Chapter 3: Be Aware
"What's up with you?" Damon asks in an uncaring tone as he walks down the stairs to his liquor cabinet. He's not wearing a shirt.
"Did you forget to wear a shirt?" Stefan half laughs.
Damon arches an eyebrow at his brother and before he pours himself a drink he looks down at himself, "Huh…guess I did." He pours himself a drink and walks over to the couch.
Stefan laughs and shakes his head, "Whatever. Hey, listen about the killings have you talked with Pearl about any of this?"
Damon shakes his head, "Yep…and she says that she has nothing to do with it. Anna's in school and what not. I think it's the tomb vamps, but Fredrick and the rest of them have yet to make an appearance, and I can't seem to find them."
"Did you check the old ruins?"
Damon looks at his brother with a hard expression, "You do know that I don't drink all day right. I actually care about this town. I want this solved just as much as you do. Besides, the last thing we need is for these killings to bring in a hunter or two; uggh…this town has enough of them already."
Stefan gives a small chuckle at that, "Could have fooled me, and yeah, I do agree with you about the hunters…remember that one that came by in 92?"
"Yeah, he was annoying…'oh, Zach, what're the voices in the house? What's the history of the town?'" Damon mocks with a laugh.
"Yeah, at least we both agreed on something then, huh?" Stefan agrees with a smile, "Okay, so anyways, did Ric tell you if he had any progress?"
"Nope, but you'll be seeing him when you go to class today, so you can find out yourself." Damon says.
Stefan nods, with a raise of his eyebrows, "Well, I'll be leaving now, since you're going into some sort of a mood."
Damon rolls his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll be going to a council meeting with Zach later today."
"Okay, so I guess I'll see you tonight." Stefan states.
"Yeah, okay." Damon nods, "Have fun at school." He adds sarcastically.
Stefan rolls his eyes and leaves the house. The rumble of the car lets him know that his brother has left for school. He sighs and stands up, setting his glass down on the coffee table in front of him. "Zach!" He shouts into the house. "Awe, come on Zachery, I'm not that bad am I?" When Zach doesn't make his presence known, Damon shakes his head and speeds up to the man's room. He immediately sets to knocking on the door. "I know you're in their little Zachery." Damon says mockingly.
"Damon, what do you want?" Zach asks quietly as he opens his door slowly.
"I want to talk to you, Zach." Damon says feigning casualness. "So, are we going to be going to a council meeting today?"
"What do you want, Damon?" Zach asks clearly not amused.
"All right you caught me, I want to spend some quality time with you, Zach." Damon says, and then bursts into laughter.
Zach crosses his arms against his chest and rolls his eyes, "Seriously, Damon?"
"I'll be at the Grille, so I guess I'll see you tonight at the meeting." Damon says and then just like that he speeds away, and the rumble of the camero is the only thing telling Zach that Damon's gone.
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The impala drives through the town, stopping at the Mystic Grille. Sam and Bobby look over at Dean with annoyed expressions, "Seriously, Dean?" Sam asks.
"What? I'm hungry, and this place is as good as any, and plus, what better place to learn about a town and it's lore than in a local dining area?" Dean tries to reason.
Bobby mutters something incoherent under his breath, "Whatever ya idjit."
They get out of the car and Dean can't help but notice the blue camero stopped just behind them, "Okay, whoever drives that car is officially my new friend." Dean states as he walks over to it. "I mean, look at its condition, it's absolutely perfect." He mutters to himself.
Sam rolls his eyes, "Dean, come on we're here to eat not to watch you fall in love with another car."
Dean rolls his eyes, "Fine." He walks in front of his brother and Bobby as they enter the Grille. "I'm going to get a drink." Dean says before he walks up to the bar.
Sam just shakes his head, "Whatever." He says, as he and Bobby walk over to a table as close to the bar as they can get.
"That brother of yours has issues." Bobby says with a smile.
Sam nods his head in agreement and grins, "Yeah…did you see his face when he saw that camero, I mean it was like it was like it was Christmas." He laughs. "So, Ric's going to meet us here, after he's done teaching?" Sam changes the subject.
"Yeah, but that's not for another three hours, we'll have to come back here." Bobby answers wryly.
"Well, I guess that'll give Dean another excuse to eat." Sam says.
Bobby nods, "We could always get into a conversation, and find out some accounts from the locals here."
Sam muses that over for a moment, "Fine, I'm not that hungry anyways…where are we staying?"
"We could try staying at the Salvatore Boardinghouse, but your father said in his journal that he was thrown out, so I doubt that we'll be able to get in." Bobby reasons.
"Well, in the meantime, I could go talk to some of the founding family members, maybe find out a little about what my dad thought they were hiding." Sam suggests.
