++++++ Just letting you all know that I will have no internet next week due to moving house. All I need to do is wait for the guy to come and connect the internet but in the mean time I won't have anyway to upload.
I hope you enjoy.
I do not own ++++++
Chapter Two
Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win.
Stephen King
"Doesn't it disturb you that we always talk shop over food?"
Dean Winchester look at his brother with a frown on his face. "Nope. What disturbs me is that it disturbs you. We always talk shop over food."
His younger brother, Sam Winchester and the taller of the two, stared at his brother with a frown. "Can't we talk about something else?"
"Like what? Who won American Idol?"
"That's not what I meant-"
Dean pushed Sam inside the front door of Phillips Avenue Diner. "I caught you fair and square watching who won."
"Welcome to Phillips, I'll be your waitress, Monica. How can I help you?"
Sam let out a sigh of relief and silently thanked the waitress.
Dean gave the waitress the one over and grinned. "Afternoon, Monica." He winked at her before spotting her crucifix necklace. "Religious?" He was motioning to Monica's cross around her neck.
"Dean!" the taller one snapped.
"Menu?"
"I'll take the special." Dean wagged his eyebrows, grinning.
"Just some coffee for the two of us to start," Sam cut in. "Thanks Monica." When the waitress walked away, Sam kicked Dean underneath the table. "Not every girl you come across is going to want to spend the night with you!"
Dean stuck his tongue out at his brother.
"Childish, Dean."
"Can't believe that we're actually doing our normal gig again," Dean grinned. "No angels, no Lilith, no end of the world crap. Just good old fashion demons. So what's going on?"
Sam opened the laptop and took a while to bring up what he was searching for. "Hey we just got an email from Bobby."
"What's the old guy up to? A little Ghost action?"
"You're an idiot, Dean." Sam frowned. "It's a voicemail message he pulled off his phone, from another hunter called Art Moran." Sam clicked into the item and turned the sound down.
"Fuck you, Bobby Singer! Have you got something to tell me? I just got attacked by not one, but two angels! Angels! Angels are real! Call me back when you get this Bobby! I just killed one!" The speaker was a woman and man was she pissed off.
Dean groaned. "Just when I was enjoying our angel-free vacation. What are angels doing attacking hunters anyway?"
"Do I look like I have a backdoor into the angel's way of thinking?" Sam frowned. "Bobby asked us to look into it and to let us know he'll be back in a few hours."
Dean cocked an eyebrow just as the waitress came back over with the coffee and to take their orders. In the end, Dean ordered a Double Bacon Burger with extra bacon and chili fries with a shake whilst Sam ordered a Caesar Salad with another coffee.
"Sorry about that," Sam apologised. "I'm Sam and this is my brother Dean"
"Monica," she answered back. "Nice to meet you Sam."
As Monica slowly walked away from the two, she had to take a second, albeit sneaky look, at Sam as she felt like she'd seen him before; the night she'd had her first kiss. The guy's name was Mark and he looked just like Sam.
Mark had been her first crush, and her first boyfriend (one of the best secrets she'd hidden from the sisters in her honest opinion-take that Sister Elizabeth). They'd shared a kiss just behind the bleachers. It was the year before she'd been attacked by that kid that had been. She hadn't seen him since that day, but seeing Sam out there made her think of him.
Must be the day for walking down memory lane.
Monica went behind the counter to sort out the order, but she kept her eyes on Sam. Sure he was cute-though the older trying to flirt with her was beyond her. Monica headed to the back to help Smith make a fresh salad (Monica would never trust Smith to make a fresh salad-ever). She made sure that the salad was made perfect before she walked back out to bring the salad to Sam. She smiled, setting it down.
"Here you go Sam. I thought you would enjoy it that way. I'll get you that refill on your coffee now. Dean, your cheeseburger is coming out shortly. I thought that I should let you know."
She turned to leave but stopped when she got a glimpse of the laptop the two were whispering over. Monica tilted her head to get a better look. The laptop looked old, but it was one of the really good ones she'd heard about. She pointed to the laptop as she smiled.
"That is actually a really good laptop, I bet it is just as reliable as when it first came out right? If you need any work done on your laptop, I can take a look at it if you want. A really good friend of mine taught me a few things about computers. I promise I won't look at anything that you have on there."
Dean looked up and grinned at Sam. He lifted up his eyebrows before he kicked Sam under the table.
"Don't worry, if you think you'll find porn on there you won't. My little brother is about as squeaky clean as a nun at church. Probably got the latest on who won American Idol and the Kardashian homepage. Although why he got that Stanford education for that I don't know."
"Shut up, Doctor Sexy!"
