Higher Education
When they arrived in the community of Maple City, the first thing they did was get a motel room. They settled in and quickly checked the news for anything that may have happened during their ride over. So far the only thing was a really freaked out college girl, claiming to have been followed by a monster.
When the reporters asked for details, she was unable to give them any. She hadn't seen it, but she heard it hissing. When it had moved, it seemed big and she ran, ran back to her place.
The brothers knew that their search began at the campus of Northwestern Michigan College which was fifteen miles from Maple City center. If this serpent thing was chasing after an out-of-town girl, then this place would be filled with them; young women coming from different towns all packed into one location. And if Sam was right, the sister, Hel, would be there. It seemed odd, but he was willing to bet that she might be trying to get away from her serpent brother.
However, Dean hadn't mentioned anything, not even how ridiculous he thought this theory to be. He could argue that Hel just wanted to live the normal college experience; booze and parties, but everything just seemed stupid. He wasn't helping Sam think of other theories. What was the point? Not only was it stupid, but they had bigger fish to fry.
They quickly exchanged their shirts and jeans for their monkey suits, as Dean called them. They prepared their badges and their weapons. As soon as they were ready, they got back on the road and grabbed something to eat on the run, of course.
Sam had called ahead and the dean of the college was willing to meet them. Dean Brenner was also going to get the student from the news, Stacy Jolys, to talk to them. He was eager to help, not only so it would appear as he wanted to keep the students safe, but to protect the reputation of the institution. The last thing the college wanted was to scare everyone away.
The impala roared as it entered the parking lot of the college. There were some students ready for class that turned to look. Dean parked his baby and as the brothers got out, all eyes were on them. They were expecting cell phone to begin recording (because kids these days have to record everything from their lunch to their thoughts), but the students just kept on walking by, like they expected to be the ones filmed. The campus was done being in the news and just wanted to be left alone.
"They seem nervous to me." Dean said as he turned and looked over the hood of the car at Sam.
"Small enough place. Whatever we're chasing has them on edge and now that the reporters are done getting their news, they're looking for normalcy." Sam replied and Dean just looked out at all the students.
"I'm still looking for normalcy, but that doesn't exist in our line of work." He replied and Sam gave a short nod of agreement.
They walked inside and used the signs on the walls to find the dean's office. When they found it, there was a secretary in between them and the dean's door. She was a middle-aged thin framed woman that smiled as they walked in. Her smile brightened as she looked at Dean and she even fixed up her hair. Sam tried not to smirk.
"We're agents Leary and Taggart." Sam said, reaching for his badge that was in his inner breast pocket, but the secretary waved him and picked up the phone.
"Dean Brenner, agents Leary and Taggart are here." She said and smiled up at Dean. "He'll see you, agent…" She said, waiting to get Dean's name.
"Taggart." He replied, not liking this scenario. The secretary smiled and even got up, opening the door for them, still smiling at Dean.
"Thanks." He said and she let out a soft chuckle, like she was flattered. When they walked into the dean's office, a well dressed middle-aged man got up from behind his desk and shook their hands with a weak smile. There were paintings on his walls as well as achievements, but no pictures of his family. A typical businessman where money was all that mattered.
"Hello agents." Dean Brenner said and sat back down in his chair after his guests.
"You said we could speak to Stacy Jolys." Sam said and the dean nodded his head.
"She's at her sorority house, coping from the ordeal. She's agreed to meet you there." He said and Dean quickly glanced at his brother, trying not to smirk; a house full of young women looking for a good time, tempting. "How can I help you?" the dean asked.
"Has there been more sightings?" Dean asked, the smirk now gone as he dove into business, getting Dean Brenner's attention.
"Not to my knowledge." He replied. "I have rumors passing around, from a giant Slytherin snake to big foot." He added as he shook his head. Dean fought the urge to ask if that was a Harry Potter reference and proceeded.
"According to the papers, Jolys claimed she didn't see a snake, just heard a hiss." Dean said, quick to point out the snake detail and the lack of it in her story.
"She confessed later than she saw its tail before it hid in the bushes. She didn't want to say that to the reporters; afraid they'd call her crazy." Dean Brenner replied, his eyes suggesting there was something else he wasn't telling.
"What else?" Sam asked, recognizing that secretive look. The dean was reluctant, but soon gave in and revealed what he was holding back. A decently honest business man, now that was something different.
"The students have been following these stories about large snakes being spotted, killing young women. When Stacy reported something, they started talking about it being a snake. At first, I thought she bought into the hype, but her sisters said she was bewildered when the student body began calling it a large snake, as if they know what she saw before she admitted it." The dean said and looked down at his desk. "I'm confident she did see a snake, but maybe not a monster, like the rumours." He concluded and looked back up at them. There was a small amount of silence before he gave a small smile. "But if you're here, this can't be someone's lost pet." He said and Sam gave a small empathetic smile.
