Chapter 19

We changed the topic after that and finished our dinner.

"We were wondering if you could show us around your inn tomorrow, if you have time." Dean said after we stood to leave.

"Oh, well, I don't know how much you'd get out of a tour but you're more than likely to look around by yourself." She told us, clearing our plates. "Have a nice night."

We smiled and went back up to our room to start our research. Dean went through the books we had and through my journals and I tried to find a match on the internet with what Rita had told us.

There was only one thing that stuck through my mind as to what it could be, but I knew how unlikely it was and I knew that Dean would shoot it down immediately. However, the more I read about it, the more the signs matched up. The white hair, being scared so bad that you have a heart attack? I hated to admit how excited I was to figure out if I was right.

I kept reading. There were a few more things that I needed to ask Rita to be sure so I closed my laptop and started to leave the room to go back downstairs.

"Where are you going?" Dean asked, keeping his eyes on the book he was reading. I smirked.

"To get a glass of milk." Dean looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"You don't drink milk." I shrugged. He narrowed his eyes at me. "Is that some sort of euphemism that you kids are using these days?"

"Just suddenly felt like some milk, that's all. Be right back." I closed the door behind me and made my way downstairs, hoping she was still awake. It wasn't that late, but she could have decided to go to bed early, especially if we were the only ones staying there.

"Rita?" I called. I heard something fall behind me but when I turned around nothing was there. I headed into the kitchen, figuring she wouldn't mind if I helped myself. I opened the fridge and crinkled my nose in disgust when I smelled something that had gone really bad. I grabbed the milk container and opened it, sniffing what was inside.

I gagged and quickly put the top back on and checked the date. It wasn't supposed to go bad for at least five days. I covered my nose and mouth as I poured it down the sink, trying not to vomit at the smell. Sour milk had been one of the signs of this thing's presence.

"Where has my watch gone?" I heard Rita in the other room and she came into the kitchen. She covered her nose and looked over at me. "What happened?"

"I thought it would be all right to help myself to a glass of milk. It helps me sleep," I said and she nodded understandingly. "But it had gone sour."

"That's strange. I just bought that milk a few days ago. That's the third time that has happened. I should really talk to the grocer about this." I agreed softly and tried to hide that I was beginning to get even more than a little excited. I was so right about this.

"Did you say you lost your watch?" I asked nonchalantly as I rinsed out the bottle and threw it away. She nodded.

"Yes. I had just set it down for a minute while I got ready for bed. Or I thought I had, anyway." She sighed and gave me a sad smile. "This old brain isn't what it used to be."

I smiled kindly back.

"I'm sure you'll find it." Items' disappearing was another sign. "I think Lance is wondering where I am."

"Of course sweetie. I'm sorry about the milk." I shrugged and bid her good night before making my way back upstairs and to our room.

"Where's your milk?" Dean asked, looking up from the book. I grinned.

"It went sour." He stared at me like I was crazy.

"And you're happy about that?" He asked. I shrugged with a smile.

"Things are also disappearing." He shook his head at me.

"I don't know what game you're playing, but it's kinda creeping me out, Bennett. Now talk," he told me.

"It's a boggart!" I exclaimed while jumping onto the bed next to him. He started laughing hysterically and I glared at him. "I'm serious." I whined, slamming my fist into the comforter. It didn't quite make the effect that I was hoping it would and Dean started laughing harder.

"I know," he said, "that's what makes it funny."

"No, listen. Milk going sour that shouldn't go bad for another week? Things disappearing when you just put them down? People being scared to death? Their hair is turning white!" Dean calmed down and sighed. He ran a hand through his hair as he took a moment to think about it.

"Yeah, okay, everything else fits, but the only boggarts that have ever been recorded to scare people was in Harry Potter and that is why you want it to be a boggart so bad." He accused. I shook my head. Not entirely!

"That is not true! There are so many different variations of boggarts, one of which is the bogeyman! We've all ready dealt with a bogeyman, didn't you read my journal? The bogeyman was planting nightmares in people that showed them their worst fear happening over and over again until they died of fright." He was quiet and I could tell he was mulling it over.

"Okay, say that it is a boggart hypothetically," he stressed. I rolled my eyes. "How would we find it? Don't they stay in dark, cold places? And they're invisible to the naked eye. And how would we get rid of it? We can't just wave a stick and say 'Riddikulus!'"

I giggled when he said it.

"What?" He asked, fighting a small smile on his lips.

"You are such a geek. You know the spell?" He groaned.

"Please, you're the one who thinks this is what it is! I'm just playing along to keep you happy."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," I said. "So what do you think it is?"

He cleared his throat and averted his eyes down to his book. He covered his mouth for a moment and mumbled something that I could quite catch.

