Author's Note: It seems like I should just save my apology for taking so long to update this story and insert it into the beginning of each chapter. Life has been crazy with all of the projects I have going on and with my job. I love my job, but it keeps me busy – and for a number of reasons, it's about to get even busier. Plus, if anyone has figured out a way to knit, read, and write all at the same time, please let me know. I can read and knit a simple pattern at the same time, but I haven't figured out how to add writing to the mix. Maybe if I could somehow magically grow another set of arms? At least I can finally say I have finished knitting the cardigan that has been on my needles for more than two years. Anyway, I had other plans for this chapter, but other (better?) ideas came to me as I was mentally planning it. I hope you enjoy it. As always, please post a review or send me a PM. I love hearing from my readers.
CHAPTER 24
Krissy walked into the library and slid into a seat across the table where Sam was working. She watched for a few minutes as he shifted his attention from the laptop in front of him, the heavy book in his lap, and the paper tablet where he was taking notes.
Finally, Sam glanced up and asked, "is there something you need?" His voice was mild, but Krissy could tell he was a little irritated with her interruption. She bit back a sigh. His irritation didn't bode well for what she wanted to ask him. "What are you working on?" Maybe, she thought, he'd be more receptive to her request if she showed some interest in what he was doing.
"I'm looking to see if I can find anything more on that shaman we ran into in North Dakota. He couldn't have been the only one to ever exist. I want to find out if his powers were inherent or if he obtained them some other way." He sat back and tossed his pen onto the notepad as he studied Krissy for a moment. "But, that's not what you really want to ask me, is it?"
"Not really, but I'm really interested in what you've found," Krissy commented, hoping he'd share what he'd learned.
"I'll share it with you when I'm finished. If you behave yourself, I may even let you help with some of the research." Sam could tell that last statement intrigued her. "Now, why are you here?"
Krissy swallowed. Given what Sam had just said, she wasn't sure he would agree to what she was about to ask. "Can I go to the study hour at the library tomorrow? Please?"
Sam studied her as he picked his pen back up and bounced it up and down between his fingers and thumb. "Is your grounding over?"
This time Krissy did sigh. "No," she responded shortly. He hadn't allowed her to attend the study group the week before because it took place on the last day of her grounding for the issues with her homework. The next day he'd grounded her for another week, with a promise of harsher consequences for any repeated infractions, when he caught her chatting with her friends during her Geography class session rather than paying attention to the lesson that was being taught.
"There's your answer," he responded, his voice taking on a slightly stern note.
"Come on, Sam. Please? I promise I won't do it again," Krissy implored.
Sam tossed the pen he still held in his hand back onto the table and sat back in his chair. He crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a hard look. "I hope you won't do it again, because the next time I'll spank you, and you'll be attending your class sessions with me here in the library. Regardless, you chose to break the rules, and you are going to suffer the consequences."
"Yes, sir," Krissy responded a little more bitterly than she had intended. She started to say something else, but Dean interrupted her when he stepped into the room.
"The only place you're going, kid, is to clean up that pigsty you call a bedroom and to pack a bag." He pulled out the chair beside Krissy and dropped down into it. "Pack enough for three or four days, and don't forget your school stuff."
"Are we going on a hunt?" Krissy asked, excited at the prospect of getting away from the bunker.
"Sammy and I are going on a hunt," Dean corrected. "You're going along as company." He'd started to say she was going along as ballast, but he thought better of it at the last minute. His intention had been to say it as a joke, but he wasn't sure the teenager would have taken it that way. "Go on kid, get moving," he instructed as he tilted his head toward the doorway. "I want to leave in an hour."
"What's up?" Sam asked as he watched Krissy reluctantly come to her feet and start toward the door. He knew she was stalling in an attempt to overhear what was being said.
"Jody called. She's got a kid she thinks is mixed up with vampires, and she wants our help with her."
"Vampires?" Krissy questioned as she spun on her heel and started back to the table where the two brothers sat. "I want to help. You've got to let me help."
"We don't gotta let you do anything," Dean responded shortly. He turned in his seat and pinned her with a hard look that normally would have had her apologizing and correcting her behavior.
However, Krissy ignored the warning and turned to Sam. "Please, you both said it was up to me if I wanted to hunt. Well, I want to be in on this one. I promise, I'll do everything you say, and I won't cause any trouble."
"You're damned right you'll do everything we say and not cause any trouble, 'cause if you do, sitting down will become an exercise in misery. You get what I'm saying to you?" Dean demanded.
