A/N: Song for this Chapter is Hunter's Moon by Ghost. Chapter features episode content from Are You There God? It's Me, Dean Winchester.
Chapter 21: Hunters Moon
It's been a long time coming
I'm coming back for you, my friend
To where we'd hide as children
I'm coming back for you, my friend
Though my memories are faded, they
Come back to haunt me once again
And though my mind is somewhat jaded now
It's time for me to strike again
Tonight, it's a hunter's moon
Under a headstone, sister
I'm dying to see you, my friend
Back in the old cemetery
I'm dying to see you, my friend
Though my memories are faded, they
Come back to haunt me once again
And though my mind is somewhat jaded now
It's time for me to strike again
Tonight, it's a hunter's moon
Ooh, I'm coming, I'm dying
To see you one last time together
Though my memories are faded, they
Come back to haunt me once again
And though my mind is somewhat jaded now
It's time for me to strike again
I'm coming back for you, my friend
Tonight, it's a hunter's moon
It was dark out when Bobby and Ellen returned to his house, but it seemed even darker than usual when they pulled up. All the lights in the place were off. Ellen glanced at him worriedly.
"Where are the kids?" she asked with a frown.
Bobby didn't answer, but he was frowning, too, as he quickly parked the car. They both quickly climbed out and headed for the house. Ellen was about to rush inside, but Bobby reached his arm out to stop her. She shot him a quick look, raising her eyebrows. Bobby drew a gun and handed it to her.
"You take upstairs. I'll check down here." he said quietly as he reached for the door.
Ellen nodded, holding Bobby's gun at the ready. Bobby pulled the door open and entered first. He scanned the room quickly, but there was nothing immediately amiss. He led the way through the kitchen, then nodded for Ellen to head up the stairs. They exchanged a silent look before she headed up and Bobby continued into the living room. He paused for a moment, listening. The house was silent, but also unnaturally cold. He reached out slowly and flicked on the light. The lights came on, but there was nothing out of the ordinary to see. Suddenly, the lights flickered and Bobby heard the sound of distant laughter. He followed it into the library, grabbing an iron poker from the fireplace as he investigated the space. Nothing.
The lights flickered again and this time the laughter seemed to be coming from back the way he'd just come. Bobby walked back into the living room. As he entered, the radio turned on by itself. Bobby's eyes shot in the direction of the noise, but there was nothing to see. He slowly moved back towards the kitchen when a thudding sound and movement from the corner of his eye had him turning towards the stairs. Bobby stared as a colorful, rubber ball bounced down the stairs, rolling to a stop at the bottom near his feet. When Bobby looked up from the ball, two little girls stood before him, holding hands and staring straight at him. The color drained from Bobby's face when he saw them.
"Hi, Bobby." the girls said together, identical smiles on their faces.
The iron poker clattered noisily to the ground, but Bobby hardly noticed. He was too busy backing quickly away. The girls followed after him, swinging their joined hands between them. Bobby almost backed right into the kitchen table in his haste to put distance between them. Hastily, moving around the table, he risked turning his back to the little girls just long enough to rip open the backdoor and run out into the scrapyard.
Elsewhere, Jo had finally pulled over, but they were in the middle of nowhere. Alex half-suspected she'd only stopped because she ran out of gas or something, but whatever the reason, he'd take it. He pulled his truck up next to hers, but she was already leaping out of the cab and running off into the woods along the roadway.
"Damn it!" Alex swore as he quickly threw his truck into park and shut off the engine so he could follow.
Ty was already out the passenger door and in pursuit, "Jo! Stop!"
She kept one eye on Jo as she ran after her, but also pulled the pistol she'd loaded with salt rounds on the drive over, double-checking to make sure the safety was off. It was really dark out here and she was worried if she let Jo out of her sight for a second, she'd lose her.
"I…I can't!" Jo called back over her shoulder, "Ty, it won't stop!"
"We'll figure it out, Jo!" Ty insisted, "But you gotta stop running!"
Jo slowed uncertainly and Ty was able to catch up to her. She could hear Alex not far behind, but she continued to talk loudly so he'd be able to find them.
