Run, Boy, Run

Chapter 9

I was sitting in the seat next to Dean, swinging my legs and humming Barney.
Dean said" All right. I've been cruising some websites. Think I found a few candidates for our next gig. A fishing trawler found off the coast of Cali. Its crew vanished." Sam was drawing," And we got some cattle mutilations in west Texas. Hey!" Sam finally looked up," Am I boring you with this hunting evil stuff."
Sam said" No, I'm listening. Keep going."
" And here a Sacramento man shot himself in the head... three times." He held up three fingers and waved his hand," Any of these things blowing up your skirt, pal?"
" Wait, I've seen this."
" Seen what?" Sam got up and went to the bags," What are you doing?" He grabbed dad's journal, he looked at something then the notepad.
" Dean, I know where we have to go next."
" Where?"
" Back home. Back to Kansas."
" Okay, random. Where'd that come from?"
" All right, um... this photo was taken in front of our old house, right? The house where mom died?" He gave Dean the picture,
" Yeah."
" It didn't burn down completely. They rebuilt it, right?"
" I guess so, yeah. What the hell are you talking about?" Sam lifted me up and sat down, sitting me on his lap, I leaned back.
" Okay, look, this is gonna sound crazy, but the people who live in our old house, I think they might be in danger."
" Why would you think that?"
" Uh... just, um... Look, just- you got to trust me on this, okay?" He stood up and put me down,
" Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. Trust you?"
" Yeah."
" Come on, man, that's weak. You got to give me a little bit more than that."
" I can't really explain it is all."
" Well, tough. I'm not going anywhere until you do."
" I have these nightmares."
" I've noticed."
" And sometimes they come true."
" Come again?"
" Look, Dean... I dreamt about Jessica's death for days before it happened."
" Sam, people have weird dreams, man. I'm sure it's just a coincidence."
" No, I dreamt about the blood dripping, her on the ceiling, the fire, everything and I didn't do anything 'cause I didn't believe it. Now I'm dreaming about that tree, our house, and about some woman inside screaming for help. I mean, that's where it all started. This has to mean something, right?"
" I don't know."
" What do you mean you don't know, Dean? This woman might be in danger. This might be the thing that killed mom and Jessica."
" All right, just slow down, would you? I mean, first you're telling me that you've got the shining... and then you tell me that I've got to go back home, especially when..."
" When what?"
" When I swore to myself that I would never go back there."
" Look, Dean, we have to check this out. Just to make sure."
" I know we do."
——
We pulled up to their old house,
Sam said" You gonna be all right, man?"
Dean said" Let me get back to you on that." They got out, Sam went to get me out," Mmhmm, no."
" Dean-"
" No."
" River, just stay here, okay? We'll be back in a few minutes." He closed the door and they walked away, I pressed my hands against the window and watched them.

Soon, they came out and walked towards me and the car. I couldn't hear them yet,
Dean said" And we will."
Sam said" No, I mean now."
" How? You got a story she's gonna believe?"
" Then what are we supposed to do?"

We were at a gas station,
Dean said" We just got to chill out, that's all. You know, if this was any other kind of job, what would we do?"
Sam said" We'd try to figure out what we were dealing with. We'd dig into the history of the house."
" Exactly, except this time we already know what happened."
" Yeah, but how much do we know? How much do you remember?"
" About that night, you mean?"
" Yeah."
" Not much. I remember the fire... the heat. Then I carried you out the front door."
" You did?"
" Yeah, well, you never knew that?"
" No."
" And, um, well, you know dad's story as well as I do- mom was... was on the ceiling, and whatever put her there was long gone by the time dad found her."
" And he never had a theory about what did it?"
" If he did, he kept it to himself. God knows we asked him enough times."
" Okay. So, if we're gonna figure out what's going on now, we have to figure out what happened back then, see if it's the same thing."
" Yeah. Talk to dad's friends, neighbors, people who were there at the time."
" Does this feel like just another job to you?"
" I'll be right back. I got to go to the bathroom." He walked away from us, Sam lifted me up,
" I don't think Dean's gonna let you into the house, so you gonna be okay spending time in the car?" I hummed, nodding my head, before playing with his hair." Okay."