Chapter 10 - LARP and the Real Girl

Addison yawns as she stares out at the passing scenery from where she was sitting in the backseat of the Impala. Things were still tense between the three of them. She wanted to know why Benny had called Dean in the first place, but he refused to tell her the truth. Sam was still weary of Dean and vice versa. She just wanted things to go back to normal. She still couldn't believe that she and Dean were married. Had been married since that trip to Vegas they had taken nearly ten years earlier. She was still trying to wrap her head around it and the fact that Dean had kept it from her for so long. "You okay, man," Dean asks, glancing at Sam who was intently studying a map.

"We have the most powerful weapon we've ever had against demons and we can't find a way to use it," Sam says.

"Yeah, well, Kevin's on it. And when he finds something, he'll call. So we wait. Look, we have had a rough go over the past couple of weeks. And, uh…I know what you gave up wasn't easy. Maybe we ought to take the night off. Go see a flick, hit a bar or two, and have some fun. You remember fun, don't you, Sammy?"

A phone starts to ring. It takes Addison a moment to realize it's her phone that's ringing. She digs through her bag and pulls it out. Garth's name was displayed on the screen. "Hi, Garth," she greets.

"Hey. Why don't you grab a piece of paper," Garth tells her.

Addison grabs a small notebook out of her bag and writes down the details of a case. She frowns, seeing that it was near where they currently are. "Um, okay. I got everything down, but um, how exactly do you know where we are?"

"Through the GPS on your phones. I track you and a bunch of hunters to assign cases. Yeah, you've been Garthed," Garth explains.

Addison hangs up and drops her phone on the seat beside her. "We need to get new phones," she tells the boys. "Garth is tracking us and other hunters to assign cases."

"Smart," Dean says, glancing at her in the rearview mirror. "A total Bobby move. What's the deal?"

"Farmington Hills, Michigan. Some guy got ripped limb from limb inside his locked apartment," Addison replies.

"That's not good," Dean comments.

"Yeah. Definitely not."

Sam reaches over the seat and grabs the small notebook out of Addison's hands. "Working a case," he says. "As long as we're waiting on Kevin, that'll be our fun." Addison sighs and turns her gaze back out of the window. She wanted things to go back to normal for them.

The trio flashes the FBI badges at the officer standing outside of the apartment. "Sheriff," Sam greets as they enter. Addison looks around the living room of the apartment. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "Special Agent Taggart. These are my partners, Special Agents Rosewood and Todd."

"FBI," the Sheriff replies, looking at them. He was a middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache that was more grey than anything. "You guys are quick. Haven't even got the body out yet."

"Well, the FBI is all work, no play," Dean replies, shooting a look at Sam.

"You know, why don't you give me the tour while my partners look around," Sam asks the Sheriff, clearly ignoring Dean.

"I work better on my own," Dean states.

The Sheriff shrugs. "Your world, Agent. Follow me."

Sam follows the agent into the bedroom while Dean moves into the kitchen. Addison stands there for a moment then follows Sam and the Sheriff into the victim's bedroom. Blood covered the walls. A body covered by a white sheet was on the bed. Sheets covered body parts on the floor. Addison lifts a sheet and discovers one of the victim's arms with a tattoo of a tree on it. She doesn't miss the dark red marks around the wrist.

"Vic's name was Ed Nelson, thirty-one years old, an insurance claim adjuster. He lived alone, which was a real shocker, considering his place is full of toys," the Sheriff states.

"So, what happened," Sam questions.

"No sign of forced entry. Near as we can tell, he was tired up and pulled apart. Died of the shock or massive blood loss. Dealer's choice on that one."

Sam motions to where the bag containing chains is sitting. "So what about these chains?"

"That's chain mail."

Addison raises an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

The Sheriff chuckles. "Yeah. We did find clear rope burn marks on his wrists and ankles."

"Was anything missing from the body," Addison questions.

"You mean aside from the arms and legs? Uh, nope. All there. Twig and berries too."

"What about the neighbors," Sam asks. "Did they hear anything weird?"

"Uh, neighbor downstairs said she got woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of horses stomping their feet galloping. We didn't find any hoof prints. She probably heard a TV was having a bad dream or she was high as balls. Fortunately, we got a real lead off of his cell phone. According to the phone records, Ed's last call was from a guy called Lance Jacobsen. An accountant, also thirties, also lives alone."

Sam frowns. "How is he lead?"

"The two of them talked together for fifteen minutes and then Lance sent Ed here all kinds of angry texts. Some of them were your typical threat stuff, but some were a little weird," the Sheriff explains as he leads Sam and Addison back into the living room. Dean walks over to them and subtly shakes his head, letting them know he hasn't found anything.

