"You know it's been light for at least half an hour."
The loud voice in close proximity to his left ear had Dean awake so fast he forgot where he was and promptly fell off the couch.
"What the hell?"
He looked up to see Anna's face grinning at him.
"Morning" she said sounding completely unapologetic at the rude awakening.
"Dean?" Sam's worried voice came from the bedroom and Dean looked up in time to see Sam stumble to the doorway.
"Don't worry Sammy, it's just the Casper-wannabe here deciding I needed an early wake up call" he said, glaring at Anna.
Anna ignored the glare and turned to Sam, and promptly started laughing.
"What?" said Sam frowning and Anna shook her head.
"Nothing, just.. Nice hair"
Dean couldn't help grinning at that one too and Sam glared at both of them, before heading into the bathroom.
Dean pulled himself up off the floor, wincing as he rubbed his hip where it had connected with the floor.
"What time is it anyway?"
"A little after 6" replied Anna.
Dean looked at her in disbelief "In the morning? What the hell is wrong with you?" he groused as he stumbled into the kitchen to grab a glass of water.
"Don't tell me – you're not an early riser" said Anna dryly as she followed him.
"I get up plenty early enough – just not when it's practically still dark" Dean shot back.
"It's light out – more or less"
Dean shook his head "Yeah, whatever. Are you sure we can't put a bell round your neck or something?"
"Hey it's not my fault you're so easy to sneak up on"
Before Dean could retort Sam came out of the bathroom, having fixed the hair problem. He looked from Dean to Anna and shook his head.
"Don't tell me you two have started already" he said dryly.
"It's not me, it's her!" said Dean pointing at Anna, who adopted an innocent 'who me?' look that only infuriated Dean more.
Sam shook his head and chuckled. It was quite amusing seeing someone getting the better of his brother, not to mention watching him regress to school yard age.
Throwing his hands up in the air in disgust, Dean stalked into the bathroom.
Sam went back into the bedroom to get changed, shutting the door behind him in case Anna got any ideas. Not that a door would prove any deterrent to a ghost of course but it was the principle that counted.
When he came out again Anna was standing by the window looking out at the early morning sunlight.
"So, did you two sort things out last night?" she said turning to face him.
"Yeah – thanks for giving us some space" said Sam and she smiled.
"No problem. Don't suppose you came up with anything afterwards did you?" she said hopefully and Sam gave her an apologetic look.
"I'm afraid not. We're gonna go at it from a different angle today. Check out the building's history and see if we can find out who might be doing this and take it from there"
Anna sighed, disappointed, but nodded.
Dean came out of the bathroom and shooting a quick glare at Anna, went into the bedroom to change.
Anna looked completely unconcerned by the glare and just grinned at Sam, who shook his head.
Ten minutes later they were sat in the one and only cafe in town, sipping coffee and waiting for their breakfast to arrive. Dean shifted in his seat and winced.
"You ok?" said Sam looking at him in concern and Dean rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, apart from where I hit the damn floor when rent-a-ghost woke me up." he groused and Sam struggled not to grin.
"You know it's truly amazing how well you two have bonded." he said.
"Bite me."
Further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the food, which they both tucked into hungrily.
Having finished his breakfast and deciding to move on from baiting his brother, however much fun that may be, Sam sat back and pushed his empty plate away.
"So we need to hit the library – find out what's been happening in that building in the past." he said and Dean groaned.
"Great – nothing like a few hours spent in some hicksville library to improve a person's day." he said.
"Some of us like libraries you know." said Sam and Dean shook his head.
"Yeah, and some of us are freaks, Sammy."
"It's Sam," he said, but he was talking to Dean's back as his brother got up to go pay for their breakfasts. With a sigh, Sam got up and went to wait outside.
Much to Dean's utter delight – not - the library was not computerised so he and Sam had been trawling through old newspapers for the last two hours. Throwing the latest one down in frustration, he stood up and tried to stretch out the kinks in his back.
