Author's Note: I know it's been ages since I updated and most of you had probably forgotten all about this story; but here's the next chapter anyways. School is finally starting to slow down a little bit and I can hopefully update more regularly now. Anyways, on to the story!!!

Chapter Seven: Into the Black

The sun had just started to sink behind the horizon as Dean's boot clad feet landed solidly on the inside of the chain linked fence surrounding the old Wyatt mansion. Sam dropped quietly down beside him, both of them instantly scanning the yard for any sign of activity since the previous night.

"All right," Dean said, his clear hazel eyes darting back and forth, "let's get our asses down to that basement and finish this thing."

"Amen, brother." Sam retorted.

As though it had been carefully choreographed, they both started for the house, each in perfect step with the other. They had brought more than just their shotguns tonight. After seeing that bad boy, they had come fully prepared for damn near anything, the apocalypse included. Sam toted on his shoulder the army green duffle bag weighted down with holy water, lighter fluid, extra rounds, salt, spare weapons, a couple of different translations of the Bible, pretty much any and everything that they might possibly need.

They took the stairs two at a time and at a hastened pace that they had deemed necessary to avoid falling through them. With only the briefest of hesitations at the top, just long enough to draw a quick breath, they burst through the front door; weapons drawn and ready. There would be no splitting up tonight. After a quick assessment of their surroundings, they started directly for the kitchen. Sam had just followed Dean under the crooked door when they heard the very distinct sound of shuffling coming from behind them. Wordlessly, they split to opposite sides of the door, backs to the wall, ready to blast the son of a bitch to hell as soon as he showed his ugly screaming face.

The assailant came through the door and on reflex, the boys had their rifles cocked and aimed, earning them a very loud, very girly shriek. Dean quickly averted the barrel of his gun up toward the ceiling at the same time Sam angled his own to the floorboards.

Standing in front of them, clad in a rainbow sweater, brown corduroy winter jacket, and bright green gloves, was a tall, lanky redhead with no curves on her body to speak of. And she was still screaming.

"Shut up!" Dean bellowed over her cries.

The redhead closed her mouth, but she kept her hands spread at her shoulders as though she were about to be arrested. "I don't have any money." She whimpered.

"Oh, Christ." Dean grumbled with a roll of his eyes.

"We don't want your money." Sam said, pressing the tips of his fingers into his eyes.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Dean demanded, annoyance just as evident in his voice as it was on Sam's face.

"Um, I'm Janie," the girl stumbled over her words, "I'm here with my friends."

As if on cue, a voice from the foyer called out, "Janie! Why did you scream?"

"Are you okay?" a second voice came.

"Oh, that's just great." Dean said, resisting the urge to punch a hole in the wall or shoot one of them just for the hell of it. "Sweetie, you need to get your friends and get the hell out of here."

Just then, one of her friends came ducking under the door. She looked around with wide brown eyes. "Sam?" she said as her gaze landed on him, then she turned and spotted the elder Winchester as well.

"Liv," Sam said, drawing her attention back to him, "you guys really shouldn't be here."

"We just came to get drunk and have a few laughs." She replied with a cheeky grin, "I mean, you guys are more than welcome to join us. You want a beer?"

Apparently, the fact that the brothers were each carrying a weapon had escaped her attention. A big beefy guy with a buzz cut who was wearing a camouflage hunting parka and jeans and lugging a twelve pack of MGD in each hand came hunched over beneath the door next.

"Great," Dean muttered again, "now it's a party."

"Guys," Liv said, still thinking they could all go outside and have a good old time, "this is Sam and Dean. They're old friends of Dani's. Sam, Dean, this is Janie and Todd."

"Well, as nice as it is to meet you and we really don't want to seem rude, but…"

Dean cut his brother off, "Would you scram already?"

"Who pissed in this guy's Cheerios?" Todd spat.

Liv jumped in between them just as Dean took a threatening step toward buzz boy, "Okay, boys, let's play nice."

That was the moment the fourth and final member of their party came crouching through the doorway, straightening and immediately focusing in on Dean's hazel eyes, which were flashing gold, letting her know that he was angry. And once they locked onto her, the gold burned even brighter.

"Oh, hell no!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, boy." Sam groaned.

Dani stood there frozen in her tracks with her mouth agape; trying to think of what to say but it seemed that her entire vocabulary had left her brain. Dean reached over and caught her by the sleeve, pulling her firmly, but as gently, at least what was gentle for him, over to him.

"What do you think you're doing here?" he hissed.

"I couldn't talk them out of coming here," she tried to explain, "and I figured you would be less inclined to shoot them if I were with them."

"Well, you're wrong about that." He quipped, his eyes widening in an almost manic expression.

"Plus with me here, you'll be able to find Tate faster and this'll all be over." She reasoned.

