The college campus is bustling when Dean parks the Impala in front of one of the buildings, kids in varying stages of dress making their way to class or back to their dorms. Elizabeth wonders if Sam misses this type of thing, the ebb and flow of students and the strict schedule enforced by his 4.0 GPA.
"I still can't believe no one had found all those skeletons before today," Sam says, jerking Elizabeth out of her thoughts. She slides out after Zane, straightening her tank top from where it had ridden up at some point on the drive to Bartlesville.
"It's not that surprising," Elizabeth says. "Unmarked graves aren't a new thing to find around places like this. Way back when, tribes would bury their own wherever they could before white people made them move onto reservations. Hell, half the hauntings in the south are from disturbing burial grounds that people have built houses on top of."
"I always thought that was a bunch of crap."
"Tell that to my dog. He accidentally dug up some bones in the woods behind Uncle Bobby's house and he dropped dead a few days later from Aconite poisoning. Poor Captain never saw it coming." Zane pats her back sympathetically, acutely aware of how attached she grows to animals. "Anyway, our real mystery is the whole bug situation. Why would they choose now, of all times, to start getting revenge?"
"Hopefully we can figure that out soon enough," Dean sighs. Sam shifts the box of skulls in his arms, his jacket thrown over the top to keep any students from glancing inside. "Another question I have is one only Sammy can answer. Why'd you tell that kid back there to just ditch his family as soon as he's able?"
"Because I know how he feels," Sam shrugs.
"Why not tell him to respect his old man? You know, the one that makes sure he's got clothes on his back, a roof over his head, and food in his belly." If our lives were a TV show, we'd be some soap opera with as much drama as these two drag around with them and discuss at really bad times. It's like in Pushing Daisies when Chuck and Ned talk about their problems while grave robbing, but without Emmerson as comic relief.
"And that's our cue to leave," Elizabeth mutters, grabbing the sleeve of Zane's jacket and dragging him inside.
"That happen a lot," Zane asks, taking a seat on a bench in the hall while Elizabeth paces in front of it.
"Way too often for it to be normal." The bromance is not strong with those two and their relationship will always be ruled over their opinions of their father. Even when he's nowhere around, it's like John is still pulling the strings and making his sons dance for his own morbid amusement. "Sometimes I wish I could punch John in the throat for what he's done to those boys."
"I'll hold him down for ya." Elizabeth shoots her friend a thankful smile, taking comfort in his laidback attitude towards everything. Even in the middle of bumfuck Oklahoma, he still manages to dress in designer clothes and his smile could probably make angels sing. "Looks like Trapper and Hawkeye are done with their arguing." Elizabeth follows his gaze to where the boys are stepping inside, Dean nodding towards the right classroom. He seems to like the leader roll and Elizabeth hopes it doesn't go to his head.
"Professor Byrnes," Dean asks, shaking the man's hand once he confirms it. "We're working on a project for extra credit and we found this unmarked burial site in the woods near Oasis Plains. We were wonderin' if you could maybe take a look at 'em and tell us what you think." Sam sets the box down on the Professor's desk, pulling his coat back on as the old man glances inside.
"I'll see what I can do, but it may take me a few minutes. Feel free to have a seat while you wait."
"Thank you, sir." Byrnes nods and takes the box into an adjoining room that has his name stenciled across the frosted glass. The others sit in the first row of chairs, but Elizabeth is full of a nervous energy and can't stop fidgeting to save her life. "You okay over there, blondie?"
"Fine," she mutters, pacing back and forth in front to the seats. "I just forgot how potent Zane's coffee can be." She's jittery and her thoughts are buzzing rapidly through her mind as she moves, trying to sort them into neat little boxes to deal with later.
"Jesus, you're such a lightweight." She makes a face, but doesn't stop moving. "From now on, she's only allowed a Coke to wake up in the morning. I hate dealing with her when she's all…. Active like this. It drives me crazy."
"It's a short drive," Sam remarks. Dean looks like he has something snarky on the tip of his tongue, but he swallows it down when the Professor walks back in and sets the box down on his cluttered desk. The boys join Elizabeth at the front of the classroom, peering anxiously inside at the dirty skulls.
"Learn anything useful, Professor?"
"Quite a bit," Byrnes nods. "The skulls are about one hundred and seventy years old and that, paired with where you found them, would suggest they're Native American in origin." Elizabeth sends Zane a smug look and her friend rolls his eyes in response.
