Author's note: I do not own anything having to do with Supernatural, only Leah belongs to me. Just a reminder SUPERNATURAL signifies a break in time. Please excuse any mistakes as I don't have a Beta but if anyone is interested send me a PM! As always please remember to ~Read and Review~
I know I have said it before but give HUGE props to Wondertogondor for all her amazing reviews that keep me writing! Check out her sisfic 'The Family Winchester'
Chapter 17
"I'm bored," I whined from the backseat of the Impala. I had already read my magazines cover to cover three times.
"I've got an idea," Dean smirked.
He grabbed a plastic spoon and stuck it in Sam's mouth as he slept.
"Wait," I whispered as I took out my cell phone and took a picture.
"Good?" Dean asked and as I nodded he turned up the music.
"A fire of unknown origin took my baby away," I sang along with the chorus as Dean played the drums on the steering wheel, successfully waking up a pissed off Sam.
"Ha-ha very funny," Sam scoffed as Dean turned the music back down.
"It was," I laughed as I gave Dean a high five.
"Guys we aren't kids anymore we aren't going to start that crap up again," Sam protested.
"Start what up?" Dean asked.
"That prank stuff, it's stupid and it always escalates," Sam replied.
"Aww, Sammy is scared of getting my Nair in his shampoo again," I teased causing Dean to start laughing again.
"Just remember you started it," Sam warned.
"Bring it on baldy," Dean smirked.
"And Leah is fair game," Sam added.
"When have I not been?" I asked remembering the time Sam super glued my cell phone shut.
"Half the stuff I wanted to do Dean wouldn't let me," Sam answered, "But if you two want to start this crap again then I'm not holding back."
I couldn't help but smile sure Sam and I played pranks on each other and Sam and Dean played pranks on each other but Dean never played one on me and I never played one on him, it was like some unwritten rule.
"Where are we anyway?" Sam asked.
"A few hours outside of Richardson," Dean answered.
"Texas is so boring," I complained.
"Give us the low down again," Dean said.
"Alright about a month or two ago a group of kids go poking around this local haunted house…" Sam started.
"Haunted by what?" Dean interrupted.
"Apparently a pretty misogynistic spirit, legend goes it takes girls and strings them up in the rafters. Anyway, this group of kids see this dead girl hanging in the cellar," Sam continued.
"Anybody ID the corpse?" I asked.
"Well that's the thing by the time the cops got there the body was gone, so cops are saying that the kids were just yanking chains," Sam replied.
"Maybe the cops are right," Dean said.
"Maybe but I read a couple of the kids first hand accounts, they seem pretty sincere," Sam reasoned.
"Where did you read these accounts?" Dean asked.
"Well I knew we were going to be passing through Texas so last night I surfed some…paranormal websites and I found one," Sam answered.
"What's it called 'I saw a ghost dot com'?" I chuckled.
"Hellhounds lair dot com," Sam reluctantly replied.
"Streaming right out of mommy's basement, I can't believe you even read those things," I remarked.
"Look we let dad take off, which was a mistake by the way, and now we don't know where the hell he is. So in the meantime we need to find ourselves something to hunt, there's no harm checking this thing out," Sam stated completely wiping the smile off my face.
"Sam, dad could have been seriously injured or killed if we stayed with him," I said.
"We could have looked out for each other like the three of us do but no you sent him away," Sam exclaimed.
"Do you not remember the last couple of months?" I yelled, "How about you being able to call 'Bloody Mary' into her mirror or the shapeshifter that looked like Dean that tried to kill me or the damn bugs that tried to kill us all!"
"Leah," Dean tried.
"No I'm not done. What about your freaky dreams and dragging us back home or you remember Max, yeah that was fun. Dean almost died, I was in the hospital, and a killer truck came after us. Oh but my favorite memory of the last couple months would have to be in the asylum when you fucking shot me! So please tell how dad sticking around would have changed all that because all I can see is that he could have been hurt or killed trying to save us."
Both of them were silent for a minute trying to figure out what to say.
"Whoa, wait did you say Sam shot you?" Dean asked.
"It was rock salt!" Sam proclaimed.
"You shot her?!" Dean exclaimed.
"So not the point right now," I sighed.
"You're right the point is we are here to work a job and that's what we are going to do," Sam stated.
