Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or its characters - these were created by Eric Kripke - I'm just borrowing them. I'm not making any commercial gain from this. No harm or infringement intended.
The Three Faces of Winchester - Chapter Four
The Winchesters had spent the last couple of days sitting in the Impala on a stakeout outside the McNeilus factory in Dodge Center, Minnesota, following up on reports of a haunted cement truck.
So far they'd found no signs of anything more supernatural than a couple of adventurous, but bored and horny teenagers.
The brothers were agitated and irritable from the long, unproductive time they'd spent in the car, but Dean had also detected a friction growing between them in the weeks since they'd left Blackwater Ridge. At times he'd felt like he was on his own as Sam had grown increasingly quiet and withdrawn.
Ironically, Sam chose that exact moment to snort loudly in disgust and pull a face, "Dude, your eating habits are atrocious," he bitched as he watched Dean plough his way through a box of Twinkies.
"Yeah, I know, they're just not the same unless they're deep fried," Dean mocked, around a mouthful of vanilla filling.
Sam huffed and stared out the window, "We're wasting our time here. A phantom truck - that's just so lame. We should be looking for Dad."
"I don't think he wants to be found, Sammy. I think he wants us to pick up where he left off, you know saving people, hunting things. The family business."
Sam thought about this for a while, Is he saying this because he means it, or because he knows I'll just want to do the opposite of what he says and look for Dad anyway?
"I need to find Jessica's killer, and this isn't helping," Sam begged, gesturing to their surroundings. "Look man, Dad's had twenty years to find whatever killed Mom - it doesn't make sense that he's now suddenly made a breakthrough."
Sam didn't share his full thoughts – that the journal entry pointing them to Blackwater Ridge had also led them blind and unprepared into the path of a wendigo, and had obviously been put into place well before it woke from its sleep – implying that their father had known well in advance that the creature was there.
He remembered the voicemail that he'd listened to half-a-dozen times in secret, before deleting it in a sudden panic that Dean might be watching him and discover it:
"Sam, there's something wrong. I think it's starting to happen again. I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may be a while 'till I'm back. Be very careful, someone rang claiming to be 'Dean'. We're both in danger."
Sam couldn't help but wonder if the wendigo had been a trap, created by his father, and intended for his brother. Somehow the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Then only days after the event they had discovered that John's voicemail message had been updated with instructions on how to contact Dean.
'Family business' or simply more diversion? Sam pondered, And what would Dad think of the dreams I've been having recently?
Dean wasn't oblivious to the thoughts running through Sam's head - for all that Gigantor was the brains of the outfit, he was also surprisingly transparent at times. So Sam's finally woken up and realized there's something odd going on, but what's he not telling me? thought Dean.
"Okay then, let's get the hell out of Dodge," Dean grinned, trying to lighten the mood, "Man, I've always wanted to say that!
"Let's go home."
Sam had seemed insistent on doing most of the driving, and given the pissy mood he was in, Dean had left him to it.
Feeling unexpectedly drained, Dean had spent most of the journey dead to the world. He awoke periodically and then only long enough to fuel the Impala and check she was running correctly, and to ensure that Sam ate. It wasn't lost on him that he performed the same function for both his beloved car and his brother.
At long last, although in some ways to Dean it only felt like a matter of hours, they arrived in Lawrence, Kansas.
Sam had been adamant that they should pay a visit to the garage that their father had part-owned until shortly after their mother's death, although he'd been obstinately evasive when Dean pressed him for his reasons.
Posing as police officers investigating John Winchester's supposed disappearance over 20 years ago, they questioned the now sole-owner, Mike Guenther.
"He was a stubborn bastard, and he hated to lose, it was the marine in him," laughed Mike fondly, when asked for his recollections of John.
"But he sure did love his Mary," he said, "and he doted on his boys," he added quietly.
"A man doesn't easily walk away from a tragedy like that. We took him in after the fire, but he was never the same. I'm not surprised he left, I always prayed he'd made a new start and find some kinda peace."
"Did he ever talk about that night?" asked Sam with a slightly glazed look in his eyes.
"No, not at first. I think he was in shock."
"Right. But eventually? What did he say about it?" asked Sam.
"Oh, he wasn't thinkin' straight. He said somethin' caused that fire."
"He ever say what did it?" pressured Sam.
"Nothin' did it. It was an accident - an electrical short in the ceiling or walls or somethin'. I begged him to get some help, but…." Mike trailed off uncomfortably.
"But what?" asked Dean forcefully.
Mike looked up abruptly in surprise, "Oh, he just got worse an' worse. He started readin' these strange ol' books and goin' to see this so called psychic in town."
"Psychic?" Dean asked in surprise, "Do you have a name?"
Mike scoffed, "No, the Bible calls them abominations, and I tried in vain to convince John of that. At the best they're charlatans, at worst devils, and I'll have no truck with them."