"Were there any tribes or reservations on that land," Sam asks.
"Not according to the historical record, but the relocation of native peoples was quite common at that time."
"Like I told y'all," Elizabeth says," white people were sucky back then and they're still sucky now. We're awful, folks." Dean arches a brow, shaking his head a little in amusement. "Not the point right now, though." She turns back to the Professor with a kind smile. "Do you happen to know of anyone nearby that could tell us about any local legends?"
"Well…" He rubs his chin in thought. "You know, there's a Euchee tribe in Sapulpa. It's about sixty miles from here. The man you're looking for might be out there." Elizabeth shakes his hand, taking the lead this time and making it to the Impala first.
"Let's head out there in the morning, I'm tired and sore in places I didn't think could even get sore." Dean snorts, starting up the car and driving back towards Zane's house.
The Next Morning
It ends up taking most of the morning and a couple of stops to ask for directions before they finally find the man with all the stories. Like a lot of older men in small towns like this one, he's found in a diner with a cup of coffee nearby and a game of solitaire spread out on the table in front of him.
"Joe Whitetree," Sam asks as they come to stand by his booth. The old man nods, his gray hair in two braids that keeps it out of his face. "We'd like to ask you a few questions, if that's alright."
"We're students from the university," Dean adds.
"No, you're not," Joe says simply. "You're lying."
"Well, the truth is—"
"You know who starts sentences with 'the truth is'? Liars." Deciding to just take a chance, Elizabeth slides into the seat across from him, ignoring the unwanted look he shoots her way. Her uncle has the same look mastered, so she figures using the same tactics will work here. Honesty's the best policy, especially for old people that can spot liars a mile off.
"Know anything about a bug problem up by the Atoka Valley," she asks bluntly. Joe arches a brow at Dean as if to say at least not all young people suck, then returns his attention to Elizabeth. "Maybe have a story to go along with it that we can work with?"
"Why do you want to know about it?"
"Because, even in Oklahoma, it's not normal for bugs to form a gang and do drive-by's on people. We're just hunters that want to keep people from gettin' killed." Joe makes a considering noise, leaning back in his seat and nodding slowly.
"Hunters, huh? I'm too old for that now, but I used to go around with a younger man named Bobby Singer. Do you know him?"
"He's my uncle, sir."
"I thought so. I get letters from him sometimes and he's always going on about this stubborn girl he took in after her parents died. Because your uncle saved me from the stikini up in Seminole when we first got started, I'll tell you the story that's been passed down in my family for generations."
"We appreciate it, Mister Whitetree."
"Two hundred years ago a band of my ancestors lived in that valley. One day, the American Calvary came to relocate them. They were resistant, no one should own land, and the Calvary were impatient because they had a paper that said that land belonged to them. On the night the moon and the sun shared the sky as equals, the Calvary first raided our village. They murdered, raped. The Calvary did it five more days after that, the same vicious cycle. On the sixth night, the Calvary came one last time and by sunrise every man, woman, and child still in the village were dead. They say on the sixth night as the Chief of the village lay dying he whispered to the heavens that no white man would ever tarnish this land again. Nature would rise up and protect the valley and it would bring as many days of misery and death to the white man as the Calvary had brought upon his people."
"That explains the insects," Dean says somberly. "It sounds like nature to me. Six days?"
"And on the night of the sixth day none would survive." Joe goes back to his game of solitaire and Elizabeth scoots out of the booth, patting his shoulder with a tight smile. "If you survive, make sure to tell your uncle that he still owes me fifty bucks."
"You got it," Elizabeth tells him. She goes to follow the boys out of the diner before coming up short and turning to look back at her uncle's friend. "You know anything about a giant octopus near Tenkiller?"
"Nope, that's a story you white people came up with."
"Yeah, that sounds about right."
"Liza, we gotta move," Sam calls from the entrance. Elizabeth catches up with them at a fast walk, squeezing between Dean and Zane as they head towards the car. "Anyone know what day the gas company man died on?"
"Larry sent me a message a few hours after it happened," Zane supplies, digging his phone out of his pocket and scrolling through his messages. "Uh, it happened early Friday morning, so the twentieth."
"He sent you a murder text?"
"Yeah, people are so impersonal now." Sam seems to realize something, letting out a little huff that might have been laughter.
"The twentieth marked the start of the Spring Equinox."
"The night the sun and the moon share the sky as equals," Dean quotes.
