Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural nor do I own Sam or Dean. I do, however, own Alex, and her belt. I hope it comes in handy soon.

Beta: Wingedteen

Defiance

Get the hell out of Hell House! Sam, Dean and Alex defy a homicidal spirit, but their efforts are encumbered by a pair of goofball paranormal investigators who hope ghost busting will get them girls.

Hell House

Richardson, Texas

Dean looked over at Sam, sleeping in the passenger seat of the car, mouth slightly open. He glanced quickly at Alex, in the back seat, reading their dad's journal. He'd told her to read it, because, frankly, if she had to be with them, it'd be a hell of a lot easier for him if she actually knew what they were up against. He tapped her knee to get her attention before grabbing a plastic spoon, and carefully placing it in Sam's open mouth. He quickly put a finger to his lips, telling Alex to be quiet, not that she didn't already know. He then pulled his phone out and snapped a picture of Sam, spoon in his mouth. That done, he turned up his music, and started to sing, waking Sam up.

Alex watched in amazement as Sam woke and immediately grabbed the spoon out of his mouth. Dean finished with his little dance, before turning, chuckling to his smaller brother.

"Ha, ha. Very funny." Sam grumbled to Dean, clearly annoyed.

"Actually, it was." Alex laughed from the back seat as Dean shot her a glance saying it was timed quite right. It seemed to her that she was growing on the eldest. Slowly, though. He still didn't really like her, just didn't hate her. Sam turned the music down and wiped his mouth.

"Sorry." Dean answered, still smiling. "Not a lot of scenery here in east Texas. Kind of gotta make your own." Dean laughed again, for good measure.

"Man, we're not kids anymore, Dean." Sam said, growling.

"That's debatable." Alex called. After being with the Winchesters for a few days, she was fairly sure they were still five at heart, despite both being older then her. They enjoyed annoying each other, and on occasion, Alex herself.

"We're not gonna start that crap up again." Sam continued, ignoring Alex's input.

"Start what up?" Dean and Alex both asked at the same time. Dean probably had more of an idea of what was going on than she did, but neither had any idea what Sam was talking about.

"That prank stuff. It's stupid and it always escalates." Sam was obviously still pissed off about the spoon, making Alex smile once again.

"So, what? It's funny." Alex disagreed. She'd forgotten about copying the stuff in the journal at this point and was having fun watching the boys argue once again. Some times, she really thought she needed a never-ending supply of popcorn. Who needed TV when you had these two fighting?

"What's the matter, Sammy?" Dean mocked. "You afraid you're gonna get a little Nair in your shampoo again, huh?" Alex burst out laughing at the thought. It would have been funny, seeing Sam's face when he thought he was going bald very quickly. Especially with the long hair he seemed to love.

"Just remember, you started it." Sam sighed, shaking his head. He was still a little annoyed.

"Oh, bring it on, baldy." Dean taunted. Alex sighed to herself.

"Looks like I get to be peace keeper, once again." she'd done it a few times, but it wasn't generally anything bad. Just a few small arguments, here and there. She turned to Dean, thinking about the few day's driving. "Where are we anyway?" she asked.

"A few hours outside of Richardson." Dean answered. "Give me the lowdown again." Sam grabbed the information off the dash, and began telling Dean and Alex all he knew about it

"All right, about a month or two ago kids go poking around this local haunted house." Sam began.

"Sounds like the perfect start to a horror movie, or a ghost tale." Alex muttered. Both Sam and Dean turned around and looked at her, telling her to shut up with out the need for words. She'd gotten that look too many times, so she was beginning to recognise it. She nodded and they turned, hoping she'd learnt her lesson.

"Haunted by what?" Dean asked as he looked back to the road, not that it was overly busy.

"Apparently, a pretty misogynistic spirit. Legend goes, it take girls and strings them up in the rafters." Once again, both boys glanced back at Alex.

"What?" she asked them, knowing what. But it didn't make it ay more sexist.

"Great." Dean muttered.

"Any way, these kids see this dead girl hanging in the cellar."

"Anybody ID the corpse?" Dean shot. It was like random fire questions and Alex realised how well they did this 'job'. They had dealt with these things for a long time, and they could both count on each other.

"Well, that's the thing. By the time the cops got there, the body was gone. So cops are saying the kids were yanking chains." Alex's brows rose at this. Why would they look into something like that?

"So, maybe the cops are right."

"Maybe, but I read a coupe of the kids' firsthand accounts. They seem pretty sincere."

