Route 666 Part 2
Alice stood off to the side and warily observed the long stretch of road where Cassie's father passed away on. Looking around, it was quite a muddy area with a lot of open space. With the way things were, foul play was impossible to even consider since there weren't any other tracks in the mud. Yet, Alice knew better than to think that way. No evidence would be left behind if a supernatural entity was involved.
Dean walked up behind Alice and whispered right up close to her ear. "Is that brain of yours already firing off ideas?"
Alice raised a brow and gave him a questionable look. "Is this a cute attempt to try and make me jump?" Her cold and skeptical eyes slowly melted away as she playfully shoved him off. "Nothing concreate yet, but I'm still thinking," she said and turned around to continue walking with Cassie and the boys.
Cassie raised a curious brow. "What ideas?"
Before Alice could answer, Dean quickly cut in. "You gotta hear this. Alice has kinda like…a sixth sense about these things. It's like she has an encyclopedia for a brain. She can just look at something and guess what the monster is," he said, sounding a lot giddier than he should be. It was like he was waiting for a chance to brag about Alice and her special skills.
Alice's face flushed a little as she fought back a shy smile. "Don't go setting me up like that, Dean. I'm not always right," she said, dropping her head to try and hide her smile, but It didn't go unnoticed by Cassie, though.
Dean shrugged and gently swayed his body to bump into her. A small attempt to tell her to relax and that it was fine. "Maybe not always, but you've been right enough to save our lives and get people out of trouble."
"But you do think somethings up, right?" Cassie asked.
Alice stayed quiet when she suddenly stopped walking. Everyone held up and looked back at her, noticing a perplexed look on her face. Like she was contemplating something.
"Last night…" she began. "This has been the third death on the same stretch of road in less than a year. No tracks, no witnesses…nothing. First it was Clayton Soames, then it was your father, and now it's Jimmy Anderson. The victims were all older black men that knew each other, too. So if anything, there is an odd pattern going on. My gut's telling me it's a haunting. A personal one that was probably affiliated with those three."
Alice quickly closed her mouth as they walked up to a man standing beside the crash site. The road was already surrounded by police and ambulances, taping off the area and trying to clean it up.
"Mayor," Cassie called out as she approached. Alice immediately recognized the man to be from the day before. The one Cassie was arguing with when Alice and the boys first stepped into the newspaper office.
The Mayor turned around. "Cassie. Should you really be here?" he said warily.
"I think I should. This is Jimmy we are talking about. He is an old friend after all," Cassie persisted.
The Mayor dropped his head solemnly. "I know. Jimmy meant something to this town. He was one of our best. We won't be the same without him."
"Our best seem to be dropping like flies. Clayton, my father, Jimmy."
"What is it exactly you want me to do?"
Cassie tightened his jaw but tried to keep her frustration in check. "How bout closing this section of road for starters?" she said, but her anger was clear in her voice.
"Close the main road? The only road in and out of town? Accidents do happen Cassie, and that's what they are. Accidents," the Mayor argued.
Dean suddenly jumped into the conversation. "Did the cops check for additional dinting on Jimmy's car, see if it was pushed?"
The Mayor paused and turned to Dean, now noticing that Cassie was with some unfamiliar faces. "Who's this?" he said.
Cassie stepped off to the side to give them an introduction. "Dean and Sam Winchester and Alice Cromwell. Family friends. This is Mayor Harold Todd."
The Mayor nodded his head slowly and gave Dean a suspicious look. "There's one set of tire tracks. One doesn't point to foul play."
Cassie quickly interjected. "Mayor, the police and town officials take their cues from you. If you're indifferent about..."
"Indifferent!" he exclaimed.
"Would you close the road if the victims were white?" Cassie finally snapped.
The Mayor didn't say anything for a moment and gave Cassie a knowing look. "You suggesting I'm racist Cassie? I'm the last person you should talk to like that."
"And why is that."
"Why don't you ask your mother," he finished before walking off, leaving the four of them on the field to contemplate what he meant by those words.
Alice bit down on her lips and huffed. "Well…that went down like a led balloon."
Alice walked over to the side of the bed and pulled her black suit jacket off. She slung it around her body while heading to the mirror to fix her hair and clothes. Sam was already dressed, and Dean was outside going through the Impala's arsenal to make sure they had everything they needed. Just in case.
"I'll say this for her. She's fearless," Sam said while adjusting his tie. He peeked at Alice from the corner of his eye but saw no change in her expression. Instead, she looked flat and almost disconnected. Sam would've thought she didn't hear him if Alice didn't take a moment to speak.
"Yeah. I can see why Dean went out with her at one point," she said with a bit of edge in her voice. "Bet she kicked his ass a couple times."
