I FINALLY POSTED THE TRAILER BACK ON THE FIRST CHAPTER. YOU ALL SHOULD GO CHECK IT OUT. ITS GREAT, IN MY OPINION. XD
Deputy Linus handed a folder to Sam with a smile. "This is the Garland file," he said and Sam nodded, flipping through it. Linus looked over their shoulders at Dean, who was standing near the door way, swaying on his feet a little. The girls had tried to get him to stay in the car, but he was steadfastly refusing to leave Karoline's side.
"Is he...drunk?" Linus asked and Sam turned to look at Dean, who gave them a big smile and thumbs up.
"No," Sam said sternly. "Deputy, according to this, Luther Garland's cause of death was physical trauma. What does that mean?"
"The guy died twenty years ago, before my time. Sorry," he answered.
"Then can we talk to the Sheriff?" Alayna asked and Linus shifted uncomfortably.
"Um, he's out sick today," he said.
"Well, if you see him, will you have him call us? We're staying at the Bluebird," Sam said, closing the file and holding it up. "Mind if I take this?" He didn't wait for an answer, turning on his heel and walking back toward the door. The girls followed, and Dean swayed again, looking at Linus.
"Know what? You're awesome," he told the deputy with a grin.
"Thanks. Um, y-you too, I guess," Linus replied and Karoline snickered, putting her hand on Dean's arm and guiding him toward the door.
"Come on, we have more research to do," Karoline said, leading him out. Sam and Alayna were waiting outside for them, leaning on the car.
"So what now?" Karoline asked and he inclined his head toward the South of town.
"Luther had a brother, time to get some answers," Alayna replied.
By the time they'd made it inside Dean was starting to panic. He bumped into a resident coming around the corner and jumped back, grabbing Karoline's arm. "This isn't gonna work," he said anxiously to her. "Come on, these badges are fake. What if we get busted? We could go to jail!" He said and Sam sighed, looking at him.
"Man you should have stayed in the car," he said, looking at Karoline. "Can't you do something?"
She stopped walking and pulled Dean around to face her. "Dean, shh! Calm down," she said, looking into his eyes. "Take a deep breath, okay?" Dean complied, sucking in a breath and then letting it out slowly. She smiled. "There. You feel better?" Dean shook his head no and she sighed. "Just, relax okay? It's fine, everything is going to be fine. Come on," she said, taking his arm and leading him after Sam and Alayna who were waiting a few yards away. Dean started to reach for his arm and Karoline batted his hand away. "Don't scratch," she instructed and he frowned at her.
Mr Garland was sitting at a table in a communal dining area when we found him. "Mr Garland?" Alayna asked and he looked up at us, nodding slightly. "Hi, uh, I'm Agent Steve. This is Agents Tyler, Perry, and Whitmore, FBI. We'd like to ask you a few questions about your brother Luther."
Garland sat back in his seat, looking at them appraisingly. "Let me see some ID," he said and Karoline felt Dean stiffen beside her, glancing frantically about.
"Certainly," Alayna said with ease, reaching in to pull out her badge. Sam and Karoline followed his direction, and then Dean did as well, holding his badge out to be inspected. Garland took the badges, looking them over and glancing back at them. Dean started to squirm beside the blonde, but there was nothing she could do, she was supposed to be his work partner, not his girlfriend/wife, she couldn't comfort him the way she wanted to.
"Those are real, obviously," Dean said with a smile and Sam cleared his throat loudly. "I mean, who would pretend to be an FBI agent, huh? That's just nutty," he said, and Garland raised his eyebrows at them flipping the badges closed and handing them back.
"What do you want to know?" He asked finally.
They sat down, Sam pulling out the file on Luther. "Uh, well... according to this, your brother Luther died of physical trauma," he began and Garland scoffed at them.
"You don't agree?" Karoline asked, and he looked at her with sad eyes.
"No, I don't."
"Well, then, what would you call it?" Sam asked.
