A/N: In Chapter Three the TV Show I was parodying was Ghost Adventures with Zak Bagans, a Travel Channel reality show. Due to my narrow viewpoint I did not realize that a great many readers would have no idea what I was talking about. Bagans got his start out of Las Vegas and I guess his show is predominantly seen on the West Coast of the USA. So sorry. There is a web site so you can look if you are interested.

Sam and Dean Winchester are the property of Kripke Enterprises, Inc. and the CW, not me.

Hunter's Moon

Chapter 4

South Dakota Badlands

The Three Ravens

There were three rauens sat on a tree,

Downe, a downe, hay down, hay downe

There were three rauens sat on a tree,

With a downe

There were three rauens sat on a tree,

They were as blacke as they might be.

With a downe, derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe

The one of them said to his mate,

"Where shall we our breakefast take?"

Downe in yonder greene field,

There lies a knight slain under his shield.

His hounds they lie downe at his feete,

So well they can their master keepe.

His haukes they the so eagerly,

There's no fowls dare him come nie.

Downe there comes a fallow doe,

As great with young as she might goe.

She lift up his bloudy hed,

And kist his wounds that were so red.

She got him up opon her backe,

And carried him to earthern lake.

She buried him before the prime,

She was dead herself ere even-song time.

God send every gentleman,

Such haukes, such hounds, and such a leman.

Scottish Folk Song

Melismara, Musicall Phansies Fitting the Court, Cittie, and Countrey Humours, London, 1611

The Winchesters pulled out of Carbonate, leaving the film trucks behind. As they left the parking lot, after the long and busy night, the sun began to rise and Ranger Randy came out of the office.

"You guys out of here?" he asked.

"Yeah," Dean told him. "Our part is over. No good reason for hanging around now."

"Wait." Sam leaned forward to look at Randy's face. "Do you know of any other abandon mine sites around here? Something that might still be open and large enough for, say, a car to be hidden in?"

Randy looked at Sam oddly. "That's a kind of weird question. Why would you want to know something like that?"

Sam paused. "Randy, do you trust us? " He then poked an elbow into Dean's side and whispered "Turn on the glow."

Randy got a dose of Dean's charm right in the face. "Why sure. There's the mine entrance to the Seabury-Coffin mine right up the road. It's just outside the park entrance. You want me to show you?"

Randy stood with his hat in his hand almost scuffing his boot toe in the dirt. He was blatantly ogling Dean; as blatantly as his shy, fresh-faced innocence would allow.

Dean felt like a cradle-robber but he went along with Sam's plan. "That would be great! Would you mind showing us? We'll bring you right back here. It shouldn't take long to find what we're looking for."

Randy practically dove into the back seat. He leaned forward into the back of Dean's seat and, chattering on all the way, he pointed out the mine entrance when they were about two miles down the road. Dean pulled over, off to the side. He could see broken branches and crushed grass leading straight to where Randy was pointing. He also thought he could see tire tracks on the shoulder of the roadbed.

Sam got out of the car. "Why don't you guys just stay here? I'll check it out and see if it's a good site for filming. Be right back." He took off up the newly forged trail.

Randy put a hand on Dean's shoulder. "So you guys are out of here, right? No possibility that you're going to be coming back here?"

Dean looked anxiously out the windshield, hoping to see Sam's tall, loping figure coming back. "Oh, I wouldn't say that, Randy. We might circle through here again. We intend to go see some friends of ours up in Calgary after we hit Sioux Falls and this is on the way."

The passenger door opened unexpectedly and Sam plopped into his seat.

"I didn't even see you coming, man!" Dean exclaimed.

Sam turned in the seat. "Let's get Randy back to his office, Dean. Someone could be looking for him."

"Oh, yeah," Randy spoke up. "I don't know what I was thinking of! I shouldn't have left the park."

Dean had turned down his come-hither aura and now Randy was coming out of his trance. They pulled back on the road and a few minutes later were putting their Park Ranger friend back where he belonged.

"What's up, Sam?" Dean asked. "Did you find something?"

