❝ the woman in white ! ❞

Sam rifles through a box full of cassette tapes as he sat shotgun.

"What the hell is this?" Sam mumbles tossing the cassette tape aside. Deanna was old school.

"Hey!" Deanna hollers. She holds both of her hands which are full of junk and sweet treats, "want breakfast?"

"No thanks," Sam scoffs looking at all the candies and junk in her hands. Shrugging, she popped open a pack of gummy bears and shoved them in her mouth.

"So, how do you pay for this stuff?" Sam asks, "you and dad still running on credit card scams?"

"Yeah, hunting ain't exactly a pro ball career." Deanna defends herself while pulling the gas pump from the tank at the back of an Impala. "Besides we only apply, it's not our fault they send us the cards."

"Yeah? And what names did you write on the application this time?" 

"Burt Aframian," Deanna mimics in her Polish accent. She swings her leg back inside the car and closes the door. "and his lovely daughter Hestra. Scored two cars out of the deal."

"Sounds bout right," Sam drops another cassette in the box and groans, "you've gotta update your cassette collection."

"Why?" Deanna asks, clearly offended.

"Well, for one, they're cassette tapes," Sam mocks her, "two, Black Sabbath? Metallica? Seriously?"

"Nothing, besides they're the greatest hits of hard rock," she mumbles and turns on the engine.

"It's the greatest hits of Mullet Rock," Sam retorts.

"Yeah well, house rules Sammy," Deanna smirks, popping a tape in the player, "driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole."

"You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old," Sam's voice got lost in the drums. "It's Sam."

"Sorry dude, can't hear you," Deanna grins, "music's too loud."

As they get closer to the town, Sam calls the local hospitals and morgue ensuring no one's fitting their dad's description. The good news was he wasn't dead nor admitted. Deanna's eyes are still on the road, analysing the bridge ahead of them. 

"Check it out," she says as Sam glanced down the bridge. There were two police cars and several officers. Deanna pulls over and turns off the engine.

Opening the glove compartment she pulls a box of cards. Fishing the right fakes, she pulls out ids with their faces on them, "we're gonna need fakes." She climbed out of the car synchronising with Sam. Grabbing her oversize leather jacket, she shrugs it over her tank top.

Over the bridge, the deputy leans over the railing, yelling if they found anything. There were no struggles of footprints or fingerprints. It was spotless. "It is almost too clean," one of the deputies said.

Falling in step with Sam, Deanna struts towards the officers.

"So this Troy kid," One of the officers asks, " he's dating your daughter right? How's Amy?"

"Eh, she's putting up missing posters downtown," The deputy answers.

"You had another one like this just last month, didn't you?" The officers turn to look at the siblings.

Standing up, another officer, namely, Jaffe straightens up. "and who are you lady?"

Flashing her badge, Deanna smirks, "Federal Marshals." She folds her badge back and tucks it away in her pocket.

"You two are a little young for Marshals, aren't you," Jaffe raises his brow, unimpressed.

Deanna giggles and tilts her head, "well that's awfully kind of you sir." Sam sighs. Sam knew that to get out of certain situations, Deanna would often flirt her way out of it. It just turned Sam's overprotective brother switch on.

She turns to the car, "you did have another one just like this, correct?" Deanna asks.

"Yeah," The deputy says, "that's right. About a mile up the road. They've been others before that."

"You knew the victim?" Sam asks, his cheekbones looking as prominent as Deanna's while asking questions.

"Town like this, everyone knows everybody."

"Any connections between them?" Deanna asks as she circled around the car, "besides they were all men."

"No. Not as far as we can tell."

"So what's the theory?" Sam questions and goes over to Deanna.

"Honestly, don't know. Serial murder? Kidnapping ring?"

"Well, what else can we expect from brilliant officers like you," Deanna sarcastically narrowed her eyes and gave him a plastered smile, though groans in pain the next second as Sam stomps on her foot.

"Thank you for your time Deputy," nodding Sam starts to walk away as Deanna struts behind him.

Deanna shoves him and smacks him on his head.

"Ow! What the hell?"

"You stomped on my foot," she pouts, as Sam gave her an unimpressed look.

"Why did you have to be so rude to the police?"

