A/N: Hey guys I feel real sick today so sorry if the edits aren't perfect. Also, this isn't my favorite episode in the world so if it sucks, I'm sorry I was trying to get it done as quickly as possible. I'll post the fourth chapter in a couple of days for you so you don't have to wait a week. My gift to you. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I only own Allie Winchester.
Episode: Dead in the Water.
We haven't gone on another hunt since the Wendigo hunt. We just couldn't find a lead that would take us to Dad. Sam was getting frustrated, Dean was getting bored but I knew he was also getting worried and not telling us. That was just Dean for ya. He would mask his emotions if it meant saving Sam and I some grief. Me? I was silently freaking out. The trail we were following was a dead end.
We were sitting in our second diner of the day. This time we were eating lunch. Sam had stepped away in the middle of our meal to take a phone call. Dean and I didn't question it. Every time he did that, we could assume it was school or friends from school. It must have been hard for him to leave it all suddenly. We were still worried about him and his nightmares. Hearing him scream out for Jess every night broke my heart and made me wish I could bring her back for his sake.
Dean had tuned me out a while ago to focus on the newspaper in front of him. Like I said, his boredom was getting the best of him and now he was struggling to find another job for us. He was circling names in the obituary section—names of people who died in a weird way—our kind of weird.
"Find anything good?" I asked. I looked over at Sam's plate and stole a fry and dipped it into my chocolate milkshake. This may sound gross, but once you try it you will be amazed.
"Eh," Dean shrugged his shoulders, not even looking up at me. I rolled my eyes and dunked another fry.
Our waitress walked back over with a flirtatious grin on her face. Her and Dean had this flirty thing going during our entire lunch. It was torturous watching the two of them. She was trying too hard, but Dean was falling into the trap anyway. She was just his type—easy.
"Can I get you anything else?" She asked, but she never looked at me. She was only focused on Dean.
I scoffed when Dean looked up at her. He would barely cast me a glance but the second our waitress, Wendy, comes over, his head popped right up. Pig. He was grinning around the pen he was chewing on.
Sam walked over just in time and basically shooed her away. "Just the check, please." Thanks Sam!
"Okay," Wendy says disappointedly. She walked away.
Dean watched her leave and then looked over at Sam, "You know, Sam, we are allowed to have fun once in a while." He pointed to Wendy. "That's fun."
"Huh," I scoffed.
Dean narrowed his eyes at me, "What?"
"You'll do everything in your power to make sure I don't have that kind of fun."
"This fun is for the big kids," Dean said. Sam laughed lightly and shook his head.
"Oh my god, how many times am I going to have to tell you that Sam and I are literally the same age?"
"Whatever," Dean said, blowing me off and turning the newspaper around for us to look at. "Here, take a look at this, I think I got one. Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin. Last week Sophie Carlton, eighteen, walks into the lake, doesn't walk out. Authorities dragged the water; nothing. Sophie Carlton is the third Lake Manitoc drowning this year. None of the other bodies were found either. They had a funeral two days ago."
"They had a funeral without a body?" I asked, now intrigued with our new conversation. Talking to Dean about boys and relationships was always going to lead to nothing. To him, I was his baby sister who isn't ready for the heartbreaks boys can bring. Although he's wrong, and he knows he is wrong, that's what he chooses to believe.
"Yeah, it's weird, they buried an empty coffin. For, uh, closure or whatever."
Sam scoffed, "Closure? What closure? People don't just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them."
I stayed silent, exchanging looks between Sam and Dean. That was totally a jab at Dean because we were taking a break on finding Dad.
"Something you want to say to me?" Dean asked with a challenged look.
"The trail for Dad. It's getting colder every day."
"Exactly. So what are we supposed to do?"
"I don't know. Something. Anything," Sam said exasperated.
"You know what? I'm sick of this attitude. You don't think Allie and I wanna find Dad as much as you do?"
"Yeah, I know you guys do, it's just—"
"We're the ones that have been with him every single day for the past two years, while you've been off to college going to pep rallies. We will find Dad, but until then, we're gonna kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?"
Sam shut up after that which was a smart idea. Wendy walked by our table again, distracting Dean. We left a couple minutes after that.
I fell asleep on the car ride to Wisconsin. I don't know why I've been so tired recently. I feel so drained after being awake for only six hours and doing absolutely nothing. I tried not to worry about it, but I felt so lazy.
Dean stomped on the brake so that my half-asleep body would roll on to the floor of the impala. This was his new way of waking me up every time I fell asleep in the car. One of these days, I'll wear a seatbelt, I swear.
I got up and punched him in the arm, "I was awake dickhead!"
"Didn't look like it to me," He said. "Why are you always sleeping anyway?"
"I'm a tired human being," I said, not wanting to talk about it. "Where are we?"
We were in front of a small house that sat right on the lake. It was actually beautiful and I could only imagine what a perfect view this would be during a sunset. Then I thought about why we were here. This must have been the lake the girl drowned in.
"Bill Carlton's," Dean said, passing me my fake badge. I looked down at it and saw we were posing as US Wildlife Service. "He's the dad of the girl who drowned. Let's go."
