September 2009
Saturday
"It is 6:00 in the morning," I say tiredly, dressed in a blue tank top and plaid pajama pants, "When you said morning I thought you meant 8 or 9, not 6:00 in the freaking morning." I open the door and welcome Sam and Dean into the house, once they're both inside, I close and lock the door.
"We actually got in at around midnight last night, Dean wanted to come over to your house right away." Sam says, looking around the living room.
"Yea….Midnight is a bit early," I agree, "but so is six on a weekend!"
"Where's Ember?" Dean asks, using her human name, that is the name she uses most often so I can't fault him for it.
"She's in the library, you can come with me if you want." I say and start walking into the kitchen, both Sam and Dean follow. I open a door in the kitchen, it's spelled so that people don't notice it and even if someone noticed it, it just looks like a closet for cleaning supplies. I gesture Sam and Dean through the door and out into the library, then I close the door behind me.
"How is this hiding in your house," Sam whispers, clearly impressed. The library is filled with books from all over and every time period. Most of them aren't even in english and the ones that are in english are usually in old english. Of course considering this is Em's and my library there are more than a few fiction books in normal, 21st century english. "There's no way this is part of your house."
"Technically no," I respond, leading the boys towards the reading nook, filled with comfortable armchairs and couches and covered in so many carpets you could sleep on the floor and have it feel like a five star hotel. "It's not part of the house per say, the door you went through is a portal. This library is somewhere else. 100 feet under the lava of a volcano somewhere in Hawaii I think. I don't really remember."
"So basically don't go outside." Dean jokes.
"You can't" I say, walking past a towering bookshelf full of books written with weird symbols. Em said she would teach me to read the language once I'm immortal. "As said before the library isn't technically in the house but the door you went through is the only way in or out, so it's connected to the house just not in it."
"How long has this place been here?" Sam asks.
"For at least a few hundred years, I don't know exactly." I say as I step into the reading nook, "The people who live near the volcano used to worship Em as their fire goddess."
"Hey Jaz," Em cuts in, looking up from her book, "What are you doing here so early?"
"The Winchesters decided that 6 in the morning was an appropriate time to hunt ghosts." I reply, plopping down onto the floor next to Em's chair.
"You know 100% that it's a ghost?" Dean asks
"Yep." I reply, popping the p, "checked with an EMF detector and everything."
"Since when do you have an EMF detector?" Sam asks, sitting down on one of the many couches in the reading nook.
"I don't," I answer leaning against the side of the armchair, "my friend Lia does though, her cousins are hunters. Dean sits down on the couch next to Sam and opens his mouth like he's about to ask a question but my brain finally wakes up and I start talking, "You can't tell Lia that I'm anything but a normal human who happened to have a run in with a few demons when I was 11."
"Ok….." Dean says in a tone that showed his complete confusion. "How did you find out that your friend knows hunters?"
"Oh, just a casual run in with a demon, no big deal, I threw holy water at it and Lia exorcised it." I reply.
"How many of these 'casual run ins' have you had?" Sam asks.
"More than normal," I answer, "but nothing I can't deal with."
"It's probably because the apocalypse started," Dean adds sharing a look with Sam.
"I'm sorry, WHAT?!" I shout, "The apocalypse. As in destroy the world apocalypse, has started."
"Yes," Em cuts in, putting her book down onto the side table next to the table, "That's why the numbers of attacks have increased, they're trying to kidnap you to convince me to work for them."
"And you just decided not to tell me?" I ask, annoyed and hurt that she wouldn't tell me.
"I didn't want to worry you, the Winchesters have refused to be the vessels for Michael and Lucifer, they won't hold out forever but you're 15, there's only 6 more years until you're immortal and then you'll be safe." Em says.
"Ok, I'm going to need you to explain all that again….but slower." I didn't understand a word that Em just said, vessels? Michael and Lucifer? What the heck is going on here.
"Oh, you don't know about any of that do you." Sam says "So Lucifer was released from his cage…."
"And the winged dick Michael has decided to fight him and destroy half the world." Dean interrupts, cutting Sam off.
"Great," I say sarcastically, "So now that I know all of that, ghost? Hunt? People dying?"
"Right," Sam says, "So who's died?"
"Well a lot of people," I say, standing up, "But most recently? A friend of mine, Roland Green."
"I'm sorry," Sam says in a sincere voice, "Do you know if he had any enemies?"
