Chapter 20: Phantom Traveler (Part Three)

We all stared at Jerry as he looked through the microscope at the powdery yellow stuff we had found on the wreckage of the plane.

"Huh. This stuff is covered in sulfur," Jerry told us.

"You're sure?" Sam asked.

"Take a look for yourself," Jerry answered as he stepped back.

Suddenly there were banging noises from outside the office.

"You effin' piece of crap…" some guy outside the room said.

"If you guys will excuse me, I have an idiot to fire," Jerry said to us as he walked out of the room.

Dean walked over to the microscope as my eyes followed Jerry and I listened.

"Hey, Einstein. Yeah, you. What the heck you doing? Put the wrench down-," Jerry said.

I chuckled. "It makes you wonder, is the guy calling a machine a piece of crap or another person?" I mused.

"Only you," Sam mumbled to me.

"Hmm. You know, there's not too many things that leave behind a sulfuric residue," Dean said as examined the powder.

"Demons, being at the forefront" I pointed out.

"Demonic possession?" Sam asked.

"It would explain how a mortal man would have the strength to open up an emergency hatch," Dean put in.

"If the guy was possessed, it's possible," Sam agreed.

"This goes way beyond floating over a bed or barfing pea soup. I mean it's one thing to possess a person, but to use them to take down an entire airplane?" Dean questioned.

"You ever heard of something like this before?" Sam asked us.

"Never," Dean answered as I shook my head.

Sam just sighed as we headed back to the motel to research.

We had been doing research for over an hour without a break and my eyes were getting fuzzy. As I reached my hand up to rub my eye Sam spoke. "So, every religion in every world culture has the concept of demons and demonic possession, right? I mean Christian, Native American, Hindu, you name it."

"Yeah, but none of them describe anything like this," Dean responded.

"That's not totally true," I put in, proud that I had actually learned something from the relentless studying.

"Yeah, according to Japanese beliefs, certain demons are behind certain disasters, both natural and man-made. One causes earthquakes, another causes disease," Sam told Dean, stealing my thunder. How did that boy know so damn much?

"And this one causes plane crashes?" Dean asked as he stood up. "All right, so what? We have a demon that's evolved with the times and found a way to ratchet up the body count?"

I sighed dramatically. "Why can't demons just be dumb, it would be so much easier that way."

Sam and Dean both nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, who knows how many planes it's brought down before this one?" Sam said.

Dean snorted and turned away from Sam prompting both Sam and I to turn toward him.

"What?" Sam asked him.

"I don't know, man. This isn't our normal gig. I mean, demons, they don't want anything, just death and destruction for its own sake. This is big. And I wish Dad was here," Dean told us. I walked over to Dean and hugged him. He put his arms around me and sighed.

"Yeah. Me too," Sam agreed.

Dean let go of me as his phone rang.

"Hello," Dean answered. From the conversation I gathered that another plane had crashed.

"Another crash?" Sam asked after Dean hung up.

"Yeah. Let's go," Dean said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door.

"Where?" Sam asked as I asked, "Where are we going?"

"Nazareth," Dean responded.

After driving to Nazareth and getting a sample from the crash we headed back to the airport to see Jerry.

We all watched Jerry look into the microscope anxiously.

"Sufur?" Dean asked Jerry anxiously.

Jerry just nodded.

"Well, that's great. All right, that's two plane crashes involving Chuck Lambert. This demon sounds like it was after him," Dean said as if he didn't quite believe it.

"With all respect to Chuck, if that's the case, that would be the good news," Sam told us.

"What's the bad news?" Dean asked curiously.

"Chuck's plane went down exactly 40 minutes into flight. And get this, so did flight 2485." Sam explained. This seemed to mean something to Dean because he got a look of comprehension on his face. I stared at them waiting for an explanation.

"40 minutes? What does that mean?" Jerry asked, seeming just as confused as I was.

"It's biblical numerology. You know, Noah's Ark, it rained for 40 days. The number means death," Dean explained. How did they know that? I made a mental note to ask after we were finished with this case.

"Well, that's cheerful," I muttered sarcastically. Why couldn't 40 minutes ever just mean 40 minutes?

"I went back, and there have been 6 plane crashes over the last decade that all went down exactly 40 minutes in," Sam explained to us.

"Any survivors?" Dean asked nonchalantly.

"No, not until now at least, not until flight 2485, for some reason," Sam said in a confused voice. "And the cockpit voice recorder, remember what the E.V.P said?" Sam asked.

"No survivors," Dean and I muttered at the same time. Being that it was such a serious conversation, I refrained myself from saying, "Jinx!"

Dean sighed before concluding, "It's going after all the survivors. It's trying to finish the job."

"You know, I hate demons. Especially, with things like this. Like planes aren't scary enough without demons making them crash," I mumbled angrily.

Dean put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed while I breathed out a sigh before leaning into his embrace.

