Currents

Chapter 22

Dean said" All right, case is coming together. Things are coming together, man. You and me. It is all good. Hey."
Sam said" What?"
" What are you thinking about, organic tomatoes?"
" I'm not thinking about anything."
" I don't know about you, but this last year has given me a new perspective."
" I hear you. Believe me."
" But now I know where I'm at my best, and that is right here, driving down crazy street next to you."
" Makes sense."
" Yes, it does."
" Or... maybe you don't need me. I mean, maybe you're at your best hacking and slicing your way through all the world's crap alone, not having to explain yourself to anybody."
" Yeah, that makes sense, seeing as I have so many other brothers I can talk to about this stuff."
" Look, I'm not saying I'm bailing on you. I'm just saying make room for the possibility that we want different things. I mean, I want my time to count for something."
" So, what we do doesn't count?" His phone rang," Yeah? Hey, Dr. Kashi. Okay. Thank you. Uh, could you run one more name for me? Yeah- Hayes, Paul. Uh-huh. And the donor? Seriously? How many others? Did anybody from Boulder, Colorado, receive any of those organs? Okay, thank you." He hung up," Well, this is gonna singe your axons. She says that both Paul Hayes' kidney and Arthur Swenson's new eye came from- you ready for this?- Brick Holmes."
" You don't mean the Brick Holmes."
" I do."
" The all-pro quarterback?"
" Indeed. Yeah, the guy played at the top of his game for like a million years, didn't he?"
" Yeah, he-he bought it in a car crash last year."
" Yeah."
" Nose dived off a bridge or something. He must've signed a donor card. Did the doctor say how many organs he donated?"
" Including our two suspects? Eight."
" Eight?"
" Eight."
" Okay, um, and one of them's in Boulder, am I right?"
" You would be wrong. That's the bad news. Good news is, Brick lived just outside of Boulder."
" Well, Brick's dead."
" Yeah, but he's all we got, so we are going to Boulder."

They talked to Brick's mom, and she was hiding something, I don't really know... I took a few pills and I'm kinda spaced out.
We broke into Brick's house, and went up to the master bedroom,
Dean said" Closets. Brick's closet." Sam and I walked into the other closet," Looks like this stuff hasn't been touched in a year. Man, what this stuff would go for on ebay. Hey, Sammy, would it totally crush you to know that your boy Brick wasn't a natural blonde?" Sam and I were looking at all the clothes,
Sam said" Dean, this is really weird."
" What do you got?"
" I don't know. Is this Eleanor's closet?"
" Why would his mother's closet be in here? Are you sure?" Sam pulled a hanger off the rod,
" Check this out." Sam showed Dean the clothes," This is what she was wearing today when we talked to her."
" Maybe she moved into Brick's room after he died." Dean looked at the bed, I did too," Or..." Sam looked at the bed too,
" Oh. Thanks, Dean. Now that image is permanently etched into my retinas." We walked back into the closet, then Dean found a hidden door. We walked to him, Dean turned the light on," Wow. I knew he'd have something like this in his house."
" This is a lot of hardware."
" Okay, the football trophies I get, but there's a lot of other stuff here- I mean, baseball, boxing, race car driving."
" He was a fan. Any kind of athlete- he respected them. I mean, look at all the old stuff he's got- a cricket mallet, gold clubs, a kendo sword, archery equipment." Dean grabbed an old box and opened it,
" Hey, look at this."
We were looking through all the letters in the box,
Sam said" They're all the same. Dearest Betsy... blah, blah, blah. Who's Betsy?"
Dean said" I don't know. Girlfriend? Eleanor didn't mention a Betsy."
" This one looks old. Uh, Dearest Betsy, third day of training camp. Roadwork improving. Working on my left jab. They say this kid Sugar Ray is gonna be tough."
" Sugar Ray? As in Robinson? Didn't he box in, like, the 40s? Is it signed the same?"
" Yeah. Love, Me."
" Here. Dearest Betsy, on the road again. So hard to be away from you, honey. Will give the Red Sox hell and get back to you."
" Dearest, Betsy."
" Dearest, Betsy, Le Mans will be a bitch this year will all the rain..."
" ...The phillies are tough, but we're looking to be tougher..."
" ...Them Dodgers will wish they never left Brooklyn..."
" ...Looking for my best gal Friday night at the Garden..."
" ...Our o-line hung tough. I had all day back there..."
" ...Alain Prost is a monster in the straightaway..."
" Dearest Betsy..."
" Dearest Betsy..."
" Love, Me."
" Wait, this one looks recent. Dearest Betsy... so tired of it all."

