1.14
"Janie, get up."
I open my eyes. Dean is leaning over me. It's still dark. Just the lamps are on.
"What?" I ask rubbing my eyes.
"We're going."
"Going where?"
"Just get up. Shoes. Bag. Let's go."
I groan but Dean rips my blanket off. Ugh. I finally had my own bed and it gets interrupted. I don't care it was only a twin. It was wonderful. I walk out to the car two minutes later with actual clothes on and my shoes. Dean takes my bag and puts it in the trunk. I yawn.
"Come on sleepy head," he says to me and opens the back door for me.
I climb in and put my seatbelt on. I'm already nearly asleep before we're pulling out of the motel carpark but then Sam says he had a dream. Vision? Nightmare? It's hard to tell. He's adamant it's serious. Hence our midnight departure. Sam pulls out something and calls the police of where the car he saw in his dream is registered.
"Sammy relax. I'm sure it's just a nightmare," says Dean.
"Yeah, tell me about it," says Sam.
"I mean it. You know, a normal, everyday, naked-in-class, nightmare. This license plate, it won't check out. You'll see."
"It felt different Dean. Real. Like when I dreamt about our old house. And Jessica."
"Yeah, that makes sense. You're dreaming about our house, your girlfriend. This guy in your dream, you ever seen him before?"
"No."
"No. Exactly. Why would you have premonitions about some random dude in Michigan."
"I don't know."
"Me neither."
"Yes I'm here," Sam says to the phone. He picks up the pen. "Jim Miller. Saginaw, Michigan. You have a street address? Got it. Thanks." Sam hangs up. "Checks out. How far are we?"
"From Saginaw? Couple hours."
"Drive faster."
It's still dark when we arrive at the address. But the street is full of emergency vehicles. And a body bag. Well crap.
Dean parks the car around the corner, and we walk down to the crowd. Dean puts his arm around my shoulders as we approach the crowd. We go up to a woman, watching.
"What happened?" Dean asks.
"Suicide," she says. "Can't believe it"
"Did you know them?" asks Sam.
"Saw him in every Sunday at St Augustine's. He always seems...seemed, so normal. I guess you never know what's going on behind closed doors."
"Guess not," says Dean.
"How did...ahh. How are they saying it happened?"
"I heard they found him in the garage, locked inside his car with the engine running."
"Do you know about what time they found him?"
"Oh it just happened about an hour or two ago. His poor family. I can't even imagine what they're going through."
A woman is on the front steps of the house. She's crying and with a man. Someone else is behind them. A man? I'm trying to figure it out when I notice Sam leaving. I elbow Dean, he looks and we follow after him.
"Sam we got here as fast we could," says Dean.
"Not fast enough," says Sam. "It doesn't make any sense man. Why would I even have these premonitions if there wasn't a chance I could stop them from happening?"
"I dunno."
Sam shakes his head and sighs. "What do you think killed him?"
"How do you know the man didn't just kill himself?" I ask.
"Maybe there's nothing supernatural going on at all," says Dean.
Sam shakes his head. "I'm telling you, I watched it happen. He was murdered by something. I watched it trap him in the garage."
"What was it, a spirit, poltergeist, what?"
"I don't know what it was. I don't know why I'm having these dreams, I don't know what the hell is happening Dean."
Dean and I just stare at him.
"What?" Sam asks.
"Nothing," I say.
"I'm just, I'm worried about you man," says Dean.
"Well you guys don't need to look at me like that!"
"We're not!" I say.
But Dean looks away. "I'm not looking at you like anything," he says.
I glare at Dean.
He looks back at Sam. "Though I gotta say, you do look like crap."
"Nice. Thanks," says Sam.
"Come on, let's just pick this up in the morning," Dean says. "We'll check out the house, talk to the family."
"Dean, you saw them, they're devastated They're not going to want to talk to us."
"Yeah you're right. But I think I know who they will talk to."
