Dean's P.O.V
"So, I think we should hit the cop shop to get a handle on this thing. Maybe talk to the kid?" I suggested to my brother and Alice, running a hand through my hair and looking between them, craning my neck while I did. They really shouldn't be allowed to stand together, the height difference was mildly annoying and hurt my neck.
"Yeah sounds good. Alice, did you bring your Fed threads?" Sam turned to Alice and I followed his gaze. Both Sam and I had already changed into our suits, but she still stood in jeans and a loose t-shirt. She rolled her eyes a bit and nodded, lifting a hand to her hair.
"Duh." She moved and picked up her bag before heading back inside the roadhouse, reappearing a short amount of time later, her hair was twisted into a tight bun, though some curls hung loosely around her face, and she was dressed in a pantsuit. Her blazer hung over her shoulder and the sound of clicking heels filled my eyes, drawing a groan from me. How she planned on fighting in heels if needed at all, I had no idea, maybe she was good at it, but the sound was grating on my ears and I was grateful when we all piled into the van. The drive was short and we all got out of the van, walking into the cop shop. I looked around and took in the different cops, a few of them looked at us with curiosity in their faces, while others looked like they didn't want us around.
"Hey." One of the cops walked up to us, holding a file in his hand. My eyes dropped to the tag pinned to the front of his uniform, taking in the name Jefferson before I lifted my eyes back to his, offering a smile. He remained stoned face and I shifted my weight slightly before I spoke.
"Uh hi, can we speak with the sheriff?" I tried my best to word the question as an actual question instead of a demand, but the tone of my voice probably rendered the wording of it useless. I sighed at myself and ran a hand over my mouth, mentally shaking myself out.
"On what terms?" Jefferson asked, lifting his eyebrows and readjusting the file in his arm and tilted his head. I ran my tongue over my lips and cleared my throat before trying again.
"I'm Agent Ford, this is my partner Agent Hamill and our new recruit Agent Fischer." I introduced us one by one, gesturing as I spoke. The Jefferson dude nodded slowly, but his expression stayed judgemental and his eyes narrowed. He looked like his defences were up and like he didn't want us here or know why we would even be here. He probably knew there was a killer around but he looked like he didn't care at all, which was completely ridiculous. What was the point of him working as a cop if he didn't care?
"Oh, I didn't think the Feds would be coming in for a case like this?" He finally asked after a little bit, his shoulders rolled back and he seemed to lift himself so he was bigger than all of us, but being as he was shorter than all of us, it made me want to laugh. I managed to hold that back though and was about to speak, but got cut off by alice.
"Sir, this is a serious matter, we have a serial killer on the loose. When you guys can't do your job, we get called in to handle the situation." She sounded like she was about to launch herself at the guy for not understanding it. I moved so I was in front of her, shooting her a warning look as Sam moved forward. I got where Alice was coming from but she needed to calm down.
"Sorry, she's fresh out of the field." Sam apologized for her, his voice smooth and calm as he spoke. He was always better at handling aggressive and stubborn cops.
"But she has a point." I pointed out, meeting Jefferson's gaze again, narrowing my eyes when he did. We both remained silent, neither of us blinking or looking away. I shifted my weight and crossed my arms over my chest, frowning while lifting my eyebrows, waiting for a moment longer before smirking when he looked away.
"Alright, I'll get the sheriff and the files." He muttered, turning his back to us and shuffling away, his shoulders hunched a bit. My smirk turned into a small smile at the victory and I exchanged a look with Sam and then Alice. Sam rolled his eyes while Alice grinned and giggled a bit, shoving a curl behind her ear before moving towards the coffee machine.
Alice's P.O.V.
I slid out of the van once we reached the grounds and stretched, smoothing my hand over the bun I had put it in as I looked around. I had been to a circus once before when I was younger with my dad. He had wanted to take a break from hunting but the place ended up being used as a hunting grounds for a wolf and so he had left me to wander around while he dealt with it. I had won plenty of prizes and gave them away, knowing we couldn't keep them. All of the kids I gave them to looked super shocked and happy but it was a nice feeling. I had always wanted to go to a circus that wasn't being frequented by some kind of monster, but that didn't seem like it was going to happen anytime soon.
"Yeah, I wanna get this hunt over as soon as possible." Sam was saying as he got out of the van, his voice sounding a bit stressed as he spoke. I turned to face him and watched as he eyed the area nervously, his eyes flickering around before briefly landing on me and then on Dean as the older Winchester rounded the van and stopped between us.
