Chapter One: Unexpected Reunion
Many years ago…
Main POV
Didn't seem to matter I wasn't cold, I couldn't stop shaking. I wasn't sure if I was depressed or angry. I wrapped my lips around the glass and tipped my head back, the amber liquid of the whiskey bottle burned my throat as I gulped it down. Bobby would probably be pissed that I was chugging down his personal supply of drinking booze, but I doubted I'd be here long enough to hear the aftermath. The hard wood of the closet door dug into the skin of my back as I pressed myself hard against it, knees up at my chest. I was angry, that was for sure, but I also wanted to be as small as possible. I just wanted to disappear. It hurt, I'm sure, the door...but I couldn't feel it. I didn't feel much of anything right now, I couldn't focus on much of anything except that she was gone. And like a comforting blanket, rage was there simmering deeply in my core.
Someone cleared their throat and I looked up to see an awkward looking boy maybe a year or two younger than me. I glared up at his freckled face as he lurked in the doorway, and he seemed to take the fact I hadn't immediately thrown the whiskey bottle I was holding at his head, as a welcome sign that he could enter the study I was hiding in. I recognised him, he'd been there earlier when I'd run down the stairs from Alex's room with a "Where's Dad?" on the tip of my tongue. But instead of my stepfather coming in the door to pick us up after my parents' latest hunt, Bobby was letting in two young teenagers with a strange man who had bad news.
Freckle face squatted down in front of me and I clutched the bottle a little harder. He seemed slightly amused I thought he was going to take it off me, and crawled the last step to the closet. He slid down beside me, legs outstretched in front of him and sat beside me silently for a moment. He'd been quiet when I watched Bobby and the strange man talk, only following this man's orders as he unloaded some bags from the car. He'd been quieter still when Bobby had come to face me, squatted down to tell me what had happened and why dad wasn't coming back for a while.
''I'm sorry about your mom,'' he said after a few moments. I scoffed and took another swig. Yeah, I'd be hearing that a lot I expect, I did after my real dad dipped. It was the nature of the job. Or so I'd heard. ''I just wanted to say…I wanted to say I'm sorry. It hurts, I know it does, I lost my mom years ago and I wanted to tell you I'm here. Make sure you know you're not alone.''
Part of me wanted to punch his lights out, or hit him over the head with the whiskey bottle I'd stolen. His words burned, they reminded me - even though I could never forget - that my mother was dead. They made it real, she was really actually gone. We'd been hunters as long as I could remember, but I was never ever absent of love in the entire time I'd had her in my life. She'd loved me with everything she had, she was proud of me, hell, she even kept all my old shitty drawings even though we were always on the road. And now she was just..gone. And my stepdad, while he'd been fantastic, my mother was my whole world.
''You should…you should be sorry about my dad,'' I muttered eventually and he turned to look down at me, surprised. ''Mom's dead, but he's the one who's gone. Lex and I, we're staying here with Bobby. Dad left us.''
''I..'' he started but his words fell short. He didn't know what to say. That was fair, neither did I.
''I thought about leaving too, I'm old enough, I know the job…but I can't… I can't leave him the way Dad did. Sure, he was only my stepfather, but that, you know, actually meant something to me,'' I explained and then started laughing, oh how stupid I'd been. Freckle face watched me going hysterical with a bewildered look upon his face, he didn't know what to do. Which was fair, I was completely unhinged. The grief, it had finally got to me. Or maybe the whiskey had…
''What can I do? What do you need?'' he asked eventually, swallowing as I looked at him, almost worried I'd whack him one. Part of me wanted to. But I just wanted someone to hold me, and make me think everything was going to be okay. Just temporary company within the safety of someone else's arms.
''Distract me,'' I replied and he opened his mouth to say something. What, I didn't know, I'd already cut him off. My lips met his, almost crushing them in a rough, raw kiss. He let out a gentle moan and pulled me closer to him. His hands slid into the hair at the back of my neck and he cradled my head, kissing me back with bruising force.
Shifting in his hold I turned on the wooden floor and swung a leg over his outstretched legs, taking a seat on his lap. He took the bottle out of my hands and I heard him screwing the lid back on without even breaking our oxygen denying kiss. It had been so long since someone had touched me like this. And he was better at it than most people our age. My mind sung out to me, warning me to be careful, reminding me of how much trouble I'd gotten into the last time I'd been touched like this. And my heart, or rather the heat between my legs told that thought to fuck right off. This, it felt like oxygen, even though his kisses were stealing mine. I needed this, in this moment, I needed him.