Sam and I walked behind Dean to the front door of the Carlton residence. Standing between my brothers, I felt the tension between the two. I guess neither forgot the conversation they had at the diner. I sighed and already felt this case getting difficult.
Dean knocked on the door and the guy who answered it looked to be twenty-years old. He was tall, fit and had dark brown hair.
"Will Carlton?" Dean asked. This must have been the brother of the girl.
"Yeah, that's right," Will nodded.
"I'm Agent Ford. This is Agent Hamill and Agent Fisher," Dean pointed to Sam and I and held up his ID. Sam and I mimicked him and held up our own.
Will nodded and walked us around the outside porch to where his dad was sitting in a bench, just staring out into the water. He looked so depressed.
"She was about a hundred yards out," Will pointed out to the water. The father didn't even look at us, as if we weren't here. "That's where she got dragged down."
"And you're sure she didn't just drown?" Dean asked.
Will nodded, "Yeah. She was a varsity swimmer. She practically grew up in that lake. She was as safe out there as she was in her own bathtub."
"So no splashing? No signs of distress?" Sam asked.
"No, that's what I'm telling you," Will was growing frustrated.
Sam kept going, "Did you see any shadows in the water? Maybe some dark shape breach the surface?"
"No. Again, she was really far out there."
"You ever see any strange tracks by the shoreline?" Dean asked.
This got Will's attention. "No, never. Why? Why, what do you think's out there?"
"We'll let you know as soon as we do," Dean offered a grin.
Dean and I start walking back to the car, but when we hear Sam ask about Will's father, we stopped in our tracks and turned around. "Can we talk to him?"
I looked over at the father one more time. Again, it was like he had no idea we were there.
"Look, if you don't mind, I mean...he didn't see anything and he's kind of been through a lot."
Sam nodded, "We understand."
After that, we hit our next stop. The police station.
Dean took the lead by asking the head Sheriff of the department some questions about the lake and any information he could hand us about Sophie and her drowning.
"Now, I'm sorry, but why does the Wildlife Service care about an accidental drowning?" Jake, the Sheriff, sat behind his desk and looked us over one more time suspiciously. This guy was older but seemed to be fit for his age.
"You sure it's accidental? Will Carlton saw something grab his sister," Sam lied.
"Like what? There are no indigenous carnivores in that lake." He pointed to the two chairs in front of him. "Here take a seat." Sam and I quickly took a seat in front of Jake's desk before Dean could, leaving him the one to stand in between us. Sam and I passed each other a secret smirk, knowing Dean felt defeated to be the one standing. Usually it was me. "There's nothing even big enough to pull down a person, unless it was the Loch Ness Monster."
My eyes went big at the thought of the Loch Ness Monster. How have I not made a joke about that one yet?
"Yeah," Dean laughed, but slightly scoffed at the same time. "Right."
Sam glanced back at Dean.
"Will Carlton was traumatized, and sometimes the mind plays tricks. Still," Jake shook his head, "We dragged that entire lake. We even ran a sonar sweep, just to be sure, and there was nothing down there."
"That's weird, though, I mean, that's, that's the third missing body this year." Dean said.
"I know. These are people from my town. These are people I care about."
Dean got the hint that he might have struck a nerve in the Sheriff and dialed his tone down and acted remorseful, "I know."
Jake sighed, "Anyway…all this…it won't be a problem much longer."
My ears perked up from this boring conversation and I was quickly intrigued, "What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, the dam, of course," Jake said as if he was confused as to why I was asking him to clarify.
"Oh, right…the dam and its…leaking…" I said slowly. I had no idea if that's what he was talking about but I went for it. Sam shot me a warning glance but I didn't know how to get out of this one. Some Wildlife Service I am. I heard Dean snicker behind me.
However, it looked like I was right. "It's falling apart, and the feds won't give us the grant to repair it, so they've opened the spillway. In another six months, there won't be much of a lake. There won't be much of a town, either. But as Federal Wildlife, you already knew that."
Okay, maybe I wasn't so slick as I thought I was and probably screwed us out of our cover, but luckily a woman walked into his office with a little boy holding on to her hand.
"Sorry, am I interrupting?" She asked. Sam and I stood up from our seats. It was probably best if we left now anyway. "I can come back later," She said.
"Gentlemen, ma'am," Jake addressed us. Ew, I hated being called ma'am. "This is my daughter."
Dean immediately reached over to shake her hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Dean." I saw that smile he was wearing. It was the same one he used on all the chicks he picks up at the bars. Oh come on…
"Andrea Barr. Hi," She smiled back at him, but she didn't have the same interest that he did. She was just polite.
"Hi," Dean repeated. I rolled my eyes and looked at Sam incredulously. He just smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
"They're from Wildlife Service," Jake filled her in, "About the lake."
I looked down at the little boy who was holding a box of crayons and a piece of paper in his hand. I tried waving to him, but he just stared at me. It was like he was scared or something.
Dean noticed him too and knelt down to his level. This had both me and Sam look down at him in surprise. Usually Dean avoided kids at all cost. This guy just doesn't quit. "Hey there. What's your name?"
