Chapter 13: Peter Sweeney

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    Dean and I were in the hotel room. He was sitting on the edge of the bed while I was sprawled out on the same bed looking at Lucas' drawing. The door opened and Sam walked in. "So, I think it's safe to say we can rule out Nessie."
    "What do you mean?" I asked dropping my arms and looking over at the boys. Sam came over and sat next to Dean.
"I just drove past the Carlton house. There was an ambulance there. Will Carlton is dead." he told us. I propped myself up on my elbows.
    "What?" I asked at the same time Dean asked his own question.
    "He drowned?"
    "Yep. In the sink." Sam told us.
    "Well that's a dignified way to die." I said laying back down. Dean smacked my leg lightly giving me a slightly disapproving face, but the part that wasn't disapproving was fighting a smile.
    "What the hell? So you're right, this isn't a creature. We're dealing with something else." Dean replied to Sam.
    "Yeah, but what?" I asked them.
    "I don't know. Water wraith, maybe? Some kind of demon? I mean, something that controls water...water that comes from the same source." Dean told us in realization.
    "The lake." Sam and I both said.
    "Yeah."
    "Which would explain why it's upping the body count. The lake is draining. It'll be dry in a few months. Whatever this thing is, whatever it wants, it's running out of time." Sam explained.
    "And if it can get through the pipes, it can get to anyone, almost anywhere." Dean told us standing up. "This is gonna happen again soon." he sat down in a chair.
    "And we do know one other thing for sure. We know this has got something to do with Bill Carlton." I put in, propping myself up again.
    "Yeah, it took both his kids." Dean replied.
    "And I've been asking around. Lucas's dad, Chris—Bill Carlton's godson." Sam told us
    "Coincidence? I think not." I said. Sam gave me a look while Dean chuckled lightly. "What do you say?" I said rolling over to the side of the bed and standing up. "Let's go pay Mr. Carlton a visit."
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    We arrived at the Carlton House and we all got out of the car. I glanced around the house and noted that Bill Carlton was sitting on a bench down by the dock. I pointed him out to the brothers. "He's down by the dock." They nodded and we made our way down to him.
    "Mr. Carlton?" Sam called out as we got closer to the man on the dock. He slowly turned his head over in our direction, seeming to drag his gaze away from the water.
    "We'd like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind." I spoke softly to the grieving father.
    "We're from the, the Department-" Dean began to speak when Mr. Carlton cut him off.
    "I don't care who you're with. I've answered enough questions today." He responded his voice cracking slightly. He turned his gaze back out to the lake.
    "Your son said he saw something in that lake. What about you? You ever see anything out there?" Sam asked probably deciding it's better to not just beat around the bush.
    "Mr. Carlton, Sophie's drowning and Will's death—we think there might be a connection to you or your family." I spoke this time trying to convey my sympathy with my voice while also trying to alert him to the seriousness of the situation.
    "My children are gone. It's...it's worse than dying." He responded turning to face us once again, his eyes met mine and he had tears that were threatening to spill over. This man was broken, completely. He averted his gaze as he pleaded with us, "Go away. Please." With that we decided to leave him be, we weren't going to get any answers from him, at least not right now. We made our way back to the car, once there Sam walked over to the passenger side while Dean and I stood on the drivers side.
    "What do you think?" Sam asked.
    "Aw, I think the poor guy's been through hell. I also think he's not telling us something." Dean replied, looking around the yard of the Carlton house.
    "So now what?" Sam asked leaning against the car. Dean became still. "What is it?"
    "Huh." Dean said looking at the Carlton house. "Maybe Bill's not the only one who knows something." he told us pulling Lucas' picture out from his inner jacket pocket. I furrowed my brows as he held it up and stared at it. I over over to his side and glanced at the picture in detail. My eyes widened, the picture was of the Carlton house.
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    We made our way to Andrea's house to try and talk to Lucas. Once Andrea let us in, we explained how we wanted to talk to him, since he might have seen what happened that day.
    "I'm sorry, but I don't think this is a good idea." Andrea told us.
    "I just need to talk to him." Dean replied.
    "He won't say anything. What good's it gonna do?" She asked    "Andrea, we think more people will get hurt. We think somethings happening out there." Sam told her.
    "My husband, the others, they just drowned. That's all." She replied.
    "If that's what you really believe, then we'll go. But if you think that there's even a possibility that something else could be going on here, please let me talk to your son." Dean told her, that must have been enough to convince her because her shoulders relaxed slightly.
    "Alright."
    Andrea led us upstairs and we all approached Lucas's door. He was sitting on the floor coloring, with toy soldiers laid out in front of him. Dean walked in and crouched down near him. "Hey Lucas, do you remember me?" Dean asked. Lucas kept drawing. "You know, I, uh, wanted to thank you for that last drawing. But the thing is I need your help again." He opened up the picture of the Carlton house and put it in front of Lucas. "How did you know to draw this? Did you know something bad was gonna happen? Maybe you could nod yes or no for me." Dean continued. Lucas continued his coloring. "Your scared. It's okay. I understand. See when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom, and I was scared, too. I didn't feel like talking, just like you. But see my mom-I know she wanted me to be brave. I think about that every day. And I do my best to be brave. And maybe, your dad wants you to be brave too." Lucas dropped his crayon and looked up athe Dean. He reached down to his pile of pictures. Choosing one, he hands it to Dean. Dean looked at the picture and looked back up at Lucas. "Thanks Lucas."
