Wonderwall

I was seated in the back seat of the car, all dressed up in my convincing attire that Dean had given me. I picked nervously at my lips as we drove; a habit I had acquired and used whenever I was nervous. I was trying to figure out a way to calm myself down before we had to begin the interviewing process because I knew, from watching various cheesy cop shows, that FBI were confident and intimidating, not nervous wrecks.

We pulled up to what seemed to be a small hardware store and exited the car. Dean and Sam both adjusted their ties and jackets before walking into the establishment, me closely following their lead.

A man who appeared to be the owner was conversing with another man about power tools when Dean had approached them.

‘Are you the owner of this store?’ He asked, his voice suddenly changing to a more serious, professional tone.

‘Whose asking?’ The man turned to look Dean, his face covered in white stubble. He had seemed quite hostile already, and we hadn’t even started questioning him.

Dean whipped out his badge without another word, Sam and I following his motions, and the man’s mannerisms changed instantly.

‘Right this way, officers,’ The man stated, looking at his friend apologetically, leading to his office in the back. He quickly shut the door behind us, ‘I’m guessing you’re here because of the murders down at the convenient store.’

Dean, Sam, and I all exchanged glances before Dean continued, ‘Yes, that’s exactly why,’ Dean lied, practically effortlessly. We all had no clue as to what we were hunting.

The man sighed, leaning up against his old wooden desk, ‘It was the first murder our town has had since the 20’s,’ He began, raising his left hand to rub it against his chin, ‘It really shook people up, you know? Everyone respected Mr. Campbell so much, and then he goes and does this,’ the man pauses, as if to prevent himself from breaking down.

‘Did, uh, Mr. Campbell have any sort of motive for his actions? Anything at all that could’ve triggered his behavior?’ Sam asked, carefully observing the manager and trying his best to play along with the new information we had received.

‘Motive? The guy owned the damn place he shot up.’

Sam nodded and exchanged glances with Dean, ‘That’s all we needed, sir. Thanks for your time.’

‘No problem, anything to help,’ the man stated, shaking each one of our hands and escorting us out of the building. He waved from his window as he watched us gather into our car.

‘We need to head over to that convenient store and see if we can check out the footage from the shooting,’ Sammy suggested, taking a glance around at the town, ‘Hopefully we’ll find something suspicious enough to get us a lead.’

‘Too bad those damn cops probably got their hands on it already,’ Dean scoffed, opening his car door and taking a seat in the driver’s side.

‘It’s worth a shot,’ I shrugged, looking over at Dean.

‘Yeah, we might as well just go and take a look. Who knows, maybe we’ll find something big,’ Sammy nudged Dean with his elbow, smiling enthusiastically.

‘Okay, okay. Fine. But we’re getting food right after,’ Dean submitted to our demands, screeching down the street towards the store.

When we had pulled up to our final destination, I was surprised to how normal it seemed on the outside. I was ignorantly expecting some sort of major crime scene, with neon yellow caution tape rimming the perimeter and squads upon squads of police officers parked out in front, but, instead, it looked as if nothing had ever occurred.

‘This is…. weird,’ Sam stated, exiting the Impala and looking around at the normal appearance of the building before him.

‘Lets just get the hell in there and get the hell out; I’m starving!’ Dean entered the store without hesitation, Sam and I following cautiously.

‘Can we have a word?’ Dean approached a young boy who was working at the register, holing up his badge for him to see.

‘Uh, sure thing, Mister,’ the boy rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he made his way over to us.

‘We just have a few questions, that’s all. Nothing to get worked up about,’ I smiled warmly at the boy, hoping to make his nerves decrease. By this time, small beads of sweat had formed on his forehead and he looked as if he was in some sort of pain.

‘I’m guessing you want to know about the shootings, right?’ The boy looked up from the floor to make eye contact with me.

‘Yeah, exactly that. We we’re just curious as to what exactly went down,’ I kept my voice calm and some what soft, not wanting to be as aggressive as Dean had been.

‘I already told the cops everything,’ He replied, hoping that we would leave the subject alone at that.

I glanced down at his nametag before continuing, hoping to make our conversation more personable for him. ‘I’m sure you did, Kyle. We just want to know what happened from your point of view.’