"I can't hear it again, Jo." Ty said, "Where's it coming from?"
"Everywhere." Jo said, her eyes darting around, "When I stop, it gets worse. Louder."
Jo looked like she wanted to run off again, her eyes wide and panicked. Ty grabbed her arm before she could. As her hand closed around Jo's arm, the sound of infants wailing suddenly filled her ears as well.
"Holy shit." she said.
"It won't stop." Jo said, on the verge of sobbing as her eyes darted around, "I'm sorry! Really, I'm so sorry!"
Alex slid to a stop next to them at that moment. He also had a weapon drawn and was quickly scanning the area around them.
"Where is it?" he asked quickly, clearly not hearing what the girls were.
Ty just shook her head and stuck her gun in her pocket before using that hand to reach out and grab Alex without releasing her hold on Jo. Alex's eyes widened and she could tell that now he was hearing it, too. But still there was nothing to be seen. Realizing this, Alex stowed his weapon as well and instead pulled a container of salt out of his coat pocket and started spilling it in a circle around the three of them. Ty awkwardly kept her hold on both the other hunters as Alex moved around them to complete the circle. When it was done, the sound was still there, but seemed more muffled. Jo still looked like every cry was a blade slicing into her skin, but she didn't seem as panicked as before. Ty shifted her gaze from her back to Alex.
"Okay. So…now what?" she asked.
Alex glanced around. They were in the middle of nowhere, about a 5-minute sprint from their trucks and completely out of sight of the remote roadway thanks to the trees. There didn't seem to be anything to fight or any way to stop this haunting at the moment. All they had was the buffer provided by the salt circle.
"Uh…call the others?" Alex suggested.
Ty released her hold on him to reach in her pocket for her phone. She frowned when it wasn't there. She let go of Jo as well so she could check all of her pockets, just in case, but she was phone-free, "Shit. Mine must still be at Bobby's or something."
"I know mine is." Jo said and Ty recalled how the crying had started through Jo's phone and how she had recoiled from it.
"It's okay. I got mine." Alex said, pulling his from his pocket. He flipped it open, then frowned and held it up, "And apparently there is no service out here."
"Great." Ty grumbled sarcastically.
"We can't just stay here." Jo insisted.
Ty nodded in agreement. She thought about it for a moment before she turned to the other two hunters, "Okay. Well, this seems to clearly be targeted at Jo. So, Alex, you stay here with her and I'll go back and get some help."
"But…" Alex began to protest.
Ty shook her head, "Save it. It's the best plan we've got for now. I've got salt rounds with me and we're not that far from the trucks. I'll be fine. Just hang tight for now and…uh…try not to listen."
Jo shot her an incredulous look and she grimaced apologetically, knowing it was stupid advice, but she had nothing else to offer. Careful not to disrupt the salt circle, Ty stepped over the line, catching Alex's phone when he tossed it to her. With a quick nod to him, she turned and headed quickly back towards the trucks. Hopefully she'd be able to get ahold of Bobby or the Winchesters and they would know how to fix this.
Dean, meanwhile, pressed the Impala for all she had, speeding recklessly down the country highway. He glanced angrily at his phone, "Damn it, Bobby! Pick up!"
But Bobby wasn't answering. He'd already tried Ty, Jo, and even Alex, but none of them had answered either. Dean glanced over at Sam, once again taking in the bruises across his face.
"How you feeling, huh?" he asked, "How many fingers am I holding up?"
"None." Sam grunted in response, "I'll be fine, Dean."
Dean turned his eyes back to the road, but he was far from happy about any of this.
"So, Henriksen?" he ventured.
"Yep." Sam confirmed.
"But why? What did he want?"
"Revenge, 'cause we got him killed." Sam answered.
"Sam." Dean protested. Sure, he felt like shit about what happened to Henriksen and the others at the police station, but Sam had no reason to feel guilty.
"Well, we did, Dean." Sam insisted.
Dean glanced sharply at him, "Alright. Stop right there. Whatever the hell is going on, it's happening to us now, okay? I can't get ahold of anybody, so if you're not thinking answers, don't think at all."