"This isn't about one of you things is it?" Dean questioned, lifting his eyebrows while he smirked. I frowned slightly as Sam rolled his eyes and glared at his brother, curiosity rising in my chest.
"What things?" I asked, tilting my head and moving so I could see Sam around the other side of Dean. I crossed my arms over my chest when he hesitated before looking away. He looked like he didn't really wanna tell me but I wanted to know and so I turned to Dean, dropping my arms and waiting for him to answer instead.
"Clowns." Dean laughed and ducked away from a light punch Sam threw in his direction. I smiled as I turned to the younger Winchester, trying not to laugh. I didn't see how he could be scared of clowns of all things. I had seen 'IT' and yeah the clown in that was creepy but it was a movie and most other clowns were innocent and funny looking. They always wore shoes that were like a million sizes too big and the scariest thing about them was their water shooting flower.
"You're afraid of clowns?" I couldn't help but giggle as I spoke, but I bit down on my lip before it got too bad.
"Shut up." Sam grumbled, moving past us. I watched him for a moment before I walked after him with Dean on my tail. We walked in silence for a while before slowing to a stop between two tents, shadows stretching over all of us. I looked around quickly, feeling like there were eyes on my back, but returned my gaze to the boys when I saw nothing. This place was pretty creepy, especially now that it was getting so late.
"I'm gunna check out the ringmaster's tent, if anything fishy is going on here, these guys would know about it." Dean declared, pushing his jacket back and slipping his hands into his pockets as he spoke, a look of determination crossing his face as he looked between us, waiting for both of us to nod in agreement. Sam took a bit longer and seemed to be very distracted as he checked over his shoulder for about the tenth time since we stopped.
"I can snoop around if you want? Check out the manager see if he knows anything about this clown." I smoothed out the sleeves of my jacket and a crease or two on my pants. I was fidgety and working hard to keep my attitude and temper under check. I knew I had been unfair and cranky lately and I could tell the boys were getting pissed with it but I couldn't help it at times and I was doing my best. This hunt was helping already and I just wanted to get it done and kill the murderous bastard that was running around. Hunts helped the last time Akuma pulled a stupid stunt like this, and I was hoping they would help again this time.
"Sounds good, meet back here if you find anything." Both me and Dean waited for a reply from Sam, watching him frown and lift a hand to his hair before Dean spoke again. "Sam?" Dean pushed, moving forward to he could wave his hand in front of his younger brother's face. Sam jolted at the movement and stepped back, his hazel eyes widening as he glanced between the two of us.
"What?!" He sounded panicked, but took a breath and rolled his shoulders, standing straight again and smoothing his face over. "Sorry, I missed that." He cleared his throat and met Dean's eyes, his breathing still a bit ragged.
"Want to check out the booths?" Dean asked, though it sounded more like instructions than a question. He looked like he was holding back a laugh but made no sound of the sort, only stepped away from his brother again, waiting for a response.
"Uh, yeah sure." Sam nodded in response, bouncing in place.
"Come one, suck it up, don't be a baby, we can get this thing done." The older Winchester rolled his eyes, sounding like he was annoyed by the entire situation. I didn't understand Sam's fear of clowns and thought that it was pretty funny but I got it being hard to hunt down something that scares you so much. I'd had to deal with a few situations like that and it had totally sucked, Akuma hadn't teased me though. I bit my lip, kind of feeling bad for bugging Sam now.
"Oh yeah sure, it's like looking for a needle in a stack of needles...and those needles happen to be clowns." The younger Winchester sounded angry and I sighed, ducking away to get started on my part of the hunt, not wanting to deal with it if they ended up fighting. Both of the Winchesters were acting like they had been dealing with their father so well but Sam had been mopey and Dean was being even more dickish than usual. He wouldn't even let Bobby mention Akuma or John's name without storming outside and working on his car. They seemed to get off somewhere thinking they were perfect saints and properly dealing with things but this small argument was just one piece of proof that they weren't. I stopped outside of the tent that looked like it belonged to the manager and sucked in a breath, giving a weak call to the voices again. I knew it was hopeless but I felt like I could maybe at least get a whisper if I tried hard enough. When that didn't work I sighed and pushed my way into the tent.
The tent was dingy and I immediately sneezed when the flap closed behind me, my eyes watering with the dust and intensity of the sneeze. "Uh hi, I'm Agent Fischer, I work for the FBI. Can I ask you some questions?" I managed to get out, fighting another sneeze off as I moved forward, staring at a man that was a bit taller than me. He stooped down, a slightly confused look on his face and I flashed him my fake badge. I quickly rubbed my hand over my nose and switched to breathing through my mouth, though it wasn't much better. The dust settled on my tongue now and I breathed out heavily, trying to keep my mouth wet.
