Work Text:
Sam and Dean Winchester were sat in an old restaurant booth, a salad and a bacon cheeseburger waiting beside the open laptop and piles of newspapers.
"Looks like the disappearances have been happening for a while,"
Sam spun the laptop around to show his brother the article.
"About three months to be exact."
"And the bodies started showing up now? Why?" Dean scooped up the burger, taking a chunk out of it and leaning back against the seat, speaking with a mouth full of food.
"These monsters suddenly decided they wanna be caught or what?"
"I dunno.." the younger brother turned the device back so he could take a better look, when he accidentally clicked on an additional link at the bottom of the article.
"Hey, hey, take a look at this-"
Dean stood up, moving to look over Sam's shoulder.
"What the hell..?"
It was a picture of what looked like a mangled human, only it's ears were longer and it had slits in its neck that appeared normal. Like, normal for the creature. They weren't cut into it, just simply there. It's eyes were gone, but bloodied silver scales trailed around the sockets.
"What is that?"
"No clue."
"Alright, well you give Bobby a call while I go talk to the sheriff. See if I can dig up anything on the body."
Dean straightened, burger still in hand as he pocketed his phone.
"Give me a call if you find anything."
Dropping a pile of cash on the table, the older brother left the restaurant, climbing into the Impala and pulling off to go find the station.
. . .
"So this thing just washed up on shore one morning?"
Dean prodded the forehead of the body with gloved hands, grimacing at the trail of slime that gathered on his fingertip.
"Nasty."
"Caused a bit of panic when some kids stumbled across it. Was a bit more intact then, but one of the boys poked it all up with a stick. Surprised he even went near the thing."
The sheriff puffed out a ring of smoke, cigarette between his fingers.
"With the FBI, you said? What, is it some sorta alien?"
"What?" Dean scoffed, glancing at the man before moving to look at the creature's hand, which looked like it used to have webbed fingers... Emphasis on 'used to'.
"Aliens don't exist."
"Then what is it?"
"No clue."
Backing up and removing the gloves, he pulled out his phone, ringing up Sam, who was on call with Bobby.
"Figure something out with that creature?" Sam's voice hissed from the other side of the cell, Dean rubbing a hand down his face while he made his way out of the Station.
"Well, it's dead."
"I know that! Is it what's been killing people?"
"No clue. It's teeth and eyes are gone, and it looked like it used to have webbing between it's fingers, like some sort of frog. If it is what's been killing, someone already dealt with it in the least humane way possible."
The car revved to life as the man pulled onto the road.
"Imma head to the lake. See if I can find anything. Oh, you get any info from Bobby?"
"Not yet. The picture I had wasn't entirely useful, given the thing was mauled."
"'kay. Call when you do find something."
Dean hung up, driving down to the well known murder lake, but when he climbed out of the car, his eyes caught something by the water. Stalking over, he found another weird creature, mauled just like the last one. No eyes, no teeth, hands still oozing blood from where the webbing had been removed. It was fresh, which meant the killer was nearby. Whipping out his gun, the man spun around, eyes darting every which way to spot whoever was there with him.
Which was when he heard a splash, followed by a gutteral scream as something leapt onto his back, a sharp stab in his shoulder as blood flowered from a fresh wound.
"Fuckin' hell-"
He held up his gun, pointing it behind him as he blindly shot towards the creature, smirking as it hissed from pain and fell to the ground. Quickly turning on his heel, Dean pointed the gun to it's face as it tried to get up, but his eyes widened immediately after.
On the ground in front of him, was one of the creature's sure, but they were so much smaller than the body he had seen. Long, wispy black hair clung wet to it's face, silver and emerald scales glittering around it's bright turquoise eyes, which were brimming with tears.
They had the same skin tone as a human, same general appearance, but the scales and fangs threw it off. Eyes wandering to the webbed hands, he noticed them clutching their arm, a watery red oozing onto the ground beside them.
"Please don't kill me.." it squeaked, trembling and staring up unblinkingly.
Dean's aim faltered for a moment, but he quickly corrected himself. This was just another monster. Another creature eating humans. Just like vampires, just like werewolves, just like so many other monsters he'd killed multiple times before. But-
"Have you been killing people?"
They were hesitant, but spoke anyways.
"I.. have. In self defense."
"Self defense? How the hell is slurpin' out their insides 'self defense'?"
"What?? We don't slurp out their insides! That's disgusting! You humans taste like sweat and depression!" They winced as they shifted to sit on their knees.
"We simply bite their necks. Puncture important arteries, etcetera. They've been killing us, so we've been killing back. You're lucky there's so many of you, you won't be going extinct any time soon."
"It's hard to believe so many people have been going after.. whatever you are."
"Well they have, so can you put that thing away? We don't even go after humans. We eat fish."
The man stayed still for a moment, going over his facts. This thing was a monster, one hundred percent, but it said that it doesn't eat humans. Doesn't mean it isn't a threat. It's still been killing, but the fact that they haven't been eating the humans is definitely confusing. Who's been eating them? And why would so many people go to kill these sea creatures anyways? Keeping his eyes on the thing, he watched as it shifted around, gripping it's arm with a light grimace. That's right, he had put bullets in them. Self defense.
With a huff, Dean put away his gun, grabbing a cloth from his back pocket and kneeling down in front of the thing.
"Put this in your mouth, unless you want to break your teeth."
They looked up at him in slight disgust, not knowing where the cloth had been, but putting it in their mouth as Dean proceeded to pull the bullets from their arm.
He then used the cloth to tie off the wound, wiping his hands on his pants and helping them to their feet, which were apparently also webbed.
They looked so odd. Gangly limbs and slender fingers, gills on their neck and webbed appendages. A cross between a fish and a frog.
"Where are you gonna go now?" They asked, staring at him with their unblinking bug eyes.
"I'm gonna go find out who's been eating the people."
"Can I come?"
Dean stopped, looking down at the small fish child.
"Why?"
"Look, I don't like people, but... All the other Naiads have gone missing in this lake. And with the...." They glanced at the body that the man had long forgotten.
"Killings.. I don't think I'm safe here anymore."
"Great." The Winchester huffed, nodding for them to follow him. "Looks like I'm tracking down a killer with a fish. Wait- did you say Naiad?"