Thank you for all the alerts, favorites, and reviews! Again, this is for the lovely and patient Nana56, a goddess among women.

Dean grunted, squeezing his eyes shut, hand fumbling toward his side. What the hell? The EMF had been wonky, yeah, but he'd put the rope on the woman whose luggage had made it light up like Christmas.

His hand came back slick with blood. Had to be a knife—small wound, a through and through right above his belt. Bells were ringing, smoke curled around him, women were screaming but it felt hushed somehow, like he was moving in slow motion. He looked down and checked the wounds again. She'd almost missed him, just gone through a bit of muscle and skin.

The bus lurched and time and noise and pain came back as he was thrown into a wall of perfume and soft flesh. There were a few gasps, and then several pairs of hands helped him straighten. "Are you alright? I saw…" More voices clamoring for attention. "What was that? What happened?"

"'M'fine. Everything's okay." He opened his eyes. The gaki was a few rows back, slithering over a couple of empty seats toward an open window. Most of the passengers had jammed themselves up at the front of the bus, but a few were pressed against the back bulkhead, leaving the middle of the bus to Dean and the creature.

Hunting a fugly in a bus full of screaming, panicked witnesses? What a cluster fuck. All they'd planned to do was immobilize her until sunset, clear the bus, and perform the appeasement ritual. That's what Sam wanted to do at least. Dean's plan had been to screw appeasement and gank her with the athamé once the bus was empty.

And damn, if she wasn't getting away. He bolted forward and lunged for her, hooking three fingers of his left hand around one stick thin ankle. "Gotcha." Looking around frantically, he spotted the woman they'd initially ID'd outside the bus. He raised his voice, called out, "Ma'am. I need the rope." Eyes on the monster, he held out one hand, gesturing frantically. "I need the magic rope."

The monster turned its head and looked back at him with such ancient knowing eyes that he instinctively recoiled. He cut his eyes toward the front and saw a white haired woman holding the braided cloth. She tossed it underhand. Just as he caught it, the gaki, tiny mouth stretched in a parody of a smile, all rictus and pointed teeth, reached back and delicately touched his wrist.

Blinding pain shot up his arm, through his ribs, sparking the stab wounds with fire, and raced straight into his skull. He was pretty sure he would have screamed if he'd been able to unlock his jaw and draw in a breath. She drew her hand away.

Heaving in a lungful of air, his hand automatically reached for his side and his blood soaked clothes. He blinked the spots our of his eyes and looked at his wrist. Nothing. No mark, no brand. No gaki ankle in his grip, either. He should be a pile of goo. Movement drew his sluggish attention toward the back of the bus and another open window. The thing started to squirm through but she hesitated, looking at the road below, back into the bus, then toward the road.

The sound of the tires changed. The bus was slowing down, moving onto the gravel shoulder. And the gaki was pulling herself out of the window. Dean caught Sam's eyes in the rearview mirror and made a frantic rolling gesture with his hand. "Don't stop, Sam! She'll get away. Speed up!"

The bus accelerated with a roar and another lurch, this time pushing everyone still standing toward the back of the bus. Dean caught a seat back and held on. The gaki fell back into the bus with a squeal of rage.

He shouted, "Please, everyone, move toward the front of the bus!" The passengers began filing up the center aisle, but they weren't quick enough. Striking as fast as a snake, the fugly put both hands on a woman passing, pushing her down on a seat. The remaining passengers scrambled for the front blocking him, and he couldn't move. He could only watch as the victim started to slouch down, shrinking into the seat, the sound of the thing's grotesque pleasure clear over the roar of the engine and fifty or so passengers all starting to scream.

Clutching at a seat back, he swallowed convulsively. God, he was going to puke.

"Dean! You okay back there?" There was a lot of worry and concern packed into Sam's voice.

Dean waved, listened with half an ear to Sam addressing the passengers clustered at the front of the bus. "Everything will be fine if you stay calm. I'll stop the bus once Dean subdues the, ah, criminal. No one else will be hurt."

