Supernatural: Hollywood Babylon

A/N: Good morning, folks, or evening, depending on where you live. So, I've got an early shift at work in a few hours, but I figure I would post this first.

Read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Supernatural or Criminal Minds; I just own the characters that I happen to create.

CHAPTER TWO: SPIRITS, SPIRITS EVERYWHERE

"I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit."

Ecclesiastes 1:14

The next morning, the actors are filming once again. Tara's character, "Wendy", entered the abandoned house, clutching her flashlight tightly, and looked around.

"Wendy?" "Mitch" asked, coming out from behind the couch with "Kendra".

"Oh, Mitch!" "Wendy" gasped as they hugged. "God, you're alive!"

"Mitch" smiled. "You can't get rid of me that easy."

"Rumble, rumble, rumble!" McG ordered from off-stage and the house began shaking, making the three actors hold on to each other.

"Salt. Okay, we need salt," "Wendy" said, trying to remain calm and keep her balance. "I read in that book that it keeps ghosts away."

"Mitch" nodded. "Kendra, Logan, you guys check the back."

Off-camera, Marty lowered his headset and began whispering to the producer, Jay, voicing his concerns.

"Jay, the poor bastard killed himself," he whispered. "Like, for real. Shouldn't we shut it down or something?"

"We had a moment of silence for him at breakfast," Jay retorted, his own headset for a moment. "He was just a studio guy."

"Shh!" McG hissed.

"I love you," "Wendy" told "Mitch".

"I know," "Mitch" agreed, shining his flashlight directly in her face, making her wince and break character. "Sorry," he apologized, also breaking character as he lowered the beam.

"Can we cut or something?" Tara asked.

McG was surprised, but nodded. "Uh…yeah, cut. Cut!"

"That's a cut!" Dean, who was now wearing a headset and other P.A. gear, called out and then resumed eating his taquito.

"Only the director can say cut, Dean," Liz told him, and she was also a headset and P.A. gear; after learning about Brad's death, the Winchesters had contacted Penelope Garcia, who, along with Sam's Jedi mind trick, managed to get them all connected to the movie by way of the crew.

McG left his seat and approached Tara. "Hey, what's up?" he asked kindly.

Tara sighed, recalling what happen yesterday. "I'm sorry. I'm just a little upset."

"Well, with everything that's been going on around here, who can blame you?" McG agreed, also thrown by the various mishaps.

Tara nodded and voiced another concern. "I just can't wrap my head around the dialogue, you know? Salt? Doesn't that sound silly? I mean, why would a ghost be afraid of salt?" she asked, and both Dean and Liz smirked.

McG saw that she had a point since the "ghost being scared of salt" business had him confused, too. "Okay, um…Marty?"

Marty, who'd been texting, looked up from his phone. "Yo."

"What do you think?" McG asked.

Marty shrugged. "Not married to salt, what do you want? We're still sticking with condiments?"

"It just sounds different, not better," McG admitted, frowning. "What else would a ghost be scared of?"

Walter was standing next to Dean and Liz, and he clearly didn't like the direction that the conversation was taking. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." And the Winchester twins were surprised and curious by his reactions.

"What would a ghost be scared of?" Marty asked Jay, who shrugged, and then got an idea. "Maybe shotguns."

McG scoffed. "Okay, that makes even less sense than salt."

Walter, who was clutching the script, threw his hands up in disgust. "These people are idiots." And he left, fuming, just as Sam walked up.

"Walter's a little testy for a P.A., huh?" Dean remarked and Liz agreed.

"How's it going in here?" Sam asked, joining them.

"It is going really good, man," Dean responded. "Tara's really stepped up her performance. I think it's probably from all the sense memory stuff she's drawing on."

Sam was confused. "Sense memory?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah." And then winced when Liz elbowed him, almost made him drop his plate of food.

"That's not what Sam's asking about."

Sam sighed, throwing Liz a grateful look. "Dean, you know when I ask how it's going in here, I'm talking about the case, right? We don't really work here. You know, I thought you hated being a P.A." and he raised his eyebrows when he saw what his siblings were wearing.

"It helps us blend in," Liz explained.

Dean shrugged. "I don't know. It's not so bad. I kind of feel like part of the team, you know?" he then held out his plate. "Taquito? They're wonderful."

Sam shook his head. "No. Umm…Listen, I talked my way into the morgue."

