Chapter 8: Detective Jessica Moore

"Ms. Acker, is there something else you would like to ask me?"

As confused as he was, Will Carlton still welcomed Federal Wildlife Service officer Ms. Acker into his house once again. Jessica looked around. She could distinctively see Bill Carlton laying on a couch. His eyes stared lifelessly into the TV.

"Yes." Hearing Will's question, Jessica turned back to him and took out the stack of names and pictures she put together back in the motel. "Do you recognize any of these people?"

"Hmmm…" Will frowned as he carefully went through each picture. "I know him, him, and her. These are local townspeople who just ended up disappearing...just...just like Sophie…" His voice trailed off.

"Yes. Do you recognize a pattern among them? Anything they have in common?" Jessica didn't want to bother the grieving brother for an extra second, but she had no choice. The monster in the lake could strike again any minute.

"I don't know…Wait...her!" He suddenly pointed at the image of a sweet-looking gal. "I think I recognize that name. She's a girl my dad used to date in high school. He told me a lot of stories about her! Well, before she disappeared."

"Your father…" Jessica frowned. "Do you recognize anyone else from the list that is associated to your father?"

Will looked at the pictures once again, and Jess could see a look of realization on his face, but instead of just spilling the beans, he looked up at Jess in suspicion.

"Ms. Acker, why do you want to know?"

"Look, this is important. The connection among these disappeared may be the key to preventing what happened to your sister from happening to anyone else. If you know anyone else…"

Jessica's heart was pounding hard as Will tapped his chin and thought about it. Finally, his conscious took over.

"Him and her. He was dad's friend years back. She...she may be someone my dad dated."

"Ok." Jessica slowly nodded. Suddenly, she stood up and walked over to Bill.

"What are you doing?" Will ran up and stood tall between her and the old man. "My dad is not in any condition to answer your questions!"

Jessica glared at Will, and the man couldn't help but find himself taking a step back, but he quickly caught himself.

"I would like you to leave," He demanded. "or I will be filing a complaint to your agency."

Jessica nodded slowly. She knew she couldn't get past Will unless she used force, and there was no way she was beating up an innocent boy in front of his aging, grieving father. If she really did that, she would be more disappointed at herself than anyone else.

She has gotten enough info on this trip. Jessica turned around and walked out of the house. Will shut the door behind her.

Outside, the day was already getting dark. Jessica wasn't afraid for her own safety, but she didn't want Sam to be bothered.

Suddenly, before she could head back to the motel, Killian said something.

"Jess, I know you said I shouldn't help you unless someone's in danger, but I think you would want to know this."

"What?"

"Check out the side of the house. That way. I sense something weird."

Jessica ran to the side of the house that Killian was pointing at. There, attached to the house walls, was a sewage water line that led dirty water out of the house. It was supposed to go straight underground, but there was a crack in the sealed lines, and a stream of brown water was creeping up into the pipes.

"Damn it!" Jessica immediately knew this wasn't natural. First hint? The water was defying the laws of gravity. She didn't even need to look to know this water came from the people-killing lake.

So the thing was getting more creative. It wasn't even waiting for people to come into the lake before taking them out. Now, it was actively hunting.

That only made it so much more dangerous.

Jessica turned around and ran back toward the house. At the moment, she no longer bothered with maintaining her cover. If being exposed was what it took to save someone's life, then so be it.

As she ran, she tapped into her most trusted friend.

"Kil, please tell me you can kill that thing!"

"I actually don't know."

Jessica was stopped right in her tracks by that statement. Wait! Did that mean she might go into the house and get killed? That was different from anything she has gone through before. When she was invincible, she could ruthlessly charge forward and be the heroine, but now...

That raised a simple question. Was it really worth risking her life to save someone she didn't know? Even worse, to save someone who practically kicked her out of his house?

Jessica barely paused for a second before continuing.

Seeing that, Killian added, satisfied at her choice.

"I don't know if I can kill it, but I definitely can beat it."

"Oh thank god!"

Jessica charged straight through the door. The aging wooden barrier cracked and collapsed, forever relieved of its duty.

"He's in the kitchen!" Killian hinted.

Ignoring the surprised look daddy Bill Carlton gave her, Jessica ran into the kitchen. There, Will seemed to be washing the dishes. He snapped around at the noise. When he saw Jessica, his anger couldn't be tamed.

"Get out of my house now!"

Jessica opened her mouth to explain, but fortunately for her, something else did the explaining for her with the most direct way possible. A stream of water suddenly leaped up into the air from the sink and wrapped itself around Will's neck.

Will's eyes widened. He reached down and tried to free himself, but his hands went straight through the prison of water and touched his own neck.

The entire time, the water grip kept on closing in on him.

"Let him go!" Jessica didn't waste a second to leap forward into action. From her angle, she could see where the water was coming from. She landed a punch right in the stream. Red energy condensed inside her arm and her fist.

She felt like she could punch through anything. Screw a brick wall! She could go through a tank like nothing!

And then the punch went right through the water. Jessica could barely keep herself from stumbling.

"What the hell?" The blonde screamed as she steadied herself. Ok, defeating the murderous creature in one punch was a bit exaggerating, but she should at least beat it back as she did to that Wendigo, right? This was the first time her attack did absolutely nothing.