Dean laughed, eyes tracking toward the 'criminal' to be subdued. The gaki, the preta, she, it, whatever, wasn't inhumanly strong. And it was scared of hitting tarmac at fifty-five miles an hour. All he needed to do was loop the special rope around her and hold her for sunset. Do the thing… the ritual, and ask her to move on. Skewer her If she wouldn't. Piece of cake.

A drop of blood slithered down his leg. The coppery smell reached his nose and he gagged again, bracing himself as he suddenly felt lightheaded, legs rubbery. A touch on his arm startled him, bringing his attention back and down. A woman with white spiky hair was next to him, looking up. "Lady, go back to the front of the bus."

"Dean, isn't it? You're bleeding. You need to sit down." She pulled a suitcase down from the overhead rack, opened it, and began rummaging through it.

"Just need to deal with the…" he waved a hand toward the gaki, "the fluke. Still need to get my…" He wasn't thinking straight. He reached around his back. "Need somethin'."

She retrieved the rope from the floor near his feet. He didn't even remember dropping it. "Is this what you are looking for?" A nod, and she continued. "A what? A fluke? The driver… Sam, said she was a criminal." She yanked another suitcase down from the rack, ruthlessly dumping the contents over the nearby seats. "I saw her stab you." She pulled his jacket to one side, brushing his hands away, and pressed pads on both wounds hard, making his breath catch. "I've got to wrap this tight."

"Use my belt." He spared a glance down and watched her wrap something… brown around his waist. "What's that?"

"Panty-hose." She leaned her short frame back, huffing, and pulled the nylon jarringly tight, pushing an involuntary gasp from him before she tied it off efficiently. She dropped his jacket but not before she pulled a brutal looking knife from its sheath at his waist. "What's this for?"

"Athamé." He took it gratefully. "Special fluke killing knife."

She repeated, "A fluke?"

He pointed at it. "A gaki, or a preta. That freaky X Files fluke thing right there."

"But that's… that was Lucy."

"Not anymore. Look, thanks for your help with the" he moved one hand toward the bandage, "but you should probably go back to the front. Keep everyone up there."

"Oh, god, what's that?" Her eyes had locked on what was left of the monster's last victim.

Dean caught her arm and her attention. "Listen to me. It's really important everyone stays up front. I'll keep her back here. Please."

"You shouldn't…"

"Just have to make it another hour, pretty sure. Ask Sam."

She turned and walked toward the front. Dean rolled his shoulders and focused, taking long breaths through his nose. He was a hunter, and that fugly thing there? Was prey. He stalked forward, and if he had to use the seat backs to steady himself more than he would like, he was okay with that. The bitch was going down.

He held up the rope and the knife and grinned. "Come to Papa, Bone Girl."

Carol picked her way to the front carefully. She spoke to a few of her friends quietly, urging them to stay in their seats and help everyone remain calm. A few passengers were talking into cell phones. She caught Sam watching her in the rear view mirror as she came to stand next to him.

She leaned down and spoke quietly into his ear. "You need to stop the bus. "I know Dean said to keep moving…"

Sam's hands almost came off the wheel in his haste to crank around for a view of the back. "What happened? Is he alright?"

"I, uh, don't think so. He isn't. And there's this pile of…" she gulped, "That thing isn't Lucy, is it?"

Sam shook his head slowly. "No. It's not. He bellowed, aiming his voice toward the back of the bus. "Dean!"

Carol could see that only a few feet separated Dean and the monster now. He yelled back, "I'm fine. How long?"

Sam checked his watch and yelled back, "Thirty-two minutes."

"Just keep this thing moving, Sam!"

Sam leveled such an intense glare in her direction she took an involuntary step back. "He's not fine, is he?"

She shook her head. "What is it? Dean said you would know. And it killed someone. The woman it touched just shrank to nothing except..." She was embarrassed to realize she was crying. "I don't know what else to do. Dean needs help."

Sam tried again to look in the back. "Did you see what happened?"

"Dean put the rope around Keiko's neck and nothing happened. We all rang the bells, and some firecrackers went off and then Lucy, she had this knife." Carol put a hand on his shoulder to steady herself. "Lucy stabbed him, here", she pointed at her side, "during the scuffle. I tried…" She took a deep breath. "I tried to stop her, but she stabbed him and he's bleeding..." tears were running down her cheeks.