"Yeah sure, what's this about?" The manager asked, his eyes darting around the room. I followed his gaze, noticing how sketchy he looked, but it could be because there was a Fed in his tent. There was really no way this guy could tell that I was a hunter, if he even was a monster. I frowned again and followed his gaze to a corner over my shoulder, though all I could see was a shadow of what looked at a trunk. It was hard to see in this tent with the only light being a small, dull lamp in the far corner of the tent. I had no idea what it was plugged into but I didn't really care, I had more important things to do than try to figure out the inner workings of a creepy ass circus.
"Just following up a lead about a killer clown. Do you know any?" I tried to keep my voice light while I smiled lightly, though the guy didn't seem to get it. I dropped the smile and narrowed my eyes, tensing slightly as the man finally met my eyes. His pupils were dilated wide, only showing a small amount of colour from the irises, a lot like Akuma's got when she was pissed or scared. I swallowed the now forming lump in my throat but refused to look away, though I could see a gleam of sweat on his forehead that relaxed me instantly; he was probably just high on something. High humans were a lot less scary than psycho killers or monsters.
"No, but I'll keep my eye out for one." He said after a long pause, his voice dropping an octave as he finally looked away, running a hand over his face and then through his hair, his breath coming out hard and heavy. I didn't know what the hell was wrong with this guy but I definitely wanted to leave as soon as fucking possible.
"So, how long have you been working at the circus?" I pushed, moving around the tent a bit and checking things out, trying to stay calm and relaxed. I ran my hand over the small desk to the side and picked up some papers, sneezing hard again when dust flew up. God this entire area was filled with the shit; it seemed like they'd been here for years rather than days. I wiped my nose again and flipped through the pages in my hand, making sure I continued breathing through my mouth before I set them down and spun to face the man, lifting my eyebrows when I caught him staring at me.
"My whole life, my dad and granddad worked for this same circus," I offered him a smile and nodded as he spoke, encouraging him to continue. This guy was so open with things, most circus people I'd heard of were very closed off. Akuma said that they could be, she'd had to deal with a few on hunts she took on herself and they never seemed to tell her anything. This guy was probably trying to hide something or convince me that he wasn't lying about a killer clown. "But as far as I know, there are no killer clowns here."
"Have you noticed any strange activity with any of our employees? Aggressiveness, seclusion? Anything like that?" I continued walking again, stopping by a massive trunk in the opposite corner from the trunk, though I didn't open it. Even if I was an actual Fed I doubted I'd have that right without a permit. And judging by the angry sound that the manager made, he didn't want me going in there. I moved away from it and watched the creep from the corner of my eye, watching as he relaxed. He was just opening his mouth to say something when the sharp sound of Dean's ringtone shot through the tent.
"Dean?" I asked, confused as to why he was calling. The sound of crashing sounded moment after I spoke and I heard Dean shouting in the background, sounding like he was swearing at someone. "Dean, I'm coming!" I shouted, though I wasn't sure if he could even hear me. I started running, easily shoving my way through the tent flap and taking a moment to breath in the clean, undusted air before I took off again, shoving people out of my way while I hit the speed dial number for Sam, pressing the phone to my ear, yelling at someone to get out of the way. "Come on pick up!" I groaned, darting forward again after there was a small break in a crowd ahead of me. I didn't understand how anyone could move so fucking slowly, children were excited they should be running. "Move... MOVE!" I snapped, shoving my way through some kids, ignoring the glares I got from their parents. I shoved past another person, dialing Sam's number again and growling when he finally picked up.
"Alice?" Sam breathed, sounding as winded as I felt. Still I sucked in a breath to speak properly, dodging into an open space between two tents, hoping that it would be faster.
"Dean's in trouble." I made it quick and simple, breathing the words hard through my teeth as I jumped over the ropes holding the tents down.
"On my way." Sam hung up after he spoke and I shot forward, rounding the tent when I found it and pulling out my gun before I shoved my way inside, sniffling as dust filled my nose. I had no idea why these temporary places were so dusty but it was more than annoying. I paused and looked around, frowning when I didn't immediately see him, though there was a curtain that
"Dean?" I called, jumping when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I swung my arm back, spinning after my elbow made contact with flesh and I heard a groan of pain. I took a step back and rose the gun, stopping when I noticed that I had attacked Sam. He was bent over at the waist and his eyes were watering. I bit down hard on my lip when I realized exactly where I had elbowed him. I lowered my gun and moved forward. "I am so sorry. You scared me." I rested my hand on his shoulder briefly before he straightened up, waving me off. As he stood I noticed that his clothing was torn and he was bleeding from a different shallow wounds on his arms and a couple on his face. "What the hell happened to you?"
