Indiana Town of Cicero Late at night, the smell of rust and engine oil intertwined in the air of the abandoned auto repair shop. John Harper bent down to repair the transmission of an old pickup truck, and the wrench flew in his calloused hands - he had just had sex with his daughter Katie He sent the angry child home, hoping to calm down by doing some work. Suddenly, the electric saw in the corner that had been powered off half an hour ago began to buzz without warning, and the high-speed rotation of the chain pierced his eardrums. The power cord was still wrapped around the iron frame, but it seemed to be controlled by invisible hands, sliding towards him against the ground.
John suddenly raised his head, his pupils shrank, and he stumbled over the tool box while retreating subconsciously. His lower back hit the hammer on the concrete floor hard, and the severe pain caused him to lose strength instantly. The chainsaw rose into the air, and the sharp chain struck his chest with precision, tearing apart his clothes, muscles, and bones. The crisp sound was accompanied by the spurting blood, which spattered every corner of the tool table, and even the groove of the wrench was filled with warm red. A broken breath came out of his throat, and the last thing that caught his eye was his painful and unbelievable face in the reflection of the chainsaw - this "accident" became the end of his life.
When the sky turned white, the warm light of the desk lamp was still on in Roadhouse's room. Dean held half a bottle of beer between his fingertips and flipped through a crumpled local newspaper with his other hand. Next to the headline "Death due to bizarre work injury", the three words "Town of Cicero" caught his eye like a hook. He rubbed it Looking at the paper, his eyebrows were slightly raised, and complex emotions flashed through his eyes - nine years ago, he had a brief romantic relationship with a girl named Lisa here. Those days were rare stability in his demon hunting career. Now that the soul trade only has one year left to live, he suddenly wants to look at the woman who made him dream of "a hot bed with a wife and children" again.
"What's wrong? What did you find?" Sam's voice came from the opposite side. He was lowering his head to sort out "Encyclopedia of Monster Species". His tall, thin and tall figure was wrapped in a simple plaid shirt, with long brown hair. He put it softly on his shoulders, his eyes were sharp and rational, and his habitual frown showed calmness. He knew Dean very well. What made his brother so concerned about an "ordinary accident" was never the case itself.
On the bed next to him, Bai Haorui is sitting cross-legged, his legs forming a standard Tai Chi seal, and a faint but condensed golden light lingering on his fingertips - that is the embodiment of the first level "Initial Ignition of the Fire Seed" in "Three Altars Body-Tempering True Fire Art", the golden True Fire With a scorching breath, it made the surrounding air slightly hot. He was wearing black sportswear, his black hair was tied up with a wooden hairpin, his face was handsome, and his eyebrows were getting calmer. The fine beads of sweat oozing out from his forehead showed that he was consolidating the realm he had just broken through. Every time True Qi moved, he was accompanied by swelling and pain as his meridians expanded.
"Yin Shi has just passed, and the yang energy is first born, which is the perfect time to strengthen the foundation and strengthen the body." Bai Haorui opened his eyes, the golden light flashed in his pupils, and his fingertips True Fire slowly converged, "But since we have to investigate the case, hunting demons and refining essence, it will be twice the result with half the effort."
Dean patted the shoulders of the two of them, and the metal zipper of the leather jacket made a clear collision sound, "Let's go, brothers, go to Town of Cicero to investigate the case." When starting the Black Antelope, he subconsciously touched his chest. The dog tags, the cold metal touch against the skin, the complexity in the eyes was even more complicated. Sam silently stuffed the holy water, silver bullets, and salt bombs into his backpack, glanced at Dean's profile in the rearview mirror, and didn't ask any more questions.
After galloping on the country road for two hours, the black antelope turned into a gravel road. Lisa's small red-roofed bungalow gradually came into view. Colorful balloons and ribbons were floating in the yard, and the children's laughter flowed into the car window in the wind. Lisa was standing on the porch arranging the party decorations. Her neat short hair made her eyebrows gentle and simple. The beige home clothes outlined her capable figure, and the fine lines at the corners of her eyes were looming in the sun, which was the calmness after years of accumulation. When she heard the sound of the car engine, she turned around and saw Dean. Her eyes were stunned at first, and then turned into a smile, "Dean·Winchester? What a rare visitor."