''How much of a distraction are you looking for?'' he asked, pulling away to take in deep gulps of air. My bottom lip trembled as I sat on top of him, also trying to inhale and stop the burning in my lungs.
''As much as you can give,'' I replied, shaking my head to kiss him again. His lips trailed down my neck and I felt my lips part as I tilted my head back. One of his hands rested on my waist, rubbing the skin beneath my t-shirt gently, the other was on my neck, gripping tightly to the bare flesh. ''I want you,'' I mumbled and he walked his lips back up my jaw, meeting me at the mouth once again.
''You can have me,'' he told me, gripping my thighs instead of my neck and waist. He hoisted me up, keeping my legs around his hips and carried me over to the guest bed.
Present day…
Sniffing, I tried to ignore the stench of the wax wafting out of the ball shining machine I was leaning up against. Wiping the drying tears off my face, I checked the salt ring around myself. How the hell had this gone so badly wrong? Blood trickled down the inside of my pant leg and soaked into the broken wooden floorboards beneath me. Trying not to whimper, I looked around, trying to figure a way out of this one, but in all pessimistic honestly, there wasn't one. At least, not on my own.
Trying not to let my hands shake too much, I brought my walkie talkie up to my mouth and pressed the button on the side. Taking a shallow breath, I tried not to let my voice quiver as I spoke, I could not, under any circumstances, worry the occupant of my blue Chevelle in the desolate parking lot outside this miserable bowling alley. It was a comfort, at least, knowing he was tucked up safe in the passenger seat, reading my journal by torchlight as the fog rolled around him. Knowing it was so dark outside that even if someone were to drive by at this impossibly late hour, and even if they did happen to catch a glimpse of the little blue classic, they wouldn't be able to see my little brother inside.
''Alex, you fall asleep on me?'' I teased and I heard him grumble before actually speaking.
''Give me some credit,'' he huffed, and I could just see him indignantly shaking his head. He wasn't doing much to counter the popular belief that teenagers were sullen creatures of the night overcome by mood after mood. ''As always, I'm here waiting for you to need me.''
''I uh…'' I took my finger off the button for a moment to let out a wince. Looking down at the snapped bone protruding from my leg just below the tourniquet. I needed help, there was no way I'd be able to finish the job like this and there was no way I was letting Alex come in here with the angry spirit roaming about. Or anyone else for that matter, the last thing I needed was to worry him to the point that he called an ambulance and the EMTs ended up as bad as me, or worse, dead. Best case scenario, they rescued me, called the cops and promptly arrested me for trespassing.
''What do you need?'' Lex prompted.
''Grab my cell out of the glove box, get Pastor Jim on the line and ask him where the nearest hunter is,'' I instructed.
''Katie, if you need help I'm right outside. I'm sure it's nothing we couldn't handle toge…''
''No!'' I cried out, looking desperately down at my aching leg. Why the hell didn't I carry ibuprofen in my hunting bag? ''Just stay in the car and call Pastor Jim.''
''Katie,'' he started trying to argue but I could feel myself starting to get light headed and a little sleepy. The adrenalin was wearing off, shit.
''Alexander,'' I warned, gritting my teeth. I really did not want to argue with him right now. ''Please just do as I've asked.''
''Right,'' he sighed, cutting off transmissions for a few minutes.
Part of me knew he was just itching to get out there, be a proper part of the family business and I knew he needed to learn, but I couldn't bear the thought of it. As his sole guardian, it was my responsibility to make sure he made it to adulthood safe and sound as my mother, whom he could barely remember, had tried so desperately to do for me. The walkie talkie crackled to life again after what felt like a small eternity and his voice came over the radio waves.
''Katie, Pastor Jim says he'll send someone out. They're not far away, and won't be long. Are.. are you sure you don't want me to come in there with you in the meantime?'' he asked, and I could hear the worry in his voice. I didn't call for backup. When I contacted him over the walkies, it was to get him to look something up for the case we were working on, he was my regular guy in the chair. I had actually been training him, despite my reluctance to let him out in the field. Knowing he only wanted to help, I took a breath, trying to keep my voice and my breathing level.
