I Can't Go Back Now (Supernatural- Alexis Hammel)

It's Steve Now

I leaned my head back onto Dean's shoulder, rolling my head so I could look across the map table at Sam and Kevin. "Your big news is that you translated the tablet into doodles?" I asked bordley.

"It's cuneiform," Kevin defended. "I hit a wall translating it into English. But, I found an ancient codex, and managed to translate it into..."

"Doodles," Dean said.

"It's extinct," Kevin deadpanned.

"Well, can you read it?" Sam asked, looking through the pictures.

"No one can. Scholars have tried for centuries."

"So it's a dead end?" I said, tossing my paper back on the table, sighing in disgust.

"Not quite," Kevin said. I tuned the rest of the conversation out, closing my eyes. Suddenly Dean sat up straight, causing me to jerk in order to keep myself balanced. I glared at him.

"Research," Sam said, tossing each of us a book. I looked at it, dead tired.

"Zimmerman's Encyclopedia to Extinct Languages, Volume One," I read off the book title. "How many volumes are there?"

"Twenty four," Kevin answered, and I groaned. "Don't worry, we have all of them."

"Awesome."

Suddenly Dean's phone rang. "There is a God," he sighed happily, and I flipped open my book to the last page. Six hundred seventy-three pages the size of my torso. Great.

Dean answered a call from Cas, and they talked for a while before he finally hung up.

***

I sat on the map table with a bag sitting with my stuff in it. I was so glad I was getting out of this place. Sam and Dean argued as they walked up the stairs into the library. Dean grabbed my bag off the table and continued walking up the stairs to the front door. I quickly followed him.

"We're just gonna have a look-see," Dean said.

"A.K.A. and excuse to get out of research," Kevin said.

I smiled. "You got me."

***

Me and Dean stood next to the car, talking to the sheriff in our FBI suits. "So, four missing?" Dean asked.

"Four dead," the sheriff corrected. "Just got the confirmation."

He led us under yellow tape, which Dean held up so I could duck under. "Any common threats you can think of?" I asked.

"Well, Joe in there had the suicide hotline on speed dial. The gal before him had enough meds in her cabinet to stock a pharmacy. The married couple before her was pretty much a walking billboard of divorce."

"Were they all basket cases?" Dean asked.

"If you asked me to make a list of the counties saddest sacks, they would be right up there on it." The sheriff handed us blue gloves. "You're gonna want those on."

As we walked in, the first thing that stood out was the entire room was painted pink. But not with paint. "Blood?" I asked, grimacing.

"It's everything," the sheriff said. "Just like the others. Hair, skin, nails, blood. Internal organs. Even clothes fibers. Like these poor people were run through the world's finest wood chipper."

"Witnesses?" Dean asked.

"Neighbors said they saw a pink flash and by the time we got here this is what was left."

We poked around a bit more, not discovering anything, and thanked the sheriff and left. Me and Dean headed for a gas station, each of us grabbing a well deserved cup of coffee. As we leaned against the Impala, sipping our coffee, Dean called Sam, putting him on speaker.