The kid walked away without saying anything. Now, it was my turn to snicker behind Dean's back. Andrea offered an apologetic smile and followed her son.
"His name is Lucas," Jake said. We followed Andrea and Lucas into the main room of the station.
"Is he okay?" I asked. Lucas and Andrea started coloring at the kid's table in the corner. They must come here a lot if Lucas gets his own play set in Grandpa's work space.
"My grandson's been through a lot. We all have," Jake said. I wished he would elaborate on that because I felt like it related to our case. Instead, he offered us an out. "Well, if there's anything else I can do for you, please let me know."
"Thanks." Dean said. "You know, now that you mentioned it, could you point us in the direction of a reasonably priced motel?"
"Lakefront Motel. Go around the corner. It's about two blocks south." Andrea said.
"Two," Dean held up two fingers and grimaced. "Would you mind showing us?"
Andrea laughed, "You want me to walk you two blocks?'
Even I had to laugh. He sounded so desperate. Maybe he was in need of some of that fun he was talking about back at the diner. When Andrea glanced back at her kid, Dean whipped his arm around his back and hit me in the stomach. I grunted, quickly grabbing my abdomen and standing up before anyone noticed. Touché older brother.
"Not if it's any trouble," Dean smiled.
Andrea eventually nodded, "I'm headed that way." She turned back to look at her father, who wasn't listening at all, "I'll be back to pick up Lucas at three." She leaned down and kissed her son on the forehead, "We'll go to the park, okay, sweetie?"
Dean waved a last good bye to Jake and Lucas and we walked out with Andrea.
Andrea and Dean led Sam and I. Sam and I were smirking the entire way back to the motel as Dean still tried to impress this girl. It was comical really.
"So, cute kid," Dean said.
"Thanks," Andrea was smirking herself, catching on to Dean's game.
We crossed a street that led us straight to the motel we were looking at. What? That was like a two minute walk? Dean looked stupid.
"Kids are the best, huh?" Dean tried AGAIN. I was about to laugh my ass off.
Andrea glanced at him but didn't reply. We stopped in front of the motel that had a sign in the front saying "LAKEFRONT MOTEL".
"There it is," Andrea said. "Like I said, two blocks."
"Just like she said," I repeated with my fingers tucked underneath my chin as if I was impressed by the accuracy of her statement. Sam shoved me playfully.
"Thanks," Sam said for the both of us and Dean.
Andrea nodded and turned to look at Dean, "Must be hard, with your sense of direction, never being able to find your way to a decent pickup line." My mouth dropped open as she turned to walk away. She yelled over her shoulder, "Enjoy your stay!"
"I think I love her," I pointed over my shoulder in the direction that she walked off to.
"Kids are the best?" Sam repeated, looking at Dean as if he just grew two heads. "You don't even like kids."
"I love kids," Dean defended himself with a shake of his head.
"Name three children that you even know," Sam retorted.
We watched Dean scratch at his head as he tried thinking of an answer. After one second too long, Sam and I walked away.
"I'm thinking!" He yelled after us.
After we settled in our motel room, Sam started scrolling through his laptop, Dean was going through his clothes deciding what needed to be washed and what didn't, and I was clicking through the channels on TV.
"So there's the three drowning victims this year," Sam said without taking his eyes off his computer screen.
"Any before that?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah," He said. I turned the TV off and walked around to look over Sam's shoulder. He was on a website called the Lake Mantioc Tribune. "Six more spread out over the past thirty-five years. Those bodies were never recovered either. If there is something out there, it's picking up its pace."
Dean tossed a shirt onto his bed, "So, what, we got a lake monster on a binge?"
"This whole lake monster theory, it, it just bugs me," Sam said, leaning back into his chair.
"Why?"
"Wait, we're actually considering the idea that Nessy is somewhere in that lake?" I looked at the both of them incredulously.
"Loch Ness, uh, Lake Champlain, there are literally hundreds of eyewitness accounts, but here, almost nothing." Sam said. "Whatever it is out there, no one's living to talk about it."
Dean walked over and stood next to me. His eyes scanned the webpage before finding something, "Wait, Barr, Christopher Barr." He pointed to the comment section of the article. "Where have I heard that name before."
"Isn't Barr Andrea's last name?" I asked.
"Christopher Barr, the victim in May," Sam read. He clicked on another link that had the header LOCAL MAN IN TRAGIC ACCIDENT. A picture came up of Lucas standing next to a police officer. "Apparently he took Lucas out swimming. Lucas was on a floating wooden platform when Chris drowned. Two hours before the kid got rescued." Sam clicked on the picture to get a better look. "Maybe we have an eyewitness after all."
"No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over." Dean said.
I looked down at my shoes, knowing he was talking about Mom. Dean was four at the time, old enough to remember what a horrific night that was. Sam and I were only babies, six months old. We couldn't even remember her face.
"Dean…" I said slowly.
"We should go look for Lucas. Andrea said something about the park right?" Dean moved away from me and ignored my try to talk to him. He never really liked to talk about Mom—just like Dad.
I decided not to push it. So I nodded my head and followed him out the door where he drove Sam and I to the park.
