Chapter 9- Home
I opened my eyes and saw that instead of waking up on the bed I'd fallen asleep on, I woke up on the floor. I groaned and stretched before sitting up and pushing myself awkwardly to my feet. Damn, had Dean pushed me off the bed as a joke or something? It wasn't something I would put past him, especially since I stopped him getting laid last night. It wasn't my fault that Sam and I were bored as he flirted his ass off with a barmaid. So I hinted that he was crap in bed and whatnot, so he hadn't gone back to her place which pissed him off, but of course Sam and I found hilarious because we loved laughing at Dean's expense, plus he'd annoyed us the whole day. After the events in Oklahoma with the bugs, we decided to rent a motel room for a week and recuperate, but I thought it was mostly because Dean was a little shocked at what he had learnt, plus Sam was curious and I still had bits and pieces of work on my laptop as well as a few resources that I had downloaded from the internet, so I'd showed him what was still on my laptop. He was impressed, which made me feel good. The guy was a Stanford graduate after all.
I sighed and looked around the room, to see that I had no clue where I was which made me frown, but one thing that was obvious was that I was in a bedroom, presumably a bedroom belonging to a child. The way I was standing was so that the single bed was placed against the wall on my left, with the door leading into the bedroom near to the bed. Opposite the bed stood a door which for some I reason I knew led into a closet, even without having to open the door, which was strange because I'd never been here before, but the room felt familiar. To my right was the window, set into the wall with a chest of drawers nearby. I frowned in confusion. This was some freaky practical joke.
"Dean, you're an ass, where the hell are you because this is fucking weird?" I called, expecting to see him jump out from behind the curtains or something. I sighed and decided to walk around until Dean made himself known, so that I could prepare myself because knowing him he had set something off which was going to scare the pants off me. He was a real pain in the butt sometimes, but I did love him for it.
Without realising it I found myself in front of the closet which, I could now see, had double doors. I frowned and studied the white painted doors and shivered at the feel of them. The feeling was strange; it was unpleasant but pleasant in a familiar way at the same time. I reached forwards and gripped the handle and gasped when my hand went through the handle, as though I were a ghost. I frowned and tried again and again and again, until I finally realised that for some reason, I couldn't grip the handle. I walked away and over to the chest of drawers, finding an ornament on top so I reached for it, but again my hand passed through it, so I touched the handle of one of the drawers, my hand once again passing through it. Either this was a really good prank where Dean had found some sort of projection of this room, knowing that I wouldn't be able to grab anything since it wasn't real, or I was dead. But that couldn't be! I'd only just closed my eyes to sleep. Dean had been awake watching something on his laptop and Sam was sitting on the bed next to me, reading something which looked like a book but I wasn't sure where he had gotten it. Had they fallen asleep and something had got into the room and killed me while I was sleeping? While they were sleeping in the room with me? No, that couldn't be possible. I mean Dean was a heavy sleeper, but he was always aware of any movement, he was alert even when he was snoring, something which I'd never possessed, but I knew that he would've woken at the first sign of an intruder. Unless…had something happened to my boys? Oh shit! No! Not my boys!
"Sam!" I called out, hoping that if my boys had died with me, that they were here with me, which in my opinion if this was hell, or even heaven, then it was a strange place, but there was no answer.
"Dean!" I called out but again didn't receive a reply, praying that if there was no answer from the two of them, that it was a good sign. I swallowed my panic just as the door to the bedroom opened and I turned in that direction, to see a woman holding the hand of a young girl, obviously leading her back to the bed.
"Hello? I need your help" I said, but they ignored me, they didn't even show signs of hearing me. Oh shit, I really was dead then. Oh god, I hoped Sam and Dean were doing okay.
I saw the girl climb onto the bed, sitting on the edge, near to the door as she watched her mom check the closet. Either this girl was scared of the typical 'monsters in the closet' faze that all kids went through but was just really their imagination, or there actually was something in the closet, which my job as a Hunter had told me that it was usually something supernatural.
"See? There's nothing there" she said, trying to reassure the girl, who I was positive was her daughter. I looked over at the dark haired girl, who looked pretty and estimated that she was about eleven years old, I doubted she was older than that, before looking back at her mother who was a fair haired woman, pretty as well.
"You sure?" the girl asked, sounding terrified and the woman nodded before closing the closet doors and walking over to her daughter.
"I'm sure. Now come on, into bed" she replied, walking over as her daughter climbed into bed and she tucked her in before perching on the edge, stroking the girl's hair for a moment.
"I don't like this house" the girl stated and I frowned at her. She was scared of something, this wasn't just her imagination, she was genuinely terrified. Perhaps there was something wrong with the house?
"You're just not used to it yet. But you, your brother and me will be very happy here, I promise" her mom replied before kissing the girl on the head.
"I love you, goodnight" she said, before switching the lamp on the nightstand off, giving me a flash of a ring on her ring finger and a wave of sadness and grief that I felt was connected to the ring. She was a widow, her husband had died somehow and she had moved here to escape everything back home. To create a new life for her and her children. A fresh start.
The woman stood up and went to walk away as her daughter sat up.
"The chair" she said and I watched the woman look back at her daughter before she smiled and nodded, walking over to the closet, where she dragged the chair just standing a little to the left, and placed it under the handles of the closet.
"Okay, the chair. Just to be safe" she said and I smiled at how willing she was to do anything to keep her children happy. This woman loved her children, though there was no sign of her son, but I was guessing that this house was big enough for the three of them to have their own rooms. I watched as the girl lay down in the bed and her mom looked at her one final time before leaving the room, closing the door behind her. I would've followed her to find out more of what was going on. Obviously I had been whisked away from my boys as soon as I died for a reason, maybe that was to try and protect this family as well as I could while in ghost form, but something told me that I needed to stay in the girl's room to witness whatever I knew was going to happen next.
I heard movement downstairs and figured the woman was doing something, possibly unable to sleep, but from what the girl had said, I gathered that they had moved in recently, so the woman was probably unpacking moving boxes.
I sighed and walked over to the bed, to keep an eye on the girl just as I heard a shuffling noise from in the room, making the girl bolt upright in her bed, keeping herself covered up to her chest with the sheets, obviously scared. I saw that she was watching the closet in fear so I looked over and saw that the chair that had been placed in front of the closet 'just in case' was actually moving, it was moving of its own accord, which meant that I wasn't the only spirit here. Damn if I only had my EMF detector with me right now, but that would be stupid, because I would set the damn thing off to, but I knew it wasn't me moving the chair. The girl's breathing increased and became shallower with fright as the chair finally moved out of the way of the closet and the doors opened suddenly, revealing…well I wasn't sure what it was but whatever it was, caused me to stumble a step back in surprise. Whatever was in the closet looked a huge column of fire, bright fire, as though something had just been set alight, but if it wasn't for the fact that I was used to this kind of stuff, then I wouldn't have noticed the fire wasn't out of control, it was almost in the vague shape of a person, a person approximately the same height as me, give or take an inch or two. I knew that nothing had caught fire. This was an entity of some sort, obviously appearing the way it had died… being burnt to death. But again the weird feeling came over me, I was scared but not in a frightened 'shit it's some creature I'm gonna die' kind of way, probably like how the girl was feeling. I was scared sure, but it was more fright and shock than fearing for my life because the energy this thing gave off wasn't scary. It looked scary of course, but it didn't feel too threatening. Again it still made no sense, but I was scared for the girl, scared that something would happen to her. It was at that moment that she screamed and I flinched, closing my eyes at the sudden sound, plus because of the fact that I had unconsciously stepped closer to the bed so that I was nearly standing on top of it, so the scream had practically been in my ear.
I groaned and covered my ears, cutting off the scream, before the scream stopped altogether and I breathed a sigh of relief, but coughed and I opened my eyes, seeing that the room was now covered in smoke. Oh no! The girl and her family! What happened? Did they get out in time? Stupid, stupid me for closing my eyes. All the girl did was scream!
I took a deep breath, before coughing, realising that the blanket of smoke became thicker with each few seconds that passed, since I couldn't see the bed that I had just been standing next to. Was it even the same room?
"Hello?" I called out, coughing as the smoke swirled around me, causing my voice to become croaky as the smoke made its way down my throat, drying it out. I covered my nose and mouth with my pyjama top, luckily it was a little cool to wear a camisole to bed tonight so I was covered more than I usually would be.
"Ali" a voice whispered and I spun around, trying to locate the person who's voice that belonged to, the only problem was that I couldn't identify the gender of the voice, it sounded like a voice, but there was no sign showing whether the voice belonged to a male or female.
"Hello?" I called out; louder this time, but the action caused me to cough as talking made my voice even more scratchy. The smoke became thicker at parts and thinner at others, but either way my eyes started to water and I blinked the water away, trying to focus on looking around the room, but all I could make out was a door, the same door that led to the closet in the bedroom I had just been in. So it was the same room, but where was the girl? Where was the furniture? I frowned in thought, but couldn't come up with any sort of explanation as to what had happened and I couldn't understand why I felt safe, as though I knew this bedroom. It didn't look familiar but it felt familiar. Which I knew made no sense at all because I'd never been here before, it didn't look familiar and I had a good memory for visual things usually.
I coughed as the smoke clogged up, now black and I couldn't see through it but it was almost as though there was some sort of barrier around me, protecting me from the smoke swallowing me and pulling me into its dark depths, but I could still breathe it in and it still suffocated me, it just didn't touch me. I breathed in again, choking on the smoke that made its way into my lungs and a weird whimpering sound came out of my throat. I remembered this dream. This was the dream I'd been having for the last week. Well just this part where I found myself in a smoke filled room, I hadn't dreamt the girl and her mother before, in fact I'd never seen them before, which was even more strange. Weren't people in dreams supposed to be based on people you knew or people you had glimpsed around? Well I was crap with names, but I could remember a face, and I didn't recognise their faces.
What I couldn't understand was why I couldn't remember the dream until now? Did this mean that the dream was connected to something since I could now remember it? Because like Sam had said before, I apparently dreamt of one of the victims that was part of the job we had been working six years ago, I had had feelings of my parents' deaths about two days before they died, twelve years ago, I'd had feelings about Jessica's death, not that I'd known it at the time and I'd dreamt of the day that my parents had died, only to wake up to a job that day that involved demons. Somehow whatever I dreamt had some sort of connection to the next job that we worked.
I coughed, my heart racing as I could now make out flames through the smoke. Oh god, I was definitely going to die, or my ghost was. I wonder if ghosts could feel pain? If so, then getting burnt was going to be a bitch, though I could handle small amounts of pain, but not much really. The flames grew in size and darkened in colour so that I could now see the bright orange and deep yellow colours instead of just dark red and I saw the flames approach me, getting closer and closer and pushing past the cloud of smoke that had previously been unable to touch me, but now as the fire drew closer, so did the smoke until I could no longer see my hand in front of my face, but there was no sign of the fire just yet.
"Ali" the same voice whispered, seemingly echoing around the room that I was in and I panicked. What did this mean? Was I going to die in a fire trying to save someone or something like that? Or was I playing the part of the victim, who died in a fire? I blinked rapidly and tried breathing, but the smoke had made its way into my lungs, my pyjama top no longer filtering the smoke out as much and I felt myself become a little dizzy due to the lack of oxygen. Hang on, what if this fire was related to the fire figure in the girl's closet just moments before? Was this how, or at least a similar way to, how the figure had died? That seemed more likely.
"Boys, I'm sorry" I whispered, knowing that letting what remainder of oxygen may have been left in my body to say that was pointless, because I doubted Sam and Dean were anywhere near me, but I just needed to say it. I had failed them, I had failed John. I'd gotten myself killed and now they were alone, worse still was that I had no idea if they were even still alive after whatever had happened to kill me in the first place. I just hoped that I hadn't died in vain because I didn't want them joining me, at all!
I screamed, suddenly feeling the heat of the fire licking at my legs and I did look down, but found that pointless because the smoke was so thick that I couldn't even see the bright colours of the fire anymore. The fire licked at my skin, slowly making its way up my legs, almost caressing my body with its heat, but of course it was anything but because I was burning. It seemed that ghosts could feel pain after all. The fire made its way past my legs and hips, up towards my stomach, torso and chest and I could now see the flames licking at my skin, already knowing that the thin fabric of my pyjamas had been burnt off, which was also what was probably causing so much pain because the fabric was sticking to me and not providing a barrier between my body and the flame.
The heat became unbearable so I chose to close my eyes and think of Sam and Dean until the fire finally took me away. I remembered how Dean's smile and laugh always made me feel better, I remembered the way he was always so protective of Sam and I, not that he would ever admit to being too protective and so worried most of the time. The one thing that I knew I would miss- apart from their smiling faces and just their company, but them in general- was the way we all teased each other, as well as their hugs. Sam and Dean always gave me the best hugs I'd ever had and I loved them so much.
"Protect them" the voice whispered again and I screamed in agony, the fire finally covering me as I felt it burn my skin and I opened my eyes.
I screamed in a croaky voice as I sat upright in bed, the sheets twisted around my legs and damp with sweat. I saw Sam start upright on the bed to my left and saw him glance around the room, he himself looking a little sweaty as well as confused as he turned to me. I tried gulping in the air, my body aching for oxygen, but all it did was make me cough.
"Shh, Als, shh, it's okay, it's okay" Sam soothed, sliding off his bed to kneel beside me and place on hand on my thigh while the other gripped my hand. I looked at him and realised that my croaky scream was still continuing, but I felt as though the fire was still eating at me. I squeezed Sam's hand and found that I could touch him, found that I could feel the bed beneath me. Dean jumped in his sleep next to me as I continued coughing.
"Just breathe Als, deep breaths in and out, slowly" Sam instructed before he started breathing with me and the light on the nightstand turned on, revealing a dishevelled and rumpled looking Dean, who had just been roused from his sleep by me.
"Ali?" he asked but I was too busy trying to breathe, but I had enough oxygen in my body, enough energy to reach out to him and felt his hands enclose around mine, making me feel better that I could touch him.
It was just a dream, but I couldn't understand why I couldn't touch anything? Either way it was a dream, I was alive, my boys were okay, everything would be okay. So why was I so scared? That family, I had a bad feeling, a really bad feeling. And I could still feel the fire on my skin. It was unnerving.
I breathed deeply, following Sam as found that while I still coughed; I was able to breathe a little easier.
"You okay?" I heard Dean asked and I breathed deeply, before bursting into a coughing fit and I felt Dean climb off the bed before I saw him walk away, returning quickly with a glass of water and handing it to me.
I waited for my coughing fit to die down, before I brought the glass to my lips, aware of the water sloshing around a little as my hands shook. That dream had really frazzled my nerves, something which was strange, because I didn't react like this anymore to the many times I had relived my family's death, what was so different about this? When I knew that I'd dreamt the smoke and fire before? Well I knew what it was, it was seeing the girl and her mother in the room, it was the voice that whispered to me everytime, but this time around it was feeling the fire eating me, swallowing me whole… that had never happened before since it was usually just smoke.
I managed to drain the whole the glass in under a minute before Sam took it off me and settled it on the nightstand next to him, giving me the chance to look and study him, seeing that he was wound up. He had started awake at the same time as me and it wasn't because I had scared him awake, he woke the exact same time as me and he looked a little freaked and confused. He'd obviously had another bad dream, but judging from his face, it wasn't to do with Jess, in fact I had a feeling it was something that he found was totally non-related. He sent me a comforting smile when he saw that I was watching him so I frowned in reply but decided to leave it alone for the time being. He luckily, was keeping himself under control, where I was only starting to calm down.
"You wanna tell us what happened?" Dean asked, settling himself next to me on the bed once again. He had obviously managed to fit his ass into the bed beside me when he fell asleep. I glanced at the clock on the nightstand and saw that it was four in the morning. I'd fallen asleep a little after eleven. I sighed and looked back at my brother before nodding.
"Firstly though, do I feel hot to you?" I asked, holding my arm out which made Dean frown before he pressed the back of his hand against my warm skin and I sighed in relief, his hand was cool. He frowned and looked up at me.
"Yeah you do feel pretty warm. Aliana, what happened?" he asked and I sighed, before rolling my eyes at his use of my full name. He needn't use it, since I was planning on telling him what happened.
"I had a dream. A really weird dream" I stated and Dean nodded, urging me on to tell him and I looked at Sam to see him bite his lip so I folded my legs up and he smiled before sitting on the bed, crossing his own legs so that he could sit in front of me. I sighed and scrunched my hands into fists.
"I've been having this dream for about a week, maybe two now I'm not sure, I don't remember what happens but when I wake up I can't breathe properly. I've been in this room filled with smoke and it managed to find its way into my lungs" I began and Sam nodded as Dean shifted in his position, turning to that he was sitting cross-legged in order to press his knees against my thigh, to make it easy to look straight at me. I sighed and bit my lip.
"But this time around it was totally different. I woke up in this bedroom. At first I thought it was some sort of prank you were pulling on me since I was a cockblock the other night" I stated, looking at Dean and he rolled his eyes but said nothing.
"So I walked around the room, familiarising myself with it, guessing that either you would jump out from somewhere or scare the heck out of me first. The longer I was there, the more familiar the room felt, but I'd never been there before. Anyway I walked over to the closet in the room, but found that I couldn't open it, because my hand went through the door. I tried to pick other things up and open drawers but the same thing happened, so I came to the logical conclusion that I was dead, not considering that it might've been a dream. Two females walked into the room, they were obviously mother and daughter and the girl couldn't have been older than eleven. Her mom was checking the closet, proving there were no monsters in there before tucking her in and placing a chair in front of the closet. It was 'just to be safe' she said" I explained, using air quotations. I saw that Sam looked a little pale but both he and Dean nodded for me to continue.
"Well I gathered that they hadn't long moved in, the woman was wearing a wedding ring, but there was no sign of a husband, so I gathered that she had been widowed recently and moved to that house. Well after saying goodnight to her daughter she left, and not long after the chair in front of the closet moved, and the closet doors opened, where this fire manifested, but it looked like a person" I frowned, still not understanding that part and I saw that both Sam and Dean looked uncomfortable. Fire was an issue for them though, especially Dean and John. I shook my head, clearing it so I could continue on with the story.
"Anyway the girl screamed and I covered my ears and closed my eyes, the sound stopped and when I opened my eyes I was in the same room, but there was no furniture there and the whole room was covered in smoke, which got thicker and thicker, until at some point I couldn't see the flames of the fire. I thought I was already dead so I wasn't too bothered, but then the fire started devouring me, I could feel it on my skin as it burned me. I heard a voice say 'protect them' before the fire swallowed me and I opened my eyes and woke up here, screaming, coughing and needing oxygen" I finished, looking between the guys to see that they looked pale. The idea of fire freaked them out and Dean wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly as he buried his face into the side of my shoulder. I heard him breathing deeply.