"Where'd you read these accounts?" Sam seemed slightly embarrassed about the answer to that. Alex was surprised. It didn't follow what she'd seen of the boys so far.

"Well, I knew we'd be passing through Texas so last night, I surfed some local paranormal websites and I found one." Alex noticed Dean was not buying any of what Sam was saying.

"And what's it called?"

"Hell hound's lair dot com." Sam answered. Alex burst out laughing. Even she wouldn't have gone into a website like that. Unable to get air, she couldn't make a snappy remark about it. Dean managed to, though.

"Let me guess. Streaming live out of Mum's basement." Alex, who'd finally managed to breathe again, began to laugh even harder.

"Yeah, probably."

"Yeah." Dean made sure that Sam knew it sounded dumb, but from the way he looked, Alex was fairly sure that the point had been driven home. Even so, Dean continued. "Most of those websites wouldn't know a ghost if it bit 'em in the persqueeter."

"Look, we let Dad take off- which was a mistake, by the way." Alex perked up, listening hard. She'd heard a little about their dad, but not much. Most of it was by accident. As far as she could tell, though, Sam and Dean were looking for him. They'd seen him just before they found her, but they let him go. "Now we don't know where the hell he is. So mean time, we gotta find something to hunt. There's no harm checking this thing out."

"All right, so where do we find these kids?" Dean asked.

"Same place you always find kids in a town like this."

Dean eased the Impala into a parking spot. A sign declared it as the 'Rodeo Drive-in'. They all got out; Alex sliding out the side Sam was on. When they got to the front, they all merged, Dean walking next to Alex.

"Just follow our lead, ok?" Dean muttered at her. Alex sighed and nodded. She wasn't going to argue with him on something like that. After all, this was her first hunt. She didn't want to screw it up for them, and have Sam and Dean ditch her. She briefly brushed her hand on the hilt of her hidden knife, reminding herself she wasn't clueless. She just didn't know as much as they did.

Contrary to what Sam had said, the kid's stories hadn't matched very well. They all agreed on a few points, but not the specifics. They all said the walls where painted. They just couldn't decide whether it was black or red, paint or blood. They had strange symbols there too: crosses, stars, pentagons and her personal favourite, Pentecostals. She decided against telling the kid that Pentecostals was a form of Christianity. There was a girl that had been hung. But to fit their stories, her hair had to have been died three different colours: black, red and blond. They also couldn't decide if she was still moving or not.

To say the least, Alex was hard pressed not to laugh in Sam's face when the kids finally all agreed on something: A boy called Craig had taken them to the house.

"So, where can we find him?" Alex asked, forgetting about following Sam and Dean. Dean stepped on her foot and she turned to glare at him.

"He's at work." The girl replied.

The door chimed as it opened and closed to the record store. A boy, probably about sixteen walked over, putting records away. He was about shoulder hight on Sam, short hair done in what was supposed to look a bit like a Mohawk.

"Gentlemen!" He cried, as he passed them to reach a row of records. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Yeah, are you Craig Thurston?" Sam asked. Alex was stuck behind the boys, but she knew it was probably her own fault. After all, she'd broken Dean's rule of following. He was so touchy some times. It annoyed her to no end.

"I am." The boy, Craig replied. He turned to look at them expectantly.

"Well, we're reporters with the 'Dallas Morning News'." Alex stopped herself from snorting her brains out at that. "I'm Dean, this is Sam." Alex cleared her throat, and Dean spared her a glance. "And this little bundle of joy is Alex." He growled, making it clear he didn't really like her. She just shook her head at him, following with the story he'd made. She was a tag along, that much was clear. It was the perfect cover for her, being the truth of the matter.

"No way. Yeah, I'm a writer too. I write for my school's lit magazine." Craig was obviously proud of his achievement. He walked around the other side of the row, putting more of the records in their place.

"Oh, good for you Morrison." Dean said. Everyone else gave him a strange look. Alex sent a feeling of curiosity to Sam, through a mind link. It was strange, and new to them both. It had also saved Alex's life. They could only communicate with emotions, but that was a hell of a lot more then nothing. Dean didn't know about it, and they were trying to be careful that he didn't find out. It was almost like having a private conversation in a crowed room. Sam sent Alex a mirror image of what she had just sent him, which translated roughly into: I have no freaking clue.

"We're doing an article on local hauntings, and rumour has it you might know about one." Sam picked the story up from where Dean had dropped it. The easy way they acted made her wonder how many times they'd done this kind of thing.

