Baumbach had caught a ride with another State Patrol cop, leaving Jeffries alone at the diner with Lucy and Wieczorek to say goodbye.
Dean nodded toward Wieczorek. “Back to your regularly scheduled nightmares?”
Wieczorek shrugged. “Good question. I don’t know if I still have the Dr. Gruesome gig anymore. Frankly, I’m not sure I want it. May have lost my taste for nightmares.”
“People need a nightmare now and then,” Dean said. Off their confused looks, he quickly added, “The old-fashioned kind! Helps them appreciate the good stuff in their lives.”
“So, I want to thank you for saving my life,” Lucy said. “Not to mention half the town.” She stepped forward and gave Dean and then Sam a quick hug. “So, thanks!”
“You’re welcome,” Dean said.
“Couldn’t have done it without your help,” Sam said, thinking about the friends Lucy had lost and the people he and Dean had failed to save. They knew they couldn’t save everyone, but the losses were no easier to accept.
Jeffries hooked his thumb in his bulky cop’s belt and shook his head in disbelief.
“You two are unlike any FBI agents I’ve ever met.”
“You’ve met a lot?” Dean asked.
“Well, no, not personally, but I’ve heard stories.”
“We’re specialists,” Sam said. “Not too many like us.”
“I believe it,” Jeffries said, chuckling.
“What about the prison? All escapees rounded up?” Dean asked.
“Only Bartch made it out of the compound,” Jeffries said. “And Chief Quinn took care of him. Five killed in the escape attempt, seven others rounded up. Supermax wing’s a mess. Survivors will be transferred while the place is repaired.”
“If it’s repaired,” Lucy said. “The protestors will have a new rallying cry. ‘No more supermax.’”
“You know,” Jeffries said, scratching his jaw. “Chief Quinn will be a bit... livid you guys left before a final debrief. Guess I’ll tell him I missed you on your way out of town. Assuming Lucy and Doc Gruesome here back me up.”
Lucy punched his arm playfully.
“You mean they left already, Rich? Darn, I was so hoping to say goodbye.”
Wieczorek smiled. “Real shame. All three of us missed them.”
“Guess that’s our cue,” Dean said. “You ready, Agent Shaw?”
Sam nodded.
They climbed into the Impala with their bags and coffee cups and acknowledged the waves from the three townspeople as Dean steered the car out of the diner’s parking lot.
When they were on I-80 East, Dean said. “Next town, getting the Impala fixed and first motel, I’m sleeping twentyfour hours straight.”
“Not worried about nightmares?”
“Used them all up for a while.”
Sam stared through the windshield, unsure what to expect the next time he laid his head down on a pillow and his subconscious took control. He was aware of Dean’s gaze now and then as the miles rolled by, but said nothing.
Eventually, he had to ask. “What happened with him?” Sam said. “Soulless Sam, I mean. The night hag let me see it. The beginning, anyway. When he appeared and you realized he wasn’t me.”
“You didn’t see the whole fight?”
“Just when he attacked you,” Sam said. “What happened?”
Dean stared through the windshield, giving more attention to the minimal traffic than strictly necessary. Sam thought he saw his brother frown briefly. Maybe from the sun glare.
“Like the other nightmares,” Dean said at last. “He disappeared.”
“Oh.”
“That’s all it was, Sam. A nightmare,” Dean said. “Soulless Sam ain’t coming back.”
“I know, Dean,” Sam said. “Nightmares only make sense while we’re having them.”
When we wake from a nightmare, we recognize how irrational it was. But Soulless Sam had been more than a nightmare. And Sam’s soul had experienced a living nightmare of its own. Who knows what kind of damage that causes, what scars it leaves behind? Maybe you can never go back to who you were.
Dean switched on the Impala’s radio and found a classic rock station. The Stones were playing “Paint It Black.”
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to William Nottingham for advice and suggestions on police procedure. (And continued thanks to the Police Department of Logan Township, New Jersey.) For research assistance on various topics that popped up during the planning of this novel, thanks to Jeff Richards and to my wife, Andrea Passarella. For graciously answering my Supernatural questions on short notice, thanks to Nicholas Knight. Special thanks to Matthew, Luke, Emma, and Andrea for their suggestions during our nightmare brainstorming sessions. They enjoyed participating in the storytelling process. Much appreciation to Greg Schauer, owner of the genre/indie bookstore Between Books in Claymont, Delaware, for his continued support and encouragement.
Thanks to Cath Trechman of Titan Books for bringing me on board and Christopher Cerasi at Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. for juggling all the connections that make these books happen. And thanks to Rebecca Dessertine for her early advice and suggestions for this novel.
Finally, thanks to Eric Kripke for creating Supernatural, a show I can’t wait to watch each week, and to the entire cast and crew for bringing his vision to life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Passarella won the Horror Writers Association’s prestigious Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel for the coauthored Wither. Columbia Pictures purchased the feature film rights to Wither in a prepublication, preemptive bid. Barnesandnoble.com named the paperback edition of Wither one of horror’s “Best of 2000.” At Amazon.com, Wither was an Editor’s Choice and a horror bestseller.
John’s other novels include Wither’s Rain, Wither’s Legacy, Kindred Spirit, Shimmer, and the original media tie-in novels Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Ghoul Trouble, Angel: Avatar, and Angel: Monolith. Supernatural: Night Terror is his ninth novel.
A member of the Authors Guild, Horror Writers Association, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, and the Garden State Horror Writers, John resides in southern New Jersey with his wife and three children. He is also a web designer and a webmaster for several New York Times bestselling authors.
John maintains his official author website at www.passarella.com, where he encourages readers to send him email at [email protected], and to subscribe to his free author newsletter for the latest information on his books and stories.
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Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five<
br />
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Acknowledgments
About The Author
Supernatural 9 - Night Terror Page 29
