𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇

TWELVE

"Listen that's why I called, you and your brothers have gotta stop looking for me. Now I need you to write down these names," John's tone is growing impatient. 

"Names?! What names?! Dad, talk to me. Tell me what's going on!" Campbell swats Dean's hand away for the thousandth time.

"We don't have time for this. This is bigger than you think, they're everywhere. Even us talking right now isn't safe." 

"No! No way, Dad-"

"I've given you an order, Campbell Grace. Stop following me and do as you're told. Do you understand me? Now take down these names."

Dean jabs Campbell in the stomach causing her to drop the phone, "not cool" she wheezes. 

"Dad! It's me, where are you?" Dean breathes into the cell-phone. There's a pause, probably John scolding him. Dean's face immediately drops, features contorting into an expression of suppressed fear. "Yes, sir... Yeah, uh, I got a pen... What're the names?"

Campbell stares at Sam, her expression flat. Good little soldier, Dean. 

☾

"Okay, so these names," Sam says "they're all couples from different towns? Different states?"

They're back on the road again, except Dean's asleep in the back, which means Sam gets to drive and Campbell is seated shotgun. 

Her right leg is bent and propped against the door as she slouches back in the seat, going through various pieces of paper. "Yup," Campbell replies, "Washington, New York, Colorado, yadda-yadda-yadda... Each couple took a road-trip cross country but never made it to their destination. None of them were ever heard from again."

"Well, it's a big country, Ellie. They could've disappeared anywhere."

"Thank you, Mister Stanford," Campbell's sarcasm is evident in her tone, "Miss Southern Cal says that each one's route took them through a small town in Indiana. Always on the second week of April. One year after another." 

"This is the second week of April."

"Yup," Campbell pops the 'p'.

"So dad is sending us to Indiana to go hunting for something before another couple vanishes?" Sam puts the pieces together out loud. 

"Yahtzee," his sister hums. "Can you imagine putting patterns together like this? The number of different obits he must've gone through? The man's a master." Campbell turns to Sam with a smirk, "no wonder we're so smart," she jests.

Sam rolls his eyes and pulls over to the side of the road. "What're you doing?" Dean croaks from the backseat, awoken by the car bouncing on gravel. 

"We're not going to Indiana," Sam states. 

"We're not?" Campbell raises an eyebrow at her brother.

"No, we're going to California. Dad called from a payphone with a Sacramento area code." 

"Sam-" Dean tries to reason with his brother.

"Dean, if this is the demon that killed mom and Jess and dad is closing in -- we gotta be there! We gotta help!"

"Dad doesn't need our help."

"Well, I don't care."

"He gave us an order," Campbell mumbles.  

Sam looks at his sister like she's grown three heads, "I don't care. Since when do you? We don't always have to do what he says!"

"Sam, dad is asking us to work jobs. To save lives, this is important," Dean protests.