No Room For Cheats

    It was a normal day in the Winchester house, well more like motel room. It was more home then anything as they had been there a week, a record from how they always hopped around. It was normal, for them, as Sam woke up before Dean to go for a run, something Dean could never understand why as he woke up around eleven on a good day and poured whiskey into his coffee. The stark contrast set the two apart.

            The only difference this morning was that Dean was up at eight, Sam was sitting in a chair by the window, the curtains drawn as usual, typing furiously on his laptop. There was none of the usual banter about the one or the other’s eating habits. Dean was flicking through a book, hunched over on the bed he had claimed as his own, absently twisting the necklace Sam had given them when they were younger.

            The only sound was the clacking of Sam’s keyboard, the soft ruffle of pages, and the occasionally grunt as they readjusted themselves. They were researching attacks on people nearby, trying to find a case. There seemed to be one popping up all the time in this small town. It was weird since usually it was one town had a case and they would solve it before moving on. But not this town.

    First, there was an innocent ghost problem where the ghost didn’t want to leave so they stayed with the loved one. But as always the ghost had turned violent and was throwing things when the young kid didn’t realize the ghost was talking to them, popping light bulbs around the parents, the debris almost getting them in the eye. It almost killed the father as the ghost caused the car breaks to stall at a stop sign, making a heavy truck hit the car rolling through the intersection.

    Next, there was the witch circle where people were gathering and casting curses on people they hated. They managed to break that up before too many people had died in record time, only three days they spent on that case.

    Finally, there was the most recent case. Mother’s and children were dying out of nowhere. Sometimes it was the mother’s, who must have been protecting the children as they were shown mutilated in a nearby room; to the kids, the mothers finding them when they go to check on the kids in the morning. It was weird and gruesome and hit a little too close to home.

    Sam had been on his morning run when he noticed the ambulances and the police cruisers gathered around an otherwise average and run down neighbourhood. He stopped, walking over to one of the many people gathered outside the barriers.

    “Ma’am?” Sam called, catching a woman’s attention with a wave. She smiled thinly; she was older and probably seemed un-approving of Sam’s long hair. “Do you mind telling me what’s going on here?”

    “Why, you haven’t heard?” The woman asked, clutching the neck of her bath rob tightly around her neck. She shook her head, her course hair springing. “Poor things. Went into her son’s room and found him…dead.” She mouthed the last part, seeming like she couldn’t bear to say it yet eager to speak about it. “Has always been fond of them. They raised them from babes, those two women did. They’re a lesbian couple, finally got the right to adopt. Must have lost her nut when she found her kids. She’s down at the police station with her wife right now…”

    Sam nodded, his face frowning and he scratched at his chin. “Do you know how they were killed?”

    The woman shook her head, her dark skin growing pale as she looked at the ground. Sam thanked her for her time and sprinted back the way he came to the motel.

    “DEAN!” Sam shouted as he ran in, letting the door slam behind him. Dean jerked, falling off the bed with a gun ready and pointing at Sam’s heart. When he realized who was at the door, he groaned, letting the safety click back on and tossing it lazily back onto the bed.

    “Damn it, Sammy.” Dean groaned as he got up from the floor. He rubbed his eyes, running his hands through his hair making it look even messier. “I told you a million times not to do that. I could have shot you!”

    “Well, you didn’t.” Sam said with an aggravating little sarcastic smile. “Anyways, I think I found us a case.”

    “It’s the fricking fourth one this week, Sam. Why don’t you give it a rest and let me rest?” Dean demanded, flopping face first back onto the bed and shoving the gun under the pillow.

    “Because this one seems worse then the others. A lesbian couple found their two kids killed in their bed. W-We have to help them, Dean.”

    “Yeah well we can help them later because I need sleep. I was up till three in the damn morning hearing two old timers in the next room getting-“

    “Yeah, I know. I heard it too.” Sam interrupted, not wanting to hear anything else. He managed to tune that out and got to sleep easily. He stared imploringly at Dean who gave another groan and heaved himself to his feet.

    “Fine! But make this quick. I’m exhausted.”

    An hour later, they were talking to the parents of the two children that had been killed. They didn’t get much information, the two obviously in shock, and distraught at what had happened only a few hours prior. They didn’t get much out of the house either, only the sheriff saying there was a lot of powder covering the floors. Dean snooped around but couldn’t find anything to suggest that it was paranormal.

    After that, they were back at the motel, and were researching the attacks. They had a radio playing mindlessly in the background, Sam not really paying attention to it until Dean turned it up.

    “Dude, what are you doing?” Sam demanded. Dean shushed him with a look and a wave, trying to listen.

