22

Sam struggled against his attacker before realizing that his gun had been knocked from his hands. The flashlight lay on the floor just out of his reach and he could hear the sounds of pain and battle permeating the air around him. The demon wrapped iron hands around his throat and he kicked out, trying to flip the demon off of him.

Dean followed the demon with his flashlight, before it dodged out of the way of the painful beam and disappeared, only to reappear behind him. He felt a claw rip into his lower back and he stumbled, falling forward onto his knees. He could sense the demon approaching rapidly behind him, determined to overwhelm its seemingly outmatched opponent. Dean dropped to the floor, flipping before he hit the carpet to land on his back, with his gun straight up in the air before him. He dropped the flashlight, grabbing at the gun with both hands to ensure a steady shot as the demon came into view.

"Gun control," he advised the demon, "Use both hands."

He fired the gun and the demon took the hit in the neck, dissolving into smoke like his companion had done. Dean pushed himself back up and looked around, spotting two dark shapes on the floor a few feet down the hall. Dean cursed under his breath as he realized that it was Sam and another demon.

Sam could hear a distant ringing in his ears as his vision started to dim slightly, the demon's head going in and out of focus. He could no longer feel the burning in his throat as his limbs began to tingle, losing oxygen and thereby speeding up the blood flow as his heart worked overtime to send blood to his vital organs. He thought he saw a darker shape rise up behind the demon and he cursed his luck for going out this way.

A distant boom filled the air and the demon disappeared, becoming a smoking cloud that sifted away into the stale air of the hallway. A hand reached down as Sam lay there, blinking his eyes and sucking in lungfuls of oxygen. He flinched away from the hand before he realized it was Dean and he grabbed at his brother's forearm, getting hauled to his feet. Dean steadied his brother as he turned to see in what shape Kya and Heather were in.

Kya heard the gunshots firing off behind her but she ignored them, firing off a different kind of shot all her own. With each hit the sandpit lost more hold on Heather until the Zippo flickered and sputtered, the flame dying out. Kya cursed to herself and dropped the lighter, swinging her now free hand around to grab at the back of Heather's shirt.

She pulled for all she was worth and in a sudden movement both of them went flying backwards, Heather landing unceremoniously on top of her. She wrapped her arms around the girl, dragging her backward away from the searching sandpit.

She watched as the carpet gave up its search and slowly reverted back to normal, becoming the regular blue carpet that they had previously been walking on. She breathed a sigh of relief while Heather slapped at her legs, trying to brush away clumps of sand that weren't there. It was obvious the girl was clearly shaken by the new attack the house had tried, but Kya knew that it most likely wasn't the last attempt it would make.

She looked up as a hand reached down to clasp her shoulder, jerking in surprise before she realized it was Sam and Dean, looking the worse for wear but very much alive.

She accepted Dean's hand and both girls were pulled to their feet.

"Happy now Sammy?" Dean demanded.

Sam shrugged, rubbing at his bruised throat. When he spoke his voice was hoarser than usual, as if he were forcing it out through damaged windpipes. "Are you implying this is my fault?"

"Damn straight," Dean told him, retrieving the fallen flashlights and gun. "You had to open your mouth. And then, not only did the walls attack us, but the floor too! Way to go, psychic wonder."

"Shut up," Sam grumbled, knowing that Dean was mostly kidding.

This place was getting to all of them and he knew his brother was getting frustrated with an opponent they couldn't really measure or predict. Not only did it seem the house itself was a living thing, it could also reproduce things that seemed to be buried in the depths of their memories. It was a nightmare, a place of horror and bad dreams that took the lives of all that dared to venture its halls. He could understand his brother's growing frustration as he was feeling it too. For the first time in a long time of hunting down things that had killed most of the people they had run into he was very concerned that they wouldn't make it out of this one alive. At least not all of them.

He watched as Kya inspected the claw wounds that Dean had sustained, lifting the back of his shirt to see how deep they were. Heather came to him, shaking visibly and clearly frightened, and he allowed her into his arms, drawing her into a hug. She buried her face in his chest and her arms gripped around his waist as if he were the only anchor left to a world where death didn't lurk around every corner. For her, this world was home, back with her family in her own room where she felt safe. For him, this world didn't exist. Because even back outside, in the world that he had come from to end up here, his world was filled with nothing but death lurking around every corner.

"We shouldn't stand still too long," he said. "We need to get closer to the staircase before anything like this happens again. We might not be so lucky next time."

"Way to inspire the troops Captain Sunshine," Dean griped.

"Hey," Sam protested. "I'm just telling the truth. The closer we get, the better off we are."

"Sam's right," Kya agreed. "We need to keep moving. This place is going to try and stop us. What's important is that we don't let it."

Dean nodded, grimacing as his shirt brushed against the wounds on his back. He gave Kya a quick kiss on the forehead that implied much more feeling that it gave off appearance-wise, and put his gun and flashlight back up in true SWAT form. Kya found herself thinking that if they weren't in the chosen profession of ghostbusting, they would make excellent soldiers or elite police.

Once again she took Heather's hand, this time gripping it even tighter, as they continued on, every shadow they passed seeking to steal their last breath.

23

The study had come and gone without incident. Creeping through the dark room, bookcases looming in the shadows, and furniture looking as though it might sprout teeth and wings, they had all but run through.

This place was starting to get under Dean's skin. Every door they passed, every step on the carpet, every shadow, seemed to breathe and watch them with a million beady eyes glowing in the darkness that they couldn't see. Dean was pretty sure that if this place had a mouth, which he wasn't entirely sure that it didn't, it was laughing at them now for their pathetic attempts at survival. Although maybe not so pathetic because they had managed to live this long.

