When we get to the place where this ghost is supposedly meant to be haunting, I look out the window glad for the distraction. The barn itself looks like it should be on a horror film set. Seriously, whoever owned this really didn't take care of it, it looks almost…fake. I grab my bag off the floor by my feet and open the truck door. "Mika wait…" Bobby says to me. I look back at him, "what?" I ask in reply. "You don't just go getting out of the truck and go in head first without making a mental scout from the truck." He told me, handing me some binoculars. I sit back in my seat and take them from him, scouting the area to make sure it is clear from anyone or anything. Things seem to be all right and almost too quiet. "Things seem to be okay and calm…" I tell to him, handing him back the binoculars, where he now holds them up to his own eyes and takes a glance for himself. He lowers them and nods. "I agree, almost too quiet if you ask me" He replies, and I have to agree.
Night soon falls and after we spent some time in the nearby town, doing some research, and Bobby practically being my lecturer in the Library on how to go about gathering the right information for a ghost hunt, we head back to the house and barn. We figured out who this spirit was- he was a resident of the place and it turned out this barn is a new addition. It didn't used to be there, but instead was this guy's house. Ever since they built on that same place, this spirit has been coming back and everywhere he walked was burning the new resident's crops.
Bobby told me earlier this particular haunting would be placed in the vengeful spirit category, but something inside me didn't agree with that. I mean… he was laid to rest, and some douche bag built a new home on top of his resting ground and claimed the land theirs? That didn't stand well with me. I feel sorry for the dead guy. The reasons behind the burnings, was because he died in a house fire. Hmm.. That sounded familiar- oh yeah, I know why now. Mary Winchester… she died in a house fire, I figure that's why I feel for this guy, because his death reminds me of Mary.
I look up from my lap after reading the article that Bobby had photocopied so I could read up on it in the truck. I see my second spirit at that moment. Just like the reports had claimed- it was clearly a masculine figure but engulfed in flames- burning the surrounding crops as he walks. "Come on… we don't have long to get this rid of thing." Bobby orders me. Thing? He called the dead guy a thing? Damn it, that doesn't sit well with me either, I want to shout at him and for once be the one giving a lecture, but I knew I couldn't. He is my Uncle and mentor and if I wanted to get my first hunt out of the way I have to switch off my emotions about this and just get on with it. I get out of the truck, bag in tow and follow Bobby across the lot and into the barn.
Our first port of call is to find the buried remains of this guy whilst he was sidetracked with the burning the crops and do it before the current residents woke up in the next-door house and catch us in the act. I don't feel like getting jailed at the age of 18… not cool. We run into the barn and Bobby showes me how to pick a lock discreetly, I make a good mental note of it and am thankful for my photographic memory. Walking into the barn I half expect animals but there is nothing in here- it's empty. "What the hell? Who has a barn but doesn't have anything stored in here?" I comment, switching on my torch and looking around.
"Don't know and don't care. Now get your ass into gear woman" My uncle can be a real douche at time with things he said. Sighing in a feeling of irritation, I look around for anything that could be considered a clue, and I remember something I read in the article. The barn was built ON TOP of the burial ground. "Duh!" I mutter to myself quietly, but loud enough that Bobby can hear and he gives me a puzzled look to my random word of the night. I put my stuff down, and rummage through my bag- I get out the shovel, matches and lighter fluid. Then I pace around the barn, counting each step. Bobby is getting really frustrated with me, how do I know? From the huffing and puffing he is doing under his breath. "What are you doing? This is no time for fun and games Mika!" He exclaims to me in an hushed irritated tone of voice. I just put one finger up at him to silent him, as I continue working the room- we have time so I don't see the problem in getting my dimensions of the room accurate. I begin counting my steps towards the middle of the room and with a bit mathematical working out- I find the dead centre of the room and begin digging.
"This is the exact centre of the room- I was doing some working outs to get it exact. In the articles you photocopied and brought with you…" I begin explaining, as I dig away at the ground, it's more hard work than I thought it would be. How does Dean do this all the time? No… mustn't start thinking of him- he's in my past- my history. Bobby is rolling his eyes and walks to the back door of the barn, where he keeps a watchful eye out as I continue to dig down. "It stated that where the barn is now built- the guys remains sits directly under the barn in the centre of the barn. It's where he was found dead in the fire… in the ground floor centre point in the house. So naturally his remains were buried there when the house was removed and the barn now sits directly on top of him," I continue to explain, now starting to get out a tad out of breath. I'm really not used to this hard labour.
I finally reach the remains, and seeing a real skeleton for the first time really shocks me. It takes me aback a bit, but when Bobby turns back to me I have to snap out of my thoughts. "Mika hurry up! He's vanished from the field!" Bobby exclaims at me. This can't be good- the spirit obviously knows we're onto him. When suddenly I hear Bobby crash into the barn's structure. "Uncle!" I can't help but exclaim, taking my mind off the job for a split second. "Just burn the remains!" He coughed; he's winded but sounds okay- thank God!
I scramble above me, as I was now lower than the main floor to get ahold of the salt, matches and flammable fluid. Just as I grab hold of the flask of salt, I feel heat radiating above that very hand. I look up and see the spirit staring down at me. His face is clear as day- yet he is radiating out fire. "You're different… you don't feel the heat like I don't… why do you wish to stop me?" He begins saying to me; it's weird- I didn't think spirits could talk intelligently to the living. I really need to do research. I give him a puzzled look at his comment, that was when I look down and he's holding my hand, and yet the fire isn't harming me one bit. "What the…?" I now look as confused as the spirit.
"I'm sorry, but you need to rest…and in peace, and I can give you that," I reply to him.
"Don't converse with the damn thing, just KILL IT!" Bobby shouts at me, clearly annoyed at the time I am currently taking. That was when the spirit nodded at me, and vanished and now is standing in front of Bobby. "You…you're like the rest of them!" I hear the spirit conversing with my Uncle and it is plain weird, but the tone I'm not liking- he's going to put Bobby in danger and I can't have that. So I salt the remains, and tip lighter fluid over him. I climb out of the hole, lighting a match I drop it down on his remains. "Rest in Peace…. Jack Lown" I quietly comment, and my first hunt is done. I look down at myself and see my clothes covered in dirt and then pick up my white hair and see dirt in it. "Aww man!" I complain like a typical girl, which just made Bobby walk over and shake his head at me. But looking at the small smile on his face I have made him proud- and that is enough for me to deal with a bit of dirt.
Truth be told, I felt something change in me this night, and I'm pretty sure Bobby saw it to. I know he saw the fire touch me but not burn me- he had to have done. I know he's seen a lot of things in his time but if I know my uncle like I surely do, that had to have spooked him like it spooked me. He walks over to me and grab the stuff, shoving it in my hands. "Stop bellyaching over dirt in your hair and get moving before we're caught" He practically military style orders me, and I just did as I'm told. I'm thinking about what the spirit of Jack Lown told me- I'm different- not like the others… fire didn't burn me… it's plaguing my mind like the scripture of Pride and Prejudice used to. Now I am thinking how easily it came to me, to just dig up remains of a dead person- salt and burn them without hesitation. If I was the same girl Dean fell in love with, I would have run a mile away from doing anything like that- but I didn't. I just did it like I was doing house chores- easily and naturally. It didn't faze me in the slightest and after my first 'kill' I feel my heart grow colder. I was meant to be brought into this world of hunting I now feel. I walk after Bobby and get back in the truck as he did, and let him drive us home.