Chapter Twenty-Seven

Cas had no way of knowing what manner of creature was coming down those stairs, and he had no weapons to defend himself with. But it didn't matter. This was the monster that had hurt Dean, and Cas was going to make sure it died bloody.

The lights flickered on, almost blinding after the prolonged period of darkness. Cas blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision.

Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't the young man standing in front of him.

"Castiel," he said warmly. A smile curved his lips and he spread his hands in welcome, just like he had once before. "How good to see you again."

Cas was stunned. "Jeremy?"

A bright flash startled him; he was forced to wince his eyes shut.

"Oh, sorry about that. But the expression on your face was the perfect Kodak moment; I had to capture it." He lowered the camera and grinned. "Guess I really had you fooled, huh? I mean, I don't like to brag, but I think I pulled off the friendly-neighbour act perfectly. You never suspected, did you? Not once."

The words finally unstuck from his throat. "It was you."

"That's right! You and brother Sammy were running all about the countryside searching for me, and there I was, right across the street."

He still couldn't believe it, but the evidence was staring down at him, irrefutable, incomprehensible. "Jeremy."

He bowed low. "Jeremy Hodge, at your service." The words dripped with sarcasm, and when he straightened he wore an expression of utter contempt. "We've met before, you know. Not at the barbecue – although really, Cassie, I'm disappointed that you didn't recognise me. Dean-o, I can understand; poor thing was so traumatised that he just clean forgot everything. But what's your excuse? All I did was get a haircut and shave off my beard. Or were you just not paying attention the first time? Because that's cold, Castiel, real cold."

Cas had no idea what he was talking about. "I don't know you."

"Oh, but you do. Think back, Castiel. It would have been a year and a half ago now. You and your soon-to-be-husband picked up a case in Haileyville, Oklahoma. There were reports about an old abandoned house; the local kids had a bit of a scare one night and were going around saying the place was haunted. You figured it would be a simple salt'n'burn. You came crashing in, uninvited, and stuck your noses into something that was none of your business."

Cas remembered the case. The EMF reading had been off the charts and they had barely set foot inside the house before furniture was being hurled at them from every angle. They retreated to do some research and found out that the house had been bought by a newly-wed couple a few years prior. The wife had died soon afterwards in a tragic accident; she fell down the basement stairs and broke her neck. The inconsolable widower hadn't even bothered to put the house on the market before he disappeared, and no one had seen or heard from him since. Further digging revealed that the wife had been cremated, so Cas and Dean had gone back to the house to find whatever it was that her soul had latched onto.

They found more than they bargained for.

The ghost put up a fierce fight, but Dean held it off while Cas smashed his way through the basement door and hurried down the steps.

He was assaulted by the rank smell of unwashed flesh and human excrement, and then his watering eyes located the source.

The husband hadn't packed up and left town like everyone assumed.

He was still there, trapped inside his own house by his dead wife.

The poor man was deranged, screaming things at him that made no sense. He was no help in working out what was keeping the ghost tethered. Dean came crashing down the stairs a few minutes later, hollering that the dead bitch was pissed and that they had better find a way to gank her fast. In the chaos that followed, Cas was busy blasting rock-salt in every direction while the husband shrieked and Dean somehow found the presence of mind to spot the wedding ring that the husband wore on a chain around his neck. Dean yanked it off, dropped it on the floor and burnished it with his lighter until the ghost was consumed by flames.

"You're alright now," Dean had told the man. "She's gone."

Then, job done, ghost vanquished, they had headed back home and thought nothing more of it.

Looking up at Jeremy now, Cas realised that they had made a terrible mistake. "You were the man in the basement."

"And now you are. Poetic, isn't it?"

But it didn't make sense. "Why would you wish to harm the people who liberated you?"

Jeremy's face twisted. "I didn't ask to be 'liberated'. You had no right to come busting into my home and mess with things that did not concern you."

"If we had not arrived when we did, you would have starved to death."

"That's what I wanted."

Cas stared at him. "I know that being haunted is not a pleasant experience, but surely freedom is preferable to death."

"I wasn't a prisoner!"

"The ghost was keeping you trapped down here-"

"No. I chose to stay."

"Why?"

"Why? Because I loved my wife and I wasn't about to abandon her!"

"She died."

"You don't think I know that? I was the one who found her body, broken and lying in a bloody puddle at the bottom of the stairs. But she came back to me, because when we said our vows we meant them, and we promised that our love was forever. I didn't care that she was a spirit. She was mine, and I loved her. I wanted to be with her."

"Ghosts are souls that cannot move on. Being stuck here was driving her crazy. She was already becoming violent – it wouldn't have been long before she degenerated into something more animal than human."

Jeremy took a threatening step forward and Cas flinched backwards despite himself. "Don't talk about my wife that way," he growled.

"She would have killed you!"

"No. You're wrong. I asked her to, I begged her to, but she couldn't bring herself to hurt me and she couldn't bear to watch me commit suicide. I chose to do it the slow way, for her sake. But you ruined everything."

"We saved you."

"You murdered my wife! I was going to die to be with her. We would have spent an eternity together. But you attacked her. You invaded our home and pelted her with salt rounds that made her scream with pain. And then Dean stole her wedding ring from around my neck, even as I begged him to leave us alone. He killed my beloved Katelyn like it was nothing, like she was just some damned dog to be put down. He destroyed her. So I'm returning the favour."

Cas struggled to keep his anger contained. "We were doing our jobs. Protecting people."

"Katelyn would never have hurt anyone."

"Every ghost turns, Jeremy. Every single one. Dean's surrogate father knew more about ghosts than anyone, and even he turned vengeful. Katelyn was already heading that way; that's how we heard about the case in the first place. She broke some poor kid's leg and gave another a concussion-"

"Those punks broke into our house; they deserved everything they got! And so did Dean."

Cas thought about the man who had been lying in that hospital bed, stick-thin and swamped by bandages, his entire life erased from his memory. He thought about the scars that marred his body and the knees that had never fully healed. He thought about the crippling panic attacks that had left him feeling out of control and utterly humiliated. He thought about the way the terror had choked the very air from his lungs.

"Dean is a good man." His fists were clenched, but his voice was deadly quiet. "We were just trying to help you. He did not deserve what you did to him. What you're still doing to him."

"This is an eye for an eye. He destroyed Katelyn, and I destroyed him. He stole the love of my life, and I have stolen his. He is going to find out how it feels to watch the person he married die in agony."

"That is never going to happen."

Jeremy approached the cage and crouched down so they were eye to eye. "Oh, my poor defiant little puppy dog." His tone had changed from cold rage to sickly sweet. "Bark at me all you like; it won't stop me from having my way with you. Dean learned that lesson the hard way."

"What did you do to him?"

Jeremy's face split into a wide grin. "I'm so glad you asked. Let me show you."

ooOOoo