"Krissy," Sam intervened before a full blown argument could start between Dean and Krissy. They didn't have time for it, and it was an argument that Krissy would lose. "When you first came here, you were told hunting was a privilege, not a right. Do you remember that?"
Krissy nodded. She wasn't sure she liked where this was going.
"You're grounded at the moment because you didn't follow the rules. As a result of that grounding, you lost your privileges. That includes hunting, so you're sitting this one out."
"But, my grounding is up tomorrow," Krissy protested. "Couldn't you let me off a day early?"
"But nothing," Dean commented. "You know how this works. You do the crime, you do the time. Maybe next time you want to spend your class time talking to your friends, you'll remember this and not do it." Personally, he didn't think what the teenager had done was all that big of a deal, but Sam did. And, he was going to stand behind his brother and present a united front. "Now, get moving. We're leaving in an hour. If you're not ready, you'll have to live without whatever you didn't get packed."
Krissy huffed and stomped her foot before starting from the room. However, she didn't get very far before Sam called her back.
"Make sure you pack what you will need for your classes today and tomorrow. You will still be expected to complete your school work while we're gone." He watched as a sullen expression crossed her features. "I'm warning you right now, young lady. You cop an attitude about this, and you will regret it."
"Get moving," Dean ordered. His expression dared her to protest again.
The two men watched as Krissy turned with a huff and stormed off toward her room. Once he was sure she was clear of earshot, Sam turned to Dean and asked what was going on.
"Kid got picked up by one of Jody's deputies. Jody went by to check on her and found her being attacked by a vamp. She took care of it, but the kid acted like Jody killed her brother. Kid's refusing to cooperate in any way with Jody's investigation. She wants us to come see what we can find out."
"Is Jody sure the kid isn't a vamp, too?"
"She doesn't think so, but she's not positive," Dean commented as he rubbed his hand over his face. He hated when kids were involved. It made things a whole lot worse.
XxxxxX XxxxxX XxxxxX XxxxxX
Krissy's cell phone rang, and she picked it up to glance at the caller ID. It was Dean. Even knowing she'd likely pay for it later, she continued to let it ring. It was her way of showing him exactly how she felt about being left behind at Jody's while the three adults went to check out the suspected vampire problem.
She'd tried to talk Jody into overriding Dean's and Sam's refusals to let her join them, but the sheriff had told her point blank that she would not intervene in any decisions made by Sam or Dean. She had also said that Krissy had made such an impression on the staff at the Sheriff's Office that they would remember her from her last visit there. There was no way they could explain that away. Krissy had huffed and closed herself into the den and had refused to come out to see the three hunters off. Dean had come in to speak to her before they'd left and had ordered her to stay put in the house and answer her phone when they called.
After they'd left, she had logged into her Earth Sciences and Geography classes and done her homework as she'd been instructed by Sam. She just wasn't in the mood to deal with the consequences she'd face if she hadn't. Plus, she wanted to finally get to go to the study hour at the library next Thursday, and that wasn't going to happen if she didn't at least do what she was told school-wise.
She was contemplating taking a walk into town to see if she could find anything to keep her occupied and take her mind off the hunt she hadn't been allowed to join. Before she could make up her mind, her phone rang again. It was Jody that time. They probably thought she'd answer for Jody when she wouldn't answer for Sam or Dean. Well, they were wrong. After the ringing stopped, Krissy picked up the phone and opened her text app. She sent a quick text to Josephine. "Hey, what's up?" If anyone understood what was going through her mind right now, it would be her.
She dropped the phone onto the couch beside her hip and picked up the television remote. She turned it on and started scrolling through the guide, hoping to find something interesting to watch. She stopped on a show that appeared to be about a teenage girl and a couple of guys. She pulled up the information about it and realized it was about vampires and immediately hit the power button to turn off the television. Vampires weren't supposed to be sexy and attractive. They were vicious and ugly, and only meant to be killed.
She sighed heavily and sat back on the couch with her legs stretched out in front of her. Going into town was starting to sound better and better, but a voice in the back of her head and a tingle across her backside kept telling her it was a bad idea. She was still contemplating what she was going to do when her phone chimed, signaling an incoming text. Hoping it was Josephine, she grabbed it and thumbed it open. She was disappointed to see it was a text from Dean. She huffed as she read, "answer your damn phone when we call." Krissy dropped the device back onto the couch without bothering to send a reply. She really wasn't in the mood to talk to Sam, Dean, or even Jody at the moment.