"Don't matter what an old man thinks," he replied, looking away.
"Mr Garland," Alayna said, leaning forward. "We're just trying to get the truth on your brother. Please."
He looked at them for a short while, and then came to a decision. "Everybody was scared of Luther," he said, reaching over to take the ID card from the mill in his hands, looking fondly at the photo. "They called him a monster," he started. "He was too big, too mean-looking. Just too different. Didn't matter he was the kindest man I ever knew. Didn't matter he'd never hurt no one..." he paused, looking out the window again, lost in his thoughts. "A lot of people failed Luther. I was one of them. I was a widower with three youngens. And I told myself there was nothing I could do."
"Mr Garland, do you recognise this woman?" Sam asked, sliding the drawing of Frank's wife in front of him.
"It's Jessie O'Brien," Garland replied with a nod. "Her man Frank, killed Luther."
"How do you know that?" Alayna asked.
"Everybody knows. They just don't talk about it," he replied. "Jessie was a receptionist at the mill. She was always real nice to Luther, and he had a crush on her. But Frank didn't like it. And when Jessie went missing, Frank was sure that Luther had done something to her. Turns out the old gal killed herself, but Frank didn't know that." I nodded. "They found Luther with a chain wrapped around his neck. He was dragged up and down the stretch outside that plant til he was past dead." Alayna grimaced and thought about what a horrible way to die that would be.
"And O'Brien was never arrested?" Dean asked.
"I screamed to every cop in town. They didn't want to look into Frank. He was a pillar of the community. My brother was just the town freak," Garland said sadly.
"You must have hated Frank O'Brien," Sam said.
"I did for a long time, but life's too short for hate son," he said with a smile, looking at Sam. That statement hit Alayna hard, and she glanced over at Sam, thinking about the frustration and anger she'd been harbouring toward him lately. "And Frank wasn't thinking straight. His wife had vanished, he was terrified. A damn shame he had to put Luther through the same, but... that's fear. It spreads and spreads."
He was right about that. The only thing Sam and the girls had lived on during Dean's time in Hell was fear. Fear that they'd never see him again, fear of what was happening to him, fear that they might never save him from his fate... they all had it, and it affected them all in different ways.
This was just getting worse and worse. Dean was starting to think they were insane. He scratched at his arm again, stopping when Karoline reached out a hand to him. "Now we know what these are, road rash," Dean said and she nodded. "And I'm guessing Luther swallowed some wood chips when he was being dragged down that road." Dean shuddered, not wanting to think about how it would be like to die like that. Strangely enough, road haul was not something he'd endured in Hell.
"Makes sense," Sam said with a nod. "You're experiencing his death in slow motion."
"Yeah, well, not slow enough huh? What say we burn some bones and get me healthy?" Dean said, turning to the three of them. Alayna bit her lip and that told Dean that something wasn't quite right.
"Dean, it won't be that easy," she said softly and he frowned.
"No, no it'll be that easy," he argued, but he could see it in her eyes. "Why wouldn't it be that easy?" Alayna crossed her arms uncomfortably looking over at Karoline.
Karoline sighed and reached out a hand to rest it against his cheek. "Baby, Luther was road-hauled. His body was ripped to pieces. He was probably scattered all over that road," she said, watching him with concerned eyes. "There's no way we're going to find all the remains." Dean felt himself go white with the thought.
"You're kidding me?" He said, his heart starting to race just a little bit faster.
"Look, we'll just have to figure something else out," Sam said and Dean pulled back from Karoline, shaking his head.
"You know what? Screw this!" He declared, walking away and waving his arm in the air.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Dean," Sam said, walking toward him but he held out a hand to stop him coming closer.
"Come on!" He said. "No, I mean, come on, Sam. What are we doing?!" I asked, looking from him to the girls.
"We're hunting a ghost," Alayna said.
"A ghost! Exactly! Who does that?!" Dean asked, shaking his head.
