A/N: Here's another chapter.
It's been a few weeks since we split off from John. All of our wounds have healed up nicely, no gnarly scars in sight. I lay down in the oddly comfortable back seat as we drive down interstate 35. Sure, it's not safe if we get in an accident, but what are the odds of that? I hear Sammy's soft snores and look up at him sleeping. He looks so peaceful. I get the urge to mess with him, but Dean beats me to the punch. I see him grab a plastic spoon and put it in Sam's slightly omen mouth. I try really hard not to laugh.
Dean sees me in the rearview mirror and holds up a finger in front of his mouth. Then he hands me his phone and mimes that he wants me to take a picture. I open his flip phone and snap a picture. The kid doesn't wake up from the noise. I hand the phone back to him and he decides to blast the music to wake up little Sammy. Sam is startled awake and swats the spoon from his mouth. I start laughing and Dean starts hitting the steering wheel to mimic the drums in the music blasting through the speakers.
"Ha, ha." Sam says as he turns down the music. He is not amused. "Very funny."
"I thought so." I chuckle in the back.
"Heh, heh, heh. Sorry," Dean laughs. "Not a lot of scenery here in East Texas. Kinda gotta make your own."
"Man, we're not kids anymore Dean." Sam sounds so serious. "We're not gonna start that crap up again."
"Start what up?" Dean asks.
"That prank stuff." Sam clarifies. "It's stupid, and it always escalates."
"Aww." I say. "Is poor little Sammy scared of getting a bit of blue dye in his body wash?" I laugh. That brings back memories. That was probably the best prank I ever did.
"Ooo. That was a good one." Dean smiles. "The best part was that I put Nair in his shampoo that same day." We both laugh again.
"Alright." Sam says. "Just remember, you guys started it." He warns us.
"Oh ho, bring it on baldy Smurf." Dean jokes.
"Where are we anyway?" Sam asks.
"A few hours outside of Richardson." Dean informs us. "Gimme the lowdown again?" Sam grabs the paper on the dashboard and starts reading it.
"Alright, about a month or two ago this group of kids goes pokin' around in this local haunted house." Sam says.
"Haunted by what?" I ask.
"Apparently, a pretty misogynistic spirit." Sam answers. "Legend goes, it takes girls and strings them up in the rafters."
"Yikes." I add as I look at the paper over his shoulder.
"Anyway this group of kids see this dead girl hanging in the cellar."
"Anybody ID the corpse?" Dean asks.
"Well, that's the thing. By the time the cops got there the body was gone. So cops are saying the kids were just yanking chains." Sam informs.
"Maybe the cops are right?" Dean says.
"Maybe, but I read a couple of the kids firsthand accounts. They seemed pretty sincere."
"And where exactly did you read these accounts, little Sammy?" I ask leaning over the back of the front seat. He scoffs and looks out the side window before answering.
"Well, I knew we were going to be passing through Texas. So, um, last night, I surfed some local…paranormal websites. And I found one." I roll my eyes and smile at his answer.
"And what's it called?" Dean asks. Sam looks away, seeming to get embarrassed.
" " I burst out laughing.
"That's such a cheesy name." I say as I continue to laugh.
"Stop it, Shel." Sam says to me.
"Lemme guess, streaming live out of Mom's basement." Dean says with a huge smile.
"Yeah, probably." Sam smiles.
"Yeah. Most of those websites wouldn't know a ghost if it bit 'em in the persqueeter." Dean says. There's a slight pause before Sam starts speaking again.
"Look. We let Dad take off. Which was a mistake, by the way. And now we don't know where the hell he is, so meantime we gotta find ourselves something to hunt. There's no harm checking this thing out." He says. The mood is a bit less light after Sam brings up John.
"Alright, so where do we find these kids?" Dean asks.
"Same place you always find kids in a town like this." Sam answers.
"Yeah, some food place." I say. "But we should get a room first. Kids don't gather until after dark." I wink at Dean in the rearview mirror.
"Right you are little missy." Dean says, smirking at me. Once in town, we get a hotel room and wait until nightfall. After sun down we head to a local fast food hangout, Rodeo Drive. We park out front and head inside.
As we start to ask questions about the house, we get differing stories about what actually happened. Walls are black, or red, or painted with blood. The girl hanging from the rafters had black, or blonde, or red hair. The girl was hanging limp, or kicking. Wow. It was all over the map. We ask them where they heard about the house from and they point us in the direction of some kid named Craig. We head to the record shop where he's said to work. I can't believe it's still open so late. We walk in, and a kid putting records away greets us.
"Gentlemen. Can I help you with anything?" He says.
"Excuse me?" I say. He looks at me and starts to stutter as he tries to apologize. I start to smile. "I'm just yankin' your chain kid." I say as I wink at him. Dean wraps an arm around my shoulders as Sam speaks.
"So, are you Craig Thurston?"
"I am." He answers.
"Well we're reporters with the Dallas Morning News. I'm Dean, this is Sam, and this lovely lady is my girl Shelby." Dean tells the kid as he pulls me tighter.
"No way. Well I'm writer too." The kid's face almost lights up as he continues to put away the records in his hand. "I write for my school's lit magazine."
"Well, good for you Morrissey." Dean comments as he starts to look through the records next to us. I join him. We've always had a similar taste in music. That helps when you're stuck in a car with someone for a long period of time. If you don't have similar tastes, your ride is gonna seem so much longer.
"Umm. We're doing an article on local hauntings and rumor has it you might know of one." Sam says.
"You mean the Hell House?" Craig doesn't look so excited anymore.
"That's the one." I say, looking up from the records.
"I didn't think there was anything to the story." Craig says, shaking his head.
"Why don't you tell us the story." Sam prompts the kid. He puts the last record in it's place, looks around, and heaves a big sigh before telling us the story.
"Well, supposedly back in the '30s, this farmer, Mordachai Murdoch, used to live in this house with his six daughters." He says as he walks back to the checkout counter. Dean and I continue to look through the records as Sam follows him. "It was during the Depression, his crops were failing, he didn't have enough money to feed his own children. So I guess that's when he went off the deep end."
