Chapter 6

"Did you find anything?" Sam asked as he closed another dusty book and sneezed wiping his nose. "Don't they ever wipe these down?"

"Bless you. What do you expect; they probably haven't been used in years from the looks of them," Claire sighed sitting back in her chair. "I can't find anything about any wrongful deaths around here or anything else strange for that matter."

"And you hadn't noticed anything different or strange before now?"

"Usually don't pay that much attention to anyone at school," she said vaguely looking away from him.

Sam glanced at her seeing her discomfort and frowned to himself. He knew Claire didn't like school and would be glad when she was done. She never talked about friends or other students and he was pretty sure it was because of all she had been through in her life. He understood how she felt, when he had gone off to college he didn't feel he fit in with the other students either, especially being a hunter and knowing what goes bump in the night. He didn't say anything about her response as he put the book away.

"Okay, so what do we know?"

"Whatever it is seems to be attacking kids."

"So it needs young people probably because their soul's bright and strong."

"You think it's feeding off them somehow?"

"I do, Dean and I dealt with a shtriga in Wisconsin years ago, but they usually go after young children not teenagers."

"So what else wants the power of souls?"

"I don't know, let's see what we can find online, you take one computer and I'll take the other," Sam said sitting down in front of a computer while Claire did the same with the other free one. They both began typing and looking up search engines trying to find any useful information. "I'll check to see if there are any missing persons reports filed for the past month."

It was twenty minutes later when Claire perked up and spoke. "Sam I might have found something. Look at this, a Crocotta, it feeds on human souls and can take human form like a shape shifter. It lures people to them calling 'come to me' and once in their grasp, there's no escaping. The Choctaws called them shadow beings," she read to him.

"Wait, a year or so after Dad died, we ran into one on those things. It called Dean pretending to be Dad. I hadn't heard of any others since then."

"How did you kill it?"

"Silver knife to the base of the skull, severs the spine," he said reading over her shoulder.

"But look it says it kills its victims and then takes their souls."

"Maybe it's gotten smarter, evolved or something or maybe it's something else entirely."

"What a better source of souls than a school full of teenagers, do you think it's a teacher or staff?"

"Could be anyone, even a student."

"I think its time to call in reinforcements," she said taking out her phone.

Sam was gathering up their notes and turned to get his pack from the table beside them when he bumped into someone.

"Sorry, sorry, my fault," he said bending down to help pick up the papers he knocked out of her hands.

"Partly mine fault, I wasn't really paying attention," she answered leaning over to and bumping heads with Sam. "Sorry," she giggled rubbing her head.

"It's alright," he said looking up and staring into the most alluring, sparkling silver grey eyes he had ever seen.

"Guess it's a good thing we both have hard heads."

"Hi, I'm Sam," he smiled standing back up and looking slightly down at her. He was surprised she was rather tall for a woman, he guessed about five-ten, five-eleven in the flats she was wearing. Her dark hair was French braided and the braid hung past her shoulders down her back.

"Ms. Fowler," Claire said standing up beside Sam.

"Why Claire, good to see you."

"This is my brother Sam. Sam, this is Ms. Fowler, I helped her out last semester during my free period."

"Please call me Sasha and it's nice to meet you," she said holding out her hand to Sam and giving him an award winning smile while giving him a once over and liking what she saw very much.

"Like wise Sasha," Sam answered looking her over as well. Her body was toned and looked like she worked out quite a bit. He handed the last of the fallen pages to her, his hand brushing hers and sending little sparks up his arm. He looked at her and noticed she felt something too.

"Claire if you have any time I'd love to have you do some work for me," she smiled back at Claire, but glancing sideways at Sam.

"I'll check with you later," she told her noticing how Sam was looking at her and knew that look. She was sure Sam liked her.

"Maybe I'll see you around again Sam?" she flirted before walking off, glancing back at him before she went into an office.

"I'll be sure of it," he mumbled checking out her bottom and the way she seemed to dance across the room.

"You with me there lover boy?" Claire asked snapping her fingers in his face.

"Right...Yeah...I'll contact Dean," he fussed slapping her hand away.

