The two were not very safety-conscious; they had their location available on their Facebook page. And for some reason, their Facebook was listed as a business page. … I really don't know what I'm supposed to say. These two take themselves far too seriously for people who don't actually know what to do if they see a real ghost.

Anyway, they lived in a trailer park, their truck parked in front of their trailer, which they moved by towing. I shuffled the paper in my hands, keeping it in a pale, open folder to seem a little bit more legit. Serenity stood with me and raised her hand to knock on the door on the side when she stopped, lowered her hand, and listened.

I joined her once I was content that everything, when looked over again, seemed realistic enough to fool them. I opened my mouth to ask why she wasn't knocking, but then she shushed me with a finger over her lips before jabbing her other hand towards the door. I shut my mouth and canted my head at the door, listening.

Sure enough, there was whispering going on inside that wasn't quite quiet enough to be inaudible from outside the trailer. The goofier one was talking – arguing, actually – vehemently and sounded scared out of his wits.

"No, no, no. Forget it. – Forget it! I'm not going back in there again."

"Harry. Look at me, right here. Okay?" That was Ed, the one who liked to think of themselves as hotshots and who had called us amateurs. I don't like to be called an amateur at anything I do, even if I know it's truthful. But, hey, at least Ed hadn't told me I should get lost before my reproductive organs became unable to handle it. Just being in the same vicinity as the two was starting to give me a headache, and I grimaced, soundlessly reaching to pinch the bridge of my nose. "You are a ghost hunter. Okay?"

"I know, but Ed, I've never seen a real ghost before! Like a real ghost, an apparition!"

"This stuff here? This is our ticket to the bigtime right here. Fame, money, sex… with girls!"

I started to snort and had to cover my mouth to muffle it. Serenity leaned in close and whispered in my ear, a wicked smirk playing on her face that was half dirty and half mocking. "They have to specify?"

"Maybe they have a friends-with-benefits thing going on," I offered back in an explanation, our whispering much quieter than either of theirs.

"Be brave. W-W-B-D. What Would Buffy Do, huh?"

"I… I know what Buffy would do, but Ed… she's stronger than me."

My smile was wide and unashamed. Eavesdropping had never been so… strange, I guess. At least I was getting plenty of material to hold against them the next time they irritated me.

"It's okay," Ed comforted. "I know."

Apparently this was all of the entertainment that Serenity particularly wanted to get out of the two, as she shook her head and slammed her fist on the door, rapping loudly twice. The metal door made it seem even louder. I winced at the volume and assumed it must have hurt, but Serenity didn't even flinch. She's always had an unusually high pain tolerance, ever since we were kids; mine had to be developed over time, but she used to hold her fingers over flames (close enough to hurt from heat, but not enough to burn) and laugh while I freaked out.

Someone inside the trailer squeaked like a mouse, and another thing crashed to the floor. Weaklings.

It took a second, but then Harry anxiously called, "Who is it?" at a much better volume.

I raised my eyebrows at the door, maybe two, two and a half feet off of the ground, and flatly replied. "Girls with whom you will not be having sex." Oh, look at that – I was right, I heard things I can mock them with.

A pause where both of them were quiet, and then – "It's them!" Ed hissed on the other side of the door, before the door was pushed open. Serenity and I had the sense to stay far enough away so that we could just step out of the way, and then step back up so that the two couldn't go anywhere before we were done talking.

Ed stood with his toes nearly over the threshold, while Harry tried to stand on his toes and look over his slightly taller friend's shoulder. The interior of their trailer was messy – not like hoarders or slobs as much as people who just didn't have enough room for everything they owned, so they had what looked like store-bought ghostbusting equipment on the tables and counters, with some night vision goggles, lamps, lights, batteries, and even a couple of crime kits that I could have bought at a drugstore, that claimed to lift fingerprints or have handcuffs that wouldn't break. They were a waste of money – the dusting never worked quite right and if you didn't mind a bit of pain, then you could break the handcuffs easily. Someone had never told these two that.

They had also apparently never heard that ghosts aren't corporal, and so they don't really have bodies, and so they don't leave fingerprints. I had to hope they were just that foolish, otherwise they were trying their hand at forensics for another reason and please God, do not unleash that on the world, the police already have it tough as it is.

Serenity looked up at them both, totally unimpressed. "Am I crazy, or is there a Ben 10 doll behind you?"

Ed started to look over his shoulder to see, and he leaned forward so that he could stretch his leg back and knock the boxed toy out of sight. He ended up doing an impressive acrobatic stunt, considering he could barely reach from the doorway, and even then he had to kick off his sandal to knock it over.

"It's an action figure," Harry protested.

"Yeah, sure." Serenity couldn't have made her sarcasm clearer if she'd tried. "Whatever keeps you from falling into a masculine panic."

"We need to talk about something, and if you slam the door, I might actually shoot the lock, so just pull up your adult pants and deal with it." I could have tried the bitch faces I'd started to pick up from Sam, but in the end I figured that since I was dressed as an agent I might as well act like one, so I leveled my 'don't fuck with the FBI' expression at Ed instead, because he seemed more standoffish.

Ed smiled down at us and brushed his hand along the left shoulder of his shirt. "Sorry, sweeties. We're, ah, a little busy right now." He was breezy and dismissive. It was hard not to retort what, exactly, he was busy with – female-free sex or Buffy: The Vampire Slayer reruns?

Serenity looked at me, deceptively calm with the blatantly disrespectful response. "Didn't you literally just say you would shoot your way in if they didn't talk?" She asked, not glancing up to them in order to seem more unnerving.

Subtly, I reached back and pushed at the hem of my jacket, exposing the pistol I kept holstered at my side. I set my hand on my hip to keep it visible. "I did," I confirmed for her, while Harry shuffled his feet.

"Huh." Serenity hummed in confusion. "It's weird that they seem to think they get a second option."

Looking up to Ed, I said, with a serious, straight face, "You need to shut down your HellHoundsLair website."

It didn't take more than a second before Ed was laughing at us like we were a joke. I had sort of expected that, and I just blinked. Then he actually pointed down to us where we stood on the ground. "You know, these and their boyfriends got us busted last night!" He told Harry. I thought this was kind of unfair, considering that even after we'd called out the Ghostbusters theme lyrics, they'd still gotten away from the cops. It wasn't our fault they had insisted on going back. "We spent the night in a holding cell!"

"Yeah, well, you were trespassing on a crime scene," I bristled, playing my part well and starting to act increasingly annoyed with them. Serenity once told me I couldn't act; but the truth is I can play a role more than convincingly. It's not so much that I like pretending to be someone I'm not as I am aware of how I sound and what my body language says, and how to manipulate peoples' impressions. "You're lucky you were released this morning."

"You don't understand how traumatic it was," Harry objected, looking wounded and I thought if he had any grounds to stand on, he'd start barking about compensation. Except where Ed seemed all bark and no bite, Harry seemed like a faint echo of Ed's bark without the acoustics to make it even a little bit moving. Harry took Ed's cues, which I couldn't say I thought was the healthiest relationship, but who am I to preach on healthy interaction when I'm dating one of my best friends and we haven't told our siblings, whom we also live with? Also, I just let Dean screw with Sam's boxers, so I don't have a moral high ground today. "I had to use one of those dirty cell urinals. In front of people!" He looked around anxiously in case someone else was within earshot. "… And I get stage fright!"