Suddenly a large arm wrapped around her. "Hang in there. Is he upright?"

"Yeah, yes, he's up. I bandaged the wounds and wrapped them, but…"

"Carol, it is Carol, isn't it?"

She nodded jerkily, brushed at her eyes impatiently.

"Can you be my eyes back there? Tell me what's going on?"

"Why can't you stop the bus? Let us get off."

"If I do, the gaki might get away. She'll kill more people. Dean and I only need another thirty minutes to stop her for good."

Her eyes widened. "More people?"

Sam thought they'd done pretty well up until then. The original plan had gone to hell in a hand basket, but they were coping. He hadn't crashed the bus or run into anything which was kind of miraculous considering he twitched every time a car changed lanes in front of the him. Hell, the largest thing he'd driven up until then was the Impala. At least he'd found the cruise control, so he had more time to deal with the road and the spooked passengers, and Dean had the thing corralled in the back of the bus, away from anymore victims.

Now, he wasn't so sure. Dean was stabbed, traffic was picking up, and on checking his watch for the eighteenth time, he confirmed there were still nineteen minutes before sundown. And his only source of help right now was a woman who looked like she was going to faint. He caught her eyes. "I really need your help. Dean and I can't lose her again. She'll start killing people someplace else, and it could take us months to find it again."

"Find it? That's why you're here." She straightened, her eyes involuntarily drawn to the back. She spoke a little too loudly. "You can kill it?"

"We can make sure it doesn't kill anyone else. Ever. Will you help me? What can you see back there, Carol?"

She took a deep breath and peered toward the back. "Looks like Dean's got it cornered by the bathrooms. He looks pretty steady. What is that thing, anyway? Dean called it a fluke. You called it a gaki?"

Sam snorted out a laugh. "No, not a fluke. It's a preta. The word's Tibetan but there are instances of creatures like it in most Asian cultures. In Japanese, it's a gaki—a hungry ghost."

"What is it really?"

"It's a spirit that hasn't passed over. Buddhists, Hindus, a lot of belief systems suggest that people suffer in one life for their sins in a previous one. The story is that in a previous life, gakis were jealous or greedy. To atone for it, they live a kind of half-life, insatiably hungry for something that was part of their previous life. They can be hungry for food, but it can also be almost anything else. This one is attached to human bones, women's bones specifically, we think."

"Well, that… that's just ridiculous." Her laugh sounded forced. "It's just a deformed… ape. With a calcium deficiency or something."

He caught her eyes. She looked scared to death. "Whatever it is, Dean and I won't let anyone else get hurt by it." He saw a sea of red brake lights ahead, and gently applied the brakes. "Keep an eye on the back for me. I have to keep this thing moving"

"What are you trying to do, hunter?" Its voice was whispery and harsh.

Dean ignored her. Pulling a piece of paper and a marker out of his pocket, he gingerly lowered himself onto his knees. Looking at the paper, he carefully drew a sigil on the floor of the bus. He gestured, holding a seat back for balance as he stood up again. "Keeping you right where I want you."

"You've trapped me in a vehicle full of food."

"No, I've trapped you back here by the bathrooms. You can't cross that mark." He smiled, and winced again as pain flared through his side. "You pack a helluva punch."

It made a high whistling noise. "I pack a knife." She held up a slender blade.

He held up the athamé. "I pack a much bigger one."

"But I am strong and you are bleeding. Growing weaker. I see how you hold on to that seat. Soon, you'll be so tired I'll be able to walk up and touch you. Touch you, hunter, just as I've touched so many others."

"You had your chance. But why'd'ja use a knife when you coulda make me look like a, uh, rubber chicken? Doesn't work on guys?" She hissed furiously, head darting back and forth. That was good news. "You can hurt me but not kill me. Awesome. So, what, ah, what sins are you atoning for? What kept you from moving on?"

She hissed. "I did nothing wrong." Her voice rose in volume. "I'm innocent. Why are you threatening me? Mary! Someone help me, please!"

"No one is coming to the rescue. They saw you kill that women, you freak. They've seen what you look like, what you are. And you aren't getting off this bus."

