I forgot to mention this at the beginning of the Prologue - if you have not read my previous stories (namely: Welcome to the Club and Melanic Manor), you will be confused by my original character Kole. If you would like to get to know the character without reading the 20 or 13 chapter stories, pop on over to my LJ (link on my profile) and bring up the tag for character sketches. Also, if you go to the tag for explanations, you will find a quick summary for my 'In My Time of Dying' in which John survives. Thank you.


Definite Maybe

There were some hunts in which Sam felt like they were merely going through the motions. This last one had been such a hunt. It was almost – well, too easy wasn't right – textbook in it's preciseness. Once they located the hollow tree trunk that housed the argopelter, they were able to destroy it with only slight injuries – two small scratches on the left side of Sam's jaw and a jagged but shallow cut on Dean's right arm. Not too bad for a critter that throws big, mean splinters at passers-by.

And, it was just what they needed, or at least Sam thought so. He was in serious need of some down time, having spent the last two months on some pretty intense and exhausting hunts. There was the clowder of were-cats, the troll and its pair of changelings, and the particularly nasty little group of red-caps.

He had all but forgotten the dream he had nearly three months before. In fact, the only thing that kept coming back to him was the image of his father lying dead on the floor due to a fatal gun shot wound. And even that began to blur in the nightmarish vision of walking into his father's hospital room to find the man unconscious and almost dead from a sudden and unexplained heart attack.

He didn't think he had ever been so exhausted before. Sure, when he was younger, he remembered struggling through his father's calisthenics. There were days he would come back to whatever apartment or motel they were calling home at the time and barely making it through dinner before falling asleep. In those days, he had to make sure that his homework was done right after school, or he would have to wake up extra early in the mornings – which was never an easy task.

And he knew what it was like to be intellectually and academically tired. He could still remember jittery nights of marathon study sessions and term paper writing, where his only sustenance came from Red Bulls and chocolate covered coffee beans. Those were the times when he would stay awake for days on end only to finally crash, in the most literal sense, when the exam was taken or the report completed and handed in.

Now, though... Now was different. He had gone on plenty of hunts during his high school years and even more once he had joined up with his brother again. He had never been a couch potato – never really been lazy (even if his father had permitted it). He knew the satisfying fatigue that came after a successful hunt – the "runner's high" had nothing on the "hunter's high".

But, he also knew the bliss of discovery. He had always seemed to have breaks – or, pauses – in the vigorous action to sit down and research. Dean, being older and more coordinated, had always been better at the physical end of hunting. Sure, he could get some people to talk – random groups of people – hell, Sam knew perfectly well that they were the people he himself had trouble talking to. That's why they worked so well together. Dean and Sam complemented one another, inspired and improved the other, were truly yin and yang (though Sam would never say that to his brother because he knew that Dean would find the comment dirty in some way).

Its just that Sam had always had the chance to take a breather. He was good at problem solving and finding the hidden answers. And, unlike his brother, he enjoyed that aspect of the hunt. When he was younger, he felt more useful in that capacity. Even when he grew to match Dean in size – even when he outgrew and outweighed him – he never felt as powerful as his brother. But research... research was an area where he would almost always best his big brother.

When the two joined forces again, things had changed a bit. For one, they were two and not three. It was not the same protocol as when Sam was in high school – that of a leader, his soldier, and his intelligence agent. When it was Dean and Sam, well it wasn't 50-50, but it was a lot closer to even than things had ever been.

Dean listened to Sam (for the most part), when John rarely heard. Dean acknowledged Sam's ideas, when John ignored them unless he had specifically asked for them. But most of all, while John had always made Sam feel like a soldier in his army (though later he realized how much his father was trying to keep him safe in the only way he knew how), Dean made Sam feel not only wanted but needed. And appreciated. In a (sometimes) round-about way.

Things changed again when their cousin had joined them. Kole was not a hunter, though she had proven that she could handle a weapon if needed. Of course, to Dean's utter dismay and total disbelief, she still refused to use a gun – and would only ever hold a plastic water pistol. Which, the boys both had to agree that it was a good weapon – not as ingenious as Dean's rock-salt buck-shot invention, but a holy water squirt gun had come in handy on a few occasions.

