Request by sammy2y.
Summary: Following a ghost case, Sam, Dean, and Castiel get sucked into the Outsiders. While there, they meet Ponyboy Curtis who helps them hunt the ghost.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders.
o-o-o
Sirens wailed as bright lights flashed across the crime scene that was encased in police tape. The atmosphere was solemn and tense as workers walked around, trying to gather as much evidence as they possibly could in the house. But no matter how hard they looked for the tiniest of clues, it was useless. They couldn't find anything. If it weren't for the gory body and the massive amount of blood that had been surrounding it before it was sent to a morgue, the workers would have just passed it off as a suicide. The only clues that they had were a novel that was soaked in the victim's blood and an unreliable eyewitness account.
Two tall figures ducked under the tape, walking straight towards a policeman. They towered over the stubby man who had to take a few steps backward to not feel as intimidated.
"Who are you two?" the policeman asked, eyeing the two suspiciously. "You aren't allowed here."
As if they were going off of a practiced script, they reached inside of their coats, digging around their pockets to pull out one of their many fake IDs. However, before they could pull them out, another man in a trench coat waltzed over. "These are the detectives that I've told you about," he explained, pointing to the long-haired man first. "That's Detective Jack Sparrow, and the other one is Detective Will Turner."
At the introduction, the two detectives raised their eyebrows at the other, staring at him with an are-you-serious expression. They opened their mouths as if about to say something, but closed them again, deciding to just commit to it. They would have to deal with it later. They just hoped that the policeman went along with it as well.
"Davy Jones, Jack Sparrow, and Will Turner…" the policeman slowly listed, disbelief in his tone. Fortunately, however, the policeman just sighed, shaking his head. "Yeah, sure. Whatever… You know what to do detectives. I'll leave you to it."
With that, the policeman walked away. As soon as he was far away enough to not hear their conversation, the two detectives turned to the one in the trench coat. "Seriously, Cas?" he asked, exasperated. "Davy Jones, Jack Sparrow, and Will Turner?"
Castiel nodded, not seeing the problem with the names that he had provided. "I've noticed that you two always pick popular pop culture figures," he responded with a very slow, stop-and-go voice. "Is that not what you do, Sam… Dean?"
"Yeah, we do… but not characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean."
Sighing at the banter between the angel and his older brother, Sam cut in. "What do we have, Cas?" he asked, combing his long hair out of his face.
The angel turned to him, pointing towards the outline of the victim. "There is one female victim. She was found dead after returning home from the bookshop, Captain Book. I went ahead and talked to the witness. She said that she saw the victim disappear into thin air. When she went over to check up on her, she found her corpse."
"Something tells me that we are going to find a major clue at that book shop," Dean muttered to no one in particular.
"Let's go check it out," Sam suggested before the three of them exited the crime scene.
It didn't take long for them to arrive at the bookstore. It was small and rundown, looking practically shabby. It didn't look like it got much business if any at all. The three of them exchanged looks before they pushed their way inside the door. A bell rang when they entered, alerting the cashier, who was an elderly woman, of their arrival.
She smiled sweetly at them and said, "Come on in. Let me know if you need help finding anything."
Sam stepped up, walking over to her. "Actually, we've come here to question you about a recent death," he explained. Simultaneously, the three of them flashed their badges. Instantly, the woman's smile dropped. Her eyebrows knitted together.
"Detectives? What would detectives be doing here? What do you need?"
Castiel slid her a picture of the victim. "A woman had recently been killed after coming to this bookstore," he revealed. "Do you recognize her?"
As soon as she examined the picture, the woman's eyes lit up in recognition. She hummed, nodding her head. "Yes, I do. She came by the other day. I don't get many customers after a family accident that had occurred, so I remember her really well. I had to kick her out after she had been ripping out pages of some of my books."
Out of everything that the woman had just said, two words stood out. "Family accident?" Dean questioned.
The woman placed the picture down, eyes becoming distant. She pursed her lips, scratching at the counter. "My granddaughter… She… She had passed away not too long ago. She was bullied a lot for being socially awkward. She visited here a lot to read books. This place was her sanctuary. One day, her classmates came by while she was reading here and tried to play a prank." Tears were brimming from her eyes now as she struggled to get the next sentence out. "But… But things didn't turn out the way that they were supposed to, and they accidentally pushed a bookshelf too hard… and well…"
Swallowing hard and clearing his throat, Sam muttered, "I'm sorry for your loss."
