Life's Betrayals / Book Five / Supernatural / The Life Series

...And Then There Were None

Dad called Sam, Dean and me to his house, sitting in the library, looking at the desk full of maps and articles. "I've been getting blasts from hunters all week." He pointed at a map. "Nest of vamps. Werewolf dance party. Shifters, six of them. Two hunters died taking them out. Ghouls, ghouls. Ghoul-Wraith smorgasbord."

"Is it just me, or is that a straight kick-line down I-80?" Dean asked.

"Exactly," Dad told us.

"Looks to me like it's a Sherman March Monster Mash," I told them.

"Yeah, but where are they marching to?" Sam asked. Dad circled another point at the map. "What is it?"

Dad looked at us. "Guy bashes in his family's heads."

I looked at Dad teasingly. "So, is this finally you asking for my help with a case?" Dad gave me a look. I smirked. "No, don't worry, Dad. There's no shame in it."

Sam and Dean looked amused.

Dad gave me a look, sighing. "I'll admit that we need all the help that we can get, but that's all I'm gonna admit."

I shrugged. "Well, hell, you know I'm in."

~~~~~

We went to the town, standing in the police station interrogation room with the man who had committed the crime, Rick.

"It's like I told the cops," Rick told us. "I blacked out."

"Well, just tell us what you do remember," Sam told him.

"Driving my regular route, and then I—I woke up in my truck at work," Rick told us.

"And where's work?" I asked.

"Starlight Cannery," Rick answered. "I—I didn't remember how I got there. So, I called home. When no one picked up, I—I went there, and I found..."

"Anything unusual before you blacked out?" Dad asked. "Sights, smells, anything off the routine?"

"No," Rick answered. "Basic night. I was giving some kid from the truck stop a ride. She took off. I—I think she took off."

"Anything else?" Dean asked.

"I swear, I didn't mean to do it," Rick told us. "I—I loved them."

~~~~~  

We were preparing to watch the security footage from the truck stop.

I was typing rapidly on a computer.

"So, demon possession, or ghosts?" Dean asked. "I thought it was a monster thing."

"All right, here we go," I told them. We watched the night Rick picked up the hitchhiker. "Truck stop, night of the murders."

We saw Rick.

"That's him," Dean told us. A brunette-haired, fair-skinned girl walked toward Rick's truck with her back turned to the camera. Dean raised his eyebrows. "Hmm. Hello."

The girl walked around the truck toward the passenger seat, looking at the camera.

Sam paused the feed.

The girl's face was gray, monstrous, grotesque.

"Freakish nightmare," I told them. "What the hell was that? Dad?"

"I've never seen that in my life," Bobby told us. "All those vamps and ghouls out on I-80? Maybe they're coming in for Mother's Day."

"Um..." Dean trailed off, standing, pacing away from the desk, turning to face us. "Okay, well, if that is big mama—whatever she is—we got zero on ganking her. So, what are we gonna do if we run into her? Throw salt and hope?"