Disclaimer: I only own Tate, who you'll meet in the next chapter, and anyother OCs that are scattered through out the story. I don't own Sam, Dean or anything else Supernatural related, it all belongs to the WB, but a girl can dream. If anything is wrong with the whole film/picture developing process you have to understand I've only taken a year of photography at my school and my photo teacher sucks, so if there's anything wrong I apologize in advance. This idea came to me while I was in the darkroom and more about the ghost will be explained in chapters to come.

Chapter 1- Death in the Safe Light

San Francisco, California

Students hurried across the San Francisco Art Institute's sprawling campus and attempted to get out of the rain by either ducking under awnings, slipping back into the school buildings or jumping into cars. One girl, followed by her boyfriend, ran toward the photography department's building with a copy of the school's weekly newspaper over her head and splashed through the puddles in the grass as she made her way to her destination.

"Lauren, wait up!"

"No Jake, we talked about this. I have to get all of my projects handed into Professor Bowen by Monday."

"Its Thursday, you have time."

"Not when I don't come to school all weekend!" She snapped as she yanked open the glass door and slipped into the cool building. Right away she felt a chill skate over her wet skin and rubbed her damp arms, Jake coming up behind her.

"Do you want me to stay or come back for you in a little while?"

"Come back and pick me up, you'll only be a distraction if you stay." She said giving him a saucy grin and a kiss on the lips.

"I'll be back in like an hour and a half."

"Good, I should get most of the work done." With that said the two went their separate ways and Lauren headed down to her professor's classroom. Professor Carl Bowen was an older man with an ex-wife and two kids who lived out in Malibu, his new young wife lived only a few minutes off campus in his upscale condo. Seeing Lauren come into his class, he looked up from the stack of student taken pictures and smiled slightly. The girl was dedicated and determined, the traits of a great photographer.

"Hello Miss Mills."

"Hey Professor. Is the darkroom open?"

"It's open and set up. Go right ahead." Watching the young woman go back into the darkroom, he went back to his work.

In the darkroom, Lauren went to the enlarger that she normally used and pulled out her sheet of negatives. On this sheet were all pictures of the beaches that were open to her use around her home and the school. That was what she loved about California, the sand and surf. It was far from the snow and mountains in Colorado. Picking the negative with the picture of two small children playing in the sand, she put it into the negative carrier and adjusted the enlarger so it fit the 5x7 frame she had laid on the table beneath the light that poured out of the machine. Slipping a piece of paper into the frame, she set up the timer and counted down ten seconds with the annoying beeping the small timer gave off. A moment later she took her soon to be developed picture and dropped it into the developing chemicals. She repeated this process a few more times and forty five minutes later, she had five developed pictures sitting near her things. As she went to put in another sheet of paper into the chemicals, she heard something; the sound of the dark room door opening. Looking up, Lauren saw nothing, shrugged and went back to her work. But when it happened again and the door opened a little, she moved from her place. Sometimes Jake or her good friend Mara would drop by and keep her company while she worked, so she figured it was one of them and shut the door again.

The door to the darkroom was a solid wood panel about five inches think and very heavy, it was a big door and nearly hugged the woodwork above it allowing only a sliver of light to slide in near the white floor tiles. Anyone in there knew when the door would open, the door knob got stuck and was too close to the door frame, so when people on the outside went to open it, they usually found the knob jammed, turned it hard to the right and hit their knuckles. So everyone heard the small sting of curses slip out of the visitor's mouth. But when the door opened for a third time, Lauren heard no curses or mumbled threats at the door. Just the squeal of the hinges and the small whoosh of air from the outside classroom. Looking up, she saw no one standing there and as she went to shut it again, she felt a huge gust of wind blow through her, knocking her backwards and causing the door to slam shut. Outside, Professor Bowen heard the rather loud slam and jumped to his feet, unsure of what was going on.

"Miss Mills? Miss Mills? Lauren?" He called from outside the darkroom and found his hand moving toward the knob, only to find the door locked instead of normally being jammed. When a scream came from inside the room, he threw his shoulder into the door several times and on the last try, it flew open. Flipping the white light on, ignoring the fact that there is safe light only paper littered about, Bowen needed to find out about the scream.

"Lauren?" Her things were near an enlarger on the right side of the room, but where was she? Walking around the small island/dry sink like counter that housed the developing chemicals, he saw a flip flop covered foot that led to a pair of long legs, shorts, a S.F.A.I shirt, a pair of 'O' shaped lips, wide eyes and long black hair splayed out on the tiles. But what shocked the professor more, besides finding a most likely dead student in his darkroom, was the fact that her once tan skin was a sickly gray green color and was shriveled up, looking more like an unwrapped mummy than a lovely young woman.

"What the hell...?"