HOOK MAN PART 2
It was bright and early when they strolled out of the Sheriff's Department. They were free men once more and were let out the next morning after Dean worked his magic and talked the sheriff down into letting them go.
"Saved your ass!" Dean said, walking out in the streets with Alice on his right and Sam on his left. "Talked the sheriff down to a fine. Dude, I am Matlock."
"But how?" Sam asked his brother since the situation there were found in..would be a bit hard to explain. With the shotgun, rope, and the snooping around in the middle of the night after a gruesome murder, Sam didn't understand how they were able to walk free without Alice having to break them out.
"I told him you were a dumbass pledge and that we were hazing you."
"What about the shotgun?"
"I said that you were hunting for ghosts and the spirits were repelled by rock salt. You know, typical Hell Week prank."
Alice laughed a bit and pulled out her sunglasses once more to cover her bloodshot eyes. "Ah huh. They were kinda pressuring me about my bruises and eyes, so...what did you say to save your ass from potential assault charges?"
Dean grinned with his genius scheme. "I told him that you had dumbass friends, who had dumbass ideas"
She cocked a brow. "And it worked?"
"Sure looked like it." Dean turned his head around and suddenly saw several sheriffs running out of the station, getting into their cars and speeding away. They looked like they were in a hurry and judging by the sirens, it was serious.
"What the..." Alice watched as they took off. She exchanged a confused look with the boys.
Police cars surrounded Lori's sorority building and blocked it off to the growing crowd of curious people. A woman had died, Lori's roommate Taylor. Lori was sat on the back of a parked ambulance and was wrapped up in a blanket. She was pale and her eyes looked a bit sunken in with sleep deprivation, having to have woken up to Taylor's dead body a few feet beside her. Cold, motionless, pale and covered in blood from having her throat cut open during the night.
Lori lifted her head and saw the shiny black paint job from the Impala glimmering in the sun as it slowly drove by. She saw Sam and Dean staring out the window at the building with a suspicious look in their eyes. They didn't stop and just drove off the site.
The Impala rolled around the back of the building to another street. It didn't have cops on it and they saw Alice waiting for them by the curb with her bike. She made a gesturing motion with her head and they quickly parked the Impala behind her. They got out and followed Alice through the back way to the building.
"Why would the Hook Man come here? This is a long way from 9 Mile Road." Sam said.
"Maybe it's about something else," Dean said. Alice suddenly grabbed him and Sam, shoving them aside when two sorority girls walked out of the side entrance of the building. "Dude, sorority girls. Think we'll see a naked pillow fight?" he grinned. Dean turned around and saw Sam helping Alice up on the balcony.
Alice pulled herself up and slowly walked over to the unlocked window. Grabbing the window frame, she leaped inside and the boys followed her in headfirst, falling on top of each other and hissing.
"Oh, sorry!" Dean apologized for falling on his brother.
"Be quiet!"
"You be quiet!"
"You be quiet!"
"Will you two shut up!" Alice hissed.
They waited in silence while Alice peeked her head through the door as the last sheriff left the room and walked down the stairs. They stepped into the bedroom once everyone was gone and finally saw the damaged the Hook Man did. Taylor's body was gone but large puddles of blood were left behind, and on the wall beside her bed were words carved into the drywall. The words were painted red and looked like they were scraped in with a hook.
"'Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light.'" Sam read the words. "Isn't that?"
"Yeah, just like the legend," Alice said.
"That's classic Hook Man all right." Dean tapped his nose. "It's definitely a spirit."
"Yeah, I've never smelled ozone this stong before," Sam grimaced.
Alice hunched down in front of the wall and stared at the words for a moment when something caught her eyes. A symbol was carved at the bottom of the gruesome message. "Sam, Dean," she called out. "Do you recognize this symbol?"
They did, in fact, recognize the symbol that was scraped at the bottom of the message. Alice found it during their research and brought it out with a piece of paper.
Alice held it up for them to see. "Looks like it is the spirit of Jacob Karns," She was sure now if there was any doubt before.
"All right, let's find the dude's grave, salt and burn the bones, and put him down," Dean said.
"Not so fast," Alice folded the paper back up. "It's said that after the execution, Karns was laid to rest in an Old North Cemetery. In an unmarked grave."
His face befell with annoyance. "Super."
"Ok." Sam began. "So we know it's Jacob Karns. But we still don't know where he'll manifest next. Or why." He could begin to see the bothersome side of this.
