A/N: Sorry this chapter is long overdue. School is over for me in less than two weeks so everything is piling up and I've just had no time. Sorry if this is kind of crappy - which really sucks because I love this episode. Thank you for all the lovely reviews. My heart swells every time I read them! Thanks!
Disclaimer: I only own Allie Winchester, unfortunately.
Episode: Hell House
We haven't seen or heard from Dad in a couple weeks. It was hard to keep an open mind about whether he was safe or not, but I have to trust my gut and right now it's telling me not to worry.
"Hey, Allie." Dean says from the behind the driver's seat. "Look at this."
We were driving to god knows where. To keep our mind off things, we keep moving around – not staying in one place for too long unless we find a hunt. So far it's been working, but I recently have been stuck in my head, thinking about every dramatic situation I'm in. Dad, Chris, demons…
I sit up straight from my seat in the back. Dean slipped a white plastic spoon into Sam's mouth as he slept in the passenger seat. Dean wears a giddy smile as he takes his phone out to snap a picture of him. I roll my eyes, but I let Dean do his thing. When we were younger, Sam and Dean would randomly go on these prank wars. Both of them were relentless with the pranks and every time, I refuse to touch that with a ten foot pole.
"You're playing with fire," I smirk.
Dean grins back at me and stuffs his phone back into his pocket and turns up the music on full blast. Sam instantly wakes up scared and surprised. He slaps the spoon out of his mouth and wipes his lips with the back of his hand.
Dean starts playing the air drums on the wheel and singing along, "Fire…of unknown origins…took my baby away!"
I smile because the look on Sam's face is priceless.
Sam glares at Dean, "Ha ha, very funny."
Dean laughs, "Sorry, not a lot of scenery here in East Texas, kinda gotta make your own."
"Man we're not kids anymore Dean. We're not going to start that crap up again."
"Start what up?" Dean plays dumb.
"That prank stuff," Sam sighs. "It's stupid, and it always escalates."
"Always escalates," I repeat Sam and shake my head.
"What's the matter Sammy, scared you're going to get a little Nair in your shampoo again huh?" Dean teases.
"All right," Sam shakes his head, a wicked grinning appearing on his lips. "Just remember you started it."
"Ah ha, bring it on baldy." Dean challenges him.
"Where are we anyway?" I ask, taking the conversation off of their stupid prank war Dean got them both into.
"A few hours outside of Richardson." Dean says, glancing at Sam who supposedly found a hunt for us out this way. "Gimme the low down again?"
"All right, about a month or two ago these group of kids go poking around in this local haunted house." Sam says.
"Haunted by what?" I ask.
"Apparently, a misogynistic spirit. Legend goes, it takes girls and strings them up in the rafters. Anyway these group of kids see this dead girl hanging in the cellar."
"Anybody ID the corpse?"
"Well, that's the thing. By the time the cops got there the body was gone. So cops are saying the kids were just yanking chains."
"Maybe the cops are right?" Dean shrugs.
"Maybe, but I read a couple of the kids first hand accounts. They seemed pretty sincere." Sam says.
"Where did you read these accounts?" Dean asks.
Sam glances out the window and grimaces. "Well, I knew we were going to be passing through Texas. So last night, I surfed some local paranormal websites. And I found one."
"And what's it called?" Dean asks.
When Sam hesitates to answer the question, I knew Sam found this information off of some b.s website made by people who think they know the paranormal world.
"Hell hounds lair dot com." Sam mumbles.
"Let me guess, streaming live out of Mom's basement." I smirk.
Sam grins and glances back at me, "Yeah, probably."
"Yeah. Most of those websites wouldn't know a ghost if it bit 'em in the persqueeter." Dean says.
"Look. We let Dad take off. Which was a mistake, by the way." Sam says and I roll my eyes. "And now we don't know where the hell he is and in the meantime we gotta find ourselves something to hunt. There's no harm in checking this out."
"All right. So where do we find these kids?" Dean asks.
"Same place you always find kids in a town like this." Sam says.
A couple hours later, Dean pulls up to some fast food outlet called "Rodeo Drive." It was easy to find the couple of kids who went into that house the other day because they were telling everyone around them their story.
Basically the two guys and one girl told us that it was a crazy experience. The walls were painted black, the girl thought it was blood, there were a bunch of symbols on the walls…
And then each of them started telling different stories about the hanging girl. She had blonde hair, black hair, red hair. She was moving, but she wasn't moving.
Honestly, it just felt like a whole waste of time.
"And…how'd you find out about this place anyway?" Sam asks.
"Craig took us." The girl says.
Since these three were a waste of time, we decided to find Craig next.
Craig works at a music shop down town. There were piles of records everywhere, classic rock playing softly on the speakers, and band t-shirts hanging on the walls.
"Fellas," The guy from behind the counter approaches us. He looks at me and nods. "And lady. Can I help you with anything?"
"Yeah, are you Craig Thurston?" Sam asks.
"I am," He nods.
"Well we're reporters with the Dallas Morning News. I'm Dean, this is Sam and Allie." Dean says.
"No way. Well I'm a writer too. I write for my school's lit magazine," Craig smiles.
"Well, good for you Morrisey," Dean said uninterested.
"Umm. We're doing an article on local hauntings and rumor has it you might know of one." Sam says, tossing Dean a warning look.
"You mean the Hell House?" Craig asks.
"That's the one," Dean points.
"I didn't think there was anything to the story," Craig shrugs.
"Why don't you tell us the story?" I say.
Craig shrugs, "Well, supposedly back in the '30s this farmer, Mordachai Murdoch, used to live in this house with his six daughters. It was during the depression, his crops were failing, he didn't have enough money to feed his own children. So I guess that's when he went off the deep end."
