“Sam’s going to get better.”
The warm air blowing through the open windows of the sheriff’s car almost carried the words away before Dean could hear them. He looked over at Jody, who kept her gaze focused steadily on the road, but before he could say anything a new song flared to life on the radio, and she wouldn’t have been able to hear him anyway.
When the car finally rolled to a stop back in Sioux Falls, Dean looked up to find himself at a church he’d driven past many times before. Most of the windows were broken and boarded up, but aside from that, it was an unremarkable building. It was neat, all hard angles and fresh paint, trimmed hedges and carefully managed ivy. Aside from the windows it was the sort of building Dean thought that God, with all his rules, would have respected, back when he took an interest in that sort of thing.
Dean followed Jody inside, where they skirted around a service that was taking place and went back to the offices. They found a young woman sitting behind the large desk in the first office they went into and she jumped when Jody cleared her throat.
“Hi! I’m Renee, can I help you?”
“Where’s Father Nicholson?” asked Jody.
“Oh, are you Sheriff Mills? He’s downstairs. It’s not a good day; he woke up screaming.”
“Screaming?” repeated Dean, “The Father?”
“No! No, the guy did, Father Nicholson is downstairs helping him - come on, I’ll show you.” Renee grabbed a set of keys and rushed them out of the office and down a small spiral staircase that took them to a cool dark basement and a long hallway that ended in a big wooden door. There was muffled shouting coming from the other side, and Dean exchanged a nervous look with Jody and made sure that his weapons were ready to draw at a moment’s notice.