"You mean the Hell House?" Craig asked. He seemed excited about it, and proud somehow.

"That's the one." Alex answered. Dean elbowed her, reminding her that she was supposed to be silent, and following their lead. But she had a feeling that if she didn't say anything, it would seem a bit strange. She received a feeling of calm from Sam, taking it as his way of saying 'cool it'.

"I didn't think there was anything to the story." Craig told them. His attitude hadn't changed, and it was starting to get on Alex's nerves.

"Why don't you tell us the story?" Sam asked, pushing for information. Alex felt like adding in 'you must be dieing to', but received a nudge from Sam. Dean, noticing it, elbowed her again. If they didn't stop it soon, they were going to give her bruises.

"Well, supposedly, back in the thirties, this farmer, Mordechai Murdoch, used to live in the house with his six daughters. It was during the Depression. His crops were failing. He didn't have enough money to even feed his own children. So, I guess that's when he went off the deep end." As he was speaking, Craig walked to the counter, Sam and Alex following him. Dean stayed behind, looking at the albums.

"How?" Alex asked. Dean wasn't there to hit her or anything, so she was fairly sure she was safe. That was until her came up behind her a second later.

"Well, he figured it was best if his girls died quick rather than starve to death. So he attacked them. They screamed, begged for him to stop. But he just strung them up, one after another. And then, when he was all finished, he turned around and hung himself. Now, they say that his spirit is trapped in the house forever, stringin' up any other girl who goes inside." Craig's story was beginning to piss Alex off. It had to be so sexist, didn't it? But there was nothing she could do. After all, this was the story, and she couldn't mess with it, no matter how much she wanted to.

"But where'd you hear all this?" Dean asked, stepping on Alex's foot. She gritted her teeth and refused to move. She was so sick of it. But Dean had brought her with him, not the other way around.

"My cousin, Dana, told me. I don't know where she heard it from. You've gotta realize I didn't believe this for a second." Didn't? Alex noticed the past tense in his word.

"But now you do?" Sam asked. Apparently, he'd caught it as well.

"I don't know what the hell to think, man. Guys, I'll tell you exactly what I told the police, okay? That girl was real, and she was dead. This was not a prank. I swear to God, I don't wanna go anywhere near that house ever again, okay?" Sam and Dean looked at each other, communicating with their gaze.

"Thanks." Dean filled in. He grabbed Alex's arm and dragged her out side, Sam following them both. "What the hell did I tell you?" he growled at Alex. When Alex made no attempt to answer they all got into the car, Dean not saying a word, and the music off. It was a bad sign. Sam gave Alex an expectant feeling. He didn't look like he was doing anything, she noticed. He was just looking out the windscreen, watching the road roll by under the tires.

"You told me to follow your lead." Alex sighed. She hated people trying to down tread her, but in this instance, she could understand it. That didn't mean she had to like it.

"That's right. What'd you just do?" Dean pushed. Alex gritted her teeth and tried not to kill him. She also tried to use any telekineses. Not that she knew how to do that. Her powers were still purely instinctive and out of her control.

"Butted in and tried to do it my own way." Man, it was like her Dad, all over again. Not that he'd been her real Dad, but it was the closest thing she had to family.

They reached a point in the road, and Dean pulled over. As one, they got out of the car and began walking to the house. It was old, run down and looked like it hadn't been used in years. Alex was waiting for it to collapse under its own weight.

"Can't say I blame the kid." Sam said as they all took in the rotting house.

"Yeah, so much for curb appeal." Dean answered. Sam laughed and Alex rolled her eyes.

"If there was going to be a haunted house, this one looks like it fits the bill." Alex observed. Sam and Dean didn't even glance at her as she said it, but she wasn't really expecting a reaction.

She followed Dean and Sam to the side of the house, hanging back as Sam tried to look into one of the boarded windows. Even those things were rotting. Dean pulled out a device, one that they explained to be before to be an EMF reader. Whatever that meant. All she understood from their explanation was that it could pick up paranormal activity. The thing started to make noise, and Dean tapped at it, frowning.

"You got somethin'?" Sam asked as he headed back over. He looked at the device, as though the flashing lights and weird noise actually made sense.

"Yeah. The EMF's no good." Dean switched it off and tucked it into his pocket.

"Why?" Sam asked. Honestly, Alex didn't think it worked period, but then, she didn't know anything, really. She was still learning, reading out of a book. The brothers had yet to let her anywhere near the weapons in the trunk of the car, and she wasn't sure how to use a gun. Alex figured that you aimed at it something and pulled the trigger, but she wondered if there was anything else to go with it.