"Ok…so where do we find these kids?" Dean asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Same place you always find kids in a place like this," Sam answered.
SUPERNATURAL
"Drop me off at the drug store while you two talk to the kids," I said.
"Why don't you want to come with us?" Sam asked.
"I need to pick up a few things," I replied.
"So we will go afterwards," Dean stated.
"I need tampons," I lied but it was fun watching both brothers squirm in their seats.
"We will call you when we are done," Dean said as he pulled up in front of the convenient store.
"See ya later," I said as I closed my door.
I went straight for the health and beauty section and picked up every shampoo, conditioner and body wash that was strawberry scented. Even though I was just trying to get a rise out of my brothers, the comment about the tampons made me realize I was a little later than usual so I picked up a pregnancy test just to be on the safe side and few other odds and ends I would need for our prank war. I paid for my items and was going to walk over to the drive-in diner where the boys would be but decided against it when I realized I would have to carry my four bags of stuff with me. I sat down on a bench outside the store and waited when my phone finally started to ring.
You took it with you when you left; these scars are just a trace. Now it wanders lost and wounded this heart that I misplaced.
"Joe's whore house you strip 'em we tip 'em," I answered seeing Dean's name come up on the caller ID.
"W-w-what?"
"What's up loser," I laughed clearly catching him off guard.
"Well the only thing that matched in the kids' stories is that some guy named Craig told them about it so we are going to go talk to him."
"Wait pick me up first."
"You done? I mean you got all your…girly…stuff."
"Yeah I'm done."
"Ok, be there in a minute," he said as he hung up the phone.
Doesn't anyone know how to say goodbye anymore, I thought as I closed my phone and when I looked up I saw the Impala pulling up in front of the store.
"What did you do buy the whole store?" Sam joked as I lugged my bags into the car.
SUPERNATURAL
"Can I help you with anything?" a guy asked as we walked into the music store, a very cute guy I might add.
"Yeah were looking for Craig," I replied as I took my hair down.
"That's me," he smiled.
"Well we're reporters with the Dallas morning news, I'm dean, and this is Sam and Leah."
"No way I'm a writer too, I write for my school's lit magazine," Craig said.
"Were doing an article on local hauntings and rumor has it you might know about one," Sam said.
"You mean the hell house?" Craig asked.
"That's the one," Dean nodded.
"I didn't think there was anything to the story."
"Can you tell us the story?" I questioned twirling my hair in my fingers.
"Stop with the flirting bullshit or I'm locking your ass in the car," Dean muttered in my ear.
"Well supposedly back in the '30's this farmer, Mordecai Murdock, used to live in the house with his six daughters. It was during the depression, his crops were failing, he didn't have enough money to feed his own children, so I guess that's when he went off the deep end."
"Six women in the same house I would have gone off the deep end too," Dean confessed.
"What do you mean?" I questioned ignoring Dean's comment.
"Well he figured it would be best if his girls died quick rather then starve to death so he attacked them. They screamed, begged for him to stop but he just strung them up one after another and then when it was all finished he turned around and hung himself. Now they say that his spirit is trapped in the house forever, stringing up any other girl that goes inside."
"Where did you hear all this?" Dean asked.
"My cousin Dana told me, I don't know where she heard it from. You got to realize I didn't believe this for a second," Craig answered.
"But now you do…" I said trying to figure out what changed his mind.
"I don't know what the hell to think. I'll tell you exactly what I told the police, that girl was real and she was dead. This was not a prank I swear to God I don't want to go anywhere near that house ever again."
"Thanks," Dean nodded as we walked away.
"Hey Leah," Craig called after us.
"Yeah," I answered walking back over to him.
"If you ever want to do an exclusive give me a call sometime," he winked.
"I don't think that's a good idea, you don't want to pass on your virus to him do you?" Sam asked coming to stand next to me.
"He's kidding, Craig I…" I fumbled over my words as he uneasily walked away.
"Sam one, Leah zero," Sam smiled.
"That was weak," I said shaking my head.
SUPERNATURAL
"Can't say I blame the kid," Sam said as we walked up to an old, run down house.
"Yeah so much for curb appeal," Dean agreed as he pulled out the EMF reader.
"You getting anything?" I asked.
