Welcome to the Club
He cast a grim shadow
Through the busy street…
And he punctuated his walk with a gun
Morning Final, Blue Oyster Cult
Dean picked himself up slowly, the world slightly spinning around him. He didn't need to look around; he knew Sam had already left the parking lot. He brushed the dirt from his jeans, popped his neck, then felt the back of his head. There was a tender spot, but no lump or blood. That was a good sign, he guessed.
Not wanting to leave the area, Dean wandered across the street to a small park. He sat himself down on a park bench and looked around. He had a pretty good view of the strip of shop fronts. Taking a deep breath, he pulled Kole's notebook from his pocket.
He didn't know what he was looking for, but he just couldn't think of anything else to do. What he wanted was go back to the motel and research, but his brother was spellbound and his cousin had vanished.
He flipped through the notebook pages; there were at least two-dozen pages full of scribbles. I guess she did have a lot of thoughts to collect, Dean thought as he shook his head. She had taken notes on nightmares and Maras, including the various names of the demons in different countries: Alptraum (German), cauchemar (French), incubo (Italian), kanashibari (Japanese), mareridt (Danish), pesadilla (Spanish).
There were notes about Scandinavian folklore, about a Mare or Mara being a wicked female wraith and how she ability to move through keyholes and under doors. There was a small bit about the belief that a sleeping woman's free-roaming spirit could become a Mara.
Kole had also written about The Old Hag. Apparently, there were varying versions of her story. Sometimes she appeared; sometimes the victim could only hear her voice. Sometimes she simply tried to steal her prey's breath; sometimes she was intent on the person's soul. She was believed to be a demon, succubus/incubus, ghost, witch, phantom, etc. depending on the person relating the story.
When did she have time to research all of this?
Dean's already aching head pounded harder against his skull. He turned page after page of folklore and myths, until he found one with the heading: Dreams. First, was his story – or, at least, as much as he had told her earlier. There were a lot of words: dark shape, trying to take Sam, mother's death, protecting Sam – all with question marks and then large gaps. Evidently, Kole was planning to come back to this page with more answers. At the bottom of the page was written, Catatonic state? Why only Dean?
The next page was dedicated to Sam. Kole seemed to have a real grasp of what was going on in his head. Wow, they really do think alike. Dean wasn't sure that he liked the idea that someone who had only met Sam yesterday could already know him as well as his own brother. Actually, Dean wasn't sure how well that was anymore.
There was a quick summation of their experience with Dr. Ellicott, and how Sam had dreamt of it all over again before lashing out at Kole. As Dean read, he felt as if he were inside his brother's head. Part of him was reassured at seeing how his brother felt. Sure, there was the typical brotherly frustration, but Sam really did care and wanted to protect Dean.
Dean smiled to himself but was quickly reminded that his jaw still hurt from the punch that Sam had so recently delivered. The smile faded and Dean realized that, although he now had more information, he also had more questions. He slumped down on the bench, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes.
"Umm, excuse me," a voice said after a couple of minutes. Dean opened his eyes again and saw the coffee shop kid standing in front of him.
"Hi again,"the kidsmiled. "I… uh… I just wanted to thank you."
"For what?"
"Well, for what you and your friend did today. I was rude this morning… I thought that you guys might've hurt that girl. But, then you stepped in and… well, James is a good friend of mine… and…" the kid fidgeted.
"I get it," Dean said, letting the kid off the hook. "It was no big thing… um…"
"Tony," the kid smiled shyly. "And it was to me. Like I said, James is a good friend of mine." He turned to walk away, then stopped and turned back to face Dean.
"By the way, you might want to tell your friend that she should lay off the coffee a little."
"What?"
"The girl that was in the shop earlier? She came in again a little while ago and looks kind of out of it. It's like she's dazed or something. I think she really needs to get some sleep."
"Kole?" Dean asked, sitting up straighter on the bench. "When was she there?"
"I just got off my shift and she was still there when I left."
"Thanks, kid," Dean said, standing and rushing over to the coffee shop.
"No problem," Tony told him as he walked off in the opposite direction.
The shop was full of locals talking about the incident at 'Emily's Attic'. When Dean walked in, more than one person looked at him and then leaned over to friends. He could hear the whispers, nothing readily understood, but he knew that they were trying to decide if he was one of the strangers who had boldly stepped between the fighting father and son.
He stood at the front of the shop for a moment, feeling awkward with so many eyes on him. He glanced nervously around the shop and found Kole sitting in the same rear corner booth that they had been in earlier. As he walked back, he felt the eyes move with him.
"Kole?" he said quietly, standing at the side of the table. She sat motionless, looking over the table with her eyes, as if reading a story on it.
Dean didn't have to look around him to know that they were still being watched. If Kole was asleep, how was he supposed to wake her up without disrupting the shop patrons, and most likely get himself thrown in jail for assault?
"Dean, sit down," Kole said softly, as if reading his mind. "I'm not asleep. I'm… confused." She took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. "I have absolutely no recollection of walking here or ordering this," she nodded to the almost empty coffee mug. Finally, she looked at Dean, now sitting across from her. "What's going on?"
"I was hoping you had the answers," Dean mumbled, causing the hopeful look on Kole's face to fall away. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"We were all at the diner," she said, closing her eyes. "A woman ran in… blah blah blah. We all got up from the table to help." She was shaking her head and shrugging.
"OK, we all got up from the table, but you didn't follow us to the shop next door. Sam and I went in and broke up a fight. Sal was there with the woman, Emily, but you never came in. When Sal, and Sam, and I came back to the diner, you were already gone. Leila told us you followed us…"
"Leila?" Kole interrupted. "I stopped to talk to Leila." She pressed her fingers to her forehead and closed her eyes again, trying to remember, but it was like a dream. The harder she tried to remember, the further away the memory moved.
The waitress came over with a coffee pot and looked at Dean. He turned his mug over with a smile so that she could fill it, then motioned for Kole's to be refilled as well. He didn't want to interrupt his cousin's thoughts. Finally, Kole shook her head and Dean realized that he would have to try and prompt her.
"Do you remember what you and Leila talked about?"
"I don't think we did," Kole said, opening her eyes. She absent-mindedly reached for her coffee and took a large swallow before Dean had a chance to warn her. She immediately choked on the scalding liquid.
Dean reached over the back of his bench to the booth next to them.
"Mind if I take this?" he asked the woman behind him, not waiting for an answer before grabbing her glass of ice water and handing it to Kole.
Kole gulped half of the water down, choked, and then drank the rest slower. She put the glass down and took a couple of deep breaths. Then, as if the outburst had never happened, she finished her thought.
"We didn't talk," she told Dean, her voice raspy from all the coughing. Her eyes were wide and she had a look that told him the pieces were starting to fall into place. She was about to speak again, but noticed that most of the other patrons were looking at them. "Check please."