    The radio crackled and sounded like the person speaking was speaking through a tin can. “There are reports of famous actor James Franco, mostly known from the movie The Interview and the original Spider-Man franchise, was found wandering the streets of a small suburb, covered in blood and his clothes in tatters. He is currently in police custody in the state of Louisiana. More details within the hour…”

    Dean switched off the radio and looked meaningfully at Sam. “Should we go check it out?”

    “I dunno, Dean. What if it turns up nothing? We should be looking into the case of the killed kids. Do we really want to bother with it?” Sam scratched his chin, leaning back in his chair to think.

    Dean sighed impatiently.  “How about I go check out James Franco and you stay here and keep researching. You’ll be right at home.”

    “There’s no such thing as home for us, Dean.”

    “Sure there is. Now I’ll go and check out the police station again so just...Stay.”

    And Dean was gone, at the police station within ten minutes. The person at the front desk looked surprised to find him back and greeted him warily.

    “Heard about our little superstar, eh?” He said, laughing at his own joke. Dean let out a puff of breath in response and nodded, asking to be directed to where he was. “Right down the hall, then, sonny. Good luck getting anything out of him though. He wouldn’t budge, mostly just stares at his hands or feet. Hasn’t said a word.”

    “I’ll take a crack at him then.” Dean said, walking down the hall and peeking into the room.

    James Franco most certainly was there. But they cleaned him up, only the stains of red on his hands and face the only remnants. He seemed distant, his eyes wide and blank looking at his hands that were chained to the steel table in front of him. His eyes looked like he had just seen something he was trying to forget. Dean cleared his throat and he jerked, making the handcuffs rattle with a somewhat hollow sound, but he didn’t look up.

    “Hi, I’m detective Smith, I’m here to ask you a few questions.” James didn’t even react, just continued to stare. “Alright, well, do you remember anything that happened?

    James nodded just slightly and Dean continued. “Care to elaborate on it?”

    Something seemed to go on in his head, his jock locking and unlocking, his eyes flicking around the room, his hands, clasped together, gripping and wringing together, and his face breaking out with a small sheen of sweat. He looked at Dean quickly before speaking in a raspy, nervous voice.

    “Please close the door and come closer and I’ll tell you something.”

    Dean looked at him warily but got up, closing the door and checked that nobody was in the opposite room the one way glass led into. When he was sure nobody was eavesdropping, he pulled the metal chair he was sitting in closer and leaned against the table. James sighed, seeming to amp himself up for what he wanted to say and made eye contact with Dean, never breaking it the entire time he talked.

    “I was walking through Arizona last night and I was going to the hotel. I go to school there and so I was coming back from a course that is later on in the day. While I was walking this...mist engulfed me and that’s the only thing I remember until I woke up here, across the country, in a small broken down motel room. I don’t know how I got there or what happened but the entire room smelled like blood, I was covered in it, and that’s all I could taste. I left the room and started wandering around and so here I am.”

    “...Wow, I-“ Dean started but was interrupted by James.

    “I know it sounds crazy. I know. But that’s what happened; so feel free to call me crazy because I know that it’s how I sound.” He looked at his hands, twiddling his thumbs and pursing his lips.

    “I wasn’t going to say that.” Dean said, his lips pulled together in a tight brooding look. “I was going to say that I believe you. See, there are things in this world, monsters, which you might not understand. All those fairy tails about demons and things, those are all true. Everything like that is true. And I believe you were attacked by one of those monsters. Was there anything besides the dark smoke you saw?”

    “...No, it was only that I could see since it was kind of mist. It smelled terrible too. That’s about all I can tell you, officer.”

    “Thank you for your time.” Dean gave a tight lipped smile and left, almost running to his car. There was another case in this town. And there was going to be another attack sooner or later and they had to make sure they knew what they were dealing with. It could always be a standard demon attack, or multiple. But the fact that this town in particular had so many different cases was a little suspicious.

    When he told Sam about everything that had happened, he looked mainly intrigued.

    “So he’s sure of what he saw? He wasn’t on any drugs or was drunk?” Sam asked, tapping away at his computer.

    “What? No, they’d have him in a hospital if he was on drugs and he’d be pretty hung over if he was drunk enough to hallucinate.” Dean was sitting on his bed, flipping through a book, looking for the same thing James Franco had told him about the mist.

    “Maybe this is just a normal demonic possession job, Dean.” Sam suggested.

    “I feel like it is but there’s nothing wrong with double checking. Who knows, maybe it’s a new type of demon we haven’t dealt with before.”

    Sam made a small noise before turning back to his laptop. They were silent as they looked, Dean bent over his book and Sam tapping away on his laptop, reading up on what they could be dealing with. After a few minutes, Sam called out to Dean, turning his screen to him.