"But you are so tired. Your knees are starting to shake. Your pants are soaked in your blood, your life blood draining away with your consciousness..."

Dean flipped the athamé, catching the blade with his fingertips. "My hand is going to throw this athamé into your eyeball." He held out the rope. "You're going to put this around your neck and strangle yourself."

Sneering, she, it, said, "How long do you plan to keep me here?"

"Not too much longer. 'Nother thirty minutes should do it."

"The bus will have to stop by then." It looked toward the windows. "You can't keep me here."

"It won't stop and I can. Why don't you try jumping out again? At this speed, you'll be a smear on the pavement."

Its head lifted and cocked to one side. "One of the passengers must have called the police. I just love older women. They're so thoughtful. Responsible. And their bones…." It, she, licked her lips and looked back at Dean. "And they carry cell phones. I love modern technology, don't you?"

He could hear the sirens now. "If I could kill you with a cell phone, the answer would be yes." Keeping a wary eye on the gaki, he thought furiously as he stepped between two seats and peered at the road behind them. Just then he felt and heard the brakes.

He turned to look up front. "Sam, don't slow down! Five-oh!" The bus slowed further. "What's happening up there?"

A voice, definitely not Sam's, called back over the rising volume of noise from the front. "Traffic jam."

"Tell him to go around it. Tell him to do something!"

It was the lady from before. Carol. She pointed, and screamed. "Look out!"

Dean spun and smoothly caught the gaki's outstretched wrist in the slip knot he'd tied in the rope. Jerking back, he snugged it tighter, coiling the rope up her arm as she hissed and spat. She slapped ineffectively at the cloth, screaming as smoke started to rise up from her arm.

"Thought you'd never get close enough." Breathing out a sigh of relief, he sat down heavily in a seat. She was powerless and trapped behind the symbol.

"Dean!" It was the woman again. "Sam wants to know if you're okay."

"Tagged and bagged, Sam. How much longer before sundown?" Sam's voice reached him over the din.

"Twenty-three minutes."

He rubbed his eyes. Only twenty minutes? "Can you keep us moving?"

"Yeah, think so. There's a rest stop a few miles ahead. Can you make it 'til then?"

"If the police don't stop us, sure."

"We'll figure something out. Why don't you…"

Dean heard Sam curse, before he shouted, "Hang on!" The bus slewed left then right.

Dean looked back toward the fugly only to see her sidle past the back bulkhead. She couldn't go past the sigil, but she didn't need to reach the side of the bus. And the windows.

He pulled himself up. "Son of a bitch! Not again." Rope or not, if she got away… "Get back here! What are you going to do—gnaw off your arm?"

She slipped a window down and started to climb. He dodged forward, reaching for her, just as the bus veered sharply to the right, throwing him into a row of seats. Everything went white for a few seconds. When he came to and reached the window, the only thing he could see were her kicking legs and feet. "Jump now, bitch. Smear on the pavement!"

She hissed, wiggled, and... went up. There was a thump on the roof.

Dean ran for the front. "Need the box, Sam. Need it right now!" He was met halfway by that same woman. "It's like you're the only one on the bus, lady. Who are you?"

"Carol." She held up the box Sam had loaded on the bus.

He started to load his pockets. "You tell Sam to go as fast as he can. To not stop for anything."

"Where is it?

Another thump overhead. Several women screamed. Dean pointed. "Up there. Trying to get off."

Her hand caught his arm again. "Wait, what are you going to do?"

"Climb up there and keep her from getting away. I just need a few more minutes."

"But the police are almost here. They can stop her, can't they?"

He shook his head. "Tell Sam to keep the bus moving as fast as he can." Dean climbed onto a seat, opened the window, and reached one arm through, exploring with his fingers until he found something to grab. He worked his shoulders through the opening one by one, then his chest, until he could sit on the window frame. He reached up again, found a metal railing, and locked both hands around it. Before he could think about what he was doing and the traffic speeding by right next to him, he pulled himself up, stood in the window and pushed with his legs, finally sprawling face down on the roof of the bus.

He locked eyes with the gaki. "Honey? I'm home!"

TBC