"Who?"
Dean smirks. Oh good god.
I never wear dresses. Ever. Dresses are not great for chasing after monsters. Or wearing your brother's old t-shirts over top. I don't know where Dean has dragged this dress from but it's probably the worst one on earth.
"This itches," I say to Dean, pulling at the waist of the grey dress.
"It's fine," he says. "You look like a good church going girl."
I glare at him.
"You could braid your hair," Dean says with a smirk.
"I could braid your hair."
"No thanks."
"Then don't come for my hair."
"Touchy subject."
I play with the ends of my hair. "I need a haircut," I mumble.
"What?" asks Dean.
"Nothing," I say and use my fingers to throw my hair up into a ponytail.
Sam comes out of the bathroom with his hair slicked back. Dean and I exchange a look and then laugh.
"What?" asks Sam.
"Nothing," Dean and I say.
We get to the house and Dean rings the doorbell.
"This has gotta be a whole new low for us," mumbles Sam.
Dean smiles and then the door opens. A man is there. The same one from last night? He nods at us and opens the door all the way and steps aside.
"Thanks," Dean says and we all file in.
"We're very sorry for your loss," says Sam.
"It's in difficult times like these when the Lord's guidance is most needed."
"Look, you wanna pitch your whole 'Lord has a plan' thing? Fine. Just don't pitch it to me. My brother's dead," says the Man.
"Roger. Please!" it's the woman from the last night. The wife, or widow, I guess.
Roger moves away. "Excuse me."
"I'm sorry about my brother-in-law. He's...he's just so upset about Jim's death. Would you like some coffee?"
"That would be great," says Dean.
I go to follow but Dean pokes me in my shoulder and points the garage. I roll my eyes but manage to slip in without anyone noticing. I pull my satchel to my front and pull out my EMF. I go over the entire garage. Nothing. Not even a spike of anything. I sigh, put the EMF away and go back into the house. Roger is there. Staring at me.
I laugh. "Definitely not a bathroom," I say with a grin.
He nods, but frowns.
"Don't worry," I say. "I didn't go in a bucket. But could you point me in the right direction?"
He points to the door next to him. "Missed it by one," he says, and he smiles with a lot of teeth. A little creepy.
But I smile back. "Thanks."
He opens the door for me and keeps his eyes on me. I go to close the door, but he's still holding the handle and closes it for me. I lock the door. I count to 12 before I hear his footsteps as he walks away. I linger in there doing nothing. I flush and wash my hands thoroughly. When I come out Roger is nowhere to be seen, Sam's by the front door and I breathe a sigh of relief.
Sam frowns as I approach him. "You okay?" he asks.
I tuck my bag behind me. "Of course."
Sam stares at me for a moment longer. "Anything?"
"Nothing."
"Me too."
"Let's go."
"Where's Dean?"
"Stocking up on food."
"Ah."
We go back to the motel and I change out of the horrible dress. I pull out my laptop and I mean to do my history essay but I notice my friend Maggie is online and we start chatting. I don't even notice Sam has left until he comes back.
"What do you have?" Dean asks him.
"A whole lotta nothing," says Sam. "Nothing bad has happened in the Miller house since it was built."
"What about the land?"
Sam sits on the bed. "No graveyards, battle fields, tribal lands or any other kind of atrocity on or near the property."
"Hey man I told you, I searched that house up and down. No cold spots, sulphur scent. Nada."
"And nothing in the garage either," I say, "and that's where it happened."
"And the family said everything was normal?" asks Sam.
"Well, if there was a demon or poltergeist in there you think somebody would have noticed something? I used the infrared thermal scanner man, and there was nothing."
"So what, you think Jim Miller killed himself and my dream was just some sort of freakish coincidence?"
"I dunno. I'm pretty sure there's nothing supernatural about that house."
Sam rubs his head. I message Maggie that I have to go.