"How?" I ask.
"Well, he figured it was best if his girls died quick, rather than starve to death. So he attacked them. They screamed, begged for him to stop but he just strung 'em up, one after the other. And when he was all finished he just turned around and hung himself. Now they say that his spirit is trapped in the house forever, stringing up any other girl that goes inside."
"Where'd you hear all this?" Dean asks.
"My cousin Dana told me. I don't know where she heard it from. Ya gotta realize, I didn't believe this for a second."
"But now you do?" Sam asks.
"I don't know what the hell to think man. You guys, I'll tell you exactly what I told the police ok? That girl was real. This was not a prank. I swear to God, I don't wanna go anywhere near that house ever again ok?"
Dean glances at me before looking back at Craig. "Thanks."
After Craig told us what happened, I was really confused on how this became our kind of deal. To me, it sounded like it was a really bad prank that turned out really horribly. Dean and Sam were thinking the same thing, but before we called it quits on this hunt, we went to the so-called haunted house to check it out.
The night was dark and creepy, which left us with the perfect setting for a haunted house. It rained the night before so the dirt ground was now muddy and sticking to the bottom of our boots.
The house is barely standing up. It's obvious that no one has lived here for decades. It is rotting brown, crooked, window panes falling off, and just overall ugly and creepy.
"I can't say I blame the kid," Sam says as we look at the house. It really was the perfect house to be rumored haunted.
"Yeah, so much for curb appeal." Dean pulls out the EMF reader from the car and immediately, it starts going off like crazy.
"You got something?" I ask.
Dean taps to EMF meter, "Yeah, the EMFs no good."
"Why?"
Dean points to the overhead power lines by the house on a telephone pole. "I think that thing still got a little juice in it, it's screwing with all the readings."
"Yeah that'd do it," Sam says.
"Yeah," Dean tosses the EMF into the back seat of the car. "Come on, let's go."
Just when I thought the house couldn't get any creepier because of the outside, the inside took the cake. There were symbols I didn't recognize on the wall, no lights, musty, completely wooden, and eerily quiet.
Dean whistles, "Looks like old man Murdock was a bit of a tagger in his time." Dean says looking at one of the symbols.
"And after his time too. That reverse cross has been used by Satanists for centuries but this sigil of sulfer didn't show up in San Franciso until the '60s." Sam adds.
Dean stops and stares at Sam. "This is exactly why you never get laid."
I huffed out a loud chuckle. Sam gives me his famous bitch face and I stick my tongue out at him playfully.
Dean points at a different symbol. "Hey what about this one, you seen this one before?"
I walk over next to Dean and examine the symbol. It's a cross with a dot in the middle and an upside down question mark on the bottom.
Sam walks over too and looks at the mark, "No."
"I have." Dean says. He shakes his head to himself. "Somewhere."
"I've never seen it before either." I say, turning around to look around some more.
Sam touches the paint with his fingers, "It's paint. Seems pretty fresh too."
I shrug and turn back to my brothers. "I don't know guys. You know I hate to agree with authority figures of any kind...but the cops may be right about this one."
"Yeah, maybe." Sam agrees.
Our heads snap to my right when we hear an abrupt noise coming from behind a door I'm assuming leads to the kitchen. Sam and Dean immediately take position on either side of the door. I stand next to Sam and Dean pushes the door open.
The three of us burst through the door and instantly we're met with a bright light in our eyes.
"Oh, cut. It's just a couple of humans." Someone holding a video camera says. He switches it off and holds it at his side, huffing at us with an annoyed attitude.
He's standing next to another guy who is also holding some kind of electric gadget. He didn't seem to like our interruption either.
"What are you guys doing here?" The one in the glasses asks us as if this was his home and we just barged into it.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Dean retaliates.
"Ah-ha-ha. We belong here, we're professionals?" He replies like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Professional what?"
"Paranormal investigators," He says cockily and even passes a wink my way. He hands Dean and Sam a business card. "There you go, take a look at that boys and girl." He winks.
"Oh you gotta be kidding me." Dean says.
I swipe the card out of Dean's hand and glance it over. "Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spangler?"
"Hellhounds lair dot com?" Sam looks up from his business card. "You guys run that website?"
"Yeah," Ed, the one with the glasses, says.
"Oh yeah, yeah, we're huge fans." Dean fakes a grin.
"And ah, we know who you guys are too," Ed says.
I narrow my eyes tightly at the guy, quickly feeling really nervous after everything we've just been through. I didn't like that at all.
"Oh yeah?" Sam questions him.
"Amateurs," Ed nods. Immediately I felt silly for even thinking these guys could have been a threat to this family. I mean look at them, they're serious dorks.
"Yep. So if you guys don't mind, we're trying to conduct a serious scientific investigation here." The other one wearing an Indiana Jones vest says. This would be Harry.
"Except you, sweetheart." Ed points and winks at me. "You can stay. I'll protect you."
I raised my eyebrows surprised by his confidence and comment. I could tell it rubbed my brothers the wrong way, but it shouldn't have because this situation was in no way realistic.
"What have you got so far?" Sam asks before Dean could make a smart ass comment.
"Harry, why doncha tell 'em about EMF?" Ed smirks.
"Welll…"
"EMF?" I tilt my head and play dumb. I glance over at my brothers who already know what I'm doing which is just playing along to their confidence because it was actually really funny. We're trying really hard not to smile at the situation but it is just so comical.
"Electromagnetic field?" Harry says with an obvious tone of voice. "Spectral entities can cause energy fluctuations that can be read with an EMF detector. Like this bad boy right here." Harry switches the EMF on, and just like our EMF detector, their's immediately went off. "Whoa. Whoa. It's a 2.8mg."