Dean's jaw kept clenching and unclenching as he searched her blue eyes with his own, trying to figure out what to do. Dani met his unwavering stare with one of her own, refusing to back down. She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked a hip, settling in. She wanted him to know that she wasn't planning on going anywhere and she could be just as stubborn as him, damn it. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision.

"If you leave my side…" he began.

"I won't." Dani stated.

"And if things start to get ugly…"

"I'll run like hell."

"Faster."

"Okay."

Dean let out a frustrated breath and turned to face the rest of the crowd, claiming a vice-like grip on Dani's hand. "All right, then." He said, his gaze scanning each of the faces before him.

The redhead who had screamed at a pitch high enough to shatter glass wasn't looking at him though.

"Wow," she chirped, taking a step away from them, "look at that door. It's so black."

Sam instinctively caught her by the upper arm and slung her to his other side, placing his own body between her and the doorway.

"Hey, you're hurting me." She whined.

"Okay, listen to me…"

"Janie." She supplied for him, rolling her bright green eyes.

Sam nodded, "Yeah, listen to me, Janie, in places like this it's generally a good idea to NOT go wandering off on your own."

Janie scrunched up her lightly freckled face and twisted her arm out of his grasp, "Who is this guy?"

"That's a good question." Todd grunted, taking a step forward and leaning so he was talking directly into Sam's face, "Just who do you think you are to come in here and start bossin' us all around?"

"Hey!" Dean snapped, "In case you forgot, baldy, you're the ones who came barging in on us."

"Hey, no offense Dani," Janie said, pivoting to face Dani and Dean, "but your friends are assho..." Her sentence was cut short with a scream as the floor gave out beneath her and she fell through, barely managing to catch herself by spreading her arms.

Dean and Sam were both beside her in the bat of an eye, pulling her up by her arms.

"Ha!" Dean said, "You said I would be the first one to fall through!"

"I know, I know," Sam admitted, "I owe you ten bucks."

They pulled the redhead out of the newly made hole in the floor and righted her on her feet. Dani stepped up to her with her arms crossed; face set in a stern expression. "What was that you were saying about my friends?"

Janie stared at the shorter but no less intimidating woman in front of her; finding it very difficult to swallow all of the sudden. Dean, who was hiding a smirk, discreetly tugged both women a little bit closer to the wall, as they were standing too close to the hole in the floor for his taste. Todd, always to be relied upon, turned his attention back to Sam and pushed him in the chest with the heel of his hand. Apparently, he was still determined to get some answers.

"What the hell?" Sam exclaimed.

"I asked you a question!" Todd shouted.

"Would you mind keeping your voice down?" Sam said, his eyes quickly checking all directions throughout the room before focusing again on the lughead in front of him.

Liv looked at him with a questioning expression on her pretty face as she shoved a strand of her dark brown hair back behind an ear. "Okay," she said, forcing a smile on her face and placing one hand on Sam's shoulder, "we're all here to have a good time," she didn't catch Dean's snort in the background, "so I think everyone should just chill out and calm down."

That was when all of their flashlights began to sputter and everyone who was carrying one slapped their respective light against an open palm.

"Oh, shit." Dani breathed, staring down at her dying flashlight and tightening her fingers around Dean's hand.

He responded in kind, pulling her in a little closer to him and whispering, "Don't worry, you're not going anywhere."

A loud shriek suddenly curdled up out of Liv's throat just before she turned and buried her head in Sam's chest, whose arm went around her shoulders on reflex. He looked in the direction that she had been staring when she screamed, just as everyone else did the same thing.

"Oh, my God!" Janie screamed and latched onto the person that was standing closest to her, which at the moment just happened to be Dean.

Todd stumbled back a few steps, then tripped over his damn feet and fell flat onto his ass.

"Wait, wait," Sam shushed, never taking his eyes off of the young girl in the pale pink dress that stood no more than five feet away from them, "everybody just calm down, okay?"

An image of the little girl as she had been when she was vibrant and alive flashed through Dani's mind as she stared at her now. She paid particular attention to the bruises at her neck and wrists, feeling a wave of sadness wash over her. A tear slid down her cheek as she thought about what had befallen that sweet, innocent little child for no reason other than that she had gone down the stairs after her favorite toy.

Dean couldn't believe the emotions that welled up inside of him at the sight of this girl. He felt such a rush of sorrow that it nearly brought him off of his feet and to his knees. He understood what Sam had been saying now, about wanting to help her. He felt almost overcome with the urge to help her; to rescue this child.

Sam pried Liv away from him as tenderly as he could and started to walk toward the pale little spirit. Liv clutched violently to his arm and began shaking her head, "No, no, no." she kept repeating.

"Hey," Sam said, turning to her, "it's okay. Just stay right here, okay? I mean it. Don't move from this spot."