Sam frowned, but decided not to argue. It wouldn't be long before they were back at Bobby's anyway.
Ty was not about to go so far as to say that she was lost, but it did seem like she should have reached the trucks by now. Unfortunately, it was incredibly dark out here with nothing but the moon and stars to provide any light and she doubted there was enough traffic on the road they'd parked along to provide her with enough noise to guide her. Belatedly, she wished she'd grabbed a flashlight before running into the woods after Jo.
She considered backtracking to Alex and Jo and trying again, but decided against it. She knew she couldn't be too far off. She'd definitely set out in the right direction. She had to hit the road sooner or later and from there she was sure she could find the trucks.
"Dragged my son into another mess, didn't you?"
Ty jumped in surprise at the unexpected voice, her hand automatically flying towards her gun. She had it in hand and was whirling towards the source of the sound in mere moments, but all she was were more shadowy trees in the gloom.
"Mr. Flynn?" she ventured warily, eyes still searching and gun at the ready.
"Why can't you just leave him alone?" Alex's father's voice demanded.
Ty whirled around again, but there was still nothing to be seen.
"Don't you think he's been through enough?"
"Yes, I do." Ty agreed, "I'm trying to help him. We're partners."
"Bull!" the ghost snapped, suddenly manifesting right in front of her. Ty jumped backwards, lifting her pistol. She fired but Erik Flynn had already vanished.
Ty turned slowly around, sure that he wouldn't be gone for long, but after a few long moments of silence, she started moving forward again. But this time she kept her gun in her hand. She tried not to let herself think about the ghost's words or the ring of truth there had been to them.
Without needing to discuss it, Sam and Dean both drew their guns, holding them cocked and ready when they arrived at Bobby's house and approached the door. Inside, everything seemed quiet and empty.
"Bobby?" Dean called in a whisper into the stillness. There was no response, but Dean spotted an iron poker on the ground near the bottom of the stairs. He snapped his fingers at Sam to get his attention, gesturing at the poker as he moved closer to check it out. It was laying near the bottom of the stairs. Looking over at Sam, he gestured towards the second floor and whispered, "I'll go. You check outside."
Sam nodded and headed out into the scrapyard. He called for Bobby, but there was no response. Meanwhile, Dean headed upstairs. He hadn't made it far before the doors along the upper floor hallway all slammed shut. All except the door at the far end, the door to Bobby's room, that swung open. Dean cocked his head, trying to see around the door, but there was no one visible. However, he was fairly confident that the temperature up here had dropped a good ten degrees.
"Come out, come out, whoever you are." he called.
Sensing a presence behind him, Dean whirled back around to see a young woman standing there. She was petite with fair skin and shoulder-length dirty blonde hair, but she looked vaguely familiar.
"Dean Winchester. Still so bossy." she remarked. When Dean didn't immediately reply, she continued, "You don't recognize me? This is what I looked like before that demon cut off my hair and dressed me like a slut."
Dean suddenly realized why she looked familiar. She'd had short, spiky blonde hair when he'd seen her before, as well as a nasty case of demonic possession.
"Meg?" he asked in surprise.
"Hi." Meg replied with a small smile. Dean immediately backed up a step, but Meg quickly added, "It's okay, I'm not a demon."
"You're the girl the demon possessed." Dean realized.
Meg nodded, "Meg Masters. Nice to finally talk to you when I'm not, you know, choking on my own blood."
Meg took another step forward and Dean took a cautious step back, but Meg held up her hands.
"It's okay. Seriously, I'm just a college girl. Sorry, was. I was walking home one night and got jumped by all this smoke. Next thing you know, I'm a prisoner…" she paused to hold a hand up to her head, "...in here. Now, I was awake. I had to watch while she murdered people."
"I'm sorry." Dean said, at a loss for what else to say.
Meg didn't look particularly soothed by his apology, "Oh, yeah? So sorry you had me thrown off a building?"