"2.8. Its hot in here." Ed says excitedly.
At this point, I'm trying really hard not to burst out in a fit of laughter.
Dean whistles like he's impressed.
"Wow," Sam says like he is too. I look over at Sam who is also really close to losing it.
"Wait, so have you guys ever seen a real ghost before?" I ask.
I can tell that my fake interest is going to straight to Ed's head. "Once," He smirks. "We were, uh...we were investigating this old house and we saw a vase fall right off the table..."
"By itself," Harry adds.
"Well we didn't actually see it, we heard it. And something like that...it uh...it changes you."
"Yeah. I think I get the picture." Dean says, looking back at us. "We should go, let them get back to work."
"Yeah, you should." Ed says. "But sweetheart, that offer is still on the table."
"Dude, if you call her sweetheart one more time –" Dean takes a step forward.
"We're going," I push my hands against his chest and he takes a step back. "Seriously Dean? Let's go."
Sam and I went to the public library to do research while Dean went to see if he could find anything interesting at the police station.
To Sam's irritation, I didn't really help with the whole doing research thing. The window kept my attention as I just stared out of it. I felt distracted no matter what Sam found to take my mind off of things.
"You okay?" Sam asks me. He shifts his attention from his research to me and looks at me with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I say flatly.
"You're lying straight through your teeth." Sam smirks. "Come on, tell me what's going on. Is it Dad? Or maybe those demons who are waiting for you to hand over some kind of weapon." My head whips over to look at Sam. I didn't tell him that. "Dean told me."
I roll my eyes, "Of course he did."
"Why didn't you want to tell me?" Sam asks.
I sigh, "It's not that I didn't want to tell you. I just wanted to find the right time. You have your own personal issues you're dealing with."
"Allie, I know I'm dealing with my own stuff but that doesn't mean I care any less about yours."
"I know, but I didn't want to add any more weight to your shoulders."
"Look, I appreciate that, but I want to help you. Just as much as you want to help me, hell maybe even more."
"Not possible." I say quickly.
"I knew you were gonna say that."
"Look," I sigh and fiddle with my thumbs. "If I'm being honest, I'm thinking more about Chris than I am that demon."
"Chris?" Sam tilts his head. "I thought he stopped calling you."
"He did. But I feel like I should talk to him…y'know for closure or something." I feel stupid for even saying it out loud but I figured Sam of all people wouldn't judge me for it.
"Oh," Sam says, looking back down at the table.
"You think I shouldn't?"
He shakes his head, "It's not that I don't want you to…its just that I hate that guy."
I scoff, "You sound like Dean."
"Sorry, but if that's what will help you…"
"I just haven't stopped thinking about him since I saw him a couple months ago and its really bothering me."
"I'll support you on this if its really what you want to do," Sam says. "And I'll be there if anything goes wrong. Are you sure you don't want to tell Dean about it?"
"This is the only real friendship he has," I say disappointedly. "I don't want to ruin it for him. I mean you saw what happened when Ed called me sweetheart."
"Yeah well I didn't like the way Ed was looking at you either."
"Sam," I warn him.
"Fine," He sighs. He glances back down at his work and slaps his hands against his thighs. "Well, I think I have everything if you want to head out and find Dean."
"Yeah, Dean's probably done now too." I say, hopping away from the windowsill.
With perfect timing, Dean approaches the library as soon as we exit it. Sam and I bounce down the stairs and walk with Dean to the impala.
"Hey, what you got?" Dean asks.
"Well I couldn't find a Mordechai but I did find a Martin Murdock who lived in that house in the '30s. He did have children but only two of them, both boys and there's no evidence he ever killed anyone." Sam explains.
"Huh," Dean hums.
"What about you?"
"Well those kids didn't really give us a clear description of that dead girl but I did hit up the police station. No matching missing persons, it's like she never existed. Dude come on, we did our digging, this one's a bust all right. For all we know those hell hound boys made up the whole thing."
"Yeah all right." Sam says.
"I say we find ourselves a bar and some beers and leave the legend to the locals."
"I second that," I raise my hand.
Dean rounds the car and takes his usual spot in the front seat. I'm about to hop in the back when Sam grabs my elbow and silently holds up his finger for me to wait a second. I scrunch my eyebrows with confusion, but I stay back.
Dean turns the key into the ignition and instantly the car starts blasting South American music. The wipers turn on at high speed and the fluid spits out on the front window.
"Whoa!" Dean yells. "What the…"
Dean turns down the music and turns off the wipers. Now, I hop in the back seat and Sam gets in laughing to himself.
Dean passes Sam a dirty look, "That's all you got? Sweet. That is bush league."
Sam continues to laugh, and although Dean is playing it off, he knows Sam got him too. I sink into my seat and try to ignore their idiocracy. This is just the beginning.
As we were about to leave this town in our rearview mirror, our police scanner turned on, notifying other police officers of another death at the hell house. As soon as we heard that Dean turned the car around because we didn't feel right leaving this place without a second look.
By the time we get there, the hell house is surrounded by ambulances and police cars. A couple of paramedics were walking a stretcher out of the house where the dead girl lay with a white tarp over her body.
I see a couple of bystanders outside the parameter watching with curious stares. Since I can assume the cops won't tell us anything, I walk over to a man watching the scene play out too.
"Hey," I say as I approach him. "What happened?"
"A couple of cops say a girl hung herself in the house," He says.
"Suicide?" I ask.
At this point, Sam and Dean make their way over too.
"Yeah. She was a straight A student, with a full ride to UT too. It just don't make sense."
The guy walks away, something else grabbing his attention. I turn around and face my brothers and shrug my shoulders. I still didn't know what to make of this, but something in my gut told me we had to stay.