"Don't smell me, I probably smell" I stated, referring to the fact that I was sweaty and heard Dean chuckle in worry before he pulled away and looked at me, wiping my face, which I could feel him wiping the sweat away. He sent me a small smile and I returned it before he kissed my head.
"Well, it was just a dream. You're fine, we're fine, everything's fine" Dean stated and I bit my lip but nodded in reply. I didn't agree with him there, but I wasn't going to say that, besides he needed his sleep, so I was going to let him sleep and talk to him in the morning, when everyone was more awake and had slept well.
"Yeah, okay. You should get back to sleep" I said and he frowned.
"What about you?" he asked and I shrugged in reply.
"I might do myself something to drink, then take a shower and come back to bed" I replied and I saw him hesitate for a while before he sighed and nodded. Obviously Dean knew that I wasn't planning on going back to sleep anytime soon, but he probably thought it was a good idea to not argue so he nodded and lay back down again as Sam climbed off the bed and sat on his own. I sat, looking down at Dean as he fell back asleep, my hand automatically going to stroke his hair and the side of his face soothingly, to send him back to sleep. Within about five minutes he was snoring lightly and I turned away to look at Sam and sent him a smile when I saw that he was watching, before I frowned and carefully slid off the bed, before flopping down onto Sam's, sitting opposite him with my legs crossed.
"Alright Sammy, spill the beans" I said and he frowned at me in reply before shrugging.
"What do you mean?" he asked playing the dumb card and I rolled my eyes.
"I still stand by what I say when I say that playing dumb doesn't suit you. You know exactly what I mean. What happened that made you wake up so suddenly, looking freaked and confused. And don't say me because we both know that isn't what happened" I stated and Sam sighed before shrugging.
"I had a dream where I saw a woman through a top floor window, banging on the window screaming for help. I saw the outside of the house and the garden and it looked a little familiar, especially the tree outside but I can't put my finger on why it looks familiar" he sighed and I frowned, before leaning and taking his hand in mine, holding it tightly before smiling encouragingly.
"You want to know what we are going to do?" I asked and he frowned before nodding slowly and I smiled slightly.
"I am going to have a shower and you are going to make us a drink. We'll sit and drink them before trying to go back to sleep. Then in the morning when we are more clear headed, I will think over my dream, while you find out why the tree looks familiar and I'll help you as best as I can. We can decide what to do from there" I said and Sam thought it over before nodding in reply.
"Okay, that sounds like a plan" he finally said and I smiled before leaning over and kissing his head.
"Okay come on then" I said and he smiled before we climbed off the bed, me heading to the en-suite and Sam going over to the kitchen part of the room to make something to drink. Though I had a feeling that he would make tea or something with less caffeine than coffee.
I sighed as I paced the room, continuing to brush my hair as I listened to Dean talking. I glanced over at Sam and saw that he was still sitting on the bed, drawing the tree that he had glimpsed in his dream last night.
After having a shower and the two of us drinking some tea, which made Sam pull a face, we managed to fall asleep for a little while and Dean to tease us about how he wasn't good enough for me to sleep with anymore. It wasn't my fault that Sam and I were lying on his bed chatting until we both fell asleep. Luckily though we had woken before Dean, because otherwise we wouldn't have lived down the embarrassment if Dean had woken up and saw what position we woke up in. It was quite funny though; the two of us had been lying on our sides, facing the bed Dean was sleeping in. I was sleeping so that Sam had his back to me, where I had my left leg slung over his thighs and my arm across his torso, with my head lying on the side of his ribcage and his arm placed around my neck, so it looked like he had me in a headlock. We had laughed a little about it before Sam went off to get a shower, then went to get coffee and whatnot while I showered again.
Dean had still been asleep which meant that the two of us could talk so I had suggested that Sam should draw the tree and then show it to me afterwards, to see if we could work out what type of tree it was and if it was a kind of tree that was limited to one place. I hadn't told Sam this, but I had a strange feeling that the dreams we had were actually connected to each other. I hadn't seen what happened to the family, maybe Sam had? It was probably just wishful thinking, though my gut told me it was anything but. I believed that if we found out where the woman in his dream lived then we could stop whatever was bound to happen from happening. I also hadn't told the boys that I believed what I had saw hadn't happened yet, or at least they hadn't died yet, which meant they needed help and I was determined to give them the help they needed, even if it meant leaving my boys to help these people. I couldn't explain the bad, sickening feeling in my gut to them, to make them understand how horrible this was making me feel.
"I've been cruisin' some websites for our next gig and think I've found some things. Uh, a fish trawler found off the coast of Cali, its crew missing. Cattle mutilations in West Texas" Dean said, looking up where I bit my lip but didn't say anything and he turned to Sam who was still scribbling on the notepad I had lent him this morning.
"Hey" Dean said and Sam looked up from his drawing to his brother.
"Am I boring you with this hunting evil stuff?" Dean asked and Sam frowned before shaking his head.
"No, I'm listening. Keep going" he replied, turning back to his drawing and I gave up brushing my hair, it was too long for me to sort out on my own so I walked over to Sam, pulling my hair up into a bun using the hair bobbles that I had rolled onto my wrist when I climbed out of the shower. He glanced at me but I looked at the picture and saw that the tree he had drawn looked bare, with lots of branches. It looked like any normal tree. Shit, this was going to be hard to find.
"And in Sacramento a guy shot himself in the head. Three times" Dean stated and I looked up, frowning at him as he waved his hand at Sam, since Dean had come to a stop at the foot of the bed.
"Any of these blowin' up your skirt pal?" Dean asked and I turned to look at Sam, seeing that he was frowning at the tree.
"Wait, I recognise this picture. I've seen it before" he stated and I frowned. Well of course he did, he had dreamt it last night!
"Seen what?" Dean questioned but Sam got up from the bed and moved to pull his duffel out and extract a picture from there.
"What are you doing?" Dean asked but I gathered that he recognised the tree as a backdrop to some picture we had probably taken throughout the years. Frowning, I knelt up and walked over to him, across the bed, since he had his back to me, before I climbed to my feet, looking at the photo over his shoulder, seeing that it was a picture of the Winchesters, from when Sam was a baby. The four of them standing in front of the house in our hometown, with the exact same tree in the background.
"Shit" I breathed and Sam nodded stiffly in reply before turning to me and looking at me, since I was a fairly even height with him now, probably half a head taller.
"Dean, I know where we have to go next" Sam stated, looking away from me and we both turned to Dean to see him frowning at the two of us weirdly.
"Where?" he asked, obviously unsure of where we would be going since Sam hadn't shown much interest in the places he was listing off just. I turned back to Sam at the same time that he did before nodding encouragingly and he sighed, turning back to Dean.
"Back home, back to Kansas" he stated and I turned to look at Dean to see he looked scared and confused.
"Okay random, where'd that come from?" he asked and Sam turned the photo so that Dean could see it.
"This was taken in front of our old house right? The house where mom died?" Sam asked and Dean shrugged before nodding.
"Yeah" he said and I placed my hand on Sam's shoulder comfortingly, but also because I was losing my balance on the bed because it was soft and I kept swaying slightly.
"And it didn't burn down, right? Not completely at least, I mean, they rebuilt it right?" Sam asked and Dean frowned.
"Yeah, I guess, so? What the hell are you talkin' about?" Dean asked and I could tell he was completely confused, simply by looking at his face. He couldn't understand why Sam wanted to go back to the place where everything had fallen apart.
"Okay, look, this is gonna sound crazy but…the people in our old house? I think they are in danger" Sam said and I nodded slowly in agreement which made Dean frown at the two of us, but I ignored him, instead letting go of Sam's shoulder and stepping down off the bed, landing on the floor with a light thud.
"Why would you think that?" Dean asked and I bit my lip, before turning to look at Sam.
"Uh, it's just um, look just trust me on this okay?" Sam replied and I walked away from the brothers before going over to my duffel and packing my stuff.
"Wait, whoa, whoa, trust you?" Dean asked.
"Yeah" Sam replied and I heard Dean sigh.
"Look man, that's pretty weak. You gotta give me a bit more than that" Dean urged and I heard Sam sigh so I turned to look at him, frowning in thought as I tried to piece some of the things together in my mind before I swallowed harshly, feeling my stomach churn and my heart rate speed up as I realised the reason for my dream. I'd been having it every night for the last week, ever since we settled down in the motel for a while, but I'd had it on and off for about a week and a half before that, but I couldn't understand why until now. The fire, the bedroom and Sam's dream about the people in their old house, it all linked together… Mary died in the fire that engulfed their house, starting in Sam's bedroom. It would make sense as to why I was comfortable in that bedroom, because even though I'd never been in there, my subconscious obviously picked up on the fact that the Winchesters had lived there once upon a time and I always felt safe around them. But what I couldn't understand was why I reacted as though I was actually there, unless… it wasn't a dream? But it couldn't be real surely? I mean, I had been sleeping in my bed, so how could I have been in two places at once?
"Look, it's really hard to explain" Sam said and I blinked, looking up and away from my duffel which I had been staring at, realising that it had probably taken me under thirty seconds to think of all of that because Sam had only just replied to Dean's previous sentence.
"Well, tough, I'm not going anywhere until you do" Dean stated, crossing his arms stubbornly as Sam sighed. I could see the expectant look on Dean's face but I already knew where this was heading. Sam was going to tell Dean about the dreams, but they weren't normal dreams, they were strange and oh god. I looked up at Sam with what I'm assuming was a shocked expression on my face as my eyes nearly bulged out of my head. Dean saw my expression over Sam's shoulder and after frowning at me weirdly, turned his expression back to his brother as I let myself slide down to the floor and push any strands of hair that had fallen out of place away from my face and tuck them behind my ears. Dean frowned at me once again.
"I, uh, have these nightmares" Sam stated and I heard Dean snort.
"Yeah, I've noticed" he stated and I laughed humourlessly, making the boys turn and look at me.
"Not those sort of nightmares" I stated, before looking at Sam and lifting my eyebrows, "-right Sammy?" I asked and Dean frowned as Sam paled.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked but I continued looking at Sam who was looking back at me, horrified. I saw him swallow as he opened his mouth but nothing came out. He knew I'd figured it out, which really made sense as to why he thought Jessica's death was his fault.
"Her death wasn't your fault Sam" I stated and Dean threw his arms in the air as Sam walked over to the other bed and sank down on it heavily.
"Hello?" Dean said and I sighed, pushing myself to my feet as I looked at Sam.
"Your place to tell him, not mine Sammy" I stated, continuing to pack my bag up as I heard Sam take a deep breath.
"Sometimes these nightmares come true" Sam stated but I could hear the fear in his voice. He was scared as to how Dean would react.
"Come again?" Dean sputtered and I looked up to see that he was stunned, not knowing what to say to that.
"Look Dean… I dreamt about Jessica's death, days before it happened" he stated and I flinched, receiving a large wave of guilt and saw Sam and Dean look at me.
"People have weird dreams man, I'm sure it was just coincidence" Dean stated and I snorted loudly, but kept quiet, although Dean looked annoyed, but for once I knew this wasn't my place to interfere, even though we had seen plenty of weird things over the years, we wouldn't be so quick to ignore someone if they told us if this was part of a job. Unless it was because this was Sam saying this, and Dean didn't want to accept that there was something totally different about his brother. Wait, now that made sense as to why Sam always felt a little off compared to his brother and dad. Dean sat down on the bed at the same time that Sam stood up and faced him, throwing his hands in the air and shaking his head at his brother as I retrieved Sam's duffel and glanced around the room, but decided he had probably packed this morning.
"No Dean, I dreamt about the blood dripping down, the fire, her on the ceiling and I didn't do a damn thing about it because I didn't believe it. Now I'm dreaming about that tree, our house and some woman screaming for help. I mean, that's where it all started, so that has to mean something right?" Sam asked and I looked at him before sighing and nodding, but Dean looked a little shocked and sick, as well as the fact that I could feel he was overwhelmed. He didn't know what to think, but the idea of them returning home was freaking him out.
"I don't know" he stated and I heard that he sounded lost at that moment. I looked at Sam and saw that he had realised the same thing so he sat down on the bed, facing Dean and leaning forwards on his knees.
"Dean, what do you mean you don't know? This woman might be in danger, heck this could even be the thing that killed Jess and Mom" Sam said and I felt the blood drain out of my face again as I sat down heavily next to Sam making him look up and frown at me.
"You're pale Als, what's wrong? Are you, are you okay?" he asked, stumbling over his words and I swallowed before nodding.
"Yeah Sammy, I'm fine, the whole you having premonitions thing is fine. I always knew there was something off about you" I sighed and he frowned as Dean looked up in shock.
"What the hell does that mean?" Dean asked and I bit my lip before shaking my head and looking away, getting to my feet to avoid looking at the boys, they knew me well enough to grasp when I was lying.
"Aliana?" Sam questioned and the use of my full name had me snapping my head up to look at him and I saw his facial expression change before he snorted in reply.
"Seems I'm not the only one with a deep, dark secret" he stated and I saw Dean look at me with wide eyes and I swallowed but kept focused on Sam and I could imagine the wheels in his head turning like in a cartoon and he gasped.
"No way!" he exclaimed and I saw Dean frown at the two of us.
"You too?" Sam asked and I closed my eyes before breathing out a deep breath that I hadn't realised I was holding before opening my eyes.
"How long?" Sam asked, frowning and I sighed, before rubbing my eyes.
"Ever since I was born" I stated and shrugged. The boys looked shocked.
"So what, you have dreams that come true as well?" Dean asked and I sent him a small smile before shaking my head and walking over to sit beside Sam, frowning in thought. How was I to explain this to them without freaking them out?
"It's an incredibly long story" I stated and Sam snorted.
"We can make time" he said and I groaned, before covering my face with my hands and scrubbing my face before pulling my hands away and standing up, to look at both boys easily.
"Dean, you've noticed the last few years that I've been more weird" I stated and he grinned before shrugging.
"Are you on about you feelings?" he asked and I nodded in reply.
"Yup. It's something I've always had, ever since I was born. But you know how when we were all younger and Alissa and I would act weirdly? You would joke about how twins are on the same wavelength. Well you had no idea just how right you were" I sighed, beginning to tell the tale and seeing that they both looked shocked. I shrugged in reply.
"Well we always knew that we were different. We had a connection that no one else had, not even you guys and that's saying something because you are pretty close. Alissa and I were able to guess things before they would happen" I said, frowning slightly. It was difficult trying to explain this.
"Answer me this Sam, when you dream is it just pictures? Or is there sound too?" I asked and Sam frowned before thinking and shrugging.
"Depends. It's mostly pictures. I know there should be sound and I can guess what sound should be there but it's absent. Except when I have my own nightmares that replay what happened, sound is added then" he sound, frowning and I smiled before nodding in reply.
"Well, Alissa was exactly the same. She saw pictures and images while she slept and she would wake up screaming, able to see whatever was happening. Her pictures were detailed most of the time. They worked like a running film from beginning to end, it didn't jump like a crap tape" I stated and Sam frowned so I smiled and nodded.
"I know that you get running pictures occasionally, but you receive hazy images until you get everything you need and your brain can piece it together to give you a running film" I stated and he frowned, but I shook my head in reply to his 'how did you know that?' question. I would get to that later. Maybe, but it wasn't important and I hadn't figured out how and why I had tapped into his nightmares.
"Well where Alissa saw the pictures, I heard what happened and felt what the victims felt, but I could never see what was happening. We would always wake at the same time, screaming and having to console each other until our mom ran into our room and held us. You remember the time when we were about one and you were staying over? I woke up screaming and you two ran into my room, where my mom told you I was ill?" I asked and they nodded slowly before Sam shook his head.
"You two dreamt something?" he asked and I nodded before frowning.
"I don't remember what it was, but someone died" I sighed, shrugging and seeing that Sam and Dean looked astonished.
"Well these abilities had their issues. Alissa couldn't see the pictures while she awake, unless she concentrated incredibly hard, but it made her ill afterwards. But I still received feelings while I was awake. I could feel what my parents felt, what my sister felt and even what you guys felt when you came over. But it was too much. Keep in mind that I was three years old, more developed than most three year olds and so I was able to tell my mom everything. The emotions became too much, especially when you used to argue with your dad Sam" I state and Sam frowned at me, but I shook my head.
"Well my mom knew instantly what was wrong, so she helped me train, to keep myself separated from those emotions, but also how to open myself up to them if I needed to, but I vowed that I would never do that, that I would never use that ability to spy on what people I loved were feeling, because feelings allowed me to guess what they were thinking, or know what they were thinking if I was close to the person. I didn't want that advantage, but I have that because my brain works faster than most people's, it's always been that way and I can usually guess what someone is thinking based on the small stream of their emotions that I let myself feel" I said, pausing in order to let this sink in for the guys. I smiled at Dean to see he looked in pain.
"It's confusing I know" I stated and Sam frowned at me.
"I've heard of this before. You're an empath" he stated and I smiled before nodding.
"Yup, that's what my mom called it too, but she said I was stronger than most empaths, that I could feel more than the average empath, and she knew what she was talking about because my mom had encountered people with those abilities at some time in her life, and she said they had never been as strong as me" I replied and Sam nodded slowly, but I could feel that he was impressed which made me laugh slightly.
"It is impressive to other people I suppose Sammy, but it's a pain in the ass" I shrugged and he looked shocked which made me smirk and shake my head, I was planning on proving to them later that I was telling the truth.
"Anyway, I know how you feel Sam, I know the guilt at knowing what was going to happen and then not doing anything about it which resulted in someone's death" I said and he stood up before walking over to me and hugging me.
"Your family" he said and I sighed before nodding, pushing him away a little. I needed to hurry up and finish this so that we could get on the road to Lawrence.
"I'd been having strange feelings for two maybe three days before. Alissa had been seeing pictures of people in a house and could see them torturing someone. I'd felt the pain that the victims were going through as well as when I was awake, feeling nauseous, scared, desperate and hopeless. My nerves were strung thin and I'd been on edge for those few days. Alissa knew how I felt and it wasn't until my parents were being tortured that I found out why I had been feeling that way. My feelings, instead of allowing me to feel what someone was feeling at that point in time, allowed me to feel what I would be feeling a few days in front as my parents were killed. But from that night everything stopped. I had no more feelings, or none that happened while I was awake and conscious, I apparently had feelings while I was sleeping according to Sam, but it was only in the last two years where they came back allowing me to occasionally receive these feelings now and then. At first I thought that it was just some sort of weird gut instinct, because I couldn't remember having these abilities when I was younger, but they became worse and got stronger when Sam joined us. I'd been feeling iffy for about a week before Jessica died, receiving weird feelings of nausea, desperation, dizziness, guilt and fear and it wasn't until that I night that I found those were what Sam had been feeling at that moment" I sighed and Sam frowned at me, since he had sat back down on the edge of the bed. I shrugged at him and sighed.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't figure out what happened sooner. But Alissa and I were usually able to stop anything happening when we were younger because my feelings and her images would help us figure it out, plus the fact that I couldn't remember what I was capable of and so didn't understand what the feelings meant" I frowned and Sam smiled before shrugging.