"Any surveillance videos that have captured this snake?" Sam asked and the dean nodded his head slightly.
"We haven't seen it, but there's one angle where you can see Stacy reacting to something." Dean Brenner replied. "My secretary will get you in touch with our security team." He added and Sam nodded in thanks.
"Has there been other occurrences?" Dean asked and Brenner shook his head with a smile on his face.
"No," he replied, losing the smile. "The occasional drugs between hands, but nothing worth noting." He added and then gave a small grin. "Don't suppose you'd throw in a bonus and take care of the drugs." He concluded and the brothers got up, thanking him for his time and just walked out. Sam gave the dean a fake smile to compensate for his brother's abrupt departure.
The secretary called the security team and told Dean to turn down the corridor to their right; that one of the security guards would bring them to their office and show them the video. She smiled at Dean as he walked out and once they were out of her sight, Dean shot a glare of annoyance at his brother.
"Shut up." He said and, just as she said, a security guard met them, young and tall with wavy hair trying to escape from under his cap. He seemed to like his job, a lot, since there were lots of young women around, some probably into guys in uniform.
"Agents Leary and Taggart." He said, extending his hand to them. "I'm Gary, mostly the night security guard, but Dean Brenner notified me you'd have questions." He added and they shook his hand, only because it seemed mandatory to be convincingly professional.
"We're going to need to see that video." Dean said and Gary just nodded his head, leading them towards the security office.
"I pulled it up for you." Gary said and when they walked into the office, he sat in the chair and got it to play. "Okay, so this is Stacy walking across the lawn over here." He said, pointing to someone walking from the back of the institution, through the track field, over to the fence with bushes hiding most of the view. "She walks over here and then," he says, pausing to let the video speak for itself as the woman stopped and jumped, freaking out, and running the opposite way, back to the back door.
"Is there a way to see what scared her?" Sam asked Gary, but the guy shook his head.
"No. We've been trying to get the green peeps to trim those bushes, but it's been a struggle." He replied and the brothers exchanged glances, frowning.
"How's that a struggle?" Dean asked. "Pick up cutters and cut." He added and Gary turned in his chair, looking at Dean with illuminated eyes.
"I know, right? That's what I said." he replied. "But they're all like 'No, it upsets the funkshway'. Whatever the Hell that means." He added and turned back to the video.
"You mean feng shui." Sam corrected. "The philosophical system of harmonizing with surrounding environments." He added and Gary looked up at him, somewhat looking confused.
"He's an encyclopedia." Dean said and quickly got back to the video, ignoring his brother's offended expression. "There's no other camera in that area?" he asked and Gary shook his head.
"No. We looked at all other videos and that's all we got." He replied, but Sam frowned as he looked at the computer monitors.
"Can we take a look?" he asked and Gary nodded, about to show them how it all works, but Sam waved him off.
"Encyclopedia and tech manual." Dean whispers to Gary, closing the door behind him.
The brothers had full access to the cameras, confident that their trained eyes would see something that the security guards had missed.
They watched as much of the videos on campus as they could, mostly all around the time Stacy encountered their monster. When Dean became restless after about an hour, Sam suggest he go talk to her at the sonority house and as Dean was leaving, he couldn't resist throwing a little humor his brother's way.
"Remember, you're an FBI agent, not a Strip-O-Gram." Sam said, smirking as he could imagine his brother glaring at the back of his head.
Dean left the office, ignoring his little pain-in-the-ass brother, and made his way over to the sonority house. It wasn't hard to miss, it being the only big, slightly pink, house on the street not far from the college. He walked down the street for about fifteen minutes, and as he began up the steps, some girls opened the door, looking at him, waiting. Apparently, they didn't expect a good looking FBI agent to be in charge of this case.
"Are you the FBI agent that wants to talk to Stacy?" one brunette asked, thin framed glasses making her look like the sexy librarian type. Dean walked up the final step and nodded.
"Agent Taggart." He replied and the girls all smiled at him, one blond in the back was twirling her finger in her hair, nearly biting her lower lip.
"Lucky Stacy." Another blond said before she walked away.
"Wait, you're not some stripper, right?" the one beside the brunette finally asked, since she hadn't stopped staring at Dean. He tried not to smirk as he nodded his head, taking out his badge, which was ironically fake. "So not a stripper?" she asked and Dean shook his head.
"Stop." The brunette whispered to the one beside her, staring her down, making her join the others.
"He's so fucking hot." She said in the background to the other girls, who giggled and, as Dean glanced at the window beside the door, they had to see for themselves while trying to be concealed behind the lace curtain.