Dean drove us to the park where half a dozen kids climb on the monkey bars, play tag, and slide down the slides. I looked around for Lucas and saw he was the one lone wolf sitting at a plastic table with his crayons and paper.
Sam found Andrea first, sitting on a bench, watching her son from afar.
"Can we join you?" Sam asked. To her, we probably looked like stalkers.
"I'm here with my son," She replied. She wasn't rude, she was just letting us know.
Dean looked over at Lucas, coloring away and ignoring the playing kids around him. "Oh. Mind if I say hi?" Andrea nodded, "Allie, come with me."
I narrowed my eyes, confused, but Dean's pleading eyes told me to go without questioning him in front of Andrea, so I went with him. "Why did you want me to come?" I asked
"Because maybe if he sees another kid, he'll open up and talk to us," Dean shrugged.
"Dude, I'm 22."
Dean ignored me. "Plus if you somehow get Lucas to talk, it will look good on me." He was talking about his chances with Andrea.
"Why are you so into this Andrea girl?" I asked. "Usually you would have found someone else by now."
He shrugged, "I like her. I like the chase."
We approached Lucas slowly and knelt down to his eye level. He never looked up at us—just continued drawing a picture.
"How's it going Lucas?" Dean asked. Lucas doesn't reply. "Oh, I used to love these things," Dean picked up a toy soldier and imitated guns and explosions. I grinned at the thought of Dean as a young kid occupying his time with these small plastic toys. When he didn't get Lucas's attention, he tossed the soldier away. "So crayons is more your thing? That's cool. Chicks dig artists."
I picked up some of the pictures Lucas had already drawn that were sitting on the side of the table. One of the pictures was a big black circle, colored in completely black, resembling a big hole. The other picture was of a red bicycle.
"You mind if I sit and draw with you for a while?" Dean asked, picking up an orange crayon and drawing a picture. "I'm not so bad myself," He continued. I scoffed, leaning over the table to see what the hell he was planning on drawing.
"You know, Lucas," I said. "I think you've got a voice in there somewhere. Maybe you don't talk because you're scared, but you don't have to be. Not anymore. You can tell us what's wrong, and we can fix it."
Lucas still didn't move. I looked at Dean and shrugged my shoulders. At least I could say I tried.
Dean spoke again, "You know, I'm thinking you can hear me, you just don't want to talk. I don't know exactly what happened to your dad, but I know it was something real bad. I think I know how you feel. When I was your age, I saw something." Dean and I looked up at the same time. We caught each other's eye, but Dean quickly turned away. "Anyway. Well, maybe you don't think anyone will listen to you, or, uh...or believe you. I want you to know that I will. You don't even have to say anything. You could draw me a picture about what you saw that day, with your dad, on the lake." Lucas still didn't look up. "Okay, no problem. This is for you."
Dean offered the picture he just drew to Lucas. It was a picture of five orange stick figures. "This is my family," He said. He pointed to each of the stick figures. "That's my dad. That's my mom. That's my geek brother and bratty little sister, and that's me."
"If I didn't watch you draw that picture, I would have thought it was done by Da Vinci," I laughed.
"All right, so I'm a sucky artist. I'll see you around, Lucas."
Dean tilted his head towards Andrea and Sam, indicating that it was time for us to go.
"I bet if you sold that picture on e-bay, we could have made like ten grand," I smirked.
"Shut up," Dean grumbled.
We approached Andrea and Sam.
"Lucas hasn't said a word, not even to me. Not since his dad's accident." Andrea said after noticing our attempt was a bust.
"Yeah, we heard. Sorry," Dean said.
"What are the doctors saying?" I asked.
"That it's a kind of post-traumatic stress," Andrea said.
"That can't be easy. For either of you." Sam said.
"We moved in with my dad. He helps out a lot. It's just...when I think about what Lucas went through, what he saw..." Andrea paused, unable to finish her sentence.
Dean took the opportunity to help her, "Kids are strong. You'd be surprised what they can deal with."
"You know, he used to have such life. He was hard to keep up with, to tell you the truth. Now he just sits there. Drawing those pictures, playing with those army men. I just wish—" Lucas walked over to us with his pictures in his hand. "Hey sweetie."
Lucas handed Dean another picture. "Thanks." He knelt down. "Thanks, Lucas." I was shocked. Lucas drew Dean a picture just like he asked him to. The picture is of a house that sat right by a lake. It looked like the Carlton house.
Went back to the motel. Sam offered to take off and get us some dinner while Dean and I showered for the night.
"So I was thinking…" Dean walked out of the bathroom, drying his hair with his towel.
"That's never good," I said without looking up. I was flipping through one of Sam's books and sucked on a lollipop I took from the front desk.
"You're acting weird," He said. This caught my attention so I closed my book and sat up against the headboard of the bed.
"You tell me that all the time without having to think about it," I said.
"Are you sick?"
"Of you?" I asked sarcastically. Dean gave me a pointed look and I sighed. "I'm healthy as a duck, Dean. Don't you worry."
"I just feel like you're always tired and you're getting moody—"
"Moody?" I cut him off loudly.
