Bite Chapter 7/10
In this chapter:
Reflections on family matters, oh so that's what those bite marks mean, and holy shit we just made the biggest mistake of our lives.
Runner up at Sensue.net
Chapter Seven
Sam sat quietly in the passenger seat as John drove into town. They’d decided to start questioning the victims’ families to see if there was something they were missing. Sam was beginning to suspect that there was. John was usually really good at figuring out what they were dealing with early on. For him to still not know what they were up against was pretty unusual. Sam knew his father was getting frustrated. This hunt wasn’t going the way he thought it would. They were supposed to be heading home today, but they still didn’t know what they were fighting, Dean was sick, and John had no other plan than to just camp out by the body pit and wait for some monster to come along and drop off a new victim. It was a shitty plan, they both knew that, especially if the police were going to be getting involved soon. But what else could they do? Talk to the families, find out how upset they were and try to lie to their faces and tell them there was still a possibility their loved ones were alive? That wasn’t something Sam was looking forward to doing.
And Sam didn’t want to bring it up, but there was still the matter of school and that Civics essay he was supposed to be writing. At this rate, he wouldn’t even be able to make it to class unless they destroyed whatever was killing people and drove all through the night to get back home. He was almost tempted to ask his father if they could go home and try again next weekend. But he knew better than that. John would never go for something like that. Hell, Sam wouldn’t even go for something like that. If someone died because he wanted to write a stupid Civics essay, he’d feel terrible. They would stay here until this was done, even if it took a month to do it.
They had just pulled into town when John’s cell phone went off. He pulled it out and answered with a quick, “John.” Sam could hear the voice on the other end loud and clear. Nicolette sounded excited.
“Hello, John,” her voice chirped. “It’s Nicolette. I’ve been looking at those body parts you brought me and I’ve found something interesting that I think you should see.”
“We just got back into town,” John told her, leaning forward to make sure he was on the right street. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Great, I’ll be waiting,” she answered and John hung up. He stowed the cell phone and made a turn. Sam waited for his Dad to relay the message, even though he’d heard the conversation, but John didn’t say a word to him. The silence in the car was awkward. Without Dean there as a middle man, Sam realized he didn’t really know what to say to his father. When they were at home, Sam could talk to him about normal stuff, like school and television and movies. His Dad wasn’t always receptive of those topics, but they at least talked about them. But on hunts, when John went into hunter mode, it was like he was a captain instead of a father. Growing up, it had been different. John used to laugh and joke and chat with his boys like any normal father. But when Dean started joining his father on hunts, John had changed. Sam wasn’t positive, but years of speculation over the man had convinced Sam that the change had something to do with John knowing that on hunts, his boys’ lives were at risk. He couldn’t be the loving, comforting, coddling father they’d grown up with. He was no longer an equal. That could get them killed. He was now a leader and leaders had to show discipline and detachment for their followers to obey orders without question. Sam figured that John had worked so hard on making himself a leader of their little team that now he didn’t know how to turn it off and go back to being the father they’d grown up with.
Dean didn’t seem to notice the change, or if he did he didn’t seem to mind. Sam would watch his brother follow orders and strive to prove himself under his father’s scrutiny, as a hunter. And about the same time John started losing his grasp on fatherhood, Dean started to blur the lines between being a son and being a soldier. When Dean had a problem with a hunt, he didn’t hesitate to ask his father. But when Dean had a problem with normal things, like girls or school or even life in general, he’d always kept it to himself, or had tried to weasel it into a conversation with Sam. Yeah his brother still enjoyed normal things, but only with Sam. Never with their father. Sometimes it seemed like Dean was ashamed to find watching a movie fun or to enjoy playing baseball or hockey with Sam and his friends. The only things Dean had no problem confessing his attachment to was music and cars, two things which seemed to be the only thing John would ever admit to getting enjoyment from. Sam didn’t know how it had gotten like this without them realizing it, but sometimes he wished John could just remember that he was a father sometimes, not just a leader.