Bobby nods, "Sounds good."
"I'm going to go get Dean." Sam says as he walks up to the bar, to sit by his brother. He finds himself sitting in between his brother and another guy with a leather jacket. He can't help but think of the similarity between the two of them. He brushes the thought off however.
"Sammy! You came to drink with me!" Dean says with a grin.
"No, Dean, I came to get you. Bobby's going to find a place to stay, and we're going to go talk to some of the families." Sam says, "And my name's not Sammy, it's Sam." He growls that last part out in annoyance.
"Yeah, yeah." Dean brushes off, "I'm going to stay here and hold down the fort, you come get me when you've researched enough."
Sam rolls his eyes, "Come on Dean."
Dean shakes his head, "I'll be here, investigating, and you can investigate somewhere else."
Sam finally relents, "Fine." He leaves, walking out of the door.
Dean shakes his head and chuckles as he downs the rest of his drink.
"I couldn't help but overhear, what are you investigating?" A voice inquires.
Dean looks over to find that the man that was at the bar when he sat down is talking to him. "My brother and I are just here looking into some history of the town. It's sort of a hobby of ours to look into the ghost stories of small towns."
He tips an eyebrow at Dean, "And you think that this town has paranormal history?"
"I don't know yet, but the stories say otherwise." Dean says.
"What stories?" The man asks as innocently as he can.
"Oh, it's just that my father was here a while back, and he claimed that over at the boardinghouse there've been sightings of ghosts." Dean answers as nonchalantly as he can.
"Huh." He seems to mull that over for a moment, "Well, that's interesting, but as far as I know that house hasn't been open as a boardinghouse for the past year or so."
"Well, I don't know, man. It's just a hobby, really." Dean tries to placate.
"Oh, no I understand. My brother and I have some weird hobbies of our own as well, but that one just seems weird. What did you say your father's name was again?" He inquires.
"I didn't." Dean responds.
"What was his name anyways?" He asks.
Dean studies the man before him in curiosity, but before he could say anything, a woman in a sheriff's uniform walks up. Dean takes what he can get and leaves the bar, when the man turns his attention to the woman.
Once outside, Dean dials his brother's number. "Sammy, hey bro, can you come get me?"
"Sure, Dean, hang on a second." Sam responds.
They end the call, and he looks over to the blue camero to watch the man he was talking to in the bar get in. The sheriff walks outside to watch him go. He pulls out of the lot, just as Sam drives up in the black impala.
Dean gets in and Sam gets back on the road again, "So, why the change of heart, Dean?" Sam asks with a smirk.
"That man at the bar, there was something off about him; I thought that we could come back later, you know when we're supposed to meat Alaric." Dean states.
Sam frowns, "Okay, sure. In the meantime we could go talk to the Bennett family to find out about the disappearance of the Abby Bennett."
"Sounds good." Dean responds absent mindedly, "But we should change first."
"Yeah, duh…we're going to the motel Bobby found." Sam says.
"He found a motel already? Why not just stay at the boardinghouse, and see if we can catch a glimpse of the brother's ourselves?" Dean asks.
"It's not open for business, Dean," Sam replies.
"So, I guess we'll have to sneak in there, then." Dean mutters.
Once they pull up to the old run down motel they get out of the car, grab their duffle bags from the trunk, and walk up to the room that Bobby told them he was renting. They knock on the door, and Bobby opens up.
"So, Dean, you decided to actually do your job, instead of drinking?" Bobby laughs.
"Well, the guy at the bar was weird, he was casually asking for things that were in detail about our lives. Something just seemed off, and I can't put my instincts on it, but my hunter instincts were telling me that whatever it is, it's not normal." Dean explains.
Bobby nods, "I see, we could look into that later. What are you boys up to now?"
"Well, I was going to go to the library to do some research, but now that Dean's here, we're going to go look into the disappearance of Abby Bennett, and maybe go interview Zach Salvatore, then we can go to the Grille and meet up with Alaric." Sam explains.
"Well, you boys better get going, because that sounds like quite a bit to do, so you better get on it." Bobby explains, "I could always go interview Zach if you want me to."
"Okay, sure." Dean replies, "We may take a while at the Bennett's so that might actually be a good idea."
Once the brothers change into their suits they head out for the Bennett's place, and Bobby takes his truck over to the Salvatores.
Bobby pulls up at the boardinghouse, and can't help but take in its old appearance. It looks well-kept. He walks up to the door and knocks. He can't help but think that there are inconsistencies with the report John had in his journal. He also can't help but think to himself that John would never leave a case like this cold. He wouldn't just up and leave. He wonders if there's something more sinister in this town, than just a ghost. Why would John just leave the case, and why would any hunter just leave this town unchecked? He wonders what could possibly have told Ric to stop the investigation, even if the vampire that killed his wife wasn't here, wouldn't the supernatural entity of this town cause him to still be in action.
