While Katherine laid in the back of the car with her usual pocketknife in hand and was staring at her distorted reflection on said knife, Dean said, "Yeah, you probably missed something. That's what happened."
Sam replied, "Dude, I ran LexisNexis, local police reports, newspapers– I couldn't find a single red flag. Are you sure you got the coordinates right?"
Dean told him, "Yeah, I double-checked. It's Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Dad wouldn't have sent us coordinates if it wasn't important, Sammy."
Sam said to him, "Well, I'm telling you, I looked, and all I could find was a big, steamy pile of nothing. If Dad's sending us hunting for something, I don't know what."
Dean replied, "Well, maybe he's gonna meet us there."
Then Sam said to him with a chuckle, "Yeah, 'cause he's been so easy to find up to this point.
It was then that Katherine turned to look over at Dean with her head slightly tilted to the side and asked Dean, "Isn't that the same crap you said back when we were investigating that, uh, asylum or whatever it was and had to keep my mini me and her dumbass boyfriend– or ex-boyfriend at this point– safe and sound after they went venturing in the place to begin with?"
With a scoff, Dean said to her, "Shut up."
Then Sam told him, "No, dude, Kat's right. That's literally the same thing you said back at that asylum before we had to save the other Kat and her boyfriend Gavin."
After letting out a scoff, Dean replied, "You both are a real pair of smartasses, you know that?" As he turned his head to look away from Sam and stopped looking in the rearview mirror, he said to them, "Don't worry. I'm sure there's something in Fitchburg worth killing."
With a scoff, Sam asked him, "Yeah? What makes you so sure?"
Dean told him, "Well, because I'm the oldest, which means I'm always right."
Both Sam and Katherine shared a look with each other before they simultaneously said to Dean, "No, it doesn't."
Dean replied, "It totally does."
The most Katherine did was scoff in response to Dean's words before she went back to staring at her own distorted reflection in her pocketknife.
* * *
After somehow managing to carry three things of coffee at one single time, Dean finally stopped over by his siblings and told them, "Well, the waitress thinks that the local Freemasons are up to something sneaky. But, uh, other than that, nobody's heard about anything weird going on."
While Dean started to walk over towards the driver's side of the car and Katherine went to take a sip out of the coffee that Dean had just given her, Sam asked them, "Dean, Kat? Either of you got the time?"
While Katherine only rolled her eyes to herself, Dean rolled up the sleeve to his jacket and looked down at his watch before he said, "Ten after four." When Sam had only nodded his head, Dean asked him, "Why?"
While continuing to stare ahead of himself, Sam asked, "What's wrong with this picture?"
Both siblings turned their heads to look over at the playground that lied ahead of them– one of whom had her free hand clenched into a fist and her eyes narrowed as she stared at the lack of children, while the other only stared at the nearly empty playground with furrowed eyebrows.
After a couple seconds of silence, Dean asked him, "School's out, isn't it?"
With a nod of his head, Sam said, "Yeah. So where is everybody? This place should be crawling with kids right now."
* * *
While the three of them started to walk into a hospital, Sam said to Dean, "Dude, dude, I am not using this I.D."
In turn, Dean asked him, "Why not?"
Sam told him, "Because it says 'Bikini Inspector' on it."
While Katherine only rolled her eyes to herself with a sigh, Dean replied, "Don't worry. She won't look that close, alright? Hell, she won't even ask to see it. It's all about confidence, Sammy."
Then Sam was spun around in front of the desk that a single woman was sitting behind, which allowed his two siblings to be at least a good enough distance away that they could still hear what was being said by Sam, who said to the woman, "Hi. I'm, uh, Dr. Jerry Kaplan, Center for Disease Control."
While staring up at Sam, the woman asked him, "Can I see some I.D.?"
While Dean turned to look away from Sam with a stifled laugh and Katherine only raised her eyebrows to herself with a bit of a raise of her own head, Sam turned to glance over at his two siblings before he looked back at the woman and started to reach into his suit as he said, "Yeah, of course. Now, could you direct me to the Pediatrics Ward, please?"
While Dean turned to look back over at Sam with his eyebrows raised and Katherine used every bit of strength that she had to keep herself from slapping the back of Dean's head, the woman told Sam, "Okay, just go down that hall, turn left, up the stairs."
After the two exchanged yet another couple of words, Sam turned his back on the woman and his smile was quick to fall from his face, shortly before Dean said to him, "See? Told you it would work."
With a shake of his head, Sam told his two siblings, "Follow me. It's upstairs."
* * *
While walking behind Dr. Hydaker, Dean said to him, "Well, thanks for seeing us, Dr. Hydaker."
Dr. Hydaker replied, "Oh, I'm glad you guys are here. I was just about to call the CDC myself. How did you find out anyway?"
Dean told him, "Oh, some G.P.– I forget his name– he called Atlanta and, uh, must have beat you to the punch."
Then Sam asked Dr. Hydaker, "So you say you got six cases so far?"
Dr. Hydaker replied, "Yeah, in five weeks." After turning around to face the three siblings, he told them, "At first I thought it was garden-variety bacterial pneumonia, not that newsworthy. But now..."
While Katherine continued to stare into the Pediatric Ward and tried to resist the urge to clench her hands into fists, her two brothers turned to look back at Dr. Hydaker and Sam asked him, "Now, what?"
Dr. Hydaker replied, "The kids aren't responding to antibiotics. Their white-cell counts keep going down. Their immune systems just aren't doing their job. It's like their bodies are wearing out."
It was then that a woman started to make her way up towards the four of them as she said, "Excuse me, Dr. Hydaker."
