Chapter Six
Athena forced her sister's head straight again and ran the brush back through her hair. Chattering away the whole time. Sam watched from the bed, slightly horrified and amazed at everything Autumn had to endure to keep a guy occupied for them. He thought jokingly of purchasing a little six inch award, but then couldn't decided of what it would say, 'Whore of the Year'? Athena pulled and tugged at her brown almost red locks, caressing them into curls and teasing them into place. She pinched at her sister's cheeks smattering on make-up that he didn't see a reason for. The way he saw it a little lip gloss and pull her hair out of her face and she would be fine, it was personality that mattered. But Curtis wasn't going to be with her long enough to know anything but the physical stuff.
"Athena, that's not a wig." Autumn ground between clenched teeth. Athena turned her sister's head again.
"Shut up and quit complaining. So, Hook man he was linked to the girl's necklace?" Athena ignored her sister's groans and squirming.
"Yea, Dean took it and burned it while Hook man tried to gut me." Athena laughed.
"Why do hunters do their job if they're just going to end up the poor victim to one of the things they hunt? Then if they were any good no one will find out they were a hunter anyway." Sam shrugged.
"Justice, adrenaline rush, revenge, can't live knowing the creatures are out there and that they aren't doing anything about it?" he suggested.
"You think?" Autumn tried to slouch down in her chair but Athena dragged her back up.
"Well, we hunt because of Dad's search for revenge, which has sort of led into our own little reasons through the years, but why do you fight?"
"Freedom." Autumn answered grabbing her sister's hand. "We fight to live freely away from the mainstream, which sister, include the fashion line. So, if I look like an absolute geek, oh well. I went to a barn last night, cool isn't the same out in the middle of nowhere." Sam wasn't sure if she meant they actually fought so they wouldn't have to deal with normality or if Autumn was looking for an escape. Either way Athena broke and let her sister retreat to her own room.
"Did you put your shovels in the Impala?" he asked. Athena sank down on the bed next to him.
"Yea, after breakfast, I did." she yawned. They were all restless. He hated having so much time to think. "I miss the impulse." she mumbled just clear enough for him to understand.
"What?" he knew what she meant but wanted to hear it from someone beside himself.
"Before we paired up with you guys, which I love by the way, everything was spur of the moment impulses. Now everything is planned. We have time to sit." Athena hopped up and pulled a sketch pad out of her book bag sitting on the vanity. She sat herself down on Autumn's vacated chair. "Don't move." she instructed pulling a pencil from her hair.
"So, I'm not the only one who has trouble waiting for the bad thing to happen?"
"Nope." It was a long while before she said anything else she just kept drawing on her paper. "You know it's like sitting in the hospital waiting room waiting on someone who just had some big complicated surgery. Before it was like… riding a horse and going real smooth then the horse panics. You instinctively reign them in and get the situation under control."
"You could quit." he offered.
"No, I couldn't. If I quit I have to go back to Mrs. Morton and the farm. I have to live seeing the articles in papers and getting e-mails from sites, I'm watching, about strange things going on. I have to manage to be normal and take over the family farm and illustrate Autumn's books."
"Would Autty quit with you?" he asked.
"Depends, if you'd let her stick with you guys, then no. Your dad has a few friends who would like to have a tag-a-long on a few of their hunts but maybe just enough to settle her." He sighed and leaned further into the bed.
"So, what's so horrible about your family?"
"Ever see 7th Heaven?" she asked. It was one of Jess' favorite shows so he'd seen it a few times.
"Yea." he answered wondering where she was going with this.
"My family is their opposite."
"You're mobsters?" she laughed.
"No, it just the everything is supposed to be to benefit the family, screw the individual. The family is to work to better the farm. The farm is to be farmed to feed, house, and protect the family. The family is supposed to be thankful for the farm and therefore spend a perfectly good Sunday morning in church."
"Is that really so bad?" he'd wished for a family like that as a child, and still failed to see all its flaws.
"No, not in itself. I love the farm, and church is bearable. The real issue, was the parents. Mrs. Morton had to control everything. I think if she could have made all our hearts beat at the same time she would have. She controlled her son to such a degree he's still dependent on her, that's why he lives next door with his wife and kids. It's sick and she tried to do us the same way."
"Don't worry. I'll be fine. You guys just get busy. Soon as your done stop and see me. Teenie you know the drill." Autumn stood next to her car. Her clothes today were much more relaxed than last night's skirt and revealing top.