"Yeah. Well, maybe it has nothing to do with the house," says Sam. He's holding his head.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"Maybe it's just… gosh," Sam says but it's strained. I put my laptop down next to me to me on the bed and slide over to the edge. "Maybe it's connected to Jim in some other way?"
"What's wrong with you?" asks Dean.
Sam makes a sound and sinks to the floor. "Ahh. My head."
Dean gets up. "Sam? Hey," Dean bends down and grabs Sam's arms. "Hey! What's going on? Talk to me."
I crawl over in front of them. Sam's face goes blank.
"Sam?" I ask.
"It's happening again. Something's gonna kill Roger Miller. We gotta go," Sam says going to get up.
"Woah, easy there tiger," says Dean, helping him up. "What the hell?"
"Roger Miller. We gotta help him."
"Dude you just had a fit…or something. You're not going anywhere."
"I'm not going to let him die too!"
Dean lets go of Sam but nods. "Janie, you stay here."
"Excuse me?" I ask.
"We got one dead guy; you're not coming to see another one."
"But-"
"Jane, I'm serious."
"So am I."
"Dean," Sam says, he's at the door, ready to go. He's not even looking at me.
"Yeah," says Dean.
They leave. They just leave me. Standing there. I want to hit them. But they've already gone. I throw myself down on the bed.
"You know you can come," Dean says in the morning as he's brushing his teeth.
"To what?" I ask not looking up from my math workbook. "Sit in the car all day? No thanks."
"You're crabby."
"You're mean."
Dean spits into the kitchen sink. "You're still going on about that?"
"You still replacing me with Sam at every opportunity?"
"Hey, that's not what I'm doing."
"Since Sam's been along I've spent an awful lot of time in the car and motels rooms."
"To keep you safe."
"You keep telling yourself that," I say, turning the page and working on the next question.
"Hey I-" Dean starts but Sam comes out of the bathroom, interrupting him.
"We going?" Sam asks.
"Sure."
"Janie?"
"What?" I ask, still not looking up.
"Are you coming?" he asks, like I'm three.
"No thanks."
"She's crabby," says Dean.
"Ah," says Sam.
"Come on Munch, we can get you a haircut while we're out."
I take a deep breath in. My pencil poised over the next problem. Thinking. I roll off the bed and get my jacket. "I'm only coming for the haircut. Not for anything else," I say and go out the door.
"What the hell did you do to her?" I her Sam ask.
"Nothing, I swear," says Dean.
"Sure, Dean."
I get into the backseat, and I see Sam and Dean pause before both of them get in the car.
"You right back there?" asks Dean as he starts the car.
I give him the finger in the rearview mirror.
"Charming," Dean says.
"So…haircut?" Sam says.
We drive into the center of town. Find a hairdresser. It's empty of customers except for one old lady getting her hair set in one of those old timey hair dryer things. That doesn't bode well for me.
"Can I help you?" asks a lady with very high hair. That's a lot of hairspray. But she has a nice smile.
"Yeah, uh," Dean says, staring at her hair, "My sister needs a haircut." Dean nods at me and I wave to the lady.
"Oh how nice, come on in!"
"All right," Dean says. "We'll be back."
"What?" I ask.
"We gotta talk to the Millers," Dean whispers as the lady goes over a station.
"But-"
"We won't be long. Have fun," Dean says and he and Sam leave.
The woman is just standing there at the station with the cape. I smile awkwardly and go and sit down.
"I'm Jeannie. So what can I do you for?" she asks.
"Ahh…" I think as she ties the cape on and frees my hair from underneath. She clicks her tongue. "Ooh, some serious dead ends here."
"Yeah, it's been…a while."
"I can tell," she smiles in the mirror. "What was your name?"
"Jane," I say.
"Jane and Jeannie," she smiles that big smile again. "A match made in heaven. So any thoughts?"
"Well, my brothers abandoned me. So maybe shave my head, give them a shock?"
