At six in the morning, the day after the crash Officer Collins dropped into bed filled with sleeping pills and a beer or two. He was drifting into a medicated sleep, fully prepared to not wake up until three the next afternoon, when his cell phone rang penetrated his pillow. He groaned loudly and blindly reached for the source of the noise. Flipping open the phone in his voice was the exhaustion of a sleepless night of work.
"Collins" he barked. The voice on the other end was enraged; he could hear the anger bubbling under the veneer of calm.
"This is Henry Wallace" the voice stated. Collins had no idea who this man was, and waited irritated, for Henry to explain himself. "I was informed at five this morning that my wife was in a car wreck!"
"How did you get this number?" Collins asked rubbing his forehead with his hand,
"The police commissioner told me you were at the scene of the accident" the man said his voice shaking with anger, and sadness. I must remember to shoot him in the head Collins thought.
"Yeah, yeah, I was there…Mr. Wallace, I saw you there too." The voice on the other end broke into a fit of sad laughter.
"I didn't know about the accident until five this morning." He bleated. Collins sat up in his bed, doubt sketched across his face.
"What?" He stammered, unable to comprehend what Henry was saying.
"I got a call from my best friend offering his condolences at five in the morning! Apparently he knew about the accident before I did! My wife is dead and no one seems to know where my Kailey…my daughter is" Collins let out a low breath as the realization hit him,
"Sir, I'm afraid that your daughter may be in danger."
At around twelve thirty the brothers pulled into a town that looked straight out of a Tim Burton movie. The buildings were gray; the sky was a depressing shade of light blue. There were about forty houses in a circle along with a store that sold vague household accoutrements. Off to the left there was a small ranch with a red pick-up truck in the gravel driveway. Sam hadn't slept the entire way to Cee Vee, images of eighteen wheelers plaguing him, headlights blaring on the inside of his eyelids.
"Here we are" Dean said pulling up to the ranches driveway and rolling the Impala to a stop. Sam nodded groggily and climbed out of the car. The ranch was very well taken care of, everything was in its place and a small garden to the side of the house was the smattering of color in the otherwise white washed street.
"How do you know this guy again?" Sam asked as they walked to the ranch door. Dean smirked, a hint of pride in his voice.
"He had a chupacabra eating up his cattle a few years back, Dad and I killed it for him" Sam nodded, the name of the monster turning his attention back to his nightmare.
"So, what does he think is going on now?" Dean's eyes grew dark and he sighed,
"Well, there has been three car wrecks in five days, each involving a mother and child. The mother is killed and the child…disappears." Sam gulped as they walked up the wooden porch steps,
"Were their bodies found?" Sam asked and Dean frowned as he knocked on the door,
"Nope" he said as footsteps from inside the house could be heard approaching.
"So, why does he think this is our kind of thing?" Sam asked and Dean shrugged as the door swung open,
"That's what we're here to find out."
Collins had forced himself out of the comfort of his bed, trying to ignore the fact that he would be asleep if he had only turned off his cell phone. Now, he was throwing on his jacket and rushing to figure out what the hell had happened to the little girl. The man holding her had said, "My wife hit a tree" hadn't he? It was the husband…wasn't it? Now that little girl was in trouble, and Collins had no idea what to do. He had been on the job for three years and all he had done was paperwork, he'd never really dealt with a robber, or a murderer, let alone a baby kidnapper. He stumbled to the car, his head was hazy and he had a nice buzz going on, but a sharp pain of fear eased his way into his throat, a little girl was out there somewhere in the hands of some weirdo. He drove to the hospital to speak with the medics that were on the job that night. He finally found the same woman who he talked to in the ambulance in the waiting room and immediately pulled her aside.
"Excuse me, miss. I'm Officer Collins… from the crash on highway 14" she nodded in recognition,
"Oh, yea, what can I help you with?" She asked and he sighed, not sure how to put his predicament into words.
"The man that took the little girl home that night… Who was it?" The medic frowned in thought,
"He said he was Henry Wallace, he had a driver's license and everything." Collins frowned; apparently this man had done his homework.
"Do you remember where exactly this man was from?" The medic shook her head,
"Umm, his license was from Texas, but that's not too far away from the crash site." Collins frowned; Texas was a good four hours away from the spot on highway 14, there was no way that that man could have arrived so quickly.
"Where, exactly in Texas?" He asked and she nodded,
"I remember, funny little name…Dee Bee….no, Cee Vee, yeah, Cee Vee Texas."
Evan Boone was an aging cowboy, no question. He was the quintessential middle-agedMarlboro man, a wide brimmed hat on his head and leather boots that matched his skin. His voice was gravel and his demeanor was icy, but he seemed to like Dean. He led them into his house, which was nothing less then pristine. Nothing was out of its place, and the dull earth tones colors gave off the feel that they were walking through a very clean cave.
"Thank you boys for coming out here on such short notice." He said as he walked into the living room, motioning for them to sit down on a leather couch across from a wicker chair that he sat in stiffly.
"No problem" Dean said sitting down,
"These wrecks had me worried something seemed…not quite right." He sat with a sigh, "and I remembered what you and your dad did for me, so I thought maybe you could help. It's too bad he couldn't come." Dean and Sam exchanged a look and Sam nodded,
"So, what do you think is out of the ordinary about the car accidents…I mean it doesn't really seem like our sort of job." Sam said with a knitted brow.
