Supernatural: Empaths and Viruses
A/N: I'm back with the next chapter, folks! Now as you recall, Hannah just had a vision of Dean, Ricky, and Liz being cornered in one of the theaters by the one summoning the dark spirits, hold onto your seats and prepare to be amazed!
R&R everyone!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Supernatural or Criminal Minds; I just own the characters that I happen to create.
CHAPTER SIX: WITCHES AND VISIONS
"Yea, they durst not make use of that which is their own lest they should offend their priests, who do yoke them according to their desires, and have brought them to believe, by their traditions and their dreams and their whims and their visions and their pretended mysteries, that they should, if they did not do according to their words, offend some unknown being, who they say is God—a being who never has been seen or known, who never was nor ever will be."
Alma 30:28
Unaware of the danger that they would be in shortly, Liz was in concessions and Dean was doing an usher shift; because of a gap between theaters getting out, he was using the time to sweep the halls and was passing podium when he noticed that the usher stationed there was having troubles…and that it was Suzanne.
"Listen, sir, I can't let you in without proper photo ID," Suzanne was telling a young man, who was clutching a white ticket for The Grudge 2 in his hand; it was obvious that he'd gotten it from the Kioski machine and it was also obvious that he was under the age of eighteen.
"What'd you mean you need to see my id?" he asked angrily. "That's stupid!"
"It's the law, sir," Suzanne explained, hoping that she wouldn't have to call a manager to back her up on this. "You can't see an R-rated movie without proper identification or without a legal adult if you're under the age of eighteen."
The young man growled. "I don't have my stupid id card, I'd left it at home."
"Then I can't let you in," Suzanne responded as calmly as possible. "But you can exchange that ticket for a different one at box office, or even get a refund. Now could you please move aside so that I can help the other customers?"
"You can't talk to me like that, you b-" the young man began, when Dean stepped in.
"Sir, you can't use such language here," he said, partly lying and partly because there was a family with four kids nearby. "And she's asking you politely, so please step aside."
The young man whirled on Dean, looking ready to start a fight when Ricky arrived with two of the managers, having been forewarned by a vision minutes before.
Several hours later, Ricky, Dean, and Liz were heading to the break room, having just finished helping close concessions; the managers had taken the young man aside, had a serious talk with him before the guy left and returned with a ticket for a different movie, but had still tried to sneak into one of the theaters that had The Grudge 2, but had been caught and sent to the right one.
"Another shift another dollar," Dean sighed as he began punching in the code so that they could get their stuff and clock out.
"Isn't that Suzanne over there?" Liz asked, her apron over her arm and her hat in her hand, and was pointing down the hall; sure enough, in the distance they could see Suzanne heading for theater 5.
"Yeah, it is," Ricky agreed. "I wonder what she's still doing here."
"Let's follow her," Dean suggested. 'After what happen today, I'll bet that she could be our Spellcaster.'
Agreeing, the trio headed down the hallway and stopped when they reached the theater, noting that the door was shut; exchanging a look, Dean quietly opened the door wide enough so that they all could slip in, and closed it behind him. they quietly crept up the ramp, crouching so that they wouldn't been seen, and peered around the wall to an eerie sight.
Suzanne was standing in the middle of the main landing, clutching a hex bag in one hand; she was muttering under her breath and was putting something into the bag, which looked suspiciously like human hair. "Insult me like that…stupid bastard…I'll make him pay." Closing up the bag, she began to chant.
Not wasting any time, Dean sprang forward and knocked the bag out of her hands while Ricky restrained her from behind; Liz quickly snatched up the bag, pulled out a lighter, and set it on fire.
"No!" Suzanne shrieked and then snapped a different spell that sent the trio flying down the stairs and almost into the wall just below the screen. "How dare you!"
Dean grunted as he sat up, fully aware of the pain screaming inside his body. "Suzanne, listen to me; revenge isn't the answer."
