They came out of the woods, their feet bare and covered with the kind of dirt that takes years to build up. The robes that covered their bodies were almost the same brown as their feet. The hoods pulled up to hide their disfigured faces. One of them tilted his head, as if hearing something that only he could hear. The light of the setting sun fell on his face, where his eyes should have been, heavy stitches sealed the sunken eye sockets. Where his mouth should have been more haphazard stitches had sealed his lips shut. They turned towards the west end of town, slipping in and out of the shadows never missing a step, never stumbling they found the cave where their new brother was waiting.
"I think it has something to do with the mine, Dad," Dean told his father after hearing the grizzly details of the sheriff's suicide. 'Maybe they dug something up? Something got pissed off, and now it's going after the family of the miners who were there?" He pulled out a list of the murders and other mysterious deaths that had plagued Double Springs since the cave in 15 years before. "A lot of the people on this had family who worked in the mines."
"In a town like this, most of them had no choice but to work in the mines Dean." John settled down in the only chair in the room and finished lacing up his well-worn combat boots. He'd left his FBI disguise in a crumpled heap on the floor. Even if Deputy Black or any of the others came by to see him, he saw no reason to keep wearing the suit. "That doesn't mean I think you're wrong. I just don't think it's that simple."
"I talked to the woman who killed her husband the night we got to town, and she said that her dead daughter told her to do it."
The hunter rubbed at his face, trying to decide if he was going to tell Dean about seeing Mary or not. "That sounds familiar," John said as he pulled open his ratty leather covered notebook. It had been to one end of the country and back more than once in Dean's lifetime. He remembered shoplifting it for their dad for Father's Day while Sam kicked up a fuss to distract the shop owners. He shifted through the pages of newspaper clippings and his own scrawling letters until he found what he was looking for. A frown creased his forehead as Dean plopped on the bed across from him waiting for him to pull the rabbit out of his hat, and solve just what was haunting the people of Double Springs.
Dean could see that there was something pissing his dad off. But being the good soldier, he just let it go. If it was something that Dean needed to know about his father would tell him. He wasn't like Sammy who couldn't stop picking at a scab until it started to bleed again. It was enough to believe in his father and know that he'd always pick the right path.
"Let me help you with the dishes," Caleb said getting up from the dinner table. He bent down, gathering up all the plates that he could reach. His cousin's eyes were haunted with the images of the blood splatters on the Sherriff's office walls. Caleb had heard all about it from the First, and was now acting the dutiful family member pitching in at a time of crisis. He smiled down at Lizzy who was holding up her plate for him. She was such a pretty little thing that it was almost a shame that he was going to have to kill her. He preferred to take them down when they were older and had been tainted by the call of the Slayer in their blood. "Thank you sweetheart."
"Thank you Caleb," Sara said with a watery smile from the kitchen as he came in still dressed in his lay clothes to set the dirty dishes next to the sink. "It's perfect timing you comin' to visit us now. I know that Lucas is glad that you're here too."
"I do my best for my kin, Sara," he said as he ran the pad of his thumb over the edge of her dirty kitchen knife. He frowned at the dullness of it, and wondered if he'd have time to sharpen them properly for her before he left town. Sooner or later they would find out that he'd left the seminary, and then things were going to get real uncomfortable around the Black house. He aimed to be back on the road long before that happened, only sticking around to burry Lizzy before he was gone.
Once again dressed in his black shirt and white collar, Caleb slipped out of his bedroom at the Black house. The rest of his family was sound asleep. He could hear his cousin's snores in a battle with the dog that was snoring soundly in the hallway. The drugs that he'd slipped into their meal had sent them all into a deep slumber. He carefully turned the knob to the girl's bedroom. The walls were covered in cartoon princesses, frilly lace curtains fluttered in the open window, and there were enough stuffed animals in Lizzy's bed that he had a hard time finding her in the darkness at first. He drew back the edges of her blankets, and then reached down to gather the sleeping child in his arms. Normally he'd have just killed her there, but he didn't want Carrie to have to see all that blood when she woke up.
She was light in his arms, and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her out of the house. Once he was outside, he looked into the darkness and called on a pair of the Bringers who rushed to his side taking the sleeping child from him. His truck had been returned that day, and he had them climb into the bed with Lizzy. He couldn't afford to have her see him if she woke up and by some miracle got away.
The First sat next to him in the passenger seat as he drove towards the cave. "Well darlin' hope this proves to you that I'm still yours," he drawled not at all surprised that he felt no guilt about what he was about to do at all. "Her blood should be just what you need to show the path to whatever it is y'all want me to find down there." He glanced in her direction, his blue eyes shining in the light from his broken radio. "Y'all ever intend to tell me what it is I'm supposed to be findin'?"
"I'll tell you when you need to know," she snapped at him wearing the face of his long dead mother. She'd been his first kill, and the First wasn't even bothering to make her head set right on her broken neck. Caleb could see the bruises that covered her body from the fall down the stairs he'd caused. "Now just drive."
John waited while Dean scaled the high chain link fence that surrounded the coal mine. It was shut down for the night, but the workers would be there in a few hours before dawn. The men who worked there only saw the light of day on the weekend if they were lucky. They went into the mines before dawn and in the winter the sky was black long before they came out. Dean landed like a cat on his feet on the other side, and ghosted over to the security booth to find the controls that would open the gate without alerting the guards who were doing their patrols around the grounds. John heard the click, and pulled open the gate. It swung freely and he almost dropped one of the rifles he was carrying as the gate flew out of his reach. Dean came up just in time to catch it and shut it behind them.
"Are you ready?" John asked as they stopped before an unused entrance into the mine.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Dean said as he took a flashlight and gun from his father. "Well as ready as I ever am."