We were driving down the road while Sammy called some of the survivors.

"Really? Well, thank you for taking our survey, and if you do plan to fly, please don't forget your friends at United Britannia Airlines, thanks," Sam told the person on the phone before hanging up.

"You know, if I had just survived a plane crash and I got a call from the airline, I would probably shoot somebody," I commented conversationally. Dean chuckled at me while Sam rolled his eyes before continuing. "That takes care of Blaine Sanderson and Dennis Holloway. They're not flying anytime soon."

"Big surprise there," I said sarcastically. All I got in response was a glance from Sam.

"Our only wildcard is the flight attendant Amanda Walker," Dean pointed out.

"Her sister Karen said her flight leaves Indianapolis at 8:00. It's her first night back on the job," Sam explained.

"That sounds like just our luck," Dean said sarcastically. See, I'm not the only sarcastic one in this couple! He's just as sarcastic.

"This is a 5-hour drive, even with you behind the wheel," Sam told Dean worriedly.

"Call Amanda's cellphone again, see if we can't head her off at the pass," Dean commanded.

"I already left her three voice messages. She must have turned her cellphone off." Sam sighed before exclaiming, "God, we're never gonna make it."

"We'll make it," Dean promised as he stepped harder on the gas pedal. I grabbed the seat, holding on for dear life.

As soon as we pulled up to the airport we sprinted in and checked the scheduled flight departure list.

"Right there," Sam said as he pointed. "They're boarding in 30 minutes."

"Okay. We still have some cards to play," Dean said as he got that look on his face that said he was really concentrating. "We need to find a phone," he said as he looked around quickly, running over when he spotted one.

He picked up the courtesy phone and said, "Hi. Gate 13. I'm trying to contact Amanda Walker. She's a flight attendant on flight, um…" "424." Sam supplied looking up at the board. "Flight 424."

"Come on." Dean muttered to himself impatiently. Finally, Amanda picked up the phone. "Miss Walker. Hi, this is Dr. James Headfield from St. Francis Memorial Hospital, we have a Karen Walker here," he paused for a second while she responded before saying, "Nothing serious- just a minor car accident, but she was injured so..." he stopped talking suddenly.

"You what? ... Uh, well… there must be some mistake. … Guilty as charged… He's really sorry… Yes, but he really needs to see you tonight, so- … Don't be like that. Come on. The guy's a mess. Really it's pathetic. … Oh, yeah. … No, no. Wait, Amanda! Amanda!" Dean hung up the phone angrily.

"Damn it! So close," Dean exclaimed.

"I guess it didn't work?" I asked. Dean just huffed angrily.

"All right, it's time for plan B. We're getting on that plan," Sam concluded shrugging while I nodded in agreement.

"Now, just hold on a second." Dean objected, looking wide-eyed.

"That plane is leaving with over 100 passengers on board, and if we're right, that plane is gonna crash," Sam said in an explanatory voice.

"I know," Dean said as I gave him a weird look.

"Okay. So we're getting on the plane, we need to find that demon and exorcise it. I'll get the tickets. You get whatever you can out of the trunk. Whatever that will make it through the security. Meet me back here in five minutes," Sam commanded as Dean stood there looking anxious.

"Dean, what's-" I started to ask before realizing it. "Oh my god!" Dean was afraid of flying! My eyes widened as he looked at me fearfully. I stepped forward and grabbed his hand.

Sam shot me a look before asking Dean, "Are you okay?"

Dean started to nod before shaking his head and answering, "No, not really."

"What? What's wrong?" Sam asked with a confused look.

Dean's grip tightened on my hand before he responded, "Well, I kind of have this problem with , uh…" he tried to make a flying motion with one hand.

"Flying?" Sam guessed. Geez, if we ever played charades he was definitely gonna be on my team.

"It's never really been an issue until now!" Dean defended.

"You're joking, right?" Sam asked him.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Dean asked. I was getting a little worried now, we didn't have much time and he seemed to be getting hysterical. "Why do you think I drive everywhere, Sam?"

"Alright, uh, Emi and I will go," Sam suggested obviously trying to think fast. I nodded my head and tried to release my hand from Dean's death grip.

"What?" Dean asked, tightening his grip on my hand.

"We'll do this one on our own," Sam explained.

"What are you, nuts?" Dean asked as he pulled me closer to his side. "You said it yourself, the plane's gonna crash."

"We can all do it together, or we can do this by ourselves. I'm not seeing a third option, here," Sam pointed out.

"Come on! Really? Man," Dean fidgeted anxiously as he let me go. We headed to the car while Sam went to buy the tickets for the flight. I really hope this didn't go badly because dying in a plane crash was definitely not on my to-do list today.

AN: Ok, so I know I haven't written in forever and I have no excuse except for studying for AP exams, but I made the chapter extra-long to make up for it. Hope you like it! Reviews would be very motivating for the next chapter!