Dean looked up at the old house. It looked like it should be being torn down, not being renovated. It was a two story house and had taken a good half an hour to find. The closest neighbours were over a mile away. It was dark looking even though it was day. It was almost as if the light didn't want to touch the house. The wood that made it was dark and rotting through and the ground around it had small clumps of yellow grass here and there. Not the plush lawns that the rest of the town seemed to posses.

The older hunter's previous happy mood seemed to dissipate somewhat as he started at the old house. It still had the yellow police tape around the front, reminding him that two lives had been stolen by something supernatural and he was going to stop it.

The Impala's doors opened with their unique squeaks as the brothers exited the vehicle. A cold breeze ran past them and they looked at each other. It was almost as if the breeze was hostile and warning them to stay away. The cool steal of the elder Winchester's 9mm pressed against his skin under his clothes. If John had taught his boys anything, it was to always be prepared.

They ducked under the police tape, picked the lock on the front door and were in the house in record time, grateful that house was deserted so there was no one around to see them breaking in. The inside of the house was similar to the outside; cold, old and rundown.

"Honey we're home." Dean muttered under his breath.

Sam smiled at his brother's lame joke. He hoped that one day Dean would have the chance to say that when entering his own home and then have someone in the house to answer him.

Not much light came through the dirty windows giving the house that extra gloomy, doomy look.

Dean pulled his homemade EMF meter and started scanning the front room. The little red lights stayed still. Sam followed his older brother through the house scanning with the infrared detector. The rooms on the top floor were just as 'homey' as the bottom floor.

Sam looked around the bedroom they were in. The wallpaper on the walls was torn and hanging off in patchy strips showing the dark, splintering walls underneath. The floor and the roof weren't much better and the boys had to be careful where they stepped as the floor looked like it was going to give out at any moment. In the far right corner there was a single bed. Well to be precise it was more like a single beds base, the wiry springs hanging out at odd angles and a lumpy single mattress thrown haphazardly over the base. The dirty window made sure that minimal light could enter the room and the air was thin and musty.

"Why the hell would someone buy a dump like this?" Sam asked, still keeping his eyes on the infrared's screen.

"It's the latest craze Sammy. Buying spirit infested crap-holes like this, making renovations, pissing off the spirits and then getting yours truly and his trusty sidekick Geek Boy to make all the nasties go away." Dean replied smugly.

"Har har. We don't even know the spirit or whatever it is, is here Dean." Sam said but as soon as he finished his sentence the lights on the EMF started going crazy.

Dean looked at the flashing EMF in his hand and then up at his brother before an invisible force pulled him off his feet and threw him into one of the walls. He fell to the ground, a searing pain in his back and trying to breath but not being able to because the wind had been knocked from his lungs on the bone jarring impact. He heard his brother call his name and then another loud thud that could only be his brother hitting a wall of his own.

"Son of a Bitch!" Dean muttered when he was finally able to breathe again. He looked over to his brother when he heard the young boy groan and saw him trying to stand, "You okay Sammy?" he asked struggling to get up himself. Dean could feel multiple stabbing pains in his back when he got to his feet and pulled his gun out from the waistband of his jeans.

Sam didn't get a chance to answer because a cold voice broke through the musty air with a chillingly clear quality that made the boys hair stand up all over their bodies.

"Get out!" it demanded bringing with it a drop in the temperature.

The boys looked at each other. Sam was leaning towards the idea of doing what the voice had said. Better to get out now, a little sore but still alive. Then at least they could do some more research and get a better idea of what they were dealing with. It was obviously powerful and what the hell kind of spirit had this much power in the daytime!

Dean on the other hand only took orders from one person, and he wasn't there right now, not some punk ass spirit, "You didn't ask nicely." He yelled out, knowing it could hear him and raising the gun a little higher.

Sam caught Dean's eye and shared a look that clearly said 'let-it-go-for-now', with a hint of his puppy dog eyes thrown in for good measure.

The older hunter shot a weary glance at his partner. Sam did have a point but when did a Winchester ever back down from a ghost? Dean didn't get to voice any of this because apparently they had kept the spirit waiting, and in doing so pissed it off. An invisible force grabbed Dean's left ankle in a vice like grip, pulled him off his feet and began dragging him out of the house. He flipped onto his back so he could at least see where he was going and what was holding him. He wasn't surprised to see 'nothing' pulling him along.

Dean gulped when he saw the stairs leading down to the bottom floor. Tensing his body in expectation of the impact, Dean lifted his head and shoulders off the ground so as not to hit his head on the way down. The first three stares felt like bullets hitting his whole body and excruciating pain tore through his back. The rest after that just felt like numb thuds until he hit the ground again. He could hear his brother behind him and hoped the kid was okay.

The front door flew open and the next thing Dean knew he was laying on the front lawn, panting and looking up at the sky. Or at least he thought it was the sky. He was still waiting for the world to stop spinning. The next thing after that Dean knew, Sam came flying into his sight and landed on top of him, knocking the wind out of his for the second time in the last ten minutes.