"I warn you, it's like walking into a den of lionesses." The brunette said, which got Dean to crack a smile on his lips, the girls nearly swooning as they peeped through the window curtains. The brunette tried to stifle a laugh as she could hear them. "Come on in. I'll take you up to her room." She said and Dean walked in, looking around, seeing young women in the room to his left, all staring at him. Didn't they get a lot of guys coming around? What kind of sonority was this?
Oh, please not young women pledging to remain virgins until marriage.
As the brunette lead him up the stairs, she twisted her upper body to glance at him over her shoulder.
"I'm Rose." She said and Dean smiled. "Sorry about all the drama. You get tired of frat boys after a while, you know?" she added and Dean only nodded. She let out a laugh as she realized what she said, he couldn't relate. "Well, anyway, I'm the Head Girl here, so I appreciate an FBI agent taking our welfare into account." She said, flashing him a warm smile.
"It's my job." Dean replied, getting a little grin from Rose, and they walked down the short corridor on the second floor, reaching the last door. Rose knocked and called for Stacy. They could hear a response and Rose smiled at Dean before she went back downstairs.
The door opened and a girl with shoulder length dirty blond hair looked up at Dean with creamy brown eyes. She wrapped a wool sweater around her. She wore sweat pants and, as comfortably dressed as she was, she looked like she hadn't slept well in days.
"I'm agent Taggart." Dean said and he was about to show his badge, but she stepped aside and waved him in. She closed the door behind him and sat comfortably on her bed, letting Dean pull her chair away from her desk to sit in front of her. "Tell me what happened." he said and she nodded, looking down at her hands.
"Everyone believes me, but I know they don't truly believe me. It's like saying I saw Big Foot and everyone wants to be the one to snap a picture of it." Stacy said as Dean listened attentively. "I didn't really tell everyone the complete truth because who believes stuff like that?" she asked and looked at Dean.
"Me." he replied. "I've seen and heard all sorts of things." He added, letting her know that he would believe her, even if he didn't really believe this case was about a large snake trying to find his Norse Goddess sister. It just seemed weird, but he was willing to take small steps to the truth, even if that meant this girl saw a big Harry Potter snake.
Stacy relaxed, seeming relieved, and nodded.
"I was walking out the back door. I had a late class close to the back door and I didn't want to go the long way. So, I cut through the track field and was going to hop over the fence, walk through the back lane that I'd often used to get to the house." Stacy said, staying calm, until she began to remember what had happened next. Her eyes widened and her button lip quivered. "I heard something in the bushes by the fence. I tried not to look, thinking maybe one of the guys was trying to scare me. The guys can be so immature and, as a house, we were tired of it. I thought maybe they were trying to get back at us.
"I started walking faster and then I heard a hiss that made me stop." Stacy said, the panic going into her voice now, slowing going into her arms where she started to tremble. "It was like a rattle snake and I'm deathly afraid of snakes." She said and Dean tried not to point out her choice of words. "I turned and looked at the bushes. If it wasn't for the spot lights by the door, I wouldn't have seen that large face, piercing eyes and its split tongue flicking in my direction. It was so huge and at the end of the bushes, I saw the tail, rattling, but its tail wasn't like a rattle snake.
"I wasn't going to study its features, before you ask for more details. I wanted to run, but I thought for sure, it's going to slither faster than I can run and it's going to kill me. I didn't want to see those fangs. I ran and screamed. I didn't look until I was in the back lane. The snake didn't follow me and I was glad of it." Stacy said, trembling as she recalled the snake and the how the fear washed over her like a tidal wave, forcing her into fight or flight mode.
There was no doubt that Dean couldn't believe what she had seen, even if he didn't have proof.
"Has anyone else seen this snake?" Dean asked her and she shrugged her shoulders.
"Not seriously. Some people say they did, but I would know if they did." Stacy said, looking into Dean's green eyes, taking comfort in someone believing her, listening to her. "They'd be afraid." She concluded and Dean nodded.
"Thanks for your time." Dean said, getting up, and Stacy murmured him to wait.
"There's one person you might want to talk to." Stacy said, getting Dean's attention before he left. "Rowan McKinley. She lives in the dorms on the other side of the college." She added and Dean nodded in appreciation as he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.
As he walked downstairs, he checked his phone. There was a small text from Sam, telling him to come back when he was done. It didn't sound too urgent.
Dean reached the last step and the girls stopped talking and looked at him. Rose popped out and stood a foot away.
"How is she?" Rose asked and Dean gave a small smile.
"Shaken, but she'll be fine." Dean said and glanced at the girls watching him. He looked back at Rose with her sexy librarian glasses and stepped closer, being professional, of course. "Give me a call if there's anything else." he added and Rose smiled, taking his card, meeting his eyes in a flirtatious way.
"Thanks." She said and watched as he gave a smile to the girls, and walked out.