But, even though Sam had his qualms with the man, he still loved his father dearly. No question. Yeah, they fought and bickered and disagreed on almost everything there was to disagree about, but that didn’t change the fact that they were a family. They were all the family any of them had left. And that fact alone was enough to make Sam love his father and brother unconditionally. There were times when he thought it was a one sided love with his father, but there were also times when that glimmer of John’s affection shone through. Sam wished more than anything that they could just be a normal family sometimes. Do normal family things. The only thing they really did as a family was hunt.
John pulled the car up alongside the road and parked it. Sam got out and waited for his father before they crossed the street and entered the building in silence. As soon as the door closed behind them, Nicolette’s head poked out from behind the swinging doors and she smiled at them, waving them back.
Going into the backroom, Sam noticed that she’d done a lot of work on the body parts. The skull looked as though it had been boiled, free of the flesh that had been rotting on it, and now covered with some molding of some sort, like she’d been trying to make a face on it to try and identify who it was. It actually looked pretty scary like that, with a blank face. Sam shivered. The hand was spread on another table, cut at every joint, the bones measured and marked. The arm was the part Nicolette wanted to show them.
“You’re going to love this,” Nicolette said, her face bright. “Don’t freak out,” she said, looking between them. Her eyes suddenly dulled. “Where’s Dean?” she asked. Sam tried to think of a good excuse for where his brother was, but his father answered the question honestly.
“He’s at a buddy of mine’s house,” John said, eyeing the arm but not finding anything that could warrant Nicolette’s excitement. “He needed to take it easy for a while.” John pointed at the arm, trying to get her back on track. “What have you got for us?”
Nicolette looked worried for a second before she gathered herself and walked over to the arm. “I’ve had a pretty exciting day,” she announced and pulled on a pair of gloves. “I was up all night playing with these.” Sam had to suppress a chuckle at Nicolette’s choice of words. “And this morning I had a bit of a scare.”
“A scare?” John asked. Sam heard the question in his father’s voice. He felt the same question inside of him. Nicolette seemed like a pretty tough girl, he wondered what could scare her.
Picking up a scalpel, Nicolette pressed it to the arm and looked up at them. “I started to do an autopsy on my friend here. But when I cut into it, watch this,” she said and pressed the scalpel down. Sam watched as a dark substance started to leak out. He had to hold back a gag at the sight. It looked almost like blood, but it was way too dark, almost black. He looked at Nicolette and saw she was smiling at them. “Don’t worry,” she said, mistaking their confused looks for nervousness. “This is a common occurrence with bio-toxins, like anthrax. So you can guess how freaked I was. But I ran all the tests and it’s nothing harmful. So we’re not going to suddenly keel over or anything.”
“Well that’s good to know,” Sam said before he could stop himself. Nicolette grinned at him and Sam couldn’t help but think how much that smile looked like Dean’s. He guessed if they knew each other better, she’d be making fun of him about now. Good thing he’d just met her.
“So I’ve been running tests all day on this stuff,” she said, bringing the scalpel up and Sam let out a sickened groan as the black substance clung to the metal as she pulled it away. “And I can tell you that I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s completely natural and completely human. It’s almost like, rotten blood.”
“Rotten blood?” Sam asked, eyeing her. “That’s blood?” he pointed at the substance she was now scraping into a collection dish.
Nicolette shook her head. “Not quite. It’s got DNA and blood cells, but…” she gave a wry chuckle and continued. “It’s like it’s fragmented. The cells aren’t whole, there’s no membrane holding them together and they’re not living, but they’re not dying either. They’re just…there.”
John cleared his throat and Sam looked at him. His father had a passive look on his face. Sam recognized it instantly. He’d figured out what they were dealing with. “Did you run a toxicology screen on these?” he asked. Nicolette looked up at him and nodded. “Could I see it?”
