Jessica walked back out into the tunnel and found herself facing a terrified boy.
“What...what just happened?” Tommy looked at Jessica like she was even more terrifying than the Wendigo.
The room she just walked into was a decent distance away, but Tommy could still hear the Wendigo’s death screams very distinctly. What could possibly make a man-eating monster scream like that?
Jessica looked into Tommy’s eyes. She knew this part would be even more difficult than the Wendigo. One wrong move, and she could find herself at odds with the Winchester brothers. Dean, fine. But there was no way she was letting Sam see who she really was and treat her like one of the monsters.
“Listen to me, Tommy.” Jessica matched Tommy’s name to his face via the video his sister provided. “I was never here. You were never imprisoned. You and your friends were attacked by a grizzly bear or something, I don’t care. Do you understand?”
“But…” Tommy was speechless. “that thing…”
“That thing is never going to bother anyone around here ever again.” Jessica continued. “Trust me. It’s dead.”
Tommy nodded slowly before suddenly posing a question.
“Who are you?”
Jessica could only shrug.
The next morning.
“Hey Jess! Are you up?”
“What?”
Jessica opened the door with a more than annoyed tone. She was in her pajamas. Her messy blonde hair laid back on her back. She looked like she could barely opened her eyes.
She lashed out as soon as she saw Sam.
“Fine! I get it! I’m not going on the hunt with you! Happy now? I was gonna sleep in! No need to check on me like I’m some sort of baby!”
“Actually, can you come over to our room?” Sam asked with a wild smile, knowing that Jessica was still annoyed at him. “Something happened.”
“Ok.” Jessica nodded before gesturing at her pajamas. “I’ll just go change. I’m sure your brother will be happy to see me in these, but I’m not gonna let that happen.”
Sam grinned as Jessica closed the door and went back inside. She came back out a minute later and followed Sam into the room he and Dean shared.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, you remember Tommy Collins?” Dean was obviously in a bad mood. “He’s home, and he claimed a grizzly bear attacked him.”
“Ok, and?” Jessica was praying inside. Tommy, don’t make me regret saving you. “Wait, grizzly bear? Does that mean this is not really a supernatural creature that attacked him?”
“I don’t think so.” Dean shook his head. “It’s not an animal attack, but it’s just made to look like one.”
“Made to look like one by who?” Sam tapped his chin and wondered. “The creature? That can’t be it!”
“Wait…” Jessica suddenly said something. “can it be other hunters? Maybe they were here before us and just took care of whatever thing that has been killing the campers and rescued Tommy?”
She hoped that would throw the brothers off.
“That makes sense!” Sam slammed his fist into his palm. “That would explain why Tommy lied! The hunters must’ve told him to say it’s a grizzly bear to cover up their tracks!”
Jessica grinned to herself. Go on, Sammy. Use that beautiful imagination of yours.
“I’m not buying it.” But the other Winchester brother was more stubborn. “It’s too coincidental. Tommy is saved the night before we go into the mountains? We’re not that lucky.”
“Things like that happen.” Sam unintentionally covered for Jessica again.
“Maybe, but we can’t leave unless we know for sure that thing is dead. I’m going to pay this Tommy a visit.” Dean declared.
Jessica nodded. “You go do that. Meanwhile, Sam and I will look through the news and see if there’s another case for us.”
For the brothers, going after their father was still the top priority, but apparently the coordinates John left them simply led to a case where he didn't have the time to check out himself. Until John contacted the brothers again, they had to settle with finding and handling cases on their own.
Dean glanced at Jessica before nodding. They didn't need to go all-in to question a boy. In fact, even he himself felt like he was being a bit paranoid, but years of life as a hunter told him being paranoid was better than being dead.
Jessica was just glad to avoid what might have been a catastrophe. If she went to visit Tommy herself and the boy failed to put up a perfect act, the Winchesters could sense it. She might be having them in the dark right now, but Sam and Dean were far from fools.
She turned back to Sam.
“You wanna go grab some breakfast?”
“Sure!”
The two went downstairs and grabbed some food. Within minutes, Jessica was chewing on a bagel, but her eyes were on a newspaper in front of her.
“I’m starting to understand your issue with the hunters,” Ten minutes later, Jessica laid down the newspaper, closed her eyes, and complained to Killian.
“What’s wrong?”
“Sam literally said he and Dean find cases by going through newspaper articles and looking for strange death. Do you know how difficult it is to tell a case done by something weird from those done by ordinary human psychopaths? God I feel like I’m going blind!”
“You’re not going to go blind. You can stare at the star you people call the Sun for a full year and still have 20/20 vision.”
“I was exaggerating!”
“Jess!” Sam suddenly called out. “I think I’ve got something. Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin. Last week, Sophie Carlton, 18, walks into the lake, doesn’t walk out. Authorities dragged the water -- nothing. Sophie Carlton is the third Lake Manitoc drowning this year. None of the other bodies were found, either.”
He explained as Jessica leaned over.
“If there was some sort of system in place, measures could’ve been taken after the first drowning occurred.” Killian shrugged. “But I am pretty curious about the body though.”
“Why?”
“Well, where did the body go? Unless the locals just did a terrible job dragging the water, the body must be somewhere. Did it get destroyed in the water by whatever killed it? But it’s a lake, and in order to destroy the corpse completely...whoever did this has got quite the power.”
“You can still kill whatever is behind this, right?” Jessica asked.
“Probably.”
“Good.”
After the brief breakfast, the two went back upstairs for some activity Killian had to sever the links for.
And by that, I meant sex.
Finally, as someone started knocking on the door, a bare-chested Sam opened the door for Dean while Jessica went for a quick shower.
“You two had fun.” Dean commented with slight irritation. Sam grinned.