"Weird how," Dean questions.

"Like uh…'you shall bleed for your crimes against us' followed by the emoticon of a skull. And, uh, this beauty. 'I am a mange. I will destroy you.' These kids today with their texting and murder. My men just brought Lance into the station for questioning."

"Well, we're gonna need to take the first crack at the suspect," Sam tells him.

The sheriff shrugs. "Like I said Agent, it's your world."

The trio walks into the interrogation room of the local police station. Lance Jacobsen was sitting at the table. Sam and Addison sit down across from him while Dean stands behind Addison, with a protective hand on the back of her chair. "Lance Jacobsen? We're with the FBI," Sam introduces.

"The FBI," Lance asks, looking between the three of them. "I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe Ed's dead."

Lance starts to cry. Addison reaches across and places a comforting hand on his arm. "Lance, just breathe. Okay? You're fine," she softly tells him. "We just want to ask you a few questions, okay." Lance wipes his face and takes a deep breath. He nods.

"We want to know about the, uh, texts you sent Ed last night," Dean says.

"I told them when they brought me in those weren't from me," Lance replies.

"Well, your phone and Ed's phone say otherwise," Sam counters.

"No, I mean, they were from me but they weren't me me."

Addison stares at him. "Can you clarify what you mean?"

Lance sighs. "I'm sorry. This is all a big misunderstanding. Those text messages were from Greyfox the Mystic to Thargrim the Difficult. Our characters in Moondoor. Moondoor is a game that Ed and I play. We're LARPers."

"Live action role-playing," Addison questions.

Lance nods. "We play Moondoor every other weekend at Heritage Park. All the info about it is on our website."

"You guys have a website," Dean disbelievingly asks.

"Yeah, one of the players designed it. If you log onto the site, they should have posted pictures from last night's feast. I was there all night."

"What does any of this have to do with the texts," Sam questions.

"I play a character named Greyfox the Mystic. I'm a very, very powerful mage in the game."

"Okay, uh, very powerful. Go on."

"Ed is…Ed was Thargrim the Difficult of the Elder Forest, son of Hargrim and Bouphoin, brother to…He was the Lancelot to my Merlin."

"What happened to cause the argument you two were having," Addison asks.

"We were named to the queen's honor guard, in anticipation of the coming Battle of Kingdoms this weekend. I thought he broke protocol, so I called Ed after game hours and accused him of cheating and then I challenged him to a duel."

"A duel," Sam repeats.

"Wands and swords at dawn."

Dean shifts. "Now when you say wands do you mean magic wands?"

"No. Un-magic wands, Agent. Because what I really want in a duel is an un-magic wand," Lance sarcastically replies. "Yes! Fake wands! It's a game! I can't believe it. Oh, ye Gods! Thargrim the Difficult has fallen."

Lance buries his face in his hands and lets out a sob. Sam and Addison stand up. Addison shoots him a soft smile then walks out of the with Sam. Dean awkwardly pats Lance on the shoulder. "Lance. Hang in there, champ," Dean tells him before following Sam and Addison.

"So, either of you believe Dungeons & Dragons," Sam questions.

"He's not our guy," Addison confidently says.

"He didn't put a whammy on us," Dean agrees. "Those weren't crocodile tears, man."

"So, what are we looking at," Sam asks.

"You saw the chain mail. This could be Fifty Shades of Greyfox for all we know."

"All right, well, let's check out the Moondoor website, and see if Lance's story checks out," Sam replies. They walk over to a vacant desk with a computer on it and Sam sits down. It only takes him a couple of minutes to bring up the Moondoor website. "'Welcome to Moondoor, Michigan's largest LARPing game.'"

"And I thought we needed to get out more," Dean mutters. Addison shoots him an unamused look. He smiles at her. She shakes her head and turns back to the computer as he places a hand on her lower back.

"There," Addison says, pointing to a picture of Lance with two women. "There's his alibi."

"Huh. It looks kind of awesome," Dean comments. Sam looks at him and Dean shifts.

"All right. There's a video," Sam says. He clicks on the link and brings up a video. They're silent as they watch the video.

Dean frowns, recognizing a face. "Wait is that—"

"Charlie," Addison interrupts. "Yeah, looks like it."

