Supernatural... But Better (Vol. I)

Chapter Twenty Two

"Yay, church," I said with as much sarcasm as I could physically put into my voice.

Sam laughed at me as we walked up to the door. "Spoken like someone with some true religious guilt."

I glared at him, checking the sign by the door. "Episcopalian. Well, that's not so bad. Could be worse. Could be—"

"Catholic," Sam and Dean joked in unison, taking the words right out of my mouth.

I opened the door quietly, hearing the pastor already in the middle of the sermon. With all the confidence of someone whose relationship with God was relatively on the rocks, I walked in while he spoke, trying to make as little noise as possible.

"To us, as a church—"

The door slammed shut behind me, and I turned to glare at the two brothers for being idiots. They gave me sheepish looks, and I went to sit down in the last pew, trying to avoid the eyes of the entire congregation staring at me.

"—as a community, and as a family," Reverend Sorensen continued despite the interruption. "The loss of a young person is particularly tragic. A life unlived is the saddest of passings. So, please, let us pray. For peace, for guidance, and for the power to protect our children."

I closed my eyes in prayer, something I hadn't done in quite a long time, but I wasn't willing to be humiliated anymore. And if that was what it took to talk to God, so be it. If everyone around me was to be believed, he knew everything about everyone, so why would I need to talk to him?

Sighing internally, I shoved it out of my mind. God wasn't something I liked thinking about.

I basically blocked out the rest of the sermon until we were walking out the door. "So... have we figured out which one is Lori?"

Pretty much ignoring me, they went and walked up to a girl. "Are you Lori?"

She looked at them, a little startled. "Yeah."

"My name is Sam. This is my brother, Dean," he introduced.

Dean waved. "Hi."

"We just transferred here to the university."

Lori nodded, pointing past them towards the church. "I, uh, saw you inside."

Sam put his hands in his pockets. "We don't wanna bother you. We just heard about what happened, and...."

"We wanted to say how sorry we were," Dean finished for his brother.

"I kind of know what you're going through. I-I saw someone... get hurt once. It's something you don't forget," Sam explained.

Lori's dad came up behind her, silently asking the question that all kids with strict parents could easily identify. "Dad, um, this is Sam and Dean. They're new students."

Dean reached out, shaking the Reverend's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. I must say, that was an inspiring sermon."

He smiled. "Thank you very much. It's so nice to find young people who are open to the Lord's message."

Dean laughed a bit, subtly leading him away from Lori and Sam. "Listen, uh, we're new in town, actually. And, uh, we were looking for a, um, a church group."

Sam turned back to Lori, and I figured it was probably too late to introduce myself then, so I just casually leaned against a wall within hearing distance. "Tell me, Lori. What are the police saying?"

She shrugged. "Well, they don't have a lot to go on. I think they blame me for that."

"What do you mean?" he asked gently.

I could see her becoming more and more undone the longer she talked about it. "My story. I was so scared, I guess I was 'seeing things'."

I winced at that. It hit far too close to home. The way everyone around her had been telling her she was wrong that she began to believe it herself, began to question her sanity at the moment. She didn't trust what she saw any longer, didn't believe her story was true. I could relate to that, much more than I cared to admit.

Sam caught her gaze, making sure she heard what he was about to say. "That doesn't mean it wasn't real."

I noticed something then. Sam, he had a way of talking to witnesses, a specific speech pattern and tone of voice that made them feel more willing to open up. He'd used it before, I just hadn't figured it out until then. It was quite effective, the more I thought about it. He always had a way of getting people to trust him, to believe he truly cared about them. And part of that was his pure capacity for empathy, the way he cared about everyone he met, but part of that was just being so charismatic. Even if it wasn't ill-intentioned, and didn't cause any real harm, it was still technically a form of manipulation.

But he didn't mean anything by it. Right?