He knocks on the door of the large house and after a moment it opens, revealing a man, who appears to be in his late thirties. "Hello, I'm looking for Zach Salvatore." Bobby says to the man.
"This is he." He replies, "I'm sorry, can I help you?"
"Oh, we talked on the phone, my name's Bobby Singer." He says with a gruff smile.
"Oh, I'm sorry I'm not taking guests at this time." Zach says with wide eyes.
"No, no, the motel you recommended is fine; I'm just hoping to ask you about the house." Bobby explains.
"I don't follow." He replies curtly.
"It's just a curiosity of mine, to find out about ghosts, and I've heard that this house was haunted." Bobby explains.
Zach frowns, but after a moment Bobby realizes it's not directed to him, but to the blue camero driving up the driveway. He looks over, to see who the driver is. He's young, with raven hair and blue eyes to match the car. He's wearing a leather jacket, with a grey shirt. He's also blasting classic rock. Bobby can't help but take in the similarity of this man and Dean. He parks and gets out. The man walks up the steps and stops to look at Bobby.
"Hello." He grins, but Bobby can tell that there's something more behind the expression.
"Hello." Bobby says.
He doesn't respond to Bobby anymore, and instead he looks over at Zach, "Uncle Zach, I didn't realize we were taking in guests."
Bobby can't help but hear the menacing undertone in his voice.
"No, no, we aren't, this is Bobby he was just asking about the paranormal entity of the house." Zach hastily corrects. Bobby doesn't miss the fact that Zach is flustered, and he became even more so when his nephew came driving up the driveway.
"Oh, I see." He mutters, "I met another guy at the bar, he was interested in the paranormal too. You know him?" He asks.
Bobby frowns, "Yeah, that's my nephew, Dean."
"Oh, well, I certainly don't understand why you'd say this house was haunted. What do people say they're seeing?" He asks with a smirk. Bobby can tell that he's curious, but just not for the sake of curiosity, he's actually inquiring for some deeper reason, but Bobby has no clue about what it could be. He can't get out of the situation.
"Nothing, it's just that I heard that there have been sightings of the old Salvatores from the 1800s." Bobby answers a little warily. He spares a glance at Zach, and he's a little unnerved at the fact that Zach is completely rigid. Screw that, Bobby's freaking scared, but he's determined not to let it show. It's weird though, when he thinks about it logically he should have no reason to be scared, because it's not like this guy is saying anything, but his gut is telling him to get out now.
"Oh, you mean Damon and Stefan Salvatore, the infamous rivaling brothers, yeah, I've heard those reports." He says.
"Oh, and you haven't seen them?" Bobby asks curiously.
"No, no, I haven't had the pleasure, but the ghost stories exist anyways." He says, "I'm Derek Salvatore, by the way." He says, extending his hand out to Bobby.
"Nice to meet you, Zach, Derek, my name's Bobby Singer." Bobby says. Normally he doesn't use his real name on the job, but something about this case is telling him that his aliases aren't going to work or allow him to get the job done.
"Well, you're welcome to come take a look inside if it will soothe that curiosity of yours." Derek says with a smirk. Something about it is menacing though, as if daring him to accept.
"Oh, no, that won't be necessary, but thanks anyways." Bobby answers.
"You sure?" Derek asks with a frown, even though it's clear he's being sarcastic as hell.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Bobby answers.
"Okay, then I'll be seeing you around, Bobby Singer." Derek says, almost spitting his name out.
Bobby nods and then leaves the premises as quickly as he can while avoiding suspicion.
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Damon and Zach watch as Bobby leave. Damon then proceeds over to the couch and sits down. Zach trails after him with a fearful glare in his eyes. "What?" Damon asks.
"Don't do anything, okay?" Zach says warningly, "…And Derek? Damon, really? You do know that if they are hunters like that one back in 1992, then they'll dig into the town's history and yours and your brother's pictures will be found. They'll find out who you really are."
"Oh, I'm counting on it." Damon says dangerously, "This'll be fun. I'm just going to wait here and see how long it'll take."
"Don't kill them. You'll spur other hunters into action." Zach warns lightly.
Damon looks over at Zach with narrowed eyes, "Please, Zach, I didn't survive a century and a half of this life, being careless. I know what I'm doing."
I went back and fixed the date to the last chapter. Thank you for letting me know. Anyways, I hope that chapter 3 isn't a disappointment. Please Read and Review, plz plz plz...thank you. I'll hopefully have the next chapter to I Still Can, by Friday, but I can't make any guarantees. Please review it goes a long way in helping my inspiration and drive to post new chapters. Thank you, again.