Addison stares in disbelief as she looks around the park. Everyone was dressed in costumes. A few hours after they had talked to Lance, he had been murdered while still in the police interrogation room. He had the same tattoo on his arm that Ed had and the only other connection between the two victims was LARPing. This is how the trio found themselves that morning at the park, surrounded by people who were all wearing Renaissance costumes. Some of the people had ogre teeth or elf ears. The trio comes to a stop in front of a man locked in a set of stocks with another man standing in front of him.

Addison raises an eyebrow as the man's teeth fall out and the other man, wearing a red and white tunic, picks them up before placing them back in the man's mouth. They finish their scene before the man wearing the tunic starts to walk away. "Excuse me," Dean says, walking up to the man. "Hi. Uh, you are a LARPer, yeah?"

The man stares at him. "I perfect the term 'interactive literaturist.'"

"Right. Uh, I am Special Agent Rosewood. These are Special Agents Taggart and Todd."

"Hold," the man shouts, pushing his hood down. "Um, guys, we're not doing the whole genre mash-up thing this weekend. We only do that every third month."

"Come again," Sam questions.

"Your fake badges, the cheap suits. It's very cool. I get it. Your characters are FBI agents that somehow traveled to Moondoor, but I'm telling you it's just — it's straight up Moondoor this weekend."

Sam frowns. "These aren't fake badges."

"Uh, yeah, they are and they're…" the man trails off as he grabs Sam's badge. "Very good, but, um, well, the ID number shifted to ten digits with, uh, two letters mixed in at the end of the year and the seals from last month. Really good work." He hands the badge. "It's just…it's a tournament weekend, okay guys, so you got to follow the rules. If there's no rule - chaos." He pulls his hood back up. "Resume. If you would like to join the army of Moons, the queen is always on the lookout for new squires."

"Yes. Right," Dean replies. "We would like to see your queen now, please."

"Well, the queen's calendar is booked up months in advance. But if you wish to witness what's in store for you in her army, her Highness is overseeing new squires on the pitch as we speak."

It doesn't take the trio long to find where Charlie was. She was in the middle of a large group wearing dark red clothing that resembled armor. "Greyfox and Thargrim are missing. We pray to the goddess they have not fallen victim of foul play. In their absence, the honor guard's ranks are weakened. To join…" Charlie trails off when she recognizes them. "Oh, berg. Uh…The queen needs some royal 'we' time. Talk amongst themselves."

Charlie walks into a large maroon tent at the back of the field. The trio follows her. Dean stops and picks up a fake sword. He examines. "Nice balance," he says.

Sam shoots him a skeptical look. "Dude."

Addison shakes her head and walks with Sam into the tent with Dean following them. He was still carrying the sword. Addison raises an eyebrow seeing the elegantly decorated tent with ornate chairs.

"Charlie," Sam begins.

"Charlie Bradbury is dead," Charlie tells them. She unbuckles the leather arm guards she had on and shoves them into a duffle bag. "She died a year ago. You killed her. My name is Carrie Heinlein. Oh and guess what. Now you killed her too."

Dean sighs. "Okay, listen, uh…"

"No, I buried myself. Then Dick Roman went down, his company belly up and I figure, 'Hey, it's all good,' and I was fine. I got my life back. Now you're here and if you guys are here, monsters are here. Why do I have such bad luck? What am I? Some kind of monster magnet? Is there such a thing as a monster magnet? You know what? Don't answer that. I don't care. What I care about is not getting my other arm broken or dying So…I'm dropping my sword and walking off the stage bitches." Charlie grabs her bag and crown off the table. She drops the crown on Dean's head as she starts to walk out of the tent. "Have fun storming the castle."

"Charlie," Dean exclaims. "Greyfox and Thargrim, uh, Ed and Lance, they're not missing. They're dead."

Charlie stops and stares at them. "Ed was drawn and quartered by Lance bleed out," Addison softly explains.

Charlie doesn't move for a moment, then sits down at the table. She motions for them to each take a seat. "Drawn and quartered and bleeding out," she repeats. "Please stop talking again. So what do you think did this?"

"Well, aside from the, uh, mark and them both being LARPers, there's really not much else to go on," Dean says, pulling a photo of the tree that both Ed and Lance had on their arms.

Charlie picks up the photo. "Wait, I've seen this before. It's a Celtic magic symbol. At least it was in my favorite video game. Does that help? Can I go now?"

"It's a start, but no. Um, listen. What can you tell us about Ed and Lance," Sam questions.

Charlie shrugs. "Good guys. Two of the best members of the queen's ever-shrinking army."

"Ever shrinking," Dean asks.

"My kingdom has had a lot of bad luck lately, probably cause of me, but maybe it's tied to this," Charlie says, motioning to the photo. "A month ago, one of my guys had both her ankles broken before battle. Before that, I had three people who had hospital-worthy accidents while at home. You think there's any connection there?"