"Sam get your fat ass off me." He said giving his little brother a shove.

With a groan, the youngest Winchester rolled off his older brother. Dean took as deep a breath as his bruised ribs would allow and rolled onto his side to make it easier for his stiff body to stand. With the eyes of a hawk Dean looked over his little brother, checking for injuries. Sam had a small bump above his right eyebrow but that seemed to be about all.

Straightening to his full height to try and work the kinks out of his sore back and muscles, Dean held a hand out to his little brother who was in the process of getting up, "I guess that was the that bitch's way of asking nicely. You okay little brother?"

Sam took the offered hand and Dean easily pulled him to his feet.

"Yeah, you?" Sam asked looking over his brother. A small trail of blood running down the back of Dean's neck from under his hairline made itself known when the older boy turned to make for the car, "Dean you're bleeding!" Sam said grabbing Dean's arm to stop him and look at the wound.

"I am?" Dean turned back to the house, an angry look on his face and glared at the front door which had been slammed once both boys were on the front lawn. He reached around and felt a wet lump on the back of his head and drew back his fingers which had warm, sticky blood on them. He didn't remember hitting his head but then again it probably happened with his greeting with the wall or the stairs. Knowing he had though bought on a sharp headache behind his eyes.

Dean pulled the car keys from his pocket and tossed to Sam, "You drive." And with that Dean steeled himself stiffly into the passenger seat of the Impala. He leaned against the door, trying not to put to much pressure onto his sore back and closed his eyes. That stupid spirit was going down.

Even though the drive to find a hotel was quiet, the only sound being the throaty roar of the engine, Dean's headache was steadily growing worse. By the time they got to the hotel it felt like someone was trying to hack their way out of his head with a pickaxe.

Dean waited silently in the car while Sam got a room. He opened one bleary eye to glance at his watch. It was roughly 5.25pm from what he could tell. My, how time flies when your being tossed around a godforsaken house like a god damned pinball.

When they entered the room Dean trudged in and basically collapsed face first onto the bed closest the door.

Sam dropped his jacket and the keys no the table and looked at his brother. Dean hadn't said anything since he gave Sam the keys, which inside itself was not something he did all that often. He pulled the first aid kit from the duffle bag he had dragged in with him and sat next to Dean on the side of the bed.

The older Winchester didn't move or acknowledge his little brother. Sam wondered vaguely if Dean was sleeping or unconscious, "Dean. Wake up man." He said putting a hand on the older man's back. The older hunter hissed with pain and flinched away from the touch.

Sam lifted his hand and looked at his brother's back. There were small jagged holes cutting through his jacket. He carefully lifted Dean's jacket and shirts and winced in sympathy. Dean's back was covered with large, jagged splinters here and there, digging deeply into the flesh. Some were imbedded pretty deep from what Sam could tell and had drawn a fair amount of blood. No wonder he had been leaning against the door and not the seat.

The young hunter sifted through the first aid kit, pulled out some gauze, alcohol swabs and tweezers and set them on the bed next to him. His body was stiff at least it hadn't suffered as much damage as Dean's. His back didn't look like this and he didn't have a possible concussion. First thing was first though so Sam rolled Dean onto his back and then pulled him up against him so he could take off Dean's jacket and shirts to clean the wounds properly.

"What the hell Sammy?" Dean asked, his speech slurred from exhaustion, eyes still closed.

"I gotta fix your back. You must have hit that wall wrong or something big bro, you have a whole bunch of splinters in there." Sam said trying to make light of the situation and pulled another one of his brother's t-shirts over his head.

"There's a right way to hit a wall?" Dean mocked tiredly.

Sam laughed under his breath and laid Dean back down onto his stomach. His back looked a lot more grizzly without clothing covering it, "Here take these." He said handing his brother a few aspirin.

Dean mumbled an incoherent thanks under his breath, took the pills and then and relaxed into the bed. Screw the pain in his back and the throbbing in his head, he was going to sleep. Everything else could wait until later. Right now he just wanted to sleep. In fact that's just what he did. He slept through his little brother swabbing the cuts with the alcohol swabs, he slept through the painful extraction of the large splinters and he slept through the applying of the gauze.

The younger hunter checked Dean's head wound and after deciding that it was superficial and that his brother would be better after he woke, he covered the sleeping Dean with a light blanket. Sam laid on his own bed and let his body sink into the not half bad mattress, too tired to clean the cut on his head. Research could wait until later. He closed his eyes and was asleep within a matter of minutes.


Okay so were slowly getting there and don't worry, that's going to look like squat to what I have planned so please stick with it. Until then thanks to everyone who has been reading and a big thanks to SpookyClaire, Icewolfblackheart, PowerRangerFreeek, vincesbabe, KateCyrus and Tv Manic who all took the time to review. It makes it all worth it. Plenty of angst to come. But for now I have a killer headache so I'm off to bed. Later.

Mishk xXx