Chapter 11
Stop Joking Around
(Season 1 - Bugs)
Dean parked the car and the trio slammed the doors. Together, they approached a man who they believed was a witness to the death of the construction worker.
"Travis Weaver?" Sam called to him.
The man looked up at the sound of his name. "Yeah, that's right."
"Are you the Travis who worked with Uncle Dusty?" Dean lied about the relationship to the victim. He figured a distant relative wouldn't seem too suspicious.
"Dustin never mentioned nephews or a niece."
"Really? Well, he sure mentioned you. He said you were the greatest." Sam and Sarah nodded along to Dean's words, trying to make it more convincing.
"Oh, he did? Huh," Travis said with a hint of shock.
"So, we wanted to ask you - what exactly happened out there?"
Travis shook his head. "I'm not sure. He fell in the sinkhole. I went to the truck to get some rope, and by the time I got back..."
Dean could tell he wanted to something. "What'd you see?"
"Nothing. Just Dustin."
"No wounds or anything?" Sam asked.
"Well, he was bleeding from his eyes and his ears, his nose, but that's it."
"So do you think it could be this whole mad cow thing?"
"I don't know. That's what the doctors are saying."
"But if it was, he would have acted strange beforehand, like dementia, loss of motor control."
"Did you ever notice anything like that?" Sarah added to the end of Sam's description.
Travis shook his head again. "No. No way. Yeah, but if it wasn't some disease, what the hell was it?"
Dean agreed. "That's a good question."
"Can you tell us where this happened?"
Travis nodded at Sam. "Yeah." He gave them detailed directions to the new development not too far from where they were talking. They thanked Travis for his help and proceeded back to the car.
Dean started the car and turned down his music. "So what's the plan? We just go over there and see if there's anything freaky going on?"
"Sounds about right to me." Sarah leaned back in her seat.
"All righty then." Dean pulled off and drove right to the new development.
Dust was flying everywhere and workers were continuing with their day. There was at least a block or two of finished homes and about two more of ones half finished. They were nice, new modern homes that could fit normal sized families. The house where the death occurred was taped off with crime scene tape. Legally, they weren't supposed to cross that line, but that didn't bother them. They were used to breaking the law, especially when there was lives at stake. There were even moments when hunters forgot laws exist. Laws went ignored.
Sam, Dean, and Sarah left the car and walked over to the tree next to the hole the victim fell down.
"Huh. What do you think?" Dean asked his brother.
"I don't know, but if that guy Travis was right, it happened pretty damn fast."
Sam and Dean ducked under the police tape. Sarah was about to do the same, but Dean lifted it so she wouldn't have to bend so low. "Why thank you kind sir."
"No problem." The three of them looked down the hole. "So what? Some sort of creature chewed on his brain."
"No, there'd be an entry wound. Sounds like this thing worked from the inside." Sarah didn't want to admit it, but she knew Sam was smarter than her. Hell, he may have been the smartest person she had ever encountered and she's met a lot of people.
Dean flashed his flashlight down the hole. "Huh. It looks like there's only room for one."
"One what?" Sarah stood up at stared down at the oldest Winchester.
"One person."
"To go down there?" Her eyes widened at the thought. Her heart started pumping and she could feel sweat forming on her forehead. She had trouble controlling her breathing.
"Yeah. We gotta find out what's down there. Why? You want to do it?"
Sarah backed away and nearly tripped over a stray branch. "No. No. No."
Dean straightened himself out and stared at the girl. He knew he triggered something. "What? What's wrong?" He reached out and grabbed her shoulder.
His touch was enough to calm her enough to answer his question. "I, um... I'm not particularly fond of small, tight spaces like that." In other words, Sarah was a raging claustrophobic. Small spaces like that caused severe panic attacks in the twenty-four-year-old female. It was her number one fear. Just thinking about possibility going down there almost brought her to tears.
Dean always thought a fear like that was illogical and dumb. He had a tendency of making fun of people with such ridiculous fears, but this was different. He decided to hold back his remarks. He could see the true fear in Sarah's eyes and the last thing he wanted was to make her feel bad about it. Dean actually liked that she was open about such a feeling. Instead of calling her out, he backed off. He was always fond of the idea of protecting this girl. This was a way of protecting her, I guess. "That's okay. Me or Sam will do it. You can just hang back."
Sarah's mouth dropped open. "Really?" She couldn't believe that Dean would be so understanding. She thought he was the kind that would make her 'face her fear.' Her breathing slowed. "Thank you," she said sincerely.
He nodded once and turned to Sam. "You want to flip a coin?"