''I'm sure, Lex, I'm gonna be fine. Plus, I need you out there to greet this guy and make sure he knows what we're up against, no one better for the job than you, okay?'' I told him, glancing for a moment at the haphazardly drawn salt ring. Or salt banana was probably more accurate. It was hard to get a good circle going when you were hopping on one foot and trying not to slip on the puddles of your own blood.
''Okay, if you're sure,'' he replied, not sounding fully convinced. Or at all flattered by my praise.
''I'm sure,'' I repeated breathlessly. I sure hoped this guy came soon.
Dean POV
Mentally calculating the time it would take for me to get from the job I was just finishing up and across the state border to this bowling alley Jim wanted me to go to, I watched the flames burn. The freshly dug up dirt was in a pile next to me, as was my new shovel with the sharper blade. I was supposed to stay till the fire was embers, and the bones and remnants of the coffin had fully burned up so I could fill the grave back in. I was supposed to leave no real evidence someone was there. But if this was as much of an emergency as Jim was making it sound like, I needed to get going. Just this once, I could walk away from the fire.
''Minnesota?'' I double checked. ''I'm maybe half an hour away, I could try shave that down to fifteen minutes if I don't get stopped.''
''Sounded like a real emergency. Don't do anything rash trying to get there, Dean, or you'll be no help to anyone. The boy - Alexander - will fill you in when you get there,'' he explained, rattling some coordinates for a few towns over. ''And stay safe.''
''Alright, Jim, I'm on my way,'' I told him, hanging up the phone and jogging quickly to Baby, waiting just outside the cemetery gates. Looking back over my shoulder, I could see the yellow flames flickering over the top of the nearly six foot hole I'd dug and hoped nobody came across it before the job was actually done.
It worried me Jim was calling me and asking me to go to some other hunter's job. I'd never had to before, but if he was calling, it had to be important. So just what went wrong to justify an emergency call out to the nearest hunter? It had to be big, but if it was, I wasn't sure how I could help. Dad had only just given me the car, sent me out on my own. Could I handle it?
Drumming my fingers on the steering wheel, I slowly crept up into the parking lot I'd been directed to with the music off and the lights low. It was dark, desolate and misty. No one was around except a frost covered Chevy. Parking beside it, I climbed out and walked around to the passenger side door. Knocking on the glass, I watched the ice start to fall off in small sheets as the occupant rolled down the manual crank window. Staring back at me with suspicious eyes was a kid no older than fourteen.
''Uhh…'' I said, looking at him. Jim had said boy. He had dark hair hanging low around his face, longer than Sammy's I bet, and was tucked under a blanket and in a thick coat. Must have been cold, sitting out here and waiting for whoever he was with, but it was better than the alternative, being in there with whatever monster was loose. Plus, someone obviously cared enough to tuck him in with a blanket and snacks. That was better looking after than Sam and I got sometimes.
''My sister Katie's inside, we thought it was just a poltergeist but whatever it is, she's having trouble and won't let me come inside,'' he told me, sounding a little frantic. He had a leatherbound journal, not unlike dad's, sitting open on his lap with a brightly lit torch clutched tightly in his hand. ''I think she's hurt.''
''It's probably best you stay out here and man the walkie,'' I told him, nodding to the radio on his lap beside the journal. ''We'll need someone on the outside feeding us intel if this doesn't turn out to be what we think it is.''
''That's what Katie said,'' he huffed, frowning deeply. He was almost pouting about not getting to go in and it was almost comical how opposite he was to my own little brother. Sam would have relished in getting left with a book instead of dragged all over the country and made to kill the things that went bump in the night.
''It's good advice,'' I replied with a shrug.
Guess you couldn't please everybody. Going around to my trunk I filled my duffle with more lighter fluid, iron rounds and salt. Tossing in shotgun shells and the sawed off, I got ready to move off into this "Superior Lanes". What a snooty sounding name for a bowling alley. Grabbing hold of the door handle, I wondered just how much of an amateur called an emergency hunter to assist them with a poltergeist. Probably some stupid kid. But the name Katie sounded familiar, paired with the fact she had a little brother named Alex, my mind did wonder. Explained why Pastor Jim hadn't given many details over the phone.
