PART 3
It took them a while to find a vacant motel room. They were both exhausted, and Sam still suffered the aftereffects of whatever it was they used to drug him They both went straight to bed. Dean woke up a few hours later. No reason to sleep the day away, they still had work to do. Glancing over to make sure Sam was alright, Dean rolled out of bed and got dressed. He went outside to the vending machine and bought himself a cup of coffee and a snack. His stomach growled. They'd have a real breakfast when Sammy wakes up. In the meantime, this was still an ongoing hunt, as far as he was concerened.
It was late noon when Sam finally opened his eyes, stretched, and sat up in bed. Dean glanced at him from the small desk he had been working.
"Mornin' Sunshine. How's your head?" Dean asked. Sam scratched his head.
"Better." He said. The headache was gone. He sighed, getting up, and went to the bathroom. Dean motioned at an open box of cereals and a carton of milk and Sam nodded, taking the cereals and eating right out of the box.
"That's amazing." Dean said, his eyes set on his laptop. "There's nothing about last night in any local paper or news. I mean, with all those cops around, you'd think someone would want to be famous." Sam sat down on the bed.
"So what do we do now?" he asked. Dean looked up at him, a little surprised at the question.
"What we came here for. We go get that Travishu." He said.
"You still think it's here?" Sam asked.
"Any reason it shouldn't be?" Sam shrugged. He was rather hoping they would move on.
"Where do you want to start?" he asked. Dean leaned back in his seat, looking at Sam.
"Well, I was thinking, the Taylors were the first family attacked. We should start there."
The boys reached the Taylor house not long after that. Sam knocked on the door and a young boy answered.
"Hi there" Sam bent over a little as not to frighten the little boy. "Are your parents home?" but Mrs. Taylor was already on her way to the door, wiping her hands on a dish rag.
"Who is it, honey?" she asked her son, who looked at her, and moved away from the door, darting inside the house. Sam straightened, smiling at Mrs. Taylor.
"Mrs. Taylor, my name's Ben, and that's Jerry." Dean stepped in. "We're students, doing a research about abnormal pet behavior. Would you mind answering a couple of questions for us?"
Mrs. Taylor seemed a bit surprised, and a little suspicious, but after some convincing from Dean, she let the brothers inside. She offered them a cup of coffee they both gladly accepted.
"We realize this must be hard for you, losing your daughter like that…" Sam started. Mrs. Taylor flinched. Her hands shook and she put her glass down, fighting the urge to burst up in tears.
"It was awful!" she said in a small voice, "Jenna was always playing with Chichi, she never once bit anyone before."
"Do you have any idea what made it attack? Did your daughter do anything?" Sam asked. Mrs. Taylor shook her head.
"Of course not! We still have no idea how it happened. Chichi was fourteen, she's been with us since before we had the kids. She was old." She said and got to her feet. Walking over to the mantelpiece, she took a picture and brought it over, giving it to Sam. It was a picture of her daughter and the dog. It was a tiny, furry dog, barely reaching as high as the little girl's knee. "We all loved her. It was like losing another child, but we couldn't risk it." Mrs. Taylor said brokenheartedly. "We had to put her down."
"And you have no idea what would make her act like that?" Dean asked, "You didn't notice anything… strange going on before the attack?" Mrs. Taylor shook her head.
"No, nothing. She used to sleep in the same bed with Jenna. Look at that picture! You explain to me how that dog bit my daughter's leg so hard it crashed the bone! Explain to me how it killed her!"
Sam and Dean thanked Mrs. Taylor and made their way back to the Impala.
"No way that mockup of a puppy would crash bones. Did you see that picture?" Dean turned to Sam as he took the keys out of his pocket. "That dog could fit in my pocket!"
"Not unless there was something more going on." Sam agreed. "I think we should see the Moors next. That's the last victim. They live not far from here." He suggested. It was getting late, they'd better hurry.
Dean drove over to the Moor's house. It wasn't far from the Taylor's but it was far enough to confirm the possibility it was more than just an angry dog. Dean slowed the Impala down, noticing the woman from the previous night getting out of the house, hugging a sobbing woman. The woman, probably Mrs. Moore, smiled at her and got back in the house. The woman kept looking at the closed door for a moment, and then turned, noticing the Impala pulling over. She frowned, heading their way.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
"Picking up hot chicks. Did you see any?" Dean snapped at her.