She wasn't surprised when her phone rang a few minutes later. "Hello," she answered without bothering to check the caller ID.
"Why didn't you answer your phone," Dean demanded, not even bothering with a greeting.
"I went to the bathroom and didn't take my phone with me." It was a lie, and she felt a bit guilty about it. But, it wasn't like they were ever going to find out otherwise.
"Uh huh." Dean's response clearly indicated that he didn't believe her, but he wasn't going to press the issue. "Something's come up. Sammy and I have to make a quick run to Nebraska, and Jody is taking someone to a safe house to hide her until we take care of this vamp problem. You need to lay low at Jody's until this is all said and done.."
"Of course I do," Krissy muttered under her breath.
"Want to say that again, only this time loud enough for me to hear?" Dean demanded. He hadn't been able to make out what she'd said, but he was sure it wasn't something he would have liked.
"Not really." She sighed. "So how much longer am I going to be on my own?"
"It shouldn't be more than two or three days. Jody said she'd stocked up recently, so there's plenty of food in the pantry and fridge. Help yourself to anything you want to fix." He paused for a moment, and Krissy could hear a low voice in the background saying something. "Anything containing alcohol is off limits, and you and I are going to have a discussion as to why Sammy felt the need to specify that."
"Fine, whatever," Krissy commented. A thought suddenly occurred to her. "I … um … might need to go out in the next day or so to get some supplies," she said somewhat hesitantly. It wasn't a lie, she'd started cramping that morning. But, that didn't always mean she was going to have a period. Her cycle was still a bit irregular.
"What kind of supplies?" Dean asked suspiciously.
"Girl stuff," She replied, hoping that he was squirming a little on the other end of the call.
"And you didn't think to pack that or keep some in your go bag?"
"Dean," she said in a pleading voice. "It's not like I knew it was going to start on this trip." She heard Jody speaking in the background, but she couldn't understand what was said.
Dean sighed, but Krissy couldn't tell whether it was in frustration or in resignation. "Jody said there's some stuff under the sink in her bathroom. Help yourself to whatever you need. When we get back to the bunker, you're going to put a supply in your duffel so you'll have whatever you need when we travel." There was another hesitation during which Krissy could hear a low rumble of voices in the background. "Just remember, you're to lay low and not leave the house. Got it?"
"Yes, sir," Krissy said, resigned to spending the next few days by herself. Normally, she would have jumped at the chance to spend time away from the eagle eyes of her two guardians. But, the fact that she was getting this time away because they had forbidden her to participate in their vampire hunt made her angry.
"Sam has something he wants to say to you, so hang on a minute." She heard another low exchange of words before Sam came on the phone.
"Hey, kiddo," he greeted.
"Hi, Sam."
"I'm sorry we have to do this to you, but we really don't have any choice. Plus, you're safer there at Jody's instead of going with us." He hoped that would soften some of the resentment he suspected she was feeling at the moment. "Listen, I know you didn't bring your textbooks with you. So just log into any class sessions you might have before we get back, and you can do the homework when we get back to the bunker. I'll relax my deadline, so you just have to have it turned in when it's due to your teachers. The other rules still apply, though. No chatting with your friends during class time, okay?"
"Yeah, okay."
"You got this, kiddo," Sam said in a gentle, encouraging voice. "We'll be back before you know it. Think of this as your opportunity to show us that we can trust you on your own." When Krissy didn't respond, he sighed. "Love you. Behave. We'll see you in a few days."
Krissy was so stunned by Sam's statement that she was unable to respond before he disconnected the call. No one had told her they loved her since her dad had died. Sam wouldn't have lied to her about that. Would he?
She was still staring at the phone a few minutes later when she received an income text from Josephine. "Hi, Krissy. How's life with the Winchesters?" Another text came in right behind it. "I'm at work, so I've only got a few minutes to talk."
Krissy quickly typed a response. "Things are okay. They're on a vampire hunt right now. I got left behind at a friend's because I'm grounded." She considered it for a moment before deleting all of it. Instead, she typed, "things are going good. It's really different than when we were with Victor. Although, Sam is almost as bad about school as he was." She read it again before sending it. "When did you start working?"
