Fractured

Loch Ness Monster

Dean and I were looking through newspapers for any weird deaths, and as he was circling one of them, the waitress came up and asked, "Do you need anything else," completely ignoring me in the process. This caused Dean to look up and smirk at the young girl.

"Just the check, please," I replied, giving the waitress a tight-lipped smile.

Dean rolled his eyes and asked, "Why do you always have to ruin the fun?"

I looked to Dean and replied, "Because we are looking for a job."

Sam came back from the bathroom, and Dean sighed, "Fine. Take a look at this: Wisconsin, last week, Sophie Carlton, 18. She walks into the lake, doesn't walk out. Authorities looked through the water, nothing. She is the third Lake Manitoc drowning this year. None of the other bodies were found either. They had a funeral a few days ago."

"A funeral?" Sam asked, confused.

"Yeah, it's weird. They buried an empty coffin for closure or whatever," Dean said rudely.

I looked to Dean with irritation, "There is nothing weird about that, Dean."Dean sighed, realizing his mistake. I had buried empty coffins.

"Besides, people don't just find closure. People don't just disappear. People stop looking for them," Sam said, angry.

Dean shifted his eyes from me to Sam, "Is there something you want to say to me?"

"Dad's trail is getting colder, and we are getting nowhere," Sam said, irritated.

"You don't think I don't want to find him. I've been with him every day for the past two years while you've been off to college going to pep-rallies. We will find dad, but until then, we are going to kill everything bad between here and there," Dean said with finality.

"Let's just go," I said in a sour mood.

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It took a few hours, but we finally made it to the dead girl's home, and thank God for it because the air in the car was so full of tension it was suffocating. We walked up to the house, and Dean knocked on the door.

"Will Carlton?" Dean asked the boy who answered the door.

"Yeah, that's right," Will answered, confused.

"I'm Agent Ford, and these two are Agent Hammel and Agent Simmons. We are the U.S. Wildlife Service," Dean said, introducing us.

Will walked us over to the lake, where the girl disappeared, and I saw the dad sitting at the edge of the dock."She was about a hundred yards out. It's where she got dragged down," Will explained to us.

"And your sure she didn't drown," I asked.

"No, she was a varsity swimmer. She practically grew up in that lake. She's as safe out there as she is in her own bathtub," Will continued.

"So, no splashing or signs of distress? Did you see any shadows or anything reach the surface" Sam asked the distraught-looking kid?

"No, as I said, she was really far out there," Will said.

"You see any strange tracks by the shoreline?" Dean asked.

"No, never. Why, why, what do you think is out there?" Will asked curiously.

"We will let you know as soon as we do. I'm sorry for your loss, Will," I said to the boy before leaving.

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Continuing our quest for answers, we made our way to the sheriff's office."Now I'm sorry, but what does the Wildlife Service have to do with an accidental drowning?" The Sheriff asked.

"Are you sure it was accidental?" Sam asked the Sheriff.

"Here, sit down. There are no indigenous creatures that live in that lake. We checked already. There was nothing big enough to pull down a person unless it was the Loch Ness Monster," The Sheriff explained.

I laughed at that, "Yeah, right, the Loch Ness Monster." Sam nudged my arm with his elbow, signaling that right now wasn't the time for my comments.

"Will Carlton was traumatized, and sometimes the brain plays tricks. Still, we dragged that lake, we even did a sonar sweep, and there was nothing down there," Sheriff said.

"That's weird, though. It's the third body missing this year," Dean said, digging for more.

Sadness swam in the Sheriff's eyes as he said, "I know. These are people from my town, people that I knew personally. Anyway, none of this will be a problem much longer."

"What do you mean," I asked, confused.

"Well, the dame, of course, it'll burst with in the next six months," the Sheriff explained.

"Right, right," Dean said.

A knock on the door came from behind us, "Sorry, am I interrupting?" a young woman asked. Well, I mean kind of. We are in the middle of a meeting here.

"Guys, this is my daughter," the Sheriff introduced the mystery girl.

Dean was the first to introduce himself to her, of course, "Pleasure, I'm Dean."

"Andrea Barr, Hi," she said, shaking his hand.

"They are from the Wildlife Service about the lake," Sheriff Barr said to Andrea. A look of sadness quickly came across her face as she mumbled, "oh." A little boy made his way around Andrea's hip.

"Hey there," I said with a warm smile on my face, "My name is Devyn. What's yours?"Instead of answering, he turned around and went back into the waiting room, my smile faltering a tad. Andrea left soon after." His name is Lucas," the Sheriff answered for the child.

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After the meeting we had with the Sheriff, Andrea was kind enough to show us to the nearest Motel, and Dean, not so subtly, was flirting with her the entire walk there."Kids are the best, huh?" Dean said, trying to converse with the woman.

I couldn't help the snort that escaped me, but Dean, you hate kids. He doesn't even know any kids. This was rich, though, and I had to keep watching him fail miserably.

"There it is. Like I said two blocks," Andrea said, seeming to not care about Dean's attempts at all, which made this ten times better to witness. I looked at Andrea and offered her a small smile and thanked her for showing us the way here."It must be hard with your sense of direction," Andrea started, "never able to find your way to a decent pickup line," Andrea finished before walking away from us.

Dean looked confused about what had just happened while Sam and I just stood there and laughed at him. Poor guy, I don't think he's ever been rejected before. Sam and I started to walk away from Dean, who had a puzzled look on his face, making our way to the room we'd be staying in.

When we got settled, Sam went into full research mode on his computer and found out that Lucas's father was one of the victims that had drowned in the lake earlier this year. He apparently was stranded in the lake for two hours before help came.

"No wonder the kid was so freaked out. Watching your parents die isn't something you get over," Dean said, having a strange look on his face.

"You know what I can't get over. I have to share a bed with one of you tonight. So who's it gonna be?" I asked to lighten the mood. Both the boys looked at me and then at each other before Dean said, "Me," and Sam said, "Dean."

1/30/2021- Edited