"Oh come on!" Deanna grunts, "they don't really know what's going on. We're all alone on this. I mean, if we're going to find Dad we've got to get to the bottom of this thing ourselves."

Sam clears his throat and looks over Deanna's shoulder. She turns as Sherrif Pierce and a few FBI agents approach them.

"Agent Mulder. Agent Scully." Deanna sniffs and walks away.

"We're Troy's uncle and aunt, I'm Deanna, this is Sammy" Deanna gives her a sad smile, "Troy told us about you." Sam smiles to himself and shakes his head.

"He never mentioned you to me," says Amy suspiciously.

"Well, that's Troy I guess." Deanna says, "we're not around much. We're up in Modesto."

"So, we're looking for him too," Sam interrupts, "we're just kinda asking around."

"Hey, you okay?" A girl, plausibly Amy's friend approaches them.

"Yeah," Amy mumbles. The Winchester duo looked at each other and then look at the two girls, "you mind if we ask you a couple of questions?" Shaking her head, Amy gestures to go into a diner to talk. Sitting opposite the two girls, Deanna and Sam listened as Amy told them about how Troy had to call her but he never did.

"Did he say anything strange," Sam asks, "out of ordinary?"

"No," The brunette shook her head, "nothing I can remember."

"I like your necklace," Deanns says tilting her head slightly, her eyes looking down at the necklace. She was wearing a pendant which was a pentagon in a circle.

"Troy gave it to me. Mostly to scare my parents," Amy chuckles, "with all that devil stuff."

"It actually means the opposite. A pentagram is a protection against evil," Deanna says, "really powerful if you believe in that kind of thing." 

Pissed off, Deanna leans forward, "Now that we're done with gossip, let's get back to business ladies. The way Troy disappeared, something ain't right. So, if you've heard anything..." Deanna's brow arched.

The two girls glanced at each other. "What?" Sam asks.

"Well," Rachel shrugs, "With all these guys going missing, people talk."

"What do they talk about?" The two hunters ask in chorus.

"It's kind of a local legend... this one girl... she got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago." Deanna's brow arched, wanting her to continue. "Well, supposedly she's out there. She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever."

Deanna typed 'Female murder Centennial Highway' and clicked go, only to find no results. One search attempt, it's fine. She cracks her knuckles and starts to type only to be pushed by Sam.

"Lemme try," he shoves her chair out of the way and takes over.

"God you're such a control freak," Deanna mumbles rolling her eyes.

"So angry spirits are born out of violent death right?" Sam says.

"Yeah,"

"So maybe it's not murder," he replaces murder with suicide and presses enter from her smallest finger.

One search result.

Sam clicks the article, 'Suicide on Cennetial'

"This was in 1981," Deanna mutters, narrowing her eyes as she read ahead, "Constance Welch, twenty-four years old, jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in the river."

"Does it say why she did it," Deanna asks as she rolled her chair towards the computer.

"Yeah an hour before they found her, she calls 911. Apparently, her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back, they aren't breathing. Both die." 

"Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it,' said husband Joseph Welch," Deanna murmurs. 

Her eyes comically widen and she looks at Sam, "This bridge look familiar to you?"

As Deanna looked down the river and surroundings, she muses, "So this is where Constance took the swan dive."

"So you think Dad would have been here?" Sam asks.

Walking away, she says " Well, he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him."

Sam jogs catching up to her, "So, now what?"

"Now we keep digging until we find him," Deanna says looking around. Sam sighs and takes a few steps back. He knew it. She'd try to drag him into this life again, but he couldn't. He was out for good. He was in a good college, had a lovely girlfriend and could see a future for himself. As much as he loved his sister, he couldn't just get dragged back into the 'family business.'

Deanna looked different. Her eyes were absolutely numb. It was as if she stopped caring about herself long ago and just continued living a lifeless life. She was never given a choice.
John played Deanna like a puppeteer would with his puppet. She just followed instructions. However when it came to Sam, he could see it, she would give up the world for him, and she did. Sam just hoped that after graduating, he could help Deanna with living a normal life as well.