A small figure suddenly ran out of the yard, wearing a blue denim jacket and holding a plastic muscle car model. He stopped suddenly when he ran to the door. It was an eight-year-old boy. His round face was embedded with smart eyes, his straight nose, slightly raised corners of his mouth, and even the arc of his eyebrows were exactly the same as the young Dean - he was Lisa's son Ben.
"This is Ben." Lisa reached out and rubbed his son's hair, his eyes full of maternal love, "Ben, his name is Uncle Dean."
Ben stared at Dean's black leather jacket and the black antelope at the door, his eyes as bright as stars. "Your car is so cool! It's exactly the same as the model in my collection!" He spoke with the crispness unique to a little boy, proudly raising his chin, showing the same little pride as Dean, "I can also repair the bicycle chain! Tommy's bicycle lost its chain, and I helped him put it back on."
"Oh? You also like muscle cars?" Dean squatted down and looked at him levelly, his voice softened unconsciously.
"Of course!" Ben leaned closer to him and lowered his voice, saying mysteriously, "And I love AC/DC so much! "Highway to Hell" is my favorite!"
Dean's throat tightened - these were the things he was most obsessed with when he was young. He couldn't help but test. "Ben, when is your birthday?"
Lisa came over with a drink, her eyes flickered, and she touched Ben's shoulder lightly. "The party is about to start, honey, how about you go play with the kids?" Her voice was gentle but unquestionable, Dean looked at her evasive eyes and felt mixed emotions in his heart - a sense of disappointment that "maybe it's just a coincidence", but also a trace of expectation that he didn't dare to dig into. This boy made him truly feel the weight of the word "family" for the first time, a bond that was so warm that people wanted to get close.
Bai Haorui stood behind Dean and glanced at the children in the yard. In the corner, a little girl in a pink dress caught his attention: her hair was yellow and messy, with unknown black stains on the ends of her hair. Her cheeks that should have been round and plump were sunken, making her look particularly haggard. The strangest thing was her eyes, which were A pair of lifeless black eyes, without the agility and curiosity that a child should have, only as cold as stagnant water, were staring at the birthday cake on the table, with no smile at the corner of his mouth, as if it was not a tempting dessert. What made Bai Haorui even more alarmed was that he could not sense the vitality that should be present in this child, but instead had an evil aura lingering around him - stagnant and cold.
Bai Haorui calmly took back Spiritual Sense, patted Dean's shoulder lightly, and gave Dean a meaningful look. Dean understood immediately and frowned slightly - it seemed that this "accident" was indeed related to supernatural power.
Under the grape trellis in the corner of the yard, a pale woman was holding Lisa and sobbing softly. She was John's ex-wife Martha. Her eye sockets were as red and swollen as walnuts, covered with red bloodshot eyes, and the dark blue under her eyes was as deep as blurred ink. It was obvious that she had not slept well for several days. She was wearing a gray shirt that had been washed white, and the collar buttons were loose, exposing her neck. There was a small, dark red tooth mark at the end, as if she had been lightly bitten by something sharp. Her shoulders were so thin that they could barely hold up her clothes, and her whole body was so haggard that it seemed as if her soul had been taken away. She had to take a breath of air every time she said a word: "Lisa, I'm really scared. As soon as John left, Katie became more and more weird, and I can't stand it anymore."
Dean's eyes sharpened instantly, and he walked over quietly, followed closely by Bai Haorui. Spiritual Sense probed Martha's body again, Bai Haorui clearly noticed that the flow of Qi and blood in her neck was abnormally slow. It was because some kind of force was continuously sucking up the essence, and her vitality was being lost bit by bit. If it continued, she would probably run out of energy in less than a week.
