The Search for John Winchester

5) Bloody Mary

"Sam," Percy shook the man in the back awake, "wake up."

Sam sat up, looking around the Impala with confusion. Both Dean and Percy were staring back at him, concern on their faces.

"I take it I was having a nightmare," Sam breathed.

"Yeah," Dean nodded, "another one." Percy shot him a look.

"Hey, at least I got some sleep."

"You know," Dean frowned, "sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this."

"Are we here?" Sam looked at the large hospital they were parked in front of. They had seen the strange death of Steven Shoemaker in a newspaper, and had decided to come check it out.

"Yup," Percy said. "Welcome to Toledo, Ohio."

Sam grabbed the newspaper off of the floor, staring at the circled obituary, "So what do you think really happened to this guy?"

"That's what we're gonna find out," Dean said. "Let's go." The boys climbed out of the car, starting towards the building.

***

The boys walked into room 144 of the hospital, staring for a moment at the sign labeled Morgue. There were two desks inside. The unoccupied one had a nameplate saying Dr. D. Feiklowicz. Sitting behind the other desk was the morgue technician.

"Hey," the morgue tech looked up at them.

"Hey," Dean nodded.

"Can I help you?" The morgue tech raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Dean nodded. "We're the, uh... Med students."

"Sorry?"

"Oh, Doctor —" Dean stumbled over the name— "Figlavitch didn't tell you? We talked to him on the phone. He, uh, we're from Ohio State. He's supposed to show us the Shoemaker corpse. It's for our paper."

"Oh well he said, uh — oh, well, you know, it doesn't matter," Dean stammered. "You don't mind just showing us the body, do you?"

"Sorry, I can't," the morgue tech purses his lips. "Doc will be back in an hour. You can wait for him if you want."

"An hour?" Percy frowned. "Ooh. We gotta be heading back to Columbus by then."

"Uh, look, man, this paper's like half our grade, so if you don't mind helping us out —" Dean started.

"Uh, look, man... no," the morgue tech mocked Dean.

Dean turned around, mumbling, "I'm gonna hit him in his face I swear."

Sam hit Dean on the arm, stepping forward. He opened his wallet, pulling out several twenties. He sat some of it on the morgue tech's desk.

The morgue tech picked up the money, "Follow me." He left, and Percy followed him, ignoring the short debate between the brothers.

***

"Now the newspaper said his daughter found him," Sam stared down at the sheet covered body. "She said his eyes were bleeding."

"More than that," the morgue tech pulled the sheet off of Steven's face. "They practically liquified."

"Any sign of a struggle?" Dean stared down at the empty eyes. "Maybe somebody did it to him?"

"Nope," the morgue tech shook his head. "Besides the daughter, he was all alone."

"What's the official cause of death?" Percy asked.