"It's fine Als" he said and I frowned before sighing as I walked over and wrapped my arms around him as he wrapped his arms around my waist.
"The same goes for you too Sammy. How were you to know what would happen, they were dreams and anyone would just believe that they were having the dream because they were scared of losing that person" I stated, whispering into his hair and he sighed against my stomach, since he was resting his head there, before he pulled back and looked up at me. He shrugged and shook his head but I nodded in reply and pulled away before walking around and sitting next to Dean, so that I could look at Sam.
"I get it, I know you feel guilty. Hopefully you can forgive yourself one day, the only reason you're feeling this guilty is because you think that if you told her about your life, the one you led before she knew you, that you could've protected her that way. But even that wouldn't have helped" I stated and Sam frowned but I shook my head at him and shrugged.
"I don't know why I'm saying that, but it's true. This thing that killed your mom and Jess, well whatever it is, it's powerful for sure. Your dad hasn't found it yet so surely that must tell you something?" I said and Sam shivered slightly.
"That's creepy" he said and I snorted.
"Says the guy who has visions" I said and he smirked.
"You can't talk, because you sort of have them to" he replied and I frowned.
"Touché" I shrugged and Sam laughed slightly as I flinched and turned to Dean.
Throughout my explaining my weirdness, Dean had mostly stayed quiet and I knew that he had been listening but his thoughts had been elsewhere. I sighed and covered his hand with my own which made him start in surprise before he sent me a small smile in return and I frowned at him, cocking my head to the side before sighing.
"Everything will be fine Dean. There's nothing to be anxious about" I stated and he frowned.
"Dude, don't do that, it's freaky" he hissed and I looked at him in surprise before gritting my teeth to keep myself from saying something incredibly horrible. Dean didn't deserve it because learning that Sam had weird abilities was enough for him to deal with, but to learn that I was the same must be too much. Hell I knew I would have trouble coping so I couldn't blame him for snapping at me.
"Dude, I'm not using my Shining-esque powers on you. I know you well enough by now to gather what you are thinking and feeling by your body language and facial expressions, Dean. It's the same with Sam, I don't need to read your thoughts through your emotions, I know you well enough that I can gather what you are feeling and the way you think from one simple habit" I frowned, shrugging. He looked surprised at my choice of words, but I knew that it was because I had said something that was probably very close to what he was thinking.
"I know it's hard to take in, but we need to get going Dean. You can either stay here and we'll meet up somewhere with you, or you can come with us, but no matter what you decide Sam and I won't mind. For once do something for yourself, and not because you are panicking that we can't keep our own butts safe" I said and Dean sighed.
"Yeah, just give me a minute to get my head around that the two of you should be in a horror film" he sighed before pushing himself to his feet where he then proceeded to pace the room before passing and looking at us.
"You're serious about this?" he asked and I shrugged in reply.
"Yeah Dean, we are. There's a reason that both of us had those weird dreams last night, and it's because there is something strange going on in your old house" I said as sweetly as possible, not wanting to freak him out. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair before sighing and I could feel the torment inside him. He wanted to come to see if Sam and I were right, and also to keep our asses safe, but this was home, it was where their mom had died and he wasn't sure if he was ready for that.
"So you're telling me that I need to go back home. Especially when…" he said, trailing off, finding it hard to voice his thoughts. I frowned, for once being unable to read him, but knowing that whatever was playing on his mind was bothering him.
"When what?" Sam urged and Dean's expression suddenly became sad.
"When I swore to myself that I would never go back" he said and I smiled at him slightly, but not able to muster up much of an encouraging smile. Dean wouldn't want my pity or my concern, that's just who he was.
"Dean, we have to go, just to check that everything is okay and put our worries to bed" I sighed and Dean gulped before nodding.
"I know" he said, sounding a little choked but trying his best not to sound like that. I smiled and got to my feet before walking over to him and wrapping my arms around him tightly, happy and smiling to myself when he instantly hugged me back. Well he still seemed okay around me, he didn't seem scared of me which was a good thing.
"I love you" I stated and he hugged me tighter before nodding.
"I know" he said and I rolled my eyes at myself as he kissed my hair.
"I love you too" he sighed and I squeezed him, glad that he still felt that way and his feelings towards me hadn't changed. Dean may have always wanted to be like his dad, but the way he was, was much better. I had no idea how John would've reacted to this.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry that you found out like this. I know it's a lot to handle and it's a lot to think about. But I'll always be me and I'll always annoy you to death with my teasing and my protectiveness. And don't worry, everything will be fine, because we have each other" I said into his ear and felt him nod against the side of my head.
"Good, because I don't want to lose you. You're the only one who I have left, who hasn't left me. So please, don't ever change" he whispered and I blinked the tears away.
"I'm not gonna leave you Dean. I'll never walk away from you, because you know I rely on you to keep me alive" I said, pulling back and smiling at him where he shook his head. I saw how vulnerable he looked at this moment and I kissed his cheek before pulling back and smirking.
"Now man up, because we need to go, unless you want me to drive the Impala" I said and his eyes widened before he backed up.
"Oh hell no. Just because you have freaky abilities does not mean I have changed my mind about you driving my baby" he stated and I rolled my eyes before grinning and winking at him and turning away to collect my duffel before I picked it up and grinned at Dean again, walking over to where Sam was waiting and swinging my duffel, careful to hit him with the side that was piled with clothes so that I wouldn't hurt him with my laptop, though it was more likely that he would hurt my laptop. He grunted and stumbled forward a step.
"Get your ass moving Melinda Gordon" I said and heard Dean snort with laughter behind me as Sam glared.
"Shut up Ali, you really can't say anything" he said and I grinned.
"Yeah but my comparison was awesome. Except for the fact that she sees ghosts. Dude!" I gasped, looking at Dean with wide eyes, making him start and look at me warily before frowning at my grin.
"How cool would it be if I could see ghosts?" I asked and Dean snorted as Sam burst into laughter behind me and I glared at them.
"It wasn't that funny, I was being serious" I sighed before kicking Sam's ass, making him stumble out of the front door and towards the Impala, the two of them still laughing as Dean closed the door behind him and unlocked the car, allowing the three of us to throw our duffels away and climb inside while I glared at the back of their heads. Assholes, that would be cool, although if I saw the kind of ghosts that we fought then I would be fucked. The ghosts on Ghost Whisperer were… not exactly friendly, but not usually hell bent on murder. But Jennifer Love Hewitt did make an awesome psychic, and I knew that Dean thought she was hot. I had watched the first episode that had come out not long before we received the recording that John had sent Dean and my eyes widened.
"Crap, Dean I've missed like, the last who knows how many episodes!" I exclaimed and he groaned as Sam turned in his seat to frown at me.
"You watched Ghost Whisperer?" he asked and I shrugged.
"Yeah, but since you dragged your fat ass back with us I haven't been able to watch it. I watched the first episode and haven't watched them since" I stated and Sam smiled before shaking his head.
"I'm sure someone posted the episodes online. I'll look for you when we get this job out of the way" he said and I grinned before messing his hair up.
"Yay, thanks Sammy. I knew there was a reason that I loved you" I joked and he blew at the hair that had fallen in his face, before glaring at me but sighing and rolling his eyes at my smile. Both of them loved it when I teased them really. It was hilarious, for all of us really since the boys could laugh at themselves most of the time. I couldn't though, I got embarrassed easily.
We pulled up outside of the houses, the old Winchester house to be specific, but because we had parked across the road, I could also see my old house, which made me frown because there was no evidence that anyone was living there. There was evidence of someone living in Sam and Dean's old house though, since there were blinds and curtains up.
"You gonna be okay man?" Sam asked and I turned to see that the two of them were bent forwards, looking out through the driver's window at the house. Dean breathed deeply.
"I'll get back to you on that" Dean stated, before he climbed out of the car and Sam turned to frown at me, so I smiled and opened my door to get out, him doing the same two seconds after and both of our car doors closed at the same time with a thud. I looked over at Dean to see that he was standing there, looking at the house, so I hurried around and linked my arm through his, hoping to comfort him. He looked down at me and smiled fondly before nodding and we made our way across the road, the two of us glancing briefly at my old house.
"Looks like no one's home" I said, nodding at my house as Sam hurried to stand on my other side and he looked over as well before he frowned.
"I wonder why" he said and I snorted.
"I doubted anyone wanted to live in a place where practically a whole family was murdered" I sighed and both boys winced as we walked up the steps to the front door and I let go of Dean so that he could walk forward and knock on the door as I stayed standing beside Sam, my hand flying out to grip his and I saw him frown at me but he held my hand and didn't say anything, obviously aware of my hand shaking. I already had a bad feeling from being here.
My stomach was churning, worse than it ever had before and I felt myself trying to hold down the bile that I could feel slowly rising upwards, demanding for me to vomit in the bush near to the front door, but I held it down and concentrated on taking deep breaths while Dean knocked. My head began to feel fuzzy and the dizziness set in, which hyped up a few notches when the door opened to reveal a pretty blonde woman. I gulped and squeezed the life out of Sam's hand as he did the same to me. Obviously this was the woman he had seen in his strange little dream, because this was the woman I had seen in my dream.
"Hi?" she asked, confused as to why there were two guys and girl who she didn't recognise standing on her porch.
"Sorry to bother you ma'am but we're with the Federal-" Dean began.
"I'm Sam Winchester and this is my brother Dean, we used to live here. This is Ali Prescott, our friend and she used to live next door. We were just drivin' through the neighbourhood and were wondering if we could come and check out the old place?" Sam said and I breathed deeply, feeling him slide his hand around and lace his fingers with mine as I trembled slightly, before he started rubbing circles on my skin with his thumb.
"Winchester? That's so funny, I think I found some of your photos the other night" she said, frowning a little at the coincidence but smiling.
"You did?" Dean asked and the woman smiled before nodding.
"Yeah, come on in" she said, standing aside, opening the door a little further to let us in and I saw Dean hesitate momentarily before he stepped in and I took a deep breath before holding it as Sam and I walked through the doorway and into the house.
The woman led us further in, Dean walking behind her but I doubled over, letting out the breath I had been holding as it felt like I'd been sucker punched in the gut. All the air left me and I couldn't breathe. I felt suffocated, I couldn't get enough oxygen and I felt as though I had just been tackled by about five football players.
"Ali?" Sam asked and I groaned.
"Umf" I said, straightening up painfully and wincing as Sam gripped my hand a little tighter, but I focused on putting one foot in front of the other to follow Dean and the woman into the kitchen. Seeing that the girl from my dream was sitting at the wooden table in the dreary kitchen and there was a play pen on the left wall, where a boy, a toddler, was holding onto the railings, jumping up and down excitedly.
"Juice, juice, juice" he said with each jump and I smiled at the kid as the woman laughed at her son.
"That's Ritchie, he's kind of a juice junkie" she said, walking over to the old fridge and unlatching it before opening it, taking a sippy cup out and closing it again.
"But whatever, at least he won't get scurvy" she said and I smiled as she walked over to her son and handed him the juice before walking over to the girl sitting at the table and resting her hand on her head as I realised she was writing, obviously doing homework.
"Sari this is Sam and Dean, they used to live here. And their friend Ali used to live next door" the woman said and her daughter, Sari smiled up at us.
"Hi" Sari said and Dean waved at her.
"Hey Sari" Sam and I said before turning to grin at each other and shaking our heads in amusement before I squeezed Sam's hand, letting him know that this was the girl from my dream and I felt his thumb stroke my skin once, comfortingly before I extracted my hand from his and stuffed my hands into the front pockets of my jeans, rocking back fully onto my heels, to keep my balance from the energy that I could feel here, the energy that remained from what had happened here twenty two years ago.
There was a still lot of pain and anger and guilt and sadness and grief here, but there was also a slight tinge of happiness, probably from before Mary died. But I was also aware that these energies corresponded to not only the Winchesters, but also to this woman and her family. For some reason, I wanted to call her Jenny but I wasn't sure why, though I thought that the name suited her.
"So you just moved here?" Dean asked and Jenny nodded in reply.
"Yeah from Wichita" Jenny said and I felt myself frown. Where the hell was that?
"So, you got family here or…?" Dean asked trailing off to leave Jenny to fill in the gaps. She didn't look as happy at that moment as her tough face fell momentarily and she glanced down at her daughter who was switching between doing her homework and watching us.
"No. I just uh… needed a fresh start. So new town, new job, when I find one and new house" she said and I received a wave of sadness and sorrow and I looked at her ring finger to see that she was no longer wearing a wedding ring, but I could see traces that she once had worn one.
"So, how are you likin' it so far?" Sam asked and Jenny frowned in thought.
"Well, uh, all due respect to your childhood home, I mean, I'm sure you had plenty of happy memories here" Jenny began and I saw Dean smile weakly at her.
"But this place has its issues" she finished and I frowned.
"What do you mean?" I asked her curiously.
"Well, this place is getting old really. I mean with the wiring, we have flickering lights hourly" she began and I frowned, swallowing around my fear before nodding and sending her a sympathetic look.
"That's too bad. I mean, I vaguely recall that there were sometimes flickering light incidents here when we were all younger. Anything else?" I asked and Jenny smiled slightly before she frowned in thought.
"Um…sink's baked up and there's rats in the basement" she stated before pausing and frowning, slightly worried. "-I'm sorry, I don't mean to complain" she sighed and Dean smiled before shaking his head.
"No, not at all. Have you seen the rats, or is it just the scratching?" Dean asked and I could tell that he wasn't offended at all. Then again why would he be? All Dean had were bad memories here.
"No, it's just the scratching actually" Jenny replied.
"Mom?" Sari asked and Jenny bent down next to her daughter so that she could hear her. "Ask them if it was here when they were" she said and Jenny frowned as Sam tilted his head curiously.
"What Sari?" he asked and she turned to look at him.
"The thing in my closet" she stated and I felt my throat constrict, making me swallow the breath that I had just taken.
"Oh, no baby, there was nothing in their closest" she said, before looking up at Sam and Dean.
"Right?" she asked, telling them in her own way to agree with her to put her daughter out of this silly frame of mind.
"No, no, right, of course not" Sam said, trying to reassure the girl and adding a little smile and nod to the end of the sentence.
"She had a nightmare the other night" Jenny stated, obviously trying to explain why her daughter was saying strange things.
"I wasn't dreaming mom, I told you. It came into my bedroom- it was on fire" the girl said and I felt my skin grow cold as I saw Sam and Dean's faces, telling me that they were shocked at hearing that. I gulped, so that dream I had wasn't a dream, I had actually watched it happen as it happened. But I couldn't understand why, since that had never happened before. But I sent her a small smile before tilting my head, deciding to change the conversation.
"So, what work are you doing Sari?" I asked and she made a face.
"Math" she said and I groaned.
"Gosh, I hated that as a kid" I said, shaking my head and smiling sympathetically, making her smile at me.
"Right! It's so boring!" she stated and I grinned before nodding in reply.
"I agree with you. Sam here loved math when he was your age" I stated and Sari scrunched her face up at him.
"Really?" she asked and Sam chuckled, before shrugging his wide shoulders.
"Yup, I liked solving problems. Ali preferred writing" he said and Sari grinned before nodding.
"Me to" she said and I smiled at her before nodding and turning to Jenny.
"Anyways we'd better shoot off" I said and she smiled before nodding.
"It was nice meeting you both. Hopefully the problems can get fixed" I said, shrugging and she nodded in reply before walking with us back out of the kitchen and towards the door where she opened it for us and smiled.
"Nice meeting you to" she said and we walked out before she closed the door behind us and I took in a deep breath of air, feeling better to be out of the house since I no longer felt suffocated by that house. We made our way over to the car.
"You hear that? A figure on fire" Sam stated and Dean nodded.
"And that woman, Jenny, you say she's the woman from your dream?" Dean asked and Sam nodded. I frowned at that, had she introduced herself to Dean while Sam and I took our time walking into the house?
"Yeah, positive" he said and I sighed before rubbing the back of neck, underneath my ponytail.
"Mine too, so was Sari. I saw what she saw, what her mom thinks was just a terrible nightmare" I sighed and the boys frowned at me
"You saw what happened, when it happened?" Sam asked and I shrugged before nodding.
"Yup, and that has never happened before" I sighed and the boys frowned before sighing as we crossed the road.
"Yeah. And you hear what she's talking about? Scratching, flickering lights, both signs of a malevolent spirit" Sam stated and Dean nodded.
"Well, I'm just freaked that your weirdo visions are comin' true" Dean replied and Sam sighed.
"Forget about that for a minute. The thing in the house, do you think it's the thing that killed Mom and Jessica?" Sam asked and I could hear the panic in his tone.
"I don't know" Dean exclaimed and I frowned, biting my lip but kept quiet, since I wasn't completely sure at the sure.
"Well, I mean has it come back or has it been there this whole time?" Sam asked, obviously interested and slightly nervous about the fact that this could be the thing that the boys had practically been hunting their whole lives.
"Or it could be something else entirely. We don't know yet Sam" Dean replied, obviously trying to squash Sam's hopes, which I agreed with him doing so.
"Well whatever it is, those people are in danger and we need to get 'em out of that house" Sam said and I nodded, definitely agreeing to that.
"And we will" Dean replied, which made Sam frown.
"No, now" he said and Dean sighed as we reached the car, turning to look at is brother.
"And how do you suppose we do that? Have you got a story that she will believe?" he asked and Sam frowned, he hated not being to act instantly. But then again after he witnessed Jess's death only for it to actually happen, knowing he could stop it, then this must be hard, knowing something was going to happen but not knowing what and not knowing how to stop it.
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Sam asked as Dean and I walked to our sides, before climbing into the car and Sam sighed, frowning before he climbed into the passenger seat and Dean started the car, before driving away from the house, and pulling into a gas station nearby.
"We just gotta chill, that's all. Now if this was any other case, what would we do?" Dean asked as he turned the engine off, turning in his seat slightly to look at Sam and myself, and Sam turned slightly, to be able to include me in the conversation too, which I was grateful for. I hated being left out. Sam and I sighed in reply.
"We'd check around, try and dig up the history of the house, figure out what we were dealing with" I shrugged and the boys nodded in reply.
"Exactly, but this time we already know what happened" Dean stated.
"Yeah, but how much do we know? I mean, what do you remember?" Sam asked and I froze at his question. Dean had never spoken about it before.
"About that night you mean?" Dean asked and Sam nodded.
"Yeah" he said simply and Dean frowned.
"Not much, I remember the fire, the heat" Dean said, pausing for a second to collect his thoughts and calm his emotions, before looking at Sam.
"Then I carried you out of the front door" he stated and I saw Sam's surprise.
"You did?" Sam asked, sounding as surprised as he looked.
"Yeah, what, you never knew that?" Dean asked and Sam frowned before shaking his head.
