Sorry for the massive late updates. Between working a lot and coming home very tired it's been a really rough year. I hope that 2025 would be better! Thanks for the patience.
Chapter Twelve
After a quick phone call to the victim's friend the Winchesters drove to a small pub just outside of town named "Lloyd's". Even though it was nearing two in the afternoon, the bar had about half capacity of patrons sipping their beers and playing on the pool tables. As soon as the three entered the building a few wandering eyes from a couple of collage aged boys made Dean and Sam pull their sister to be in the middle of them. When they sat down at the bar all three ordered their drinks and glanced around when Dean noticed a poloid on the wall with the victim pinned to the corkboard.
"Check it out," he said catching his sibling's attention. "Seems he was here."
"You had doubts?" Sam asked looking confused at his brother. "His best friend said they came here the day before he hit it big."
"I understand but when was that." Dean asked.
"Excuse me," Christina said smiling at the bartender as he came back with their drinks. "But we were friends of Sean Boyden and was wondering if you knew him."
"Yeah, he was a regular up until two weeks ago." The bartender said looking over at the picture and sighed. "He was there just as they were just about to graduate college. Then the next day he became super successful, getting in a hard to get architect firm. He would come by every year or so just to say hi to those that supported him. But soon he became paranoid and wouldn't come by. I figured he was just too busy to come visit but then again I wasn't Sean's buddy buddy or dad so I didn't take it too hard. But then I heard he killed himself and it just... I don't know just hits the wrong way."
"We know that feeling." Dean said with a sigh. "Sorry for your loss. I bet it was really rough."
"Yeah. What sucks is that it seems to be happening again." The bartender said looking solemn at a collage of pictures near the bar. "Got another regular going through something similar and I don't think I can take it again."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked perking up with interest.
"Oh, well she became a well known Doctor around ten years ago. Well almost ten years ago. She was like Sean. Struggling to get accepted to a certain medical school. Then bam she got accepted."
"Do you know where she is by chance?" Dean asked seeing Sean smiling standing next to a young attractive girl as they held up acceptance letters to their dream school.
"I don't. Much like Sean, they were just regulars that just grew paranoid. But her name is Sarah Pearlman. You may get her whereabouts if you call her secretary. But that's about it."
"We will then." Dean said finishing his beer before dropping a few twenties on top of the bar. "You take care." He added quickly standing up and headed for the door followed by Sam and Christina. The three climbed into the Impala and Dean quickly drove off. "Before you say anything, Christy, it may not be them selling their souls until-"
"Dean stop the car." Sam said interrupting and causing Dean to slam on his brakes. Before Dean could ask his brother what was going on Sam climbed out of the car and walked a few feet until he stood directly in the middle of a dirt road where they had four directions to go. In between each pair of roads, were a small bunch of yellow flowers that could easily be mistaken for weeds. "Do you recognize those plants?" Sam asked as Dean walked up beside him.
"They look just like weeds." Dean said, knowing they weren't weeds but couldn't remember what they were.
"Yarrow Flowers." Christina said causing her brothers to look at her. "A native flower used for summoning. Mostly used to summon the crossroad demon for deals of the heart."
"Okay these people made a deal with the devil for what they desire." Dean snapped upset he lost a bet with his sister. "Let's just make sure it was just the two of them. We don't want more people killing themselves after being chased by hellhounds."
"Thanks for acknowledging on what I said." Christina trying her best not to sound like she was rubbing it in. "But how deep is another story."
"Don't worry about it, sis." Sam said already starting to dig in the middle of the road while Dean and Christina stood keeping an eye on the roads to see if there would be any traffic.
"Find anything yet?" Dean asked but felt like punching himself when Sam pulled out four small shoe boxes from the hole. "I hope there's a dead pet in one of those." He added and saw his sister silently nod her head as they both took a box from Sam.
"I got Sean's." Christina said opening up the box and finding an array of items inside.
"Graveyard dirt," Sam stated seeing a small vial of dirt inside. "Animal bone most likely a black cats."
"This must be that doctor the bartender mentioned." Dean sighed. "She has the same things inside."