Dean stepped forward again, deciding to continue the interrogation. "Have you noticed anything weird? Like cold spots or flickering lights?"
Confusion flickered across the woman's eyes. "Are you talking about a ghost?" she asked, weirded out by the question. They had to be pulling a joke. But when they looked at her with so much seriousness, she knew that they weren't kidding. "I mean… I guess so…"
After a bit more questioning, they finished talking to her. She gathered her stuff, ready to close up the shop since it was around closing time.
"I'm going to be closing shop soon," she announced. "Do you need anything else?"
"May we look around the store a bit?" Sam asked.
She nodded. "Go ahead. Help yourself. I'll be right back."
As soon as she left, the three of them gathered together. All of them knew what was going to be said next. "It looks like a ghost," Dean confirmed. "We haven't had one of these cases in a while."
"We should check out the bookshelf that was pushed down," Sam suggested.
They made their way to the back of the store where the woman said the bookshelf still was located. It had a few dents and nicks in it from the fall. They leafed around a bit—pulling out books and checking behind the shelf—but they found nothing. There were no cold spots or flickering lights. It was normal.
All of a sudden, Dean chuckled. Sam and Castiel looked over to him to find him looking down at an art book.
Sam raised an eyebrow at his brother. "We're supposed to be looking for anything that would help us with this case; not look at pictures of naked women that artists drew in the past."
Shaking his head, a smile still plastered on his face, Dean ripped out a page and stuffed it into his pocket. "Alright… But I'm taking a page with me."
Instantly, the room got freezing cold as their breath condensed, coming out as visible vapors. Lights strobed around them as they shivered. Sam and Dean pulled out their guns, pointing them while they looked around for the ghost that would soon appear before them.
A pale girl appeared at the end of the aisle. Her dark hair covered her face like the Grudge, covering the dark circles that were under her eyes. She flashed her black teeth as she growled like a rabid animal. Her attention though was clearly on Dean, not paying too much attention to Castiel and Sam.
"I think you angered her." Sam pointed out.
Dean sighed, "Yeah, I can see that."
Suddenly, the girl charged at them, extending her sharp nails outward. With reflexes like cats, Dean and Sam started to shoot at her with salt-filled bullets. However, the ghost disappeared in thin air before she reappeared besides Castiel. Before he could react, she pushed him into a bookshelf, causing the shelves to break. He collapsed onto the floor with a grunt, books cascading onto him.
"Son of a bitch," Dean cursed as he shot out another bullet, missing her once again as she leaped right into an open book that was next to Castiel.
"Where did she go?" Sam asked, looking frantically around. His heart was hammering against his chest as adrenaline pumped through his veins.
All of a sudden, the book that the ghost had jumped into started to glow so brightly that it was blinding. It engulfed all three of the men inside of the bookstore who tried to shield their eyes. They all let out yells as it felt like their souls were being ripped out of their bodies. Whatever was happening, it wasn't good. They couldn't run as it felt like they weren't in control of their bodies anymore.
"Sammy! Cas!" Dean yelled out before everything went dead silent. When the light dimmed down, the three men were gone. All that was left was a messy shop and a book that closed on its own.
o-o-o
When the three of them woke up again, they were blinded by bright sunlight. Groaning, they all sat up, holding their heads which were pounding in pain. It was like they were hungover, but they hadn't had a drop of alcohol yet.
"What happened?" Sam grumbled.
Dean furrowed his eyebrows as he remembered what they were doing previously. "The ghost. We were at the bookstore, remember?"
Sam nodded, but another question still remained. His eyes flickered around. "How did we get outside?"
Castiel looked around as well, noticing something was off. There were quite a few people that were strolling around them, not paying them much attention. They were all dressed up in retro-styled outfits. Well, they would have been considered retro (possibly vintage), but it looked as if they all were wearing the clothes like they were everyday wear. Old cars were parked on the side of the road, appearing practically brand new besides a few rusty-looking ones. It was strange, to say the least. Castiel looked around more before his eyes caught the sight of a newspaper that was littered in the park that they were in. He picked it up, smoothing it out on his leg before reading the date that was printed on it.
"1965... " he read quietly to himself before turning back to Sam and Dean. "I think the question is, how'd we end up in the past."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked, confused.
"The newspaper says that it's 1965."