"How?" Sam asks. Dean and I finally join them.
"Well, he figured it was best if his girls died quick, rather than starve to death." Craig says, shifting his eyes to each of us. "So he attacked them. They screamed, begged for him to stop but he just strung 'em up, one after the other. And when he was all finished he just turned around and hung himself." For some reason I don't believe this kid's story. "Now they say that his spirit is trapped in the house forever, stringing up any other girl that goes inside."
"I guess I should stay away then." I say sarcastically.
"Where'd you hear all this?" Dean asks.
"My cousin Dana told me." He says after a slight pause. "I don't know where she heard it from. Ya gotta realize, I-I didn't believe this for a second."
"But now you do." Sam points out.
"I don't know what the hell to think, man." The kid replies quietly. "You guys, I-I'll tell you exactly what I told the police, ok? 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, ok?" He seems freaked out, but I don't know.
"Thanks." Dean says and we head out, back to the hotel. We do a bit of research before getting a bit of sleep. I'm on one bed, and the boys sleep back to back on the other bed. In the morning we head to the hell house. We slush through the muddy path to the creepy looking house and I'm glad I wore my waterproofed combat boots.
"Can't say I blame the kid." Sam says as the house comes into view.
"Yeah, so much for curb appeal" Dean adds.
"I'm a bit surprised it hasn't crumbled from age yet." I say. We start to look around the outside of the house, looking through the windows, looking for anything that would tip us off to something that we can deal with. I look over to Dean and see that he has an EMF device. Sam and I walk over as it starts making sounds.
"You got something?" I ask as he taps the glass.
"Yeah." Dean stretches out the word a bit. "The EMF's no good."
"Why?" Sam asks.
"I think that thing's still got a little juice in it." He gestures to the power lines overhead. "It's screwing with all the readings."
"Yeah, that'd do it." Sam says
"Yeah, come on, let's go." Dean says as he heads to the front door. We head inside the creepy house and start to look around. Dean lets out a low whistle as we start walking around. I see Sam take out his phone as we walk into the first room to our right. The walls look like they're in the process of crumbling. "Looks like old man Murdock was a bit of a tagger here in his time." I look at the spray-painted symbols on the wall.
"And after his time too. That reverse cross has been used by Satanists for centuries but this sigil of sulfur didn't show up in San Francisco until the '60s." Sam spouts as I smile.
"That is exactly why you never get laid." Dean says as Sam takes a picture of the symbol. I lightly punch Dean in the shoulder.
"Stop it." I say, almost laughing. Dean moves to look at another wall as I just stand in the middle of the room trying to take everything in.
"Hey what about this one, you seen this one before?" Dean asks. I walk up to his right and scrunch up my face.
"It looks familiar, but-" I look at Sam as he walks up to the other side of Dean. "What about you, bookworm? You seen it before?"
"No." He answers simply.
"I have." Dean says. "Somewhere." Sam goes up and touches it.
"It's paint. Seems pretty fresh too." He says.
"I don't know Sam." Dean says as he turns around to look at the rest of the room. "I mean, I hate to agree with authority figures of any kind, but…the cops may be right about this one."
"Yeah, maybe." Sam says as he goes to take another picture. Suddenly, a noise is heard by all of us in another room. We look to where the noise came from and see a closed door. Quietly we walk over. Dean goes to the right of the door and Sam and I go to the left. Dean gestures that we should go in, and he opens the door. The three of us rush in only to have flashlights pointed in our eyes. We stop, covering our eyes to prevent blindness.
"Oh, cut!" Someone in front of us says. "It's just a few humans." I look at the two guys in front of us, now that their lights are off.
"What're you three doing here?" The other guy asks us.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Dean asks.
"Ah-ha. We belong here, we're professionals." The first guy says.
"Professional what?" I ask.
"Paranormal investigators." That first guy says with a smirk to me. He reaches into a pocket of his shirt and pulls out three business cards, holding them out to us. "There you go, take a look at that." I reluctantly take one and look at the cheaply made info card.
"Oh, you gotta be kiddin' me." Dean says. I look up at them and the guy who handed us the cards winks at me. I cringe as Sam reads the names on the card.
"Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spengler. . You guys run that website." The second guy, I think it's Harry, points to the person each name belongs to.
"Yeah." Ed confirms.
"Oh, yeah, yeah. We're huge fans." Dean says sarcastically as he walks past them to look at something.
"And ahh, we know who you guys are too." Ed says.
"Oh yeah?" I ask.
"Amateurs." Ed clarifies. I roll my eyes as Dean opens a cabinet. "Looking for ghosts and cheap thrills."
"Yeah. So if you guys don't mind, we're trying to conduct a serious scientific investigation here." I almost burst out laughing at Harry's words. I cross my arms over my chest and pop my hip out. Talk about amateurs.
"Yeah, what have you got so far?" Dean asks, continuing to look through the objects on and around the cabinet.
"Harry, why doncha tell 'em about EMF?" Ed prompts his friend?
"Well-"
"EMF?" Sam asks, acting dumb.
"Electromagnetic field?" Ed says, acting like a big man. "Spectral entities can cause energy fluctuations that can be read with an EMF detector." He grabs his little EMF device and turns it on. "Like this bad boy right here." It starts making noises like our own EMF detector did. The three of us look at each other and try not to laugh as the two guys in front of us start freaking out about the thing going off.
"Wow." Sam says.
"You know I heard that power lines can give off those electromagnetic frequencies and mess with EMF detectors." I say. They look at me in surprise.
"Yeah, but those power lines over head are so old. They're not really in use anymore." Harry tries to cover his tracks with some bullshit excuse to seem smarter than me. What and idiot.
"Huh. So you guys ever really seen a ghost before, or..." Dean asks.
"Once." Ed answers dramatically as he looks over his shoulder at Dean. "We were, uh...we were investigating this old house and we saw a vase fall right off the table."
"By itself." Harry adds.
"Well, we, we we we didn't actually see it, we heard it. And something like that...it uh...it changes you." Ed says. I have to turn around and hold a hand to my mouth to keep myself from laughing in their faces.
