Supernatural: Night Terror by John Passarella Read Free Book Online Page A

from them, a wary look in his eyes, as if he would never again trust what he saw.
    “Gavin Shelburn?” Sam asked.
    “Shelly’s fine,” the man said, making no effort to approach them. “You with the government?”
    “FBI,” Dean said. “Okay if we ask you a few questions, Shelly?”
    “I’m not crazy,” he said.
    “Good to know.”
    “It happened right here. Quinn’s boys think I’m nuts. But I ain’t nuts. Sure, I drink. Who doesn’t? But I see what I see... at least I...” He stuffed his hands in his overcoat pockets. “It was a Gila monster attacked me. But big. Size of two cars back to back! I know that ain’t right. But I can’t explain it.”
    “Did you see where it came from?” Dean asked.
    Shelburn shook his head. “I was walking back from Joe’s Pizza Shack and I heard it. Heard something. Turned around and there it was. Chased me. I ducked in here and, well, jumped in there. Guess you could say Dumpster diving saved my life.”
    Sam pointed at the scratch marks. “Then it attacked the Dumpster?”
    “Yep,” Shelburn said, finally coming a few steps closer. He walked along the brick wall and showed them scrape marks at Dumpster height. “Pushed it, slammed into it, then tried to climb inside after me. That’s when the wheel busted off, under its weight, I guess.”
    “But it gave up and left?” Sam asked.
    “That’s the weird thing. It never walked—crawled away. I would’ve heard that, with its claws scraping the ground and that tail thumping everything in sight. But nope. Nothing. One minute it was there, the next it was gone.”
    “Anything else you remember?”
    “Seemed mighty hungry.”
    “Right,” Sam said with a slight smile. “Thanks for your help.”
    “You know what caused it?”
    “No,” Dean said. “We’re here to find out.”
    “Bet it was radiation,” Shelburn said. “Or toxic chemicals. Illegal dumping. Or... some top-secret government experiment? Is that it?” He backed up a few steps. “That why they sent you FBI types to Clayton Falls? A cover-up? They send you to kill all the witnesses?”
    “Whoa! Nothing like that,” Dean said. Batting a thousand, he thought. First witness already panicking . “The ‘I’ is for investigation.”
    Shelburn nodded slowly, as if trying to convince himself, calm himself.
    “Okay, all right. I’m not a conspiracy nut. Never was. But you see a giant Gila monster and you start to rethink everything, right? Down is up; up is down.”
    “You might want to steer clear of this alley,” Sam suggested.
    “You believe me?”
    “Yes.”
    “Thank you,” Shelburn said, suddenly smiling broadly. “I may be down on my luck, but I ain’t crazy.” He doffed his hat and extended it in his arm. “Wouldn’t mind a donation...”
    Sam smiled.
    Dean reached into a pocket, peeled off a twenty and dropped it in the hat.
    “Mighty generous of you,” he said, tucking the bill into a pocket. “I’ll take your advice as well and clear out.”
    “Wait a minute,” Sam said. “You’re out most nights?”
    “About every night. Why?”
    “Wait here,” Sam said. He walked to the Impala and returned with a pair of two-way radios from the trunk, handing one to Shelly. “You know how to use these?” The man nodded. “Keep it on channel five. You spot anything weird, out of the usual, call me.”
    “You deputizing me?”
    “Think of it as neighborhood watch activity.”
    They spent a moment checking the battery levels, sending and receiving messages. Shelly adjusted the volume on his unit and nodded, satisfied, and stuffed it in his pocket. “Anything weird or unusual. Got it.”
    “Don’t put yourself at risk,” Sam said. “Just call it in.”
    “No worries on that account.”
    As Shelly sauntered off, Dean shook his head at Sam.
    “What?”
    “Dude, you realize that radio’s headed for the nearest pawn shop.”
    “Not like I gave him the pair.”
    Shelly paused at the entrance to the alley and looked back at