Upon arriving to Philadelphia, the first thing the brothers did was find some place to eat. They had left the little motel in Lexington, Kentucky and had been on the road for close to 12 hours, and except for the few gas stations they stopped at to fill the tank and stretch their legs, they had not stopped.
It was about 10 pm, so Sam suggested stopping at a diner, getting some take out and finding a motel. His brother agreed, and pulled the car over at a little diner a few minutes later.
The small diner had a large counter and a couple tables next to the windows, it was probably just a passing place for truckers going through the city. No one was there so Dean approached the counter, leaning over it, and called into the kitchen.
A fat man came out, his apron shinny with grease. Actually, the whole man was shinny with it. He gave them a distrusting look, and Dean hurried to make their order. The man walked back into the kitchen without another word, Dean turned to his brother with a questioning look and Sam simply shrugged and sat down. Dean sat too, and noticed a copy of the paper they had read on the Internet sitting next to the register, the first page talking about the people disappearing. A few minutes later the big man returned with their orders, Sam began to reach for his wallet, but stopped when Dean called him.
"Hey, Sammy. I left my wallet in the car, can you go get it?" Dean asked casually, while patting his pockets pretending to look for the wallet he didn't have. Sam took the hint and, with a 'be right back', left the diner.
The diner's owner mumbled something as Sam left, Dean turned to him and smiled briefly. The man was not pleased with having to wait, and Dean imagined he had been about to close when they came in. He sat down in front of the register and pretended to notice the paper for the first time. He took it and looked up to the man.
"You think they'll catch him?" Dean asked. The man turned to see him with a raised eyebrow and Dean pointed to the first page of the paper.
"Catch who?" The man's deep voice questioned.
"Well, whoever is taking this people." Dean clarified. The man scoffed and talked again.
"No one is taking those people. I bet the brats just ran away from home and their parents called the police." He added. Dean frowned, pretended to read some more and talked again.
"What makes you think that?" Dean asked.
"Because the police found nothing at the places they supposedly disappeared." The greasy man added. "I heard a woman talking on her cellphone here earlier." He explained. "She was a reporter, seemed to be talking with a cop or someone arrangning to meet for the details of the story." The man looked with impatience out through the windows to the car parked in the front, where Sam pretended to search the back seat for the missing wallet.
"And?" Dean asked, getting the man's attention back.
"And she was asking if the police had any leads. She listened to the phone for a moment and said 'Nothing? Not even a print? They can't find nothing.' " The man paused and added. "And she's right. No one can be jumped or kidnapped and not leave any kind of evidence. Some were adult guys, 24, 25. You can't just walk to someone in a park and attack them or drug them and then drag their bodies to a car without anyone seeing something." Sam came back in at that moment. Dean took the bill that Sam offered him, payed for their food and thanked the man before leaving. All he received as an answer was a grunt. The owner walked after them as they approached the exit and closed behind them. They got into the car and went to find a motel.
Dean lay flipping through the channels of the little TV sitting in front of the twin beds in their motel room. Sam sat on the other bed, his back leaning against the wall, with the computer on his lap, making a list of the missing persons.
"Boring. Seen it. Boring. Boring. Seen it." Dean said in a monotone voice. "Hey, porn!" He announced, his voice lighting up.
Sam looked up quickly from the computer to the TV and was greeted with a cooking program. He turned to his brother as Dean laughed out loud. "Kidding." Dean grinned. "It's been a while, Sammy?" He asked, still laughing.
Sam rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his laptop. "OK, up until today's news there were twelve missing persons. They are all aged somewhere between 15 and 25. All of them disappeared, or at least were seen last, in a park. The disappearances are usually 2 to 3 days apart. Some happened at night, others at noon in plain sight. And the friendly chef at the diner told you the police found no evidence to suggest they fought or where dragged somewhere." Sam stopped to take a breath and continued. "Well, he's right, there are very few things that can take someone without leaving any evidence. So either we are dealing with a ghost, or they left on their own will. Although its too much of a coincidence that this happens to so many people with such a constant frequency." He turned to Dean, who now had a serious face as he thought of the facts.
"Any idea of what we're dealing with here?" Asked Sam. Dean sighed and turned to look back at him.
"No." He said. "There are too many possibilities. But it's still too early to know." He considered something for a moment. "We should take it one step at a time." Dean continued. "Let's investigate the first missing person and go from there. Who was it?" Dean asked Sam.
Sam turned to the computer and answered. "A... Robert Mayer, 21." He looked up at his brother.
"OK. Tomorrow we'll pay the Mayers a little visit. I'll drop you there and go to the police station to see what I can find, we can't trust a chef's word that the police didn't find anything." Dean said. Sam nodded and closed the laptop. Dean turned the lights off.
Sam knew he should try and get some sleep, he suspected they had a long day ahead of them. He preferred little towns to large cities when it came to the investigative part of a job. At least in little towns, everyone knew everything that happened in the town, and they were more willing to talk. Sam yawned and closed his eyes.
A woman sat on the floor of a large room, next to a giant antique bed. She wore a white nightgown, her blond hair pooled over her shoulders. She was weeping silently. Sam took a step closer, from the corner of the room from where he witnessed the scene. The woman had her back to him. He approached her slowly, trying not to scare her. He looked over her shoulder, noticing her hunched form shaking slightly as he got closer. She held a baby in her arms. The baby didn't move or make a sound, his lips were blue. She was sobbing quietly. She turned slowly to look at Sam. Her green, almost gray eyes, red and puffy. She stared at him for a moment and suddenly let out a loud scream. A cry of pure sorrow that shook Sam. The scream grew in intensity until Sam couldn't take it anymore. He covered his ears and screamed too.
"Sam!" Sam bolted up to a sitting position in his bed. Dean was staring down at him, fully dressed. "Are you OK? You were screaming." Sam nodded, rubbing his eyes.
"What was that all about?" Dean asked, stepping back from his brother and sitting in his own bed.
Sam took a few shaky breaths to calm himself down. "I don't know." Sam said. Dean gave him a worried look.
"Vision?" He asked. Sam made a negative motion with his head.
"This was different. We're not supposed to stop it." He said, replaying the scene in his head. Dean raised his eyebrows, a questioning look on his face. "It already happened." Sam answered his brother's unasked question.
"Well, then lets not worry about it." Dean said, getting up. "It's 9 am, get dressed and lets get started."
Sam's eyes followed his brother as he got out the door. He got up and began getting dressed. A couple of minutes later he looked around the room to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything, took a deep breath and closed the door behind him. He had a bad feeling.
Author's Note: I know I said I'd take longer to post because I was busy with school and had to catch up, but I couldn't control myself. Education is overrated anyway XD. Please let me know what you think.