"I think that thing's still got a little juice in it. It's screwin' with all the readings." Dean nodded to an old electricity line. It wasn't as old as the house, and looked nowhere near as run down.

"Yeah, that'd do it." Sam sighed, looking at the offending object. Alex made sure not to do anything unless they wanted her to, keeping out of the way. She was trying to weasel her way back into Dean's good books.

"Yep. Come on, let's go." Dean led the way into the house, Sam coming up last.

The house was as bad inside as it was outside. The walls had holes and pealing paint, and a bunch of strange symbols all over them. Some were in black, others in a dark red.

"Looks like Old Man Murdoch was a bit of a tagger during his time." Dean said, looking at some of the symbols. Alex looked at them, and didn't see anything bad that jumped out at her. Apparently, though, Sam did.

"And after his time, too. The reversed cross has been used by Satanists for centuries, but this sigil of sulphur didn't show up in San Francisco until the sixties." Sam said, looking at them. He took pictures of them both on his phone, probably going to see if someone drew them for a reason. Or maybe he wanted to throw them together for his background. Alex wasn't really sure.

"This is exactly why you never get laid." Dean told Sam. He turned to Alex. "Right?" he asked. Alex nodded, trying to get 'Dean points'. "See, straight from a girl." He told Sam before walking on. He stopped in front of another weird symbol.

Painted in red, it looked like an upside-down question mark. Three lines extended from the dot without touching it, making it look a bit like a very weird cross.

"And, that is?" Alex asked, looking at it. Somehow it reminded her of a nuclear sign, those ones you saw on TV and stuff.

"Hey, what about this one? You seen this one before?" Dean called to Sam. Dean looked at it in different angles, turning his head. Sam walked over, looking at it. He snapped a photo of it, trying to remember if he had ever seen it.

"No."

"I have. Somewhere."

"Well, is it paint?" Alex asked them both, remembering that one of the people they'd talked to had said it was blood. Sam ran his finger down it and pulled it back to look.

"Yeah. Seems pretty fresh, too." He answered.

"I don't know, Sam. I mean, I hate to agree with authority figures of any kind, but the cops might be right about this one." Dean said, walking away from the symbol he'd been looking at. Alex rolled her eyes at his back. Yeah, he hated anyone who could boss him around- save his family, as far as she could tell.

"Wow, Dean, I never knew that." She told him.

"Yeah, maybe." Sam answered, ignoring Alex. He sent her a quick feeling of happiness, a bit like a grin, between them. A second later, the sound of something falling made everyone turn, looking in the direction it came from. They all walked as quickly and quietly as they could to the door the noise came from. Dean took the right side of the door, Sam on the left with Alex behind him.

At a nod from Dean, the boys charged in, to be blinded by a large light. The light moved from their faces quickly, revealing two men in front of them. Alex followed them in, and managed to turn her laugh into a cough, made slightly believable by the dusty state of the old house.

These two where obviously geeks, what, with the clothes they were wearing, and the various other video equipment. True, only one of them had glasses, and they weren't ridiculously large making him bug-eyed or anything, but they just had the general feel of geek about them.

The one with glasses was going bald, and seemed to be trying to make up for that by growing a beard. At this time, though, it was just thick ginger stubble. He held the video camera, and spoke first.

"Cut! Just a couple humans." he cried as he actually saw Sam and Dean.

The other one, without the glasses was pale, as they always seemed to be. He was also showing signs of going bald, having an 'M' on his forehead from his dark hair. He held the large light that had just blinded both Sam and Dean.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked Sam, Dean and Alex.

"What the hell are you doin' here?" Dean responded, annoyed at just having a light shoved in his face.

"Uh, we belong here. We're professionals." The red haired one responded.

"Professional what?" Dean asked.

"Paranormal investigators." He answered. He took three cards out of his pocket, and held them out to Alex, Sam and Dean. "There ya go. Take a look at that, boys." Alex glared at him, and he hurriedly corrected himself. "And girl."

Sam, Alex and Dean looked quickly at the cards.

"Oh, you've gotta be kiddin' me." Dean muttered looking at the piece of paper. Alex had to agree with him.

Ed Zeddmore. Harry Spangler.

Paranormal Investigators.

E-mail us at

"Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spangler. Hell Hound's Lair dot com, you guys run that website?" Sam asked. The dark haired one indicated who was who as Sam read their names.

