"Read em' and weep boys" Kat laid down her hand on the table; ace high royal flush, hearts. The various men around the table all groaned in defeat. "Sorry boys, they don't call me the queen of hearts for nothing" She scooped in the pile of money that was now hers and stood up. She rolled it into a neat pile and tucked it under her red bra strap, underneath her black string top. "And that's kicking your ass boys" She waved to them all as she made her way back to the table Sam and Dean were sat on.
"That was incredible" Sam watched her as she took a seat next to him and began to count her money.
"Women's intuition Sammy" She winked.
"Yeah it's freaky, she does stuff like that all the time" Dean placed the drinks on the table.
"What can I say, it's a gift" She took a sip of her drink. "Found anything sweetie?" She gestured to the paper Sam was reading.
"Maybe. Oasis Plains, Oklahoma, not far from here. A gas company employee, Dustin Burwash, supposedly died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob"
"Huh?" Dean leaned closer.
"Human mad cow disease sweetie" Kat picked her drink up.
"Mad cow. Wasn't that on Oprah?" Dean's looked a little confused.
"You watch Oprah?" Sam smirked. Kat laughed and Dean opened his mouth to speak but couldn't think of any way possible to save himself from the embarrassment.
"So this guy eats a bad burger. Why is it our kind of thing?" Dean attempted to change the subject.
"You're so cute when your embarrassed sweetie" Kat pinched his cheek and wiggled it.
"Mad cow disease causes massive brain degeneration. It takes months, even years, for the damage to appear. But this guy, Dustin? Sounds like his brain disintegrated in about an hour. Maybe less" Sam placed the paper on the table.
"Okay, that's weird" Dean and Kat exchanged puzzled looks.
"Yeah. Now, it could be a disease. Or it could be somethin' much nastier" Sam raised his eyebrows.
"All right. Oklahoma" They got up and began to make their way to the Impala.
"Man. Work, work, work. No time to spend my money" Kat giggled as she took Dean's arm. They made their way across the car park and into the car.
"No way, you go down there" Kat pointed to the sinkhole that was the place of Dustin's death.
"Babe you're the smallest" Dean protested.
"I'm not small I'm fun sized" She placed her hands on her hips. Sam looked into the hole with a flashlight.
"If Travis was right, if it is mad cow then it must have happened pretty damn fast" Sam continued to circle the hole.
"So what you thinking Sammy, some sort of creature chewed on his brain?" Dean moved closer to have a better look.
"No babe, there'd be an entry wound. Sounds like this thing worked from the inside" Kat joined them by the side.
"Huh. Looks like there's only room for one. You wanna flip a coin?" Dean looked over to Sam he knew there was no way Kat would go down there. Apart from Johnny Depp obviously.
"Dean, we have no idea what's down there" Sam watched as Dean picked up a nearby coil of rope.
"All right, I'll go if you're scared. You scared?" Dean teased. Kat smirked.
"Flip the damn coin" Dean chuckled and took a coin out of his pocket.
"All right, call it in the air…chicken" He flipped the coin, Sam caught it in midair. He looked at the coin in his hand and sighed.
"I'm going" Sam turned and began to walk towards the hole.
"I said I'd go" Dean followed him.
"I'm going" Sam had a sulky tone to his voice.
"All right" Sam began to tie the rope around his waist.
"Don't drop me" Sam pointed at Dean.
"Don't worry sweetie I'll make sure he doesn't"
They sat in the Impala examining the findings of the hole.
"So you found some beetles. In a hole, in the ground. That's shocking, Sam" Kat laughed at Dean's remark.
"There were no tunnels, no tracks. No evidence of any other kind of creature down there. You know, some beetles do eat meat. Now, it's usually dead meat, but" He sighed.
"How many did you find down there sweetie?" Kat leaned closer to examine the dead beetle in Sam's hand.
"Ten"
"It'd take a whole lot more than that to eat out some dude's brain" Dean commented without removing his eyes from the road.
"Well, maybe there were more" Sam twisted the beetle in his hand.
"I don't know, it sounds like a stretch to me" Dean replied.
"Well, we need more information on the area, the neighbourhood. Whether something like this has ever happened before" Kat sat back into her seat. As they drove through town they passed a sign for an open house, decorated with red balloons.
"I know a good place to start" Dean gestured to another sign that read, "Models Open. New Buyers' BBQ Today!" I'm kinda hungry for a little barbeque, how 'bout you?" Sam and Kat gave him a knowing look. Knowing he wanted the BBQ.
"What, we can't talk to the locals?" Dean smiled at Kat.
"Sure sweetie and I'm sure the free food's got nothing to do with it?" She raised her eyebrow.
"Of course not. I'm a professional" He smiled.
