asking him what he had seen when he saw Sam was in the zone. He grabbed a drink from the mini fridge and sat down in the other chair at the table to wait. He watched Sam began to type furiously on the keyboard. When he was done, he sat back in the chair and sighed.

"We've got to wait for it to run now," Sam told Dean when he looked at him curiously.

"Wanna tell me what you saw that shook you up like that?"

"I'm not sure exactly what I saw," Sam mumbled wiping a hand down his face. He accepted a drink Dean sat in front of him and opened it to take a sip before continuing. "There was a large, long body in the water…I saw…I saw what looked like part of a face come up from the water…I think it was a woman with long red hair and glowing red eyes…I don't know…" Sam grumbled shaking his head and rubbing his eyes as he tried to picture it again.

"Any idea what it was?"

"No, none," Sam huffed. "Maybe I didn't see it, it could have been the sun playing tricks on my eyes…"

"Stop it Sammy, you saw something, we just don't know what," Dean told him. "How long is that program going to take?" he asked glaring at Sam's laptop trying to make it work faster.

"I'm going…" Sam started getting up and heading for the bathroom. He closed the door and leaned against it for a moment before going to the sink to run the cold water and splash it on his face. He wiped a wet hand around his neck thinking he felt too hot. Sam looked at his reflection in the mirror for a moment and could see the dark circles under his tired eyes. He closed his eyes and hung his head for a moment taking in some slow, deep breathes before grabbing a hand towel to dry off.

"Sammy!" Dean called through the door. "Your laptop is making funny noises, and no, I didn't touch anything."

"I'm coming," Sam replied giving one final glance in the mirror before heading back to the main room to see what the laptop came up with.

A/N: Sam is seeing what he thinks is a creature but he's not sure. Can he find what it is and how to stop it from killing again? I hope you are enjoying our journey. Thank you to any guests who have left me reviews. Reviews/Comments would make my day. NC