As Sam searched through the phone book for psychics, a name he read out rang a bell with Dean - Missouri Mosely. The first sentence in John's journal reads: "I went to Missouri and I learned the truth".
"I always thought he meant the state," Dean shrugged.
The Winchester's arrived at Missouri's address to find her showing out a slender man in his fifties with black slicked-back hair and a distinct aura of calm.
"Ms. Mosley, a pleasure as always," he said. As he left he caught Dean's eye and gave him a small smile.
"Goodbye Mr. Thanatos, see y'next time," called Missouri, waving as he drove off in a white classic car that Dean droolingly recognized as a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado. She turned to Sam, "He's one of my long time regulars; nice man, misses his family."
She gave Sam a long, evaluating look, "I can't contact them - I think they're beyond my reach," she continued.
"So why don't you tell him?" asked Sam.
"People don't come here for the truth. They come for good news," smiled Missouri sadly. "So what can I do for you, Sam Winchester?" she asked as she led him into the next room.
She took hold of Sam's hand, "Oh, honey…I'm sorry about your girlfriend. And your father - he's missin'?"
"How'd you know all that?" asked Sam.
"Well, you were just thinkin' it just now," she stated matter-of-factly.
"Well, where is he? Is he okay?" demanded Dean.
Missouri looked at Dean with an intensely piercing gaze as if she had just seen him for the first time.
She smiled sadly, "Y'know, Dean, I knew you when you were just a lil'baby."
Dean frowned, "Sorry, I don't remember," he answered, not quite sure of why he suddenly felt so angry.
"Oh, of course. You were very young, and it was a long time ago," she said sadly, "We were both different people back then."
There was a long strained silence; finally Sam cleared his throat, "So how exactly do you know our Dad?" he asked with barely restrained impatience.
Missouri turned her back to him, busying herself with the paraphernalia of tea making, "He came to see me regarding certain signs he'd noticed in the lead up to y'birth. I never really figured what made him come to me. Back then y'see, he wasn't really what you'd've called a believer.
"He came for a reading. And again a few days after the fire. I just told him what was really out there in the dark. I guess you could say…I drew back the curtains for him. Perhaps I could do the same for you?"
"What about the fire? Do you know about what killed our mom?" asked Sam.
"A little. Your daddy took me to y'house. He was hopin' I could sense the echoes, the fingerprints of this thing."
"And could you?"
"Oh, it was evil," she said softly.
Later that afternoon, Sam, Dean, and Missouri stood at the door at the old Winchester place and put on their best "trust me, I'm not an axe murderer" smiles on their faces.
An attractive, but harried looking, woman cautiously answered the door. She had an air of sadness about her and, with slightly puffy eyes, looked like she had been crying recently. Two young children peered at them curiously from the safety of behind her legs.
"Hello?" she asked.
Dean stepped up to the mark, "Ah, hello there, I'm Dean Winchester - my brother Sammy and I grew up in this house – this here's Missouri she's, ah, an old family friend,"
"I'm not that old!" laughed Missouri conspiratorially.
Dean lowered his head feigning embarrassment, then looked up through his eyelashes - it was a look he'd had some success with in the past, "and I was wondering if it would be okay for us to look around for old time's sake?"
"Winchester? I found some of your old photos in the basement just last night, come on in," Jenny answered, succumbing to the charm tactics.
Inside the house, the three of them moved through to the kitchen. Missouri gave Jenny a long look, "I can see you're upset, but hear me out."
"What are you talking about?" asked Jenny quietly.
"I think you know what I'm talking about. You think there's something in this house, something that wants to hurt your family. Am I mistaken?"
Jenny expression closed down, but the young girl, Sari, piped up, "Mommy? Tell them about the monster in my closet. I wasn't dreaming, it came into my room - and it was on fire."
Jenny visibly wilted under the power of Missouri's gaze.
After convincing Jenny to take the children and leave for the rest of the evening, Missouri and the Winchesters patrolled the house, checking each room one-by-one.
"It isn't the same energy I felt the last time I was here. It's somethin' different," explained Missouri, finally. She thought for a moment, "Them. There's more than one spirit in this place. I just can't quite make out the second one."
Missouri turned to Sam, "They're here because of what happened to your family. Y'see, all those years ago, real evil came for you. It walked this house. That kind of evil leaves wounds. And sometimes, wounds get infected.
"This place is a magnet for paranormal energy. It's attracted a poltergeist. A nasty one. And it won't rest until Jenny and her babies are dead."
"So whatever is here, how do we stop it?" asked Sam.
Missouri searched through her bag, before pulling out four small gray bundles of cloth.
"So, what's this stuff, anyway?" asked Dean, somewhat suspicious of what to him looked like witchcraft.