"Deanna, I gotta go back by—"

"—Monday," Deanna interrupts, "right. The interview." She lets out a sardonic laugh, "sorry I forgot. So, does Jessica know the truth 'bout you Sammy? I mean, does she even know the things you've done."

She's just hurting, she doesn't mean it, Sam composed himself, not wanting to say anything he didn't mean. "She's never going to know Dee. I won't let her."

"Yeah, and what if something happens, you just live your crappy apple free life!" Sam glares at her, "I mean, Sammy don't you get it! How many times has this happened? Huh! There's a reason we have this certain responsibility-"

"To who Deanna? Who are we even doing this for?" Sam yells, his ears red in anger, "for dad? His crusade? If it weren't for you keeping mom's pictures, I wouldn't even know what mom would look like. I mean, what difference does it make anymore? Why live a life full of pain where nothing good happens to us? Even if we find the thing that killed her, do you think that is it?" Deanna freezes. "Then what Deanna? We continue hunting? Do you really think this revenge spree that dad is on will do any good to us? Mom's dead! Open your eyes Dee, she isn't coming back!"

That was the last straw.

Deanna grabs his collar and shoves him against the railing bridge. She couldn't see anything else than red. "Don't ever talk about her like that", her teeth gritted. Sadness, she felt sorrow. Realisation hits her as she loosens the grip around the collar and takes a step back, murmuring 'sorry.'

"Dean," Sam whispers as he finds Constance standing at the edge of the bridge. She pushes Sam behind protectively.

"Where'd she go?" Deanna asks, looking around. They suddenly hear the Impala's engine start. Turning around they notice the headlights on.

"Who's driving the car?" Sam asks. Deanna pulls her keys out of her pocket and jiggles them. As the car lurches forward, Sam yells, "Deanna go! Run!"

They sprint across the bridge as the car drove faster and faster. As it touches them, Sam and Deanna dive over to the railing, just as the car comes to a halt.

As Sam caught himself on the edge of the bridge, he pulled himself up and looked around for his sister.

"Deanna," Sam yells. Crawling out of the water and onto the mud, she pants and yells back "what?"

"You alright?" Sam asks as he stifles his laugh. She gives him an 'okay-sign' as Sam scoots away from the bridge, laughing breathlessly.

A few minutes later, Deanna went up to the bridge and leaned next to the car.

"You alright?" Sam asks.

"Yeah," Deanna sighs shutting the hood, "whatever she did to it, seems all right now. That Constance chick, what a bitch!"

"Well, she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure. So where's the job go from here, genius?" Deanna heavily sighs again, wanting a good night's sleep. "God I'm hungry!"

Sam sniffs the air and looks at her, leaning away, "You smell like a toilet."

"One room please," Deanna pulls out her card, slides it on the check-in table of the motel. The clerk picks it up and examines it.

"You guys having a reunion or something?" The clerk asks.

"What do you mean?" Sam asks.

"I had another guy Burt Aframian," the clerks continues, "he came and bought out a room for a whole month."

Nodding, they get out of the reception room and round the hotel rooms. Sam picks the motel room lock and pushes the door open. Looking around they notice the messy state. Maps, newspaper clippings, notes and pictures were pinned to the wall. The books were scattered on the desk. Old takeout and salt.

"I don't think he's been here for a couple of days," Deanna sniffs the takeout and recoils.

"Sal, cat-eye shells... he was worried," Sam says, "he was trying to keep something from coming in."

"Centennial Highway victims." Deanna looks around the wall, "I don't get it. Different men, different jobs, ages, ethnicities. What do these guys have in common?"

"Dad figured it out," Sam turns around.

"What do you mean?"

"He found the same article as we did. Constance Welch, the woman in white."

"All right," Deanna says, "if we're dealing with white, dad would have found the corpse and salt and burnt it."

"She might have some other weakness," Sam shakes his head.

"Dad would dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?"

"No," Sam frowns, "not that I can tell. If I were dad, I'd probably ask her husband," he looks down at the picture of Joseph Welch, "if he's even alive."

"Right. You try finding the address, I gotta clean up," she smiles slightly, "pretty sure all the mud's in my butt." She takes out her clothes and starts to walk into the bathroom, only to be stopped by Sam.

