Supernatural: Hell House
A/N: Time for one of my favorite episodes! One of the reasons I like this episode is both the pranks that Dean and Sam pull on each other, and the wanna-be Ghostbusters; also, so you know that there will be an important notice at the end of the chapter concerning next week.
Read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Supernatural or from Criminal Minds. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.
CHAPTER ONE: A HAUNTED HOUSE?
Richardson, Texas
Two Months Ago…
A group of teenagers, three boys and one girl, were walking through the forest at night with a single flashlight between them.
"Come on, man, is it much further?" one boy asked, shivering inside his jacket. "I'm really cold."
"It should be just up here," Craig told his friends as he led the way with his flashlight until they reached a clearing that had a large, abandoned house sitting in the center of it.
"Whoa," the girl gasped.
Craig grinned. "There we go."
"How'd you find this place anyway, Thurston?" the first boy asked, impressed.
"My cousin told me about it," Craig answered.
The girl backed up a little. "Oh, I am so not going in there."
"Wusses," the first boy teased.
"Well, we came all the way out here," Craig remarked. "Might as well check it out."
"Let's just hurry this up and get back to the car, alright?" the first boy agreed. "It's friggin' cold out here," he added as both he and Craig walked towards the house while the girl and the third boy remained behind.
"Want me to hold your hand?" the third boy offered, holding out his hand to her; she sighed, took it, and they started walking. "Are there any other parts I can hold?" he added with a sly smile.
She gave him a disgusted look and pulled her hand free. "Ew, shut up, you loser!" She pushed him and walked away.
"Oh, come on!" the third boy protested. "What?" And he followed after her.
The four teenagers entered the old house and they looked around; there was a pentagram drawn on the floor, along with various symbols on the walls.
"No way," said the third boy. "Look at all this stuff."
Craig chuckled. "Come on. It's this way." And he led the group into another room. "They say that he lives in a root cellar," he said in a spooky voice. "Goes after girls…always girls. Just strings 'em up."
"They say?" the first boy repeated, skeptical. "Who's they? Where'd you hear this crap?"
"I told you, my cousin," Craig responded.
The first boy raised his eyebrows, still skeptical. "And where'd she hear it?"
Craig shrugged. "I don't know. She just heard it."
"Whatever," the first boy muttered, took the flashlight from Craig. "Give me that thing." He then opened another door and led them down a flight of stairs.
"Oh, look…it's the evil root cellar," the first boy joked. "You know, where Satan cans all his vegetables." He noticed at the others were still on the stairs. "Oh, get your candy-asses down here and see for yourselves. It's just a basement full of skank-filled jars in some crap farmhouse," he pointed out.
The other three teenagers came downstairs and looked around.
"I don't see anything scary. Do you?" the first boy asked and laughed. The three of them stopped and stared, frightened, at something behind the boy, and his smile faded. "What? What? What is it?" he asked, confused; when no one gave him a direct answer, he slowly turned around and saw a young woman with blonde hair, hanging from the rafters. Dead. Terrified, he screamed.
Present day…
Dean was driving the Impala down the interstate with Sam sitting up front and was sleeping, and Liz was in the backseat, reading. Dean glanced over at Sam's sleeping form and got an idea; he picked up a plastic spoon and stuck it in his little brother's mouth, relieved when he didn't wake up.
"Dean, what are you doing?" Liz asked, raising her eyebrows.
Dean didn't respond, instead he took out his cell phone and snapped a photo of Sam; he laughed and turned up the volume in the car, blasting the music, and began singing along. "A fire of unknown origin took my baby away!"
Sam jerked awake and sat up, spitting out the spoon while Liz sighed, rolling her eyes, and Dean drummed his hands on the steering wheel along with the music. Scowling, Sam turned down the volume. "Haha, very funny."
Dean chuckled, wincing when Liz swatted the back of his head. "Sorry," he apologized. "Not a lot of scenery here in east Texas, you kind of gotta make your own." And he laughed.