Many Years Ago…
Sitting up with a start I focused on the figure at the end of the bed and relaxed. It was her kid brother again, Jesus Christ, he almost got kicked in the head. Lex toddled closer, teddy still tightly clutched under his arm as he sucked on the pacifier in his mouth. He reached out with a hand and I sighed, looking at the blonde next to me. She'd had a rough night last night, I'd seen to that, she could use some rest. Grabbing the boxers hanging on the end of the bed, I slipped them back on under the covers and then carefully climbed out over Katie.
''Hey little man,'' I said, opening my arms to him. He glanced between myself and his sleeping sister, looking like he still wanted to go to her. At the last minute he broke out into a run and buried himself into my outstretched arms. Frantically he still sucked on the dummy, trying to hide in my chest and calm down.
''Katie,'' he murmured, pointing at his sleeping sister.
''She's sleeping, bud, did you have a nightmare?'' I asked and he nodded, rubbing his cheek against me. ''Alright, why don't we go downstairs and we can talk about it, okay?''
He agreed and I grabbed my jeans with my free hand, hoisting him up to sit on my hip with the other. Carefully descending the stairs one creak at a time, I tried not to wake the other occupants of Bobby's house. Sitting him in the kitchen, I poured him a bowl of off brand cheerios and bent over to pull on my pants. Three year olds didn't exactly have the best logic in the world and almost threw a major bitch fit because he wanted the honey coated cereal but didn't want to part with the dummy in his mouth. It took bribery with a sippy cup filled with watered down juice to get him to finally agree to part with the sucker.
''So, what scary thing won't let you sleep?'' I asked and he looked up at me from his bowl of dry cereal circles. ''Some kinda monster?''
''Daddy,'' he said, shrugging. Well, shit. That one wasn't one I could deal with easily.
''He's uh…it's probably just going to be us and Katie for a while bud,'' I said awkwardly and he beamed, nodding.
''I know,'' he said cheerily and I scratched the back of my neck. Shouldn't he be upset over that fact? I thought he was having nightmares of his dad leaving, not coming back. Guess it just went to show I didn't know everything about Katie just yet, even if I knew every freckle and every scar on her body.
Alex was scribbling away, colouring one of the many pictures from the stack of childrens menus Katie had stolen from diners across the country, blissfully unaware of why he'd even woken me up at such an early hour now he'd settled. There was some movement upstairs just as the sun started to rise, light footsteps headed down the hallway towards Sammy's room. Given he slept like the dead until late morning and hadn't taken up sleepwalking, I assumed it was Katie heading towards the bedroom he shared with her little brother. Same living arrangements he'd complained about to no end because he was twelve and his roommate was three.
There was a shriek upstairs that might have just been loud enough to wake Sam - and Bobby if he'd been home and not on a hunting trip - and the sound of heavier, running footsteps for the stairs. Shit. I hadn't meant to scare her, I just thought she could use some sleep.
''Alex!'' She cried out halfway down the stairs. Running a hand over my face as the little boy swung his legs in his chair, munching on cereal and colouring while his sister barrelled our way.
''Kitchen,'' I sighed. Wondering if I was going to be in for it again. For some reason she hated it when I helped her out with these things, it was as if she thought I didn't think she could handle them on her own. I knew she could, I just didn't think she had to. She made it to the kitchen, my t-shirt baggy around her as she stood in that and only her underwear. The shirt hung off her small frame poorly, exposing one of her shoulders as she dropped down beside her brother and pulled her towards him, shaking her head.
''What the fuck Dean?'' she hissed at me, holding tightly to her little brother. ''I woke up to him gone.''
''He had a nightmare and I thought you could use some sleep,'' I explained and she wore a look of anger on her face, nose scrunching up as she shook her head at me.
''You're not his father, he is not your responsibility,'' she barked and shot up off the ground. She headed quickly back up the stairs and I hurried after her. She was up the stairs, frantically gathering her things in the dark and stuffing them into her small backpack.
''Katie, what the hell?'' I demanded and she pulled her t-shirt over her head and threw it at me. I caught it and pulled it on, watching her angrily get dressed in yesterday's clothes. She was leaving, or at least threatening to if I didn't calm her down. I'd expected she'd be pissed but not pissed enough to do a moonlight flit. Or daylight flit I guess.