"Yeah but it's not good I think that thing still has some juice to it," Dean said motioning to a transformer.
"Yeah that'll do it," Sam sighed.
"So let's go check it out," I stated and started walking towards the house but stopped when I realized they weren't following, "What's the problem?"
"Maybe you should wait outside," Sam mentioned.
"What why?" I asked.
"Because this thing goes after girls," Dean answered.
"Yeah to hang them up, I only have bad luck with knives remember?" I tried to joke, "Seriously I'll be fine, let's go."
"Famous last words," Dean mumbled as he walked past me to go in first.
On the walls were tons of symbols, candles laid out along the mantle and not a whole lot of furniture.
"Looks like old man Murdock was a bit of a tagger during his time," Dean commented.
"And after his time too," Sam said pointing to one of the symbols, "The reverse cross has been used by Satanists for centuries but this sigil of sulfur didn't show up in San Francisco until the '60's."
"Exactly why you never get laid," Dean stated.
"What about this one?" I asked pointing to another one, "I've seen it before but I can't remember where."
"No can't say that I have," Sam answered and I took my phone out to take a picture of it.
"It's paint and it's fresh," Dean commented scratching at it with his nail, "You know I hate to agree with authority figures of any kind but the cops might be right about this one."
"Or not," I whispered hearing a crashing noise from the other room.
Sam immediately grabbed onto my arm as if I was going to disappear in front of his eyes. Dean gave us a head nod to indicate he was ready and they busted through the kitchen door. I was ready to fight whatever was in there and was met with two guys with flashlights who about jumped out of their skin when they saw us.
"Cut!" one of them yelled, "It's just a couple of humans."
"What are you doing here?" the other one asked.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Dean asked and Sam finally let go of my arm.
"Uh we belong here…we are professionals," one replied.
"Professional what?" I questioned.
"P.I.'s …Paranormal Investigators," he smiled handing me a business card.
"You've got to be kidding me," Dean said.
"Ed Zedmore and Harry Spangler," Sam read off the card, "Hellhounds lair dot com, you guys run that website."
"Yup," Ed smiled.
"Well we're huge fans," Dean said sarcastically.
"We know who you guys are too," Ed stated.
"You do?" I questioned.
"Amateurs, looking for ghosts and cheap thrills," Ed replied.
"Yeah so if you don't mind we are trying to conduct a serious scientific investigation here," Harry said.
"Yeah what do you have so far?" Dean asked.
"Harry why don't you tell them about EMF," Ed said.
"EMF?" Sam asked scrunching his eyebrows forward.
"Electromagnetic Field, special entities can cause energy fluctuations that can be read by an EMF detector," Harry explained pulling out his EMF reader and showing it to us, "It's hot in here, I've got a 2.8."
"Have you guys ever actually seen a ghost before?" I asked trying not to bust out laughing.
"Once, we were investigating this old house and we saw a vase fall right off the table," Ed started.
"By itself," Harry added.
"Well we didn't actually see it but we heard it and something like that…it changes you," Ed finished.
"I think I get the picture we should go and let them get back to work," Dean said leading us out of the kitchen.
"You know I think I would pay money to have an actual ghost go after them," I laughed.
SUPERNATURAL
"Well I couldn't find a Mordecai but I did turn up a Martin Murdock who lived in that house in the '30's he did have children but only two of them…both boys and there is no record that he ever killed anyone," Sam filled us in as he came out of the library, "What about you?"
"Well those kids didn't really give us a good description of that dead girl but I did hit up the police station, no matching missing persons it's like she never existed," Dean answered as we walked to the car.
"We did our digging this one is a bust those geeks from last night probably made up the whole thing," I stated as I went to get in the car but Sam stopped me.
Dean got in, turned the car on and jazz music started blaring from speakers but when he went to turn it off the wipers started going and the blinkers turned on. Sam busted out laughing and got in the car.
"That's all you got that's weak, that's bush league," Dean sneered.
"Hey!" I exclaimed sliding in the backseat.
We got back to the motel and I took all my bags from the convenient store into the bathroom locking the door behind me. I took out the pregnancy test and peed on the stick first and decided to take a shower why I waited for it to be ready. I tried every shampoo, conditioner and body wash I had bought but I was getting frustrated when I couldn't find the same scent that I remembered from my mom. I got out of the shower and let out a breath I didn't know I was holding when I saw the test was negative. I threw it in the garbage, got dressed and shuffled my way back into the room.