"Yeah. I think I get the picture. We should go, let them get back to work." Dean says as he walks back towards Sam and I.
"Yeah, you should." Ed says.
"Sam, Shel." Dean says as he walks past us.
"Yeah, work." Ed giggles. "Did you see how into me she was?" A shiver runs up my spine. "I'm sorry. That pot we smoked gave me the giggles."
"Charming." I whisper. Dean drapes his arm over my shoulder again and kisses my temple.
"I'll protect you from the big bad paranormal investigators, sweetheart." He says in my ear. His words make me giggle, and the three of us head back to town. Sam hits the library, and Dean and I head to the police station. We meet back up in front of the library a few hours later.
"Hey." Sam says.
"Hey." Dean and I respond at the same time.
"What do you got?" Dean asks.
"Well I couldn't find a Mordechai but I did find a Martin Murdock who lived in that house in the '30s." Sam says as he shows us the notes he took with his research. "He did have children but only two of them, both boys, and there's no evidence he ever killed anyone." He closes his notes.
"Huh." Dean says.
"What about you guys?" Sam asks.
"Well those kids didn't really give us a clear description of that dead girl but we did hit up the police station. No matching missing persons. It's like she never existed." I answer as we reach the impala. Dean and I head to the driver's side, and Sam walks to the passenger side.
"Dude, come on, we did our digging, man, this one's a bust all right. For all we know those hellHound boys made up the whole thing." Dean says over the roof of the car. Sam looks around and takes a breath.
"Yeah, alright." Sam reluctantly gives in.
"I say we find ourselves a bar and some beers and leave the legend to the locals." Dean says as he opens his door and gets in the car.
I look to Sam as he smirks to me, holding up a hand for me to wait. He leans down to look in the window. Dean turns the impala on and the radio starts blasting latin dance music. I laugh out loud as Dean is startled. He tries to quickly turn the music off. When he turns the nob the music goes off, but the windshield wipers turn on. I have to say it was pretty good, but little Sammy's gotten a bit rusty. Once Dean turns everything off, Sam and I get in the car. Sam mimes himself getting one point for that.
"Oh, please." I say. "That's a half a point at most."
"That's all you got?" Dean asks. "That's weak. That is bush league." With that we head back to the hotel for a bit.
"Hey guys, I'm gonna go get some snacks. You want anything?" I ask them.
"Maybe some chips or something." Sam says. "I'm not picky."
"Alright." I say, looking to Dean. "How 'bout you, hot stuff."
"Surprise me." He says, not even lookin' at me.
"Okay, I'll be back." I say as I leave, taking a key so I can get back in. I head to a small grocery store. I grab chips, some sodas, and then go to the candy section for something specific. I hope this place has it or something similar. I spot it and a smile makes its way to my face. I grab one of the chocolate bars, and then a different one of a similar size and shape. I check out and decide to switch the wrappers on the candy bars. I start eating one of them outside the room and head inside. "I'm back." I say with my mouth half full of chocolate.
"What'd you get me, sweetheart." Dean says coming to stand behind me as I close the door. He grabs me around the waist and pulls me close.
"A candy bar." I answer as I turn around in his arms
"A candy bar?" He seems confused. "Like the one in your hand?" I pull out the other candy bar from the bag.
"Yeah, it's a different kind of milk chocolate. I tried it, and I wanted to share it with you two." I say as I start to unwrap it.
"I'm supposed to share my snack with Sam?" He says, feigning irritation. I break a piece off for each of them.
"Well, if you guys try it and one of you doesn't like it, then the other can have the rest of the bar. Got it?" Each of them takes the pieces I offered them, and immediately they pop it in their mouths. I walk away to put down the rest of the food. As I turn back to the boys I start laughing. I can see it in their faces. The burning.
"What the hell." Dean says as he tries to fight through the burn.
"What was in that chocolate, Shel?" Sam struggles. I smile evilly at them as I take a huge bit of the candy bar I had started eating outside. Dean glares at me and grabs both candy bars from my hand. I start laughing as his eyes start to get watery.
"Spicy chocolate? Why does that exist?" Dean asks. I watch Sam as he opens one of the sodas and tries to dull the fire in his throat. I laugh so hard that I fall on the bed I had claimed as my own. "And you didn't buy any milk, did you?"
"Nope." I laugh out.
"Alright, that was a good one." Sam says as the burning subsides. "Two points for Shelby." I fist pump in celebration as I stay lying on the bed.
"Why does she get two points?" Dean asks.
"She got both of us, man." He sort of chuckles, out of breath. "You can't deny that." Dean collapses on the bed next to me. His breathing is heavy.
"You sound like you've just had some really good sex." I turn my head to smile at him.
"I've only sounded like this when I was with you." He blurts out. My face falls, and the atmosphere becomes a bit awkward. I sit up on the bed as Sam clears his throat.
"Well, I'm gonna go to the bar." Sam says, heading to the door.
"I'll catch up with you Sammy." Dean says. Sam leaves, and now it's just Dean and me. I feel the bed move as he sits up next to me. "Look, I'm sorry-"
"Stop apologizing." I say, not looking at him. "Go to the bar, have a good time with Sammy."
"You should come with." He says.
"Nah, I'm good. I'm tired, so I'm just gonna try and get some sleep." I say as he stands from the bed. I look to the ground as he stops in front of me. He puts his finger under my chin and makes me look up at him. He leans down and kisses my forehead before heading out to the bar. The door shuts and I let a tear roll down my cheek. Fuck. Why do I let him get to me like that? I shake the thought away and lay down to sleep.
I don't know how long I've been asleep when I am woken up by the door to the room opening. I look and see that it's just the boys coming back from the bar. I roll over and try to go back to sleep. Suddenly, one of them lays next to me, smelling like beer. Then, an arm makes its way around me. I'm pulled back into the chest of the man I know I love. I take a deep breath as he buries his face in my hair and I feel him relax a bit.
"You awake?" he asks.
"Mmhm." I say.