"Yeah." Ed, ginger headed wonder, answered

"Oh, yeah, yeah. We're huge fans." Dean walked past the boys and into a more spacious spot of the room. Alex followed him, to get out of the heat that was starting to up around them all.

"And, uh, we know who you guys are, too." They said arrogantly, missing the way Sam and Dean exchanged a worried glance, making Alex wonder what she was missing.

"Oh, yeah?" Sam asked them. Alex raised an eyebrow, emphasising the point.

"Amateurs." Sam and Dean visibly relaxed and Dean began to go through their stuff. "Lookin' for ghosts and cheap thrills." Ed said, trying to sound smart.

"Hey, Alex, why don't you hang with these fellas, learn their tricks, huh?" Dean asked, looking over at her. Alex resisted the urge to smirk at him. Two could play this game.

"Oh, no! I couldn't bear to part with you, hon." Alex retorted, and winked at him, sending two very different messages to the different groups of people there.

"Oh, we would make it worth your while." Harry told her, trying to get closer to Alex. She resisted the urge to recoil from him, but backed into Dean, instead. Unseen by her, Dean gave both the boys a glare that would have earned a squeal from a vampire, had he directed it toward one.

"Oh, like what?" Alex pressed, trying to find out how much these guys actually knew.

"Uh, Harry, why don't you tell 'em about EMF?" Ed turned to look expectantly at his partner. Alex made sure the snigger didn't get past her throat.

"EMF?" Sam asked, playing along.

"Electro-Magnetic field." Harry answered, matter-of-factly. He walked over to his bag and pulled out a brick-like thing that looked nothing like the one Dean carried. "Spectral entities can cause energy fluctuations that can be read with an EMF detector…" he pulled the antennae out, and flipped it on. "Like this bad boy right here." The thing in is hands started to make a noise that sounded like it belonged in a sic-fi movie. "Whoa, whoa. That's 2.8 MG."

"2.8." Ed repeated smugly.

"It's hot in here." Harry told the hunters. Sam sent a feeling of joy to Alex, and a quick glance at Dean told her he was trying to hide a smile. She ducked her head to conceal a smirk.

Sam whistled mockingly "Wow."

"Huh. So, have you guys ever really seen a ghost before, or…?" Dean asked. Happy that Dean wasn't pissed at her, Alex stepped away from him.

"Once. We were, uh—we were investigating this old house, and we saw a vase fall right off the table." Ed told them.

"By itself." Harry added enthusiastically.

"Well, we didn't actually see it, but we heard it. And something like that, it, uh… it changes you." Ed finished seriously. Sam watched them, apparently immersed in the story. Alex felt like snapping at them to come back when they'd killed people without touching them or seen someone pinned to the ceiling burst into flames.

Dean must have known what she was feeling like, because he hurriedly began speaking. "Yeah. I think we get the picture. We should go—let them get back to work." He pulled Alex with him, as he walked back to Sam.

"Yeah, you should. The girl can stay if she wants, but you guys would get in the way." Harry said hopefully.

"Sam?" Dean said as they walked past.

"You are so brave to be doing this kind of work." Alex told them as she left.

"Yeah, work." Ed laughed. "I laugh in the face of danger." He called after Alex. "I'm sorry. That pot we smoked gave me the giggles. Woo!"

"You could come in handy, Alex." Dean told her as they made their way back to the car. Alex rolled her eyes at him.

"Gee, thanks." She muttered at him. They got into the car in their respective spots. "So, what do we do now?" she asked.

Dean started the car and headed back towards the town. "Now, we do some digging."

Alex followed Sam in to the Collin County Public Library. Sam pulled down a bunch of books and handed them to Alex.

"Here, read these." He told her, before opening his laptop.

"What am I looking for?" Alex asked him as she opened the book. Sam looked up at her.

"Ah, violent deaths at or around the house, like hanging, or murder, or someone called Mordechai Murdoch." Sam told her Alex nodded her head and began to read. Eventually, they found that nothing matched, and went looking for anything similar.

Finally they came up with one name and left, writing the information in one of Sam's books. They waited outside for Dean, Sam looking at other things in the little book of his.

"Hey." Alex called to Dean when she noticed him. She grabbed Sam's arm and pulled him down the steps to join Dean. Sam looked up, and noticed the reason they where moving.

"Hey. What do you got?" Dean asked, leading the way back to the car. Sam pulled his book up and flipped through a few pages.

