Chapter 23
Live to Tell
(Season 1, episode 9, Home)
Missouri had agreed to join the trio at the house, believing there might be something to be done. She silently took the backseat right behind the driver's seat.
Sarah reached for the handle to the door of the backseat on the passenger side, but Sam stopped her, insisting that he take the back to sit along with Missouri. He had an endless list of questions that he believed only Missouri could answer, but he wanted to respect Dean's feelings and keep the conversation at a low volume. The drive wasn't going to be a long one, so Sam wanted to milk every second he had with this mysterious new, old friend.
Sarah reluctantly slid into the passenger seat of the '67 Chevy, feeling out of place. This was a place she only occupied when Sam wasn't in the car. This was his spot and it felt like a sin to take his place. She buckled her seatbelt and stared ahead, unsure of what to do. This whole day had been filled with untapped emotions from all parties, but she tried to ignore her own. Her eyes glanced at Dean as he gripped the steering wheel. His hand had begun to turn red from the pressure he was putting into his grasp. Sarah pushed aside her own issues and focused on him. She placed her hand on his shoulder, catching his attention. She did not say a word, but he relaxed and started the car.
Pulling up to that tall, haunted structure never became easier for Dean. Each time, he had to force himself to put the Impala in park and not hit the highway at 90 miles per hour. He would give just about anything to leave that place behind and never look back. If it wasn't for Sam, he would have hightailed it out of there while leaving voicemail after voicemail on their father's cell phone.
Sam and Missouri quickly exited the car, but Dean hesitated to move. He's hunted vampires, ghosts, werewolves, and other things a normal person could never dream of, but this wasn't a regular job. The past haunted him with every second.
Sarah exited the car and walked over to Dean's door. She slowly opened it, dragging out the ear shattering squeak that went along with it. She reached her hand out to him and whispered, "You can do it."
His eyes did not meet her's, but he pushed himself to take her hand. Dean slowly rose from his place in the car and shut the door behind him. He took a long second to analyze the house before finally peeling his eyes away. He looked down at the girl beside him, not releasing her hand. The two walked in unison, joining Missouri and Sam at the front steps.
Sam was the only one brave enough to knock on the door.
The door swung open and Jenny's breathing was heavy as she held her son in her arms. "Sam, Dean, Sarah, what are you doing here?"
"Hey, Jenny, um, this is our friend Missouri."
Dean finally found the courage to speak. "If it's not too much trouble, we were hoping to show her the house, for old time's sake."
Jenny adjusted her son in her arms, clearly uncomfortable with what was being asked of her. "You know, this isn't a good time. I'm kind of busy."
"Listen, Jenny, it's important." Suddenly, Missouri interrupted him with a smack to the back of the head that could be heard three houses down. His grip tightened on his friend's hand. "Ow."
"Give the poor girl a break. Can't you see she's upset? Forgive this boy he means well. He's just not the sharpest tool in the shed. But hear me out."
Jenny could not keep her eyes fixed on any one point. She tried her best to look anywhere besides the crew in front of her. "About what?"
"About this house."
"What are you talking about?"
"I think you know what I'm talking about. You think there's something in this house, something that wants to hurt your family. Am I mistaken?" Sarah squeezed Dean's hand as Missouri spoke. She could feel that he was tensing up at the possibility of not being allowed inside.
"Who are you?"
"We're people who can help, who can stop this thing, but you're gonna have to trust us just a little."
Jenny didn't answer at first, but agreed. "Only for a minute."
"We won't be long," Missouri promised.
Before the crew went upstairs, Dean finally released Sarah's hand. His eyes met hers for just a moment as a silent 'thank you'.
Missouri led the way through the house, immediately targeting one room. "If there's a dark energy around here, this room should be the center of it."
"Why?" questioned Sam.
"This used to be your nursery, Sam. This is where is all happened." Both Sam and Dean shifted uncomfortably as Missouri carried on.
Sarah turned on her EMF reader and followed behind Missouri. After about thirty seconds, it started going crazy. There was definitely some sort of presence in this house.