"Us," Karoline said and Dean sighed, moving back toward her and taking her arms in his hands.
"Us? Right. And that Kare-bear, that is exactly why our lives suck. I mean, come on, we hunt monsters! What the Hell?! I mean, normal people, they see a monster, and they run. But not us, no, no, no, we - we search out things that want to kill us. Yeah? Huh? Or eat us! You know who does that? Crazy people!" Dean looked at her and she shook her head at him patiently, reaching out a hand to rest it on his chest. He could feel his heart already starting to beat faster with anxiety. "We...are insane!" He pulled away and started to pace. "You know, and then there's the bad diner food and then the skeevy motel rooms and then the truck-stop waitress with the bizarre rash. I mean, who wants this life, guys? Huh? Seriously? Do you actually like being stuck in a room or car with me eight hours a day, every single day? I don't think so! I mean, I drive too fast. And I listen to the same five albums over and over and over again, a-and I sing along. I'm annoying, I know that. I seriously don't know what you see in me Kare." Dean looked over at Sam. "And you - you're gassy! You eat half a burrito, and you get toxic! I mean, you know what?" He tossed the keys to Sam, pulling away and walking down the street. "You can forget it."
"Whoa, Dean. Where are you going?" Alayna called out.
"Stay away from me guys, okay? 'Cause I am done with it. I'm done with the monsters, and - and - and the hell hounds and the ghost sickness and the damn Apocalypse! I'm out. I'm done. I quit!"
"Dean!" Karoline called out after him, but he waved her off. He'd make it up to her later, right now he just had to get away, he had to be on his own to think things through.
Sam looked at his brother incredulously when he saw him back at the motel room. "We looked everywhere for you Dean. How the Hell did you get here?" He asked as he turned worried eyes to him.
"Ran," he said and he frowned. That was a good couple of miles away where they'd been. He'd run the whole way and he could see Sam thinking this through. "What do we do now?" He asked. "I got less than four hours on the clock. I'm gonna die, Sammy."
"Yeah, you are," he said, looking at Dean and Dean startled, not expecting that. "You're going back," Sam said.
"Back?" Dean asked.
"Downstairs Dean, Hell. It's about damn time, too. Truth is..." Dean stared in horror as his eyes turned yellow and he smirked at him. "You've been a real pain in our asses," he said, and Dean turned to see Alayna and Karoline with black eyes watching them. With a flick of his hand Sam propelled Dean against the wall.
"No!" He said, looking at Sam's yellow eyes. "You get out of my brother you evil son of a bitch!" He yelled at Sam as he approached him, his eyes fading back to his own.
"No one's possessing me, Dean. This is what I'm going to become. This is what I want to become," Sam said to him. "Then I'm going to turn Alayna and Kare too, and there's nothing you can do about it," he said with a smirk, starting to choke him.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey Dean!" Sam called out and Dean snapped out of it in time to see Karoline with her hands on his chest, Sam holding his arms firmly, Alayna just behind them with wide, worried eyes.
"Dean, it's okay," she said, looking at him. "It's okay." Dean sighed, feeling his legs sag under himself. Nothing was okay, this was a freaking nightmare.
***
Sam and Alayna had been waiting for Tom to arrive and Alayna was starting to feel itchy, anxious to get back to Dean. "Relax, Alayna, He'll be fine." Sam said to her and she sighed.
"Yeah, right," she muttered, starting to pace. Tom pulled up in his car and she smiled, moving to hug him as he got out and approached them. "Hey Dad," she said and he smiled, squeezing her tight.
"Hey," he nodded and looked over at Sam. "Sam."
"Hey, Tom. Thanks for coming so quick," Sam said as they walked over to him.
"Where's Dean? And Kare?" Tom asked.
"She watching over him," Alayna explained.
"So have his hallucinations started yet?" Tom asked and they both nodded.
"Yeah, a few hours ago," Sam said quietly.
"How we doing on time?"