''Dean, you need to back off, okay? He's not your responsibility,'' she warned, pulling her boots on and zipping up her napsack. She marched up to me as I stood in the doorway, blocking her from getting through. Angrily, she gestured for me to move out of her way and I reluctantly side stepped.
''I know that, Katie, but I understand what it's like,'' I told her, thinking about Sam who had been just down the hall and completely missed both Alex waking up, Katies shriek, and this very loud argument. ''Sharing a room with your little brother is mine. I'm not trying to replace your dad or whatever, I'm not trying to say you can't do this, I'm trying to help you. I want to support you.''
''Well maybe I don't want that!'' she screamed back at me, walking into the bedroom Sam was sharing with Lex and started frantically packing up his things as well. Offensively bright coloured toys and clothes were stuffed into a small duffle bag along with a few baby books and spare pacifiers. I seriously needed to calm things down.
''I get it's hard, you don't know who to trust, you can't be sure everyone won't walk out, but I'm not the bad guy here,'' I said and she pushed me this time, right out of the doorway and into the corridor wall. ''Don't go, okay? You're good here with Bobby, and I can help while I'm here, okay?''
''You don't fucking know anything, Dean Winchester, stop trying to psychoanalyze me, don't come into our lives with your good intentions, you're not supposed to be a boyfriend, or an older brother, or Lex's father. You were only a distraction, you're nothing to us, to him. You were just supposed to be a distraction, nothing more. You're nothing, okay?'' she screamed, thumping on my chest with her little fists. Maybe it hurt a little bit but I understood she was just trying to protect her little brother. I didn't know what was going on, but it seemed worse now, after what I'd heard from her little brother.
''Katie,'' I said, trying to take her shoulders in my hands and pull her in for a hug. She shoved me hard, so hard I stumbled barefoot out into the hallway.
''Stay the hell away from us!'' she ordered, stepping around me and marching across the rug in the upstairs hallway towards the staircase. She was heading down the stairs and I was going to follow when I heard light moaning behind me. Pushing up out of bed was preteen Sam who'd just woken up.
''Dean?'' he murmured and I glanced back over my shoulder at him. He was rubbing his eyes with his fists. He looked out the window to see the sun barely peeking over the horizon. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stumbled over. ''What's going on, where's Lex?''
''In a minute, Sammy,'' I said, patting him on the shoulder. By the time I got downstairs the two were nowhere in sight and when I ran outside to the porch, her car had already started up and she was pulling out of the long driveway. ''Damn it!'' I said, kicking the wall beside me. Then I dropped, hissing and cursing because I'd been barefoot at the time. Bobby was gonna kill me.
Present day…
Main POV
Shivering in the morning chill, I checked my watch, it was nearly four am. The radio was crackling beside me and it took too much energy to pick it up and bring it to my face. Why did it suddenly seem so heavy? The witching hour should have long passed, why was it this cold? Maybe it was because I'd gotten beat up by the ghost rather than ganking it. Why couldn't this night just be over?
Over the walkie talkie, I made sure the hunter on the other side of the door was going to make sure Alex stayed inside the car and didn't dare come near the haunted bowling alley. Hearing the wood of the door crack and split as someone kicked it in, I bit my lip. The poor owners were really getting more than they bargained for tonight. All that work they'd done to renovating the place seemed to be all in vain now, but, if they hadn't've bothered, they'd never have disrupted the dead in the walls. Originally, I'd picked the lock and let myself in quietly, but when this particularly malevolent spirit had caught me trying to send it onwards, it slammed it closed and locked it with supernatural force.
''Hey, you in here?'' A gruff sounding voice called out in the darkness of the bowling alley.
''Yeah, over here,'' I yelled back as loud as I could, waving my arms about frantically. Wincing as I jolted myself, I gave up. That should have been enough to get him over here. He walked around the side of the ball shining machine and saw me sitting there in the crappy salt ring and a pool of my own blood.
''Katie,'' he breathed, staring down at me in shock. I felt as though all the breath had been knocked from my lungs, my chest ached as I stared up at the man I once knew.
''Get in the fucking slat circle, now!'' I ordered, snapping out of it first.
''Oh shit,'' he said, staring down at the bone sticking out of my leg.
''Dean!'' I cried out and he hopped over the edge of the ring.