Serenity made a face and grimaced, rather openly not appreciating being given the information. "That is so much information, I don't think T.M.I. even begins to cover it. I think you need to add a W.W.W. to the front so it's Way, Way, Way Too Much Information."

Ed shot Harry a look, like c'mon, man, you should know better, and then redirected his irritation back to us. "Why should we trust you?"

"Trust us?" Serenity repeated, blinking and starting to smirk. Of course we didn't expect them to trust us. "Well, you probably shouldn't. We're fully capable of being grade-A bitches if you piss us off, and you've kind of managed to do that." Not even a hint of apology.

"Thankfully, you don't need to trust us; just listen." Curt and clipped, I glared at Ed and then Harry to make sure they'd keep their mouths shut for thirty seconds. "That video you posted? You were filming when we came out of that house, so not only did you catch my sister, our friends, and I on camera, and an audio of our voices – however distorted – but you released it to the internet without consent from the four of us, which means that if we wanted, we could press charges." Harry swallowed. "So either you listen, or you have four civil lawsuits on your hands."

Even Ed looked a little bit nervous. Serenity delighted in this and she mimed an explosion with her hands, making noises that sounded like a bomb as she pretended that something was blowing up. Most of the wind had been taken out of their sails; for a few seconds, I let myself take pleasure in that they both realized they were in a predicament.

"Luckily for you," I continued, sounding a little more sympathetic. "We don't particularly care. You can't see our faces well and, like I said, our voices aren't too easily identifiable. All it is, is something to hold over your head until we're done here."

"We know you saw the ghost last night, and that's fine; freedom of speech and press and all that, and half the population wouldn't believe you anyway, but because of your website, tens of thousands of people are hearing about Mordechai's ghost." One thing I admired about Serenity was her ability to sound completely matter-of-fact when she wanted, even if what she was saying sounded completely ridiculous. She was doing it now, observing her cuticles out of boredom. "When things like this happen, the site becomes an attraction. More people will show up at the Hell House for kicks, and sooner or later, another person will end up dead because of it."

Ed sighed and he started to yawn. It didn't sound or look real. "Yeah, yeah…"

Harry frowned and started to softly object, keeping his voice down. They still hadn't mastered how to use quiet voices yet. "Ed, maybe she's got a point, maybe we-"

"Nope." Ed shook his head and raised one arm, bending his arm at the elbow and leaning against the doorframe.

"But if people will get hurt-"

"No way."

Suddenly Harry was just going with it again, shaking his head coolly down at us. "You heard him. No."

These two…

"We have an obligation to our fans. To the truth." Ed haughtily explained, looking down. I was about ready to grab the bottom of his shirt and yank him down so I was taller than him again. I thought if nothing else he might start being a little more fearful – I mean, respectful.

Except that wasn't what I was supposed to be doing – I was supposed to be talking still, so I did. "Well, I have a moral obligation to take your delicate little asses and violently shove-" I was stopped by Serenity slapping the palm of her hand over my mouth before I could continue, and I just fell quiet, still glaring up at them.

"Forget it, okay?" Serenity told me, doing what they had and pretending that if she just didn't direct at them, they wouldn't hear. "We'll just file for the lawsuits. These guys are idiots. We could sucker punch them both, even tell them that thing we found about Mordechai, but they still wouldn't help us. Not if it means doing something vaguely honest. Let's just get out of here."

As expected, the wannabe Ray and Egon jumped at the mention of Mordechai.

"Whoa, wait-"

"What?"

I let my shoulders sag in relief and I nodded mutely until she removed her hand. With forced calm, I started to turn around, ignoring both Ed and Harry like a professional. "You know what? You're right." Serenity dropped her other arm behind my back and the two of us unhurriedly started to leave the two's trailer, walking right past their truck and waiting patiently for them to freak and hurry up.

Their muttering was rushed. They dropped down from the raised trailer to the ground with thuds and a shocking lack of balance, and Harry stumbled to the side before Ed grabbed his collar and they both started to trail after us like we'd offered puppies some bacon.

"What did you say about…?"

"Hang on a second, here!"

"Wait!"

"What thing about Mordechai, you guys?"

I looked to Serenity breezily, fighting the smirk back off of my face. I liked having them struggling after the way they'd treated us, treated our friends, even if it was kind of mean to enjoy having them stumbling after us frantically.

"Don't tell them, Serenity, they clearly don't want to know badly enough," I advised with a sigh.

Serenity pretended to be the angel where I was the pessimist. "If they promise to shut it down, though-"

"They said it themselves, Ser!" I cut her off showily, shrugging my shoulders a bit overly dramatically and then brushing my ponytail back over my shoulder. "They're not going to comply to terms."

Ed scrambled, waving his arms in between Serenity and I and over our shoulders, desperately searching for attention. It would have been unbelievably annoying if it wasn't what I had been aiming for. If I wasn't playing him like a fiddle, I'd have just raised my right fist over my shoulder and punched him with almost no effort.

"No, wait, wait, don't listen to her, okay?! We'll do it, we'll do it!"

"What, so we want to give them more fuel to aid the fire?" I asked Serenity, challenging her again. The more panicked they got… by now we could probably stop, but I was having a little too much fun. "It's not even public knowledge, Serenity, we shouldn't hand it out to Ray and Egon over there." I jerked my thumb over my shoulder and groaned when Serenity stopped and swung around to face the two, her arms crossing solemnly.

I turned around to face them, but angled myself more to my sister and kept the file in my hand close to my body, visibly against the idea of sharing. I surveyed them both, obviously skeptical and overly critical.

"Okay, my sister's not lying." She put her hands out, palms down, in a gesture of both calm and peace, and the two stopped bounding over themselves. They looked hungry, starving for news, and maybe my analogy about a puppy chasing bacon wasn't too far off. "It is a pretty low-down deal, so you have to keep it off the web. You know – don't make it public." Of course they would; we knew that much. But we also realized that they'd be less suspicious of posting false information if they thought there was a reason we wanted it away from public eyes. "And it took a while to get, so we'll only share if you swear you'll put everything six feet under."

"Totally," Ed vowed, eying the file I held almost rapturously, making me that much more uncomfortable.

Serenity made a gesture to me and I made a point of reluctantly relinquishing control. "Alright, then…" Very uneasily, I started to pass the folder over. Ed grabbed at it and, with swift reflexes, I jerked it just out of reach again. "Just remember, this is a carrot-and-stick situation. The lawsuits are the stick. This? This is the carrot." I started to hold it out again, and didn't yank it away before Ed could grab it. He quickly pushed the top cover over. "I got this from the police department. It's a death certificate, dated way back in the nineteen thirties. According to the coroner, the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound."

"From a pistol he'd kept in his bedroom," Serenity added, sounding like she was just repeating a fact rather than a fabricated story. "It was a murder-suicide, but he only hanged the girls, not himself. He didn't even cut his wrists."