"Of course it is!" Suzanne snapped, pulling out a second hex bag. "It kept my ancestors safe in Salem, Massachusetts during those so-call trails; those foolish girls had no idea that they were friends with a real witch…Mary Walcott. True, those accused and then executed were innocent, but that doesn't matter now."
"Suzanne, that man earlier was being rude, but that doesn't mean you have to kill him," Ricky protested as they all gingerly stood up. "No one has die. Please, put that down and let's talk about this."
"Yeah," Liz agreed. "I can understand why you're upset, but that man isn't doing any harm to you or anyone else right now. Let it go."
Suzanne sniffed. "There was a time when I would believe that," she admitted before her expression turned cold. "But no more; I have my powers and I'm gonna use them and punish those who harm others."
"Like those boys at the police station?" Dean asked, gauging the distance between him and Suzanne, who was now walking down the stairs toward him. "How'd you get that hex bag in there?"
"One of my cousins is on the police force and I convinced him that it was a protection Hoodoo bag," she explained, now on the main landing and facing them. "Those first two were ruining the movie experiences for others; Joe needed to be taught a lesson, and those foolish teens didn't deserve to live since they wanted to join a gang. That bastard earlier insulted me, and he needs to pay." She then began chanting and the lights in the room started flickering.
"Oh crap."
Parking in the underground lot, both Hannah and Sam ran for the employee entrance and were up in the theater in less than a minute; breathing hard, Sam reached out with his mind and was able to pinpoint the location of his siblings and Ricky. "I got them…I think they're in theater 5 with Suzanne."
Hannah nodded. "They are…let's go." And they ran through the halls.
"Damn it! You don't have to do this," Dean told her while keeping an wary eye on the dark spirit that'd just been summoned.
"Suzanne, what happen earlier wasn't an attack on you," Ricky pointed out. "No one meant any harm, and the managers have dealt with that rude customer."
"They're right, Suzanne," Liz agreed. "No one else has to die."
Suzanne glared at them all. "Everyone has to die at some point, and that jerk deserves to die for insulting me like that! Ricky, I wish you hadn't got involved, but you leave me no choice." And she resumed chanting, pointing directly at them-
"No!"
Suzanne shrieked as the hex bag was ripped out of her hand and spun around to see it land in the hand of Sam, who summoned his electrical power, frying the bag. "You fool! I can't control the spirit now!"
And she was right! The dark spirit, realizing it was free, was now cackling and was preparing to go after them all; moving quickly, Dean and Liz were able to tackle the young witch to the ground when the spirit went after her, and Sam pulled Hannah to safety.
Ricky, on the other hand, stood his ground and stared up at the dark spirit as it turned toward him, determination on his face. "I order you to leave this place."
`"You have no control over me, human,"` the dark spirit sneered as it drew closer. `"You don't have the will."`
"I have both the will and the faith to send you away," Ricky told the spirit with no fear in his face, his heart, or his soul. "I am a high priest in my ward and I hold the restored priesthood of the restored church." And he almost seemed to glow as he pointed at the dark spirit, which seemed to realized that it was in serious trouble. "And in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ…I order you to leave this place and never return!"
The dark spirit howled and disappeared in a flash of white light.
The Winchesters were stunned and didn't know what to think, but they were glad that the spirit was gone. Little did any of them know…although they'd stopped Suzanne, something else was coming that would take both the Winchesters and the Idris twins out of state.
Dean was in dim hallway, grimly turning towards a door and pulling out a gun; he slid out the clip, tapped it on the gun, and then replaced it while ignoring the pleas and shouts of Sam, Liz, Ricky, and Hannah.
Inside a room, there was a Crater Lake poster on the wall. Below it was a young blond man, Duane, tied to a chair. Nearby was a young woman, Pam, a second young man, Paul, a middle-aged woman, Dr. Lee, and a tough-looking black man, Mark.
Duane looked up as Dean opened the door and entered, raising the gun, and Duane began babbling, frightened.
"No, no, no, no, no, you're not gonna…" he whimpered, "no, I swear! It's not in me!"
"Oh God," Pam moaned. "We're all gonna die."
"We – we need to do something," Paul yelped.