"See!" Dean pointed at me. I rolled my eyes and reopened the book. "Are you…are you…" I looked up to see Dean struggling with his words and trying to avoid the act of throwing up.
My mouth dropped open, "Are you trying to ask me if I'm pregnant?" Dean gagged but nodded his head. "Dean!"
"I'm sorry! When I'm in the shower my mind wanders!" He yelled in his defense.
"Eugh," I gagged. "Trust me if I'm pregnant, you'll be the first to know."
Sam walked in with two bags of fast food and a frown on his face. I was going to ask what was wrong, but then the smell of the food wafted through my nose and my main focus was getting that food in my stomach.
"So, I think it's safe to say we can rule out Nessie," He said as I stuffed my face with a burger.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked.
Sam sat down next to me, "I just drove past the Carlton house. There was an ambulance there. Will Carlton is dead."
"He drowned?"
"Yep," Sam nodded, "In the sink."
"In the sink?" I asked with a mouth full of cheeseburger.
"What the hell? So you're right, this isn't a creature. We're dealing with something else," Dean said.
"Yeah, but what?" Sam asked.
"I don't know. Water wraith, maybe? Some kind of demon? I mean, something that controls water...water that comes from the same source."
"The lake," I nodded.
"Yeah."
"Which would explain why it's upping the body count. The lake is draining. It'll be dry in a few months. Whatever this thing is, whatever it wants, it's running out of time." Sam explained.
"And if it can get through the pipes, it can get to anyone, almost anywhere. This is gonna happen again soon," Dean said.
"And we do know one other thing for sure. We know this has got something to do with Bill Carlton."
"Yeah, it took both his kids."
"And I've been asking around. Lucas's dad, Chris—Bill Carlton's godson."
"Well I know what we're doing tomorrow," I said.
"We'll go pay Mr. Carlton a visit."
The next day we hit Bill Carlton's house early in the morning. The house itself seemed sad. Losing two kids in the same week in the same way? Heartbreaking, and I couldn't even imagine being put in that situation.
Bill Carlton was sitting on the dock, staring blankly at the water. We approached him, the dock creaking under our feet. The noise still wasn't enough to get Mr. Carlton's attention.
"Mr. Carlton?" Sam said lightly. Surprisingly, Bill raised his head to look at us. "We'd like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind."
"We're from the Department—"
Bill cut Dean off, "I don't care who you're with. I've answered enough questions today."
"Your son said he saw something in that lake. What about you? You ever see anything out there? Mr. Carlton, Sophie's drowning and Will's death—we think there might be a connection to you or your family."
"My children are gone. It's...it's worse than dying. Go away. Please."
The three of us glanced at each other and silently agreed to respect his wishes. We walked back to the car.
"What do you think?" Sam asked.
"Aw, I think the poor guy's been through hell. I also think he's not telling us something," Dean responded.
"Okay, so what now?" I asked. Dean went still and I tilted my head. "What is it?"
"Huh," He grumbled. He was looking past me and at the Carlton house. "Maybe Bill's not the only one who knows something."
I knew he was talking about Lucas. He pulled out the picture Lucas drew and held up to the house, comparing the drawing with the real life landscape.
Sam and I waited outside Andrea's house after Dean somehow convinced her to let him talk to her son. We tapped out feet impatiently and rubbed our hands together anxiously.
"There's no way that kid is going to talk," I said to Sam, audibly speaking what we were all thinking.
"He gave Dean that picture…it's a start," Sam shrugged.
Five minutes later, Dean walked out with another picture in his hand. He handed it to Sam. It was a picture of a church, a yellow house, and a boy with a blue baseball cap, and a red bicycle in front of a wooden fence.
"Andrea said the kid never drew like that till his dad died," Dean explained.
"There are cases-going through a traumatic experience could make people more sensitive to premonitions, psychic tendencies." Sam said.
"Whatever's out there, what if Lucas is tapping into it somehow? I mean, it's only a matter of time before somebody else drowns, so if you got a better lead, please."
"So we have another house to find," I said.
"The only problem is there's about a thousand yellow two-stories in this county alone." Dean said. I bit my lip and stared at him—I couldn't get the constant small remarks about our childhood out of my head.
Sam pointed to the picture, "See this church? I bet there's less than a thousand of those around here."
"Oh, college boy thinks he's so smart," Dean smirked. Sam looked at me to defend him. Instead, I smirked alongside Dean and hopped into my designated back seat.
We figured the church Lucas was drawing had to be the one that was closest to his house. I mean, how many churches can a five year old visit anyway? And we were right. We approached a white church that matched the one in Lucas's picture. Next to it was a yellow house with a wooden fence.
Dean nodded his head towards the yellow house and knocked on the door. A woman in her sixties answered and let us inside when we showed her our badges.
"We're sorry to bother you, ma'am, but does a little boy live here, by chance? He might wear a blue ball cap, has a red bicycle."
The lady slowly took a seat in front of us as the three of us squeezed on her couch. "No sir. Not for a very long time. Peter's been gone for thirty-five years now." This caught my attention and the lady noticed too. So she explained further, "The police never—never had any idea what happened. He just disappeared." Sam elbowed me in the side lightly and pointed out the little toy soldiers on the side table next to a picture of a small boy. They were the same toy soldiers Lucas was playing with at the park. "Losing him—you know, it's…it's worse than dying."