"Van Van oil, graveyard dirt, a few other odds and ends," answered Missouri airily.
"Oh, voodoo, yeah? What're we supposed to do with 'em?" asked Dean doubtfully.
"We're gonna put them inside the walls in each corner of the house."
"Punchin' holes in the dry wall? Jenny's gonna love that," Dean snorted.
"She'll live," replied Missouri slyly, with a cold smile.
Sam rolled his eyes, not quite understanding the source of the slight, but constant tension between his brother and Missouri, "And this'll destroy the spirits?"
"Yes, it should purify the house completely, but we'll need to work fast, though. Once the spirits realize what we're up to, things are gonna get bad quickly.
Just at the point of placing the final juju bag, Missouri heard a loud scraping noise behind her and turned with barely time enough to scream as a table slid across the floor and pinned her against the wall.
As Dean rushed into the room to her defense, a lamp fell from the table and its cord wrapped itself tightly around her throat.
Unable to loosen the cable that was choking the psychic, Dean grabbed the remaining hex bag and, kicking in the plasterboard wall, threw the charm into the hole he'd just made. There was a flash of light and a palpable sense that the spirit had departed.
Missouri got groggily to her feet, "This house is clean," she rasped.
"You sure this is over?" asked Sam doubtfully.
"I'm sure. Why do you ask?" asked Missouri curiously.
"Never mind," he sighed, "It's nothing, just a feeling, I guess."
Later that night the Winchesters were sitting in the Impala outside the house on stakeout.
"Missouri did her whole Zelda Rubenstein thing, the house should be clean, so why are we still here," asked Dean, while making short work of a 12 inch meat-ball sub.
"I just… have a bad feeling. But I just wanna make sure, that's all," answered Sam evasively.
Sam settled back into his seat and closed his eyes briefly – he felt disorientated as the vision of Jenny screaming at her window that had played out against his eyelids for the last couple of nights, continued in reality when he open his eyes once more.
Dean rushed out of the car and into the house, raising his shotgun when he encountered a fiery spectral figure.
"No, don't! Don't! I know who it is. I can see her now," screamed Sam desperately. At that, a second invisible presence flung him across the room and pinned him against the wall. He struggled against his invisible bonds, but was completely incapable of movement.
The fiery figure flickered, then transformed into the appearance of Mary Winchester in a long white nightdress - she looked just as Sam had seen from the few photos that remained of his mother.
Mary floated towards him smiling, "Sam," her smiled faded, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she whispered sadly.
She turned in the direction of the second presence, "Get out my house and let go of my son," she screamed. She exploded in an immense burst of flames that filled the room with a split second of blinding golden light before disappearing. Paradoxically the temperature plummeted to the point that Sam could see his breath, and he realized that both his mother and the force holding him against the wall were gone.
The next morning, after a call from Sam, Missouri made a shamefaced re-examination of the house.
"Well, there're no spirits in there anymore, this time for sure," she said bashfully.
"Not even my mom?" asked Sam, hopefully.
Missouri shook her head sadly, "Your mom's spirit and the poltergeist's energy, they cancelled each other out. Your mom destroyed herself goin' after the thing."
"Why would she do something like that?" he asked, his eyes welling up.
"Well, to protect her boys, of course. Listen, Sam, I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"You sensed it was here, didn't you? Even when I couldn't."
"What's happening to me?"
Missouri paused, "I know about your visions. I wish I had all the answers, but I don't. But I do know that you should embrace it, and that it's not something you should be scared of," she urged.
Dean motioned impatiently that he was ready to go and made his way to the car,
"See you around," called Missouri, as she and Jenny smiled and waved good bye as the Impala drove off into the distance.
Missouri let herself into her home and came to a sudden, shocked stop. She stared at John sitting on the couch.
"John," she said carefully, her heart hammering in her chest.
"Y'know, Dean's back," she added when he didn't respond.
John turned his nose up, "I know, I thought I'd taken care of all that nonsense when Sam went to Stanford."
"True, but that boy can't leave well enough alone, it's in his nature to keep scratching at things."
He gave Missouri a dismissive wave and an insincere smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, "It doesn't matter, he's not important."
It's amazing, you'd never guess what a monster he is to look at him, she thought.
John grinned at her as if reading her thoughts, "So how did it go?"
"I did as you asked. You were right, Mary sacrificed herself to destroy the entity I summoned with the hex bags. She wasn't able to warn Sam," Missouri answered obediently.
She paused, thinking, before continuing, "That boy, he has such powerful abilities. But why he can't seem to sense you, his own father, I have no idea."
"Blood's thicker than water, and my blood's thicker than most," John smiled, his eyes flashing yellow for just a second.
Sorry this has taken so long to update, hope it's been worth the wait though.
Please review! (;,;)