Disclaimer: I own my laptop and that's all
AN: I realized after posting the last chapter that I had written Shower Angst. Lol I guess it was my pervy subconscious at work again. On with the show…..
"When exactly did you people start claiming to see the ghost?" Dean asked Rodney at breakfast the next day. Sam and Jack sat on opposite sides of table with Dean in between trying to ignore the dark looks being thrown back and forth.
"Um a few months ago, our guests started saying they saw a girl." Rodney answered.
"In here too, or just in the light house itself?" Jack asked with her mouth full. They had the dining area to themselves and much to Jack's delight Rodney had comped their meals. She was working on her third plate of pancakes.
"Both and sometimes outside between the two." Rodney said looking nervous about speaking about the haunting. "They always said the same thing. That a girl would appear and disappear. She never hurt anyone before now." Sam glanced at Dean, they'd gone over the place before breakfast and found nothing in the hostel.
"We even got more business out of it, you know ghost buffs and stuff." He continued nodding along with his own words.
"Up till the man died?" Sam asked putting his two cents in.
"Yeah, I knew him too. He was a friend of a friend form school. Name was George Mann." Rodney said.
"After he was found dead, a rumor went around that it was our ghost girl. Then things started happening." He paused to take a drink form his coffee cup.
"What kinds of things?" Dean asked.
"Things breaking, something approaching people and scaring them, it attacked one of the tourists. Then people stopped coming." Rodney stopped, looking down at his clasped hands.
"Did you see it?" Sam asked.
"I saw something a few days before you guys came here. Some dark outline in the lighthouse." Rodney shrugged, not meeting their eyes. "It scared me."
"Did the new occurrences, the violent ones. Did they happen in both places too?" Jack asked.
"No just the lighthouse." Rodney answered.
"Okay," Dean got to his feet. "We want to look around the lighthouse now."
"Alright." Rodney smiled accommodatingly. He led the three out the doors to where the lighthouse stood, with a giant padlock on its door.
"Its been locked up since then and it was locked up the night George died too. I don't know how he could have gotten inside." Rodney was standing a few feet from the door as Jack looked the lock over critically. He shifted his weight nervously, not wanting to get close to the building.
"You got a key? We can let ourselves in." Sam said putting the guy out if his misery by giving him an out to leave. Rodney sagged with relief and handed him the key ring, indicating t he right key before practically running back inside.
"It hasn't been picked. No scratches around the key hole." Jack told them. Sam nodded curtly and took the lock in his hand unlocking it. Dean gave Jack a significant look over Sam's shoulder but she just shrugged and walked through the door after Sam.
Her eyes immediately zoomed in on the floor underneath the window on the ground level. A burnt out match was laying on the floor. She grinned and picked it up looking it over.
"What?" Dean asked looking at the match frowning.
"Its small and old….." Jack said mostly to herself.
"Okay?" Dean said expectantly waiting for an explanation.
"I might be able to get an image of whoever struck it, but its small so don't expect miracles." Jack said. She bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes concentrating the faint residue of fire on the match.
The image, quick and gone as fast as the small blaze itself was, danced before her vision. She grasped onto it with her mind trying to memorize the details before it was gone. A man, in his early twenties with light brown hair appeared briefly lighting a match and putting it to his ciggerate. An open window behind him. The man grinned to himself before shaking the flame out and the scene was over.
Jack smiled wryly and opened her eyes. She turned around and opened the window easily. It had no locks and she could see faint scrapes on the sill. She looked over her shoulder with one eyebrow cocked.
"So, no ghost that can pick locks, but an unlocked window." Dean said rolling his eyes.
Sam was relieved. He was sure that this wasn't t here kind of thing now. It must have been some freak accident and a bunch of weird coincidences. And as soon as Dean saw this too, they'd be able to leave and he wouldn't find himself looking towards the direction he'd have to drive in to get to Paolo Alto and then Jess's gravesite.
"Well that tells that A. Rodney's an idiot for not noticing this and B. This might just be a guy who had an accident." Jack said closing the window. She dropped the match to the ground.
"Accident? The police ruled it a suicide." Dean told her.
"Man was grinning like a fool when he lit up and he was probably drunk." Jack said.
"Still doesn't explain people seeing a girl appear and disappear here. And the latest sightings." Dean said. Dean took out his Emf.
"I'll check this level for cold spots and catch up with you guys. It'll be quicker that way." Jack suggested.
"Alright. Sammy come on." Dean agreed. He took to the stairs slowly going over everything.
