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The new High School was absolutely lame. Or at least that’s what Dean thought as he stepped inside next to Sam, watching the shiny floors and neat walls, everything white and light-blue, and filled with light.
The kids walking next to them seemed like dragged out of a magazine or chick flick movie. All the boys with clean shirts and cardigans hanging from their shoulders, all the girls with blouses and colorful skirts or shorts. He could easily spot the nerdy group and the football team, the cheerleaders…
“Oh god, this month’s gonna be hell.” He murmured so only his brother could hear him and Sam nodded in agreement.
“What’s dad doing now anyway?” the younger brother asked, carefully trying not to bump into anyone as they made their way to the principal’s office to announce themselves.
“Some rogue werewolf at the north of state.”
“But why can’t we stay with Bobby instead of Pastor Jim? I mean, I like him, but…”
“Yeah, I know. Well, dad said Bobby wasn’t home, so he must be out in a hunt too.”
“This place’s just too perfect… It gives me the shivers.”
“Yeah… me too.”
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After the meeting with the Principal, she led them to their classes and presented them to the rest of the class. Sam got a fairly cute group, the boys said hi and the girls smiled at him. One of the kids high fived him as he went to his seat.
Dean was appointed to a class that seemed to be the one with all the cheerleaders and football stars. They looked down at him and there was a mere murmur as a welcome. He couldn’t blame them, he was nothing like they were used to deal with, nor on looks or manners.
He let himself fall on the last bench, legs all sprawled and took a notebook and a pencil out of the desk, but made no attempt to do anything else. They were all looking back at him, some of the girls whispering and exchanging disgusted looks.
“Good morning class!” the pitch voice resounded suddenly in the room and they all turned around and sat straighter, even Dean, as the little scrawny old woman walked slowly into the room, helping herself with a pink cane.
“Good morning Miss McTweedlestuffins.” All the kids answered as one, and Dean let out a snort.
“Anything funny, dear?” she said, looking up at him straight in the eye.
“No, Miss… I just…”
“You thought that all your classmates being polite and answering when greeted is funny?”
“No, Miss, I’m sorry.”
“It’s Professor Mary McTweedlestuffins for your and this is your Literature class, now pay attention, and some respect. We’re reading The Tempest, Mister…”
“Winchester. I’m Dean Winchester, I’m new.”
“Well, of course you are, Mr. Winchester.” She said, sitting down and placing her walking stick on the desk. “I would remember you if you weren’t.”
There was something on the way she said that last phrase that made him uncomfortable. She was half his height, at least a third of his weight and walked with a walking stick, she was old and skinny and probably weak, but he still opened his notebook and started noting down everything she said.
Lunch break didn’t come as fast as Dean wanted, though. And after English he had History class with a young teacher he catalogued in his mind as “smoaking hot” but “a shame she has glasses”, and half a period of Maths.
“Hey, Sammy!” he shouted as walking into the buffet. Sam turned around to meet him and walked towards him relieved.
“Dean, great. I needed some sanity.”
“What do you mean?”
“This place is weird. The kids are all… happy. I mean they’re all happy all the time.”
“Yeah…” Dean answered in realization “yeah, you’re right! What the hell, right?”
“Mr. Winchester!” a grave voice resonated in the entire dining hall, and everyone went quiet as both brothers turned around to meet the eyes of the principal. “We don’t use that kind of language in this school.”
“I-I am so sorry, Miss Avery, I didn’t realize…” Dean began the apology, but he was cut once more by her.
“That you’re in a school, Mr. Winchester? That you’re in a controlled environment and you need to learn to adequate to it?”
Sam was red in his face, not knowing were to run, and Dean was gasping, not really knowing what to answer. Until his eyes met Professor McTweedlestuffins. She was staring at him directly, with a weird look that he couldn’t actually decode; and suddenly she nodded. It was a short, imperceptible nod that he thought he had imagined, until she repeated it.
“So?” said Miss Avery “Are any of those answers correct, Mr. Winchester?”
