Fight, Boy, Fight

Chapter 63

Dean said" All right, here we go." He sat the food down on the hood," You know..." He grabbed the food," Even though the world is going to crap, there's one thing that I can always count on- these things taste the same in every drive-through in every state in our great nation." He bit into the taco," Mmm." His phone rang, he grabbed it," Annie. A nice surprise. How you been?" I was sitting on the ground, leaning against Sam's legs," Yeah. Us too. What's up? Yeah. Sure. Where you at? You working? Near enough. 1:00?" Then he put his phone down, looking at Sam.

I was staring at the taco in my hands,
Dean said" Eat up, Riv."
I said" Not hungry, you can have it." I tried to hand it to him but he didn't let me, I huffed.
" All right, don't want a taco, how about a burger?" I shook my head," Chicken nuggets?" I shook my head," Chicken tenders?" I shook my head again, he sighed," You've gotta eat, man."
" 'M not hungry, De."
" Got that, but you've still gotta eat."
" The nightmares make me puke, if I don't have anything to puke, then I'm about 75% sure I won't puke." They both scoffed, looking at me,
Sam said" Not how that works, buddy."
" I said 75%." He chuckled,
" Eventually, your stomach will start hurting outside of the nightmares because you're not eating."
" What?! So I'm screwed either way?"
" Sorry, Riv."
" This sucks!"
" You've gotta eat."
" No, Sammy."
" Okay, if you won't eat a taco, will you eat an apple?" My head tilted slightly, he smiled, apples are my favorite! That's so not fair!
Dean said" Yeah, we'll pick you up an apple, how's that sound?"
I said" Okay. But using my favorite fruit against me is wrong." They both chuckled, I pouted," You should know that."
" Yeah, yeah."
———
I was rubbing my eyes,
Sam said" These go back years- Disappearances never solved. They stop a few decades back, then pick up again just recently. All teenagers."
Dean said" Looks like Annie found a spot a lot of them liked to poke around. Just before they went missing."
" Yeah?"
" Yeah. Old Van Ness house. It's, uh, cheery."
" Well, the police combed the place. They always come up dry."
" Yeah, local law. Always on the ball."
" So built in 1862 by the Van Ness family... who lost it in the early 1900s. Put up for sale a few years back. No takers."
" Probably 'cause it creeps their queso."
" It's just been sitting there, boarded up, for ages. Oh. Get this. I guess a couple months back, someone put it on one of those, uh, most haunted houses in America lists."
" Let me guess- That's when the teenagers started going missing?"
" Yep."
" I say we get rolling." I ran to the door, Dean opened it, I ran to the car.

We walked into the house,
Dean said" Honey, I'm home. All right, let's go." We started walking," Annie?!" He pulled out his phone, Sam had the EMF out, and it was lighting up.
Sam said" There's a whole lot of something going on." Then a phone was ringing, we followed it.

We got to her phone, I looked at them then we continued to move.

Dean said" The call to me was the last one she made, so where the hell is she?" We walked up the stairs.

Sam said" We're redlining all over the place. Assume the worst?"
Dean said" Yeah, always do."
" Okay. Vengeful spirit. Maybe lots of them. Killing kids. Look around. No blood. No anything. Certainly no bodies."
" Well, if evil is partying here, it's got a hell of a cleanup crew. Wait, wait, wait."
" What?"
" Here's something. From earlier this week."
" Okay." Dean played in,
A woman said" Free me. Free me."
" Where'd that come from?"
Dean said" You ever seen a phone number look like that?" They looked at the phone screen, I looked at them, I sighed.

We walked into a different room,
Dean said" Well, that's every inch of this place. No bodies, no pieces of bodies- No Annie. A whole lot of sizzle and no steak."
Sam said" Well, maybe no news is good news."
" Meaning?"
" Meaning maybe she's just not here. Maybe she's still okay."
" Yeah, and what does your gut say?"
" Let's just see if there's anything else in her research." I looked at them, Dean grabbed my hand as we walked out.

Dean said" Where'd Annie get her intel? Do we know?"
Sam said" Bodega Bay heritage society."

