Disclaimer: The credit that goes to the idea with Gabi that I am about to use goes to… WinchestersGirl. Thanks so much for this idea! I told you I would give you credit! You are brilliant!
Chapter 12: The Regular
So our one day honeymoon like thing had to come to an end since there was work to be done. We went back to Sam and Gabi's room the next afternoon.
"Hey there Winchesters!" Gabi exclaimed. All of us laughed and we sat down.
"So where to now?" I asked.
"Looks like Oklahoma." Sam said. We all groaned.
"I hate that place." I muttered.
"Me too." Dean said.
"Never sounded like a fun place to visit." Gabi chimed in.
"Where in Oklahoma?" I asked Sam.
"Some town called Muskogee. It is a weird town all by itself, but stranger things have been happening lately, sounds like a haunted house or something like it." He said. I nodded and looked up at Dean.
"Back to work?" I questioned sadly. He kissed my cheek.
"Back to work." He answered.
So we packed our bags and headed out, leaving North Caroline behind.
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It would be at least a two day drive. So we tried to find out as much about this house as possible.
"Can't we just torch it?" Dean asked me as I stared at the screen on the lap top. My glasses were back and I sat cross legged in the front seat. This car had become my home.
"Wish we could, but I think there are people trapped in there." I told him.
"What?" The three said at the same time.
"Yeah, this school newspaper article says some pretty interesting stuff. Sure, it is in this years October edition, which is the Halloween one, and happens to be in a column named 'Spooky Gossip' but hey, you never know." I told them.
October was just around the corner. School newspapers always released these things a little early.
"What does it say?" Gabi asked.
"The Vandingham manor, built over a hundred years ago has been abandoned since the fire in 1910. The anniversaries of the deaths of Derrick and Elizabeth Vandingham and their children Susan and Greg comes upon us this month. The fire was an accident, started by a group of teenagers Halloween bonfire. It is legend that if anyone steps into the house during this month that they will never come out. The Vandingham family will lock them in the house for all eternity to be trapped there with them and steal their souls." I read.
"So you think this house is kidnapping people?" Gabi asked.
"No, I think the spirits inside of the house are. And if there are people in there we have to try and help them in case they haven't been killed." I told her.
"But if there was a fire shouldn't the house be burnt to ashes?" Dean asked. I shook my head.
"It is a huge house. Only the East Wing was burnt. The rest of it is actually marked off as a historical museum. But because of the legend and respects for the dead the close it during October." I said as I read other articles.
"So we need to find names of people who have went in there in the last couple of days, find people who know them, talk to them then go in the house, get them out and burn it all the way down?" Sam clarified.
"Precisely." I said.
"This doesn't sound easy." Gabi said skeptically.
"Nothing we do is easy Gabi, do you not remember Arizona?" I asked. She sighed.
"The doppelganger was easy." She huffed. I saw Sam grab her hand and kiss it.
"As long as we stick together we will be fine. We have been through worse then this." Dean said. Sam and I agreed.
I looked for more information on the people that had disappeared. It took a while but I found something.
"Got it, okay this girl Melanie and her boyfriend Jeff and a couple of his friends went in. She was with them too, but didn't go inside the house." I told them.
"How did you find that?" Sam asked.
"Another school newspaper. These things aren't easy to track down online." I told him. I looked for more people and found out it wasn't just curious teenagers who went into the house.
"Hey Gabi, maybe you should sit this case out…" I told her.
"Why?" She asked.
"Because… I don't think that you are ready…" I said, lying completely. Gabi was very smart and brave. She could do this, but the name I just saw on a list of disappearances made me worry if she could do this one.
"Annie! I don't need you to be my mother!" She screamed. I jammed my eyes shut.
"Gabi listen…" I tried. But she cut me off.
"No! I swear you treat me like I am ten sometimes! I am so sick of it! I can do this Annie, and if you don't think I can then I will just have to prove you wrong." She said angrily.
"Gabi, Jake was on the list of disappearances." I said quickly. The car went silent.
"Jake, the ex-boyfriend Jake from the picture?" Dean asked. I nodded.
He and Gabi were still friends even after they broke up. They were to close to not be. Sure he hadn't agreed with her way of doing things, but they had a pretty good relationship. I knew that if we found him that it would crush her. Because even if he was alive it wouldn't be a pretty sight.
"Remember, he was a history major. He was doing some investigating at the house a day or so ago. Then he went missing. So did his team." I told her quietly.
"How fast can you drive Dean?" She asked.
"Pretty damn fast but I am already going like thirty over the speed limit. I really don't want to get pulled over." He said. I laughed at him.
"Yeah and thirty over isn't going to get you pulled over?" I teased.