"I just don't wanna sleep in the same bed as Sammy." He says
"Sure." I say, already half back to sleep. I feel so safe. God I miss this so much. I feel him kiss the back of my head.
"Night, babe." He says.
"Night." I say before slipping into a peaceful sleep.
"Shel." I hear whispered in my ear. "Come on Shel. Wake up." Ugh, why do I have to get up? I am right where I wanna be for eternity. "Babe, I know how you feel, but we have to get up." I groan in protest. Then I feel his lips on my neck, and I start to giggle.
"Stop it." I say as he continues
"Well, get up and I'll stop." He says before continuing.
"Ugh, get a room." I hear Sam call from the table.
"We did." Dean says. "You're in it." I take a few breaths and open my eyes before sitting up.
"Alright, where are we heading to next?" I ask to both of them.
"We're not goin' anywhere, Shel." Sam says.
"What?" Dean and I say at the same time. Sam turns the newspaper, in his hand, around so we can see.
"Some girl died in the hell house last night." He says. I look to Dean, still laying on his back, and he looks back at me.
"Shit." Dean says getting out of bed. Quickly we get ready and rush over to the house. We get there and there are police everywhere. I watch as the girl's body is brought out in a body bag, on a stretcher. We walk up to a guy standing outside. "What happened?" Dean asks.
"A couple a cops say that poor girl hung herself in the house." The guy says.
"Suicide?" Sam asks.
"Yeah. She was a straight A student, with a full ride to UT too. It just don't make sense." The guy answers before walking away from us.
"What do ya think?" Sam asks us.
"I don't know." I say. "Maybe we missed something." The three of us watch as the body bag is loaded into the coroner's van. We head back to the hotel to plan a trip to the house later that night. Once the sun sets we're off. We sneak up that muddy path and hide in the woods when we see a cop car and two cops are posted at the house.
"I guess the cops don't want anymore kids screwing around in there." Sam whispers.
"Yeah but we still gotta get in there." Dean states the obvious. We hear whispers and twigs breaking. I look around, but dean spots them first. "I don't believe it." I look and see those two nerds who think they're professionals. They're decked out in night vision goggles, with their backpacks and cameras. "I got an idea." Dean says. He stands up a bit and cups a hand to his mouth. "Who ya gonna call!" He yells out, and I have to stop myself from laughing as the guys stop, looking for who yelled out. The cops end up noticing them, and they get chased away. That also leaves the house with no cops around to stop us. We immediately head inside and weapon up. Dean turns on the flashlight and shines it on the odd symbol. "Man, where have I seen that symbol before? It's killing me!"
"We don't have time for that Dean." I say as I walk ahead of them. They follow me down to the cellar. I keep my shotgun pointed in front of me. We look around at everything, the walls the ceiling, the shelves.
"Hey Sam. I dare you to take a swig of this." Dean says, holding a jar of watery red liquid. Sam and I look at him with serious faces.
"Really?" I ask. This isn't the time to be doing this crap.
"What the hell would I do that for?" Sam says. Dean looks back at the jar in his hand.
"I double dare you." Dean persists.
"Please stop acting like a teenager, Dean." I say as I continue to look around the room. The sound of something moving makes all of us look across the room. We walk towards where we heard the sound. There is a cabinet big enough to fit a person. Someone or something could be hiding in it. Dean and I stand back with our guns pointed at the cabinet, as Sam walks forward to open the door. Dean nods to Sam, and Sammy opens the door slowly. Out rushes some rats.
"Arghh! I hate rats." Dean says as he trys to keep his feet away from the scurrying rats. I chuckle at his actions.
"Don't be such a baby." I say.
"So, you'd rather it was a ghost?" Sam asks.
"Yes." Dean answers simply. I look up between the boys and see him, Mordechai. My eyes go wide as I see him lifting an axe to attack.
"Guys?" I say in warning. I raise my gun and shoot as they turn to see him. It hits, but does nothing. Then, Sam takes a shot at it. Still nothing. Dean shoots at it and it fades into a mist as it goes away.
"What the hell kind of spirit is immune to rock salt?" Sam asks in a panic.
"I dunno." I say with just as much panic. Dean looks around with his flashlight.
"Come on. Come on come on!" Dean says, leading the way to the stairs out of the cellar. As we walk by the shelves, Mordechai appears again and brings his axe down on the shelves. Mordechai then attacks Sammy. He's able to hold off the axe with his shotgun.
"Go! Get outta here!" Sam yells. We try to get to the stairs. Mordechai pulls away from Sam and swings his axe at the electrical box. Sparks fly everywhere and we run towards the door. We make it upstairs and Sam kicks down the front door. I jump the steps as the guys roll down them. They pop up real quick, though, and we start running. I barely notice the two ghost professionals as I run by them.
"Get that damn thing outta my face!" I hear Dean yell behind me.
"Go, go, go!" Sam adds. I don't stop until I get to the Impala. I get to my door and look back at the guys.
"Let's go!" I yell to them. Dean finally makes it to the driver's side, and he fumbles with his keys a bit before we are able to get in and drive back to the hotel. Once we get back, Sam started doing some research on whatever we thought Mordechai could be. Dean just sits on the bed drawing that stupid symbol on the note pad provided by the hotel. I pick up a book with something relevant to what we're trying to figure out, and Sam does some searching in his laptop.
"What the hell is this symbol? It's buggin' the hell outta me." I don't answer him. We just continue working. "This whole damn job's buggin' me. I thought the legend said Mordechai only goes after chicks." Dean points out.
"It does." I say.
"Alright. Well I mean that explains why he went after you and Sam, but why me?" He asks.
"Hilarious." Sam says. "The legend also says he hung himself but did you see those slit wrists?"
"Yeah." Dean and I say at the same time.
"What's up with that? And the axe too." Sam says. "I mean, ghosts are usually pretty strict, right? Following the same patterns over and over?"
"But this mook keeps changing." Dean says.
"Exactly." Sam says as he looks up that stupid lore website again. "I'm telling ya, the way the story goes..." He gets to the page and goes to start reading, but stops. "Wait a minute."