"And?" Dean asked.

"News reports were right: Brad's a doornail, no question," Sam concluded.

"Makes sense," Liz agreed.

"Copy that," Dean said into his headset, clearly not hearing what Sam said. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Copy that?" Sam repeated until Liz pointed to her own headset and mouthed, "talking to someone else", and then he understood.

"What did you say?" Dean asked, and Sam could now see that he was talking into the headset and not him. "They are aware."

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" Dean finally asked Sam.

"The newspaper's right," Sam told him. "Brad's a doornail, no question about it."

Dean nodded. "I guess it's a good thing we didn't skip town."

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

Dean then remembered something. "Oh, come here. We want you to hear something." And then spoke into his headset again. "Copy that. On my way." And they led Sam over to the sound guy, Dave. "Hey, Dave. Can you play him that thing you were playing for us earlier?"

Dave nodded. "Sure." He handed a pair of headphones to Sam and then rewound the tape.

Sam took the headphones and put them on. "Thanks." He then listened to the audio of one of the scenes in the movie; midway through the dialogue, the sound became staticky and distorted, and he exchanged an understanding look with Dean and Liz, who'd picked up on the same thing.

A while later, they were walking through the backstage area of the set, talking about what was on the sound recording.

"EVP," Sam remarked.

"From the night of Brad's stage dive," Dean confirmed. "All of a sudden, we're getting electromagnetic readings up the wazoo. For some reason, it's a legit haunting now."

"And from what I've heard, Brad was giving the director, the writer, and a producer a really hard time about the film itself," Liz added. "Apparently he wanted it to be brighter more colorful, and couldn't get his head around that it's a horror movie."

Sam chuckled and then returned to the topic at hand. "Well, who's the ghost, Dean? Liz? What's it want?"

"I don't know," Dean admitted. "I think we should take a look at Brad's death scene."

Outside in the lot, Dean and Liz led Sam to one of the trailers. Once inside, Dean popped a DVD into the television and they all sat down.

"Hey, where'd you get this DVD?" Sam asked, surprised.

"They're called dailies," Dean explained as he and Liz lowered their headsets and he worked the remote. "I got it from Cindy. She's kind of got this on-and-off thing going with Drew. He dubbed me an extra copy." And they watched the footage of the scene, complete with Brad's surprise entrance. "All right, here's where the guy fell through the roof."

Sam nodded. "Right."

"All right, here we go," said Liz.

`"They must have super-hearing,"` "Mitch" said, and then, suddenly, Brad fell through the ceiling of the set, hanging by a noose.

Sam noticed something moments before that happened. "Hey, wait, go back, go back." And Dean rewind the scene. "Right after. Right aft- yeah right. Wait. There."

Dean paused the frame; on the screen, they saw standing in the far corner of the set, was the ghostly white woman who led Brad to his death.

"It's like Three Men and a Baby all over again," he said, stunned; Liz nodded while Sam looked at him, confused. "Selleck, Danson, and Guttenberg. And…I don't know who played the baby."

"Focus, Dean," Liz hissed, elbowing him in the side.

"What's your point?" Sam asked.

"There's a scene in the movie where people say that the camera caught a ghost on film," Dean explained. "Apparently, in the background of one of the scenes, there was this boy that nobody remembers from set. Spirit photography."

Sam looked at the woman and realization dawned on him. "I've seen her before.

Dean and Liz, their headsets in place, were sitting with Sam at a table and were changing the batteries on the walkie-talkies. Sam handed them a printout of an article.

"Here. Check this out."

Liz looked it over while Dean spoke into his headset, and Sam waited patiently. "Yeah, go for Ozzy." He listened. "No, I don't have a 20 on Tara, I think she's 10-100." He listened again. "Okay, copy that." He then looked at the paper in Liz's hands. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"Elise Drummond - starlet back in the thirties," Sam explained, nodding to the black/white photo of the woman. "Had an affair with a studio exec. He uses her up, fires her, leaves her destitute, so Elise hangs herself from Stage 9's rafters, right into a scene they're shooting."

"Just like our man, Brad," Dean commented. "So, what, she's got it in for the studio brass?"

Sam shrugged. "Possibly. I mean it's a motive. And Brad's death matches hers exactly."

"We're digging tonight, aren't we?" Liz asked and got two confirming nods. "So much for getting a decent night sleep."