"Then we got two more that we don't know. How are we going to find them?" Christina asked handing Sam the two boxes. "Should we talk with the bar tender again?"
"He may get suspicious if we keep asking about these two." Dean said taking each of the boxes while Sam started to fill up the hole with dirt. "Also they may have skipped town so they could be anywhere and I don't think we will get there in time."
"We could at least see if we can find out where Sarah went to." Sam suggested patting the ground down and joined his siblings at the trunk of the Impala. "Maybe we can save her."
"It's a good starting point." Dean praised as they all climbed into the car, after placing the shovel and four boxes, minus the two unknown pictures.
~DSCWIN~
"Sarah Pearlman's office?" A perky young woman's voice came from the other end as Christina had called the number from the website she had found while Sam went to the police station and Dean went to get food.
"Hi, I'm calling to set up an appointment with Dr. Pearlman if I could."
"Unfortunately, Dr. Pearlman is out of town visiting family and I'm not sure when she would return." The secretary said and Christina bit her bottom lip out of nerves as she had a feeling Sarah Pearlman was in danger.
"I really need to speak to her. Do you know where she is or when she left was?"
"I do know she was heading south and I had booked her a hotel room for the night."
"Could you give me that hotel room by chance?" Christina asked trying to keep the desperation out of her voice.
"Well, I not sure if she'll be able to talk she said she really needed the sleep."
"Just please. I will make sure you won't get into trouble." Christina glanced at the clock and saw it was nearing two o' clock in the afternoon and glanced at her own hotel room when she saw Sam walking in with both pictures and a small piece of paper.
"Well, I got her a room at the Golden Crown. I believe her room was one seventeen. But I'm not sure she'll be in there just yet. She did leave earlier today but I got her a room in Louisiana. So I don't think she'll be there until later tonight."
"I appreciate you letting me know. I'll try calling her a bit later then. Thanks so much."
Sam slowly began to take off his jacket while he watched his sister sigh as she began to stretch. "You doing okay?"
"Sarah's rabbiting. So I'm guessing she's going to end up like Sean did. There's no chance of getting to her unless I can get her to come here. But I for one don't want her to think I'm a crazy stalker."
"Better at least try." Sam said sitting down and grabbing his laptop. "Dean still not back?"
"Nope. He may be chatting up some other easy woman named like Cathy, Susan, Misty to name a possible few."
"Is everything okay?" Sam asked finally brave enough to ask the burning question he'd been confused on for a while. "The reason I ask is you seem to be not yourself."
"Just ran into an old acquaintance of ours back in Baltimore." Christina sighed knowing she should at least tell a partial truth.
"Who?" Sam asked suddenly curious. "Was it that guy from Louisiana?"
"No. Not Christopher. Someone more deranged then Christopher."
Sam looked a bit confused for a second before looking surprised and horrified. "Gordon?"
"Yeah. He's got a stick up his butt about something and I had to knee him to get away. Been on the edge ever sense due to the crazy in his eyes." Christina shuddered as she picked up her phone and then glanced at Sam. "May I borrow your laptop?" She asked and Sam carefully slid over his laptop and Christina began to type out the name of the hotel hoping she could try and get a hold of Sarah.
"Golden Crown Hotel?" came an older woman's voice sounding a bit scratchy from a few too many cigarettes, but it was still quite friendly. "How may I help you?"
"Yes I'm seeing if a friend of mine checked in yet. Her name is Sarah Pearlman. She told me that she has a room there. One seventeen. I'm a bit worried as I hadn't heard from her and wanted to make sure she got there okay."
"One second please, let me check." The woman's voice was replaced by the soft taps on a keyboard before they stopped. "Yes, she has checked in. Would you like me to transfer your call?"
"If you wouldn't mind thanks." Christina said adjusting in her seat signaling Sam she got hold of her.
"H-Hello?" came a shaky woman's voice and Christina could tell she had been crying.
"Sarah Pearlman?" Christina asked, her voice soft almost motherly as she tried to reassure Sarah she wasn't in any danger.
"Y-Yes who's this?"
