Chapter 7- Sharp Dressed Man
(ZZ Top)
The boys packed up the Impala and hit the road to New Orleans. According to Google it was going to be a long 14 hour drive, but Sam and Dean didn't mind. They had gotten used to being on the hunt, but everything with Zoey slowed them down. However, Dean was itching to get back in the swing of things and especially to get the hell outta Kansas. Six months was a long time to hunt only in state, so Dean was going to make the most of his time. As the boys drove along they stopped at their usual cheesy diners and roach infested motels, but once they rolled into the city it was game on.
Dean pulled the Impala into the parking lot of "Bayou's Best" (another cheap motel) just inside the city limits. They quickly checked in and hauled their duffle bags to the room. "I don't know about you Sam, but I'm starvin' what ya say we order ourselves some grub?" "Sure, I could go for food." Dean clapped his hands together and dialed the number for room service. "Front desk, this is Linda speaking how may I assist you this evening?" "Hi I was wondering if you could give me the number for any joints around here that deliver." There was a short pause as the woman on the other end could be heard shuffling papers. "Yes sir there certainly are, I have a list here of different restaurants and cafés. Were you looking for anything in particular?" "Well I'm not sure. What's good around here?" "Personally my favorite is a little hole in the wall just up the street. They don't deliver, but it's only a 10 minute walk. They have the best Cajun food in all of New Orleans." "That sounds good enough for me, so how do I get to this place?" Dean quickly scribbled down some notes on the hotel brochure which was sitting on the night stand by the phone. Nodding to his self as he wrote and replied to her directions with "uh huh, ok, ok, yep, ok got it." Dean hung up and turned to his brother, "The lady gave the name of a place just around the corner called Clyde's Cookin' supposed to be really good, but we gotta walk there." "That's fine by me I could stretch my legs." Sam replied. Getting up from off the bed he and Dean were about to leave when, "Sammy uh real quick what the hell is Cajun food." Sam gave Dean one of his usual "are you kidding me" looks and rolled his eyes.
When the boys got to Clyde's they were surprised and impressed with the atmosphere. Together they enjoyed zydeco music and chowed down. Sam order himself a plate of blackened chicken on a bed of wild rice, and Dean tried his first fried shrimp poboy, which he found was far more satisfying than he expected. The boys chatted about their driver to Louisiana and all the things New Orleans had to offer. They briefly theorized about what might be going on and how they would go about solving this case. They spent an hour in the restaurant before retiring to their beds, and then woke up the next morning refreshed and ready to go on the hunt. Dean wasn't sure how Sam did it, but some mornings Sam was up and going before he could even get his bearings. He was grateful for this, because without his morning coffee Dean turned into a real asshole. So when he did roll out of bed around 10 am he found coffee and a pastry of unknown origin waiting for him on the night stand. Dean could hear the shower running and called out to his brother, "Sammy! Thanks of the coffee man." Slowly he sipped at the Styrofoam cup as he allowed the aroma of Folgers to entice his senses. "Yup, no problem" Sammy called back. Dean set the cup down and picked up the pastry. It was light and airy topped with powdered sugar. He took a bite and found that it was hollow inside. Dean licked the powdered sugar off his lips and nodded to himself. So far he was enjoying the food in New Orleans. Dean managed to swallow down two more before Sam finished in the shower. He was about to start on a fourth when Sam emerged. Dean held the pastry up to his brother and asked, "What are these? They're friggin good." Sam smirked at his brother as he took in the site of a powder covered Dean. "They're called beignets, and I'm glad I bought a dozen." Dean frowned at Sam, "Ben who's?" Sam rolled his eyes. It's French Dean…just go get dressed." Dean shrugged and shoveled in the Ben whatevers as he went to take a shower. Twenty minutes later the boys were stepping out of the hotel in the Fed suits and getting in the Impala. "I did some digging this morning while you were sleep and the church is in the Garden District. I figured we could start there and see where that leads us." Dean agreed with his brother and pulled out of the parking lot. The drive across the city was interesting to say the least. The boys managed to get lost three times before Sam took it upon himself to turn on his GPS. Two hours later and they finally pulled up to House of God Ministries. The church sat on the corner of the street, and took up three lots, and lucky for the boys, when they walked in there was a woman's bible study taking place in the sanctuary. Dean walked up to the front pews and politely greeted the women. Flashing them his fake badge he started with, "Hello ladies I'm detective Simmons. This is my partner detective Tyler. We're sorry to interrupt, but we're here to investigate the case of