Dean's mouth went dry. He should have been slightly excited about it. Who wouldn't want to travel back into the past—especially going to a time with a bunch of classics? However, he just felt done with everything.
"This is great," he muttered sarcastically. "This is exactly what we needed. Why does this keep happening to us?"
Shaking his head, Sam shrugged. He didn't want to stay in the past at all. He had enough of that already. "I don't know, but we have to figure out how to get back to our own time. We should ask where we are first."
Agreeing, they stood up and started to walk in a random direction. Eventually, the three of them found themselves in front of a DX station. They pushed themselves through the door, eyes readjusting to the dimmer lighting that was inside. Three teenagers were inside. Two of them wore the DX station uniform. They were both in the corner of the room, arm-wrestling with each other, not even noticing that people had entered the station. The other teenager was a younger boy, maybe around thirteen or fourteen years of age. His green-gray eyes turned to them when they entered before flickering back to the arm-wrestling match.
Figuring that they weren't going to get much help from the employees at the moment, they approached the younger boy who once again turned to them.
"Hi," Sam greeted with a small smile. "Can you tell us where we are?"
The boy looked at them strangely, hands playing with the almost-empty bottle of Pepsi that he was holding. What a weird question. Why wouldn't they know where they were? They were in a city for Christ's sake.
"You're in Tulsa," he replied, not really thinking that the information would mean much. However, when he saw the three strangers exchange looks with wide eyes, his curiosity spiked.
"Tulsa?" Dean echoed. "We were just in New Hampshire. How'd we get here?"
That only made the boy raise an eyebrow at them.
Sam, lightly chuckled, noticing the confused expression on the boy's face. "We're just travelers," he lied, trying to cover up their small slipup. "We go places without a destination."
But New Hampshire was very far away from Oklahoma, something anybody that knew even a little bit of geography would know. Ponyboy knew that they weren't telling the full truth. They were hiding something from him, but who was he to pry on their business? Chances were, he was never going to see them again after this. So, he just nodded, smiling longingly.
"That must be nice," he murmured. "You get to see so much of the world. I wish I could do that."
"Yeah, I guess it's nice," Dean agreed.
The boy hummed. "So, what are your names?"
"I'm Dean and that's my brother Sam." He pointed to himself and to his brother in that order. He was about to introduce Cas, but the angel beat him to it before he even got the chance to do so.
"My name is Castiel," Cas greeted.
"Like the angel?" the boy asked, smiling.
"Yes, that's right… What's your name?"
What came next was a simple answer. However, it was anything but simple. In fact, it only made everything more complicated.
"I'm Ponyboy," the boy simply greeted.
Instantly, Sam choked, causing everybody to look at him in concern. There was only one person that could be named Ponyboy. It dawned on him right then and there what had happened to them. They weren't just trapped in the past. No, it was much more than that. The ghost had somehow dragged them inside of the book, The Outsiders. Suddenly, what happened to the girl that was killed made much more sense.
"Ponyboy?" he stammered, practically blubbering from how shocked he was.
Ponyboy nodded, sighing deeply. "Yep, that's my name. It even says so on my birth certificate," he mumbled like he had said it a thousand times already.
Sam's hands shook as he grabbed Dean's and Castiel's arms and started to drag them away from Ponyboy. "Uh… give us a second," he requested and Ponyboy nodded.
"What is it?" Dean asked when they were dragged further into the gas station by Sam.
"Is something wrong?" Castiel questioned, furrowing his eyebrows.
"We aren't in the past," Sam explained, still shocked. "At least not really. We're in the book, The Outsiders."
"The Outsiders?" Dean repeated.
"Yeah, you know… 'Stay gold, Ponyboy' or 'When I stepped out, into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house…' That book?"
Dean rolled his eyes with a small, playful smile on his face. "You are such a nerd."
Dismissing his brother, Sam shifted the weight to his other leg. A thought passed through his brain as he flashed his eyes towards Ponyboy and then back to the others. "I think that we're going to be here until we finish the entire book."
"But what happens if we do get to the end of the book?"
"Either we get released or we get trapped in here forever."
Scratching the back of his neck, Dean crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't like those odds. We need to figure this out before the end of this book."
"But I think we should stick with Ponyboy because he's the main character. It probably means that trouble is going to revolve around him."
"Good thinking."
They returned to the young teen who was off of the counter now. By that time, the two workers were there as well. Ponyboy looked over to them when they returned.
"You done talking?" he asked. They nodded their heads.