"What was that?" I asked sarcastically, putting my hand up to cup my ear. "You don't know?"

"Shut up and put on some quieter shoes." He told me, getting up from the bed and putting his shoes back on. "We're doing some investigating."

We each grabbed a flashlight and made sure that Rita was asleep in her room before we started snooping around the inn.

"So what I don't understand is, if this is a boggart anyway, if these people are dying from fright it can't be from a dream. They all happened during the day." Dean said quietly.

"Well like I said before, there are so many different variants of boggarts. The bogeyman is just one of them. The one from Harry Potter lived in a wardrobe and came out when they opened it. It changed into the thing that scares the closest person the most." I whispered back. Dean stopped.

"Why are we searching for this in the middle of the night when we don't even 100% know what this is or how to kill it?" Dean asked. I shrugged.

"It's not really the first time we've gone into a situation without any real hard evidence. I find myself wondering time and time again why the hell we're investigating some supposed haunted place in the middle of the night when we're the most vulnerable." I said. Dean stared at me for a moment and sighed. The light from his flashlight danced across the wall and my heart jumped when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I turned and flashed my flashlight in the vicinity that I had seen whatever it was.

"What?" He asked, shining his flashlight all around. I shook my head and turned back to him. Nothing was there. I tried to calm myself but I was kind of freaking out.

"Nothing, I just thought I saw something." I took a deep breath. "Okay, look. Let's go upstairs and back to the room with the light on. We have to do some serious thinking."

Dean nodded and we quickly made our way back to our room. I grabbed my pajamas, figuring we were done searching for the night and went into the bathroom to change. I put on my boxers and an old P.E. shirt from one of the high schools we had gone to. This one was orange with purple letters that said 'Coolidge High P.E.'. I looked at myself in the mirror and noticed how white my face was. I splashed warm water on my face and looked back into the mirror while I brushed my teeth.

I thought I had seen my mother.

I finished up in the bathroom and put my dirty clothes in my duffel. I only had one more set of clean clothes and then I had to do laundry. I was not okay with wearing underwear for more than one day. Bras were okay, but panties were totally different. I didn't see how boys could do it with their underwear.

There wasn't a television in the room so he was in bed all ready reading, surprisingly. It was probably because he still didn't know the password to my computer. Good ol' Phil Collins. I crawled into bed and sighed.

It hadn't just been my mother. She had black eyes.

"I really think it's a boggart," I said. Dean closed his book and dropped it gently on the floor as he sighed.

"Yeah, I'm beginning to agree with you." He turned off the light and I quickly fell asleep.

...

I was in the motel room from 14 years ago. I was standing in the middle, looking around. Everything was the same except I wasn't five. I was still 19. The door opened from behind me and I gasped when my mom walked through the door with the backpack that she always carried with her. She was wearing the same clothes and she looked exactly the same as the last time I had ever seen her.

"Hey sweetie, did you finish your homework?" She asked. I nodded, not knowing what else to do. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom. Pack up the truck, okay? We're gonna leave as soon as I finish."

She closed the bathroom door behind her and I snapped out of my reverie. I grabbed the duffels and put them where I remembered they went. I got into the passenger seat and waited for her to come out. When she did we drove until we were in the middle of a deserted field. She pulled over to the side of the street but kept the car running.

"What are we doing here?" I asked as I turned to her. I gasped when she turned to look at me. Her eyes were black. I tried to get out of the car but she locked the doors and I was too frantic to unlock them. "Mom, don't do this."

"I'm not your mommy." She smirked. I cried and kept trying to open the door.

...

"Rose!" I opened my eyes and saw Dean shaking me. He looked a little white himself and I quickly sat up and rubbed my face. I felt a couple tears in my eyes but it didn't surprise me. I sat up and brushed my hair out of my face.

"This is definitely a boggart Dean," I told him, brushing past him to get my last set of clean clothes. I picked everything up except my underwear and I turned to look everywhere. I couldn't find my clean underwear anywhere and cursed.

"I know," he said. I stopped looking for my underwear and glanced up at him. I wondered…

"Did you," I asked him hesitantly and he nodded. We both had nightmares of our worst fears. I groaned and started taking things out of my bag so I could find my pair of underwear. Ever since John took me to visit my mom's grave and told me what he did I had so many nightmares of the same thing. I was digging through both my duffels but I stopped when I realized what happened to my underwear and looked up at Dean.

"What?" He asked.

"That little shit stole my underwear!" I cried. Dean couldn't help but laugh. I picked up whatever was closest, which happened to be a bottle of lotion, and threw it at him. He caught it and smirked.

