HOOK MAN PART 3
Alice stood in silence and leaned against the door frame that leads into Reverend Sorensen's hospital room. He was still alive but badly injured by the hook the impaled into his shoulder. Lori hasn't left his side since the moment after the attack and probably wasn't going to leave the hospital for a while. The thing that still troubled Alice was why the Hook Man suddenly went after Lori's dad. She figured that he was the one controlling the thing...but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.
After hearing about the attack, the sheriff came down from the station and was taking a statement from Alice. "And you saw him too?" he asked and gave her a suspicious eyebrow.
Alice scoffed and luckily her eyes were hidden by her sunglasses. "Yeah. I saw him take a freaking meat hook and sink it into the Rev's shoulder," she sarcastically said. "Lori and I were just talking when her dad came out, that's when the man appeared."
"Have you ever seen him before?" the sheriff asked.
"Nah." Alice shook her head.
He wrote everything down on a notepad but was still highly suspicious about her involvement in the case. "Miss, it seems every time I turn around, I'm seeing you." He didn't bother to hide his doubts, though Alice didn't seem to care for them.
"Yeah, I know right. Small world." She patted the sheriff on the back and walked away from him before he could utter another word to try and accuse her of the crime.
Alice pushed open the double doors of the hospital and out into the clouded outside lights. Her eyes immediately fell upon the Impala's glossy black paint-job that shimmered under the sun. The boys were standing beside it too and were waiting for her to come out.
Dean heard the familiar sound of clicking heels that strangely brought him a sensation of comfort when he heard them. He was grateful that she was alright, but was still confused about what happened last night. "Alice, what the hell happened?" he said and stood by when Alice walked over to them.
"What the hell happened? What happened on your side?" Alice instantly shot right back. "The freaking Hook Man about Leatherface'd Lori's dad. Didn't you and Sam burn his bones?"
"What are you talking about, I did. You sure its the spirit of Jacob Karns?" Dean defended himself.
"Sure as hell looked like him!" Alice raised her voice and stopped. She looked around to make sure no one was in ear-shot to hear her rants.
"So the spirit isn't latching on to the reverend." Sam figured and huffed with frustration.
Alice groaned heavily and tried to calm her murderous intend to just strangle the boys. "Okay, okay. So...I think it's latching onto Lori. Last night she found out her father is having an affair with a married woman."
"So what?" Dean said.
"She's upset about it, about the immorality of it. She told me she was raised to believe that if you do something wrong, you get punished."
Sam shook his head and was beginning to understand. It was all now starting to make sense for him. "Right, so Rich comes on too strong, Taylor tries to make her into a party girl, Dad has an affair."
"Remind me not to piss this girl off." Dean frowned. "But we burned those bones, burned them in salt, why didn't that stop him?"
"Did you get the hook?" Alice asked and the boys just stared at her, baffled.
"Hook?" they said at the same time, all while having a deer-in-the-headlights-look.
Alice could have straight-up murdered them right there and then with how wide and deranged her eyes became. She stretched her arms out to Dean in a strangling motion but stopped when he jumped out of reach. She was still shaking when she took a deep breath, laughing a bit from frustration. "Listen...the hook was the murder weapon, and in a way, it was a part of him. Like the bones, the hook is a source of his power," she said very slowly. "We gotta find that hook."
Research had always been the most taxing thing about being a Hunter, but Alice suddenly had a new fire burning inside her and has gone into overdrive mode to try and find where that dang hook ended up in after all these years. She had poured through more books in the last two hours then the boys did in four. Dean and Sam knew she was agitated, but not at them. Alice was just wanting to stop the Hook Man as quick as possible so no one else would get hurt.
Dean tore his eyes away from his friend and back at the book in front of him. "Here's something, I think," he called out and took the pen cap out of his mouth that he was chewing on.
Alice picked her feet up and pushed off the table, rolling over to his side. "A logbook?" she asked.
"Iowa State Penitentiary. Karns, Jacob. Personal affects: disposition thereof," he read.
"Did it mention the hook?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, maybe. Upon execution, all earthly items shall be remanded to the prisoner's house of worship. St. Barnabas Church."
"Isn't that where Lori's father preaches?"
Alice nodded. "Yeah, and where she lives."
"Maybe that's why the Hook Man has been haunting reverends and reverends' daughters for the past 200 years," Dean stated.