"I'll text Kris and Al," she agreed skillfully typing as she walked away.

Sam dialed Dean's cell and followed Claire as he waited for him to answer.

"Hey, got trouble at the high school wanna meet us at the diner down the street?" Sam asked Dean and listened to his response.

"They'll meet us at the diner as soon as they can," Claire said reading the text.

"Dean'll be here shortly. I told him to meet us there too."

"Good, I'm starved, let's go."

"How well do ya know Ms. Fowler?" Sam asked trying to be nonchalant about it.

"She was always nice to me. Everyone seems to like her," Claire shrugged.

"What does she do here?"

"Helps run the library, I think. I helped her with shipments and cataloging stuff. So you like her don't ya?"

"What? No...No...Just curious," he sputtered sliding into the Impala to avoid further conservation on the subject. He'd check her out after they took care of the creature at the school. He waited for Claire to get in before starting the Impala and heading to the diner to meet up with everyone else.

spn

Dean and Sky strolled into the diner and Dean did a quick glance around before making his way to the booth where Sam and Claire were sitting. Sky slid in beside Sam and Dean waited for her to move over before taking a seat too.

"Hey guys," Sky greeted them giving Sam a sideway hug.

"So what's goin' on bro?"

"Let's wait for the others," Sam told him sipping on his drink.

"They should be here in a few," Claire said reading her text before stowing the phone in her pocket.

Dean and Sky ordered drinks and made small talk with Sam and Claire while they waited for Krissy and Alex to get there. They didn't have long to wait until Krissy and Alex walked in and made their way around the tables to the booth.

"Hey, so what's goin' on?" Krissy asked as she and Alex sat down beside Claire.

"Think there might be a case at the school," Claire informed them.

"Lay it on me," Dean remarked settling back giving them his full attention.

"Claire you wanna start since you found it?"

"Sure, in class I noticed some of the others were acting sort of strange. I tried talking to one, it's like she wasn't there, like a zombie almost. I didn't see any injuries on them, at least what I could see. There were two in my one class and I saw others in the hall at least six or seven.

"We went to the library and did some research on the school. Didn't find anything useful, so we went online. I think we're dealing with a Crocotta or something in the family. Remember we ran into one in Ohio."

"Yeah, thought it was Dad calling," Dean frowned when those memories pushed forward for a moment and his face darkened before he pushed it down and looked at Sky who had put a hand on his arm. He looked up at her and saw the concern on her face. He gave her a half hearted smile that he was ok.

"Sam if you wanna a reason to see Ms. Fowler again, you can go check the names I have on the computer at the library see if they have anything in common," Claire suggested getting a glaring look from him.

"Who's Ms. Fowler?" Sky asked perking up with interest.

"Works at the library, Sammy likes her."

"I don't even know her," Sam said defending himself as he blushed slightly.

"Way to go Sammy," Krissy teased him.

"You should go for it, she's nice looking." Alex added.

"Stop it all of you," Sam grumbled at them.

"So how we gonna find this Cro..." Krissy started to ask until the waitress came back.

They all placed their orders and waited for the waitress to leave before she continued.

"This Crocotta thing, if that is what it is, how we gonna find it?" she asked lowering her voice so only they could hear.

"It could be any one in the school," Alex added.

"Our best bet would be to follow some of them; maybe they'll lead us to it," Sam suggested.

"'Bout as good as any, we'll pair up, school should be letting out in another hour," Dean instructed. "Sky and me will team, Sam can go with Claire and you two," he pointed at Krissy and Alex. "Should be able to catch a couple coming out."

Before they could discuss it any further the waitress came by with rolls and more drinks. Everyone stopped talking about anything related to the case and snatched rolls and butter and began eating. Their food was brought out and they dug in keeping the talk of the case to a minimum. The bill was paid and they paired up and headed back to the school to try and track any students who seemed affected. They were hoping one of them would lead them to whatever creature this was so they could kill it before any of the kids died. So far there were no reports of any missing students, which meant their souls were not completely gone yet.

A/N: Everyone is getting involved now and Sam may have found a love interest. Thank you for reading. Review make my day. NC