"Hey, I can out run the cops at this speed with out having a team on them on my ass. But if I go any faster they will have the freaking army chasing me or something." He said. I rolled my eyes and laughed at him.
"You never cease to entertain me." I said.
"And that is why you married me, correct?" He said smiling.
"Yep, absolutely." I joked.
"Ok love birds come on now. My friend is in deep trouble if we don't help him… I mean…" Her voice started to break and I could see the tears in her eyes.
"Gabi it will be ok…" Sam said as he pulled her closer. She relaxed a little in his arms and let the tears fall down her face.
As I looked at them I could have sworn underneath Sam's concern I saw a hint of jealousy.
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We got to Muskogee and immediately went to interview Melanie. She gave us some information and we headed for the house.
It was gigantic.
Dean and Sam started to walk in.
"Hold on now…" I said as I ran in front of them. "You two seem to forget that if you walk in there you aren't coming back out. And you don't have weapons or anything."
They looked at each other, shrugged, and walked back to the car. The four of us each picked a couple of things and put them in our back pack. But the one thing that was in all of our bags was a gun.
We looked at each other and sighed.
"Annie wait…" Dean said as he grabbed my arm and pulled me back. I looked up at him.
"Yeah?" I asked. He leaned down and kissed me passionately. "Be careful." He whispered.
"You too." I replied. He grabbed my hand and we walked in together. I looked behind me to see Gabi and Sam sharing a kiss to.
So we walked in, and the door shut and locked behind us.
"This is it…" Dean whispered in the dark room.
I reached into my bag and found a flashlight. I turned it on and the pitch black room illuminated a little. I shined it over to Dean to make sure he was ok, the I did the same the Sam and Gabi.
"Let's try and find something…" Gabi whispered. Then, we heard a pounding above us. I clung to Dean's hand, he did the same to mine in a death hold grip. We looked at each other then all walked upstairs. We found a door and it sounded like the pounding was coming from that room.
Dean banged on the door loudly.
"Anyone in here?" We heard people scream. Some in delight, other in terror. We all stepped back and Sam kicked down the door.
"Jake…" Gabi immediately noticed. I looked down and saw him.
The room had three teenagers, two boys and one girl. Then Jake's team of historical researchers which consisted of him, one other man and two women.
"Gabi Andrews?" Jake said hoarsely. "And Annie Delacour?"
"Winchester…" I whispered. This was the first time I had seen this guy in years.
"What are you two doing here?" He asked.
"Saving you." Gabi said as she helped him to his feet. Sam, Dean and I did the same with the others.
"Ok what do you all know?" Dean asked.
"It said on Halloween it is going to kill us, if we weren't already dead by then. That's in three weeks. So we wouldn't have food or water or anything… we have been in here for almost a week…" The teenage boy who I assumed was Jeff.
"Ok, first off what are everyone's names?" I asked.
Jeff, Emily, and Auston were the teenagers. Jake, Roger, Katherine and Jennifer were the others.
"Ok well I am Annie, this is Gabi, Sam and Dean and we are going to get you out of here." I told them. "But now we just need you to stay in here for a minute."
I walked out of the room and got my book out of my bag.
"Opening spells, opening spells…" I muttered. Finally I found one. I smiled and decided to test it on a hallway window.
"Break these change, unlock these locks, open this port and let us free.' I chanted.
The window creaked and opened. I sighed in relief. This was going to be easier then I thought. Thank God for magic.
But my relief didn't last. The window slammed shut and I heard a loud hissing.
"Witch!" It hissed. I felt a breeze around me and then a piercing scream.
I clutched my ears and fell to the ground. The book, which had fallen to the floor started to move away from me.
'No…' I thought. I crawled for it and pulled it safely into my arms. Once I did the noises and breeze stopped.
"Annie?" I heard Dean yell.
He came out of the room and found me on the floor.
"Oh my God what happened?" He asked as he sat down next to me. I was out of breath and panting.
"These spirits, they aren't giving up with out a fight." I said. I told him about the spell and how it worked for a minute. He had heard the rest.
I leaned my head against his chest and took deep breaths.
"Its ok… we are going to get out of this. We always do." He said as he ran his fingers through my hair. I nodded and closed my eyes.
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(Sam's POV)
I understood that Gabi wanted to help Jake. I understood that they were friends. When she introduced me she told him that I was her boyfriend. But ever since we found him she hadn't stopped talking to him and worrying over him. Sure he had been locked in this house for a week, but I couldn't help but be jealous. I mean they dated for like four or five years and now she wouldn't leave his side. And I felt bad for not caring if he was safe or not.
'Come on Sam, they are friends, pull it together. She would be way more worried about you.' I thought, trying to convince myself of it was another story. But for now I would just let it be and focus on my job.
That wasn't an easy thing to do.