"What is it?" I ask, looking at the screen.
"Someone added a new post to the Hell Hound site." Sam informs us. "Listen to this. 'They say Mordechai Murdock was really a Satanist who chopped up his victims with an axe before slitting his own wrists. Now he's imprisoned in the house for eternity."
"That's not right." I say. "The girl was hung, not chopped to pieces."
"Where the hell is this going?" Sam asks.
"I don't know but I think I might have just figured out where it all started." Dean says. Sam and I turn to him. We get back in the Impala and Dean parks in front of the record shop. We walk in and see Craig walking towards the back of the store. "Hey, Craig. Remember us?" Dean says. The kid stops and turns around to look at us.
"Guys, look I'm really not in the mood to answer any of your questions ok?" He says to us.
"Oh don't worry." I say. "We're just here to buy an album, that's all." Dean turns to the albums. He finds what he's looking for and turns to Sam and I.
"You know I couldn't figure out what that symbol was," Dean says loud enough for Craig to possibly hear him. "And then I realized that it doesn't mean anything. It's the logo for the Blue Oyster Cult." We walk up behind Craig, and Dean starts speaking right to him. "Tell me Craig, you, uh, you into BOC?" Craig turns around to look at us. "Or just scaring the hell outta people?" Dean hands the record over to Craig who flips it over to reveal the odd symbol. "Now why don't you tell us about that house...without lying through your ass this time." The kid puts the record down and faces us. He heaves a big sigh before speaking.
"All right, um. My cousin Dana was on break from TCU. Ah, I guess we were just bored, looking for something to do. So I showed her this abandoned dump I found." He starts. "We thought it would be funny if we made it look like it was haunted. So we painted symbols on the walls, some from some albums, some from some of Dana's theology textbooks. Then we found out this guy Murdock used to live there so we...we made up some story to go along with that. So they told people, who told other people. And then these two guys put it on their stupid website. Everything just took on a life of its own. I mean I, I thought it was funny at first but…now that girl's dead. It was just a joke, you know. I mean, none of it was real; we made the whole thing up. I swear." He finishes his explanation. He seemed to get a bit emotional by the end of it.
"Alright." Sam says. This all doesn't even make sense. We turn to leave the store and Dean speaks up.
"If none of it was real how the hell do you explain Mordechai?" He asks.
The next morning, preparing for going back to the hell house, Sam heads to take a shower, Dean heads out somewhere without saying why, and I try to get as much sleep as I can.
"Hey, I'm back." I hear Dean call out.
"Mmm." I groan. Turning over on my side.
"Sorry, babe." He says. Sam says something from the bathroom, but I can't quite understand what he's saying. I hear a shaking sound. "Oh, I went out." Dean says, obviously answering a question Sam asked from the bathroom. I continue to hear the shaking noise. What the heck is it? "Oh, yeah?" The shaking suddenly stops when Sam exits the bathroom. "Tulpa?" I was gonna sit up, but I know that Sam is only in a towel. So I just pretend to be asleep.
"Yeah, a Tibetan thought form." Sam says.
"Ahh, yeah, I know what a Tulpa is." Dean answers "Hey why don't you get dressed, I wanna go grab something to eat. And Shel's pretending to sleep until you put on some pants."
"Oh, sorry." Sam says as Dean heads into the bathroom. I wait for Sam to give me the all clear. "Okay, Shel. It's safe for you to wake up now." He says. By the time Dean is out of the bathroom Sam is fully dressed and I am as awake as I can be. We head to that food place Rodeo Drive. We order our coffees at the walk up window, and it takes about a minute for them to be handed to us. As we walk over to a table, I see Sam walking funny. Dean has a huge smile on his face, but snaps it to serious when he sees that I'm looking at him. He winks at me, hinting that this was a prank he was playing.
"You okay, Sammy?" I ask as Sam grabs some sugar packets.
"Yeah, dude, what's your problem?" Dean asks.
"Nothing. I'm fine." Sam says.
"Yeah?" Dean asks.
"Yeah." Sam confirms.
"Alright, so, ahhh, so keep goin'. What about these Tulpas?" Dean says as we grab a table to sit at.
"Ok, so there was this incident in Tibet in 1915." Sam starts as I take a sip of my black coffee. "Group of monks visualize a golem in their heads. They meditate on it so hard they bring the thing to life. Outta thin air."
"So?" Dean asks. I look to Sam as I take another sip of my coffee.
"That was twenty monks. Imagine what ten thousand web surfers could do." Sam says as he pulls out his laptop and sets it on the table. He opens his laptop as he continues. "I mean Craig starts the story about Mordechai, then it spreads, goes online. Now there are countless people all believing in the bastard."
"Okay wait a second." Dean says. "You're trying to tell me that just because people believe in Mordechai, he's real?" I watch as Sam grimaces and tries to readjust his pants.
"I dunno, maybe." Sam answers as he continues to type on his laptop.
"People believe in Santa Claus," Dean points out. "How come I'm not getting hooked up every Christmas?"
"Maybe you're on the naughty list." I smile at him, and he smirks back at me.
"And because of this…" Sam says as he turns his laptop so Dean and I can see the screen. On the display is a picture Sam took in the house. It's some symbol spray painted on the wall.
"That looks like some squiggly lines." I say.
"Well, those squiggly lines are a Tibetan spirit sigil. On the wall of the house." Sam starts. "Craig said they were painting symbols from a theology textbook. I bet you they painted this, not even knowing what it was. Now that sigil has been used for centuries, concentrating meditative thoughts like a magnifying glass." I look to Sam as he continues talking. "So people are on the HellHounds website, staring at the symbol, thinking about Mordechai...I mean I don't know, but it might be enough to bring a Tulpa to life." Sam finishes as he shifts uncomfortably in his seat again.
"It would explain why he keeps changing." Dean says, taping a sip of his coffee.
"Right, as the legend changes, people think different things, so Mordechai himself changes. Like a game of telephone." Sam informs.
"That explains why the rock salt didn't work." I say.
"Exactly." Sam says before grimacing again.