She frowned since something still wasn't adding up to her. "Yeah, but...wouldn't someone would have noticed a bloodstained, silver-handled hook just laying about?" Alice got up from her rolling chair. "I'll be right back. Gonna check the church records," she said and jogged off down the long aisles of books.
About an hour or two later, Alice came back with and an old leather book full of dust and wrinkled brown pages. She also had a grim look on her face when she slammed it down on the table for the boys to look at. Dean never liked it when she had that look, it usually always meant more trouble for them.
"What's wrong?" Dean asked and rubbed her back, feeling it tense up under his hand.
Alice rubbed her tired eyes and sat down on the arm of the chair Dean was sitting on. She was exhausted, he knew it and couldn't blame her. She had been white-knuckling it for over fifteen hours so far. "So..." she began. "In 1862 the church received a silver-handled hook from the state penitentiary. But the problem is..." She looked over to Sam and waited for him to find what she did.
Sam stared down at the book and opened it up to the page that Alice labeled. He looked through the long list when his face suddenly fell. His eyes scanned over the word that totally shut him down. "Reforged," he sighed and leaned back in his chair. "They made it into something else."
The St. Barnabas church actually had quite an eerie feel to it late at night. The tall staple of the church made the shadow drag far across the parking lot and made the cross look like a demonic hand reaching out to grab your leg. It gave Alice a bad feeling and she purposely stepped to the side when the moonlight made the shadow stretch by her.
Dean noticed Alice's discomfort and laughed a bit since it was so unlike her. "What, you scared?"
Alice gave him a side-eye. "You got no right to say that to me when you death gripped my hand during a plane ride, remember?" Alice shot right back and Dean instantly shut down at her remark. "Okay. Listen, we're not taking any chances. Anything silver goes in the fire."
Sam nodded. "I agree, so, Lori's still at the hospital. We'll have to break in."
"Alright, take your pick," Dean offered.
"I'll take the house, " said Sam.
"Ok." They began to go their separate ways when Dean suddenly called back to his brother. "Hey." Sam stopped and saw his cheezy grin. "Stay out of her underwear drawer."
Sam rolled his eyes and turned back around, heading in the direction of Lori's house, while Dean jogged to catch up to Alice.
Alice and Dean had two bags full of silver they found around the church and were beginning to toss them all in the furnace down in the basement. Alice made sure that everything they tossed in was melting, not taking any chances with how small their window for this case was. She had a bad feeling that things would only get worse if they drag out. This job had to be done tonight.
Dean turned back to the stairs and saw Sam hurrying down with a bag full of things he found in Lori's house.
"I got everything that even looked silver," Sam said and passed the bag on to Alice's open hands.
They stopped mid-toss when the floor above them began to creak. Alice looked up and saw dust falling through the cracks of the ceiling and knew someone was up there. Dean gave a gesture for Sam to keep throwing and tossed a shotgun to Alice. They hurried up the stairs as quietly as possible to not alert the intruder. Alice slowly opened the door and peeked through it but was taken aback when she saw Lori. She was sitting at the pew and was crying very softly. Alice's face fell a bit and she looked back to Dean. She lifted her thump and pointed back down the stairs, silently telling him that she would handle it and for him and Sam to keep burning. Dean nodded and headed back down.
Alice very calmly walked up behind Lori and quickly hid her gun in the row behind her. She leaned against the edge and crossed her arms. "What are you doing here?" she spoke up and actually made Lori jump. She must have been so lost in her own world that she didn't hear the heels clicking against the wooden floorboard.
Lori turned her head. Her skin was flushed and her eyes were puffy and red. "Alice?" she spoke in a croaked voice.
Alice felt her heart ache for the poor girl. "Shouldn't you be at the hospital?" she cocked a brow when Lori shook her head shyly. "What's going on?"
"I've been trying to understand what's been happening. Why? Now I know so I'm praying for forgiveness."
This made her confused. "What do you have to be forgiven for?"
"Don't you see? I'm to blame for all this. I've read in the Bible about avenging angels-"
"He's no angel." Alice cut in firmly. She didn't like where Lori was taking this and began to look around nervously. Hoping to not catch a glimpse of a silver hook lurking in the shadows. "Trust me."
Lori's lips quivered. "I was so angry at my father. Part of me wanted him punished. And then he came the punished him."
Alice shook her head. "It wasn't your fault."