"No" he replied, still shaking his head and Dean shrugged.
"Well, you know dad's story as well as I do. Mom was…was on the ceiling and whatever had put her there was long gone by the time he got there" Dean said and I sensed that this was hard for him. I could sense the tornado of emotions, and he was feeling so overwhelmed. I was counting down how long it took until he broke down. I was guessing it wouldn't be more than an hour, tops.
"And he never had a theory about what did it?" Sam asked and Dean sighed, but I gathered that Sam was asking this in case John had said something to him recently while he had been at college.
"Well if he did, he kept it to himself. God knows we asked him enough times" was Dean's reply and Sam nodded slowly, obviously seeing that Dean was telling the truth and their dad hadn't mentioned anything to him.
"Okay. So if we're gonna figure what's happening, then we need to find out what happened back then. See if it's the same thing" Sam stated and Dean nodded before swallowing.
"Right we'll talk to people who were there. Neighbours, dad's friends" he said and Sam sighed.
"Does this feel just like another job to you?" Sam asked, but Dean was silent, he didn't say anything, but he didn't need to. I knew that he didn't feel like this was just another job. It was way too personal for both of them. Sam seemed to feel the same way.
"I'll be right back, I need to use the bathroom" Dean said, before he climbed out of the car and walked around the building to where the bathrooms were located, but I gathered it was just an excuse to get out of the car. I sighed and Sam turned to look at me.
"You okay?" we asked each other at the same time, causing us to smile. I shrugged, gesturing for Sam to go first which made him sigh and lean against the back of his chair.
"Yeah I think so. I mean this is so weird, but I don't remember anything from that night so it isn't as bad for me, but Dean remembers snippets and I'm worried about him. I'm more concerned for the family. I don't want them going through the same thing we went through" he said and I smiled before nodding and ruffling his hair.
"Don't worry, we'll figure it out" I stated and Sam smiled.
"Always so sure. But what about you? How are you?" he asked, frowning and I knew that he was worried after that episode in the house. I shrugged and played with the hair in my ponytail.
"I'm better now that we're out of the house" I stated and Sam frowned at me curiously.
"What, did you feel something?" he asked and I winced, but nodded.
"A whole lot of something. I never want to go back there and feel that again but of course I will to make sure that Jenny and her children are safe" I stated and Sam smiled before nodding, but still looking at me curiously and I winced, not wanting to tell him but knowing that he needed to know.
"You won't like this but…" I began, trailing off when I saw Dean return and climb into the car. I frowned at him before smiling and nodding encouragingly, knowing that he'd done what he needed to.
"What won't I like?" Sam asked, completely oblivious to the fact that Dean was so unnerved and so confused. He had no idea what to do, simply because this was getting to him really badly. I bit my lip and Dean turned to face me.
"What Aliana?" he said and I sighed, trying to figure out how best to explain this, knowing that it would be hard.
"When we walked into the house and you followed Jenny, Sam stayed with me. But the moment I walked in I couldn't handle it. I felt suffocated, I couldn't breathe and it felt as though I had like, five football players squashing me. It felt as though as soon as I walked further inside, someone had rammed their fist into my abdomen" I began and Sam and Dean frowned but nodded, telling me to go on so I took in a deep breath.
"Every person has their own energy. Their aura. I can feel this, with people I know very well, or people who are very emotional and have no control. Using this energy helps me focus on the person and draw out what they are feeling. It's like standing next to the freezers in a supermarket and feeling the cold it gives out, or standing next to a fire and feeling the heat it gives out. That's how I can feel energy. Now the moment I walked inside, I wanted to run back out and vomit into the bushes outside. The amount of shit clinging to those walls is horrifying. People have energies, but some events also leave behind their energy, this is what psychics tap into, the psychic imprint, it allows some psychics to receive premonitions by coming into contact with the energy, either around an object or an area. What happened to your mom left behind its own imprint, just like I'm sure the death of my family would have, because it was a particularly nasty, emotional and traumatic experience for you guys involved. I picked up on that and could sense the pain and anger and guilt and sadness and grief but also a very tiny inkling of happiness which was obviously before the incident. Though some of those feelings belonged to Jenny as well" I said, taking a deep breath and seeing that Sam and Dean looked… well I wasn't sure.
"I didn't explain that very well did I?" I asked and Sam shook his head in reply.
"No, no you did, don't worry it's just a lot to take in. Are you okay?" he asked and I smiled slightly before nodding in reply.
"Yeah, I have experience with this remember, it's just a little worse than anything I've experienced before" I said, shrugging and the boys nodded in reply.
"Let's get to work shall we?" I suggested and they nodded before Dean started the car.
"So, you and John Winchester… you used to own this garage together?" Dean asked and the man we were talking to nodded in reply.
"Yeah, we used to, a long time ago. Matter of fact it must be, uh, twenty years since John's disappearance. Why the cops interested all of a sudden?" he replied, seemingly curious about this.
"We're re-opening a lot of our unsolved cases. The disappearance of John Winchester is one" I stated and the man turned to me before nodding in reply. He seemed happy with that answer which was good because I couldn't think of anything to say.
"So, what do you wanna know about John?" the man asked and I turned to Dean, telling him that he could deal with this.
"Well, whatever you remember, you know, whatever sticks out in your mind" Dean said and the man frowned in thought for a moment before shrugging.
"Well… he was a stubborn bastard, I remember that" he stated, laughing and I smiled slightly. Apparently, after twenty years John hadn't changed much, because he was still a stubborn asshole.
"And whatever the game, he hated to lose you know? Must be the Marine in him" he said and I saw Dean nod slowly in response. John's stubborn side meant that he hated not getting what he wanted, so chasing the thing that killed his wife for twenty years was frustrating because he wanted to get it right away. He was impatient sometimes. That's where his boys got their impatience from.
"But, oh he loved Mary and he doted on those kids" the man said and I smiled, resisting the urge to glimpse at the boys. Like I always said to them, John had a strange way of showing his love for them, but he did love them and I knew they loved him but it was like there was a gap in the bridge between them, stopping any of them from crossing the bridge and making any form of a stable connection.
"But that was before the fire?" Sam asked and the man nodded.
"That's right"
"Did he ever talk about that night?" I asked and the man frowned before shaking his head.
"No, not at first, but I think he was in shock" Sam nodded at this.
"Right. But eventually, what did he say?" Sam asked.
"Oh, he wasn't thinkin' straight. He said somethin' caused that fire and killed Mary" the man replied and Dean frowned.
"He ever say what did it?" This caused the owner to frown at him.
"Nothin' did it. It was an accident- an electrical short in the walls or something. I begged and begged him to get help but-" he said and I frowned at him.
He seemed to miss John, obviously the two of them had been friends when John still lived in Lawrence and before Mary died in that fire. But there was also something else that this man was feeling, that I couldn't put my finger on. Fear perhaps? Worry? But I sensed it had something to do with the boys.
"But what?" Dean asked, urging the guy to finish his sentence.
"Oh, he just got worse and worse" the man said and I frowned as he became scared. Possibly for John's sanity and the fact that John could be dead and either left his boys, meaning they grew up with no parents, or something had happened to all three of them.
"How?" Dean asked and the man frowned as I glanced around the auto shop, seeing some of the mechanics under cars, or under the hoods of cars. It makes sense as to how Dean knew so much about cars, he learnt all he knew from his dad, and John worked at an auto shop. Strange, because this was news to me. But I knew that John had given the Impala to Dean as a present, believing that his son would look after the car.
"Well he started readin' these strange ol' books. Started going to this palm reader in town" he stated and I frowned.
"Palm reader?" I questioned and he shrugged.
"I dunno, he seemed to think it would help" was the man's reply and I saw Dean frown at this.
"Do you have a name?" he asked and the man turned to him before scoffing.
"No" he said in disbelief, obviously not knowing why the police would want to find the palm reader and why we thought John might've told him who he was seeing. Not that John would have of course, no one knew what he really did and his partner didn't know why he was reading those 'strange ol' books' but I smiled politely.
"Thank you for your time, I think we have everything that we need" I said, nodding and he nodded in reply.
"Can I ask you something?" he said and I nodded suspiciously, my gut twisting.
"Of course" I said politely and he frowned.
"You know what happened to his boys?" he asked and I frowned, before tilting my head to the side.
He seemed panicked, seemingly interested as to what had happened to Sam and Dean, which was funny since they were standing right in front of him, though I suppose they didn't look the same as what they did the last time he saw them. He seemed genuinely concerned for their health and what bothered me was that he didn't think John was fit enough to look after them, what with how he changed when Mary died.
"Sam and Dean Winchester correct?" I asked, snapping myself out of his feelings and he nodded in reply.
"Well as far as I know they are alive, there was no information on the Winchester case file about his sons being dead. No reports about their bodies being found. I'm sure they are fine, sir" I said and he nodded before frowning.
"What about the girl?" he asked and I frowned more. Girl? Shit, did he mean me?
"Girl?" I questioned and John's old business partner nodded.
"Yeah, John and his family lived next to door to the Prescott family. They were a real tight knit group you know. Best men at each other's wedding and Oscar and Melanie Prescott were godparents to those boys. Doted on John's kids, 'cause she had trouble gettin' pregnant. But they had their own girls, twin girls. But somethin' happened, the parents and youngest were killed. Slit apart and the oldest, err… Ali I think her name was, was gone. People 'round here thought she might've been kidnapped but when there was no sign of John at the funeral or his boys or her, people thought he might've come and collected her" he replied and I swallowed. Wow, people were really nosy in this goddamn town! They practically knew everything. Then again after calling up the boys, I'd passed out for about ten minutes before the sound of Dean yelling down my ear roused me.
He told me that they were on their way to pick me up, but that I needed to check a few things, like, were the doors locked, any sign of anything strange smells, flickering lights, strange sounds. When he listed things and I checked them for him, he then told me to pack my stuff up, only clothes and whatever else I desperately needed, before calling the cops and meeting him on the swings at the park, since it was night, no one saw me sitting there, not even the police when they passed by on the way to my house. I frowned and blinked before looking at the man and smiling slightly.
"Sorry sir, I can't help you there" I said, unsure as to what I should say.
"There is no report on an Ali Prescott. The only file we have is for John Winchester, nothing to do with any children, so either they died and nothing was ever found, or they are just really good at hiding" Dean stated and I bit my lip to keep myself from snorting with laughter. We were good at hiding, only we hid in plain sight. The man sighed before nodding.
"Okay thank you, it's just, that's been playing on my mind ever since John left" he said and I smiled slightly before nodding.
"Well thank you for your time" I said and he nodded before we made our way back through the auto shop and towards the Impala which we had parked further down the road, out of view of the auto shop, in case anyone recognised it, since the Impala used to be John's car and I'm positive with how nosy these people were, they would probably remember such a car.
I frowned, focusing on the pavement beneath my feet as I collected my thoughts, before realising that the man felt guilty but I didn't know why. He felt guilty about something and it was more related to the boys than anything else. He felt like he had let John down. Why would he think that? I blinked and gasped, seeing that we had reached the car and Sam and Dean turned to look at me, frowns on their faces.
"Bastard" I gasped, shaking my head which caused them to frown.
"What Als?" Sam asked and I shook my head, before climbing in the car, waiting for them to follow.
"First of all, drive to a payphone where there is a phonebook for the town" I instructed and Dean smiled before nodding.
"Already ahead of you there Ali" he said, poking his tongue out at me before frowning.
"Now what's wrong?" he asked and I sighed.
"Don't shoot the messenger. But he gave off some weird vibes, especially when he inquired about the two of you" I stated and the boys nodded.
"Yeah, he seemed awfully eager to find out what happened to us three in general" Dean stated and I nodded in reply before taking a deep breath.
"Well, when he was talking, I felt what I think was fear and worry mixed together, then just as we were leaving, guilt. For some reason he felt like he let John down, and you boys. He said how he begged John to get help… thinking that your dad had lost his mind or something?" I asked and they nodded, frowning at me in reply, well Sam frowned at me, Dean did it using the rear-view mirror. I sighed again.
"Well, he was worried about you. He was worried that John was too, different, not focused on his boys. Before John left, he called child services on at least two accounts" the car swerved as Dean lost control out of surprise, making me place my hand against the door and the roof above my head. Sam gritted his teeth, letting out a breath between them. What I didn't understand was why he did that? My parents had never done that, but I didn't know if they knew the kind of things John did, but then again, my dad used to help him didn't he? Even so, my parents looked after the boys whenever John wasn't there, so there was no need for John's old partner to call child services when my parents looked after the boys, or at least they did until Alissa and I were born and John took his boys away on the road with him.
"What the hell! Dad did the best that he could!" Dean exclaimed and I frowned at him before shrugging.
"We all know that Dean, but from an outsider's point of view, your dad didn't look like he was coping. I mean turning to the sorts of books he would read about demons and ghosts and vampires and whatnot. He was worried that John wouldn't be able to take care of you, even more so when he didn't show up to my family's funeral and I was nowhere to be found. Looking after his own boys, then his…sort of god-daughter I suppose, had his old partner worried that the pressure would become too much. He was scared that John had perhaps walked out and never come back one day, leaving us to fend for ourselves. That was why he inquired about us" I breathed and Dean pulled over to the payphone which didn't look too far away from a gas station.
We all climbed out of the car and Dean slammed his door extra hard so I walked over to him and gripped his forearms.
"Breathe Dean, I don't want you jumping in that car and going back to the shop to bust that guy's balls" I sighed and Dean frowned before breathing deeply as I placed my cheek against his chest, holding him tightly. John was always a sore issue for Dean, whenever Sam made comments about their dad, Dean wasn't sure whether to stick up for John and punch Sam or agree with Sam, since apparently he believed that his brother had a point every now and then. Not that he would admit to that… but Dean did believe John did the best that he could. And considering that he would drag us around with him while he Hunted, John did do as good of a job as he could, I mean apart from the rebelling Sam turned out okay, and Dean did too, but he was always a little more closed off than his brother. I was the chi that kept everyone balanced, and John had raised me for the last twelve years of my life so he had done okay really. Especially since he could've just deserted us and dropped us off with the state where we would've got put into foster homes.
I felt Dean's heart rate even out and I turned my face in his chest, slowly letting go of him and he hugged me briefly before pulling back, letting me look right into his eyes, seeing that what I had said about this guy still pissed him off but that he was grateful for me, because I was right, he would've gone back there and busted that guys balls if I hadn't calmed him down. I smiled and kissed his cheek before pulling away and looking at Sam, who was leaning against the trunk, his back to us as I calmed Dean down.
"Yo Sammy, there a phonebook in there?" I asked and he looked at me before walking over and pulling out a phonebook from under the payphone, where he leaned against the cubicle as Dean and I leant against the Impala.
"So, there's a few psychics and palm readers in town. There's someone named El Divino and uh…" he said before chuckling, "-the Mysterious Mister Fortinsky" he said and I shook my head.
"Frauds" I stated, before shrugging at boys when they frowned at me weirdly and I gestured for Sam to continue.
"Uh, Missouri Mosley…" he said.
"Wait, wait, Missouri Mosley?" Dean asked and Sam shrugged.
"What?" he said and I frowned, that name sounded, not familiar exactly, not to me anyway but comforting? I don't know, whatever it was it felt right, but apparently Dean knew that name. Had John said something to him then?
"That a psychic?" Dean asked and I was getting from looking at his face that the name sounded familiar to him for some reason.
"Uh, yeah. Yeah I guess so" Sam shrugged, well obviously since her name was listed in the psychic section of the town phonebook. Dean reached into the car before extracting John's journal from the car and flipping the pages open.
"In dad's journal…here look at that" he said, handing it over to Sam.
"First page, first sentence" he stated and Sam frowned.
"'I went to Missouri and I learned the truth'" Sam said, obviously reading out of the book before looking up at Dean who shrugged in reply.
"I always thought he meant the state" Dean stated and I snorted a laugh which made him glare at me.
"Why would your dad go to Missouri?" I asked and Dean shrugged.
"How the hell should I know?" he replied and I rolled my eyes at him in reply before turning to Sam.
"Does the book give her address?" I asked and he shrugged before looking at the listings and nodding in reply.
"Yeah, she lives three streets away from where we used to live" Sam stated and I nodded as he placed the book back in its place before the three of us hopped into the car and Dean drove back the way we had come, as Sam rattled off the address and door number as I breathed deeply, trying to calm my nerves. For some reason I was really nervous about meeting Missouri.
"You okay Ali?" Dean asked and I looked up from my lap to see his eyes flickering in my direction in the rear-view mirror and I smiled before nodding but he snorted.
"Dude, you can't lie to me" he said and I sighed before shrugging.
"I'm nervous" I stated and Dean frowned at me.
"Why?" Sam asked from his place in front of me and I sighed.
"I don't know Sammy, I don't know" I replied and we settled into a comfortable silence, though it didn't last for long because we soon pulled up outside of Missouri's house and I stepped out of the car before walking halfway up the path and instantly felt her energy. She was psychic, a real psychic, not a phony, and she was strong from what I was sensing.
"She's legit" I stated to the boys who had walked over to walk either side of me and I saw Dean frown before Sam nodded. Obviously since he had to deal with his own abilities since he joined us, he was very comfortable with my strangeness, whereas Dean was still adjusting, though I guess learning both of your siblings were freaks was a shock.
The door was open suggesting that we could just walk in so we did, I gestured for the boys to sit on the couch and I frowned, biting my lip as I scanned the room, where I could see a door leading off the waiting room. I instantly felt her energy behind the door. I didn't get any major emotions off her except that she was very centred and focused, though she was a psychic, she could sense things from people, so of course she had to keep herself focused because she would read the issues of many people.
"Will you sit down, you're making me nervous" Dean huffed and I turned to glare at him.
"Sure, if you let me sit on your lap" I shrugged and he rolled his eyes before leaning back against the couch and tapping his thighs which made me smile and shake my head in amusement but I did walk over to him and settle myself on his lap.
It was then that Missouri, a small woman, with curly hair piled on her head and kind eyes and an even kinder heart walked out of the room, escorting a man with her.
"Alright, now don't you worry 'bout a thing. Your wife is crazy about you" she said in a loud, but gentle voice. Well I had no idea how it could be both, but her voice was soothing. The man thanked her and she closed the guy behind him.
"Poor bastard, his woman is cold bangin' the gardener" she said and I laughed lightly, before shaking my head in amusement and climbing off Dean's lap, which when I did, I had to rest my hands on my hips, to try and balance myself as dizziness swept up over me, threatening to drag me down, making me faint. My stomach churned uneasily and I swallowed the feeling of nausea down, but I was unsuccessful since I felt sick. Oh god, what now?
"Why didn't you tell him that?" Sam asked, obviously curious and I rolled my eyes at him. Well that part was obvious.
"People don't come here for the truth, they come here for good news" she said and they stared at her in surprise, making her frown a little.
