Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Winchester men, nor do I own Supernatural. I just dabble in the arts with the men.
Hunted
John Winchester is hunted by more then just demons.
Chapter six
Damn those boys of his were tenacious. In the past two weeks he had just barely gotten away twice before they found him. One of those times it was just plain luck that he had seen and recognized Sammy before they had seen him. After he had checked out of the motel he'd been staying in he had gone to the store across the street for supplies before leaving town. When he was coming out of the store he spotted Sammy entering the room he'd left not even an hour ago.
It was like getting sucker punched in the gut. His breath left him and he stood for a second rooted to the spot staring at his son. Sam must have sensed someone watching him because he paused and looked around before entering. He was able to take cover just in time before Sammy spotted him. He was so glad to see his boys John watched from the store as they worked the room until they came out.
They looked good except that Sam looked tired. John understood that. When Mary had died it took almost a year for him to be able to get a good night of sleep again. And that only happened when both the boys were sleeping in the same bed as he was. When they were in separate beds he woke up often just to make sure they were okay.
He grinned, either he was getting rusty or his boys were getting much better at tracking. If they ever quit hunting they could always go into the bounty hunting business. He knew the way they worked, he'd trained them. When they were done they would head to the diner to talk to the locals and see if anyone had seen him. It was time for him to go. He'd already spent too much time watching them.
He was headed for New Jersey where, if he was correct, the demon had killed a family just a few weeks before killing Sammy's girlfriend Jessica in Palo Alto. There were cattle deaths before the fire and a child that was exactly six months old had died with the rest of the family.
He had never made it Lawrence after the demons had attacked him. Instead he had done all his research at a library in Kansas City. He really needed to get a laptop computer like Sam had. It would make research easier. The problem was he really had no idea exactly what he needed in a computer. That was Sammy's area of expertise hell, Dean would probably know more about it they he did.
The long and short of it was there were cattle mutilations in Lawrence a week before Mary died and though he didn't remember it there was also a freak electrical storm with no rain. A pattern to the attacks was starting to emerge. The only thing that didn't fit the pattern was Jessica's death. Only because there was no child involved. John didn't know what that meant, but he was sure it was somehow significant.
He had managed, so far, to stay under the radar of the demon either that or it had given up on trying to find him. Though, he seriously doubted that. John had been making it a habit to salt all the windows the doors at any place he stayed for more then a few hours. He was not taking any chances he didn't have to take.
He drove for nearly twelve hours straight, stopping only for food, gas and restroom breaks. When he finally couldn't drive anymore he stopped at the first motel he spotted and got a room. After preparing the room he lay down on the bed fully clothed and was sound asleep within minutes.
He dreamed of his boys that night. It started out as a pleasant dream. He was back together with both of them. They were a family again smiling and sharing stories of what they'd been doing. Then suddenly without warning they were all picked up and thrown against the walls and pinned unable to move. The demon materialized before John and laughed at him. Then he watched in horror as first Dean then Sam were pulled to ceiling and lay there side by side unable to move or even speak. Abruptly blood appeared on their stomachs and began dripping from them. Their eyes were wide silently beseeching their father to help them but he couldn't move. And suddenly just like with Mary, flames burst around themconsuming them while they still lived and he watched.
John woke screaming and it took a few seconds for it to sink in that it was only a dream. He looked at the clock on the nightstand next to the bed. Three am, he'd been asleep only about four hours. He got up showered and left knowing that he would not get anymore sleep tonight and so he might as well do something productive with his time.
Around eight am he stopped for breakfast in a small town in Pennsylvania just outside the Jersey border. The diner he stopped at was pretty busy and there was a steady buzz of talk going on. John caught snippets of conversation most of it seemed to be about three high school kids that had died the day before.
"What's all the commotion about?" John asked the waitress that came to take his order.
"Oh," she replied, "Three kids from the local high school were killed last night. They were mauled by an animal of some kind. They were torn up pretty badly."
"What kind of animal?"
"I don't know and if the sheriff does he's not saying, but I heard it might have been a bear. One of them had a gun and he'd shot all the bullets. I knew Tony, he was a crack shot. If he pulled the trigger on something he didn't miss."
"Where did this happen?" John asked her.
"They were up in the woods behind the school. If I know those boys they were on their way to check out that old shack out there. It's supposed to haunted, but it's not. I've been there four times myself and I've never seen anything."
"Something like this ever happen out there before?"
"No I don't think so, but whatever it was that killed them boys, the sheriff will find it. He left this morning at first light with three of old man Sanders' best hound dogs. Them dogs don't ever loose a trail once they find it."
"Well, I hope they catch it!" John told her.
"They will you just wait and see. The sheriff will be in here before long telling everyone they got it and to go on back home."
John sat at the diner eating breakfast then reviewing several newspapers he'd picked up. He was circling articles that attracted his attention for closer review later when the sheriff walked in with a pair of deputies and an old man.
"Look Sheriff," the man old man said as they sat at the table next to him, "I'm sorry, this has never happened before. It was like those dogs were confused. I know they had the right scent, but then they lost it. Hell, you were there. There was no reason they should have lost it either. They were right in the middle of that field."
"I know it's not your dogs fault Sanders. It wasn't just the scent that disappeared. So did the tracks and all the sign I could read."
"I just don't understand it," the old man said.
"Neither do I, but I called in a friend of mine. He's a better tracker then anyone I know. If anyone can find the damn thing it'll be him."
"When's he coming?"
He should be here in the morning."
John decided to take a room in town for the night. He had a feeling he knew what kind of creature they were hunting and if he was right they would never be able to find it and it would continue to kill anyone who got close to it. He would go out later that evening, when all the commotion in the area had died down and see what he could find.
This time, when he slept he didn't dream and tired as he was he slept for nearly ten hours. When he woke up he went through his weapons bag pulling out three hand guns and a cross bow. He cleaned and loaded all three handguns with silver bullets. Then made sure all the bolts for the crossbow were tipped with silver plated heads.
Dusk was just setting in when he checked his compass and headed into the woods. It would be dark soon, just they way he liked it when he hunted a skinwalker or werewolf. Finding the attack sight was relatively easy. The sheriff and his crew had left such a trail Sammy could have followed it when he was seven and just learning how to track, even while he argued with his father about the necessity of learning it.
From the original attack sight he saw where the dogs had tracked the creature to the field the sheriff was talking about and his suspicions were confirmed when he picked up the trail of the creature after it changed to its human form.
The thing had circled around and come back to the old shack. He hated hunting these things inside buildings. There were too many places they could hide and surprise you from, but he knew he had to go inside and check it out. Carefully opening the door he entered as silently as possible. It would be a mute point if the creature was in its animal form, because it would smell him long before he could find it. But if it was still in human form he might be able to surprise it.
Unfortunately the shack was empty. It only had two rooms and the creature was nowhere to be found. John decided to go back outside and circle around the building to try and pick up any tracks it may have left on its way out.
As it turned out he didn't need to look for the damn thing. As soon as he opened the cabin door to exit it leapt at him hitting him square in the chest and knocking the gun out of his hand. John landed hard on his back, but flipped the creature off him as he did. Winded by the fall it took him a second to roll over and come to his knees. He pulled out another gun and before the creature could attack again he shot it in the heart.
It dropped to the ground dead and changed back to its human form. John picked up the weapon he'd dropped put it in his pocket and left. He wasn't that far from Newton New Jersey were the demon had killed the family if he hurried, or shagged ass, as Dean would say. He could be there in just a few hours.
A/N Please read and review.