"I got up to drink water the night before yesterday. It was almost three o'clock in the morning," Martha's voice was trembling, and his fingertips were caressing his arm unconsciously. "I saw 'Katie' standing in the middle of the living room, with her back to me, motionless. I called her three or four times, but she didn't respond. I walked over and patted her shoulder, and she suddenly turned around, with that look in her eyes. God... it's so scary and cold, that's not my Katie at all." Her body trembled violently, as if she was back to that horrible night again, "And her skin was sticky, I don't know what was stained on it, slippery, and a little fishy. I asked her where she was, and she just said 'playing in the living room' without even looking at me."
"When I was combing my hair yesterday morning, I noticed a pain in the back of my neck," Martha choked and lifted her hair, revealing the tiny tooth mark, "I asked her if it was her bite, but she denied it and said I was wrong. But the most terrifying thing is that she actually said to me, 'Mom, When you and your father had a picnic by the lake, your father said that he would always take care of you - these words were spoken privately by John to me ten years ago. Only the two of us knew about it. Katie was not born at that time, how could she know?"
"You are just too sad, Martha." Lisa patted her back gently, his tone full of unbearability, "John's death has hit you too hard, so you have random thoughts. Katie I just miss my father too much. Children sometimes say strange things."
Dean handed over a bottle of water. "Madam, how did John die? The newspaper only wrote 'bizarre work injury'."
Martha's hand that took the water kept trembling, tears welled up again and fell on the water bottle. "He worked in an auto repair shop and said that the chainsaw suddenly lost control and hit his chest... The police came to investigate and said that there was an aging short circuit. But John checks the tools carefully every day after get off work, and the chainsaw is his treasure. How could it suddenly age?"
Sam took out his notebook and quickly recorded, and the pen tip scratched on the paper. "On the day John died, did any strangers come to the house? Was there anything wrong with Katie? For example, he cried, lost his temper, or said something strange?"
Martha shook his head vigorously, his voice so choked that he could hardly speak, "There were no strangers, but they had a fight that day. Katie was quiet all day that day, so quiet. She used to pester me every day to ask when Dad would be back, but She didn't say a word that day, just sitting on the sofa in a daze. It wasn't until night that she suddenly raised her head and said to me, 'There is someone who looks like me next to my father.' I thought she was talking nonsense, and I scolded her and told her to stop talking nonsense... Now think about it, was she reminding me at that time?"
The three of them exchanged glances. Bai Haorui lowered his voice so that only Winchester Brothers could hear. "There is definitely something wrong with Katie. The evil aura on her body is relatively strong. She should have been replaced by some monster. Martha The teeth marks and blood on the back of the neck The stagnation is evidence that the essence has been sucked by this thing." He paused and added, "This monster is very cunning and has been pretending. You can't make a move without being completely sure, otherwise if you alert the snake, it may hurt Martha or even transfer the imprisoned real Katie."
Dean's face darkened, Sam nodded thoughtfully. "Tooth marks, children with abnormal behavior, guardians who died mysteriously... These are very similar to the characteristics of the shapeshifter recorded in "Lore"."
The three decided to split up. Sam pretended to be an insurance investigator and visited the families of other victims to collect more common clues; Dean stayed near Lisa's home and paid attention to To ensure Ben's safety, the other side is ready to provide support at any time; Bai Haorui specializes in tracking the aura on Katie's body, exploring the location of its lair, and confirming the whereabouts of the real Katie.
Sam's visit went extremely smoothly, but the more he investigated, the more frightened he became. In just three days, five strange deaths had occurred in the town. The deceased were all fathers or nannies with young children at home. The deaths were all caused by seemingly unexpected electric shocks, falls, and mechanical accidents: a father was mowing the lawn when his lawnmower A sudden loss of control destroyed his legs; a nanny was boiling water in the kitchen when the electric kettle suddenly leaked, knocking her down on the spot; there was also a father who was changing a light bulb in his child's room when the ladder broke for no reason and he fell down and landed on his head... There was no trace of manpower in each case and could only be characterized as an "accident."