While a woman stopped beside Dr. Hydaker with a clipboard in hand, Sam asked him, "You ever see anything like this before?"
As he went to grab a pen and start to bring it down onto the paper that was on the clipboard, Dr. Hydaker replied, "Never this severe."
After taking a quick glance at the Winchester siblings, the woman told them, "The way it spreads– That's a new one for me."
In turn, Sam asked her, "What do you mean?"
The woman replied, "It works its way through families, but only the children, one sibling after another."
With a nod of his head, Dean asked them, "You mind if we interview a few of the kids?"
With a shake of her head, the woman told him, "They're not conscious."
With a shake of his own head, Sam asked her, "None of them?"
With yet another shake of her head, the woman said, "No."
After looking back over at Dr. Hydaker, Dean asked them, "Can we, uh, talk to the parents?"
With a sigh, Dr. Hydaker replied, "If you think it'll help."
With a nod of his head, Dean said, "Yeah, yeah. Who was your most recent admission?"
And while Dr. Hydaker went to tell them just who their most recent admission was, Katherine continued to stare at the six unconscious children that were lying on the beds in the room with her jaw now clenched and her eyes narrowed.
* * *
After looking between the three siblings, the man said, "I should get back to my girls."
With a nod of his head, Sam replied, "We understand that, and we really appreciate you talking to us. Now, you say Mary's the oldest?"
With a nod of his own head, the man said, "Thirteen."
In turn, Sam said, "Okay, and she came with it first, right? And then..."
The man told them, "Bethany the next night."
Sam asked him, "Within twenty-four hours?"
With a shake of his head, the man replied, "I guess. Look, I already went through all this with the doctor."
It was then that Dean said to him, "Right. Just a few more questions, if you don't mind. Um, how do you think they caught pneumonia? Were they out in the cold, anything like that?"
With a shake of his head, the man told them, "No, we think it was an open window."
With his eyebrows furrowed, Dean asked him, "Both times?"
After raising his head, the man said, "The first time, I-I don't– I don't really remember, but the second time for sure, and I know I closed it before I put Bethany to bed."
With a nod of his head, Sam asked him, "So you think she opened it?"
The man replied, "It's a second-story window, no ledge. No one else could have."
While the two brothers simply nodded their heads, Katherine had once again clenched her jaw as she forced herself to nod her own head at the man.
* * *
While the three of them walked down the hallway, Sam said, "You know, this might not be anything supernatural. It might just be pneumonia."
Dean replied, "Maybe. Or maybe something opened that window. I don't know, man. Look, Dad sent us down here for a reason. I think we might be barking up the right tree."
In turn, Sam said to him, "I'll tell you one thing."
Dean replied, "What?"
With a tilt of his head, Sam said, "That guy we just talked to– I'm betting it'll be a while before he goes home."
* * *
While Katherine eyed the inside of the bedroom with her eyes narrowed and her arms crossed over her chest, Sam asked Dean, "You got anything over there?"
Dean replied, "No, nothing."
With a sigh, Sam lowered his arm and said, "Yeah, me neither."
While Sam turned towards one of the windows, Dean turned to Katherine and asked her, "Hey, what gives?" When Katherine only looked over at him with her eyebrows furrowed, he told her, "You've been quiet ever since we went up to the Pediatric Ward."
When she only looked away from him with a roll of her eyes, he hesitantly asked her, "Hey, uh... It's not about the, um, the-the-the—"
With a raise of her eyebrow, she looked back at him and asked him, "The-The-The what?"
With a sigh, he replied, "You know what I mean."
With a scoff, she told him, "No, Dean, it's not about that." When he only continued to stare at her, she said, "Look, just because I get all quiet or whatever when we have a case that involves kids does not mean that every single one of 'em is about that, alright? So just drop it."
After a couple seconds of silence, Dean hesitantly asked her, "So, um, you know before-before you did the whole self-stabbing thing a couple years ago, did you ever find out what the gender of your kid was?"
After letting out a sigh, she said, "Yeah. I did. The unborn baby was a boy." After letting out yet another sigh, she told him, "And if what happened a couple years ago didn't even happen, he would be two now. But now, he's nothing but a rotting corpse lying in the ground after I stabbed myself and killed him and then almost killed myself in the process. But it's whatever. It happened in the past. It doesn't even bother me anymore."
After a couple seconds of just silently eyeing her, Dean asked her, "If whatever happened to you didn't happen, what name would you have given him?" When she didn't respond, he said, "Oh. Right. Sorry about that, Kat."
With a scoff, she replied, "It's whatever. It doesn't even matter anymore. That frickin' piece of crap's been dead for two years now. What do I care?"
It was only when Dean had opened his mouth to respond that he suddenly stopped when Sam said to them, "Hey, guys."
In turn, Dean said, "Yeah?"
After letting out a scoff, Sam said, "Well, Dean, you were right. It's not pneumonia."
It wouldn't be until the two siblings had reached the windowsill and saw what looked like a dark and clawed handprint outside of the window that Sam said, "It's rotted." While Dean lowered his head to get a closer look at the print, Sam asked them, "What the hell leaves a handprint like that?"
* * *
With a quick raise of his head, a young Dean Winchester turned his head, just as he heard his father say, "Alright." After cocking his gun, John said to him, "You know the drill, Dean. If anybody calls, you don't pick up. If it's me, I'll ring once and then call back. You got that?"
In turn, Dean said to him, "Mm-hmm. Don't answer the phone unless it rings once first."
With a nod of his head, John said to him, "Come on, dude. Look alive. This stuff's important."