"Basically, I owe Liza twenty bucks because this is, in fact, a Native American curse," Zane mumbles, already pulling out his wallet. "And on top of that, we gotta find a way to convince Larry to uproot his family if they want to survive the night."
"I say we chloroform them and drag 'em Edmond," Elizabeth suggests with a shrug. "We can keep them tied up in the motel room and then go bowling." Sam sends her an incredulous look and she amends. "Or we could break the curse."
"You don't break a curse," Dean reminds them. "You get out of its way or you get mowed down."
"Yes, Mister Pike," Dean says into the phone," there's a main line gas leak in your neighborhood." The drive from Sapulpa to Oasis Plains seems to be taking longer than an hour to Elizabeth, her adrenaline trying to amp up like it always does when she's about to save people. "Well, it's fairly extensive. I don't want to alarm you, but we need your family out of the vicinity for at least twelve hours or so just to be safe…. Travis Weaver, I was the one who found Dustin… Uh…." Dean snaps his cell closed quickly, deciding it'd be a bad idea to panic on the line.
"Give me that," Sam grumbles, snatching it out of Dean's hand and dialing.
"I have an idea too," Elizabeth mumbles, pulling out her cell. "Zane, read me Joanie's number, please." Zane complies, reading it off and watching on as Elizabeth presses her phone to her ear after pressing the call button.
"Hello," Joanie greets on the other end.
"Hi," Elizabeth begins in an overly cheerful southern drawl. "I was just callin' to see if y'all heard about that escaped convict that's on the loose."
"No, we- we haven't actually."
"Well, it would probably be smart to go stay in a motel for the night 'cause my husband, he's the chief of police round these parts, he said the criminal might be heading your way. I would feel just horrible if somethin' happened to your beautiful family when I could've done somethin' to stop it."
"Oh my God. Oh, thank you!" The line goes dead and Elizabeth stuffs her phone back in her pocket with a smile.
"If Larry don't listen to that, then he's just aching to have a beetle eating his brain."
"Where'd you learn that accent," Dean asks, meeting her gaze using the rearview mirror. "Watching reruns of The Waltons again?"
"Nah, that's the accent you get when you're an old lady that goes to church every Sunday and love to pinch kids' cheeks. Also, though, the other thing. You can't really go wrong with shows from the seventies when you're sick and delusional."
When they park in front of the Pike household, the lights are still on and both cars are in the driveway. That's it, I'm gonna strangle this guy my damn self if we survive this shit. "Why the fuck are they still here? If they didn't believe Elizabeth's story, then they should've at least believed their son was having an attack of Appendicitis."
Matt and Larry meet them on the front porch, the latter looking as pissed as Elizabeth feels. At this point, it won't take much to make her punch him right in the face for endangering his son like this.
"Get off my property before I call the cops," he shouts.
"Dad," Matt calls," they're just trying to help."
"Get in the house!"
"You listen to me, you sorry son of a bitch," Elizabeth growls. Her temper reaches its boiling point as she stomps forward and pokes Larry in the chest hard enough to make him take half a step backwards. "You may not give two shits about what happens to that kid, but I do! So why don't you pull the cotton out of your ears and fucking listen to him for once in your miserable life?"
"Dad, they're right," Matt tries again. "The bugs—"
"Get in the house now," Larry yells.
"Why won't you listen to me?"
"Because it's crazy! It doesn't make any sense!"
"This land is cursed," Sam yells back, making Larry's attention come back to the hunters. "People have died here. Are you gonna really take that risk with your family?" The soft buzzing from earlier grows louder in volume, becoming clearer.
"Do you hear that," Dean asks.
"What the hell," Larry asks quietly.
"Too late to run," Elizabeth points out as a swarm of bugs fly over the tree line straight for the house. "Inside now! Get inside!" Dean brings up the rear, slamming the front door closed and locking it.
"Is there anybody else in the neighborhood," Sam asks quickly.
"No," Larry shakes his head. "It's just us."
"Honey, what's happening," Joanie asks. "What's that noise?"
"Doesn't matter," Dean says, taking charge. "We're in lockdown mode as of now. We gotta cover up any way for these suckers to get in and we gotta do it now! Liza, take the kitchen!" Elizabeth gives a sharp nod and sprints out of the entryway, rummaging through the drawers in the kitchen until she has all the rags and a roll of duct tape in the makeshift sling she's made out of her jacket. As she's heading for the doorway the lights flicker and then go out, cutting off the comforting hum of the refrigerator.
