SCARECROW PART 1

It was far out of the way, a weathered but rustic-looking log cabin that was tucked deep into the Vermont woodlands where the driveway leading up to it was made of nothing but dirt and pine needles. Alice parked in front of the cabin and looked over at the Impala pulling up beside her, coming slowly to a stop and parking. The boys stepped out of the car and said nothing as they stared up at the cabin that was nearly being swallowed by the forest. Sam looked in awe, but Dean seemed pretty confused and baffled at the sight of it.

"You never told me you had a house," he said, turning to Alice.

"I never told you I had a house because it ain't my house," Alice insisted while removing her helmet and turning off her bike. "It's, well…more like a storage place than anything," she said with a half shrug.

"Does it have beds and a working kitchen?"

"Yeah?" Alice said with a cocked a brow.

"Then it's your house. Why haven't you told us about this?" Dean stepped fully out of the Impala and closed the door behind him.

"It's because I barely use it anymore. Aiden and I use to come back to this place a lot if we didn't have a job to do…which was pretty rare. After he died though…I guess I never had a reason to come back. Not unless it was to come back and restock," she said with a slight strain in her voice.

"Place is pretty overgrown," Sam said and took note of the state the Cabin was in. The look of it kind of reminded him of a scene out of a generic horror movie. The trees were tall but the shadows that they cast were even taller, and their branches stretched out far, like long arms wrapping around the exterior.

Alice groaned and shifted her head to the side. "Maintenance isn't really my forte, Sam." She then began to rifle through her bag and pull out the keys for the front door. "It should still be a good place to spend the night though. Come on." She grabbed her bags and headed up to the front porch.

Dean followed behind and was looking around the place when he saw another building. He nearly missed it too since it was tucked far into the woods, but after a second or two of looking, he made it out to be a detached garage.

"What's that over there?" Dean asked while pointing.

Alice briefly looked over to see what he was pointing at. "Oh, that's just a garage. It's where I store Aiden's car."

"Really? What does he drive?" he asked curiously.

"68' Mustang."

Dean thought for a minute of what it looked like before giving it a quick approving nod. "Aiden had good taste."

Alice shook her head and scoffed. "Not when you see the color he chose. I'll show you it later. Let's get settled in first."

Alice unlocked the door and pushed it open, and they could clearly see that the inside was as rustic as it was outside. Both the living room and kitchen were turned into one large room that was made entirely of reddish rosewood. Which made the atmosphere dark but cozy, and further in the back of the house was a long hallway with three doors at the end of it. There were also two sofas in the living room section and working but somewhat dated appliances in the kitchen as well. It was all quite nice, but the thing that caught their attention the most was just how many bookshelves there were. Each shelf had something either unique or odd on it. Objects that were indescribable and books that look like they were falling apart with age, and a lot of loose papers that were neatly tucked away.

Sam's mouth fell open. "Oh my…God… Where did you get all this stuff?" he said in a single gasping breath.

"Jefferson Cromwell, my dad, and mom. I don't know. A lot of this stuff came about before I was even born. House has been in the family for a long time." Alice turned to a single bookshelf that was stuffed away in the corner. "That one though. Aiden and I filled that one ourselves."

Sam directed his attention towards the bookshelf and was quickly drawn to what he could see on it. It ranged from old-looking weapons that probably belonged to a demi-god of some sort, books full of lore on different creatures, trinkets that didn't really look like anything, and some VHS tapes.

"There are only two bedrooms in the cabin, but one of the rooms does have two beds fit inside. I guess you boys can take that one," Alice said to them.

"Sweet. Where is it?" Dean asked while looking around. "I wanna check out Aiden's car."

Alice lifted her hand and pointed. "Straight down the hallway in front of you. It's gonna be the door on the right. Mines on the left, and the bathroom is the door at the way end," she said while setting her things down on the couch beside her. Alice then turned around and began to head for the door. "I'll see you outside." She waved before stepping outside and heading in the direction of the garage.

Once she was gone, Dean smiled and turned to his brother. "Dude, this place is so cool," he said while grinning madly.

Sam snickered while pulling out a VHS tape that was labeled 'Lacie Bellhart's Last Performance'. "I don't expect anything less from a family as old as hers." He put the tape back and pulled a book out that looked pretty interesting. "It really is amazing…how much this family had done. They're probably better hunters than Dad is," he dared say.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Dean shrugged and headed into the bedroom to toss his things on one of the two beds. "I'm heading outside to check out Aiden's car," he said and practically ran for the door and walked out.

"Alright," Sam waved before sitting down to read.

Dean walked onto the dirt and pine road and headed straight for the old garage that Alice was in front of. He stepped beside her and saw her somewhat struggling to get the lock and chain off. She had already unlocked it but there was probably rust inside the gears that were stopping her from taking it off.