"Well, we couldn't find a Mordechai, but we did turn up a Martin Murdoch who lived in that house in the thirties. He did have children, but only two of 'em—both boys." Sam told him

"And there was no record he ever killed anybody." Alex finished. Dean looked at them both strangely.

"Huh." He answered.

"What about you?" Sam asked, noticing the look.

"Well, those kids didn't really give us a clear description of that dead girl, but I did hit up the police station." Dean began. He gave Sam and Alex another strange look before continuing. "No matching missing persons—it's like she never existed." They reached the car, and Dean dug in his pocket for the keys. "Dude, come on, man. We did our digging, this one's a bust, all right? For all we know, those Hell Hound boys made up the whole thing."

"Probably trying to get lucky." Alex added. Both boys snorted at the idea. They both had to admit though, Alex's remark had merit.

"Yeah, all right." Sam reluctantly agreed.

"So, I say we find ourselves a bar and some beers, and leave the legend to the locals." Dean unlocked the doors and got in, Alex climbing in the back seat. Sam hesitated entering the car. Dean quickly turned the engine on. Alex jumped as some weird fast paced music resonated through the speakers at full blast. The wipers where also going, sweeping across the windscreen as fast as they could. Dean swore and raced to turn everything off, as Sam got into the car, laughing.

" What the f—?" Dean cried, before noticing Sam. Sam licked his finger and drew a one in the air, pointing to himself, mouthing 'me?'. Alex shook her head laughing. "That's all you got? That's weak. That is Bush-league." Dean told them both as he pulled the car away from the curb.

"It was still funny." Alex disagreed. Sam turned in his seat to smile at her, still laughing. They pulled up to a motel, and Dean got them a room. Alex grabbed a bag containing the sheets she'd brought. She could sleep practically anywhere, so they'd decided that she'd sleep on the floor of the room. Not that she minded too much.

Dean quickly dumped his stuff and headed to the door, not wanting to wait for his brother. Alex dumped her bag and sat on it.

"I'm gonna stay here." She told him. Dean looked around, staring at her like she was mad.

"And do what?" he asked in disbelief. Sam looked at them both, not understanding Dean's reaction.

"Research. I'm way behind you both, and I need to catch up." Alec answered. Dean rolled his eyes at her.

"Then who's going to stay here with you?" he asked. Alex's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"You still don't trust me?" she asked. Dean shook his head at her.

"Hell no." he growled.

"Look, Dean." Sam intercepted. "We've got the Impala; she's not going to be able to harm us. The worst she's going to do is scribble in dad's journal, and we can kill her for that when we get back, ok?" he proposed. Dean looked at him for a while, before eventually nodding.

"Alright." He agreed. The boys walked out of the room, and Alex pulled the journal closer to her, and flipped to the page she was copying. She began to rewrite the information into her own book for about thirty minutes, so she was sure the boys has really gone and weren't just waiting to find out what she was up to.

She put both the books down and fumbled at her necklace for a few seconds, taking the item off her neck, dangling it at arm's length. She watched until it had stopped moving and began to concentrate on it. She had no idea how she was supposed to do this. After all last time she'd used these powers, she'd been scared out of her mind, trying to tug Helen off the ceiling.

She swept through her head, looking for some source of power, the one thing that she'd never consciously used before. Eventually, she found it, another sense, another body part. Concentrating, she stretched it out, and grabbed the blue and green rock pendent on the chain, and tried to move it, using this other sense.

Ten minutes passed, and nothing happened. Twenty minutes passed and she broke out into a cold sweat. After half an hour, the pendent began to rock, back and forwards. Only slightly. She wasn't sure if it was her hand twitching, her slowly losing consciousness, or actual powers, but she sure as hell wanted to find out.

She stopped moving the pendent. Then she started to lift it. She was shaking with the effort, but it lifted a tiny bit, chain going loose. Feeling really proud of herself, she let the chain relax, and put it back on, knowing that she probably wouldn't get much more done that night. That was when the headache hit. All numbing pain from her head.

Groaning, she curled into a ball, and held her head in her hands. She eventually couldn't stand the ferocity of it, and fell into a comatose state.

That was how Dean and Sam found her. They pulled out one of her blankets, and threw it over her, waiting for her to wake.

"What the hell happened?" Sam asked, when Alex opened her eye. She hissed and he hands went to her head again.

"Migraine." She answered, before falling back to sleep. Sam told Dean, and they decided that it wasn't too much of a worry. After all, you couldn't stop a migraine.