But, what Kole excelled at was inquiry and investigation. Not having grown up in the world of ghosts and goblins and all other manner of things most people thought were only Halloween costumes, she didn't always have the solutions. She did, however, know all the legends and folklore and mythologies. So, while Kole may not have always been able to find answers, she knew how to dig in and ask the right questions. She knew how to glean information, even if it was simply by prompting Sam or Dean to find the resolution.

So Sam, for his part, had more free time to work in the field... as it were. That lead to the increasing physical exhaustion. The mental exhaustion came, not from research, but from his visions. The dreams and the daytime visions took a lot out of him mentally. They ranged in degree of power and pain from study-for-a-quiz to all out study-for-the-LSATs. And, it was taking its toll on his memory.

oo0oo

"How about this one?" Kole asked, handing the local newspaper – The Rosswood Times – over to Dean. The three of them were sitting at an outside table of a coffee shop and enjoying the pleasant warm-front that had taken over the small town.

It had been less than a week since they finished their last hunt and Dean was already getting restless. Sam didn't know how his brother did it. Sure, Sam felt the thrill of the hunt and the contentment that came with helping people, saving people. But, he also liked to relax a bit afterwards. He liked to be able to recuperate.

Dean, on the other hand, was more like a junkie. And the hunt was his fix.

"Nope," Dean said after a quick scan of the article Kole pointed out.

"Oh," Kole said, taking the paper back and looking a little disappointed.

"You were thinking a siren, right?" he asked. She muttered something and seemed a bit embarrassed. "Hey," he said with a smile, "it was a good guess. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that that was what this Howard guy was aiming for – a succubus, or more likely a siren since the chick was a singer.

"I mean, the guy gets caught by his wife while in the middle of the nasty with another woman... I don't know what happened between that and the time they found old Howie with blood on his hands and a dead singer in his bed, but I'm guessing the guy was in too much shock to come up with a better story."

"But how do you know he wasn't telling the truth?" she asked.

"Well, the dude lives near a lake with some decent sized rocks around it... not as dangerous as a traditional siren homestead, but close enough. Plus, the chick was a singer – a pretty good one according to the article – I don't know about enchanting or anything..."

"But?" she prompted when he trailed off.

"Well, look at her," Dean said simply. Kole looked at the photo in the paper again, then looked back and shrugged. "Hey, I'm not saying she's fugly or anything, but she's not exactly a ravishing beauty."

"And sirens appear beautiful until they kill," Kole said with a sigh, finally understanding, and went back to the newspaper for another try.

In his infinite wisdom, Dean had thought it would be a good idea to teach their cousin how to spot new jobs. She was getting better at weeding out the natural from the supernatural, and had actually found the gig with the argopelter. At first, Sam had just thought it was Dean trying to pass on his wisdom, much the same way he did when Sam was younger. But, it wasn't long before he figured out the real reason – Dean thought that they could find hunts faster that way.

Honestly, Sam didn't know how Dean kept up such a pace. Sam sometimes got the feeling that Dean would try and hunt even if he was in a full body cast.

"What about this?" Kole asked after another ten or more minutes.

oo0oo

Tremblay House, built by Rosswood's own Leonard Seff in 1927, is on the market once again. The house, in Tremblay county, was home to the Seff family for years until Leonard disappeared one night in 1945. Lionel, Leonard's 21-year-old son, had told the police that he feared the worst. "Father just hasn't been the same since Mother died. I think his grief finally got the better of him."

Annelisa Seff had passed away five years prior and Leonard had become a recluse since the day she was buried in the family plot at the back of the home.

Tremblay House had seen a few more owners through the years, but was uninhabited the night four local girls went missing. For ten years, the house had been vacant. It had also been a place famous among high schoolers as haunted and was the subject of many dares.

"I remember when I first moved here," said senior Mike James. "I made the varsity football team and the rest of the guys told me and Joey that we had to go through an initiation."