A thought crossed Dean's mind. "I'll take a wild guess about why. I think Alice's little friend Lori has something to do with this."
Alice shuffled awkwardly through a college party of blinding lights, intoxicating smells of booze, and stupid and drunk kids the knocked into her constantly. She groaned loudly and finally just bulldozed her way through and didn't care about the complaints she got from the partygoers. She found Sam's tall figure standing above everyone else and walked up to him and Dean.
"Ugh..." Alice groaned with annoyance and felt her anti-socialness starting to peek through. "God, I hate college parties. They're so damn obnoxious."
Dean though looked like he was having the time of his life, being surrounded by booze and women. "What are you talking about? This college thing is awesome. Sammy, you've been holding out on me."
Sam rolled his eyes. "It's Sam, and this wasn't really my experience."
"Let me guess. Libraries, studying, straight A's." Sam nodded. "What a geek. Speaking of geeks though, sweetheart, did you do your homework?"
Alice nodded and guided them away from the crowd. "You know how the Hook Man has been tied up to Lori this whole time?" She pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper from the inside of her leather jacket. "I got a hunch on why." She showed it to them.
Dean read it out. "'1932. Clergyman arrested for murder. 1969. Seminnariam held in hippie rampage.'"
"There's a pattern. In both cases, the suspect was a man of religion who openly preached against immorality. He then found himself wanted for killings he claimed were the works of an invisible force. The killings were carried out with a sharp instrument."
"What's the connection to Lori?"
"A man of religion? Who openly preaches against immorality? Does that sound like someone to you." Dean slowly began to understand what Alice was talking about.
"Reverend Sorensen. You think he's summoning the spirit?"
She nods. "Yeah, but this time he's just trying to save his daughter." She rolled the paper back up. "Poltergeist don't have to haunt a place. It can be a person too."
"So the spirit latches onto the reverend's repressed emotions, feeds off them, yeah, okay."
"Without the reverend ever knowing about it," Sam said. "So what's the plan?"
"I'll go keep an eye on Lori tonight while you and Dean find that unmarked grave, okay?" Alice saw Dean eyeing an attractive blonde at the pool table. "Dean." She snapped her fingers to get his attention back.
"Wha-What?" He blinked.
"Sam, you, grave. Me, Lori, watch. You understand?"
Dean nodded his head, though he looked reluctant to leave the party. "Yeah."
Sam and Dean went off to find the grave while Alice stayed behind to watch over Lori's house. She strolled the dark streets near the house and tried her best to not look like a creep with sunglasses on in the middle of the night. She sighed and pulled them off actually. It was dark outside and wearing them only made it harder to see. No one was around anyway so she saw no harm.
Alice looked up at the window and saw Lori and her dad arguing about something. It was pretty loud too since she could hear them from all the way outside. It wasn't long till they both walked away from each other and shut off the lights.
It didn't take long to find the grave since it had the same symbol on it like the one back at Lori's sorority. Dean worked up a sweat on digging up the grave while Sam shined a light down on him.
"Next time..." Dean had to take a moment to breathe. "I'm going with Alice to watch the cute girl's house."
"Just hurry up and dig," Sam said but Dean shot him an annoyed look.
Dean finally hit the wooden coffin below and broke it up till they saw the dried up skeletal remains of the old preacher. "Hello, preacher." Dean tossed his shovel aside and was helped out of the hole by Sam.
They get to work on salting up the bones as much as possible. They soaked them with lighter fluid until they were practically swimming in fluid and salt. Sam grimaced at the sight while Dean lit a match and tossed it upon the remains. The flames covered the old bones and burned them up till there was nothing left but ash.
Alice sat down on a bench near the house and stretched her legs out. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back to relax when she heard the distinct sound of footsteps behind her. She felt her muscles clench up and slowly move down to her bag that had a shotgun in it. Alice snapped her head around to see who it was but sighed when it was only Lori coming up behind her.
"Don't sneak up on people like that. God knows what'll happen." Alice pulled her sunglasses out of her shirt and placed them back on. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes once more
Lori, very meekly sat down beside her. "Sorry. I, uh, saw you upstairs. What are you doing here?"
"Was taking a walk when I heard the yelling. I got a bit concerned and decided to stick around for a couple of minutes to make sure everything was fine." She opened a single eye and looked at her. "Everything alright?"
Lori appreciated the concern but could only smile weakly. "Not really. I'm guessing you already know what happened to Taylor. If I were you...I would run away from me as fast as you can."