"Why does it smell like a candy shop in here?" Dean asked as he walked in the room carrying a case of beer.
"Ask Leah she was in there the whole time you were gone," Sam replied.
"It's my only escape from you two," I said sardonically.
SUPERNATURAL
"What happened?" Dean asked as we went back to the haunted house and saw it surrounded with cop cars.
"Some poor girl hung herself in the house," a man answered.
"Suicide?" Sam asked.
"Yeah and she was a straight A student with a full ride to U.T. too," the man replied before walking away.
"So we definitely missed something," I declared.
We waited until dark so we could check the house out again. There was only one squad car left with one cop who was patrolling the outside.
"I guess the cops don't want anymore kids screwing around in there," Sam whispered as we hide behind some brush.
"Yeah but we still have to get in there," Dean whispered back as we heard the guys from the other night trying to sneak into the house.
"I've got an idea," I smirked and then yelled, "Who you going to call?"
"Ghostbusters," Dean whispered as the cop went running after Ed and Harry.
We made sure that the cop was out of sight before running into the house.
"I've seen that symbol before, it's killing me," I announced.
"Come on we don't have much time," Sam said.
We made our way down in the basement with our guns at the ready just in case.
"Hey Sam I dare you to take a swig of this," Dean said holding up a jar with God knows what in it but it was orange in color.
"What the hell would I do that for?" Sam asked.
"I double dare you," I replied until we heard a rustling noise over in the corner.
Dean put the jar down and we aimed our guns at a cabinet. Sam opened the cabinet to reveal a couple of rats at the bottom. I screamed and nearly knocked Dean over jumping on him to get away from them.
"I hate rats," I shivered as I climbed off of Dean.
"You rather it was a ghost?" Sam asked trying not to laugh.
"Most definitely," I answered.
"Leah!" Sam yelled and I turned around to see Mordecai standing behind me with an axe.
We all shot at him but nothing happened until he disappeared on his own.
"What the hell kind of spirit is immune to rock salt!" I yelled.
"I don't know, come on, come on, come on," Dean instructed trying to lead us back to the stairs when he got knocked over by the spirit.
"Dean!" I screamed as I ran over to him as Sam was fighting with the spirit.
"I'm fine but we have to get out of here," Dean replied as I helped him up.
Somehow Sam managed to get away and we ran as fast as we could up the stairs, out of the house and into Ed and Harry.
"Get that thing out of my face," I yelled throwing the camera Ed was holding to the floor as we continued to run past them.
I turned around to see the cop come back and arrest Ed and Harry.
SUPERNATURAL
"What the hell is this symbol it's bugging the hell out of me," I sighed as I sat on one of the beds drawing the symbol on the motel stationary.
"This whole damn job is bugging me," Dean stated, "I thought you said Murdock only went after chicks."
"It does," Sam replied.
"Well that explains why it went after you and Leah but why me?" Dean asked as he headed for the bathroom.
"Hilarious," Sam scoffed.
"Leah Marie Winchester!" Dean hollered.
"What?" I replied getting off the bed.
"What the fuck is that thing in the trash?!" Dean exclaimed.
Shit, I thought to myself I knew I forgot to do something. I meant to empty the trash after I was done in the bathroom but got distracted by the fact I couldn't find the right scent.
"What's going on?" Sam asked looking up from his laptop.
"Your sister is pregnant," Dean replied with anger lacing each word.
"I am not it was negative!" I protested.
"You thought you were pregnant?" Sam questioned.
"No Sam but I wanted to be sure," I answered.
"I'll be back," Dean stated as he walked to the door.
"Dean there's nothing to be mad about!" I argued but it was no use he had already slammed the motel room door.
"So much for you always being prepared," Sam sighed.
"I am! God would you let it go it's not a big deal," I exclaimed.
"What would you do if you actually were?" Sam asked.
"I don't know," I answered softly, "So what's going on with this case?"
"Don't change the subject."
"Sam there is no subject, fill me in what did you find."