More importantly, Sam discovered two commonalities: on the back of the neck of each victim's wife (or child's mother), there was a small tooth mark similar to Martha; and on the windowsills of these families, there was a small amount of dark red mud with a sticky texture. There was a faint fishy smell. What made him even more uneasy was that the children from these families behaved very strangely - with empty eyes and indifferent attitudes. They either remained silent when he asked questions or answered questions incorrectly. Some even stared directly at him with a faint smile on their lips, as if they were monitoring his every move.
"There is something wrong with these children," Sam said to Dean and Bai Haorui on the phone, with a solemn tone, "Tooth marks and red mud are the same characteristics, and a mother told me that her children have been telling me some private things that only she and her husband know recently, such as their honeymoon location and the details of their first date. These are things that the children cannot possibly know."
At the same time, Dean saw Ben in the town park. Several older children who were a head taller than him snatched his game console, threw it on the ground and stepped on it a few times, and mocked him as a "wild child without a father." Ben stood there with his fists clenched, his face flushed, but he did not cry or flinch. The stubbornness and anger in his eyes were very much like himself when he was provoked when he was young. Dean's heart moved, and he quietly walked over, squatted next to him and whispered, "You need to have a strategy to deal with bullies, these rubbish. You tell them first, 'If you don't return the game console to me, I will tell the police that you stole things and bullied people.' If they are not afraid, you can hit the person holding the game console while they are not paying attention and then run over to me. I will help you stop them - remember, be quick and accurate, and don't give them a chance to react."
Ben's eyes lit up, he nodded, took a deep breath, walked up to the older children, and said loudly according to Dean's instructions. Those children really scoffed and wanted to push him, but when they raised their hands, Ben bent over and punched him in the gut. The child at the head picked up the game console on the ground on his nose, turned around and ran in the direction of Dean. Dean stood up, deliberately showed a fierce expression, and raised his chin at the older children. When they saw this, they immediately became scared and ran away cursing.
Ben ran to Dean, with a bright smile on his face, and gave him a victory gesture. "Thank you, Uncle Dean!" That needless tacit understanding made Dean feel warm in his heart.
But this scene happened to be seen by Lisa who came over. She walked over quickly, pulled Ben over, and said to Dean with a stern face, "Dean, I don't want you to teach him these violent and confrontational behaviors." Something." There was obvious anger in her tone, but more importantly, she was deeply worried - she knew that the world of Dean was full of dangers and battles, and she just wanted Ben to live a stable and ordinary life, and did not want him to be tainted by these thoughts of fighting and killing.
"I just taught him how to protect himself from being bullied, Lisa." Dean explained, with a hint of helplessness in his tone, "This world is not gentle. Sometimes you can only be bullied if you don't resist."
"There are many ways to protect yourself, and it doesn't have to be solved by fighting." Lisa's voice was a little excited, and he held Ben's hand tightly, "I don't want him to become like you, Dean, I just want him to be safe." After saying that, she pulled Ben and turned around to leave. Ben looked back at Dean, showed him a big smile, and secretly mouthed to him. "Thank you."
Dean looked at the backs of the two of them, feeling a little disappointed in his heart, but he also understood Lisa's painstaking efforts - what she wanted to protect was a stability that he could never give, and this stability was exactly what he longed for in his heart but neither dared nor could touch.
On the other side, Bai Haorui was following the evil aura of Katie all the way to Martha's house. He did not knock on the door rashly, but went around to the back of the house, using the cover of the wall to quietly knock on the door. The yard of Martha's house was overgrown with weeds and had obviously not been taken care of for a long time. There were some worn-out toys piled in the corner, which the real Katie had played with when he was a child. They were covered with dust.
Bai Haorui tiptoed to Katie's bedroom window. The window was ajar, leaving a gap. He looked through the gap and saw "Katie" sitting in front of the desk, with her back to the window, staring motionlessly at the wall, as stiff as a puppet. Her hair was still yellow and messy, and the pink dress on her body was stained with a few dark stains, which was the kind of dark red soil.
