Bobby had expertly towed the Impala away from the crime scene and back to the little house they had holed up at, stopping only briefly about three miles away from the cops to peel the magnetic signs proclaiming "Dunraven Towing" off the doors of the truck. Since Dunraven was a completely fictional company, removing the signs would prevent the cops from showing up at their doorstep when they realized the car didn't get taken to the Hitchcock lot. Bobby dropped Sam and the car off, then went back home to trade out vehicles. If he and Sam were to 'rescue' Dean that night, they needed a vehicle that wasn't already on the radar.
Sam had been sitting in the Impala ever since Bobby left. "What the hell were you thinking, Dean?" He asked the thin air as he ran his hand along the steering wheel. He turned the ignition key counterclockwise and turned on the radio, Dean's Metallica tape started playing Enter Sandman. Sam chuckled. "You always loved this song." He took another swig from the half gone bottle of whiskey he found in the house.
He slid down in the seat and laid his head against the back, his knees bumping the dashboard. He closed his eyes, thinking of all the trips he and his brother had taken in that car, the hundreds of hours logged behind that wheel. He knew that Dean was reckless and a little crazy sometimes, but he never thought he would have taken that deal for his own life. "What the hell, Dean! God damnit!! Why? WHY??" Sam hit the steering wheel hard with both hands. "It should have been me!!! Damnit Dean! You hypocrite--!!!" Tears were falling quickly from his eyes now as he threw a tape case at the dash forcefully.
"Oh, God--" He said as he realized that he had just obliterated Dean's 'Fire Of Unknown Origin' cassette. He started picking it up and cradling the pieces in his large, shaking hands. "Oh, Dean, I'm so sorry." Sam spoke as though Dean were there with him, chastising him for busting one of his favorite tapes, and possibly harming the Impala's dash; the magnetic tape for the song Vengeance stringing out of the busted casing.
Sam sat in the Impala, crying and yelling, and finally sleeping off his drunkenness until Bobby returned several hours later. Sam awoke as Bobby pulled into the driveway. This time Bobby was driving a busted up minivan, similar to the one the boys had once borrowed, but he was not alone.
"Ellen?" Sam called, as he hauled his large frame up out of the Impala.
Bobby piled out of the van and Ellen out of the passenger side. She walked right up to Sam and gave him a hug. "Sam, I'm so sorry about Dean."
What do you say when someone tells you that? Not knowing anything better, Sam simply said "Thanks." He sniffled, and then said "What are you doing here?"
Ellen pulled back from the hug. "Bobby didn't tell you?" She wiped a tear from her cheek. At Sam's shake of the head, she continued. "It's been a bad day for all of us. The Roadhouse burned to the ground. Ash was inside, along with a whole bunch of hunters. We think it was the Demon."
"Oh, God." Sam said quietly. "I'm sorry. How did you get out?"
She chuckled at the irony. "I was out getting pretzels, of all things. Ash called and said something about the safe, then the call cut out and when I got back the building was completely gone. I headed for Bobby's as soon as I could."
They followed Bobby into the small house and sat down at the table. Bobby had brought some food for Sam, and as he pulled a piece of pizza onto a paper towel Sam asked, "So the safe was destroyed?"
Ellen looked down for a few seconds shaking her head slowly. Then pulled her jacket back and reached into the inside pocket. "Nope. This is what I salvaged." She laid a map of south-western Wyoming on the table, with five X's marked in a circle.
Sam picked up the map and looked at it, then up at Ellen and Bobby. "And we don't know what it means?"
Bobby shook his head. "Before you called this morning I found a bunch of signs. Lightning storms, cattle deaths and such. They were all circling the same area, but I haven't found yet why." He took the map from Sam and shook his head as he looked at it. "I picked up the books when I went home, help me lug 'em in from the van?"
Sam nodded, standing. "Yeah, sure."
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Hours later, Bobby stood from the chair he'd been reading in. "I don't believe it!"
"What is it?" Sam and Ellen said almost in unison.
Bobby threw the book he was reading onto the table, open to a page with a diagram. He pulled Ellen's map toward him and drew a permanent marker from his pocket. "These five X's...They're old frontier churches built by Samuel Colt."
"Samuel Colt?" Sam said confused.
"Yep," Bobby nodded. "The very same Colt who made that demon-killing gun you boys had." He paused, and Sam swallowed hard. "And, he had private railway lines built between each of the churches that just happen to lay out like this." He took the marker and drew a pentagram on the map, with a point at each X, making a perfect five-point star.
Ellen covered her mouth with her hand, "Oh, my...It's a Devil's Trap?"
Sam leaned over the page. "Yep, a hundred-square-mile Devil's Trap. And its still in one piece, too. That's why the demons are circling the area, but can't get into the middle."
"So was Colt trying to keep something out...or keep something in?" Ellen asked.
"Looks like the demons are trying to get in, so there must be something real important in there they want real bad and can't get to." Bobby said.
Sam stood straight immediately, like he'd been poked with a pin. "No, but I know who can. Jake." He could feel his blood pressure rise as he said the name of the man he knew to have killed him.
Ellen picked up the book she had been reading. "Look at this," she threw it on top of Bobby's book on the table. "There is an old cemetery smack in the middle of that trap. Do you think that's what they're trying to get at?"
Bobby nodded. "Must be, there's nothing else there."
"We have to get there and stop Jake." Sam said resolutely. "But I'm not leaving Dean here."
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Sorry guys - off to Texas for the weekend, Chapter 5 will be up Tuesday 06/26.