“There’s nothing there,” she said. “They were all clean.”
“I’d still like to see them,” John said patiently. Nicolette tilted her head but then nodded.
“Sure,” she said, pulling her gloves off. “I have to go print out another copy. I’ve already filed the other one.”
“Thanks,” John nodded as she left the room. As soon as she was out, he turned to Sam. “I’ve seen that before,” he said, pointing at the black substance oozing on the arm.
“You know what we’re dealing with?” Sam asked, feeling relieved and a bit anxious.
“Yeah,” John nodded. “Two years ago I went to St. Claire Shores when a man who had died and been buried for a week suddenly came back to life. It turned out his wife was using necromancy to bring him back. But, before I could kill his ass, again, he bit this teenager who was trying to help me bring him down. We didn’t think anything of it, but the next day the kid died and this stuff was everywhere inside of him.”
“So we’re dealing with a necromancer?” Sam asked. Sweet, he’d never actually seen anything like that before.
“Yeah,” John acknowledged, looking to see if Nicolette was coming back. When he was sure she was still busy he added, “And the thing that’s been eating people is a reanimated corpse.”
“Like a zombie?” Sam whispered.
“To put it loosely,” John answered. “But not like the kind in movies. When they bite you, you don’t become a zombie, you just die and stay dead.”
“Well that sounds pleasant,” Sam muttered and looked back at the arm, disgusted. “How do you stop it if you get bit?”
John patted the canteen at his side. “The same way you treat a demon bite. Holy water. But I’ve mixed in some rosewood and salt. My own special concoction. Works like a charm.” Sam eyed his Dad with a half smile.
“You’ve tested it?” he asked, unable to keep the skepticism out of his voice.
John turned to look at him, amusement in his eyes. “Not on purpose,” he answered. “Fucker bit me before I managed to kill it. Good thing I’m a cautious bastard. Poured some on just to be safe, ended up saving my life.” Sam stared at his Dad, wondering how the hell any of them were still alive when things like being bitten by a reanimated corpse was a simple trial and error life lesson. John reached out and clapped Sam’s shoulder. “Otherwise Dean would be your legal guardian and by now he’d have you waiting on him hand and foot no doubt.” Sam snorted.
“So how do we stop it?” Sam asked.
“Shooting it in the head seemed to work last time,” John said dryly. “But we also have to stop whoever reanimated them in the first place. I’ve got a few necromancy counter enchantments that should do the trick.”
Sam shook his head and looked back at the arm. “I can’t believe we’re going up against a zombie,” he whispered. But whatever his father had to say next was cut off when Nicolette came back into the room. She walked over to them and handed John the tox screen. John pretended to look over it, though he honestly didn’t know what he was looking at.
While John was trying to figure out what exactly was on the paper, Nicolette looked at Sam. “So, Dean’s your brother, right?” she asked quietly. Sam rose his eyebrows. Had they told her that?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “How’d you know?”
She shrugged. “I could tell by the way you two act around each other. I’ve got a little brother about your age too. It’s easy to spot siblings when you’ve got one of your own.” She smiled and Sam nodded. That was something to keep in mind for when their covered required them to be unrelated. “Can I ask you something?” she asked timidly.
“Sure,” Sam said, uncertain.
Nicolette looked nervous and a bit confused as she bit her lip and tilted her head to the side. “Did I come on too strong?” Sam just stared at her. That was the last thing he expected her to ask. He must have been quiet too long because she went on. “Because, you know, it’s been a while since anyone’s really acted that way with me. All nice and everything. I guess, I just…I thought that, we hit it off, you know?”
Sam saw his father glance up from the paper and then turn around, letting Sam handle this one. He was sure his father was testing him to see what he’d do in a situation like this. But really, Sam didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth, hoping words would just come out. When they didn’t, he sighed and shrugged. “My brother, well I think he really likes you,” Sam said and ignored his father when John put the paper down and turned his full attention to the conversation. “It’s just, he’s not really good with relationships.”