Ed looked up with an expression like his dreams had been interpreted and he found something he hadn't expected – shocked, but processing, and a bit amazed. "He shot himself?"

"Straight-up suicide," I confirmed with a nod of my head. "I mean, as a ghost, either he'd repeat the action and kill himself all over again, or he'd be absolutely terrified of forty-five pistols. Screaming, running away, tripping ass-over-elbows – the whole nine yards."

"And since the bullets he'd used were wrought-iron, supposedly if he gets hit with iron rounds again, he'd die. For good, this time." Serenity nodded and we snuck a look at each other at the same time – she was cocky and I was feeling smug. A good fit. It was nice to pull the cloth over these two idiots. They deserved a good prank, regardless of whether or not it actually helped us with our hunt.

Neither of them made a move to give the folder back to me; they both started laughing. Harry leaned in close and Ed started to turn his head slightly to the other, conspiratorially snickering, before Harry suddenly remembered we were still there. He looked up at us with wide eyes for a second before he snatched the folder from Ed's hands and broke into a mad sprint headed back to the trailer.

Ed gave us an arrogant little smirk and turned around, rotating his weight on his heel and walking back after his friend. While he was less conspicuous, he was by no means subtle.

"Harry! Slow your roll, buddy, they're gonna know we're excited!" Ed hissed after Harry, who was climbing back up awkwardly to the high threshold of the trailer. Harry disappeared inside, practically thrumming with energy.

"They're also going to hear you, dumbass," I grumbled, disheartened. Sure, it had worked, but now they got to think we were the stupid ones, and even though I knew it was the other way around, I will be the first to admit that I have a little too much pride.

Serenity was just shaking her head, not even finding enough to simply be amused when it was so, so pathetic. "I don't think it's worth holding out any hope for them," she said simply.


We took an early dinner at the same café we'd been to before after giving Sam enough time to make sure that, while Serenity and I had been manipulating Ed and Harry, he had washed off all of the itching powder. It was really hard to keep a straight face when, five minutes after we'd gotten back, Sam had stepped out of the bathroom, towel around his waist and a blissful expression of relief.

It was so hard that we gave up about two seconds after we started trying, and Sam wasn't very happy about that. He chucked a pad of paper from the hotel at Serenity, who raised a hand to smack it away from her face while nearly doubling over.

Sam was playing on his laptop again, checking his emails. Now we were sitting at a different table; Sam and Dean were by the wall while Serenity and I were to the aisle, and I was sitting next to Sam and lazily looking over his computer screen while munching on the salty Ritz crackers that had come with his salad. We know each other's diets pretty well by now, so even though Sam and Dean didn't take food from each other, Serenity and I treated all the plates on our table as a free-for-all most of the time, and the boys didn't seem to mind.

Smirking and stealing glances at Sam, Dean reached up to the irritating little monster mounted on the wall over the center of the table and tugged on the string underneath. The painted carving of a fisherman let out a mechanical laugh that made me want to deafen myself, and the tiny jaw moved up and down on the hinge.

Sam's hand flew up from his mouse pad and he grabbed onto the cord. The noise stopped, and Sam held it away and towards us so that Dean couldn't reach it to yank again.

"If you pull that string one more time, I'm gonna kill you," he threatened gravely.

Considering that I would probably be having nightmares about that damn wooden fisherman's laugh, and that Dean was already going to be sporting an impressive bruise courtesy of Serenity, Dean should have taken Sam at least semi-seriously.

Instead, the second Sam let go of the cord, Dean glanced at his testy brother before cheekily tugging down on the string again. It wound up quickly, but the maniacal laughter took longer to stop.

Serenity glared at him without blinking, her eyes dark and appearing closer to blue than to green. Part of it had to do with her shirt, but the other part had to do with her attitude and the way she held herself. It was subtle, but I could usually tell if she was feeling on the high or low end of the emotional spectrum just by how her eyes looked.

"Do it one more time, bitch." She challenged Dean lowly. "I dare you."

Dean laughed loudly, not taking either of them seriously. I was about ready to draw my finger across my throat in threat of execution, or something else creepy – like reminding him that he shared his bed. Or even threatening to make him sleep in a chair tonight.

"Come on! You need more laughter in your life. You're way too tense," he told Sam and pointed to the fisherman doll with a bright grin. "That thing's hilarious!" Sam shot him such a dirty look that I was amazed Dean wasn't automatically cowed just on principle. Instead, he crossed his arms and leaned over the table, most of the dishes already taken away by our server. "Did they post it yet?"

In response, Sam heaved a sigh like he was dealing with a great burden by answering. He picked up his computer carefully and turned it around before setting it down again so that Dean could read. He leaned in and squinted at the text on the HellHoundsLair website and read out loud.

"We've learned from reputable sources that Mordechai Murdock has a fatal fear of firearms…" The post went on beyond that, but it was just the fabricated story that we'd thrown together. Dean leaned back, satisfied. At least they'd done what they were supposed to. "Alright. How long do we wait?"

Sam sighed again, but this time thoughtfully as he turned the laptop around to face him and changed tabs back to his email account. "Long enough for the new story to spread, and the legend to change. I figure by nightfall, iron rounds will work on the sucker."

He pressed his lips together for a second before he smiled. "Sweet."

I kicked my leg out gently to bump my toes into Serenity's shoe. "Hear that, Serenity? We're reputable now." I smiled, because those two thinking we were actually credible? That was hilarious, considering that we'd been playing them pretty obviously. They had a flair for the dramatic that was a fault, because when we were stupidly overdramatic about an issue, it just went into their fantasy that ghostbusting made them larger than average life.

Instead of smirking like I thought she would, Serenity looked longing and frustrated. "We can't just let them think they got away with duping us, though, right?" Just like me, she has pride when it comes to how gullible she is; she hates anyone thinking they got one over on her, even if that was her goal.

"Oh, no, of course not," I promised her with a comforting smile. "After Mordechai is taken care of, I'm… well, I'll think of something." I reached for Sam's beer next and took a drink. The boy frowned at me, but I grinned and set the bottle down. Almost apologetically, I gave him a cute face and inched the bottle closer to him. He pressed the lid of his laptop down and rolled his eyes, letting me get away with stealing some of his alcohol. Then I threw another malevolent and overly excited smirk at my sister.

"Uh-oh." She recognized that look. She waved a hand at me, and, to make sure I knew where the boundaries lie, "Don't get them actually arrested, Holly."

"Uh-oh?" Sam repeated, scrunching his nose up in confusion.

"Why uh-oh?" Dean asked, looking between us for an explanation. I leaned back against the booth and smiled contently – favorite people, one of the best pastimes… I'll have one of the best scenes in front of me if Dean would hurry up and get to his beer already, since Sam may have gotten back at him for the itching powder while Serenity and I laughed. The boys weren't all too original, but sometimes the oldest pranks were the funniest, especially when they realized that they'd been gotten far too easily.

Serenity huffed. "Trust me, Holly is wicked when it comes to getting back at people. She's not involved in your prank war because she's bad at pranking; she's not involved because she's a little too good."

I grinned, trying to be cute and unsuspicious. "Aw, thanks for the praise, Serenity!"