"Yes, it is. I don't know how, but it is. I killed Ritch. Taylor, too. I nearly killed my father."
Alice felt a chill run down her spine when a sound of something sharp rang in the air. She snapped her head around and saw nothing. She quickly moved in front of Lori and grabbed her by her shoulders, shaking her a bit to grasp her full attention. "Lori. Listen to me. Whatever it was, whoever it was. This was not your fault. None of it."
Lori stared at her in silence. "But it was," she breathed, speaking in a broken voice of utter heartbreak.
A strong gust of wind suddenly blew out the candles and Alice's ears perked up when she heard something moving around, unnoticed by their eyes. The air noticeably became cooler and her skin was crawling with chill bumps. She knew something was there but still couldn't see it, which made her brain go into haywire mode.
"It's here," she muttered and grabbed Lori by her upper arm. "Get up, now. I gotta get you out of here," she spoke coldly and tossed her sunglasses aside.
"Alice? What's wrong?" Lori asked and saw her reach for her shotgun. "What's going on?"
"I don't have time to explain. Come on." Alice cocked her shotgun.
She dragged Lori by her hand to the front of the church where the door was and grabbed the doorknob. She ripped it wide open but had all the air get sucked from her lungs when she saw the tall and black-clad figure of the Hook Man standing in front of them, looming ominously with a silver hook. Lori shrieked and Alice's finger squeezed the trigger of her gun on reflex, ripping salt pellets right through his spiritual body. He disappeared instantly.
"You have got to be kidding me." Alice huffed and popped open her gun. She pulled out the smoking casings to quickly reload. "Back door. Now!" she ordered in a rush.
They hurried through the church to the back rooms, just when Alice began to hear the sound of heavy boots behind her. Her heart dropped and she literally pushed Lori into the room, slamming the door behind them just when the silver hook slammed against the glass, shattering it. The hunter turned around and had to crank her head to look up at the dark figure that was dripping with menace and murder. His face was obscured by the wide-brimmed hat on his face and he wore a long trench coat that was worn down with age. The most prominent trait though was a razer sharp, twisted hook for a hand.
"Stay back!" Alice shouted back to Lori.
Alice ducked down away from the Hook Man that tried to make a swat at her with his razor hook. It struck against the wall and chipped away at the drywall and wood. She looked back up and was bewildered when she saw that he wasn't there anymore. He disappeared once more.
"Oh, my God!" Lori covered her mouth with her hand. "Where did he go?"
"I don't know-" Alice's words were cut off when she felt a strong force on the back of her coat. A gasp escaped her lips when she was abruptly flung across the air by an invisible force.
"Alice!" Lori shrieked and saw Alice crash and slide across the floor. She ran out of the backroom and over to her. "Are you okay?"
Alice bit down on her lips and rolled onto her back. Her lungs burned when the air began to return but through her hazy eyes, she saw the Hook Man towering over an unexpected Lori. "Down!" Alice swept her legs across Lori's and knocked her on the ground to avoid the impending doom from the hook.
Dean finally came running up the stairs after hearing the first gunshot and saw the Hook Man looming above Alice and Lori. "Alice! Stay down!" he warned and shot at the spirit that disappeared.
Sam ran out after his brother. "You guys alright?" he jogged over to them to help the girls up. Lori was scared stiff but Alice mostly looked pissed and confused.
"You freaking kidding me?" Alice held her throbbing head that smacked against the floor when she was thrown. "I thought we got all the silver."
"So did I," Dean said.
"Then why the hell is he still here?"
"Well, maybe we missed something."
Sam helped Lori up and noticed that around her neck was a silver chain and cross. "Lori, where did you get that chain?"
"My father gave it to me," she answered, a bit confused.
"Where'd your father get it?" Dean asked.
"He said it was a church heirloom, he gave it to me when I started school."
"Is it silver?!" Sam shouted since they were running out time. It won't be long soon before the Hook Man returned.
"Yes!"
Alice reached over to her necklace and pulled it off. "This had better be it." She was about to hand it over to Dean when they both froze.
An invisible force began to scrape a long line across the wall behind them. The sound was absolutely haunting and made their bodies turn to ice. Alice and Dean slowly looked over and watched as the line moved closer and closer, chipping off the wall as it went.
Alice slapped the chain into Dean's chest and didn't take her eyes off the wall. "One minute. That's all we need," she muttered lowly. "Go, go, go!"