Jeannie laughs. "If that's what you want…?"
I laugh. "No thank you."
"Trim and tidy?"
"That'd probably be better."
Jeannie starts brushing my hair. "You've got a lovely colour."
"Really? It isn't…mousy?"
"Oh no, it's brunette with a touch of blonde. Some people would pay big money for that dimension."
"Well, I can tell my brother I saved him a fortune on paying for hair dye."
"Your brother looks after you?"
"My dad's…away. Travelling," I say. "For work. I couldn't go with him. My brothers take care of me."
"Well you've got some mighty fine brothers there," Jeannie says. And she says it in the tone that I know so well. She doesn't mean fine like a good guy. She means fine as in, 'I'd date your brothers' fine. Which makes me very uncomfortable. "What about your mom?"
That catches me off guard. "Oh, um," I say, "She uh…died."
"Oh I'm sorry."
"It was a long time ago." Seven and half years ago. But I don't tell Jeannie that.
Jeannie thankfully does a really good job on my hair. She gives me layers because it will give me 'dimension'. I don't really know what she means but when she curls the hair it does look…nicer. Somehow. And shiny. How do hairdressers do that. Sam comes as Jeannie's finishing my hair.
"You look better," Sam says with a smile as Jeannie takes off my cape.
"Thanks?" I say.
"Less like a rat."
I slap him on the arm. He pays and we go out to the car. He even lets me get in the passenger seat without argument.
"What'd the Millers say?" I ask.
"We have to go to their old house," says Dean.
"Great. Generational haunting?"
Sam gets in the back and Dean starts driving. "Might be," says Dean. "I like your hair."
"I'm still mad at you," I say, staring out the windscreen.
"Truce?"
"Can I come out at their old house?"
"Truce tomorrow?"
I roll my eyes. "I need new shoes."
"What?"
"My shoes are too small."
"New shoes is the price of a truce?"
I think for a moment. "Two pairs of shoes."
"Why?"
"Because I want two pairs of shoes that fit."
Dean shrugs. "Fine."
"I'll talk to you tomorrow."
We get to the Millers old house and I stay in the car without a word to Sam or Dean. They go talk to the neighbor. But then…Sam keels over. Another vision? Dean brings him to car and I get out leave the door open for Sam to get in the passenger side. I climb in the back.
"Max is doing it," Sam says. "Everything I've been seeing"
"You sure about this?" asks Dean.
"Yeah, I saw him."
"How's he pulling it off?"
"I don't know, telekinesis?"
"What so he's psychic, a spoon bender?"
"I didn't even realize it but this whole he was there. He was outside the garage when his Dad died, outside the apartment when his Uncle died. These visions, this whole time. I wasn't connecting to the Millers, I was connecting to Max! The thing is I don't get why, man. I guess because we're so alike?"
"What are you talking about?" I ask.
"The dude's nothing like you," says Dean.
"Well. We both have psychic abilities, we both..." says Sam.
"Both what? Sam, Max is a monster, he's already killed two people, now he's going for a third."
"Well, with what he went through, the beatings, to want revenge on those people? I'm sorry but it doesn't sound insane."
"Yeah but it doesn't justify murder your entire family!"
"Dean..."
We reach the Miller's house.
"He's no different from anything else we've hunted, all right? We gotta end him," says Dean.
"What?" I nearly yell.
"We're not going to kill Max," says Sam.
"Then what? Hand him over to the cops and say 'Lock him up officer he kills with the power of his mind?" asks Dean.
"No way. Forget it."
Dean turns off the engine. "Sam…"
"Dean. He's a person. We can talk to him. Hey, promise me you'll follow my lead on this one."
"All right fine. But I'm not letting him hurt anybody else."
Sam and Dean get rush up to house. I follow behind and I'm not even sure they notice. They barge straight in through the door.
"Fathers?" Mrs Miller says.
"What are you doing here?" I hear Max ask.