That's what Bill Carlton said about losing his kids.
Dean noticed the soldiers too. "Did he disappear from here? I mean, from this house?"
"He was supposed to ride his bike straight home after school, and he never showed up." She explained.
Dean walked around the room, examining the pictures in her living room. This lady was too choked up with talking about her son to even notice or care. He picked off a picture from mirror of two small boys. He turned it around to show me what the back said. "Peter Sweeney and Billy Carlton, nineteen seventy."
"Okay, this little boy Peter Sweeney vanishes, and this is all connected to Bill Carlton somehow," Sam said as Dean sped down the road to get back to Carlton's house.
"Yeah, Bill sure as hell seems to be hiding something, huh?" Dean said.
"And Bill, the people he loves, they're all getting punished," I added.
"So what if Bill did something to Peter?" Dean suggested.
"What if Bill killed him?" Sam asked.
"Peter's spirit would be furious," I mumbled.
"It'd want revenge," Dean agreed. "It's possible."
Dean pulled up to the Carlton's residence. We hopped out of the car and jogged to the front door.
"Mr. Carlton?" Sam knocked.
An engine roared behind us. We looked out to the lake and saw Bill driving his boat out there.
"Shit," Dean cursed. We ran out onto the dock calling Mr. Carlton's name. "Mr. Carlton! You need to come back! Come out of the water! Turn the boat around!"
"Mr. Carlton!" Sam shouted.
My heart ran wild and my eyes popped open wide as I watched Bill Carlton drive deeper into the water. The water rose and flipped Bill's boat over. There was no way that happened coincidentally. He and the boat vanish forever.
We solemnly walked into the police station. We weren't really sure what to do from here. We had no lead as to where Peter was and Bill Carlton—our only lead was now dead.
We weren't expecting to see Andrea and Lucas here too. But most of all, we weren't planning on seeing Lucas on the verge of a panic attack and Andrea worried about it.
"Sam, Allie, Dean…" She stood up from where she was kneeling next to Lucas. He was sitting in a rocking chair and avoiding eye contact with everyone at all cost. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"So now you're on a first-name basis," Her father, Jake, walked from his office and looked at us suspiciously. "What are you doing here?" He wasn't looking at us, he was asking Andrea.
"I brought you dinner," Andrea handed him a brown paper bag.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart, I don't really have the time," Jake apologized and kissed his daughter on the top of her head.
"I heard about Bill Carlton. Is it true? Is something going on with the lake?"
I passed a silent glance over to Sam.
"Right now we don't know what the truth is. But I think it might be better if you and Lucas went on home."
Lucas's head snapped up and he started whining. He ran over to Dean, looking stricken and grabbed his arm.
"Lucas, hey, what is it?" Dean crouched. "Lucas."
"Lucas," Andrea knelt down nervously.
"Lucas, it's okay. It's okay. Hey, Lucas, it's okay." Dean said repeatedly. It brought me back to when I fell off my bike at six-years-old and scraped my knee. "It's okay."
Andrea pulled Lucas away from Dean and walked with him outside. The kid never took his eyes off of Dean.
We watched them walk away and then followed Jake into his office, explaining what we saw.
"Okay, just so I'm clear, you see...something attack Bill's boat, sending Bill—who is a very good swimmer, by the way-into the drink, and you never see him again?"
Dean glanced at us. I know. We sounded crazy.
"And I'm supposed to believe this, even though I've already sonar-swept that entire lake? And what you're describing is impossible? And you're not really Wildlife Service?" Jake responded. I grimaced. Jake pointed to my face, "That's right, I checked. Department's never heard of you thre."
"See, now, we can explain that," Dean tried laughing it off.
"Enough. Please. The only reason you're breathing free air is one of Bill's neighbors saw him steering out that boat just before you did. So, we have a couple of options here. I can arrest you for impersonating government officials and hold you as material witnesses to Bill Carlton's disappearance. Or, we can chalk this all up to a bad day, you get into your car, you put this town in your rearview mirror, and you don't ever darken my doorstep again."
No one said anything for a minute. "Door number two sounds good," Sam finally said.
Jake nodded, "That's the one I'd pick."
We drove away after that, but we drove slowly. I think we were all still thinking of Lucas and the look of panic written on his face. It had left an imprint in my mind.
Dean stopped at a stop light, but after it turned green he still didn't move. If anyone was nervous for Lucas, it was Dean. The kid actually left a mark on Dean.
"Green," Sam said.
Dean blinked, "What?"
"Light's green," Sam repeated.
Dean took a right turn. I turned around to look out the back window at the I-43 indication sign.
"Uh, the interstate's the other way," Sam pointed behind him.
"I know." Dean said without taking his eyes off the road.
"But Dean, this job, I think it's over."
"I'm not so sure," Dean said.
"If Bill murdered Peter Sweeney and Peter's spirit got its revenge, case closed. The spirit should be at rest."