"What do you think?" I ask.
"I think maybe we missed something." Dean says.
"Yeah me too," I agree.
Sam, Dean and I hide behind the bushes waiting for the cops to clear out so we can go back in there and check things out for a second time. However, that didn't seem like it was happening anytime soon because after a couple of hours, the cops were still there patrolling the area.
"I guess the cops don't want anyone else screwing around in there," Sam says, peeking over the bushes.
I sit back and let Sam and Dean take over look out duty. I'm content sitting back in silence chewing away at a pack of Twizzlers Dean got me after he felt bad about the whole Dad situation.
"Yeah but we still gotta get in there." Dean says.
"Maybe if you ask nicely…" I say sarcastically with a mouth full of candy. Dean turns around to give me a warning look and I just smirk back at him.
Dean pauses when he hears a couple of hushed whispers across the field. He peeks over the bushes again and narrows his eyes in the direction of the noise.
"I don't believe it." He says.
This perks my interest so now I sit up and look over the bushes. Approaching the house are those two nerds we encountered earlier. Ed and Harry are wearing these night vision goggles, holding up video cameras, and wearing clothes as if they were out exploring the jungle. At first I thought these guys were jokes, but now they're just straight up annoying.
"I got an idea," Dean says. Dean turns to face the cops and places his hand by his mouth. "Who ya gunna call!"
Ed and Harry freeze and look around. At the same time, the cops see Ed and Harry and shine their flashlights in their faces. "Hey you!"
"Run!" One of them hits the other and the dorks run in the opposite direction of the house.
"Freeze! Get back here! Hey!" The cops chase after them.
As the cops chased Ed and Harry out of sight, Dean pulls out the flashlights and Sam hands us our rifles filled with rock salt. We sneak back into the house quickly before the cops can come back. This time, we check the house more thoroughly, trying to find whatever it is that we missed last time.
As Sam and I continue to search through all the nooks and crannies, Dean stops to stare at the one symbol he couldn't make out last time.
"Where have I seen that symbol before? It's killing me!" Dean says.
"Come on, we don't have much time." Sam says.
I lead my brothers to the basement where we didn't end up looking before. The basement was obviously a lot creepier than the upstairs. It was built like a bomb shelter…not a very good one, but it was something.
Dean moves in front of the shelves stacked with a bunch of jars that had some kind of indescribable liquid inside.
"Hey Allie, I dare you to take a swig of this." Dean holds up a jar of red liquid, sloshing it around close to my face.
"Ew, no get away from me." I cringe away.
Dean glances back at the jar and thinks for a second. "…I double dare you."
I give him a look that says, "Are you a child?"
Dean just grins to himself and puts the jar back in its place. Sam laughs at the both of us, shaking his head.
We hear something fall in the back corner, and instantly the three of us swivel on our feet with our rifles raised in that direction. Once again, my brothers place themselves on either side of the door we heard the noise come from. At Dean's nod, Sam swings the door open. I'm standing at the front of the door waiting for this son of a bitch to pop out, but instead, a couple of rats scurry out.
Dean jumps in his boot and groans to himself. "I hate rats!"
"You'd rather is was a ghost?" Sam looks at him incredulously.
"Yes." Dean says like its an obvious answer.
I have to agree with Dean on this one too. I'd rather it be a ghost too.
I shake my head and glance back at my brothers. That's when I saw the scariest ghost I have ever seen standing behind Sam holding an ax with glowing red eyes.
"Sam!" I scream.
Both Dean and Sam whip around instantly shooting at Mordechai. When Sam is clear of my shot, I shoot at him too, but he doesn't seem to be disappearing anywhere. It's like our rock salt bullets had no effect on him what so over. After my third shot, Mordechai finally disappears in a dark mist.
"What the hell kind of spirit is immune to rock salt?" Sam shouts.
"I don't know." Dean says. "Come on. Come on!"
The basement has officially become my least favorite place in this entire house. The three of us sprint to the stairs. Mordechai appears again, this time next to me. He swings his axe over his head and launches it in my direction. I dive out of the way and his axe smashes into the shelves with all the weird liquids in a jar.
Dean, who was near me at the time, grabs me by my arm and helps me run faster up the stairs. Sam is standing by the staircase shooting rock salt bullets at Mordechai until he runs out. Mordechai swings the axe again, this time hitting the electrical box in the corner and orange and yellow sparks fly everywhere.
We race out of the front door, somehow running into the two nerds that somehow outran the fuzz. They were tiptoeing to the front door with their cameras and night vision goggles and we nearly tackled them trying to get out of there.
"Get that damn thing outta my face!" Dean barks as he picks himself up.
"Go go go!" Sam shouts, the three of us still sprinting out of there.
A second later, we hear Ed and Harry's cries of terror. I look behind me to make sure they were okay. Mordechai stands by the front door, as if trapped inside his own house, with his bright red eyes flashing down on the two geeks. However, they pick themselves up and start running away. As they do, the cops from before sneak up behind them and yank them towards their cars. When they turn back around, Mordechai is gone.
The next morning, I go out and get us coffees and bagels for breakfast. As I wait to the side of the bagel shop for my food, I decide to grow a pair and finally call Chris back. Although I'm still extremely hurt by what he did to me, I want to make sure that this doesn't affect Chris's relationship with Dean. If it did, I would just feel like a terrible sister.
My heart races as I press the phone to my ear and wait for him to answer. I didn't plan what I was going to say, but I hope I sound confident and strong, and not weak and pathetic like he made me feel.