Dean kicked him again. "Bitch."
"Jerk!"
She crossed her arms and looked over Dean. Monica shook her head but she had a small smirk on her face.
"And what exactly is wrong with wanting to learn? Sometimes I wish I could have gone back to school, but with me working here has taken up all my time for me to even think about going back to school."
Sam actually reached over and placed his hand on her arm gently. A kind smile on his face-those eyes though...man she could get lost in those eyes of his.
"Monica, I am sure you could go back to school. I mean I did before...well you don't need to know about that. I mean I am sure that you can do it, I mean don't you have your parents to help support you anyways?"
Monica would have answered only the bell above the door rang again. This time, a girl about her age came in making Dean's eyebrows shoot up.
"Dean!"
Monica had a feeling that Sam had a really hard time roping his brother in.
The girl crossed the floor and slumped in a booth far enough away from everyone. Both Sam and Dean did a double take when she took her jacket off-up and down her right arm she was covered in black warding symbols.
This girl was a hunter.
"Ah-thanks Monica," Sam coughed. "We're fine here for the moment until Dean's burger comes out."
Dean waited until Monica was gone before he chuckled. "Dude you two were like one bad flirt away from having sex here on the floor. A little Lionel Richie and boom! Fireworks."
"Shut up, Dean. Relax-she's probably just passing through. No hunter in their right mind works around here cause Bobby's here."
"Whatever, Sam."
Sam sighed and he started to eat his salad. Dean played around with the sugar packets until Monica came out his food. She sat it down alongside the milkshake and walked away take the order off the new patron who had just come in. Dean grinned as he watched her walk away.
"Man she's got a great ass, I'd tap that if you didn't. Catholic School Girls if you catch my drift."
Sam groaned and muttered under his breath as he continued to eat. He had to bite his lip to keep himself from saying anything. Though knowing Dean, he wouldn't let it just go.
"Dean would you keep your head in the game for once. After we are done here, we can go get a hotel for the night. I wonder where Bobby is anyways? I mean maybe something came up somewhere else."
"Dude, I just got out of prison," Dean shot back, referring to his recent residency in Hell. "Bring it."
"Dean this isn't a game!" Sam argued.
Dean dug into his burger. He mumbled something that sounded like go on.
Sam finished his salad as Monica brought over the bill. He picked it up and he raised an eyebrow when he saw the tab. Only the two coffees and a slice of cherry pie were on the tab. Dean grabbed the tab and laughed as he looked at Sam. A slice of cherry pie was there with the tab. Dean grabbed it and began to dig into the pie.
"Hey Sammy, seems your girlfriend likes us. Guess the dork flirt works right if I get free pie out of it."
He wolfed down the pie as Sam looked back up at Monica as she was working another customer that walked in. She was the only one who was working at the moment and she was running around the diner and taking orders.
At that moment, the other hunter got to her feet and tossed some money on the table. Her order hadn't come out yet but she was getting out of the place in a hurry.
Sam glanced out the window and watched her get into the Dodge Charger parked in the parking lot. Dean was more focused on his pie than anything else. That bloody pie.
After Dean was finished with his pastry, the two brothers paid the bill and left the diner. Whilst Dean drove around looking for a halfway decent motel, Sam continued working on the case.
"CSU found sulphur at the crime scene," Sam read out. "I just hacked into the coroner's office...man these girls were shredded inside."
"Demonic possession," Dean winced. "Those sons of bitches are all over the place. Remember when demons were the rarest thing we could hunt?"
"The weather's all over the place. Just Bobby's luck that shit would hit the fan when he's not here. Maybe Castiel knows something."
Dean ignored him.
Sam sighed. The subject of angels was still a sore spot with Dean. He shook his head and continued to look up information on the case.
"After we find a hotel, we should check out the crime scene. Maybe we might find out some other information that the police missed or something. I mean it's a start right?"
Dean nodded as he pulled up into a hotel that looked like one of the few decent places around town. He pulled into the parking lot and parked before he got out. He went inside and managed to get a room (plus the hot clerks number), whilst Sam got their bags from the trunk and headed inside. Dean grabbed a few things from the false bottom in the trunk that they'd need to protect themselves against demons.
Silently the two brother sorted out what they'd need. Holy water for starters, paint for the devil's trap and dad's journal for the exorcism...and Ruby's knife.
"Alright Sammy, let's go to the crime scene. You're right we might be able to find something the cops missed."
Sam sighed.
They headed out and got into the Impala and Sam directed them to the crime scene. When they got there, there was an eeriness in the air-one that always hung about when demons were around. Dean got out of the Impala and after a quick weapons check the two of them headed inside.