"Yea, I know. HQ just called we have to hit the road as soon as possible new case. Bigger case." Athena droned. Autumn nodded.
"You have everything you need?" she was starting to worry more than they were.
"Yes, now go get this over with." Dean almost growled. Autumn snapped at him like a dog.
"Sammy, my dear, I think we may need to send them to separate kennels when we go on vacation." Athena teased. Their elders glared at them.
"Fine. Fine. I'm off. But" Dean cut her off.
"If we need you we'll call." Autumn took another look at them. Their bags were packed in their room just incase they had to get out of here quickly. She'd transferred her salt, and tank of gas to their car to assist with their salt and burn. There was nothing left for her to do so she slid into her car slammed the door making Dean wince. "Easy on the car, babe. Don't want to mess her up." Autumn stuck her tongue out at him as she started the engine. Then pulled away. "We wait half hour then I'm leaving. With you or without." Dean said before heading back into the inn.
"Kids, this is my new friend, Autumn." Curtis introduced her. There were only six or seven kids total. She'd expected more. "Is this going to be all of us he asked?" there were nods and murmurs but no solid answer. "Well then, go gear up, grab a bow, and lets get the party on the road."
The kids obeyed quickly. There was a bucket, with the safety gear, sitting next to a large crate, with the bows laying across the opening. Quivers had been placed in front of round hay bales every four feet, there was twenty feet for a shooting range. Not very big and not much skill needed but it worked. Each kid chose a partner and a station. There were only three bales so it was easy for the kids to break down. Curtis helped the first shooters square their shoulders and showed one little girl the proper way to hold her bow. Autumn watched them thinking about the time John had taught her and Athena archery. On his signal three arrows flew through the sky and except for one made their target, even if they didn't come very close to the bull's eye. She and Curtis both applauded their effort. They had six arrows left to go so Autumn went up to the kid who's arrow had fallen short.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"I'm Joni." the little girl tried to put her arrow in her bow but wasn't doing so well.
"Want some help there?" Joni looked a little nervous but handed over her equipment.
"Don't worry sweet heart I don't bite." Autumn teased. She squared herself off, slid the arrow into place. "Okay watch like this. When you pull the string back always pull it back to the same place, but until you find that place you'll have to test a bit. Autumn eased the string back down and waited Curtis' command then she pulled it back again right to her cheek and let it lose. She waited until the arrow hit the target before moving. "See? Just like that." The kids were all watching her now.
"You made a bull's eye!" Joni clapped excitedly. Autumn looked up she hadn't paid attention to where she'd hit just saw she'd hit and was happy with that.
"I see that." she smiled. "Now, you try Joni." she handed the bow back to Joni, and again on Curtis' signal the girl shot, this time she made it all the way to the target. Just off the bull's eye. "See how much better that works?" she asked. Giggling Joni nodded.
"It's much better." Autumn gave the girl a squeeze before going back to her spot behind the lines and watching. Curtis came to stand next to her.
"How did you do that?" he asked her blowing his whistle for the kids to shoot again.
"Do what?" she looked around to see what she'd done.
"Get Jon to hit the target. We've never gotten her to do that and she's been coming for years." Autumn shrugged.
"I had the same problem. But a," she paused trying to find the right word for John. "A very special person showed me a few tricks." Curtis raised his brow but didn't ask about the 'very special person' she doubted he wanted to know. Even though there wasn't anything particularly embarrassing or nasty about her past with John. He just simply meant a lot to her. He was her Yoda.
"So, maybe you'll be here and help her some more next week?" has asked. Autumn shrugged.
"Doubt it. We're wrapping up here, and should be out soon." he looked like a whipped puppy.
"Oh, so, yea. I need to switch the kids out." he went up to rearrange the kids.
"Why did you bring that dog?" Dean asked. Athena let John off his leash and walked around to the trunk. Sam handed her a shovel and a map of the property.
"We dig them both up, salt, and burn them, then we get out of here." Sam said. But still tucked a gun in the back of his pants.
"You're really paranoid, Sammy." Athena said stepping back and swinging the shovel over her shoulder.
"It's Sam." she rolled her eyes and grabbed a flashlight out of the trunk.
"Whatever you say, your highness. But to me, you'll always be little Sammy." she took off after her dog across the yard. Dean looked after her then to his brother.
"Nothing to say to that, smart ass?" Sam glared at his brother.
"Let's get this over with."
