Chapter 4
The creature appeared in front of the boys again and Sam shot at it, with the same result. It disappeared as soon as the tip of the arrow hit it. They looked at each other and started running out of the forest. When they reached the car, they jumped inside and Dean drove away. "Sam?" Dean asked.
"I don't know."
"What the hell was that thing?"
"I don't know!"
When they got back to the motel, Sam was out of the car before it had even stopped. He ran into the room and pulled out the laptop. Dean came in behind him and sat down on the bed, while Sam started searching at the kitchen table.
"Okay," Sam said. "We assumed this creature was a vampire because of the COD, but it acts more like a spirit."
Dean gave him a look. "So, what? A vampire got bumped off and came back as a vengeful spirit? Are you suggesting we salt and burn its decapitated corpse?"
Sam shrugged and said, "I'm not saying that's what it is, but you have to admit that's what it's acting like. The pattern of the victims, the fact that it's always the same location, and as soon as it came into contact with iron it disappeared. That definitely sounds like a spirit."
"Well, we've never dealt with anything like this before and neither has Dad. At least I don't remember anything in his journal about a vampire ghost."
"Yeah, I don't think I've ever heard of this before. It could take a while to find any lore about it."
Dean stood up and said, "Alright, you keep looking and I'm going to head back to the woods. I'll see if rock salt slows this thing down. Maybe I can find what's keeping it tied to that area."
"We're not really sure if we're dealing with a spirit. Or it might be like a Tulpa and rock salt wouldn't work on it."
"Aw, are you worried about me, Sammy?"
Sam rolled his eyes and resumed his search as Dean left the room. Dean got back into the Impala and drove to the woods. He retraced his steps towards the area they had been at when they had seen the thing. After a few minutes of walking around the woods, Dean noticed he had been humming "Battery" and forced himself to stop. He neared the lake and took note of the houses that were closest. If anything had happened, it was probably in one of those, but he would wait until later to search them. Now he just wanted to make sure the woods were safe.
Dean looked around the lake for anything that a vengeful spirit might be attached to, but he didn't find anything. The EMF meter in his pocket remained silent. Then it perked up. Dean looked around and saw that the spirit, or whatever it was, was moving past him. He turned off the meter and raised the shotgun. She moved away from the lake and into the woods.
Dean followed, but soon lost her. He searched for a few minutes, but still couldn't find her, so he decided to go back to his car. He had only gone a few steps when he heard someone scream, "Help!"
Dean spun around to see a teenage girl running towards him. She was crying and she said, "You've got to help me! Someone's attacking my boyfriend."
"Alright, you stay here."
"No, I've got to make sure he's okay."
Dean rolled his eyes, but didn't argue. He ran in the direction she had come from and saw the creature attacking a boy in his late teens.
Dean raised the shotgun and fired. Fortunately, the rock salt worked and the creature disappeared. The boy dropped to the ground and his girlfriend ran to his side.
She asked, "What was that?"
Dean honestly answered, "I'm not sure."
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Dean sighed in exhaustion as he closed the door to the motel room. Sam was still sitting at the kitchen table, his hand on his cell phone. "I was just about to call you," Sam said.
Dean nodded and collapsed face-first on the bed. "What'd you get?" he asked.
Sam stood up and moved to sit on the other bed. "Well, I think it's a churel."
Dean raised an eyebrow. "A what?"
"A churel. It's a kind of spirit."
"Okay," Dean said, sitting up and facing Sam. "If it's a spirit, why does it drink blood?"
"Well, churels are always women. They die violent deaths during childbirth or while on their period."
"So, when they come back they kill men by sucking their blood?"
"Yeah. They also always live near bodies of water."
"How do we kill them?"
"Usual salt and burn. There's a problem, though. How are we supposed to figure out who it is? They usually don't write on death certificates if the woman died while she was on her period."
"Well, there's got to be a reason she's hanging around that lake as opposed to another one. I'm thinking she died in one of the houses nearby. So tonight, we should go take a little tour of those houses."
"You want to break into a bunch of occupied houses?"
"Hey, if you have a better idea…"
Sam huffed a little, but then said, "Fine. We'll go at 11."
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There were four houses relatively close to the lake; each of the brothers took two. Dean turned his flashlight off when he got close to the first house. He broke in through the back door, which led into the kitchen. The beat up Walkman wasn't picking anything up as Dean moved into the kitchen, then through the dining room towards the living room.
Dean made his way back to the kitchen, when he heard a creak coming from the hallway. He ducked into the walk-in pantry, leaving the door opened a crack so he could see. A man entered the kitchen. He reached into the fridge and pulled out a beer, which he opened and took a drink from. Then the man started walking towards the pantry.
Unfortunately, the door swung outwards, so Dean went as far into the pantry as he could and pressed himself between two shelves. The man walked in, but didn't bother to turn on the light. He stopped about two feet away from Dean and began feeling around the shelves, trying to find something. He pulled a box off the shelf, then left the pantry.
Dean let out a sigh of relief as he heard the man going back up stairs. He slipped out the back door and began to breath easy again. The next house Dean searched and also didn't find anything. He was walking around the front side of the house when he heard the EMF go off. He stood next to the garage door and the meter started pulsing more steadily.
There was a door on the side of the garage. Dean picked the lock and went inside. There was only one car, a silver '83 Honda Civic with a For Sale sign in the window. When Dean held the EMF meter to the back seat, the whiney alarm became insistent. Dean smiled to himself, pocketed the meter, and headed out of the garage to find Sam.