“Hey, Ali, wake up,” I heard and felt someone shaking me gently. I rubbed my eyes. It was dark out.
“Are we there?” I asked looking out the window. We were outside a crappy motel called the Mystic. “Never mind, we’re here,” I said knowingly.
“Come on Sleeping Beauty,” Dean said opening my door.
I clambered out, grabbed my duffle bag and headed towards the motel with Dean. Sam went to rent rooms.
“Here ya go,” Sam said handing us separate keys. I always stayed in my own room because Sam and Dean refused to sleep in the same bed and neither of them would sleep with me.
“Inappropriate,” they had said. Right because going around killing things that went bump in the night was appropriate.
“We should go over our stories,” Sam said as I went to put the key into the slot.
“Let me just put my bag in my room,” I said and pushed the door opened.
The smell of cigarette smoke hit me like a ton of bricks. I coughed.
“You guys wouldn’t wanna switch rooms would you?” I asked sweetly.
They came to the door.
“Hell no,” Dean said while Sam said “No way.”
I huffed and dumped my bag on the bed.
“Fine,” I said then followed them to their room, which smelled like fried chicken.
“Shut up,” Dean said, flicking his eyes to me and walking in.
I followed with Sam behind me. We sat at the table and Dean sat on the bed.
“So what’s our move?” Dean called over.
“FBI. We’ll go see the sheriff and the town officials first,” Sam answered.
“Kind of hard,” I said thinking he already knew. “Didn’t you read the part where the officials were all killed in an explosion? 12 of them.”
“Wait, 12?” Sam said. “That’s how many people they found in the woods.”
“Coincidence?” Dean asked.
Sam looked skeptical. “I guess we’ll find out in the morning.”
We disbanded the meeting and I went to my room. I dug out my suit and badge.
“Look out Mystic Falls. Agent Joplin is on her way,” I laughed to myself.
The next day dawned bright and clear. I put on my charcoal grey pantsuit with a fitted jacket and black flats. If shit went down I needed to be able to move. I pulled my hair into a low ponytail.
Knock knock knock
I pulled open the door. If I didn’t know them I would have been intimidated as hell and slightly turned on by the two men at my door. They both had on dark suits with white button downs. Dean’s tie was green, Sam’s was grey.
“Agents Tyler and Perry,” Dean said formally.
“Ah welcome agents. I’m Agent Joplin.”
Dean smiled. “That’s my favorite alias of yours.”
I smiled back. “Thanks.”
Sam’s mouth opened as he looked between us. “No snarky remarks?” he asked.
“We can’t act like assholes to one another all the time,” Dean said and hooked my arm, leading me out. I thought Sam was going to fall over.
“Shot gun,” I said and Sam nodded.
Dean shot me a look and we both started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Sam asked.
“You. Your face. Are we really that bad?” I asked.
“Well, yeah,” Sam said.
Dean laughed so hard tears came to his eyes.
“OK agents,” I said when the laughing died down. “Where to first?”
“A Sheriff Forbes,” Sam said looking at his note pad.
We pulled into the heart of Anywhere, USA, currently Mystic Falls. Everything was perfect, too perfect.
“We should divide and conquer,” Dean said. “Ali and I will go to see Sheriff Forbes, Sammy you hit the school.”
“Fine,” Sammy said. “But you better back me up at the school when you’re done.”
“Absolutely Agent Perry.”
We drove Sam to the school, the drove back to the courthouse where we found Sheriff Forbes. She was in her mid-40s, on the shorter side, with blond hair.
“Sheriff Forbes,” Dean said pulling out his badge as I did the same, “I’m agent Tyler, this is agent Joplin.”
“FBI?” the sheriff said looking confused. “I didn’t call you guys.”
“No you didn’t,” I said in a professional manner. “Our bosses said there have been a few,” I paused searching for the right word, “unexplained deaths in the area and asked us to look into it.”
Dean flashed her a winning smile.
“OK agents, what do you want to know?”
“About two weeks ago there were 12 bodies found by the lake. All were missing their hearts.”
Sheriff Forbes nodded. “Tragic animal attack. Most of them were only in their early 20’s.”
I wrote in my notebook Bar?
“Besides the missing hearts,” I said, “was there anything unusual about the bodies?”
“How do you mean?” the sheriff asked.
Dean spoke up. “Anything else missing? Smell of sulfur?”
The sheriff shook her head. “No, just the hearts.”
“Sheriff, what about the accident that killed 12 council members?”
The sheriff looked shocked for a minute then composed herself. “Horrible accident. There was a gas leak that caught fire and exploded.”
“How did it catch fire?” I asked.
The sheriff shrugged. “We don’t know, but we think someone lit a cigarette.”
Dean scribbled on his notepad. “Thank you sheriff,” he said.
We walked out and got into the Impala, just as a blue convertible pulled up. The driver looked like a model with dark hair and piercing blue eyes. The other man had sandy hair, probably in his early 30’s. The driver caught my eye and I got a chill. There was definitely something up with this town
