What am I doing here? Tyler was standing in the rain, watching Dean and Sam argue in their motel room. She had no intention of going in just yet, even though she was soaked to the bone. Oregon. She should be going to visit her contacts. Missouri and Bobby had given her all the information she needed. Her eyes were glued to the two brothers arguing over the case they'd found. Five beheaded women, found in empty shacks, their bodies hacked and slashed. Morbid, yes. Supernatural, maybe. Sam wasn't so sure. Dean was. They'd been bickering all the way from the morgue to the motel. She had gone out to grab some food, and to get away from them.
Being around the Winchesters left her with a sour taste in her mouth. She hated to keep things from them. Well, things that weren't her private affairs anyways. This was about Castiel and Purgatory. This was about torture and struggle. If her sources were right. And she suspected they were. They had never led her astray before. But she couldn't abandon them. Not on this hunt. There was something about the bodies…something was off. She had no idea what, but she trusted her gut feeling. Something bad was happening. Of course, dead women spread all over a city was never good, but it felt even worse than it should.
Silently she approached the motel and made her way in. No use thinking about Castiel or Purgatory right now. There was nothing she could do about that now. She needed to get her head in the game. Tomorrow they'd check out some of the shacks. Before opening the door and entering the room, Tyler checked her messages. Bobby again. Communicating in code to make sure Sam and Dean wouldn't find out. Nothing new on his end. She had expected that. He told her to be careful. She'd expected that too.
Sam and Dean were quiet as they followed Tyler old pickup truck up the muddy road. Things had been strange between the three of them. She'd been so silent the past few days. Even more than she usually was. Sam had seen her fiddling with her watch a lot and told himself to ask her about that thing one of those days. His brother had been strangely silent as well. Sam worried about that. Dean only became so silent when he was brooding on something or reflecting on himself.
Dean parked the car as Tyler got out. She grabbed her sawed-off and waited for the guys to join her. Together they entered the shack, guns at the ready. It was pitch-black. But they could hear the whimpering clearly. Dean signaled Sam and Tyler to approach cautiously as he moved forward. As his eyes started to adjust, he could see two dark shapes. He pointed his shotgun, but didn't shoot. Sam was squinting to make out the shapes. Tyler was simply looking. They couldn't see what she saw. After all, they were human.
She could see the bloodied body lying on the floor, head more than a few feet away. Slowly she surveyed the corpse, counting the cuts and bruises. Whatever did this….it took pleasure in torture. She moved forward towards the brunette crouching next to the body, covered with blood as well. Sam grabbed her arm to stop her, at the same time as the woman looked up. Her eyes were as blue as the ocean. Those eyes seemed to pierce their souls. Her mouth opened. She let out a piercing scream.
That scream was too…otherworldly to be considered human. Dean felt his arms rise and pointed his gun at her, seeing from the corner of his eye that Sam had done the same. They had to gank it, now that it was vulnerable. They took aim. And stopped themselves right on time as Tyler stepped in front of them. "Can't let you do that." Neither of them lowered weapons.
"Move out of the way, Tyler. She's a supernatural creature." Tyler nodded thoughtfully. "Yes. But she's my supernatural creature." The guys frowned. As it became clear she wasn't going to move, they lowered their weapons, slowly. Tyler watched them for a while, making sure they weren't going to shoot and turned to the woman. She was whimpering. Tyler crouched in front of her and inspected her. "Serena, are you hurt?" The woman kept whimpering. "Serena, is this your blood. Serena! Serena, look at me! Are you hurt?"
Becoming impatient and annoyed as she kept being ignored, Tyler smacked the woman in the face. "OW!" the woman screamed as her eyes snapped into focus. Sam and Dean looked at each other, confused. "Are you hurt?" Tyler repeated. "I am now!" Tyler stood up and gestured for the woman to do the same. They turned to the brothers.
"This is Serena. She's a Nymph." As she spoke those words, Tyler realized what her gut had been telling her all this time. The women were all Nymphs. She'd recognized the imprints of their necklaces on their necks in the lab, but hadn't been able to put two and two together. Sam and Dean fidgeted. "She did this?" Sam ventured. Tyler shook her head. Sam frowned. She took both guys by the arm and led them away from Serena. "How can you be sure?" Dean asked. "Because she-"
A scream interrupted Tyler. They looked back. It seemed the Nymph only now noticed the blood she was covered. She went down as she fainted. "Is afraid of blood."