31

Sam stepped up and rapped on the two story white and blue Victorian style home they had located in a middle-upper class part of suburbia. He was apprehensive as they stood there impatiently waiting for someone to answer the door. Just as Sam was about to knock again the door swung open and Heather stood there.

The girl was showered and dressed in fresh clothes, a stylish denim skirt, flip flops, and a turquoise tank top with a denim jacket over it that only came down to her ribs. She smiled when she saw who was on her doorstep and launched herself into Sam's arms in a friendly hug, turning to Kya and Dean next.

Heather stepped out and shut the door behind her.

"You guys are alive," she said.

"So are you," Dean commented.

She smiled. "Yeah, but I think I'm going to fail my math test. I'm too scared to even open my Algebra book."

Kya laughed. "Well, unless you're worried about killer fractions I doubt that's an issue."

Dean gave the blonde an incredulous look. "Did you ever take Algebra? Some of those equations are worse than a ballroom full of blood!"

Kya shook her head and turned back to the girl. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I never want to see another book in my life, even if it's Dr. Seuss."

Sam nodded. "It will pass. Just get back to your normal life and be more careful about urban legends."

"Yeah," Dean grumbled. "If people actually listened to the moral in those we wouldn't have a job."

Heather laughed softly. "Well I promise to take notes on every horror movie I ever see for the rest of my life. This won't happen again."

Dean nodded. "Well if it does call--,"

Kya smacked him in the back of the head. "If you say 'ghostbusters' I swear you'll be making the term 'stop, drop, and roll' have new meaning."

"Okay, fine," he conceded. "Call Sam's cellphone."

Sam jotted it down on a piece of paper from his wallet and handed it to the girl. She smiled shyly and stuck it in her backpocket.

"So what are you guys gonna do now?" she asked.

"Finish all of this insanity," Kya said.

Heather nodded. She stepped forward to give them all another hug.

"You guys saved my life," she said softly. "Thanks."

"It was no problem," Sam said gently.

"Yeah," Dean agreed. "All in a day's work."

Heather elbowed him in the ribs.

"We have to go now, Heather. We'll see you around, maybe."

Heather nodded, stepping back into the house and shutting the door softly, probably going back upstairs to face down her newly found fear of unopened text books. Kya turned to the boys when they had reached their respective modes of transportation.

"So now what?" she asked.

"Like my less than verbally inclined brother said," Sam told her. "We go finish this."

"I'm not really sure this was the best idea in the world," Kya said quietly as she followed Sam through a row of headstones.

Sam shined the flashlight down into the rows, searching through them for the unmarked grave even though he knew it would be almost impossible to find, even considering that the cemetery was rather small. Kya had told him that Hunter had said Jason Banks had been thrown into an unmarked grave after his death in this cemetery and while most of the graves were marked with headstones it was possible that he never even got a brick to mark his resting place.

"Probably not," Sam agreed.

"I hope he's okay," she went on, stepping around a grave.

Sam nodded his head in agreement. "I'm sure he is. Dean can take care of himself and as soon as we're done with this we'll go make sure."

Kya wiped sweaty hands on her dark brown corduroys. She had changed into the pants, a beige tank top and a tan suede jacket with dark brown boots after her shower, pulling her curly locks into a ponytail at the nape of her neck and even now a few curls pulled themselves loose to frame her face. She swiped at them as she followed Sam through the cool night air.

They had split up. Dean had gone after Hunter to get answers for his actions and to tell him that his scheme was over. The book had no power now and revenge was not going to happen. Dean had the crazy hope that Hunter would slip up, give himself away, and allow them to bring the police in to arrest him. He was a human being after all, no matter how twisted he was, and they couldn't just kill him in cold blood.

While Dean was off trying to set Hunter up to get arrested she and Sam had gone to the cemetery in search of Jason Banks' grave so they could put an end to his miserable existence as well. They both knew they had drawn the short end of the straw; dealing with a ghost was far more dangerous than dealing with a deranged human being.

Beside her Buck padded silently across the ground, a large black shadow among all the other shadows in the cemetery. She reached a hand down as she walked, her hand touching the top of his head that rose up at her hip. She was getting fondly attached to the dog and knew that when she left here after all of this was over, Buck would be going with her. She had always wanted a dog and it seemed like Buck had chosen her as his owner, from the first encounter on the porch of Hunter's house he had stayed with her. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to Buck than the average person would think, almost a mystical quality in his soulful brown eyes and a sharp intelligence to match.

"I don't know how we're going to find his grave," Kya said in frustration.

"Maybe we could just ask him nicely to show us where it is," Sam suggested.

Kya laughed. "Oh yeah, I'm sure that would go over well. 'Hi, can you show us where you're buried so we can send you straight to Hell?'"

Sam shrugged and smiled. "You never know."

Kya looked down as Buck shoved his massive head against her thigh, almost as if he were trying to push her in a particular direction.

"What is it, Buck?" she asked patiently.

The dog pushed her again, this time harder, and she went with the direction as she grabbed Sam's hand and pulled him with her. Sam looked down at the oversized and overmuscled Labrador as he led them across the ground, at first walking slowly and then breaking into a heavy trot as they jogged to keep up.

"What the hell is your dog doing? Leading us to a long lost Frisbee?" Sam demanded.

Kya was shocked when Buck turned his head as he was running across the ground, looking directly at Sam and baring his teeth in a gruff growl as if he knew exactly what Sam had said and was replying.

"I don't know," Kya said, after the shock had worn off. "I guess we'll find out."

She stopped short as Buck did on a bare patch of ground underneath a large oak tree, the branches overhead casting long shadows on the ground from the light of the moon shining overhead. Buck pawed at the ground under the tree, whining and barking alternately as Sam stepped up with a shovel in his hand and raised an eyebrow at the dog.

"I had better not dig six feet underground to find a golf ball," he told the dog.

Buck growled.