This is my first story, so please be nice. Tell me what you think! I do not own any of the characters (except for Alex) and I do not own any of the storylines.
Chapter 21
"So where'd Daddy send us this time?" asked Alex.
"Fitchburg, Wisconsin," said Dean.
"Dean, I checked. There is nothing there," replied Sam, sighing.
"Dad wouldn't send us someplace unless we needed to be there, Sam."
"Yeah. I'm sure there's something worth killing in Fitchburg," agreed Alex.
"What makes you so sure?" asked Sam, turning around in his seat to look at her.
Alex simply shrugged.
"Well, I'm the only girl, so I'm always right."
She smiled and Dean looked over at Sam, shrugging.
Sam looked at the scenery out his window as Dean drove into Fitchburg. Dean parked the car against the curb and entered a little coffee place. He came out a few minutes later with three cups of coffee, handing one to Alex and another cup to Sam.
"Nobody's heard about anything weird going on according to Courtney," said Dean.
Alex rolled her eyes as Dean looked at his hand that had the cashier's number written on it.
"Mmm, Courtney," said Dean as he sipped his coffee.
Alex sighed and looked across the street at a playground. The playground was almost completely empty. Only two little girls were playing on the monkey bars, their mother sitting on a bench watching them closely.
"Dean, what time is it?" asked Alex.
Dean glanced at his watch.
"Ten after four. Why?"
Alex nodded over to the playground.
"What's wrong with this picture?"
Sam and Dean looked over at the playground as well. The swings swayed in the wind as it blew, but no kids were sitting on them.
"School's out now, right?" asked Dean.
"Yep. So, where is everybody?" asked Sam, watching one of the two little girls climb the jungle gym.
Sam and Alex stepped onto the playground only a few minutes later, walking over to the bench where the woman sat, watching her kids play. Dean waited at the car.
"Sure is quiet out here," said Sam.
The woman looked up at them, startled. She gave them a sad smile.
"Yeah. It's a shame."
"Why is that?" asked Alex.
"You know. Kids getting sick. It's a terrible thing."
"How many?"
"Just five or six, but it's all been hospital serious. A lot of parents are getting pretty anxious."
She turned back to watching her two little girls play on the monkey bars.
"They think it's catching."
"Huh," said Sam, watching the kids.
"That's too bad," said Alex.
Sam pulled at his tie as he entered the hospital behind Alex and Dean. He looked at the fake ID that Dean had given him.
"Dude, I can't use this ID. It says bikini inspector on it."
Sam stuck the ID into Dean's face and Dean looked down at it.
"She won't even look that close," said Dean, shoving Sam's hand away from his face.
"Confidence," whispered Alex as she shoved Sam gently toward the front desk.
The nurse looked up at Sam with a bored expression and Sam smiled nervously.
"Hi. I'm Doctor Jerry Kaplan, center for Disease Control."
"Can I see some ID?" asked the nurse.
Alex and Dean, who were standing off to the side of the desk, snorted quietly into their palms. Sam shot them a glare as he dug his ID out of his pocket. He turned back to the nurse with a smile on his face and his fake ID in hand. He quickly showed it to the nurse and then stuck it back into his pocket. She gave him a hard glare.
"Now, can you please direct me to the pediatric ward?"
"Sure. Just go down the hall, turn left, and go up the stairs."
"Thanks."
Sam gave her one last smile and then he led his siblings to the children's ward of the hospital.
A few minutes later, Sam pushed open the double doors that led to the children's ward. They passed by a few rooms before they turned the corner to the children's rooms. Dean glanced in one of the open doorways and saw a very old woman sitting in the room. He stopped and looked further into the room. The cross on the wall was upside down and the woman was staring off into nothing. She was placed directly in the middle of her room, sitting in her wheelchair.
"Dean, c'mon," said Sam.
Dean looked in the room one last time and then he followed his brother and younger sister around the corner.
"Thanks for seeing us, Dr. Hidecker," said Dean.
The man in the white lab coat nodded.
"I'm glad you guys are here. How'd you find out about the disease anyway?"
"Some GP called. Must have beat you to the punch," said Dean.
The doctor nodded and then he led them past a large room full of sick children.
"So, you say you've got six cases so far?" asked Sam, looking into the large room.
Alex stood directly beside him and she watched as the parents of the sick kids sat unmoving by their children's bedsides.
"Yeah. In five weeks. At first, we thought it was pneumonia, but now…"
The doctor trailed off as he looked into the room with them.
"Now what?" asked Alex, watching as a little boy's mother suddenly broke down into tears and her husband comforted her.