"Man, when was the last time you went in here?" he asked.

Alice yanked on the lock a couple of times to try and free up the rust that was keeping it stuck in place. "I haven't been in here since Aiden died. I can't imagine what state his car would be in. I hope it's alright," she said with a hint of tension in her voice.

Dean shrugged and patted Alice on her shoulder. "Even if it ain't…I'll get it up and going again. I don't think it'll be a problem."

Alice stopped pulling on the lock and bowed her head to hide what looked to be a smile on her face. She then very gently nudged his arm and laughed under her breath. "Thanks, man. I'd really appreciate that."

With one last hard tug on the lock, it finally came loose and unraveled the chains that were wrapped tight around the door handle. She pulled the door open and stepped inside the musty-smelling garage where Aiden's car was, sitting in the middle of the room and covered over with a large black tarp. Dean grabbed the end of it and yanked the whole thing off in one swipe, revealing the flashy shade of unflattering teal that was underneath. The car itself was in great shape. Beautiful even. But the color though…it was abhorrent.

Once he finally saw it, Dean couldn't help himself and immediately hunched over to laugh. "I see…what you meant by the color!" he said through wheezing gasps of air.

Alice sighed and shook her head. "When Aiden was checking out cars to buy. I made the mistake of looking over to this Mustang here and saying what an ugly color it was…and you know what he did next?"

"He bought the car just to spite you?"

She nodded her head. "Yeah. He bought it just to spite me. He laughed about it for about a month until he actually started to like the color. Crazy bastard." She stepped towards the car and ran her fingers up the hood that was still relatively smooth. "I miss him every day," she said with a falling smile.

"Why did you never drive it?" Dean asked while popping the hood to check out the engine.

"I didn't think I would be able to move on if I'm constantly being reminded of him," Alice said with half-lidded eyes and a solen voice. "I was afraid to drive it. Thinking I would mess it up somehow. So I guess…I decided to lock it up in the garage instead."

Dean peaked around the hood. "Instead, you went for a bike."

"I'm a bike-head, Dean. Not a car-head. I always wanted a motorcycle but never saw the point of getting one until Aiden died."

"I can see that." He reached up to the hood and closed it back down. His face wasn't as grim as Alice thought it would be. "So…you want the bad news or the good news?"

Alice felt her body cringe. "Damn. I knew this was going to happen." She walked over to the driver's side, opened the door, and sat down in the front seat. "Bad news. Let's rip this band-aid off already."

"Bad news is that it's not gonna start any time soon. It's been sitting still for too long."

She wasn't surprised to hear that. It has been a while after all. "Ok. And the good news?"

"Good news is that it just needs a new battery. Quick and easy fix. And a little washing and waxing wouldn't hurt it either," he said and walked up beside the driver's side door. "Aiden really must've taken care of her." He could recognize good workmanship when he sees it. If Aiden didn't take care of it, then he could imagine it being worse.

"He did. Now that I think about it. He really did," Alice spoke fondly. She looked at the leather-style interior of the car and could easily picture her fifteen year old self sitting in the passenger's seat. Either giving her brother snide remarks or quietly listening to the Stairway to Heaven cassette tape. "I wonder…" she said as her face suddenly became perplexed.

"What is it?" Dean moved closer to see what she was looking at.

Alice reached over to the glove compartment and unlocked the latch. She fiddled around through the loose papers inside and abruptly laughed when she pulled out what looked to be an old cassette tape. "Holy shit, man. It's still in here!" she cheered with a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

"What's that?" Dean turned the tape around in her hand but couldn't even read what was on the front. The words were far too ruined to read it anymore.

Alice chuckled under her breath. "It's Stairway to Heaven. Dude, I use to listen to this song religiously. The only reason we stopped though…" her smile fell slowly once the memories finally resurfaced in her head. "…was because Aiden broke it by accident."

Dean looked disheartened after hearing that. "Seriously? That's a good song, too. Knowing you…you were probably pissed," he said, only imagining what her younger self would've acted like.

Alice shook her head enthusiastically. "Oh, I was. Aiden really thought I was going to kill him and kept his distance from me for a long time after that." Her smile soon returned to her face and she leaned back against the seat. "Man…what I would give to have more of those moments with him."

Dean glanced down at her and saw Alice's face contorted with slow-growing distress. He reached down and pressed his hand against her shoulder and squeezed tightly, just to silently let her know that she wasn't alone. Alice responded to this by grabbing his hand and just holding it, tenderly brushing her fingers over his knuckles and breathing softly as calmness swept over her.