Serenity kept on, not quite finished, and she gave me a warning look that told me not to remind her she was encouraging me. "That's not to say I haven't gotten her more than a few times, but I learned not to stick my hand in with the tiger unless the tiger roars first."

"Nah. Holls?" Dean started to chuckle, shaking his head, but this was one story that we weren't gluing together. "You can't be that bad." I let my demeanor shift, become less sweet and a little more edgy, dangerous. My lips quirked mischievously and I knew I looked both smug and threatening. Dean's easygoing smile slipped off and he swallowed. "Oh, man. You are."

Sam gave me a gentle shove with his elbow and picked up his own beer. He held it out to the side, away from the computer, in invitation for Dean. Dean picked up his, curling his fingers around the circumference and knocked the necks of the dark green glass bottles together before he tipped his head back and took a long drink.

Sam started to bring the rim to his lips, but couldn't drink because he was trying too hard to force down a smug-as-fuck smirk. Dean paused when he saw his brother's expression and set the drink on the table… except he couldn't let go.

Dean's eyes widened and he looked up at Sam, who couldn't hold it in anymore and laughed, loud, hearty, and full. Dean shook his hand, liquid inside sloshing, but even without him holding on, his hand stayed stuck to the bottle. Serenity's lips raised and she bit on her lip while I started snickering, falling sideways into Sam while we both laughed and Serenity pretended to be less amused.

She gave up after Dean turned the bottle sideways as much as he could without it spilling and stared at his hand in horror.

"You didn't," he growled at his brother, snapping his eyes back up with an irate glint.

Sam raised his other hand up from his pocket, holding up a small tube of superglue from the convenience store. "Oh," he corrected, beaming completely unrepentantly. "I did! Ha!"

Just to rub it in, Sam reached out and tugged on the string of the wooden fisherman decoration. The laugh was set off as the jaw squeaked, and Dean scowled, fixing his jaw and grinding his teeth while I nearly laughed myself right out of my seat.

Dean's expression alone, and Sam's self-satisfaction, might have actually made that better than the itching powder in Sam's boxers.


Dean, Sam, Serenity, and I waited for night to fall, and then gave it another hour, just to be on the safe side. When we went back to the Hell House, the police had stopped closely guarding the crime scene. I guess the investigators had finished scoping the place for any potential forensic evidence.

Based on whatever people chose to believe from the story we'd given the two fools, Mordechai would either shoot himself tonight or we'd have to do it for him; either way, he'd be gone for good, and we needed to be sure of it before we could move on. Just in case it was the latter, we kept close together, half expecting him to sneak up on us like he had before. It's not like he didn't have experience creeping up on people.

While we can all work together no matter how we're divided up, we nonverbally opted to try to stay nearly back-to-back just for safety, to make sure we had three-sixty vision. Just because our heights were closer, Serenity and I were in a pair while Dean and Sam were in another. Sam naturally made Dean look kind of short, but it was a closer match than Serenity or I would have made.

Dean was still smarting from the prank he'd been one-upped with, and he readjusted how he held his gun so that he could wave his left hand in the air with a hiss. "I barely have any skin left on my palm," he growled, shooting a dirty look at Sam over his shoulder.

"I'm not touching that line with a ten foot pole," the younger one replied immediately, returning the complaint with a jest without pause.

I don't think Dean had realized how it sounded until he'd already said it, but this was too good to pass up. "Serenity, do you wanna take that one?"

"Dean, a problem like that usually indicates that you're not using enough lube." She was fighting back laughs while she said it, and somehow didn't start giggling as soon as she'd finished. If Mordechai was around, he'd probably hear us before we saw him. … It was worth it.

"Son of a bitch," Dean complained.

"Actually, I'm just a bitch," Serenity quipped brightly and offered a sardonic smile to the older brother. "But thanks for trying." Sam rolled his eyes and made a motion with one hand, beckoning to the other of the two largest rooms on the first floor. Dean followed. The two split up so they weren't back-to-back. Serenity angled her arm back and bumped my forearm with her elbow before she followed after them. I shrugged and stepped just over the threshold, looking around warily.

"So, do you think old Mordechai's home?" Dean asked casually, his pride stinging and his irritation faltering while he let his ego attempt to recover. The next room was dark and foreboding like the first, lit mostly by moonlight filtering in from the windows. A ratty curtain blew in a soft gust of wind that slipped underneath the ajar window. It seemed more spooky than anything else, but by now it took more than a moving curtain to give me pause.

Sam hesitated for a minute, but it was because he was carefully looking around for out-of-place movement. "I don't know."

"Me either," another voice agreed from behind.

"Jesus fuck!" I shrieked, terrified, and all four of us whirled around. In an instant, Ed and Harry had four different pistols all trained on them. Harry nearly dropped the camera and whimpered, while Ed threw up his hands and leaned back as I almost smacked him in the face with my gun when I swirled around.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Ed screamed, frightened by the guns and by extension from my screaming.

I recognized them, of course, but that didn't make me any more inclined to lower my firearm. "Are you fucking kidding me?!" I shouted at them both, glowering heatedly and extremely glad that the cops were no longer standing guard outside. No way that would have gone unheard.

Serenity raged, almost at the same time as I did, waving her gun around in the air since she realized that she was ethically compelled not to shoot, however much she wanted to. "Do you have a death wish?!"

"What are you trying to do, get yourselves killed?" Significantly quieter but by no means calm, Sam looked down on the two short men irately. It took a lot, short of heinous crime, to make him look that aggravated, and the two backed up, Harry even lowering the camera.

Ed remained indignant, even though his arms were shaking violently from the scare. "We're just trying to get a book and movie deal, okay?" He whined. I wondered if he had any idea how pathetic he sounded. How is a book and movie worth risking your life three times now?

Something else split the air that hadn't come from any of us, and it made everyone fall quiet despite the irritation and adrenaline that had been pumped into our veins. Then it came again – this sort of pitched, metallic grinding noise that sounded like knives being sharpened. The hunters all turned around to face the noise as it came from a shut door that went down into the basement.

We started to back up. Serenity and I were too close to the door for any comfort, and no one would be sharpening knives unless they meant to do some damage. Ed and Harry shrank back. They weren't making a strategic retreat, like we were, they were just too afraid to stand their ground. Being pissed off at the two wasn't worth being unprepared, and I raised my gun again, holding it past them and training it on the door. The boys moved behind us so that they had clear shots if Mordechai came bursting out without running the risk of hurting Serenity or I in the process.

Ed squeaked, and he and Harry crowded in first far too close to me, and then they both tried to use me as a human shield, cowering down low behind me. Ed's hands got on my shoulders, keeping me in front, and Harry practically hung off of my upper arm, peeking out from around the side of my body.

I sighed, and was about two seconds from elbowing them both in the face to get them off, when Ed coughed and tried to say, "Oh no." His voice was too high, and he coughed several times before he got it in the same octave as it usually was. "So, ah, sweeties… wanna… uh, do you wanna get that door for us?"

Elbows to the face for these two, I thought again.

"And they say chivalry isn't dead," Serenity cooed, drawing out the vowels and sounding so painfully sarcastic that even the dimwitted fools behind me couldn't have missed it.