"Yeah, because he's not a traditional spirit per say." Dean says
"Yeah." Sam confirms as he adjusts himself again.
"Ok. So why don't we just...uhh...get this spirit sigil thingie off the wall and off the website?" I nod in agreement with Dean's words.
"Well it's not that simple. You see, once Tulpas are created they take on a life of their own." Sam says, continuing to shift in his seat.
"Great." I say. "So if he really is a thought form how're we supposed to kill an idea?"
"Well it's not gonna be easy with these guys helping us." Sam turns the computer back towards himself and starts typing again. Then he turns it back to us. "Check out their home page." It's a video of Mordechai that the HellHound guys posted on their page. "Since they've posted the video their number of hits have quadrupled in the last day alone."
"Huh," Dean says. "I got an idea." Sam shifts again in his seat. "Come on." Sam closes his laptop and starts to pack his things in his bag.
"Where we goin'?" I ask him.
"Gotta find a copy store." He answers me as we stand from the table.
"Guys, I think I'm allergic to our soap or something." Dean laughs as he walks away. Sam looks to me.
"Don't look at me, Sammy." I say holding my hands up in a sign of ignorance. Then he looks to his brother.
"You did this?" He accuses. Dean continues to laugh as I shake my head; a smile makes its way onto my face. "You're a friggin' jerk."
"Oh yeah," Dean says throwing his fist in the air. We all meet back up at the Impala and Dean drives us to some trailer park. He tells us the plan on the way. We get out of the car and Dean motions to one of the trailers. "Those two are in there. You think you can get them out?" I smirk at him.
"Sure, why not?" I walk up to the door and softly knock three times.
"Who is it?" The voice of Harry said through the door.
"It's me, I wanna talk to you guys about last night." I say, figuring they'll know who I am.
"See? The ladies are already knocking on our door." Ed says. As I hear them coming to the door I backup with Sam and Dean behind me. "What can I do for you my lady…" Ed opens the door and stretches out the last word. He looks a little disappointed. "You're not alone."
"Why'd you think I would be alone?" I smile at them as they peek out of the door.
"Ah, would you look at that! Action figures in their original packaging…what a shock." Dean says. I elbow him in the gut and he grunts.
"Guys, we need to talk." Sam says.
"Yeah, um, sorry guys. We're ahhh," Ed says as both him and Harry step out of the trailer towards us. "A little bit busy right now."
"Don't worry." I say. "This'll be quick."
"Yeah." Dean says. "We need you to shut down your website." Ed turns to Harry as he reacts.
"Man, you know, these guys got us busted last night, spent the night in a holding cell..." Ed says.
"I had to pee in that cell urinal." Harry says to us. "In front of people. And I get stage fright." He says pointing at us.
"Why should we trust you three?" Ed asks.
"Look guys. We all know what we saw last night, what's in the house." Sam says. "But now thanks to your website there are thousands of people hearing about Mordechai."
"That's right." Dean says. "Which means people are gonna keep showing up at the Hell House, running into him in person."
"Somebody could get hurt." I say in all seriousness.
"Yeah." Ed says. I don't think he's taking us seriously.
"Ed maybe they've got a point-" Harry says.
"Nope." Ed says.
"No." Harry changes his tune.
"Okay, we have an obligation to our fans, to the truth." Ed explains. Dean laughs.
"Well I have an obligation to kick both your little asses right now-" He says.
"Dean, Dean, hey, hey, just forget it, all right? These guys," Sam lets out a sigh before continuing. "Probably bitch slap them both," Ed and Harry scoff at that. "I could probably even tell them that thing about Mordechai..." Sam drops the draw. "But they're still not gonna help us. So, let's just go." We turn to leave.
"Yeah, you're right." Dean says as he puts a hand around my waist to lead me off.
"Whoa…whoa." The boys say behind us. They chase us all the way over to the car trying to get us to explain the bait we dangled in front of them. "What thing about Mordechai?"
"Don't tell 'em Sam." Dean says with a smirk.
"But if they agree to shut the website down Dean." Sam says.
"They already said they weren't gonna do that. It's not happening." I say.
"No wait. Wait. Don't listen to him ok? We'll do it." Ed pleads behind us.
"We'll do it." The three of us stop and Dean and I turn to Sam.
"It's a secret Sam." Dean says. Sam turns to the two and starts talking.
"Look, it is a pretty big deal all right." Dean and I feign irritation with Sam. "And it wasn't easy to dig up. So only if we have your word that you'll shut everything down." The three of us are all looking at Ed and Harry now.
"Totally." Ed promises. Sam looks at us for approval. Dean nods to let him tell the guys what we know.
"Alright." Sam says. I look to Dean as he pulls a folded up piece of paper out of his jacket pocket. He hands it to Ed as Sam explains. "It's a death certificate. From the '30s. We got it at the library. Now according to the coroner, the actual cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound."
"That's right. He didn't hang." Dean says.
"Or cut himself." I add.
"He shot himself?" Harry asks in surprise.
"Yep. With a .45 pistol." Sam answers. "To this day they say he's terrified of 'em."
"Matter of fact they say if you shoot him with a .45, loaded with these special wrought-iron rounds, it'll kill the sonuvabitch." Dean says. Harry turns and bolts back to the trailer. That didn't take long. Ed turns to the trailer, but walks slowly instead.
"Harry. Slow your roll buddy." Ed tries to calm his friend down. "They're gonna know we're excited." We smile as we watch them run back to their trailer.
"Alright boys." I say. "Now we wait." I turn to them.
"Anyone else hungry?" Dean asks.
"Starving." I say. We get back in the car and head to a small diner in town. We sit in a booth, Sam on one side and Dean and I on the other. We order some food and beers, and Sam breaks out his laptop to keep track of when Ed and Harry update their website. The food arrives pretty quickly and I dig in immediately.
As I finish my burger and start on my fries I notice Dean looking at the creepy woodcarving hanging on the wall above the table. He reaches out to the string hanging and pulls it. The mouth of the carved fisherman opens and closes as a creepy laugh sounds. I almost turn it off myself when Dean pulls it again and turns it off. About a minute passes and Dean pulls the string again. I reach over him and turn it off, not saying anything. He looks at me before pulling the string again. I turn it off again and look him in the eye.
