Rule 17: It's sometimes impossible to convince civilians that hunks and monsters are not part of a reality prank show for TV
Shit, Dean thought as soon as he saw the three teenage girls making a beeline towards him and his brother, smiles plastered onto faces plastered with makeup.
"Ladies," Dean greeted, his expression professional as he pulled out his fake FBI badge and flashed it at the grinning trio.
"I'm Agent Englund and this is my partner, Agent Gillette," Dean told the girls, "We're in the middle of an investigation and-"
"You're too cute to be FBI agents," one girl, who seemed to be the leader, interrupted.
"-And you'll need to leave," Sam finished for his brother, "For your own safety."
"How did you even get in here?" Dean asked, eyeing the girls with a certain suspicion.
One of the girls, who was currently applying cotton candy coloured gloss onto her already shiny lips, shrugged, "There's a back door. We're not stupid."
Dean looked at his brother, "There's a back door."
"Look, you really can't be here," Sam insisted, spreading his arms with the idea of shepherding the teens back the way they had come, "You could get hurt."
The third girl, who couldn't seem to stop giggling, reached out and squeezed Sam's bicep.
"You guys can't be FBI agents," the leader repeated.
"I know what this is!" Cotton candy girl shrieked suddenly, excited, "This is one of those reality TV shows, isn't it? You two are actors hired to scare us!"
"No, we're-" Sam tried, giving Dean a helpless expression as he was interrupted.
"Who's in on it? Is it Tammy? Or Brad?" the girl who had touched Sam's arm, asked, "I bet it was one of them."
The girl stared around the room and seemed to find something she thought was a camera; she pursed her lips and lifted both hands to show her middle fingers, "We know this is a joke, bitch!"
"Oh my God," Dean muttered.
"What show are we on?" the girl with the pink lip gloss, whose name happened to be Ashley, asked, "We know we're on one so you can fess up."
"I bet it's Trick'd," the lead girl, Maggie told her friends with certainty.
"No way, Mags," the third teen argued, "Randi Rocket would never have ghosts on her show, it has to be Faces of Fear."
"Okay," Dean interrupted, "This is getting out of hand. You all need to leave. Now."
"Can we get selfies with you?" the girl closest to Sam asked and before the hunter could stop her, she had snapped a photo of him with her cellphone as she leaned against his chest.
"Fun's over," Dean announced, "You three need to leave."
"Aww," the girls groaned in unison.
Sam slid his hand into the pocket of his suit jacket, fingers tightly gripping the iron rod inside.
"Time to go," Dean commanded but before he could force the girls to leave, the spirit the hunters had been looking for, appeared.
The ghost was a teenager, not much younger than the three living girls, and would have fit in nicely with the group, dressed in black leggings, pink Uggs, and silver t-shirt studded with sequins in the shape of Justin Beiber's face.
The ghost would have looked like a normal girl, if not for the cracked cell phone she held in one hand and the kitchen knife in the other, blood dripping onto the floor from her slashed wrists.
The ghost, a girl who had gone to the same high school as these living girls, had killed herself after receiving cruel comments after posting a selfie had been murdering students who dared to be so vain as to post pictures of themselves on social media, begging for attention.
Before the ghost could attack, Sam was moving forward, brining the iron rod down on the ghost, cutting through her insubstantial body like it was smoke.
"OUT! NOW!" Dean shouted, startling the girls who seemed amazed by the ghost they had just seen.
"How did you do that?" Ashley asked, "That was so cool, so scary!"
"We'll tell you when we get outside," Dean told her, distractedly, "Sam, you got the rear?"
His brother nodded, "Yeah, just hurry."
"C'mon girls," Dean pressed, "Let's get out of here before someone gets hurt."
"Ahhhh!" the girl who'd taken the selfie with Sam screamed and pointed.
The ghost appeared again and was standing right in front of her.
Dean, closer to the ghost this time, grabbed the girl by the back of her shirt and pulled her away from the spirit, causing her to stumble and cry out with fear. The ghost vanished with a snarl of rage.
"Run!" the hunter instructed and the girls didn't have to be asked twice, all three took off as fast as their feet would carry them.
"Ahhh-" a scream cut through the air only to be cut off abruptly and Dean nearly trampled the girl with the itchy selfie finger, a deep cut in her throat gushing blood down her chest.
Grabbing the hands of the girl's friends, Mags and Ashley, Dean hurried past the injured teen, knowing Sam would get her as he followed.
Slamming through the door to the back of the school, the two teens and one hunter staggered out into the staff parking lot, the girls clutching one another and crying.
"Ella! No! She's dead! She's dead!" the girls cried, hugging, makeup running down their faces.
The door opened a second time and Sam stepped out, the front of his shirt soaked in blood.
"Sam?" Dean asked and the younger hunter shook his head.
"Let's just get these two home and figure out what to do no-" Sam began but was interrupted when the door opened a third time and out stepped Ella, blood-smeared but very much alive.
"ELLA!" her friends screamed and ran to her, embracing their grinning friend.
"What… what the hell?" Dean asked, confused.
"She… she was dead," Sam stammered, "Her throat was slit."
The sound of quick footsteps drew the hunters' attention to a middle-aged woman with short red hair, sunglasses, and a cocky smile.
"That's what we wanted you to think," Randi Rocket announced, "Girls, how do you feel to get Trick'd?"
The host of the prank show shoved a microphone at the trio, Maggie and Ashley just eating up the attention.
Sam and Dean just stared as the crew from the TV show began to emerge from the woods around the school and from inside strategically placed vehicles in the parking lot.
One particular overzealous cameraman approached Dean.
"Get that out of my face," the hunter snapped angrily, shoving the piece of equipment away and causing the man to stumble, almost dropping the camera.
"I don't… This was a joke?" Sam asked, "But the ghost, she…"
"We planned for Ella here to get all slashed up," Randi Rocket told the hunter, pointing her microphone at him, "Her acting was great."
Suddenly, the woman turned to a guy standing by, scarfing down a donut and coffee.
"Hey Joey, did you guys set up that ghost at the last minute?" she called and the man shook his head, "No, not my guys, I thought it was them."
Joey pointed one glaze-coated finger at the Winchesters.
"Can we get selfies?" Ashley, Maggie and Ella asked Sam and Dean, pointing their cell phones at the boys.
"No!" Dean snarled, grabbing his brother's arm, "Let's get out of here. We'll come back when this circus is over."
Sam nodded but out of curiosity, turned to peer up at the school and saw the ghost of the poor girl who'd killed herself staring down at the scene below.
"Yeah," he muttered, and shook his head, amazed at how sometimes ignorance really could be bliss.
Author's Note:
Prompt comes from missingmikey.
Thanks to jensensgirl3, whimsicalbarwench, Jenjoremy, StyxxsOmega, elliereynolds777, reannablue, and Masami Mistress of Fire for reviewing.
Dean's FBI pseudonym is taken from actor Robert Englund, famous for the Nightmare on Elm Street movies while Sam's named after Warrington Gillette, the actor who portrayed Jason Voorhees in Friday the Thirteenth, Part 2.
The two reality TV shows the girls mention are based on real shows- Trick'd is based on Punk'd- Faces of Fear is based on Scare Tactics- similar to how Ghost Facers was inspired by such shows as Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters.
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