1.10
We're in another charming hotel room. Sam's on the phone checking for Dad again and Dean's scouring through Dad's journal, looking for something. Both of which are very distracting when you're trying to catch up on three months worth of math.
"Dad'd be pissed if we put the Feds on his tail," Dean says and I throw my pencil down. Giving up on the math.
"I don't care anymore," says Sam.
There's a ringing and Dean goes looking for the phone.
"After all that happened back in Kansas, I mean...he should've been there, Dean. You said so yourself. You tried to call him and...nothing."
"I know! Where the hell is my cellphone?"
"You know, he could be dead for all we know."
"Don't say that! He's not dead! He's – he's..."
"He's what? He's hiding? He's busy?"
Dean finds the phone and flicks it open. "Huh. I don't believe it."
"What?" Sam and I ask.
"It's, uh...It's a text message. It's coordinates."
Dean grabs my laptop from the table and swivels it to him.
"Hey!" I yell.
"You weren't using it anyway."
"Not the point," I say.
"You think Dad was texting us?" asks Sam.
"He's given us coordinates before," says Dean.
"The man can barely work a toaster, Dean."
"Sam, it's good news! It means he's okay, or alive at least." Dean's typing away, I can see his eyes scanning the screen.
"Alive at least? How optimistic of you," I say.
"It's something," says Dean.
"Well, was there a number on the caller ID?" asks Sam.
"Nah, it said 'unknown'."
"Well, where do the coordinates point?"
"That's the interesting part. Rockford, Illinois."
"Ok, and that's interesting how?"
"I checked the local Rockford paper. Take a look at this."
Dean turns the laptop to face Sam and I. Sam comes over and looks over my shoulder "This cop, Walter Kelly, comes home from his shift, shoots his wife, then puts the gun in his mouth, blows his brains out. And earlier that night, Kelly and his partner responded to a call at the Roosevelt Asylum."
"Okay, I'm not following. What has this have to do with us?"
"Dad earmarked the same asylum in the journal. Let's see..." Dean goes through the journal and points to a page. "Here. Seven unconfirmed sightings, two deaths – till last week at least. I think this is where he wants us to go."
Sam scoffs and walks away. "This is a job... Dad wants us to work a job."
"Well, maybe we'll meet up with him? Maybe he's there?"
"Maybe he's not? I mean, he could be sending us there, by ourselves, to hunt this thing."
"Who cares! If he wants us there, it's good enough for me!"
"And whatever it is has killed two people. Recently. No one else needs to die," I say.
"And this doesn't strike you as weird? The texting? The coordinates?" asks Sam.
"No," I shrug. "Unorthodox, but direct."
"Dad's tellin' us to go somewhere, we're goin'." Says Dean.
Sam makes a face and sighs.
We go to Illinois. Dean finds out where the officer's partner hangs out. And I'm relegated to car duty.
"You have math to do anyway," Dean says as he closes his door.
I stick my tongue out. Once they're inside I climb into the front of the car, turn the stereo on, the overhead light, and open up my math workbook. I have never hated triangles so much in my entire life.
A little while later Dean gets in the car.
"How'd it go?" I ask.
"Super," he says and turns up the stereo.
I smile but I'm actually getting the hang of this so I ignore him.
"And…done," I say, closing the workbook. "I am an expert at Pythagoras now, thank you very much."
Dean smiles. "Atta boy."
I roll my eyes and get out of the car to stretch. I sit on the hood of the car and Dean joins me. "You catching up?" he asks.
I glare at him.
"Are you?"
"I just did a week's worth of math in like, an hour."
"So…that's a yes?"
I shrug as Sam walks out of the bar.
"Shoved me kinda hard in there, buddy boy."
"I had to sell it, didn't I?" asks Sam. "It's method acting."
"Huh?"
"Never mind."
"What'd you find out from Gunderson?"
Dean asks and Sam goes to the other side of the car.
"So, Walter Kelly was a good cop. Head of his class, even-keeled, he had a bright future ahead of him," explains Sam.
"What about at home?"
"He and his wife had a few fights, like everybody, but he was mostly smooth sailing. They were even talking about having kids."
"Alright, so either Kelly had some deep-seated crazy waiting to bust out, or something else did it to him."
"Right."
"What'd Gunderson tell you about the asylum?"