Claire Alva. Can any of you tell us what happened on the Sunday of Claire's incident?" A slender Caucasian woman in a yellow dress and white heals was the first to approach Dean. She held out her hand to shake his and spoke with a thick Creole accent. "Well hello gentlemen. My name is Cynthia LaDon and I'm the first lady of this church." "So your husband's the pastor?" Sam asked. "Yes, sir he is, Tobias LaDon, but everyone round here just calls him Pastor Don." Dean put his hand on the back of her shoulder and gestured for her to walk with them, "Ma'am would you mind telling us what happened here?" Cynthia turned towards the other ladies, and asked that they continue on. She walked Sam and Dean to the back of the church. Sam started, "What can you tell us about what happened to Claire?" "Well detective, as odd as the situation was this wasn't anything new for Claire. My husband has been pastor here since Claire was a little girl, and she was always disturbed. I'm very close with Mrs. Alva and she told me once that Claire was the reason they started attending church. They were worried that she was in danger and they wanted her to be safe. So they turned to God for protection." "Protection" Dean asked. "Yes, detective, the Alvas thought their daughter was under spiritual attack. They even went as far as to ask my husband to bless their home." Dean exchanged a glance with Sam and asked the next obvious question. "Mrs. LaDon do you think it was a demon trying to possess her?" "A demon oh heavens I couldn't tell you, but I think the girl was involved in witch craft." Sam gave a confused expression. "What makes you think witchcraft?" "Claire always wore a necklace. I think it was some kind of pendant." "Ma'am do you think you could describe it to us or draw it?" Sam asked. Cynthia walked to a nearby table and grabbed from it a church bulletin and a pen. On the paper she drew a circle. Within it was a large X, a line down the center of it, and two smaller X's, one on the left the other on the right. She walked back to the boys and handed them the paper. "This is it." Dean and Sam looked it over and exchanged another glance. "Thank you for all your help ma'am. We appreciate it." Sam shook the woman's hand and the boys left. Walking back to the Impala Dean pulled the article he had printed out from inside his suit jacket. Quickly he skimmed it again and asked Sam, "You think the pendant is this symbol that's mentioned in here?" Sam nodded, "Could be, but there's only one way to find out." There next stop would be Tulane Medical Center.
When the boys arrived at the hospital they were easily directed to Claire's room. Pretending to be a federal agent got easier and easier with each case. Sam and Dean were pros at it now. They took the elevator to the third floor, turned left, then took the first right, and Claire's room was the 7th door on the right hand side. Dean peered in first, as Sam knocked on her already open door. Claire's room wasn't like any of the others. You could tell someone was paying handsomely for her stay. It was set up more like a small bedroom than a room in a hospital; with a couch in one corner, two small tables, and a large flat screen TV. Again, Dean was the first to pull out his badge and introduce himself. They approached the girl as she lay in her bed watching "The Craft" on TNT. Claire was a slender Caucasian girl, with Sunkist brown skin, green eyes, and auburn hair that was streaked with black. When she spoke, it was clear that she too was a permanent resident of Louisiana as made obvious by her Creole accent. "So are you here to make fun of me too?" Sam was better with younger people than Dean was so he took the lead here. "No Claire not at all. We are just trying to find out what happened to you is all?" "What does it matter to you? Why would the FBI want to know about me?" "It might sound strange, but the bureau is classifying this as a disappearance. We need to know who took you." Sam stated. "With all due respect detective that sounds like a load of horse shit. I didn't even technically disappear. I mean I did, but I didn't. You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Dean gave Claire a stern look and said, "Try us." Claire cleared her throat and adjusted herself in the bed. When she did so, Sam noticed a chain around her neck and casually nudged Dean. He noticed what Sam was getting at and eyed his brother. "So do you guys want the whole story or the nut shell version?" "Start from the beginning." Sam replied. Taking a deep breath, Claire began. "It all started happening when I was 8 years old. I would be in the middle of doing something and my fingers would get all tingly. Slowly my body would start to go cold, and the hairs on the back of my neck would stand up. I would be struck by this uneasy feeling. As though someone or something was watching me, but there never was. It would happened out of nowhere for no reason at all. This feeling would come over me and I would tell my mom, but she didn't think anything of it. Then when I was 10 these things that I felt became more than just something I thought I had imagined. One day I was in my room playing tea party, and I got the chills. I turned around and standing behind me was a brown figure. It was