Sam of course was in his element and didn't even look up. Dean shook his head. Sometimes he swore there must have been a mix up at the hospital when John and Mary had brought Sam home.
Either that or all the geek genes had skipped a generation.
"I got something!" Sam exclaimed suddenly, earning them a disapproving look from the librarian.
Dean shot her a charming smile which was completely wasted as she was at least a hundred and twenty, and possibly not even human in Dean's opinion, and went over to look at what had grabbed Sam's attention.
"Ok, says here there were a string of unexplained disappearances of tenants in the building when it was first put up in the Thirties. The landlord swore they were just people who skipped town without paying their rent, but after the family of one tenant insisted the police get involved, they discovered he'd actually been murdering them. They found fifteen bodies buried in the garden that used to back onto the building."
Dean shook his head.
"Nice guy – what else does it say?"
"Well, the landlord – Thomas Anderson – was arrested and it was an open and shut case, what with them having all the evidence. He even confessed – apparently laughed at how they'd never really know how many people he'd really killed. Anyway, he was sentenced to hang but - and this is where it gets weird - while he was in prison strange things kept happening to the guards working on his watch."
"What kind of strange things?"
"A couple of times he was found wandering around out in the exercise yard. No cuffs, nothing. None of the guards could remember letting him out and when he was asked about it, Anderson just laughed. They were so worried about it they actually brought forward his execution date. It ended up they had to hang him twice."
Dean's eyebrows shot up.
"Twice?"
"Yeah, twice. First time the guards felt really weird as they were getting everything set up – foreboding one of them said - and then when they finally did it, after twenty minutes he was still breathing. They brought a doctor in to check him out and he couldn't find any reason for it. Everyone was pretty much freaking out at that point, so they just did it again and this time one of the guards pulled on Anderson's legs so his neck broke."
Dean grimaced.
"Great image, Sam. So what did they think was going on with all the weird stuff?"
Sam frowned "It doesn't really say. A couple of people brought up the idea of him being a psychic, but that was pretty much dismissed as nonsense. Once he was dead no one really cared anymore."
"What did they do with the body?" said Dean.
"Cremated – which of course means there's no bones to salt and burn." said Sam.
"Terrific – which means if it is something to do with this guy then it's gonna be even harder to get rid of him." said Dean with frustration.
"Yeah. I'm gonna see if there's been anything else that's happened since he died in the building – it'd be quicker with two of us though." said Sam, hinting.
Dean grimaced and whacked Sam lightly on the shoulder, but he dutifully went back to his table and started trawling through the papers again.
After the third sigh from Sam's direction, he looked up with a frown.
"You ok over there?"
Sam looked up, startled.
"Yeah sure – I'm fine." he said.
Dean sighed himself and got up. Sam was so intent on appearing engrossed in the paper in front of him that he jumped when Dean sat down on the edge of the table. He looked up.
"What?"
"I know what you're thinking and it's a bunch of crap – not all psychics are evil killers, ok?"
Sam stared at Dean in shock. He was still getting used to thinking of himself as 'psychic' and after the incident with Max he had to admit his confidence had been shaken. After that brief talk in the motel room, neither of them had mentioned it since and thankfully Sam had been vision-free. But reading about Thomas Anderson made him think of it again, but he still couldn't believe Dean had known that.
Dean grinned cockily.
"You're gonna start catching flies there, Sam." he said and Sam shook his head.
"How did you know I was even thinking about that?" he said and Dean's grin grew wider.
"Because I'm your brother, remember – I know how that freaky mind of yours works. Now stop brooding and start reading. I'd like to get out of here sometime before I get old and die."
Sam smiled and shook his head as he watched Dean walk back to his table.
It never ceased to amaze him how well his brother knew him, even after the time they'd spent apart. It was both annoying and comforting at the same time. And it gave him hope – Dean had been right before about Max, he'd never had someone like Dean to count on. And Thomas Anderson sounded like your average psychotic killer, albeit with some slight extras to his personality.
Feeling better, Sam turned his attention back to the papers.