Dean frowned uncertainly as he remembered Meg being dragged through the window of that warehouse, screaming as she fell towards the ground. How could he explain this to her?
"Well, we thought…"
"No, you didn't think!" Meg interrupted angrily, "I kept waiting, praying! I was trapped in there screaming at you, 'Just help me, please!' You're supposed to help people, Dean. Why didn't you help me?"
Dean had to look away from her guiltily. Once again, he found himself saying the only thing he could think to say, "I'm sorry."
"Stop saying you're sorry!" Meg snapped, unleashing a blow that caught Dean by surprise and was strong enough to knock him to the floor. As a vengeful spirit, she was as strong as she'd been as a demon.
"Meg. Meg…" Dean began, but Meg cut him off by kicking him hard in the face, knocking him back to the floor. He groaned, rolling onto his back, "We didn't know."
"No." Meg agreed as she knelt next to him, "You just attacked. Did you ever think there was a girl in here? No. You just charged in, slashing and burning. You think you're some kind of hero?"
"No, I don't." Dean said honestly as he started climbing back to his feet.
Meg grabbed a hold of his jacket before he could recover. Dean's eyes focused on a mark on her hand. It looked like a brand and he was pretty sure she had not had anything like that the last time they'd seen her.
However, before he could think too much about it, Meg commanded his attention again, "You're damn right. Do you have any idea what it's like to be ridden for months by pure evil...while your family has no idea what happened to you?"
"We did the best we could." Dean protested, although the excuse sounded weak to him, too, and he wasn't exactly surprised when Meg responded by shoving him and kicking him furiously again.
Out in the scrapyard, Bobby could hear Sam calling for him, but he was trapped inside one of the junker cars. The girls had him captive, at their mercy.
"Are you scared, Bobby?" the first sister asked as she held her small, cold hand over his mouth. Her name was Marie and Bobby remembered that her parents had said she wanted to be a ballerina someday.
"We were scared, Bobby." Wendy, the other sister added. Wendy had loved animals. They had thought she might grow up to be a veterinarian.
Bobby closed his eyes, unable to bear looking at the girls anymore. Unfortunately, he couldn't block out their voices.
"When the monster came for us...and grabbed us tight." Marie said.
"And we couldn't even scream. You were right there, Bobby." Wendy added.
"You were in the house." Marie agreed.
"You were so close. You could have saved us, Bobby." Wendy accused.
"Bobby?" he could hear Sam close by, calling him and banging open trunks looking for him, but he couldn't move or speak, "You here, Bobby?"
"You walked right past that door." Marie continued.
"The monster had us. And you didn't find us."
"And now they won't find you." Marie concluded ominously as Sam continued past the car without stopping.
Ty heaved a sigh of relief when she finally found the road. Guessing she must have drifted off course, she made an educated guess on which direction the trucks were in and started that way. Unfortunately, she'd barely taken two steps before she felt an icy chill hit her, raising the hairs on the back of her neck.
Ty slowed and lifted her gun again, but this time the ghost struck without warning. Ty cried out as the unseen entity struck her and sent her flying with supernatural strength. She crashed against a tree with enough force to not only knock the wind out of her but knock her gun out of her hands. As she crumpled to the ground, she groaned. Her ribs hurt just from trying to get some air back in her lungs. She would be shocked if she hadn't fractured something.
Erik Flynn finally appeared, standing over her, eyes still blazing with fury.
"I won't let you get my son killed." he swore, "You've already hurt him enough."
"I…" Ty tried to speak, but the pain in her ribs was so intense it stole her breath away again. She only considered trying again for a fraction of a second before she just shook her head. What could she possibly say? She had hurt Alex, let him down, put him in danger. It was the truth.
Almost as if her lack of a response upset him even more, the ghost of Alex's father practically snarled at her, his form flickering briefly before he suddenly was leaning over her, his hand shooting out towards her chest, just like he had before with Alex. Despite the pain in her ribs that was making her breaths shallow, Ty gasped in pain as it felt like ice clamping down around her heart.