This was one moment when I was extremely tempted to let Serenity and Sam know Dean was my boyfriend, if only because it meant that Dean could storm over and punch them both. It was tempting to watch them get a lesson on keeping their hands to themselves, but I've never been a damsel, so the minute I thought of this I realized I didn't need Dean to do it for me; I could just do it myself. I was considering the fastest way to do this before the door to the basement slammed open.

Mordechai burst through with his grey, messy overalls stained in darkness that might have been meant to be blood. Both arms were raised, clasped around the handle of a bloody sharpened ax held above his head. He was letting out a noise that sounded like a low-pitched scream and growl.

For a second, although I felt the temperature plunge and the hair on my arms raise in goosebumps, the thing imitating a ghost remained in place, screeching furiously while the morons behind me quaked. Harry shrieked right in my ear. I pulled the trigger on my pistol and started discharging rounds. I just kept pulling back on the trigger until I could only hear the echoes of bullets and gunpowder – not just from mine, but from the others', too, and altogether I could see four different flashes of muzzles while we shot iron bullets at the monster.

Mordechai took a step forward and faltered as most of his midriff faded out, ripped through; another step, but his foot didn't land before another shot from Serenity, this one to the head, made him faze out of reality like a whiff of smoke. The ax went with him, despite being corporeal enough to do damage when he was fully materialized.

For a minute, the six of us all stood there. I lowered my pistol and raised my head to look up, teeth grit and mouth closed tightly. I could hear one of the ghostbusters' teeth chattering in terror.

Then the moment of pause and caution was broken as Ed let out a long, shaky exhale. Dean held up his gun so the barrel was to the ceiling and he was ready to shoot again as he looked over his shoulder. Sam huffed and looked back to the first room through the wide doorway.

"I'm taking this back room," Dean said, moving back to another doorway to look through. "Make sure he's really gone for good."

I nodded while Sam went to follow Dean, keeping up with his brother. "I'll stay with Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Dumber here just in case." The two men were just remembering how to breathe effectively while I nodded behind me to them. Serenity nodded while she reloaded the magazine, having used an entire cartridge shooting the bastard the first time around.

The three left to explore the rest of the house, and I remained with Ed and Harry, the two almost hyperventilating in boot-shaking fear. I rolled my eyes. I hadn't been that terrified when I saw my first ghost; I had kept as much composure as possible with my heart being nearly ripped from my body.

"Oh God," Ed gasped, teeth chattering and hands shaking. "He's gone. He's gone."

"Did you get him?" Harry asked, his voice a pitch higher than I'd ever heard it before, and not quite moving from behind me. Like a bird leaving the nest, Ed stepped away quickly, but then hovered near. It was good to know I was of some use.

"Yeah." Ed was quickly regaining his apparently entirely false bravado and dignity. He let out a shaky exhale as he straightened himself out and calmed down. "Yeah, they got him."

I flipped my gun up for show and blew over the barrel like in cartoons. It seemed cool and I felt badass. "That bastard's out like a light," I boasted, unable to help but feel pretty supremely awesome.

"No, on camera, did you get him on camera?" Harry corrected, and I deflated like a punctured balloon, struck again with how sad their priorities are.

"Uh, uh, I…" Ed held up the camera, having seemed to have forgotten he was still holding it, and he pressed the buttons to try switching it into its playback mode.

I tipped my head back up to the ceiling earnestly. "Dear God," I began to pray, half for show and half out of desperate seriousness. I even raised a hand over my heart, even while the other stayed on my gun. "I know I'm not a saint. And I'm probably going to Hell anyway. I'm not exactly in a hurry to get tortured for eternity, but if you're ever going to smite me in flames, please, please do it before I have to listen to any more from these two."

The sad thing was that I was only half-joking, and neither of the idiots even seemed to realize it, so I was left just looking down with a deep sigh while Harry told Ed to pass him the camera. The two switched hands with the technology.

I'm losing faith in humanity…

Harry took the camera from Ed and flipped open the view screen, pushing buttons on the side, and as I heard the very quiet static of the recording, Harry squinted and held it further from himself.

An ax flew through the air, seemingly out of nowhere, and slammed the blade through the camera. The camera, completely destroyed, flew to the wall, and Harry was left with his eyes wide as he fell backwards, screaming.

Mordechai sounded triumphant as he roared, almost smug, and the sound echoed even as he let himself fade from reality. I'd have made a joke about him not being very photogenic, except for that he wasn't supposed to continue to exist.

I held up my gun again and this time I was the one crowding the two, Ed pulling Harry up and willingly staying behind me. Whether or not I liked them, I still had to protect them. "You didn't take down that story I gave you, did you?!" I hissed over my shoulder, furious that they might have. If they didn't want it on the website, why would they post it to begin with?!

"Of course not!" Ed returned, his arms around his terrified best friend. "You had the documents and everything for proof!" He got his back to the wall – one of the smartest things he'd done in the last three days – and looked around anxiously.

"But then our server crashed," Harry added with a frown.

I looked over my shoulder at them both, suddenly more calm than I could remember being in the last week. I just stared for a couple of seconds. "So… it didn't take." I said slowly, processing. I'd have insulted them, but if their server crashed, then they weren't strictly to blame; actually, some of the fault for being in the situation lied with us for not double-checking the website. But they were still the civilians who put themselves in way over their heads and made themselves my problem, and I was perfectly allowed to be pissed, even if I wasn't beating them for it at the moment.

Ed reached up to run his fingers through his short, curly hair. "Um…"

Harry looked down to the floor while slowly shaking his head.

"So none of our weapons are actually going to work," I surmised, blinking slowly, breathing deeply, and trying not to go completely off of the handle.

"I…" Ed looked back up meekly before he met my eyes and looked back down again. "I guess not…"

I took a deep breath. Well, the guns had still managed to make him go away, albeit temporarily; I didn't holster my weapon. Even if it wouldn't kill him in any sense, at least it would temporarily drive him away, give us time to run and escape.

"I'm gonna annihilate you both," I informed them cheerily, before raising my voice and shouting. "Dean! Sam! Serenity!"

Sam was the first to reemerge, apparently having gone the shortest distance out of the room to explore. He poked his head through the threshold and then stepped in. "What's wrong?" He was already looking me over for any injuries, and when he saw I was fine, he looked behind me at the two and their wrecked camera.

I nodded violently over my shoulder. "These idiots' server crashed. Not enough people read the new story." Dean and Serenity had both come to the room in a hurry when I shouted, and they both shared a look of pinched brows and nerves.

Dean started to glare at the two that ran the HellHoundsLair website, but he stopped and sighed. Even he knew that now wasn't the best time to make it into anything big. "Great." Yeah, that summed it up. "Sam, any ideas?"

"It doesn't matter," Serenity quickly dismissed. "The only thing we can really do is flee like the French army!" I laughed, mostly because of my nerves; she had a point in that, without a given weakness, we couldn't do anything to kill Mordechai, which meant we were stuck playing a cat and mouse game for as long as we were in the house.