"Right, whatever you say" They pulled over and got out of the car. They began walking down the street to the open house.
" Growin' up in a place like this would freak me out" Dean pulled a face indicating his dislike.
"Why?" Kat stopped to look at him.
"Well, manicured lawns, "How was your day, honey?" - I'd blow my brains out" He carried on walking. Kat raised her eyebrows but she would have to agree no matter how much tragedy she had experienced being a hunter she loved the adventure.
"There's nothing wrong with normal" Sam sighed obviously considering the life he could have been living right now.
"I'd take our family over normal any day" Dean approached the house and knocked on the door.
"Welcome" A middle aged man answered the door.
"This the barbeque?" Kat rolled her eyes at Dean's remark and Sam shook his head.
"Yeah, not the best weather, but…I'm Larry Pike, the developer here. And you are…?"
"Dean. This is Kat and Sam" They shook hands in turn.
"Kat, Sam, Dean, good to meet you. So, you are interested in Oasis Plains?
"Yes, sir. Me and my fiancé here are lookin' to settle down" Dean pulled Kat closer and wrapped his arm around her waist.
"And you are?" The developer looked over to Sam.
"I'm his brother"
" Great, great. Well, come on in" He gestured for them to follow him. He led them outside into the backyard. It was full of people walking around, chatting and eating.
Kat and Dean had been receiving a guided tour of the house from Larry and were finally heading back downstairs.
"You've got three choices, carpet, hardwood, and tile" Kat grabbed Dean's arm as she noticed a jar full of bugs on a nearby table.
"Whoa. Someone likes bugs" Dean had to reframe from laughing at Kat. A hunter whose speciality is vampires and she's scared of a few bugs.
"My son, he's into insects. He's very…inquisitive" Kat and Dean exchanged a glance. The tone of voice Larry used didn't quite convince them.
They made their way back outside in time to see Sam talking to a young boy.
"I am so sorry about my son and his…pet" Kat shuttered at the sight of the big black tarantula that was crawling all over Larry's son. Dean took Kat's hand and smiled at her.
"It's no bother" Sam smiled at him.
"Excuse us" Larry began to walk away with Matt.
"Remind you of somebody?" Dean looked over at Larry, he was yelling at Matt. Dean looked back at Sam, confused. "Dad? Dad never treated us like that"
"Well, Dad never treated you like that. You were perfect. He was all over my case. You don't remember?" Sam raised his eyebrow at Dean to emphasise his question.
"Well, maybe he had to raise his voice, but sometimes, you were out of line" Kat rolled her eyes at Dean's comment; she knew that this was going to escalate into a row.
"Right. Right, like when I said I'd rather play soccer than learn bow hunting"
"Bow hunting's an important skill" Dean looked down at Kat, she nodded half heartedly.
"Whatever. How was your tour?" He looked over to Kat.
"Oh, it was excellent. I'm ready to buy" Sam laughed at Dean.
"Sweetie, you might be onto something. Looks like Dustin Burwash wasn't the first strange death around here" Kat moved closer and lowered her voice.
"What happened?"
"About a year ago, before they broke ground, one of Larry's surveyors dropped dead while on the job. Severe allergic reaction to bee stings" Kat shut her eyes as she was attempting to remove the mental image of killer bees out of her head.
"More bugs" Sam looked over to Dean.
"More Bugs"
"Unfortunately" Kat frowned.
The three musketeers sat in the Impala, Kat was driving and Sam and Dean were conducting research.
"You know, I've heard of killer bees, but killer beetles? What is it that could make different bugs attack?" Dean flicked through their fathers journal.
"Well, hunting's sometimes include bug manifestations" Sam opened his laptop.
"Yeah, but we didn't see any evidence of ghost activity" Kat used the mirror to look at Sam.
"Yeah" He sighed.
"Maybe they're being controlled somehow. You know, by something or someone" Dean shut the journal.
"You mean, like Willard?" Sam raised his eyebrow.
"Yeah, bugs instead of rats"
"There are cases of psychic connections between people and animals, elementals, telepaths" Kat stopped at a red light.
"Yeah, that whole Timmy-Lassie thing" Dean suddenly realized. "Larry's kid, he's got bugs for pets"
"Matt?" Sam sounded sceptical.
"Yeah"
"He did try to scare the realtor with a tarantula" Sam's words made Kat shutter. Tarantula.
"You think he's our Willard?" Kat rolled down her window.
"I don't know. Anything's possible, I guess" Dean smirked at her reaction to the word tarantula.
"Ooh, hey. Pull over here" Kat slammed the breaks and pulled into an empty driveway of the Oasis Plains homes.
"What are we doing here?" Kat laughed at Sam's foolish comment; she knew exactly what Dean was planning.