I was jumping on the bed,
Sam sad" So, besides Whitman's fiancée, Dexter O'Connell was also convicted of killing a bunch of hookers who worked at the brothel. He escaped before they could hang him. But then he returned to the house, where he was found shot to death. Why wound he escape and then go right back to the house where he got arrested?"
Dean said" I don't know." He was in the shower," Add that to a list of things I don't know."
" So what's the next move?" I looked at Sam while jumping, I yawned then shook my head, blinking really fast.

Dean said" Sam?"
Sam said" What?"
" Tell me you or Riv wrote that." I jumped off the bed, and walked over to the bathroom with Sam. We looked at the mirror, Annie trapped in House.
" Uh. No. No, we didn't."
" Well, then who's there? I said, who's there?!" The faucet turned on by itself, the ghost started writing," Bobby? Bobby?! This whole time, we've been trying to talk ourselves out of it, he's been- what's he doing here?" Sam grabbed the flask and showed Dean,
" Dude."
" We got to get back to that house, stat."

They left for the house, leaving me at the motel room, I gulped, waiting for them to get back.

I was really worried, I got a bad feeling from that house, I breathed heavily, then felt the black smoke.
I said" No, no, no. No! Go away." I flung my arms out but the black smoke circled me, I cried out, then squeezed my eyes shut.

Then I was with Sam and Dean, I saw a ghost stick his hand into Sam's back.
I said" No! Sammy!"
Dean said" Sam!" I pulled the key out of Sam's hand, without actually touching anything, it slammed onto the ground, then Dean's gun levitated but Dean grabbed it and shot the key. The ghost went backwards,
Sam said" Did that do it? Did that get rid of him?"
" I don't know. I got a bad idea we just snapped him back to his favorite house."
" Where Annie's a sitting duck. We got to find those bones. Come on." We got into the car, I didn't feel good, the black smoke disappeared again.

We got to a mausoleum, and walked in, Dean started hammering at the piece of granite. The blocker from the body of the ghost man. I glared at the slab of granite, then moved my head back, it pulled off and hit the ground. I jumped back, staring at it, my brothers stared at me, then pulled out the casket. They burned him, I got really dizzy, then everything went black as I started falling.

I woke up between my brothers, I looked at them, I nuzzled my face into Sam's arm, so sleepy.
Dean said" Hey, Riv... Buddy, how'd you, um, we left you at the motel room..."
I mumbled" I don't know how I get from places... it just happens, I don't know what's happenin' to me." I started crying, whimpering," I don't like it, Dean. Make it go away." Sam's arms wrapped around me, I dug my face into his neck," Make it go away, Sammy, De." I started dozing back off, too sleepy to stay awake, to sleepy to move a muscle.

Dean's POV
I watched my baby brother fall asleep on Sam's lap, I honestly forgot every freakin' problem we have as I heard him beg for me to take away his powers. All I wanted to do was focus on him, to stop his crying, to make him feel better. Sam kissed his head, and moved him around a bit so he'd be comfortable.
I said" Wish I could, buddy, I really wish I could."
Sam whispered" They scare him, the black smoke especially."
" Then why haven't they always scared him."
" Because he usually either didn't know what was happening or he had full control. Now, he doesn't and combined with being worried about hurting us, the barely any sleep, and the barely any food, it's gotta be destroying him mentally."
" Well, what can we do to help him?"
" I think this is a problem we can't solve. You know, whether or not we want to admit it, these powers have kept him alive, and there's no telling what'll happen if we try and take them away."
" Yeah, for all we know, those powers are keeping his heart pumping."
" He's freezing again. But it always happens after a big surge and I think teleporting qualifies as a big surge."
" Yeah, he'll be down for a while."
" He'll be okay, Dean. Somehow, he always is."
" Guess he's tough as us."
" He's tougher than us." I reached over and rubbed River's hair out of his face, his face scrunched up a bit but settled.
" He needs a haircut?"
" Do you wanna fight that, because I don't, he's scary even without his powers if you try to give him a haircut."
" True. Guess he's like you."
" Yeah, shut up. Can you hand me his bag?" I reached back, keeping a hand on the wheel as I grabbed River's bag, I put it down between us. Sam grabbed his blanket and wrapped it around him, River sighed in his sleep, Sam kissed his head again." There you go, Riv, nice and warm."