Dean turned around just in time to see Ed and Harry fighting with each other over their backpack of supplies as the spirit materialized right in front of them. The men grabbed onto each other and stepped backwards, running into Maggie, who was hiding behind her camera. All three Ghostfacers screamed and ran through one of the hallway doors.
The spirit had her back to Sam, who picked up Nick by the collar and shoved him down the hallway away from the ghost, a step behind as he pulled out his handgun that would probably be useless against this foe. The spirit of Meghan whipped around and locked eyes with Castiel. Shit, thought Dean, Cas is her next victim. He grabbed Castiel by his sleeve and pulled him through another one of the hallway doors, shutting it behind him and leaning up against it.
"We've got to get to Ed and Harry. They have salt in their bag. And that bitch is coming for you," he yelled, pointing at Castiel.
A door opened to his left and Sam and Nick burst through from the fake hallway behind them.
"Sam, we've gotta get the salt and iron from Harry's bag!"
"Right," said Sam. "Cas, can you take Nick to his trailer and get that locket? Dean and I will go after the bag."
"Of course," nodded Castiel.
Dean opened the door behind him to find that the coast was clear in the hallway, but no Ghostfacers. He could hear them arguing from the other side of the faux wall, though. He burst out into the hallway, followed by Sam and ran towards the door he had seen them go through. Behind them, Castiel turned to head towards Nick's trailer but Meghan blinked to appear in front of him, pushing him back into Nick and the two men ran through the door, following Sam and Dean out into the hallway.
Dean found the Ghostfacers, huddled together with their backs to the wall on the other side of the door. Harry was digging through the bag as Ed was narrating to the camera Maggie was holding up. He was breathing heavily, taking in huge gulps of air between words. "We (breath) are here at (breath) the set of (breath) the Supernatural movie (breath). The ghost of (breath) Nick Morgan's dead girlfriend (breath) has already murdered (breath) once and is now (breath) on the rampage (breath) for another victim."
Finally, Harry found Ed's inhaler in the backpack and shoved it into his friend's hand. Ed took a large drag of the medicine and put his hand over his chest. Just then, Castiel and Nick burst through another of the doors to join the group. "Meghan's spirit blocked our way to Nick's trailer. I believe we may need a weapon," Castiel explained.
Sam pulled Harry up from where he was squatting on the ground, so he could rummage through the backpack for the salt and iron. But Harry was clutching the backpack to his chest with a death grip. Sam growled for Harry to give him the bag but before he could wrench it from the smaller man's grip he was shoved forward into Harry, crushing him against the wall and sending both men crumbling to the ground. It was the spirit and she had reappeared and was shoving everyone back.
"Sam!" Dean yelled to his brother.
"I'm OK!" Sam yelled back and turned to Harry to retrieve a weapon but it was too late. Ed, Harry, Maggie, Castiel and Nick had all scattered like roaches through the various doors back into the hallway.
"Godammit!" Dean yelled. "We're in a freaking Scooby Doo chase!" He hauled Sam up by the arm and they ran through the door back into the hallway in just time to be thrown up against a wall with Nick, Castiel and Ed, frozen by the spirit standing in the middle of the room. Everyone was incapacitated, staring in horror at the spirit slowly drifting towards Nick.
Meghan had once been lovely. She was tall and lean with long raven hair and legs that went on forever. The fire that had taken her life happened at night while she was sleeping and she now appeared to them, still in her short silky nightgown and bare feet. She turned towards Nick and the angry lost expression on her ghost-white face softened to show how stunning she had once been. Her black hair flowed behind her and her dark lips stood out in contrast to her too pale face. Her eyes, though, were sad as she drifted towards the man she loved.
Nick was frozen in both fear and sadness. He had truly loved this woman, who was kind and sweet and funny and wouldn't hurt anyone. How could he now fear her? She released her hold on him and he collapsed to the floor with the unexpected loss of pressure on his chest. As he stood up, she approached him and reached out a hand. He looked down at it in fear and she followed the line of his eyes to the flames, dousing them immediately before touching his cheek.
Nick felt both the ice cold of the lost spirit and the warmth of the love that they had once shared and he couldn't help but let her caress his cheek. She leaned forward and kissed him slowly and a tear streaked down his cheek. Once she pulled away from the kiss, she turned around to face the rest of her audience, still frozen against the walls of the hallway.
As soon as she spotted Castiel her lovely face morphed and decayed, showing the true destruction that time and loss had done to her spirit. She disappeared and a second later appeared a breath away from Castiel and shoved her hand into his chest. Castiel sucked in a loud harsh breath as the pain overtook him.
"Cas!" Dean screamed.
"Nick, get the locket!" Sam whispered to Nick, who was the only person who could move. Nick nodded to him and took off at a sprint towards his trailer.
Castiel continued to struggle against the spirit currently sucking the life from him. He was unable to speak, unable to breathe as she was crushing his heart and constricting his lungs. All he could do was look to Dean, who was screaming his name and struggling against his invisible bonds. "Sam, we have to help him! Harry! Get back here you son of a bitch!" he screamed, praying that Harry was still alive with the weapons bag.
