Chapter Five

Dean was on his fourth grave and despite the freezing cold temperature, sweat poured down his forehead as he rolled his sleeves up, his jacket tossed to the side long ago. Footsteps thumped up behind him and suddenly, a cloud of dirt rained upon him from above,

"Dean…" Sam panted breathlessly,

"Sammy!" Dean greeted, thankful to see his brother and not Brett standing over him to continue telling him of his plans to woo Lola. Dean smirked, "Find anything?"

"Uh…we have a small problem…" Sam mumbled, reaching down a hand to help his older brother out of the hole,

"What?" Dean asked with a frown, drawing up against Sam,

"It's Lola."

"What's she done now?"

"I lost her."

"You lost her…?" Dean repeated carefully, "You lost Lola?"

"She disappeared inside the church!" Sam exclaimed, running his hands through his hair in a panic, "She said she heard voices and then I turned around and she was gone. I couldn't find her anywhere…"

"You," He said, thrusting the spade into Sam's chest, "keep digging. I'll go back inside and find her."

"Dean…" Sam called after his brother,

"Yeah?" Dean asked, turning but continuing to walk, so that he trod backwards,

"Shouldn't we tell Brett?"

"Pfft." Dean spluttered, throwing his arms up into the air, "Forget him…" He chuckled before turning and jogging back the way Sam had come.

- - -

As Dean stepped into the abandoned church, it flooded with the light from his torch, the bright yellowish white filling each corner of the square room. With a heavy sigh, he looked around, not quite knowing where to begin, though he felt a rising panic within the pit of his stomach. He scanned every crevice before spying a small, thin hole in the far corner of the church. He moved towards it cautiously, running his fingers over the warped wood that lined the gap. Upon closer inspection, he realised that it had once been a small doorway. Gripping the edge firmly, he ripped the door open with a heave before ducking to follow a small, narrow staircase down to the basement, bellow the church. He passed the furnace, standing eerily open like a gaping mouth, decorated with awnings of spider webs that stretched across the low corridor. He followed it until he reached another doorway. Turning the handle, he was surprised to find it easy to open. As the door swung open ahead of him, he was stunned at what sat before him. The small, rectangular room was filled with toys. Wooden soldiers in red coats, shaggy toy horse heads a top of sticks for riding, spinning tops and wooden rocking horses lay scattered, but what lay amongst them was the most shocking thing.

Five children, all about the age of seven lay asleep amongst the old toys in their brightly painted colours, still as pristine as they had been the day they were made. Dean looked behind him quickly before edging into the room, moving to gently shake the first child, who stirred slightly, but did not wake. He gently shook another, and another but to no avail, they remained in a deep sleep.

Quickly, Dean ran back to tell Sam and, hesitantly, Brett, who, between the three of them, brought the five missing children back up to ground level and called the emergency services.

- - -

Hours later, as the last of the police cars pulled away for the night, Dean straitened, exchanging looks with Sam,

"We need to find Lola." Sam said firmly to which his brother nodded in agreement, cocking his gun slightly,

"If the children were in the grounds, then she has to be too." Brett said knowledgably, "The light is fading so we'll have to work fast. Why Don't you two continue digging…I'll find her."

"Yeah…" Dean muttered, "I think not. How about you keep digging and we'll look…or is that too much for you to handle?"

Brett narrowed his eyes,

"It was you two bone heads that lost her in the first place." He griped, "She needs a real man to look after her."

"Dude…did you just say 'real man'?" Dean asked, quirking an eyebrow in surprise,

"Okay…you know what…this macho show down is not going to find our friend so let's just focus on burning the bones and finding Lola, okay?"

"Right…" Dean mumbled, "Sam, keep digging."

Sam nodded, picking up the spade again and returning to digging up the graves which was proving tiring. Dean stared at Brett with a sneer,

"Why don't you help?" He suggested. Brett rolled his eyes,

"You've got serious control issues." Brett remarked, "Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Several people." Dean remarked, "But I make a point not to listen to every idiot that comes along."

"Does that come from ignoring your own advice?" Brett quipped,

"GUYS!" Sam yelled, "Focus!"

- - -

Darkness rolled in quickly and Brett was forced to turn on the head lights of his four by four onto the graveyard to aid the winter moonlight. Dean returned, looking defeated,

"I've searched the entire church. She's not in there." He told Sam,

"Well maybe you didn't look hard enough." Brett insisted, climbing out of a grave, "Have you tried looking in the crypts in the churchyard. If I was going to hide a girl, I'd hide her in a crypt."

"I knew there was something creepy about you…" Dean observed, his eyebrows raised, handing Brett his flashlight, "Here. You think that you'd find her in a split second…go ahead…find her…I'm sure she'll be so thankful that an amazing hunter like you Brett has found her." He sneered, turning back to the graves.

As Brett wandered off, Sam turned to glower at Dean,

"Do you think you could pull your head together for once in your life and forget about your hyper-competitive attitude?"

"What?" Dean asked,

"We've got a job to do." Sam reminded Dean, who just rolled his eyes. The two continued digging until the soft giggling drifted over them. Sam froze, looking up, "That's what I heard just before Lola disappeared."

Dean hopped out of the grave and onto the ground. Reaching down a hand to help Sam, he grabbed the shot gun and the pair jogged out into the large, open expanse of the churchyard. Brett soon joined them,

"I heard voices…" He told them seriously.

Dean widened his eyes sarcastically,

"I'm not surprised…" He muttered,

Sam nodded,

"Yeah…us too…"

"And dead people!" Dean joked. Sam scowled,

"Dude!"