"A good man, your father." Evan continued ignoring Sam's question. "A real man, he was…tough, like Dean here." Dean smiled at his brother cockily and continued,
"Thank you sir" Dean said and Evan nodded, "now, could you tell us what the paranormal aspect of this is?"
"Each time the medics insisted that the father of the child showed up and took the kid home. But, the next day the police would get a call from the frantic father asking where their son or daughter was." Sam shrugged,
"No offense, but couldn't this be some weirdo…err, human, that's kidnapping these kids?" Sam asked and was greeted with silence. After about a minute of narrowed eyed staring Evan cleared his throat,
"You're Sam, right?" Evan asked, "John's youngest son?" Sam nodded, not sure what the man was getting at. He just nodded and shifted in his seat before continuing. "Whatever is taking those kids ain't human" he said. Dean raised his eyebrows and waited for Evan to explain. When he didn't Dean felt compelled to say something,
"What makes you say that?" Dean asked and Evan stood up.
"You boys better come with me" he said. Sam gave Dean a concerned look as they followed Evan through the rest of his cave to a backyard with grass that was cut pristinely, as if it had been sliced with nail clippers. The only thing that interrupted the perfection were three car doors, each lined up evenly against a wooden fence, each mutilated horribly. Two looked like they came from silver sedans, and one looked like it was ripped straight from a red sports car. The only thing that they had in common were the deep scratches that zig zagged across their surfaces forming a dizzying pattern of torn metal. Sam's eyes got wide as he ran his fingers over the scratch marks, they dug deep to the other side of the door, and were obviously malicious. Dean whistled a little under his breath,
"How did you get these, man?" Dean asked and Evan shook his head,
"They came off of each of the car wrecks…now tell me that that thing is human." Evan said with a grave look on his face.
"The man makes a good case, Sam." Dean said and Sam nodded with a sigh, running a hand through his hair,
"I don't get it" he said shaking his head, "the thing that took the children was in human form, but these…these weren't made by any human." Evan let out an exasperated laugh,
"Good boy, Sam. That's why you two are here."
Collins sighed, the beat up Cadillac he was driving wasn't holding up to the highway speed. It shook and protested the entire way from his driveway, and came very close to giving out all together.
"Damn it!" he yelled out, frustrated with everything. The nice buzz from the pills and booze was wearing off and leaving him with one hell of a headache, on the road to Cee Vee Texas. The commissioner told him to let it go, that the police in Cee Vee would take care of it, but he couldn't get the baby out of his head. That damn weirdo was sending him on a wild goose chase to some middle of no where town, searching for a stolen daughter that was probably already dead. He had a sick feeling in his stomach when he thought of the guy that took that little girl. One thing was for sure…he was going to get that son of a bitch.
It took him three and a half hours, but he made it to Cee Vee. One of those creepy little towns straight from a bad horror movie. He shuddered as he screeched to a halt in front of a small, gray house in the middle of the court. He muttered a few curses as he dragged himself out of his seat, rubbing his forehead with a weary hand. He stuck his head back in the car and opened the glove compartment. He rummaged around and pulled out his prize, a bottle of aspirin. He dry swallowed a couple and stood back up, looking around at the depressing little town. He saw a woman peering at him from behind her window curtain. He flashed her a big smile and she retreated back behind the curtain quickly. "Friendly" he muttered tossing the pill bottle back into his car and turning to face his building choices. He sawa store, well…the only store in the town and decided to start there, ask a few questions and get his bearings in this creepy little town.
He started to walk across the road, but forgot what his mother always told him and he didn't look both ways. He nearly had a heart attack when two double wides came rolling into the tiny town, nearly running him over. They blared their horns loudly and he jumped out of their way. "Holy hell" he breathed, picking himself up off of the asphalt slowly, well, this is going well.
Sam heard the blaring horns of the eighteen wheelers and stopped in his tracks. Evan and Dean were halfway inside, but Sam's legs refused to move,
"You coming, Sam?" Dean asked and Sam looked from Evan to Dean and back again,
"Yeah, yeah, coming" he said running his hand over his forehead. Evan rolled his eyes at the younger man and disappeared into the house, followed closely by Dean. Sam followed reluctantly after them. He ran to the window, and his heart dropped to his stomach, "what are they doing here?" Sam asked, referring to the two giant white trucks that were parked nearby. Evan shrugged walking into the kitchen,
"No idea" he said pouring himself and Dean a drink. Sam shook his head and joined them in the kitchen,
"I still don't understand what this thing could want with…babies" Sam said and Evan shrugged,
"Whatever it is, I hope that it keeps them alive" he said with a frown. Dean nodded twisting his glass in his hand,
"I'm going to go get Dad's journal, see if he mentions anything like this in there" Dean said standing, his voice lined with doubt. Sam nodded as Dean walked out. They awkward silence that filled the air after Dean left made both men uncomfortable. Sam could swear that he was sitting across from his father in the cold kitchen. Evan's accusing gaze on him making him wish he could melt to the floor.
"So, you think that you boys can handle this?" Evan asked and Sam sighed I guess you mean can Dean handle this?
"We'll look into it" Sam said with as much confidence as he could muster. The silence fell over them again for a few moments, broken only by the sound of screeching tires… and a crash.