"Man, we're not kids anymore, Dean," Sam complained, and Liz sighed since they both realized what their big brother was up to. "We're not gonna start that crap up again."
"Start what up?" Dean asked innocently.
"That prank stuff…it's stupid, and it always escalates," Sam explained.
"And you always have me keep score," Liz added. "I hate getting caught in the middle of one of your stupid prank wars of doom."
"Oh, what's the matter, Sammy, you afraid you're gonna get a little Nair in your shampoo again, huh?" Dean asked, smiling.
Sam sighed, annoyed. "Alright. Just remember, you started it."
"Oh, bring it on, Baldy," Dean retorted, grinning now.
"Someone just shoot me now, please," Liz moaned. 'I swear, if they go through with this stupid prank war, I'm going to prank them both good.'
"Where are we, anyway?" Sam asked, now focusing on their new job.
"Few hours outside of Richardson," Dean answered. "Give me the lowdown again."
Sam straightening up in his seat, and he picked up a piece of paper from the dashboard. "Alright, about a month or two ago, this group of kids goes pokin' around in this local haunted house," he read aloud while Liz peered over his shoulder.
"Haunted by what?" Dean inquired.
"Apparently, a pretty misogynistic spirit," Sam explained. "Legend goes, it takes girls and strings 'em up in the rafters. Anyway, this group of kids see this dead girl hangin' in the cellar."
Dean frowned. "Anybody ID the corpse?"
Sam shrugged. "Well, that's the thing. By the time the cops got there, the body was gone. So, cops are sayin' the kids were just yankin' chains."
"Okay, that's strange," Liz remarked.
"Well, maybe the cops are right," Dean commented.
"Maybe, but I read a couple of the kids' firsthand accounts," Sam told them. "They seem pretty sincere."
"Where'd you read these accounts?" Dean asked, eyebrows raised.
"Well, I knew we were gonna be passing through Texas," Sam answered hesitantly. "So, uh, last night I searched some local…paranormal websites that Penelope Garcia suggested when I called her up for suggestions." And both Dean and Liz rolled their eyes. "And I found one."
"And what's it called?" Liz asked, sharing a look with Dean.
Sam was reluctant to answer, but he did anyways. "Hell Hound's Lair dot com."
Dean rolled his eyes. "Let me guess, streaming live out of Mom's basement."
Sam laughed. "Yeah, probably," he agreed and even Liz laughed, since it was more than likely true.
Dean chuckled. "Yeah, most of those websites wouldn't know a ghost if it bit 'em in the persqueeter."
"Look, we let Dad take off, which was a mistake, by the way," Sam said seriously. "And now, we don't know where the hell he is, so, in the meantime, we've got to find ourselves something to hunt. There's no harm checkin' this thing out."
Dean nodded. "Alright. So, where do we find these kids?"
Sam shrugged. "Same place you always find kids in a town like this."
It wasn't long before Dean drove up to the Rodeo Drive-in, where he, Sam, and Liz interviewed three of the teens that'd been to the house.
"It was the scariest thing I ever saw in my life. I swear to God."
"From the moment we walked in. The walls were painted black-"
"Red-"
"I think it was blood."
"With all these freaky symbols."
"Crosses and stars-"
"And pentagons-"
"Pentecostals."
"Whatever. I had my eyes closed the whole time."
"But I can damn sure tell you this much, no matter what anybody else says."
"That poor girl."
"With the black-"
"Blonde-"
"Red hair, just hanging there."
"Kicking-"
"Without even moving."
"She was real."
"A hundred percent."
"And kinda hot. Well, you know, in a dead sort of way."
"Okay, uh…" Dean glanced at Sam and Liz, who were also confused.
"And how'd you find out about this place, anyway?" Sam asked.
"Craig. Craig took us," all three teens answered.
The next day, Dean, Liz, and Sam entered the records store and they walked over to Craig.
