PART 5
Sam sat silently in the passenger seat, thinking. They had no problems finding the guy's grave and torch his bones, he just really hoped that would work, and couldn't shake the feeling that it wouldn't. Dean was also a little more quiet than usual. The story Claudia told him kept nagging him.
"Hi, Sam?" Sam turned to look questioningly at him. "Did Claudia ever mention… Did she tell you what happened, you know, when she was a kid?" Dean asked awkwardly.
"About that Carl guy, you mean?" Sam was rather glad to be given an opportunity to take his mind off the fact he still had no idea why he kept having visions about Monica for no apparent reason.
"So, she told you? You know what happened?" Dean asked. Sam shook his head.
"Not really. She told me about it a while ago. I remember thinking it was kind of weird." He said. Dean glanced at him.
"Weird how?" he asked.
"I don't know," Sam said, "The woman fights demons for a living, and she seemed so scared about this one man." he said, shifting in his seat. "But I guess it sort of makes sense. I mean, she wasn't exactly fighting demons when it happened. She was just a kid." Dean returned his look to the road.
"How come she told you?" he asked all of a sudden. Sam half-shrugged.
"I told her about mom and Jess. You know, what started all of this. Why we do the things we do. She said that was how she got started. You know, hunting." He said casually, looking out the window. Dean gave a slight nod, thinking it over. It didn't seem to make sense. The guy was human, right? She said so herself. So why the hell would she start hunting spirits and demons if the guy was human? Dean tried to put two and two together. She must have been lying, Dean thought, either that, or she's still hiding something. They didn't speak much the rest of the way back to the motel.
Dean parked the Impala just outside their motel room, getting out of the car.
"You want to shower first?" he asked Sam, who still seemed lost in thought.
"No, you go ahead." Sam said, not really paying attention. He made his way to Claudia's room, knocking on the door. It was late, but he could hear talking on the other side, so he figured she was up anyway. Claudia opened the door, and Sam could tell she was hiding her knife behind her back, just in case.
"Hi," Claudia smiled at him, opening the door all the way. "When did you get back?"
"Just now." Sam asked. "Hi, Monica, how are you holding up?"
"I don't know. You tell me." Monica said.
"Well, we took care of Efram, so I hope this thing is over. But you should still stay here, just to make sure." Sam said, and then turned to Claudia. "Can I talk to you outside for a moment?" he asked.
"Sure." Claudia said, and Monica straightened.
"It's okay, Dean's right next door, and we won't be far." Sam reassured her, his hand on Claudia's back as he escorted her outside.
"What is it?" Claudia asked.
"Would you…?" Sam tilted his head a little, indicating he wanted to go for a short walk. Claudia gave a slight nod, and they started walking.
"So, it's not that I don't enjoy walking outside at three in the morning, but is there a purpose to all that, or are we just going to make out?" Claudia asked, smirking at the expression on Sam's face, and Sam couldn't help but compare her smirk to Dean's. It was almost identical.
"How is everything?" Sam asked. Claudia bit her lip.
"Still working on the world hunger thing. Maybe after that, you know, if I get a couple of spare hours, I might take a crack on the world piece thing, and maybe even create a new ozone layer, you know, just for kicks." She said, making Sam grin.
"That wasn't what I was talking about." He said.
"Oh, really?" she looked up at him as they walked on. "So what were you talking about, if you don't mind me asking."
"You know," Sam said awkwardly. "This whole thing, with Monica…" Claudia glanced at him, and then shook her head.
"Sam, I just had a bad night the other night. I'm really okay. You don't have to worry about me. Well, as long as she's gone tomorrow, 'cause this whole bonding thing isn't really working for me." She said, making Sam laugh. "But you know," Claudia went on, her tone a little more serious now, "You should have checked her purse first." She finished. Sam looked questioningly at her.
"Why?" he asked. She gave him a long, intent, look.
"Don't worry, that stuff went straight down the toilet." She said. Sam stopped, surprised, but Claudia kept walking, so he quickly caught up with her. "So, how did it go with the body?" Claudia inquired.
"It was fine. We got there, got the work done. It should work." Sam answered.
"Maybe." Claudia said, and Sam glanced at her.
"What do you mean?" he asked. She shrugged, sighing.