"Dee," he sighs, "look about earlier, I'm-"

"It's fine Sammy," no it's not Sam thought, "no chick flick moments."

"You love chick flicks," Sam grins.

Deanna makes a face, "shut up bitch!"

"Jerk!" Sam laughs as she slams the bathroom door.

He notices a paper hanging on the mirror. It was a picture of them sitting on the Impala. He noticed Deanna's freckles on her face, as she scrunched her nose, smiling. Sam was next to John, his eyes narrowed as though trying to prevent himself from the sun. Then he looked at John who had a slight smile on his face, which was rare. He was holding his kids close to his heart. But though everything looked perfect in the picture, it wasn't perfect in real life.

Just because someone smiled in pictures didn't mean they smiled all the time.

Deanna comes out of the bathroom, as the smell of vanilla and jasmine hits Sam's nose. He always wondered which shampoo she used. All Sam could smell in his shampoo was cucumber.

Deanna grabs her utility jacket and shrugs it on one shoulder, "I am starving," Deanna huffs, "I'm grabbing a bit of food down the street. You want anything?"

Sam shakes his head as she tries to persuade him, "I mean Aframian's buying. We could get you one of those salads you like."

"Nuh-uh," Sam shakes his head.

"Okay-dokie," Deanna closes the motel door and crosses the parking lot. She looks over and finds a police car where the motel clerk was talking to the deputy. The same deputy Sam and Deanna talked to.

"Fuck," Deanna mutters, she turns the other way and pulls out her cell, "five-oh, take off. Now," the deputies started to walk her.

"What 'bout you?" Sam asks through the phone.

"They kinda spotted me. You got this tiger, Go find dad." Hanging the phone she turns around to see the deputies approach her and grins, "officers?"

"Where's your partner?" Deputy Jaffe asks, "partner? What's wrong," Deanna pouts.

"Fake US Marshal, fake credit cards. Got anything real?"

"My boobs," Deanna smirks, "hey! Eyes up here perverts," Jaffe takes a step forward and cuffs her wrist, spinning her around.

"Hey watch it!" she yells only to be held tighter, "you have the right to remain silent! Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law!"

"Do you realize just how much trouble you're in?"

"Are we talking like misdemeanour kinda trouble, or uh, squeal a pig trouble?" Deanna shoots her brows up.

"You got the faces of ten missing persons taped to your wall," The Sherriff says as Deanna looks away, "along with a whole lotta satanic mumbo-jumbo. Lady, you're officially a suspect."

"Oh yeah, that makes sense," Deanna rolls her eyes, "cause when the first one missing in '82, I was three."

"I know you've got partners. One of 'em's an older guy. Maybe he started this whole thing. So, tell me, Deanna," the Sheriff tosses a brown leather cover journal as Deanna frowns, "this his?"

Leaning forward, the Sheriff sits on the edge of the table and flips through the journal, "I thought that may be your name. See I leafed through this. What little I could make out— this is nine kinds of crazy."

Deanna leans forward to take a closer look, the Sheriff flips through the pages and says, "I found another thing," the sheriff taps a piece of the paper that states her name.

Deanna 35-111.

Coordinates.

"What do these numbers mean?" the Sheriff asks.

Deanna huffs, "for the last time, it's my high school locker number combo."

The Sherrif sighs, "we gonna do this all night long?" A deputy walks into the room, "we got a 911, shots fired over at Whiteford Road."

The Sheriff turns towards Deanna, "you have to go to the bathroom?"

Deanna frowns, looking at him weirdly, "no."

"Good," the Sheriff handcuffs her to the table and leaves. Deanna looks around and notices a paper clip poking out of the journal. Smirking, she pulls it out, bends it with her fingers, and uses it to cuff herself loose.

Moments later, as the Sheriff and deputy gear up, Deanna narrows her eyes and notices them through the window. As they leave, Deanna ducks, waiting for the deputy to leave.

After a while, Deanna climbs down the fire escape, carrying John's journal. She calls Sam, hijacking a police bike.

"Fake 911 phone call?" Deanna smirks through the phone, "Sam for being a lawyer, that's pretty illegal."

"Your welcome." Sam grins through the phone.