Mark was looking unsure. "Maybe he's tellin' the truth."
Dean advanced, cocking the gun. "He's not him, not anymore."
Duane panicked. "No, stop it! Stop it! Ask her, ask the doctor! It's not in me!" and looked at her.
Dr. Lee wasn't sure, either. "I just…I can't tell."
Duane began crying. "No, please, don't. Don't. I swear, I-"
"I got no choice," Dean told him regretfully, but his expression was cold.
"I swear, it's not in me, it's not in me!" Duane sobbed. "Don't, don't. Please!"
Dean fired twice.
`"Sam?"`
`"Sam!"`
`"Someone get Dean and Liz! I think he's havin' a vision!"
Sam was lying on the floor beside the couch in the living room and was coming out of the vision, now staring into the concern faces of Ricky, Hannah, and Dorothea; there was the pounding of feet and both Elvis and Gero came running in with Dean and Liz right behind them. With a groan, Sam managed to sit up, panting.
"Sam?" Dean asked.
"Sam, what did you see?" Liz asked as they helped him onto the couch.
Sam couldn't look at them, shaken by what he'd just seen. "Trouble…"
A short while later, Sam had told them what he'd seen in his vision and they were now going over a map spread out on the kitchen table, using the clues in the room.
"Okay, Crater Lake is in Oregon," said Elvis, tracing one area with his finger, "and the nearest town is…Rivergrove." And circled the name with his pencil. "You sure that's the place, Sam?"
Sam nodded, recalling the poster. "Yeah, there was a Crater Lake poster on the wall in that room."
"And you said that I ventilated him?" Dean asked, exchanging a look with Liz.
Sam nodded, swallowing. "Yeah. You thought there was something inside him."
Dean frowned. "What…a demon?" he asked. "Was he possessed?"
"I don't know," Sam admitted.
Dean sighed. "Well, all your weirdo visions are always tied to Azazel, or even one of the other special children, somehow…so was there any black smoke? Did we try to exorcise it?"
Sam shook his head. "No. Nothing, you just plugged him, that's it."
Dean sighed. "Well, I'm sure I had a good reason."
Sam nodded. "I sure hope so," he muttered.
Dean raised his eyebrows at that. "What does that mean?" he asked. "I mean, I'm not gonna waste an innocent man." And Sam raised his eyebrows. "I wouldn't!"
"I never said you would!" Sam retorted.
"Don't start fighting you two," Liz cut in. "What we need to do right now is go to Rivergrove, find this guy, and figure out what's going on."
"Fine," both Sam and Dean agreed.
"Good, 'cause Hannah and I are comin' with you guys," said Ricky.
Elvis frowned. "Now wait a minute, Ricky-"
"Dad, Sam heard the voices of me and Hannah in his vision," Ricky pointed out. "Which means we need to go with them when the time comes."
"I'm with Ricky, dad," Hannah agreed. "And – and from the sounds of things, we'll have to go soon in order to stop whatever this is."
Elvis sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I – I don't know, but if it means helping others, then go ahead. I'll call Mr. Tyler to arrange some time off for you four, and I'll let my dad know, too…just promise me that you will be careful."
"We'll do our best," Sam promised, and he meant it since he'd just recently got the cast on his right hand removed, and wasn't in the mood to wear another one anytime soon.
"I don't like this, Elvis," Dorothea complained as she forcefully kneaded the dough she was working on for baking bread; the fact that her oldest kids were going off on some sudden road trip with the Winchesters, especially so soon after stopping Suzanne from killing anyone else, wasn't sitting well with her.
Elvis sighed, leaning against the counter. "I don't either, honey, but both Ricky and Hannah are grownups and they're old enough to make their own choices."