"Clowns." He looked like he was going to say more but we were interrupted by dean being tossed through the curtain, a low groan coming from him. I spun hard, lifting my gun and getting ready to shoot, though the sight of some creepy looking old dude morphing into a clown cut me short.
Sam's P.O.V
The moment the old guy turned into the clown I was gone. Dean and Alice could protect each other but I needed to call Ellen. I meant to before after I had found out what the monster was, but I hadn't had time before the clowns attacked and Alice called. Now I dropped down behind a pile of boxes and peered around it, wincing when Dean went at the clown and it sent him flying, turning on Alice. I felt another wave of panic crash against my chest while I dialed the number and pressed the phone to my ear. Each ring seemed to take forever as I watched the thing throw Alice down and move at her, a cruel laugh filling the tent and causing a sharp shiver to run down my spine.
"Sam?" Ellen finally answered the phone, her voice confused as she spoke. I pulled back so I wasn't staring at the clown and closed my eyes, resisting the urge to run out of there before I knew how to kill the thing. This entire situation was insane and it was smarter for me to figure out how to kill it rather than risking all of our lives because I felt the need to protect Alice, who probably wouldn't appreciate it anyways.
"Ellen!? Tell me everything about a rakshasa!" I spoke quick and winced at the sound of Dean swearing and Alice groaning. Against my better judgement I turned to look again, a low growl sounding in my chest when I saw the clown slam his fist into her gut. I heard a ruffling of papers on the other end of the phone as I shifted, ready to move out from behind the boxes, stopping when I saw Dean tackle the guy around the waist and take him down. I relaxed for a second, though I waited for Alice to sit up before I could completely stop myself from running out there.
"It's a race of Hindu creatures that take on human form and feed on human flesh, they live in squalor, sleeping on a bed of dead insects. Sam, the one sure way to kill it is by using a dagger of pure brass."
I barely stopped to utter a quick "Thanks!" before I shot out from behind the pile of boxes, stumbling onto the small makeshift stage that held an organ. I watched Alice hit the ground again before I turned my attention to the rest of the stage, something that glinted under the waving light catching my eye. I turned my full attention to it and saw what looked like brass attached to the Organ, sticking up from the back... I wasn't sure if it was real brass but it was the only option that I had at this point so I shot forward, breaking a piece of it off before I turned and stared at the clown, noticing that Dean was lying on the ground, struggling to get up while the clown was kicking Alice. I swallowed hard, a mixture of anger and fear in my chest as I charged forward and stabbed the monster in the back with the broken, jagged edge, pushing hard to get it up through his ribs and into his heart. I stepped back, shoving the body so it fell to the ground beside Alice rather than on top of her.
"About fucking time." Alice's words came out like a groan as I helped her up, taking in the blood dripping from her mouth and matting into her hair. I just gave her a weak smile as she stretched and wiped the blood off of her face, turning her gaze and smile to the body on the floor.
The drive back to the roadhouse was mostly silent other than Dean's soft swearing when we hit bumps and he hit his head against the window. I slowed to a stop and hopped out of the van, watching to make sure Alice and Dean made it out safe before I walked inside, giving Ellen a soft smile. "Thanks for the help." I muttered, waiting for her nod before I moved to find Ash. Before we left he had offered to look into the stuff on my dad but while Dean and Alice were getting ready for the hunt I had asked him to look into Akuma as well. I knew Dean was pissed about Akuma's lies, I was pissed that she lied about her dad as well, and I knew Alice was beyond pissed that she had left, but Alice needed to see her. Even if Akuma didn't come back, though I'd try to force her to, Alice needed to talk to her, we all did.
"Hey Ash." I called as I approached him, waving and relaxing at the smile that crossed his face.
"Oh hey, I was just gunna call you." Ash stood up from where he stood, smoothing his hand over the top of his mullet, forcing a few stray strands back into place.
"You found something?" I stopped short and stared down at the man. It didn't seem like he could have found anything this fast… it didn't seem like anyone could have found anything this fast. "Yellow-eyes or Akuma?" I pushed, not caring if it was possible at this point. Ash just smiled and nodded at me, wiggling his eyebrows slightly as he stepped forward.
"I got a lead." He answered, though he didn't answer who. At this point I didn't care what the lead was or who it was for, this man had somehow gotten a lead.