"Oh my god, that's disgusting."

Jo stood beside the parked Impala, her hand covering her mouth in an effort to stifle her gag reflex. They had finally made it to the site of the first two deaths: a small clearing in the middle of a densely wooded area.

A charred ring lined the perimeter of the clearing, and the stench of sulfur permeated the entire area. The smell had hit Jo like a ton of bricks as soon as she opened the car door, but apparently Dean was having a better time dealing with it. Currently, he was knelt down examining the scorched earth.

"I don't care about the smell. But I swear I keep hearing 'Dueling Banjos'."

Erin looked over her shoulder at her cousin from her location in the middle of the clearing. She stood, arms folded, watching Sam examine the bark of a tree situated on the outer edges of the ring of burnt underbrush.

"Why are you just standing there? You wanted to come on this hunt so badly; do something useful!" Dean called to Jo from across the clearing, his voice dripping with sarcasm and irritation. The blonde rolled her eyes and start across the dead grass towards him.

"Don't be getting an attitude with me. You're the one that told me to stay in the car 'cause I'd only get in the way."

"Yeah, and you had to get out anyway. So do something instead of standing there!"

"Just shut your trap, Dean. I'm coming!" One of these, she was going to put her boot upside his head…..

Erin watched Jo's reluctant obedience to Dean's griping in relative amusement. It really was like watching an old married couple fighting with each other. Except maybe with more cursing….

She couldn't understand why it was so hard for the two of them to admit they liked each other. Dean's feelings weren't completely transparent to her, but she knew for certain that Jo was harboring deep feelings for him.

She had grown up with Jo; she was practically her sister. No matter how tough the girl acted, she was an open book to Erin. Judging from the looks Jo threw Dean's way when he wasn't looking and the way she spoke about him when he wasn't around, Erin thought it a pretty safe bet to say that Jo was in love with the eldest Winchester.

She grimaced as the thought came across her mind. Not that Dean was a bad guy, but him and Jo together?

"It'd be like freaking Bonnie and Clyde….." She shook her head fitfully to get rid of the disturbing image.

Standing around was beginning to make her feel like an idiot. Giving a deep sigh, she shoved her hands in her pockets and strolled over to where Sam was studying the same tree very intently.

Either Sam was obviously to her approach, or whatever he had discovered was too interesting to turn away from. Erin peered around his shoulder, trying to see what had captivated his attention.

"Sam, the tree's not going anywhere. You can stop guarding it."

He looked back up from his hand to give the tree another look. Without taking his eyes away from it, he held his right hand out for Erin to inspect.

"It's sulfur. The entire base of the tree is covered with it." He finally tore his gaze away to give her a concerned look.

Perplexed, Erin touched a tiny amount of the residue in his hand and rubbed it between her fingers.

"That makes no sense. Sulfur is a sign of demonic activity. If the person who did this is one of us, why would there be sulfur here?" She was beginning to become concerned.

"That's what I mean. And look at this place." He gestured to the entire area. "There's too much ground affected to be done by one person. I couldn't do this much damage with what little telekinetic ability I have. I mean, I don't know. Could you do something like this with pyrokinesis?"

Erin shook her head. "No, I've never done something like this; not without an accelerant of some sort. I would need something highly flammable to get the blaze to spread. And look at this." She took his hand and led him over to the center of the area were she had originally been.

"When I was standing here, I noticed something. That ring of charred material? It's precise. The ring is a perfect sphere; there's no irregularity or disproportions. And whatever it was, it radiated out from here." She pointed the ground below them, the concern in her eyes intensifying.

"Sam, I don't know of anybody with this kind of power. It's a little….unsettling." She turned away to survey the ground around them. In her mind, she was desperately trying to unravel the mystery that this presented.

Sulfur was present, the sure sign of demonic activity. How could a psychic have caused this if all signs pointed to a demon? Was it actually a demon killing these people; and if so, was it the same demon they were all hunting? Could a psychic have planted the sulfur to make it look like a demonic attack? Questions raced through her thoughts; millions of possibilities for the current situation. All the while something was nagging her in the back in of her mind, something she couldn't quite recollect.

Her thought process was interrupted by Jo and Dean, who had joined them in the middle of the clearing. Both of them looked slightly puzzled, and Dean wore a grim expression. He held up his fingers for scrutiny.

"Sulfur. It's all around the outside of the damn ring."

Jo nodded in agreement and held up her hand as well. "It's everywhere: trees, grass, you name it. It's like something dusted the entire place with it."

Sam showed them the sulfur from the tree he had discovered. "The stuff on the trees is more like a resin, almost like it was melted."

Dean shrugged. "Makes sense to me. This entire place looks like it was an inferno. Whatever happened here made a hell of a fire."