"Any common enemies," Addison questions.

"In real life? No. Everyone gets along famously. In the game, though…" Charlie stands up and walks over to a table with a map on it. The trio follows her. There were different colored figures on the table. "They had tons of enemies. Red reps the followers of the Moon - my peeps. Green's for the Elves, blue's for the Warriors of Yesteryear, and black's for Shadow Orcs. Total d-bags. This weekend is the Battle of the Kingdoms to see who wears the Forever Crown. This weekend, each faction is definitely an enemy of me and mine."

"You know, if you, uh…" Dean begins, motioning to the red figures. "Move your arches back and your broadswords men to the west…"

"Huh." Charlie nods. "Fight the warriors." Dean smiles. "Hey, good call."

"Thanks."

"What about the southern wall?"

"Guys," Sam says, clearly annoyed.

"Yeah," Dean asks, looking at his younger brother. He clears his throat upon seeing Sam's annoyed look. "Right. Sorry."

"Maybe someone from one of the other kingdoms got ahold of something and now they're using real magic to weaken your army," Addison says.

"But why not just come after me," Charlie argues. "And why the escalation?"

"All right, we will canvass the kingdoms. You should get out of here. We don't want you to get hurt," Dean says, finishing with Charlie.

"Whoa, wait," Sam says. "Charlie knows Moondoor a lot better than we do. We need her."

"Sam, I think we can take care of a bunch of accountants with foam swords."

"We need all the help we can get, Dean. People are dying."

"My point, which is usually yours, is that she should get somewhere safe and get back to a normal life."

"Hey, I am right here and I want to leave," Charlie interjects.

Dean smiles, triumphantly. "Thank you."

"But the queen…she has to stay. I mean, Sam is right. People are dying. That can't happen on my watch. And you know what? I am tired of running. I like my life here. I'm gonna stay and fight for it."

Sam's phone rings. He pulls it out and answers. "Yeah." Addison lightly smiles at Charlie and Dean. "Okay. Thanks. So, the toxicology report came back on Lance. Nothing. But the medical examiner said his body showed clear signs that he was killed by belladonna."

"The porn star," Charlie and Dean ask at the same time.

Addison raises an eyebrow. "Poison?"

"Oh," Charlie and Dean simultaneously let out.

"However, they couldn't find a trace of it in his system," Sam finishes.

"Just like they couldn't find ropes in Ed's apartment," Dean reasons.

"Charlie, I'm gonna need to borrow your laptop," Sam says.

Charlie frowns. "There are no laptops in Moondoor," she tells them and is met with three incredulous looks. "What? There are rules. But there is a tech tent four tents down."

"Okay. How about you two go canvas and Ads and I'll dig into these accidents and this mark," Sam tells them before walking out of the tent.

Addison forces a smile and quickly follows Sam. She finds Sam a few feet away from her. "Sam," she calls out.

Sam stops and looks at her. "I'll look into the accidents and the mark. Since you're good at marking friends with vamps, go talk to the other groups," he tells her, then walks off.

Addison lets out an annoyed breath. She had hoped they were fine. But it was clear that Sam had zero desire to work alone after everything that had occurred with Benny and Martin. She shakes her head and walks in the opposite direction.

"Addison? Addison?"

Addison groans and opens her eyes. She was in a very nice tent laying on a very comfortable bed. And kneeling in front of her was Charlie. The last thing she remembered was walking through the woods, searching for the Shadow Orcs. It hadn't taken her long to learn that the Shadow Orcs were using the same symbol that was found on Ed and Lance.

"Where am I," Addison lets out, sitting up. She winces and places a hand on her forehead. "What the hell happened?"

"I was hoping you'd be able to answer that," Charlie replies. Addison reaches into her skirt pocket and pulls out her phone. She let out an annoyed breath upon seeing that she had no signal. "Did you see the skull figure too?"

"What skull figure," Addison questions. Charlie motions to the figure standing by the fireplace, watching them. Addison slowly stands up. She holds up her hands. "Look, we're unarmed. You let Charlie go. And you can keep me. We don't want any trouble. I don't want Sam pissed at me anymore and I want Dean and Sam to just be fine with each other again. And I'm sure that Charlie just wants to go back to being a run-of-the-mill I.T. girl. I…I just want things to go back to normal."

The figure pulls off the skull to reveal a beautiful woman standing in front of them. "That is all I want as well," she tells them. She pulls off her cloak and she's wearing a long white dress. "My name is Gilda. I'm from the Hollow Forest of Arkhmoor. I'm a fairy."

