Dean rubbed his hand over his face as Cara continued to stare at him incredulously.
"Ok, look I know how this sounds but trust me I'm not insane. This is what we do, we deal with this sort of thing."
"Spirits?" said Cara, as if it was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. Which, Dean reflected, it probably was.
He was saved from having to reply by a chair suddenly flying through the air towards them. Only Dean's quick reflexes saved them both from some serious damage. Throwing himself at Cara they both ended up on the floor as the chair sailed over their heads and crashed against the wall.
"Ok, this thing is really starting to piss me off." said Dean, standing up and holding his hand out to Cara.
She lay on the floor, looking up at him with an expression that was a mix of fear and confusion.
"I get this is a lot to take in, but I really wouldn't recommend staying there." said Dean, with a half smile Cara could just make out in the glow from the flashlight.
She let out an annoyed breath and got up without taking Dean's hand. He rolled his eyes and stepped back, swinging the beam of light round the room to try and see what the spirit's next move would be.
"So you're expecting me to believe that spirits are real and that you and your brother are some sort of ghost hunters?" said Cara and Dean glanced back at her and nodded.
"Something like that." he said.
Cara stood there watching him. He seemed sincere, and he certainly wasn't as phased by the flying furniture and slamming doors as she was. And he wasn't really the dancer type yet he'd worked hard on the routine all day and had sounded genuine when he said he wouldn't mess up her chances on Friday. She suddenly remembered Dean's fall down the stairs the day before.
"Hey, when you fell down the stairs yesterday – was that something to do with this?" she said.
"Well, if you class 'something' as being shoved down the things by the damn spirit, then yeah it was." said Dean, still smarting at the memory.
"And you think this 'spirit' has been the cause of the deaths the competition has had the last few years?" she said.
"Yes. So does this mean you don't think I'm crazy?" said Dean, turning to look at her.
She snorted. "Oh no, I'm still pretty certain you're buckets of crazy but on the other hand I've never known furniture to aim itself at me or doors to spontaneously lock themselves." she said.
Dean raised his eyebrows. "Nice. I guess I should at least be grateful you believe the spirit part."
"I didn't say I believed necessarily.." Cara began, but before she could finish there was a loud banging on the main doors.
Dean tensed, but then almost immediately relaxed as he heard the sound of Sam's voice yelling his name.
"Dean! Can you hear me? Are you in there? Dean!"
Dean jogged across to the doors. "Yes, I can hear you Sam." he called back. "I think the entire state can hear you, would you lower your voice a little?"
He heard Sam huff, even through the wood. "Well excuse me for being concerned, your message was a little cryptic. What's happened?" he said, his voice quickly swinging from mild annoyance back to open worry.
"Casper decided to put in an appearance at last, that's what happened. It's got the doors jammed shut and the window shutters too. Oh yeah, and it's playing frisbee with the furniture. Which is fun, in the dark." said Dean dryly.
Dean could picture Sam's frown. "Uh, is Cara in there with you?" he said.
"Oh yeah, she's here. I explained what's happening." said Dean.
Now he could picture Sam's raised eyebrows. "Are you serious? How did that go?" he said.
"Oh it went fantastic – she thinks I'm insane. Apart from that, she's cool with the whole thing." said Dean.
He heard Sam sigh. "Alright look, I'm gonna go get an axe from the car see if I can break this door down." he said, but Dean was speaking before Sam had even finished.
"No, no, no Sam – that's gonna attract a little attention, don't you think?" he said.
"Well what do you suggest? You want me to ask it nicely if it'll open the door?" said Sam, sounding exasperated.
"Cute. There's gotta be another way to get out other than wrecking the joint. What about the windows? If you could get a ladder up I might be able to get one of these shutters open – it's gotta be easier than the doors." said Dean.
"That's great, but you know what? I left my ladder in my other jacket." said Sam.
Dean closed his eyes and counted to 10. He wondered if normal people ever had days as frustrating as he did.
"Thank you, wise ass. There's a janitor's cupboard downstairs. They're bound to have a ladder around somewhere." he said.
There was a pause as Sam considered the plan. "What about you guys?" he said finally.
"Well, we're not going anywhere. At least not until you bring the damn ladder back!" said Dean, forcing himself not to yell.