However, I surprisingly get his voicemail. After the phone beeps for me to begin my message, I kind of freeze unsure of what to say. Do I curse him out before getting to the reason why I called, or do I just go straight to the point and tell him how I feel. Damn, I really should have planned this out.
"Hey, Chris. It's Allie…to be honest, I really had no intention of ever speaking to you again because you're a grade-A douchebag, but there is something I want to talk to you about. So when you get this text me because I don't want to talk to you while my brothers are around. Be safe."
I hang up the phone and let my head fall back as a sigh escapes my lips. Chris and I would say "Be safe" after every phone call. It was simple and sweet, showing that we cared for the other person because we didn't want to see them hurt. I guess that just meant physically. It felt weird saying it again, but it just slipped out like a reflex. To anyone else, the words "be safe" wouldn't mean much, but to Chris and I it does.
As soon as the cashier calls my name, I grab the bagels and walk quickly back to the room. I want to be distracted by the case again so that I didn't worry about getting a text back from Chris anytime soon.
When I get back, Sam is at the table scrolling through his computer doing some extra researching and Dean is lounging on the bed, staring at the exact same symbol he can't get out of his head.
"What the hell is this symbol? It's buggin' the hell outta me." Dean groans. "This whole damn job's buggin' me. I thought the legend said Mordechai only goes after chicks."
"It does." I say, placing the bagels on the table next to Sam and passing Dean his coffee.
"All right, well that explains why it went after you and Sam but why me?"
"Hilarious!" Sam says sarcastically. "The legend also says he hung himself but did you see those slit wrists?"
"Yeah," Dean says.
How the hell did they catch the slit wrists? I was too busy running away from his swinging axe to really pay attention to his overall appearance.
"What's up with that? And the axe too. I mean, ghosts are usually pretty strict right? Following the same patterns over and over again?" Sam asks.
"But this mook keeps changing," Dean adds. "Allie, toss me my bagel."
"Exactly." Sam says, clicking away on his laptop. "I'm telling ya, the way the story goes…" Sam pauses and leans in closer to his screen. "Wait a minute."
"What?" I ask, grabbing Dean's bagel out of the bag and tossing it his way.
"Someone added a new post to the Hell Hound site. Listen to this. 'They say Mordechai Murdock was really a Satanist who chopped up his victims with an axe before slitting his own wrists. Now he's imprisoned in the house for eternity."
"Where the hell is this going?" I ask annoyed because the legend keeps changing, which is making our lives more difficult and is almost getting us killed.
Dean sits up abruptly, staring at his pad of paper. "I don't know but I think I might have just figured out where it all started."
Dean drives us back to the music store where we first met Craig. Dean thinks he saw the symbol on the back of an old music record. I wouldn't be surprised if he did, because when we walk back into the store, he looks depressed and cold.
"Hey Craig? Remember us?" Dean says when we walk in.
Craig sighs when he sees us, "Guys, look I'm really not in the mood to answer any of your questions ok?"
"Oh, don't worry. We're just here to buy an album, that's all." Dean says, flicking through the piles of records for the one he's looking for. He looks at Sam when he finds the record, "You know I couldn't figure out what that symbol was and then I realized that it doesn't mean anything. It's the logo for the Blue Oyster Cult." Dean walks up to the counter with the record and plops it right in front of him. "Tell me Craig, You into BOC? Or just scaring the hell outta people? Now why don't you tell us about that house...without lying through your ass this time."
I raise my eyebrow and give the prankster a lopsided grin.
Craig sighs, "All right, um. My cousin Dana was on break from TCU. I guess we were just bored, looking for something to do. So I showed her this abandoned dump I found. We thought it would be funny if we made it look like it was haunted. So we painted symbols on the wall, some from albums, some from some of Dana's theology textbooks. Then we found out this guy Murdock used to live there so...we made up some story to go along with that. So they told people, who told other people. And then these two guys put it on their stupid website. Everything just took on a life of it's own. I mean I thought it was funny at first but...that girl's dead! It was just a joke, you know. I mean, none of it was real, we just made the whole thing up. I swear!"
After Craig tells his story, I start to feel bad for the kid. What turned into what should have been a harmless prank actually turned into something really serious and even ended up killing a couple of people.
"All right," Sam says softly, feeling bad for the kid too.
When we walk back outside, Dean turns around to say something to Sam and I. "If none of it was real how the hell do you explain Mordechai?"
Neither Sam or I knew how to answer.
When we get back to the room, Sam hops in the shower and I decide to take a nap. Every time I either sleep in the same bed with one of these two or the couch, I don't get much sleep. Plus, Chris has yet to text me back and I'm starting to overthink my voicemail like a crazy person.
Dean must have slipped out of the room while I was asleep because I wake up to him sneaking back in with some kind of small packet in his hand.
"Hey, I'm back!" Dean calls out as he closes the door.
"Hey, where were you?" Sam calls from the bathroom.
"Oh, I went out," Dean says nonchalantly.
Dean picks up Sam's clothes that he had laid out neatly before. He rips open the packet I can now tell is itching powder and shakes it all over Sam's underwear.
"Seriously?" I whisper from under the covers and give Dean a disapproving look. Dean smirks back at me and continues to shake some more in Sam's clothes.
"So I think I might have a theory about what's going on." Sam says as the water to the shower turns off.
"Oh yeah?" Dean says,
"What if Mordechai is a Tulpa?"
"Tulpa?"
Sam comes out from behind the bathroom, "Yeah, a Tibetan thought form."
Dean swivels on his heels and hides the packet behind his back. How Sam didn't see this I don't know. But Dean continues the conversation like nothing happened.
"Ahh, yeah, I know what a Tulpa is. Hey why don't you get dressed, I wanna go grab something to eat."