"All right, so what if we take off and this thing isn't done? You know, what if we've missed something? What if more people get hurt?"
"But why would you think that?" Sam tilted his head.
Lucas, I thought.
"Because Lucas was really scared," Dean said.
"That's what this is about?" Sam looked at him incredulously. I know, Sam. I'm shocked too. Lucas got Dean wrapped around his tiny little cute finger.
"I just don't want to leave this town until I know the kid's okay." Dean admitted.
Sam glanced over his shoulder to look at me—to see if he was hearing this right. I shrugged. He turned back around. "Who are you? And what have you done with my brother?"
"Shut up."
We pulled up to Andrea's house. The sun has set and the sky was a dark blue. The air was getting colder and the wind was picking up.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked. "It's pretty late."
Dean ignored me and rang the doorbell. Lucas whipped the door open. He was scared out of his mind—but not at us.
"Lucas?" Dean asked. Lucas ran off, a sign for us to follow him. "Lucas!" Dean called after him.
He took us to the stairs where water flowed down like a waterfall.
"Shit," I mumbled, trying very hard not to slip on the stairs.
The water was coming from the bathroom. The door was shut and Lucas was feverishly pounding on it. Dean pushed Lucas over to me so he could kick the door down. Lucas ran out of my arms and held on to Dean. Sam and I ran to the bathtub where Andrea was submerged in water. We tried pulling her up, but there was some sort of strong force that kept tucking her in. I hopped into the bath tub, putting my feet in between her legs so I could pull with more force. Sam and I were finally able to pull her up and she was alive, coughing up water and crying.
I told Sam and Dean to take Lucas down stairs while I helped Andrea get dressed. She's wrapped in a towel and leads me to her room. I pull out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and tell her to throw it on.
"How did you know?" She asked quietly.
"I didn't," I replied honestly. "Your son did. Somehow he got the message across to Dean…and he just couldn't seem to leave this place, knowing that something wasn't right." Andrea nodded and pulled her T-shirt on. "Your son saved you." I offered a grin to help her feel better.
"How did this happen?" She asked. She opened her door and we walked down stairs where Sam, Lucas, and Dean were waiting. Dean was looking through notebooks on the bookshelves. Sam was sitting with Lucas on the couch.
"We think there's a spirit targeting families that had to do with it's disappearance. We thought that since all the Carltons died, it would be over. But like I said, Lucas changed our perspective…Dean's perspective." I explained, gaining my brothers' attention who were listening in.
"But not only is it targeting the Carlton family, but now mine too?"
I sighed. "Can you tell us what happened up there?"
Andrea walked around to sit on the couch, "No," She ran her hand down her face. "It doesn't make sense." She's started crying. "I'm going crazy."
"No, you're not," Sam said. "Tell us what happened. Everything."
"I heard...I thought I heard...there was this voice."
"What did it say?"
"It said…it said 'come play with me'." Andrea sobbed into her hands. "What's happening?"
Dean walked over to the couch and dropped a scrapbook on the coffee table in front of us. He opened it to a specific page of a black and white picture of three kids.
"Do you recognize the kids in these pictures?" He asked Andrea.
"What? Um, um, no. I mean, except that's my dad right there. He must have been about twelve in these pictures." She ran her finger over to another picture of Jake as a kid. He is standing next to Peter.
"Chris Barr's drowning. The connection wasn't to Bill Carlton. It must have been to the Sheriff." Dean said, but he was saying it to Sam and I.
"Bill and the Sheriff—they were both involved with Peter," Sam said.
"What about Chris?" Andrea looked at us. "My dad—what are you talking about?"
"Lucas?" Dean asked. Lucas was staring out the window, ignoring us all. "Lucas, what is it?" He walked away, opened the door and went outside. We followed him.
"Lucas, honey?" Andrea walked ahead of us.
Lucas stopped and looked into the ground as if a giant hole was supposed to form from his stare. Then, he looked up at Dean.
"Dean, get the shovels," I said, staring at Lucas. How did this kid know so much? It scared me—scared that he had to go through so much.
Andrea pulled Lucas into the house while Sam and Dean began shoveling. A couple of minutes later, Sam's shovel hit something hard with a clank. They stopped and pulled the object out of the ground. It was a red bicycle.
"Peter's bike," I said quietly. How the hell did Lucas…
"Who are you?" Someone asked loudly behind us. I swallowed and turned around to find Jake pointing a revolver in our direction.
"Put the gun down, Jake," Sam warned. They dropped the shovels.
"How did you know that was there?" Jake asked, leaving his gun up in the air.
"What happened? You and Bill killed Peter, drowned him in the lake and then buried the bike?" Dean replied. His eyes were on the gun pointed at me and Sam. Nothing else mattered to him, but our safety. "You can't bury the truth, Jake. Nothing stays buried."
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Jake denied.
"You and Bill killed Peter Sweeney thirty-five years ago. That's what the hell I'm talking about."
Andrea ran back over to us without Lucas, "Dad!"
"And now you got one seriously pissed-off spirit," Dean continued.