    “Like I said; basic demonic possession. Now all we need to know is if they’re going to strike next and where.”

    Soon enough that information was also uncovered.

    Not even three hours later, there was another celebrity that was discovered to be wandering the streets. Alan Aultry was walking with a tattered sweater and jeans covered in a gross amount of blood. Sam and Dean went to the station to talk to Alan and he said the same thing about the mist and how it smelled bad. When asked if he remembered anything, the only thing they got was that it looked like a storage locker door was in the room and he was dragging something. It was hard to make sense of what he meant though so that was one clue that was sectioned off for later.

    Then the next day, one of the police officers called Sam on his cell phone, telling them about another celebrity wandering the streets.

    “We have Jared Leto here this time.” The officer announced, sighing in defeat. “Same MO as everybody else. Woke in a weird place, doesn’t remember anything of the night before, covered in blood. Care to come down and question him?”

    Sam and Dean looked at each other; Dean shrugged shaking his head. So Sam said, “Nah, we’ll pass on this one. If it’s the same as the others then there won’t be much to ask about. We might drop by later though.”

    “Man, this is weird. All these celebrities popping up out of nowhere?” Dean shook his head, annoyed. “Why celebrities? There are millions of other people the monster could be attacking but he goes after celebrities...”

    “I don’t know. Maybe they all have something in common?” Sam asked, absently playing with a pen on the table beside him.

    “Maybe. I just wish we could get ahead of this thing. See if there’s any pattern...”

    “If there is, I don’t see one right now.”

    And then there was suddenly a bigger presence of the reasons these celebrities might be covered in blood.

    Soon enough people were finding corpses of people around the town, in the woods that encircled the town, in the mountains where people liked to go hiking. Every where all over town people were finding bodies of children, elderly people, adults with their bodies shredded by something that looked like the work of claws. Anybody in any age group was there and the entire town felt it. The terror in the fact there wasn’t a set age group or race or sexuality that would make you safe was scary. The fear spread and soon people locked their doors at night and closed their curtains. People were wary of each other in the street. The police were working around the clock to try and figure out what’s been happening yet they came up with nothing.

    All the while more celebrities were showing up. Lil Wayne, Britney Spears, and Richard Simmons all showed up within the week and had the same story. Sam and Dean were trying to find the correlation but there wasn’t one! All they could think of was that they were all famous. They didn’t star in movies together; they couldn’t be farther from that because half of these people were singers. It was ridiculous. And there was nobody they could ask for help as they didn’t know who they could ask this for. There wasn’t any solid proof besides their story and how they were covered in blood.

    The two were working as hard as they could yet there wasn’t anything they could think of.

    When they went and interviewed Lil Wayne, he mainly said the same thing. But he did reveal another clue.

    “I was walking through town when I shouldn’t have been.” He said, looking at Sam and Dean as he talked. “See, I feel like I was going down main street and I met some woman. Real pretty. So I start talking to her and take her somewhere. But that’s all I remember.”

    Britney Spears had a better story though as she remembered the and a storage locker. The sign was bright orange yet the doors were red and green. Britney only remembered that the sign had started with a ‘t’ but it was more information then anybody else had given them. Sam and Dean soon left and went back to the motel, combing the books and websites for data with a fine toothed comb. They needed to find a link and they needed to find it fast or else more people were going to die.

     “This is just freaky. Some monsters running around chopping heads and we can’t even find a supernatural link?” Dean said in exasperation. He ran his hands through his hair, messing up the perfectly gelled style and just making it look untidy.

    “Some people are just sick, Dean.” Sam reminded him. He leaned forward, reading something off of the screen and let out a small puff of air, thinking.

    “Yeah, we of all people should know that. But there has to be something we can do.”

    “…Maybe there is.” Sam said carefully. He turned to his laptop and turned it so Dean could see the screen. “I’ve been doing some research”

    “When haven’t you been doing research?”

    “...and apparently there’s another celebrity; some elder person that was a musician back in the day. Yet she says that she was taken to a storage unit on the edge of town, the doors were bright green, and she was forced to do something. She can’t remember what she had to do but she’s glad she doesn’t remember.”

    Dean blew out a breath. “Whoa...I guess we’ll need to look at all the storage units then.”

    “I already know which building it is. The lady said there was a window in hers too, which is weird since they’re usually no windows in any. So we’ll be able to look in and maybe sneak through it.”

    “What time?”

    “Tonight. We’ll scope out the place near dusk though, get the lay of the land and everything.”

    So that night they went there and did not expect what they found.