She flipped open her social media accounts to browse through those while she waited for a reply. A few minutes later another text popped up. "I'm glad things are going well for you. I've been worried about you. I got a job working a few hours after school at Lucy's," Josephine responded, naming a local dinner where they'd always liked to hang out after school. A minute or so later, another text arrived. "We need to set up a time to do a video chat and catch up. I've got to get back to work. TTYL."
Krissy sighed and tossed her phone onto the couch. So much for complaining to Jospehine about being left behind for this hunt, she thought. She glanced again at the television, and decided to see what she could find in the kitchen to snack on.
She found an open bottle of wine in the refrigerator and was searching the cabinets for a glass when Dean's and Sam's words came back to her. "Ugh," she said in self disgust as she abandoned her plans for a glass of wine to cap off the evening. She just knew that Jody would somehow know that she'd drank the wine, even if she washed the glass and put it back where she'd found it. Jody would probably tell Sam and Dean, and Krissy really didn't want to deal with the fall out from that. She settled on a bag of potato chips and a carton of french onion dip she'd also found in the refrigerator. Grabbing a can of cola, she carried everything back to the den. She settled into the couch and reached for the remote control and turned the television back on, hoping to find something to watch other than a show about a couple of vampires.
XxxxxX XxxxxX XxxxxX XxxxxX
Krissy tossed the remote back on the couch in disgust. She was bored. It had been two days since she'd last heard from either of the Winchesters or Jody. It had gotten so bad she'd even read the next two chapters in her geography book and answered the questions at the end of the text. At least she wouldn't have to do that homework for a while. She had homework to do for English, but since she hadn't brought that text book with her, she couldn't do it.
Her phone chimed, and she was pleased to see the text from her friend, Zoe. "Hey, it was good to see you in class today. Where were you Thursday and Friday?"
She thought for a minute before responding. "I had to go on the road with my uncles. They both needed to be gone on an investigation. I should be back in class on Monday, depending on how long this job takes." She read it over again and, deciding there was nothing too weird or revealing about it, hit send.
Krissy stood and tucked the phone into her back pocket. She didn't give a damn about what Dean had said, she was going for a walk. She wasn't used to inactivity, and she was starting to go stir crazy.
She had just found her shoes and put them on when her phone chimed again. She pulled it out of her pocket and smiled when she saw it was another message from Zoe.
"I'm glad you're okay. I was a bit worried about you." That text was quickly followed by another one. "What are your uncles' names?"
Krissy narrowed her eyes in suspicion at that. "Why?" she typed back. She couldn't think of any good reason why her friend would be asking that.
"I came across an old video from the Ghostfacers the other day. There were two guys with them named Dean and Sam. Sam looked kinda like your uncle. You know - the one who came into your room that time we were all chatting."
Of all the reasons that crossed her mind as to why Zoe had asked that question, the Winchesters being in a Ghostfacers video had never crossed her mind. She was familiar with the show, having watched an episode of it here and there. She had found it utterly ridiculous, and she couldn't believe that either Sam or Dean would have ever willingly participated in it.
"Where did you find that?" Krissy texted back. "I'd like to watch it. They've never mentioned being on that show."
"I found it on YouTube. Here's a link. It's supposed to be the only surviving video footage from their original pilot episode. It's so freaky. There are rumors that one of the original members of Ghostfacers died during that investigation. I don't think that's true. I mean, why would they video that? I think the guy just didn't want to be in the show, so they faked his death. Let me know if those are your uncles after you watch it."
Krissy clicked on the link and read the description of the video. It said that the attached video was the only surviving footage from the shoot for the original pilot for the Ghostfacers reality show. The investigation involved someplace called the Morton House, supposedly the most haunted house in America.
She started to click on the video to watch it, but quickly decided to do some background research first. She logged into some of the websites that Sam had shared with her as a place where she could find reliable information. She paused for a moment, briefly wondering whether she was breaking some kind of rule and would get in trouble for it if Sam or Dean found out about it. She came to the conclusion that they hadn't said she couldn't do any hunting - just that she couldn't participate in their current vampire hunt. Besides, doing research on a story she found without intending to do anything more wasn't really hunting – it was just using her skills to satisfy her curiosity.
As she dug through one particular website, she came across an entry about the property. It appeared to have been written following an investigation into the alleged disappearances there. The history of the alleged haunting was that no one who had tried to spend the entire night in the house on February 29 had lived to tell the tale. Krissy scoffed a little when she read that, thinking to herself that if some of those people knew what real supernatural activity was they would have pissed their pants. As she read further, she found out that there were ghosts in the house who were caught in a death loop, causing them to relive their deaths over and over again. She momentarily felt sorry for those people, as she could only imagine how horrible that must be. Her thoughts immediately traveled to the ghost of the little girl they had encountered in Kentucky and had helped to cross over. She smiled at the thought as she resumed reading the information on the website.
