"He was here last year, there was a problem in town, I don't know much about it to be honest, I just served him breakfast a few times at the coffee shop" she answered making herself busy in the kitchen.
"What kind of problem?" Sam asked.
"Oh it was something about an evil presence at one of the homes, but to be honest he didn't actually say much about it, just that he was trying to help"
"Who?" Dean quickly interrupted as he leaned awkwardly on the kitchen top.
"I really don't know, I guess he wrote things down in the journal he had with him, he seemed very attached to it, he talked about you boys too, I know that you have it now he mentioned that some time ago, I thought it might help if you knew he'd already been this way"
"So you've kept in touch with him" Sam jumped in, looking slightly mystified on how much this woman actually knew.
"No, as I said that was a long time ago now, if I could have got a hold of him, I wouldn't have called your brother" Annabelle nodded over towards Dean, who was also a bit miffed at what was being said.
"Did I miss something?" he asked as he moved his footing to steady himself.
"Annabelle knew that Dad was working on something, she's been trying to get a hold of him to help her but had to settle for us"
"Oh" Dean pouted his lips as his side gave him more grief.
"What are you going to do about my husband?" Annabelle tried to get the conversation back to them helping her.
"Sure, sorry" Sam's mind clicked back to the problem in hand "where's your husband buried, if we burn his remains before tonight, case closed"
"Well that's going to be a problem" Annabelle looked concerned "there are no remains, he was cremated"
"That's new," Dean quipped.
Sam looked at Dean then told Annabelle "we've got a lot of work to do then, tonight's the full-moon and we need to get things ready, you ok if we get on with it?"
Dean looked at his brother slightly puzzled, it wasn't helping that his own body hurting was taking up most of his concentration.
"Sure, please make yourself at home" Annabelle instructed as she picked up the cups to refill.
Dean glanced around the kitchen and his eyes became fixed.
"Dean what's up" Sam whispered.
Without speaking Dean grabbed Sam's head and turned it in the direction he was looking.
"What?" Sam didn't understand.
Dean quickly let go as Annabelle turned to them handing back their cups of coffee, he smiled.
"You want anything to eat?"
"Bacon, bacon would be good" Dean cheerfully answered, regretting moving too quickly before.
"And you?" she looked at Sam
"I'm good thanks" Sam looked at his brother, trying to understand what he was going on about.
Dean rolled his eyes and just spurted it out "excuse me Annabelle, you erm, there's erm, knife, you got a knife missing" he pointed uneasily at the knife block.
Sam's eyes widened.
"No I haven't, it's in the dishwasher" Annabelle answered somewhat confused "are you alright?"
"Yes, oh yes fine, no problem" Dean replied giving her the ok sign before turning to Sam he face turning serious "that's a problem!"
Sam nodded.
"We're just going to go take a look around" Dean stated as he took hold of Sam's shirt.
"Please do" Annabelle answered without turning to look at them.
Dean pulled at Sam's shirt and lead him away from the kitchen, Annabelle turned to watch, a smile forming on her face "too easy".
The brothers had made their way to the bedroom "Man, Dean this isn't right, there's something about that woman" Sam pointed towards the door "she's… lying"
"She's lying?' Dean bluntly repeated taking a sit on the bed "Sammy don't you mean that is one messed up chick! I don't know what we've got ourselves into but I sure as hell don't think we're here to rid her of just her husband!"
"So what we gonna do?' Sam was rummaging through their bag, "she knows about us having Dad's journal, but she doesn't know why he was in town, doesn't make sense?"
"We need to take another look at it" Dean stated as Sam pulled the journal from the bag, raising his eyebrows as he did so.
Flicking through the pages nothing seemed to be jumping out at them.
"This is too weird, we get a call from her, she doesn't have a phone, you having the nightmares, the car crashes like it has a life of its own" Sam got quickly interrupted.
"Dude, YOU crashed my car, don't be blaming that on anything supernatural" Dean looked at his brother "you're still paying"
Sam muttered something under his breath whilst shaking his head slightly before continuing "we end up here in the middle of nowhere, she says she used stitches on you and there wasn't, I don't know Dean, my gut is screaming not to trust her"
"I know" Dean agreed lowering his head "but the only thing we can do is play along, find out exactly what's happened and if her husband's alive, or dead and buried."
"Here, look" Sam pointed to a page "says Dad was working on a poltergeist, but looks like it was a textbook case, nothing out of the ordinary"
"Does it say where exactly?" Dean asked, his forehead wrinkling up as he struggled to focus on the page, his headache was returning.
"No, nothing" Sam turned the page but that was the end of the information.
"You think Dad was here don't you, and the poltergeist probably Annabelle's husband?" Dean rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Maybe, but why doesn't she tell us if her husbands come back, especially if Dad already got rid of him once"
The brothers were interrupted as Annabelle knocked on the door and entered "Excuse me boys, you're bacon is ready"
"Thanks I'm coming" Dean carefully rose off the bed, he turned to Sam and winked "keep checking"
Sam smiled and nodded.
As they left, Sam turned back to the journal, making sure he hadn't missed anything.
Dean hesitated entering the kitchen, glancing quickly at the now full knife block but still took a seat at the table.
"I hope that's okay" Annabelle said as she placed a plate of bacon in front of Dean.
"That's great, thanks" Dean didn't really want to enter into any sort of conversation but he had to ask for something to take care of his headache "don't suppose you got any pills for my head?"
"Sure, I'll get you some now" Annabelle wiped her hands on the towel and headed off in the direction of the bathroom.
"This is going to be a long day" Dean said to himself placing his head in his hands.
"Dean?"
"Huh?" Dean looked up and saw Sam.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, it's just a headache, what are you doing?" Dean asked gaining back his big brother composure.
"Going outside to have a look around" Sam grabbed a piece of bacon as he passed his brother and went to the back door.
"Good call" Dean waved his brother goodbye as Annabelle returned.
"There you go" she handed him a couple of pills and then headed over to get him a drink.
"Thanks" he looked at what he was about to take and then placed them in his mouth as Annabelle handed him the drink.
"Your brother looking for anything in particular?" Annabelle tried to get information out of Dean.
"Not sure, he just goes off in his own little world and there's no stopping him" Dean smiled.
"Eat up" she calmly responded, "I'm just going to sort out the laundry"
"Right" Dean looked at her as she left, his puzzled look a dead give away that he couldn't believe she was going to do laundry on the day she wanted her husband rid of. "that is one strange woman".
Finishing his breakfast he placed the plate by the sink and went to join his brother in the garden.
"Find anything?" Dean asked as he slowly made his way to where Sam was standing.
"Look at this" Sam pointed at a tree and then the ground.
"What?"
"That tree has been burned and look at the different color of the soil" Sam bent down and picked up a handful.
"So Sherlock what do you reckon?" Dean asked scanning the area.
"Well Watson, I think Dad was here and whatever he done he thought it worked and left job done, but something or someone has put a spanner in the works"
"Well if the husbands back we got to find out how and make sure his gone for good this time" Dean responded looking back at the house "she definitely knows more than she's letting on"
"We got to thread carefully, we got to be ready for anything" Dean could see Sam's mind going into overdrive.
TBC Thanks to all who's taken time to review, much appreciated, gives me the will to carry on!