“Yes, Ma’am. All of it. I must apologize to you and my fellow classmates for my language. The years on the road have led me down the wrong path.”
Sam’s jaw hanged opened. He couldn’t believe what Dean was saying, and, most of all, he couldn’t believe they were actually buying it. How many times before had he had to turn to this kind of resource? It was the first time they were together at school since they were both at primary school, so he actually couldn’t say.
“What was all that about?” he asked his brother running after him out of the hall, trying to grab his sandwich, apple and juice without dropping anything.
“You were right, Sammy. There’s definitely something going on here. I’m starting to believe dad wasn’t just leaving us with Pastor Jim.” He turned around an placed a hand on his shoulder with a smile. “This is our first hunt, Sam.”
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“You’re delusional.” Pastor Jim pressed a hand against his forehead, measuring his temperature.
“I’m saying there’s something wrong with that school!” Dean shouted, tossing his hand away with his own arm. “Jim…”
“I know of nothing wrong about that school. It’s a good school. A model school, Dean.”
“But everyone seems so… happy.” Sam said, yet again, playing with the noodles in his plate.
“And that’s a sin?” Jim asked, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at both of them in turns. Finally, he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Boys, I know you want to be real Hunters, like your dad, but...”
“No I don’t.” said Sam quickly.
“BUT… There’s no case in that school. I promise. Now finish your food.”
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“There’s a case here, Sammy, I know it!” Dean exclaimed as he threw his shoes off, diving into bed.
“You sure about this, Dean?” Sam asked innocently.
“As my name is Winchester.”
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Next day, they talked about it while walking to school and decided to lay low. They sat on silence at all the classes (which was a bit hard for Sam, but he kept thinking about his duty as a Hunter) and watched. Everyone seemed happy. All the girls were friends and the boys helped each other on the different areas without fighting. There was no mocking, no crying, no gum in anyone’s hair.
“This is mental!” Dean whispered as they sat down under a tree to eat their lunch.
“Dean, one of the girls seemed a bit off today in one of the classes, and she was sent to the infirmary.”
“So?”
“She never came back.”
“We’ve got to do something, Sammy!”
“About what? If I may inquire, Mr. Winchester?” said a soft but high voice behind them, and they both jumped and turned to face Miss McTweedlestuffins.
“Nothing! Er… Professor Mc… McStuf…”
“McTweedlestuffins, Mr. Winchester, McTweedlestuffins!” she walked slowly around the bench and sat down right in the middle, patting both her sides indicating them to sit down with her.
“Uhm… we… we better…” Sam begun.
“You better sit down, Mr. Winchester, and tell me what you were talking about. Someone should report to the Principal if you’re plotting something.”
“We’re not!” Dean snapped. “We were just talking about our family business, Miss, nothing wrong with that, is there?”
She eyed them both, her smile quivering a little. But finally she stood up and dusted her skirt.
“Nothing wrong about that, no.” She said, and trailed off, looking at them suspiciously.
Next day, the girl that had been sent to the infirmary wasn’t present, and when Sam inquired about her pretending to be fluttered and blushing, he was told that she wasn’t feeling well and her parents had her at home.
“Probably just the flu.” Said the counselor with a sweet smile. “She’ll be back in no time, you’ll see!”
But she didn’t. And eventually they said she had some sort of cancer and they had to move to another state to get to a specialist. That’s what they said. They never knew anything else.
It wouldn’t have been something so hard to believe, if it weren’t for the fact that the same thing happened to another boy, as they were told because he wasn’t in any of their classes, who dared say in front of a teacher that he was a bit depressed.
After two weeks and two kids. Even Pastor Jim couldn’t refuse that there was something going on there, but none of them could tell what it was.
“Okay, once more” said Dean, pacing up and down the dining room “What do we know?”
“Nothing, Dean!” exclaimed Sam, tightening his fingers around his hair, ready to pull it off “We know nothing!”
“We need to…” Jim was interrupted by a resounding noise in the front door. The kind of noise that comes from wood hitting wood.