One of the employees, who was very handsome, leaned over the counter. A bright, welcoming smile was on his face. "Pony, who're they?" he asked.
Ponyboy pointed at each one of them. "That's Sam, Dean, Castiel. They're travelers."
"What do travelers have to do here?" the other worker, who had a smudge on his cheek, questioned.
"We're just stopping by for a few days," Dean replied, acting smoothly. "Say, we have no place to stay. Do you know of any place?"
The worker with a smudge on the face (who Sam quietly mumbled to them was Steve) stuffed a rag into his back pocket. He pointed in front of him. "There's a motel just around the corner."
"I was just about to head that direction. Want me to take you there?" Ponyboy offered.
"That would be most satisfactory," Castiel answered. Ponyboy pushed away from the counter and started to walk towards the door. The three hunters followed right behind him. From behind them, they heard Steve make an unsure noise, but before he could speak out, the door closed.
As soon as the four of them were on the sidewalk, walking towards the motel, Ponyboy turned his head to them but didn't speak. He just stared at them with big, curious eyes. About halfway to the motel, Dean got fed-up with all of the staring, raising an eyebrow at the boy.
"Okay, what's with all the staring?" he demanded.
Ponyboy opened his mouth before closing it again as if he wasn't sure if he should ask his question or not. But he opened his mouth again to speak. "What is The Outsiders? I heard you three talk about it. You weren't really quiet," he questioned.
Instantly, the three of them exchanged worried looks. Oh, crap, he heard them. They didn't how to respond to his question. They couldn't just tell him that he was just a character in a book, could they? No, they couldn't. It would freak him out too much or he wouldn't even believe them. With either outcome, wouldn't they be breaking some sort of fourth wall as well?
"Uh…" Sam got out, looking at Dean and Cas for help, but they were just as lost.
Eventually, Cas bluntly blurted out, "You're a character in a book."
Dean threw his hands up, looking at Castiel with an are-you-serious expression.
"Cas, you can't just tell people that," Dean groaned.
If possible, Ponyboy was even more confused than he as a minute ago. He tilted his head to the side. He must have misheard them. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
Sam let out an airy, awkward chuckle. He licked his chapped lips. "Well… Ponyboy…" Sam tried but was as lost as Dean was. He looked back forward, seeing that the motel was right there. He gestured to it. "Oh, hey, we're here! Thanks for taking us. We really should check in now."
They tried to walk away from the persistent teen, but Ponyboy wasn't going to let them go. His mind was spinning, trying to grasp onto what he had just heard. But he just couldn't. Even though he was so open-minded about everything, he just couldn't wrap his head around it. They just told him that he was a character in a book which didn't make sense whatsoever. He was real, wasn't he? He sure felt like he was. He had memories, he felt pain, he felt like he was in charge of his own decisions. If that wasn't what made his life a reality, then he wasn't sure what would. They had to be kidding; pulling a prank on him.
"Wait, hold on!" he yelled, running in front of them. He was itching for answers. "What do you mean? Why do you think that I'm a character in a book? How can you know that?"
Sighing, Sam gave up. They couldn't hide this from him now. It was doing more harm than good by keeping this a secret from him.
"You don't know me. This is the first time that we have ever seen each other," he started. Ponyboy furrowed his eyebrows at him, nodding slowly in confirmation. "If this is our first time meeting each other, I shouldn't know what I'm going to tell you."
"Okay…"
"Your full name is Ponyboy Michael Curtis. You have two older brothers, Darry and Soda, and your parents were killed in an auto wreck. You get good grades in school, but you oftentimes don't use your head which really gets on Darry's nerves. You're in a gang, whose members are more like family members. The other gang members are Steve, Two-Bit, Dally, and Johnny. Johnny's your best friend and Two-Bit once gave you the talk—"
A blush bloomed across Ponyboy's face, shaking his hands in an attempt to stop Sam from continuing. "Okay, okay! I believe you! Don't continue!"
There was no way that Sam could have known about small details like that. He never told a single soul about getting the talk from Two-Bit. He was too embarrassed to tell anybody. Sam had to be telling the truth then. It was still so hard to believe though. His life was fake. Everything about it. It was just a written story. Ponyboy didn't want to believe it. It made his stomach turn uneasily. He opened his mouth to ask more questions, but he didn't know where to start.
