Going in Circles
Thanks for the kind reviews. Pardon the delay in getting this posted.
Chapter Five
Maggie twisted and fought her way out of the man's embrace.
"What do you think you're doing!" she shouted. "Who are you?"
"Maggie," the man said, as if he were cut to the heart. "Maggie, please…"
"You stay away from me, you hear?" She stabbed a finger in his direction. "How do you know my name?"
"Maggie?"
She turned slightly, hearing Simon's voice, and shone the flashlight around the circle until it fell on him. She ran to kneel beside him and put her arms around him. "Simon, are you all right? What have they done to you?"
"Honey, please go back to the house," Simon begged, his eyes large and frightened. "Stay with the kids. I'll be back as quick as I can."
"Simon, what's going on?" she said worriedly.
"Please, baby. Just go back to the house," he urged.
"Dude," Dean said, horrified. "You married her?"
Simon nodded mutely, never taking his eyes from his wife.
"Who are you people?" she said, getting to her feet. "What have you done to my husband?"
"Maggie?" Joe whispered, disbelief, pain and sorrow marring his features. "You married him?"
Dean felt his hair stand on end and the air around him suddenly felt heavy.
"Joe, calm down," Sam said. "She didn't know." Dean looked to his brother. Sam had a hand held protectively against his sore ribs and Dean knew he was also feeling the effects of the ghost.
"Sam, get back. Get out of the circle," Dean ordered.
"Joe, just calm down," Sam said again, ignoring him.
Maggie rubbed at her arms and looked around as if trying to figure out what exactly was wrong.
"Maggie, tell me you didn't," Joe said, almost hopelessly.
"Didn't what?" she demanded angrily. "You're that alien hunter. My husband told you to stay off our property!"
Joe physically flinched at the word husband. "Do you remember that day, Maggie? The day we went to the lake for a picnic?"
"Are you crazy? I don't even know you," she said. She was a little short of breath, but Dean could tell she wasn't feeling the full effects of the ghost like the rest of them were.
Joe took a step toward her, but she backed away, keeping her distance. He moved forward again and she took another step back. Like a choreographed dance, the corn around them fell and flattened as she moved and he followed.
Simon stumbled to his feet and placed himself between his wife and the ghost. "Please, Joe. This has nothing to do with her. Just leave her out of this."
"She has everything to do with this," Joe replied coldly. "You took her from me."
"Simon, what's he talking about?" Maggie asked.
Joe's eyes moved past Simon to look at her. "That day by the lake… I asked you to marry me, Mags," Joe said.
"What are you talk…" the woman's voice trailed away and her mouth dropped open.
"Ok, quick recap," Dean said. "This is Joe, the guy who supposedly disappeared your senior year of High School. Only he didn't really disappear. Simon here," Dean pointed helpfully with his flashlight, "locked him in a silo so he could put the moves on you. Joe died," he moved the beam of light to Joe, "and instead of owning up to it, Simon here," back to Simon, "buried him out in the field and never told anyone. Insult to injury, putting the moves on you seems to have worked, since you two are married. Joe's ticked now and he's possessed our nice sci-fi geek friend, Tom. Note the freaky, glowy eyes."
"You're crazy," Maggie whispered, staring at Dean. "You're all crazy." She turned to her husband, "Simon, what's he talking about? What is all this?"
"Please, honey. Just go back to the house," he begged yet again.
The woman almost fearfully turned her eyes back to Joe. "Who told you about that day at the lake? I never told anyone."
"Seems to be a lot of that going around," Dean muttered.
"He killed me, Maggie," Joe whispered. "He killed me and you married him."
The pressure around them suddenly rose to crushing levels. Simon dropped like a rock, falling flat on the ground. Dean spun on his heels and with all of his strength physically pushed Sam out of the circle. Not to be outdone, however, Sam caught Dean's shirt, pulling him with him and they both stumbled and fell back into the corn that was still standing.
"Dean, you know I hate that superhero, save Sam first crap," Sam hissed.
"I can't help that I have vastly superior reflexes," Dean shot back, getting to his feet. "The force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet." He grinned, knowing Sam was rolling his eyes without even having to see it.
Looking back into the circle, they could make out that Simon was face down on the ground, struggling to breathe. Maggie, however, appeared to be relatively unaffected.