They followed the hallway again until it began to widen and finally ended in a huge archway that opened into a pit of black.

"Ballroom?" Kya asked.

"Plenty of space to hide a pile of monsters," Dean commented.

"That's great positive thinking there," Sam grumbled.

Dean cast his brother a scowl, as if to say that positive thinking had never been part of the equation. In a place where the walls and floor wanted to eat you and spit out your bones positive thinking was hard to come by.

"As long as they don't play polka in there, I'll be okay," Dean said with a shudder.

Kya hid a smirk. How Dean could think that polka music was worse than what they had already faced was beyond her. Sam turned around to stare at his brother before shining the beam into the pit of black that lay a few feet beyond.

"Well I doubt they danced to Metallica," he said.

"Damn," Dean responded.

The beam of light revealed a white tiled floor, shining with an almost pearlescent quality in the faint light. Sam summoned his courage and stepped forward, practically jumping across the threshold to stand in the entrance to the ballroom. He stomped his foot a few times, as if testing to make sure the floor was in fact, solid and once satisfied motioned for the others to join him.

"You know Sam," Kya commented. "If the floor was going to turn to quicksand again, I wouldn't think it would let you know immediately."

"Just making sure," he replied.

Once they had all entered they were shocked when the chandelier hanging above them lit, like it had in the foyer, casting a bright glow around the room. They looked around in awe as one by one chandeliers spaced over the ceiling lit by themselves to reveal a huge space for dancing, tables, mingling, and a stage off to the right for a live orchestra to play. The tile floor was polished white and for some reason was missing the coat of dust that should have been there indicating it hadn't been used in years. The walls were a pale yellow that gave the room a surreal quality when the light from the chandeliers washed across them. At the far end of the ballroom was another balcony that was granted access to by another set of double stairs that twirled their way up to the landing and into another archway that lay in darkness past the reach of light. There was no furniture, just a wide open space between them and the stairway that led to their destination. For some reason that space was more daunting than anything else.

"Anybody up for a 50 yard dash?" Dean wondered. "You can go first, Sammy."

Sam scowled at his brother. "No, no, ladies first. I insist."

"Boys," Kya said tiredly, "Can we toss insults later?"

A few quiet seconds later and Dean announced, "I'm hungry."

Kya groaned and shook her head.

They began advancing and the only thing to be heard in the silence of the room was their own heavy breathing. Dean kept his ears tuned for the first sounds of polka music, but thankfully, none came.

Heather stopped short, tugging on Kya's hand causing the older girl to stop short.

"What?" she asked.

"I thought . . .I thought I saw something," she said quietly. "But it's not there anymore."

Kya turned a slow circle, searching the room. She saw nothing in the dream like quality of the room and turned an eye on Heather with a shrug. She stopped again when the faint sound of water washing over something solid reached her ears.

"Guys," she said, turning both brothers around.

"What?" Sam asked.

"This place is playing tricks on us," she grumbled. "I thought I heard something."

She noticed that Sam was staring beyond her and his brown eyes were open wide in shock. She cursed under her breath and turned around to see that the pale yellow walls were no longer yellow. From the cracks where the ceiling and the walls melded together came a torrent of blood, washing down the yellow surface and hitting the floor with alarming speed. The whole room was bleeding, walls to floor, and more blood bubbled up from the tile beneath their feet as if the floor had become a giant sponge and an invisible hand was squeezing it from beneath.

"Oh God!" Heather murmured.

"I don't think God has anything to do with it," Dean commented.

The shock wore off and they began moving again, this time faster. The depth of the thick crimson liquid was growing and it made moving through it hard. Kya jumped back as a hand reached up from within the growing lake of blood to grab at her pant leg. She screamed involuntarily when she saw the hand was rotted, part of it skeletal and the rest of it disintegrated flesh that was drooping off the bone. She heard Heather scream from beside her and could quickly come to the conclusion that she wasn't the only one seeing half rotted corpses rising from the lake of death that had once been a ballroom.

"Shit!" Dean yelled, pushing back a full corpse that had risen from the blood to lunge at him. "Now would be a good time to run!"

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Sam retorted, shoving another half rotted corpse away.

Kya pulled Heather closer, wrapping one arm around the girl's waist as she pulled them through the blood that seemed to be grabbing at their ankles, pulling them back. She stopped short, pushing Heather behind her.

The corpse of a man had put itself in her path, facial features a mess of bone and skin, muscle completely detiorated. Clothing hung off him in tatters and skin hung from his bones, looking as though it might fall off at any second.

"Oh gross," Kya commented. "Please tell me I don't have to touch you."

The zombie creature lunged at her and she kicked out, hearing bone snap beneath her blow. A piece of skin flaked off, dropping into the swirling red that continued bubbling up with no sign of stopping. The skeletal man came at her again and she let go of Heather's hand to shove her hands forward, palms outward, driving them into its ribcage with enough force to break another bone. She pushed back her revulsion and grabbed hold of one of the ribs, tearing it free of the ribcage and using it as a weapon as the skeleton came forward again. She pushed Heather behind her again, keeping one hand on the girl and the other in front of her to ward off the attacks they were facing.

Dean was swarmed with them. They grabbed at his clothing and his limbs, attaching themselves like so many leeches in a South American swamp. He couldn't even see past them to his companions and his stomach lurched at the thought that this was it. His last thought as they dragged him down, pushing both his body and his head into the lake of blood that had advanced to about three feet deep, was that they should have just played polka.