"My name is Christina Winchester. I understand you're scared. I can help you but you have to act fast."
"What? What are you talking about?" Sarah's voice tried to hide the fear deep inside but Christina could tell she was just trying to stall and make it seem she was just fine.
"Lloyd's bar ten years ago. You made a deal didn't you? To become a successful doctor?"
"I-I don't know-"
"Listen Sarah. I'm trying to help you. Have you been seeing something that nobody else sees? Like a large animal? Or hearing something that isn't right?"
"Please help me." Sarah sobbed sounding remorseful over what she had done. "I just wanted to be successful. I... I will give up everything if they want.
"Sadly I don't think that would be able to work. I'm no expert on selling one's soul for personal gain but I don't think you'll be able to erase ten years of what you've done. But we can at least try."
"I don't know." Sarah's voice was still shaky and Christina could hear the distant howls of large dogs and something changed in Sarah's voice. 'Oh God, I can hear them."
"Sarah see if you can come back here. Maybe me and my brothers could help you."
"Nobody could help me now." Sarah squeaked out before hanging up.
"Sarah!" Christina called back even though she heard the phone call end. She felt guilty that she couldn't persuade Sarah to come back as she slumped back in her chair looking defeated and guilty.
Sam saw the look on her face and gently took her hand as this had happened to her first back in college when she tried to convince a fellow student to not go out with a man that ended doing a lot of harm to them. "It's not your fault, Christy." Sam said, the same five words he told her back in college. That was when he found his own respect for her when he tried to convince a complete stranger out of selfless concern. "You did everything you could. We at least know where Sarah's at and I'm pretty sure if Dean drives we will be there with at least a couple of hours to convince Sarah to come and stay with us."
Christina looked up at her brother and forced a chuckle as she shook her head. "Sarah's determined to try and rabbit the rest of her life. What I read about Hellhounds way back when I first started, the hounds are ruthless, Texas Ranger like creatures." Sam looked confused and Christina shook her head as she chuckled. "Texas Rangers. Always getting their man."
"That makes a lot of sense." Sam stated liking the analogy his sister gave. "If that was the case why did you want Sarah to come here?"
"To see if we could find a way to break her contract." Christina said with a slump in her shoulders. "Yes she did pull a stupid to sell her soul for personal gain but she did help a lot of people with her medical career."
"But she didn't just get that good on her skill alone. She cheated her way to life. Take you for instance, would you have sold your soul to be the great mechanic that you are now of you wanted to be a mechanic. Just pretend you didn't know about the consequences."
Christina had to think for a few brief seconds before she shook her head.
"Okay why not? You would have the knowledge and skill for being a mechanic but it wouldn't be real would it? How did you become one of the best mechanics out there if you hadn't sold your soul?"
"Hands on experience as I grew up. Learned the old fashion way. Trial and error." Christina said smiling at being called a great mechanic by her brother. "So your saying if I sold my soul to become a great mechanic I wouldn't be a real human?"
"In a way." Sam said. "Just like Sean being an architect and Sarah a doctor. They may have had the knowledge but they cut corners on their careers. They didn't learn the heartache of rejection. Or failure. So they knew kind of what they signed up for so are now reaping the consequences."
"Makes sense now." Christina let out a sigh and gently began to stretch. "I think I'm going to grab a soda from the drink machine. Do you want anything?"
"I think I'm good for now. Still trying to find out who the last two people are."
"So no luck with the police?" Christina asked grabbing her jacket from the back of her chair.
"Nope. I think they wanted to ask more questions as why I needed information when I was supposed to be FBI and had a whole database for things like finding out information like that."
"Let's just hope they didn't tag your agent name now that they are all suspicious of you." Christina said which made Sam start to think of what she had said. "Well, while you ponder I'm going to get a drink."
"Alright see you in a bit." Sam said leaning in his chair to think more on what she just pointed out.
Christina let out a hiss as the cool air brushed against her cheek as she pulled her jacket closer around her body. She felt a bit lighter in her shoulders and wonder if Dean was going through something similar and made it a point to talk to him hoping to help with some of that. But for now she needed to focus on the case.