"Yeah," agreed junior Joe Kowalski. "They drove us to the house and told us we had to spend the night inside. It was a little spooky, but it was a dare, man. Its not like we could just not do it."

"And its not like anything happened," said James. "We were told that the place was haunted and that people heard things and saw things there and stuff. But we didn't see or hear anything."

That might have been true in 1994, when the then-sophomore and freshman football players spent the night, but in 1997 the story had changed. For some unknown reason, four girls went into that house, but none of them came back out.

"Its weird," said James, "I thought the dare was only for new kids, or at least for kids who just made a team. But, that wasn't Lexi at all. She was born here, a senior, and had been head cheerleader for two years. Before that, she was on the squad. I mean, I don't know why she was even there."

James' girlfriend Alexis Tate and fellow cheerleaders Elizabeth Hart, Kimberly Boyd, and Jossalin Sweet were last seen driving up the hill towards Tremblay House. Boyd's car was discovered parked at the side of the house, but the girls were never seen again.

oo0oo

"Prospective buyers... blah blah blah," Dean muttered. He had started reading the article out loud, but when he came to the end – the 'non-relevant' part – he simply glossed over it. He gave a non-committal 'hmm' as he started looking over the story again, this time reading to himself.

"Well?" Kole asked eagerly. "I mean, haunted house, original owner missing, now four girls are gone..."

"I don't know..." Dean trailed off. He could see why the story had gotten her attention. It had all the makings of a haunted house – which is what made him almost doubt the authenticity. There had been a lot of these sorts of stories going around lately, and all, upon further research, had been busts.

And, if he was being completely honest with himself, he needed a more physical hunt. He knew his brother was tired – hell, maybe he would finish whatever their next gig was by himself to give the kid a rest – but he couldn't stop. Dean knew that, if he even slowed down a little, he would start thinking. And he didn't want that.

When the Winchesters had left the hospital after their run-in with the demon-driven semi, they took some time off to heal. With all the downtime, Dean had nothing more to occupy his time than to replay all the events that had taken place when they teamed up with their father again. Especially what happened at the hospital.

Sam had told him about the coma, how his chances weren't good... and then how he suddenly woke up and was given a clean bill of health. Sudden – kind of like their father's heart attack. Dean remembered what it felt like facing the Demon, how it felt as though his chest was being torn open and his insides were being squeezed until they oozed out of the gaps. There was no doubt in his mind that the Demon could have done the same to his father – only, without the unexplainable holes.

Sam had also told him that their father asked for the Colt – and that Sam snuck the gun into the hospital. Funny how Dean never saw the weapon again after holding on his possessed father in that god-awful cabin. This thing – the Holy Grail of their search for a way to fight the Demon, its discovery and ownership like winning the Super Bowl and going to Disneyland and somehow putting them all (including Mary and Jess) at peace – it was suddenly (there's that word again) disregarded as if it were no longer important. No one spoke of hiding it so they could get out of the hospital with it. No one discussed who would keep it once they inevitably separated again.

Dean may not have been a genius like his kid brother, but he knew that gun was gone.

And all that led to wondering... Why did Dad make the deal with the Demon in the first place? Was his life really worth giving up the quest he and Sam had trained for all their lives? Did his health really matter more than putting Mom and Jess's souls or spirits or memories (whatever) at peace? What about Sam – the Demon wants to turn the kid evil and Dad just gave up the one way they knew how to stop It? Did Dad realize the mistake he made, too irrational and drugged up at the time, and that was why he went out on his own again? Was it all his fault that -

"I think we should look into it," Sam spoke up as he grabbed the newspaper from Dean.

"Really?" Kole asked over Dean's quiet 'huh?' Sam rarely spoke up when Kole and Dean began playing their little game find-the-next-job. Dean assumed it was because Sam didn't like the idea of bringing their cousin more and more into the lifestyle. But, Dean was glad Sam spoke up this time – interrupted all that damn thinking he was doing again.

Sam, however, didn't know why he thought that this was their kind of case. There was something about it – something that stuck with him... Maybe it was just that Tremblay county was only an hour or so away from Rosswood.