Anyways, here's another chapter (wow talk about stating the obvious). I've been working on another story with all my free time, I blame the lack of uni. I had a brainwave as I was driving today, it got rid of my whole lack-of-ideas situation at least.
Oh, and 'I don't own Supernatural'
Chapter 4
I walked into the diner about fifteen minutes later, swapping my sunglasses for my normal glasses, and cast a glance around the dinner. Just like every other diner to me, greasy food and bad coffee. Despite that though, I spent a lot of time in them, trying to find some form of bearable nutrition, "Alice!" Sam's voice broke through my diner rantings. I smiled and joined them in a booth towards the back of the diner, certainly fitting for any shady business dealings not that I was planning on doing any of them.
"So? What have you got?" Dean said before I was able to sit down, talk about straight to the point.
"Hello Sam, Dean," I greeted, ignoring what Dean said for the time being. A waitress walked over, wearing a red check shirt, short denim skirt and incredibly high heals, how on earth she could walk them I would never know. Dean certainly took a fancy to her, maybe it was the platinum blonde hair and bright red lipstick, who knows, it was rather amusing to watch him flirt. The waitress didn't mind she fell for it easily.
We ordered coffees and she walked away, Dean watching her ass the entire time. I exchanged a look with Sam and laughed, the sound of my own voices laughing was an unusual sound for my ears. Clearly I hadn't done enough of it lately. "What? Call it sport okay" Dean tried to defend himself.
"Sport?" Sam wasn't convinced.
"Yeah, now can we get on with it, what's in this town?" Dean asked impatiently.
"I don't know," I replied. I opened up my bag and pulled out the plastic bag with the goo. "I found this though."
"Ahhhh great," Dean said taking one look at what I'd put down on the table.
"Y-y-you know what's in this town just by looking at, at that?" I was more than surprised. I had spent ages wracking my brain and trawling through information and hadn't come up with anything and these two had identified it in a matter of seconds.
"Yeah," Sam leant forward in his seat, resting his arms on the table, "a Shapeshifter."
"Shapeshifter?" I tested the words.
"Yeah, Dean's favourite," Sam chuckled lightly.
"Sons of bitches, thanks to them I'm a wanted man," okay so Dean isn't bitter about them at all, didn't help matters though. From their name I had a rough idea of what they are, they shift shape, obviously into something but other than that I know nothing else about them.
"Right," I said, turning my attention to Sam, somehow I felt I would get more useful information from him. "Wait, them?"
"We've come across two before, one of them took on Dean's form," Sam clarified.
"Great, so there's more than one?" I asked, not liking the sounds of things.
"No, its not likely, we've hunted them on two different occasions," Sam answered. At least there just being one Shapeshifter in Manchester sounded simple enough.
I'd never heard of Shapeshifters before, so I was certainly absorbing everything the boys were telling me. So far I'd learnt that they liked the underground and usually ended up taking to a life of crime, which certainly fit this case. Dean seemed to have a strong hated for them, I guess when one impersonates you then there's every reason to hate them. According to Sam Shapeshifters not only take on the form of whomever they are impersonating but also there memories. In that case I would need to be careful; my memories were my own thank you very much.
"So, how do we kill a Shapeshifter?" I asked. I had a sinking feeling that a bullet to the head would be of no use.
"Silver, like a Werewolf," I just had to ask. Only problem was I had to find something silver that was sufficient enough to stab someone resembling a human being. By the sounds of it I was for a fun few days.
"Great, just great," I mumbled to myself, "now I just need to find some silver and we're well way."
Sam exchanged a quick glance with Dean, "how can you be a hunter and not have any silver?" Dean asked.
"I do have silver," I looked down at the cross around my neck, "just not of a useful size."
"Come on," Sam stood up, holding his hand to pull me to my feet. I followed Sam towards the door.
"Hey! What about me!" Dean shouted.
Sam turned around, "I don't know, take care of the bill." I laughed and made for the door quickly, the look on Dean's face was priceless.
"Smooth," I said to Sam as we walked out to the street.
"Yeah, well he left me with his bar tab back in San Diego," Sam laughed.
"Brotherly love I see," right at that moment I wanted nothing more than to see my brother. Why did I have to open my mouth? I shook my head to clear the thoughts; right now I had a Shapeshifter to worry about. "So, where are we going?" I asked, curiosity winning over.
