CHAPTER 3: THE BOY'S ROOM
Dean leaned up against the headboard of his bed; the sleeves to his flannel shirt were rolled up to his elbows. Sammy's laptop was open on his lap, the look on Dean's face told of the connections he was trying to make. The Impala's engine slowed down and shut off just outside the door. Sam came barging in the door, arms laden with takeout bags.
"Dude, did you remember the pie this time?"
Sammy ignored his question and asked his own, "You got anything yet?"
"Nothin' much more than we already got. You know those three guys that kicked the bucket already, Nathan Gravis, Brian Calico, Matt Duncan?"
"Yeah,"
"They were all successful." Dean paused to take the food bag from Sam, he opened it and started to dig in to his bacon burger, he spoke with his mouth still full, "Nathan Gravis was an actor, died in a fiery plane crash shortly after hittin' it big at the box office. Brian Calico was shot for one of his paintings, and the last guy, Matt Duncan, successful neurosurgeon, stabbed to death by a widower whose wife had died on the guy's operating table."
"So what's the link? What's the spirit gotta do with anything?" Sam asked.
"The hotel and their success."
"What does their success have to do with anything?"
"Whatever is at the hotel must have a tie to these guys, it knows what's up in their future and kills 'em at the top of their ladder."
"So what about the guys who haven't kicked it yet?"
"They're not at the height of their career." Dean said simply.
Sam wasn't buying it.
"Man, if you have a better theory, let's hear it."
"Let's just hit the hotel and check out the rooms these guys stayed in."
XX
The lobby at the Radiant Hotel was full of tenants gossiping about the events of the crazy business man who hanged himself out the window the previous night. When they looked up from their gossip to see two guys in suits come in, they weren't surprised.
The two guys walked to the desk where Brayden sat writing. Brayden was writing slower than the day before, but seemed more in thought.
Dean rung the bell.
Brayden jumped and his pen made a scribble on the paper, "Man! Don't do that!" He looked up to see who had rung the bell, and flushed a bit, "I'm sorry, detectives; I didn't know it was you."
Sam and Dean ignored the apology. Sam handed over a piece of paper with the names of the three guys who died after staying in the hotel, written in a different color pen was the name of the man who had hung himself out the window the previous night, "Brayden, we were just wondering if we could have a look around the rooms these guys stayed in." Sam had said rooms on purpose, he wanted to be sure these guys all stayed in the same room.
Brayden took the paper and studied the names for a few minutes. His hand never reached towards the log sitting too far to read. Finally he spoke, "Room. All these guys stayed in the same room."
"Whatever, could we get the key to the room?" Dean asked.
"Why would you want to go in there?" Brayden asked.
Dean was going to say something snarky when Sam spoke first, "We just want to be thorough in our investigation."
"You sure you guys wanna go in there? You guys not scared of spooks or anything?"
Sam got the hint Brayden knew what was in the room, he ignored it and said, "We'll be fine, just give us the key."
Brayden got the key off the wall and handed it over, "It's up the stairs, last door to the left. If the fire's out, I wouldn't go in." He said in a last word of caution.
XX
Inside the room the business man had dangled out of the previous night, Sam and Dean scanned the room, it was cloudy outside from the storm that hadn't quite passed, so they needed to turn the lights on. Dean took out the EMF and searched for where the signal was the strongest. He went to the empty fireplace and had no read. He walked to the middle of the room, the EMF spiked.
The lights started to flicker, the EMF went crazy.
"Somethin's comin' in." Dean said. He seemed as calm as ever.
The lights flickered once more, and then stayed off. Dean had enough time to raise an eyebrow at his brother. The room between the two brothers was suddenly bright. A little boy with fiery eyes surrounded by flames separated Sam and Dean.
For a moment the boys just stood there looking at the fiery figure. Before they could react, it faded from view. The lights had just flickered on when they boys heard a muffled yelp and a scream from the lobby below them.
Sam and Dean got a grip on reality and ran back down to the lobby. They looked at the front desk expecting to see Brayden sitting in the chair, their eyes fell to the ground to see Brayden breathing heavily on the floor with a huge arrow embedded in his torso.
Dean leaped around the desk and kneeled next to Brayden, applying pressure to the wound. Dean knew that the bear arrow sticking out of Brayden had a tip that expanded when it hit something solid. If Dean tried to take it out, Brayden would surely die.
Sam tried to work the angles on where the arrow came from, the bow on the wall was missing an arrow. How anyone else in the lobby hadn't been hit was a mystery.
"Take my notebook. Read what's inside, it should help." Brayden said in a strained voice to Dean.
Someone had called emergency services, Sam heard someone say an ambulance was on the way. Someone had gotten Brayden's mom, she shoved Dean aside and held her child's hand as he died.
Sam and Dean knew that if 911 had been called, police would show up at the scene. The police were the last people Sam and Dean needed to see. They headed back to the Impala.
Once outside, Dean turned to Sam, "Ya know, those radiant boys are some real sons of bitches." He stepped into the Impala and thrummed her to life. He took off way to fast for conditions down the wet pavement.