What If instead of killing you ghost sickness turned you into the thing you most feared?
Thanks to girlyghoul for the what if question
Sam and Dean rolled into town. Some local guy named Frank had disappeared and about the same time, an unnaturally large flock of pigeons had arrived.
"I don't know, Dean, do you really think this is our kind of thing? How could pigeons be supernatural," Sam asked, wondering what Dean was thinking.
"Well, there's the missing local," Dean pointed out.
"Maybe he just doesn't like pigeons," Sam hypothesized. He had to admit if he lived somewhere and it all of the sudden became infested with dirty, disgusting rats with wings, he'd leave, too.
"Look, we're close by. We'll check it out. If it's nothing, we'll split," Dean promised.
"OK," Sam said.
They got out of the car and headed to the park, which was where they were told that they were. All the pigeons seemed to be moving as one. Like they were just all part of one big mind or something. "That's creepy," Sam admitted.
Suddenly as a group the pigeons lifted in flight and came right at Sam and Dean. Sam covered his eyes and turned to run for the car. Maybe Dean was right and something was going on here. This was something out of the movie The Birds. Dean had let him watch that when he was five and he had not particularly like birds since.
As Sam was running for the car, Dean was transfixed. He had another of his glimpses of Hell and he remembered one day the demon who normally tortured him just set some birds loose on him and let them peck his eyes out over and over again.
"DEAN!" Sam yelled as the birds swooped towards Dean as one. At the last minute they swooped up and over him. Dean would have been grateful, except for the fact that he was covered in pigeon crap.
"Gross," he said.
Sam laughed.
"That was weird," Dean commented.
"Yeah. I've never seen birds move together like that. What should we do?" Sam asked.
"Maybe we should investigate the missing guy," Dean suggested.
"OK. Let's go talk to his next door neighbor. He was the last one to see him."
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Sam and Dean sat in Frank's neighbor's house. He was stroking a snake, as he talked to them.
"So, what makes you think Frank is missing?" Dean asked.
"I haven't seen him since the night before last," Mark answered.
"Couldn't he have just gone on vacation or something?" Sam asked.
"No way. He was acting real weird lately."
"Weird how?" Sam and Dean asked together. Sam rolled his eyes. He had a feeling they looked like morons when they did that.
"He was afraid of everything. Including leaving the house."
"Was he always afraid of leaving the house?" Dean asked.
"No, this just started a couple of days ago. He was afraid of witches and Al-Qaeda, and cats and dogs, everything."
"Witches?" Sam asked, picking up on the one thing that might be helpful in that list.
"Yeah, the Wizard of Oz was on last night and he said that green lady was totally out to get him. He called over to me to come over and turn off the TV. He was afraid if he did it himself, he would get electrocuted."
Sam and Dean exchanged a glance. "Was that the last time you saw him?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. Then yesterday morning, I went over to check on him and he was gone. I knocked on the door, there was no answer, so I just opened it. A whole flock of birds came flying out."
"The pigeons that are in the park now?" Dean asked, remembering his leather jacket, which was probably ruined beyond recognition. Those birds were so dead.
"I guess."
"Any idea how they got there?" Sam asked, figuring the answer was no.
"No," Mark answered to nobody's surprise, but then he added something. "It was weird, though, because birds were the one thing Frank was afraid of his whole life."
"Why?" Dean asked.
"No idea, but he always said that birds were evil and they were all plotting to peck his eyes out."
Dean shuddered as he thought of Hell again.
"OK, I guess that's it," Sam said as he stood to leave. Dean followed suit.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
"OK, this is getting weirder by the second," Dean said. "Is it possible that Frank turned into a flock of pigeons?"
"A loft," Sam said.
"What?' Dean asked.
"A group of pigeons is called a loft, not a flock."
"Do you have to be such a know-it-all?" Dean asked. Sometimes Sam was so irritating. He had always been proud that Sam was so smart, but he could never just let anything go.
"Sorry," Sam offered. "Anyway, that sounds a little crazy don't you think?"
"No, it sounds massively crazy, but so does every day of our lives," Dean countered.
"Good point," Sam said. "Maybe Bobby's heard of something like this before." He pulled out his phone and called him. "Hey, Bobby," he began.
"What's up?" Bobby asked. Seems like the boys only called him when they needed information. He didn't mind helping them, enjoyed it actually, but he wished they would call during off times, too, once in a while.
"We have kind of a weird case," Sam said.
"Weird how?" Bobby asked. Weird could mean a lot of things.
"This local guy disappeared. Beforehand he had suddenly been scared of everything. Then, we think he turned into a flock of pigeons," Sam said, waiting for Bobby to call him an idjit.
"Was he afraid of pigeons before the rash of fears?" Bobby asked.
"Actually, yes," Sam said, surprised by the question.
"Sounds like ghost sickness to me," Bobby said.