The pair got the rest of their supplies and followed after Athena. She'd already started digging. John laid just beyond the dirt piles at watched them. Every once in a while he'd stand up and stiff the air. They dug up the first brother and were half way through the second one when the dog shot off toward the house barking like mad. Neither of the boys had time to think before Athena had sprung out of the hole and was after the dog.
Back at the Webblers' Autumn froze and looked off toward the haunted house. She heard John barking. She'd know his bark anywhere. Her blood turned to ice and she let go the arrow she was about to shoot and it missed the target, completely over shooting it.
Athena pushed through the back door. It had been opened already and John had just gone in. He was still barking and showing no signs of slowing down. She chased him upstairs and into the master bedroom. The door shut behind her. She spun around and yanked on it. She was trapped. The door wouldn't open. She crossed the room to look out the window. Too high to jump, she'd never get John out it either. John went to the cold spot and started growling. He was practically foaming at the mouth in his attack on the cold spot. No one else was in here, that she could see. That didn't stop her heart from racing. She reached in her pocket and triumphantly pulled out salt packets. She started sprinkling them in front of the door and on the window sill. She might be stuck in the room alone, maybe not. But whatever wasn't going to get out or in.
"John." she was on the floor in front of the door and started crawling over to her dog. "John, baby, shhh. You're scaring me." the dog didn't stop but he eased into her arms. Let her hold him. "Johnny you have to be quiet. Just give me a second to think."
She forced herself up. No weapons, no nothing. She cast about there had to be something in the room that would be useful. Cast Iron! There was a fireplace in the room, there had to be a stoker or something for the fire. She ran to the fireplace but before she got there was slammed against the wall. That's when her new enemy showed itself. A woman in a white nightdress and cap stood on the ground in front of her.
"Intruder." the woman barged.
"Well, I can't deny that." Athena joked.
"Don't patronize me girl. You're a harlot." the fierce conviction in the spirit's voice struck a cord in Athena.
"I'm not a harlot!" Athena argued. There was not pain, but she knew it would come soon enough. She would push too hard and the spirit would push back harder.
"Right! What about that nice William boy?" Athena's heart suddenly burst with pain, in one sentence she'd been forced to relive all the pain of a relationship that had crashed and burned a year six months and twenty two days before.
"Will ran in the middle of a hunt. He left me." she closed her eyes trying to force away the memory.
"But you still love him, and you've got feelings for the boy on the other side of that door." Athena turned her head towards the door.
"Sammy! Sam! Can you hear me!?!" She screamed.
Sam could hear her, but she obviously couldn't hear him. He and Dean had been shouting at her since the door had slammed shut. Dean gave him instructions not to leave the door and to try and find a way in while he went back to the car. It scared the hell out of him to hear the fear in her voice. To be stuck here and not be able to help her.
"Sammy, I need you." he heard her plea again.
"You neeeeeed him?" a woman's voice moaned. "How badly do you need him?" He pounded his fists into the door. No sign of hearing him. He played with the handle again. There had to be a way in. John was going nuts inside.
"John!" he yelled. The dogs barking came closer. He was pressed against the door now, scratching at the floor boards at its base. "John, hush." the dog shut up immediately. Then so did the two voices inside.
"Sammy! You're here. Sammy, it's the mom. She's got me." Dean was barreling up the stairs then.
"Sam move!" The little hand guns they had had wouldn't be enough to blow the door away, quickly. The shot gun Dean now wielded would be. Sam ducked under a window at the end of the hall, completely out of the way. Dean aimed and fired. A huge hole had been blown in the door. "Holy shit!" Dean was already peering through the hole. "Sam, it's a woman." he said turning to his brother.
"It's the mom. We've got to go dig her up." Sam was heading for the stairs. Their shovels were back at the grave they'd been digging. He wasn't wasting time.
"They won't let you kill me." Athena ground out. Her blood was on fire, and her body ached now. It felt like someone was slowly pulling her in all different directions. The boys had blown a hole in the door and then left. She hadn't heard the shot just seen the hole, and Dean's face poking through it.
"They can't stop me." Pain erupted at her joints flowing through her appendages like lava. Athena bit back a scream. She wasn't going to let this woman the joy of seeing her pain. "I didn't let my sons get away with affairs, and I'm not letting you. Didn't your mother ever teach you morals?" a cruel smile played at her near transparent face. "I'm sorry, I forgot. You're an orphan aren't you? Your sister is immoral too. Better pray she don't set foot in here. Sleeping with your brother."
"Billy-Jack was our guardians son. No relation." The spirit laughed.
"Is a husband and wife not related the same as you and that boy?"