Dean replied, "I know, it's just, we've gone over it like a million times, and you know I'm not stupid."
After putting his duffel bag onto a counter, John turned to look over at Dean as he said, "I know you're not, but it only takes one mistake. You got that?" After Dean had simply nodded his head, John turned his back on his eldest son and said, "Alright, if I'm not back Sunday night..."
With a raise of his eyebrows, Dean said, "Call Pastor Jim."
With a sigh, John took the duffel bag back off of the counter as he said, "Lock the doors and windows, close the shades, and most important—"
With yet another nod of his head, Dean said, "Watch out for Kat and Sammy."
Then he turned his head to look over at Sam, who was blankly staring at the television, and then over at Katherine to see her arms tightly wrapped around her stuffed toy rabbit.
After watching Katherine offer him a small smile once she looked over at her eldest brother, Dean looked back over at John and said with a nod of his head, "I know."
With a nod of his own head, John replied, "Alright, if something tries to bust in..."
Dean said, "Shoot first, ask questions later."
After putting a hand on Dean's shoulder, John said to him, "That's my man."
While John walked over towards the door to their room with Dean close behind him, Sam simply smiled at what he was watching on the television.
Katherine, on the other hand, frowned at her stuffed rabbit and the little tears it had from the many times in which she would either have a burst of anger or would find herself being completely overwhelmed by her anxiety or whatever stressful situation she finds herself dealing with.
And while Katherine patted the top of the stuffed toy's head as lightly as she could, John swung open the door to the room and nodded his head at Dean.
It wouldn't be until John was physically out of the room that Dean closed the door and locked it before he looked over at Sam and Katherine.
While Sam simply kept his eyes solely on the television, Katherine grinned up at her eldest brother and was using one of the arms of the stuffed bunny to wave at Dean.
The most Dean could do in response to her actions was force a smile on his face and nod his head at Katherine, whose grin only became that much wider before she went back to lightly petting her stuffed toy.
* * *
After the three of them had gotten out of the car, Sam asked, "So what the hell is a Shtriga?"
Dean replied, "It's kind of like a witch, I think. I don't know much about them."
Sam told him, "Well, I've never heard of it. And it's not in Dad's journal."
As he opened up the trunk to the car, Dean said, "Dad hunted one in Fort Douglas, Wisconsin, about sixteen, seventeen years ago. You and Kat were there. You don't remember?"
With a shake of his head, Sam said, "No."
Then both brothers looked over at Katherine, who said with a raise of her eyebrows and a shake of her head, "What?"
After silently sighing to himself, Dean looked away from Katherine and said, "I guess he caught wind that the thing's in Fitchburg now and kicked us the coordinates."
In turn, Sam said to him, "So wait, this..."
Dean said, "Shtriga."
Sam replied, "Right, you think it's the same one Dad hunted before?"
As he went to close the trunk to the car, Dean said, "Yeah, maybe."
While Katherine simply rolled her eyes with a sigh, Sam started to walk after Dean as he asked, "But if Dad went after it, why is it still breathing air?"
Dean told him, "Because it got away."
In turn, Sam said, "Got away?"
Dean replied, "Yeah, Sammy, it happens."
With a shake of his head, Sam said, "Not very often."
With a raise of his eyebrows, Dean said to him, "Well, I don't know what to tell you. I mean, maybe Dad didn't have his Wheaties that morning."
With a raise of his head, Sam asked him, "What else do you remember?"
Dean replied, "Nothing. I was a kid, alright?"
It wasn't until Dean had walked into the motel that Katherine let out a sigh before she looked over at Sam and asked him, "You just really can't help yourself, can you, Sammy?"
With furrowed eyebrows, Sam looked over at Katherine and asked her, "What do you mean?"
With a scoff, she replied, "What do you think I mean, Sam? I mean, really. Ever since Dean picked you up before that girlfriend of yours was killed, you've done nothing but ask questions, questions and more questions every single frickin' time you don't understand something." As she leaned up against Dean's car with her arms crossed over her chest, she asked him, "Does it ever get tiring to hear yourself ask all of these questions and hardly ever get any answers to them?"
With a sigh, he started to say to her, "Look, if this is about what Meg revealed about you back in Chicago—"
She told him, "It's not."
After letting out yet another sigh, he said to her, "Look, Kat, it's already out there in the open. You found yourself in some dangerous situation and in order to get out of it, you stabbed yourself and almost died after killing your own kid. If you would just talk to me about what happened, maybe I could—"
With a scoff and a scowl now on her face, she asked him, "Maybe you could what? Have us sit down by a campfire, hold hands, eat some marshmallows and talk about the sad story that is the life I've had for the past couple years? Maybe talk to you about what it is that got me to fall for August the way I did or how I let him frickin' manipulate me and try and use me the way he did?" As she started to walk over to him, she said, "Oh, wait, I know. Maybe you want to talk to me about how everything had gotten so bad that I was willing to take my anger out on innocent people and kill them, all because of them getting in the way during any of the jobs I got for myself for the past couple years. Is that it? You want to rehash the past about just how terrible my life had turned out for me after you turned your back on us and went straight to Stanford?"
After stopping in front of him and staring up at him, she said to him, "Okay. Let's talk. Let's talk about how you got yourself involved with that girl Jessica and fell so deeply in love with her and how you were so willing to turn your back on us and only told her just a small bit about your own family. What about that? Or what about the fact that I have reason to believe that you're not completely over her death and still hate the fact that you weren't there to protect her? What about that, Sam? 'Cause I'm sure that whole story of how you two met and how life has been for you since her death will be a real hoot to hear. So, go on. Start talking. I want to hear just how much you may or may not blame Dean and me for dragging you away from your apple-pie life and in doing so, left your girlfriend defenseless and capable of even being killed in the first place, while you were helping us with that case over in Jericho."