I close the door behind me and linger there.
"Ahh, sorry to interrupt," says Dean.
"Max, can we talk to you outside for just one second?" asks Sam.
"About what?"
"It's...it's private. We wouldn't want to bother your mother with it."
"We won't be long at all though, I promise."
"Ok," says Max.
"Great."
Dean leans over me, to get the door, he turns back to Max and then the door just slams shut. All the blinds in the room shut by themselves.
"You're not priests," Max says.
Dean draws his gun but then it just flies out of hands across the floor. Max picks it up and holds it up. Dean steps in front of me.
"Max what's happening?" asks Mrs Miller.
"Shut up," Max says.
"What are you doing?"
I hear a crash.
"I said shut up!" yells Max.
"Max calm down," says Sam.
"Who are you?"
"We just wanna talk."
"Yeah right, that's why you bought this!" Max says to the gun.
"That was a mistake all right? So was lying about who we were. But no more lying Max ok? Just please, hear me out."
"About what?"
"I saw you do it. I saw you kill your Dad and you Uncle before it happened."
"What?"
"I'm having visions Max. About you."
"You're crazy."
"So what, you weren't gonna launch a knife at your stepmom? Right here? Is it that hard to believe Max, look what you can do. Max I was drawn here all right? I think I'm here to help you."
I can hear Max crying. "No one can help me."
"Let me try, we'll just talk, me and you. We'll get Dean and Alice out of here."
"Uh-huh. No way," Dean says.
The chandelier above shakes. Dean reaches back and grabs my arm.
"Nobody leaves this house!" Max yells.
"And nobody has to, all right?" says Sam. "They'll just...they'll just go upstairs."
"Sam I'm not leaving you alone with him," says Dean.
"Yes you are. Look, Max. You're in charge here, all right, we all know that. No one's going to do anything you don't want to do but I'm talking five minutes here man."
"Sam!" Dean yells.
"Five minutes?" asks Max. The chandelier stops shaking. "Go."
Dean brings me with him to get Mrs Miller off the floor. So that was the crash. Dean and I help Mrs Miller upstairs to one of the bedrooms. She's bleeding from the head. That can't be good. We help her sit on the bed. I realize there's a bathroom and I go in and get a facecloth. I run in under water and bring it out to Dean who kneels in front of Mrs Miller and holds it to her head. I stand next to Dean, watching the door. I hear him before I see him. I reach out and touch Dean's shoulder. He rises as the door creaks open and Max comes in. Dean pushes me behind him and walks towards Max as the door shuts. Then Dean flies across the room. Then I do too. My vision goes blurry and I hear Mrs Miller yell. I'm on the floor, my head against the wall. Dean's steps up and the gun…is just floating there.
"Stay back. This is not about you," says Max.
"You wanna kill her you gotta go through me first," says Dean.
"Ok."
"NO!" I scream.
The bedroom door bursts open and Sam yells, "No don't! Don't! Please. Please. Max. Max. We can help you. All right. But this, what you're doing. It's not the solution. It's not going to fix anything."
I'm frozen in place. Staring at Max. He's sweaty, shaking, and it tears. He looks at Sam.
"You're right," says Max.
I see Sam smile. Then I see the gun swing in the air, point to Max's head and it goes off. I can't believe it. I stare at Max. On the floor. Dead. He's dead. He killed himself.
"Hey. Hey!"
My eyes come into focus. It's Dean. He's kneeling in front of me. His hands on my face.
"Janie?" he says.
I blink a few times. See Sam behind Dean with Mrs Miller.
"I…" I start but I don't know what to say.
"Come on," Dean says. "Let's get out of this room."
I nod but can't seem to find my legs. Dean helps me up. "You okay?" he asks, staring at me.
I go to say I'm fine. I'm always fine. But I end up shaking my head. Dean pulls me into a hug. A tight one. Then he strategically blocks my view of Max as we leave the room and go downstairs. But the image is already burned into my head.
