Silent Lucidity

LXXI

[The Things They Carried]

INT. UNKNOWN LOCATION

Water was dripping. A woman was hanging upside down, watching a man come toward her down the hallway. She struggled and panicked as she looked at the man coming down the hallway. He placed a bucked underneath her, then sliced her throat open with his Bowie knife. He caught some of her blood in his hands, and drank it.

BUNKER - LIBRARY

Sam was researching "Biblical and Far East Studies." Kennedy was sitting next to him, gently rocking Nadia. Dean entered and Sam quickly closed his computer, a bit guiltily.

"Hey, check it out," Dean said.

"Hey," Sam greeted.

"Porn?"

"What? No. l-it's nothing. I wouldn't do that in the presence of your wife."

"Hey, look, no judgement from me. Just, you know, not where we eat or like you said, with my wife around."

"Dude, it wasn't porn."

"Okay, "erotica." Whatever. Zip it up. Check this out." He handed Sam his tablet with an article about a soldier who had died. "The vic was trained in Krav Maga and jiu-jitsu. Still ended up with her organs drained, and the marrow was sucked completely out of the bones."

"So... cannibalism. You thinking a Rugaru?"

"Or a god, maybe. I'Il go dig up my pencil-neck suit."

"Wait, wait, wait. W-what?"

"What, is this not weird enough for you?"

"Well, yeah, it's weird, but, um, l mean, we... we... I mean..."

"Great. Ten minutes. I'Il meet you two in the car."

"Great."

INT. IMPALA

Sam, Kennedy, Nadia and Dean were driving. Dean was driving, Kennedy and Nadia were in back and Sam was on his cell phone.

"Sam!" Dean called. "I know what you're doing over there, and it ain't porn. Look, man, we have checked every website, okay? We've checked it twice. Sammy, when we work a case, there's always that... that point... when we have to face the truth, right? Even if we don't like it. Well, truth is..." he held his arm out, indicating the Mark of Cain, "there's no way around this. We saw what happened to Cain, okay? I'm not happy about it. But l got to move on. So l'm gonna keep doing what we do... while l still can. And l'd like you and Kendy to be there with me."

INT. FAYETVILLE POLICE STATION

Dean, Kennedy, holding Nadia, and Sam entered through a door. A group of police officers were standing around talking and enjoying pieces of cake.

"Agents, I gather," the sheriff said.

"Uh, was it the suits, or do we give off some sort of a Fed stench?" Dean asked.

"I-it's the suits. What can l do for you boys and girl?"

"Well, uh, we are here investigating the death of private Jackie Prescott. It's take your kid to work day."

"Shoot. You drove all the way down from D.C.?"

"Mm-hmm," Dean and Kennedy hummed.

"Yeah, we did," Sam said.

"Well, then sorry to waste your time, agents, but we wrapped that one up," the sheriff told them. "Guy that did it was a special forces officer: Rick Willis."

"What makes you so sure it was him?" Dean questioned.

The sheriff pulled out the murder file. "His fingerprints were all over the storage room out on the base where he did it. He even left his dog tags by the body."