"A lot."
"So he's a local expert?" I ask.
"Kids go there a lot and they have to kick them out, and there are a ton of local legends about the place, even before it closed."
"So super fun happy times?"
Sam shakes his head. "Sure."
There's a pretty pathetic chain linked fence around the asylum. We climb over it and go inside. It's dark and dirty and…well, creepy.
"So apparently the cops chased the kids here...into the south wing," says Sam and points to a sign over a door.
"South wing, huh? Wait a second," Dean pulls out Dad's journal and flips through. "1972. Three kids broke into the south wing, only one survived. Way he tells it, one of his friends went nuts and started lighting up the place."
"So whatever's going on, the south wing is the heart of it."
"But if the kids are spelunking the asylum, why aren't there a ton more deaths?"
"Looks like the doors are usually chained. Could've been chained up for years."
"Yeah, to keep people out," says Dean. "Or to keep something in."
"Well isn't this just a lovely day," I say and I push open the door. We go down a dark hallway.
"Let me know if you see any dead people, Haley Joel," Dean says to Sam.
I laugh.
"Dude, enough," says Sam.
"I'm serious. You gotta be careful, all right? Ghosts are attracted to that whole ESP thing you got going on."
"I told you, it's not ESP! I just have strange vibes sometimes. Weird dreams."
"Vibes?" I ask Sam with a smirk.
"Yeah, whatever. Don't ask, don't tell," says Dean.
"You get any reading on that thing or not?" Sam asks Dean holding the EMF.
"Nope. Of course, it doesn't mean no one's home."
"Spirits can't appear during certain hours of the day."
"Yeah, the freaks come out at night."
"Yeah."
"Hey Sam, who do you think is the hotter psychic: Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or you?"
Sam pushes Dean, and Dean and I laugh. We find a room and it's something.
"Jesus, this looks more like a torture chamber," I say.
Dean whistles. "Man. Electro-shock. Lobotomies. They did some twisted stuff to these people. Kinda like my man Jack in Cuckoo's Nest."
Ugh. That movie was creepy. There are so many weird looking instruments around. I make a face at what I could swear I a bear trap.
"So. Whaddaya guys think?" asks Dean. "Ghosts possessing people?"
"Maybe. Or maybe it's more like Amityville, or the Smurl hunting."
"Spirits driving them insane. Kinda like my man Jack in The Shining."
"Can you stop that?" I ask.
Dean just grins.
"Dean," says Sam. "When are we going to talk about it?"
"Talk about what?"
"About the fact Dad's not here."
I busy myself with some old textbook showing how to do….a lobotomy?
"Oh. I see. How 'bout...never," says Dean.
"I'm being serious, man. He sent us here..."
"So am I, Sam. Look, he sent us here, he obviously wants us here. We'll pick up the search later."
"It doesn't matter what he wants."
"Sam that's not fair," I say quietly.
"See. That attitude? Right there?" says Dean pointing at Sam. "That is why I always get the extra cookie."
"Where was my extra cookie?" I ask.
"You always got two extra cookies," Dean says.
"Damn straight."
"Dad could be in trouble," says Sam, "we should be looking for him. We deserve some answers, Dean. I mean, this is our family we're talking about."
"I understand that, Sam, but he's given us an order," says Dean.
"So what, we gotta always follow Dad's orders?"
"Of course we do."
Sam gives Dean a look. But then Dean turns away. Sam looks at me and I shrug with a smile. Dean's right.
"Sanford Ellicott'..." Dean reads. "You know what we gotta do. We gotta find out more about the south wing. See if something happened here."
"How long is he going to be?" I ask Dean.
"God knows," he says.
"I'm getting grey hair!"
"Yeah, me too…"
After like, another two centuries Dean elbows me. Sam is out. We walk with him.
"Dude! You were in there forever. What the hell were you talking about?" asks Dean.
"Just the hospital, you know."
"And...?"
"And the south wing? It's where the housed the really hard cases. The psychotics, the criminally insane."
"Sounds cozy."
"Yeah. And one night in '64, they rioted. attacked staff, attacked each other."
"So the patients took over the asylum?"
"Apparently."
"Any deaths?"
"Some patients, some staff. I guess it was pretty gory. Some of the bodies were never even recovered, including our chief of staff, Ellicott."