"If you pull that string one more time I'm gonna make sure you can't use your hands ever again." I threaten in a low voice.
"That would be a bad thing for all women kind, Shel." He says in a cocky tone.
"I'll risk it." I say as I sit back in my seat and continue to eat my french-fries. Out of the corner of my eye I see Dean's hand inch towards the string again. I grab my fork and wait for him to pull that stupid sting. As I expected, he pulls the string. I lift the fork up and thrust it towards his hand that's closest to me. He sees my actions just in time to pull his hand away. The fork sticks into the table instead of his skin.
"Whoa!" He yells out. I let go of the fork and it stays stuck there.
"I warned you." I say as I reach over him to turn the stupid thing off. "Right Sam?"
"She did warn you." Sam agrees with me. I flash a fake smile at Dean before turning my attention to Sam. Dean removes the fork from the table as I speak.
"Did they post it yet?" I ask him as I toss another french-fry in my mouth. Sam turns the laptop around to let Dean and I read the screen.
"We've learned from reputable sources that Mordechai Murdock has a fatal fear of firearms." Dean reads out loud. "Alright. How long do we wait?"
"Long enough for the new story to spread," Sam starts as he closes his laptop. "And the legend to change. I figure by nightfall iron rounds will work on the sucker." Sam picks up his beer and holds the neck towards Dean.
"Sweet." Dean says. He picks up his own beer and they clink their bottles together before taking a sip. As Dean drinks from his bottle, Sam just smiles at him. I look to Dean. When he tries to put the bottle down, he can't. Sam bursts out laughing. I just smile and shake my head, eating the last fry on my plate. Dean looks across the table at his brother. "You didn't." He says in shock.
"Oh," Sam holds up a tube of super glue. "I did." Sam continues to laugh as Dean tries to shake the bottle off. When Sam reaches for the wood carving on the wall I glare at him, and he decides not to pull the string.
"Alright giggles," I say to Sam as I stand up. "I'm gonna take him back to the hotel. Hopefully we can save some of the skin on his hand." I grab Dean's arm and pull him out of the booth. He's still trying to shake the bottle off of his hand. "Lunch is on you." I say pointing to Sam. He waves us off and we walk back to the Impala. "Keys?" I ask him with my hand out. He looks at me and shakes his head. "Well, you can't drive, so give me the keys." He huffs before reaching in his pocket and tossing them to me. We drive back to the hotel and I try to get the bottle off his hand as painlessly as possible. Soon, Sam comes in carrying the clock. "Why I that thing here?"
"I bought it." Sam answers simply.
"You bought it?" I ask angrily, tugging one of Dean's fingers particularly hard. It comes free from the glass bottle
"Oww! Fuck." Dean says.
"Baby." I comment.
"It's gonna help us with the cops tonight." Sam says.
"Whatever." I say. I pull the last finger from the bottle. Dean yells out again. "All that's left is the palm." I say to Dean. He lays back on the bed, breathing heavy. "Sam, can you get me a rag soaked in warm water? Maybe put a little soap on there too?"
"Sure." Sam says. He sets down his bag and that woodcarving and heads to the bathroom. He comes out with a facecloth, slightly lathered up with soap. I wipe at the edges of the glue to try and soften it. It takes a while, but it works and eventually Dean's hand is free. He thanks me with a kiss to the temple and we get ready to finish off Mordechai.
Later that night we head to the woods and set up the carved fisherman in a tree. The boys both look at me, not wanting to catch my wrath. I roll my eyes and pull the string myself. Then we are off to the house. We hide in the bushes until the cops stationed outside go looking for the sound in the woods. We head into the house with guns aimed in front of us. Dean is the only one with a flashlight. We stay back-to-back-to-back as we methodically check the rooms of the house. I hear Dean readjust the grip on his gun.
"I barely have any skin left on my palm." He says.
"I'm not touching that line with a ten foot pole." Sam says. I hold back a laugh as we continue to look around. Dean stops and shines the flashlight in Sam's eyes. Once he winces at the light Dean continues to the next room. We open the door to the room that leads to the basement, guns still drawn. The flashlight is pointed at the closed door to the basement. I take a deep breath.
"So you think old Mordechai's home?" Dean asks.
"I don't know." Sam answers.
"Me either." A voice says from behind us. The three of us turn around and aim our guns at where the voice came from.
"Whoa! Whoa! Hey, whoa!" We see Ed and Harry standing in the doorway with their hands up. We lower our weapons and Dean keeps his flashlight pointed at them.
"Are you guys trying to get yourselves killed?" I ask them.
"We're just trying to get a book and movie deal, ok?" Ed says. A short pause is interrupted by the sound of a blade of some sort being sharpened on the other side of the basement door. All of us turn to it. Sam, Dean, and I aim our guns once again. "Oh crap." Ed says behind me. "Ah guys, you wanna...you wanna open that door for us?" Is this guy for real?
"Why don't you?" Dean asks. Suddenly Mordechai bursts through the door, holding his axe. He screams at us. I empty all of my bullets into the creature, and so do the boys. He disappears into a dark mist. We wait a second before rechecking the house to make sure we actually defeated it.
"Oh God, he's gone. He's gone." Ed says with a breathy voice.
"Did you get 'im?" Harry asks his friend. I walk out of the room to check the house like Sam and Dean. We hear a commotion with Ed and Harry, so the three of us run back in. Mordechai had hit the camera out of Harry's hands with the axe.
"Hey! Didn't you guys post that B.S. story we gave you?" Dean asks them.
"Of course we did." Ed answers. Sam and I look around the room with our gun aimed in front of us.
"Yeah, but our server crashed." Harry adds. Well shit.
"So it didn't take." I say.
"Uh…" Ed says.
"So these, these guns don't work." Dean says holding up his gun.
"Yeah." Ed confirms.