"We are getting outta here!" Harry squealed like a little pig and shuffled his feet, looking mournfully to the camera before he started to turn towards the next room with the front door and flash forward, his legs scurrying away.

"Yeah," Ed hurriedly agreed, his cowardice returning in full force as he started to chase after Harry.

"Wait!" I started to call, turning to watch them as they ran away. Mordechai wasn't about to let them just leave the house without a fight – without a fight they were incapable of putting up. Even with us, they were in danger; separated from actual hunters, they were as good as dead.

They must have gotten that memo, if the sudden shrieking was anything to go by. Another sound echoed, like an ax slamming into the wall, and then the boys screamed again. Glass rattled as they tried to escape. Heavy footsteps rained on the old floorboards, creaking and thundering like they were going to break.

"Son of a bitch," I growled, unintentionally stealing Dean's phrase while I ran into the next room.

Ed and Harry were cornered by the door. They probably couldn't open it, even if they turned their backs to the hulking maniac wielding an ax against them. Ghosts had a bad habit of trapping victims in order to terrorize before slaughtering them.

Harry threw his arms up over his head to protect him as Mordechai growled, a guttural noise deep in his throat, swinging his ax unsettlingly close to the two. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" He prayed.

Ed put his arms up but crossed one horizontally and one vertically in a mimicry of a cross. "The power of Christ compels you!" He started to chant, growing more and more frantic. I threw my gun to the side so I'd have my hands free; the bullets obviously didn't work, and I wouldn't have time to get to an angle where I could shoot the killer without blasting the ghostbusters, as well. "The power of Christ compels you, the power of Christ compels you!"

I shoved my way in front of them, nearly knocking Harry off of his feet when I stood in front of them, a physical shield to deter Mordechai. Irritating as hell, yes, but I would still defend them with my life if I had to. I spread my feet apart so I could lunge if necessary and put up my hands to fight.

"If you thought that would work, you have obviously not seen Freddy's Nightmares." Gravely, I bounced weight from foot to foot and looked over Mordechai as he raised the ax above his head to come down on me. Rock salt went right through him, he's incorporeal. … But the ax slammed through their camera, so somehow, it is corporeal!

As I came to this conclusion I raised my arms when the ax came down. Mordechai had a height and size advantage, tall enough to crush me if he tackled me, but I strained, muscles in my arms becoming more pronounced as I pushed against the handle of the ax to keep the blade as far from me as possible. I have strong triceps and actual muscles in my arms. It makes me pretty damn proud in an awkward way.

Mordechai really needed a mint – and a shave, along with a good dermatologist for the scars on his face.

He tried to wrench the ax away. I held on tighter, fingers going pale, but let him swing me away from the ghostbusters so they weren't such a nearby target. The ax wasn't smooth or polished – the wood was splintered, rough, and I felt something pierce my left hand followed by the warmth of blood. I bit into my lip and held on tighter, narrowing my eyes in concentration. If the weapon was the ax – I could just buy time by holding on –

"He has an ax!" Harry shrieked, jumping up and down and waving his hand at the two of us, pointing frantically.

I felt a twitch in my face before I screamed right back at them, "Yeah, I kinda fucking noticed!"

Mordechai made a low grunt of agreement and swung me to the side again via the ax, and this time the blood on my hand slickened my grip. I let go unwillingly and flew to the side, shoes almost skidding. Turning around was fast and the first instinct; I bent my knees and had my hands in fists before I realized what I was doing, keeping my back away from the monster.

"Hey!" Sam's voice was deep and loud, booming through the room both out of a desire to get Mordechai's attention and, presumably, out of anger at the Tulpa for attacking me. Mordechai turned his head to Sam before he resumed his attacks; Sam beckoned with his hands. "Come and get it, you ugly son of a bitch!"

Mordechai charged Sam. I wanted to hiss at him for putting himself in danger when I'd had it under control, but as I wiped my hands on my pants and left a bloody stain across the fabric, I realized I'd needed the help more than I thought.

It didn't take very long for Mordechai to get the upper hand again, since he was learning not to let the ax get too close for someone else to reach. In seconds, Sam had punched straight into his face, and Mordechai had slammed him against the side of the wall with the flat top of the blade across his throat.

The sight very nearly sent me into a panic. I threw myself at Mordechai from the side. If he was physical enough for Sam to punch, maybe he was more real than I'd thought. I slammed into his side and wheezed while he raged, spinning on me again and casting a shadow over my form. I threw myself to the floor and rolled out of the way while Sam pointed furiously at the door.

"Get out of here, now!"

The bastard brought the ax down right as I was springing to my feet, and while his back was hunched, I leapt, wrapping my arms around his neck and hopping up onto his back. My legs were too short to get around his entire body, but I held on tight like I did when I got piggyback rides from Sam.

"We're out of here!" Ed squeaked, opening up the door and flying through, Harry stumbling after him. I had a feeling this wasn't the last of them, and I'd be ever the more annoyed when we next saw them, but for the time being I was relieved they made it out of Mordechai's house in one piece.

I dug my knee into Mordechai's side and held on tight when he reeled, thrashing. "No one threatens my brother and gets away with it!" I snarled, spitting mad and ready to kill… too bad that wouldn't work on someone who was already dead.

Sam rubbed his throat and looked through the doorway. I clung onto the back of the Tulpa like Westley clung to Fezzik, almost expecting Mordechai to back into a wall (or very large boulder) to try getting me off. Instead he just started reaching up behind him and throwing himself around. I held on tight and squeezed my eyes shut, yelping when my hair was grabbed and pulled, some of it right out of the ponytail.

Serenity must have appeared in the room some time while I was being a human backpack. "Stop harassing my sister, you freak!" She shouted. I tightened my arms. Maybe Tulpas needed to breathe? I can hope, right? I opened my eyes and looked over Mordechai's shoulder, feet flying in the air like a rag doll. To an outsider, I must look pretty funny, but at the moment it felt anything but. "Dean, any time now!"

Next coming into the room was Dean, holding up the silver glint of his lighter. Something smelled, I noticed, like an accelerant; gasoline or kerosene, which I had become quite strongly acquainted with since I began hunting, and suddenly the lighter made more sense.

This was an old house and it hadn't rained in days; the house would go up in flames and burn to the ground before there was any chance of the fire department getting here to put it out.

"Get off!" Dean shouted in warning. I let go of Mordechai's neck instantly and flew off, stumbling. I couldn't catch myself after half-falling and half-jumping, and I tumbled backwards, right into Serenity. She caught me awkwardly with her hands under my arms and kept me up long enough to get my feet under me again.

Whoosh! Fire sprang up from the next room, flames rising high and spitting sparks out. The accelerant caught and the fire spread, large, lurking spires of heat crashing into the wall. Smoke from the burning floorboards drifted up to the ceiling in wispy grey clouds. They crackled like bubble wrap with the intensity of thunder as the temperature grew hot.

Oh, great, I'm in a burning house, I sarcastically thought. However Dean had gotten hold of the accelerant – it had probably been packed in one of the duffels – he and Serenity must have spread it pretty well, at least in that room. It didn't take long for the smoke to grow thick and the fire to begin spreading on its own, licking along the threshold to the main entry room and dancing forward elegantly.