After letting out a sigh, he told her, "Look, Kat, I'm just trying to help you, okay? So, there's no need for you to get so defensive about it when all I'm trying to do is help you and try to see if I could help you move past whatever happened to you." When she only scoffed to herself with a mere tilt of her head, he went to grab her by her arm as he said, "Come on, Kat. Just talk to me."
With a scoff, she replied, "No, thanks. I'll pass."
With a sigh, he started to say to her, "Kat—"
It was then that Katherine shoved him up against Dean's car with a hand pressed against his chest and her pocketknife now open with its blade pointed up at Sam's neck.
While Sam simply stared down at her with wide eyes, she said to him, "Don't think that just because I've been at least a little bit nicer to you since we first set out to find Dad that that means that I'll just act like everything's all sunshine and rainbows and act like the way I did when we were kids and told you about all my troubles, because that just isn't gonna happen. I haven't told you a damn thing about me since you turned your back on us and left for college after that big fight you had with Dad. So, if you really think I'm gonna do that now that you and Dad seem to be on good terms for the time being, then think again. Because I will never ever trust you with anything that has to do with my life ever again. As far as I'm concerned, anything bad that ever happened to me during your time at college is entirely your fault because if you didn't want to go to college after getting a full ride at Stanford, then I wouldn't have met August and I wouldn't have had to– two years later– stab myself in my gut just to make sure that those sons of bitches couldn't use me or my unborn child for that sick plan of theirs. And if it meant that I died in the process, then so be it."
After reaching up towards his neck and pressing the blade to her knife up against the front of his neck and pushed him even more into the car, she said to him, "So, don't you dare think that just because we're hunting together and have been doing just that for, like, a year now that that means I'll forget everything that happened from the moment you left for college and the moment I found myself lying in that damn hospital bed and having to listen to Dad lecture me about my poor choices in men and how I was so blind to my love for him that I couldn't see him for just what he was the whole damn time. Because as far as I'm concerned, Sam, the Sam I knew– the one I trusted more than anything and knew would never ditch me and would be there for me as my loving and protective twin brother– died the second he decided to ditch me all so that he could go to college and move past the life we were all raised in, even while knowing that I could never be as successful as he was when it came to school or even attempting to be normal."
In response to her words, Sam only sighed to himself before he slowly turned his head to see a blonde-haired boy that wore a long-sleeved blue shirt underneath a striped, green shirt staring right at them.
Fortunately, due to the long-sleeved jacket that Katherine was wearing, the young boy couldn't see the pocketknife that was being pressed up against Sam's neck.
The only thing he could see was that Sam was looking right at him and Katherine simply had a scowl on her face.
It was only when the boy had looked away from them that Katherine quickly pulled the pocketknife away from Sam's neck and closed it, which allowed Sam to ask her, "Kat, what do you mean by whatever plan they had for you and your unborn kid?"
With a scoff, she replied, "It doesn't matter. It isn't like they could use me and that unborn kid anymore. Not when I killed him with that knife they had, and it turns out that I made myself incapable of having any more kids with that stab I gave myself. Apparently, I went a lot deeper than I thought and, like, stabbed myself many, many times in an attempt to make sure they couldn't use me as some frickin' human incubator, and I guess all those stabs I gave myself somehow ruptured my placenta or something. I don't know. That whole hospital visit I had was a complete blur. Only thing I remember is Dad going out of his way to save my ass by lying to the cops saying that some nutjob came up to me and tried to rob me and when I wouldn't let him take what he wanted, he started to stab me and ended up killing my unborn child in the process." With a scoff, she said, "What a frickin' joke."
In response to her words, Sam only stared down at Katherine with his eyebrows furrowed and a frown on his face.
For once in his life, Sam Winchester was rendered speechless and couldn't think of so much as one thing to say to Katherine to try and make her feel better after listening to bits and pieces of what had happened to her before she became 'Monster' and was widely known as the hunter that had no qualms about killing innocent people.
* * *
While young Katherine had taken a sip of the milk that Dean had poured into her glass, Sam asked him, "When's Dad gonna get back?"
As he started to walk over towards where his youngest siblings were sitting with a pan in his hand, Dean said, "Tomorrow."
Then Sam asked him, "When?"
As he started to pour some of what was in the pan into Sam's bowl, Dean replied, "I don't know. He usually comes in late, though. Now, eat your dinner."
While Dean started to pour some of the food into Katherine's bowl, Sam said, "I'm sick of 'Scabetti-0's."
Dean retorted, "Well, you're the one who wanted them."
Sam replied, "I want Lucky Charms."
Dean told him, "There's no more Lucky Charms."
Sam said to him, "I saw the box."
With a shake of his head, Dean replied, "Okay, maybe there is, but there's only enough left for one bowl, and I haven't had any yet."
When Sam only frowned to himself, Dean looked over at Katherine, who was refusing to make eye-contact with him at that point and was mindlessly eating her dinner with an arm tightly wrapped around her stuffed bunny.
After letting out a sigh, Dean grabbed Sam's bowl and dumped his food into a trash can before he grabbed another bowl and then put both the bowl and the cereal box on the table and in front of Sam.
Instead of immediately going ahead with eating the cereal, Sam reached a hand into the box and pulled out a plastic bag before he held it out towards Dean and asked him, "Do you want the prize?"