"Well, I mean, we are in high school, but anyone who would want to kill him? No." I reply, "Come on, I saved the newspaper clippings after a few of them happened, everyone's thinking it's a serial killer or something." We walk out of the reading nook, I hear Em pop away probably to do whatever she has to do as fire. I lead them back into the kitchen and tell them to sit down at the counter. Then I run upstairs and grab a binder full of newspaper clippings from my dresser. I don't actually keep any clothes in it though, that's what my closet is for. Once I have it I quickly put on some jeans and a t-shirt, printed on it in glow-in-the-dark letters is Star Wars. Then instead of running downstairs I pop, landing on the other side of the counter from Sam and Dean.
"So you can teleport now." Dean says, breaking the silence as I take out the newspaper articles that I saved.
"Yup," I reply, pulling the last of the articles out of the binder. "Let's research!"
"Awesome," Dean says, in a clearly sarcastic voice. We research until 7 p.m. but we can't find a connection between any of the victims, except that the first two victims went to the same church and victim 5 and Roland were both gay. Then I hear the ringtone that I assigned to Lia from my room.
"One second, I'll be right back," I say, popping upstairs and grabbing my phone from my desk, unplugging it in the process. Then I answer the phone.
"Jaz, it's Lia, we have a problem."
"What is it? What happened?"
"...I think the ghost is coming for me next…."
"How do you know?"
"Because….it's here, I'm standing in a circle of salt but…."
"We'll be right over, Sam and Dean got here this morning, just hold on for a few minutes." I hang up the phone and quickly pop downstairs, phone still in hand, "We have to go."
"Whoa," Dean says, standing up, "slow down, where are we going?"
"My friend, Lia, the ghost is at her house, she needs our help!"
"Are her parents there?" Sam asks, also standing up.
"No, they do date nights on saturdays, come on! We have to hurry!" I stuff my phone into my pocket and grab my keys from the keystand by the door. Sam and Dean hurry outside after hearing my explanation and Dean starts up his car, I open the door to the backseat and climb in, closing the door behind me. Sam climbs into the front and Dean starts driving.
"Where are we going?" Dean asks, driving down the street.
"443, Diamond Drive," I reply, fiddling with one of the many bracelets on my wrists.
"Alright," Dean says in conformation then quickly speeds down the road to Lia's house, passing the speed limit by a good 10 miles. We stop at Lia's house and I jump out of the car, Sam and Dean get out of the car and run over to the trunk, revealing their secret cache of weapons. They grab two shotguns then run up the steps of the house, I follow closely behind. The door is locked but Dean slams it open.
"Jasmine!" I hear Lia shout from her bedroom, "I'm up here!" We rush upstairs and I quickly open the door to her room, revealing Lia standing in a circle of salt, the window is open and an open bottle of light green nail polish sits on her desk, she was clearly doing her nails before she realized a ghost was trying to kill her. The lights are flickering wildly and the curtains by the window are blowing in a nonexistent wind. Suddenly the ghost appears right next to the salt line. The ghost has short white hair and a long white beard, his face is full of wrinkles and around his neck is a small wooden cross on a golden chain. The ghost looks familiar but I can't place where I've seen him. Sam quickly shoots at the ghost making it disappear, the ghost, clearly not expecting any resistance has a shocked look on its face. After the ghost disappears the curtains stop blowing and the lights go back to normal.
"Huh," Sam says, still holding the shotgun, "usually ghosts don't just leave."
"Did that ghost look familiar to anyone else?" Lia asks, still clearly shaken.
"Yea, it looked a lot like…." I say, trailing off as I remember a dim memory of a face looking out of a window, staring daggers at Roland.
"Mr. Benson!" We shout together, surprising Sam and Dean.
"Who?" They ask together, clearly confused.
"He was this old man," I answer, "Apparently he was SUPER homophobic, Philip had a run in with Mr. Benson and he told Philip off for 'choosing to be gay', he was also SUPER religious." I say, adding air quotes to the 'choosing to be gay' part.
"Do you know where he's buried?" Sam asks.
"Well there's only one cemetary in town," Lia answers.
"Sacred Hill Cemetery," I say, interrupting Lia, "We should hurry,"
"You are not coming with us." Dean says.
"Yes, I am," I argue, this ghost killed one of my best friends, I want to see it burn.
"If you come you are staying in the car," Sam says, settling the fight.
"Alright," I reply, then turn to Lia, "Stay in the circle until I call you."
"I know," Lia says in an exasperated tone, "I'm not stupid, call me when you burn the body."
"Will do," Dean says then starts walking out of the room, Sam follows closely behind. I smile at Lia then run to catch up with Sam and Dean. We all climb back into the car. I don't know what type it is or anything but it's a black car. We drive down the rode, then Sam asks:
"Where is this cemetery?"
"It's right next to Sacred Hill Church, which is on Barrow Road, that's really the only two things there."
"Great," Dean interrupts, "How do we get there?"