“I just felt kind of stupid,” Nicolette admitted. “I thought he was giving off all the signs that he was interested.”
“I think he was,” Sam answered truthfully. Why did he always get himself into things like this? Dean so owed him for this. “I don’t think he expected you to return it so much.” He smiled when she chuckled. “I think it threw him a bit.”
“So,” Nicolette said, biting her lip again with renewed hope. “He’s sort of a I can love but can’t be loved type of guy, huh?”
Sam stared at her for a moment. He couldn’t deny the statement. It was absolutely true, in more ways than one. Dean could show affection well enough, to a point, but the minute anyone tried to return it, he’d clam up. It was absolutely true of his brother. Damn, this girl had only talked to his brother twice and already she knew him so well. She’d gained Sam’s approval. “Actually, yeah,” he nodded and smiled. He glanced at his father and was happy to see that John wasn’t looking at him disapprovingly. He actually looked a bit amused at the conversation. He was probably more amused at Sam’s uncertainty over the whole thing more than anything else.
“So,” Nicolette started and rung her hands together. “He didn’t not come today because of me, did he?” she asked quietly, almost embarrassed by the question.
“Oh, no!” Sam was quick to say. “He really is sick.”
Nicolette nodded, looking relieved. “Good,” she said but then shook her head. “Well, I mean, not good, but…good that he didn’t not come because of me,” she rambled and then let out a small laugh at herself. “You know, I could bring by some soup or something…for him, if he wants it.”
John cleared his throat and they both looked at him. Sam was relieved that his father finally decided to jump in. He wasn’t sure what to do now. Nicolette seemed pretty set on believing Dean and her had a thing going. Maybe they did, but Sam didn’t want to get caught in the middle of it. “There probably won’t be time,” John said, trying not to sound cold. Nicolette just nodded. “We’re going to be heading out soon.”
“Oh,” Nicolette said. “Well, it makes sense now. No use getting hopes up when he’s just going to leave anyway, huh?” she tried to say it cheerfully, but it came out sadder than she probably wanted.
Sam gave his Dad a look, who rolled his eyes. The girl deserved something better than that lame excuse. “He’s grumpy when he gets sick, anyway,” he said jokingly. He was rewarded with a laugh. “You’d be better off waiting for a day when he’s not hacking his lungs out. He’s probably driving Marshall crazy.”
“Speaking of,” John interrupted. “We should probably get going…”
“Marshall?” Nicolette asked. “Marshall McAdams?”
John eyed her before nodding. “Yeah, we served together,” he gave simply.
Nicolette smiled. “He’s a nice guy,” she said. “Pretty quiet, but nice. I’ve met him a couple of times.” John and Sam headed for the door, Nicolette came around to walk them out. “It’s too bad what happened.”
Both John and Sam paused suddenly and turned around to look at her. She stopped short when she saw the looks on their faces. “What happened?” John asked, his voice suddenly grave. Sam could relate to the feeling. Marshall hadn’t mentioned anything happening. He’d been the epitome of happiness and contentment.
Nicolette looked between them. “What? He didn’t mention anything?” she asked, confused.
“No,” John said and took a step towards her.
“He didn’t say anything about his family?” Nicolette asked, the look on her face making Sam’s toes tingle. He was getting a bad feeling.
“Well, he talked about his wife making dinner,” Sam said, watching as Nicolette’s brow furrowed at that. “And his son was at a friends house,” he ventured and watched with a new tingling of fear as she frowned deeper.
Nicolette shook her head and gave a dry laugh as she looked between John and Sam like they were joking. When neither of them smiled and jumped up to yell surprise, she said, “That’s impossible.”
The world seemed to freeze. Sam couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t move. Please, please don’t say it. Don’t say it.
“June and Peter have been dead for over a year.”
