"Before Dawn"

Chapter 16: The Problem

It's the next morning. Dawn is seated between her hung-over father and Cat. Martha is sitting behind her desk across from them, glaring at Dawn. Thanks to her father, Dawn had to endure a blistering and condescending ass-chewing from the old True Believer with the one-good-eye-scarred face. Dawn understands that she had brought it on herself but she's seething because her father had still allowed Martha to talk to her like she's nothing. He just sat there, rubbing his temples. Even Cat tried to tell Martha to go easy on her of which he was, of course, ignored—and told to "shut it".

"So now what, Martha?" Bishop finally said.

Martha took a deep breath with her good eye still on Dawn. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about your mother, young-lady," she said. "I truly am."

Dawn is shocked. She could feel her father's and Cat's surprise, too. She didn't know how to respond other than, "Thanks."

Martha gets up from behind the desk. "Boy, I really need to drop some poundage," she said. "Let's all go down to the basement."

Bishop and Cat follow. Dawn stays put and preps a playlist and her headphones.

"Let's go, Dawn," Martha said.

Again. Dawn is surprised. "Me?" she said instinctively.

Martha scans the study feigning as if there is someone else there that she possibly overlooked. "I don't see nobody else named 'Dawn' up-in-here? Let's go, child," she said.

Smart-ass. "Coming," Dawn said.

She follows them to the dusty, cobwebbed basement. Martha points to the large, circular table and signals for them take up a chair. They all find a chair and pull up closer to the table. The table—known to them as the mission-table—is an unsightly, ancient cherry-wood table. It's laced with scratches and smudges, and large nicks. Like the chairs of the same wood, it's rickety as hell. This is the first time Dawn has been officially invited to the mission-table, where Martha typically lays out all the necessary information about her father's and Cat's hunts. The table is littered with old reference books, all-things-supernatural-and-hunting. There are also photos, a legal pad with notes, and a laptop.

Martha takes a seat and thumbs through the photos. She slides them across the table to Bishop. "Look at these surveillance photos and let me know if the guy in it is familiar," she said. "Then pass them to Jimbo and Dawn."

Dawn watches her father's face to see if he recognizes the guy in the photos. He shakes his head. "I got no clue who this guy is," he said. Disinterested, he slides the photos to Jimbo.

"Nope," Jimbo said, his eyebrows arched in curiosity as he looks at the photos. Rather than slide the photos across the table to Dawn, he gets up and walks around the table to hand them to her. "Chivalry is not dead, as-they-say." He returns to his chair.

Dawn—sure that she won't recognize whoever is in the photo—looks through them. She sees a few close-ups and distance photos of some doctor or something. As she expects, she doesn't recognize the dude. "Never seen this person," she said, setting the photos on the table.

"Look again,Martha said.

Dawn doesn't feel she need to. "But, I don't—"

Martha slams a hand down on the table so hard that it made all of them jolt. "I said...look again," she said. "Really, look at them."

Dawn glances her father's and Cat's way to see their reaction. Her dad shrugs his shoulders. Cat gives her a reassuring look. She picks up the photos and begins to sift through them again, really looking at them as old, fat Martha had requested. Then she begins to see who—and what—she's looking at. She sifts through them repetitively, faster now, and the image of the imp-man begins to form in her head. She nearly feels the creeping things all around her, and the dull pain in her foot returns to her full-strength. "Is this who...or what, I saw?" she asked Martha.