Standing Outside the Fire

44

[A Little Slice of Kevin]

EXT. RANDY RACCOON PRESCHOOL – DAY

Children played in a playground. A boy finger-painted at an outdoor table.

"It's finger painting, Aaron, not body painting. Let's get you cleaned up," a young woman said.

The young woman walked with the boy to an outdoor toilet block and held the door of the boys' room open for him. "There you go."

The young woman's eyes changed to black as she looked around before following the boy inside and closing the door. Bright light shined around the door frame and dark clouds appeared in the sky. Strong wind blew through the playground. The bright light behind the door of the boys' room went out and the door partly opened and closed again. Children screamed and ran for cover. The door of the boys' room partly opened and closed again. A twister appeared in the playground and fierce wind knocked over easels and chairs. The door of the boys' room blew open. No one was inside.

EXT. FOREST ROAD - DAY

Dean was driving, eating potato chips. Francesca was sitting passenger, occasionally stealing his chips.

They passed a man in a trench coat walking down the road.

Dean overtook the man and Francesca glanced back with a frown.

Dean turned to see what Francesca was looking at, saw Castiel and braked. He looked in the rearview mirror while Francesca continued looking behind her and Dean reversed down the road. He left the car running on the road next to a sign for the Twin Pines Resort as he and Francesca got out and looked around. They saw no sign of the angel.

Francesca frowned. "Okay, I'm not crazy, right? I thought Cas was still in Purgatory."

Dean nodded slowly. "I did. You're not crazy, babe."

They reached the cabin and Sam was using his laptop and drinking a beer.

"Hey," Sam greeted.

"Hey," Dean and Francesca replied, standing in the middle of the room, Dean holding a six-pack and a paper bag.

Sam looked between the couple. "You two look like you've s -- well, I was gonna say, "You two look like you've seen a ghost", but you'd both probably be stoked. Uh, you two okay?"

Dean and Francesca exchanged an uncertain look before he said in an uncertain tone, "Yeah, we're cool. What's up?"

"Well, this kid went missing from a preschool," Sam said, glancing up.

"That sucks. And?"

"And at the same time he vanished, a surprise tornado hit, last maybe 20 seconds, then, uh... shazam! Back to perfect weather."

"Hmm. And they pooh-pooh climate change."

Sam chuckled. "Yeah."

Dean put the beer into the fridge as Sam continued, "Well, similar wackiness has happened over the past few weeks in other places -- uh, Tulsa, a bus driver vanishes and a river gets overrun with frogs. New Mexico -- a mailman disappears, the earth splits open."

"Okay. So, uh, you're thinkin' demons?" Francesca asked as she and Dean stood and walked over to Sam and looked at the laptop.

"Yeah, possibly, but... I mean, this stuff was major." The laptop showed articles about missing persons. "These folks have nothing in common -- no religious affiliations, different hometowns, all ages. Why would demons want them?"

"Why do demons want anything?" Dean asked as he slapped Sam lightly on the shoulder. "Uh, so, we in on this?"

"Yep."