Go to Chapter Eight
Reflections on family matters, oh so that's what those bite marks mean, and holy shit we just made the biggest mistake of our lives.
Runner up at Sensue.net
Chapter Seven
Sam sat quietly in the passenger seat as John drove into town. They’d decided to start questioning the victims’ families to see if there was something they were missing. Sam was beginning to suspect that there was. John was usually really good at figuring out what they were dealing with early on. For him to still not know what they were up against was pretty unusual. Sam knew his father was getting frustrated. This hunt wasn’t going the way he thought it would. They were supposed to be heading home today, but they still didn’t know what they were fighting, Dean was sick, and John had no other plan than to just camp out by the body pit and wait for some monster to come along and drop off a new victim. It was a shitty plan, they both knew that, especially if the police were going to be getting involved soon. But what else could they do? Talk to the families, find out how upset they were and try to lie to their faces and tell them there was still a possibility their loved ones were alive? That wasn’t something Sam was looking forward to doing.
And Sam didn’t want to bring it up, but there was still the matter of school and that Civics essay he was supposed to be writing. At this rate, he wouldn’t even be able to make it to class unless they destroyed whatever was killing people and drove all through the night to get back home. He was almost tempted to ask his father if they could go home and try again next weekend. But he knew better than that. John would never go for something like that. Hell, Sam wouldn’t even go for something like that. If someone died because he wanted to write a stupid Civics essay, he’d feel terrible. They would stay here until this was done, even if it took a month to do it.
They had just pulled into town when John’s cell phone went off. He pulled it out and answered with a quick, “John.” Sam could hear the voice on the other end loud and clear. Nicolette sounded excited.
“Hello, John,” her voice chirped. “It’s Nicolette. I’ve been looking at those body parts you brought me and I’ve found something interesting that I think you should see.”
“We just got back into town,” John told her, leaning forward to make sure he was on the right street. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Great, I’ll be waiting,” she answered and John hung up. He stowed the cell phone and made a turn. Sam waited for his Dad to relay the message, even though he’d heard the conversation, but John didn’t say a word to him. The silence in the car was awkward. Without Dean there as a middle man, Sam realized he didn’t really know what to say to his father. When they were at home, Sam could talk to him about normal stuff, like school and television and movies. His Dad wasn’t always receptive of those topics, but they at least talked about them. But on hunts, when John went into hunter mode, it was like he was a captain instead of a father. Growing up, it had been different. John used to laugh and joke and chat with his boys like any normal father. But when Dean started joining his father on hunts, John had changed. Sam wasn’t positive, but years of speculation over the man had convinced Sam that the change had something to do with John knowing that on hunts, his boys’ lives were at risk. He couldn’t be the loving, comforting, coddling father they’d grown up with. He was no longer an equal. That could get them killed. He was now a leader and leaders had to show discipline and detachment for their followers to obey orders without question. Sam figured that John had worked so hard on making himself a leader of their little team that now he didn’t know how to turn it off and go back to being the father they’d grown up with.
Dean didn’t seem to notice the change, or if he did he didn’t seem to mind. Sam would watch his brother follow orders and strive to prove himself under his father’s scrutiny, as a hunter. And about the same time John started losing his grasp on fatherhood, Dean started to blur the lines between being a son and being a soldier. When Dean had a problem with a hunt, he didn’t hesitate to ask his father. But when Dean had a problem with normal things, like girls or school or even life in general, he’d always kept it to himself, or had tried to weasel it into a conversation with Sam. Yeah his brother still enjoyed normal things, but only with Sam. Never with their father. Sometimes it seemed like Dean was ashamed to find watching a movie fun or to enjoy playing baseball or hockey with Sam and his friends. The only things Dean had no problem confessing his attachment to was music and cars, two things which seemed to be the only thing John would ever admit to getting enjoyment from. Sam didn’t know how it had gotten like this without them realizing it, but sometimes he wished John could just remember that he was a father sometimes, not just a leader.