"It's gonna take Andrea, Lucas, everyone you love. It's gonna drown them. And it's gonna drag their bodies God knows where, so you can feel the Same pain Peter's mom felt. And then, after that, it's gonna take you, and it's not gonna stop until it does." Sam added.
"Yeah, and how do you know that?" Jake seethed.
"Because that's exactly what it did to Bill Carlton," I glared. I had the same tendency as Dean to get pissed off when my siblings were put into harm's way.
"Listen to yourselves, all three of you! You're insane," He exclaimed.
"It's been said," I said with a blank space.
Dean took a step forward, "I don't really give a rat's ass what you think of us. But if we're gonna bring down this spirit, we need to find the remains, salt them, and burn them into dust. Now tell me you buried Peter somewhere. Tell me you didn't just let him go in the lake."
"Dad, is any of this true?" Andrea asked. She looked exhausted as hell and heartbroken that her father may be behind Peter missing.
"No," Jake said. "Don't listen to them. They're liars and they're dangerous."
"Something tried to drown me," Andrea told him. "Chris died on that lake. Dad, look at me!" Jake reluctantly turned his head. "Tell me you—you didn't kill anyone."
Jake refused all eye contact at that point, unable to lie to his daughter's face. "Oh my god."
"Billy and I were at the lake. Peter was the smallest one. We always bullied him, but this time, it got rough. We were holding his head under the water. We didn't mean to. But we held him under too long and he drowned. We let the body go, and it sank." I squeezed my eyes shut and looked down disappointingly. I freaking hated bullies. "Oh, Andrea, we were kids. We were so scared. It was a mistake. But, Andrea, to say that I have anything to do with these drownings, with Chris, because of some ghost? It's not rational."
"All right, listen to me, all of you. We need to get you away from this lake, as far as we can, right now." Dean pointed to the road.
Andrea turned her head, on the verge of tears. Something caught her eye and she gasped.
"Lucas!" Jake screamed.
Lucas was on the dock by the lake, leaning over. We sprinted in his direction in less than a second.
"Lucas!" Dean shouted.
"Lucas! Baby, stay where you are!" His mother cried.
I stopped dead in my tracks when a hand came out of the water and pulled Lucas in. It took me a second to come back to reality. I followed my brothers into the water, diving in head first.
The lake was dark, green, and blurry under water. My arms frantically searched for a little boy and my heart picked up its pace.
I swam back up for a breath. A second later, so did Sam and Dean.
"Allie?" Dean called out, spitting up water. I shook my head, dipping back in.
Still no Lucas. I swam as far down to the bottom of the lake that I could. My ears felt like they were going to explode from the depth but I kept pushing. Yet, the boy was nowhere around.
Sam grabbed at my arm and pulled me back up. I swished my feet until the fresh air hit my head. I ripped his grip away, ready to scream at him for stopping my search. Then I saw Dean holding a limp Lucas.
Lucas ended up being okay. He coughed up the water he swallowed after a minute of CPR. Jake on the other hand wasn't as lucky. He walked into the lake, knowing that Peter was going to take him. He used it as a trade offer. Him for his grandson. It worked too. It just sucks we couldn't save him either.
It was finally time to leave this depressing town. We gathered all our shit and tossed it in the back of the car. Dean was grumpy about the loss of Jake. He felt responsible. He didn't tell me that personally, but I know my brother inside and out.
"Look, we're not gonna save everybody," Sam said, also noticing Dean's mood.
"I know," He said glumly.
Dean shut the trunk and walked to the driver's side, sitting sideways on the seat with the door still open.
Andrea and Lucas walked over to the impala in the parking lot of our motel. It was enough to put a smile on Dean's face and it made my heart flutter. I thought Dean would make a great family man one day. Too bad our life didn't fit into any other family lifestyle but mine.
"Hey," He greeted them.
Andrea had a smile on her face. She was holding Lucas's hand. "We're glad we caught you. We just, um, we made you lunch for the road. Lucas insisted on making the sandwiches himself."
I looked over at Lucas with a small smile. He looked a lot happier now. He was holding a tray of sandwiches. "Can I give it to them now?" He asked his mother.
"Of course," Andrea smiled and kissed the top of Lucas's head.
Dean grinned down at the small boy, "Come on, Lucas, let's load this into the car." He stood up and walked back around to the trunk.
Sam and I decided to give them privacy and talked to Andrea.
"How you holding up?" Sam asked.
"It's just gonna take a long time to sort through everything, you know?"
I looked down at my shoes.
Sam sighed, "Andrea, I'm sorry."
She shook her head, "You saved my son. I can't ask for more than that. Dad loved me. He loved Lucas. No matter what he did, I just have to hold on to that."
Lucas walked back around to us with a smile on his face. Andrea ruffled his hair and walked over to Dean. She leant down and kissed him. I covered Lucas's eyes and Sam smirked. Dean did get the girl after all.
Andrea smiled one more time at Sam and I and took Lucas's hand. "Thank you."
I nodded and looked back at Dean who was scratch his head and smiled to himself.
"Sam, Allie, move your asses. We're gonna run out of daylight before we hit the road."
Sam laughed and patted me on the shoulder. I rolled my eyes playfully and hopped into the backseat. On to the next.