"It's too late to talk to anybody else" Dean got out of the car.
"Sam sweetie we're gonna squat in an empty house. So that's another felony to add to the list. I swear Mr. Winchester you are a very bad influence on me" She winked at Dean.
"Yeah and you enjoy every minute of it" He smirked. She couldn't help but smile back at that gorgeous, sexy and very, very tempting smirk. "I wanna try the steam shower. Come on" Dean walked up to the garage door. Kat pulled the car into the garage, and Dean closed it.
Kat and Dean wondered around upstairs. Sam had said something about a police call on the scanner and a body being found a few blocks away before leaving them on their own.
"This place is huge" Kat looked around at the various statues and art works that decorated the walls.
"Yeah" Dean opened one of the white doors that led to the master bedroom. Kat walked over to look inside.
"Fancy" The rooms was white with an elegant black pattern decorating the boarder. A minimal finish with a few black knick knacks placed here and there. A king sized bed with satin sheets and more than enough pillows was the centre piece of the room. Kat ran over and jumped onto the bed. "Memory foam, I like it" She turned so that she was facing the ceiling. Dean stood leaning against the door frame, he smiled at her. "What?" She sat up to look at him.
"Nothing" He didn't want to say nothing what he really wanted to say was that she was the most beautiful, intelligent, sweet, kind, genuine, down to earth, and all round fantastic woman he had ever known. Unfortunately whatever killed his mother and Jessica was still out there and he wasn't going to lose Kat the same way.
"So I take it your claiming this bed" He walked over and sat down next to her.
"Yes I am" she rolled onto her side and leaned on her elbow. He kissed the top of her head and placed a strand of her dark hair behind her ear.
"Mind if I join you?" He raised his eye brow in a suggestive manor; he always covered his feeling for her with a joke. Truth was that he had shared a bed with her for so many months mostly because of the money but now he didn't feel right sleeping without her.
"Why break tradition?" She smiled. She felt safe with him; she could relax and forget about the horrors that she had seen.
"I'm gonna go try out this steam shower" He ruffled her hair and kissed her forehead before disappearing into the bathroom. Kat sighed, if only she was able to join him was the general and PG rated version of what ran through her mind. She stood up and removed her jacket; she threw it onto the pure white arm chair in the corner of the room. She removed her jewellery; her ring's, two pairs of earrings, her many bracelets and her silver cross. The only thing she never took off was her pentacle. It was a dull grey colour and hung on a thick black string; nothing to look at but in terms of sentiment it was priceless.
A young Kat and her boyfriend Jack sat in the living room of his apartment. Jack's dad was always away on business and so Kat would often stay over. They lay on the sofa; Kat rested her head on his chest as he played with her hair.
"Hey Kate, I got ya a little something" she looked up with excitement filling her face.
"For me?" He kissed her softy and caressed her face.
"Yeah" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little black box. She looked up at him and smiled. He nodded as an indication that she should open it. She gently opened the box and smiled at the contents. "Do you like it?" He couldn't read her expression.
"Yeah ... what is it?" She giggled.
"It's a pentacle, it's a protection symbol" He brushed some of the hair out of her face.
"Ok, you believe in all that sort of stuff?" She took it out of the box.
"Maybe, it was my moms. My dad gave it to her on their first anniversary. You don't have to have it if you don't ... it was a stupid idea, I'm sorry" She stopped his rambling with a kiss.
"I love it, it's perfect" She put it around her neck. "Thank you"
"You're welcome"
Kat held the pentacle in her fist. She removed her jeans and climbed into bed. She turned on her side and pulled the covers over her. Her head had been killing her all day and she was exhausted. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. She woke up when she heard the bedroom door open; Dean came into the room with nothing but a towel on. Kat closed her eyes reluctantly and rolled over pretending to be asleep. Again the rolling over had nothing to do with getting a better view. She watched as he picked up his duffle bag and pulled out fresh clothes. Placing them on before removing the towel; unfortunately for Kat. He walked over to the bed and gently got in beside her. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her over to him. He kissed the back of her head and closed his eyes.
Kat's phone rang. She opened her eyes and squinted at the bright sun light that filled the room. She grabbed her phone and slide it up.
"Hey sweetie, what's going on?" Kat rubbed her eyes and smiled at the sound of Dean's voice.
"Hey babe, a lot actually you remember Lynda?"
"The realtor?" She sat up and stretched her free arm above her head.
"Yeah, she's dead ... spider bites" Kat cringed at the idea. "Are you finished cringing?"
"... Yes. So I take it there's a point to this story?" Sometimes she hated the way he knew everything about her. He knew her better than she knew herself.
"Yeah me and Sammy found some 170 year old skeletons in an unmarked grave turned out to be from a Native American tribe"
"So what were dealing with a Native American curse?" Kat stood up and walked over to the window.