* * *
After occasionally taking a glance over at Katherine, who refused to look anywhere close to his direction, Sam told Dean, "Well, you were right. It wasn't very easy to find, but you were right. A Shtriga is a kind of witch. They're Albanian, but legends about them date back to Ancient Rome. They feed off of spiritus vitae."
In turn, Dean said, "Spirit what?"
Sam replied, "Vitae. It's Latin. It translates to 'breath of life', kind of like your life force or essence."
With a tilt of his head, Dean asked him, "Didn't the doctor say the kids' bodies were wearing out?"
With a nod of his head, Sam said, "It's a thought. You know, she takes your vitality, maybe your immunity goes to hell, pneumonia takes hold. Anyway, Shtrigas can feed off anyone, but they prefer—"
As he turned his head, Dean said, "Children."
Sam replied, "Yeah. Probably because they have stronger life force. And get this– Shtrigas are invulnerable to all weapons devised by God and man."
As he started to walk over towards his bag on one of the beds, Dean said, "No, that's not right. She's vulnerable when she feeds."
In turn, Sam said, "What?"
Dean told him, "If you catch her when she's eating, you can blast her with consecrated wrought irons, uh, buckshots or rounds I think."
While staring after Dean, Sam asked him, "How do you know that?"
Dean replied, "Dad told me. I remember."
With a nod of his head, Sam said, "Oh. So, uh, anything else Dad might have mentioned."
After taking a quick glance over at Sam, Dean said, "No, that's it." When Sam didn't respond, Dean turned his head to look over at Sam, who was simply staring at him, before he said, "What?"
With a shake of his head, Sam said, "Nothing." After bringing his attention back over to his laptop and going to stand up from the bed, he said, "Okay, so, assuming we can kill it when it eats, we've still got to find the thing first. Which ain't gonna be a cakewalk. Shtrigas take on a human disguise when they're not hunting."
Dean asked him, "What kind of human disguise?"
Sam replied, "Historically, something innocuous. It could be anything, but it's usually a feeble old woman, which may be how the witches-as-old-crones legend got started."
As he turned to walk over towards the other side of the room, Dean said, "Hang on."
In turn, Sam said, "What?"
After grabbing a piece of paper, Dean said, "Check this out. I marked down all the addresses of the victims." While Sam started to look down at the map that Dean was standing in front of, Dean said, "Now, these are the houses that have been hit so far, and dead center—"
Sam said, "The hospital."
With a nod of his head, Dean said, "When we were there, I saw a patient, an old woman."
Sam replied, "An old person, huh?"
Dean said to him, "Yeah."
Then Sam asked him, "In the hospital?" When Dean only turned his head to look over at Sam, Sam said, "Whoo. Better call the Coast Guard."
Dean replied, "Well, listen, smartass, she had an inverted cross hanging on her wall."
* * *
Not long after the three of them had their guns out and pointed at the old woman, Sam looked over at Dean and nodded his head at him, which got Dean to slowly lower his head with furrowed eyebrows and start to move his face closer to her own.
After several seconds of him just staring at the old woman, the woman quickly turned her head to look over at Dean and asked him, "Who the hell are you?" While Dean quickly stumbled back into a wall, the woman asked him, "Who's there?"
While Sam went to turn on the light to the room and Katherine simply put her gun away with a roll of her eyes, the woman asked them, "You trying to steal my stuff? They're always stealing around here."
Sam replied, "No, uh, ma'am, we're maintenance. We're sorry. Uh, we thought you were sleeping."
The woman retorted, "Ah, nonsense. I was sleeping with my peepers open." After letting out a laugh, she told them, "And fix that crucifix, would you? I've asked four damn times already."
After a couple seconds of silence, Dean flipped the crucifix around before he turned to look over at his siblings– one of whom had his eyebrows raised and the other that had her arms crossed over her chest and a blank look on her face.
* * *
With a laugh, Sam got out of the car and said, "'I was sleeping with my peepers open'."
While Sam continued to laugh to himself, Dean said, "I almost smoked that old gal, I swear."
With a scoff, Katherine replied, "Sure you did."
Despite his current reaction to just give Katherine a pointed look, Dean only sighed to himself with a bit of a grimace on his face before he told Sam, "It's not funny."
After laughing to himself some more, Sam said with a shake of his head, "Oh, man, you should have seen your face, Dean."
Dean replied, "Oh, yeah, laugh it on, man. We're back to square one." After turning his head to see the very same blonde-haired boy he was talking to the night before, Dean said, "Hang on."
And while Sam and Dean walked away from the door to their room and over towards the blonde-haired boy, Katherine only leaned up against their locked door with her arms crossed over her chest and her head leaned up against the side of it.
And unlike her brothers, she made no attempt to go up to the blonde-haired boy that looked upset– compared to how he looked when Dean first bought the room for them during their time in the town.
* * *
A twenty-one-year-old Katherine Winchester was lying on a hospital bed with her eyes squeezed shut and tears constantly rolling down the sides of her face as the events that took place only hours ago continued to plague her mind.
And ever since she woke up, that was all she could do.
Cry because August had tricked her and manipulated her into being nothing more than a mere piece of putty in his hands that would have done anything for him.
Cry because of the fact that she almost died only twelve hours ago, while lying in the middle of a corn field and being surrounded by a group of people– some she had seen before and some she hadn't– that had plans for her unborn child.
Cry because of the fact that her unborn son was dead, and she wasn't.
Cry because of the fact that she'd been attempting to get a hold of her father for over two hours, and he still hadn't answered any of her phone calls from the hospital.