Jack made quick work with the temperature detector in the small space. She didn't expect to find anything there and didn't. She just wanted to be alone to take the stairs slowly favoring her bad leg again.
"Still being stubborn?" Sam startled her leaning over the railing. He smiled a little too smugly.
"Your gonna make it really hard to apologize to you aren't you?" Jack asked making her way up to where he was. She took a seat on the landing.
"Apologize?" Sam asked in surprise.
"Yes and I don't do that very often so you better shut up and let me get it out." Jack said. Sam's lips twitched upward and he took a seat next to her on the step. Jack studied him in silence cocking her head to the side.
"Damn." She said with a bolt of realization. She should've recognized what was going on with her.
"Is that your idea of an apology?" Sam asked.
"No." Jack said. She saw the old pain and weariness in his expression and did the math of mourning. She knew that look from seeing it in the mirror every year around April, when she was forced to remember that it was another year without a loved one. Jack looked away from Sam and cleared her throat stalling for time.
"When I'm backed into a corner in a fight, I was taught to find the soft spot and go in for the kill." Jack said, as always terrible at saying what needed to be said to make things okay. She wasn't looking at Sam but she could feel his confusion.
"Sometimes it comes through at other times too." Jack said knowing the explanation was crappy. She looked up hesitantly and was surprised to see a glimmer of understanding. Sam thought about this and the logic few people would understand and nodded silently. He got to his feet without a word and extended his hand to help Jack up.
"We cool then?" She asked looking at his outstretched hand.
"Yeah." Sam said offering a small smile to her. He added the odd explanation to his dictionary of Jack-ism for future reference. His Dean dictionary was useful for cross referencing. Jack took his hand and let him help her to her feet.
"You going to tell me why you don't want anyone checking out your leg?" Sam asked in a low voice as they caught up with Dean at the top of the lighthouse, where the giant bulb was housed. So far it was a no go.
"Nope." Jack said tensely.
"About time you showed up." Dean complained with a faux scowl.
"Dean, I don't think we're going to find anything." Sam said as he started to scan one side of the room, while Dean took the side looking outward toward the ocean. Jack took the area around the light.
Almost as soon as the words left his mouth he picked something up, a cold spot on the glass in an otherwise warm, almost hot, room. Then Dean's Emf reacted. Dean gave Sam his I told you so look.
"I got something here." Jack said making it a trifecta of Sam being proven wrong.
"I picked it up with the U.V." Jack said from behind the light in an area that the mid morning sun didn't touch.
Sam and Dean came around to see what she picked up. Sure enough, the dim outline of a handprint was shining under the U.V. light she held.
'Damn.' Sam thought clenching his fists.
"We should go see the records of deaths at or near this place." Dean said. "Must be something recent if there's no record of sightings before a few months back."
"Or maybe some jackass kids snuck in here and tried working some mojo they didn't know anything about and called someone here." Jack said.
"Wonderful, if that's it we might not find whoever the ghost is to burn its bones." Sam said bitterly.
"If that's the case, we'll purify the place like we did at our house." Dean told him.
"Whatever." Sam said starting for the stairs.
"This is close to when she died isn't it?" Jack whispered so her voice wouldn't carry.
Dean looked startled, he hadn't been aware of Sam telling her about Jessica.
"Yeah in about a week." Dean said. "We're close to where she was buried, only a few miles."
"You guys coming?" Sam called irritably from downstairs.
Dean made it down the stairs first with Jack lagging behind.
Dean and Sam were outside deciding what the next course of action should be when jack rejoined them.
"Sam you should stay here and ask Rodney about pranks the local kids might have played here, see if he noticed anything. I'll go see if any recent deaths occurred close by." Dean was saying.
"And Jack can check out the history of the place." Dean finished.
"You really think that a guy who doesn't notice an open window anyone can sneak into is going to know anything?" Sam asked disdainfully.
"Sam-" Dean started exasperated.
"Or do you think I'm too distracted to do any real work?" Sam demanded. He glared at Dean.
"I didn't say that, Sammy." Dean said defensively.
"I'll trade with you." Jack spoke up. Sam's gaze flicked to her, to her leg and he nodded.
"Fine." Sam said. Dean caught the look and eyed them suspiciously. Jack gave him an innocent look that he wasn't buying.
"There some reason for that?" Dean asked calmly not liking being kept out of the loop.
"The food." Jack said. She sashayed away from the men before Dean could grill her.
TBC……….
AN: A better chapter(i.e. longer) in a couple days when I'm not so blah. Thank you for all the pretty, pretty reviews, they make the crappy weather here seem not so crappy. Later folks.