''Not much of a circle,'' he joked and I grumbled, glaring at him. He smiled, unbothered by my irritation and knelt down beside me. He was also unbothered that he was kneeling in a pool of my blood and it was slowly seeping into the light wash fabric of his bluejeans. Mind you, he appeared to be covered in a healthy coating of grave dust, so it wasn't a surprise he didn't care.
''I'm sorry,'' I said as he started looking over my leg. I'd wanted to tell him so for years. That day I'd turned on the highway, sped all the way back, but by the time I'd gotten there, he and Sam had gone, been picked up by John while I'd been sulking. And I'd never seen them again.
''Hey, it wouldn't be the first time you got me all sticky,'' he joked, nodding to the blood, and touching my leg gingerly. I whined and he looked back at me with an apologetic look. ''Why don't you tell me what you know, and I'll deal with your leg?''
''Place's always been haunted, or so says everyone. Mostly just mischievous shit, pranks and an urban legend but after the new owners decided to renovate things started getting bad,'' I explained through grit teeth. He nodded, looking for something in our packs he could use as a splint. He pulled out a roll of duct tape and looked at my axe.
''You know, a sledge hammer would have been more useful,'' he commented, figuring I'd been using it to break down the wall the body had been sealed behind. Trying not to cry out again I clenched my jaw harder. He slowly tried to straighten my leg and set the bone back in place. Throwing my head back against the machine, I pushed air out from between my teeth.
''Do you not think if I'd had a sledge hammer, I'd have been using it?! I know it would have been better!'' I screamed at him and he nodded, working away and ignoring me yelling at him.
''I know, I know, keep yelling at me,'' he encouraged and moved my leg more, making me scream and fresh tears roll down my cheeks over the dried up salt tracks. ''Okay, what else, tell me more about the ghost.''
''We thought it was a poltergeist at first,'' I whimpered, trying to keep a lid on my temper even though he was happy to let me scream at him through the ordeal. Talk about gluttons for punishment. Maybe he was a masochist. ''Oooh~'' I moaned softly, shaking with the cold and the pain. ''Uh, not long ago, a month back I think…fuck. Shitshitfuck. Someone died here, accident when they closed for renovations, it was the only recorded death here besides one from decades ago. I dug them both up and burned the corpses but the ghost was still here.''
''Okay, so do you know who it is?'' he asked me, beginning to tape my leg to the handle of the axe. Nodding, I breathed out, trying to slow my heart rate down. I was experiencing a second wind of adrenalin as well as the pain making my subconscious mind panic.
''The manager here went missing, he was suspected to have assaulted a bunch of female staff members, but no one ever took them seriously so he got away with it. And then he just disappeared without a trace. If I had to guess, it's him buried in the walls, disturbed and brought out when they did the renovations,'' I explained and he nodded. ''I think.. I think one of the other two bodies I burned had something to do with the uh…ow. Shit, Dean!''
''The other stuff, the little mischievous pranks, I know,'' he nodded, finishing up with my legs. ''It's alright, it's done now. It's okay.''
''I..I found the body,'' I whimpered, shaking still and he pulled me to his warm chest, holding me tightly for a moment.
''Okay, where? I'll burn the body and then get you out of here, alright?'' he told me and I nodded, face rubbing against his chest. Listening to the rhythmic beating of his heart relaxed me, and I could feel myself getting tired again. He pulled away from me, lightly slapping my face. ''Katie, come on, stay with me. Stay awake.''
''Behind the trophy cabinet, I was thrown here just after I found it, I think… I think my leg might have broken mid air, I didn't land great. Sorry..it's.. it's.. that way,'' I said, pointing in the direction of the staff room and the supply closet. The trophy case was resting on the far wall, pulled out of the way by me so I could get at the drywall behind it.
''Stay awake, I'll be right back, okay? I'm going to take care of this sucker and then I'm going to get you out of here, alright?'' he told me, tapping on my face again until I nodded.
Going back into his duffle bag, he grabbed out a sawed off shotgun and cocked it, ready for when this thing decided to show itself next. With shaking hands, I reached to my side and pulled the baretta loaded with iron rounds up, ready to offer what little backup I could provide. He ran for the trophy cabinet with his duffle, ready to finish the job and take me out of this nightmare. I'd never needed backup before, what a cruel twist of fate it was the first time I did and he showed up. But then, I'd always hoped to see him again. Not like this, not like this.