"Great. Sam? Shel? You got any ideas?" Dean asks us. We lower our guns. They aren't gonna do us much good anyway. Ed and Harry leave quickly, but not quickly enough. Mordechai appears in front of the door. They run to another door to try and get away, but they run into a dead end with a locked door. I hear Ed.
"THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!" He screams.
"Hey!" Sam gets the attention of Mordechai. "Come and get it you ugly son of a bitch." I hear them struggle as Dean and I try to figure something out.
"There's only one option here." I say.
"And what's that?" Dean asks.
"Burn it up." Dean nods at my words and we look around in the cabinets for any accelerant. Dean finds Kerosene and I find some rubbing alcohol and a can of spray paint. We pour it on the floor of the biggest room. Sam calls out to us, and we both head to where Mordechai is holding Sam against the wall with the handle of the axe. Dean pulls a lighter from his jacket. I toss him the can of spray paint. "Hey!" Dean yells. Mordechai turns to us. He lights the spray from the can to create a makeshift flamethrower. It distracts Mordechai enough for Sam to get away. Mordechai disappears and we head towards the front door. Sam stops and leans over a bit to grab at his neck.
"Mordechai can't leave the house, and we can't kill him. So, we'll have to improvise." I tell them. Dean holds up his lit lighter to show Sam before throwing it in the room we covered with accelerants. It goes up in flames almost immediately. Sam looks baffled. Mordechai appears on the other side of the flames, so we get out as fast as possible. Once we're outside we run into the woods. We stop and look back at the flaming house. Mordechai is standing in the doorway, not leaving.
"That's your solution?" Sam asks pointing back at the house. "Burn the whole damn place to the ground?"
"Well, at least nobody will go in anymore." I say.
"Look, Mordechai can't haunt a house if there's no house to haunt. It's fast and dirty but it works." Dean says.
"Well what if the legend changes again and Mordechai is allowed to leave the house?" Sam points out.
"Then we'll just have to come back." I say. The three of us watch as the house continues to burn.
"Kinda makes you wonder." Sam says. "Of all the thing we hunted, how many existed just cuz people believed in 'em." That's a good point, but we can't just wait here for the cops to come back. We'd be arrested for arson, for sure. We head back to the Impala and drive to the hotel to check out, then we head over to the trailer park. Sam stays by the car and makes a phone call. Dean goes up the Ed and Harry's car and tosses something through the open backseat window. I sit on a nearby wooden picnic table with my knees apart and the lower half of my legs hanging over the edge. My eyes start to drift shut as Dean walks up in front of me.
"Don't doze off in a trailer park, sweetheart." He says with a smirk. "You never know who could take advantage."
"Would that include you?" I ask him.
"I suppose it would." He answers. I hold my arms out to him, beckoning him closer. I pull him close, wrapping my arms around his mid section. I rest my head on his chest and breathe in his scent, as he wraps his arms around my shoulders.
"I guess if it's you that would be okay." I sigh. I feel him rest his head on top of mine. Why can't moments like this last forever? I hear Sam walk up to us, and I know that the moment must end.
"Am I interrupting something?" Sam asks.
"Yes." Both Dean and I say.
"Sorry." Sam says as he leans against the table next to me. We don't adjust our position, but Dean and Sam start talking about what's next. I'm close to falling asleep against Dean's chest when we hear Ed and Harry walking past us to the convenience store behind us. As they go inside to buy snacks, Dean gently coaxes me to wake up.
"Time to get up, pretty lady." He says.
"I don't wanna." I say.
"Too bad." He says kissing the top of my head before gently pulling me away from him. Then he kisses me on the forehead. We wait in silence. As the paranormal investigators exit the store and walk past us, Dean turns around and crouches slightly in front of me. "Get on, sleepy." He says to me. I am so tired I don't even argue. I hop on his back and throw my arms around his neck. He stands up and grabs my lags as he starts walking behind the two 'professionals'. Sam walks behind us.
"Gentlemen" Ed says.
"And lady." Harry adds.
"Hey guys." Sam replies.
"Should we tell 'em?" Harry asks Ed.
"Hey, might as well, you know, they're going to read about it in the trades." Ed says.
"So earlier we got a phone call from a very important Hollywood producer." Harry informs us.
"Oh yeah, wrong number?" Dean asks.
"No, smart-ass." Ed says. "He read all about the Hell House on our website and wants to option the motion picture rights. Maybe even have us write it." They make it to their car and load the bags of snacks in their back seat.
"And create the RPG." Harry adds.
"The what?" Dean asks.
"Role playing game." I say sleepily from Dean's back.
"Right." Dean says.
"Anyhoo, ahhh, excuse us, we're off to la-la land." Ed finishes as he and Harry get in their car.
"Well congratulations guys. That sounds really great." Sam says.
"Yeah. That's awesome, best of luck to you." Dean follows up.
"What they said." I grunt.
"Oh yeah, luck. That has nothing to do with it. It's about talent. Sheer unabashed talent." Ed boasts. "Later." I hear the car doors close. "See ya 'round." Ed says as they drive off with their over packed camper and car.
"Wow." Dean says as we start walking back to the Impala.
"I have a confession to make." Sam says.
"What's that?" Dean asks.
"I, uh...I was the one that called them and told them I was a producer." I slightly laugh, as does Dean.
"Yeah well I'm the one who put the dead fish in their back seat." Dean confesses.
"So that was what you were doing." I say.
"Time to get in the car, little missy." Dean says to me. He slowly lets my legs go and I let go of my hold around his neck. I lean on the car as Dean unlocks the doors. I get in on my own and immediately lay across the back seat. Dean closes the door for me as I use my bag for a pillow.
"Truce?" Sam prompts Dean.
"Yeah truce." Dean says.
"At least for the next 100 miles." I say with a yawn. Sam sighs, knowing my words are probably the truth.
"She knows me so well." Dean says as he starts the car. He turns on the radio and we're off to the next case. I'm lulled to sleep by the purr of the engine.
A/N: Aww. Is their relationship building back up again? Do you like their relationship? I would love to know what you think about Shelby and Dean. I love reading reviews. I can't wait to read what you guys think.