Dean smiles and goes to the bathroom so Sam can change. I roll my eyes and hide myself under the covers.
Dean takes us to a place called the Eating House to get a couple coffees.
Dean gets the coffees and brings them over to our high top table in the middle of the restaurant. I'm doing everything I can to keep my mouth shut while Sam is itching in his pants.
"Dude what's your problem?" Dean asks, loving every second of it. He plays dumb but is really basking in Sam's discomfort.
"Nothing, I'm fine." Sam lies.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," Sam nods.
I roll my eyes and mind my own business, sipping away at my coffee. Before we left to come here, Dean said that if I told Sam what he did he would kill me. I know better than to go against his threats.
"So, what about these Tulpas?" I ask, changing the subject.
"Ok, so there was this incident in Tibet in 1915. Group of monks visualized a golem in their head. The meditated on it so hard they bought the thing to life. Outta thin air."
"So?"
"That was 20 monks. Imagine what 10,000 web surfers could do. I mean Craig starts the story about Mordechai, then it spreads, goes online. Now there are countless people all believing in the bastard."
"Now wait a second." Dean chimes in. "Are you trying to tell me that just because people believe in Mordechai he's real?"
"I don't know. Maybe."
"People believe in Santa Claus, how come I'm not getting hooked up every Christmas?"
"Because you're a bad person," I say quickly, thinking about the itching powder in Sam's pants. Dean glares at me.
"And because of this…" Sam turns his laptop around to show Dean and I a picture of one of them symbols. "That's a Tibetan spirit sigil. On the wall of the house. Craig said they were painting symbols from a theology textbook. I bet they painted this, not even knowing what it was. Now that sigil has been used for centuries, concentrating meditative thoughts like a magnifying glass. So people are on the Hell Hounds website, staring at the symbol, thinking about Mordechai...I mean I don't know, but it might be enough to bring a Tulpa to life."
"It would explain why he keeps changing." Dean says.
Sam grimaces because of the powder but tries to play it off. "Right, as the legend changes, people think different things, so the legend itself changes. Like a game of telephone. That would also explain why the rock salt didn't work."
"Yeah because he's not a traditional spirit."
"Yeah," Sam says, still fidgeting. Poor guy.
"Ok. So why don't we just get this spirit sigil thingie off the wall and off the website?" I ask.
"Well it's not that simple. You see, once Tulpas are created they take on a life of their own."
"Great. So if he really is a thought form how the hell are we supposed to kill an idea?" Dean asks.
"Well it's not gunna be easy with these guys helping us." Sam says, mentioning the two dorks Harry and Ed. "Check out their home page."
Sam shows us a picture the guys put up on their website of Mordechai standing in the front doorway from last night.
"Since they've posted the footage their number of hits have quadrupled in the last day alone."
Dean purses his lips and nods to himself. "Hmph. I got an idea. Come on."
"Where we going?" I ask.
"We gotta find a copy store."
Sam and I don't question it and get up to follow Dean. Sam adjusts his pants and grimaces to himself as he slips his laptop back into his case. "Man, I think I'm allergic to our soap or something." This time, Dean lets out a laugh and walks away. "You did this?" Dean continues laughing. "You're a friggin jerk!"
"Oh yeah!" Dean says with pride.
Sam looks at me like this is partly my fault, so I hold my hands up in surrender to show that I had nothing to do with this.
Dean takes us to the trailer park that we tracked Ed and Harry down to. Dean came up with the idea to trick the two nerds into thinking there was a new legend about Mordechai – a legend that will allow us to kill him.
When Dean pounds on their trailer park door, we hear the two of them scream. Sam and I have to stifle our laughter because these two are such babies yet they want to be some kind of ghost hunters.
"Come on out here guys, we hear you in there." Dean says, rolling his eyes.
"It's them!" One of them whispers.
I hear shuffling inside the trailer and the two dorks pop their heads out from behind the door.
"Ah, would you look at that! Action figures in their original packaging, what a shock."
"Guys, we need to talk." Sam says.
"Yeah, um, sorry guys. We're ah, a little busy right now," Ed says, feigning confidence.
"Okay we'll make it quick," Dean says anyways. "We need you to shut down your website."
Ed laughs, "Well these guys got us busted last night, spent the night in a holding cell..." Ed says like he's now a big tough guy now.
However, Harry can't fake the confidence. Even his recollection of spending a couple hours in a holding cell makes him look nervous.
"I had to pee in that cell urinal. In front of people. And I get stage fright."
"Why should we trust you guys?" Ed asks.
"Look guys. We all know what we saw last night, what's in that house. But now thanks to your website there are thousands of people hearing about Mordechai." I explain.
Dean nods and adds, "That's right which means people are gunna keep showing up at the Hell House, running into him in person, somebody could get hurt."
"Yeah, yeah…" Ed continues to play the tough guy.
And Harry is still a shaking ball of anxiety, "Ed maybe he's got a point, maybe…"
"Nope," Ed cuts him off and cross his arms over his chest.
Harry sighs but goes along with his best friend. "No."
"We have an obligation to our fans, to the truth." Ed says like he's giving a speech.
"Well I have an obligation to kick both your little asses right now." Dean takes a step forward and the boys take a step back.
"Dean, Dean, it's ok." Sam holds his hand out and starts the acting we came up with, "Hey, just forget it, all right? These guys...probably bitch slap them both, I could probably even tell them that thing about Mordechai...but they still won't help us. Let's just go."
Dean, Sam, and I start walking away, and if our plan works, they will be following in 3…2...1…
"Whoa…whoa.." Like clockwork, they follow.
"Yeah, you're right," Dean shrugs, looking over at Sam.
"What you say about…?"
"Hang on a second!" Harry calls out.