But, even though Sam had his qualms with the man, he still loved his father dearly. No question. Yeah, they fought and bickered and disagreed on almost everything there was to disagree about, but that didn’t change the fact that they were a family. They were all the family any of them had left. And that fact alone was enough to make Sam love his father and brother unconditionally. There were times when he thought it was a one sided love with his father, but there were also times when that glimmer of John’s affection shone through. Sam wished more than anything that they could just be a normal family sometimes. Do normal family things. The only thing they really did as a family was hunt.
John pulled the car up alongside the road and parked it. Sam got out and waited for his father before they crossed the street and entered the building in silence. As soon as the door closed behind them, Nicolette’s head poked out from behind the swinging doors and she smiled at them, waving them back.
Going into the backroom, Sam noticed that she’d done a lot of work on the body parts. The skull looked as though it had been boiled, free of the flesh that had been rotting on it, and now covered with some molding of some sort, like she’d been trying to make a face on it to try and identify who it was. It actually looked pretty scary like that, with a blank face. Sam shivered. The hand was spread on another table, cut at every joint, the bones measured and marked. The arm was the part Nicolette wanted to show them.
“You’re going to love this,” Nicolette said, her face bright. “Don’t freak out,” she said, looking between them. Her eyes suddenly dulled. “Where’s Dean?” she asked. Sam tried to think of a good excuse for where his brother was, but his father answered the question honestly.
“He’s at a buddy of mine’s house,” John said, eyeing the arm but not finding anything that could warrant Nicolette’s excitement. “He needed to take it easy for a while.” John pointed at the arm, trying to get her back on track. “What have you got for us?”
Nicolette looked worried for a second before she gathered herself and walked over to the arm. “I’ve had a pretty exciting day,” she announced and pulled on a pair of gloves. “I was up all night playing with these.” Sam had to suppress a chuckle at Nicolette’s choice of words. “And this morning I had a bit of a scare.”
“A scare?” John asked. Sam heard the question in his father’s voice. He felt the same question inside of him. Nicolette seemed like a pretty tough girl, he wondered what could scare her.
Picking up a scalpel, Nicolette pressed it to the arm and looked up at them. “I started to do an autopsy on my friend here. But when I cut into it, watch this,” she said and pressed the scalpel down. Sam watched as a dark substance started to leak out. He had to hold back a gag at the sight. It looked almost like blood, but it was way too dark, almost black. He looked at Nicolette and saw she was smiling at them. “Don’t worry,” she said, mistaking their confused looks for nervousness. “This is a common occurrence with bio-toxins, like anthrax. So you can guess how freaked I was. But I ran all the tests and it’s nothing harmful. So we’re not going to suddenly keel over or anything.”
“Well that’s good to know,” Sam said before he could stop himself. Nicolette grinned at him and Sam couldn’t help but think how much that smile looked like Dean’s. He guessed if they knew each other better, she’d be making fun of him about now. Good thing he’d just met her.
“So I’ve been running tests all day on this stuff,” she said, bringing the scalpel up and Sam let out a sickened groan as the black substance clung to the metal as she pulled it away. “And I can tell you that I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s completely natural and completely human. It’s almost like, rotten blood.”
“Rotten blood?” Sam asked, eyeing her. “That’s blood?” he pointed at the substance she was now scraping into a collection dish.
Nicolette shook her head. “Not quite. It’s got DNA and blood cells, but…” she gave a wry chuckle and continued. “It’s like it’s fragmented. The cells aren’t whole, there’s no membrane holding them together and they’re not living, but they’re not dying either. They’re just…there.”
John cleared his throat and Sam looked at him. His father had a passive look on his face. Sam recognized it instantly. He’d figured out what they were dealing with. “Did you run a toxicology screen on these?” he asked. Nicolette looked up at him and nodded. “Could I see it?”