"Well the legend also says that he hung himself but did you see those slit wrists? What's up with that? And the ax too, I mean ghosts are usually pretty strict following the same patterns over and over. I'm telling you the way the story goes…wait a minute," Sam said clicking a few things on the laptop.
"What?" I asked.
"Someone added a new post on the Hellhounds site. Listen to this; they say Mordecai Murdock was really a Satanist who chopped up his victims with an axe before slitting his own wrists. Now he's imprisoned in the house for eternity," Sam read.
"That explains why he didn't follow us out of the house," I said sitting down on the bed.
Dean came back a few minutes later and threw a paper bag at me.
"What's this?" I asked peeking into the bag and seeing five different brands of pregnancy tests.
"You aren't going anywhere until you pee on every damn stick and they are all negative," Dean replied.
"You're kidding me right?" I questioned.
"Go now," Dean growled pointing to the bathroom.
I sighed but got off the bed and did as instructed, waited the ten minutes and showed him they all said negative.
"Happy now?" I asked rolling my eyes.
"Thrilled," he scoffed.
"That asswipe," I mumbled realizing where I had seen the symbol before.
"Huh?" Sam asked.
"I think I know where this whole thing started."
SUPERNATURAL
"Hey Craig remember us?" I asked walking into the music store.
"I'm really not in the mood to answer any more of your questions," Craig replied.
"Don't worry we're just here to buy an album is all," I smiled.
"We are?" Sam asked.
"Give me a minute," I said flipping through the records.
"What are you doing?" Dean asked.
"You know I couldn't figure out what that symbol was and then I realized it doesn't mean anything," I said as I picked up the album I was looking for and walked over to Craig with both brothers following me, "it's the logo for Blue Oyster Cult. So tell me Craig you into B.O.C. or just scaring the hell out of people?"
"I should have known that," Dean mumbled.
"Now why don't you tell us about that house without lying through your ass this time," I said.
"Alright umm, my cousin Dana was on break from T.C.U. I don't we were just bored looking for something to do so I showed her this abandoned dump I found. We thought it would be funny if we made it look like it was haunted so we painted symbols on the walls, some from some albums some from Dana's theology textbooks. Then we found out this guy Murdock used to live there so we made up some story to go with that so they told people who told other people and then these two guys put it on their stupid website and it just took on a life of its own. I mean I thought it was funny at first but now that girl's dead. It was just a joke we made the whole thing up, we never meant for anyone to get hurt I swear."
"Alright," Dean sighed as we turned to leave.
"If none of it was real then how the hell do you explain Mordecai?" Sam asked.
SUPERNATURAL
When we got back to the motel Sam went to take a shower and once Dean heard the water running he took out some itching powder from his jacket and sprinkled it on Sam's boxer briefs.
"So I was thinking what if Mordecai is a Tulpa?" I yelled loud enough so Sam could hear me in the shower.
"Tulpa?" Sam asked.
"It's a Tibetan thought form, hurry up in there so we can go get something to eat," I answered.
SUPERNATURAL
"Dude what's your problem?" Dean asked noticing Sam walking funny.
I had to bite my lip so I wouldn't bust out laughing, I waited at the counter for our food and dropped a few crushed up Ex-Lax pills into Sam's coffee.
"Nothing I'm fine," Sam stated.
"Tell us more about these Tulpa's," Dean said as I distributed our food.
"So there was this incident in Tibet in 1915, a group of monks visualized a golem in their heads and they meditated on the thing so hard that they brought it to life. That was twenty monks; imagine what 10,000 web surfers could do. I mean Craig starts the story about Mordecai and it spreads, goes online now there are countless people all believing in the bastard."
"Ok so you're telling us that just because people believe in Mordecai he is real?" Dean asked.
"It's my best guess," I answered watching Sam drink his coffee.
"People believe in Santa Claus, how come I'm not getting hooked up every year?" Dean questioned.
"Because you're a bad person," Sam replied.
"And I'm guessing that one of the symbols that they drew is the Tibetan symbol that magnifies people's thoughts," I added.
"It would explain why it keeps changing," Sam agreed.
"Ok so why don't we just get this symbol off the wall and off the website," Dean suggested.
"It's not that simple once Tulpas are created they take on a life of their own," I answered.
"We can't kill an idea," Dean declared.
