Tyler sighed loudly, for the sixth time that night. This was going nowhere. They'd waited for three hours on the grounds at the back of the hotel, where the car crash had cost Lily Jordan her life as she'd been fleeing from her philandering husband, and where she'd turned into a vengeful ghost. They'd searched every nook and cranny, investigated every shadow and shone their flashlights at every tree. Still nada.
"I still say you should've worn a wedding dress," Dean said in response to her sighing. "Or at least a white dress." He was leaning against the impala, his flashlight stuttering. He smacked it around a few times until it stopped misbehaving. Tyler scowled.
"Yeah, because the ghost is dumb enough to go for any woman wearing white," she said. "It only attacked and killed new brides. She just figured out that we're not newlyweds. She's not going to appear."
"Well, she's cremated. What else can we do?"
"Dunno." She shrugged as she twirled the knife in her hands. During their search a slight searing feeling had started behind her left eye, and she rubbed the eye carefully. Then she stopped as a realisation hit her. The feeling had only flared every once in a while. When exploring the right side at the back of the hotel grounds. A sign maybe? Supernatural activity? If it was, that was a new development. She'd only ever been able to sense supernatural peoples and creatures, not activity. I'm not sure I like where this is going. "Hold on a second," she told Dean.
Then she closed her eyes and slowly, but steadily made her way toward the place where the searing feeling became actual pain. The pain was almost… familiar. Before she could examine why that would be, she opened her eyes, and searched the area around her.
"Found something?" Dean asked behind her. Tyler jumped. She hadn't noticed Dean following her. Once again, she shrugged and said, "Maybe. Let's check out this area again."
A cold shiver touched both their spines at the time, and they turned, knife and gun to the ready. In front of them, the horrific visage of a car crash victim still wearing her bloodied wedding dress appeared. Lily Jordan. And judging from the look on her face, she was angry.
Dean opened his mouth to say something, to her or to the ghost, but Tyler interrupted him. "Keep her busy!"
"What?" Dean barely had time to react as the ghost took a swipe at him. He ducked under her swing, and Tyler turned away. She didn't have time to worry about him. She needed to find something, anything, that would help them lay Lily to rest. Her pain led her towards a tree, and she closed her ears to the sounds of fighting. She couldn't afford to be distracted.
"Tyler!" Dean exhorted her to hurry. Tyler took a good look at the tree, rooted around near the roots, pointed her flashlight to the tree's crown, but nothing stuck out to her as supernatural. Her eyes fell on a bird's nest wedged between two thick branches. Something about it called out to her. A damn bird's nest? She had to stand on her toes to get a good look at it.
"Hurry up!" Dean sang from behind her. "Can't keep dodging forever!"
Tyler carefully took the bird's nest out from between the branches; luckily there were no eggs in it. With her flashlight, she traced the rim of the nest, and then grinned. Bingo. A small lock of blonde hair was wedged between the other materials the nest was made from. Lily had been a blonde. Tyler held the nest with her left hand as she stuck her hand in her pocket, searching for her lighter. It took her two tries to get a flame going.
Behind her a awful keening started as the hair went up in smoke and Tyler turned around. The ghost of Lily Jordan dissipated into thin air. Dean was bent over, sucking up air.
"You okay?" Tyler asked as she slapped him on the back. He lifted a finger to tell her to give him a minute. Then they high-fived to a job well done.
"How'd you do it?" Dean asked her.
"Gut feeling?" Tyler replied as she put her lighter and knife away.
"Seriously?"
"Yup. I have no idea how."
Leaves rustled, and both of them wheeled around, flashlights and weapons at the ready again, despite knowing the ghost had been vanquished. In all honesty, Tyler would've preferred to face the ghost again.
"What the hell was that?" Tommy said as he squinted in the bright light they shone at his face.
Shit.