A/N: This story takes place during Season 10 of Supernatural, and about 3 years after Season 7 of Buffy. Please note that Cass is at full strength in this story and is searching for a way to remove the Mark of Cain from Dean's arm.

Chapter 1 – Skull and Bones

The Impala was cruising along the dark highway. It was close to midnight and Sam was asleep in passenger seat. Absentmindedly, Dean scratched at the Mark of Cain on his right arm. They passed a sign saying that they were 2 miles from Cleveland. Reaching over, he smacked his brother in the chest, "Rise and shine, Sammy!"

Inhaling suddenly, Sam woke up and shook his head. "What time is it?" he asked.

Looking at the clock on the dashboard, Dean said, "11:45. We should be in Cleveland shortly. So, what's the deal with this case?"

Rubbing his eyes, Sam said, "let's find a motel first, then we can go through it."

"Awesome," Dean said. A few minutes later they had found a shabby looking motel, The Route 71 Inn. They checked into room 314 and settled in a bit before they sat down at the table to review the case.

"Ok, so the story goes that a local haunted house, which has been abandoned for years, was broken into last week. Not unusual for a supposedly haunted house; however, the police said that over 10 graves were discovered dug up in the basement," Sam said reading from the news article from his laptop. "The police said they were surprised to find the graves, as there had been no record of violence or missing persons in the house while it was still occupied. However, the last owners moved out because of visions they claimed to see of several young children running about the basement. The police are now investigating the house as a possible homicide site, including possibly the dumping ground for a serial killer."

"Over 10 graves and no one ever noticed it before?" Dean asked.

"Supposedly, the basement wasn't a dirt basement, but cement. The floor had been broken up 'as though by a jackhammer.' Whoever did it knew those bodies were down there," Sam replied.

"What happened to the graves? Were the bodies stolen? Eaten? What?" Dean asked.

"According to this, the graves were all of children between the ages of 5 and 10, based on the size of the skeletons; however, all the skulls were missing, making it impossible to use dental records for identification. It says that the skeletons were all at least 30 years old, so the police are searching through missing children reports from the 80's and earlier," Sam continued to read.

"Does it say when the cement floor was put in, or anything about last owners of the house?"

"No, and only that they said the house was haunted. Supposedly, teenagers have been breaking into the house to party for almost 20 years. There have been reports throughout the years of the sound of crying children and visions of children running around the basement, though," Sam looked up at Dean.

"Who wrote this article?" asked Dean, "it's strangely OK with reporting info about a haunted house. Usually the media shy away from that kind of info."

"The Cleveland Ledger," Sam answered, reading the name off the website.

"Huh, weird. OK, so it sounds like we've got murdered kids haunting a house, and someone who knew they were there stealing skulls. Are we hunting the ghosts or the thing that took the skulls?" Dean inquired.

"Both?" Sam suggested.

"Well, if we're going to go after the kids, we'll need to find those skulls first," Dean said.

"Very true. OK, tomorrow we go to the police station and find out what leads, if any, they have," Sam said. Then he yawned, "In the meantime, let's get some sleep."

Dean nodded, stood up, walked to his bed and collapsed on it still fully dressed, his feet hanging off the edge.

The next morning, Sam woke up to find Dean already up and dressed in his faux FBI suit. He was checking his gun to make sure it was clean and fully armed. Sam got up and went into the bathroom and quickly showered. The water was cold and there was little water pressure. Missing the bunker, he dried himself off and brushed his teeth. He yawned again and decided that they were definitely stopping for coffee on the way to the police station.

Walking back into the room with a towel wrapped around him, he grabbed his own suit and quickly changed. Dean was no longer in the room; Sam figured he was probably checking on his baby to make sure nothing happened to it during the night. As Sam was putting the suit jacket on, Dean came back in the room with two coffees in his hands. He handed one to Sam, who profusely thanked him.

"You usually beat me in getting up, so I figured you were probably tired and needed it," Dean said smiling.

"You feeling OK?" Sam asked unsure.

"Yea, Sammy, why wouldn't I?" Dean said.

Eyeing him suspiciously, Sam didn't answer him. They left the room, making sure to hang the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. They climbed into the Impala and it roared to life as Dean started it up. Grateful, but still suspicious, Sam drank his coffee in silence. It wasn't very good. Dean turned on the radio to find Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" playing. Turning up the volume, he started singing along. Sam watched him, amused.