Inside was a bloody mess.
Sam looked uneasily down at the rusty patch on the discoloured carpet, finding it hard to imagine the unlucky girls dying here in terror. He noticed Dean walking off to look around and drew his handgun-sure it would do jack crap against a demon but it would get Dean's ass here.
Sam had come across many girl's pictures hanging around in one of the rooms that he walked in. Not knowing what to expect, he realized how close all the girls looked alike. He stopped at one of the pictures and picked it up. It dawned on Sam that he'd found the demon's next target.
It was Monica at the diner.
"SAMMY!" Dean yelled suddenly.
Sam ran into what used to be the kitchen to find Dean standing over two dead bodies; one with its throat slit and the other with a series of stab wounds in its chest. "The hunter at the diner?"
Man she was so tiny.
"Son of a bitch!"
"Dean I found the next target," Sam told his brother. "It's Monica. The waitress at the diner."
Dean sighed. "Damnit! We were just there!"
-XXX-
Monica let out a sigh of relief, she'd just seen the last customer leave and now she was cleaning up diner before she could leave for the night. Her plan for the evening was to go home and reheat the lasagne from the dinner specials before having a soak in a hot bath and curling up to watch Sleepless in Seattle. At least she had tomorrow off but that would be spent volunteering at the nursing home like Monica did most days she was off.
Everyone else had left leaving Monica to deal with the money alone. Just as she went to turn off the lights in the diner, she stopped as she saw a shadow flicker in the diner. Monica turned and walked over to the open door with a frown. She could have sworn she locked it. There was a man standing there in farmer's gear-he was definitely a long way from Kansas.
"I am sorry, but the diner is closed, if you come back tomorrow it will open at 5am."
Something felt wrong as she stood there. It was that familiar feeling from all those years ago like when that boy had attacked her...she stepped back and ended up with her back against the counter. Afraid of what would happen as memories of what happened last time flicked through her mind.
"Do you have any idea how hard I've had to search?" he hissed. "How long…? All the others didn't have your spark."
Monica gulped.
The man reached out to grab her.
Monica felt a rising in her chest with nowhere to go but up and out-
Splat!
Monica screamed as blood splattered all over her face and her clothes. The man's eyes and mouth started to glow with a flickering light as blood spurted out of the man's slit throat. The body dropped to reveal the tattooed woman from that afternoon.
"Can the pig squeal, woman."
Monica gulped. "You-you killed that man."
She shrugged and sat down at the counter. Carefully and ignorant of the blood that covered them both, the girl helped herself to a slice of mudcake. "Demon," she answered with her mouth full of food. "And you make the perfect bait."
"You used me as bait!" Monica screeched. Monica was in no way a violent woman, but by God she wanted to punch her. Not that it would do much good in the long run-she'd probably punch her back.
She sat the cake back down on the counter beside the bloodied knife, after she pulled her hair up in a messy bun, she cleaned the knife off on a couple of napkins and stuck it back in her boot. "Relax, I took care of the other demons so only one could kill you. Lucky they came after you though, otherwise I'd be stuck around here babysitting ya."
The front door slammed open. Sam and Dean came barrelling in only to stop at the scene in front of them.
"You snooze you lose, Winchester." Stepping over the body, she stopped by the two boys. "Name's Artemis Moran by the way. Catch you around."
Dean watched the hunter leave through the front door and noted that she was leaving them with the body.
"I just got attacked by not one, but two angels!"
"Sammy it's angel bait!" Dean called out too late.
She was gone.
Sam looked at Monica standing there absolutely terrified. "Dean we gotta get out of here before the cops show up."
"She has to go with you."
Dean practically jumped through the roof. "Damnit, Cas!"
Monica starred at the short man standing there in his tan trench coat and blue suit with his tie loosened around his neck. A shiver ran down the back of her spine and the crucifix around her neck started to warm up.
"I am not taking some two-bit waitress with us!" Dean argued.
"She has to go with you." He turned to Monica and looked her over. "Dean she is important. She has no way of defending herself if the demons start coming after her. If Lilith finds out who she is the outcome will not be good."
Sam pulled Dean aside. "A week or two can't hurt, can it?"
Dean groaned. "Fine, if you wanna keep her, you feed her and water her and take her for walks."
"Excuse me!" Monica hissed. "I am not a dog." She had no idea what was going on but nobody treated Monica Angel Grant like a dog. She tried to argue back only Dean's cell phone started to ring. She looked the man up and down with the oddest felling that she knew him but unable to pinpoint exactly how.
Dean answered it when he saw it was Bobby. "Hey Bobby-what's-"
"What the hell have you two idjits gone and done this time?"