Chapter Text
The creak of the Impala’s door could just be heard over the rattling of an empty burger wrapper that Dean was about to throw out, but stopped suddenly when he noticed that Sam hadn’t gotten out of the car yet.
“Sammy, you okay?”
“Yeah, Dean. I’m fine,” Sam mutters back sarcastically.
“Look, if you’re gonna be pissed at me at least have the decency to tell me what I did to deserve this oh-so-pathetic little hissy fit you’re throwing in the car right now.” Dean rolls his eyes impatiently. Sam had been mad at him for nearly the whole 6 hour drive to Rockford, Illinois, and Dean has had just about enough of it.
“Well it’s either this or you could let me punch you in the face a few times to make up for cutting my freaking hair!” The last few days have been filled with yet another stupid prank war between the two brothers, and Sam had lost after Dean clipped off a chunk of Sam’s beautiful locks, and he still hasn’t gotten over it.
“Oh, you mean this hair?” Dean holds up the lock of Sam’s hair he’d cut off the night before. It’s tied with a small black rubber band, dangling between Dean’s fingers before he throws it across the car at Sam’s face. “Here, you can have it back.”
“Yeah,” Sam scoffs. “Whole lotta good it’s gonna do me now.” Sam throws the hair on the ground angrily and gets out of the Impala with a huff. As mad as he was, is, he knew it would grow back eventually, and they have a case to work on here and he needs to be on his game. “Anyways, what all is going on in this town? Why’d you drag me out here?”
“Rockford, Illinois. Two missing persons reports in the last week, one of which was found mauled but some kind of beast across the street from a local bar behind a dumpster. No witnesses, no organs missing.” Dean states matter-of-factly as they both walk down the sidewalk wearing their Fed getups.
“Ok… I’m still not seeing where this is our sorta thing. Maybe we oughta let the locals handle this?” Sam offers.
“You haven’t let me finish, Sammy. Guess what else they found at the crime scene? Sulfur.” Dean smiles to himself, thinking he’s impressed Sam with his finding of an unusual case.
“Sulfur? I didn’t think demons usually left enough of it behind for the cops to ever notice? I mean, when have they ever noticed before?” Sam looks puzzled and scratches his head a few times while contemplating a possible explanation.
“Well yeah. But you wanna know what I’m thinking? I think the sulfur was planted at the crime scene. Someone is trying to lure us here. And I say we hand ourselves over and see what this mess is all about.” They turn left down a side street and continue walking to the crime scene just a few blocks away.
Sam coughs. “Uh, yeah. Sure. Great plan, Dean. Except that’s a terrible idea.”
“Don’t worry. I called Cas. He should be here soon to help us out, or back us up, or whatever the hell else.”
Sam eyes him pointedly. “Maybe you’ve forgotten, but Cas is kind of busy dealing with business upstairs. Why would you bother him with this crap of a case?”
“Don’t worry, Cas said he could swing it, and I figure if this IS a trap for the two of us, wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some back up. C’mon, we’re here. Let’s get Cas here now.” Dean closed his eyes to pray. “Oh, Castiel. I pray that you get your feathery ass down here and help us with this case. We are outside of Red’s Bar in Rockford, Illinois. And Sam’s being a little bitch, so maybe you c—“ The ruffling of a trench coat followed by the sudden presence of Castiel directly in front of Dean’s face with a questioning look on the Angel’s face followed by a murmured, “Hello, Dean,” stops Dean cold in his well-worded prayer. Sam is rolling his eyes behind the two, and Dean clears his throat to talk to Castiel. “Uh, hi Cas. Personal space, remember?”
“My apologies.” Castiel steps back, seemingly apologetic.
“That’s alright, Cas. Just help us with this case and all is forgiven.” Dean pats Castiel on the back reassuringly.
“Yes, about that. I’ve searched the area and the crime scene twice, and there is no evidence of demonic activity in this area.”
“Huh. Well, way to be proactive, Cas. You’d have thought you didn’t have something better to do this morning,” Dean replied, teasing.
Castiel doesn’t respond.
Sam snorts. “You see, Dean, I told you. This was a stupid idea and has nothing to do with us. Let’s get out of here.” Sam starts walking in the other direction.
“Now just wait a minute here. I wouldn’t have come all the way out here from Bobby’s if I didn’t think this was something worth looking into. Now maybe there aren’t any demons here now but that doesn’t mean there weren’t before. I’m not leaving this town till I find that second missing person and get them back to their family.” Dean starts towards the crime scene with Castiel following suit while Sam shakes his head and decides to find them a motel to sleep in for the night.
~
Several hours later Sam is in their room doing research on the case when Dean and Castiel walk through the door, Dean muttering something under his breath.
“How’d it go?” Sam asked the duo.
“That was a load of crap. Nothing at that crime scene makes any sense whatsoever.” Dean threw himself at the cooler to grab a beer for him and Sam.
Sam accepts the beer in one hand while muttering, “I thought you’d say that. But I was doing some digging while you two were checking out the crime scene and get this: The second missing person’s crime scene had the sulfur at it, which is the one you guys just checked out. But the crime scene for the first victim didn’t have any sulfur noted in the case file. So why is it randomly appearing now?”
“I don’t know, Sherlock. Why don’t you tell us? The sulfur wasn’t even still there when we got to the crime scene,” Dean mutters with impatience while Cas walks over to Sam’s laptop to pear at it over his shoulder.
“If you’d let me finish,” Sam clears his throat. “I don’t think it was sulfur at all. I think it was just something that looked like it. Corn starch, maybe.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that someone planted it at the scene. I still think we were meant to be here, to work on this case,” Dean says matter-of-factly.
Sam rolls his eyes, tired of Dean’s impatience. “Yes, sure, but my point is, there was no sign of demon involvement in this case. Cas said so himself that he didn’t see anything in the area. Right, Cas?” Sam looks up at Cas from over his shoulder. Cas stands up and looks apologetically at Dean for the second time today.
“Yes, I found no sign of demons in this area when I checked this morning.” Cas stands, still staring at Dean as if looking for affirmation, or instructions. Dean puts his face in his hand and grumbles. This case makes less sense the more he hears about it and he just wants to find that missing girl and go home so everyone will shut up about it.
Dean takes a long swig of his beer before looking at Sam and Cas and saying, “Fine. No demons, then. But there’s still a girl missing, and what about the girl that was mauled? There are no animal attacks in this town for the last 50 years. Seems kind of odd to start now, when the town is basically a city and there aren’t any woods near that bar.”
Cas looks back at Sam, expecting a reply. When nothing comes but a shrug, Cas looks back to Dean and attempts to help him analyze the case. “Was the heart still intact in the first victim? Surely if that was missing it could mean a werewolf.”
Dean shakes his head. “No, the heart wasn’t removed. Not all the way, at least. That body was ripped to shreds. They left half or less of everything according to the Sheriff. Let’s see if we can track down the coroner on the case and get a good look at those remains and see what we thing then. You coming, Sammy?” Dean looks at him expectantly, already knowing that Cas would be coming with him.