Hell and Back Again

Chapter 3

We walked up to the door and rang the bell. The wooden pannels of the porch creaked under our weight. The place looked old, paint was peeling, some of the wooden beams were rotting. A man about 5'7" or so with dark skin and eyes answered the door.

"Hello," I greeted. "We're federal marshalls. We're here to ask you a few questions about Sarah and Carmen Rodriguez." I said as politely as I could. The man looked at me with his dark eyes, filled with pain and suffering. 

"They were my daughters." The man softly said. "Now they're gone. It's just me and Jenna now." His eyes wandered to the ground. 

"We are all very sorry for your loss." I said with a sincere smile. The man jerked out of his daze and whispered "Come in." As he gestured to the inside of his home.

"Please, sit down." He said. He introduced himself as Manolo Rodriguez.

"Mr. Rodgriguez, we actually need to talk to your youngest daughter, Jenna. Is she here?" I said.

"Yes, she's in her room. It's upstairs, second door to your right." He said as we walked up the stairs. Dean's boots clunked on the polished wood, while my feet softly padded. We walked up the stairs and found a white door with stickers spelling "Jenna's Room." I softly knocked and a faint "Come in." was uttered through the painted wood. I slowly opened the door. A girl who looked to be around 13 turned around to face the door, not expecting to see three strangers in suits. She had the same dark eyes as her father, and her hair was the color of dark chocolate. 

"HI, Jenna. We need to ask you a few questions." I said as nicely as I could. The poor girl looked terrified, numb, and...was that guilt I saw in her eyes? I brushed it away, an innocent 13 year old probably wasn't guilty of anything.

I was wrong.

"Was there anything that you or your sisters were involved in?" I asked. "Something that might have resulted to this?"

"I already answered these questions from the cops." She snapped, defensively. By this time, Sam and Dean has entered the room. I figured they were finished scanning the house for ghostly activity. I turned to Sam, who ushered me out into the hallway.

"I'll be right back." I said to Jenna, as I got up from my chair and walked into the hallway.

"Anything?" I asked in a whisper.

"Hell yeah." Dean said, waving around his ESP detector, which was going crazy. "A whole lot of something."

"I need to find out what she and her sisters were up to before we start anything." I said, walking back into Jenna's room, with Sam following behind me. Dean waited in the hallway. When I walked back into the room, Jenna's face was struck with fear, and then as if nothing happened, it quickly flashed back to her neutral facade.

"As I said before, was there anything you or your sisters were involved in?" I asked. "You won't be in trouble, I promise." I urged. She looked stressed, and after a few painfully long seconds of silence, she answered.

"There was this one thing." She began, "There was a girl who was ALWAYS mean to my sister Carmen, ever since second grade, and last summer, Carmen though enough was enough." She paused, attempting to hold back her tears. "This girl lived down the street, so Carmen, Sarah, and I walked over there to confront her about it." She was softly crying by this point. "We thought it would be funny to bring my dad's double-shot, just to scare her, you know?" Her soft sobs turned into gasps and bawls. "But, things got out of hand. She said some things to Carmen that were even meaner than anything she'd ever said to her before. Before I could blink, Carmen pulled the trigger on the girl...and...she...well..died. Nobody was home, so we ran and buried the gun. We kept it a secret, until now. Now that Carmen and Sarah are dead...am...am...am I next?" She asked. Her face was full of fear.

"We are going to do everything in our power to keep that from happening." Sam said, reasurringly. 

"Thank you for telling us." I said, getting up to leave the room.

"Can you keep me filled in?" She asked. 

"Of course." I answered, leaving the room with Sam to meet Dean in the hallway.