Bai Haorui condensed a faint trace of Spiritual Sense, gently probed into the room, and landed on "Katie". Sure enough, there were two breaths hidden in this body: one was the weak vitality of a child, which should be real The remaining aura of Katie is so weak that it almost dissipates, indicating that the real Katie may still be alive, but is in a critical situation; the other is the evil mimic energy, cold and stagnant, firmly occupying the dominance of this body.
He retreated quietly, walked around to the side of the house, and found that there was a small amount of dark red soil remaining on the windowsill of Martha's house, which was exactly the same as what Sam described. He dipped a little soil with his fingertips, put it to the tip of his nose and sniffed, and smelled a faint fishy smell, which was related to the transformation. The smell of body fluids was similar. He took out the Five Emperor Coins and map he carried with him, and Five Emperor Coins finally pointed in the direction of the edge of the town - there was an unfinished building complex there, empty of people. It was the place where the evil atmosphere was strongest, and it should be the lair of the changeling.
Bai Haorui was about to further confirm the specific location of the nest when he suddenly heard Martha's scream coming from the house, sharp and desperate, breaking the tranquility of the town. "You are not my Katie! Who are you?!"
Bai Haorui's heart tightened, and he quickly walked around to the front door. He saw Martha stumbling out of the house, his face as pale as paper, his eyes full of fear, and his hands kept waving, as if he was avoiding something scary. And in Behind her, "Katie" was slowly walking out of the room, still wearing the pink dress, walking steadily, with no expression on his face, his stagnant eyes staring at Martha, and even a strange, cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Mom, where are you going?" The voice of "Katie" has no warmth at all, it is as harsh as metal friction, and it has no child's crispness at all.
Martha trembled all over and pointed at "Katie", his voice hoarse and almost out of tune. "You are not my Katie! My Katie would not look at me like this, you are not her! You are a monster!"
Bai Haorui did not take action immediately - he knew that Martha was on the verge of collapse at this time, and rashly exposing her supernatural power might make her completely insane; and he had not yet found the specific location of the real Katie. Hands, this shapeshifter might jump over the wall, hurt Martha, or even destroy the life of the real Katie. He decided to observe secretly to see the next move of the shapeshifter, and at the same time look for clues about the real Katie.
Martha suddenly seemed to have made up his mind, and the fear in his eyes was replaced by a kind of desperate madness. She turned around, picked up Katie, and ran out of the yard, straight to the lake on the edge of the town - it was the largest lake in the town, and the water was very deep.
Martha was out of breath and exhausted when she ran to the lake. The lake glowed darkly in the night, and the cold wind rolled up her hair, making her look even more embarrassed. Katie: "Mom, what's wrong, why are you running?"
"Come here!" Martha shouted, suddenly stretched out his hand, grabbed "Katie"'s arm, and pushed her into the lake with all his strength, "You monster! I'm going to kill you! Give me back my Katie!"
"Katie" didn't make any struggle, and was pushed into the lake by Martha. With a "plop", the water splashed half a meter high, and her body quickly sank into the dark lake water and disappeared.
Martha sat slumped on the grass by the lake, gasping for air, tears mixed with sweat sliding down her eyes, her eyes full of exhaustion and a hint of luck - she hoped that the lake could drown this monster and bring her daughter back. She sat there and waited for a full ten minutes. The lake was calm and motionless.
Just when she thought everything was over and was about to get up and go home, she suddenly saw a figure slowly walking out of the lake.
It's "Katie".
She was soaked all over, her hair stuck to her face, and water droplets dripped down her cheeks. Her pink dress was tightly wrapped around her body, covered with water plants and mud. But her eyes were still cold, and the weird smile at the corner of her mouth had not changed at all, and was even more obvious than before. She walked towards Martha step by step, leaving a wet footprint with every step she took, and repeated the same sentence in her mouth, her voice cold and bone-chilling. "Mom, it's time for us to go home."
Martha's pupils suddenly shrank and he screamed. He collapsed to the ground in fright, and stepped back on his hands and feet. His whole body was shaking like chaff, and he kept muttering, "Monster... really a monster..."