Back To Better Days | Dean Winchester [5]

Chapter 12: You have the sense of humor of a nine-year-old

I believe the children are our future 1

"Agents Page, Plant, and Tyler. FBI." Dean states as the three hold up their badges.

"Gentlemen, lady. What brings you by?" The coroner asks.

"We need to see Amber Greer's body." Sam tells him.

"Really? What for?"

"The police report said something clawed through her skull." Dean says.

"You didn't read the autopsy report that I e-mailed out this morning?"

"We had sever issues." Sam lies.

The coroner turns, walking across the room and the three hunters follow. He opens the freezer door, pulling out the tray with the covered body on it. He pulls back the sheet.

Alexis sucked in a breath. The girl's head had deep gashes covering the one side. Uneven scratch marks almost all the way down the side of her face.

"When they brought her in, we thought she was attacked by a wolf or something." The coroner explains.

"Or something." Dean nods.

"But we were wrong." He picks up a small bag, showing the three hunters the content.

"Is that--?" Alexis began.

"It's a press-on nail. We found it in her temporal lobe."

"Is that even possible?" Sam asks.

"Wait, you're saying that she did this to herself?" Dean questions.

"Uh-huh. She scratched her brains out. It'd take hours and it'd hurt like hell, but sure, it's possible."

"How?"

"Pick your acronym. OCD, PCP, it all spells crazy. My guess? Some kind of phantom itch. I mean, an extreme case, but..."

"Phantom itch?" Sam asks.

"Yeah."

"She just imagined it and it killed her?" Alexis crosses her arms over her chest.

"Yeah." The coroner slides the tray back into place, closing the door. "All it takes is someone talking about an itch or thinking about one, and suddenly you can't stop scratching."

"Thanks, doc." Sam nods as he walks away.

Alexis reaches up, scratching her neck as she turns around. That's when she noticed Sam and Dean were also scratching their neck and ear.

~~~

"Okay, now, some of these questions might seem a bit odd, but, please, just bear with me." Sam tells the couple that had found the dead body. "Have you noticed any cold spots in your house?"

"No." The man answers.

"Okay. What about strange smells?"

"Smells?"

Dean and Alexis wander through the room, coming to a doorway. When they looked into the other room, they saw a kid sitting there.

"What you looking for?" The kid asks.

"Don't know yet." Dean replies. "It's, uh, Jimmy, right?"

The boy nods.

"So Amber was your babysitter?" Dean asks.

"Yes, sir."

"Yeah, most of my babysitters sucked. Especially Miss Chancey, she only cared about two things, Dynasty and bedtime." Dean chuckles.