Stranger

Chapter 5

While Sam tries calling Jess, Dean walks in, pulling on his coat. "I'm starving. I'm gonna grab a little something to eat at that diner down the street. Y'all want anything?"

"No," Sam and Nevaeh answers in unison.

"Aframian's buying," he presses and they both shake their head.

Nevaeh continues looking for an address, and she looks up when she hears Sam say, "what?"

"You call her and you answer with 'what?" Nevaeh jests.

Nevaeh's brows furrow when Sam stands up and says, "what about you?"

"Everything all right?" She asks. Sam just holds up a finger. A second later he moves the phone from his ear. "Cops got Dean," he mutters and walks towards the window and looks out of it. "Shit." Nevaeh says.

"He's got it, though," Sam reassures, "you got an address?" Nevaeh nods. "Good. When they leave, we'll wait a moment, and then we'll go."

Nevaeh knocks on the door, and then straightens her posture. When the door opens, Nevaeh wastes no time to start talking. "Hi, are you Joseph Welch?" She asks chirpily.

"Yeah." The man responds.

"Hi," Sam says, "have you spoken to this man before?" Sam shows the man a picture of John with two little boys who Nevaeh easily concludes is a younger Sam and Dean.

"Yeah. He was older, but that was him. Came by three or four days ago. Said he was a reporter." Joseph says and begins walking.

"That's right. We're working on a story together." Sam confirms, and he and Nevaeh both follow the man.

"Well, I don't know what the hell kind of story you're working on. The questions he asked me..."

"About your late wife, Constance." Sam affirmed.

That man looks up at Sam and at Nevaeh, "He asked me where she was buried."

Nevaeh nods, "and where is that again?"

"I gotta go through this twice?"

"It's fact-checking. If you don't mind," Nevaeh gave the man a polite smile.

The man nods, "in a plot behind my old place, over on Breckenridge."

"Why did you move?" Sam asks.

"I'm not gonna live in the house where my children died," the man responded breathily.

"Mr. Welch," Nevaeh stops walking, and Sam and Joseph stops with her, "did you ever marry again?"

"No way," Joseph shakes his head, "Constance, she was the love of my life. Prettiest woman I ever known."

"So you had a happy marriage?" Sam asks, and Nevaeh studies Joseph's face, knowing exactly what Sam is hinting at.

"Definitely," Joseph says after a while and Nevaeh exhales deeply. "Well that should do it, thank you for your time." Nevaeh and Sam share a look and they turn around and walk to the car.

"Mr. Welch," Sam calls, "you ever hear of a Woman in White?"

"A what?" The man turns around.

"A Woman in White," Sam repeats, "or sometimes Weeping Woman? It's a ghost story. Well," Sam chuckles, "it's more of a phenomenon, really," Sam walks back towards Joseph, "um, they're spirits. They've been sighted for hundreds of years, dozens of places, in Hawaii, in Mexico. Lately, in Arizona, Indiana. All these are different women, you understand, but all share the same story."

Nevaeh takes note of the way Joseph tenses. "Boy, I don't care much for nonsense," the man turns and Sam and Nevaeh follows him.

"See, when they were alive," Nevaeh continues, "their husbands were unfaithful to them," Joseph slows, "And these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity, murdered their children." The man turns to face Nevaeh now. "Then once they realized what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed. Walking backroads, waterways. And if they find an unfaithful man, they kill him. And that man is never seen again."

The man's lips start to quiver. "You think... you think that has something to do with... Constance," the man moves closer to Nevaeh now, "you smart-ass?"

Sam moves a little closer, his shoulder just in front of Nevaeh now, "You tell me," he says.

"I mean maybe... maybe I made some mistakes," the man holds Sam's gaze, "but no matter what I did, Constance, she never would've killed her own children." The man looks at Nevaeh and back to Sam. "Now you two get the hell out of here. And you don't come back," the man says, breathing deeply. The man walks back to his house and Sam and Nevaeh walks back to the car.

Sam and Nevaeh get in the car. "You should really let me drive," Nevaeh says and Sam looks at her, an eyebrow raised, "Dean'll kill me," he chuckles.

"Speaking of Dean," she takes her phone out of her pocket and dials 911. "Hi, um, I think I hear gunshots being fired on Whiteford road." she says, switching up her voice to sound more nasally. "yeah, there's like, a lot, and they're um, like super loud. They're scaring my babies." Sam grins and shakes his head. "I'd like to remain anonymous, please. Thank you." She hangs up and Sam laughs. "That should buy him time," she says.

"I'm hungry," Sam glances to Nevaeh who nods her head in agreement. "Smoothie or salad?" Sam asks and his phone starts ringing. He answers it and puts it on speaker. "Fake 911 call, Sammy?" Nevaeh smiles when she hears Dean's voice. "I don't know. That's pretty illegal."

Sam smiles, and glances at Nevaeh, "that was all Nevaeh."

She grins, "you're welcome."

Dean chuckles. "Listen we gotta talk."

"Tell me about it, so the husband was unfaithful. We are dealing with a Woman in White. And she's buried behind her old house, so that should've been Dad's next stop-," Sam fills Dean in.

"Sammy, would you shut up for a second?" Dean interrupts.

"-I just can't figure out why he hasn't destroyed the corpse yet," Sam continues.

"Well that's what I'm trying to tell you. He's gone. Dad left Jericho."

Sam looks at Nevaeh who looks just as surprised. "What? How do you know?"

"I've got his journal."

"He doesn't go anywhere without that thing."

"Yeah, well, he did this time."

"Well what's it say?" Nevaeh asks.

"Same old ex-Marine crap, when he wants to let us know where he's going."

"Coordinates," Sam says, "where to?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"What the hell is going on?" Nevaeh asks, just before Sam runs straight into a woman standing in the middle of the road, and he stops the car.

"Sam! Nevaeh!" Is the last thing Nevaeh hears before her vision goes dark.