Kyle sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, ‘I had volunteered to work the graveyard shift with Joe that night, since no one else would,’ He directed his eyes to the floor as he continued, ‘We were doing our routine cleaning and re-stocking when Mr. Campbell came in, but he was all weird and stuff. Like, it wasn’t really him. He walked between all the aisles and was picking up a bunch of stuff, and it was just really weird.’

Sam gave Dean and I a small glance before he continued, ‘What happened next, Kyle?’

‘We’ll that’s went stuff went sour. Joe sent me to the back to go and get more Windex and when I was in the supply rom I could hear them arguing about something, which was really strange because Joe and Mr. Campbell were usually pretty good friends. That’s when I heard the gun shot.’ Kyle paused, his eyes becoming watery. ‘I ran out as fast as I could, but I was still too late. He died in my arms before the ambulance could even get there.’

I placed my hand on Kyle’s shoulder, ‘It’s not your fault, okay? You did everything you could’ve.’

Dean finally spoke, his tone anxious, ‘Do you think we could see the video footage from that night?’

Kyle shrugged, moving himself back behind the counter, ‘Sure, I don’t see why not.’

He played around with the small TV beside him for a few minutes, pressing several buttons and adjusting knobs.

‘Here,’ He turned around the screen to face us, Dean, Sam, and I all huddling around it to get a glimpse of the scene.

We watched as Mr. Campbell walked into the store and into the aisles, picking up random items and bringing them close to his face; just like Kyle had explained. We saw Kyle move out of the view of the camera and into the back, as Mr. Campbell approached the counter. Joe’s facial expression then changed as they argued back and forth, Mr. Campbell bringing out a gun from the side of his pocket. That’s when the gun went off and Joe fell to the floor, Mr. Campbell hurriedly taking money from the register and shoveling it into his pockets. He made his way to the front, but right before exiting, he stared directly into the camera, his eyes filled with a glowing ball of light.

Dean and Sammy stared wide-eyed at the glowing-eyed figure upon the screen, ‘Thank you, that’ll be all,’ Dean said hurriedly, exiting the store.

‘What the hell was that?’ I asked, still not comprehending what I had saw on the video, ‘A camera glitch?’

‘That was no camera glitch,’ Dean stated, rubbing his hand through his hair, ‘It was a shape-shifter. Dad’s journal had said something about the glowing eye thing we just saw.’

‘We’ll, what do we do now?’ Sammy asked, watching as Dean paced back and forth.

‘I don’t know Sammy. I mean, hell, that damn thing could be anyone by now.’

‘Do we know how to kill it?’

‘Yeah, silver usually does the trick. At least, that’s what Dad’s journal said.’

Dean’s phone then began to ring and we whipped it out of his pocket, ‘Hey, Dahlia, what’s going on? Wait, what? Where are you? Okay, okay, calm down. We’ll be there in 10 minutes, just hang on.’ Dean hung up the phone and ran over to the driver’s side of the car, jumping into the seat and starting up the engine. Sam and I followed quickly, taking our usual spots in the Impala. ‘Cas and Dahlia need help.’

‘Where are they?’ Sam asked, glancing up from his shoes.

‘That warehouse on the outskirts of town. We passed it on our way in, remember?’

Sam nodded, picking up a map from the floor.

‘So, what’s the plan?’ I asked, leaning forward in my chair to place my head between Dean and Sam’s.

‘We’ll you’re going to the motel and Sam and I are going to the warehouse and-‘

‘What the hell do you mean I’m going to the motel?’ I scoffed, giving Dean a menacing glance.
‘I’m not risking your safety on this. You’re not prepared for fighting with this thing and-‘

‘What was the point of bringing me then, huh?’ I spat out, my voice rising as we continued to drive. I could feel my face turning red as the anger boiled inside of me.

‘Look, I don’t have time to argue with you. I just need you to go and sit in the room until we get back, okay?’ Dean screeched into the motel entrance, pulling up in front of our room.

‘No, I’m not leaving this car. I didn’t leave my old life behind so that I-‘

‘Get out of the damn car, Iris!’ Dean yelled back this time, turning his face to glare at me.

His aggressiveness had stung me silent and I then exited the car without hesitation, slamming the door behind me.