( GOODBYE STRANGER )

WAREHOUSE
[ ☾]

Dean comes around the corner in a darkened warehouse, gun drawn. He brings his gun up but it's struck down. Castiel appears over him. "No, Cass. No!" Dean raises his hand towards Cass, but he breaks his wrist and we hear the bone snap. Dean groans in pain. "No, Cass, don't." Castiel looms over him and raises his angel blade. "Please."

Castiel buries the weapon into Dean's chest and Dean chokes. Castiel wrenches the blade from Dean's chest as Dean falls back, dead. We hear the click of switches and the buzz of electricity as the lights come on. Naomi walks into the room.

"No hesitation. Quick. Brutal." She and Castiel stare down at Dean. "Everything's back in order." She smiles at Castiel. "Finally." We see a close-up of Cass, his face expressionless. "You're ready."

The POV pulls back from Dean to where we can see the entire floor of the warehouse covered with bodies in various positions, all bloodied, all dead, all Dean.

SUPERNATURAL

BUNKER
[ ☾]

We see a close-up of large wooden boxes, we see a pair of hands reaching into a box and pull out a smaller rectangular box with a glass lid. It is the tip of a spear.

"What the hell is this?" Dean sighs and reads the contents of the box. "Spear of Destiny? What is this–God's toothpick?" We see Sam in the control room typing away on his laptop. "You know, would it have killed these asshats to label these boxes in something other than hieroglyphics? It's ridiculous."

Dean picks up a small box, opens it and lifts out an object. He turns it over in his hands. We look over Sam's shoulder to see Dean in the Men of Letter's library, table covered with large wooden and cardboard boxes.

"Hey. You listening to me?" Dean asks.

"Yeah. It's, uh..." Sam clears his throat. "Fascinating stuff." We see Dean opening another smaller box, looks like a Faberge egg. "You should probably, uh, write it all down in your journal for the archives, you know?" He clears his throat again.

"Yeah, thanks. You're a lot of help." Dean takes the ornate red and gold egg out of the box, opens it, sniffs it. Sam coughs in the background. "Hey, Doc Holliday, you all right over there?"

"Uh, yeah." Sam coughs into a napkin, pulls it away, it's bloody. "Um..." He clears his throat. "I'm fine." He throws the bloody napkin into the trashcan. "Just, uh, wrong pipe." Sam takes a drink from his glass, gives another cough.

Dean is still sorting and pulls out a folder that contains an old magazine titled "Voluptuous Asian Lovelies." He chuckles at the picture of the Asian woman on the cover holding a paper parasol. "Well, hello." He flips through the old p0rn magazine. "These Men of Letters weren't so boring after all. Konnichiwa." Said in Japanese to a page entitled "Appreciation of Asian Lovelies." "Hey, check this out." Dean walks down into the control room holding the magazine for Sam to see.

"Dude, what is wrong with you?" Sam asks.

"What's wrong with me? You kidding me? This is a first edition, dude." Dean says. We get an overhead shot of Sam sitting at the laminated map table. "You know what this would go for on eBay?"

"No. Why? Do you?" Asks Sam.

"No. Maybe. Shut up. You find anything?" Dean sits sideways at the map table.

"I did, yeah–uh, dead bodies showing up all over the Midwest last week. Benton, Indiana; Downers Grove, Illinois; uh, Novi, Michigan; and then again last night in Lincoln Springs, Missouri." Sam says.

"And how is this us?" Dean asks.

"Because each of the victims had severe burns around their eyes, hands, and feet, puncture wounds through the backs of their hands, eyes and internal organs liquefied." Sam says.

Dean smacks lips. "That sounds like us." He says.

"Yeah. Also, no link between any of the victims. Uh, one was a real-estate agent." Sam says. "Another was a local historian. Woman killed last night was a teacher."

"So, chupacabra." Dean says and Sam chuckles. "What do we got? Power tools gone rogue? Wait–are we talking a-a "Maximum Overdrive" situation here?"