"Well come on Sam and Dean, I ain't got all day" she said, before walking through the door and I saw the boys exchange curious glances. Well this woman was a psychic after all, and if she had met with John, then she would recognise them by their energy since the Winchester boys had similar energies.
I waited for Sam and Dean to move before taking a step forwards and holding my arms away from my sides to balance myself as black spots covered my vision so I blinked them away, which took about thirty seconds.
"Let me look at you" Missouri said and I saw that they were in the next room so I sighed, but hesitated. She'd only told Sam and Dean to go through, so did that mean I had to stay here? I mean, this was something they had to deal with, this was their old house and something was in that house, so maybe I should just stay here?
"Aliana Prescott, get your butt in here child" Missouri said and I swallowed before hurriedly putting one step in front of the other and walking into the room, which I could see had two tan leather couches placed opposite each other, with a coffee table in between them.
"Sorry ma'am" I said and she smiled gently at me before frowning.
"Dear girl, you look awful" she said and I blinked, clearing my vision which had been covered in black spots due to my sudden movement and I saw her concerned face, before Sam and Dean turned to look at me, a wave of worry engulfing me as they did so and I frowned at them. Jeez, I couldn't handle my emotions and whatever was causing me to feel this way at the moment, I didn't need their worry either.
"I'm fine boys, quit worrying because it's suffocating me" I said, reaching up to rub my forehead, pulling my hand back to feel that I was sweating. They sighed and turned back to Missouri, which was funny seeing the height different between her Sam.
"Oh you boys grew up handsome, and you…" she trailed off the point a finger at Dean, "-were one goofy looking kid" she said and I snorted with laughter which made Dean turn to glare back at me as Sam turned, allowing me to see the smirk on his face which made me grin as I carefully walked over to Dean's other side.
"Sam" Missouri stated, before she took his hand comfortingly before frowning and I felt a wave of energy flowing from her which made me gasp and lean against Dean for support as Missouri looked sad.
"I'm sorry about your girlfriend honey. And your dad? He's missing?" she said, both boys looking confused.
"How do you know all that?" Sam asked and Missouri smiled a little as Sam lifted his eyebrows looking confused and I laughed slightly.
"Well you were just thinking about it" she stated and I frowned. So she was a telepathic psychic? She turned to me and smiled before nodding and I smiled back before turning to Sam.
"Not all psychics are frauds Sammy, you should know that" I stated and we grinned at each other as Dean frowned at the woman in front of us.
"Well, where is he? Is he okay?" he asked and I groaned, slapping my forehead slightly which made the woman laugh and Dean to frown at me slightly.
"You're strange today" he stated and I laughed slightly.
"And you know nothing of psychics you idiot" I stated and Missouri smiled slightly.
"And you do, do you?" she asked and I shrugged as she turned back to Dean.
"I don't know" she stated simply and he frowned, frustrated.
"What do you mean you don't know? You're a psychic aren't you?" he replied and I sighed, before tilting my head up to the ceiling and closing my eyes, shaking my head as I did so. I loved him so much, but he was really dumb sometimes. I opened my eyes and my head swam again.
"Boy, do you see me sawin' some bony tramp in half? You think I'm some sort of magician? I may be able to read thoughts and sense energies but I can't pull facts out of thin air. Now sit, please" she said and I saw Sam smirk at Dean as he walked over to sit on the couch, as Dean sat near to me and I leant against the arm of the chair as Dean shuffled his body and I glared at him.
"Dean" I said, warningly, knowing from his body language what he was going to do as I felt another wave of energy hit me at that moment.
"Boy, you put your foot on my coffee table I'm 'a whack you with a spoon" Missouri said and Sam grinned as I smiled at Dean and Missouri looked at me.
"I didn't do anything" Dean protested and I rolled my eyes at him.
"But you were thinking it" both Missouri and myself stated which caused her to look at me and me to shift my weight unevenly as she frowned at me. Dean raised an eyebrow as Sam smiled.
"How'd you know that's what he was 'a thinkin'?" she asked and I shrugged before biting my lip, swallowing against the fear, pain and desperation that swirled around me, in my heart.
"Breathe Als" Sam stated and I blinked before swallowing again.
"I know Sam and Dean well enough to gauge what they are thinking simply from their body language and facial expressions. Plus Dean was feeling that if he placed his foot on the coffee table that he would be even more comfortable" I stated with a frown, looking around the room. But I felt as ease, nothing I was feeling was coming from anyone here. Missouri nodded slowly and I gathered that she wanted to say more, but felt that she should get to the matter at hand. I swallowed again, leaning heavily on the arm of the couch, until I was sat on it, my hand instantly going to Dean's shoulder, and I found I could breathe again, his energy pushing away my swirling feelings and thoughts for a moment. That was strange! That had never happened before!
"So our dad, when was your first meeting with him?" Sam asked and Missouri focused on him.
"He came for a reading, a few days after the fire. I told him what was really out there you know, I guess you could say that I drew back the curtains" Missouri stated and I blinked.
I went to Missouri and I learned the truth John's words echoed in my head, but this time it was as though I could hear his voice, hear him saying those words into my ear and I shivered, looking around, but seeing that he was nowhere near.
"What about the fire? Did you know about what killed our mom?" Dean asked, I could tell he was eager to find out the answers that we all wanted.
"A little. He took me to your house and I hoped that I could sense what happened, the little psychic fingerprints" she said and Sam and Dean turned to look at me.
"The psychic echoes?" Sam asked and I smiled weakly before nodding in reply.
"Did you sense what it was?" I asked and she frowned.
"I…" she began, before shaking her head.
"What was it?" Sam asked and I stood up, feeling myself become panicky as I bit my lip, focusing on the conversation and trying to hide my quivering hands from the boys.
"I don't know" Missouri began, whispering, "-oh but it was evil" she finished and I nodded in reply. That I agreed with, there were still faint remnants when I went into the house, but mostly it was just the emotions that were left behind.
"Something's happening again" I stated, feeling a rush of frustration as well as desperation again along with hopelessness.
"So… you think something's back in that house?" Missouri asked looking away from me as I said that and we all nodded in reply, but I looked out of the door, hoping that I would be able to guess what was happening, but this room was comforting and I couldn't feel anything insanely strange outside of these four walls, but I was still getting streams of it coming through to me.
"I don't understand" Missouri said.
"What?" Sam asked, obviously confused.
"Well, I haven't been back inside but I've been keeping an eye on the place. It's been quiet. There have been no strange incidents, no sudden deaths. It makes no sense" she said and I sucked in a deep breath, talking around the constricted feeling in my chest. Something was terribly wrong!
"No offence, but just because there have been no sudden deaths or anything strange doesn't mean anything. It's scaring the family, as much as possible by attempting to harm them" I stated before blinking and focusing on Missouri, Sam and Dean, all of whom were looking at me strangely and I nodded at the feeling I was receiving off Sam suddenly. He had a point, because he was feeling uncomfortable and determined to find out what was happening. He wasn't happy.
"Yeah, um, it isn't a coincidence. It can't be" I stated, feeling a frown crease my forehead and Sam nodded.
"I agree. Dad going missing, Jessica dying and now this house acting up after all this time- it feels like something is just beginning" Sam stated and I nodded in agreement, before placing my hand above my stomach and below my chest, pushing against the feeling that was building up in my torso.
"Well, that's a comforting thought" Dean stated, before sighing and I saw Missouri eyeing me up but I ignored her in order to get myself under control. I couldn't freak out like this, though I knew that she knew something about me. It was disturbing.
I breathed in, but felt as though someone had their hands around my throat so I sat back down on the arm of the couch and rested forwards a little, though that didn't help either. I sucked in a breath but it got stuck halfway down and I started hyperventilating.
"Ali?" Dean asked, tapping my back but I continued gasping for air as I felt cold. My whole body was frozen and I felt as though I'd just locked myself in a refrigerator.
"Ali?" he sounded panicked now and I shook my head before gasping and getting to my feet.
"We need to go. Now. They're in trouble. Need to fix it. Now" I rambled and Dean frowned but got to his feet closely followed by Sam.
"Bad feeling?" Sam asked and I gasped in another breath before shaking my head.
"Worse" I stated and he frowned.
"Can you come with us please? Check the place out?" I asked, looking at Missouri and she smiled before nodding.
"Of course, let me grab my coat" she said and we walked out of the house, Sam having the support me by wrapping an arm around my waist and holding me close to his body in case I fell, that way he could catch me.
We walked over to the Impala and I slid inside, before shuffling the duffels around so that there would be enough room for Missouri to climb into the backseat with me and Sam closed my door as I saw Dean and Missouri making their way over where she climbed in next to me and the boys took the front as I continued to gasp in breaths, but the tight feeling hadn't eased up. I felt Missouri pat my leg and I looked at her before she touched my hand and I instantly responded by letting her hold my hand, where I felt her comforting energy flow between us, soothing us both and I found myself breathing easier.
"Thank you" I managed to say in a whisper and she smiled before nodding as I made myself as blank as possible which made her frown and I smiled slightly.
"I can't read you" she stated and I saw Dean glance at us in the rear-view as Sam turned around and I sighed before shrugging.
"I have very basic training, which lately has gone out the window" I sighed and Missouri frowned but let it go and I smiled at her.
"Besides, isn't it nice to not be able to read someone for once?" I asked her and she shrugged slightly.
"I'm so used to it now that it doesn't bother me" she said and I smiled.
"Well it's nice for me. I'm not receiving any strong emotions from you" I smiled and she nodded in reply.
"Keep in mind though Aliana, that you lost all your abilities for twelve years, only using them occasionally while you were sleeping. You lost control over it all, so it will be hard to regain that control unless you exercise it" she said and I frowned in surprise, but was grateful for her advice.
"How… how did you know that?" I asked and she smiled kindly.
"Your energy was all over the place as soon as you stepped inside my house. I could read you through the door" she said and I smiled slightly.
"Well that's odd, I could read you to. You're a very strong psychic you know?" I said and she smiled at me before nodding.
"So are you my dear" she replied and I frowned slightly as Dean slowed down in front of their old house and we all climbed out before walking up to the door, where Dean knocked loud enough for Jenny to hear.
The door soon opened to see a frazzled looking Jenny, who was giving off waves of fear and relief as well as confusion as she looked at us, her son Richie, balancing on her hip with his arms wrapped around her neck.
"Sam, Dean, Ali? What are you guys doing here?" she asked, sounding a little breathless but I noted the way that she was clinging on the Richie, and he to her. Something had happened just moments before we got here, which meant that I had probably been feeling what they were at the time of it happening. Again, another strange thing since that never happened before without warning, and never so powerful before.
"Hey Jenny, this is our friend Missouri" Sam stated and I could tell he probably smiled comfortingly at her. Sam was good at that.
"If it's not too much trouble, we were kind of hoping that we could show her the house for, uh, old time's sake" Dean said and Jenny sighed. I felt guilt from her but an astounding amount of restlessness.
"Now's not really a good time" she said and I knew that she wanted us to go away so that she could figure out what had happened. I looked at Richie and sent him a small smile, which he responded with a toothy one of his own. Aww he was so cute! But I sensed that he was scared, and a little cold. Oh god, something had happened and he had ended up in the refrigerator! My feelings at Missouri's house had picked up what both Jenny and Ritchie were feeling at the same time. What the fuck was going on here?
"Please Jenny, it's important" Dean persuaded and I rolled my eyes before looking at Missouri and seeing her doing the same which made us both smile before she slapped Dean over the head, making him wince and hold his head.
"Ow" he whined and Missouri sighed.
"Give the poor girl a break, can't you see she's upset" Missouri huffed before turning her attention to Jenny.
"Forgive him, he means well but he's just not the sharpest tool in the shed. Now hear me out" she began and I grinned, holding in my laughter since now wasn't the time, but the fact that she picked on Dean made me laugh. It was hysterical.
"About what?" Jenny asked, looking confused.
"About this house" Missouri stated and I saw, as well as felt, Jenny's surprise and fear but she covered it quickly.
"What do you mean?" she asked and I stepped forward, up to Missouri's left and looking at her pointedly.
"I think you know what I'm talking about. You feel there's something here, that wants to hurt your family. Am I right?" Missouri said and Jenny frowned, since the woman was spot on. Of course.
"Who are you?" she asked and I smiled.
"We're people who can help you, who can get rid of this for you. But you need to trust us, just a little" I replied gently and Missouri looked at me before smiling but I was focused entirely on Jenny, who looked unsure but stood aside and let us walk into the house. I felt Missouri take my hand as she sensed my hesitation, leading the two of us inside and keeping a barrier of energy around us, which meant that my reaction wasn't as bad.
"Are we okay to have a little walk around?" I asked and Jenny smile before nodding, still looking unsure and I smiled.
"Don't worry, we have no intention of taking anything" I said, trying to reassure her that everything would be okay. Missouri nodded in reply before leading us upstairs, and I was aware of Sam and Dean following behind us but I felt ill, feeling more sick with each step that we climbed. My body screaming for me to turn around and run out of the house, screaming like a girl from a horror movie.
"Missouri, I…" I began and she smiled encouragingly at me before nodding her head.
"You can do this Ali. You need to, otherwise you won't be able to cope with anything you may come across that leaves such terrible echoes behind" she said and I took a deep breath as I felt one of the boys' hands on me, and from the feel of it, I knew that the hand belonged to my brother.
"Okay" I sighed and the woman smiled before leading us upstairs where I swallowed, feeling fear, pain, anger, guilt, sorrow, sadness and tiny amounts of happiness pummel me, but I pushed my legs, urging them forwards where Missouri led us into the bedroom from my dream. Sari's bedroom.
She walked in, but I let go of her, instead standing by the door as Sam and Dean walked in.
I gasped in a deep breath, bending over to rest my hands on my knees and as I breathed through the emotions that threatened to pull me under into unconsciousness where I knew I would black out, but I fought against them, knowing that I had to take Missouri's advice and learn to cope.
"Ali?" Sam asked but I backed away from the heat I could feel emanating from his body and he looked hurt at that but I shook my head.
"No direct contact yet Sammy. I'm sorry" I breathed and he nodded, frowning at me but backing away just as I felt a breeze on my right side and I turned to see a woman, with pale blonde hair balancing a blonde haired boy on her hip.
She reached for the light switch and flicked the light on where the room illuminated, since it had been dark, which it wasn't when I had walked in with Missouri and the boys. I looked across the room and saw a crib, with a baby wrapped in a blanket inside. The woman was wearing a white nightdress and the boy was dressed in what looked like pyjamas and they made their way over to the crib, so confused and curious I followed, she looked so much like Mary!
The boy in her arms leaned over the cot and kissed the baby on the head.
"Night Sam" he said, in a cute voice.
"Oh, holy fuck. No way!" I gasped as I realised what was happening. A fucking psychic echo! If the baby was Sam, that meant the blonde haired boy was Dean and the woman was Mary. Well, she was pretty, a lot prettier than the pictures I'd seen of her and I watched as Mary leaned over as well, looking down at her six month old son adoringly.
"Goodnight love" she said, before brushing his hair away from his head and bending over to kiss baby Sam on his head. I smiled at the intense feeling of love that she had for both of her boys as well as how much Dean already loved and was fond of his brother.
"Ali?" a male voice whispered, sounding like it was coming from my ear and I felt something standing behind me, so I turned to look but just saw a part of Sam's nursery so I shook my head at myself and turned back to the scene playing out in front of me.
"Hey, Dean" a deep male voice said and I turned around eagerly, facing John who was obviously twenty two years younger than he was now.
"Daddy!" the four year old version of Dean exclaimed before he ran over to his dad.
"Hey buddy" John said, a wide smile on his face as he looked at son lovingly.
"My John, how you've changed" I sighed, shaking my head as I walked so that I was standing in the middle of the room, in between where Mary was standing beside Sam and where John was standing in the doorway.
I smiled, but crossed my arms as John picked Dean up and hugged him tightly, Dean wrapping his arms around his father's neck. I got the feeling that John had been working and it was the first time that Dean had seen his father all day. I smiled at the two of them. Dean was so cute that I wanted to squeeze his cheeks.
"So what do you think? Do you think Sammy's ready to toss around a football yet?" John asked, grinning down at his son and I smiled at the exchange. Before Mary died, John was open with how fond he was of his sons. It made my heart break that he couldn't be like that anymore. He'd closed himself off to them.
"No, daddy" Dean replied and John laughed slightly.
"No?" he asked before rolling his eyes and scoffing, acting as though his youngest son should be ready by now. I smiled at his reaction.
I saw movement and turned to see Mary walking over to her boys, passing them as she walked to the door where she touched John's arm.
"You got him?" she asked and I sensed that she was asking if he had a hold of Dean okay, and 'got him' in the sense that he was staying with him, probably putting his son to bed or something. John smiled and nodded adoringly down at his wife, since she was a little shorter.
"Yeah, I got him" he replied and I swallowed around the lump in my throat as I saw John hug Dean closer to him. I got the sense that he loved his sons so much that he never wanted to let go. Wow it must have been a lot tougher for him to let Sam to go to college than what I originally thought. John looked at Sam over Dean's shoulder, smiling at his baby son.
"Sweet dreams Sammy" he said and I smiled at the nickname he'd given to his son, even as a baby before I shook my head slightly in amusement as I let my arms fall back to my side.
John then turned, with Dean still in his arms, now looking sleepy and I walked over to Sam's crib as the lights were turned off and John closed the door to Sam's nursery a little, but left it open so that a crack of light from the corridor could shine through. I looked down at Sam seeing that he was watching his brother and father leave the room before he reached over and touched his toes which made me snort with laughter where I stretched my arm, jumping back in surprise as my arm came into contact with something and I blinked, the room dissolving, allowing me to see that I was smiling down at the chest of drawers in Sari's room.
"Aliana!" Dean exclaimed, seemingly panicked and I blinked, before turning around to see Sam and Dean looking at me in fear and Missouri watching me knowingly. She smiled and nodded at me when I looked at her. Was that actually real? She nodded again, obviously reading my thoughts and I took a deep breath.
"Well that was some freaky shit" I stated and saw the boys frown.
"Why? What-" I heard Dean say but the room became fuzzy and I blinked, before groaning and rubbing my eyes and temple at the pain there. I opened them again and saw that I was back in Sam's nursery again. I turned seeing that it was Sam's crib behind me, with Sam inside, instead of Sari's chest of drawers.
Since fading out of the room and then back in again, I saw that it had become darker, giving me the feeling that a few hours had passed since I was last here. I felt my stomach churning and frowned. How could I be feeling nervous, when this was the past?
I heard a noise and turned to look at Sam's crib, smiling at him as I saw the mobile above his crib begin to turn around and I frowned, before backing up a few steps. I vaguely saw that the mobile was baseball themed, before I saw the clock on the wall tick, then it went quiet and the crescent moon night light and the side flickered on, the light creating moons to spin around the room, while baby Sam watched. I swallowed and my hands instantly went to my mouth. I knew what was going to happen but I shook my head. Don't do this to me, please don't.