"The kids aren't responding to antibiotics. Their white blood cell counts keep going down. Their immune systems just aren't doing their jobs. It's like their bodies are just wearing out."
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" asked Sam, looking at the doctor as a nurse came up to them and handed Dr. Hidecker a small clipboard to sign.
"The way it spreads… it's a new one for me," said the nurse, replying as the doctor signed the papers that were clipped onto the clipboard.
"What do you mean?" asked Dean.
The nurse took the clipboard back from Dr. Hidecker and looked over at the three of them.
"It works its way through families. But only the children. One sibling after another."
"Mind if we interview some of the kids?" asked Dean, watching the nurse walk away.
"They're not conscious," said Dr. Hidecker.
"None of them?" asked Sam, incredulous.
Dr. Hidecker shook his head sadly.
"Can we talk to the parents?" asked Dean.
"If you think that it'll help," said Dr. Hidecker, shrugging.
He stepped into the room of the sick kids and began talking to one of the dads as the Winchesters watched.
"I should get back to my girls," said the father that Sam, Dean, and Alex were currently interviewing.
"We understand that. And we really appreciate you talking to us. Now, you say Mary's the oldest?" asked Sam.
The dad nodded.
"Thirteen."
"And she came down with it first, right? Then…"
"Bethany. The next night."
"Within twenty four hours?" asked Sam.
"I guess. Look, I already went through all of this with the doctor," said the father anxiously.
"Just a few more questions," said Alex.
"How do you think they got pneumonia?" asked Dean.
"We think it was an open window."
"Both times?"
"The first time, I don't really remember. But the second time, I know for sure that I closed it before I put Bethany to bed."
"So, you think she opened it?" asked Alex.
The dad looked over at her, exhaustion evident by the black bags under his eyes.
"It's a second story window with no ledge. No one else could've," he answered seriously.
A few hours after their hospital visit, Dean picked the lock on the front door to the house that Bethany and Mary lived in. They climbed up the stairs to the second floor and entered Bethany's bedroom. It was covered in pink: pink walls and pink sheets. There were porcelain dolls on shelves and little girl shoes lined up in a row against the dresser. They all began looking around, lifting up rugs and furniture.
"Got anything?" asked Sam, after a few moments of silence.
"Nope," said Dean, lifting up a rug to look under it.
"Yeah, come here," said Alex.
She unlatched the window as her brothers joined her by the windowsill. A cool breeze floated in through the window when Alex gently pushed it open.
"It's definitely not pneumonia. What the hell leaves that kind of handprint?" asked Sam, looking at the edge of the flower box that sat right underneath the windowsill.
A large, black rotted handprint was on the flower box. The hand had long, skinny fingers and it a black handprint. Dean looked down at the large handprint, thinking back on old childhood memories:
A young Dean stared at a picture of a black, rotted handprint that was lying down on the table. He looked up when his dad entered the room.
"Alright, Dean. You know the drill. If someone calls, you don't pick up. If it's me, I'll ring once and then call back. You got that?"
John Winchester looked over at his oldest child, who nodded.
"Good."
John headed for the door, but looked back at Dean once more.
"And most important-"
"Watch out for the twins," finished Dean.
He glanced over at his little brother and sister, who were sitting in an armchair together watching TV.
"I know," said Dean, looking back over at his father.
John gently smiled over at him and opened the door, walking outside and shutting the door behind him. Dean locked the door and looked at his younger siblings, sighing.
"I know why Dad sent us here. He's faced this thing before," said Dean, snapping out of his childhood memory and looking over at his siblings.
Alex looked at Dean, confusion evident on her face.
"He wants us to finish the job."
Dean pulled the car into a parking place outside a local motel and hopped out with Alex and Sam.
"So, what the hell's a striga?" asked Sam.
"It's kind of like a witch, I think. I don't know much about 'em, actually," explained Dean.
He walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk.
"Well, I've never heard of it. And it's not in Dad's journal," said Alex.
"Dad hunted one in Wisconsin about sixteen years ago. You two were there. You don't remember?" asked Dean.
Sam shook his head once.
"Nope," said Alex, popping the "p".
"So, you think this…"
"Striga," filled in Dean.
"Right, striga, is the same one Dad hunted before?" finished Sam.
Dean slammed the trunk shut after he grabbed a large, black duffel bag from it.
"Yeah, maybe."
He set the bag directly beside Sam's foot and walked inside to rent a room, leaving Sam and Alex standing by their car. Dean rang the bell that sat on the front desk and watched as a kid that looked to be about thirteen walked up to the desk from the back.
"King or two queens?" he asked Dean.