Liv slowly uncurled her fingers from the sleeve of his coat and nodded, her eyes intent on the toes of the fashionable white snow boots that the bottom of her jeans were tucked into. Sam walked past her and steadily approached where the young girl remained, staring at him, waiting patiently.

"Hey, Katherine." He said.

There was the barest hint of a smile on her face as he said her name. It vanished so quickly though that Sam could have very imagined it. She blinked those dead eyes at him, "Don't let him hurt me anymore. Don't let him hurt us anymore."

"Who else is he hurting, Katherine?" Sam asked.

Katherine's lifeless gaze bounced over his shoulder. He followed her lead, craning his neck to look behind him. Dani turned her head in the same direction as well. She gasped and shifted her weight into Dean, throwing them both back against the wall; taking Janie, who was still attached to Dean's arm along with them. Liv covered her face with her hands, slamming her back into the wall and sinking to the floor in tears. Todd fainted.

Standing in front of the doorway to the pantry wearing an ankle length blue dress and long white apron, her dirty red hair hanging limply around her shoulders was the woman that Dani had seen drop the jar of jam in her vision. She had the same markings that Katherine and Dani herself possessed. She stared at Sam for a moment, then turned around and disappeared behind the closed pantry door. Sam turned back to Katherine.

"Are there more?" he asked.

The little girl just nodded somberly to him.

"Your sisters?"

She nodded again, her frowning face breaking his heart.

"I'm gonna help you, Katherine." Sam said, "Me and my brother, we're gonna help you."

Katherine blinked one more time at him, touched her hand to his, filling him once again with a dreadful cold feeling; then she turned her back to him and vanished into the air.

"W-w-was that a r-real ghost?" Janie asked, her face pressed into Dean's shoulder.

"No," Dean responded, "No, that was a werewolf."

"Oh, my God." She said again.

"Yeah, okay." Dean said and began trying to detach himself from the simpering redheaded string bean.

Sam spun around and strolled back over to the group purposefully. It was time for them to get back to business and quit messing around. He took in the sight before him. Todd had just roused, Dani was staring off in the direction that Katherine had disappeared, Liv was on the floor with her face buried in her knees, and Dean was brushing off Janie's groping hands as she kept trying to get another hold on him.

"All right," Sam snapped, "you three need to get out of here, right now."

"Us three?" Janie said, abandoning her pursuit of Dean's body, much to his relief, "There are four of us."

"Dani's staying with us." Dean stated bluntly.

Liv's head snapped up at his words. "What?" she exclaimed, "I don't think so!"

Sam turned to look at her as she stared up at him with lines of mascara streaking down her cheeks from where she had been crying. "Yes, she is." He said.

"Okay, listen!" Liv said, spreading her arms out wide but still not rising from the floor, "Either somebody slipped something pretty heavy into my gin and tonic earlier or this place is honest to God haunted! Either way, Dani is not staying here! She's coming home with us!"

The moment she finished her little diatribe, her body was ripped viciously from the wall as though someone had tied a rope around her ankles and pulled. Sam dropped to his knees and caught her by the wrists as she went flying past him. Dean was instantly by his side with a grip on her forearms. The three of them flew towards the black void that led to the basement; but Dean and Sam managed to lock their legs against the doorframe while keeping a hold of Liv's arms, stopping them from being sucked all the way through.

"Liv!" Dani cried, rushing forward to help them.

"No!" Dean shouted at her, "Dani, you stay back!"

A high pitched siren scream rang out through the room; causing both Janie and Todd to cover their ears with their hands. The two of them huddled together and crouched down, tucking themselves into the corner of the kitchen. Dani was standing in what she deemed to be the dead center of the kitchen as Sam and Dean struggled to keep her best friend from ending up in that basement. She felt an unnatural shiver go sliding down her spine like a slug. Slowly, she turned her face and peered over her shoulder.

The sickeningly pale green face sneered at her, revealing the rows of sharpened pointed teeth and ashen gray eyes. Dani pivoted around on the balls of her feet and took an untidy step back away from it.

"Dean!" she cried, "Sam!"

Dean looked up first, followed immediately by Sam.

"Damn it, get away from her!" Dean bellowed, his grip unknowingly slipping a little on Liv's arm.

She slid a little bit farther into the blackness and screamed, causing Sam's attention to snap back to her and Dean tightened his hold on her forearm once again. He could do nothing but watch as the malevolent spirit floated steadily closer and closer to Dani and he screamed his frustration out through gritted teeth.

Dani found herself paralyzed by the glowing gray eyes in front of her, and it felt as though the cuts on her stomach had reopened. She wanted with everything in her to take another step backwards, but she stood there immobilized by her panic. Flashes of memories of that basement and her torture floated through her mind and her jaw tightened. She would not end up on that damn slab again. Slowly, she reached her hand around behind her for her waistband. In one fluid motion, she drew the handgun from her jeans, swung it around, and fired right between those damn glowing eyes. The apparition dissipated and at the exact same instant, Liv's back hit the floor and she went scrambling backwards away from the doorway. Sam dove after her and the brunette threw her arms around his neck and clung to him, sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder. Dean got to his feet and walked over to where Dani stood.

