Race to Kill
Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke.
A/N: This chapter is shorter than the last one and I apologize but the Third chapter will be up quickly and hopefully be longer.
Chapter Two
It took another half hour before Autumn was satisfied with the room, had turned in the key, and the four of them were back in their respective cars and on the road. Conversations didn't take too much hold while they drove the remaining two hours to Kelsey, Virginia. Sam had done most of the research on the town. It wasn't much to brag about. It had been named for the love of it's founders life, back in the mid 1700's. Through the years it had been relatively untouched by the rest of the world, keeping its country town feel. Kelsey would have even managed to slip off the radar had it not been for a series of deaths taking place in one of the local houses. Not much to go on, because the town's paper wasn't printed on the internet, they had to go with what the larger towns and cities around said.
The town was void of any motels, there was a bed and breakfast on a small apple orchard, and an inn run by the same family since opening right after the Civil War. It wasn't a hard decision, the inn was vastly cheaper. This time instead of sharing rooms they all ended up with separate rooms, on the demand of the older couple who ran the place. By the time they settled in it was lunch time, prime time to start questioning the locals. John didn't have any leash laws to worry about so he stayed right at Autumn's side as they took a walking tour of the town.
"Mulberry." Athena said watching, even the young men, tip their hats to the woman folk. Not a soul opened their own door someone was always there to rush forward and open it for you.
"Creepy." Sam agreed.
"I'll tell you one thing, we see a fugly scarecrow, I'm out of here." Dean laughed.
"Howdy." a man called waving at them propping open his store door.
"Afternoon, sir." Autumn replied, despite the fact that he couldn't have been any older than they were.
"Ya'll visiting?" he asked whipping out a bandanna and tying back his dirty blonde curls.
"Yea, we're doing a little road tripping, heading back home for the holidays. Just couldn't pass a place like this up." the other three fell behind her not sure exactly where she was going with this.
"We're a dying breed aren't we?" the man asked. "Where you staying?"
"Back at the inn off Main Street." she said jerking her head back in that direction.
"Quiet place. The Elners will take good care of you. Their granddaughter lives with them, you should ask her to show you around." Autumn smiled sweetly.
"I'll do that. Uh, we saw something in a paper the other day about some kids dying, what happened?" the man seemed to shut down.
"They didn't die, they were murdered, and you'd be better off not talking about that. People 'round here aren't to keen on sharing nothing that close to the heart."
"Thanks." they moved on.
But as the day continued they found most conversations went this way. The four gathered in Sam's room to work through the little information they had gathered and lay out the beginnings of a plan. The only nugget of gold they'd found was the location of the house where the murders happened. They decided first thing the next morning they were heading there. Until then they ate dinner at a tiny Ma and Pop's diner, and retired with the local paper.
"Surrounded by cops." Dean said passing up the drive way.
"Then we talk to the neighbor." Athena told him. "What do you think, Sis, Unexplained Mysteries in to check out the local stories of haunting?" Autumn nodded.
"Sounds good to me." Autumn pulled a tube of bright red lipstick out smeared it on and twisted her hair up into a business woman bun. Dean pulled the car up the next drive while Athena dug a camcorder out of her purse.
"What don't you have in that thing?" Sam asked pointing at the bag Athena carried. "You could fit a dead body in there."
"Ha ha, Sammy."
"No fighting kids." Dean joked climbing out.
Chickens were everywhere, cows stood behind the fences, and a white farm house stood off to the side of five barns. The whole place smelled of manure and in the distance the roar and growl of tractors could be heard as they made their way through the fields. It was late for a harvest but had been dry enough that they could still bring in another round of hay. Autumn looked the most like someone from a television show, with her calico blazer and jeans. The rest of them were dressed too much like they'd just come in off the street to pull it off.
"What do we do?" Sam asked. The girls obviously having a plan.
"Just follow, Autty." Athena assured. So hanging back a few paces they followed Autumn up to the front door. She knocked and the moment her knuckles touched the door someone behind them spoke up.
"Can I help you?" there in wranglers and a open flannel with a white t-shirt underneath stood a bona fide farm boy.
"Yes, actually. We're with Unexplained Mysteries, and caught wind of the house next door. We were wondering if you could tell us about it?" Autumn pushed through the group and down the porch steps to stand far closer than necessary to the boy. He was probably fresh out of his teens, barely, if at all, legal to drink.
"Depends on what you wanna know, Miss…"
"Daemon. Autumn Daemon, and this is my crew. Dean, Sam, and Athena." she pointed to each of them in turn.