Dean glanced outside at the twins. Alex was huddled into Sam for warmth and Sam was rubbing her back.
"Two queens," said Dean, turning back to the kid. The kid looked outside at Alex and Sam, then back to Dean.
"Yeah, I bet," he muttered as he wrote down Dean's request.
"What'd you say?" asked Dean, raising his eyebrows.
"Nice car."
The kid looked up at Dean as a woman entered the motel then. She smiled warmly over at Dean.
"Hi. Checking in?" she asked.
"Yep," said Dean.
She looked at the kid.
"Do me a favor and get your brother some dinner."
"I'm helping a guest," complained the boy.
The woman said nothing. She just sighed and stepped behind the desk, blocking the boy's view of Dean.
"Two queens," muttered the kid as he walked into the room directly behind the desk.
"Cash or credit?" asked the woman.
Dean handed her his credit card and the woman walked away to go scan it quickly. Dean looked up at the room behind the desk and saw the kid from earlier. He was pouring his little brother a glass of milk and Dean remembered doing the same thing only years earlier:
A young Dean poured Sam and Alex each a glass of milk.
"When's Dad going to get back?" asked Sam.
Dean grabbed the handle of the pot that was on the stove and poured the macaroni and cheese into two bowls for Sam and Alex.
"Tomorrow."
Dean grabbed two forks from a drawer and walked back over to the table, setting a bowl and a fork down in front of each twin. Alex began eating right away, but Sam looked down at his bowl and then pushed it away from him into the center of the table.
"I'm sick of macaroni," said Sam, looking over at Dean.
"You're the one who wanted 'em," said Dean.
"I want Lucky Charms," said Sam.
"There's only enough left for one bowl and I haven't had any yet," argued Dean.
Sam looked up at him and Dean sighed angrily. He grabbed the box of Lucky Charms from the counter and slammed it down in front of Sam. Dean then stomped into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him. Sam looked at Alex, who had stopped eating. Her big blue eyes were wide.
"Uh-oh, Dean's mad," whispered Alex.
Sam nodded and began eating the dry cereal.
Dean looked at the two kid brothers for a second longer before he took the room key from the woman's outstretched hand and walked outside to join Sam and Alex by the Impala.
Sam sat on the bed in their motel room, his laptop open on his lap, researching information about the striga.
"You were right. A striga is a kind of witch. They feed off of life forces," said Sam as he read the information from off of a web page.
Dean took a sip from his coffee.
"Maybe that's why the kids' immune systems are shot to hell."
"Anyway, they prefer to feed off of children. Strigas are apparently invulnerable to all weapons devised by man," said Sam.
Dean stood up and walked over to the bed then.
"No. That's not right. She's vulnerable when she feeds."
Dean and Sam looked up then as the bathroom door was opened and Alex stepped out. She was wearing a pair of Sam's boxers and Dean's old AC/DC concert tee. She sat on the bed next to Sam, bringing her leg up under her and sitting on it. Sam looked at Dean again.
"How do you know that?" asked Sam.
"Dad told me. And I just remember."
Dean returned to sitting down at the table, flipping through their dad's journal. Sam shut down his computer and set it down on the nightstand. He walked over to Dean then.
"Strigas take on a human disguise during the day."
"What kind of disguise?" asked Dean.
"It's usually an old woman, but it could be anything," said Sam.
"When we were at the hospital, I saw an old woman," said Dean.
Alex stood up from the bed, gasping sarcastically.
"An old person? At the hospital? Better call the Coast Guard," said Alex, smirking.
Sam chuckled and Dean glared over at her.
"Well, listen, smartass. She had an inverted cross hangin' on her wall."
Alex's smile faded and Sam looked over at Dean.
The hospital was dark as they entered it very quietly. It was after visiting hours and Dean quickly led the way to the old woman's room. When they were right outside the door, Dean got out his favorite gun and Sam silently pushed open the door, slipping inside the room. When the door was closed and all three of them were inside the room, Sam silently got out his own gun and Alex stood by the door as the look-out. Dean walked over to the old woman. Sam stayed behind her as Dean walked around to face the front of her.
"Who's there?" yelled the woman suddenly.
Dean flew against the wall, startled. Alex flipped on the light.
"We're maintenance workers. We thought you were asleep," said Sam.
"Nonsense. I was sleeping with my peepers open."
The woman began laughing hysterically.
"And fix that cross, will you? I've asked four times already."
Dean turned the cross over to the correct position and followed his siblings out of the hospital.
Dean parked the car at the motel a few minutes later.
"You should've seen your face, Dean," said Sam, laughing.