"NO!" Athena couldn't keep her voice level.
Autumn made her own phone ring and then told Curtis she had to go that something was wrong with her dog. It wasn't a lie either. Something wasn't right and John was all she knew about being involved in the not rightness. Curtis didn't question her just told her to go and not to worry about him. He was really the last thing on her mind as she burned rubber. The funny thing was, heading into impending doom as she was, the first thing on her mind was 'Dean's going to kill me when he finds out what I just did to those tires.'
Dean's trunk was open and his car was parked in front of the house. She heard her sister yelling upstairs. She couldn't make out words just her sister's voice in pain and fear. That was enough to make Autumn's thoughts scatter. She didn't bother to notice the flashlights bobbing around back where the Winchesters were digging up the body. Her whole attention went to her sister. She burst through the front door and tore upstairs. Next to the master bedroom door was a shot gun, she picked it up and tucked it under her arm. Who or whatever was torturing her sister was about to go to hell.
Athena's head sagged forward, her last sight before the black out was Autumn running in screaming like a mad woman, with a gun tucked into her shoulder. Too much too fast. The spirit didn't have time to register the new presence, Autumn fired. Rock salt smashed through the mother and she disappeared to regroup elsewhere. Athena fell to the floor and Autumn rushed to her side. John licked at the girl's face while her sister searched her for wounds.
Blood soaked her clothes. Autumn pushed away the thought of how angry their mother would be when she found out they were at the hospital instead of Thanksgiving dinner. Instead she sought out the exist for the blood the had pooled on the floor. There were several bruises but no open wounds. Autumn knew the amount of blood was dangerous but not lethal, Athena would be eating a lot of oranges and keeping a low profile, maybe a couple of days bed rest but nothing serious. Nothing that would stop either of the Daemons.
"Sis, you okay?" she asked. Athena didn't respond so she let lose a long string of curses before reigning herself in and speaking calm and soothingly to her sister. Recalling to the girl happier times, and reassuring her that nothing was going to happen to her. Whether Athena heard any of this she didn't know, but she did and it was keeping her from going nuts. She managed to tear her self from her sister long enough to pull John away. "Okay big boy, I need you to go stay with Sammy and Dean. They'll know the spirit is off right now if you show up." The dog licked her face smothering her in slobber before trotting away.
"How sweet." Autumn looked up. The spirit was back. "Too bad they won't know that your last thoughts were about them." The gun she'd brought in sprang into the air and floated before her threateningly. "I've not gotten to use one of these bad boys in a long time. I should like to savor the moment." Autumn couldn't believe this. The spirit was going to monologue. "You're scared and you should be. You've escaped death too many times before. People like you think they can just take away our right to be. It's not right. But worse is your moral standards. Sleeping with your own brother, then toying with that Curtis Webbler while you're so obviously vying for another man's affections. Then there's the fact that you protect those fags. Close friends of yours aren't they? You truly are a sick puppy." Autumn saw the trigger start to pull. Her heart pounded as she tried to find some way out of this. "Of all your sins though you're more worried about your father's sin. Killing himself. Now that sent him straight to hell. Wouldn't you like to ask for forgiveness now? No? Just as well."
Dean dropped the match in to the hole. Sam was ready to soak the bones again already. The two kept looking back at the house. John was at their feet now. Something wasn't right, he would never leave Athena in there like that. He grabbed for his cell to call Autumn…. No answer.
"Damn!" Sam looked at his brother.
"What?" Dean turned his phone toward Sam and pushed up the volume.
"You know me, probably left the cell in the car or something. Leave a message and I'll get back with you as soon as I feel like it. Kisses!" Autumn's voice came out of the speaker followed shortly by a tone.
"Where do you think she is?" Sam asked his brother. Despite the way her message made her sound her cell was never out of her reach.
"With Webbler." Dean started his march toward the house but didn't make it ten paces before he was stopped and pointing. "She's here!" Sam barely made out the form of Autumn's car before Dean was charging the house, Sam and John at his heels."
The shot fired. The whole house froze. Autumn seemed to move in slow motion as she flew to the ground. The spirit looked like a paper cut out on fire. Athena still lay unconscious on the floor. Nobody moved. Nobody thought. A split second pulled everything to a stand still. Then it sped back up. Dean and Sam were in the door. Autumn hit the floor and blood instantly seeped through her shirt onto the floor. John, the big loveable rottweiler sat down and started howling. The boys smacked the ground on their knees check for life in the girls. They weren't going to let them die so easy.