19. High School Mystery
"Victim's name is Stephen Phelps, he was a math teacher," Jody reports. "Alex's favorite, actually."
We're outside of Marshall High school. A body had been found earlier this morning. A fireman and the coroner are wheeling the body off the school grounds. Sam, Dean, and I had jumped at the chance to run out in FBI getup.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Sam says sincerely.
"Phelps was found hanging upside-down from the top of the flag pole, duct-taped. Like his neck had been snapped first."
"Any witnesses?" I ask.
"Only the lucky custodian that found him."
"So, how did the killer get Phelps up there in the first place?" asks Sam. "Unless he had his own fire truck?"
"Yeah, so the killer climbs up twenty feet, a guy on his back, and duct tapes him?"
"Yeah, and why?"
Jody pulls evidence out from her pocket. "We found this around the flag pole, if it means anything. I already sent a sample to the lab." Sam takes the back, examining it. He shakes his head, an indication that he's not sure what it is.
"What else do you know about Phelps?" I ask Jody.
"Just that he was a damn fine teacher. He really helped Alex out, I know that."
"I knew it," says Claire, who's talking towards our group. "So, what are we dealing with? Demons, ghost possession?"
"Claire, this is a crime scene, you can't be here."
"Oh, but the fake FBI can?"
"Hey!" I say, slightly offended.
"Keep your voice down!" Jody hisses to Claire.
"All right, all right." I grab Claire's arm, pulling her away, Dean follows me.
"I was trying to work the case," Claire insists. "The case everyone said wasn't real."
"And you know what, you were right. Okay? There is something unnatural going on here. But you can't just walk up in front of a bunch of officers and demand that the sheriff give you details on a murder investigation."
"Can we talk about the body now?"
I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Oh I'm not even near finished." Claire rolls her eyes. "Hey."
Dean puts his arm out against me. "I got it, Jo." He addresses Claire. "You need to show Jody a little respect. She did you a huge solid by taking you in. She got you set up at school—"
"I don't wanna go to school."
"Nobody wants to go to school, Claire, it's school!"
"Exactly!"
"My point is—she's been busting her ass to get you set up with a life. She's feeding you, hell you got a nicer room that I do now. She kept you out of jail..."
"I never asked her to."
"And that's what I'm talking about. You need to act like you give a crap! You need to appreciate what that woman's done—"
"They cancelled school." Alex is approaching with a guy who I can assume is Henry, her boyfriend. "So we're gonna...hang out, I guess."
"Hang out, huh?" I stare at her pointedly.
"...Yeah." She gives me a weird look. "Okay then." The pair walk away.
"Oh yeah," Claire murmurs. "He got the message."
"Damn right he did."
"I'm sure." She starts to walk off.
"This kid, I swear," I mutter to Dean. "So, what do we do?"
"We do a sweep of the school, try to see what we're dealing with."
"Sounds like a plan."
We let Sam in on what we plan to do. He and Jody head off to talk to the staff at the school.
Dean and I enter the high school, and it's a ghost town. No busy hallways, no couples making out, nobody being pushed into lockers. You'd think this place is haunted. Not haunted, but something definitely happened here.
Dean and I, after a time, split up, searching every classroom and every office. I come back with nothing and find myself getting lost in the halls. Sometimes I check the same room twice.
Somehow, in the end, I find my brothers again.
"Hey!" I shout. I trot to both of them. "This place is bigger than it looks. Checked all classrooms, offices, hallways, bathrooms."
"And?" Sam asks.
"Nothing. No EMF, no hex bags, no sulfur."
"The only thing I found was a couple of teachers making out in the break room," Dean says.
"Well, you got more than I did. Not one witness. Oh, the custodian, there's definitely something up with him, he's squirrely."
"Well, teacher of the year gets run up a flag pole, and nobody knows squat? Something's going on here."
"Question is: what?" I say.
* * *
After our sweep of empty results in the high school, we're back at Jody's place, back to square one. Claire, Sam, and I are reviewing research about the case. Jody and Dean left to go check something out. We're sat at the table.