"Oh, they're there alright. I could see the back end of the car and the smell is so freaking strong I think it'll hit the road at some point. It might even be all the bodies." Sam took a deep breathe. "Ugly as it's going to be, we're going to have to handle this before we can pull out. That mine entrance is prime spirit territory. We're just going to be coming back if we don't deal with it."

Dean groaned. "God, I hate body detail but you're right. We got to deal. Let's go set it up. I have an idea how to handle it and get us out of here."

Back at their parking space Dean opened up the trunk. The brothers gathered together burlap bags and shovels, salt bags and cans of kerosene. Sam was ready to pick up stuff and take off when Dean stopped him.

"Get bandanas and camphor out of the glove compartment. We're going to have trouble breathing with all those bodies lying around. And give me a few minutes. I got to make something."

Sam watched as Dean made a timing device out of an old alarm clock that he had stashed in the trunk. Sam knew there were several clocks in the trunk but had not really thought about why they were there.

When Dean finished he turned to Sam. "OK, we're going to have to get all the bodies in the car and then gather up all the brush and wood we can find to turn the car in a funeral pyre for these people. I'm going to set this timer so the fire starts later tonight in the dark. The Fire Watch won't see the flames inside the mine and it'll be dark enough to hide the smoke."

"Good one, Dean." Sam approved. "We can be long gone by the time this goes off."

"Right," Dean responded. "Maybe even as much as five or six hours down Route 90 on our way to Sioux Falls, finally."

They set off for the entrance to the Seabury-Coffin mine. Sam was thinking that the mine was really earning its' nickname now. It was really the Seabury-Calkins mine but everyone had called it the Seabury-Coffin because of the high number of miner's deaths. Now it had claimed six more dead.

It took hours to scrape up the tourists' bodies and put them in the scene scouts' car. All the time Dean was wondering how the mine ghost had pulled this off. Drawing the tourists off to follow it Dean could understand but how had it convinced Addie and George Prescott to drive into the mine entrance? He supposed he would never know but it bothered him.

"You know, Sam," he spoke up behind his camphor soaked mask, "it might be a good idea to come back through here and check on that mine ghost again. This is one strong mother and I don't know how much faith you put in your rituals. What do you think?"

"You looking to come back and see your boyfriend again?" Sam laughed.

"Shut up, Sam." Dean growled. "Just keep shoveling. Make sure you get all the good bits up, bitch."

They built the pyre, mined it with kerosene cans and Dean set his timer to blow a can at just about midnight. Covering the face of the mine with brush as well as they could they finally left.

"Let's get to a motel," Sam said. "I'm not riding in this car for hours smelling like this. This is disgusting. I need a long shower and so do you unless, of course, you want the car smelling like the grave. What, special effects?"

XXXXXXX

After spending the morning and early afternoon in a motel in Sturgis off Route 90, cleaning up, eating and taking naps, they were finally on their way. Route 90 cut right across South Dakota from Rapid City all the way to Sioux Falls.

Dean felt good to be moving again, the dry wind blowing the stink of their latest adventure out of the car. He was hoping nothing else would come up but, of course, he was not surprised when about 75 miles east of Rapid City Sam started going "Oh, oh, oh , Dean. Look!"

"What is it, Sam?" Dean asked, marveling how his supposedly adult brother could still channel his inner 6 year old.

"Badlands National Park! The cut off is right ahead. Come on, Dean, let's go. Just to ride around it. Come on. We need dinner anyway." Sam was just about vibrating in his excitement and pointing at the Forest Service signs.

Dean knew there was no hope. He could see the red striped crags off to the right, glowing in the sunlight. The sign ahead pointed to the "Park Loop Road".

Sam spoke again "Look, we can drive the Loop around the park and at the end is the Visitors Lounge. We can eat there. We can even sleep there if it gets too late. I would really like to see the geologic formations. And there are buffalo herds, and prong horn antelope and mule deer. It'll be great. Let's go."

"Alright, keep calm." Dean responded. "Who am I to deny you buffalo herds? But I swear, Sam, this is it. No more diversions. We are going straight to Sioux Falls after this if I have to tie you in the trunk or blindfold you. This is it."