"Fine! Just call me when it starts aiming things at your head again." said Sam and Dean heard him stomping off towards the stairs. He shook his head. 23 years old and Sam could still stomp like a teenager.
He turned round, realising Cara had been awfully quiet while he'd been talking to Sam. She was standing a short distance away from him, her arms folded across her chest and a thoughtful look on her face.
"How you doing?" said Dean, trying to act like this was a completely normal situation. Which of course it was, if you were a Winchester. For Cara on the other hand this had to be pretty freaky.
"I was just thinking. Do you suppose you and your brother will ever move past puberty at some point?" she said, in complete seriousness.
Dean blinked. "We're stuck in here with a spirit who's doing his best to take our heads off and you're analysing me and my brother?" he said in disbelief.
She shrugged. "I'm a study of human nature. Besides, it's taking my mind of the fact that I'm trapped in a room with something that does not, in all my knowledge, exist and a crazy man." she said.
Dean rolled his eyes. "And I'm the crazy one?" he said.
At that moment the spirit, obviously feeling left out, made a reappearance. More chairs, followed by Cara's bag, followed by Cara's cassette player all made their way across the room towards them.
"Oh for crying out loud!" muttered Dean, grabbing hold of Cara and ducking down in the corner. He managed to pull the one table in the room in front of them and they both jumped a little as the objects slammed into it.
"Ok any time now would be really great Sammy." said Dean under his breath. As if by magic they suddenly heard someone banging on one of the windows.
Dean managed to crawl out from behind the table, keeping as low as possible, and made his way to the window Sam was pounding on from the outside. The spirit was obviously slightly distracted by all the target practice it was currently engaged in and Dean was able to pry open one of the shutters. He was greeted with the sight of Sam's relieved face through the glass. Dean flashed him a quick grin before setting to work on the lock. It was an old fashioned window and fortunately it opened easily.
"Hey – you ready to go or you wanna stick around for a while?" said Sam with a grin. Dean ignored him, instead gesturing to Cara that she should come and join him. She hesitated briefly, but then crawled out from behind the table and scrambled across the floor to join him.
"You first." said Dean, helping her up onto the window sill. She stepped out onto the ladder and Sam went down first, keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn't miss her footing. As soon as Cara was a few rungs down Dean climbed out himself. As he did so the shutter slammed shut again and he almost fell, slipping down at least 3 rungs.
"Dean!" Sam yelled and Dean waved his hand. "I'm ok." he said, carrying on climbing down now he'd regained his footing.
Finally all three of them were back on solid ground. Dean clapped Sam on the shoulder and flashed him a grin. "Nice job with the ladder, Francis." he said and Sam rolled his eyes but grinned anyway, relieved to see Dean in one piece.
Dean turned to Cara who was looking back up at the window apprehensively as if she expected the spirit to follow them out.
"Hey, you ok?" said Dean and she turned to look at him.
"Are you kidding me? Of course I'm not ok you idiot! I don't know whether to call the cops or the men in white coats. Who the hell are you guys?" she said, throwing her hands up in the air.
Dean and Sam exchanged glances. Dean's look clearly said 'be my guest' and Sam gave Cara a small smile.
"Maybe we should go back to our motel and we can explain this a little better." he said.
For a moment they weren't sure she'd agree but then she came to a decision. "Fine! But I'm driving myself and you should know, I have Mace in my pocket." she said as she stormed off towards her own car.
Dean let out a long breath. "Ok, we are so gonna let her go first. She drives bad enough when she's not pissed." he said.
Sam shook his head. "I can't believe you told her."
Dean glared at him. "What was I supposed to say? The chairs and doors had developed a life of their own? It wasn't really something we could pretend not to notice, Sam." he said and Sam sighed.
"I guess. Well, lets just hope she doesn't go through with her threat to call the cops on us."
"You're such a ray of sunshine. Give me the keys." said Dean as they walked over to the Impala. Sam threw them to him and glanced back at the ladder.
"Shouldn't we clear up here?" he said and Dean shrugged.
"I've a feeling we're gonna be back here later anyway – we'll take care of it then." he said as they got in the car.
Sam glanced out the window as they watched Cara's car screech away from the parking lot. Oh yeah – this was gonna be one interesting conversation.