Missouri was the first to speak. "I don't know if you boys should be disappointed or relieved, but this ain't the thing that took your mom."
Sam's voice hinted at anger. "Are you sure? How do you know?"
"It isn't the same energy I felt the last time I was here. It's something different."
Dean was disappointed and concerned. "What is it?"
Missouri opened the closet door. "Not it... them. There's more than one spirit in this place."
"What are they doing here?"
"They're here because of what happened to your family. You see, all those years ago, real evil came to you. It walked this house. That kind of evil leaves wounds, and sometimes wounds get infected. This place is a magnet for paranormal energy. It's attracted a poltergeist, a nasty one, and it won't rest until Jenny and her babies are dead."
Sam's mind had already begun calculating their next move. "You said there was more than one spirit."
"There is. I just can't quite make out the second one."
Dean brought himself out of shock and started getting on Sam's level. "Well, one thing's for damn sure, nobody's dying in this house ever again. So whatever is here, how do we stop it?"
"I do have an idea. We need to go back to my house." Missouri didn't say much after that. Instead, she bid Jenny a farewell and rushed the trio back to her home. She quickly grabbed a long list of ingredients and told Dean and Sarah to mix them in the proper order.
Dean and Sarah sat at Missouri's dining room table and they followed the list she gave them. "So what is all this stuff anyway?" Dean asked.
"Angelica root, van van oil, crossroad dirt, a few other odds and ends."
"What are we supposed to do with it?"
"We're gonna put them inside the walls in the north, south, east, west corners on each floor of the house."
"We're gonna be punching holes in the drywall, Jenny's gonna love that."
Missouri looked up from her seat at the table. "She'll live."
Sam stood uneasily at the end. "And this will destroy the spirits?"
"It should. It should purify the house completely. We'll each take a floor, but we work fast."
Dean sniffed the brown powder on his finger. The sweet smell enticed him to give it a try, but his face bunched up in disgust when the bitter taste hit the tip of his tongue.
Sarah chuckled and mouthed a silent "Really?" in his direction.
He tried to hide his embarrassment and pointed to Missouri, signaling Sarah to pay attention. I am an idiot.
"Once the spirits realize what we're up to, things are gonna get bad."
Sarah picked up ingredients and mixed them together, while allowing her mind to wonder. She thought about Sam and Dean and the pain they must have been going through revisting the place that took their mother from them. She questioned Missouri, but not too much. There was something she wasn't letting on, but she didn't want Missouri to know what she was thinking. She then thought about her dad, how wrong he was about Sam and Dean and how wrong he was about her judgment. He never trusted her, not after-
"Sarah, can I speak with you in the kitchen?" Missouri pulled her from her work and her dark thoughts.
"Um, yeah. Yeah, sure." She placed her tools on the table and stood up from her seat.
Concern washed over Dean's face. "Is there something you need from us?"
"No, you stay here and keep mixing. We're gonna need a lot of that stuff. This'll just take a second." Missouri guided Sarah into the kitchen and shut the door behind them.
Sarah walked to the sink and glanced out the window.
"You need someone to talk to, honey."
"What?"
"Sam and Dean are fine. They're tough boys. You don't need to keep worrying about them, not now. This is really hard for Dean, but not so much Sam. They have each other. You need to worry about yourself. I know things haven't been great with your mom and dad and one day they might get better if you let it. Just because of what happened-"
Sarah cut her off and panic struck her voice. "Don't. Don't bring it up. Please. Not now."
Missouri was shocked. "They don't know. That's why you walked away to talk to your dad."
"I don't want them to know. And you don't have the right to tell them. I don't know who you think you are, but what happened in the past stays in the past. This conversation is over." Sarah tried to walk past, but Missouri stopped her.
"Trust me. These boys can help you. You're all lost souls who need each other. Just consider telling them."
Sarah didn't respond and continued to walk while holding in a burst of emotions. She pushed the door opened.
"Oh and Sarah, you might want to answer that."
Her phone began to ring. She pulled it from her pocket and read the name. Dad. She was frozen, unsure of what to do.
Dean placed his crossroad dirt on the table and stood from his seat. "Sarah?"