After waking, Sam, Dean and Alex packed their stuff, throwing it all into the trunk, on top of the weapons, strategically placed so they could still get their weapons easily, but it didn't look conspicuous. They needed breakfast before they left, and Dean was in serious need of coffee.

Finding a place open at the crack of dawn that provided food, however, posed a bit of a problem. After about thirty minutes of looking, they finally came to a place that had what they needed. They all walked in to get food.

Each grabbing their food, or what Dean thought passed as food, they all headed to the desk to pay for their purchases. A middle aged man appeared, with greying hair. He looked at the items and slowly began to check them. As he did so, he began talking.

"Did you hear about the suicide last night?" the man asked. Dean and Sam shared a look, and Alex wondered what it had to do with anything they did.

"No." Sam answered after a heart beat.

"Well, I don't know much, but somethin' happened last night, out at that farm house." The man answered. Now Alex understood why a suicide spiked the boy's interest.

"The one the kids are calling the 'Hell House'?"

"Aye, that be the one." the man nodded. He finished swiping the food they'd gotten, and Dean held out his credit card. Alex knew they were all thinking the same thing. They raced back to the car, and headed off to have a look, see what had happened. When they got to the house, the police were already there, an ambulance, and some men in white pulling a stretcher out of the house. The police were talking to people, probably taking statements. The whole thing seemed pretty surreal.

They walked up to one of the other onlookers, hoping they knew more then the man at the station. A police officer walked away from him as they approached.

"What happened?" Dean asked, and, if Alex wasn't mistaken, he was slightly worried.

"Couple of cops say that poor girl hung herself in the house." The man answered. He seemed to be confused, just stating the facts, trying to be a bit insensitive to keep his distance.

"Suicide?" Alex asked, remembering what the server had told them.

"Yeah. But she was a straight-A student, with a full ride to UT, too. It just don't make sense." The man shook his head slightly before walking away from the boys, probably to try find out some more information.

"So, what's that mean?" Alex asked the boys. Sam turned to Dean, body language telling Alex he didn't know, so he wasn't going to answer. His eyes, instead, went to the stretcher carrying the body bag.

"What do you think?"

"I think maybe we missed somethin'." Dean answered. Sam nodded his approval of that idea.

"So, what do we do now?" Alex asked, having no idea on what they needed to do. Sam and Dean looked at each other and turned to look at her. "What?" she asked. They walked back to the Impala, and Dean popped the trunks, pulled the floor up and started to grab a few guns out.

"If you're going to stay with us, you're gonna need to know how to use one of these." He answered, handing her a gun.

They headed into the forest, deep, away from everyone. Eventually they came to a spot that Sam and Dean decided was far enough, and they began to show Alex how to use different kinds of guns. How to load, cock and shoot. What to watch out for with them. And aiming. They were persistent with aiming.

She was good, fairly accurate with it. Although they didn't outright say it, Alex knew they were impressed with her skill.

As it got dark, they retrieved more weapons before making their way back to the house. Dean and Sam had given Alex a gun, and, yes, it was loaded. She knew Dean didn't believe in having an unloaded one, as it would be next to useless, and they may need things like that in a hurry. She was surprised by the trust they showed her by giving her the gun, but flattered none the less.

As they made their way to the house, Sam and Dean hid in the shadows, out of habit, more then anything else. Alex tried to copy their movements, but she was sure that compared to them, she was a charging elephant. It was a good thing that they all did that, they realised as they saw the house. Tape covered the entrance, and cops patrolled it, flashlights in hand.

"I guess the cops don't want anymore kids screwin' around in there." Alex observed.

"Yeah, but we still gotta get in." Dean agreed. Everyone lapsed into silence for a second, and Alex rolled her eyes when she heard 'whispering'. They all whipped their heads around to look, Dean seeing them first.

"I don't believe it." Dean whispered. Alex almost choked holding her laughter in when she saw the two geeks running to the house. Harry and Ed had all their equipment with them. Dean shook his head at the ridiculous sight.

"I got an idea." Dean said, looking at the two idiots. He stood behind the trees, and carefully shouted to make sure that the noise seemed to come from the two boys. "Who ya gonna call?" Harry and Ed stopped, lifting some stupid looking, and probably useless, goggles off their eyes at Dean's yell.

"Hey! You!" two of the coppers immediately began to chase after the geeks, and they fled, terrified. While the watchmen were distracted, the trio of hunters slipped into the house, carrying their bag of weapons. Sam handed one of the guns to Dean before giving one to Alex.