Dorothea tsked as she began cutting the dough into loaf-sized pieces to put into the baking tins. "I know that, Elvis, but we don't know what they'll find in Rivergrove, and if it does involve that – that demon, who I-"
"I understand, Dorothea," Elvis agreed, moving forward and gently removed the knife from his wife's hand before pulling her into a hug, not caring that she was getting flour and bits of dough on his shirt. "When you made that deal, you didn't know it was a demon, and you were doing it for your mom at the time. So don't worry, sweetie, I'm going to give Ricky several vials of consecrated oil to take with them just to be safe, and I intend to give them all a blessing, too, even the Winchesters."
"Okay," Dorothea agreed, burying her face in her husband's shoulder. "Okay."
"I can't believe Elvis insisted on giving us blessings," Dean complained as they all piled into the car and were soon onto the road. "I mean…I'm not complaining or anything, but that was embarrassing."
Ricky chuckled. "You'll live, Dean; besides, it's better to have something with us that we don't need then to need something when we don't have it."
Dean rolled his eyes in a manner that both Sam and Liz knew to be his "whatever" look and nodded to the box containing his tapes that was at Sam's feet. "Sam, hand me Bad Company."
"Dude, can't we go one day without listening to this stuff?" Sam groaned, but he dug through the box and pulled out the requested tape. "I mean, you listened to this one last week."
"Just hand it over," Dean grumbled, swiping the tape and slipped it into the tape player; seconds later, the first notes of Can't Get Enough began blaring over the car speakers, making Sam, Liz, Ricky, and Hannah all wince.
"Dean, could you please turn that down a bit?" Hannah pleaded, her ears ringing.
Recalling that Hannah had sensitive hearing, Dean quickly did so and turned the volume down to a dull roar. "Sorry, Hannah, I forgot."
"It's all right," Hannah said reassuringly. "But what is it with your need for hard rock?"
Dean chuckled. "Well, we got a house rule in this car," he told her, making both Sam and Liz sigh. "The driver picks the music and shotgun shuts his cakehole."
Ricky laughed. "I get it, the Impala is your home, and you typically are the one driving, Dean."
Dean nodded. "That's right, Ricky my boy!" and they all laughed at the mixed-up quote from Doctor Who. "So, how far is it to Oregon?"
Sam checked the map on his cell phone. "Um…about twelve hours. So we'll probably need to stay overnight at a motel."
"Most likely," Liz agreed.
It was a large room with a stone altar that had some kind of symbol on the front, but it was partly blocked by a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and a white dress; there were two other people on the room, one of them was Sam, and in the background there were two muffled voices crying out, which sounded like Dean and Liz. The person on the floor was suffering while the other two tower over her; Sam was enjoying what he was doing to the woman, who was surrounded by a white glow.
`"…because it had to be you, Sammy. It always had to be you."`
Both Hannah and Ricky woke with startled yelps, just as the Winchesters returned to the Impala, having stopped at a gas station earlier; they were just a few hours from Rivergrove and Dean had needed some food, and they decided not to wake up either Ricky or Hannah, who were in the backseat with Liz.
"Hey, hey, are you both all right?" Sam asked, trying to make sense of the conflicting emotions coming from the twins.
It took a few seconds before either of them could answer.
"Um, yeah, just a weird dream," Ricky answered, shoving the dream to the back of his mind, and Hannah just nodded. "Nothing to worry about."
"Well, let us know if either of you have a vision," Dean suggested and they nodded. "All right, I hope you guys like wrapped sandwiches." The food was passed around, they quickly ate, and were soon back on the road again.
A few hours later, they pulled into town, going past a large billboard advertising Crater Lake. They pulled up in front of a wooden shop; out front was the black man, Mark, who was cleaning a rifle; he wore a short-sleeved blue shirt with a multi-pocket brown vest. Both the Winchesters and the Idris twins, who were pocketing the fake ids that Liz had handed them, got out and approached him.
"Morning," said Dean; they'd decided on pretending to be U.S. Marshals for this case.
"Good morning," Mark responded, looking up from his rifle. "Can I help you?"
Dean nodded. "Yeah." And then pulled out a badge. "Uh, Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard, Paul Rodgers, Jamie Hetfield, and Roberta Trujillo. U.S. Marshals."
Mark frowned and raised his eyebrows. "What's this about?"