Her voice was barely audible. "I... I have to go outside for a second." She did not allow Dean to get in another word and ran out the front door.
He was about to chase after her, but Missouri stopped him. "She needs to handle this one on her own. It'll all make sense later."
Dean's voice was deep with anger, wanting to come to his friend's defense. "What did you say to her? She's a flight risk! Anything can make her take off!"
Sam stayed in the same place at the end of the table. "Dean, just listen to her. If Sarah wants to tell us, she will. Right now, we have bigger issues."
He knew his brother was right, but something still felt off. Dean sat back down, but he kept his eye on the door.
Sarah sat on the front porch step as her phone continued to ring. She had already let it go to voicemail once. If she were to do so again, her dad would be on the next flight to Lawrence. She reluctantly opened the flip phone and hit the green button. "Hi, Dad."
His voice cracked as he desperately asked, "Why didn't you answer the first time? Are you alright? Missouri let it slip that you were there with them."
"She called you?"
"I called her when you asked about the Winchesters. What are you doing in Lawrence? That place is cursed and those boys are even worse."
"Did you call to tell me something or just burate me some more? Because if that's that case, I'm hanging up. I'm working a case and don't have time for your overprotective bullcrap."
Before her father could speak, her mother's voice came through the phone. "Sarah, honey. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Mom. Just starting to get a little pissed off."
"We're just trying to make sure you're okay. You know how we feel about the Winchesters. They're dangerous."
"You guys don't even know them. Sam and Dean are my friends and I'm not going to keep doing this. Goodbye."
"Wait, Sarah, don't hang up. I had a feeling you were going to say that." Her mother took a deep breath. "John Winchester is alive."
"What? How do you know that?"
"After your father got off the phone with you, we made a couple calls. People have seen him here and there. He's... not right, Sarah."
"What do you mean?"
She ignored the question. "After getting the runaround from hunters from all over the country, I pulled out some of our old hunting stuff, including the phonebook."
This book was a leatherbound, tear and bloodstained disaster that had been passed down in the family for generations. It contained every known number for every hunter the Greenely family came across. Many hunters were resistant to the notion of leaving their phone number in a creepy old book, but the Greenely's never took 'no' for an answer.
"John has several numbers listed in this book. We called them all and they went straight to voicemail, except for one. John answered on the first ring."
"You got ahold of him?"
"We didn't talk long, but he knows that you're with his sons, but didn't seem to care. He's convinced he's onto something big regarding Mary's death... big and dangerous. He told me to tell you to stop looking for him. He doesn't want to be found and he wants his sons safe. Then he hung up."
Sarah was apprehensive of the information her mother so willingly fed to her. "Why does it sound like you're lying to me again to get me to stop hunting?"
"Sarah, does it sound like I'm lying? John does not want to be found so stop looking. If you care about Sam and Dean at all, you would stop them from looking, too. When John wants to be found, he will contact them. For now, just go on living your lives, whatever that entails."
"You guys don't know Sam and Dean. They're not going to stop and neither am I. They deserve to know what's going on. Thank you for reaching out and helping, but I'm going to take it from here."
Panic struck her mother's voice. "Sarah, I don't think you are really listening-"
"I am. It's dangerous. I get it. But if it is as bad as you are making it out to be, then if the three of us don't help, more people will die. That's what this job was about, remember?"
Her mother sighed. "I remember."
"Then you and Dad have to trust me. Please. I have to do this."
After a brief pause, her mother responded. "I trust you."
This was not enough for Sarah to move on. "I want to hear Dad say it."
There was a shuffle on the other end of the line.
With a heavy sigh of hesitation, her father finally answered. "I've always trusted you, baby. It's them I don't trust."
"Well, I trust them and that's good enough for me." Sarah gently closed the phone, clutching it tightly as she sat in silence. She debated with herself on whether or not she should share the information her mother just gave to her.
The door cautiously opened behind her and Dean peaked his head out. "Is everything okay?"
She instantly put on a fake smile, something Dean normally saw right through. "Yeah, everything's great. Let's get back to work."
A/N: This chapter was named after Live to Tell by Madonna.