    That night they went and scoped out the building. It was all good, nobody was in site, the doors were locked, all the makings of a potential layer for a demon residing. The site they were at looked completely deserted too. The grass a dull yellowish green and the pavement of the parking lot was cracking, weeds growing through the cracks. The building of storage lockers itself looked desolate and a little sad, the windows cracked, the door barely closing, the overall rectangle of the building looking dingy, the concrete the building had surrounding the outside was in massive need of a wash down. So it could very well be where the celebrities were going.

    That night, they went to break in, carrying a bag each filled with anything they would need to kill a demon. Salt, lighter fluid, guns with rock salt in the shells; the basics. They got in fine, the window unlatched soundlessly after Sam picked it, Dean was able to slip through and help Sam crawl in as well. Then they suddenly were aware of an ever-present smell.

    It was a terrible, horrid smell. Like rotten eggs mixed with left over, curdled milk. It assaulted their noses, making their eyes water from how ever present it was. It tasted like how compost smelled mixed with laundry left in the washing machine overnight. They wrinkled their noses, closing their mouths, Dean pulling up his sleeve over his hand so he had some form of protection from this assault of his senses.

    Then their eyes adjusted and they felt even more repulsed. The walls were dripping, caked with blood. Empty chains hung limply from the wall and looking rusted. There was an overall grittiness to the entire storage unit. The floor was so filthy that the blue tinged cement wasn’t visible in some parts, the walls having the same affect from the drips of blood. There were random barrels filled with a repugnant smell and seemed to leak whatever substance was in it across the floor, making a small puddle of sludge around the bases.

    Sam and Dean were rooted to the spot. They had never been in such a disgusting place before. They were appalled that something could be so nasty that they enjoyed this. It was a quick moment of shock before they realized what they had come here for was still undone. So Sam pointed to where the door was across the room and motioned for Dean to stand behind it, a silent motion that clearly said, “Cover me while I open the door.”

    As they both moved, the door moved too. It rolled up and it was all they could do to dive behind one of the many barrels littering the floor. The person that walked through was dragging two people by an arm like it was nothing to carry them. The light shining in from the hall came in at a weird angle and didn’t allow for Sam or Dean to get a clear view of what was in front of them. The basic silhouette was of a short, pot-bellied woman with fly away hair. Soon the door was slammed down and the light source cut off.

    Dean was crammed between two of the barrels and seemed to be trying hard not to scream as he sat in one of the deeper puddles of the sludge. Sam ignored him as he craned his neck for any crack between the barrels, watching for signs of things going dark.

    He didn’t have to look long because almost immediately, there was an off-key hum and the chains rattled. The limp figure in the monster’s hand was now hanging by their ankles, their hands barely touching the ground.

    There was a mixture of sounds the boys hears. They kept abnormally still, listening for anything that might mean there’s something sick going on. All they could hear was an assortment of sounds, a squelching crunch, muffled splats of liquid hitting the ground, and something they couldn’t identify. It wasn’t a scream, it was just indiscernible sounds coming from the person hanging.

    Dean pointed to the guy hanging and Sam nodded, they were going to try and get him down while one of them distracts the monster. But before they could even begin to start the diversion, Sam was pulled by his hair out from behind the barrels.

    “Looks like we have an eavesdropper!” A reedy voice yelled. The voice was the sound of a shoe squeaking against the floor. It sounded feminine and very excited about finding somebody in here.

    Sam wasn’t as excited as he struggled as hard as he could, kicking, scratching, hitting anything he could reach of the person to try and break free. He needed to get on his feet so he could fight but he was thrown against the opposite wall, losing his breath and choking on the sudden pain engulfing him.

    “Don’t you know it’s not nice to eavesdrop, boy?” The person asked. Her excitement was gone and gave way to anger as she snarled, “I hate eavesdroppers the most.”

    “I-I wasn’t-“ Sam started to say but was kicked in the ribs, the person snarled mockingly, “’I-I wasn’t!’ Yeah, right.

    “I don’t want excuses! But don’t worry. I know exactly what to do because you’re quite famous downstairs. Everybody talks about those Winchester boys. How great they are; how terrifying. Blah, that’s all I hear! So I decided to see if you were actually that great.”

    “You were the one to do all of this?”

    “Of course! Who else? The monsters you’ve fought were all favours I called in. I’m surprised you got all of them within such a short amount of time too!”

    “They weren’t very hard.” Sam gave a tight, sarcastic smile.

    “Enough of this. Come, I’d like you to meet whom I hung up. I have some light for your mortal eyes too so don’t worry.

