The following evening the place looked as they figured it would; crime scene tape, boarded up doors and windows, police cruiser parked out front. All things you'd typically see when someone was found dead. The cop was sleeping in his squad car so that would make things significantly easier. As they neared the house, the sound of oncoming hoof beats stopped them.
Kayla took a step back when she saw one in the corner of a field. A man on horseback, no, a ghost on horseback. They faded in and out before coming straight at them with the accompaniment of four others.
"Night Riders." Sam breathed.
"What the hell are night riders?" He wasn't comfortable with huge ghost horses.
"Night Riders were the bounty hunters for the Reverse Underground Railroad. They kidnapped people to be sent down south. Crenshaw kept a few on his payroll."
They weren't stopping to chat. The three of them ran the rest of the way to the house; Dean avoided the boarded door altogether and broke a window for them to climb through. "I guess they don't like visitors."
The crying they'd heard earlier was different now. There was only one voice coming from the attic; a heavy sobbing that sounded like a woman.
Kayla exchanged looks with Dean. "I'm not a big fan of going back into the attic. I'd much rather go out to the cemetery and burn the bodies."
"Where there's a little issue getting in the back with freakin bounty hunters riding around."
A long wail drifted down the staircase. "What if it's not a ghost? What if someone's up there?" Off his look she swallowed hard. "Fine, I'll go first."
Wanting to get it over with quickly, she jogged up the two flights of stairs to the attic. When she pushed the door open there was nothing to see, but the crying was coming from one of the cells.
"Hello?"
"Don't take her! Please!"
She glanced back to Dean before moving forward; a faint light was coming from one of the doors. Before they could get to it a woman came huffing out of the room carrying a baby; the ghost of Crenshaw's wife, Francine Crenshaw.
"Too many girls too many girls! Have to keep throwing them out!" She looked up and saw them. "Who are you? No one's allowed up here!" A demonic growl rose in her throat and she dropped the baby to reach for a weapon, it disappeared before hitting the floor.
Dean pushed to the front now, he could handle her. He took a swing with his iron rod while Kayla went past her to the room. A woman lay on a cot that was covered in blood with the rest of the room from giving birth. She was sobbing hysterically.
"Don't take another one, God don't take another one…"
Kayla reached for her but as she did, she stopped crying.
"I'm sorry." Then she disappeared. What the hell was going on? The small cell looked clean and neat as it did before, with only a lit lantern on the floor to prove something was there. As she turned to leave she heard a metallic 'clink' and stopped. "Dean?" She took another step forward but her foot didn't come with her. She was chained to the floor. "Dean!"
A shadowy figure drifted in front of the door and moments later Dean was there. "What the hell?"
"Dean there's someone else here. He went…"
Too late. He went flying back in a cloud of black smoke. John Crenshaw stood in front of him. Suddenly the crying came back, series of wails and cries echoed through the attic.
Kayla could see them now, the slaves in the cells, bloodied and beaten waiting for the next horror to come around. They were chained to the floor as she was. They weren't angry spirits, they were being kept by Crenshaw even in death. This guy definitely had to go.
Dean pulled out his gun, salt rounds would have to do. "Sam get to the cemetery."
"What about the riders?"
"Start horse whispering man go burn the bodies!" He fired a round into Crenshaw and he disappeared, only to be replaced by Mrs. Crenshaw.
Sam jumped down the stairs and nearly ran over the cop trying to get up them.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing here?!"
"Officer I'm sorry, it's kind of an emergency." He pushed past him and found a window in the kitchen facing the back field; the cemetery was just over the hill. The cop grabbed him by the shoulder and he grabbed his arm. "Listen to me! We have to get rid of these guys. Look out the window, you see them?"
The cop took a quick glance them backtracked to stare. "Is someone riding horses out there?"
"Come on." He busted the window and hopped out, snatching up the shovels they'd left the day before from under the porch before booking it to the cemetery.