Taking a deep breath, Sam bowed his head and swallowed hard. He thought Alice was okay with it all because she hadn't said anything about Cassie and Dean's relationship. Yet, that wasn't the case. Deep down, Sam knew that Alice was uncomfortable with the situation, but he had been too afraid to bring it up. Thinking somehow, he was going to hurt her feelings. Rather than expressing her discomfort with the situation, she resided herself to silently brewing with anger and dismay.
"Alice-" Sam began but was quickly cut off when Dean walked back into their room, dressed and ready to go.
"We ready?" Dean asked, utterly oblivious to the tension in the air.
Alice was swift to hide her emotions back behind clenched teeth. "Ready when you are. I'll meet you boys outside," she said, brushing past Dean while walking out of the room.
Sam immediately huffed and gave his brother a look.
"What is it?" Dean said.
"She's still not right," Sam said while shaking his head. "If I didn't know any better…I think she's jealous."
Instantly, Dean's whole face cringed up. "Jealous? Can…can Alice even get jealous?" He didn't even like putting Alice's name and the word 'jealous' in the same sentence. It felt weird even to consider she could feel that way.
Sam tightened his jaw, wishing his brother would take this more seriously. "She's not a machine, Dean. People have insecurities. She's not an exception to that," he insisted.
For a moment, Dean was quiet. He remembered when he had said that to Alice before, and how she looked at him during that time. The truth had always been there, but she had never accepted it until then. Not until Dean reached inside and ripped it all out for her to see. He had finally made her face the facts, even if it wasn't what she wanted to hear. Despite the pain it caused her, he knew that in the end, she would be grateful for his honesty. It was his way of showing her that he cared for her and wanted her to be free of the burdens she had been carrying for so long.
Dean closed her eyes tightly and breathed slowly. "You know…I said the exact same thing to her before, and the face that she gave me..." he swallowed a lump down his throat and shook his head, "I never want her to look like that ever again."
Sam, Dean, and Alice stepped out of the Impala and walked alongside the pier. Right up to a pair of older men who were having lunch by the edge.
"Excuse me. Are you Ron Stubbins?" Sam asked one of the men.
Ron looked up at the three of them and nodded.
"You were friends with Jimmy Anderson?" Dean started.
"Who are you?" Ron asked skeptically.
"We're Mr Anderson's insurance company. We're just here to dot 'I's' and cross 'T's'."
"We were hoping to ask some questions. About whether the deceased had mentioned any unusual experiences?" Alice said.
"What do you mean, unusual?" Ron asked, giving Alice an odd look.
"Things such as visions or hallucinations. Things such as that. It's for a medical examination."
Ron quickly turned his nose up. "What company did you say you were with?"
"All National Mutual." Alice answered swiftly, hoping the man wouldn't ask too many questions that would blow their cover. It would be easier if they just got back on topic. "We're wondering if Jimmy Anderson mentioned anything of a truck. A big black one."
"What the hell you talking about? You even speaking English?"
Alice froze and stared at him. "Excuse me?" she said, her voice dropping slightly in pitch.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Ron's friend suddenly cut in. "This truck, a big scary monster-looking thing, right?"
Alice furrowed her brows and turned her attention fully to him. "Yes, that's right. Do you know something about it?"
The friend had to think about it for a little. "I have heard of a truck like that."
"You have? Where?" Sam asked, eager to dig further into this new lead.
"Not where. When. Back in the '60s there was a string of deaths. Black men. Story goes, they disappeared in a big, nasty, black truck."
"They ever catch the guy who did it?" Dean asked, looking slightly perplexed at the familiar case they were working on.
The friend somberly shook his head. "Never found him. Hell, not sure they even really looked. See there was a time, this town wasn't too friendly to all its citizens."
Sam exchanged a looked between Dean and Alice before looking back to the two men. "Thank you," he said with a smile before leaving.
Once they were out of earshot, Alice spoke up. "That truck keeps coming up," she said while walking back to the Impala.
Dean nodded. "You did mention that it was probably a haunting. You might be on to something."
"Not the truck, but the person driving it, " Alice corrected.
"Like the flying dutchman?" Dean asked.
Alice paused and let a smile fall to her lips. She looked up at him, impressed that he had put that much together. "Very good," she said earnestly, causing Dean to feel flattered.
Sam, on the other hand, looked confused. "What about it?"
"Well, you know the legend, right?" Alice asked.
"It's a ghost ship. Infused by with the captain's evil spirit." Dean interjected. "It was basically part of him. We're probably dealing with the same thing. You know, a phantom truck, an extension of some bastard's ghost, re-enacting past crimes."
"The victims have all been black men," Sam suddenly recalled.
"I think it's more than that," Dean said while pausing for a second to think. "They all seem connected to Cassie and her family."