    Light suddenly flooded the storage locker. Small Kerosene lamps flicked on automatically that were in all corners of the storage room and it illuminated all the bad that Sam and Dean had seen and made it even harder to look at. The only thing that was mildly okay to look at was the monster in front of Sam.

    Who was also Kim Kardashian.

    Her hair was pulled over to her right, falling lazily over her shoulder. She had soft brown eye shadow on and her eyeliner was still fine yet her eyes. Her eyes looked...Different. There was wildness in those eyes. Like there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do. The way she smiled didn’t help as it made her look pretty but her eyes didn’t show any of the smile her face had.

    “Well, now this little one here is the biggest eavesdropper I’ve ever had!” His name is Harry and he has eavesdropped on his parents in their closet for over ten years! Ever since he was seven, they’ve fought a lot and he sat there in their closet eavesdropping.”

    Harry didn’t look too great. He had blood pooling in his head, making it almost a purple shade. He had a blind fold and gag on so there wasn’t much detail Sam could see. He was lanky though, his arms hanging limply, just barely brushing the floor. He whimpered when the monster touched him. She had laid a hand on his shin and Harry shuddered, seeming like he would do anything to be out of this.

    “I’m trying to be hospitable here!” The monster screeched. She had waited for Sam to say something about what she had told him but when he stayed silent; she got annoyed. “Whatever. I’m hoping you’ll like the show.”

    She smiled over at Dean, who had been silently creeping along the wall behind her. “I hope you enjoy it. Where one Winchester is, the other isn’t far behind, I hear. Guess it’s true.”
            She muttered something under her breath and threw her hand out. Dean slammed against the wall, shock written all over his face as he crumpled, groaning. Sam heaved himself up, trying to get a clear view of her.

    “I’ve always hated tattlers too. That’s why there are always going to be kids for me to prey on.” The monster said, walking over to a small tray on wheels. There were instruments of all kinds you could ever imagine. There were surgical knives and equipment set up on the tray, the thin cloth separating the tray and instruments. The demon was carefully picking them up, looking at them carefully. Once or twice she looked at her reflection.

    She seemed to remember something and looked back at Sam, smiling falsely. “I never told you my name! I am called Bune, I was a three headed dragon once, which was pretty cool, but I decided I needed something new. So here I am, possessing people.”

    “Why are you killing them?” Dean asked. His voice was a low growl from how much his chest hurt.

    “...Why not?” Bune laughed mirthlessly. “There shouldn’t be a reason to have fun!”

    “That’s sick.” Dean grumbled. Bune snorted, turning to the two.

    “Oh well. You two are no different. Acting all ‘woe is me’ with this noble look is hilarious. At least I have a better purpose. These celebrities were boring, they needed something to spice up their life. All of the celebrities I got are all from Louisiana too. Bet you didn’t figure that out.” She smirked cockily, twirling on her stiletto heels. The dress she was wearing twirled out, the pleated skirt flowing easily.

    Suddenly, she froze, her face morphing hideously and she screamed. Sam was muttering the exorcism prayer.

    “Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus-“ Sam began, making the demon whipped around, snarling. “Omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio, infamalis adversarii, omnis congreatio et secta diabolica.”

            “NO!” The demon yelled. She was rooted to the spot, trying to do anything. She convulsed, doubling over and letting out gargled noises from the back of her throat. Dean took this chance to crawl over and gently let Harry down from the chains. They rattled and the demon tried to use magic to stop him but the chains merely lifted before flopping back down, rattling loudly.

            “Ergo, draco maledicte. Ecclesiam tuam securi tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos.”

            There was an ear splitting screech and black smoke filtered out of Kim Kardashians mouth and filtered around on the floor. It sunk through, leaving just the dirt untouched. Kim collapsed in a heap and Dean groaned as he got up.

            “This seemed too easy. Don’t you think?” He asked, gesturing to the two people on the floor.

            “A little, yeah. We better watch out at least, see if there are more storage units like this along the rows.” Sam answered, pushing his hair out of his face.

            They were right as when they stepped out into the cool, midnight darkness, there was a small gathering of people, all looking at Sam and Dean as they emerged. They weren’t celebrities, they were average Joes of all shapes, sizes, and looks. Yet they had the same look of severe disdain. Sam and Dean looked at each other, sighed, and carefully pulled out a silver blade.

            “Looks like this is the end, Sammy.” Dean said, smirking.

            “Please, they’re probably nothing much to deal with. We just have to get to the Impala.” Sam said, getting into a crouch. “Do you really think we should be killing these many people?”

            “We’re not killing them, just slashing them at certain points so they get out of the way.” Dean stepped into the parking lot, the pavement echoing faintly. “Now, who wants some!”

            Yep, definitely a normal day for the Winchesters.