"I don't know, it's just that you seem so certain it was the first guy. There were others, you know. What are you going to do, dig them all up? We don't even know about most of them." Claudia said, voicing Sam's own thoughts in the matter. He glanced at her.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked again, just to make sure. She smiled at him. "You should protect the room. You know, salt circles around the bed, cat's eye shells, that sort of thing." Sam said pensively. Claudia stopped, and so he did, too. She smiled at him, a little impatient smile, and then stood on the tips of her toes and gave him a small kiss.
"You – have – got – to – lighten – up!" she said, emphasizing every word, and then started back towards her room. Sam stood there, stunned for a moment, and watched her as she walked away from him. A little grin crept onto his lips. He started back towards the room and cursed inwardly at the sight of Dean standing by the door, his usual smirk on his face, looking a little more pleased with himself.
"Shut up!" Sam said as he passed him by and walked into the room.
"Dude, I didn't say anything." Sam punched Dean's shoulder, and Dean started laughing out loud.
Both Sam and Dean awoke with a start, sitting upright in their beds, glancing at each other. Dean was the first to jump off the bed. Getting his shotgun, he quickly rushed out of the room, heading for Claudia's. He could still hear her shooting inside, as well as Monica's screams. Dean kicked the door open when he couldn't open it, Sam at his heel. Dean managed one shot at the spirit before it disappeared. Claudia looked around the room warily, the shotgun in her hands still drawn and ready. Sam turned the lights on. He was rather relieved to see the salt circles and the cat's eye shells, he hadn't noticed them before.
"Is it gone?" Claudia asked. Dean nodded a little.
"Looks like."
"Is that… blood?" Claudia frowned, looking at the mirror, and then quickly clapped her hand over Monica's mouth. The woman was giving her a headache. Sam neared the mirror, looking at it from up close. He glanced back at Dean and Claudia. "Oh, gross!" Claudia muttered.
"You guys okay?" Dean asked. Claudia nodded, taking her hand off of Monica's mouth.
"Guess that torching thing didn't work." She noted, hurrying over to the mirror and quickly moving any of her things that were anywhere near it. "That is totally gross." She muttered again, looking around her room. Everything inside the salt circle seemed unharmed. Everything outside it, however… That was a different story. Monica started crying in panic.
"You have any idea who that spirit might be?" Dean asked Monica, but she was in no condition to answer.
They did what they could to pick up the things the spirit tossed around the room, helping Claudia out. Dean carried the mirror outside, thinking it was probably a bad idea to keep it in the room and having 'Bloody Mary' flashbacks. He wasn't so keen about breaking it just yet. He liked that Claudia seemed more angry about the fact that she would probably have to pay extra for all the damage than about the fact that a spirit had just attacked while she was sleeping in her room.
Sam stayed with Monica for a while, trying to calm her back down, sneaking the occasional look across to Claudia, who was already sleeping, the shotgun by her side. The skies were getting brighter by the time Sam went back to his room. He was dead tired, but still he couldn't sleep. Something still bothered him. He lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling, his weary mind working ever so slowly. He yawned, glancing at his sleeping brother. I should probably do the same, Sam thought, closing his eyes, but as tired as he was, he just couldn't sleep. Something in the back of his mind still nagged at him. There was something he was missing. And then it finally clicked.
"It said she!" Sam cried, sitting up quickly.
"What?" Dean groaned sleepily.
"Dean, I think I figured it out!" Sam cried excitedly, getting out of bed and quickly pulling a pear of jeans on.
"That's nice." Dean groaned, turning his head the other way. Sam grinned, shaking his head, and sat on Dean's bed.
"It said she!" Sam repeated. Dean groaned in discontent, but still sat up.
"Who did, and why are you waking me up about it?" he asked.
"When I was with Monica in her apartment before, when the spirit attacked." Sam explained. "I went to get some salt, and I noticed this thing on the mirror. There was something written in blood." He said.
"I need coffee." Dean said, rolling out of bed.
"Anyway, it said 'she is going to die'." Sam finished. Dean glanced at him, getting dressed.
"Yeah? So?" Dean asked.
"So, third person, Dean." Sam said, as if it made it all clear. Dean must have still been half asleep, because that didn't mean anything to him. He glanced at Sam in a look that was half annoyed, half curious. "It said she, Dean, not you." Sam sighed. "If a spirit goes out of its way to warn someone, why would it warn them in third person?" Dean gave a slight nod, finally catching on.