The spirit started reanimating and warping towards me and I yelled out at it, taunting him so it could come for me and leave Dean in peace. Waving my arms and insulting it, it approached, smirking at me.
''Yeah that's right you old pervert, come get me,'' I bellowed and he nodded down to the ground in front of me. Glancing down at the salt circle I spotted a part of it had gotten smudged. A combination of Dean moving around over it and my blood melting it had broken the protective ring. ''Shit.''
He surged forwards and grabbed hold of my waist, dragging me forwards, spreading the blood and salt further into the floorboards. Flying across the ground I let out an involuntary shriek and Dean looked back over his shoulder at the scene. Pulling my gun up, I flicked the safety off and fired a few rounds to make him let go of me.
Rolling onto my stomach I crawled back over to the ball return and across the smears to the relative safety of the broken ring. The spirit reappeared just as I made it and I fired a few more shots, making him dissipate, but not for long. With one hand I reached for the salt canister and tried to fire with the other. My hand was shaking too much to get a good shot on its own so I settled for finishing the ring. Right at the edge of the barrier it snapped its head towards the trophy case, only just becoming aware of what Dean was up to.
''Incoming!' I screamed out as loud as I could and started firing them in the direction the ghost was headed. Dean glanced back just as one of my iron rounds came whizzing past him and landing in the wall beside him.
He fired off some shots of his own and then the area he was in was engulfed in flames. The ghost reappeared in front of me, howling as it's form was covered in flames. Dean jogged back over to me, watching to make sure the ghost was gone for good. Once he was sure he quickly packed up our belongings and tossed them over his shoulder.
''You okay, Katie?'' he asked and I nodded tiredly. I'd been through a lot tonight.
''Yeah, I'm good,'' I nodded and he slid his arms under me, hoisting me off the ground and carrying me towards the entrance.
What was left of the door opened up and momentarily, I was blinded. The bowling alley had been so dark but out here the morning sun had started to rise. Looking out to the car where my baby brother was drooling on the windowsill, asleep, I laughed. Dean glanced down at me and I reached up and pointed. The air still held a chill despite the sun finally coming up and I snuggled closer to Dean, hoping he wouldn't begrudge my affection after the way I'd treated him as a teenager.
''Poor kid's all tuckered out,'' I said, breathing heavily.
''Yeah he seemed pretty worried about you before I went in there,'' Dean commented, carrying me the rest of the way over to our cars. He put me down on the icy hood of his car, water soaking through my already ruined jeans. ''I can see that didn't last long.''
''I came back,'' I told him as he started walking away towards his trunk. He turned, cocking his head in confusion. ''That day…I came back. I wanted to say I was sorry, but you… your dad came back. I always hoped to run into you again, to apologise for screaming at you. I uh… I didn't mean like this.'' He snorted.
''You gotta be more specific when you ask the universe for things,'' he told me, turning on the heel of his biker boots and heading for the trunk, uninterrupted this time. He put his stuff in the back and I tossed him my keys to do the same with my pack. He came back and carried me over to the backseat of his car. ''You get blood on the leather, you're cleaning it up, broken leg or not.''
Closing the door on me after he'd gently propped up my leg, I watched him march around to the front of the car. He went to step inside but paused, turning to me instead of getting in and driving.
''You think you can hang on a little longer while I move your car from the scene? I imagine you brother can't drive,'' he asked and I nodded, wincing a little with the movement.
''He's… he's learning but he's only fourteen,'' I agreed. ''We're uh, we're staying at the motel two blocks away. Listen, it was unfair of me to take out my feelings on you, grieving or not. I shouldn't have called you nothing, you're not, and I'm sorry I bit your head off and pushed you away when you were only trying to be friendly. Trying to do the right thing. I'm sorry.''
''It's been a long time, I don't care, Katie,'' he said bluntly. ''I've moved on.''
''Regardless, it was still wrong. And I wanna make it up to you,'' I told him and he looked at my leg, snorting.
''Tell you what, when that leg's healed, you can help me out on a hunt to make it up to me. You kind of owe me after today,'' he grinned, sending a teasing glance my way. Nodding, I rested my head on the leather, feeling sleep take hold of me.
''Done,'' I mumbled, hearing him close the door. My Chevelle roared to life beside me and I could hear the tires squeal on the wet tarmac as he pulled away and took Lex home for the night.