I don't know how or when it happens. But I'm standing, my back leaning against Dean, his arm wrapped around my chest with his hand on my shoulder, my hands clinging to his arm in front of me.
Mrs Miller is talking with a policeman. The policeman looks over at us.
"They're...family friends," I faintly hear Mrs Miller say. "I called them soon as Max arrived, I was scared. They tried to stop him. They fought for the gun."
"Where did Max get the gun?" asks the policeman.
Mrs Miller just starts crying. "I don't know. He showed up with it and..." she breaks down. A full breakdown. I realize this woman has lost her entire family in a few days.
"It's all right Ms Miller," says the police man.
"I've lost everyone," she sobs.
The policeman says he'll call if they have questions. Dean thanks the officer. He takes my hand, and we leave the death house.
We walk down the path and Dean doesn't let go of my hand.
"If I'd just said something else. Gotten through to him somehow," Sam says.
"Ah, don't do that," says Dean.
"Do what?"
"Torture yourself. It wouldn't have mattered what you said, Max was too far gone."
"When I think about how he looked at me man, right before. I should've done something."
"Come on man, you risked your life. I mean yeah, maybe if we had gotten there 20 years earlier."
We reach the car, Dean opens the back door for me.
"Well I'll tell you one thing. We're lucky we had Dad," Sam says.
"Well I never thought I'd hear you say that," says Dean.
"Well, it could have gone a whole other way after Mom. I little more tequila and a little less demon hunting and we could have had Max's childhood. All things considered; we turned out ok. Thanks to him."
"All things considered."
Dean helps me into the car, and I buckle my seatbelt as he closes the door.
"I've been thinking," Sam says as we're packing the car the next day.
"Well that's never a good thing," says Dean.
"I'm serious. I been thinking, this demon, whatever it is. Why would it kill Mom, and Jessica, and Max's Mother, you know? What does it want?"
"I have no idea."
"Well, you think, maybe, it was after us? After Max and me?"
"Why would you think that?"
"I mean, either telekinesis or premonitions, we both had abilities you know? Maybe he was after us for some reason."
"Sam. If it had wanted you, it would've just taken you. Ok? This is not your fault, it's not about you."
"Then what is it about?"
"It's about this damn thing that did this to our family. This thing we're gonna find and kill. And that's all."
"Actually there's uh...something else too."
"Ah jeez what?"
I elbow Dean. He makes a face at me and I raise my eyebrows.
Sam doesn't seem to notice. "When Max left me in that closet, with that big cabinet against the door...I moved it."
"Huh. You got a little more upper body strength than I gave you credit for."
"No man, I moved it. Like, Max."
Dean pauses. "Oh."
We all say nothing.
"Cool," I say.
Sam makes a face at me.
"Right," says Dean.
"Yeah," says Sam.
Dean picks up a spoon. "Bend this."
"I can't just turn it on and off Dean."
"Well how'd you do it?"
"I don't know, I can't control it. I just...I saw you die and it just came out of me, like a punch. You know like...a freak adrenaline thing."
"Yeah well I'm sure it won't happen again."
"Yeah, maybe. Aren't you worried man. Aren't you worried I could turn into Max or something?"
"Of course not!" I say.
"No way," says Dean. "You know why?"
"No. Why?" asks Sam.
"Cause you got one advantage Max didn't have."
"Dad? Because Dad's not here Dean."
"No. Me," says Dean. "As long as I'm around, nothing bad is gonna happen to you."
"What am I?" I ask. "A loaf of bread?"
"Only sometimes, Munch," says Dean. He slings his bag over his shoulder. "Now then. I know what we need to do about your premonitions. I know where we have to go."
"Where?"
"Vegas."
Sam says nothing.
"You're not serious?" I say.
Sam and I go out to the car.
"What?" says Dean from the room. "Come on man. Craps tables. We'd clean up!"