"Oh well isn't that just perfect," I say.
"Whaddaya mean, never recovered?" asks Dean.
"Cops scoured every inch of the place but I guess the patients must've...stuffed the bodies somewhere hidden," says Sam.
"That's grim."
"Yeah. So, they transferred all the remaining patients and closed the hospital down."
"So, to sum it up, we've got a bunch of violent deaths and a bunch of unrecovered bodies."
"And a bunch of angry spirits."
"That's a lot of work," I say.
"Good times," says Dean. "Let's check out the hospital tonight."
We go back to the asylum that night. Sam has a video camera and flashlight, Dean has an EMF meter and I have my shotgun ready to go.
"Getting readings?" asks Sam.
"Yeah, big time," says Dean.
"This place is orbing like crazy."
I go on my tiptoes and look at the camera screen. I whistle.
"Probably multiple spirits out and about," says Dean.
"Party time," I say.
"And if these uncovered bodies are causing the haunting..." says Sam.
"We gotta find 'em and burn 'em," says Dean. "Just be careful though. The only thing that makes me more nervous than a pissed off spirit... is the pissed off spirit of a psycho killer."
We keep walking through the hospital. It's weird. I feel like we're being watched but nothing seems to be happening. We go into different rooms then suddenly Sam yells,
"Dean! Jane!"
We run into the room. An old woman ghost is coming towards Sam.
I cock the gun and Dean shouts, "Sam!" he goes to the bag to pull out his gun.
"Get down!" I yell.
Sam jumps down, I aim and shoot the woman. She disappears. I look around but there's no one and nothing else.
"That was weird," says Sam.
"Yeah. You're telling me," says Dean.
We leave the room.
"No, Dean," says Sam. "I mean it was weird that she didn't attack me."
"Looked pretty aggro from where I was standing," says Dean.
"She didn't exactly look friendly coming towards you like that," I say.
"She didn't hurt me," says Sam. "She didn't even try! So if she didn't wanna hurt me then what did she want?"
"Are you defending a ghost?" I ask.
There's a noise from a room. Dean raises his gun and Sam turns the torch into the room….there's a blonde head behind a bed on its side. Dean steps in front of be and Sam tips the bed over. It's an actual person!
"It's alright," says Dean, "we're not going to hurt you. It's okay. What's your name?"
"Katherine. Kat," she says, standing.
"Okay. I'm Dean, this is Sam, and Jane."
"What are you doing here!?" asks Sam.
"U. My boyfriend, Gavin," says Kat.
"Is he here?"
"Somewhere. He thought it would be fun, try and see some ghosts. I thought it was all just...you know. Pretend. I've seen things. I heard Gavin scream and..."
"Alright. Kat? Come on," says Dean. "Sam's gonna get you out of here and then we're gonna find your boyfriend."
"No! No. I'm not going to leave without Gavin. I'm coming with you."
I roll my eyes. Will people ever just listen to us?
"It's no joke around here, okay. It's dangerous," says Dean.
"That's why I gotta find him."
Sam and Dean share a look, Sam shrugs.
"Alright, I guess we gonna split up then. Let's go," says Dean.
I go with Sam and we wander around quietly calling out of Gavin. It's dark and hard to tell and we're not exactly equipped for finding people.
Then we see someone on the ground. Sam crouches down and shakes him. He wakes up and freaks out when he sees Sam.
"Hey, Gavin," says Sam. "It's okay, I'm here to help."
"Who are you?" he asks.
"My name is Sam. Uh, we found your girlfriend."
"Kat?" he asks and gets up. "Is she alright?"
"Yeah. She's worried about you."
Gavin sees me and screams. I lower my gun. "Dude, chill," I say.
"That's my sister, Jane," says Sam. He looks back at Gavin. "Are you okay?"
"I was running. I think I fell," he says.
"You were running from what?"
"There was...there was this girl. Her face. It was all messed up."
"Okay listen, did this girl... did she try and hurt you?"
"What? No, she...uh..."
"She what?"
"She...kissed me."
I laugh. Sam eyes me and I cover my mouth.
"Uh...um...but...but she didn't hurt you, physically?" he asks Gavin.
"Dude! She kissed me. I'm scarred for life!"
"I bet," I say.
"Well, trust me, it could have been worse. Now do you remember anything else?" asks Sam.
