The Other Winchester

Chapter 1

Present Day

"Alice! Come on. You have to get to school!"
I jolted awake at the voice of my brother yelling at me. I groaned, glancing at my clock. 7:15. Wait. Did I read that right? I looked back at my clock, reading the same time. Oh, crap. I flew out of my bed, grabbing my outfit I had put together over the weekend. I'm big on making my own clothes, so I do. I've been doing it since my brother, Sam started looking after me. Since Mom died, it's been difficult, and Dad was always gone, so someone had to look after me. First it was Dean, looking after both me and Sam. But then Sam decided he wasn't going to be in the family business and left, and I went with him, since it's safer for me to be with him than with Dad or Dean.
I quickly put on my clothes, getting my makeup on in record time. By the time I got into the kitchen and had a piece of toast in my mouth, grabbing my backpack, it was 7:40. I had fifteen minutes to be at school, or else Mr. Cooper would give me another detention for being late. Sam was already in the car by then, waiting for me to get in with him. He always dropped me off while on the way to Stanford.
Some people, on first look, think that Sam is my father, but that does not exactly work, since he's only six years older than me. And then some think he's my boyfriend, which could be, but he's just my brother.
I ran out to the car, throwing my backpack in the backseat and getting into the passenger seat. My brother glanced at me, smirking.
I looked at him, frowning, a smile playing at my lips. "What?"
"Nothing," Sam said, turning the car on.
"Alright, then," I said. I took out my phone only to find a hundred texts from my best friend Kimberly. Sighing, I went to my messages, saying good morning to Kim. Sam glanced at me again, and I looked at him, throwing a bit of toast at him. He took one hand off the wheel and caught it, smiling. "You know you can never win in a food fight against me," he challenged.
"Yes, well, this one I can," I said. "Because you don't have any food!" I threw another bit at him, laughing.
"Alright, you ruffian," Sam said, laughing as well. "Get out. We're here."
I glanced out the window to see Palo Alto High School right outside. I sighed, getting out. Grabbing my backpack, I looked back at my brother.
"I'll be here at three-thirty, alright? Have a good day, Alice. And be careful," he said as I nodded, turning and walking inside the gates of my high school.

~~~~~~~~~~

Later that day, I was waiting for Sam in front of the gates, reading one of my books I had just gotten from the library the day before. A car pulled up next to where I sat on the curb, and the driver rolled down the window, looking straight at me.
"Need a ride?" He asked, and I looked up, seeing a man I hadn't seen in two years.
"Dean!" I said happily, getting up. "How are you? What are you doing here? Does Sam know you're here? How's Dad?" I bombarded him with questions, getting inside the old Chevy Impala. Dean loved that car. He never parted with it, ever.
"Whoa, whoa, Allie. Slow down. I'm good. And no, Sam does not know I'm here. But he will, soon. Right now we're going to your apartment, and we can surprise him, alright?"
I nodded, smiling. I was so happy to see my oldest brother that I didn't care what he did. As long as I got some time with him, I was fine.
"As for your other two questions, I will answer them when we're all together," he said, pulling away from the curb. Ten minutes later, I was letting us into the apartment, throwing my backpack in the closet right inside the door. I went into the kitchen, pulling out the platter of cookies I'd baked the day before. Sitting down in the living room, I watched Dean for a moment. "What will Sam do when he finds out about you being here? He was supposed to pick me up today, and when he finds that I'm not on campus anymore, he might freak," I said.
Dean studied me for a moment before speaking. "He'll be fine, Allie," he said, using his nickname for me again. "Sammy'll just come back here, thinking you came home instead. I nodded. Dean took a cookie from the platter, biting into it. "Wow," he said, his mouth full. "These are good. Who made them?"
I hung my head a little. "I did," I said, smiling.
"Wow. Good job, Allie. I didn't think you could make something as good as this." I giggled, getting up.
"Hang on, Dean. Let me go get something," I said, going to my room. While I was in there, I heard the front door open, and I knew that Sam was home. "Alice! Are you here?" I heard him call, before hearing a slight scuffle. He must have heard Dean.. I heard the two of them fighting, and rushed out of my room. Dean had Sam pinned to the floor, one hand on his neck and the other on his wrist.
"Sam! Stop! It's Dean," I said, trying to pull the two of them apart.
"Easy, tiger," Dean said.
"Dean?" Sam asked, looking at him. Dean laughed, glancing at me. "You scared the crap out of me!"
"That's because you're out of practice," Dean said. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Sam yanked on Dean's hand that was holding his wrist, pushing his heel into Dean's back.
"Or not," Dean groaned. "Get off me," he said, and Sam rolled to his feet, glancing at me.
"What the hell are you doing here?" He asked, helping Dean to his feet.
"Well, I was looking for a beer," Dean said, smirking. I frowned at him, glancing at the platter of cookies on the coffee table. Sam caught that, and asked again. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Okay, alright. I need to talk to you two," he said, glancing at me.