She sat there, talking and laughing and crying at how much pain he was in. I even saw her kiss him! Ok so it was a light peck on the cheek but still! I wanted to scream, when realistically she wasn't doing anything wrong except trying to support an old friend and old lover. Ok thinking of him as that really didn't help.
I was not the jealous type. So why did I feel this way?
'Because you love her you idiot.' The voice in my head said.
The voice was right. But like I said, Gabi wasn't doing anything wrong. So why did I want to rip that guys head off?
I had been around Dean to long. We needed to separate for a while. I was starting to think like him.
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(Annie's POV)
Dean and I had stayed in the hallway to try and figure out what to do.
"The spell worked, but only for a minute. That's enough time to get a few people out at a time if they hurry." I told him.
"But then the spirits would sense it and get angry. You wouldn't make it out alive." He told me. I sighed.
"If my life is the only one at stake compared to ten others then I am ok with it." I said reluctantly. This did not make him happy. He grabbed my waist and turned me towards him.
"You are not going to do that." He said. I rolled my eyes.
"Dean there are innocent lives in there. Sure we have like three weeks but the possibility of us all surviving that long with out food, electricity, water and all that stuff is very unlikely. They have already been in there for a week. All we have is eight water bottles and some packages of M&M's. That isn't going to hold over very long. Plus we already gave four of those water bottles to those guys. If I have to do this I will." I told him.
"Annie stop it! How many times have you told me not to be a hero? How many times have I told you the same thing? What happened to the whole 'not losing you' wish huh? I mean I thought one of the main reasons we got married was to protect us." He said.
"No, it was to protect you. I am always going to be in danger." I said. He took a deep breath.
"Annie, I don't want to tell you what you can and can't do because that isn't me. I mean in the back of my mind I am screaming to tell you that there is no possible way that I will allow this to happen. But I know you, and you will do the exact opposite. But I just want to remind you of something. Four days ago we got married, you know the whole husband, wife thing. And you told me you refused to lose me. But if you let yourself die, that is exactly what you will be doing." He said sternly. My eyes were stinging with tears.
"I don't want to do it Dean." I whispered. "But I don't see any other way."
"There is always another way…" He said, his voice and his face had softened. I closed my eyes and let one tear fall down my face. Dean wiped it away and pulled me tightly into his arms.
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After I few minutes I flipped through my book again, trying to find something that would hold spirits back. The only thing I could find was a potion.
"Damnit, I don't have all of the stuff." I said as I buried my head into my hands. I dug through my bag, trying to find something.
I had brought some herbs and all that that was required to make a potion but I was missing one thing for this one… heat.
The potion had to boil and I had no way to do that.
'Wait…' I thought. I flipped through the book again and found it. A heating spell.
"I think I found it!" I exclaimed. Dean, Gabi and Sam ran out to me.
"What is it?" Gabi asked.
"A potion to hold off the spirits. I have everything, except a way to bowl it, but I found a spell for that. All we have to do is get to the door, throw the potion behind us and it will build some kind of invisible barrier between us and the spirits. But it is only temporary, so we need to hurry." I told them.
"How long will it take you to make the potion? If the spirits catch you they won't let you finish it." Sam pointed out.
"It doesn't have to set or anything. So no more then fifteen minutes to get everything mixed and say the spell." I told him.
"Well why don't we move everyone downstairs then and get them close to the door so we won't have to worry about getting down afterwards." Gabi suggested.
"Good idea lets go." Dean said. I grabbed my stuff and we helped the seven hostages down the stairs.
"Ok…" I said as I turned on my flashlight.
"Need any help?" Dean asked. I shook my head and went back to crushing the mistletoe. I added in rosemary and the water and other ingredience. Then before the heat, I saw the last one.
"Hey Dean, did you bring a knife?" I asked.
"Yeah why?" He replied.
"I need it." I told him. He was confused but handed it to me.
Without hesitation I made an incision on the palm of my hand.
"Annie, what the hell?" He asked as he jerked the knife away from me. I winced in pain and let my blood drop into the small glass bowl.
"Five drops of human blood." I told him. He sighed and nodded. I got all the drops out and mixed it all together.
"Flame of fire, heat of the sun, heat this potion without the assistance of one of us." I read. The potion bubbled in no time.
"Stand back!" I yelled. I could here the spirits starting to roam. I slammed the glass bowl onto the ground. The barrier wasn't exactly invisible, it was more like a clear blue. But as it was created it threw me backwards, luckily Sam caught me before I was slammed into a wall.
"Annie the rest…" Gabi pleaded.
"Break these change, unlock these locks, open this port and let us free." I chanted.
The door opened and we all ran out.
If I hadn't gotten these powers, I have no idea how we would have gotten out. But I really didn't care. No one died. And that was good enough for me.