Upstairs inside Bobby's house, Dean wasn't faring much better than the other hunters. He was still on the floor with Meg standing over him. And honestly, he wasn't sure what was the worst part of this encounter: the blows she'd dealt him or the fact that he didn't feel like he could defend himself against her accusations.
"It wasn't just me, Dean. I had a sister." Meg continued, "A little sister. She worshipped me. You know how little siblings are, right? How they'll do anything for you. She was never the same after I disappeared. She just...she just got lost. And when my body was lying in the morgue beat-up and broken…"
"Meg." Dean tried to stop her words, but she continued on mercilessly.
"Do you know what that did to her? She killed herself!" she snapped, kicking Dean harshly in the stomach, "Because of you, Dean! Because all you were thinking about was your family, your revenge, and your demons! Fifty words of Latin a little sooner, and I'd still be alive. My baby sister would still be alive. That blood is on your hands, Dean!"
"You're right." Dean agreed, but Meg just screamed in fury and kicked him again.
Out in the scrapyard, Sam was growing increasingly frantic in his search for some sign of Bobby or Ellen. His eyes roamed around him as he struggled to think of something else to try or something he might have missed, when suddenly he spotted a reflection in the sideview mirror on one of the stacked cars. It was Bobby!
"Bobby! Hold on, Bobby! I'm coming! Bobby!" Sam called as he quickly climbed the pile of rusted metal to reach him.
Using a crowbar, he pried the old car's door open to discover Bobby lying prone in the interior with two little girls on either side of him. They both turned cold, hard eyes on him and the next thing he knew he was being flung backwards, landing with a crash against the windshield of a car below him. The impact of his head against the glass was not doing his banged up skull any favors, but he barely had time to think about that because one of the girls appeared over him, holding her small hand up like a claw over his chest like she wanted to tear his heart out like the brutalized corpse he and Dean had discovered at that hunter's house in Jackson. Sam quickly snatched up the iron crowbar and swung it, making the spirit vanish. His wide eyes then immediately shifted up to the open doorway of the car where the other young spirit was glaring at him, her small mouth twisted into a furious snarl. However, before she could lunge at him, Bobby shoved an iron bar through her form, making her disappear, too. Bobby shared a panicked look with Sam as they both silently appreciated what a close call that was before they forced themselves to get moving again. They still had to find Ellen and get back to Dean.
Ty would have screamed if she'd been able to get enough air to do it. She'd experienced quite a few varieties of pain at this point. Topping the charts had to be being burned to death on the ceiling of a motel room. The Dead Man's Pinch was up there, as well. But this, this was a different kind of excruciating. Still, somewhere in the back of her mind in a place that wasn't being overwhelmed by the pain, she knew she had to get her hands back on her gun. It had to be close by. Ty focused everything in her on stretching out her fingers, reaching across the ground for the feeling of cool metal.
Her vision was starting to swim from the inability to breath. She couldn't take this much longer. And something dark inside of her was starting to whisper that maybe this was what she deserved.
Suddenly, Ty's fingers felt familiar steel and it was like a jolt of electricity through her. With the last of her strength, Ty closed her fingers around her gun and swung it up to unload a salt round into Erik Flynn's ghost. He vanished and the crushing pressure on Ty's heart vanished with him. Ty slumped, dropping her hand back to the ground, praying he would stay gone long enough for her to pull herself back together.
Inside the house, Dean crawled painfully across the ground, holding an ineffectual hand out towards Meg as if he could somehow ward her off long enough for him to recover. She didn't appear in any great hurry, walking leisurely after him. Feeling her getting closer, Dean dropped back to the ground, rolling over and pulling a gun from inside his coat to aim at her.
Meg smiled down at him as she took a few steps closer then stopped next to him, "Come on, Dean, did your brain get french-fried in Hell? You can't shoot me with bullets."
"I'm not shooting you." Dean replied, shifting his aim upward. Meg glanced up, but Dean fired before she could move. The bullet struck the chain of the old chandelier and it fell through Meg's form while Dean ducked, shielding his head against any possible ricochet. When he looked back up, Meg's ghost had vanished.