"To the Impala, there should be some silver," Sam explained. We arrived at the brother's car, the Impala Sam called it, "but now we have to wait for dinner, he has the keys." Sam leaned against the hood of the car; I stood not far from him, my arms crossed. Slightly hostile I know, but after thinking of my brother (and there it is again, creeping back into my head) I wanted retreat into my inner self hating world. It was a happy place and I mean that in the most negative of ways, but you obviously already guessed that.
"Need something?" Dean said as he walked the last few steps towards the Impala, I honestly didn't care for cars, Dean apparently thought otherwise with his keys hooked around his index finger.
"Yeah, apparently," Sam muttered, heading around the boot of their car. I followed, not sure what to do with myself. Did they just have a trunk of silver or something? As Dean popped the trunk and then went to lift the bottom up I gasped, not only did he prop it open with a shotgun but the boot was entirely filled with weapons. Sure, I had a gun, was kind of necessary for the job but this, well this was an entire arsenal. It was cool.
"Cool huh?" Dean grinned, picking up a silver knife. My words exactly.
"Just a bit, so, how do we go about finding this Shapeshifter?" for some reason I was actually kind of looking forward to it. It was certainly something I hadn't seen before; it's got to be interesting, right? I may live to regret saying that though.
"Well if you have a video you can usually tell by the eyes, you said he goes after high standing people in society right?" Sam clarified.
"Great, well that could be any number of people," Dean grabbed two more silver knives and handed one to each of us.
"I looked at the lawyers and the doctors homes but didn't find anything. I didn't have the heart to ask too many questions at the priests," I explained, hoping that was enough, perhaps I should have been more persistent with questions. "The family were there," I added hoping that they would understand why. By the look on Sam's face, I would guess that he did, Dean well he just looked sceptical.
"What about the principles?" Sam asked.
"Not yet," I had intended for it to be my port of call today, although obviously I couldn't go waltzing into a school claiming I was looking for a Shapeshifter, that kind of thing would get a person locked away.
"So we go there," Dean stated.
"No offense but I don't think they'll take too kindly to someone waltzing in with a knife looking for a Shapeshifter," I said as I hid the knife in my bag, "that's just screaming out 'arrest me' and I don't know about you guys but I don't fancy a night in prison."
"It's not so bad," Dean said, looking at Sam and laughing. I think I was missing something, an inside joke maybe, but it didn't matter, right now I was thinking Shapeshifter and Shapeshifter only and well maybe that I shouldn't have had that last cup of coffee.
Sam seemed intent on ignoring his brother, he obviously didn't share the reasons for Dean's laughter, "shall we go and check out the Principle's office, that's where his dead body turned up right?" he looked away from Dean. Sam addressed me. I nodded and we left Dean still at the boy's car. Dean muttered something about talking with the cops or some locals; I couldn't quite catch what he said.
"Sam," I said as we walked to my truck, "how do we get into the school, we can't just walk in there. You know security and all that jazz."
"How are your acting skills?" He asked, completely ignoring my question.
They weren't brilliant that's for sure, "okay I guess," well I wasn't going to lie.
"Good enough for me," he replied.
"How are yours?" I asked genuinely curious making Sam laugh as I wrestled with my stiff gears in the truck.
Within the hour I found myself sat next to Sam in the Principles office with the Vice Principle, pretending to be his fiancé who were looking at schools for my non existent younger brother to attend. The story went that our parents had died (which really they had but no one else knew that) leaving me the primary carer for my brother, who would be moving to Manchester to live with Sam and I. From experience I was perfectly capable of expressing the grief at my parent's deaths, if only my brother was alive.
"Death is a terrible thing," the Vice Principle stated, "I suppose you've heard about the death of our Principle recently, terrible business." I exchanged a glance with Sam, looks like finding answers wouldn't be like pulling teeth.
"How did it happen?" Sam asked, leaning forward in his seat slightly, obviously keen to get an answer.
"A shot to the back of the head, well, according to the cops at least. If you ask me though, it's all a bit strange," the Vice Principle sat back; obviously he felt he'd said enough.
"What do you mean?" I faked interest; I already knew what he was going to say.
