Reckless and Brave

CXII. (112) Flirtin' With Disaster

[How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters]

In an old house in Hammonton, New Jersey, Dean and Holly were standing near a fuse box, Dean closer.

Sam walked down the stairs and asked, "Did you two strip enough wire?"

"Yes, we stripped enough wire." Dean said in an annoyed tone.

"Alright." He attached cables to the stripped wires. Electricity crackled and the lights came on.

Holly smirked. "See? Told ya, Samuel."

Bobby and Nate entered the house as Sam sat at the table. Nate sat down across from Sam after Holly had rejected the seat. Dean, Holly, and Bobby stood around the table.

"Well, isn't this cozy." Bobby said sarcastically.

Sam glanced at him. "Yeah. Well, Motel 6 just ain't leaving the light on anymore."

"Well, I'm taking a page out of Frank Devereaux's Bible on this. Everybody's out to get you--paranoia is just plain common sense."

"Weeks, guys." Dean said. "Weeks. We've been living with cold showers, cold Hot Pockets, cold freaking everything. I mean, this is the bottom that we're living in. You guys get that, right?"

Holly nodded. "More than you think." She shuddered. "How I long for a hot shower."

Bobby looked between them. "How many big mouths are out there, running card traces, like Chet, or hunting us down God knows what ways? No, now's not the time to be laying our bed rolls out on the grid. Not if we can help it."

The lights went off and Sam turned on a battery-powered lamp.

Dean groaned. "That's just great. This is stupid. Our quality of life is crap. We got Purgatory's least wanted everywhere, and we're on our third "The World's Screwed" issue in, what, three years? We've steered the bus away from the cliff twice already."

"Someone's got to do it." Sam reasoned.

Holly slid down in her seat. "What if the bus wants to go over the hill?"

"You think the world wants to end?"

Dean's brow furrowed. "I think that if we didn't take its belt and all it's pens away each year that, yeah, the whole enchilada woulda offed itself already."

"Stop trying to wrestle with the big picture, son. You're gonna hurt your head." Dean took a beer from the cooler and laid down on the sofa. "So, what's the guff?" Bobby asked, sitting at the table with Sam and Nate.

Holly moved over to another area, near the couch, and listened to the conversation.

Nate said, "Well, um, there's been rash sightings all over the southern pine barrens--a strange, fast-moving, human-like creature. The locals even have a name for it."

Sam passed a printout of an internet search to Bobby. It read 'Jersey Devil Reported!' There was a picture of a creature with wings and webbed feet, standing upright on two legs.

Bobby frowned. "The Jersey Devil? I thought that was just local tall-tale crap."

Sam's eyes flicked to Bobby. "The area's history of sightings goes back more than two centures. Some accounts gave it bat wings, others horns, a...a tail." He showed Bobby another printout, discussing another version of the Jersey Devil; a flying biped with hooves.

Nate grinned. "And, uh, oh, right, a horse's head."

Sam showed him a third printout. Dean and Holly walked up to look at the picture. It was a drawing of a winged creature with a horse's head standing on two legs.