Suddenly, an urgent voice left Castiel. "Dean. Sam," he called out, looking behind everyone where the apparition of the ghost from the bookstore appeared. She was quite a bit away from them, but still at a worrisome distance, staring at them creepily. The two brothers instantly swerved their heads around to look, gulping. They didn't have much time and Ponyboy was going to be in the way.
Sam blindly reached forward, grabbing Ponyboy's shoulders. "You need to go," he frantically ordered.
But Ponyboy stayed put. He still hadn't seen the ghost yet. Even if he did see her, he wouldn't even think that she was dead. They still hadn't explained that part yet.
"But—" he argued but was cut off by Dean.
"There's no more time left," Dean warned when the ghost started to charge at them. They didn't have any weapons on them that would be effective against ghosts at the moment and they had no idea how they were going to get rid of this particular one. "Get in the motel now!"
"But you haven't even gotten a room yet—"
"Ponyboy, please, trust us," Sam begged. "We'll explain everything later. You just need to trust us right now."
Hearing how serious his voice was, Pony nodded. His mouth was dry when he clamped it shut. Sam pushed him forward towards a random motel room, hoping that it was empty. In one swift motion, he kicked down the door, blowing the hinges off of the frame. Ponyboy could only gawk as he was pushed inside. Fortunately, for all of them, the room was empty.
Dean and Castiel ran in after them, looking around the room for iron. Sam did as well. The long-haired hunter grabbed an iron lamp, while Dean managed to break two legs off of a chair that was framed in iron. He threw one of the legs over to Castiel, who caught it without really looking.
All of a sudden, the apparition of the ghost flashed in front of them, causing Ponyboy to jump out of his skin. The motel room went ice cold, causing their breath to become visible. Ponyboy shivered, but he didn't know if it was from her ghastly appearance or from the freezing room. It was probably both. She extended her clawed hands towards him but, before she could take a step forward, Castiel swung the iron through her. And, just like that, she disappeared. However, the three hunters were anything but relaxed. They didn't have much time before she would come back.
As they were hustling through the room, Ponyboy was frozen in his spot. What the hell was going on? That girl appeared out of nowhere and the iron went through her.
"How are we going to get rid of her?" Dean asked. "There isn't a body or item that she's connected to."
What was he talking about?
"I think," Sam started, looking rushed. "I think I read about…uh… a spell in the bunker that would help. I don't know how well I remember it though."
A spell? Ponyboy was so confused.
"I'll get what we need," Castiel volunteered. "Just tell me what it is, and I'll find it."
Sam grabbed the free notepad and pen from the nightstand, muttering to himself as he wrote things down. Ponyboy finally found it in himself to ask questions.
"Can someone tell me what's going on?" he asked, but nobody was listening to him. They were all preoccupied with what they were doing.
"Get salt," one of them said, but Ponyboy didn't care who had said it. He just wanted answers. These three strangers just came to town, told him that he was a character in a book, and then sliced through a freaky-looking girl. They continued to shuffle around the motel room and with each passing second, Ponyboy got even antsier.
"Stop!" he screamed, not able to handle being ignored anymore. "What the heck is going on! Who was that girl and who are you guys? You're obviously not travelers. So, who are you?"
Sam handed Castiel a paper that had the ingredients that they needed to do the spell on it. And, before Ponyboy's eyes, he vanished. He just disappeared. Boom; gone. His eyes went wide, mouth gaping, as he pointed his finger to where Castiel was just standing before. He made confused sounds, unable to form a sentence due to how much shock he was feeling.
Knowing that the best way for Ponyboy to follow their directions was to tell the truth, Dean walked over to him, placing a firm hand onto his shoulder. "I'm just going to tell you, okay?" he started.
Ponyboy nodded, swallowing the saliva that had been gathering in his mouth. "Okay," he breathed out, heart thumping against his chest.
"We're hunters. We hunt ghosts, monsters… you name it."
The young greaser had been expecting many answers to come out of the older male's mouth. However, he wasn't expecting that. Ghosts? Monsters? They were only in books and movies. But, then again, apparently, he was a book character himself. And, that girl that had vanished did not look right at all. None of the stuff that had happened with the hunters made any sense, and they looked serious about what they had told him.
They were telling the truth.
"And… And that girl. She was…" Ponyboy stuttered.
"A ghost. She dragged us into this book while we were hunting her."
Suddenly, Castiel reappeared with an armful of supplies, causing Ponyboy to flinch violently. He pressed a hand over his speeding heart, taking a deep breath.
