Dawson's Daughter | {BOOK 1}

20|Working With John

Our next case was personal to Dean. As in, John went after the thing when he was younger, and it got away because Dean didn't watch Sam like he was supposed to. It was a Shtriga, a witch type thing that fed of kid's souls. Unlike before, Dean actually managed to kill the thing this time around and all the kids that the Shtriga attacked were able to start getting better.

After that we dealt with a good old fashioned haunting. It was a painting and we had to burn the little girl's doll because it was made with some of her hair. Sam actually met someone on that case. Her name was Sarah and the two actually went on one date in the middle of the case and then kissed before we took off again.

The case after that, we actually worked with John. He showed up after we got a letter from a post office box that Samuel Elkins, another hunter, left behind.

"'J.W.'  You think? John Winchester?" Sam asked.

"I don't know. Should we open it?" Dean looked at his brother.

There was a knock at Dean's window, and he raised an arm, fist clenched while looking to see who it was. John smiled when he saw he had surprised us.

The letter basically said that if John was reading it, Elkins was dead and that he apparently had some special gun made by Samuel Colt that could kill the Demon. The creatures that killed Elkins, which turned out to be vampires, had stolen it, but we managed to get it back. Surprisingly, John agreed to let us come along with him for the final fight, so we were now all together in a motel room, staring at all the research John had ever done on the Demon- and it was a lot.

The walls were covered in weather charts, hieroglyphs, pictures, newspaper articles and written notes. There was also an entire shelf of books and more. Plus there were extra papers strewn across the desk where the Colt now rested. John sat behind the desk, Sam was leaning against a counter, I was on the edge of one of the beds and Dean was pacing.

"So this is it," John said. "This is everything I know. Look, our whole lives we been searching for this demon, right? Not a trace, just... nothing. Until about a year ago. For the first time I picked up a trail."

"And that's when you took off," Dean stated.

"Yeah. That's right. The demon must have come out of hiding, or hibernation."

I chewed my lip nervously while I listened. It was conversations like this one that made me feel like I had no part in this whole ordeal. It was the Winchesters who had been searching for the demon their whole lives. It was the Winchesters who were taking revenge. I was just the daughter of some supplier who happened to die six years ago while out hunting.

I really needed to check back up on the shop. It'd been nearly a year since I left. Felt like an eternity ago. John explained how the demon went after families with six month infants, like Sam had been, and burned their houses the same way. Then Sam got mad, because he thought it was all his fault his mom and girlfriend died the way they did. Which of course, escalated until Dean and Sam were shouting at each other.

"For the last time, what happened to them is not your fault," Dean told his brother, frustrated.

"Right. It's not my fault, but it's my problem," Sam shouted back.

"No, it's not your problem! It's our problem!"

"Okay, that's enough," John said, standing.

They all took some deep breaths, calming down.

"So why's he doing it?" Sam asked after a few minutes of silence. "What does he want?"

"Look, I wish I had more answers, I do," John sighed. "I've always been one step behind it. Look, I've never gotten there in time to save..."

He looked down unhappily, and I was genuinely shocked to see the great John Winchester getting choked up over something.

"All right, so how do we find it... before it hits again?" Dean questioned his father.

"There's signs. It took me a while to see the pattern, but it's there in the days before these fires. Signs crop up in the area; cattle deaths, temperature fluctuations, electrical storms. And then I went back and checked... and..."

"These things happened in Lawrence," Dean realized.

"A week before your mother died," John nodded. "And in Palo Alto... before Jessica. And these signs, they're starting again."

"Where?" I spoke for the first time.

"Salvation, Iowa," John replied.

⁘

We were following behind John's truck when we pulled off to the side and all piled out.

"God damn it," John swore, slamming his door shut.

"What is it?" Dean asked him.

"Son of a bitch!" John shouted again, hitting the side of his truck.

"What is it!" Dean repeated, raising his voice as well.

"I just got a call from Caleb."

I felt my heart sink and glanced over at the brothers, but they were just staring at their father. Caleb had come into the shop a few times over the years. He was the one I'd called for information on the Daeva back in Chicago.

"Is he okay?" Dean voiced the question we were probably all thinking.

"He's fine. Jim Murphy's dead."

"Pastor Jim? How?" Sam demanded.

"His throat was slashed. He bled out. Caleb said they found traces of sulfur at Jim's place."

"A demon," Dean said, and John nodded. "The Demon?"

"I don't know. Could be he just got careless, he slipped up. Maybe the demon knows we're getting close."

My gut feeling was starting to come back. It was faint, but it was there. The boys still didn't know anything about it...

"What do we do?" Dean questioned his dad.

"Now we act like every second counts. There's two hospitals and a health center in this county. We split up, cover more ground. I want records. I want a list of every infant that's going to be six months old in the next week."

"Dad, that could be dozens of kids," Sam pointed out. "How do we know which one's the right one?"

"We check 'em all out, that's how. You got any better ideas?"

"No, sir."

"Eleanor, ride with me."

I glanced over at Dean, then moved over closer to John's truck as he leaned against it. Dean paused opening his door to look over at him.

"Dad?" he asked softly.

"Yeah. It's Jim. You know I can't..." John went from upset to a hardened expression in seconds. "This ends, now. I'm ending it. I don't care what it takes."

We all climbed into the two cars, and sped off into the distance.