"Want me to rub your body?" He asked. I glared at him and shoved all my dirty clothes and things back in my duffel's, except for what I was going to wear and the pair of underwear I had worn the day before. I grabbed my hair dryer too and made my way into the bathroom. I'd just wash a pair myself. It's not like I haven't had to do it before.

I came out of the bathroom when I was finished and was walking a little awkwardly because my underwear was still the littlest bit damp. Dean was finished getting dressed and he was flipping vaguely through my journal.

"So," I asked slowly, "what did you dream?"

He glanced at me but shook his head. I doubted that he would tell me, but I was still curious and I had to try. "You?" He asked.

I sighed.

"My mom." He looked at me with an eyebrow cocked. "She was a demon."

His eyes opened a little wider for a second and nodded before we decided to make our way downstairs for breakfast. Rita was checking in two women and I was glad to see she had more people staying.

"Good morning Gwen, Lance." She said. "Breakfast is all set up in the dining room."

We waved and continued in, helping ourselves and sitting at the table closest to the buffet so that Dean wouldn't have to walk far for seconds. I'm pretty sure breakfast was his favorite kind of food but I didn't blame him; breakfast was totally the best.

We found out that Rita was going to be spending most of the day in the garden out back so we decided to take this time to look around. We started downstairs and made sure that the two women, Erika and Nancy, didn't run into us or the other way around.

It was around noon when we heard a scream from upstairs. Dean and I quickly ran to where we came from and saw Erika leaning over Nancy's body. Dean and I glanced at each other as Rita came up finally and saw what happened.

"Oh, dear," she gasped. I ran into their open room and used the phone to call for an ambulance. Dean and I quickly went back to our room.

"We've got to get that thing." I said quickly as soon as he shut the door behind us. "We have to get it now."

Dean exhaled loudly and nodded. He went downstairs to grab the duffel full of weapons from the Impala and I quickly tried to find anything online that might be useful information. I even tried calling John on the off chance that he might answer to see if he had any ideas but of course he didn't answer. I read the entry in my journal about the bogeyman and read what we used to kill it. There was a knock on the door and I went to open it. Rita was standing there with money in her hand and tears in her eyes.

"I have your money back, I saw your husband packing your car." I shook my head and pushed her hand back.

"We're not leaving. We're staying for at least another night, I just ran out of clean clothes," I told her. Her eyes opened wide in surprise and she smiled before telling me where I could do my laundry in the basement.

The basement! Cold and dark and the perfect hiding place for a boggart. I nodded and thanked her as Dean came up with our weapon bag. Rita told us that she had run out of supplies and needed more groceries and she had to go to the store since her delivery boy couldn't come. She told us she'd be back in a few hours and that Erika had left with Nancy's body. We had the entire house to ourselves.

This was the perfect time then to get rid of that thing, once and for all. Dean locked our door even though we were the only ones in the inn right then as he pulled out several different guns. He loaded one with silver bullets, one with rock salt, and one with iron as well as with regular bullets. He handed me the one with regular bullets and the rock salt and kept the other two for himself.

There was nothing I could find online or in my journal. I didn't understand what I had written in the bogeyman entry. I had still been young and I kept things a little too vague sometimes. I cursed my younger slightly lazy self and we grabbed flashlights. The boggart wouldn't come out unless it was dark so we'd have to keep the lights off.

Dean went down first and I followed closely behind. There was a pile of forgotten stuff in the corner including a few photos, some books, a mirror and a lamp. I saw something out of the corner of my eye on one side and I heard something fall off a shelf in the other direction. I pointed my flashlight to see what had fallen and heard a gunshot and someone scream.

"Dean?" I called, turning around. I saw him standing with his back to me, looking at something that I couldn't quite see. I walked up to him quickly and blanched at what I saw. "Oh my god."

It was me.

...

...

That was an amazing amount of reviews that I got. It's making me think that I should do the review-raffle for a guest appearance more often. Now, before I announce who gets the lucky spot of the first guest appearance, I'd like to just say that if I had the time and energy that I'd write in a special character for each and every reviewer. However, with finals and my attention span and the other projects that I'm working on I really just don't have the amazing powers to do such a thing.

Now, without any further ado *drum roll* Congratulations amy marie 45! Go ahead and send me an email (my address is on my profile) and we'll start working on your character :)

So please, please, please leave me some more amazing reviews. Who knows; maybe I'll do a secret guest appearance raffle. But I'll tell you right now that you'll only be eligible if you leave a review.

Hope you all have an awesome weekend and I'll see you all on Sunday! I'll be expecting an email from you, amy marie 45, soon.

3 Erin

P.S. I think the next chapter might be what you all have been waiting for... but it's possible I'm mistaken.