𝒮𝒾𝓁𝓋ℯ𝓇 ℰ𝓎ℯ𝓈 | 𝒮. 𝒲𝒾𝓃𝒸𝒽ℯ𝓈𝓉ℯ𝓇 |

0.4

Sam and I had been doing research on the Wampus cat for at least an hour and a half now, trying to figure out what could kill her.

The brothers had figured out not to bother me too much when I was in the zone and doing research when I had accidentally snapped at Dean for saying something completely irrelevant.

I had quickly apologized, but I still felt horrible.

Speaking of Dean, he had given up due to frustration, so now he would just bring us beers and give a motivating comment every now and then.

We were so lost that I had to go and get my books out of my truck, only to have those give us jack squat as well.

"Hold up," said Sam, looking down at his laptop. "I think I found something."

I looked up from my laptop, a little spark of hope forming.

Quickly glancing over to Dean, I saw that he was the same way.

"According to this, we need a silver knife coated in water from the New River," Sam said.

"Shit. The river's at least an hour and a half away. We don't have that kind of time," said Dean.

"Maybe we don't need the actual river water. It'd be a shot in the dark, but a lot of the creeks in the area run off from the New River. The water's the same, it's just a smaller source," I said.

Sam and Dean looked to each other, both making small shrugging motions.

"Would at least slow her down and save us some time," said Dean.

I nodded, about to agree when Dean's phone rang.

"Agent Perry speaking," he said, Sam and I both silently waiting to see what the call was about.

"Another one? Where?"

There was a pause as the person in the other end of the call answered.

"It's the professor? Okay, my partner and I will be right over. Call back if anything else shows up," Dean said, then hung up.

If Sam and I weren't entirely sure what had happened, Dean's grim expression solidified our thoughts.

"So the professor's dead?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah. Hiker found him along a trail not far from here," Dean said, then looked to Sam. "You ready?"

Sam then glanced over to me. "Are you gonna be okay here by yourself? We all know that thing was watching us earlier."

I shrugged. "I'll be fine as long as you two are okay with me chilling in your motel room for a little while."

"Well then. Have fun," said Dean as he grabbed his jacket and walked out the door.

Sam scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Sorry. He can be a real pain in the ass sometimes."

"I heard that!" Yelled Dean from outside.

I chuckled. "It's fine. I'm used to it. Oh," I said, grabbing a small slip of paper. "Here's my number. Update me when you get the chance. And I know you and Dean said it's probably nothing, but I still feel like we're missing a big part of the puzzle, so if it's not much to ask, can you double check?"

I felt bad for asking them to work harder than they probably had to, but something about this case didn't sit right with me. It seemed to easy.

Sam smiled. "I will. And I know what it's like to have something eating at you like that, so yes, I can double check."

"Sammy! Let's go for god's sake!"

Again, I chuckled, only this time at Dean's use of 'sammy'.

"Alright, we'll be back in a little while," said Sam as he walked out the door, making sure to give me a brief smile before fully closing it.

Their car roared to life, then the sound slowly dimmed away as they drove off.

Looking around the more room, it dawned on me that there wasn't much to do.

I decided to read the books that I had on lore, since I had never actually finished a few of them.

After about thirty minutes, my phone rang.

I picked it up, answering the call. "Hello?"

"Harlow, it's Sam. You were right," said Sam. I could hear the sound of wind in the background, which probably meant that he was in the car.

"Huh?" I asked.

"You were right. We were missing something. When Dean and I got there, the place reeked of sulfur," he said.

I sighed. "Demon."

"Yeah. And that's not it- the professor's eye were glossed over, like he wasn't really there. And there was a witness that said that they may have seen him talking to himself before black smoke flew out of his mouth. You have any idea?" Sam asked.

"Ew'ah," I said.

"What?" He said, clearly confused.

"Ew'ah. It's the name of the demon in the legend. If his gaze was enough to make people go crazy, what do you think him possessing someone could do? I'd drive them mad," I said. It was all staring to make sense now.

"Hang on, I'm putting you on speaker." There was a short pause, then Sam spoke up again. "Alright, tell us what you got."

"Okay. So the demon possesses a man and makes them go off their rocker. Now, the Wampus Cat is probably just trying to protect her lands, as she did long ago. So she hunts the demon, probably with the intent of trapping and killing him, only he smokes out before she can get to him. Then all that's left is a broken man who can barely think. In her culture, that's worse than death," I said.

"So she thinks she's giving them so sort of mercy kill?" Asked Dean.

"Yeah. She's not really the bad in this situation."

"Okay, it makes sense. But what about the guy with the concussion and scratches on his arm?" Said Sam.

"He probably knew their was something in him. Tried to beat it out. And when Ew'ah left, he was crazy. Scratching is something that people do when they're a paranoid psychotic," I said.

"She's right. Remember me when I had that ghost flu thing?" Said Dean.

I made a mental note to ask for that story later. I opened my mouth to speak, but a certain smell caught my nose.

Sulfur.

"Fuck. Where'd you guys put the flask of holy water?" I whispered.

I could literally feel the mood of Sam and Dean shift through the phone. The car sped up, and Sam's voice changed.

"It's-"

"Too late for her, sadly," said a voice behind me.

"Ew'ah."