"Turn right," I say as we get close to the turn off to Barrow Road. Dean turns right onto Barrow Road and we drive past the church. We get to the cemetery and Dean parks in the parking lot, Dean and Sam hop out of the car but not before Sam reminds me to stay in the car, no matter what. I watch them walk out into the cemetery with gasoline, salt and I'm assuming some matches. Once they're out of sight the air in the car grows cold, Dean had left the keys in with strict instructions not to touch them, because the keys are still in the heat and lights are still on. It shouldn't be getting cold, then the lights flicker. I stifle a scream, the lights keep flickering and I frantically dig around in the seats for salt, Sam and Dean are hunters! How is there not at least ONE salt grain in the entire car, I climb into the front as I see out of the corner of my eye that the ghost of Mr. Benson has materialized outside the car, I rifle through the seats and side pockets, one grain of salt, that's all I need! I look under the driver's seat and see a clear, pastic, baggie, I pull it out and inside is salt! Perfect! The car starts to back up and I quickly open the baggie and dump a pile of salt onto my hand. I've only tried this trick a few times and even then only with things that would set fire normally, hopefully it works, otherwise I'm screwed. I drop the baggie onto the floor of the car and close my fingers around the salt in my hand, then I push. A short ring of fire suddenly appears out of thin air and surrounds the car, leaving a foot of space between the car and the ring of fire on all sides. Dean would kill me if I hurt his car. Now I just have to hope. If the fire isn't salt-infused I'm going to die and there isn't anything I can do. If the fire is salt-infused I should be safe. The car stops moving. Thank everything. The ghost starts moving forward and circles the fire line twice, then tries to cross it, just as it touches the line it bursts into flames, but not from the outside, from the inside. The ghost turns into ash and disappears. I lower the fire line even more so that it just looks like a glowing line against the ground. Sam and Dean must have gotten the bones. Salt doesn't do that to a ghost. I wait a few minutes and Sam and Dean come back into my field of view. I quickly pour the salt back into the baggie and extinguish the fire line. Then I seal the baggie back up and shove it back under the seat. I crawl back into the backseat and open the door, letting myself out. I step onto the asphalt and wait until they get close to the car, once they do I begin talking.
"So...the ghost found me!" I say, faking cheerfulness.
"What?" Sam asks, clearly worried, "Are you alright?"
"Yea, I'm fine," I answer, "I can do this thing...anyway, you two are hunters, how is the only salt you have in the front of your car under the driver's seat?"
"You keep salt in the front seat?" Sam asks, obviously not knowing about the salt stash.
"Yea, ever since that ghost car," Dean replies.
"The what?" I say, concerned for the safety of the world if there are ghost cars.
"Nevermind," Dean says, pulling open the front door on the car, "Let's get ready to head out Sam, we can drop Jasmine off at her house first, then get going." I hop back into the backseat and Sam climbs into the passenger seat, then Dean takes off down the road. After a few minutes we pull up at my house and before I have the chance to get out of the car, Em pops into the car, next to me.
"Where were you?" She asks with her, 'I look like I'm angry but I'm actually super concerned for you' face.
"Well," I start, "Lia called in a panic and said the ghost was at her house so we drove down there and drove it off. We would have just gone home after that but Lia and I recognized him as Mr. Benson,"
"The super religious man?" Em asks.
"That's the one," I reply, "Anyway there's only one cemetary in town so we drove down there and Sam and Dean made me stay in the car while they burned the body."
"Did you stay in the car?" Em asks, she clearly knows me well.
"Of course!" I reply, I didn't leave the car, a ghost attacked me, but Em doesn't need to know that yet.
"Sammy and I should get going," Dean says, interrupting the conversation that Em and I are having.
"It's late," Em says, "I insist that you stay the night,"
"Come on Dean, it can't hurt." Sam says, trying to convince Dean.
"Well I guess it wouldn't hurt," Dean says, clearly not convinced, I wonder why?
"Great," Em says in an excited voice, "We have two guest rooms, I'll get you two settled, Jaz you should go to bed."
"Alright Em," I reply then pop out of the car and into my room. I take my phone out of the pocket of my jeans and set it on my desk then plug it in. As I open the doors of my closet to get dressed I hear the front door open and three sets of feet going up the stairs. Then I hear Em leading the boys to their separate rooms. I quickly pull off my shirt and toss it into the laundry basket then I looked for a tank top to wear to sleep, I grab a hot pink one out of the drawer in my closet and pull it on. Then I pull off my jeans and grab some grey sweatpants off a hanger and pull them up. After I'm dressed for bed, I walk out into the hallway and into the bathroom to brush my teeth, after that's done I pop back into my room. Time to sleep.