“Is that jealousy I hear?”
“Oh shut up.” Dean grabbed a chair and sat down. “So, I talked to Tommy, and I hinted that it might not have been a grizzly that attacked him and someone might have saved him. Guess what he said?”
“What?”
“He said he made a promise. He couldn’t tell me what happened to him or who saved him, but he was sure the creature was dead. Sounds familiar?”
“That sounds like something we would do.” Sam looked up and saw Jessica walking out in just bras. Seeing Dean, she turned back into the bathroom and soon emerged fully dressed.
“What’s up?”
“Dean said it was indeed other hunters.” Sam smiled. “I don’t want to say I told you so, but…”
“We told you so!” Jessica joked while taking a breath of relief deep down.
“Ok ok. Calm down, boys and girls.” Dean was in desperate need of a change of topic. “Please tell me you two did some work outside of the sack.”
Sam chuckled before pulling out a stack of newspapers. Each had an article circled in red pen. All of them were in regard to drownings in Lake Manitoc. As Dean read over, Sam described to him what he told Jessica.
“Well, then what are we waiting for?”
The trio drove to Lake Manitoc at once. First, they posed as officers of the Federal Wildlife Service and interviewed Will Carlton, the brother of the girl that drowned, Sophie Carlton.
Just like always, the interview ended up practically useless. Will couldn’t tell Jess and the brothers anything they didn't know before, and their request to talk to his father, Bill Carlton, was politely denied. Perhaps the only thing was that Will said he believed he saw something drag Sophie under.
The next on the list of people to talk to was local sheriff Jake Devins. Jessica had to admit the Winchesters have got some guts. Pretending to be a federal officer was a felony. It was one thing to do that in front of unsuspecting civilians. It was another to play that trick on an experienced policeman.
But Jessica wasn’t as fine with committing a crime in front of an officer of the law. Unlike Sam and Dean, she still had a deep respect for the law that didn't change just because of Killian’s existence. When Sam and Dean went to talk to the sheriff, Jessica asked to stay behind and do some research about the lake.
So, as the brothers went on to commit a crime, she went to a local motel, rented a room, and started looking up news on her laptop.
“So, there have been six deaths in Lake Manitoc spread out the past 35 years. Same deal. The bodies never showed up.” Jessica tossed her hands up. “Why the hell are people still going there to swim? If I knew something has killed six people in the past there, I’m not going to charge in and fight to be the seventh!”
“Because people always feel special, Jess. There’s always this mentality that just because this bad thing happened to this other guy doesn’t mean it will happen to me. People who think this way have a tendency to be wrong.” Killian commented quietly.
“Plus, for mortals, 35 years is a long time. Long enough for the public to forget even the greatest of tragedies, much less a handful of drownings.”
“Now you’re just making me feel depressed, Kil.”Jessica frowned. “Where should I start?”
“I don’t know, where should you?”
“Well, if all these people are dying, there must be a reason for it. I mean, why them and not anyone else? It’s not like those six people are the only ones that went swimming in those 35 years, right? Otherwise, this lake would be labeled as a death trap by now!”
Jessica ranted on. She was smart. As soon as she got to know the basics about how creatures work, she started showing off how she got into a school as prestigious as Stanford.
“So, why is this creature killing these people? What do they have in common? Hmmm…”
Jessica got to work. She printed out all the old newspaper articles on the internet and cut out the pictures of the deceased to form a list. Sophie Carlton. Christopher Barr. Four other names that, likewise, didn't mean a thing to Jessica.
Jessica frowned. She was badass, and the internet held certain knowledge, but in a small town like this, a lot of things about people couldn’t be found on the almighty internet. She needed a pair of local eyes to look at these names.
Of course, she could always just walk into the lake and see what would attack her and try to take the attacker out, but Jessica wasn’t that ruthless. With the Wendigo, she knew the attacker was some sort of beast before going after it. In this case, as far as she knew, the killer could be Poseidon or something. She wouldn’t take action unless she had no other choice.
She needed information, and she had a decent idea about where to get it from.
“Uh, Sam, Dean, I am going to see Will Carlton again for some additional information. I should be back before nightfall.”
The walk from the motel to the Carlton house didn't take that long, but it was still enough to make Jessica a bit frustrated. Last night, she was moving like a racecar on foot. Now, she was walking across the street like a normal human female.
“Don’t you have some method to make me invisible?” She asked Killian psychically.
“Maybe, but it’s definitely not something for a situation like this. Just be patient.”
“Fine.” Jessica suddenly rose a question. “Kil, you have never told me much about the world you came from. What does it feel like to live in a world where everyone has superpowers? It must be awesome!”
“Umm...not quite.” Killian winced. “That’s like someone from 2,000 years ago asking you if the world is a utopia because everyone has this magical power called technology. Our world was hardly perfect the same way your world is hardly perfect right now. Plus, superpowers are relative.”
“Maybe, but at least your people can protect yourselves.”
Jessica glanced around at the locals. Some of them had smiles. Others had poker faces, but not one of them knew there was a thing just miles away that has been killing their kind.
“That thing back in Black Water Ridge has killed at least a dozen people. This lake monster killed another seven people. And the people around them...they had no idea. They can’t even defend themselves.”
Killian lowered his head. My people could protect themselves? If it wasn’t so personal, he would be laughing his head off.
When trouble started, his people couldn’t defend themselves at all. In fact, they even fared worse than these town locals. At least these locals were under a facade of peace. Back in his world, his people were well aware of the noose around their neck, but there was nothing they could do but watch as that noose tightens.
Why else would he be here, trapped in a foreign world and making deals with beings of darkness that he would’ve been more than happy to slaughter?
Thankfully, the conversation gradually ended as Jessica reached the Carlton house.