"Gentlemen, lady, can I help you with anything?" he asked as he put several records on display.
"Yeah, are you Craig Thurston?" Sam asked.
Craig nodded. "I am."
"Well, we're reporters with the Dallas Morning News," Dean told him. "I'm Dean, this is Liz, and that's Sam."
"No way," Craig said, impressed. "Yeah, I'm a writer, too. I write for my school's lit magazine."
Dean smiled. "Oh, good for you, Morrison."
"We're doing an article on local haunted places," Sam explained, "and rumor has it you might know about one."
"You mean the Hell House?" Craig asked.
Dean and Liz both nodded. "That's the one."
Craig shrugged. "I didn't think there was anything to the story."
"Why don't you tell us the story?" Sam suggested.
"Well, supposedly, back in the thirties, this farmer, Mordechai Murdoch, used to live in the house with his six daughters," Craig explained. "It was during the Depression. His crops were failing. He didn't have enough money to even feed his own children. So, I guess that's when he went off the deep end."
"How?" Liz asked.
"Well, he figured it was best if his girls died quick rather than starve to death," Craig continued. "So he attacked them. They screamed, begged for him to stop. But he just strung them up, one after another. And then, when he was all finished, he turned around and hung himself. Now, they say that his spirit is trapped in the house forever, stringin' up any other girl who goes inside."
"But where'd you hear all this?" Dean asked.
"My cousin, Dana, told me," Craig answered. "I don't know where she heard it from. You've gotta realize I didn't believe this for a second."
"But now you do?" Sam asked.
"I don't know what the hell to think, man," Craig responded, clearly shaken up. "Guys, I'll tell you exactly what I told the police, okay? That girl was real, and she was dead. This was not a prank. I swear to God, I don't wanna go anywhere near that house ever again, okay?"
Sam, Liz, and Dean exchanged a look.
"Thanks." And they left.
One car ride later, Dean, Liz, and Sam were walking to the building in question.
"Can't say I blame the kid," Sam remarked once the house came into view.
Dean and Liz both nodded. "Yeah, so much for curb appeal." And Sam laughed, agreeing.
Sam and Liz tried to peer through the windows of the house, but couldn't see anything through the grime, and they joined Dean, who was standing nearby with the EMF meter, which was beeping.
"You got somethin'?" Sam asked.
Dean nodded, frowning at the readings, which were all over the place. "Yeah. The EMF's no good."
"Why?" Liz asked.
Dean nodded towards a nearby telephone pole. "I think that thing's still got a little juice in it," he informed them. "It's screwin' with all the readings."
Sam glanced at the transformer and nodded. "Yeah, that'd do it."
"Just peachy," Liz groaned.
"Yep," Dean agreed, putting away the EMF meter. "Come on, let's go." And they entered the house.
The Winchesters entered and looked around at the symbols on the wall.
"Looks like Old Man Murdoch was a bit of a tagger during his time," Dean remarked, partly joking.
"And after his time, too," Sam added, using his phone to take pictures of everything. "The reversed cross has been used by Satanists for centuries, but this sigil of sulfur didn't show up in San Francisco until the sixties," he informed them.
"No way that a ghost could've know that," Liz agreed.
Dean looked at him strangely. "This is exactly why you never get laid." And went to look at another symbol. "Hey, what about this one? Either of you seen this one before?" he asked, nodding to a upside-down cross with a hook on the bottom.
Liz and Sam walked over, and he took a picture of the symbol with his phone, both neither of them recognized the symbol. "No."
"I have," Dean said thoughtfully. "Somewhere."
Reaching up, Sam ran his finger along the symbol. "It's paint. Seems pretty fresh, too."
Dean frowned, now wondering if this was their kind of case or not. "I don't know, Sam, Liz," he said, voicing his thoughts. "I mean, I hate to agree with authority figures of any kind, but the cops might be right about this one."
"Looks like it," Liz agreed.