Sam still couldn't get over how much information was practically at his fingertips. In the amount of time Alice and Dean been outside checking out Aiden's car, Sam had already skimmed through a little less than half the books that were on the shelves. What he found most curious though was the old cryptid books that had information on creatures that even veteran hunters wouldn't believe in. Such as Bigfoot, Jersey Devil, and even something called a Dogman. He had never even heard of such a beast before until now, but the generations of Cromwell hunters swear by it and even quote them to be the demotic and deranged cousin of a Bigfoot.

"This is so cool," Sam muttered while flipping through the pictures of the wicked-looking creature with the body of a man but with the head and hind legs of a wolf. "Creepy…but cool."

He was about to read deeper into the lore of Dogman when he suddenly heard Dean's phone going off from inside the bedroom he and his brother were going to be using. Sam immediately put the book down and hurried into the room where he saw Dean's duffle bag laying on the bed. He opened it up and pulled the phone out.

"Hello?" Sam answered the moment he accepted the call.

"Sam, is that you?" a deep voice spoke to him.

Sam immediately felt his heart jolt in his chest and slam against his ribcage. "Dad?" he managed to croak out, already knowing the voice by memory. He pulled the phone away from his ear for a second to check, but the ID didn't say a name. Just a number. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," John said with a cracked voice.

Sam couldn't help himself but ramble out a bunch of questions that he's been dying to have answered. "We've been looking for you everywhere. We don't know where you were, if you were okay."

"Sammy, I'm all right. What about you and Dean?"

"We're fine. We, uh, have someone helping us out. Her name's Alice."

There was a momentarily pause on John's end before he spoke up again. A spark of curiosity in his voice now. "Alice? Are we talking about Alice Cromwell?"

This somewhat surprised Sam, and he cocked a brow. "You know her?" It was no surprise that her surname was well known, but for John to be specific enough and know the exact person he was talking about caught him off guard a bit.

John gave a short explanation. "A couple years back, yeah. I knew both her and her brother. We, uh…worked a case up in Portlock, Alaska."

Sam frowned. He knew the name, and he knew it to be a town ruined and abandoned. "The ghost town?"

"Yeah, but that's a story for another time. It's good that you've met her though. She's one hell of a hunter. You boys can trust her."

"I know, I know. She saved our lives more than we can count, but where are you though?" Sam was desperate to get back on topic.

"Sorry, kiddo. I can't tell you that."

It was at that time that Alice and Dean stepped back inside after checking on Aiden's car. They heard Sam talking in the other room but there was an urgency in his voice that made the two exchange a look. Neither of them said a word to each other and quickly peeked their heads into the bedroom to see Sam talking on the phone.

"Sam, who's on the phone," Dean asked.

Sam looked up to them, and with shock all over his face, he answered in a hoarse voice. "It's Dad."

"What?" Dean blurted out in a loud voice.

Alice looked bewildered but not as much as Dean did. She turned to him, and he didn't even look like himself anymore. Instead, there was this anxious look in his eyes that quickly reverted him back into a small child. A child who was scared because he hadn't seen or heard from his father in over a year.

John continued to talk to Sam over the phone, though he could hear Dean's voice somewhere in the background. "Look, I know this is hard for you to understand. You're just gonna have to trust me on this."

It didn't take Sam long to piece together the reason for his father's secrecy. "You're after it, aren't you? The thing that killed Mom."

John sounded like he was going to talk but his words became stuck in his throat, making him stutter them out. Yeah…It's a demon, Sam."

"A demon? You know for sure?" Sam asked.

Dean tried to inch closer to see if he could hear what they were really talking about. He could hardly hear his father's voice too, and it sounded mostly like a whisper in his ears. "A demon? What's he saying?"

"I am. Listen, Sammy, I, uh…I also know what happened to your girlfriend," John began. "I'm so sorry. I would've done anything to protect you from that."

"You know where it is?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I think I'm finally closing in on it."

"Let us help," Sam insisted desperately.

"You can't. You can't be any part of it."

"Why not?"

Dean held his hand out. "Give me the phone," he insisted but it was like Sam didn't even hear him. It seemed Alice had enough though and finally walked over to Sam. She forced him into a sitting position on the bed so she could lean in close and listen to the conversation.

"Listen, Sammy, that's why I'm calling. You and your brother, you gotta stop looking for me. Alright, now, I need you to write down these names," John said.

"Names? What names, Dad—talk to me, tell me what's going on."

"Look, we don't have time for this. This is bigger than you think, they're everywhere. Even us talking right now, it's not safe."

Sam ground his teeth together and snarled his words out. "No. Alright? No way."

"Give me the phone," Dean demanded louder, much to no avail.

"I have given you an order. Now, you stop following me, and you do your job. You understand me? Now, take down these names," John said with a much firmer voice.

Alice heard about all she could and finally yanked the phone away from Sam and handed it over to Dean. She got up quickly and disappeared into the darkened bedroom next door.