Immune to physical attack? That was unfair!

Even worse, the next second, another stream of water exploded out from the sink and wrapped itself around her neck in the same fashion.

"Fuck…" Jessica's curse barely disappeared before her eyes suddenly turned red. A flare appeared in her pupil. At the time of distress, the big boss finally stepped in.

Killian looked down at the water attempting to strangle him.

"This is...unexpected."

He knew without looking that Will has already passed out beside him. Bill Carlton was trying to stand up in the living room, but it would be a few seconds until he could get here. In other words, he could fire at will.

A ring of crimson wrapped itself between the water and Killian's neck. Immediately, both water streams collapsed. Drops of water hit the ground and formed a small puddle. Likewise, the lake water in the sink returned to normal.

Killian glanced at the Carlton beside him. He was choked up hard, but he would live. Finally, he gave control of the body back to Jessica.

---

"So, Sophie didn't drown? She was attacked by that thing? I knew it! She was too good a swimmer to just drown like that!"

It has been ten minutes since the attack took place. When daddy Carlton finally walked into the kitchen and saw his son on the ground, knocked out, he almost made a run for the family shotgun. Thankfully, Will woke up just in time to stop a firefight from happening.

And now, after a brief explanation, Will finally got a grasp on what was going on. As much as the thought guilted Jessica, she had to admit just having the creature roughen Will up was easier than any type of speech she could give.

"Look," Jessica kept on pushing her advantage. "I don't want to do this anymore than you do, but this thing has been targeting those around your father for decades. His girlfriends. His pals. His daughter and now his son! We need to find out what it is and stop it before anyone else gets hurt!"

Will nodded slowly before walking into the living room and saying something to his father quietly. Jessica waited patiently for a few minutes before Will finally nodded for her to come through.

The old man's first words made Jessica raise her eyebrows.

"His name is Peter, and we killed him."

"Well, isn't that the jackpot...Sorry." Jessica quickly apologized when she saw both Carltons were looking at her in annoyance. "Please continue."

"It was 35 years ago...we were just kids. One day, we were walking by the lake, and...and we just wanted to play a prank on Peter...but, but when we pulled him out of the water, it was too late! He was no longer breathing!"

"Oh god…" Will whispered on the side. He has always known his father was a little reserved, but murdering a kid?

"So you dumped his body into the lake." Jessica's eyes were ice cold. "Is that so? You killed someone and you let his body sink? Well, it seems like the locals are really bad at finding bodies at the bottom of lakes. How did that even work, by the way? I thought human bodies tend to have a lower density than water..."

She was rambling, but both men could sense the anger in her voice.

They were right.

Jessica was really pissed off right now. 6 people! 7 including Sophie! The secret Bill kept killed seven people! Hell, it would've killed 8 if she didn't step in! 8 lives, just like that!

"You said we." The blonde girl forced herself to approach this as professionally as possible. "Who else was involved?"

"Jake, hmmm...Jake Devins. He's the local sheriff."

"Shit…" Jessica wanted to curse. Really? A murderer became the head of the local police department? The irony was real, but she didn't feel like laughing.

Not one bit.

"I am going to make a phone call." She took out her phone. Sam and Dean had to know about this. Before she could make the call, Will suddenly turned to her.

"Will my father going to jail for this?"

"With all due respect, going to jail requires him to stay alive, and at this rate, that's gonna be pretty difficult."

Jessica's words made the old man shake in his seat, but Jessica had no sympathy for him. Will glared at her before attending to his father.

The room was quiet for a while after the call was made. Sam and Dean were on the way here, and the Carltons were busy processing this whole matter. Jessica used this chance to contact Killian.

"Kil, what happened when I attacked that thing? Was he immune to physical attacks?"

Killian has been doing some research of his own.

"From what I heard, this Peter must have become one with the lake after his death 35 years ago. It's fascinating, really. His soul merged into the environment his body was in. As long as the lake exists, he is immortal. Jess, remember when you landed the punch? My power was inside your body. It is still your fist punching water, and unless your punch is strong enough to instantly evaporate all the lake water, it's not going to matter."

"So he's invincible?"

"Nothing's invincible." Killian reassured. "When I was in the driver's seat, I spread my power across the surface of my body so it wiped out the mark Peter's soul had on the water. In other words, I severed the link between them, but I do have to warn you, Jess. I can't handle Peter the same way I handled the thing in Black Water Ridge."

"Why not?"

"Do you have any idea how much of my power will be spent purifying an entire lake? It will weaken me and force me to take some time off to recover. I can cut a way through whatever Peter has to offer if I have to, but cleansing every drop of water in the terrain? Nope."

Jessica lowered her head thoughtfully.

"Sam said burning a spirit's remains can destroy the spirit...wait. Shit!"

Dive into the bottom of a lake, retrieve a set of corpses that have been down there since 35 years ago, bring it back up, and set it aflame...there was more than one part of that plan that sounded stupid to Jessica.

Jessica sat down on a sofa. Her hands clutched onto her hair in frustration.

"I just hope the Winchesters have a good idea..."