Erin shook her head in objection. "This wasn't caused by a fire. I should know, I've seen plenty of shit on fire. This place looks like it was…..zapped."

"Zapped?" The older man shot her an incredulous look.

"Like when a tree is hit by lightning. Most of the time, there's no combustion but the tree still becomes scorched. That's what this looks like."

"So, you think it was a really big lightning bolt?" Dean's tone was sarcastic.

"No, but the investigators thought so at first. I'm not an idiot. This was caused by something supernatural, but I just haven't figured out what. The evidence is all conflicting." Erin folded her arms and scrutinized the ground, kicking up a patch of scorched earth with her boot.

"Well, we'll just have to keep looking. The fourth victim's house isn't far from here. Maybe there's something there that'll help us. Sam, who you riding with?"

Sam gave his brother a slightly incredulous and amused look. "I get a choice?"

Dean shrugged nonchalantly. "Take your pick, I don't care. We can leave your ass here if you want."

"Funny. I guess I'm with Erin again."

"Figures…."

Sam shot Dean a withering look as they walked towards the vehicles. Ahead of them, Erin and Jo had already gotten into their respective vehicles. Sam smirked.

"Well it seems like Jo's awfully eager to ride with you."

Dean gave his baby brother a blithe stare. "So what? She hates Erin's driving and likes my music. Unlike certain people."

"I'm sure that's the reason, Dean." Sam opened the jeep's passenger-side door and gave his brother one last amused grin.

"Just don't get any ideas, ok? We don't need you swerving all over the road because you're distracted."

Dean shut the Impala door and turned the ignition key. Putting the car into reverse, he shot Sam a Machiavellian smirk.

"Same goes for you Sammy."

"Dean, I'm not driving. So technically, the car wouldn't swerve even if I was distracted."

Dean just gave him an innocent expression.

"You said anything about her distracting you? It could be the other way around."

"Dean, shut up and go." Sam shut the door and gave a deep sigh. He would never understand the depths of his brother's perverse psyche.

Erin turned the ignition key, giving Sam a surreptitious look.

"You two do realize both of us could hear everything you just said. Perverts."


"Holy Christ."

Jo's rather blunt statement resonated through the upper rooms of the early Victorian previously owned by the second victim. They had been there for almost an hour. The place was huge; the boys had taken the ground floor while Jo and Erin took the second story.

"What? What is it?"

Erin stuck her head around the corner of the doorway and peered into the next room. She was hoping that Jo had found something worthwhile. So far, all she had found was a box of porn and a stash of weed. Interesting peek into the victim's life, but not really helpful to a group of hunters.

A plastic crucifix appeared three inches from her face, followed by Jo's face. Erin jumped back and, stumbling over a box in the hall, promptly fell on her ass. She glared at the blonde as she crawled to her feet and rubbed her bruised backside. Jo howled with laughter.

"You are so immature. Give me that." She snatched the crucifix from her cousin and dropped it into the open box at their feet.

"Stop ass-warping around. Did you find anything in there?"

"Nope. Just Jesus." Jo kicked the box into the room and shut the door, wiping the prints from the doorknob as she did. Erin giggled despite the serious surroundings: gloomy house, darkened hallways and expansive rooms with shadows lurking in the corners.

"Hmm, at least you didn't have to go jail to find him."

"That's so wrong." Jo straightened up and grinned at her. "Come on, let's go back downstairs. There's nothing up here." She glanced around and sighed.

"We are so warped. Nothing about this is funny."

"True. Do you think they've found anything yet?" Erin led the way down the stairs, holding her flashlight under one arm as she checked the time on her watch.

"I don't know. You'd think one of them would have come and got us if they did. Of course, knowing Dean he'd just keep it to himself until I got tired of pissing around upstairs and came down to find him myself--."

"Oh shit!"

"Sammy!"

"Dean! What th---FUCK!"

The brothers' voices were followed by a deafening crash and the sound of a heavy object falling. Filled with adrenaline and concern for the men, both girls rushed down the hall to their aid.

However they were met by the site of Sam situated awkwardly in a heap on the basement steps, and Dean doubled over in hysteria. Jo whacked the older Winchester on the back of his head as Erin bent down to see Sam's face more clearly. He grinned sheepishly.

"What in the hell?"

She offered her hand to him, pulling back to his and out of the stairwell. Sam brushed the dirt of his shirt and clawed at the stray cobwebs in his hair. Erin removed the offending web, if only to get his full attention.

"Sam, what was all that about? I thought you guys got attacked or something."

Sam laughed nervously. "It was nothing."

Behind them, a dull thunking sound resounded. Jo yanked Dean's collar and forced him to stand up. His face was red; he had laughed so hard he cried. Now, he was only making a faint rattling noise as he continued to find hilarity at what had transpired.