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    Back in the Impala, Sam was holding the picture of what appeared to be a church and a house, while I looked over his shoulder. "Andrea said the kid never drew like that till his dad died." Dean told us.
    "There are cases-going through a traumatic experience could make people more sensitive to premonitions, psychic tendencies." Sam replied.
    "Whatever's out there, what if Lucas is taping into it somehow? I mean it's only a matter of time before someone else drowns, so if you got a better lead, please." Dean said. Sam shrugged his shoulders.
    "Alright, we got another house to find." I told them examining the child's drawing.
    "The problem is there's about a thousand yellow two-stoties in this county alone." Dean told me. Sam continued to examine the picture.
    "See this church? I bet there's less than a thousand of those around here." Sam told us. Dean glanced at him.
    "Oh, college boy think's he's so smart." Dean teased. Sam chuckled in response, and for a minute it was silent.
    "You know, um...what you said about mom. You never told me that before." Sam told him. I slowly sat back into my seat not wanting to intrude on their brotherly moment.
    "It's no big deal." Dean replied. Sam stared at him for a minute, analyzing his big brother. Dean turned to look at his brother and turned back to the road. "Oh god we're not gonna have to hug or anything, are we?" Sam laughed and looked away.
    "You guys are so cute." I teased, chuckling at the awkwardness that is the Winchesters expression of brotherly love. Sam laughed again as Dean glared at me through the mirror.
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    After driving around town for a bit, we settled on a church that was almost the exact replica of the drawing that Lucas gave us. Getting out of the car we approached the church and held up the drawing for comparison. The drawing showed a young boy with a red bicycle in front of the yellow house. I glanced at the brothers and began making my way over to the home. We knocked on the door and an old lady answered the door. "Hello ma'am, I'm Agent Fisher. This is Agent Hamill, and Agent Ford." I listed off to her smiling. "We're with the US Wildlife Service, we just had a few questions if you don't mind." She looked confused but nodded.
"Of course, please come in." she opened her door wider and let us into her home. She introduced herself to us as Ruth Sweeney.
"We're sorry to bother you, ma'am"—but does a little boy live here, by chance? He might wear a blue ball cap, has a red bicycle." Dean asked, cutting straight to the chase. As he spoke Mrs. Sweeney seemed to grow sad, looking towards the ground.
"No sir. Not for a very long time." She answered. Looking back up at us, "Peter's been gone for thirty-five years now." She led us down a small hall to a bedroom, it seemed to be a child's bedroom though it was unused. Once inside the room Mrs. Sweeney  glanced over at a picture sitting on a side table. She walked over to it and I followed slightly behind looking at the photo to see a boy in a striped shirt and a big smile. She sighed heavily as she looked at it. "The police never—I never had any idea what happened." She turned back to me a sad look in her eyes, "He just disappeared." She explained. "Losing him—you know, it's...it's worse than dying." She began choking up as she spoke those words that echoed in my ears. I reached forward and grabbed her hand.
"I'm so sorry to hear that Mrs. Sweeney, no parent should ever wonder about what happened to their child. I'm so sorry for your loss." I spoke quietly, she met my eyes and nodded her thanks tightening her grip on my hand.
"Did he disappear from here? I mean, from this house?" Dean asked. Mrs. Sweeney looked behind me, I glanced with her as well over my shoulder to the brothers.
"He was supposed to ride his bike straight home after school, and he never showed up." She told him. I nodded and she began walking out of the room, I dropped her hand as she wandered off to collect herself. Once we were alone in the room Sam pointed out some toy soldiers sitting on a shelf to me, the same kind that Lucas was playing with. Dean wandered over to the mirror in the room and picked a picture off the mirror.
"Peter Sweeney and Billy Carlton, nineteen seventy." He read aloud, then turned and showed us the picture. I looked it over then glance up at Dean. Bill knew Peter.
    After this revelation we quickly thanked dMrs. Sweeney for her time and gave her our condolences and left. Once in the impala we began making out way back out to the Carlton residence.
    "Okay, this little boy Peter Sweeny vanishes, and this all connected to Bill Carlton somehow." Sam explained.
    "Yea, Bill sure as hell seems to be hiding something, huh?" Dean asked.
    "Seems like it." I replied. "And Bill, all the people he loves, they're all getting punished."
    "So what if Bill did something to Peter?" Dean asked.
    "What if Bill killed him." Sam put in.
    "Peter's spirit would be furious, it'd want revenge." I replied.
    "It's possible." Dean agreed.
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    We made it to Bill Carlton's house. Getting out of the Impala we began to approach the house. "Mr Carlton!" Sam called. The sound of an engine could be heated turning around I saw Bill Carlton on a boat taking out into the lake.
    "Hey check it out." I told them. Immediately we all began running to the edge of the pier.
    "Mr. Carlton! You need to come back! Come out of the water! Turn the boat around!" Dean yelled.
    "Mr. Carlton!" Sam yelled. We were shouting at him to come back but Bill ignored us and continued going. Until the boat shot up out of the water with great force. Flipping over and causing both the boat and it's driver to disappear.

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