That's when it hit him. Humans shouldn't be able to teleport. Then, what was he? If ghosts and monsters were real, then he could be one as well.
"And him?" he asked, point to Cas. "What is he?"
"I'm an angel," Castiel answered with his gruff voice.
"An angel?" Ponyboy gaped in both amazement and disbelief. "An actual angel?"
"Yes."
The room got cold again and Castiel instantly threw Dean a canister of salt. Dean immediately started to pour a ring of salt around Pony, much to the boy's confusion. Out of all things that could be used for hunting, they were using salt. How was salt supposed to help?
"What's this for?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"This will help prevent the ghost from killing you," Dean replied. "Don't leave it."
Ponyboy's blood ran cold. Kill him? The danger of the situation dawned on him. He gulped, stiffly nodding. There was a possibility in him dying if he didn't follow directions as unsettling as that was.
The ghost reappeared again, and Dean went to swipe at it again with the iron. However, before he could do that, the ghost managed to dodge it, pushing the hunter back with an inhuman amount of force. Pony's eyes went wide as he watched as Dean went flying backward against the wall, gasping out as the wind was knocked out of him. The hunter fell to the ground, groaning. He squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to stop his vision from swaying.
Meanwhile, Sam hurriedly started to put the spell together. He managed to find a bowl, throwing in everything that was needed. His hands were working so quickly that they were shaking. It was almost hard to grab the ingredients. Nevertheless, he quickly finished putting everything together except for one last ingredient. Blood. He grabbed his knife and held it to his palm. But, before he could cut into his skin, the ghost appeared in front of him, pushing him back against the wall as well. Apparently, she got through Castiel quite easily, as the angel was sprawled on the floor next to Dean, who was just snapping out of his daze.
Dean glanced at the spell that was still on the floor. He needed to finish it. He rushed towards it but again was stopped by the ghost. She stood in his way, disappearing and reappearing somewhere else each time Dean swung the iron.
"Come on!" he growled, swinging the iron again. He really needed to get to the bowl.
The bowl was important, that was clear to Ponyboy. He licked his lips in nervousness, feeling his feet glued to the floor as he watched the scene in front of him. He felt helpless standing there in the protective circle of salt. There were three men that were trying to protect him and all he could do was stand there and watch. He needed to do something; needed to help them. Ponyboy knew that he was told not to leave the circle, but the ghost seemed to be able to read their movements like a… like a book.
His heart skipped a beat. The three hunters were being written in the book and the ghost was reading ahead. That would mean that they were all probably going to die. Unless he did something about it, and it all started with the spell bowl.
Ponyboy's eyes flickered over to it before looking over to the ghost who had her back turned to him. He needed to finish the spell for them.
Crap. He was going to die, wasn't he? But he couldn't just be the damsel in distress.
He took a deep breath as he counted down from five. He was going to regret this, but he didn't have much of a choice. When he got down to zero in his head, he bolted out of the ring of salt, feeling his heart leap out of his throat. His feet pounded against the floor although they felt like they were being anchored down by some invisible force. But he didn't stop. He couldn't.
"Get back in the circle!" Dean screamed, but his voice was drowned out by Pony's booming heartbeat. The ghost turned towards him, hissing.
He didn't have much time.
Move! Move! Move!
Ponyboy fell down to his knees in front of the bowl, grabbing the paper with the spell on it. He quickly scanned it, looking over the ingredients. Everything was in there except for… except for human blood. He swallowed thickly, feeling cold sweat travel down his spine. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his switchblade, flicking it open.
He was really going to do this.
Man, why did it all have to be like this?
He pressed the blade to his palm, feeling the sharp edge cut into his delicate skin. He whimpered out in pain as he pressed down harder until blood started to pool out. Slowly and with shaking hands, Ponyboy dragged the blade down his palm so that blood would come out faster. It hurt like a bitch, but his adrenaline numbed down most of the pain for him. The blood dribbled down into the bowl, mixing in with all of the ingredients inside of it.
When he felt like it was enough, Ponyboy looked at the paper again, seeing sentences written down in Latin that he had to read out loud.
Ponyboy really hoped that it would work, or he was actually going to die. Fourteen years wasn't nearly long enough. What would the gang think if he was killed? He couldn't put them through that.
The ghost started to charge at him and Ponyboy struggled to read through the spell. He could hear the hunters curse, but he ignored them. He needed to focus.