"We're looking for someone," Dean answered.
"A young man, early twenties," Sam explained, recalling his vision. "He'd have a, a thin scar right below his hairline." And pointed to the spot on his own forehead.
Mark looked between them, suspicious. "What'd he do?"
"Well, nothing," Liz answered. "We're actually looking for someone else, but we think this young man could help us."
"Yeah, he's not in any kind of trouble or anything," Dean said reassuringly and glanced down at Mark's left arm, which had a tattoo on it. "I think maybe you know who he is…Master Sergeant." He then smiled. "My dad was in the Corps, he was a Corporal."
Mark actually smiled. "What company?" he asked, impressed.
"Echo-2-1," Dean responded.
"So can you help us?" Ricky asked.
Mark hesitated for a moment, but then decided to take a leap of faith. "Duane Tanner's got a scar like that," he told them. "But I know him. Good kid, keeps his nose clean."
"Oh, I'm sure he does," Dean agreed, silently hoping that he wouldn't have to shoot the kid and have Sam's vision come true. "Um. You know where he lives?"
Mark nodded. "With his family, up Aspen Way."
"Thank you," said Hannah, and they left; Mark frowned as he watched them go.
Crossing the street, Hannah accidentally tripped on the curb and grabbed a telephone pole to support herself. "Whoa!"
"Jeeze, and yet you can walk a balance beam with no trouble," Dean teased. "Not to mention, you also do a mean chicken-kick."
Hannah just stuck her tongue out at him and glanced at the pole, noticing something. "That's strange."
"What is it?" Ricky asked and looked at the telephone pole, noticing that a word had been carved into it: CROATOAN. "No way…" drawing the attention of the Winchesters.
"Croatoan?" Dean read aloud and the Idris twins nodded.
"Whoa," said Liz and both she and Sam sighed when Dean looked at her blankly. "Roanoke? Lost colony? Ring a bell? Dean, did you pay any attention in history class?"
Dean nodded. "Yeah! Shots heard 'round the world, How bills becomes a laws…"
Sam groaned. "That's not school, that's Schoolhouse Rock." And the Idris twins laughed at Dean's hurt expression.
"Roanoke was one of the first English colonies in America, late 1500s," Ricky explained. "Melinda did a presentation on it as part of her major."
Dean nodded, recognizing the name. "Oh yeah, yeah, I do remember that. The only thing they left behind was a single word carved in a tree. Croatoan."
"Yeah," Sam agreed. "And I mean, there were theories…Indian raid, disease, but nobody knows what really happened. They were all just gone. I mean, wiped out overnight."
"It could be that the land was cursed," Liz suggested. "I mean…none of the colonies placed on that island survived very long."
Dean became thoughtful and looked around Rivergrove. "You don't think that's what's going on here, I mean…"
"Whatever I saw in my head, it sure wasn't good," Sam pointed out. "But what do you think could do that?"
Dean shrugged. "Well, I mean, like I said, all of your weirdo visions are always tied to the Yellow-Eyed Demon somehow, so…"
"We should get help. Bobby, uh, Ellen maybe?" Liz suggested.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Dean agreed, pulled out his cell phone, and then frowned at it. "I don't have a signal."
Sam, Liz, Hannah, and Ricky checked their own phones and shook their heads.
"We don't either."
They walked to a pay phone, which Dean picked up, only to get the "out of service" beeping, and he clicked the receiver several times.
"Line's dead." He then hanged up the phone and looked around. "I'll tell you one thing. If I was gonna massacre a town, that'd be my first step."
"Not a very reassuring thought," Ricky muttered as they returned to the car and found that the police radio was also dead. This wasn't a good sign.
A short while later, they pulled up in front of a cabin-like house in the middle of nowhere; the group got out of the car and went to the trunk, which Dean opened, lifted up the false bottom, and picked up two Colt handguns.
"Do either of you know how to use a gun?" he asked Hannah and Ricky.
"We both have permits to handle guns," Ricky told him, took the guns, handed one to Hannah, and they both then removed the clips and put them back in with an ease that came from a lot of practice. "Impressed?"