"I don't know. Worth a shot, though. I'll grab my gear. We should probably leave in five." Sam says.

"Mm-hmm." Dean's focus is still on the magazine.

"Less, of course, you need some more time with Miss October." Sam says.

"What? Oh. Yeah. Yeah, make it 10. I'll be in Elena's room, if you know what I mean." Dean says as Sam chuckles and gets up to leave. Dean puts down the magazine and sees the waste basket, he holds the bloody napkin.

MORTON HOUSE
[ ☼ ]

"We just have a few routine follow-up questions about your wife, sir." Sam says. "Did she have any enemies?" Sam, Elena, and Dean are wearing their Fed suits.

"Ann? Honestly, I can't think of a soul who'd want to hurt her, even after everything that happened." Mr Morton says.

"Everything that happened?" Dean asks.

"About a week ago, something changed in Ann. She was out of sorts, not herself at all."

"Out of sorts how?" Sam asks.

"It'd be better if I show you."

MORTON BASEMENT
[ ☼ ]

"She stopped sleeping." Mr Morton says as they walk down stairs into the basement with limited lighting. He turns on a switch that lights only half of the basement. "She stopped eating. She went out in the middle of the night, going God knows where." He stands on the darker side of the basement. "I tried to talk to her, but, uh... She would just mutter to herself."

Sam, Elena, and Dean walk to the lit side of the basement. There's a large table covered with a miniature village, little plastic bags dangle over the table. "About what?" Elena asks.

"Something... about an orchard?"

We get a better view of the contents on the table. It's the model replica of a village made out of metal containers, cardboard boxes, a birdhouse, everything an ash grey in color.

"Finally, I just followed her one night, and she went to the playground. Over here–the elementary school." Morton points to a section that looks like the replica of a school and playground.

It's surrounded by a wall, has open areas, trees, and miniature people. There are even several Matchbox cars on the "road" that surrounds the school, properly positioned to show traffic flow.

"And she started digging. She would leave with these little bags full of dirt. Hung them here." He says. We see a close-up of the dirt filled plastic baggies hanging over the table. "All these bags represent holes that she dug in the ground."

"Were these holes, uh–I don't know–6 feet deep?" Dean asks.

"No. She dug for hours. She never broke a sweat. Straight down 10, maybe 15 feet."

"Did you notice anything else?" Sam asks.

"I didn't say anything to the cops 'cause I didn't want them to think I was crazy." Mr. Morton says. "After Ann came home, I came down here to confront her, and she was on the phone."

"Any idea who she was talking to?" Dean asks.

"No. But I know what I saw. And it wasn't my Annie. After I called her out, her eyes... they turned black. Now, I-I know I must have imagined it. I know I did. But I-I left. I went to the bar, probably had too much to drink, and by the time I came back..." He sighs. "...my Annie was, uh... I should have stayed. I should have protected her. I'm moving into my sister's place today. I can't be here anymore."

"Sure. Well, um, thank you very much for your time. We're very sorry for your loss." Sam says.

Elena and the boys walk down the front steps. "So, somebody's killing demons." Dean says. "Well, that is awesome. I feel like we should send a card or flowers. What kind of flower says 'thanks for killing demons'?"

"Yeah, but who's killing demons? And why?" Elena asks.

"And, by the way, since when does a demon possess someone, then go all 'Beautiful Mind' and–and start digging in the dirt? Does any of this seem right to you?" Sam asks.

"I like the part about killing demons. That sounds right." Dean says and Sam sighs.

RESIDENTIAL AREA
[ ☼ ]

"Sure. Of course." Sam is talking on his cellphone as the Impala comes to a stop in a residential area, the engine is shut off. "Well, thank you very much for all your help. I really appreciate the time." They get out of the car and the doors close. "All right. Bye. So, real-estate guy's wife said he was acting weird. Uh, historian's hubby said the same–just got all obsessive and then weird. No one saw any black eyes, but still, where there's smoke, you know...I wonder what they're all looking for."