“There’s nothing there,” she said. “They were all clean.”
“I’d still like to see them,” John said patiently. Nicolette tilted her head but then nodded.
“Sure,” she said, pulling her gloves off. “I have to go print out another copy. I’ve already filed the other one.”
“Thanks,” John nodded as she left the room. As soon as she was out, he turned to Sam. “I’ve seen that before,” he said, pointing at the black substance oozing on the arm.
“You know what we’re dealing with?” Sam asked, feeling relieved and a bit anxious.
“Yeah,” John nodded. “Two years ago I went to St. Claire Shores when a man who had died and been buried for a week suddenly came back to life. It turned out his wife was using necromancy to bring him back. But, before I could kill his ass, again, he bit this teenager who was trying to help me bring him down. We didn’t think anything of it, but the next day the kid died and this stuff was everywhere inside of him.”
“So we’re dealing with a necromancer?” Sam asked. Sweet, he’d never actually seen anything like that before.
“Yeah,” John acknowledged, looking to see if Nicolette was coming back. When he was sure she was still busy he added, “And the thing that’s been eating people is a reanimated corpse.”
“Like a zombie?” Sam whispered.
“To put it loosely,” John answered. “But not like the kind in movies. When they bite you, you don’t become a zombie, you just die and stay dead.”
“Well that sounds pleasant,” Sam muttered and looked back at the arm, disgusted. “How do you stop it if you get bit?”
John patted the canteen at his side. “The same way you treat a demon bite. Holy water. But I’ve mixed in some rosewood and salt. My own special concoction. Works like a charm.” Sam eyed his Dad with a half smile.
“You’ve tested it?” he asked, unable to keep the skepticism out of his voice.
John turned to look at him, amusement in his eyes. “Not on purpose,” he answered. “Fucker bit me before I managed to kill it. Good thing I’m a cautious bastard. Poured some on just to be safe, ended up saving my life.” Sam stared at his Dad, wondering how the hell any of them were still alive when things like being bitten by a reanimated corpse was a simple trial and error life lesson. John reached out and clapped Sam’s shoulder. “Otherwise Dean would be your legal guardian and by now he’d have you waiting on him hand and foot no doubt.” Sam snorted.
“So how do we stop it?” Sam asked.
“Shooting it in the head seemed to work last time,” John said dryly. “But we also have to stop whoever reanimated them in the first place. I’ve got a few necromancy counter enchantments that should do the trick.”
Sam shook his head and looked back at the arm. “I can’t believe we’re going up against a zombie,” he whispered. But whatever his father had to say next was cut off when Nicolette came back into the room. She walked over to them and handed John the tox screen. John pretended to look over it, though he honestly didn’t know what he was looking at.
While John was trying to figure out what exactly was on the paper, Nicolette looked at Sam. “So, Dean’s your brother, right?” she asked quietly. Sam rose his eyebrows. Had they told her that?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “How’d you know?”
She shrugged. “I could tell by the way you two act around each other. I’ve got a little brother about your age too. It’s easy to spot siblings when you’ve got one of your own.” She smiled and Sam nodded. That was something to keep in mind for when their covered required them to be unrelated. “Can I ask you something?” she asked timidly.
“Sure,” Sam said, uncertain.
Nicolette looked nervous and a bit confused as she bit her lip and tilted her head to the side. “Did I come on too strong?” Sam just stared at her. That was the last thing he expected her to ask. He must have been quiet too long because she went on. “Because, you know, it’s been a while since anyone’s really acted that way with me. All nice and everything. I guess, I just…I thought that, we hit it off, you know?”
Sam saw his father glance up from the paper and then turn around, letting Sam handle this one. He was sure his father was testing him to see what he’d do in a situation like this. But really, Sam didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth, hoping words would just come out. When they didn’t, he sighed and shrugged. “My brother, well I think he really likes you,” Sam said and ignored his father when John put the paper down and turned his full attention to the conversation. “It’s just, he’s not really good with relationships.”