But what made her cry even harder was when her father had eventually come bursting into her hospital room and acted as if everything was fine, while in the presence of the doctors and nurses that occasionally came in to check on her.
And naturally, she cried even harder than that when John closed the door behind the doctors and nurses and started to ask what she was thinking, trusting some boy she met in a cemetery.
And the most she could do was cry even harder with tears rolling down the sides of her face and shake her head as she said, "I-I'm sorry, okay? I didn't know."
With a raise of his eyebrows, he asked her, "You didn't know?"
She replied, "No, I didn't know!"
He yelled, "How could you not have known?!"
In turn, she yelled, "I don't know! I don't know! I don't know!"
As he crossed his arms over his chest, he asked her, "Is there anything about this that you actually do know, Katherine?"
She replied, "Yes, Dad. As a matter of fact, there is something that I know." When he only stared at her with his eyes narrowed, she told him, "What I know is that I'd spent hours... hours calling you before everything that happened, and you didn't answer the phone and come to save me. Not once. I left you countless messages begging you to come and save me from the crap that my frickin' piece of crap boyfriend– and the father of my unborn child– had forced on me, but you didn't come. Not once. And now you come here to the hospital– hours after everything that had happened– and your first thought is to yell at me for something that was beyond my control?"
When he only continued to stare at her, she said to him, "No. Screw that. And especially screw you, John."
With a finger pointed at her, John started to say to her, "Now, you listen to me, Katherine Mary Winchester—"
With a scoff, she replied, "No, you listen to me, John Eric Winchester. The last forty-eight hours of my life have been nothing short of a living hell. I was held captive by a group of people– including my boyfriend and a girl that I thought to be my best friend– and was told about what they would do with me the second my unborn son was born. I was told that they planned to kill me the second he was born, all so that I couldn't interfere with their plans for him. And in order to get out of all of that– after failing to get a hold of you time and time again– I took the easy way out. I grabbed the knife they planned to use on me by stabbing myself in the stomach not once, not twice. But apparently over a dozen times. And as a result of me taking it upon myself to save my own life and not let my son be raised by those frickin' pieces of crap, I almost died and made it so that I could never again have a child of my own. Because of me falling for the wrong person, I can never have the chance of raising my own child and make it so that they don't go through the same crap I did by being raised into a life of hunting monsters and knowing that at any chance, my life could be snuffed out by at least one of the things that I'm hunting."
With a sigh, John started to say to her, "Katherine—"
With a scoff, she asked him, "And, what, you think I haven't learned my lesson about what happens when I just blindly trust a person? 'Cause trust me, John, I have a permanent reminder of it right here." After pointing at where she'd stabbed herself only hours ago, she told him, "So, you can shove whatever bull-crap sergeant lecture you're about to give me or whatever crap was thrown at you when you were in the Marine Corps and shove that crap where the damn sun don't shine! Because I don't wanna hear it!"
After letting out a sigh, she said, "So, if you could just get the hell out of here and never show your face around me ever again after the crap you just pulled, that would be great. 'Cause at this point, I'm starting to wish that I let those sons of bitches kill me, just so I don't have to hear this from you."
After a couple seconds of silence, John asked her, "What happened to August?" When she only blankly stared at him, he said, "Before you stabbed yourself. What happened to him?"
After several seconds of silence, she told him, "I slit his throat and then stabbed him in his damn throat with the very same knife that he and his friends intended to use on me as soon as my son was born."
After taking a step closer to her, John asked her, "Did he tell you why?"
With a plastered grin on her face, she replied, "Can't say that he did. What, with how he was too busy choking on his own blood and staring at me like I was the bad person in the scenario when he was the one that decided to throw me to the damn wolves like he did."
John opened his mouth to say something more to her, only to stop when he saw the way that she was looking at him.
Not once in her twenty-one years of life had he ever seen his own daughter look at him the way she was then.
He'd never seen her hate him like she did in that hospital room, or like she wanted to kill him right then and there.
And he knew that– despite his experience in the military and how much stronger he was than her– if she wasn't in the hospital after what happened, she would've found a way to kill him at that very second, if she could.
And it was because of that that he turned his back on her and then walked out of the hospital room.
It wouldn't be until later on during her visit in the hospital that she found out that John had not only paid for her hospital bill but had also seen to it to lie to the cops that her and August were victims to an attempted robbery, which resulted in the loss of the lives of August and their unborn child, who Katherine would have otherwise named August Dean Winchester.
* * *
With a scoff, Sam said, "We should have thought of this before. Doctor's a perfect disguise. You're trusted. You can control the whole thing."
With a sigh, Dean stood up from the bed and went to take off his jacket as he said, "Huh. That son of a bitch."
Sam told him, "I'm surprised you didn't just draw on him right there."
Dean replied, "Yeah, well... First of all, I'm not gonna open fire in a freakin' Pediatrics Ward."
With a scoff, Sam said to him, "Good call."
Then Dean said to him, "Second, it wouldn't have done any good because the bastard's bulletproof unless he's chowing down on something. And third, I wasn't packing, which is probably a really good thing 'cause I probably would have just burned a clip in him off of principle alone."
With a tilt of his head, Sam said to him, "You're getting wise in your old age, Dean."
Dean replied, "You're damn right. 'Cause now I know how we're gonna get it."
As he turned to look back over at Dean, Sam asked him, "What do you mean?"
Dean said to him, "The Shtriga– It works through siblings, right?"
In turn, Sam said to him, "Right."
