Milligan House | Addison

'You knew they could take on the appearance of people they'd killed,' I remind myself.

Unfortunately, the thought does very little to quell my rising panic. How can it? My mother's face is twisted in pain, her voice hoarse as she pleads, "Addie, help me!" I watch in muted horror as Dean fights to both maintain his leverage and angle his handgun. Slowly, the barrel creeps towards her face. My mom's, no, the ghoul's struggles grow steadily more frantic, but by now Sam has crawled forward to restrain its arms. "No! Nono- stop! Pl-"

Bang.

I flinch and close my eyes, unwilling to look. "Addison! Watch out!"

Startled by Sam's shout, I've barely got my eyes open again when the bloodied figure barrels into me. The momentum sends me slamming into and over the banister at the top of the stairs, only my death grip on the bars preventing me from falling down to the first floor. The ghoul continues past as if I hadn't even been there, skittering towards the master bedroom in a distinctly inhuman manner.

Dean, blood-splattered and furious, storms after it, leaving Sam to help me over the railing and to my feet. "You alright?"

"Yeah."

"Good, get downstairs and lock yourself in the office. Don't come out until we tell you to. Got it?"

I nod and we each race in separate directions, him for my mom's room and me downstairs. I've just got the door to the office shut behind me when I hear both brothers shout my name. It doesn't take long to find out why.

The ghoul disguised as my mother unfolds eerily as it climbs out from the vent in the corner. The bullet has left a deep gash across its scalp, just above my mother's ear. It spits blood on the carpet and advances slowly. "Couldn't even call the right hunter, could you? Whatever, I'll kill you. That'll have to be enough." The grin it wears is psychotic. "I've heard the death of a child is much worse than that of a parent."

"Fuck." I don't bother trying to fight. Heart in my throat, I scramble for the door.

"Not so fast, Addie."

My head is forced back when the ghoul snags my pony tail in its bloody hands. "Ah!" I'm forced to follow the motion or risk having hair and skin torn from my scalp. In the background, I can hear the brothers stampeding down the stairs, still calling my name.

"I hope this hurts." The ghoul tells me, opening my mother's mouth and leaning in.

As it nears my throat, I blindly reach for the knife at the small of my back. It's still sheathed when I swing it around to jab at my mother's face. Fortunately, ghouls dislike being jabbed in the eyes almost as much as humans. It rears back, one hand still tangled in my hair, and gives me just enough slack to unsheath the blade.

The moment the blade is free, I grab the wrist of the hand holding my hair and slam the knife straight through. The ghoul releases me at once, just in time for Sam to kick in the door. He and Dean are on the creature between one breath and the next.

This time, when Sam secures it, Dean doesn't miss.

Caught somewhere between lingering panic and heart wrenching relief, I back up until I reach the wall. It gives me just enough support that when my knees buckle, I don't immediately topple to the ground. I slide down instead, coming to a stop with my legs folded awkwardly beneath me.

'I'm alive,' I realize. I'd been worried. I'd told the brothers as much as I could without revealing knowledge I had no reasonable explanation for - leaving out the shapeshifting aspect - but it didn't matter. They figured it out anyway. They'd still saved me.

I wasn't going to lose another life.


Milligan House | Sam

Sam scrubs at his face with his sleeve and bemoans the fact that, nine times out of ten, it's him that gets covered in viscera. It had taken all of his strength to restrain the ghoul, so he hadn't been able to turn away when Dean pulled the trigger. Their job would be so much easier if monsters had the decency to disintigrate or turn to dust when they died.

"Sam." Dean jerks his head to the right and stares at him expectedly. Sam follows his gaze-

"Oh," he says softly, having all but forgotten about her. To be fair, being covered in brain is quite distressing. Sam has just taken two steps towards her shaking form when a loud and insistent banging makes them all jump.

"Addie?! Are you okay? We thought we heard shouting."

Instantly, Addison is up and moving. "I'm fine," she calls. She jogs out of the office and he and Dean are forced to follow as she approaches the front door.

"Can you open up? We want to make sure."

"Yeah, just a sec." She spins around and narrows her eyes. "Sam," she whispers urgently, gestering at her face pointedly. "Go hide in the kitchen."

Reluctantly, he retreats. He hopes to god Dean has one of his better cover stories prepared, because the last thing they need is to be blamed for Kate Milligan's second murder.

He keeps an ear pressed to the wall between the kitchen and the front hallway. The front door groans as it opens. "Sorry," he hears her say. "I sliced my hand with a box cutter while I was packing things up. Had to grab something to stop the bleeding."

'Was she bleeding?' Sam wonders, suddenly guilty he hadn't noticed.

"Oh no! Are you okay?" It's another woman's voice this time, presumably the wife of the man who'd shouted through the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she assures them. "It's minor. Besides, my cousin is pretty well-versed in first aid."

"Kirk, right?"

"Yeah," Dean says, low and uncomfortable.

The voice turns slightly accusing. "Didn't you say earlier that you were stopping by to pick things up for her so she didn't have to come back here until that cleaning crew came through?"

"I-"

"It's my fault." Addison cuts his brother off. "I didn't tell him where everything was. Then I realized it would be easier if I just got it myself."

"Oh, Addie," the woman says, "You know you could have called one of us."

"I know, but you've already helped me so much..."

"It's honestly no trouble. Are you going to be staying with us again tonight?"

"No. I've got a room at the Hyatt."

"Did you tell the police? You know they've been patrolling the street. If you're there instead, they'll need to warn the hotel staff to be on the look out for anyone strange."

"I know, I'll tell them." Addison's tone has shifted into something obviously strained. A far cry from the confident, reassuring tone she'd started with. Sam starts angling towards the doorway. There's not much he can do to help, not without giving them all away, but he still has the urge to watch. If he's careful he'll be able to get both Addison and Dean into view without revealing himself to the couple on the stoop. 'There!' "Look," Addison says, switching gears abruptly. "I've still got a lot to pack up - since I don't want to come back here unless I have to - and I should probably get back to it."

Dean is giving her the mother of all side eyes, but the couple at the door takes her at face value. "Okay, I guess we'll leave you to it," the man says.

There's a quick exchange of goodbyes and then finally the door shuts.

"I can't believe they bought it," Dean says incredulously.

"Yeah, well, we're lucky that they didn't hear the gunshots." Sam steps out from the kitchen and quickly approaches. "Addison, let me see your hand."

"What? Oh," she drops the scarf she'd hastily wrapped around her left hand. "It's not mine. It's from when I stabbed the ghoul. I just needed an explanation for the blood."

Both he and Dean exchange baffled looks. "When did you stab it?"

"Just before you broke the door down. I needed it to release me." She steps away from them both, voice still flat. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to shower. In the meantime, you two can grab the gray rug from the garage and wrap up the body. We'll need to dispose of it before the actual cleaning crew comes through." That said, she walks off.

Dean is the first to speak in the wake of her absence. "What."

Sam nods, equally thrown. That was not a reaction he's used to seeing from civilians. "She must really be related to us," he jokes. "That, or she's got some serious issues."

"Hey," his brother interjects. "It's not like the two are mutually exclusive."

They both laugh a little, and if it's slightly hysterical, well, that's their business.