"Oh yeah."
Once they all were armed, they headed for the front porch; by the door was a small, tacky plaque that read "BORN TO FISH; FORCED TO WORK". Sam knocked on the door, and a teenaged boy with dark spiked hair, Jake, opened it.
"Yeah?" he asked, and both Sam and Hannah could sense that something was…off, but they couldn't be sure of what it was.
Dean flashed the badge. "We're looking for Duane Tanner; he lives here, right?"
Jake nodded. "Yeah, he's my brother."
"Can we talk to him?" Dean asked.
"Oh, he's not here right now," Jake told him.
"Do you know where he is?" Ricky asked.
Jake nodded. "Yeah, he went on a fishing trip up by Roslyn Lake."
"Your parents home?" Liz asked.
"Yeah, they're inside," Jake responded and turned slightly when someone spoke from within the house.
`"Jake? Who is it?"`
Dean flashed his badge again when Mr. Tanner appeared next to his son. "Hi, U.S. Marshals, sir, we're looking for your son Duane."
"Wh-why? He's not in trouble, is he?" Mr. Tanner asked, and for some reason his emotions seemed off too by what Sam and Hannah were sensing.
Dean shook his head. "No, no, no, no. We just need to ask him a couple of routine questions, that's all."
"When's he due back from his trip?" Hannah asked.
Mr. Tanner shrugged. "I'm not sure."
"Well, maybe your wife knows," Sam suggested.
Mr. Tanner shook his head. "No, I don't know, she's not here right now."
Dean raised his eyebrows. "Your son said she was."
Jake blinked. "Did I?"
"She's getting groceries," Mr. Tanner explained. "So, when Duane gets back, there's a number where he can get a hold of you?"
Dean, realizing that there was something off about all of this, shook his head. "Oh no, we'll just check in with you later."
They then turned and walked down the steps as the Tanners shut the door behind them.
"That was kind of creepy, right?" Dean asked once they were on the front walkway. "A little too Stepford?"
Sam nodded. "Big time."
"There's definitely something off about their emotions," Hannah added. "It was – it was like they were pretending to be normal."
"I don't have to be an empath to agree with that," Ricky remarked, getting several nods of agreement; looking furtively about, they crept around to the back of the house, crouching below a window.
Inside the house, Beverly Tanner was tied to a chair and gagged; Jake came around behind her, hands on her shoulders.
"It's okay, Mom," he said calmly. "It's not gonna hurt." And his mom whimpered.
Mr. Tanner came out of the next room with a kitchen knife. Jake stood in front of his mother and casually rolled up one sleeve; his father cut into his arm and he let the blood drip onto a wound in Beverly's shoulder.
Outside, the Winchesters and the Idris twins armed themselves and kicked down the back door. As they rushed in, handguns raised, Mr. Tanner roared and rushed at them with a knife; Dean shot him thrice in the chest. Meanwhile, Jake jumped out the window, shattering glass, and darted off into the woods. Sam aimed at him through the window but he hesitated, giving him time to get away.
Knowing that Dean wouldn't like that, but didn't feel like he had the right to shoot someone in the back, Sam turned back to see that Liz, Ricky, and Hannah were working on untying Beverly's bonds, and Dean was staring down at Mr. Tanner's body.
"It's okay," Hannah said reassuringly to Beverly, who was in tears and was desperately trying to cope with what'd just happen. "We're here to help and you'll be fine. I promise you that."
Dean looked up at Sam, his emotions conflicted. "Did you get the kid?"
Sam shook his head. "He got away."
Dean frowned, clearly realizing that Sam had let Jake escape, but he didn't push the matter, partly because Liz would most likely smack him if he did, and also because of the current situation involving the traumatized woman. "Liz, Hannah, get Mrs. Tanner to the car. Ricky, see if you can find a sheet or something to wrap the body in; we need to get to the clinic."
A/N: Now I shall leave you all in suspense until next time. "Smiles evilly" R&R everyone!