"Don't, I don't want to see this" I whispered into my hands stumbling back until my back pressed against the wall next to the door and I looked through it, into the hallway to see the lights, in the shape of lanterns flicker on and off. Oh god! A light came on down the hall and stayed on before I saw a sleepy looking Mary making her way over to the nursery so I stepped aside.
"John, is he hungry?" she asked and I frowned.
"John?" I questioned, before looking over at Sam to see a silhouette standing there, in the shape of a man. It did look like John actually, but unless the boys' father had suddenly materialised by Sam's crib, then this was Mary's killer.
"Shh" the man stated and I knew that it was a man. Mary frowned and sighed.
"Alright" she replied before walking out of the nursery and I watched as she went.
"Alright you bastard, who are you?" I asked, but of course this was a psychic imprint. I couldn't mess with it, I couldn't stop Mary from dying, but hopefully I could see who this man was. I walked closer, shivering as I felt his energy.
He was evil. Incredibly evil. And there was a sense of power, something I'd never felt before. I mean, I thought Missouri was strong spiritually wise, but this guy was stronger. He had strength like I'd never felt before, and I wasn't talking about physical strength. What stood out was the fact that he was cold, cruel and didn't care about anything, what he did care about was inflicting pain, and setting his plan in motion. Whatever that meant.
"What do you have to do with this though Sam?" I whispered quietly, aware that the boys were still in the room with me, obviously watching me walk around and talk to myself like a psycho. I tilted my head, frowning as I watched the figure lean over the crib, but there was no sign that he was hurting Sam, no sign that he was even touching him.
I heard footsteps and my stomach began churning all over again, worse this time, around and around like how clothes spin in a washing machine. I felt my body quivering and I laced my fingers together, holding them in front of my face as I knew that the running footsteps belonged to Mary, who I also knew had gone downstairs, presumably for a drink, where I knew from John's story he had been, sleeping in the couch in front of the TV. So Mary had obviously seen that he was there, sleeping, which meant that the figure she had witnessed in Sam's nursery was not her husband.
"Sammy! Sammy!" I heard her calling.
"Oh please, god no" I whispered, bringing my laced hands to my face as Mary barged into the room, the figure still there, watching her as she came to a stop and I backed away from the door, standing in the middle of the room between Mary and the figure who pointed at her. I gasped as I watched her fly back against the wall, before the figure disappeared.
"What the hell?" I gasped, before turning to see that Mary was pinned to the wall, before she slid up the wall and onto the ceiling. Pinned to the middle of it. I watched as the clothing around her nightdress became stained with red, a line appearing on her stomach and she screamed, making me wince and cover my ears, before I knelt on the floor, staring at the ceiling before glancing at the cot, where I got to my knees and hurried over, seeing that Sam looked perfectly fine.
"Mary" John said, barging into the nursery and looking around in confusion, seeing that there was no sign of his wife before he took a deep breath and walked over to Sam, checking on his son and looking relieved to see that Sam looked okay, not a hair harmed on his little head. He pushed the side of the crib down a little.
"Hey Sammy, you okay?" he asked and Sam kicked his legs up and down, which made John smile. I glanced at the ceiling and covered the lower half of my face with my hands, seeing that Mary was still pinned to the ceiling, her eyes slightly cloudy, but I could see her stomach moving a little, she was struggling to breathe. Obviously whatever it was had cut into her lungs, rendering her unable to breathe. I glanced at John and saw his hand on the sheet next to Sam's head, glancing at his hand before he looked up and gasped at seeing his wife on the ceiling.
He saw what I saw, Mary, in her white nightgown, pinned to the ceiling. A ribbon of red that had once been a line across her stomach, now seeping with blood as she stared at her husband, obviously still slightly aware since she was trying to breathe, but it was unsuccessful. I doubled over, receiving a blinding hot pain across my stomach. God, she was in so much pain that it made my eyes water.
"Mary!" John yelled up at his wife and I felt the tears streaming down my face as I shook my head, not wanting to accept it, not wanting to see Mary die. It was bad enough in John's story, but to actually see it happen.
I groaned, removing one hand from my mouth, to cover my chest as an excoriating pain sliced across me. I felt John's heart breaking. His wife was pinned to the ceiling. She was going to die.
"Mary. No. No!" he exclaimed and I looked up to see her body burst into fire, before the fire spread out across the ceiling, as John was sprawled against the side of Sam's crib, his chest falling and rising quickly, grief spreading across him, he knew that there was nothing he could do. Sam started crying and I saw John turn to his son, before pushing himself to his feet as I was aware of another presence as John scooped Sam into his arms and rushed out of the nursery, I followed but stopped at the door, seeing the four year old version of Dean walking over to his dad.
"Daddy?" he questioned, seemingly scared but curious. The night's events had woken him up, but I don't think he had heard his parents screaming, for which I was grateful. I didn't want him going through that, even though my Dean had already been through it.
I glanced up at saw that the fire was now spreading down from the ceiling, engulfing the walls and I gasped, the smoke starting to appear as Mary's body slowly started to disappear in the smoke.
"Take your brother outside as fast as you can. Now Dean, go" John said after he'd shoved Sam in Dean's direction and I watched as the four year old did as his father instructed disappearing down the hall presumably to run out of the front door as John ran back to the nursery, standing in the doorway.
"Mary!" he yelled and I winced, tuning back to the nursery, feeling myself sweat from the heat but I was able to breathe, whereas I couldn't in my dreams. I looked up, following John's gaze and feeling my heart break at the fact he was so incredibly heartbroken. His wife was being burnt to death and there was nothing he could do about it. It was good that he'd managed to get his son out of the nursery.
"No!" he yelled, releasing the pain, anger, guilt, sorrow and every other emotion that was starting to build up, out. He glanced one last time at the nursery before swiping at his eyes and running out. I knew what happened now, he ran outside, picked up Dean who was holding his brother and ran them out of the way of the house.
I turned back to the nursery, watching as the fire encompassed everything in its wake, eating everything, all of the furniture and the toys in Sam's nursery. Before I covered my mouth with my hands, to muffle my scream as I jumped forwards, seeing the wall behind me being eaten by the fire and the fire to lick at my skin, making me jump out of its reach.
I sucked in a breath but breathed in the smoke as I did so, watching as the nursery was burnt down, and looked at the ceiling to see no more sign of Mary.
"Protect them" the same voice said, and I froze as though it was speaking directly into my ear, but there was no one there. Just me and the burning fire.
"No, no, no" I pleaded, covering my face with my hands as the heat multiplied, to the point where I was positive that all of my skin was as red as a tomato, making me look like I'd been sun-burnt as I pleaded in my mind for this to be over.
"Aliana!" someone yelled, gripping my biceps and shaking me. I gasped, taking my hands away from my face to see a pale, and worried looking Sam and Dean standing in front of me. Well Dean was standing in from of me, Sam was standing directly next to him on my left.
I sucked in a deep breath, feeling myself quivering in fear. I never wanted to go through that again.
"Oh god!" I whispered, shaking my head and shaking even more, the heat slowly starting to fade from my body. Mary's pain starting to fade from my abdomen and John's excruciating heartache fading from my chest. I started hyperventilating, feeling my body shaking harder as I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Breathe through it Ali" Missouri's comforting voice said and I turned to look at her in awe.
"How the hell did you come here and stay so fucking calm so close to it? And then still stay calm while I crap my pants?" I asked and she smiled sadly at me.
"Practice my dear. But if it makes you feel better, I didn't react too well my first time" she stated and Dean squeezed my arms tighter.
"Dean, you're cutting off my circulation" I stated and he winced before hesitantly letting me go, where I slumped against the wall and groaned, my head spinning, making the room spin as well.
"You find anything?" I asked, looking up and feeling the dull throb appear behind my eyes and in my head. The boys frowned and Missouri smiled at me.
"Well I've sensed some things, but thought it would be best to wait until your episode passed, since your boys were too worried about you to even think about anything else" she said and I smiled at her use of words before moaning and rubbing my head.
"Damn, I'm going to have such a headache in the morning that I'll probably feel hungover" I sighed and Missouri smiled before nodding as she turned to face the rest of the house. Sam and Dean frowned, and I saw that they both looked pale.
"Ali, what the hell just happened?" Dean asked, but I turned away from him to frown at Missouri's back, I wasn't ready to tell them that I had just watched their mother die all over again.
"What are you picking up on?" I asked her and Dean glared but turned to look at the psychic.
"Well we obviously know that any dark energy should be centred in this room" Missouri stated, but I gathered this was purely for the boys' benefit, since they didn't have the kind of feelings we did.
"Why do you say that?" Sam asked and I let out a shaky breath, making him look at me in worry, before his hand flew out to grip my own and I smiled slightly.
"Because this room, Sammy, was your nursery" I stated, before a shudder encompassed my body while Sam looked up at the ceiling before looking back at me and taking in my expression which I'm sure I was as white as chalk, looked sweaty as though I'd been running miles and couldn't stop shaking like a leaf. I saw the realisation dawn on his face as Dean pulled something out of his jacket and I saw that it was his EMF meter homemade from a busted up Walkman. Missouri turned to look at him, frowning as she did so while he moved away from me and further into the room as knowing this was Sam's old nursery and where everything had happened.
"That an EMF?" Missouri asked and Dean looked up at her before nodding.
"Yeah" he replied and she scoffed.
"Amateur" she said and I laughed a little, but even I could tell how different my laugh sounded and apparently so could Sam and Dean because they glanced at me worriedly before looking away and Dean looked offended at Missouri's statement. Though compared to an experienced psychic, we were all amateurs. I saw Dean glare at her before he showed the EMF to us and I saw that it was going frantic.
"I don't know if you boys should be relieved or not, but this ain't the thing that took your mom" Missouri stated and I let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank god for that" I said and Sam and Dean looked shocked at my outburst. Well it was a good thing, we weren't ready to fight this thing yet, not with how powerful it was.
"How can you be so sure?" Sam asked and I could tell that he was a little disappointed, but I let go of his hand and wandered over to Missouri, eyeing the spot where the figure had been standing by Sam's crib, before waving my foot around, jumping on my other to keep my balance but sighing when I didn't kick any solid, invisible thing.
"It isn't the same energy I felt last time I was here" she stated and I nodded frantically, which made her frown at me.
"What did you feel Ali?" she asked me and I froze as the boys looked at me suspiciously as I took a deep breath.
"I felt something. I don't feel anything anymore so either I'm burned out that I'm completely unable to feel that again, or I'm too tired that I can't pick up on any traces" I began and Missouri smiled before nodding, telling me that I was just tired.
"Go on" Sam urged and I frowned before looking at the boys.
"Whatever it was it was evil. Completely evil, like 'I've never felt anything so evil in my life before' evil" I said, using quotation marks and the boys frowned as I shrugged. I wasn't finished yet.
"I'll explain everything later but there was this cold, cruel feeling that it gave off. And it was powerful, so powerful" I stated and Missouri nodded in reply.
"I felt that too. Whatever it is now, it's something totally different" she stated and I let out a breath through my nose before scrubbing my face, trying to keep myself awake. The longer I had been out of that echo, the more the headache set in and made me feel tired. I was ready to fall asleep standing up at any moment, but I could do that when this was all over.
"What is it?" Dean asked, but Missouri shook her head before walking over to the closet and opening it, making me hold my breath but let it go when I saw that there was nothing in there as she walked in and stood in there facing us.
"Not it. Them. There's more than one spirit in this place" she answered and I frowned. I couldn't feel anything at the moment, but again I may have burned myself out completely. I'd never experienced anything like that, and I could now remember my life with these abilities as I grew up until my family were murdered.
"Why are they here?" Sam asked and Missouri frowned as I rubbed my face tiredly.
"Because of what happened to your mom, boys. That night, real evil came here and it walked this house, beside you. That kind of evil leaves behind wounds and these wounds get infected" I stated, before turning back to Missouri and seeing her nodding and smiling happily. Obviously she liked my explanation.
"I don't understand" Sam said and I sighed, but rubbed my eyes feeling the tiredness seeping further in to my body. I had no other way of explaining it.
"This place is a magnet for paranormal energy. And it's attracted a poltergeist. A real nasty one at that and it won't rest until Jenny and her babies are dead" Missouri stated and I took a deep breath before releasing it, pinching my arm to wake myself up a little more.
"You said there was more than one spirit" Sam stated, obviously confused and Missouri sighed.
"There is. I just can't quite make out the second one" she said before looking at me and I felt her curiosity so I shook my head, answering her silent question, because I couldn't even make out the energy of the poltergeist at the moment, I may have the first time I walked in but I couldn't now, so if Missouri couldn't make out the second entity then I certainly couldn't at this point in time.
"Well one thing's for damn sure, no one is ever dying in this house ever again, so what do we do to stop it?" Dean asked turning to Missouri.
"I know what to do, but we need to go back to my house" she said and we all nodded in reply.
"So what is all this stuff anyway?" Dean asked as the three of us sat around the table in Missouri's house, pieces of rectangular cloth in front of us with jars full of herbs scattered round the table. I rolled my eyes at his lack of knowledge. But I knew this simply because I was taught little bits by my mom and from teaching myself through books and the internet.
"There's Angelica Root, Van Van oil and crossroad dirt" I stated, pointing to three separate jars which held the items and Missouri smiled in reply as I continued ignoring my headache.
"Correct, along with a few other odds and ends as well" she said and Dean frowned but nodded slowly.
"Yeah. What are we gonna use them for?" he asked and I looked at Missouri, I knew what they were for, it was protection and a kind of spell against the poltergeist.
"We're going to put them in the north, south, east and west walls of the house on every floor"
"We'll be punching holes in the dry wall. Jenny's gonna love that" Dean said, sarcastically and I smiled before shrugging in reply.
"She'll live" Missouri said, and I smiled at her blunt statement. She did have a point though.
"And these will get rid of the poltergeist?" Sam asked and Missouri nodded.
"It should. It'll purify the house completely. We'll each take a floor, but we must work quickly, when the spirit realises what we're doing, it'll do anything it can to stop us" Missouri stated and we all nodded before setting up the bags. There were three floors, and four bags needed on each floor so twelve in total.
"Each of us just makes the four the we need, but there will be twelve in total" I stated and Dean nodded as Sam smirked.
"So you can do math" he teased and I frowned, before swinging my foot forwards where it came into contact with his shin, making him jolt in his chair.
"Ow" he said, glaring at me but I sent him an innocent look as I collected three more pieces of cloth.
"Oh I'm sorry Sammy, was that your foot I hit? My bad" I said and Dean chuckled quietly which made Sam glare at him but I ignored them both, instead reaching for the jar of Angelica Root and taking a sprig out, placing it in the middle of the rectangular piece of cloth, before doing the same for the other three pieces of cloth that I had in front of me.
After replacing the jar containing the root back into the middle I took the jar of crossroad dirt before frowning at it, trying to decide the best amount as I checked the table but found nothing that would be of help. A handful was too much, and a pinch was too little but I dug my hand into the jar, scooping up the dirt so that it covered my fingers, making them invisible, but I left out my thumb and could still see my palm. I tipped the amount onto the cloth before doing the same with the other three pieces of cloth before returning the jar to the middle if the table.
Finally I reached for the jar of Van Van oil before looking up at Missouri, who was helping Dean with something.
"Missouri?" I asked and she looked up at me.
"Yes dear?"
"Do you have any small cylindrical containers and a pipette?" I asked her and she smiled before nodding and walking off to collect them from a cupboard in the room, returning with three pipettes and twelve little containers. I smiled and nodded in reply.
"Thanks" I said, taking four of the small little glass containers and a pipette before placing the pipette into the oil and sucking the oil up, to fill up the four containers.
"Who taught you this Ali?" Missouri's kind voice said and I looked up from screwing the lids on before shrugging.
"Err, well I now remember that my mom used to read to my sister and I and tell us about herbs and whatnot and what they were used for. But I was always interested in the homeopathic side of things, so I bought a few horticultural books that were cheap and I read them when we used to travel from place to place. So I'm mostly self-taught" I stated and the boys frowned at me as Missouri smiled, and I received a little flutter of something that felt like affection and proudness.
"You never told us that" Sam frowned and I smiled before shrugging.
"Well you were usually caught up in your books and John and Dean used to talk about jobs. So I usually got bored with their conversations. Besides until today there was a lot I hadn't told you about me. Now you know practically everything" I said, shrugging and Sam frowned before he nodded and I placed the four containers on its own piece of cloth.
"Are we only using those ingredients?" I asked as Dean carefully placed the crossroad dirt onto his rectangular cloth and Missouri smiled before shrugging.
"If you want, but I would consider using the other three ingredients as well" she said, pointing to three other containers which contained what looked like a tooth, lavender and sage. I smiled and nodded before adding those to the bags.
"You can tie them up now" Missouri stated and I smiled before nodding and doing just that, pulling tight to ensure that the bags were safely tied up.
"You boys nearly done?" I asked and saw Sam nod as Dean frowned, fumbling with the bag and I snorted before reaching over and tying it for him. He was good at undoing things, and tying things up if the object was strong, like rope or something. But something as delicate as a bag, which is needed to save a family's life, well he was probably worried that he would rip the fabric.
"Alright, let's get going" Sam said as I sat back from tying up Dean's bags and we all nodded, before getting to our feet, where Missouri collected the bags for safekeeping.
"Okay, let's get to it" I said, nodding and the boys smiled in response.
"Who's taking what?" I asked and the boys frowned.
"I'll take this floor" Dean announced and I nodded in reply before looking at Sam, seeing him frown before sighing.
"I'll take upstairs" he said and I frowned. I had actually intended to take upstairs, since Sam's room was the east wall and I didn't want him going in there in case he felt upset or something.
"Sammy, I'll take upstairs" I argued and he frowned in shock.
"Are you kidding? After what happened last time? You were unresponsive Ali, I'm not risking that again and I'm not risking this family's lives" he said and I balled my hands into fists, resisting the urge to flinch, but I saw Dean wince a little at Sam's harsh words.
"Fine" I snapped, not wanting him to know that the fact he was basically saying I was a liability hurt. I think he realised what he'd said because a moment after he took a step towards me.
"Ali I-" I shook my head at him.
"Save it, we have a job to do, right?" I said, before turning on my heel, clutching the bags and hammer in my hands as I disappeared down into the basement, furthest away from any psychic activity that might render me 'unresponsive' again, though in my defence it was a powerful echo and had actually taken me back to that night. I frowned as I stood in the middle of the basement, the odd pieces of furniture still here along with a few old, rusty tools that John had probably used when he still lived here. I sighed and walked over to one wall where I scanned it, looking for any openings that may already be in the wall, but when I found nothing I shrugged and using the hammer I made a small hole, where I shoved the first bag inside. That was the west wall done, three more to go.