Alice laughed a bit at that. "If you were me then you wouldn't." She hunched over and crossed her fingers. "Why would you say something like that anyway?"
"It's like I'm cursed or something. People around me keep dying."
She cocked a brow cause couldn't deny that, but in a way, Alice knew that she could relate to those feelings. "I understand ya." She could feel her heart taking a dip as her body grew cold for some reason.
Lori's voice began to become croaked. "No one will talk to me anymore. Except you. The sheriff thinks I'm a suspect. And you know what my dad is saying? Pray. Have faith. What does he know about faith."
That got her attention. "What are you talking about?"
"He's seeing a woman. A married woman. I just found out. She comes to our church with her husband. I know her kids. And he tells me about religion? About morality? It's like, on one hand, you know, just do what you want and be happy. But he taught me, raise me to believe that if you do something wrong you will get punished. I just don't know what to do anymore." she said, her eyes becoming glassy from tears and pent up stress.
Alice sighed deeply and leaned back on the bench, running her hands through her hair. This was a bit more complicated then she thought. She was beginning to second-guess everything now, but what really surprised her is what Lori said next.
"I...kinda wish I was more like you."
Alice froze and slowly cranked her head over to her. "Excuse me?"
"I wish I was more like you," she said sheepishly. "You just strike me as someone...who doesn't let anything bother you, and I admire that." She lowered her head to hide a smile. "And don't tell me, dressed like that, that you don't ride a motorcycle."
Alice looked away and began to snicker. "I'm really just a biker punk, that's all."
"It must be freeing, huh? And I bet you have a better relationship with your family then I do mine."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Her face slowly began to fall. "My family's, uh...no longer here." Alice could see Lori's eyes grow wide.
"I didn't...I..." she struggled to get the right words out but she was too frazzled to say anything.
"Don't." Alice held her hand up to stop her. "Just don't. I've heard it way too many times already and I don't wanna be reminded of it every time."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"No...no you wouldn't. I don't talk about it often because...it was a dark time in my life, and right now it's still..." Alice bit down on her lips and huffed. "What I wanna say is this...be happy with the family you have left. Don't be mad at your dad forever because of a stupidass decision he made. If something were to happen to him then...what would the last words you spoke to him be?"
Lori clenched her hands tightly and dropped her head. She was silenced with only a few words that truly did dig deep into her heart. She hesitated to speak for a moment but curiosity got the better of her. "What...What was your dad like?"
Various emotions crossed Alice's eyes in a fraction of a second but she covered it up with a laugh and a smile. "He was a dumbass too. But a good guy from what I can remember."
Lori smiled and laughed along with her. She giggled, and for a moment it truly felt like things were back to normal. She doesn't remember the last time she laughed like this. The moment was ruined though went she heard her dad suddenly calling out to her.
"Lori?" Reverend Sorensen poked his head outside and saw his daughter sitting on the bench with Alice. "Come inside, please." he pleaded.
Alice patted Lori on the back. "You should go."
Lori hesitated at first but got up. "Sure."
Alice smiled slightly and looked back to reverend Sorensen. She suddenly saw a black mist appear behind him that took the shape of a man with a silver hook. Alice felt her lungs burning like fire when the air got sucked out. She watched him take his hook and drive it deep in the unexpected reverend. Sorensen screamed out in pain as the door slammed shut.
"Dad?!" Lori screamed in shock.
"Son of a-" Alice reached into her back and pulled out the shotgun. She spun it around and cocked it before heading for the door in a mad dash.
Alice pushed open the front door and ran inside the house but didn't see Lori's father at all. She whipped her head around and heard the sound of pleating screams coming upstairs. She sprinted up the stairs and came to a door at the end of the hall that the voice was coming from. Alice practically broke the hinges off the door when she kicked it open and saw the Hook Man standing above Sorensen. His bloody hook held up in the air.
"No! No, no!" Sorensen pleated.
Alice didn't wast another second and pointed her shotgun up and pulled the trigger. Buckshots splattered out from the smoking barrel and ripped right through the spirits body. He disappeared on impact and the shots struck the wall.
"Dad! Dad!" Lori burst into the bedroom and ran to her father's side. "Okay. It's ok, Dad. It's ok. It's ok."
Alice lifted her shotgun up and saw the smoke coming off the barrel. She frowned down at the injured reverend, pondering on what just happened and why the Hook Man suddenly attacked him. "It's not alright..." she said, leaning her shotgun against her shoulder.