"Jesus," she breathes, bringing her findings with her into the front hall again. "If I die because of a bunch of bugs, then Uncle B's gonna bring me back just so he can laugh at me before killing me himself."
"And he'll bury me under his septic tank," Dean grouses, appearing at her side with a few towels and a can of Raid. "Here, go cover the windows with these." He hands the towels over, taking a few strips of duct tape before moving over to the front door. Elizabeth goes into the living room, Zane coming over to help cover the upper panes since she's too short to reach them herself.
"The phone lines are out," Joanie announces," and Larry has no signal."
"That's because the bugs are blanketing the house." Dean and Sam herd the others in the living room, staring at the one window there aren't enough towels to cover. Cockroaches are splattered against the others, but this one has bees crawling across the pane, the buzzing muted thanks to the glass but no less annoying. "Liza, you got that lucky Zippo that Christopher left for you?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Remember that time when Bobby let us start fires in the dump?" Her eyes light up at the memory of homemade flamethrowers, digging the Zippo out of her pocket and then snatching up a can of furniture polish that had been left out on the coffee table. A creaking noise makes everyone freeze, the sound loud inside the otherwise quiet of the house.
"Oh God, what now," Matt asks, looking close to tears where he's snuggled between his parents.
"Please tell me that's not coming from where I think it's coming from," Zane moans, taking a step back as he eyes the fireplace. "Maybe it's just the house settling?"
"We don't have that kind of luck," Dean reminds him. "Alright, everyone upstairs!" They're just turning to run when the flue breaks open under the swarm of bees, Zane instinctively bringing his arms up to cover his head. "Go, go, go! Move it!" Dean and Elizabeth act as a cover as the group heads for the stairs, Dean lighting the spray on fire and taking down a few bugs with Elizabeth doing the same on his left.
They end up in the attic, the hunters bringing up the rear and yanking the door closed after them. Elizabeth slumps down onto the floor, fingers twitching as she fights the urge to scratch at the bee stings lining her arms. They hurt, sure, but it's no worse than some of the other beatings she's had in this line of work.
"Goddammit," Zane wheezes. "The termites are having a feast." He points at the slowly growing hole in the ceiling with a shaking finger, Larry and Elizabeth pulling him over to a small alcove as far from the hole as possible in the cramped space. He's having a reaction to the bee stings, which is the last thing they need to worry about while fighting for their lives.
"Larry, he's got an EpiPen in his back pocket, but I don't know how to use it," Elizabeth tells him, uncapping the Pledge. Larry gives a nod of understanding, he and his family gathering around Zane to form a semi-protective bubble. Elizabeth moves to stand with the Winchesters, flicking open the lid of the Zippo and resting her thumb on the flint wheel.
"One thing you can be thankful for, Liza," Sam assures her with a shaky smile," at least there's no spiders."
"Doesn't mean I'm gonna die in peace, but thanks anyway." The circular portion of wood that the termites have been chewing on falls through and the bugs come flying in. Dean and Elizabeth start torching the bugs again, Elizabeth keeping it up when the boys decide to block the hole.
"Got it?" Dean nods, sliding a two-by-four in place to hold the square of metal Sam found over the hole. It's not two seconds later before the termites have eaten another hole in the roof, more of them eating a hole around the metal lid. Sam waves his arms wildly, batting at the bugs until the Pledge and Raid cans come up empty.
"Son of a bitch," Dean growls, tossing his can aside and grabbing Elizabeth's wrist. "Sam, huddle!" The three of them join the others, covering them as best they can and taking the brunt of the stings. It's like having thousands of needles jammed into her back and arms, a continuous, throbbing ache that makes Elizabeth want to curl in on herself.
Just when she thinks it'll never end, the bugs begin to retreat back through the holes as sunlight filters inside, the gray like of dawn giving way to beautiful oranges and reds. Elizabeth collapses against the wall, pulling Zane close and letting him rest his head against her shoulder.
"I fucking hate bugs."
The Seminole, a Native American tribe, brought the stikini to Oklahoma with them when they were forced to relocate to the area. From what I've found, they're supposed to be witches that turn into owls and eat human hearts. I also found out that we apparently have a giant octopus in lake Tenkiller that drowns and eats small children? Who knows, maybe that's why my granny always insisted on going to the pool during summer vacation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