"We saw the coroner around 8am Monday morning, so uh, just under two hours," Alayna said, her heart racing. "What about you? Did you find anything?"
Tom pulled out a small book, handing it to her. "This uh, encyclopaedia of spirits dates to the Edo period," he said and she flipped through it, it was all in Japanese. She started to skim through some of the words while Sam looked incredulously at Tom.
"You can read Japanese?" He asked, looking up at Tom. He answered in Japanese, stating that he'd known how to read Japanese for longer than Sam had been born. Sam smirked, shaking his head.
"Guess so," he said.
Tom raised his eyebrow at Alayna and she grinned. Her Japanese was nowhere near as fluent as his but she could hold her own in a conversation. "Sam likes to think he's the only one who is educated among us," she said to Tom in Japanese, hoping she didn't screw up the grammar.
Sam stared at her in surprise, shaking his head. "Show off," he said and Tom chortled.
"Anyway, this book lists a kind of ghost that could be our guy," he said, flipping to a page. "It uh, infects people with fear. It's called a buruburu."
"Does it say how to kill it?" Sam asked.
"Same as usual. Burn the remains," Tom said.
"Wonderful..." She muttered. "Uh, is there a Plan B?" She asked.
"Well, the buruburu is born of fear. Hell, it is fear. And the lore says we can kill it with fear," he said.
"So we have to scare a ghost to death?" Sam asked.
"Pretty much," Tom said with a nod.
An hour later Alayna pulled out her phone and rang Dean, he picked up almost immediately. "Hey," he said.
"Hey," she replied, smiling into the phone, trying not to sound as panicked as she felt. "So uh, just ride out the trip, okay? You're gonna be fine. Dad's here and ... you're gonna be fine. We got a plan."
"What is it?" Dean asked and she hesitated, he wasn't going to like it.
"Uh, just a good plan, all right?" She said. "Hang in there." She said, hanging up and looking at them.
"This is a terrible plan!" Tom said.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Alayna agreed.
"I know I said, 'scare the ghost to death,' but this?" Tom asked incredulously.
"Hey, you got a better idea, I'm listening," Sam said and Alayna looked at him, sighing. She didn't. None of them did.
Luther refused to show up when they went inside, stalking around and looking for him. Sam thought about the iron chain Tom had etched with spell work. He put it near the door and progressed further into the little room they'd last seen Luther in as Tom's voice crackled over the walkie-talkie Alayna was holding.
"Any luck?"
"I don't know what's wrong Dad. Last time he came right at us. It's almost like he's, uh... like he's scared," Alayna said, the realisation dawning on her. Of course he was scared, this was where he'd had his life taken from him. Alayna nodded at Sam and he put the shotgun down on the floor, standing up again slowly.
***
Dean hung up from Alayna, stilling his erratic breathing and fighting off a panic attack. Karoline had left to go get some snacks and she'd only been gone twenty minutes, it wasn't long, not in the scheme of things, and she was coming back now. It was going to be okay. Dogs started to bark and Dean looked up, they were everywhere. Suddenly the door to the room rattled and Dean hid behind an armchair, watching. When it broke off its hinges he stared at the Sheriff, standing menacingly in the doorway.
"Sheriff?" He asked, looking down at the gun in his hand. "What are you doing?"
"Why are you looking into Luther Garland's death?" He asked and Dean realised at the same time he had the same dried up blood on his arm that he did.
"Hey, hey, you're - you're sick. You're sick. You're sick all right?" Dean tried to reason with him. "Just - just like me, okay?" He said, holding up his own arm. "You got to relax."
The Sheriff stepped forward and hit Dean, and he staggered back. "Frank O'Brien was my friend. So he made a mistake. So I didn't bust him. So what? And you're gonna bring me down over that?! No, sir," he said, pointing his gun at Dean. Dean pushed his arm away and they both looked a little surprised that the gun didn't shoot them both at the same time. The Sheriff recovered, slamming Dean into the wall and pressing an arm up against his neck while Dean tried to fight him off, pushing at his face. He got in a couple of blows to Dean's ribs and Dean managed to force his arms up, socking a few punches to his stomach.