“Hello” said an only too well known voice for Dean and Sam from the door “I’m looking for Mr. and Mr. Winchester. I’ve been notified this is where they’re staying?”
“Yes, it is. And who might you be?” asked Jim, not daring to open the door completely.
“My name is Mary McTweedlestuffinss, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of me?”
“Mary Mc… Yes! Yes of course! Please come in!” he stepped away before the brothers could run away, hide or even get any weapon.
“Boys,” said Pastor Jim “This is…”
“Our English professor.” Said Dean lowly, fixing his eyes on her, death written all over his face.
“What are you doing here!?” Sam shouted “Why do you keep following us!?”
“Boys!” Jim exclaimed.
“It’s okay… Jim, right? John’s kids have read me all wrong. But it’s hard to pretend otherwise inside that place!” she dropped her coat and took off her shawl, and the sweet cupcake-ish woman was gone. Mary was now fully dressed in hunter clothes, and let herself drop in a chair nearby. “I hope you don’t mind, I’m really tired of that old lady posture.”
Both boys were wordless.
“As I was saying” said Jim getting a beer out of the fridge for her and another for himself. “This is Mary McTweedlestuffins, she one of the greatest hunters in the U.S.”
“Wha…?” but Dean couldn’t keep talking, he was in shock.
“Boys, you’ve been doing a hell of a research job! Now I’m here to tie all those loose ends.” She grabbed the beer Jim was handing and took a sip. “It’s a djinn.”
“Fuck.” Said Jim, and immediately took his hand to his mouth.
Sam and Dean looked at each other.
“A what, now?” the older brother asked, still in shock.
“A djinn, a genie. These creatures suck the life out of humans and while doing it they submerge them in a dream. A perfect dream”
“Okay…” Sam sat down, digesting the idea of his teacher being a hunter and butting in in the case “But why is the ‘perfect world’ outside?”
Miss McTweedlestuffins smiled a proud smile.
“That’s a great question, Sam.”
“Well,” pastor Jim answered “The djinns can’t create the perfect world for themselves. We might be dealing with an obsessive creature here.”
“Exactly what I was thinking.” Said Mary.
“Any ideas of who might it be?” Jim asked her.
“Principal Avery.” Said Sam quickly and Mary smiled again. “She’s obsessed with order and happiness. She won’t even let us mention that we’re not happy.”
“How do we kill it?” Dean was back in the game.
“You, don’t do anything. Mary and I will.” Said Jim seriously, raising his eyebrows.
“That’s so not fair!” Dean shouted, losing his arms and throwing them over his head.
“If anything happens to any of you, your father will have me for dinner. So no, you’re not going on the hunt.”
“Do you think…” Sam was thinking about other things “that the kid’s families are being targeted as well?”
“Whoa, Sammy, that’s true.” Dean said “They always disappear together.”
“Then we might be against more than one.” Stated Jim, and opened the trap door that led to his secret room in the basement. “We should be making some research.”
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“Dean!” Sam whispered as loud as he could to get his brother’s attention.
“What?” Dean said turning around in the dark school corridor, knife in hand and shaking a bit, a mixture of fear and excitement.
“Dean, Jim and Miss McTweedlestuffins said we should stay at home… We should go back…”
“Oh, come on, Sammy! This is our hunt!”
“No, Dean, this is a hunt… And I don’t think we should…” but the noise of footsteps ahead made him stop.
They looked at each other and following his brother indication to hide, Sam followed Dean into an empty classroom. The older brother didn’t completely close the door, though; he left a tiny crack from where he could watch a part of the hallway. Sam had walked to a chair and sat there, half annoyed and half wanting to run away.
But Dean stared out the crack, holding his breath, until he saw what he was waiting for. The Principal and the Nurse were pacing down the corridor, dressed in their usual clothes. The unusual part was how now both of them had sparkling light-blue skin with dark blue tattoos covering arms and face.
“The new kids?” the nurse was asking.
“Yes… The Winchesters. I’ve a funny feeling about them.”