Sam felt what Sarah was feeling. "Dean, we have no idea what's down there."
Dean walked a few feet over and grabbed a hose. He had no problem making fun of his brother, however. "All right, I'll go if you're scared. Scared?"
Sam hated when Dean did that. He wasn't scared, just cautious. "Flip the damn coin."
Dean chuckled as he pulled the coin from his pocket. "Call it in the air... chicken."
Sam got frustrated with his brother and snatched the coin from the air. "I'm going."
"I said I'd go."
The younger brother didn't want to argue with Dean. "I'm going." He started to wrap the hose around him before Dean could object further.
"All right." Dean would never say it out loud, but he didn't want to go down there either. He was more than happy to let his little brother do it.
"Don't drop me," Sam told Sarah and Dean.
"Don't worry, Sam. I think Sarah and I are strong enough to hold your fat ass."
Sarah hit him. "That's not very nice."
"Yeah, Dean. That's not very nice," Sam repeated and smirked.
"Oh, it's okay, Sarah. He's my little brother. I can say stuff like that." Dean grinned the goofy grin that Sarah just loved. She completely forgot what they were talking about and got lost in his smile.
"Bull." Sam slowly lowered himself down while Sarah and Dean held the hose tightly.
Sarah looked away as Sam disappeared. She tried her best to think of other things, but it was difficult.
"Have you always been claustrophobic?" Dean asked, trying to make conversation.
"Yup."
"Always this bad?"
"Yup."
She clearly doesn't want to talk about it, Dean. Stop asking. He breathed slowly and tried to think of something else to talk about, but it was unneeded.
"Okay. Pull me up," Sam shouted from underground.
Dean and Sarah were in perfect sync as they pulled Sam to ground level. Both of them could feel it, too. There was something that just clicked when they worked together.
"So, what did you find down there, Sammy?"
Sam untied himself and held out his closed fist. He opened it to reveal small black dots.
"Bugs? You found bugs in a hole in the ground? Wow, Sam. Great police work. I'll be in the car." Sarah walked away before Sam could explain his reasoning for the bugs.
Dean didn't wait either. You've got to be kidding me, Sam. "That's all you found?"
"Yeah, but..."
"Explain it in the car. It's hot out here." Dean wasn't waiting anymore. He wanted to be in the car with Sarah.
Dean drove down the road and Sam looked at the black beetles in his hands. Sarah leaned over the seat and stared at Sam's hand. These bugs were not worth bringing back.
"So you found beetles in a hole in the ground. That's shocking, Sam."
Sarah nudged Dean in the shoulder. "Right! Sam, we'd better report this to the scientific community! This is groundbreaking!"
Dean smiled widely and laughed. Man, I love her sarcastic jokes. She's so funny. I adore women with a sense of humor. Dean tried his hardest not to think about it, but Sarah's face made the weirdest expression when she was being sarcastic. It got all twisted and over dramatic. It was something that surely caught his eye.
"Haha, very funny," Sam frowned. "There were no tunnels, no tracks, no evidence of any other kind of creature down there. You know, some beetles do eat meat."
"Ew." Sarah scrunched up her face in disgust.
"Now, it's usually dead meat, but-"
"Still, ew."
"How many did you find down there?" Dean interrupted.
"10."
Sarah supported her head with her hand and rested her elbow on the front seat. "That's it?"
"It would take a whole lot more than that to eat some dude's brain."
"He's right," Sarah supported. He's so smart. I've got to give it to him.
"Well, maybe there were more." Sam knew he wasn't crazy. This had to be something.
"I don't know. It sounds like a stretch to me." Dean doubted this was an actual case. This doesn't count. She can stay longer.
"We need more information on the area, the neighborhood, whether something like this ever happened before."
"You want this to be a case so badly, don't you, Sam?" Sarah stared at him. You only want this to be a case so you can get rid of me, right? I'm not that stupid.
"Something just doesn't feel right. There's got to be something here."
Dean squinted at the red balloons tied to a sign in front of a house. "I know a good place to start. Kinda hungry for a little barbecue, how about you guys?"
Sarah saw the sign. There was an open house to help sell some of the houses that were being built. The sellers were hosting a barbecue for anyone interested in buying. "Seriously, Dean?"
"What, we can't talk to the locals?" Dean asked.
Sarah knew he was full of crap. "Are you doing it to get info or for the food?"
Dean pulled the car over. "Why can't it be both?"
A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay. I've had some health issues and have been trying to catch up on my work. Now that I am fully caught up, expect these more frequently. Thank you all for reading! This chapter was named after Stop Joking Around by Hawksley Workman.