Dean caught Castiel's eyes as the man looked towards him, hopeless, sad, pleading. He couldn't speak but he managed to choke out a weak, "Dean," before losing consciousness.
"No!" Dean screamed over the deafening sound of the gunshot that came from the end of the hallway. It was Harry. He had burst through one of the doors and shot a salt round through the spirit, causing her to flicker away and releasing the bonds holding Sam, Dean and Ed to the walls.
Dean ran straight to Castiel, who lay crumpled in a heap on the ground against the wall and pulled the angel into his arms. "Cas! Come on, talk to me!" He shook his shoulders and gently patted his face and Castiel's eyes fluttered open as he sucked in a huge breath of air.
"Dean… I-"
But Castiel didn't have a chance to finish as Dean was yanked off of him and thrown down the hallway frozen again even further away when the spirit reappeared. Sam had grabbed the shotgun from Harry but it was thrown from his hands and clattered across the floor as he too was again shoved back and incapacitated.
Meghan slammed her hand back into Castiel's chest screaming, "Mine, mine, mine," into his head so loudly that he was afraid his head would explode from the pressure. He squeezed his eyes shut and dug his knuckles into his temples. Meghan was squeezing the life from him again and he could feel his insides begin to vibrate and burn with her fury. Castiel's hands fell as he lost all strength, but he just managed to pry his eyes open and search the hallway lethargically for Dean, stopping only once he locked onto the man's green eyes and held them for all he was worth. Dean nearly vomited as he heard a horrible gurgle come from Cas' throat as he tried to gasp for air.
"Meghan, stop!" Nick screamed at her. He had just come running back into the hallway, sliding to a halt a few feet behind her with the locket in his hand. "Don't hurt him! I didn't do anything with him. We just talked and he slept on my couch. I never even touched him! I love you! Please, stop!"
Nick had distracted Meghan long enough for her to loosen her grip on Dean who rolled forward, grabbing the iron crowbar sticking out of Harry's discarded backpack as he lunged forward slamming into the spirit. The iron worked and she disappeared but only for a moment.
She reappeared directly in front of Nick and she reached out to caress his cheek. She pleaded, "Come with me," and thrust her hand into his chest causing him to freeze and gasp for air, losing his grip on the locket that dropped to the ground with a clink.
Maggie dropped her camera and lunged for the locket as Sam tossed her a lighter. She pried open the locket and lit the black locks on fire and everyone winced at the blood curdling scream that escaped from the spirit as she burned away. Nick collapsed to the floor and Sam and Maggie ran to him to help him up.
Dean turned to Castiel who wasn't moving, he lay in a heap on the ground. He fell to his knees and grabbed Castiel by the front of his shirt, pulling him up but felt a sick twist in his gut when the man's head lulled to the side, eyes slightly opened but completely unfocused. He brought Castiel's chest to his and grabbed the back of his head with one hand, and placed the fingers of his other hand on the angel's neck before his blood ran ice cold at the absence of a pulse there. No! No! Dean screamed internally. He couldn't lose Cas now! He hadn't even told the angel how he felt. It couldn't end this way! Not now, not when he could finally see a glimmer of hope for him and Cas.
Dean rocked back and forth and screamed Cas' name through gritted teeth as tears overflowed from his eyes. This was the second time that he had found himself kneeling on the ground, clinging to the lifeless body of someone he loved.
"Cas, you listen to me, you bastard," Dean growled in the man's ear, "you don't have your grace any more. You can't just die like this. You won't come back without it. Come on, man, wake up so we can go find your damn grace and power you back up. Fight this, Cas. I need you," he begged. He took a deep breath before whispering, "I love you."
When Castiel didn't respond, Dean sunk down onto his backside and leaned back against the wall, holding Cas' body across his outstretched legs, the man's cheek leaning against his chest. He banged his head back against the wall again and again, squeezing his eyes shut and spitting out a litany of no's between his teeth. A resigned tear trickled down the side of his face when he felt a trembling hand on the side of his neck. He looked down and Cas' blue eyes were open, looking up at him.
Dean felt a wave of relief flood his body so strong that he didn't even think before he leaned down placing his lips on Castiel's, abandoning all his fears to the elation that he felt seeing the man in his arms breathing again. The kiss was chaste, a soft promise. The men tightened their grip on one another and held on desperately and Dean whispered, "You ever fucking do that again, I'll kill you."
"I'm sorry Dean," Castiel croaked out and Dean smiled for the first time since this case began.
He finally became aware that there were other people present. Sam and Maggie were taking care of Nick, who had passed out and was just now waking up. Harry had rushed to Ed's side, helping to calm him down after his asthma attack and the two men were now geeking out over the fact that Harry had actually shot a ghost. The men walked over to where Dean and Castiel were disentangling themselves and Ed proclaimed, "Son of a Klingon! Once again gay love has pierced through the veil of death and saved the day!"