"Hey!" says Jody, with Dean behind her.
"Yo!" I say.
"What are you, from the nineties?" Claire says. I roll my eyes.
"Got the results back on that fiber from the crime scene," says Dean.
"And?" I press.
"Asbestos."
"Asbestos?"
"Yeah."
"So our killer's fire retardant," Claire concludes. "What does that mean?"
"Well, not much yet."
"And, Wheeler the Janitor? His alibi checks out," says Jody.
"Well, his social security number does not," Sam says. "It belongs to Mimi Garcia, who died in nineteen eighty-eight."
"And Wheeler started at Marshall a few months ago," Claire adds. "When the disappearances started. The ones I said were supernatural in the first place?"
"Yes, we know, you keep reminding us," Jody says, exasperated.
"So...we need to talk to this Mr. Wheeler again," I say. Sam shuts his laptop and gets up.
"Okay, I'm gonna run his ID photo through the database."
Claire gets up. "I'm coming with you. I have a Fed suit, I can be your new agent trainee."
"Okay, hold on there, Quantico," Jody stops her. "You and I are leaving in a half an hour, the registrar, remember?"
"Reschedule it."
"Again? Uh-uh. You are going to beg him to let you re-enroll. Tonight."
"When there's a killer out there?"
"Hey," I say, ending the fight. Claire glares at me, but she doesn't get any retorts out. Fuming, she walks out of the room. "God, that kid is a handful." I pinch the bridge of my nose.
Sam and Dean leave to go find Wheeler while I remain with Jody and Claire. Claire fights Jody to get changed, and the way she's dressed reminds me of Cas. She looks absolutely miserable.
"Don't worry, if Alex and Henry try anything, I'll be here to scare them shitless," I tell Jody as she and Claire begin to head out the door.
"Are you sure I can't just—?" Claire tries.
"No, you're going." With a parting nod from Jody, the two of them leave the house. For now, it's just me.
Cas, you hear me? Hope you're all right. Hope you haven't run into any serious trouble, like Amara. Just...see us when you can. You might like to know that Claire's got a good life with Jody Mills. She's got another girl who acts like her sister. She's still pulled into the hunter path, but Jody's trying to put her into school. It's crazy, Cas, how this girl wants to hunt and doesn't want the life that she's got. Some people don't know how good they have it compared to people like me.
When I don't hear an answer, I assume he's busy. Licking my lips, I step outside into the night air. I think my eyes are tricking me when I see a figure in the dark head towards Jody's garage. Don't take any chances. Moving away from the house, I close the gap.
I break out into a sprint when I see the figure drag out a girl with blonde hair, who's trying her hardest to break free.
"No!" I shout as I see her body fall. The figure goes back inside of the garage, and that's where I head.
The lights are on, the truck untouched. There's a man wrestling with Jody. I launch myself onto his back, throwing him away from her. Jody screams in pain and horror as I pull the man away. He grabs me, throwing me to the ground. I grab the metal rod that's nearby, using it as a weapon.
"Hey, asshat!" I bellow, gripping the rod like a baseball bat.
"Well, aren't you a stupid one?" he growls. He smiles, and I see his pointy fangs descend. Vampire. "Don't know how I'll manage to take all three of you away, but I'll try."
I need something to decapitate him. I look around as I fend myself from the vampire, looking for anything with a point. He runs me into the wall, and I use the rod as the only barrier from his teeth scraping my face and neck. I kick him in the gut, sending him into Jody's truck.
When I swing for him, he grabs the rod, ripping it from my grasp. Oh shit. I go on defense, ducking and dodging as the rod swings for me. It crashes onto my shoulder, and I duck to try and avoid it hitting my across my head. That doesn't work so well.
When the rod connects with my head, I fall to the ground, coughing, eyes barely open. I hear Jody screaming my name and just screaming in general. Through fuzzy vision, I see the vampire dragging her out of the garage. Pathetically, I start to crawl towards the exit of the garage.
I fall unconscious, hearing Jody's screams in my head.