He pushed Dean back against the wall and then started to hesitate. Dean used the split second to throw him across the room and he landed on the coffee table, bringing it to the floor under him. Dean took a couple of slow steps toward him when suddenly the Sheriff started to hyperventilate and he pushed away from Dean. "Get away from me!" He cried out and Dean reached forward.
"Al, you got to calm down!" Dean said.
"Step back!" He cried and then he fell to the floor, gasping for breath and then going deathly still. Dean sighed, looking at him, and seeing what was going to become of him. Oh this wasn't good.
"They we're all out of Apple, so I got..." She trailed off when she noticed the dead sheriff lying on the ground, let in the door close heavily behind her. "...Cherry."
"I like Cherry." Dean shrugged, still breathing hard from the fight. She looked up at him with wide eyes.
***
"So now what?" Tom asked and Alayna frowned, contemplating.
"I guess we got to make him angry," Alayna replied, thinking it through.
"Hey Luther!" Sam yelled, picking up one of the drawings he'd done of Jessie O'Brien and tearing it in half. Nothing. He picked up another one, ripping it to shreds and the machines started to turn on. Now he knew he had his attention. "Come on Luther! Where the Hell are you? What are you waiting for?"
"Sam!" He spun around and Luther was right in his face.
Luther punched him, tossing him across the room and Alayna scrambled to get to the chains Sam'd left by the door. He was much stronger than they'd been expecting. He picked Sam up like he was nothing more than a ragdoll, rolling him on to his back and then smashing his head into the compacted dirt floor over and over. Alayna finally grabbed a hold of the chain and she moved quickly, wrapping it around his neck while the spirit gave her a terrified look.
"Tom, punch it!" Sam yelled and they heard the wheels of the Buick squealing as Tom pulled away, taking the Spirit with him. Sam stood up, watching and then suddenly the spirit vanished.
***
"Dean, you need to calm down." Karoline tried, but it was no use. Dean sat down on the bed, and all he could hear was Sam's voice in his head. "You're going back...." More hell hounds barked and howled in the distance and Dean startled, knocking something to the floor from the bed. He glanced down and saw a bible lying on the floor, and he picked it up, holding it to his chest and rocking, trying to stay calm.
"Hi Dean," it was Karoline's voice, but it was more giddy, and childish. He looked back at her to see her eyes a solid white and immeadiatly stilled.
"Huh, no! No!" He said, turning away and shaking his head. It wasn't real. It wasn't real
"Yes! It's me, Lilith!" She said childishly, jumping up and hugging him. "Oh, I missed you so much. It's time to go back now," she said.
Dean pulled away from her, standing up and walking away, gesturing at her, but not looking at her directly. "You - you are not real!"
"What's the matter, Dean? Don't you remember all the fun you had down there?" She asked, and the pain was clear in his eyes. "Four months is like forty years in Hell. Like doggy years. And you remember every second."
Dean clutched at his chest, his heart beating so fast he thought it might burst at any time. He couldn't go back, he wouldn't go back. He collapsed to the floor, and the blood rushed in his ears and spots formed in front of his eyes, how was he going to get out of this? "You are not real," he said again, shaking his head.
"It doesn't matter. You're still gonna die. You're still gonna burn." Lilith said, taking his face in her hands.
"Why me? Why'd I get infected?" He asked.
"Silly goose!" Lilith said with a childish smile. "You know why, Dean. Listen to your heart. Baboom!" She echoed over and over again, stomping for emphasis.
His heart was pounding in his chest and he thought it was going to explode. He was dying, this was it. He was going to die and Lilith was going to take him to Hell, and he'd be forced to endure that pain again. Suddenly her eyes bled blue and her face morphed into a worried look as she cradle his face in her hands. "Kare?"