"She uh...actually, she tried to whisper something in my ear," says Gavin.
"What?"
"I don't know. I ran like hell."
Sam shakes his head.
"Fair enough," I say. "Though you might get mono…"
"You think?" Gavin asks nervously.
"Let's go find Dean and Kat," says Sam.
We start walking back to where we found Kat. We pass it before we hear banging and yelling. We run down the hall and find Dean there banging on a door.
"What's going on?" asks Sam.
"She's inside with one of them," says Dean.
"Help me!" Kat screams from inside the room.
"Kat!" yells Gavin.
"Get me outta here!"
"Kat," Sam yells at the door, "it's not going to hurt you. Listen to me. You've got to face it. You've got to calm down."
"She's gotta what?!" Dean yells.
"I have to what?!" screams Kat.
"These spirits, they're not trying to hurt us," says Sam, "they're trying to communicate. You gotta face it. You gotta listen to it."
"You face it!"
"No! It's the only way to get out of there."
"No!"
"Look at it, come on. You can do it."
Kat goes quiet. We all listen.
"Kat?" Gavin asks after a minute.
"Man, I hope you're right about this," says Dean.
"Yeah, me too," says Dean.
"You mean you're not sure?" I ask.
Sam shrugs. Suddenly the lock clicks and the door opens. Kat is standing there.
"Oh, Kat," Gavin says and hugs her.
Sam goes into the room and he comes out, shaking his head.
"One thirty-seven," Kat says.
"Sorry?" asks Dean.
"It whispered in my ear. 137."
"Room number," Sam and Dean say together.
"Freaks," I say.
We go to the side of the wall where Kat and Gavin hopefully can't hear us.
"Alright," says Sam. "So if these spirits aren't trying to hurt anyone..."
"Then what are they trying to do?" asks Dean.
"Maybe that's what they've been trying to tell us..."
"I guess we'll find out."
"Room 137," I say. "Sounds like a lovely place to visit."
"Alright…" says Sam.
"So, now, are you guys ready to leave this place?" Dean asks Kat and Gavin.
"That's an understatement," says Kat.
"Okay," says Dean. He turns to Sam and me, "You get them outta here. I'm going to go find room 137."
"I can come with you," I say.
Dean laughs. "Haha. No."
"Why not?"
"Creepy ass asylum with creepy ass ghosts everywhere. No. You can go with the lovebirds out of here."
"But-" I start but Sam cuts in.
"Come on," Sam says, taking my arm.
Sam leads us down a hallway, back to the main doors. I'm bringing up the rear with Gavin in front of me, swinging my gun along my side.
"So," says Kat to Sam. "How do you guys know about all this ghost stuff?"
"It's kinda our job," says Sam.
"Why would anyone want a job like that?"
"I had a crappy guidance counsellor."
"And Dean? He's your boss?"
I laugh.
"No," says Sam looking back at me.
"And Jane? She's what, your apprentice?" asks Kat.
"Uh…" stammers Sam.
"Let's go with that," I say.
Sam goes down a different hallway. He tries the door. It won't open. I stand as he tries another door, it also won't open.
"Alright," says Sam. "I think we have a small problem."
"Then break it down," says Gavin.
"I don't think that's gonna work," says Sam.
"Then a window."
"They're barred," says Kat.
"Then how are we supposed to get out?" asks Gavin.
"That's the point," says Sam. "We're not. There's something in here. It doesn't want us to leave."
"Those patients..." Kat starts.
"No. Something else," says Sam.
I look at Sam. "The doctor?"
Sam nods.
"Great. He sounded so lovely. Can't wait to meet him."
"Stay here, I'm going to try the other rooms," says Sam to us.
I lean up against the wall and hold my shotgun at my hip. But there's nothing. Friendly or otherwise. Sam, comes back a few minutes later, "Alright, I've looked everywhere. There's no other way out."
"So what the hell are we gonna do?" asks Gavin.
"Well for starters, we're not gonna panic."
"Why the hell not!" yells Gavin.
"Will you keep quiet," I say.
Sam's phone rings and he answers, "Hey…Where are you?...I'm on my way."
Sam looks at Kat and Gavin, "Alright, can either of you handle a gun?"
"What? No!" says Gavin.
