Love Without End, Amen

13. Shadow

"Dean!"

"What? Yeah. Uh, nothin' we don't already know. Except for one thing they're keepin' out of the papers."

"Hm?"

"Meredith's heart was missing."

"Her heart?"

"Yeah. Her heart."

"So, what do you think did it to her?"

"Well, the landlady said it looked like an animal attack. Maybe it was -- werewolf?"

"No, no werewolf, the lunar cycle's not right. Plus, if it was a creature, it would've left some kind of trace. It's probably a spirit." Dean observed the blood on the carpet and noticed something.

"See if you can find any masking tape around."

Sam found masking tape and Dean used the masking tape to connect each pool of blood. When he was done, the pieces of tape formed an unusual symbol.

"Ever seen that before?" Sam asked.

"Never," Dean replied.

"Me neither."

The brothers exchanged a look.

---

That night, they made their way to a bar and Dean went inside.

Sam entered the bar with the twins and looked around. Dean noticed them and took one last drink, smiled at the bartender, and left.

"See ya," Dean said as Sam found an empty table and sat down while Sam took out John's journal. He leafed through the pages and Dean sat across from them. "I talked to the bartender."

"Did you get anything?" Sam asked. "Besides her number?"

"Dude, I'm a professional. I'm offended that you would that you would think that." Sam gave him a knowing look. "All right, yeah." He chuckled and held up a napkin with the bartender's number on it.

"You mind doin' a little bit of thinking with your upstairs brain, Dean?"

Lennon nodded. "Yeah, Daddy. Do some upstairs brain thinking."

"Huh?" Dean said. "Look, there's nothing to find out. I mean, Meredith worked here, she waited tables, everyone here was her friend. Everybody said she was normal. She didn't do or say anything weird before she died, so -- what about that symbol, you find anything?"

Sam shook hos head. "Nope, nothing. It wasn't in Dad's journal or in any of the usual clippings. We just have to dig a little deeper, I suppose."

"Well, there was a first victim, right? Before Meredith?"

"Right. Yeah." He pulled out a newspaper clipping about the first death. "His name was, uh -- his name was Ben Swardstrom." He handed the clipping to Dean. "Last month he was found mutilated in his town house. Same deal -- the door was locked, the alarm was on."

"Is there any connection between the two of them?"

"Not that I can tell -- I mean, not yet, at least. Ben was a banker, Meredith was a waitress. They never met, never knew anyone in common -- they were practically from different worlds."

"So, to recap, the only successful intel we've scored so far is that the bartender's phone number." He smirked. Sam noticed something on the other side of the room and Dean looked around. "What?" Sam got up and began walking away. "Sam?" He continued to walk away. He reached another table where a young woman with short blonde hair was seated, her back to him. Sam placed a hand on her shoulder and she turned around.