With a nod of his head, Dean said, "Well, last night..."
Sam replied, "It went after Asher."
Dean told him, "So I'm thinking tonight it's probably gonna come after Michael."
Sam said to him, "Then we got to get him out of here."
Dean replied, "No. No, that would blow the whole deal."
In turn, Sam said to him, "What?"
Then Dean said to him, "Yeah."
With a shake of his head, Sam asked him, "Then you want to use the kid as bait?"
With a feigned pout, Katherine raised her head from where it was hanging off of the side of the bed as she said, "Aw, look who's decided to use his little thinking cap."
With a shake of his head, Sam said, "Are you nuts? No. Forget it. That's out of the question."
Dean replied, "It's not out of the question, Sam. It's the only way– If this thing disappears, it could be years before we get another chance."
Sam retorted, "Michael's a kid, and I'm not gonna dangle him in front of that thing like a worm on a hook."
Dean told him, "Dad did not send me here to walk away."
In turn, Sam asked him, "Send you here? He didn't send you here. He sent us here."
Dean said to him, "This isn't about you, Sam. Alright? I'm the one that screwed up. It's my fault. There's no telling how many kids have gotten hurt because of me."
With a shake of his head, Sam asked him, "What are you saying, Dean? How is it your fault?" When Dean didn't respond, Sam let out a sigh before he said, "Dean. You've been hiding something from the get-go. Since when does Dad bail on a hunt? Since when does he let something get away? Now, talk to me, man. Tell me what's going on."
After several seconds of silence, Dean said, "For Douglas, Wisconsin. It was the third night in this crap room, and I was climbing the walls, man. I needed to get some air."
After spending some time playing a video game, young Dean Winchester went back into the motel room and closed the door before locking it shut.
He only came to a halt when he saw a door slightly open and a bit of light coming from it.
After a couple seconds of just staring at it, he slowly walked towards the door and slowly pushed it open to see a hooded creature standing over Sam.
Then he looked over at Katherine, who couldn't move and was staring at the hooded creature with wide eyes and tears rolling down the sides of her face as she tightly clutched onto her stuffed rabbit.
Then he looked back at Sam and the hooded creature that had its mouth open and a white light coming out from its mouth.
While continuing to stare at the creature, Dean grabbed onto the nearest gun and cocked it, which got the creature to look up at him with a growl.
It wasn't long after that that John quickly ran into the motel room and yelled, "Get out of the way!"
As soon as Dean threw himself out of the way, John started to repeatedly shoot his gun at the creature, which only moved away from Sam and was standing in front of the window with its arms open wide before it quickly threw itself out through the window.
John didn't stop shooting his gun at it until he heard nothing more than a click.
It was only then that he quickly made his way over towards his youngest son and started to shake him as he brought Sam up into his arms and said to him, "Sammy. Sammy. Sammy." As soon as Sam opened his eyes, John asked him, "You okay?"
With a groan, Sam asked him, "Dad, what's going on?"
In turn, John asked him, "Are you alright?"
With a sigh, he brought Sam close to his chest before he looked over at Katherine, whose bottom lip was quivering from where she sat on the bed with tears still rolling down the side of her face and her stuffed bunny pressed up against her chest.
After letting out yet another sigh, he also pulled Katherine close to himself and did his best to try and calm her down before he looked over at Dean and asked him, "What happened?"
Dean told him, "I-I just went out."
In turn, John said, "What?"
Dean said to him, "J-Just for a second. I'm sorry."
While continuing to hold his two youngest children close to himself, John said to him, "I told you not to leave this room. I told you not to let them out of your sight."
Then present Dean said, "Dad just grabbed us and booked, dropped us off at Pastor Jim's about three hours away. By the time he got back to Fort Douglas, the Shtriga had disappeared. I-It was just gone. It never resurfaced until now. You know, Dad never spoke about it again. I didn't ask. But he, uh... he looked at me different, you know, which was worse. Not that I blame him. He gave me an order, and I didn't listen, and I almost got you killed, Sam. Or, you know, it could've been the other way around. Instead of going straight for you, it could've gone straight for Katherine. I mean, you guys are only a couple minutes apart, so it could've gone for either of you."
With a sigh, Sam told him, "You were just a kid."
Dean replied, "Don't. Don't. Dad knew this was unfinished business for me. He sent me here to finish it."
With a sigh and a shake of his head, Sam said to him, "But using Michael– I don't know, Dean. I mean, how about one of us hides under the cover? You know, we'll be the bait."
With a shake of his own head, Dean told him, "No, that won't work. It's got to get close enough to feed. It'll see us. Believe me, I don't like it, but it's got to be the kid."
* * *
After looking between the three Winchester siblings, Michael said, "You're crazy. Just go away or I'm calling the cops."
In turn, Dean said to him, "Hang on a second. Just listen to me. You have to believe me, okay? This thing came through the window and it attacked your brother. I've seen it. I know what it looks like 'cause it attacked my brother once, too."
After slowly hanging the phone back up, Michael asked Dean, "This thing– Is it, like... It has this long, black robe?"
With a nod of his head, Dean asked him, "You saw it last night, didn't you?"
Michael replied, "I thought I was having a nightmare."
With a sigh, Dean said to him, "I'd give anything not to tell you this, but sometimes nightmares are real."
With a shake of his head, Michael asked him, "So why are you telling me?"
Dean told him, "Because we need your help."
In turn, Michael said, "M-My help?"
Dean told him, "We can kill it, the three of us can. It's what we do. But we can't do it without you."
With a shake of his head, Michael said, "What? No."
