Reviewer Responses

Ghostwriter- Thanks for the review.

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CHAPTER 6

Parking the car, Sam got out and went to open the door for Jessica; he was a gentleman after all. Locking the car, the two walked into the office. At the front desk there was an older woman, about sixty-five or so.

"Hello, welcome to the Modesto Inn," she greeted them with a friendly smile, "how can I help you?"

Sam glanced at Jessica and then back at the older woman behind the counter, "Yeah, we need two rooms."

"Oh I'm sorry sweetie, but we only have one room left. There's some kind of sports tournament going on and all the rooms are rented out," she explained, "But the room does have two full beds."

Sam and Jessica looked at one another for a moment, silently coming to an agreement. Sam turned back to the older woman and said, "That'll be fine."

The older woman smiled slightly. It was clear that these two were just starting out, though she didn't know just how new it was. Silently wishing them luck, she turned to the back wall and grabbed the final room key, "How long are you staying for dears?" she asked.

"Just a couple of days at most," Jessica answered, with a glance to Sam for confirmation. Sam nodded.

"All right," the lady handed them the key, "that will be seventy dollars for both days."

Reaching into his pocket, Sam pulled out his wallet and handed her four twenties. Once they paid for the rooms they headed back to the car to unload and check out the room, before investigating. Luckily their room was on the first floor and they had been parked nearby. Jessica grabbed both her and Sam's overnight bags, while Sam grabbed the weapons bags.

"So," Jessica began as they walked into the room, "what exactly do we have to do now?"

Sam watched as she set the bags down on the floor in front of the dresser and then sat down on the bed closest to the door, the weapons bags in front of him on the floor. "Well," he started, "we need to find out where this place is, then we need to find out about the history behind it and see if there were any unusual deaths, that sort of thing."

Jessica looked at her boyfriend and nodded. It sounded reasonable enough. After all you shouldn't go into a fight blind. "Ok, once we figure out what or should I say who is haunting the house, what do we do? I know you mentioned a standard 'salt and burn', but what do you mean?" she asked as she walked over and sat next to him.

"If it's a spirit, we find out who it is, where they're buried, dig them up, pour rock salt over their remains and burn them. It's one of the few ways to get rid of a spirit. If we can't find the remains, we can exorcise it from the mansion," he admitted placing an arm around her shoulders.

She raised an eyebrow, "Exorcism? You mean like in that movie?"

Sam nodded, "Slightly. But exorcising a house is different. Plus, you don't HAVE to be a priest in order to conduct one."

"Oh," was the reply as she watched Sam pull out his laptop case and was about log on. "Do you think it could be something other than a ghost or poltergeist?"

Sam looked up from what he was doing and shrugged. "All the information that dad and Dean sent me seemed to point more towards a ghost or poltergeist than anything demonic. But truth be told I think we'll be able to take care of this by morning," he admitted.

"All right," Jessica got up off the bed, "I'm getting hungry, do you mind if I borrow your car and go get us something to eat from the deli I saw as we drove in?"

Sam pulled the keys out of his pocket and handed them over to her slightly reluctantly, "Be careful with it all right," Jess nodded and mentally rolled her eyes, Boys and their toys, she thought. "Get me a cold cut sandwich with everything but peppers and oil and vinegar, Doritos and a large root beer."

"Okay, and I will be careful with your little baby," she said, not being able to resist a little teasing.

"Hey," Sam replied in mock annoyance, a slight grin on his lips.

Jessica rolled her eyes with a grin. She walked over and placed a sweet kiss to his lips. "Be back soon."

Sam watched her as she was about to leave and thought better of his decision of letting her go alone to pick up the food. He quickly put the laptop back in its case, grabbed it and the room key, as he quickly followed her out to the Camero. "You know I think I'll join you…" he answered to the questioning look she shot him as he caught up to her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

I wonder what made him change his mind, Jessica couldn't help thinking as they walked over to the Camero, not that I'm complaining. They got into the Camero and drove down the street to the little deli that they had driven by not more than ten minutes earlier.

As always, Sam acted the gentleman and exited the car first, then went and helped Jessica out of the car, then grabbing his laptop before shutting the door and walking into the deli with Jessica.

"You going to get in line with me, or start working?" Jessica asked quietly.

"I'll start working," Sam replied, "you know my order."

Jessica nodded and went to get in line as Sam went to grab them a table. While she was busy looking at the deli menu above the counter, there were a few men looking at her with interest, who she completely ignored.

She was in the middle of ordering when the guy behind her spoke up. "You know, I haven't seen you here before. Are you knew to the area?" he asked, obviously interested in her.

Jessica gave him a quick and cursory glance before she replied, "I'm with my boyfriend and I'm not interested," she turned back to the deli worker and said, "no peppers, oil or vinegar on the cold cut and no peppers, onions, oil or vinegar on the turkey."

While waiting for the laptop to boot up, Sam, who had seen the guy try to hit on Jessica, stifled his laugh. So that's what it would've looked like had she told him or wasn't interested. Even though he was obviously pissed at the guy, hey just because he's sweet and caring doesn't mean he couldn't get all caveman. He quickly glanced at the screen and logged into his computer and quickly began downloading a map of Modesto and where the library, archives, and McHenry Mansion were located. As it was downloading, he watched as Jessica grabbed their food and drinks and then walked back to the table he had gotten, sliding right in next to him.

"So," she said as Sam pushed is laptop out of the way, "find anything yet?"

"Just downloading the map. Hopefully we'll be able to find everything we need," Sam admitted while grabbing his food.

"All right," Jessica said just before she started eating her own food.

For the next hour, the two sat in their booth going over the information they had found off the internet regarding the Mansion and the supposed ghost that lived there. But something nagged at Sam as they read the information. It didn't seem to quite fit the pattern of a straight ghostly haunting. It felt and sounded like something a demon would do.

Sam wrote down his suspicions in the notebook he had stuck in his laptop case and then asked, "Jess, could bring back up the copy of the obituary and the death record for William McHenry? I have a feeling that this isn't just a haunting."

Nodding, Jess took the laptop and began bringing up the pages he had requested. Looking at the articles and the reports, she felt a chill run up and down her spine.

"It says here that for two weeks before his death, William was acting very odd. He would be wandering around he house, and suddenly it would be as if he'd woken up, not knowing how he got to that room. He was also heard to be screaming, or ranting at something or someone even though no one could see whom it was he was yelling at," Jessica summarized, "The cuts he had on his wrist were placed in a very unique pattern," turning the screen to show him the drawing, "it looks like an inverse pentagram."

Sam's face paled when he saw the pattern. "Fuck! I know who the demon is. I've fought the same demon before and was able to exorcise him and send him back to Hell. But now I know what's going on."