We were at the motel,
Sam said" Hey, I pulled up the names on those trophies. Check it out. All right, Brick Holmes- football player. Charlie Karnes- race car driver. Davey Samuelson- baseball player. Kelly Duran- boxer. Four different guys, right?"
Dean said" Okay."
" Check this out." He pulled up all the photos at once," Same dark eyes, same cheekbones, nose, mouth."
" Wait, are you saying that these four guys who all look to be in their mid-20s and go back 70 years could be the same guy? Wow. For a 95 year old, Brick Holmes could take a hit."

I said" So, if all those athletes were the same guy, how'd he pull it off? Appear, then go away and come back with a new look?"
Dean said" Cacao, the, uh, the- the maize god- was Mayan, right?"
Sam said" Yeah."
" The maya were all about war and torture and conquest... and sports. It says, their athletes were treated like kings. The Mayan jocks made sacrifices to Cacao by- ready for this?- killing a victim, pulling out his heart, and eating it. They believed the rituals gave them super-charged power over their opponents."
" Yeah, but they didn't stay young forever. So, what? Maybe Brick just made some kind of deal with this Cacao?"
" Well, we've seen it before- people making deals with demons, gods. I mean, maybe he stayed young and strong so long as his sacrifices kept coming. Remember all that antique sports equipment he had? This guy could go back to the Mayan days."
" Wow. So, one of the greatest QBs to ever play the game was over 900 years old."
" Well, that explains Brick, but what about the mooks carrying his spare parts?"
" Maybe the spell went along for the ride and infected the people who got his organs. Remember how Paul Hayes said he had a health scare that changed his life? I mean, maybe the spell could compel him to keep carrying out the ritual."
" Sort of like getting bit by a werewolf. I mean, once you're infected, you do what you got to do, especially if you like the results."
" Right, except old Arthur, the dedicated cop, couldn't handle it and went nuts. Brick Holmes, a heart eater. Who knew?"
" Hey, sorry, buddy. The mighty- they fall hard, huh?"
" Well, at least he wasn't sleeping with his mother."
" Yeah, good, Sam. Find the silver lining."
" No, seriously. Look." I looked over at the screen,
" Fighter Kelly Duran is congratulated on a second-round knockout by wife Betsy. Dearest Betsy."
——
They went to talk to Betsy, aka Eleanor, then Sam called me and I water-ported to where they were. I got into the car, we were outside a club,
Dean said" Really? Our king daddy monster is a stripper?"
Sam said" We're pretty sure this is gonna work, right?"
" Well, as long as Eleanor knows what she's talking about."
" You think Brick thought maybe he'd burn to nothing when he crashed that car?"
" Yeah, but he didn't, which brings us here."

We walked into the club,
Dean said" Smell that?"
Sam said" You're gross."
I said" So gross." I followed Sam, Dean followed us, we got out onto the main floor. We looked around, the lights turned on, a woman walked onto the stage.
She said" Eleanor sent you, right? I figured she'd probably break and give me up. This won't end well for her, of course. Not that it's gonna end well for you." Sam pulled out the knife, I waited to shift," Oh, now, you don't think we're gonna let you do that, do you?"
Dean said" We?" Then I was thrown, I hit the wall, I shifted, she was distracted, talking. I grabbed one of the guys holding Dean, I was about to rip his head off when he stopped moving and passed out. We watched the woman light up from the inside the she fell.
——
I tore off the heads of the vamps I was hunting, I spit out blood, gagging, I shook my head. I moved water around and put them in a hole then burned the bodies. I water-ported to my apartment, stripping and getting into the shower. I washed the blood off my body, standing under the water, I hissed, my eyes flashing. I got out and wrapped a towel around my waist, looking at the bite marks the monsters left. I saw one bad one, like really bad, I gulped then got dizzy as more blood gushed out of it. I fell to the ground, gotta get to my phone... I crawled along the ground, and grabbed my phone, I got fishline and vodka, I called the one person I didn't want to call this soon....