Jo whopped him in the chest.

"Knock it off, Wheezy and tell us what happened or so help me God--..."

"A bat. It was a bat."

Dean managed to speak at last, wiping the tears out of his eyes. Sam gave him a look that was tinged with faux betrayal.

"We opened the door and a bat flew out. Sammy, you screamed like a girl." The scene replayed itself in his mind, giving him another fit of giggles.

"He fell on his ass….and rolled down the stairs." The last remark was almost inaudible, due to Dean's recurring laughter. Sam rolled his eyes wearily.

"It wasn't that funny, Dean."

Dean gave his brother the most somber stare he could muster at the moment.

"Dude, you've never seen yourself take a flying leap down a flight of stairs, have you? It's like watching the Jolly Green Giant trip."

Jo smacked him in the gut again. "Stop making fun of Sam, you moron. You're the one giggling like preteen at a Hillary Duff concert."

"I am offended." He gave the blonde a conceited look and swatted her hand away from his collar. "What are you two doing down here anyway?"

"We didn't find anything upstairs. Any luck down here?" Erin turned to Sam and brushed yet another cobweb out of his hair.

Sam nodded in thanks and for an answer. "We found some sulfur by the door, but nothing else yet. We're checking the basement." He glanced from Erin to Jo and back.

"Why don't you guys wait up for us? It won't be long."

"Oh no, don't you get all macho on me too. It's bad enough with Damsel-in-Distress Dean over there." Erin poked Sam in the chest to make her point. "I'm going down there. So, get over it."

"Hey!" Dean apparently had a problem with his nickname; Jo snickered.

Sam held up in hands in surrender. "Ok, I'll shut up. You can go. But, I'm going first in the stupid stairs decide to give way." He snatched the flashlight from her and turned back to the basement door.

"Fine. But why do you need my flashlight?"

"Because I dropped mine and it rolled down the stairs."

"I suppose that is a good reason for stealing my light."

"I commandeered it. There's a difference."

"The only difference is you're using a big word, Sam."

"Would you two put a sock in it?" Jo thumped her cousin on the shoulder. "We're supposed to be working here."

Erin turned to answer, only to be interrupted by suddenly slamming into the solid mass of Sam's back. Due to Sam's height, her view was completely blocked. Unable to move around him, she resorted to prodding him in the shoulder blade.

"Sam? What is it?" She struggled past him on the stairs, finally let through when he stepped aside. Giving him a peculiar look, she sighed and turned back around. He grabbed her arm to prevent her from going any further. When she tried to protest, he just turned her around to face the room.

The basement contained the usual assortment of things: old furniture, boxes, unidentifiable patterns from the sixties, dressmakers dummy. However, the odd thing was the fact that everything in the basement was pushed and stacked into one corner of the room. It was almost as if whoever did it wanted the largest amount of floor space they could get. Erin soon realized why.

In the middle of the basement floor was the biggest Key of Solomon trap Erin had ever seen.

It took her a moment to recognize the symbols. It was even larger than the one on Bobby Singer's ceiling. The edges stretched nearly to the walls of the basement; a path about three feet wide stood between it and the walls. Erin stared at in awe, joined soon by Dean and Jo. Beside her, Dean let out a low whistle.

"That's a lot of chalk."

Jo didn't even respond to his remark, too busying taking in the scene in front of her. Erin shuddered in sudden realization.

"Sam, do you see that?" She pointed to the center of the circle. Her hand was shaking in fear and horror, as was her voice. Beside her, Sam nodded grimly.

"It's why I stopped. It's why I stopped you too."

The middle of the circle contained a massive scorch mark. Even the chalk in the area had been vaporized. It was in the same precise ring as the burnt vegetation at the first site. Erin swallowed, hard.

"Sam, if whatever it was that killed these people was able to get out of there, then…"

"It's not a demon; it's human."


Author's Note: Finally, we're getting some work done! And despite the serious material, the humor just wouldn't go away. I can't be serious for more than a paragraph! I think there's something wrong here. Besides the fact that I pushed poor Sammy down the stairs, of course...

P.S: I couldn't remember for the life of me the name of the trap diagram on Bobby Singer's ceiling. I apologize, but you people know what I'm talking about! And I know I thank you guys in every other author's note; but just to be evil and wicked, tonight I'm singling people out.

A BIG BIG BIG CRAZY THANKS to zeusfluff , WinchestersGirl & Sam666 for leaving reviews for nearly every one of my chapters. You guys are so nice to me, I'm gonna cry! Sadly, you win no prizes for that. But if you keep reviewing, I'll keep writing! (And trying not to suck at it.) And to all my other readers, I still love you guys!