"Well, Wendy Rice here was the last person to speak with Ann, so let's see if she can tell us." Dean says as Sam knocks on the door of Wendy Rice's house. A woman with her hair covered with large blue and purple curlers opens the door. "Special Agent Lynne. These are my partners, Special Agent Tandy and Mills. We'd like to ask you a few questions about Ann Morton.l

"Oh." Wendy chuckles to self-consciously and plays with a curler. "Uh, uh, uh, of course. Please come in. I had never met her before she called the other night."

"Now, why was she calling you?" Elena asks.

"She was looking to find an original map of the city." Wendy says.

"Did she say what for?" Sam asks.

"Well, she–she didn't, but she did mention an–an old orchard that had gone missing." Wendy says.

"Missing?" Asks Dean.

"This–this town was wiped from the earth by one of the river's 100-year floods. It was–it was rebuilt. But all the original records were–were lost." She smiles and plays with her curler again. "I'm–I'm a PhD candidate. And this–this is my research. I, uh...My dissertation is–is on the history of this town and, uh, its connection to the Underground Railroad and–and–and whatnot." She eagerly hops up, brings over a bright pink binder, and pulls out a map. "I've been working to re-create a map for years as part of my research, and this–this is the old Jakubiak orchard there." She points to a section of the map. "I found out yesterday it's where Downey meets Bond Street."

"Now, did Ann say why she was looking for the site of an old orchard?" Sam asks.

"No. We–we set a time to meet, and she never showed. Then I read about her in the paper. It's just tragic." Wendy says. "Ann's assistant called this morning, though, asking if I still had the map."

"Assistant?" Sam asks as we hear several knocks on the front door.

"Oh. That's probably him. Maybe he can help." Wendy gets up to answer the door. Sam, Elena and Dean follow. We hear a dog barking in the distance. "Oh. Are–are you–" She has opened the door to find three men standing there. Their eyes go demon black when they show up behind Wendy. She screams.

The three demons barge in and a fight erupts. Wendy is flung into the living room, she smashes into the coffee table. The demon who had tossed her grabs the map, then runs out the door. Dean pulls out the demon-killing knife, just before he stabs one of the demons and black smoke erupts from the demon's mouth and flies into Wendy's mouth, possessing her. Her eyes turn black.

She gets up and runs towards another door and Dean runs after her. Meanwhile Sam is being bested by the third demon, when suddenly the demon is burned out by Castiel who tosses the body aside. Castiel stands there holding Wendy by her curlers.

WENDY RICE'S HOUSE
[ ☼ ]

"Put this on your shoulder." Dean tosses a cold pack at Sam who is seated on the couch. Sam throws it on the floor and clears his throat. Elena sits down next to him as Cass walks into the room.

"I'm fine." Sam says.

"The other demon escaped. I bound the one I caught in a devil's trap." Cass says. "I'm gonna interrogate it now."

"Wait a second. Cass. How about you answer some questions first? Like, where the hell have you been?" Elena asks.

"You heard me, didn't you?" Dean asks.

"You prayed to him?" Sam asks.

"Yes, I heard you. But that's not why I'm here." Castiel sits down and sighs. "I've been hunting demons."

"So this is you. Why?" Sam asks.

NAOMI'S OFFICE
[ TIME UNKNOWN ]

"What should I tell them?" Castiel is seated in front of Naomi in her stainless steel white office.

"The truth. Most of it, anyway." She gets up and walks around to sit on her desk in front of Cass. "Maybe they can get us closer."

WENDY RICE'S HOUSE
[ ☼ ]

"I've been searching for the other half of the Demon Tablet." Castiel says.

"Without us?" Dean asks. 

"I've been trying to help, Dean. And in my search, I uncovered that Crowley has sent out demons to find Lucifer's crypts."

"Lucifer had crypts?" Dean asks.

"Dozens of them, apparently." Castiel says.

"But why the storage wars? I mean, what the hell are they all looking for?" Sam asks.