Sam nodded. "Yeah, maybe."
Just then, they heard a noise coming from another room; exchanging a look, they turned and moved toward either side of the door. Nodding to each other, they crashed through it and found two computer geeks, Ed and Harry, standing in front of them, and they were carrying flashlights, along with other video equipment.
"Cut!" Ed shouted, frustrated as he lowered the camcorder and Harry lowered his flashlight, which had been blinding the Winchesters upon entering. "Just a couple humans. What are you guys doing here?"
"What the hell are you doin' here?" Dean asked, blinking and lowering his hand once he could see again.
"Uh, we belong here," Ed said, scoffing. "We're professionals."
"Professional what?" Liz asked, resisting the impulse to say the word "nutcase", even though it was most likely fitting in this situation.
Ed smirked. "Paranormal investigators," he answered, taking out three business cards and handed them to the Winchesters. "There ya go. Take a look at that, boys, pretty lady."
Liz glared at him while they read the cards.
"Oh, you've gotta be kiddin' me," Dean groaned, and Liz rolled her eyes.
"Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spangler," Sam read aloud. "Hell Hound's Lair dot com, you guys run that website."
Ed nodded. "Yeah."
Dean rolled his eyes as both he and Liz walked past them to explore the room, finding some spray paint cans in a cupboard, and the equipment. "Oh, yeah," he joked. "Yeah, we're huge fans." 'Jerks.'
"And, uh, we know who you guys are, too," Ed added, which made the Winchesters instantly nervous.
Sam nodded. "Oh, yeah?"
"Amateurs," Ed answered, which allowed the three siblings to relax. "Lookin' for ghosts and cheap thrills."
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "So, if you guys don't mind, we're trying to conduct a serious scientific investigation here."
Ed nodded. "Mmhmm."
"Yeah?" Dean asked, picking up a piece of headgear, which screamed Ghostbusters to him and Liz, who was stifling her laughter. "What do you got so far?"
"Uh, Harry, why don't you tell 'em about EMF?" Ed suggested to his partner, who wasn't looking too keen.
Sam pretended to not know what they were talking about. "EMF?"
"Electromagnetic field," Harry answered matter-of-factly as he walked over to his bag and removed an EMF meter. "Spectral entities can cause energy fluctuations that can be read with an EMF detector, like this bad boy right here," he explained when the EMF detector started buzzing. "Whoa, whoa. That's 2.8 MG."
Ed was excited. "2.8."
"It's hot in here," Harry agreed.
"Wow," Sam said, pretending to be impressed since it was most likely the transformer outside messing with their gear.
"Huh. So, have you guys ever really seen a ghost before, or-?" Dean asked.
"Once," Ed answered promptly. "We were, uh…we were investigating this old house, and we saw a vase fall right off the table."
"By itself," Harry added.
"Well, we didn't actually see it, but we heard it," Ed corrected and both Dean and Liz shook their heads in shame while managing to not laugh. "And something like that, it, uh…it changes you.
Sam pretended to be riveted.
"Yeah. I think I get the picture," Dean said with mock seriousness. "We should go…let them get back to work." He and Liz walked over to their younger sibling and grinned.
"Yeah, you should," Harry agreed.
Dean and Liz walked through the doorway. "Sam?" and their brother followed.
"Yeah, work." Ed laughed as the Winchesters left. "I'm sorry," he added, apologizing to Harry, who was giving him a hard look. "That pot we smoked gave me the giggles. Woo!" and he walked away.
A/N: Ed and Harry always make me laugh because of how thick they are, claiming to be professionals when it comes to the supernatural and yet, they've been rescued by the Winchesters twice. So, the important notice I mentioned above is that next week, during the time I would normally be posting the next chapter, I will be going out of town to attend an comic con with my sister, Yami Faerie, that's being held in Salt Lake City, and I don't know how early we'll be leaving to attend for those three days. So, I will probably post the next chapter a day early. R&R everyone!