Almost there.
He snapped his head up when the ghost was looming over him. Her eyes bore into him with so much malice and bloodlust that it practically stopped his heart right then and there. Her sharp nails were razor-sharp, raised over her head as she was ready to strike down.
He was going to die. He didn't want to die yet.
She plunged her hand forward, but right before she could do so, Ponyboy finished up the spell. He shut his eyes, preparing himself for the pain of being ripped apart. His body tensed up as tears stung the corner of his eyes.
He didn't want to die. Please, no.
But the expected impact never happened. Instead, there was an eerie wail that caused his eyes to snap back open.
The girl's ghostly body went rigid before an ear-ringing shriek left her mouth. She stumbled back, clutching at her head before her body suddenly burst out into flames. It was sickening to watch, even if she was already dead. Ponyboy's stomach turned in uneasiness as she burned away into nothing. Even though it was over in a second, he knew that the image of her burning was going to be carved into his brain forever.
The room temperature returned back to normal, leaving Ponyboy out of breath. He felt like collapsing right then and there, but he knew that he couldn't do so yet.
"Is it over?" he panted.
"Yeah," Sam breathed out in relief as he rested his head back against the wall. "Yeah, it's over."
"Nice job," Castiel complimented him.
"Yeah, good job. But how are we going to get out of this book? We beat her but we're still not back in our dimension," Dean pointed out.
As if answering his call, a wooden door appeared out of nowhere. It stood alone in the center of the motel, not even connected to a wall. On top of it was one of those illuminated exit signs, which glowed eerily in the dark motel room.
"It's a door," Cas pointed out as if none of them knew what it was.
"I guess that's our way out," Sam said with a shrug, getting up to his feet. It wasn't the weirdest thing that he had seen by far. He walked over to Ponyboy and helped him up, making sure that he was stable enough to stand on his own. "We really should get going. I don't know how long that door is going to stay here."
Ponyboy nodded, giving them a thin smile.
"I don't really know what to say," he murmured. There was a lot of stuff that happened today. He still didn't know how he was going to sort through everything.
Sam chuckled. "Yeah, it's going to be hard to process this all. But, when we leave, hopefully, everything will go back to normal."
"So, it would be like I never met you?"
"You probably won't remember anything."
Again, Ponyboy nodded. After the events that just occurred, he was actually okay with that. The last thing he needed was to have nightmares about this. However, in some ways, he didn't want to forget. He knew the truth about his existence now and he didn't want to let go of that.
Castiel walked up to him, holding out his hand. "Give me your hand," he ordered.
"Huh?" Ponyboy questioned, looking at him weirdly. But, nevertheless, he did so. Ponyboy placed his cut-up hand into his. As soon as he did so, Castiel touched his palm. Out of nowhere, there was a bright glow that temporarily blinded Ponyboy. When the glow subsided, Pony's palm was healed, much to his astonishment. He turned it around in amazement. This must have been one of Castiel's angel powers. "What—"
"You're going to be fine now."
The three hunters then said their goodbyes to the young greaser. After this hunt, they just wanted to return back to the bunker and get some rest. They deserved it. But, still, Sam was sad that he wasn't able to spend more time with such an iconic character like Ponyboy was. He took one last look back at the young greaser in the broken room before the door shut behind them. That was it. This story was over.
When they stepped through the door, they found themselves lying on the floor of the bookstore. The book, The Outsiders, closed shut next to them by itself. Sam sat up, picking the book up from the floor and flipped through the pages.
"Finally, we're back!" Dean cheered from beside him. "We should go and get some pie!"
But Sam was silent. He frowned as he continued to flip through the pages of the book, noticing something was different about it.
"Hold on," he interrupted. "The book is different."
"What do you mean?" Castiel asked, looking over Sam's shoulder.
Sam brandished it to them, pointing at a random page. "We're written in the book. None of the stuff that originally happened in the book is there anymore."
"What does that mean?"
Sam turned to them. "I don't think that Ponyboy forgot about us. We need to go back and fix this."
But Dean shook his head, groaning. "We'll do that another day. We're back and all I want right now is some pie."
"Yeah, there is no more danger for Ponyboy," Castiel agreed. "Nothing's going to go after him."
However, Sam wasn't sure. He placed the book down. "I guess so… We'll look into it another day."
Dean cheered. "Yeah, we will! Now, let's go get some pie!"