"I thought I told you to stay out of my business!" the woman retorted.
"Since when is this your business?" Dean demanded. The woman was about to say something, but then changed her mind. She sighed.
"Look, I'm sorry if I seemed rude last night, but I was trying to save your lives." She said.
"By drugging us and tying me to a tree?" Dean wasn't about to let that go.
"Oh, you were safe, I had my eyes on you." The woman said, and then half-shrugged. "Besides, you made excellent bait." She added with a slight smile.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" Sam was quick to intervene. She bent over to get a closer look at him.
"You said there was another beastie around here. I'm just doing my job." She said.
"No, that's our job. Your job is to get your pretty behind out of here!" Dean snapped.
"I'm working this job. And I work alone!" the woman said authoritatively, and then left before Dean had the chance to say the last word. Dean stared after her, and then turned to Sam.
"Wanna guess why?"
The brothers decided to leave the Moore family for another day. If that poor woman just talked about her kid being killed, she wasn't likely to want to talk about it again. They made their way to the Lessiger house instead. Dean was still a little ticked off, and Sam picked up on it, walking in long strides to stay ahead of his brother, just in case.
"So, what happened here anyway?" Dean asked him as they made their way to the front door.
"One of the most recent ones." Sam said. "They lost their baby boy, less then six months old."
"Fluffy again?"
"Yes. It's just that Fluffy's a cat." Sam said. Dean gave him a surprised look, and then knocked on the door. A man answered it a moment later.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Mr. Lessiger, my name's Sam, and this is Dean," Sam started quickly before Dean had a chance to say anything. "We're students of animal behavior and we were wondering, if you wouldn't mind, if we could ask you some questions?" The man looked at them for a minute, hesitating, and glanced back inside.
"Could you just give me a second?" he asked. Sam glanced at Dean.
"Sure, no problem." He said. The man gave a slight nod and closed the door.
"So what's the connection between all these people?" Dean asked, trying to pass the time.
"Well, they all live here, they all have pets and kids…" Sam started, scratching his head.
"Wow, Colombo, that's a great catch. That college education of yours at work. No, I meant other than the obvious. Why would the Travishu go after these people?" Sam shook his head. The two of them looked around, looking for anything out of the ordinary as they waited for the man to come back. "What's taking so long?" Dean asked restlessly. He didn't like that. Of course. Me and my big mouth. He thought as a police car pulled over. Dean rolled his eyes. "I just had to ask." He muttered. A cop got out of the car, walking over to the brothers.
"Would you two come with me, please?" what, not even a 'good evening sirs'? doesn't look good. Dean thought.
"What's the problem, officer?" Sam asked. The cop sighed, holding his belt.
"Look, we could do it the easy way or the hard way. Which would it be?" he asked. Dean and Sam exchanged looks, and Dean rolls his eyes, shaking his head and heading for the Impala. "Now where do you boys think you're going?" the cop asked. Dean stopped, exchanging a another look with Sam and looking questioningly at the cop. "I'm going to have to ask you to come with me." The cop said.
"Oh, come on! We just wanted to talk to the man, what's wrong with that?" Dean demanded.
"You're interfering with police work." The cop said, "You've been warned before, you should have listened. Now, you're not going to make me cuff you, are you?" he asked.
Sam and Dean were escorted to a cell. Dean shook his head in frustration as the cop locked up and left them there. Well, at least they didn't take their prints yet. But that's coming, and when it does there's gonna be trouble. He sat heavily on one of the beds. He had to think up a plan. Now, if only that cop was a woman… he thought. Sam walked around the cell for a while, and then sat down too. This didn't seem to be one of their better weeks.
"Now that's just great!" Dean said eventually, still unable to think of a reasonable excuse to his miraculous resurrection. Sam looked at him, a thoughtful look on his face.
"You remember her saying anything about being a cop?" he asked.
"Who knows? I wasn't really listening, I was too busy being bait." Dean said. Sam sighed.
"How long do you think they'll keep us here?" he asked.
"Don't worry, I'll think of something. I'll get us out of here by breakfast." Dean said confidently.
The next evening Sam and Dean were still lying on the uncomfortable bunk beds. Dean was in a foul mood. They processed them earlier that day. They will probably be running a print check every minute now… Dean hasn't said a word in hours. Sam was getting a little worried about that. He sat up at the sound of nearing footsteps. A cop came over, keys at hand.
