TINTED ▷ Sam Winchester [1]

29 | A FOGGY SITUATION

Sam, Dean, and I are summoned from our beds early in the morning by the sheriff, because late last night something happened to the nice deputy who Sam and I talked to yesterday. She had reported seeing a strange fog shortly after she came home to her fiancée, and now she is missing. Her car is gone.

"Sorry I woke you guys," the sheriff, Mac, says to us as we approach the scene.

"No, no, it's all right," Sam assures him. "Just, uh, why don't you tell us what happened here?"

"Harris didn't show up for work this morning," Mac tells us. "We called, tried her CB, nothing. So, I swung by here. I found Art on the kitchen floor. Harris' shotgun right next to him. She... it looks like Deputy Harris shot her husband point blank in the face. Then left the scene." I grimace.

"Did you notice anything off about Deputy Harris' behavior the last few days?" Sam questions.

Mac shakes his head. "No. Nothing at all."

"When was the last time anyone heard from her?" Sam asks.

"Called in for the last time yesterday," he explains. "Said something about... seeing some fog rolling in. I don't know why she cared about the damn weather." I clench my jaw at the mention of the fog again, of the Darkness. Dean and Sam look at each other knowingly.

"Would you get into contact with your dispatch officer?" Dean says. "Tell her to let us know if she gets any more reports like that again."

"You serious?" Mac asks, confused.

"Yeah, just to be safe," Dean says.

"Do you have any idea where Harris might be right now?" I ask, finally joining the conversation.

"No. But we can track her vehicle from our office."

•••

"I can't make heads or tails. Harris is... was our computer person."

I give the sheriff a sympathetic smile. He's been sitting at the desk for what seems like a while now, but was probably actually just a few minutes. He is typing away furiously, unable to do what he said he could do.

"Can I give it a shot?" Sam volunteers. The sheriff moves away from the desk while Sam sits down, and I have a feeling it will only take him seconds to track down the lost deputy. I turn my head to the side as another officer finishes talking on his phone and hangs it up.

"Sheriff? Matt and Emmy just called in," he explains, looking towards the sheriff. "They said they saw some fog rolling in by Jasper Hills."

"Did they say where it was headed?" Dean asks, jumping in before the sheriff can even respond.

"West. Towards town."

Dean pauses a moment, thinking. "Okay, call them back, tell them to get inside, shut their windows and doors and seal it up, and stay the hell away from that fog. Then get the word out to everybody in town. They need to do the same damn thing."

The officers seem a bit confused. "Hold on, what are you talking about?" Mac asks.

"My partner and I have seen this before, okay?" Dean says firmly. "Wes, Deputy Harris, were infected by something in this fog. Now, I know it sounds crazy—"