"Iron." he explained to the spot where she'd been before rolling onto his back with a groan. He allowed himself to lay there for a few moments before he rolled back onto his hands and knees and, with another pained groan, forced himself to climb back to his feet.
He'd just managed to drag himself back downstairs when Sam and Bobby rushed in the back door.
"Where's Ellen?" Bobby asked, looking around.
Dean shook his head, "Haven't seen her, but I haven't checked downstairs."
"Well, let's move." Bobby said gruffly, moving quickly towards the basement.
There was no immediate sign of Ellen in the basement either, but Sam noticed that the panic room door was closed. He moved over and glanced in the window and spotted Ellen inside. Knocking on the window to get her attention, he waved at her to let them in.
"Good, you're all here. Get in here." Ellen said when she pulled the door open.
Sam, Dean, and Bobby all joined her in the room, shutting the door behind them.
"So, I take it you're not down here because you enjoy the decor." Dean remarked, glancing at Bobby's swimsuit poster.
"Hardly." Ellen grunted, unwilling to say more.
"So we all saw ghosts?" Sam asked, glancing around at the others for confirmation, "Were they all people we know?"
"Not just know. People we couldn't save." Dean corrected. Rather than dwell on that depressing thought, he focused instead on the mark he'd noticed on Meg's hand, "Hey, I saw something on Meg. Did she have a tattoo when she was alive?"
Sam shook his head, "I don't think so."
"It was like a mark on her hand, almost like a brand." Dean said, gesturing to the spot on his own hand where he'd seen it.
Sam paused in thought for a moment, remembering his own encounter, "I saw a mark, too, on Henriksen."
"What did it look like?" Bobby asked.
Sam looked around for a moment, "Uh, paper?"
Ellen snatched a piece of paper and a pen off the desk and quickly handed it to him.
"Thanks." he said quickly as he sketched the mark he remembered. When he finished, he held it out to Dean to take a look.
"That's it." Dean confirmed.
Bobby glanced over his shoulder at the drawing, brow furrowing a bit in thought, "I may have seen this before."
The other three hunters all looked to him for an explanation, but he shook his head and went to the bookshelf, pulling out a few select tombs and taking them over the desk to examine. The boys waited silently for a moment before Dean turned to his brother and Ellen with a raised eyebrow, "Well, it looks like he may be a minute."
In the woods, Jo was sitting on the ground inside the salt circle, her knees pulled in close to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around them. She was practically rocking back and forth, humming loudly to try and drown out the sounds that were haunting her. Alex had tried talking to her to distract her, but she couldn't focus on his words. She felt like she was going to lose her mind if this went on for much longer. It had been hard enough trying to come to terms with the fact that four innocent babies had died before they'd been able to stop that monster masquerading as a human being. It was the worst hunt she'd ever been on. The loss was almost as painful as losing her father and, in some ways, it was even harder. At least her dad had known what he was getting into and had been able to try and defend himself. These babies had been completely helpless. They'd needed her and she hadn't been able to save them.
Alex and her mother had slowly talked her through the guilt and the pain, urging her to focus on the lives they had saved by stopping that Seal from breaking. But now, hearing those desperate cries…all she could feel was the guilt and the pain all over again.
"Hang in there, Jo." Alex said as he watched over her. He wasn't sure she was even really hearing him at all anymore, but he couldn't help but try and offer her some reassurance anyway, "Ty will come through."
"I wouldn't count on that, son."
Alex jumped in surprise at the sound of his father's voice, but Jo didn't seem to even notice. Erik Flynn's spectral form emerged from the darkness into the moonlight. He stopped just outside the salt ring, scowling in disappointment at his son.
Alex swallowed hard past a lump in his throat. It was like a physical pain seeing his father like this, not just as a ghost, but as a vengeful spirit that was furious with him and his partner. His parents had always been everything to him. Losing them had almost broken him. Avenging their deaths had become the only thing that kept him getting out of bed in the morning. Nothing existed beyond that. Not until he'd partnered up with Ty. Working with her, his relationship with her, more than anything else had helped him to start to move past a mindless thirst for vengeance.. He was finally starting to get to a point where he could see more for himself, a real life. But now…
"Dad, please…" he said, his voice sounding strangely quiet and strained to his own ears.