"Well, the bodies had been dead for a while, but they were reported missing twenty four hours before they were found. I think it's someone with a grudge," the Vice Principle was obviously one for gossip.
"I hope they catch the killer soon," Sam nudged my foot as he spoke. With his hand at his side he gestured to a potted plant in the corner. I had to blink several times to make it out, but sure enough, there it was, plain as day. Some Shapeshifter goo on a leaf. So our friend had certainly been hear, unfortunately it gave us no indication on a Shapeshifter lair.
I was glad to be out of the school what felt like a century later. Being Sam's fiancé, talk about weird, I hardly knew the guy. Silence had fallen on the car as we drove towards the bar we'd agreed to meet Dean at. "Would we be able to find out if there were any tunnels or sewers directly connecting the murders, you did say that Shapeshifters like to live underground, right?" I broke the silence, a map would really help.
"Yeah, just need a way to get that information," Sam trailed off, I'm guessing he was trying to find a way how.
I grinned, a childish grin, "easy peasy," easy peasy? I definitely won't be saying that again. Sam laughed, "Don't laugh," I muttered then confidently began to explain, "The local library has that kind of information, just have to know who to ask." I tapped the side of my nose. "The library keeps that kind of information in its archives for planning purposes, I just had to pose to be a student who needed the information for a project, see? Easy." That seemed to have vanished the silence in the truck.
Clambering out of the truck we headed for the bar (Sam holding the door open for me). Despite it being mid afternoon it was moderately busy, that surprised me. It wasn't even anywhere special; it had the usual drunks at the pool table, sticky floor, and plastic leather stools around chipped tables. Sam ordered two beers, I preferred wine but it felt right to be drinking beer in a place like this.
"So that told us nothing we didn't already know," Sam passed me a beer, from which I took a long swig.
"I blame the acting skills," I teased making Sam laugh, "Odd though wasn't it?" The light comic relief soon disappeared as I said this.
"The getting married, thinking about kid's thing?" Sam guessed, at least he was on the same brain wave as me.
"Yeah, doesn't really go with the job. If my parents hadn't of died I wouldn't even be doing this," I could hear the bitterness creep into my voice, "I'd be a qualified geologist, couple of kids, nice house, white picket fence. My parents would definitely be alive, that's for sure.
"What happened to them?" Sam asked so some other time had arrived.
"A spirit, we were camping or rather. I left a day early, I had a paper due, and they were found by the site warden. Throats slit, the cops said it was cold blooded murder," I replied, now keen on what the label of beer said.
"And that's what made you start hunting?"
"Pretty much. A reporter asked me what I though of other similar murders that had happened ever twelve years, to the exact day. At first I thought it coincidence but I read news reports from the other murders and it was odd," I laughed nervously, "I have to have a scientific reason for everything or at least to know how or why something happens. I became obsessed with the murders. Eventually, and at this point I was getting pretty desperate, I found a book in the library, at the time it was weird but it soon proved to be right. I did more research online and there were lots of sights saying how to get rid of a spirit, most of them said salt and burn the bones. Turns out the site owner was killed by his brother over money troubles back in the sixties and was out for revenge."
It felt like I had been talking for ages, practically my life story, it felt good to talk about it though. I hadn't managed that since my family's death. "So what's your story?" I asked, shifting the attention from myself. A sombre look graced Sam's face, by the time he had explained I almost wished I hadn't asked. I was surprised that he'd been hunting since he was a kid, what a way to grow up. We sat in silence for ages, both wallowing in our own memories. Frankly, it was getting on my nerves. Setting my empty beer down with determination I caught Sam's attention, "we need a happier topic."
"Alright then," Sam began before downing the rest of his beer, "Favourite film?"
"Couldn't it had been a book, that's easier to choose," I wracked my brain for a film, I honestly didn't watch that many.
"Okay, favourite book," Sam picked at the label on his beer.
"I'm a sucker for Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice was the first I read, its got to be that one," I had to cut my book ramble off, I had so much to say about Jane Austen's work.
I was about to ask Sam what his favourite drink was when Dean sat down next to me, I hadn't seen him enter the bar. He even had a drink, "Ladies," he greeted, causing Sam to roll his eyes. "Find anything?"
We'd found nothing new, turns out neither had Dean but we did have an idea for finding the Shapeshifters lair.