Still of the Night

Part 2

Dean strode into the library clad in a grey robe tied around his waist with a beer in one hand and a plate of pancakes in the other. Albeit Dean was just getting out of bed and eating breakfast, it was already close to the middle of the day. Sam was sitting at the middle table, tapping away rigorously at the computer resting in front of him with a few books open to various pages encroaching in his space. He didn't seem to notice as Dean sat down at the table across from him.

"Ya find anything yet?" Dean asked around a bite of pancakes.

Sam finally looked up. "uh, yeah actually," Sam turned the computer around to face Dean. The tab was open to a story on tattlecrime, big bold red words read out 'CHESAPEAKE RIPPER STRIKES AGAIN' the picture of a dead body sitting on a chair in front of a mirror with the hands held up high attached below.

Dean swallowed before saying, "what about it?" He brought the beer up to his lips to take a sip.

"So get this, normally I wouldn't think of this as anything other than the ordinary serial killer, but I looked into it more and found out that they found not only stag footprints leading up to the body but also velvet on the body. Now stags aren't found in Baltimore and definitely not in the suburbs. They only kill when provoked not to mention this doesn't look like a stag kill, a human definitely helped. So I looked more into stags and found this," Sam pulled one of the open books towards him and continued with fascination. Dean could see a sketch of a black stag with what looked like feathers around its neck, "They're called ravenstags and they are able to change into their monster and human forms or even a mix of the two at will. They originally come from pagan mythology and are said to be the partner of death, often helping souls cross over to the other side. If this is a ripper kill then I have reason to believe that the ripper is actually a ravenstag."

"That's a hell of a stretch don't you think?" Dean stared at his brother in half-hearted disbelief.

Sam shrugged, "I really don't think so, either way, we haven't had a case in almost a week and this is the best we've got at the moment. The least we could do is go check it out, if it's not a ravenstag or maybe even something else we can look for something else."

Dean set down his beer giving Sam his full attention, "I don't know Sammy, that'd be a long drive for something we're not even sure about."

"Listen I think this is a pretty big case. If you don't want to go then that's fine, but with or without you I am going to look into it," Sam said seriously.

Dean was pretty taken by this. Sam was right, they hadn't had a case in nearly a week and he was starting to feel restless. As much as he didn't want to drive for almost a day straight he knew he couldn't let Sam go by himself. Dean could always call Cas and have him tag along, but the angel was off doing god knows what and Dean didn't want to take him away from whatever he was doing if it was important, just for a case that they could do themselves. Sure Dean didn't know jack shit about anything called a ravenstag, but they'd taken on goddamn leviathans and angels before, a ravenstag couldn't be that bad.

Deciding that it would be better to just go with Sam and do the case, Dean agreed. They'd been to Baltimore before but maybe this time they could stay longer and enjoy the sights. It would be nice to get out of the bunker again. They decided to head out tomorrow morning and left it at that.

Tomorrow morning came faster than Dean expected. He let out a groan at the sound of his alarm reminding him it was 6 am and that they had a full day of driving ahead of them. He rolled over to turn off his alarm and stayed laying in bed for a few more minutes. Finally, he got out of bed to change albeit a bit groggy. Randomly pulling out a black t-shirt, blue jeans, a red plaid button-up and boxers, Dean thought it would be good enough and put them on before going to grab breakfast.

Sam was already sitting down at the table eating out of a bowl filled with rabbit food while scrolling through something on his tablet. Dean ambled towards the fridge for something he could eat. The fridge was stocked with different varieties of meat and greens, despite how many greens were in the fridge, Dean barely paid them any mind and he instantly reached out for the bacon.

Reaching into one of the cabinets beside the stove, Dean pulled out a pan before turning the stove on. It wasn't until the bacon was popping that Sam finally looked up and seemingly looked at him with nothing but disappointment.

"What?" Dean asked as if he wasn't sure why Sam would be upset with him, "What?"

"You know how bad that stuff is for you right?" Sam questioned.

"No way in hell am I eating your dead plants. It's a full day driving just to get to Baltimore and I need to keep my energy up." Dean mocked, offended.

Sam rolled his eyes, knowing it was a lost cause, "Fine, but don't come crying to me when you get a heart attack and die."

They both poked at each other a bit more until the bacon was done and Dean took his spot at the table. From there he could finally see what Sam was looking at on the tablet. It seemed to be more articles from the same site as yesterday, the big red words jumped at him even though it was hard to read upside down. Seemed to just be more about the Chesapeake Ripper and their killings. Dean was still on the fence about it being an actual monster and not just some human playing god, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't itching to get out and do something.

After they got done eating they both packed bags with a few changes of clothes and multiple different weapons. Apparently, ravenstag had no known special weapon weakness so that would ultimately make their job harder, but he doubted it would be hard to find out what it was. Every monster has some weakness of some kind, if not they would surely be much more popular. It was only a matter of finding out what it was.

With everything safely packed away into the Impala, Dean and Sam shot off onto the road blaring classic rock. The drive itself was pretty uneventful, sure they stopped sometimes for food and bathroom breaks but nothing was particularly noteworthy. It mostly consisted of Dean singing along to whatever rock song was playing while Sam kept his attention focused on his tablet in hand, speaking up a few times to converse about more of the ripper's kills or just something they should focus on once they got there.

The day ended with both of them passed out in their beds at a small motel outside the city, the TV still on one of the random drama channels and the empty takeout containers littered on the table. Even if all they did was drive, it was still a very long day and they needed to get some good sleep in if they were to go hunting tomorrow. You could never be sure what the day would bring with monsters about, so every second counted.