“Maybe throw them in detention tomorrow?”
“No… They’re under the care of Pastor Jim. No, I think we should lay low until they’re gone. The older one keeps saying they’re not going to be here long.”
They strode off and their voices died as they turned the corner and disappeared from view. Dean turned around to look at Sam.
“Did you hear?” he whispered.
“Yeah…”
“You should’ve seen them, they look like Russian ornament.”
“We should get out of here Dean, go tell the adults. The real hunters.”
Dean bit his lower lip but nodded, they had confirmation now that there were two of them, they could bring them those news, and he could take Sammy out of there. Suddenly, knowing that there were two fully grown djinns walking the school made him think that bringing little Sammy into the stakeout wasn’t his brightest idea.
“Yeah, come on. Let’s just get the hell out of here.”
He peeked into the hallway to check it was clear and they went back over their own steps as quietly as they could. Dean could hear his breathing and his brother’s, and his heart pounding in his chest.
“One more turn and we’re off.” He said in a slight murmur, but when the turned the corner to face the building’s doors, they were standing face to face with two pair of gleaming blue eyes and pointy teeth.
“Oh, shit, run Sammy!” Dean shouted and pushed the two creatures with his body to open a spot for his brother.
They both ran, as fast as he could, but Dean was stronger and faster and reached the doors first, and when he looked around, what he saw froze his heart. One of them had Sammy grabbed by the neck, and the other was closing the gates. He turned around to go back, but they were locked now.
“SAM!” he shouted to the night, kicking and punching the closed doors “SAMMY!”
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“HAVE YOU ANY IDEA…” Jim was shouting at him.
“Yeah, I DO! He’s my little brother and I messed up! I DO HAVE AN IDEA!”
Dean started picking up every knife he could find in the basement and measuring them.
“What are you doing, Dean?” the Pastor asked him in a more calmed voice.
“What’s it look like? I’m going back, and I’m gonna slice those fuckers throats, and then I’m gonna stab them until the freaking lights in their freaking eyes go out!”
“Okay, hold it, Jack” said Mary, speaking for the first time since he had come back. “You can’t beat two djinns with no experience whatsoever.”
“I’ve got experience!”
“Yeah, no. What you’ve got is training, and I don’t deny that, but it won’t be enough.”
“Okay, lady, I’m sorry I’m not good enough for you, but I’m not gonna sit down and wait for those motherfuckers to kill my brother!”
“That’s not what I’m suggesting.”
“Mary…” Jim said “he cannot…”
“Go alone. No. I’m going with him.” She said, and stood up decisively.
Dean opened his mouth to protest, but in the end decided there was no point to it, and probably it was a good idea. It was better than going with Jim, either way.
“Okay.” He said at last.
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The school was dark and silent as they approached. Luckily for them the moon was already gone, so they were covered by the unusual cold a darkness of the lightless night.
As they reached the entrance, Mary placed a hand on Dean’s shoulder, stopping him and making him turn and face her.
“Just do as I say, Dean, don’t even think about running in like a madman.”
“Lady, my brother’s in there, he could be hurt, he could be in pain…”
“He could be dead. And so will you if you don’t listen to me.”
Her words were much more than Dean could handle and his eyes went wet as his face turned in a disgusted grimace.
“Don’t… don’t say that.”
“You need to focus, Dean, you need to be grounded. Now follow me.”
She tried the doors, but they were still closed. So she signaled the boy to follow and started walking around the building, until they reached a side door. Mary breathed in and turned the knob, and it opened with a slight clang.
Inside it felt like everything was dead. Their breaths seemed to echo in the corridors, and their steps resounded in their ears as falling stones. But as they advanced, they became more comfortable and secure. Apparently, the place was empty, and there was only one more place to look.
“Draw you knife before we go down to the boiler room, this could be an ambush.” Miss McTweedlestuffins said, and Dean did as she indicated.
The opened the door slowly, and look down the old wooden staircase.
“What is it with these things? Why does it always have to be old, woody and creepy?” Mary mumbled.