"Dad, it's me. Where are you?" Dean quickly answered, and after a moment of listening, his posture suddenly stiffened up. Like a soldier being given orders from his drill sergeant. "Yes, sir… Uh, yeah. " He looked up to the door and saw Alice waltz back in with a pen and paper in hand. "I got a pen. Yeah."

Alice moved over to the bedside table and hunched over, waiting for the names to be spoken. "What are the names?"

Dean listened in quietly for a moment with a face completely made of stone. "Holly and Vince Parker. Married. Disappeared around Burkittsville, Indiana," he answered and watched Alice quickly write all of it down. Dean continued to listen to his father, but after some time, the call ended and Dean pulled his phone away, now looking dejected.

Alice stood back up and awkwardly looked between the boys. "Well…that could've gone worse, but I think I know the name Burkittsville," she said but the boys didn't even respond to her. They still seemed pretty out of it. "Guys." She spoke up again but this time raising her voice a notch.

Dean was the only one to snap out of his trance and look at her. "Wha…what did you say? You said you know the place?"

"I have it marked down on my hunting map. Boys…I think your father just gave you a case." She went back out to get her bag and came back in a moment later. She pulled out her map and folder that they knew were filled with uncompleted cases. She flipped through a couple pages and began pulling out newspaper clippings and posters of missing people. "Listen here. One year after another, a couple goes missing, but each one's route takes them to the same part of Indiana. Always on the second week of April."

Dean frowned. "Isn't this the second week of April?"

"Yep," she said with a nod.

Sam scoffed and spoke up for the first time in minutes, but it seemed that he was listening the entire time. "So, Dad is sending us to Indiana to go hunting for something before another couple vanishes?" He clenched his fist tightly and suddenly sprung up and stormed out of the room.

Alice was quick to follow after him. "Sam?" She stopped in the hallway with Dean and watched as Sam pulled his laptop out and sat down at the table with it.

"Sam, what are you doing?" Dean asked.

"Dad must've called from a payphone. I'm looking up the area code," he said while typing the numbers in at the speed of light, and after a second of silent searching, he found it. "California. It was a Sacramento area code."

Dean didn't say anything at first while staring down at his brother, but as time slowly ticked by, it quickly dawned on him and his face instantly turned hard. "Sam," he spoke begrudgingly.

"Dean, if this demon killed Mom and Jess, and Dad's closing in, we've gotta be there. We've gotta help," Sam insisted and stood up. Alice could see the look in his eyes and tell that he was steadfast in this decision and was afraid he wasn't going to change his mind. He was far too stubborn.

"Dad doesn't want our help."

"I don't care."

Dean cocked a brow. "He's given us an order."

"I don't care," Sam said much firmly to get his point across. "We don't always have to do what he says."

Alice could feel her stomach drop all the way to the floor. She saw where this was heading. Saw it from a mile away and decided to step in to try and stop the argument she knew was going to come. "Dean, wait a moment." She reached up and grabbed his shoulder, but he then abruptly wrenched himself free and stepped up to his brother, getting right in his face.

"Sam, Dad is asking us to work jobs, to save lives, it's important," he said, very steadily raising his voice with every word.

"Alright, I understand, believe me, I understand. But I'm talking one week here, man, to get answers. To get revenge."

"Alright, look, I know how you feel."

"Do you?" Sam suddenly questioned him in a harsh tone, taking Dean aback. "How old were you when Mom died? Four? Jess died six months ago. How the hell would you know how I feel?" he finished with a deadly low voice.

"Dad said it wasn't safe. For any of us. I mean, he obviously knows something that we don't, so if he says to stay away, we stay away."

"I don't understand the blind faith you have in the man. I mean, it's like you don't even question him."

"Yeah, it's called being a good son!" Dean finally snapped.

"BOYS!" Alice shouted in this overly boisterous voice that sounded like a jet engine going off in the room. It was loud enough though for both Sam and Dean to flinch and stop arguing there and then. They both turned to her slowly and saw her with her head down, squeezing her two fingers over the bridge of her nose to try and nurse a colossal headache that was barreling against her skull. "Jesus Christ…how dysfunctional is your family?"

"He's being a selfish bastard!" Dean hissed to try and justify what he said. Alice looked like she didn't believe him at all though and just stared at him like he was crazy

"And you think your not?! The both of you are complete and utter bastards. I get that you're frustrated. I do…but we're not doing this right now. Arguing like a bunch of flipping children ain't going to solve the problem, you dumbasses. You understand me?" she said with a darkening tone, warning them that their argument was stopping with Dean's last words. Alice tightened her jaw and bowed her head, breathing in slowly to catch her breath and try to speak as calmly and rationally as she could. "So this is what we're going to do. You guys go on ahead to California…and I'll stay behind and do the case by myself."