“I just felt kind of stupid,” Nicolette admitted. “I thought he was giving off all the signs that he was interested.”
“I think he was,” Sam answered truthfully. Why did he always get himself into things like this? Dean so owed him for this. “I don’t think he expected you to return it so much.” He smiled when she chuckled. “I think it threw him a bit.”
“So,” Nicolette said, biting her lip again with renewed hope. “He’s sort of a I can love but can’t be loved type of guy, huh?”
Sam stared at her for a moment. He couldn’t deny the statement. It was absolutely true, in more ways than one. Dean could show affection well enough, to a point, but the minute anyone tried to return it, he’d clam up. It was absolutely true of his brother. Damn, this girl had only talked to his brother twice and already she knew him so well. She’d gained Sam’s approval. “Actually, yeah,” he nodded and smiled. He glanced at his father and was happy to see that John wasn’t looking at him disapprovingly. He actually looked a bit amused at the conversation. He was probably more amused at Sam’s uncertainty over the whole thing more than anything else.
“So,” Nicolette started and rung her hands together. “He didn’t not come today because of me, did he?” she asked quietly, almost embarrassed by the question.
“Oh, no!” Sam was quick to say. “He really is sick.”
Nicolette nodded, looking relieved. “Good,” she said but then shook her head. “Well, I mean, not good, but…good that he didn’t not come because of me,” she rambled and then let out a small laugh at herself. “You know, I could bring by some soup or something…for him, if he wants it.”
John cleared his throat and they both looked at him. Sam was relieved that his father finally decided to jump in. He wasn’t sure what to do now. Nicolette seemed pretty set on believing Dean and her had a thing going. Maybe they did, but Sam didn’t want to get caught in the middle of it. “There probably won’t be time,” John said, trying not to sound cold. Nicolette just nodded. “We’re going to be heading out soon.”
“Oh,” Nicolette said. “Well, it makes sense now. No use getting hopes up when he’s just going to leave anyway, huh?” she tried to say it cheerfully, but it came out sadder than she probably wanted.
Sam gave his Dad a look, who rolled his eyes. The girl deserved something better than that lame excuse. “He’s grumpy when he gets sick, anyway,” he said jokingly. He was rewarded with a laugh. “You’d be better off waiting for a day when he’s not hacking his lungs out. He’s probably driving Marshall crazy.”
“Speaking of,” John interrupted. “We should probably get going…”
“Marshall?” Nicolette asked. “Marshall McAdams?”
John eyed her before nodding. “Yeah, we served together,” he gave simply.
Nicolette smiled. “He’s a nice guy,” she said. “Pretty quiet, but nice. I’ve met him a couple of times.” John and Sam headed for the door, Nicolette came around to walk them out. “It’s too bad what happened.”
Both John and Sam paused suddenly and turned around to look at her. She stopped short when she saw the looks on their faces. “What happened?” John asked, his voice suddenly grave. Sam could relate to the feeling. Marshall hadn’t mentioned anything happening. He’d been the epitome of happiness and contentment.
Nicolette looked between them. “What? He didn’t mention anything?” she asked, confused.
“No,” John said and took a step towards her.
“He didn’t say anything about his family?” Nicolette asked, the look on her face making Sam’s toes tingle. He was getting a bad feeling.
“Well, he talked about his wife making dinner,” Sam said, watching as Nicolette’s brow furrowed at that. “And his son was at a friends house,” he ventured and watched with a new tingling of fear as she frowned deeper.
Nicolette shook her head and gave a dry laugh as she looked between John and Sam like they were joking. When neither of them smiled and jumped up to yell surprise, she said, “That’s impossible.”
The world seemed to freeze. Sam couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t move. Please, please don’t say it. Don’t say it.
“June and Peter have been dead for over a year.”
Go to Chapter Eight