“That’s probably ‘cause of the monsters.” Dean answered mindlessly and took the first step as the lady smiled at him.
“You’re up to be a good hunter, sweety.”
“I ain’t no sweety, Miss.”
There was a dim light at the end of the stairs, and as they climbed down their eyes adjusted and they could see the boiler, the pipes, and the bodies. There were at least a dozen of them, hanging from the pipes, all dried and empty, mummified; boys and girls and men and women.
“How come no one ever realized this?” Dean whispered, twisting his mouth with revulsion as he pushed lightly one of the bodies with his finger.
“People are dumb, as a group, they’ll believe anything you tell them. Like ‘monsters ain’t real’”
“Yeah but…” he was interrupted by a sound coming from the other side of the room.
Slowly and at the ready, the both circled the boiler, only to find Sam, also hanging, the ropes beginning to cut the flesh in his wrists. He had a cut over his left eye and there was a thin line of dry blood coming out of it, he was struggling and kicking and seemed to be deep in some kind of nightmare.
“No… no! Dean!” he was shouting now and Dean rushed forward to catch him.
“I’m here Sammy, I’m right here!”
“He can’t hear you, Dean.” McTweedlestuffins said “He’s deep inside the Djinn’s slumber.”
“It seems more of a nightmare to me…”
“Of course it is.” Says a smiling voice from behind them, and as they turned around they’re face to face with both creatures, grinning, their eyes already lit with the blue light.
“Get Sam out of here, and don’t let them touch you, Dean!” shouted Mary, and she stood her ground, knife in hand and protecting the two boys with her tiny body.
“How do you think Hunter blood tastes?” asked the one with the nurse clothes.
“Probably bitter and sour.”
While Dean cut Sam’s ropes, he could see with the corner of his eye the fight, and for a second he stood watching, because Miss McTweedlestuffins was fast and nifty. She moved gracefully, dodging the creatures blows and stopping them from grabbing her.
“Go, Dean. Now!” She shouted, and the young boy grabbed his brother and ran, not even looking back, up the stairs.
But as passed the door and was hit with the dim lights of the night, the minute he felt safe, he understood the gravity of the situation and his most feared and old memory came back to his mind. Sam seemed to be calmed now, so he let him down on the floor and turned around. He had already lost a Mary on a situation like that, he wasn’t going to lose two.
He flew, more that ran, down stairs again, and right in time to see how the djinns had cornered the old woman and were holding her.
“Not under my watch, no!” Dean shouted, and jumped forward, stabbing the nearest one in the back, strong and deep enough to reach her heart.
She gasped, but didn’t scream, and her lights started to turn off as he felt her weight growing by the second. The other one let Mary go and screamed a high pitched scream while running to him, but the Hunter stopped her with one swift movement, sending her to the ground and stabbing her too, faster than Dean ever thought she could ever move.
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“So… how did they behave?” John asked Jim as Sam and Dean grabbed their things.
“Quite good actually, they’re exceptional kids, John. So incredibly intelligent.”
“Yeah, I know… It kinda scares me a little sometimes. They see things I will never be able to see.”
“Yes, I know what you mean.”
The boys came down with their bags at the same time a knock came from the door, and when Jim opened up, Mary was there, also with her bag on her shoulder.
“Oh, I see we’re leaving at the same time!” she said happily, and turned to John with her hand up front “Mary McTweedlestuffins. I’m guessing you’re John Winchester?”
“I am, a pleasure to meet you, Miss McTweedlestuffins.”
“Your boys are adorable, and incredibly skilled.”
The boys’ father looked at her inquiringly and then to his sons.
“You’ve… trained together?”
“Yes!” Dean said quickly, stepping forward “Mary was around and we did some training. She’s a terrific teacher. I’m really glad we got to meet her.”
“Yeah,” Sam said with half a smile “me too.”
“You’re the sweetest kids ever.” She said stretching her arms and grabbing them in a tight hug.
“Hey, I ain’t no sweety, Lady.” Dean said, and hugged her back.