"Go, go, go!" Dean yelled, covering his mouth so he wouldn't inhale fumes. Someone grabbed at the collar of my shirt and pulled me out of the way. Mordechai swung around towards Dean and brought the ax flying through the air, aimed for his throat, but Dean was bolting too fast for Mordechai to keep up. The blade embedded itself deeply into the wall, and Mordechai was left trying to yank it out furiously.

"I never thought I'd say this, but let's make like the idiots and flee!" Serenity gave me a push where I'd been watching to make sure everyone else was moving towards the door. Flames approached Mordechai, encroaching intimidatingly, and his screeches grew louder, but like an idiot, he just wouldn't leave the ax alone. The splintered wood was beginning to give, and it would only take a few more good tugs before the ax was freed and he could chase.

Sam was already out of the door, Dean hovering by the foyer to the porch. I reached blindly for Serenity's hand and instead caught her wrist, but held on and started to tug. Before too many paces I wasn't pulling anymore, and we were both making a mad dash for the porch. Fire was getting too close to the door for comfort, following around the interior walls, and heat washed over my skin as I jumped onto the porch. Serenity jumped over all of the stairs at once, landing heavily on the ground and continuing to dash towards the woods after Sam. Dean and I ran down them like normal people, and, with his hand behind my back, we ran, leaving Mordechai screaming in rage behind us.

I didn't try to look back until we were at the edge of the forest, caught up with Sam, who was leaning on a tree to catch his breath. I doubled over, legs and arms sore from being tossed around and fought. Dean's hand slid up my back, my shirt pulling up a little, but his hand stilled over my upper back.

Dean looked back to the Hell House. By now there was smoke pumping out into the air and soaring above the house. Flame had consumed the dull home and made it like a beacon in the night, glowing and blinding red and orange. A silhouette stood by the porch, holding the ax over his head and undoubtedly watching us, but unable to leave the residence.

"Mordechai can't leave the house, we can't kill him – we improvise." Dean sighed.

Sam frowned at Dean, almost horrified. "That's your solution? Burn the whole damn place to the ground?!"

Dean shrugged and looked confused. "Well, nobody will go in anymore," he pointed out. Sam's expression didn't change. I rolled my eyes and looked up at the sky, speckled with faint stars. "I mean, look, Mordechai can't haunt a house if there's no house to haunt. It's fast and dirty, but it works."

"What if those morons catch wind of it and they change the legend to keep their website alive?" I challenged, giving him the reason Sam was so upset. "What if they allow Mordechai to leave the house, haunt the forest – even the city?"

"Well…" By his expression, Dean clearly hadn't thought of this. Still, I couldn't bring myself to be too irritated when we had all been in danger. Watching the Tulpa's grounds turn to scorches and ashes was cathartic. "Well, then we'll just have to come back."

Serenity slapped her hands to her thighs and stared determinedly back at the Tulpa that started to cower, silhouette becoming obscured from fire and fume. "And kick their pathetic little asses into the next century while we're at it."

We just started to watch the house burn, the Tulpa hopefully going with it, while we caught our breaths and recovered from the ordeal. I looked away when I started to remember the other burning houses in our pasts, and as mesmerizing as the fire was close to being, I didn't think we particularly needed to keep staring. I brushed off Dean softly and passed behind Serenity towards Sam.

I prodded his arm lightly and he looked down to me. I crooked my fingers silently to beckon him down and he leaned over slightly, so I pushed his chin up so that I could see his neck, running my fingers gently over his throat, feeling for damage or blood. I just wanted to be sure that Mordechai hadn't actually cut him when he'd had the ax at Sam's throat.

No one threatens my brother and gets away with it!

It was hard to remember sometimes that we weren't actually related, especially in times like this when we fought together, for each other. Satisfied that he wasn't hurt, I took my fingers from his neck and let him stand up straight again before wrapping my arms around him.

My brother. I started to smile against his jacket when Sam brought his arms around me loosely, giving me the hug I wanted. My sister, my boyfriend, and my brother. Who cares if we're not related? I've said myself that family isn't determined by biology as much as it is emotion and sentiment. Sam is as much my family as Serenity now. I turned my head to press my ear to his chest, listening to his heartbeat while watching the fire consuming the Hell House.

"But it kind of makes you wonder…" Sam broke the quiet reverie, and his arms tightened a fraction protectively. "Of all the things we hunted… how many existed just because people believed in them?"

The implications were disturbing, and, more than that, frightening.


The only reason we went back to the trailer park where Ed and Harry resided in the morning was so that Serenity and I could make sure once and for all that we were the smarter ghostbusters. Our pride was a problem. … We were living with it alright.

We nearly got there too late to catch them. Their trailer space was no longer as cluttered, mostly picked up, and their truck was loaded up and strapped down with extra furniture and supplies. We guessed they were leaving. Sam had actually suggested it. Serenity had smiled gleefully and nodded enthusiastically like she knew something we didn't.

We were camped out by the Impala, which Dean had parked in an empty trailer space, when the two returned to their own trailer and car, carrying handfuls of bags from a convenience store. Ed shoved glasses further up his face with his thumb while he held onto the bags that I could see Cheetos through, listening to Harry. Neither of them seemed to have noticed us yet.

"I was thinking that Mordechai has a really super high attack bonus," Harry was excitedly mumbling with Ed. I narrowed my eyes. Attack bonus? Were they making some sort of game about the Hell House hunt? How would they sell it, or advertise it? They don't really strike me as the well-financed type.

I should probably be less concerned with their marketing strategies and more bothered by that they want to turn it into a video game.

"Man, I've got the munchies right now," Ed complained, looking down to the bags full of snacks and chips. While he was looking up again, he saw the Impala and the four actual hunters and huntresses around the beautiful car. His face fell and he elbowed Harry. The bags on his arms rustled and crinkled, while Harry went from looking super psyched to looking kind of sad, like a puppy thrown outside, and Ed's expression schooled into what he must have thought was supposed to be smooth and cool. "Gentlemen," he addressed calmly, nodding professionally. "Women."

Serenity acknowledged them in a similar way. "Geeks," she noted with a dull nod of her head, her hands behind her and pressing along the metal of the Impala. "Who apparently feel the need to specify which gender they'd like to have sex with," she added as an afterthought with a sardonic smirk. She'd never let that go.

"Seriously, what's with being picky?" I asked with a pout.

Sam smiled more kindly to them, the most indulgent towards the ghost hunters. "Hey, guys."

Harry looked to Ed pleadingly, his arms straining down and weighed by the bags. "Should we tell 'em?" He almost begged, buzzing in anticipation.

Ed rolled his shoulders, puffing up like a proud bird again. I thought if he were a bird, he would be a secretary bird – since those look demented as hell, it would be fitting. "Hey, might as well… you know, they're going to read about it in the trades."

Beaming, Harry looked back to us. He threw the plastic bags over the side of the truck and into the back, then rubbed his hands like he was wiping the dust from his palms. Oh, poor baby, you had to carry some groceries. "So, this morning, we got a phone call from a very important Hollywood producer!"