She frantically knelt beside her husband. Judging from her expression, she didn't understand what was happening, but raising her head and looking at Tom/Joe, she seemed to realize the source of the problem. "What are you doing to him?" she demanded.
"It's all right, Maggie," he replied, looking down at Simon almost dispassionately. "This is justice." He stepped toward her and took her by the shoulders, raising her from her knees to stand in front of him.
Maggie looked back down at her husband, then back to the man standing in front of her, fear and confusion playing across her features. "Is it really you, Joe?" she asked, her voice shaking.
"It's me, Mags," he said, putting his arms around her, setting his forehead against hers. "I've missed you so much."
She was tense where he touched her, trying to pull away. "Joe, you have to help Simon," she said urgently.
"No, I don't," he said calmly. "All we have to do is wait a little while. He'll go quietly and then we can be together."
"Joe, please," she entreated. "He's your friend. You love him. I love him."
"It's all right, Maggie," he said, ignoring her pleas. "We'll be together now."
Around the pair, the ground began to ripple outward in a circle, like waves in a pond away from a pebble dropped into the water. Joe locked his arms around Maggie and almost before Dean realized what was happening the couple began to sink.
"Sam, he's gonna bury her!" Dean shouted, running into the circle. The pressure was so great, it was almost like running into a brick wall. Dean fought through it, feeling rather than seeing that Sam was beside him also fighting his way through the sludge-like air.
In the few seconds it took to reach them, the couple was already buried past their waists, almost as if in quicksand. Without having to say anything, Dean grasped Maggie, wrapping his arms around her beneath hers while Sam did the same with Tom, both of them pulling with all their might to keep them from being swallowed.
Black spots began to dance in front of Dean's eyes, but he angrily ordered himself to remain conscious. If he blacked out, the woman in his arms was as good as dead. Maggie was clinging to him like a lifeline and he refused to let her go. Dean strained for all he was worth, barely keeping her arms and shoulders above ground. His lungs were screaming for oxygen and only sheer stubbornness made him hold on.
Sam, too, was struggling, but with the added problem of an uncooperative drowning victim. In his peripheral vision, Dean saw Sam reach into his pocket and pull something out. Holding onto Tom with only one arm wrapped around his torso, Sam waved the other hand over the couple frantically.
Dean was still pulling with every bit of strength he had left and, as if a vacuum seal had been broken, Maggie shot out of the ground. They fell back in a jumble, the pressure abruptly gone. She landed awkwardly on top of him, elbowing him in the stomach. Turning his head, he saw that Sam was in a similar situation with Tom. While Dean was content to let the lady remain where she was and catch her breath, Sam inelegantly pushed a newly unconscious Tom off of him and sat up.
"Next time, I get to save the girl," Sam said, still breathing hard. "You get the possessed guy."
"Yeah," Dean grinned, looking down at the woman whose head still rested against his chest. "I'm pretty sure I got the better deal on this one."
Dean grunted as Maggie sat up, elbowing him in the stomach again.
"Your charm knows no limits," Sam snorted.
Maggie crawled toward her husband. She was crying as she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him to her. He was barely conscious, but Dean could see that he breathing.
"What did you do back there? Why did he let us go?" Dean demanded, turning back to Sam.
Sam raised an eyebrow. "I told you I had some salt packets left over from lunch."
"You gotta be kidding me."
"It wasn't much," Sam shrugged, "But I thought it might be enough to get Joe to turn Tom loose. Guess it worked."
"Yeah, but now where is he?"
As if in answer, the ground beneath them began to tremble and Dean let out an instinctive shout. He and Sam both jumped to their feet. "Get Tom," Dean ordered, "I'll help her with Simon."
The shaking continued as Sam threw Tom over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Dean pulled one of Simon's arms around his shoulders, while Maggie did the same on the other side. "The road!" Dean urged. "We've got up to the road!"
The group moved as fast as they could, reaching the pavement in only a few seconds. Sam and Dean both dropped their burdens and ran back for the deputy, still lying just inside the field. They dragged him back to the road as well and stood there watching as every stalk of corn as far as they could see, like a wave moving across the field, fell flat to the ground. The trembling continued for several more seconds, until at last, very close to the edge of the field, they saw a fissure open. The rumbling stopped with one last cough as a man's long-dead remains, still in tattered jeans and t-shirt, popped to the surface.
"The three rules of real estate," Dean sighed. "Location, location, location."
Almost there. Last chapter tomorrow.