Standing Outside the Fire

48

[LARP and the Real Girl]

China Grove by the Doobie Brothers was playing. Dean was driving, Sam was reading sheets of paper and Francesca was reading for anything to help about the weapon.

Dean glanced back at Francesca before looking at Sam. "You okay, man?"

"We have the most powerful weapon we've ever had against demons, and we can't find a way to use it."

"Yeah, well, Kevin's on it. And when he finds something, he'll call. So we wait. Look, we have all had a rough go over these past couple of weeks. And, uh... I know what you gave up wasn't easy. Maybe we ought to take the night off -- go see a flick, hit a bar or two. You remember fun, don't you, Sammy?"

Sam's phone rang and he answered. "Garth, what do you got?"

Garth's voice came through. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Why don't you grab a piece of paper?"

"Really? Okay. Uh, yeah. Thanks, man."

"Yeah, all right."

"Oh, wait, hey -- hey, Garth. Garth, are you there?"

"Yeah."

"H-how'd you know where we are?"

"You've been Garthed."

"Look, it's bad enough that you're tracking us, but it's even worse when you say we've been "Garthed"." Sam cleared his throat. "Yeah." He hung up. "Uh, well, it's close -- Farmington Hills, Michigan. Dude got ripped limb from limb inside his locked apartment."

"That's not good," Dean said.

"Working a case. As long as we're waiting on Kevin, that'll be our fun," Sam said as Dean looked at him.

Francesca frowned. "Well as of late, our cases haven't been fun. I miss fun."

They made their way to the apartment and entered, showing their FBI badges to an officer at the door.

They approached a sheriff. "Sheriff." Sam said. "Special Agent Taggert. These are my partners Special Agent Rosewood and Special Agent Malone."

"FBI?" the sheriff repeated. "You guys are quick. Haven't even gotten the body out yet."

Dean shrugged. "Well, the FBI is all work..." he looked between Sam and Francesca, "no play."

Francesca turned to the sheriff. "You know, why don't you give my partner the tour while me and our other partner look around?"

"We work better in a pair," Dean said.

"Your world, Agents. Follow me."

Sam followed the sheriff while Dean and Francesca went into the kitchen and took out their EMF readers.

Sam and the sheriff were standing in the victim's bedroom. The victim's torso was still under the sheet, but the sheet was flat against the mattress where his arms and legs should have been. The walls were stained with blood.

The sheriff said, "Vic's name was Ed Nelson, 31 years old, an insurance-claim adjuster. He lived alone, which was a real shocker, considering his place is full of toys."

"So what happened?" Sam asked.

One of Ed's legs, covered with a cloth, was on the floor with a pool of blood around it.

"No sign of forced entry," the sheriff continued. "Near as we can tell, he was pulled apart. Died of the shock or massive blood loss. Dealer's choice on that one."