tall and boney. It didn't have any hair, no ears, or sexual organs. It didn't even have a mouth, just these piercing yellow eyes, like cats eyes. You know when they get pointy? I screamed out in terror and it slashed at me with one of its long sharp nails. I ran down stairs to our house keeper Sylvia. She called my parents to come home from work. To this day they don't know that I know this, but that night I heard my parents talking with Sylvia. She was trying to tell them that I was cursed. Something to do with a wrong doing that my parents may have had some part in, but they didn't believe her. She was sworn to secrecy, and told never to speak of it again. After that incident my parents started taking myself and my older brothers to church, but that didn't help. This thing kept showing up and it kept attacking me. When I was 13 my mom and dad had our house cleansed and blessed, but that was when Sylvia couldn't keep things a secret anymore. She came to me in private and gave me this." Claire pulled the necklace out from underneath her hospital gown and showed it to Sam and Dean. It was the same symbol that Cynthia had drawn. "It's a protection pendant. It's meant to ward off grabbers." Dean looked at Sam and tried to read if his brother had heard of anything like that, but by Sam's expression Dean could see he was just as confused. So he asked, "What's a grabber?" "Sylvie said it was the creature that kept coming after me. This brown figure wanted to take me, but the pendant kept them away. Which it did at least until two Sundays ago, my mom and dad were in such a rush to get to church that morning, I forgot my necklace. When I realized this I tried to draw it out on my bulletin, but…" Before Claire could finish, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alva came in. Claire's dad was a very stern man and his patience was short. As he listened to Sam and Dean explain what they were doing there talking to his daughter, he grew displeased. "Gentlemen, this is my child. My only little girl and she has been through a lot. The respectful thing to have done would have been to come to us first." "Daddy I'm 21 I can talk to who I want." "Don't sass me gurl! Now if you two are done here, we would like to take our suga home."
Sam and Dean loosened their ties as they made their way back down stairs and to the Impala. "Wow that Alva guy he's a dick!" Dean scoffed. "He defiantly wasn't the most pleasant person I've ever talked to, but Dean all that stuff Claire was saying. I've never heard of any of that. There is nothing in the lour to suggest a creature to what she described." "So what do you suggest then Sam? I mean as long as the girl wears the pendant she's fine right?" "Yea, Dean but anything could happen. Can you imagine what might go wrong if it got lost or stolen? This thing would surely come after her." "How do we kill something we can't see though Sam?" "Who say's we won't be able to see it? No one was ever around to see it. Claire was just always by herself. We still need to dig up more information though. I say we follow them home and see if we can't talk with Sylvia. She knows the most about these things." "Stake out sounds good to me Sammy." The boys quickly changed back into their regular clothes and waited for the Alva's to leave the hospital. Soon they had tailed them back to the garden district and parked around the corner from a very large white two story home. The house had a bricked in yard that squared off the front and back. The only entrance was a large metal gate in the front of the home at the end of a short drive way. Sam and Dean stayed in the Impala and munched on stale chips into the early evening. They sat in the car until 7pm. That's when they noticed Mr. and Mrs. Alva pulling out of the gravel drive way in their silver 2013 Rolls Royce. Once they were out of sight Sam and Dean walked up to the gate, and surveyed their surroundings. Dean noticed an intercom with a screen and pressed the buzzer. In the picture was an older woman in a typical maid uniform. "Hello sirs how may I help you this evening?" "Look we need to speak with Claire. We met her at the hospital earlier today." "I'm sorry sir, but who is this?" "My name's Detective Simmons. It's vital that I speak with her." "One moment please." The screen went black and the gates opened up. When the boys got to the door it was opening and Claire was stepping out. "You two aren't real detectives are you?" Sam gave Dean a look as if to say "Do we tell her," and Dean nodded. With that confirmation Sam decided to tell the truth. "Look you're right. We aren't detectives. We're hunters, and whatever has been hunting you we are going to try and stop it before it gets any worse. Now is there anything else you can tell us about this grabber?" "I've told you all I know, but Sylvia can tell you more." "Is she here can we talk her?" Dean asked. There was a hesitation before Claire answered. "My parents fired her a couple years ago, but I can give you her address." Claire disappeared in the house and came back a few minutes later with Sylvia's address on a piece of sticky paper. Dean took it and thanked Claire. Sam exchanged phone numbers with her just in case, and then patted her on the back. "You stay safe alright."