"You had the gun in your hand, Alex." his father continued, words angry and clipped, "You had the demon in your sights. But you gave it up for her."
"You don't understand."
"No! You don't understand!" his father snapped, "Do you know what that demon did to me, to your mother? What it made us do to each other? Do you know how long it played with us before we died?"
Alex resisted the urge to clap his hands over his ears to block out his father's words. He'd been the one to find the bodies. That horrific sight would never leave him. He didn't think he could handle hearing what had happened to create that scene, "Dad, no. Please."
"What's the matter, boy?" his father taunted, his face cruel and uncaring in a way that Alex had never seen it before, "You should know what you're headed towards. Because what happened to your mom and me is going to look like a cakewalk compared to what that selfish whore is going to land you in."
"She's my friend." Alex protested, "She's saved my life…"
"She's going to cost you your life." the elder Flynn insisted, "And I won't watch that happen. I won't make your mother watch that happen. I'd rather kill you myself."
The ghost flickered then lunged forward, stopping abruptly as it hit the salt line. Even so, Alex flinched backwards. It went against everything he knew about his father to think that he would do anything to hurt him, but he had already demonstrated that he was prepared to do so. Alex felt tears stinging his eyes as he looked at his father's ghost screaming in fury as it railed against the salt that was keeping him from murdering his only son. He backed up another step and almost tripped over Jo. Glancing down at her, he allowed himself to collapse to the ground at her side. He wrapped his arms around the trembling young woman, keeping his focus on her. As his arms encircled her, the desperate wails of small children filled his ears again, but it was almost a relief compared to hearing his father's words. He rocked her gently, although whether it was more to comfort her or to comfort himself, he couldn't say. All he knew was that it felt like if he let his attention waver from Jo for even a moment, he'd lose it.
"It's gonna be okay." he muttered under his breath to Jo, or maybe to himself, "It's gonna be okay."
On the edge of the woods, by the road, Ty had finally managed to get back to her feet. Between her ribs and whatever Erik Flynn's ghost did to her, it felt like she'd been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. She cradled her ribs with one arm, but she refused to holster her gun. Hell, at this point, she was about ready to duct tape it to her hand for the foreseeable future. Moving much slower now, she started heading along the road towards the trucks again. It was the only thing she could think to do. Going back to Alex and Jo might offer the protection of a salt ring and the comfort of being with the other hunters, but it wouldn't save them. She had to keep going.
"If we make it through this, I am so getting a massage." Ty mumbled to herself, "And a freaking cheesecake. And I'm not sharing with anyone."
After what felt like forever, Ty almost collapsed with relief when she found the trucks on the side of the road. Leaning heavily against the side of one of them, she pulled Alex's phone from her pocket. She flipped it open. The battery was getting low, but there was a single bar of service. She quickly pulled up his contacts and dialed Bobby as his name appeared first.
"Come on, come on." Ty urged him, "Pick up."
But the phone rang through to voicemail. Frustrated, Ty hung up and quickly scrolled down the list until she found Dean's number. Unfortunately, she had no better luck with him.
"Damn it." Ty swore.
She tried Sam next and then Ellen, just for good measure, but no one answered.
"Son of a bitch. What do I do now?" Ty asked herself.
She considered trying to get back to Alex and Jo, but the thought of trekking back through the dark woods, even if she had a flashlight from the truck, seemed like a colossally bad idea after her last encounter. She had to do something, though, and until she figured that out, she might as well make sure she was safe. Pushing herself off the truck, she turned around to dig out some salt and at least give herself a safe spot to wait this out.
Once she'd circled both trucks in a large salt circle, she had a seat in Alex's vehicle, leaving the door open. She cycled through the other hunter's numbers again, but the result was the same. Whatever was happening was getting worse and Ty had to assume that it had something to do with the simultaneous hauntings by the deceased infants and Alex's father. She just wished she knew what it all meant and what they were going to do about it.