"Swoon," Charlie mutters.

Addison raises an eyebrow. "How did you get here," she questions Gilda.

"I was summoned here by a spell," Gilda answers, shooting a smile at Charlie.

"Who summoned you?"

"I don't know his name, but I was brought here to do his bidding."

"His bidding," Charlie disbelievingly repeats. "That's never good."

"No. It's not," Addison agrees.

"My…master, he-he has me hurt people. He's forcing me to. I'd never hurt anyone," Gilda tells them. "I'm a fairy. The good kind."

"So, why is the dick head who is controlling you forcing you to hurt people?"

"I don't know. He started off with smaller commands, but he's become more violent. He had me kill two men this week."

"Man, someone is taking this game way too seriously," Charlie says.

Gilda frowns. "Game?"

"This…my outfit, all of this…it's just a game here."

"Why would you play such a game?"

"This world…not so much with the awesome. The game is a way to get away."

"It's a lovely forest, but it's nothing like my home."

"And how do we get you back home?"

Gilda sighs. "I can't break free from the spell, myself. A hero must take my master's book of magic and destroy it, breaking the spell."

Charlie stands up. "Gilda, my name is Charlie Bradbury and I am here to rescue you."

Gilda smiles at Charlie and Charlie smiles back. Addison clears her throat. "Well, I'll leave you two to it," she says. "I'll go find Dean and Sam. See if we can find this magic book or whatever."

Addison turns to walk out of the tent. She stops upon seeing Dean, Sam, and one of the LARPers. "It's him," Gilda exclaims, staring up. "My master! Run!"

The LARPer pushes his hood down. Sam and Dean raise their guns. "No guns in Moondoor, gentlemen," he says. "Gilda, if you please?"

A sad look crosses Gilda's face as she waves her hand. The boys' guns turn into feathers. "Well, now what, Gerry," Dean asks.

"My name is Boltar the Furious," Gerry snaps. "My plan was, after getting rid of all of my competition, to win the battle tomorrow, convincing the queen that I should be her king. But then you three idiots showed up and I was forced to improvise. Rescue the damsel in distress from the Orcs, become king, and kill the three of you. That'll work too."

"So, why did you go from hobbling to murder," Sam questions.

"Greyfox and Thargrim became part of the honor guard. They got close to the queen, but they did it by breaking the rules. Paying off other players with real money, rather than Moondoor currency. They were cheating."

"And using magic isn't," Dean argues.

"Magic is part of Moondoor."

"What is your problem," Charlie questions. "Why would you hurt people? This is just a game."

"There is no game," Gerry shouts. Addison notices a small book hanging off his belt. "There is only Moondoor! I came here to be different, to get away from my crappy life, to be a hero, and guess what."

"What," Dean begins. "You were a loser in the real world and you're a loser here? Shocker."

"Would a loser track down a real book of spells and compel a fairy to do his bidding?"

Addison slides under the suit jacket she was wearing. Her Colt Compact was sitting in the waistband of her skirt. "It depends," Sam replies. He had noticed what Addison was doing. Her hand wraps around the handle of her gun. "How'd you get it?"

"eBay."

"Look. It doesn't have to be like this, Boltar. Just hand over the book of spells. We can work this out."

Gerry picks up a fake sword. "This will all work out after I remove you from the playing field and wipe her memory. Gilda?"

Gilda sighs. Addison pulls out her gun and shoots the book hanging on Gerry's belt. He lets out a shout and falls to the floor. He covers the wound on his thigh. She walks over and yanks the book off of his belt. She tosses the book to Charlie. "Save the damsel in distress," she amusedly says.

Charlie stabs her dagger into the book. A bright light emits from it. "Are you okay," she asks Gilda.

"I'm free of the spell," Gilda replies. "You both saved me. The Hollow Forest is forever in your debt. I must return to those green hills now. I will take my former master with me. He must face a fairy tribunal for his sins."

"Wait," Charlie says. She walks over to the fairy and kisses her. Gilda smiles, then disappears with Gerry. "Call me…maybe?"

Addison sighs as she stares at the ceiling of the motel room. She had elected to stay behind while Dean and Sam went to visit Charlie. Her cell phone buzzes and she grabs it off the nightstand. "Yeah," she answers, not taking her gaze off the ceiling.

"I need your help," Sarah immediately greets. "Also, I'm outside of your motel room."

Addison stands up and walks over to the door. She opens it to find Sarah, brightly grinning up at her. "What do you need help with?"

"A lead on our Rosetta Stone angel."