(Bowles Motel and Lodge, Indiana, November 15 2006.)

Chapter two:

That's the problem with the job, Samantha, sometimes you hit a dead end.

Samantha Winchester silently agreed with her sister Deanna as they did their final check of the motel room before hauling their stuff out to the car. Their father had drilled into them from a young age always to scour a room before checking out and it wouldn't do to leave personal stuff lying around. Especially when some of that stuff included exotic weaponry and ancient grimoires.

Generally, they were good about cleaning the room. There was that one time in Key West when Deanna had left the tin of salt next to the bed, and she'd insisted on turning the car around on Route 1 and heading back to retrieve it. Samantha had asked why they couldn't just go to the supermarket and get another one- it was a pretty common household item, after all- but Deanna had insisted that it was the principle of the thing. Which had been fine right up until the clerk asked why the two sisters had a big tin of salt in their motel room, and Deanna had gotten wide- eyed look she got when somebody got off the script. With Samantha watching and not even bothering to hide her grin, Deanna had stammered for about half an hour before coming up with something about lactose intolerance.

(Dude, Samantha had said as they went back out to the car, retrieved tin in hand, you do know that salt has, basically, nothing to do with lactose intolerance,right?

Thank you, Ms. Wizard, Deanna had replied through clenched teeth. )

Today, they were checking out, and hitting the road, their latest job not having been a job at all.

Deanna was still talking as they headed out to the car. But at least we got to see the beautiful downtown South Bend.

Yeah, real hot spot, Samantha muttered as Deanna opened the trunk.

Hey, we go where the job takes us.

Or don't. It really was a suicide, Deanna. A normal, run- of the - mill suicide.

Deanna shrugged. It happens. She tossed her bag into the rear of the trunk, rolling it over the boxes of weapons and supplies. Samantha did likewise, using only her left hand,, as her right hand was still in a cast from when the zombie girl broke it back in Lawrence.

Samantha did not have the same attachment Deanna had to the blue 1968 Mustang with black stripes and green headlights, the birthday gift their father had given to her on her sixteenth birthday. Then again, Samantha sometimes thought she didn't have the attachment to her late boyfriend Jesse that Deanna had to the Mustang. ) When the car was wrecked a couple of months back, Deanna had rebuilt it pretty much from scratch, a process that took weeks of breathtaking effort.

However, Samantha had to admit that the massive trunk was a great benefit, given that they had lived three years out in the car. The rear of the voluminous trunk was taken up with three bags: Samantha's bag, Deanna's bag, and the laundry bag. The last one was starting to bulge.