"You've got a visitor." The cop said, opening the cell. Dean sat up, exchanging a surprised look with Sam, and then got to his feet, walking over to the cop.
"No, not you, the other one." The cop said. Sam glanced at Dean, shrugging. Who would want to visit him? No one even knew he was in jail, he thought, but followed the cop nonetheless. The cop stopped at an opened door leading to a small room, motioning Sam inside. Sam hesitated a moment, but then walked in the room, the cop at his heels. Great, Sam thought as he saw his visitor. That woman again. Hasn't she done enough already? He thought.
"Anything else, ma'am?" the cop asked the woman. She smiled at him. She had a nice smile, Sam noticed, but quickly banished the thought from his head. She was the reason he and Dean were in jail in the first place.
"No, thank you." The woman said kindly. Sam was a little surprised at how kind she sounded.
"I'm right outside, in case you need anything, miss Mitchell." The cop said, in what Sam thought was a lame attempt to sound as pleasing as possible. The cop left them alone, standing on the other side of the door. Sam looked at the woman.
"What do you want?" he asked gruffly. She smiled at him. Sam blinked. She really did have a sweet smile. It was completely disarming. But then he remembered how he spent the last day.
"Want to sit down?" the woman offered, motioning at a chair across from her. Sam remained standing. "All right. As you wish." She said. There was no trace of anger or irritation in her voice. "I warned you and your friend to stay out of my business." She reminded him.
"And we told you this is our business." Sam snapped at her, but then remembered where he was. If he was to get out of this place, being rude probably wasn't the ticket. He sighed, sitting down. "Look, we didn't know you are a cop." he said, "But you have to admit, the way pets have been behaving in this town lately, something is not right." The woman nodded lightly.
"Well, sure, with a Travishu on the prowl." Sam couldn't decide if she was being cynical or not.
"Look, I know it sounds strange, I can't really explain it…" he started, but then she put a heavy journal on the table between them. His dad's journal. Sam hesitated.
"Interesting read." The woman, looking at Sam. "Most of it is actually quite right. Well, not the demon parts, but the rest is quite good." She said. Sam blinked, stunned. What did she just say? "We haven't formally been introduced." The woman went on. "My name is Claudia Mitchell. I'm not a cop, I just… have really good connections. I do this for a living." She said, motioning at the journal. "I was called in here because of that poor excuse for a demon, I didn't know about the Travishu." She explained. Sam said nothing. He didn't know what to say. She was doing this for a living? She hunted, for a living? She was doing this by choice? Who is that woman! Claudia stared at him for a moment. "You know, that's when you introduce yourself." She noted. Sam shook his head.
"I'm Sam." He said.
"And the other one? He's your brother? Dean?" Claudia asked.
"How did you…?" Sam asked. Claudia looked at him for a second, and then took the journal back, leafing through it quickly until she reached the page that said Dean 35 -111
"I'm sorry about your mother." Claudia added in a soft voice a moment later. Sam seemed shocked at this. "This belongs to your dad?" she asked him and he gave her a small nod. "He says there was a fire of unknown origin. That your mother was hanging from the ceiling. Was she still alive?" Claudia asked. Sam blinked, shaking his head.
"Why? Why do you…?" he stuttered.
"Sometimes they don't die right away. Sometimes they're left as a warning." Claudia answered slowly. "Sometimes they can even see… tell… you know, why they were killed. Then again, demons rarely have a reason to kill anyone. They just… do." She shrugged.
"How do you know?" Sam asked in a small voice. The question about his mother seemed to have come out of nowhere. It hit him like a fist in the gut. Who is this woman?
"I told you, that's what I do. Look, I've done some reading about this Travishu thing. It's a demonic spirit. Now, demons I handle all the time, but spirits… that looks more like your kind of thing." She said, cutting back to business. "I can get you out of here. That is, if you help me kill that thing." She said, looking at Sam in a look that was all business.
"What about my brother?" Sam asked.
"You do a good job, and I'll let your brother out, no charges." Claudia answered. "Good deal too, if you ask me. Considering he's supposed to be dead and wanted for questioning about a couple of killings. What do you say?" Sam blinked again, his mind racing.
"We're going to have to find it first." He said. And then they would have to get Dean out of jail too, to help them look. He was good at that sort of thing. Claudia smiled at Sam.
"Already did." She said.
TBC