I punched a hole in the north wall and slotted the bag inside, before stuffing the hole up with crumbling cement and making my way over to the east wall where I slammed the head of the hammer into the wall repeatedly until a small hole started to form, just as I heard a groaning noise. I paused, hammer poised in the air, halfway through its journey of making it to the wall to smash a hole as I had a strange feeling emerge in my gut. I felt uncomfortable but I refused to turn around instead using my ears to hear for anything else, but I heard nothing so I slammed the hammer into the wall again, making the hole bigger as I heard a squeaking noise, so I pushed myself up and spun quickly, just in time to see one of the power tools fly at my head. I jumped to the right, avoiding it and letting out a breath of relief and turned around as I heard the groaning noise again, so I turned back in time to see a cabinet flying towards me, but it had reached me and slammed into my hips down to my shins before I had time to jump to the side, making me lose my hold on my hammer.
I let out a groan as the cabinet pinned my legs and made my legs start to tingle as it cut off circulation. I looked around and saw that I was within reach of the hole I'd made, so I carefully stuffed the bag inside the hole, making the weight against my legs waver slightly so I pushed against the cabinet and watched as it fell backwards, where I quickly picked my hammer up and jumped over the cabinet, rushing over to the final wall, the south wall, where I hurriedly smashed the hammer into the wall, creating a hole in half the time it had taken me to do the last wall, and I stuffed the bag inside, feeling a little more at ease as I felt a little lightheaded. Shit!
I pushed away from the wall and leaped up the stairs, to come out of the basement where I rushed up to the stairs, halfway up a bright light emitted from one of the rooms and I ran in the direction of that room, seeing that I was in a bedroom, possibly Jenny's. Sam and Dean were sitting on the floor, a cable lying nearby as Dean hugged Sam tightly. I smiled down at them before backing out of the room quietly and hurrying back towards the stairs, passing Sari's room as I did so, and shivering a little which made me feel. Would the bags have gotten rid of just the poltergeist, or of the other spirit that Missouri could sense as well? I frowned, biting my lip before looking in the direction of the closet, but apart from feeling a little queasy, I couldn't feel anything. No emotions, no lingering thoughts, no energies. Nothing. My radar was dead, and I didn't like that as much as I thought I would. Not sensing anything was eerie and it felt as though I had lost a limb. It seemed that I'd grown accustomed to having these abilities back and since I remembered having them as a child, something which my seven year old mind must've frozen out due to the fact that it was linked with my parent's death, I had become attached to having these gut feelings back.
"Als?" Sam questioned and I turned, realising that I'd been standing in the doorway and I sighed, feeling a little awkward that I'd zoned out so much but I smiled.
"Hey guys, everything okay now?" I asked, frowning at Sam who smiled and nodded but looked a little tired and I saw the mark on his neck. I sighed and reached towards him, grabbing his chin and tilting his head so that I could see the mark that the cable wrapping around his neck tightly to strangle him had made. I shook my head and let him go before walking around the boys, shoving my hands into the pockets of my jeans where I made my way downstairs, heading straight for the kitchen where I knew Missouri was waiting and stopping short at the sight. It was a complete mess. The table was overturned, food from the fridge spilling out onto the floor. Plants in a state and I turned to face Dean, placing my hands on my hips and leaning my weight onto my left leg as I arched my eyebrows. He gave me a sheepish smile.
"I was attacked?" he said, but it sounded more like a question. I rolled my eyes and clicked my tongue disapprovingly.
"Likely story" I sighed before smiling and shaking my head in amusement at his facial expression, which looked like an annoyed deer caught in the headlights.
"I'm teasing Dean, all of us were seemingly attacked by this damn poltergeist" I stated and Dean frowned.
"Are you okay?" he asked and I snorted amusingly.
"Perfectly fine, it's Sam you should be worrying about" I said, before turning around and walking over to Missouri, standing beside her and I saw that she was concentrating before she smiled at me.
"Don't be so hard on those boys Ali. They do love you and they have your best interests at heart" she said and I smiled slightly, before clenching my fists in my pocket as I felt something strange. It felt comforting, homely, safe and loving. I wasn't sure whether I was picking up something from the house, or something from outside. I nodded at the woman standing next to me.
"I know they do. Sometimes they annoy me, but I suppose living with them all day every day is bound to grate on my patience" I shrugged and she smiled before turning around and facing the boys, nodding at them as she did so.
"It's done" she said, smiling at them as she did so but I focused entirely on Sam, sensing and seeing from his facial expression and shifting weight that he was uneasy.
"You sure this is over?" he asked and I watched Missouri's face fall as she frowned.
"Yes. Why? Why do you ask?" she questioned and I gathered from her words that she was sensing something a little off with Sam, hoping that by questioning him he would admit to whatever he was feeling, not that he would.
"Never mind" he replied, sighing but looking worried. "It's nothin' I guess" he replied, shaking his head just as the front door sounded and I heard noise, more specifically people in the house.
"Hello? We're back" Jenny called and a few moments later she walked in through the doorway that led into the kitchen.
"What happened here?" she asked and Sam frowned before looking around the kitchen.
"Hi, um sorry, we'll pay for all this" he said and I saw Dean frown at his brother in confusion, obviously thinking something along the lines of 'how you gonna do that buddy? Unless you have some money you never told us about?' simply because I knew him well enough to guess what he was thinking just by his reactions.
"Don't you worry, Dean's gonna clean up this mess" Missouri stated before lookin over at a shocked Dean who was standing, frozen in his spot. I laughed quietly, biting my lip to keep myself from laughing loudly, since I didn't think Dean would appreciate that.
"What you waitin' for boy? Go get a mop" Missouri instructed and I saw Jenny's amusement as Dean frowned, looking confused before he started walking away.
"And don't you cuss at me" Missouri said, frowning at the guy which caused Dean to glance back confusingly before I saw him muttering something under his breath as he walked off. I laughed and looked at Sam who grinned.
"I think my brother's scared of you Missouri" I stated and the woman frowned.
"Brother?" she asked and I shifted my weight. Oh yeah, she knew we weren't related, but it was a habit now.
"Yeah…err, Dean?" I replied and Jenny frowned.
"I thought you were family friends?" she asked and I smiled.
"Oh yeah, we are, but Ali and Dean's relationship is that of what siblings have" Sam shrugged and Jenny looked at him.
"What about you?" she asked, before looking at me and back to Sam who grinned and shrugged.
"We're close too, but not in a sibling way. We're just good friends" he said as Dean returned, holding a mop which he threw at me, but I caught it quickly making him blink at surprise so I hit him on the butt with the mop.
"Just because I'm not as totally awesome as you two, does not mean I do not have fairly quick reflexes" I glared and Dean smiled apologetically as Sam sniggered behind me and I turned around before smacking him on the butt with the mop as well.
"And you can move your butt Sam, you're on clean up duty with us as well" I said and he frowned.
"Missouri only said Dean" he replied and I placed my right hand on my hip as my left gripped the mop.
"Don't talk back to me boy, now do as you're told so we can get ourselves out of here so Jenny can have her home to herself" I said and Sam glared but I glared back and he sighed.
"Yes ma'am" he said and I grinned before turning to Jenny and Missouri and winking as I walked over to Dean and used the mop to tickle the back of his head, where he smacked the mop away from himself as we started cleaning up.
"Boys, move the table back so everyone can sit down and watch you work" I smirked and they glared at me.
"Slave driver" Dean muttered and I grinned.
"Love you too Dean" I said and heard him chuckle as Sam snorted.
"I love you too Sammy" I smirked and he glared.
"So why do I get a nickname, and Dean doesn't" he said and I shrugged.
"I dunno, ask your dad" I shrugged and both boys frowned at me questioningly.
"What? Your dad came up with the nickname first? Then Dean and your mom caught on" I shrugged, "-it's an affectionate term my dear friend, not used in attempt to annoy you, though that's fun too" I said and both boys sighed.
"You have a lot of explaining to do" Dean instructed and I smiled before shrugging.
"And you know I will do, just not at the moment. Let me sleep on it first so I can recharge before I go through that again" I sighed and both boys frowned before nodding in reply, moving to turn the table back over and set the chairs back down so that Jenny, Missouri, Ritchie and Sari could sit down as I moved over and wiped the surface over, making a face at Sari due to the mess which made her laugh at me.
When that was clean I resorted back to sweeping up and looking around the room to see that it was clean and nodding to the boys before we made our way back upstairs to make sure that everything was okay there.
It didn't take long since the upstairs wasn't as bad as the downstairs but we tried to patch up the open holes as best as we could before we were ready to go. Missouri walked out with us and I turned away from waving at Jenny to follow the boys down the stairs to the car.
I watched as the light in what was Jenny's room shut off as Dean, Sam and I staked out the house.
"Alright, so tell me again what we're doing here?" Dean asked turning to look at Sam, since we were sitting in the Impala outside of the house.
"I just… I still have a bad feeling" Sam replied and I frowned at him.
"Really?" I asked and he shrugged before nodding.
"Don't you?" he asked and I bit my lip before frowning and shrugging in reply.
"I don't know, I'm exhausted and burnt out and getting snippets of things but nothing that I can piece together" I said, sighing and rubbing my eyes for the thousandth time that night. Sam had allowed us to go to the nearest diner to get food and drink before telling us that we should wait outside until morning, just to check.
"Why? Missouri did her whole Zelda Rubinstein thing, the house should be clear, it should be over" Dean replied, obviously confused as to why Sam would still be unsettled, though I understood, Sam had some sort of connection to this case, we both did, but since reliving that night, the echo had burnt me out so I couldn't feel anything, Sam was the next best thing.
"Yeah well, I just wanna make sure" Sam replied, still looking in the direction of the house as I leant forwards onto the back of the front seat.
"Yeah well problem is I could be sleeping right now" Dean muttered and I snorted at his reply.
"Better to be safe than sorry" I stated and he groaned.
"Yeah, yeah" was all he said as he slid down in his chair, closing his eyes. Obviously intending on having a sleep while Sam stayed awake for nothing to happen. I rolled my eyes at the side of his head.
"Dean, look Dean" Sam said, nudging his brother and I turned to see Jenny in the window, banging on the glass screaming for help. We all jumped out of the car and ran to the house.
"You get the kids, I'll get Jenny. Ali stay here as back-up" Dean said.
"What?" I screeched, unable to believe I had just been put on the backburner again, but the boys had already kicked their way into the house and disappeared up the stairs.
"Goddamn assholes" I muttered.
I waited for what felt like hours, but was probably only ten minutes at the most, until Dean emerged with Jenny, the woman looking scared and I wrapped my arms around her in a comforting hug as she hugged me back, shaking with fright. The poltergeist was still there, which meant that this spirit was stronger than those protection bags that we stuffed in the walls. They had only lasted for a few hours it seemed. That was something I had never heard of before. We all looked in the direction of the house eagerly, waiting for Sam to bring out Jenny's kids and soon enough I smiled as Sari and Richie ran outside, but there was no sign of Sam. This wasn't right! I let go of Jenny so she could hug her kids.
"Sari, where's Sam?" Dean asked the young girl but I didn't hear her reply, I'd already taken off in the direction of the Impala, heading straight for the arsenal in the trunk where I reached in and removed two rifles, checking that they were filled with rock salt, though I doubted it would do much against a poltergeist. I had a bad feeling about Sam, but there was also something warm in my gut, something that told me everything would be done to keep him safe, even if Dean and I weren't there to protect him. I also pulled out an axe at hearing the door slam shut, before I closed the trunk and walked over to Dean, seeing his shocked face as I threw him the rifle and axe where he caught them both as we rushed over to the door. I turned to look at Jenny and her kids, all three of them looking scared but I smiled and nodded reassuringly as I felt a maternal feeling flutter into my stomach which made me frown. This wasn't anything I was sensing off Jenny, I don't know how I knew that, but I did know that.
"Stay there" I ordered, nodding and turning back to Dean to see the axe make contact with the door, creating an opening which he stepped through, having to drop the axe on the floor to get through. I followed after him, rushing in the direction of the kitchen, where I could feel the maternal instinct rising. It made so much sense now! The psychic echo, the dream of a figure of fire, the maternal instinct and feeling of safety.
Dean and I ran into the kitchen, seeing Sam pinned to the wall and figure on fire walking slowly towards the youngest Winchester. Dean stood in front of the figure and raised the gun.
"No Dean. Don't!" I exclaimed at the same time that Sam said a similar thing. Dean turned his head slightly to hear his brother, but kept his eyes trained on the figure as I hurried to his side.
"What? Why?" he questioned, not understanding why we were telling him to stop.
"Because I know who it is" Sam stated and I groaned as the maternal instinct filled my gut.
"I can see her now" Sam replied and I smiled before straightening as best as I could.
"Mary" I stated, causing the boys to look at me as the fire burnt out, revealing their mother, looking exactly how she did before she died. Wearing the white nightgown with her hair flowing to just past her shoulders. Dean lowered the rifle that he was holding, staring at his mom in surprise and I watched as his face softened. Wow, he really had loved her, more than I ever realised!
"Mom?" he said in disbelief and she smiled before stepping closer to him and I saw that she memorised every part of his face. This was her son. Her oldest son. He was so handsome and had become such a lovely man. She could tell.
"Dean" she smiled fondly around his name and I felt Dean's pain at seeing her ghost twenty two years after she died, knowing she had been stuck in this house. He loved her so much. And she loved him so much. She smiled at him, before walking slightly to Dean's right, where Sam was still pinned to the wall and I noticed that Dean hadn't taken his eyes off her.
"Sam" she stated and I saw the younger brother smile weakly, tears in his eyes to. This was basically the first time he had seen his mom, the only memory he would have of her. I jolted, before turning to glare at the ceiling.
"Bastard" I hissed at the poltergeist, making a vase fly at me which I ducked, but no one noticed which was fine with me. But I wasn't sure how to get rid of this thing. The protection bags in the walls didn't keep it away, if anything those few hours made it angrier and more blood thirsty.
"I'm sorry" Mary said and I turned to see that she was still looking at Sam. My stomach twisted with grief, anguish and frustration, that I hadn't done anything to save my son. Wait no, that was coming from Mary. I didn't have children.
"For what?" Sam asked but Mary only smiled and I frowned. She knew something. Or had figured something out… something to do with what happened that night. Or she was just apologising for leaving her son with no memory of her. I blinked and saw that she was standing in front of me, making me swallow and take a step back.
"That's freaky, more so than Dean's tendency to sleep walk or sleep talk" I said and the woman smiled which made me smile in return before she frowned at me.
"Protect them. At all costs" she said and I frowned, recognising the voice.
"That's been you saying that all this time?" I asked frowning and she smiled sweetly at me which made me nod in reply.
"You Winchesters" I sighed, rolling my eyes and she smiled at me, obviously understanding what I meant but I nodded in reply.
"Of course. You know I will Mary" I said and she smiled before nodding in return as she turned away and walked into the middle of the room, looking up at the ceiling where I could sense the energy from the poltergeist.
Take care of them, but it won't be easy love. Tell them I love them please I heard, but I frowned and looked at the boys, where they were watching their mom, showing no signs that they had heard her. Had she spoken to my thoughts then? I didn't know that ghosts could do that? I only nodded, even though Mary had her back to me.
"Now you, get out of my house. And let go of my son" she said and I watched as she slowly burst into flames again, letting the flames engulf her body until she turned into the figure made of fire before the fire aimed itself at the ceiling, burning itself out.
I watched as Sam stumbled away from the wall and Dean walked over to him.
"Now it's over" he stated and I nodded in reply before turning to the boys and walking over to them and smiling slightly where I frowned and pulled them both to me, to hug me. They instantly wrapped their arms around me and around each other, where we just held each other tightly and I pulled back to look my boys in the face.
"You two okay?" I asked and they both smiled before nodding at me.
"Yeah, we'll be fine" Sam sighed and I frowned before nodding and kissing both of their cheeks and pulling away.
"Let's go and get a motel room to get some sleep for the night and tell Jenny that it's safe to come back in" I sighed and they nodded before we made our way outside to where Jenny and her children were sitting on the steps.
"Hey" I called and they all stood up before turning to look at us and I nodded at them as they made their way up the steps to where we were standing on the porch.
"It's definitely over. Everything will be okay now" I said and Jenny looked relieved before she hugged me tightly.
"Thank you" she said and I smiled at her as we pulled away.
"Anytime, but please don't call us again. Stay here where it's nice and safe?" I asked and she grinned before nodding and I smiled in response.
"We'll swing by again tomorrow just to double check everything, we'll probably bring our friend Missouri with us just to get a second opinion, so after tomorrow you won't see us again hopefully" I said and Jenny nodded before smiling.
"That's okay, I'll be here all day tomorrow" she replied and I nodded in reply.
"Night Jenny, sleep tight" I said and she smiled, before I walked around her and patted Sari and Richie's heads before I headed to the Impala which was parked on the sidewalk opposite the house and climbed into the backseat of the car, rubbing my eyes, head and temples as I did so. The headache had disappeared since leaving the house earlier today, but it had come back full force so suddenly within the last two seconds. I groaned, closing my eyes and covering my face, so that everything was completely dark, but my headache only seemed to get worse.
The sounds of the car doors opening alerted me to the boys moving and I opened my eyes before sitting upright, hoping that I pulled off looking okay so that I didn't worry them. Lots had happened to them tonight and I didn't want to add to that. The door slammed shut and I cringed at the sound as Dean started the car and Sam turned to look at us both, before frowning at me in concern.
"We need to get you a bed quickly so that you can crash" he said and I sighed, blinking at him through the aching pain that was becoming a burning pain behind my eyes.
"I look that bad then, huh?" I asked and he snorted.
"Worse"
"Well thanks Sam, make a girl feel good about herself why don't you" I sighed and he smirked in reply as Dean pulled away from the house and arriving at a motel about four minutes later. He hopped out of the car and headed to the reception as Sam and I climbed out of the car, me dragging the duffels along with us, which Sam quickly grabbed off me, seeing that it was an effort to just climb out of the car.
Dean whistled and we looked up to see him heading in a different direction so we hurried after him where he led us to the door marked '6' which he inserted the key into and twisted, pushing the door open and flicking on the lights, which made me wince at the brightness before I stumbled inside, stripping off my boots and jeans and sliding into the nearest bed, where I was out within about two minutes.
"Thanks for these" Dean said flicking through the photos that Jenny had handed him not long after we arrived while Missouri walked around the house. I had already glimpsed the odd photo or two, but I headed in the direction of where Sam and Missouri were sitting on the steps talking.
"Don't thank me, they're yours" Jenny replied and I approached the two of them, before sitting down two steps down from Missouri's feet.
"Well there are no spirits in there, this time for sure" Missouri stated.
"Not even my mom?" Sam asked and Missouri shook her head, looking a little sad at Sam's question.
"No" she said and he sighed before frowning.
