You Found Me |Sam Winchester| [2015 Wattys Winner]

29. Valentine's Day

29. Valentine's Day

"So...you were the one who found the bodies?" I probed the woman gently.

I was finally given clearance to get back out with the brothers. It took me a bit longer than I would have liked since the wedge was driven between Sam and me. At first I thought it would go undetected, but I had a feeling Bobby and Dean picked up on it after a while. Neither of them were saying anything about it. I hoped they never did.

Unfortunately, this case we were working on, I got the short straw. In this case, it was tagging along with Sam to interview the dead girl's roommate. You could only imagine how intense the awkward silence was in the car. The radio didn't even get turned on. It was like we were total strangers.

I wasn't mad at Sam, really. I wasn't. I just wasn't sure how to approach this silence. A case was just the thing to pull me away from life.

"There was blood everywhere," said the roommate. "And...other stuff...I think Alice was already dead."

"But Russell wasn't?" Sam asked.

"I think he was, mostly, except...he was still sort of...chewing a little."

"Oh," I said. I kept the bile down in my throat. "Uh-huh." This was our sort of case. It wasn't common for two people to feast on each other and eat the other to death. Yes, I couldn't lie about something so...intensely ridiculous.

"How do two people even do that—eat each other to death?" the woman asked in disbelief.

"That's a really good question," Sam told her. "Now, the last few days, did you notice her acting erratically?"

"How do you mean?"

"I mean, did she seem...unusually hostile, aggressive?"

"No way. Alice never drank, never even swore. She was a nice girl. And I'm talking, like, a nice girl—like she still had her promise ring, if you know what I mean."

"She was a virgin?" I blurted.

"No premarital," said Alice's roommate. "I used to wonder how she did it. I mean, you know, didn't do it. It was her first date in months. She was so excited."

"Apparently, they were both excited."

We didn't linger long with Alice's roommate afterwards. I rolled the window down once Sam got the car moving. I needed the fresh air to keep me from barfing at such a gory image. I could only imagine what Dean was seeing right now; he had the wonderful duty of looking at the bodies.

I wrinkled my nose.

"So, is this how it's gonna be?" Sam broke the silence. "The silent treatment?"

"It's been this way for a few months now," I said steely, looking out the window. "Why should anything change?"

"We need to talk it out, Kota."

"Not while on a case, Sam." I put my head in my hand. "When we get a chance to, maybe we can talk it out."

"Maybe?" He snorted. "We've been avoiding each other long enough."

"I'm not avoiding you, Sam."

"Oh, please, I saw how upset you looked when Dean said you should come with me. I can't believe you almost tried to persuade him to let you go look at bodies with him."