"Yeah, laugh it up," said Dean, looking over at the bench that sat outside the motel entrance.
It was very early in the morning, the sun just having risen an hour earlier. On the bench sat the kid that had checked Dean into the motel. He looked upset and Dean began walking over to him. Alex and Sam followed him. Dean crouched down to the kid's eye level.
"Hey, what's wrong?" asked Alex.
The kid looked up at her.
"My brother's sick."
"The little guy?" asked Dean.
"Pneumonia," answered the kid, nodding in answer to Dean's question.
He looked down at the ground sadly.
"It's all my fault. I should've made sure that the window was latched."
"Listen to me. I can promise you that it's not your fault," said Dean.
"It's my job to look after him."
Suddenly, a door slammed closed and they all looked over to see the woman that ran the motel walking over to her car. She held a pillow and a duffel bag in her arms.
"Michael, don't bother with room service. Denise will cover it."
She kissed her little boy's head.
"How 'bout I give you a lift to the hospital? You're in no condition to drive," offered Dean.
The woman looked over at him and nodded a split second later. She climbed into her car's passenger seat and Dean looked over at his siblings.
"I want this thing dead. Now."
He walked around and climbed in the car as Alex, Sam, and Michael watched them drive away.
Alex sat next to Sam at the library's computer later that same morning. Sam clicked on a page for more information about the striga as Alex talked to Dean on her cell phone.
"Hey, how's the kid?" asked Alex.
"Not good. Where are you?" asked Dean.
"Library, trying to find out as much as we can about this striga."
"Yeah? What do you have?"
"Bad news. It started in Fort Douglas when Dad was there. Before that, North Haverbrook. Every fifteen years. This thing is just getting started in Fitchburg. It goes on for months. Kids languish in comas and then they die."
Sam clicked on a different news article and Alex glanced over at it quickly.
"Whoa," said Alex as she looked at the photo a second time.
"Alex?" asked Dean.
"We're looking at a picture of a bunch of doctors around a kid's bed. One of the doctors is Hidecker."
"And?" asked Dean.
"And this picture was taken in 1893."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah, absolutely," said Alex.
Sam paced the motel room as Alex sat cross-legged on the bed and Dean sat on the edge of the bed.
"We should've thought of this before. A doctor's a perfect disguise," said Dean.
He threw his jacket down onto the bed next to Alex and stood in the middle of the room.
"That son of a bitch," he muttered.
"Well, at least now we know how we're going to get it," said Alex.
She looked down at her nails, picking at one, bored.
"What do you mean?" asked Sam.
"Well, it works its way through siblings, right? Last night, it went after Asher. Tonight will be Michael."
"Then we've got to get him out of here," argued Sam.
"No, that'd blow the whole deal," said Dean.
"You two want to use the kid as bait? Are you nuts?" yelled Sam, his eyes widening.
"It's the only way. Dad didn't send me here to walk away," said Dean.
"Send you here? He sent all of us here," said Sam.
Dean sighed and walked over to Alex.
"It's not about you, Sam. I'm the one that fucked up. It's all my fault."
Alex looked up at Dean.
"What are you saying? How is it your fault?"
"Talk to us, man," said Sam, sitting on Dean's other side.
Dean sighed, but he began talking.
"Fort Douglas, Wisconsin…"
The young Dean stood at the door of the motel room. He looked at Sam, who was asleep in the bedroom and then Alex, who had fallen asleep in the armchair while watching TV. Her head was on the armrest and the glow from the TV illuminated her small sleeping face. Dean slipped out the door, locking it once he was outside. He walked to the arcade, playing for a few hours until it closed. He walked back leisurely to their room, the night air on his face as he walked. He unlocked the motel room door with his key and locked it once he was safely inside again. He turned around and saw Alex standing in the doorway of the lone bedroom door, her long, blonde hair running down her little, six-year-old back. He walked up next to her slowly.
"Alex, what's wrong?" he whispered.
Alex pointed into the room slowly. Dean slowly pushed the bedroom door open the rest of the way to reveal Sam lying on the bed with a striga over him. The creature was taking Sam's life force as Sam slept soundly. Dean grabbed the rifle from beside the door, held it up, and loaded it. The striga turned to look at him then.
"Get down!" yelled a very loud voice from directly behind Dean and Alex.
Dean grabbed Alex's little arm and pulled her down to the ground with him. John Winchester rushed over to the bedroom and shot at the striga as it jumped out of the window. Once it was gone, John grabbed Sam and pulled him to his chest.
"Dad, what's going on?" whispered Sam sleepily.
"Daddy!" yelled Alex.
