Sam and Dean sat in a diner, in silence. It'd had been just over a week since Kat had left; they hadn't had much to say to one another since. Dean was staring into space, it was strange waking up and not seeing her face. Sam frowned, he wanted to talk to him but he didn't know what to say. He slid the paper over to him.
"See if you can find anything" He continued to brows the news articles on his laptop. After twenty minutes Dean finally spoke.
"All right, dude. Not a decent lead in all of Nebraska. What do you got?" He sighed.
"Well, I've been scanning Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota. Here, a woman in Iowa fell ten thousand feet from an airplane and survived" He smiled.
"That sounds more like "That's incredible" than, uh, "Twilight Zone"" His tone lacked his usual cheekiness.
"Yeah" Sam checked his phone, still no reply from Kat. He continued his search.
"Oh no" Sam's jaw dropped, panic flooded through him.
"What is it" Dean stood up and joined him on his side of the table.
"Uh, Manning, Colorado—a local man by the name of Daniel Elkins was found mauled in his home"
"Kat's uncle, damn it"" Dean slammed his fist down on the table.
"It sounds like the police don't know what to think. At first, they said it was some sort of bear attack, and now, they found signs of robbery" Sam continued to read the article.
"Has she contacted you?" Dean hadn't heard from her but then again he didn't expect to after what he did.
"No I've been calling her, texting ... nothing" Sam shut the lid of his laptop.
"We gotta get to Colorado now" Dean threw a note on the table and ran to the exit.
Sam and Dean arrived at Danny's house. They had been calling Kat constantly on the journey but still nothing. They entered the house, flashlights in hand, and began to look around.
"Hey, there's salt over here, right inside the door" Sam shouted to Dean who was searching for any indication that Kat had been there.
"You mean, like, protection-against-demons salt, or, uh, "Oops, I spilled the popcorn" salt?" Dean turned to face him.
"It's clearly a ring. You think this Kat's been here?" Sam asked.
"No sign of her" Dean sighed. He picked up Elkins' journal.
"That looks a hell of a lot like Dad's" Sam watched as Dean turned the pages.
"Yeah, except this dates back to the sixties" A small photograph fell from between the pages. Dean picked it up. It was Kat; a younger version with her parents and a young boy who Dean assumed was Jack. Her boyfriend that had perished along with her parents.
"Whatever attacked him, it looks like there was more than one" Sam examined the evidence of the struggle.
"Looks like he put up a hell of a fight, too." Dean smiled "Must run in the family"
"Yeah" Sam smiled too. Dean picked up a small box with a pentacle carved into the top, he opened it, it was empty. He noticed several scratches that had been carved into the wooden floor. He bent down for a closer look.
"You got somethin'?" Sam joined him.
" I don't know, just some scratches in the floor" Dean looked puzzled.
"Death throes, maybe?" Sam suggested.
"Yeah, maybe" He grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil from the nearby desk. He then placed the paper on the floor on top of the scratches he then began to quickly move the pencil back and forth over the paper. "Or maybe a message" He handed the paper to Sam. "Look familiar?"
"Three letters, six digits—the location and combination of a post office box. It's a mail drop. Kat maybe? Or for her?" Dean shrugged at Sam's questions.
"I don't know let's check it out" He placed Danny's journal into his pocket.
Sam and Dean retrieved the envelopes from the post office. The first letter is addressed to "J.W."
"J.W.—you think? John Winchester?" Sam examined the envelope. The second was addressed to "K.E"
"That ones for Kat" Dean handed him the other one.
"Should we open it?" Sam questioned. Suddenly, someone knocked on the window. Dean jumped and turned to see John standing outside. "Dad?" He exchanged a confused look with Sam. John got in the backseat of the car.
"Dad, what are you doing here? Are you all right?" Dean began.
"Yeah. I'm okay. Look, I read the news about Daniel. I got here as fast as I could. I saw you two up at his place"
"Why didn't you come in, Dad?" Sam wasn't as happy about the reunion as Dean was.
"You know why—because I had to make sure you weren't followed, by anyone, or anything" Dean nodded gratefully. "Nice job of covering your tracks, by the way"
"Yeah, well, we learn from the best" Dean smiled.
"So I take it Kat's busy arranging the funeral" John assumed.
"Well err we don't know ... she's gone" Sam wasn't sure if Dean would want John to know what happened.
"She's gone Dad" Dean clenched the steering wheel.
"Wait, so, you came all the way out here for this Elkins guy?" Sam attempted to change the subject.
"Yeah. He was … he was a good man. He taught me a hell of a lot about hunting" John said sadly.
"You never mentioned him to us" Dean looked confused.
" We had, uh….we had kind of a falling out. I hadn't seen him in years, probably why Kat can't stand me. I should look at that" He pointed to the letter. Dean handed it to him, he opened it. ""If you're reading this, I'm already dead." That son of a bitch" He sighed.
"What is it?" Dean wondered if it had anything to do with Kat.
"He had it the whole time" John shook his head.
"Dad, what?" Sam demanded.
"When you searched the place, did you see a gun? An antique—a Colt revolver, did you see it?"
"Uh, there was an old case, but it was empty" Dean told him.
"They have it" John frowned.
"You mean, whatever killed Elkins? ... Maybe or Kat could have it" Sam suggested.
"We've got to pick up the trail" He got out of the car.
"Wait" Sam wound down his window. John leaned through the open car window. "You want us to come with you?" He sounded shocked.
"If Elkins was tellin' the truth, we've got to find this gun, for all our sakes I hope Kat has it"
"The gun? Why?" Dean knitted his brow.
"Because it's important, that's why and if she does have it she could be in serious danger"
"Dad, we don't even know what these things are yet" Sam stated.
"They were what Daniel and Kat Elkins killed best; vampires ... I thought they were extinct. I thought Elkins and others had wiped 'em out... I was wrong"
"Kat told me about vampires, she said that most vampire lore is bull. A cross won't repel them, sunlight won't kill them, and neither will a stake to the heart. But the bloodlust that part's true. They need fresh human blood to survive and since they were human once, you won't know it's a vampire until it's too late" Dean remembered that conversation well. He was amazed that something as beautiful as Kat could be so deadly.