BENTON COUNTY - NOON
Garth made his way out of the wharf where Fizzle's Folly was berthed, heading for the old Subaru he left in the parking lot of a crab shack, "Captain Prawnie's." He took out his phone and called his second contact, waited for the pick-up. "Moshi Moshi, Sami-kun," he said. "Right, sorry. I got a weird one for you fellas... No, it's local, you don't gotta-. It's in Detroit, turn around! I got a friend who-. Do not come to Warsaw, you hear me? I'm serious-." A car horn honked. Garth spun around and saw the Impala parked further down the wharf. He slammed a fist on the roof of his car. "You idjits tryin' to kill me?!" Garth hung up angrily, got a world map out of his backseat and unfolded it, spread it out on the hood of the car.
Sam and Dean got out of the Impala and made their way to Garth. They were carrying take out - Dean was eating a cup of popcorn shrimp and Sam was finishing an iced tea. He still had red in his sideburns from the "Battle of the Kingdoms". They both looked tired and amused. As they caught up to Garth, Sam squinted up at the sky - it was a little too clear and bright a day.
"Kinda hot out for winter," Sam said.
"Welcome to Missouri," Garth said. "The demon activity in this state's insane, makes the weather unpredictable. Last week, it was a winter wonderland, yesterday was a downpour." Garth looked at Dean and Sam's to-go cups. They had the blue and yellow Captain Prawnie's logo. "How long you guys been here and you can't drop me a line?" Garth asked, with a bitter edge to his voice. Dean and Sam exchanged guilty glances and Garth shook his head. "Forget it. I want you to have a look at somethin'."
He gestured to the map on the hood. There were about three dozen blue and red paper dots it. The red dots were mostly concentrated in and near Asia, with a few here and there in Europe and Hawaii. The blue dots were all over.
"Gonna assume that's not confetti," Dean said.
"The reds are slayings," Garth said. "Started in Gion. Vics were all stabbed to death in the last five weeks, their eyes popped out like they was advent calendars."
Sam and Dean both grimaced at that.
"You need work on the imagery, dude," Dean said. "I just went to a chocolatey bad place."
"Any idea why your guy goes for the eyes?" Sam asked.
"They were all seers," Garth said. "Their eyes are worth a bundle on the black market. Besides, maybe they knew somethin' the guy didn't want spread around."
"These guys could see the future?" Dean scoffed. "Isn't that something that would've come in handy for - oh, I don't know - saving their own bacon?"
"Most of them did predict their own deaths," Garth said. "Sent a warnin' out on the vine. That's the only reason I got as much info as I do about it."
"So they knew what killed them?" Dean asked. "Ahead of time, and they didn't get outta dodge?"
"That's prophecies, man," Garth said. "They can get kinda transcendental. Some of 'em saw a shadow at the door, some a black dog in tall grass. That kinda crap. Nobody knew where or when for certain. But I talked it out with my buddy Red - he's a psychic up in Detroit - and he's piss-scared this thing's comin' after him soon. So you two gotta book it in reverse, 'cause he's the closest thing to lead we got. See, the blue dots are all seers who think they're on the boogie man's list, and they're everywhere. Plus, this guy's bouncin' around, goin' the long way. We can only guess where he'll hit next.
"Arizona," Sam said.
"The guy's random," Garth said. "There's no pattern to it."
"Yeah," Sam said. "Except the nautilus."
Dean and Garth stared at Sam. Sam edged Garth out of the way and used his pinky to trace a logarithmic spiral on the map - starting at Japan - that got wider until Sam was tracing on the car. It hit all the red dots on the way, except the ones on the other side of the map.
"Okay," Dean said, "but wouldn't that take him off the edge?"
Garth and Sam both looked at Dean like he was an idiot. It actually took Dean a little while to get it.
"Look," Garth said, "maybe it's his pattern, I don't know. I'll see if I can send some hunters down that way, but I want you guys lookin' after Red. He's my friend, it'd be a favor."
"Why don't you go to Detroit," Sam said, "take care of you buddy. We can go to Arizona."
"I'm needed here," Garth said, looking around himself, as if to make sure he wasn't being watched. "If this thing's on it's way to The States, that is."
"You think Kevin's next," Dean said.
By the look on Garth's face, it was obvious Dean hit the nail on the head. "I dunno," Garth said. "I mean, he's a different kinda prophet, right? But all the same, I ain't leavin', not until we get this squared away. You on board?"
"Sure," Sam said. "This guy got an address?"