Dean and Alex pulled out a torch each, and as they made their way to the cellar, they stopped by the symbol Dean had noticed before.

"Man, where have I seen that symbol before? It's killin' me!" he cried, holding the light up so he could see it. Alex looked at it again, but nothing jumped out at her as being familiar, apart from the first time she saw it.

"Come on, we don't have much time." Sam reminded him, and the rest of the way to the cellar was silent.

Alex and Dean looked around the small room, although Alex wasn't sure what they were looking for. Sam stayed back, looking for any sign of movement, ready to fill it full of the rock salt in their guns.

After Dean and Alex had done a once over of the cellar's contents they walked back to Sam, standing at the bottom of the stairs. The shelves in front of them held a few jars of one rotting thing, or another. Dean picked one up, shining his torch in it.

"Hey, Sam," he called, "I dare you to take a swig of this."

"What the hell would I do that for?" Sam asked, looking at the foul object that had turned to liquid over the years.

"How about you, Alex?" he asked. Alex shook her head at him, and he went silent for a moment, before going at it again. "I double-dare you." He pushed. Alex looked at him, smiled, and Dean suddenly had a bad feeling about it.

"You first." She responded. Sam shook his head at the both of them, rolling his eyes at their stupidity. Before Dean or Alex could make good on the dare, though, a scuttling from a cupboard reminded them what they were there for.

They all raced quietly over to it, Alex on one side of the cupboard, Sam on the other. Dean stood in front of it, ready to shoot the crap out of what ever was inside. At a nod from Dean, Alex and Sam pulled the doors open. Three rats moved, one running out, to Dean.

"Ugh, I hate rats." Dean muttered, stepping away from them.

"You'd rather it was a ghost?" Alex laughed at him. Sam laughed with her, and Dean sent them both a glare.

"Yes." He answered. Alex nodded at him, before noticing something silver catch the light behind Sam and Dean.

"Shit!" she hissed, and Dean and Sam spun around. They both raised their guns, and fired rapidly at it, seeming to have no affect on the apparition. After a few more shots, it dissolved into something resembling a cloud of dark smoke, before disappearing altogether.

"What the hell kind of spirit is immune to rock salt?" Sam yelled, looking at Dean and Alex. Alex just stood there, gun in hand, shivering.

"I don't know." Dean answered. They stood there for a second, until Dean turned, grabbed Alex's wrist and pulled, "Come on, come on, come on." He cried, dragging Alex behind him, Sam bringing up the rear.

As they raced towards the stairs, the spirit, Mordechai, reappeared, and smashed the shelves. After a few of the shelves had been reduced to rubble, it took a shot at Sam. He barley had the gun up in time to save himself from receiving an axe to his brains, and he held the it above his head, holding the spirit, so Alex and Dean could get out.

"Go! Get out of here!" he yelled at them both. After Dean had Alex up the stair and was chasing after her, Sam threw the axe off him and they raced through the house, tumbling out of the door, and breaking the tape that ran around the porch.

Alex had, by now, realised the need for running. She was up before the brothers and almost didn't notice Harry and Ed holding their cameras, filming the whole thing. Dean however, did.

"Get that damn thing out of my face!" he growled at the geeks, following Alex with Sam hot on his heels.

"Sweet Lord of the Rings—run!" they heard Harry's scream, but didn't stop to see what happened. Once they were hidden in the bush surrounding the house, Dean turned to Alex, grabbing her shoulder.

"What the hell was that?" Dean yelled at her, shaking her. Alex tugged out of his grip and glared at him.

"You may have grown up around axe welding maniacs, but that was the first time I saw one." she growled right back at him.

"Guys, we've got to get out here." Sam reminded them. They headed to the car, and rode back to the motel in silence. With out a word, Alex set out her bed and dropped into it, sleep claiming her almost instantly.

A/N: To those who have been suffering through my lack of grammar and correct spelling, HAVE NO FEAR! YOUR SAVIOUR IS HERE! Say a huge heart felt thanks to the best and most patient Beta in the 42 Universes: Wingedteen!

Beta note: The horrific spelling and awkward grammar will stop, guys, I swear!

A/N: I hope between us, we manage to catch most of it. But, don't be afraid to point any mistakes out. Or ask about anything I haven't been quite clear on.

And, for those of you who are wondering, yes, this is an episode of Supernatural, and much of the dialogue is taken directly from it.