"Lola." Dean suddenly said quietly, staring out across through the darkness. The other two followed his gaze across the graveyard to the centre where a lone figure was walking amongst the headstones, "LOLA!" Dean cupped his mouth and yelled. He moved to step forwards but Brett grabbed his arm and pulled him back,

"Dean…wait." He said seriously. Lola stopped and turned though in the darkness they couldn't see her face, only a shadow of an oval where her features should be. Dean shook his arm free, glowering at Brett before charging through the graveyard as Lola continued to move through the yard until she came to a clearing beneath a tree, the moonlight reaching the small portion of grass. Dean stopped to watch as she seemed to begin to skip around in a circle, her hands outstretched as a light snow began to fall upon the village and it's surround fields. She continued to dance, spinning around and around, her laughter drifting across the church yard to the three men, who watched on, perplexed. Dean looked back at Sam who shrugged, "What's going on?" Brett whispered, "Do you think she's possessed?"

"But…she seems harmless…" Sam murmured.

Suddenly, as childish giggles joined Lola's laughter, echoing around the grave markers, Lola grabbed her head in pain and stumbled, prompting Dean to make a move. Brandishing his shot gun he ran through the aisles of stone towards her, sliding along the soft, damp ground on his jean-clad knees in time as she collapsed sideways into his arms. Her head lulled lazily on his shoulder as she coughed, a small spat of blood appearing in her palm,

"Hey…" He soothed, stroking her hair, "Lola…say something…"

"They said…" She trailed off, "They want me to play with them…" She mumbled dozily before coughing again, more violently this time, "They're so lonely…that's why they took the children…they want me to…"

"No." Dean insisted as he took her face between his palms, "Stay awake Lola." He continued calmly, "You're not going anywhere with them…SAM!" Dean yelled across the churchyard, "SAM! BURN THE BONES!"

"Burn the bones…" Sam mumbled, "RIGHT!" He yelled back, turning and running back to the graves, "Just one more to uncover…Brett…open the coffins!"

Brett did as he was told, using the tip of his spade to wedge open each of the fourteen coffins whilst Sam unearthed the fifteenth, digging furiously. Brett ran to his car, snatching up a large container of rock salt and a bottle of lighter fluid as Sam prised open the final coffin lid.

Within a few seconds, each corpse had been dusted with a heavy sprinkling of salt and fluid before both boys lit their lighters and began the arduous process of setting every grave alight.

As the two stood on, watching the burning pits, Sam suddenly remembered Dean and Lola, and without warning, sprinted to his brothers side, who remained sat on the soaking wet grass, his arms around the other hunter. Her eyes drifted open just as he arrived and smiling she gave him a little wave,

"Just in time, Sam…" She mumbled, weakly sitting up, holding her head slightly, "That was…" She trailed off, "They were so lonely…a spirit's never…never reached out to me like that before…they were all so sad."

Dean touched her shoulder gently and gave her a smile,

"We've sent them on now."

"We should burn the church." Brett said seriously, reaching down a hand to help Lola out of Dean's lap, "To stop a repeat."

Lola nodded,

"And then can we get out of here?"

"Sure…I was thinking…dinner?" He smirked. Lola looked at him for a second before nodding,

"Why not? You've proved yourself…" She joked as they wandered back to the church, leaving Sam and Dean to watch on in shock. Sam laughed bitterly,

"Nice to see he gets all the credit…" Sam muttered. Dean didn't answer, only looked at his shoes before letting out a sigh,

"At least we don't have to worry about seeing him again." He muttered as he began to trudge back to the church, "Once we're out of here, we'll be seeing the back of him."

Lola glanced over her shoulder, Brett's arm draped casually over it as she smiled,

"Thank you." She mouthed to the two brothers. Both nodded in response.

- - -

The next morning…

"It's been great working with you guys," Brett said honestly as he extended a hand to shake Sam and Dean's hands. As soon as Sam took the English man's hand, his mobile phone began to ring. He smiled and excused himself, taking his phone from his pocket, he frowned at the screen,

"Dean…it's Maggie…" He said before flipping his phone open and wandering off to answer it. Lola frowned at Dean,

"Who's Maggie?"

"It's a bit complicated…" Dean muttered, "I don't really wanna talk about her."

"Oh…" Lola's face softened before hugging him tightly, "Thanks for coming with me."

"Hey…no problem…you'll have plenty of time to thank me on the way home…" He laughed until he saw her smile falter slightly, "…won't you?"

"I'm not coming back with you guys."

"What? Why?" Dean asked, sounding a little hurt. Lola glanced over her shoulder to Brett who looked away awkwardly, "Oh…I get it…"

"Dean…please…" Lola begged as Dean turned to walk away, "I just…we'll meet again. I promise." She insisted, taking his shoulders gently in her hands, "I need to get away from everything for a little while. Bobby's looking after my truck…I'll give you a call when I'm back in the country."

"What, when you're done here?" He asked with a sneer, "When you get bored?"

"I'm not going to have this conversation with you, okay? Just know that…I care about you a lot, but I need to stay here for my own reasons. I'll give you a call sometime."

"Yeah…well…I won't hold my breath…" Dean remarked as Sam returned, looking pale, "What did she have to say for herself?" Dean asked,

"She needs our help." Sam said seriously, "We need to go."

Dean turned back to Lola, licking his lips in impatience,

"Well I guess I'll see you around then." He grumbled with a half-hearted shrug,

"I guess…" Lola replied, losing her interest, growing weary of Dean's frosty attitude. She turned to Sam and smiled, opening her arms, hugging him tightly, "See you Sam…"

"Are you not coming back with us?" Sam asked,

"No…not for awhile yet…" She admitted, "Call me if you need me." She whispered in his ear. He nodded, placing a kiss on her cheek,

"Bye Lola."

"Later guys." She said with a short wave as they turned to head for the bus stop to begin the long journey back home.