"Wait…wait."
"What thing about Mordechai you guys?"
I couldn't believe Dean's plan actually worked…but then again, these two are idiots so I shouldn't be so surprised.
"Don't tell them guys," I shake my head.
Sam shrugs, "But if they agree to shut the website down, Al…"
"They're not going to do it, you said so yourself." I say.
"No wait. Wait. Don't listen to her ok? We'll do it. We'll do it." Ed says.
"It's a secret Sam," Dean shakes his head.
Sam turns around to face Ed and Harry. "Look, it is a really big deal all right. And it wasn't easy to dig up. So only if we have your word that you'll shut everything down."
"Totally," Ed says, lying straight to our faces.
"All right," Sam sighs.
Dean pretends to acts disappointed and hands over the fake documents we made at the copy store.
"It's a death certificate. From the '30s. We got it at the library. Now according to the coroner, the actual cause of death was a self-inflicted gun shot wound." Sam says.
"That's right. He didn't hang or cut himself." Dean adds.
"He shot himself?" Ed asks.
I nod, "Yep. With a .45 pistol. To this day they say he's terrified of them."
"Matter of fact they say if you shoot him with a .45, loaded with these special wrought-iron rounds it'd kill the son of a bitch." Dean says.
Ed and Harry exchange looks and snicker with one another. They try to act sly by pretending they weren't hype about the new news. That's when I knew our plan worked. Immediately, Harry turns and bolts towards the trailer with the birth certificate.
Ed trails behind more slowly, "Harry. Slow your roll buddy. They're gonna know we're excited."
Finally these losers were good for something.
To kill some time as we wait for Ed and Harry to post the new information to their website, we get dinner at a different café. As Dean goes to the bathroom, Sam slides some superglue over Dean's beer bottle. I can't blame him for wanting to go out big since Dean put itching powder in his underwear, but Dean was definitely going to lose some skin trying to detach himself.
By our table was some kind of artwork that had a string attached to it. If you pull the string, a fisherman holding a fish laughs a very annoying laugh. So of course, Dean can't stop pulling the string, getting on both Sam's and my nerves.
I finally snap after the fourth time Dean turned it on and I pull the chord to stop the irritating thing from laughing. "If you pull that string one more time I'm gonna kill you."
Dean stares at me with a deadpan expression and pulls the chord again. This time Sam instantly stops the chord and glares.
Dean snickers, "Come on guys, you need more laughter in your life. You know you're way too tense." I give Dean a dirty look to stop talking and he sighs. "They post it yet?"
Sam moves the laptop around to show Dean and I. Dean reads it, "We've learned from reputable sources that Mordechai Murdock has a fatal fear of firearms. All right. How long do we wait?"
"Long enough for the new story to spread, and the legend to change. I figure by nightfall iron rounds will work on the sucker."
Sam holds out his beer for us to cheers. There's a hidden smirk behind Sam's face when Dean lifts his beer and clanks it against ours.
"Sweet." Dean says.
Dean takes a long sip of his beer and this time Sam's grin breaks loose on his lips. Dean goes to put his bottle down but its stuck to his hand. His face drops and Sam cracks up.
Dean looks up accusingly. "You didn't."
Sam laughs and holds up the super glue bottle. "Oh, I did!"
Dean shakes his head, and to be funny, I pull the chord of the annoying laughing fisherman because its funny that Dean got what he deserved.
Before we left, I had the idea to pull the annoying artwork off the wall and bring it with us to the hell house to use to distract the cops while we sneak in there.
Guess what, my smart plan worked. The cops move with their torches like we're in the medieval times to search for the agitating noise. While they're looking for nothing, my brothers and I sneak back into the house with the guns we're sure are going to work on this Mordechai bitch.
Dean constantly adjusts the gun in his hand, "I barely have any skin left on my palm."
"I'm not touching that line with a ten foot pole." I say, moving away.
Dean shines his flashlight in my face as if that was payback for what I said and moves to the other room. Sam laughs from behind me and follows Dean.
"So you think Mordechai's home?" Dean asks.
"I don't know." Sam shrugs.
"Me either." A third voice that wasn't mine says behind me.
Like a reflex, the three of us snap in the direction of the voice and point our guns at the person. I shouldn't have been surprised when we saw Ed and Harry.
When they see our guns, the two scream like little girls.
"Whoa! Whoa!" Ed shouts.
Sam yells back, "What are you trying to do, get yourself killed?"
"We're just trying to get a book and movie deal ok?" Ed holds his hands up.
Downstairs the sound of knives being sharpened alerts all of our attention. Our guns are raised again.
"Oh crap," Ed stops.
Ed and Harry move behind the three of us with their cameras pointed ahead of us.
"Ah guys, you wanna…you wanna open that door for me?" Ed says behind me.
"Why don't you?" Dean says, no one wanting to open the scary door.
Before anyone could open the door, Mordechai burst through, screaming. However, he's still holding his axe. Still, Dean, Sam, and I fire our rounds into the spirit. He doesn't disappear right away like last time, but after a couple shots he dissipates into a dark mist.
"Allie, stay with these two. Sam and I will check the other rooms." Dean tells me. Before I can fight it, they leave me on babysitting duty.
"Oh God. He's gone. He's gone." Ed breathes out.
"Did you get him?" Harry asks.
"Yeah they got him," Ed says.
"No, on camera, did you him on camera?" Harry asks, frustrated.
"Well I…"
"Let me see it, let me see it." Harry yanks the camera out of Ed's hand and I snap.
"Is that seriously all you guys care about right now?" I yell.
The guys look up at me. Immediately, there eyes go wide with fear and the color drains from their faces. I snap around and meet with Mordechai face to face. He groans/yells loudly and raises his axe to chop my head in half.