She hopped up from the ground quickly and rushed over to her dad. John pulled her onto his lap and he held Sam and Alex, kissing each of their foreheads.
"Hi, sweetie. Are you okay?"
Alex nodded and buried her head into her father's chest as Dean looked on from the doorway.
"Dad just grabbed us and booked," finished Dean, his eyes far off as he recalled the childhood memory.
"You were just a kid," said Alex, putting a hand comfortingly onto Dean's shoulder.
"Don't. Dad knew this was unfinished business for me. He sent me here to finish it."
"But using Michael? I don't know. How 'bout one of us hides under the covers?" asked Sam. "
It won't work. It's got to get close enough to feed. It'll see us," said Dean.
Sam sighed and ran a hand over his scruffy face.
"You're right. We'll talk to Michael."
"You're crazy!" yelled Michael, grabbing the telephone and beginning to dial 911.
Dean laid his hand across the buttons and Michael looked up at him then.
"You have to believe me. This thing came through the window and it attacked your brother. I've seen it," said Dean.
Michael swallowed hard.
"This thing. Does it have this long black robe?" asked Michael, whispering.
Dean nodded slowly. Michael set down the phone and Dean removed his hand from the buttons.
"I saw it last night," whispered Michael.
"I'd give anything not to tell you this, but sometimes, nightmares are real," said Alex, biting her lip nervously.
"So, why are you telling me?" asked Michael.
"Because we need your help. We can kill it. It's what we do. But we can't do it without you," said Dean.
Michael nodded.
"I'll help."
Dean set the video camera up in Michael's room. Michael was under his bed covers, looking over at Dean.
"What do I do?" asked Michael.
"Just stay under the covers," said Dean.
"And if it comes?"
"We'll be in the next room. We'll come in with guns, so as soon as we do, you roll out of this bed and crawl right under it."
"What if you shoot me?"
"We won't, I promise. We're good shots. We're not gonna fire until you're clear, okay?"
Michael nodded nervously and Dean walked into the next room to wait with Alex and Sam.
Alex, Sam, and Dean were sitting around the computer screen that showed Michael's room. They were in the room next to Michael's.
"What time is it?" asked Dean.
"Three," answered Sam.
Alex yawned and stretched her arms above her head.
"Wait, look," said Dean.
There was a shadow cast across the window of Michael's room and they each grabbed their guns. They silently entered Michael's room and watched as the striga leaned over Michael. When it was almost to Michael's mouth, Dean shot it and Sam and Alex followed. It fell down to the ground.
"Michael, are you alright?" asked Dean as he walked toward the fallen striga.
"Yeah."
Suddenly, the striga grabbed Dean by the collar and flung him into the wall beside the window.
"Dean!" yelled Sam, rushing toward him.
The striga then flung Sam into a bookcase and it toppled down on top of him.
"Shit, Sam!" yelled Alex.
The striga came toward her and pinned her to the bed by grabbing Alex's throat. Alex's gun fell out of her hands and onto the floor a few feet away from her and out of her reach. She tried to reach for it with one hand while trying to pull the striga's hand off of her throat with the other hand. Alex began gasping for breath as her life force was being taken.
"Hey," said a deep, throaty voice behind the striga.
The striga looked behind it then and Dean shot it directly in the forehead. The striga fell to the ground and Dean rushed over to Alex.
"You alright, little sister?"
Alex rolled off of the bed and onto the floor. She stuck her gun into the waistband of her jeans. She coughed and got her breath back. She gave Dean a thumbs-up and Dean nodded. He walked over to the striga and emptied his gun into the striga's chest. Michael came out from under his bed when Dean was finished and stood between Alex and Dean. Sam stood up, wiping his sweatshirt off and joining his siblings.
Dean, Alex, and Sam were outside loading the Impala the very next morning when Michael's mom stepped outside.
"Hey, Joanna. How's Asher doing?" asked Dean.
"Have you seen Michael?" asked Joanna worriedly, completely ignoring Dean's question.
"Mom, Mom!" yelled Michael.
He ran into his mother's arms and she hugged him tightly.
"How's Ash?" asked Michael.
"Your brother's going to be fine."
"How are all the other kids doing?" asked Sam.
"Good. Real good."
Joanna smiled over at all of them.
"We're going to go and see Ash. Have a good one."
She got in her car with Michael and drove away, Michael waving to them. Dean slammed the trunk closed and leaned against it.
"It's too bad. Michael will always know there are things in the dark. He'll never be the same," said Alex.
Dean sighed sadly.
"Yeah."
He got in the car and Alex and Sam followed his lead.