“So, get this,” Sam said to Dean. “There have been reports of suspicious events at this university in Peoria, Illinois.”
“Weird things happen on college campuses all the time,” Dean replied. “How are you sure this is our sort of thing?”
Sam got out his laptop and showed his brother Scout articles about several students going missing from Bradley University and stories of the ghosts on The Hilltop. Dean thinks the stories are made up and passed down from upperclassmen to scare the freshmen, but the reports were enough for him to fuel up the Impala.
The brothers arrive at the campus, and Dean smirks at the sight of the Bradley squirrels running around in the fallen leaves. One of the squirrels looks up at Dean and puts its paws up as if begging for food. Dean smiles, but it quickly turns into a scowl after the critter lets out an alarming screech.
“These things are little monsters,” Dean nudged Sam. “Are we sure they aren’t the cause of the missing students?
Sam just rolled his eyes and continued walking, but he had to stop suddenly––doing an awkward tall-guy stumble in the process––when two squirrels skittered right in front of him.
The monster hunters headed to the library to see if the special collections had any campus lore that could be of any help. They didn’t find anything super useful other than the legends of the third floor of Sisson Hall, Constance Hall, the seventh floor of Harper Hall and the Hartmann Theatre being haunted.
They posed as FBI agents and talked to BUPD for more information and to get access to the buildings. Sam asked the officers what they knew about the missing students, and they said they didn’t have any leads and turned the case over to the Peoria police department.
Even though Dean thought the spirits in the buildings around campus were pure fiction, the two searched each one for signs of ghosts or hex bags. There was no EMF reading in any of the four locations, so it had to be something else.
Dean suggested they visit the Greek houses since the only commonality between the missing students was that they were last seen at a frat party.
Walking into a fraternity house, they received strange glances, and one drunk frat guy yelled, “Nice costumes, old dudes! But isn’t it past your bedtime?”
Dean was about to lunge toward the 20-some-year-old when Sam held him back and said, “It’s not worth it, Dean. There’s obviously nothing going on here. Let’s move on.”
Just as they walked out, they heard a scream. They quickly followed it to find a vampire leading a female student to its nest.
It turns out one of the houses on Fredonia was not a Greek house, after all. The alpha vampire moved into the abandoned house just a few months ago to build a nest full of college students.
After seeing the alpha and putting it all together, Dean said “What a creep,” and proceeded to fight the bloodsucker.
The alpha pushed Dean down, but Sam had his brother’s back and started fighting as well. The other vampires started to defend their alpha, but they were inexperienced fighters. Dean went for the kill when Sam let out a scream.
“WAIT! If they haven’t fed, they can be given the cure,” Sam yelled to Dean.
“Well, that makes this a little harder,” Dean muttered.
So, he stunned the young vampires while Sam tried to fight off the alpha. However, Sam was getting quite a beating and was losing steam. The alpha took a shot and pushed Sam hard into a wall, hitting his head.
“SAMMY!” Dean cried. He rushed over and acted quickly, decapitating the alpha before it could make a move.
“You good?” he asked Sam as he pulled him up.
“Fine,” Sam sighed, giving a little nod.
Luckily, the students hadn’t fed on any human blood and the Winchesters had the ingredients to make a cure for all of them. They were grateful to be back to themselves and one student asked, “What exactly do you do? Is this like your job?”
Dean replied, “Yep. It’s all about saving people, hunting things, the family business.”
Sam made sure they got back to their dorms and houses safely while Dean burned the body of the alpha for good measure.
They met back at the Impala and gave each other a nod before getting into the car. Dean drove off, and as they were heading to their next destination on the road, the song “Carry on Wayward Son” began to play on the radio.