"Yeah," she nodded breathlessly. "Yeah, you're okay." He stared up at her with wide eyes, trying to regain his breathing and calm down his racing heart as he checked his arms, not a single scratch in sight. "They did it, you're okay."
***
"So," Dean began, leaning in through the front window of the Impala to grab a couple of beers, handing them out to Sam, Tom, and the girls. "You guys road-hauled a ghost with a chain?" He held out the bottle to Alayna and she just quirked an eyebrow at him. His eyes flicked down to her stomach and he pulled the bottle back toward himself. "Right."
"Iron chain," Alayna corrected with a small smile. "Etched with spell work."
"Hmm, that's a new one." Dean shrugged, slipping an arm around Karoline's waist as he took a sip of the beer he opened.
"It was what he was most afraid of," Sam explained, looking over at the two. "It was pretty brutal, though."
"On the upside, I'm still alive, so uh, go team!" He smiled, tilting his beer towards the group of them.
"Yeah. How you feeling, by the way?" Karoline asked, resting a hand on his chest and looking up at him with concerned eyes.
"Fine." He shrugged it off, but she knew better.
"You sure, Dean? 'Cause this line of work can get awful scary." Tom teased and Karoline looked away to hide her smirk as Dean's eyes hardened on the older man.
"I'm fine." He insisted and Tom's lips tilted up into an amused smirk. "You want to go hunting? I'll hunt. I'll kill anything." Karoline bit her tongue looking from her Dad, to Sam, then Alayna.
"Aw," Alayna cooed mockingly and Dean gave a half-hearted scowl back. "He's adorable." Dean scoffed looking away as the other four laughed.
"I got to get out of here." Tom announced, pushing off his truck and going around to the drivers door. "You guys drive safe.
"You too, Daddy." Karoline called and they all gave their goodbyes as Tom climbed into the truck and drove away.
"So uh...so, what did you see?" Sam asked, looking over at his brother and breaking the silence that had fallen over the four of them. "Near the end, I mean."
"Oh, besides a cop beating my ass?" Dean asked rhetorically and Alayna frowned at him.
"Seriously." She crossed her arms.
Dean looked between the three of them, looking a little spooked, but he hid it well. "Howler monkeys." He said, biting his lip. "Whole roomful of them. Those things creep the hell out of me."
Sam looked over at the girls and scoffed, he knew he was lying, they all knew, but none of them pressed it. They knew that if he didn't want to talk about, he wouldn't and no matter how hard they pressed it, it would only harden his resolve. "Right."
"No, just the usual stuff, guys. Nothing I can't handle." He insisted, his arm tightening around Karoline as he took a sip of his beer.
EXTRA
Sabrina Brantley - Karoline Van Allen
Harmony Ivy - Alayna Van Allen
"Harmony," Sabrina came running up to the girl who was standing at the food line. She'd been waiting all day to get a break and be able to dig into the delicious smelling food that sat a mere foot away. "Come on, I want to show you something."
Harmony sighed, "Later, right now, I'm eating." She rubbed her hands together and licked her lips.
"Come on," Sabrina rolled her eyes and grabbed Harmony's arm, dragging her along as she ran back outside where they had just finished filming the last scene. When she got there, there was a small crowd around the Impala with their camera's out and 'Eye of the Tiger' was playing loudly in the backround. The girls pushed their way to the front of the line near Jared when Jesen sat up in the front seat, over dramatically lip-singing along.
Harmony face palmed before looking over at Sabrina, "Who are we friends with?"
But, Sabrina ignored her, pulling out her own phone and recording the scene. "I'm never letting him live this down." Harmony rolled her eyes again, turning back to watch, laughing loudly at certain parts. He ended on the roof, raising his arms in a ta-da manner and they all cheered. "And the award for biggest dork goes to..." Harmony trailed off for dramatic effect as he jumped off the car. "Jensen Ackles! Shocker." She teased and he started heading towards her, a smile on his face.