"Curtis Webbler." he introduced himself. "How'd you say you heard about that house?"
"I didn't, but word travels. Specially in our business." Autumn filled in.
"Well, there's not much to tell. Its been in the same family since the mid 60's. But since long before that it's been the sight of many murders. No suspects ever found. Whole story goes back to slavery." he was watching Autumn carefully and she wasn't disappointing. Dean had seen girls hold themselves the same way so often he'd actually started to think it was a normal. But with it being part of his party the flirting was near unbearable to watch.
"Can you give us details on that?" Autumn asked laying her hand on his exposed forearm, where his sleeves were rolled up.
"Yea," he grinned continuing. "You see once upon a time, this family bought the land, but just before the house was complete the mother died in child birth, leaving her husband and seven sons to fend for themselves with the new baby. The baby didn't live too long, and they buried him somewhere out behind the house, supposedly right by his mom. The dad and seven boys built the house from scratch, all by themselves. But in the process the oldest two boys, who were already married, got into an argument. According to local legend one of them was caught with the other's wife. The unfaithful spouses were killed by their family and the son was incased in the chimney, but that has been replaced after a tornado hit the area when I was little. As the years went on though," he stopped and looked at Autumn as if not sure whether or not he wanted to share the next bit of information. "You said you're from Unexplained, so you like, believe in ghosts right?"
"Ghosts, aliens, werewolves, big foot, you name it." Autumn still hadn't moved her hand and the boy seemed to notice it, but didn't bother to remove it.
"Well, as time went on, its said the house was haunted. That the spirit of the murdered man and woman stayed in the house. Another version, is that just after slavery ended here, which was a bit before everywhere around, a woman, the wife of one of the sons, killed her husband so she could take up with her colored lover. So the murdered husband haunted the house, torturing his wife and her new husband's children until they went crazy and were sent to an asylum up north. The couple eventually sold the place, and the spirit didn't cause any trouble until the 1960's when another young couple moved in. But before they moved in they had major repairs done. Updating to indoor plumbing, electricity, and getting a phone line installed. There were a couple of black guys on the crew that died doing the repairs. The couple didn't think much about it. They raised a family. But whenever any African American entered the house something happened to them. They were the only ones hurt in this mess until, now."
"What's changed?" Dean asked earning himself a death glare from Autumn who repeated the question returning her gaze to Curtis.
"The kids that were killed the other day, the one boy was white, his sister was mixed, then there were the three kids whose parents immigrated from Mexico, the two Chang kids, that makes all seven. The whole town is in an uproar about it. No, one's lived there in years. Let me think, the Meyers retired to Florida ten years ago , Alexis married and left, then six years ago my sister married Charles. So it's been ten years, since anyone lived there. Chuck hates the place one set foot in it now. Sis don't like it much so I go over and keep things in order for them. Replace broken windows, trim the lawn, that kind of thing. Kids are always coming out and breaking in."
"So, you found the kids?" Autumn asked gently. Curtis looked down at his boots.
"Yea, the dogs had gone nuts all night. So, I headed over the next morning just to make sure everything was okay, the front door was open I went in and the kids were all dead up in the master bedroom."
"CURT!" a man yelled from somewhere near the barns and he turned around to see if he couldn't find the voice. "Bell's down get in here!"
"I've got to go, uh the police are going to finish up there today, you got a pen?" Athena produced a pen and memo pad from her pocket and forked them over. "Here's my number, call me and I'll give you a walk through if you want." he wrote down his number and before he left them Autumn did the same.
"Did you have to do that?" Dean asked as they walked away.
"Do what?" Autumn said with a chuckle.
"All the… flirty, girly crap."
"Yeah, yeah I did. Besides, what's the worst that can happen?"
"He's going to be acting weird and stuff now. He clearly worships you. Did you two see the way he was staring at her when she glared at us?"
"Dean, what's it matter? He's just a guy. We've got to leave this humble little town sooner or later."
"Hey, I'm just saying…"
"Oh my god just get it over with and ask her out, Dean." Athena whispered to Sam. They were far enough behind Autumn and Dean to where they wouldn't hear the two whispering back and forth.
"Yeah, did you know that when we left all those years ago, Dean only talked about her for a few weeks?" Sam whispered back.
"No, but that's pretty funny. I mean, he used to be that sensitive… and now look at him. He's with a new girl every few weeks."
"Yeah, but I think he still only loves Autumn." The two climbed in the back seat since Autumn claimed shotgun.
"Okay, lets head on back to the inn and see what we've got." Autumn suggested.