"Okay, listen. We need to talk"

"Tell me about it," Sam rubs his temple, "so, get this, the husband was unfaithful. We're dealing with a woman in white. She was buried behind her old house. So, that should've been dad's next stop."

"Sam just shut up for a second," Deanna snaps but Sam continues, "I just don't get why dad didn't destroy the corpse yet."

"Yeah, that's what I've been trying to tell you," Deanna snaps, "dad's gone."

"Dad's dead?!"

"What?" Deanna purses her lips in annoyance, "no! He left Jericho Sam. Dad left."
Pause.

"How do you know?"

"I've got his journal," Deanna sighs.

"He never goes anywhere without that thing." Sam frowns.

"Yeah, well he did this time. It's the same old ex-Marine crap in it. You know, when he wants us to know where he's going."

"I don't get it man," Sam sighs, "I mean, what could be so important that Dad would just skip out in the middle of a job? Dee what the hell is going on?"

Deanna pauses, not knowing what to say, and hears a crash. "Sam? Sammy!"

"I'm so cold"

Deanna heard the ghost as she tugs her fingers in her chest. Deanna pulls out her gun and shoots Constance multiple times, hoping she's fade off. She jumps back just as Sam drives forward and into the house.

Deanna hurries through the wreckage and to the passenger side of the car.

"Sam!" she opens the car door, "Sammy! You alright? Can you move," Sam shakes his head and asks for help. Leaning forward she holds his hand and helps him off out of the car.

Deanna shuts the door and looks around, trying to find the woman in white. Constance looks around the house and glares at the Winchester siblings. A bureau scoots towards Sam and Deanna, pinning them against the staircase, She starts to go over to them and finds a young boy and girl holding their hands.

"You've come home to us, mommy," the toddlers say in unison.

Constance looks at them, distraught. They walk over to her and embrace her, making her scream. Her image flickers and with a surge of energy the two toddlers and the woman in white melt into a puddle.

"That was something."

"Okay, here's where dad went," Sam says as finds the open map on his lap, "Blackwater Ridge, Colorado."

"Sounds charming," Deanna nods, "so about nine hundred miles?"

"Uh, it's six hundred."

"Great, we could make it by morning," Deanna smiles just as she remembers Sam has an interview coming up.

"Deanna I, um..."

Deanna breathes out in disappointment and bites her lips. "Right, I forgot. Sorry. I'll take you back home."

"Call me if you find him alright?"

It was around midnight, Sam stands near the window of the Impala, his bags in his hands.

Deanna nods, giving him a tight smile.

"Maybe," Sam stutterers, "maybe we could meet again. Soon."

Knowing that Sam just wants to part on good terms she nods and leans towards the passenger door, her one arm going over the back of the seat.

"Sam," Deanna calls him just as he turns away, "We made a hell of a team earlier."

"Yeah," Sam lets out a breathy laugh.

"Take care."

With that, pulls the engine and drives off hoping nothing goes wrong.

However, call it her sisterly instinct or just the radio going wrong, she makes a U-turn and drives back to Stanford, just hoping Sam is alright. Just to see him one last time.

As she parks her car in front of the building, she smells smoke and rushes into the apartment. She kicks the door open, runs into the room, and looks up.

Jess. In flames.

Knowing they didn't have time, Deanna grabs Sam off the bed and shoves him out the door, as if pulling him away forcefully out of the apartment.

Just as they get out, fire engulfs the entire apartment.

(poof!)

Flashes.

Old memories were coming back to them.

The fire truck was parked outside the building, the firemen and police keeping back gawkers. Deanna turns and looks at Sam, and asks the dumbest question.

"You okay?"

Sam looks up, his face masking his desperate anger. Deanna could read him very clearly, she knew him better than he knew himself. He sighs and nods, tossing the shotgun into the trunk.

"We got work to do."

────────── notes──────────

yeah, this was a crappy chapter, done and unedited within three hours and worth 4000 words. i sincerely apologise for the lack of updates and this crappy work. I'll try to update whenever i can  <33

thank you so much for the non-stop support y'all have given me. finally done with the pilot, let's celebrate <33

if you enjoyed this chapter, could you please leave a small comment or a vote. it would be extremely motivational for me. 

28. 03. 2022