Dean felt like the wind had been knocked right out of him.
In the two years that Jo continued haunting the old factory, showing up in his bedroom at night, walking the school hallways after lunch, no one had seen her. Two years Sam had spent scrutinizing the distance that Dean always seemed preoccupied with. Two years, Mary had found no one besides Dean in his bedroom. Two years, and for the first time, Jo felt like a shot had pierced her when Castiel's eyes wandered to her and didn't look right through like everybody else's had.
She froze, her pale lips parted in anticipation. Castiel's wide-eyed gaze, Dean's frantic look. Jo realized what was happening. She quickly took a step back and melted into the wall, gone.
Castiel spun around wildly, "Did you see?"
What was he going to say? Cas, there's nothing there, I think the adrenaline's getting to you. Cas, you feeling alright? You've been through enough today. Cas, you're burning up, maybe you have a fe-
Dean realized his hand was still clasped tightly around Castiel's; his skin was hot.
He quickly scrambled away and dusted his hands, "See what?"
"What just happened."
"Cas, we need to get out of here, man."
"Dean, I know you saw it."
Was there any point stalling? No, but he was going to do it anyway.
Dean turned around to go. There was a gap in the door where the wooden boards had rotted and fallen off. He squeezed through it, squinting against the bright sunlight. No Jo. No Rob of Chace.
Ricky was still lying in a crumpled heap after having a sooty carburetor collide with him. Was he dead? Dean hoped not. Jo wouldn't have gone that far. Would she? His mind began to buzz with questions when the smell of peppermint and tires encased him again.
"Are we just going to ignore what happened here?" Castiel asked from behind him.
"Yeah."
"You know our classmate's bleeding onto the factory floor."
"I wouldn't worry about it. He should've been more careful, this place is off limits."
"What's more is it's haunted."
Dean stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around to face Castiel. The boy's face was unreadable and he wasn't growing any fonder of those piercing blue eyes. He forced a smile on his face and words on his tongue, "Don't tell me you believed those old stories."
"Stories?"
"Well, yeah," Dean rolled his shoulders trying to sound nonchalant. "Folks say a lot of crap about the factory ghost. Truth is nobody's ever seen it."
"I have."
Dean swallowed. His stubbornness was getting to him. When would this guy let up? Maybe I gotta walk the other way and ignore him now, he thought, I've done my job for today; I've done my job for the week and all I need now is a moment in my room and maybe some of Mom's apple pie. He turned on his heel and set down the road.
"What about Ricky?" Castiel started up after him.
"He'll be fine," came the half-hearted reply. "Look man, I gotta get home. Homework."
Even Castiel knew that was a lie.
"You really didn't see her?"
"See who?"
"The ghost?"
"Look," Dean wheeled around on him, staring him down. "Cas, buddy, you've just been threatened to an inch of your life. It's hot. You're tired. Go home."
"I can't."
"And why's that?"
Castiel stared at him a long moment and then said, "Do you want to know what she looks like?"
"Oh for Pete's sake," Dean turned around, marching on.
"She had golden hair and dark eyes."
Dean ignored him.
"She wasn't very tall."
Say one more thing and I'll finish Ricky's job for him.
"She looked scared though, before she disappeared."
"You're delusional."
"They all say that," Castiel said smally. "They're out there you know. The dead."
Dean squared his shoulder and continued down the road. He knew Castiel had stopped following him. He knew he had left him standing by the chain link fence that divided the factory yard from the dirt road. He knew he had walked about a hundred paces without looking back and he sure as hell wasn't about to, even if Ricky was lumbering towards the new kid. He was done.