Standing Outside the Fire

5

[Live Free or Twihard]

EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF POLICE STATION - DAY

Francesca smiled at Dean and said, "You good?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Hey, Dee?"

"Yeah?"

Before she could say anything, the two looked up as Sam approached and Dean said, "Hey."

"What're you so stoked about?" Sam asked.

"What? Nothin'. Whaddya got?"

Sam handed over a pile of Missing Persons fliers which Dean leafed through. "Six girls in seven days, which is more disappearances than this city has seen in over a year -- all about the same age."

"And cute. But Frankie's cuter." Sam scoffed. "Hey, ice cream comes in lots of flavors, Sam."

"Right. Sure. Well, half a dozen girls, late teens, a shower away from greatness. Sounds like a profile. I mean, what else they got in common?"

"Well... six directions to go here," Francesca said. "Pick a number."

"Seven. Another call just came in today."

They got into the Impala and drove down the road.

INT. KRISTIN'S HOUSE

Sam, Dean and Francesca were speaking to Kristin's father.

"Kristin's a good kid," the father said. "A little naïve, sure... You try to be a good parent. Girls are hard."

Dean glanced at Francesca with a light smile.

"Right," Sam noted. "Well, we'd just like to find your daughter."

Kristin's father paused. "Last door on the left."

Dean and Francesca glanced upstairs. "Thanks."

Sam, Dean and Francesca climbed the stairs and Sam gave a quick glance back to the father.

"Whaddya think he was talking about?" Dean asked quietly.

"Drugs?" Sam guessed quietly.

Francesca shrugged. "Could be anything."

Dean shrugged. They entered Kristin's room and Francesca flipped on the light. The walls were painted red and covered with vampire posters. Vampire and gothic accessories were everywhere -- including vampire pillows on the bed.

"Oh, it is SO much worse," Dean commented.

Francesca looked around and nodded. "It's -- I don't even have a word for it. Oh God, I feel like I'm back in middle school."

Sam snorted. "Vampires?"

Her lip curled. "Ah, these aren't vampires, dude, these..." Sam shut the door and they caught sight of a full-sized cut-out of a teen heart-throb "vampire". "...These are douchebags."

"Yeah."

They glanced around the room.

"Wow," Dean and Francesca commented.

"Hm." Sam went to the bed and started flipping back the covers. He looked under a pillow and found a red laptop. "Aha. All right." He moved over to her desk. "Let's see what we can see. All right."

He turned on the laptop; it made a screaming noise and a picture of an intense-looking fake vampire popped up. The three flinched.

"Th-that's super... uncomfortable," Sam said.