Dean replied, "Michael, listen to me. This thing hurt Asher, and it's gonna keep hurting kids unless we stop it. Do you understand me?"
* * *
While pacing around their motel room, Dean said, "Well, that went crappy. Now what?"
With a raise of his eyebrows, Sam asked him, "What did you expect? You can't ask an adult to do something like that, much less a kid."
It was then that a knock was heard on the door to their room, which got Katherine to tilt her head and watch as Dean made his way over towards the door and opened it to see Asher standing on the other side of the door.
As soon as the door was opened, Michael asked them, "If you kill it, will Asher get better?"
After taking a quick glance at his own siblings, Dean looked back over at Michael and told him, "Honestly, we don't know."
After a couple seconds of silence, Michael said to him, "You said you're a big brother."
With a nod of his head, Dean said to him, "Yeah."
In turn, Michael asked him, "You'd take care of your little brother and sister? You'd do anything for them?"
With a nod of his head, Dean replied, "Yeah, I would."
With a nod of his own head, Michael said, "Me too. I'll help."
Then Dean turned his head to look back at his two siblings– one of whom had her head tilted to the side and her eyes narrowed, while the other simply nodded his head– before he looked back at Michael with his own head tilted to the side.
* * *
While staring at the laptop, Dean asked, "What time is it?"
Sam simply pulled his headphones away from his ear and took a glance at his watch before he said, "Three. You sure these iron rounds are gonna work?"
After taking a quick glance over at Sam, Dean told him, "Concentrated iron rounds. And yeah, it's what Dad used last time."
While Katherine eyed the camera feed with narrowed eyes and her head leaned forward, Sam simply nodded his head before he said, "Hey, Dean, I'm sorry."
Dean asked him, "For what?"
With a sigh, Sam replied, "You know... I've really given you a lot of crap for always following Dad's orders, but I know why you do it."
With a shake of his head, Dean said, "Oh, God. Kill me now."
It wasn't long after Sam had only let out a chuckle that Katherine started to tilt her head a bit, while Dean said, "Wait, look."
From the video feed, the three of them could see what looked like a hand outside of Michael's window starting to pull up the window to the bedroom.
And while the three of them messed around with their guns as quietly as they could and kept their eyes on the video feed, the Shtriga had made its way into the room before it stopped right after getting into the room and was staring right at Michael.
While staring at the screen with their guns at the ready, the Winchester siblings silently stared at the video feed until Sam asked Dean, "Now?"
Dean replied, "Not yet."
While silently cocking their guns, they watched as the Shtriga slowly made its way over towards Michael before it eventually stopped right beside his head and started to lean its head down and grabbed at Michael.
It was only when its mouth had opened and a white light started to come out of it that the door was kicked open by the three Winchester siblings, who each had their guns pointed directly at the Shtriga.
While the Shtriga looked up at them with a growl, Dean yelled, "Michael, down!"
As soon as Michael had thrown himself off of the bed, the three of them started to repeatedly shoot at the Shtriga, which caused it to eventually fall backwards with its hands still raised.
After a couple seconds of silence, Dean asked, "Mike, you alright?"
Michael replied, "Yeah."
Dean said to him, "Just sit tight."
Then he started to slowly walk around the bed with his gun still pointed at the Shtriga.
After standing in front of it and silently staring down at it for several seconds, Dean turned his head to look over at his two siblings, which got Sam to hesitantly lower his gun and Katherine to simply tighten the grip on her own gun, just before the Shtriga quickly stood up and grabbed Dean by the front of his neck.
Then Dean was quickly thrown into one of the walls to the room, which resulted in Katherine to start to shoot her gun at the Shtriga once more, only for her gun to be knocked out of her hands as soon as the Shtriga grabbed onto her own neck and then tossed her towards a different wall, shortly before the same was done to Sam.
But the only difference between herself and Sam was that the Shtriga had quickly gotten on top of Sam with a tight grip on the front of his neck.
And while Sam tried to reach for the gun that was lying on the floor, Katherine sat up against the wall with a groan and looked between her two brothers.
It was only when she looked over at Sam that she could see something white start to come out of his mouth and go towards the Shtriga, which got Katherine to clench her jaw and her nose to flare as she quickly made her way over towards the gun that she dropped.
It wasn't until she had a hold of her gun that Dean yelled, "Hey!"
As soon as the Shtriga looked over at Dean, it got a sudden bullet to the forehead at the same time that Katherine had repeatedly shot it in the chest.
Even though she knew that shooting it in the chest did nothing to kill it, she didn't care.
The only thing she cared about was letting out her anger a little bit, due to the fact that her anger had only gotten that much worse since Meg had told Sam and Dean only a little bit about what happened during her time away from her family.
And while Katherine slowly forced herself off of the floor and stared down at the dark robes with a scowl on her face and her nose still flared, Dean asked Sam, "You okay, little brother?"
While gasping to himself, the most Sam did was give Dean a thumbs up, shortly before the three siblings made their way over towards the Shtriga and watched as what looked like wisps of smoke come out from the Shtriga's mouth.
And even though it was more than likely already dead, Dean and Katherine still raised their guns one last time and shot it in the chest at least a couple more times, which resulted in its robe to sink even more onto the floor and more wisps of smoke to come out from its mouth.
It was only then that Dean said, "It's okay, Michael. You can come out now."
And while Katherine continued to stare down at its robes with that same scowl on her face, Michael stood up and looked between the three Winchester siblings and what was left of the Shtriga before he smiled up at Dean, who had a bit of a smile on his own face as he stared down at the robes that the Shtriga had left behind.