I duck instantly and the axe barely misses my head and comes in contact with Ed and Harry's video camera. Harry falls to the ground in surprise and Mordechai disappears again.
I stand up and point my gun directly at Harry and Ed. "Are you clowns freaking kidding me right now?! Thanks for the heads up assholes!"
Dean sprints back into the room with his gun raised, "What happened!"
"These two losers didn't tell me I was about to get chopped in half!" I say with my gun still raised.
Sam busts in and lowers my gun to the floor so it's not pointed at anyone anymore.
"Did you guys post that B.S story we gave you?" Dean yells at them.
"Of course we did." Ed says.
"But then our server crashed." Harry says.
"Yeah," Ed frowns.
They look at each other awkwardly.
"Great. Any ideas?" Dean asks Sam and I.
"Yeah I got one," I say, raising my gun at the two nerds again. They look like they're gonna shit their pants, I scare them so bad, but once again, Sam has to ruin my mood.
"Tempting but no." Sam says.
"We are getting out of here." Harry says.
"Yeah. Great." Ed says.
Ed and Harry spring past us to the front door. I hear them bang on it, which means that we're probably locked inside.
"The power of Christ compels you, the power of Christ compels you. The power of Christ compels you!" I hear one of them screech.
Sam is the first to take off and I hear him, "Hey! Come and get it you ugly son of a bitch!"
"Go help Sam, I have an idea!" Dean tells me.
I run after Sam in the main living room area. He's pressed up against the wall. Mordechai is holding Sam against the wall with his axe pressed against Sam's neck. I can see the veins popping out of Sam's neck, the color drain from his face, and his eyes bulging out of his head.
"Get out of here!" I shout at Ed and Harry. My loud voice steals Mordechai's attention and he eases up on Sam a bit, his feet touching the floor again.
I don't have a clear shot of Mordechai so I can't really do much to help Sam out. Fortunately, Dean comes out of nowhere with a spray bottle and lights the gas and creates his own fire torch.
Mordechai backs off and holds his hands up over his face.
"Go go go!" Dean shouts at Sam who is finally free.
Sam runs past us, and Dean and I follow. Sam leans over and holds his throat, trying to catch his breath. The smell of gasoline becomes overpowering.
"What are you doing?" I ask Dean, motioning towards the fire.
"Mordechai can't leave the house, we can't kill him? We improvise."
Dean holds up his lighter and tosses it back into the room. The room lights up in an orange flame, heating up the room fast and clouding our surroundings with smoke. We sprint outside, getting out of there as quickly as possible. I guess Ed and Harry were too weak to open the front door the first time.
"That's your solution? Burn the whole damn place to the ground?" Sam yells as we watch the place burn from the outside.
Dean shrugs helplessly, "Well nobody will go in anymore. I mean look, Mordechai can't haunt a house if there's no house to haunt. It's fast and dirty but it works."
"Well what if the legend changes again and Mordechai is allowed to leave the house?"
"Well then we'll just have to come back." I shrug. I think Dean's idea was a good idea for it being our only one.
"Kinda makes you wonder. Of all the thing we hunted, how many existed just because people believed in them."
The three of us stay silent as we think bout that scary comment. I didn't like the idea of that at all.
The next day, we go back to the trailer park to make sure Ed and Harry stop posting about Mordechai on their page. They weren't there so we wait outside their trailer on a picnic bench.
Less than an hour later, they come back with grocery bags.
"I was thinking that Mordechai has a really super high attack bonus." Harry says, not yet realizing we were right there.
"Man I got the munchies right now," Ed replies. The two finally see us and nod, gaining their confidence again. "Gentlemen and lady."
"Hey guys," Sam says.
"Should we tell em?" Harry asks Ed.
"Hey, might as well, you know, they're going to read about it in the trades." Ed shrugs.
Harry smirks, "So this morning we got a phone call from a very important Hollywood producer."
"Oh yeah, wrong number?" I ask.
"No, sweet cheeks." Ed says. Instantly I glare. "He read all about the Hell House on our website and wants to option the motion picture rights. Maybe even have us write it."
They move their groceries into their car. Somehow, they managed to fit everything that was in their trailer into this tiny car.
"And create the RPG." Harry says.
"The what?" Dean asks.
"Role playing game," He answers like we should have known that.
"Right," Dean says sarcastically.
"A little lingo for you." Ed snickers. "Excuse us, we're off to la-la land."
"Well congratulations guys. That sounds really great." Sam grins at him.
I look between Sam and Dean. Both are hiding their smirks and playing along to Harry and Ed's confidence. And Im really confused.
"Yeah. That's awesome, best of luck to you." Dean says.
Ed scoffs, "Oh yeah, luck. That has nothing to do with it. It's about talent. Sheer unabashed talent. Later."
Ed and Harry get into their car and drive off.
"Wow," Dean says watching them leave.
"I have a confession to make," Sam says.
"What's that?" Dean asks.
"I…uh…I was the one that called them and told them I was a producer," Sam laughs.
Now it all clicked in my head as to why they weren't confused.
Dean laughs too, "Yeah well I'm the one who put the dead fish in their back seat."
We look at each other and start bursting into laughter. Finally these two put their pranks to good use and did them to people other than each other. Honestly, the two guys were ultimately harmless but they were annoying as shit, so they kind of deserved it.
"Truce?" Sam asks.
Dean ponders but agrees, "Yeah truce. At least for the next 100 miles."
"Thank god." I sigh.
I hop into the back seat of the impala to get the hell out of dodge. All in all, this case was a pain in my ass, but looking back at it in a couple years, I figured it would be a good memory.