"No but I've got a plan," I smirked, "Come on."
"Where are we going?" Sam asked.
"We need to find a copy store," I answered.
"Man I think I'm allergic to our soap or something," Sam complained.
Dean and I couldn't help it anymore and busted out laughing as we walked away.
"You did this?! You're a freaking jerk!" Sam yelled after us.
"Oh Sammy you have no idea," I smiled.
SUPERNATURAL
Sam had a little bathroom issue so we dropped him off at the motel before Dean and I went to talk to Ed and Harry. I knocked on their trailer door and no one answered.
"Come on guys we know you are in there," Dean yelled and they finally opened the door.
"Look at that action figures in their original packaging," I laughed, "but seriously we need to talk."
"We are a little busy here," Ed said.
"We need you to shut down your website," Dean stated.
"Why should we trust you guys? You are the ones that made us spend a night in a holding cell," Harry exclaimed, "I had to pee in front of people!"
"We have an obligation to our fans…to the truth," Ed stated.
"Well I have an obligation to kick both of your asses," I promised.
"Leah forget it, I mean you could even tell them that bit about Mordecai but they aren't going to help us," Dean said putting a hand on my shoulder.
"Yeah you're right," I nodded and started to walk away.
"Wait, wait, wait what thing about Mordecai?" they asked following us.
"Don't do it Leah," Dean warned.
"If they agree to shut the website down…" I started.
"We will do it!" Harry interrupted.
"Look it's a pretty big deal and it wasn't easy to dig up so I need your word that you are going to shut everything down," I said.
"Promise," Ed announced.
"We got Mordecai's original death certificate from the '30's and according to the coroner the cause of death was a self inflicted gun shot wound. A .45 pistol and to this day he is terrified of them and they say that if you shoot him with these iron rounds you can kill the son of a bitch," I lied.
SUPERNATURAL
"If you pull that string one more time I'm going to kill you," Sam exclaimed as Dean kept pulling on a string above our table that made a little fisherman laugh.
"Well at least you're feeling better Sam," I smiled and pulled the string again earning a high five from Dean.
"You need more laughter in your life your way too tense," Dean stated.
"So did they post it yet?" I asked.
"Yeah how did you know they would?" Sam asked looking at the website.
"Please those two were so easy," I replied as I took a sip of my drink and started choking.
"You alright?" Dean asked as I caught my breath and I turned to see Sam laughing.
"What did you do?" I asked still coughing.
"Hot sauce," he answered between laughs.
"So how long do we have to wait for the story to take affect?" Dean asked once he knew I was alright.
"Probably night fall," I shrugged.
"Nice," Dean said picking his beer up and cheering with Sam and me unfortunately for him he couldn't put the beer back down, "You didn't!"
"Oh I did," Sam laughed holding up the bottle of super glue and pulled the string to make the fisherman laugh again.
SUPERNATURAL
We went back into the house with flashlights in one hand and our guns in the other.
"I don't think I have any skin left on my palm," Dean complained.
"I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole," I said looking around.
"So you think Mordecai is home?" Sam asked.
"I don't know," someone answered and I turned around to see Ed and Harry.
"What are you trying to do get yourselves killed, I almost shot you!" I exclaimed.
"We're just trying to get a book and movie deal," Ed replied with his hands up.
Just then Mordecai appeared and the three of us unloaded our guns on him and he disappeared for a minute but not for good like we had planned.
"Didn't you post that bullshit story I gave you?" I asked angrily.
"Of course we did," Ed answered.
"But then our server crashed," Harry added as they both turned and ran out of the house.
"Great so these don't work," I sighed tucking my gun in the small of my back, "Now what?"
"I have an idea," Dean said walking over to the counter, grabbing lighter fluid and doucing the floor with it.
"So what you're just going to burn the whole place down?" I asked as he pushed us out the door and lit a match setting the house on fire.
"Mordecai can't haunt a house if there is no house to haunt," Dean replied once we were a safe distance away.
"And what if the legend changes again and Mordecai is able to leave the house?" Sam asked.
"Then we will just have to come back," Dean answered.
"It kind of makes you wonder, of all the things we hunted how many existed just because people believed in them," I said as I watched the house burn.
"Truce?" Sam asked.
"Truce," Dean and I nodded.