"It would have said 'you', not 'she'." He finished Sam's thought.
"Exactly."
"So, what do you think? It's trying to warn her about something?" Dean asked.
"Maybe." Sam said, "I'm going to find out." He said.
Claudia seemed just as reluctant as Dean to get out of bed, but she quickly got dressed and left Sam alone with Monica. She and Dean went to get some coffee. Some strong coffee.
"Monica, I think I know why burning Efram's body didn't help." Sam said, sitting beside Monica.
"It wasn't him? You need to… find someone else?" she asked fearfully.
"No, I don't think so." Sam said. "Monica, that spirit that was in here before, did you recognize it?" he asked. Monica seemed horrified at the thought.
"Why would I recognize it?" she asked fearfully.
"Because," Sam said patiently, "I think you've seen it before. Before he died, I mean."
Monica was in tears. She paced the room nervously, shaking her head in disbelief.
"No! It's not possible!" she insisted.
"Think about it, Monica. They weren't trying to hurt you." Sam said patiently. She stopped dead, glaring at him. "Okay, they didn't at first." He corrected himself. "The light flickering in your apartment all the time, it was just then trying to warn you, to get you to do what you needed to do." Sam said. "The messages on the mirror… There were more, weren't they?" Monica burst up in tears again.
"Make them go away!" she pleaded.
"I don't think I can," Sam said in a soft voice. "Look, I understand what it must be like. Look what my brother and I do for a living, you think that's normal? You think I don't want to be normal?" he got up, walking over to Monica. "But as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not. I have visions, Monica." He said. "And so do you. And these visions, we get them for a reason."
"I don't want them!" Monica cried. Sam looked sympathetically at her.
"I know," he said softly, "but there's a reason you get them." Sam put his hand on Monica's shoulder. "You've had another vision lately, haven't you? Someone is about to die?" he asked. She lowered her eyes, but didn't answer. "Listen, Monica, I know it's difficult, but you must stop ignoring the visions. You have to start doing something about them. I think that when you do, those spirits might leave you alone." Sam said softly.
"And what if they don't?" Monica demanded. "What if they'll never stop?"
"Then at least there won't be more of them." Sam said. Monica gave him a long look. Monica shook her head.
"How am I supposed to do that? How am I supposed to help them if they don't even believe me? If they just think I'm a freak!" she demanded.
"You just keep trying." Sam said, looking in her eyes, "Eventually they'll listen."
"You can't know that!" Monica cried.
"You did, even though you didn't want to believe. You listened. I took some time, but you listened." Sam said. Monica blinked, staring at him. "There's someone else, isn't there, Monica?" Sam asked, "Someone else you're supposed to help? Someone else you see in your vision? A woman, dying?" Sam pushed.
"I can't!" Monica cried, tears streaking her cheeks. Sam sighed.
"Monica, I think you have to." He said. She swallowed hard, sitting down on the bed. Sam crouched next to her. "Can you tell me about it?" he asked.
"I can't save her," she whispered. "The way she dies…" she looked up at Sam. "Don't you think I want to help her? God, the way that woman dies…" she shook her head. "No one should go through anything like that. It's not… natural!" Sam frowned.
"Do you know who that woman is?" he asked. Monica wiped more tears from her eyes, nodding lightly. "Can you tell me?" Sam asked. She gave him a helpless smile.
"Claudia." She said, and Sam nearly lost his balance. His heart began to race. So that was the reason for his vision. Monica shook her head again. "The way she's going to die, Sam… It's not a car accident or an illness or something. I can't exactly go up to her and tell her to check the breaks on her car or something. Something is going to kill her! Something…" Monica trailed off. She couldn't find the words to describe the horror she had seen in her visions. "How am I supposed to help her?" she demanded. Sam blinked, still trying to wrap his mind around what Monica had just told him. He looked up at her.
"You just did." He said hoarsely.
"I can't save her life." Monica said helplessly.
"No," Sam said, "But I can."
A/N: Well, sorry for the cliffhanger, but that's the end of that. If you thought the Winchester men could keep a secret, just wait for Claudia's… I already have the next story in mind, but I guess it's sort of up to you, if you're interested. Review, so I know that you are, and write faster!