"Got it." Dean pushed Sam ahead of him and gave one last look back to Alice before the brothers disappeared down the stairs to burn the chain.
The scraping stopped and started up again on the ceiling. Alice raised her shotgun and pointed it up and pulled the trigger. The salt pellets ripped open the drywall but it finally stopped with its intimidating tactic. Alice tried to reload and looked away, catching a silver glimpse from the corner of her eye. She instinctively brought her gun up and blocked the hook but it curled over her shotgun and was yanked from her hands.
"Shit!" Alice backed up in front of Lori and was now cornered with nowhere to go. If she avoided than Lori would get hit. She felt her heart speed up the longer she stared at the approaching Hook Man when abruptly...a content smile fell to her lips and her eyes began to close.
The Hook Man slowly lifted his silver hook above his head when he suddenly stopped, frozen in his spot. His hook began to melt away and dip on to the floor when his body lit up in flames. His skin and clothes burned away and he crumbling to the ground, nothing but a pile of ash.
Alice's eyes snapped open and she stared down at the still smoldering pile before her. She finally felt like she could breathe and backed up against the wall. She slid down as all the strength vanished from her body from the pressure. Sam and Dean came running up a minute later and was relieved to see that Alice and Lori were safe. Alice looked a bit drained but she lifted her hand and gave them a thumbs-up, all while sporting a lazy and tired grin.
The church was surrounded by cops as soon as daybreak came. They flooded the surroundings and checked out every exit there was to hunt down the man with a hook, little did they know that he was already dispatched by the Hunters. Alice was already back in her leather riding gear and was currently being patched up in the back of an ambulance. Sam and Dean were being questioned by the sheriff, though it mostly felt like they were being interrogated.
"And you both saw him, too? The man with a hook." The sheriff said with his usual shifty gaze.
"Yes, we told you, we all saw him. We fought him off and then he ran." Dean tried to convince the man.
"And that's all?"
"Yes." the brothers said at the same time and were a bit offended, too.
The sheriff frowned. "Listen. You and your friends-"
"Oh, don't worry, we're leaving town." Dean cut in and he and Sam began to head over to the Impala to wait for Alice.
It was just one thing after another with her. First, it was the bruised neck and bloodshot eyes, and now it was a bruised back and knot on the back of her head. Alice groaned and rubbed her head that now had a good size bump on it. "Well, that's just great," she muttered and wasn't looking forward to the ride. "Riding out of here's gonna be a bitch."
"Are you going to be alright?" Lori asked and walked up to her with her usual meek smile.
"Just tired of getting beaten up, when it's usually the other way around," Alice said dryly.
Lori chuckled a bit and sat next to her, resting her hands in her lap. "I...I still don't know what happened. But I do know you saved my life." She wanted to smile but something was bothering her, something that happened back in the church, and it wasn't because of the Hook Man. "Um, Alice?" she began.
"What?" Alice cocked a brow at Lori's odd change in tone and waited for a second for her to talk, but instead, the young lady only smiled for some reason. It wasn't any normal, thankful smile. It was fake, an attempt to cover something up.
"It's...it's nothing. Thank you, Alice. I mean it."
For a solid five seconds, Alice was reflecting at the sudden change and wondered what she was going to say. But, the corner of her lips perked up and she decided to drop the topic. She patted Lori on the back. "Take care of your dad, okay?" Alice grabbed her helmet off the back of the ambulance and gave one last wave to the young woman. She headed back over to her bike that was parked beside the running Impala. The boys were already inside and were looking at her through the rearview mirror. She gave a light pat on the roof to signal that it was time to leave.
Lori watched with a fading smile as Alice and the boys drove away, the one question still lingering in the back of her head that will go unanswered.
Why...did it look like Alice stopped fighting?
Author's Note:
Ohh~ It ended on a rather morbid question. Why did Alice suddenly stop fighting? Oh, crap! And she actually looked content with herself as well? Even if Lori asked her, I don't think Alice would have answered her anyway.
Ugh. I was gonna post the final Hook Man chapter yesterday but ran out steam and could hardly keep my eyes open. So I decided to sleep on it and decide to do it the first thing in the morning. I'm still on the fence about this chapter but whatever. I really hope you liked it.
Alright. Next up we got Bugs! Not gonna lie, that was was my least favorite episode from the first season, but what are you gonna do. I hope to see you all again and until then...take really good care of yourselves!