What she read next sent chills down her spine. The house had previously been owned by a man named Freeman Dagget. He had worked as a janitor at a nearby hospital. Every year on his birthday he would bring corpses home from the hospital and throw himself a birthday party with them in the bomb shelter located in the basement of the house. On February 29, he committed suicide, and every leap year thereafter his ghost would capture and kill anyone in the house at midnight. It would then re-enact the birthday celebrations. The house was also haunted by the ghosts of the people whose corpses he brought from the hospital and the people he'd killed in the house. The article concluded that the corpse of Freeman Dagget had been salted and burned, resulting in the other ghosts being released from their death loops and crossing over. Now curious, Krissy looked to see who had written the article and was surprised to find that it had been authored by Sam.
The Ghostfacers video was completely forgotten as Krissy typed Sam's name into the search bar to see if he had posted anything else to the website. According to what he had previously told her, this site was set up as a sort of reference guide for hunters. It was obscure and didn't show up on a search using the typical search engines. Most people learned about it from other hunters.
Krissy wasn't all that surprised when her search showed a number of other articles about other ghost hunts and obscure supernatural creatures that she had never heard of. Maybe that was why he was doing that follow up research on that shaman, she thought. He was planning to post about it. She read his articles about musca, bisaan, and acheri – all creatures she had never heard of. When she read the one about vitala, she wondered how much of the information he'd shared had come from the hunt where he'd set out to rescue her dad and had ended up being captured himself.
The ringing of her phone caused Krissy to jump and pull her attention away from the article she was reading about pishtacoes. As she picked up the phone, she thought she was going to need to bookmark this search so she could talk to Sam about some of those creatures. She was pretty sure each of those articles resulted from a hunt he and Dean had been on.
She answered the phone without looking to see who had called and was surprised when Sam responded. She gave a small laugh.
"What was that about?" he asked curiously. The last time they'd spoken to each other, she'd been short tempered with him.
"Oh, I've just been spending the last hour or so looking at some of the articles you posted on that hunter's website. I've got a lot of questions stored up to ask you."
Krissy could almost see Sam's forehead wrinkling as his eyebrows raised in response to her answer. "How did you end up looking at those?"
"My friend, Zoe, sent me a clip from a Ghostfacers episode and asked if that was you and Dean in it. After I read the description of the video, I decided to do some research before watching it. When my search didn't turn up anything more than the basic ghost story, I went to the website to see what I could find there. Imagine my surprise when I realized that you had written the article I'd found about the Morton House. I did a search to see if you'd posted anything else."
Sam gave a little huff of surprise. Krissy heard Dean say something in the background, but she couldn't make out his words. She did hear Sam say that he'd tell him after they finished their call. "What did you tell Zoe about the video?" he asked when he turned his attention back to her.
"Nothing, yet. I haven't watched it. Was that you and Dean?" She asked, curious as to what his answer was going to be. She had to smile when she heard Sam telling Dean about the video, and Dean's curses in response. That must be a good story, she thought.
Dean had apparently taken the phone from Sam, because the next thing Krissy knew, Dean was on the line demanding information about the video.
"I don't know how Zoe found it," Krissy responded quickly. "It was on YouTube, and the description says it's the last remaining footage from the Ghostfacers' investigation at Morton House. It looks like it's only about fifteen minutes long." Krissy paused. "I guess Zoe is into ghost hunting reality shows or something."
"All of that footage was supposed to have been destroyed," Dean said sourly. "What have you told her?"
"Like I told Sam, I haven't said anything to her about it. I decided I wanted to research the Morton House before I watched it."
There was a brief pause while the Winchester brothers had a conversation. Their voices were too low for Krissy to be able to hear what was being said. The next time someone spoke to her, it was Sam.
"Listen, we're on our way back to Jody's. She's headed back too, and she has someone with her. A girl about your age named Alex. She was being used as bait by that nest of vampires Dean and I took out." Sam paused to listen to something Dean said, then continued. "We'll talk about that video when we get back."
The call ended, and Krissy slumped back on the couch. The website she had been so fascinated with only a few minutes before was momentarily forgotten as Krissy contemplated what this Alex must have gone through with that next of vampires.