"Thanks, jerk." Sam responded. "You're all heart. I know you want to see the buffalo too. You still have an enquiring mind, as much as you try to hide it."

They drove through the alien landscape. In addition to the striped crags rising all around them in every possible shade of red and pink there were strange striped rolling grey hills, all rock but laid down like sand dunes. It was hard to believe such soft looking shapes were really rock. They drove beside great stretches of grassland and occasionally caught sight of a mule deer or pronghorn head poking up into the air as the car rumbled by.

Dean had to admit he was enjoying himself listening to his brother go on about the different geologic processes and ages of formations. They were evidently looking at rock laid down as far back as the Cretaceous at 75 million years up through the Oligocene Epochs a mere 26 million years old. This land had changed time and time again from sea, to tropical land and then open woodland with meandering rivers, leading to the accumulation of various colored sediments.

Sam knew all the names, the Sharps Formation with its light colored rock, the Rockyford Ash, a dark volcanic layer and the brown Brule Formation. His voice washed over Dean, spinning him deep into the past, envisioning a living world. Once a sea covered all this land then the Rockies started to rise and like tipping a plate the land rose and the water flowed away.

Dean was awakened from his dream by Sam poking at his arm. "Visitors' Lounge up ahead. You want to stop for dinner?" They pulled into the lot and entered the rustic, welcoming building. Beside the tourists it looked like the locals liked this place too. Several booths and tables were filled with families and the bar was full of old men nursing their beers.

While waiting for seats in the bar Dean read the "Did You Know?" posters in the lobby. He thought they were put up for the school kids but some of them were interesting.

"Hey Sam." Dean smiled, he rarely got to tell Sam something his brother didn't know, "Did you know that four species of wildlife have been reintroduced into the Badlands since it was established as a National Monument in 1939? The black footed ferret, bighorn sheep, bison and swift fox, once exterminated are again thriving in their native habitat."

Sam grinned back, "No Dean. I did not know that. Thanks."

Their names were called and they were led to a table in the dim bar. Next table over was held by an old man. As Dean looked at him, he modified the thought to an old, old man. His skin was weathered and lined like old leather. His eyes were slits from years of squinting into the sun. The hand that held his beer, though, did not shake. He seemed asleep but the beer was suspended in midair and not a drop was lost. Where ever the man's mind was wandering, his physical coordination seemed spot on.

He jerked out of his dream and looked directly at Dean "I remember you."

Their waitress put a hand on the old man's arm. "Now George, I don't think you know this man. He just got here."

She looked at Sam and Dean and smiled. "I can move you, if you like. George remembers the past real good but he can have a shaky grasp of the present. He's harmless. He just likes to talk about the old days."

"No, no," said Sam. "That's fine. If we weren't interested in the old days we wouldn't be here, would we? He's fine. I sure he'll be good company."

"OK, " said the waitress. "I'm Penny. Let me get you your drinks and do you know what you want to order?"

After Penny left George again turned to look at Dean.

"I remember when I first saw you, back in the twenties when I worked in the General store out at Galbreth's."

"All smirks and smiles and bright white teeth; all shiny like a new copper penny, young and fresh and ready for life. You bought that dress for Annie when the rain came down like gold tear drops in the sand."

The old man stopped to sip at his beer. Dean was thinking he was a poet; bringing the old days back to life.

"You bought new dresses for your ladies back at del Moro; red, blue and green calico with printed flowers and ribbons. The green one was for Annie Prentice. I remember looking at it and there seemed to be a hole, like an explosion marred it from the inside out, on the left side.'

"Later, when Annie died decades afterwards from some internal problem I would recall that fluctuating hole that appeared and vanished on that dress and I wondered if it had been a curse or a warning."

A chill ran through the room and both Sam and Dean paused and listened.

"Long afterward I would remember you but your image faded into memory like an aging photograph, diming into sepia colored tones and passing away."

The old man put down his beer and walked away. Sam and Dean sat, struck dumb. They had no idea of what had just happened or what it meant, if anything at all.