Stranger

Chapter 28

Dean, Nevaeh, and Sam sit in silence as John Winchester goes over every single detail he'd ever learned about what killed their mothers. "So this is it. This is everything I know."

He glances around, as if checking to see if they have any questions. Nevaeh is sure that she does, but it's a lot of information to process in the short time that it takes John to glance between them. "Look, our whole lives we've been searching for this demon, right? And not a trace, just nothing. Until about a year ago. For the first time, I picked up a trail."

"That's when you took off," Dean says and John nods.

"Yeah. That's right. The demon must've come out of hiding or hibernation."

Nevaeh frowns. It sounds fishy. The demon couldn't have just got bored and decided to be hunted. "So, what's this trail you found?"

John glances Nevaeh's way. "Starts in Arizona. Then, New Jersey, California. Houses burned down to the ground. It's going after families, just like it went after us."

"Families with infants?" Sam asks.

"Yeah. The night of the kid's 6-month birthday."

"I was 6 months old that night?"

John nods. "Exactly 6 months."

Nevaeh sits, criss-crossing her legs in the chair. "So basically, this demon is following a pattern. Going after these kids for some reason. Same way it came for Sam, and..." She pauses. "...but I wasn't 6 months." She says it like a question, even though she knows the story. Her father made sure that she knew it, every birthday.

"...maybe I'm not connected..." she mumbles to herself. Could it have been a freak accident? Could her father have just hallucinated, his brain playing tricks on him to deal with the horrific scene? To deal with the fact that that was all it was? An accident? Maybe her mom's death wasn't her fault. The thought makes her stomach ache.

"So," Sam says, popping her thought bubble. "Mom's death? Jessica? It was all because of me?"

"We don't know that Sam—"

"—oh really, cuz I'd say we're pretty damn sure, Dean!"

"For the last time... what happened to them is not your fault—"

"—yeah, you're right! It's not my fault, but it's my problem."

Dean sighs. "No, it's not, it's our problem."

"Okay. That's enough," John says, having to raise his voice to talk over the both of them.

Sam paces. "So why's it doing it? What does it want?"

"Look, I wish I had more answers. I do. I've always been one step behind it." John wipes his face. "Look, I've never gotten there in time to save..." he pauses, but he doesn't have to finish his sentence. Everyone in the room understands.

"So how do we find it before it hits again?" Nevaeh asks, turning to John.

"There are signs. It took me a while to see the pattern... but in the days before these fires, signs crop up in an area. Cattle deaths, uh, temperature fluctuations, electrical storms. And then I went back and checked, and..."

"These things happened in Lawrence?" Dean asks.

"A week before your mother died."

Nevaeh looks up at John, expectantly. He nods. "And in Salvation."

She takes a deep breath. It's all so confusing. Her story doesn't line up with anything John described. No house fires, no 6-month birthdays. And yet, signs still hint at something supernatural. Something like the demon.