"What happened?" he asked, referring to what had happened to his mom last night, which I had already got a theory about since I'd woken up two hours before the boys this morning, unable to sleep because I had dreams. Weird ones, but the main one being that I dreamt about Mary dying, then Jessica, which I thought was weird because Sam didn't wake himself up until nearly two hours afterwards. The other weird dreams were of Dean when he was growing up, but I had a feeling that the slight feelings of happiness I had felt in that house had latched onto me, making me dream of the happier times and seeing how much Mary and John loved their son, and then how happy the three of them were when they learned that Mary was pregnant and that Dean was going to be a big brother.
"Your mom's spirit and the poltergeist's energy cancelled each other out. Your mom destroyed herself goin after that thing" Missouri stated and Sam looked upset.
"Why would she do something like that?" he questioned and I frowned, tilting my head at him.
"Sammy" I sighed and he looked up at me, where I felt his pain and sadness. He'd just gotten her back, but she was already dead, her spirit couldn't stay here because she didn't belong. I sensed that she had unfinished business because her spirit couldn't move on due to the terrible way she had died, plus I believed she wanted to see her boys one last time. He sighed, obviously not understanding why she would do that and I turned to Missouri, sending her a tiny smile which she responded with one of her own.
"Why, to save her boys of course" was her simple reply. It was obvious really, although apparently it was obvious to us but not to Sam. He just nodded and I saw that he had tears in his eyes. The fact that his mom would destroy herself to save him and Dean hurt, but that's what it was. I saw Missouri move to put her hand on his shoulder to offer comfort but changed her mind about doing so in the end.
"Sam, I'm sorry" she stated and Sam frowned.
"For what?" he asked and I blinked at how similar that was to the little conversation between Sam and Mary yesterday.
"You sensed it was there, even when I couldn't" she replied and I blinked in shock. Missouri was strong, I could sense that when I first met her, but apparently Sam's 'psychic abilities' if that's what they were, were stronger than Missouri's, though I couldn't sense that. Why not?
"What's happening to me?" Sam asked, sounding scared and the woman sitting near me sighed in reply.
"I know I should have all the answers, but I don't know" was her simple reply and Sam smiled sadly before nodding in reply.
"Sam, you ready?" Dean called and Sam looked up before nodding and walking down the steps where I stood up, waiting for Missouri to do the same because I was leaving as soon as I had spoken to her, but I needed to talk to her desperately. She'd had a different air about her ever since we had picked her up this morning. She didn't feel completely like herself, but instead she felt like home, safety, love and comfort. The only time I had ever felt that was around my father, and John occasionally when I caught glimpses of who I now knew was what he used to be like before Mary died. She smiled at me, before frowning, obviously sensing my mood change.
"Go ahead, say what you're thinkin'" she said and I sighed.
"I have a few things to say, firstly though, after last night, do you think there is any way my family are still there?" I asked, before nodding my head in that direction. Missouri smiled before shaking her head.
"No, my dear. Your family are long gone. But they will always be with you" she said and I nodded, tears forming in my eyes. I knew she was right though; I'd tried focusing my senses on the house next door and felt, nothing. It was dead, which the pun was funny.
"Sam, he has psychic abilities" I stated and she nodded in reply, probably wondering why I was asking since I'd closed myself off to her so she couldn't guess what was going through my mind.
"He… Missouri I could sense you but not him, yet he was strong enough to sense something even you couldn't?" I asked and she nodded slightly, obviously understanding my unspoken question.
"You are used to the boy, Ali. You've grown up with him, gotten used to his energy. You won't sense those changes in him unless they are drastic, but I know that you knew there was always something different about him" she said and I smiled slightly before nodding in reply. She had a point I suppose and she smiled in reply.
"I sense there is still something else?" she asked and I frowned before nodding, wondering how to voice this.
"Just say it how it comes to your head, don't mind my feelings" she said and I sent her a half smile before taking in a deep breath.
"You feel weird. You feel the way a parent does, how my dad in particular felt, or John occasionally. Missouri I'm not accusing you of anything, but if you have been into contact with him recently then please do something about it. I don't mean tell me, he obviously either wants nothing to do with us anymore or doesn't want to see us yet, but please tell him that I say his boys miss him. They are his sons, and he is pushing them aside, the way he has done for so long. He asked me to protect them, and he knows I will do that, but even I can't protect them from themselves while they beat themselves up over the fact that they haven't heard from him and don't even know if he is still alive anymore. If you do talk to him or see him, then please say that we all love him, but if he doesn't contact them soon then the two of us will have problems when he returns, and he knows that isn't right because I always respected him and was grateful for everything he did for me" I said and Missouri frowned before smiling and nodding in reply.
"If I hear from him, I'll tell him that" she said before frowning at my face. I knew she would hear from him soon, I just knew it in my gut, and she sent me an apologetic smile.
"If you believe so strongly that this is true then why don't you tell Sam and Dean?" she asked and I let out a breath, blowing aside a piece of my hair as I did so and shrugging.
"Because there is a tiny chance I'm wrong and I don't want to take that chance with the boys' hearts. I don't want to disappoint them, plus John hasn't made contact yet so I'm guessing if he got wind of the fact we were on to him then he would disappear. I'm not telling Sam and Dean anything until he contacts them. I can't stand to watch either of them in pain, over the fact that their dad is too selfish to just call them up and let them know that he is alive" I sighed before shrugging and Missouri smiled at me.
"You've grown Ali and become such a strong woman" she said and I frowned at her, tilting my head to the side, questioningly making her smile.
"I knew your mom. She brought you to me a few times so that she could get advice from me, which was hard since I myself hadn't been fully in control of my psychic powers for long. But I gave her advice on how to help you train to control yourself. You have lots of potential Ali and you will be a strong psychic. Don't doubt yourself" she said and I nodded slowly before smiling in reply.
"I'll work on controlling myself" I grinned and she laughed slightly before reaching into her bag and pulling out two books. Both of them leather bound, one was a navy colour, the other a slate grey and I frowned at her.
"These were your parents' your mom had a strange feeling two days before she was killed, that even she herself couldn't understand and she asked me to give them to you should she die" Missouri said before frowning and shaking her head.
"But you left and never turned up for the funeral so I never got the chance. Hopefully these will help you as you carry on your journey Hunting with the boys and hopefully help you figure out who you are" she said before smiling and I grinned, taking them off her and brushing my thumbs over the covers, nodding as I did so.
"Thank you" I said and she smiled before I embraced her.
"I wish you the best of luck" she said before we pulled away and I frowned.
"Am I allowed to show Sam and Dean these?" I asked and Missouri shrugged in reply.
"It's your decision, but keep in mind that I don't know what they wrote about. There could be things in there that you wouldn't want anyone to know" she said, but I sensed that Missouri knew something; she just wanted me to find out on my own. I smiled and nodded, before tucking the books into the two pockets into my leather jacket before zipping my jacket up halfway and nodding at the woman before I turned around and walked down the steps towards where Sam and Dean were waiting for me. They both turned to smile at me as I walked over to them, the three of us about to climb inside.
"Now don't you be strangers now, you hear?" Missouri called and we looked back.
"We won't" Dean said and she smiled at us in reply, though I had a feeling even she knew that we wouldn't be visiting again anytime soon. It wasn't something we did; we didn't go back to places we had passed through simply to visit. We left everything behind.
"See you around" Missouri said, nodding as Jenny waved. I waved back before the three of us climbed into the car and Dean started the engine before pulling away. I glanced back once seeing them waiting on the steps, until we turned the corner. I faced the front again before sighing and scrubbing my face. Now was time to come clean.
"Dean, can you pull over? We need to talk and I don't want you to end up crashing the car" I sighed and saw him frown in the rear view before he shrugged and pulled over I blinked and saw that we were outside a diner so I smiled and climbed out, heading inside with the boys following behind me.
We took up a booth, me sitting on one side, while they sat opposite us as a waitress walked over to take our orders before disappearing soon afterwards. I laced my fingers together and placed them on the table in front of me, leaning on my arms a little and looking at the boys before nodding.
"I guess you're still incredibly curious to know what happened back there?" I asked and they both nodded hesitantly. They wanted to know but also didn't because of how I had reacted and I sighed before nodding, staying quiet as the waitress returned soon after with our orders. I had ordered pancakes with a chocolate latte, needing sugar and sweetness. I took a sip of my latte before fixing the boys with a look.
"There was a psychic echo left behind in your old house. For some reason, I picked up on it, but it was incredibly strong. I was taken back twenty two years to the night that your mom died. I saw her walk in, with you in her arms Dean, while Sam lay in the crib. It was like I was there, it looked as real as what I look to you both now" I started, before taking another gulp of my latte as Dean ate some of his food. I cut up my pancake and shoved them into my mouth, before chewing, swallowing and taking another drink of my latte, seeing that both boys were waiting patiently for me to continue.
"We all know your dad's story, his account of what happened but I saw a little more since I stayed in Sam's nursery. I knew that I could move around the house and see it as it was back then, but I didn't see the point in following your parents around, so I stayed in the nursery, witnessing how Mary and John interacted with the two of you. How your dad joked with you, Dean, about whether Sam was ready to throw around a football yet. As hard as this is to say, you seemed like a genuine, normal, American family. Your mom loved you, she still did until yesterday when she saved you both and I know that she will continue to love you from where she is watching. Your dad, on the other hand, acted a lot differently…" I said, trailing off and sighing, but seeing that the boys were transfixed by my story. I frowned at them.
"Okay, so maybe you want specifics of what happened that night, but since you were only six months old Sam, and since Dean was four and you don't remember much, I feel the need to tell you that your dad loves you both. A lot. He is so proud and I gathered that just from being in the same room as him all those years ago for just five minutes. As horrible as this is, he doted on you and he was a lot more open about it. He loves his boys" I said, smiling and shrugging as both boys sitting opposite me tried blinking their tears away.
"I'm sorry if I scared you. But in that memory, all I could see was what was happening then, I wasn't aware you being in the room with me, wasn't aware of the fact that you saw me staring at Sari's chest of drawers, when I was actually seeing a very cute Sam in his crib, but you were able to snap me out of it by talking directly into my ear and with physical contact, it brought me out for a while, but when that contact ended I was thrown straight back in" I said, explaining and Dean nodded, obviously that explained a lot for them so I smiled before taking another gulp and another bite of my food.
"Well when I was thrown back in a second time, a few hours had passed. Everything was dark and silent and obviously you were sleeping, well except Sam, he seemed awake and the mobile on his crib started moving, which if you were interested I saw was baseball themed" I said and Sam smiled slightly, he seemed to appreciate these little details.
"The nightlight in the nursery turned on and I heard footsteps, so when I turned and looked down the hallway I saw the light in your parents' room turn on, before your mom appeared and walked into the nursery, questioning your dad. Now when I turned around there was a figure standing over your crib Sam. Your mom thought it was your dad and she would be right in thinking so, he had the same build and was obviously a guy. When she asked if you were hungry, since you had made a few gurgling noises, obviously waking her up through the baby monitor that was obviously in your parents' room, the figure told her to be quiet and she shrugged before walking out. I don't know what prompted her to do so, but she must've gone downstairs, where she saw your dad had fallen asleep on the chair in front of the TV, like he told us in his story. I focused entirely on the figure, sensing that he was very powerful, very cold and cruel and very calculating. He had some sort of plan, but I don't know what" I frowned, shrugging and pausing for a while, letting that information sink into their heads as I ate a lot of my pancakes, not realising how hungry I was as my stomach gurgled while I ate. I was nearly finished when Dean cleared his throat, asking me to carry on so I took another gulp of my latte.
"I watched him, obviously knowing it wasn't John, but he didn't do anything, or nothing that I could see. He was just a shadowy figure, he didn't turn around so I couldn't glimpse any features, but all he did was stand and look down at Sam. He leaned over the crib a little but Sam just gurgled a little, obviously not scared and not in pain because nothing was happening to him.
Well Mary burst through the door, calling Sam's name, obviously panicking before she observed the figure, not knowing what to do. It's only now that I realise she didn't want to do anything and risk you getting hurt, Sam. Though she didn't get much time to do anything because she was pushed to the wall by some unseen force before the figure disappeared, your mom then travelled up the wall before she came to a stop on the ceiling and I watched as she was cut across her stomach, her nightdress becoming stained with her blood and she screamed. John heard her scream and ran up, seeing that everything was okay in the nursery, before he checked on Sam. We all know this part, he saw blood drop down and he touched it before looking up and seeing Mary on the ceiling" I said, before closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.
"What I didn't know before until I saw it with my own eyes yesterday, was that she was still alive, staring at John and struggling to breathe, where she then burst into flames and the fire spread. John grabbed you Sam, and rushed out of the nursery where Dean was walking over to investigate, being roused from his sleep by something, probably your mom screaming. John handed Sam over and Dean ran out before he came back into the nursery, where I was standing in the doorway as John looked in and we both saw that the fire had nearly engulfed your mom. He knew it was hopeless so he ran out and found you guys. I stayed in the psychic echo as the fire took over the nursery, to the point where the wall I had leaned against for support felt hot against my skin and I had to jump forwards. What shook me out was Dean calling me and gripping my upper arms" I said before sighing and shrugging.
"That's it, that's all I saw. Not much I know" I sighed, before shoving the last of the pancakes into my mouth, following it through with a large gulp of my latte, watching the boys as they digested that information before they nodded and breathed out.
"Wow, so the echo was really that strong?" Dean asked and I winced.
"Worse, I felt what your parents did as they felt it during that night" I said and Dean's eyes widened in shock before both boys reached for my hands, which I saw were shaking. All that pain and heartache and sorrow. John knowing that he was now a widower and that his boys were motherless. God it was horrible, and I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone! I looked up at Dean and sighed as I squeezed their hands.
"I don't mean to sound bitchy, but just be glad that all you remember is the heat of the fire" I sighed and he swallowed before nodding and sighing, leaning back in his seat before closing his eyes.
"So not only do you have nightmares about some event but you also now know every detail of my mom's death too" he sighed, before opening his eyes and I shrugged before sending him a small smile.
"Yeah well I can cope" I stated and he frowned before shaking his head at me.
"You're definitely something Ali" he said and I smiled.
"Thanks for the compliment, but the only reason I can cope is because I have you two to keep me sane. Which reminds me, I don't think I told you Dean, but I've been having nightmares again of my parents and Alissa dying. It was demons, they tortured my parents and hurt my sister because I talked back" I said, bluntly and saw Dean wince.
"Wait, what? Why are you only telling me this now?" he hissed and I sighed, before rubbing my head where my headache was starting to appear again.
"Because I didn't want to worry you at first. I figured I'd go after them, try and pick up leads after we'd found your dad and sorted out what we needed to, then with everything afterwards and learning about my weird abilities, all the jobs and not sleeping myself, well it slipped my mind" I sighed and he softened a little before nodding slowly.
"I still wish you would've told me. When did the memories come back?" he asked and I frowned before biting my lip.
"The night before Jerry called about the demon on the planes" I sighed and Dean frowned, but shook his head, obviously letting it go which made me smile and he sighed.
"What did you talk to Missouri about?" Sam asked and I swallowed before shrugging.
"Just things. I asked her if my family were still here, just to be safe and she said they weren't and we chatted a little while, but mostly it was just things in general, she told me to take care of you and keep you both in line. Oh yeah, apparently she knew my mom and my mom went to her when I was younger to ask advice on helping me train myself to get my emotions under control. That was it really" I said, shrugging and frowning and the boys looked shocked before Dean sighed.
"Anymore bombshells you want to drop on us this morning?" he asked, sarcastically and I bit my lip.
"Actually yeah, I'm pregnant" I stated and he gawked.
"What?" he exclaimed and Sam and I burst into laughter which made him calm down.
"You little smartass" he said and I grinned.
"Love you too. Now I need more coffee and pancakes" I said and my brother rolled his eyes at me but stayed where we sitting for the time being.
"You know, you need to quit worrying about me. We're family Ali, no matter what Sam or I say during heated arguments. We throw shit at each other and at you and that's the one thing we throw because it hurts. We don't mean it and it doesn't mean we love you any less or that you are any less a part of our family. So stop feeling as though you need to play mom and dad and sister and grandparent to us, we're big boys, we can look after ourselves, it's our job to look after you, which means you shouldn't be worried about telling us things. Well about telling me things, knowing something isn't going to put more pressure on me, because it means we can share the burden together" he said and I smiled, before swallowing around the lump in my throat and letting out a shaky breath before blinking back the tears at his words. He had no idea how much that meant to me.
"Dean, you honestly have no idea how much that means to me to hear you say that" I said and he smiled before gripping my hand tightly as Sam did the same before shrugging.
"I agree with Dean, I may not see you as a sister, but I still love you as well. I know that there is a lot you never used to tell us because you were worried about how we would react or worried that it would put too much on us with what we're going through with our dad going missing, or the fact that Dean was worrying about me not sleeping and you didn't want him worrying about you on top of that. But it's what we're here for. I've told you so many times since I came back that even the strongest person needs a shoulder, you're our shoulder to cry on and we're yours, so don't be worried to use us. Well actually be worried about Dean, his way of making you feel better will probably be to take you to a mixed strip club so you can stare at guys, either that or take his own shirt off" this comment of Sam's made the three of us laugh before he cleared his throat and squeezed my hand harder, "-my point being, I'm probably the safer bet for you to come to but we'll always be here when you need us. The three musketeers remember?" he said and I smiled at them before nodding and Dean cleared his throat.
"And whatever happens with you two, and your thing you have going on, we'll be there for you, you won't have to worry about going through this on your own, though I know you're more experienced since you obviously remember having your abilities since birth Ali, but Sam and I will be here for you to talk to and the same for you Sammy, Ali and I are here for you. And while I don't understand this anymore than you do, I will do my best to be the supportive older brother" he said and Sam and I grinned at him.
"Thanks Dean" we said at the same time and he smiled at us before nodding.
"Now enough of this mushy stuff, because I believe the lady was hungry" he said, grinning and sending a wink my way which made me laugh and roll my eyes.
"Why thank you kind sir, I am. Now move your booty because my stomach is still rumbling" I said and he chuckled before shaking his head and sliding out of the booth as I turned back to Sam.
"I know you're worried about what this means. I have no idea what it means for either of us, especially you since I don't remember you ever having premonitions when we were younger but it will be fine. We'll journey through this together" I said and he smiled before nodding.
"I know Als, I know. That's the only thing keeping me sane now. Knowing I have you and Dean to help me figure this out" he said and I grinned at him before letting go of his hand and sitting back in my chair, glancing out of the window as I did so.
Everything would be okay. Everything was going to be okay. I had my boys and they had me and I knew that I could count on them. As long as I had them in my life it would be fine because I loved them and they loved me and we would do anything for the other to ensure that they would be okay. I would die for my boys and I knew that they would die for me, that was how much we loved each other. With them either side of me, I could face whatever was thrown at us, though I sensed that this was only the beginning.