"The phone?" Sam asked sitting down. I copied him, sitting in my favorite spot by the window. Dean remained standing, looking between the both ofus.
"If I'd'a called, would you have picked up the phone?" Dean growled.
Jess, Sam's girlfriend, walked in. I smiled at her. "Hey Jess," I said. She frowned at Dean, and I remembered that she hadn't met him before. Dean glanced at her.
"Ooh, who's she?" He cooed, looking her over. Sam looked at Jess. "Jess, hey," he said, getting up. He moved over to her.
"Well, Sammy, this is some family business we're talking about, so she, um, needs to leave," Dean said.
"No. Whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her," Sam argued.
"Okay. Um. Dad hasn't been home in a few days."
"So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later," Sam said.
I was looking between the two of them. I didn't fully understand, since I was so much younger than them, but I did grow up with them. And Dad not being there so much.
"Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days."
I immediately understood, but Sam took a moment to realize what Dean had said.
"Jess, excuse us. We have to go outside," he said, telling me to follow. When we were outside, I was the first to say anything. "Dean, what'a going on? I thought you were just here because we haven't seen each other in a couple years," I said.
Dean looked at me. "You're not hearing me, Allie. Dad's missing. I need you two to help me find him."
"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gates in Clifton? He was missing then, too. He's always missing, and he's always fine." Sam said. He was clearly upset. I knew what was coming.
"Not for this long. Now are you gonna come with me or not?" Oh, crap. Dean was getting upset, too.
"I'm not. And neither is Alice."
"Why not?"
"I swore I was done hunting. For good. And I don't want Alice getting into it. Sure, she's had to kill some things, but I've kept her from too much of it. She's too young, Dean. Don't you remember why we decided she would not hunt? Mom's dead. She died when Allie was a baby, in Alice's nursery. That was why Dad began hunting," Sam said, his voice getting louder by the minute.
"Come on. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad."
I decided to break in.
"Dean. I don't want to hunt. Dad was never there for me. He may have been there for you two, but not me. I'm not going."
"Come on. Dad needs our help," Dean pleaded.
"No, Dean. Mom died because of me. The entire way I grew up was on the road. Dad's obsession with the thing that killed her."
Dean glanced at Sam.
"But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find," I said.
Dean rolled his eyes.
"Come on. Sam, Alice, we need to go."
Sam shook his head. "Dean, we've got stuff to do. Alice has school. I have school. We can't not go," he said.
Dean looked at him, then me. I spoke up. "The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors."
Dean scoffed. "So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?"
I shook my head. "Sam and I will stay here, yes, but we are going to have our own lives. Not the one that Dad molded for us."
Dean looked at the ground. We were at the trunk of the Impala now. "I can't do this alone."
"Yes, you can," Sam retorted.
"Yeah, well, I don't want to."
I sighed. Looking at Dean, I waited a moment. "What was he hunting?"
Dean opened the trunk of the Impala, searching through it. "Where is it.." he muttered, ignoring my question.
He pulled out a folder, opening it and getting some papers out of it.
"All right, here we go. So Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy."
Dean handed Sam the papers, who showed them to me.
"They found his car, but he vanished. Completely MIA."
"Andrew Carey MISSING". Sam read it aloud to me and Dean before looking up.
"Maybe he was kidnapped," I suggested, frowning.
"Yeah. Well, here's another one in April."
Dean showed us the missing papers of another man. More came, and he explained that they were all from the same stretch of road over the last twenty years.
"It started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough."
He pulled out a tape recorder. "Then I get this."
I frowned at it. He pressed the play button, and the recording began, sounding a little staticky.
“Dean...something big is starting to happen...I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may... Be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger.”

I frowned, remembering something Dad had taught us. “There’s EVP on that, right?” I asked, looking at Sam.

Dean glanced at me. “Not bad, Allie,” he said. “All right. I slowed the message down, I ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got.”

Dean pressed play again, and the voice of a woman came through.

“I can never go home…”

Sam frowned. “Never go home,” he said.

Dean sighed, putting the recorder back in the trunk. “You know, in almost two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing.”

Sam sighs, looking away. “All right. I'll go. I'll help you find him,” he said, and I agree. Dean nods. “But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here,” he said. I spoke up. “I have midterms Monday, and need to be back as well.”

Dean looked at me. “What’s first thing Monday?”

I glanced at Sam. “Sam has this… interview on Monday,” I explained. “It’s very important for him. It’s for law school, which has been his life since we moved here.”

Dean sighed. “So we got a deal, or what?” He demanded, looking between Sam and me.

I sighed at the same time as Sam. “Yes,” I said, glancing at Sam. “We’ll go.”