"Oh, yeah?" Dean snarkily interjected when Harry paused to breathe. "Wrong number?"

Ed's arrogant smirk melted to a scowl. "No, smartass," he shot back heatedly. "He read all about the Hell House on our website and wants to auction the motion picture rights… maybe even have us write it." Unthinkingly he shoved his armfuls of groceries to Harry, who huffed when he took them and started loading them into the already too full car.

"And a gaming company wants us to help them create the R.P.G.," Harry added boisterously.

Dean made a face when he pulled a blank. "The what?"

Before either of the two replied, Serenity did, both of us having a history of enjoying video games when we were teenagers. "The role-play game," she explained. "It's usually a first-person interactive, but sometimes it's an omniscient interactive."

"Right." Sarcasm, but not particularly rude now that his speech was directed to his friend. "I'm trying not to be bothered that you know that."

Ed straightened and arched his back, stretching his arms out to the sides proudly. "It's just a little bit of the lingo," he drawled, elongating the vowels. "Which we know all of," he added as a secondary thought, gesturing to Harry. "Anywho, excuse us, we're off to la la land."

Curiously, I looked to them with wide eyes. "You mean you're not already there?" My lips quirked up, ruining the appearance of the innocent question.

Sam stuffed his hands into his pockets and his shoulders shrugged. "Well, congratulations, guys," he said with a friendly smile, sounding genuinely pleased for them. I was beginning to question exactly which side Sam was on. "That sounds really great."

Looking as if it physically pained to do so, Dean swallowed his pride enough to congratulate them, though his heart was clearly not in it. "That's awesome. Best of luck to you."

Of course, what could have been a sort of truce was ruined by Ed and his egotistical viewpoint. "Oh, yeah, luck," he snorted, crossing his arms comfortably. "That has nothing to do with it. It's all about talent… sheer, unabashed talent."

Nothing about you is unabashed, I thought with another spark of irritation, so I lashed out again, my voice peaceful but words challenging. "Yeah, sure. Let me know when you manage to take out an actual ghost… because so far, the only one you've seen has sent you running. While shrieking like little girls."

"It wasn't a shriek," Ed muttered darkly, lowering his head and glaring. "It was manly."

"It was an intensely emotional moment for us," Harry sniffed with feeling and tried his utmost to give a legitimate defense. Serenity rolled her eyes so hard I thought she might hurt herself. "Our first near-death experience."

Ed made a rude hand gesture, but didn't have the gall to make it easily visible and it was kept mostly hidden, half-behind his back. "Later," he said, shooting me another look and following it up with an intense glower at Dean. Nice to know that we'd made an impression. "See you around."

I hope not, I thought privately, and judging by Ed's tone, it was a mutual sentiment.

We watched while they loaded the rest of their few things into the truck. Harry checked the straps to make sure that everything would stay in place while they drove. It didn't take long before they were both jumping into the car, while the rest of us watched for some reason.

"Wow," Dean said under his breath as Ed slammed his door and started the automobile almost instantly, ready to hit the road.

Sam took a deep breath as the engine of the truck and rolling of the trailer's wheels quieted to a volume that we could easily talk over again. Sam turned towards the car and slid a hand over the top of the roof. "I have a confession to make," he admitted, his eyes down.

"Yeah?" Dean threw open the driver's side door. "What's that?"

"I, uh…" Sam tried looking guilty, he really did, but the expression failed when he couldn't keep in the shameless grin. Serenity and I looked at each other briefly out of habit before we both looked to Sam, interested. Sam laughed. "I was the one that called them and told them I was a producer."

Serenity jumped up and down on her heels and pointed at him across the car. "I was wondering!" She exclaimed loudly, probably waking up anyone who hadn't already in the nearby trailers. "Because the video game thing, that was on me – I told them, action figures, trading cards, the whole deal, but I said nothing about a movie." She shrugged to indicate she'd been confused, then let a blinding grin loose to Sam in delight, pride and affection clear. Pranking people to the extent of making them drive to Hollywood was apparently the way to her heart.

Dean threw his head back, laughing, his face bright and unguarded. It was great to see him letting loose so easily. "Yeah, well, I'm the one who put the dead fish in their backseat."

When? I wondered, my grin faltering only slightly at the thought that I may have unknowingly been riding in the car with a dead fish between the motel and here. Sam didn't even pause, just kept laughing, and Serenity brushed her hands off on her jeans at a job well-done. They would not be very pleased when they got to Hollywood.

Sam wiped his eyes from laughing so hard. "Ah… truce?" He offered, now that they'd both done their worst to someone else. Uniting to get someone else allowed them to get it out of their systems without feeling the need to strike back at each other.

"Yeah, truce," Dean agreed. He smirked at Sam over the roof. "At least for the next hundred miles." We had several more of those to go… or at least until we found the next suspicious thing to look into.

I scraped my teeth over my lower lip, smirking even as I thought that I should pick up some chap stick, maybe a kind that was scented like something sugary. Serenity reached out and her hand grabbed onto my upper arm, stopping me before I could open the car door to get inside. "Wait – why are you smiling?"

I sighed deeply, smiling at her peacefully and a little bit distantly, thinking back to the planned part of my handiwork and thinking that those guys were going to try to kill us if we ever saw them again. "Yeah…" I said dreamily. "I got bored, too…"

Sam chuckled again and leaned over the car towards me. "Pray tell, what did you do to them?" Dean looked a little eager to hear. That discussion back in the diner about me being a vicious prankster was about to be proved, and I think he was anxious to find out the extent of the truth in it.

I giggled brightly like I wasn't passing as the Antichrist. "It's actually quite detailed," I said, looking to Dean and expecting praise whenever. "Let's say they'll be arrested for something they didn't actually do because of an anonymous tip, and then released in about twenty-four hours when the police finds that the tip doesn't actually check out." Serenity's jaw dropped but she quickly started applauding. I'd never brought the police into any of my pranks before. "They're also going to find that their new internet homepage is the smile dog meme. I figure, they're internet geeks, it'll freak them out. The best thing is that it's set so that every time they reopen the homepage, the picture changes, becomes a little more Satanic.

"Also, I sent them a seemingly harmless e-mail with an interesting subject line. It won't do anything to their computer, just installs a harmless Trojan. It'll let me screw around with their computer for a few days when I get bored and they'll freak out. I'll delete the Trojan myself; I programmed it a few years ago in a college-level computer sciences online course. All it does is give me remote control until I cancel it. Oh, and then there's the plot waiting for them in L.A.; when they get to their hotel, they're going to-"

Serenity whacked me in the arm again, harder than the time before. "Okay, smartass, you've proved your point," she chided. "Damn. Don't screw with Holly Kasakabe."

Sam and Dean were both massively amused. Sam shook his head, only slightly disbelieving, and he said thoughtfully, "I think I'm going to change my computer password."

"Damn it, you weren't kidding," Dean breathed, looking across the car with a new respect and something suspiciously like adoration.

I smiled faintly again and moved to get into the car. "Of course not. I don't like being insulted, lied to, and having promises broken. Those two bugged me," I added pointedly, getting in and pulling my door shut behind me.


A/N: Love it? Hate it? Let me know!