About 15 minutes later they were pulling into the police station. They walked into the building and up to the man at the front desk, who looked much too young to be a cop.

"Hi, can I help you?" he asked, his voice cracking a little.

"How old are you?" Dean asked bluntly.

Sam cleared his throat pointedly and pulled out his FBI badge, "Hi, I'm Special Agent Johnson, my rude partner here is Special Agent Young. We were hoping to speak to someone about the McDyllan House case."

The man eyed Dean before answering Sam, "Sure, agents. Detective Bryant is heading up that case, I'll call him." He picked up the phone and dialed an extension.

"Hey Dave, there are two FBI agents here that want to talk to you about that haunted house break-in," he said. He hung up the phone and looked at Sam again, "He'll be right up." Sam nodded his head in thanks and stepped away from the desk to wait. Dean followed him.

A minute later, a short, mustached man walked into the room looking around. Spotting Sam and Dean, he walked up to them and held out a hand, "Hi, I'm Detective David Bryant. Are you the FBI agents asking about the McDyllan House case?"

They nodded their heads and pulled out their badges, "I'm Special Agent Johnson, this is Special Agent Young," Sam said again. "We have a few questions for you about the case."

"Of course, come on in," Detective Bryant said turning and leading them further into the precinct. "I've gotta say," he said as they walked, "this is one of the strangest cases I've ever seen, and Cleveland is a pretty strange town."

"Really?" Dean asked.

"Oh yea, weird stuff in this town, but finding a graveyard of 30 year old children's bones in a basement all missing heads, that's a first for me. I'm guessing you're here because of the possible serial killer aspect?" he asked.

"Yes," said Dean, "something like this comes up on the wire, and the boss sends us right out here." Bryant nodded his head and led them into a small office. He walked up to a filing cabinet, opened the top drawer and began shifting through the files.

"Ah, here we are," he said pulling one out. "The Edwin McDyllan House. Originally built by Edwin McDyllan in 1908. It's had a slew of owners over the years. The house was usually occupied by small families, occasionally empty if someone was moving and couldn't sell it for whatever reason. Nothing out of the ordinary about it, which it why it was so strange to find such a thing inside. The last owners moved out in 1993, claiming the house was haunted. We looked into all the owners of the house, none of them were ever suspected of anything. However, from 1975 to 1983, the house was unoccupied. The previous owner fell behind on his payments and the bank foreclosed on him. It fell into disrepair during that time, until a carpenter bought the house in 1983 for next to nothing and flipped the place. He moved in shortly after, selling it again in 1991, when the Skeete family bought it. And as I said, they moved out two years later claiming it was haunted. They sold it to a rich Chinese couple who claimed they would be moving in after purchasing a local company. However, their company went bankrupt before they ever even moved to the states, and the house has sat empty ever since, they still technically own it. We think that whatever happened to those children, it probably happened during that 1975-1983 time period when it was empty based on the age of the skeletons. We think we've identified 3 of the 12 children so far based on DNA donated by family members of missing local children."

He handed the file to Dean who began scanning through the reports.

"Do you know how the children died?" Sam asked.

"Unfortunately, no. There is nothing on their bodies to indicate how the died, but the lab is still running some tests. We're guessing that whatever it was, it was probably a head injury, which might have been why the skulls were removed," Bryant said, shuddering slightly

"But why after all this time? Are you sure that the skulls were removed during the break-in and not at the time of the murders?" Dean asked.

"That's a valid question, to which I can't give you a sure answer. But we think they were probably removed after the break-in," he said.

"Why do you say that?" Dean pressed him.

"Well, because of how the necks looked. If they had been removed at the time of death, there would have had to be a cut through the spine, right? But these look like they were just pulled apart. Does that make sense?" Bryant said cautiously.

Dean and Sam both nodded.

"Do you have any other questions?" he asked them.

Dean held up the file and said, "Could we get a copy of this?"

"Of course," Bryant said and he took it back to make copies.

As they were walking out of the police station, Dean looked at Sam, "What do you think?"

"My guess? Either a serial killer coming back for trophies, a witch looking for spell ingredients, or some monster that eats children's heads," Sam said noncommittally.

"So the usual then," Dean said. Sam nodded as they got back into the Impala.