Chapter 5

The constant rapping on the front door finally brought both Sam and Dean out of their slumber.

Sam struggled out of the bed and pulled on a pair of jeans as quickly as his sleep muddled brain would let him whilst Dean was still struggling to fight his way out of the twisted bed clothes that seemed to be strangling him.

Sam opened the door to Paul Burke – one half of the proprietors of the Border Inn Motel.

"Thank God! I've been knocking for ages!" Paul began. "The police station just called and asked if you'd get down there straight away. Something's happened but they wouldn't tell me what!"

"Sure, okay. Thanks." Sam said as he closed the door on the worried face of the proprietor.

Dean had finally released himself from the strangling bedclothes and was struggling to pull his jeans on. "What's the matter?"

"Seems like something's happened down at the police station and they rang the motel to get us out there." Sam relayed as he headed for the bathroom.

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Dean parked the Impala across the road from the police station and turned off the ignition. There seemed to be a hive of activity and also parked haphazardly outside was an ambulance – its back doors swung open but no-one inside.

"Definitely not your average run-of-the-mill small town police station activity going on in there." Dean mused.

They climbed out of the Impala and crossed the street, walking towards the entrance to the police station, skirting around the ambulance.

"Sorry you can't go in there." Said the young police officer on duty, spreading his hands to bar entry. Sam and Dean both reached into their pockets and produced their fake ID. The officer squinted at the ID's before waving them through.

Once inside the police station, they noticed Sergeant Mercer sitting in one of the plastic chairs reserved for visitors, his head tipped back as a paramedic tended to cuts on his face.

"Sergeant Mercer." Dean said as they approached him.

Sergeant Mercer slowly brought his head up and opened his eyes. "Detective Young." He replied.

"What's going on? What happened here?" Dean asked.

Sergeant Mercer stood up as the paramedic began to remonstrate to him about staying still. "I'm fine Tom. I'm okay." He patted the paramedic on the arm and walked towards Sam and Dean. "We had what you might call an incident."

Sam and Dean looked at each other and then back to the officer. "What kind of incident?" Sam asked.

"Come and see for yourself." Sergeant Mercer led the way down the corridor towards the room where they had interviewed Melody Grainger. The door was ajar and as they entered the room the carnage became obvious to them. The small cot in the far corner was turned upside down and all the bed covering flung to the far corners. The table from the middle of the room was up against the wall opposite, 2 of the four legs bent beyond recognition. The chairs were also bent out of shape lying next to the table.

Sam then noticed a crumpled sheet covering something at the far end of the room.

Sgt Mercer noticed Sam looking at the sheet. "That's Melody." He said quietly.

"What happened?" Sam asked quietly, shock registering in his voice.

"Got a call from the night duty officer. He was in a mad panic – dribbling on about how Melody was going psycho and was throwing herself around the room and screaming like a banshee. I hightailed it right here and when I went in to check on her, she was up against the wall – it was almost like she was being pinned there! As I came up to her, I could see the terror in her eyes…." Mercer's voice trailed away.

Sam and Dean waited patiently for him to continue.

Mercer's body let out a little shudder before he continued. "I grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her towards me. She fell into my arms like a rag doll. When I put her on the floor and looked at her, blood was coming from her eyes and nose. She was trying to talk when all of a sudden her body began to shake so violently that she began to skitter across the floor away from me."

Mercer closed his eyes and took in a huge cleansing breath. "I kept a hold on her and tried to stop her shaking. She kept looking at me – she looked like she was pleading with me to help her! Then all of a sudden she grabbed me around the throat and began to strangle the life outta me! It took 3 other guys to grab her off me and hold her down but she kept trying to scratch my eyes out! Then all of a sudden, she just went limp and that was all, she was dead." Mercer glanced over at the sheet which covered her body. "We called the paramedics but she was dead."

Dean walked over to the body and knelt down beside it. He carefully pulled back the sheet and had to stop himself from quickly throwing the sheet back over Melody's body. Her eyes were wide open and trails of blood had dried on her cheeks where it had run from her eyes and nose. Her mouth was wide open. To Dean, it looked like she had died of sheer terror. He gently placed the sheet back over her and stood up.

"Just don't know how I'm gonna tell her parents." Mercer said. "Such a good kid."

Sam looked around the room. "Melody did all this?"

"Yeah. Ross said that when he heard the commotion and came into the room she was like some kind of crazy woman. Said she was screaming something he couldn't make out and she was tossing everything around the room like they were matchsticks! Damn!"

Tom the paramedic then approached the Sergeant. "Ah Dan, can we take Mel…. the body to the hospital now?"

"Yeah sure Tom." Sergeant Mercer replied, a look of resignation crossing his face. He then turned back to Sam and Dean. " I guess I need to go out and tell Jim and Kathy what's happened."

The brothers left the police station at the same time at the Sergeant and climbed into the Impala.

Instead of turning over the starter, Dean sighed heavily, "This is just getting too damn weird Sam." He said, running a hand over his face. "You shoulda see her Sam….. the look on her face was pure terror."

"I think we need dig a little deeper into this." Sam stated as he stared off into space. "It's getting weird."

Dean looked across at his brother. "Dude, it's more than weird." He pushed the key into the ignition and then hesitated. "Perhaps there's something in dad's journal. But first things first," Dean turned the ignition key. "It's time for breakfast."

Sam closed his eyes and groaned. "For God's sake Dean! Is that all you can think about?"

Dean smiled, "An army marches on its stomach Sammy! And this army is mighty hungry!"