She clutched one hand to her side, which had started bleeding again and the other trembling hand held her gun. Dean brushed his hand over her hair, then grasped her by the back of the neck and pulled her into an embrace. A rustling noise in the corner sent a fresh surge of adrenaline through each of them. Dani spun towards it and aimed her gun at the same time Dean countered so that he was positioned as a human shield in front of the majority of her body. They both let out a breath and Dani lowered her arm as Janie and Todd rose awkwardly to their feet, still pressed against the wall for support.

"Did that really just happen?" Janie asked.

"Afraid so, cupcake." Dean replied, turning his body once again toward Dani.

"So, those were real ghosts?" Todd said.

"Oh, for the love of…do you need it spelled out for you, People?" Dean snapped, "Yes, those were ghosts. Yes, this is really happening. And a big fat resounding yes! This house is actually haunted!"

Todd audibly gulped as his eyes began darting around the room and Janie's chin began to quiver. Dean rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Dani, dropping to a knee in front of her.

"Here," he said, reaching for the hem of her shirt, "let me get a look at that."

"It's fine." Dani said, wincing as he pulled the material up and away from the sensitive skin.

Dean peeled part of the white bandage away from her stomach to check on her wounds. They had started to bleed again, but it wasn't gushing; just a mild trickle really. He smoothed the gauze back over it with a frown tugging at the corners of his full lips and dropped her shirt back down before he pushed himself up to his feet.

"You're all right for now," he said, "but we gotta change those bandages when we get back to the house."

Dani nodded, running her hand over her tender abdomen. Sam had finally managed to calm Liv down; at least to the point where she wasn't hyperventilating anymore. He climbed to his feet, then took hold of her underneath her arms and lifted her up as well and walked her over to join the others. Dani instantly moved to wrap her arms around her friend, the two girls crying onto each other's shoulders.

"So, are we doin' this?" Sam asked.

"You bet your ass we are." Dean replied.

"Okay," Sam said, touching Liv's back, "come on, Liv."

Sniffling, Liv pulled back from Dani and looked over her shoulder at Sam. "What?" she asked, wiping her palm over her cheeks.

"You two," Sam said turning to Todd and Janie, "you need to get Liv out of here as fast as you can."

"Yeah," Dean tacked on, "get in your car and get the hell away from this place."

Liv grabbed Dani's forearm, "Not without Dani."

"Liv, I have to stay." Dani said.

"Dani, it's not safe here." Liv pleaded, "You saw what just happened! I'm not going to just leave you here, now come on!"

Dean and Sam shared a look, each of them thinking seriously about telling Dani to just go; to get out; to leave the house and not look back.

"Do you think I want to stay here?" Dani said, fresh tears spilling from her eyes, "No, I don't..."

"Then come home with me."

"But I have to stay."

"No, Dani…" Liv started.

"Okay, look," Dean cut her off, taking Liv by the arm and walking her across the room over to where Todd and Janie stood, "I'm sorry, but we really don't have time to stand around talking about this. You, you, and you: out!"

"Yeah, okay." Janie said quickly and ducked through the doorway.

"Dani!" Liv said.

"Would you please get her out of here!" Sam spat.

Todd seemed to debate with himself for a second, then nodded, grabbed Liv by the waist and carried her out of the room. They could hear her screaming at him the entire way out of the house. Dean bent over and picked up the duffle bag that Sam had dropped to the floor at some point, letting out a low whistle as he stood back up, slinging the bag over his shoulder.

"I do not envy him, right now." He said.

"Yeah," Sam agreed, "Your friend Liv is a handful."

Dani smiled, "You have no idea…but if we make it out of this alive, you probably will."

"Why do you say that?" Sam asked.

"She holds grudges." Dani answered.

"Onto less frightening subjects…let's go find Tate!" Sam chimed, picking up his gun and cocking it.

The three grouped together and moved to stand in front of the eerie doorway, staring with that could only be described as dread into the narrow nothingness of the stairwell. Dani stood in between the two brothers; who were both casting her concerned looks.

"You sure you want to do this?" Sam asked her.

"I am one hundred percent sure that I do not want to do this." She replied.

"Well," Dean chirped, a cocky grin playing across his lips, "now that that's settled, let's go get this son of a bitch!"

Dani nodded, Sam took a steadying breath, and Dean was the first one to put his foot down on the top stair.

Author's Note: That's it for now. I promise that my next update will be much quicker than this one. But, please, please, please, let me know what you think. Thanks!!!