Later on Stage 9 the crew was cleaning up for the day.

"That's a wrap, people! 6:00 AM call for crew tomorrow!"

"Great work, everybody! McG, you're a genius." Jay said, shaking McG's hand. "You're kicking ass and taking names."

McG nodded as he headed for the exit. "Night, Jay."

Meanwhile at the "Hollywood Forever" cemetery, the Winchesters were walking through, shovels in hand, searching for the right grave.

"Which way?" Sam asked.

Dean read a map he'd bought earlier and pointed, grinning when he spotted a unique statue. "Uh…over here. Hey."

Sam and Liz both looked. "Yeah?"

Dean gestured to a memorial for Humpty Dumpty. "This map is totally worth the five bucks!" he laughed, delighted. "Hey, we've gotta go check out Johnny Ramone's grave when we're done here."

"You wanna dig him up, too?" Sam asked and Liz laughed since it was a well-known fact that Johnny Ramone's remains were actually ashes in a container.

"Bite your tongue, heathen!" Dean scolded as they passed another memorial, this one of a guy playing a guitar. "Oh, that's cool."

"You know, Dean, what I don't get is why now?" Sam wondered, referring to the case. "I mean, after seventy-five years, Elise Drummond suddenly goes homicidal, you know? Why this movie?"

Dean shrugged. "Well, maybe she's mad they're making a scary ghost flick."

Sam scoffed. "Come on, is it really that scary?"

"Not really," Liz agreed.

Dean then spotted the right headstone. "Here we go."

They reached Elise's headstone and set their gear down.

"Yep. All right."

"Here we go."

"Yahtzee."

And they started digging.

Back at the sound stage, Jay was alone on the dark set, talking on his cell phone.

"I know," he complained. "No, I friggin' hate McG's dailies. I can't control the guy. I'm telling you, next one, I'm directing myself." He listened. "What, you? No, Bob. You, I love. You're a genius! You're kicking ass and taking names." He listened again. "Yeah, okay. Yeah. Talk to you later, babe." He then hung up and scowled. "What a dick."

Suddenly, the lights went out on the set, plunging everything into darkness.

"Oh, great," he grumbled. "Hey, guys! Producer walking here, hello!" but there was no answer, everyone had gone home.

Back at the cemetery, the Winchesters had finished digging and opened the coffin, revealing Elise's corpse; soon they were pouring salt and gasoline over the bones and burned them.

Meanwhile Jay was trying to get around the forest scenery in the dark, when he saw a man walk by.

"Hey! Hey, pal!" he called out, finally reaching the area that held the house and found the man standing with his back to him in the doorway. "Can you show me to the exit? I can't see a damn thing here." The man didn't move. "Hey! Hey, putz! I'm talking to you! Somebody could get hurt here."

Suddenly, the man turned around; his face had been slashed, a section of his skull had been split open, and he had blood running down his mouth. Jay screamed and fell to the ground.

"What the hell?"

Suddenly, the fan on set turn on by itself, and the ghost flickered and vanished; breathing hard, Jay tried to crawl away, but the fan dragged him backwards. He tried to cling to the cables, but he got sucked into the fan and was torn apart, blood spraying everywhere.

The preview for the film, "Hell Hazers 2" began playing on the screen.

Wendy entered the abandoned house, flashlight in hand.

`"They never forgive. They never forget."`

Wendy was now in the woods. "Mitch? Ashley?"

`"And this summer, they're coming back again to settle the score…again."`

"You out here?" She suddenly turned, looked into the camera, and screamed. There was a quick montage of clips from the film.

"Ashley and Todd - they're dead!" Brody cried. "Wendy, they're dead!"

"These bastards aren't taking us," Mitch declared. "Not without a fight."

"I am getting out of here right now!" Brody shouted.

"Brody!" Wendy screamed.

Short clips from the movie play on the screen: Wendy reading in Latin, Kendra screaming, and the characters running through the woods.

`"From the producers of Cornfield Massacre, Monster Truck, and the director of Charlie's Angels, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and Hell Hazers, comes a new experience in terror."`

"We must have brought them back," said Mitch. "Back from hell. Again."

`"Hell Hazers 2: The Reckoning. This film is not yet rated."`

A/N: And that ends this chapter, see you all next time! R&R everyone!