"I can," says Kat. "My dad took me skeet shooting a couple of times."
"Alright, here," says Sam, handing her his shotgun. "It's loaded with rock salt. It may not kill a spirit, but it will repel it. So if you see something, shoot."
"Okay," says Kat.
"Kay," says Sam and I go to go with him. "What are you doing?"
"Coming with you," I say.
"Jane, you need to stay with them."
"You gave Kat a gun; they'll be fine."
"They'll be better with you, go back. You're not coming down to basement, who knows what's down there."
"Sam."
"Jane."
I roll my eyes and go back to Kat and Gavin.
"Everything okay?" asks Kat.
"Strength in numbers," I say and cock my gun.
Kat crouches down holding the gun and Gavin paces the bit of hallway. We hear nothing and I just lean on the wall near Kat.
"Gavin, can you stop?" I ask. "You're driving me nuts."
Gavin slows but doesn't stop.
"Hey Gavin?" says Kat.
He goes and crouches beside her. "Yeah?"
"If we make it out of here alive...we are so breaking up."
I smile a little. There's a noise. I aim at the corner. I hear Kat and Gavin stand.
"Did you hear that?" asks Kat.
"Something's coming."
They're not very subtle.
Dean appears and I lower my gun, but Kat shoots. Dean ducks back just before.
"Damn it, damn it, don't shoot! It's me!" he calls.
"Sorry! Sorry." Says Kat.
"Son of a…" Dean says as he comes around the corner. "What are you still doing here!? Where's Sam?"
"He went to the basement," I say.
"You called him," says Gavin.
"I didn't call anybody," says Dean.
"His cell phone rang. He said it was you," says Kat.
"Basement, huh?" Dean looks around and picks up some extra weapons from the duffel.
"I can help," I say to him.
Dean fake laughs. "No."
"Why not?"
"Because I've seen what that doctor was doing and if he was doing that when he was alive, I hate to think what he'd do in death. So, no, Jane. You're staying here."
"Dean, really?"
"Yes, really." He stands up. I glare at him. "Alright. Watch yourselves...and watch out for me!" he adds to Kat.
I groan.
"Why would you wanna go with them anyway?" asks Kat.
"Because it's what we do," I say. "It's the family business."
"Creepy family business," says Gavin.
I shrug. "It is what it is."
Something is clearly going on because there are no spirits. At all. No EMF signals here, either. And suddenly, I hear something. I get off the wall and go to the door.
"What are you doing?" asks Gavin.
"You didn't hear that?" I ask.
"Hear what?"
I try the door. It opens.
"Oh thank god," says Kat. She practically runs out the door.
She breathes in the air and smiles.
"The sun is rising…" says Gavin, looking out at the horizon.
Sam and Dean come down the steps.
"You all made it," says Dean with a grin.
"Thanks guys," says Kat.
"Yeah, thanks," says Gavin.
"No more haunted asylums, okay?" says Dean.
Gavin and Kat walk towards their car.
"So…how'd it go?" I ask as we head back to our car.
"Dead guy is now fully dead," says Dean. "So…good?" Dean says and wraps an arm around my shoulders.
"Hey, Dean?" say Sam.
Dean turns to him.
"I'm sorry, man. I said some awful things back there," says Sam.
"You remember all that?"
I look up between Dean and Sam. Awkward.
"Yeah. It's like I couldn't control it. But I didn't mean it, any of it."
"You didn't, huh?"
"No, of course not! Do we need to talk about this?"
We reach the car and desperate for the awkwardness to continue I quietly go to the back door.
"No. I'm not really in the sharing and caring kinda mood," says Dean. "I just wanna get some sleep."
I sigh. Pathetic. But I am exhausted too. We drive back to the motel in silence and then have to force myself to get into my pajamas. Sam's already taking up his entire queen bed diagonally so I go over to Dean.
"You know, maybe just once you and Sam could bunk together and I get a bed to myself?" I ask.
Dean grins and climbs under the covers. "You wish."
"What about for my birthday?"
"We'll see."
I climb in on the other side closest to Sam and am ready to argue the point more, but as soon as my head hits the pillow I realise how exhausted I am and fall asleep.
-
I think I hear ringing.
"Dean," I hear someone say. Then more ringing. "Hello….Dad?"
I open my eyes and look at Sam.