"Something like that"
"Ok that's not good" She observed the family playing in the yard of the house opposite. Kat smiled nostalgically.
"No, babe you still there?" He interrupted her train of thoughts.
"Yeah sorry, so what now?" She shut the curtain over and returned to the bed.
"Me and Sam are on our way to Larry's right now, I tried a fake call but they didn't buy it"
"Right well I'll meet you there" Kat stood up again.
"Are you sure, cause there's gonna be a lot of bugs" Kat cringed.
"... yeah .. I wanna help you guys ... I'll be fine. I'll see you in a bit"
"Right see you later" She hung up and turned to face herself in the floor length mirror.
"I'll be fine, there just bugs, tiny, little, creepy, crawly, vile, biting, flying, scurrying, evil monsters" She shivered.
Kat got dressed, simple black jeans and a Rolling Stones t-shirt complete with the jacket she commandeered from Dean.
"I fight vampires, I hunt vampires ... bugs are nothing, nothing at all ..." Kat continued her prep talk all the way to the street that Larry's house was on. She could make out the vague shapes of the boys and the family on the lawn. It had gotten dark, Kat hadn't realised how late she had slept but then they didn't break in to the show house until after midnight. She ran over and joined the group in the middle of an argument.
"Dad, they're right, okay? We're in danger" Kat smiled at Dean.
"Matt, get inside! Now! Oh the fiancé has joined us now" He gestured to Kat. Before Kat could give answer Matt grew a back bone.
"No! Why won't you listen to me?!"
"Because this is crazy! It doesn't make any sense!" Kat looked over to Dean who shook his head in an 'I'll tell you later' mannor.
"Look, this land is cursed! People have died here. Now, are you gonna really take that risk with your family?" Sam stepped forward, closer to Larry. Kat grabbed Dean's arm. She could hear it. Dean stopped and looked over at her.
"Babe what is it?" He turned her to face him.
"You can't hear that?" She began to panic. The buzzing noise began to get louder and louder as it approached them.
"How did you hear that?" Sam began his question but it never received an answer as the fluorescent light on the porch began to overheat from the several bugs that it was killing.
"All right, it's time to go. Larry, get your wife" Sam shouted his instructions as Dean pulled Kat closer.
"Guys" Matt pointed to the sky; millions of bugs began to fly towards the house, blanketing the sky.
"Oh shit-ake mushrooms" Kat tightened her grip on Dean.
"We'll never make it" Sam looked over to Dean.
"Everybody in the house. Everybody in the house, go!" They rushed inside the house and locked the door. Kat ran up the stairs.
"Windows" She shouted as she ran up the stairs. She was an incredibly fast runner. She ran into the bedroom and slammed the large window shut as a swarm of bees continued to approach the house. She checked for any other way they may find to get in and then returned to the group.
"Bug spray?" She raised her eyebrow at Dean who was standing holding the can.
"Trust me" He winked and she nodded and caught the can that he threw to her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her lighter. They all froze as a creaking noise filled the room.
"What is that?" Matt's voice filled with panic.
"The flue" Sam looked over to Dean.
"All right, I think everybody needs to get upstairs" As the words left his lips hundreds of thousands of bugs flew into the living room, swarming all around them. They began to scream and try to protect themselves but it was useless. Kat and Dean used their lighters along with the cans of bug spray creating a flame deflecting the bugs. "All right, everybody upstairs! Now! Go, go, go!" They run into the attic and Sam slammed the door shut. They all stopped to catch their breath but the sense of relief was short lived. Sawdust began to fall from the ceiling. The buzz of the bee's got louder.
"Oh, God, what's that?" Jonan; Larry's wife began to panic.
"Dean, something's eating through the wood" Kat gestured to the roof.
"Termites" Matt's knowledge of bugs unnerved Kat.
"All right, everybody get back. Get back, get back, get back!" Dean ushered them out the way. The bugs had chewed a hole through the ceiling and began to swarm around the attic. Sam and Dean frantically attempted to patch up the hole in the ceiling. They stopped. After a few sighs of relief again it was cut short as two more holes were then chewed. Kat moved from her position in front of the Pike family to Dean's side. They attempted to ward them off with bug spray, it was a futile attempt. The five of them retreated into the corner, trying desperately to swat the bugs away. Suddenly, the sun rose filling the attic with its warm rays of light. .T he bugs started to leave through the hole in the ceiling. The three of them exchange confused all be it relieved looks and move cautiously towards the holes to see what has happened. The bugs swarmed in the clear blue sky, nearing the sun.
"Well I don't know about you guys but I think I'm traumatised" Kat sighed and Dean pulled her into his arms, attempting to contain his laughter.