~*****~
"I don't want to hear it again, Lottie, you're not going!" Dean exclaims as I trot after him and Sam.
"Oh, come on, Dean!" I whine impatiently. "It's the Morton House, I won't have any chance like this for another four years. Please?" I ask with a bat of my eyelashes.
"Absolutely not!" Dean barks at me.
"Quiet," Sam urges.
"Just--" Dean clicks his tongue irritably. "Stay close to me. Can't have junior getting hurt."
Sam and I share an amused glance before hurrying after him. The house is old and musty, but there's obvious signs of someone fooling around in here. "Freeze! Police, don't move!" Dean barks as we find a pair down a hallway.
"All right, all right, all right!" A boy yelps in sheer terror.
"Let's see some identification," Sam orders as we surge forward.
"Come on," Dean adds.
"Let's see some ID!" Sam snaps.
"What-- are we under-- under arrest?" The boy whimpers.
"We are unarmed." The other mentions, and I recognize him immediately. I fight back a groan.
"You wanna explain that weirdo outfit, Mr. Corbett?" Dean asks.
"Whoa," Ed hums. "I know you guys."
"Yeah, sure you do, give me some identification." Dean retorts.
"Yeah, ho-- whoa, hold on a second." Ed cuts him off. "I could never forget her." Ed mentions. I cup at my face in embarrassment. "Yeah, I know all three of you."
"Holy shit--" Sam trails off.
"What?" Dean asks.
I sigh and palm at my face. "Uh, West Texas--" I mention. "The Tulpa we had to take out, those two goofballs that almost got us killed... The... Hellhounds or something?" I ask irritably.
"Fuck me--" Dean groans.
"Yeah, we're not Hellhounds anymore, okay?" Ed retorts. "Okay, it didn't test out that well."
"Ed, what's going on?" Corbett asks nervously.
"They're not cops, buddy-- no, not at all." Ed mentions.
"Ed, Ed, you had a partner, didn't you? A different guy?" Dean asks.
"Oh, yeah, yeah." Ed nods.
"Is he around somewhere?" Dean asks.
"He's uh, running around, chasing ghosts."
"Okay, well, listen, you and Rambo need to get your girlfriends and get out of here." Dean explains.
Ed chuckles. "All right. Listen here, chisel chest, okay?" My eyebrows quirk up. Chisel chest? That's a new one. "We were here first. We've already set up base camp. We beat you."
Dean turns to us and a cute smirk. "They were here first." Dean mentions. Arousal blooms in my belly as he grasps Ed's shirt and slams him into the wall. "Ed?" Ed whimpers out a response. "Where's your partner?"
"S-Second floor." Ed confesses.
~*****~
"What are you doing at Morton House, Ed? On Leap Year-- what are you thinking?" Dean asks irritably as we go to their base camp.
"We're here to spend the night, okay? It's for our TV show." Ed explains.
"What? Great. Perfect." Sam grumbles.
"Yeah, nobody's ever spent the night before." Corbett mentions.
"Uh, actually, yeah, they have." I correct him.
"Uh, we've never heard of them." Ed states.
"Yeah, you wanna know why? 'Cause the ones that have haven't lived to talk about it." I snap.
"Oh, come on, I don't believe you." Ed snorts.
"Sam," I snap irritably. He slams his bag on the table. "Look. Missing persons reports, going back almost a half a century. Uh, John Graham stayed on a dare-- gone. Julie Wilkerson-- gone. There are tons more. All of them came to just stay the night through, always on a leap year. The only body they ever found was the last owner, Freeman Daggett."
"These look legit--"
"They are legit." Sam snaps. "Look, Ed, we ain't got much time here, buddy. Starting at midnight, your friends are going to die."
"Oh, my god!" A new voice shouts. "Oh, my god!" Three people are bustling down the stairs, all chanting oh my god. "Guys, guys, oh, my god! We got one! Corbett, Corbett, we saw one! We saw one!" It's Harry. I remember him very well. I grimace and lean against the table. "It was a full apparition! It was like a class four! It was a spectral illumination! It... Hey... Hey, aren't they those assholes from Texas?" Harry asks.
"Yes." Ed sighs.
"All right, let's have this reunion across the street, guys." Dean mentions. "Come on, come on!"
"Crap, what are you guys doing here?" Harry asks.
"We'll get ya ice cream, our treat!" Dean retorts.
The room erupts in chatter and I just sigh irritably as the only girl is tapping away on the computer. I peer over their shoulders at the spirit on camera. Sam grasps on our arms as he tugs us away from the table. "Think we were off on this? That was just a death echo." He mentions.
"Yeah, but what's it doing here? Did anybody get shot here?" Dean asks.
"Not that I could find." I retort.
"What's a death echo?" One of the new ones ask.
"Look, we got a problem here. That ghost ain't it." Sam snaps.
Harry keeps talking in the background. "What's a death echo?" The new guys asks.
I groan irritably. "Echoes are trapped in a loop, okay? They keep replaying how they died over and over and over again. Usually in the place where they kicked it. It's about as dangerous as a scary movie."
"Maybe the echo's not dangerous, but maybe something else is." Sam mentions.
"You're right. All right, we need to get out of here, guys!" Dean orders again. "Come on, let's go. Let's go. Let's go!"
"Pack it up!" Sam barks out his own orders. They start arguing as I lean against the stair banister.
"Wait, wait--" Ed shouts as we crowd out of the main room. "Where's Corbett?" He asks urgently. We start urging them to leave, but Corbett's screams cuts through the silence. "That's Corbett--"
They all start chanting for him and running up the stairs. "Guys!" Dean shouts as we remain downstairs.
"Fuck!" Sam snaps.
"Stay here, Lottie--" Dean snaps but I'm already barreling up the stairs.
"Fuck that, Dean! Let's go!" I shout at him.
Midnight hits, and Corbett is still screaming. "He's not here," Sam snaps as we rejoin the group. "Let's go, let's go!"
"No, no, no. But that's Corbett!" Harry exclaims. "Didn't you hear that?!" He exclaims as we urge them out.
"Keep it moving, guys! Let's go!" I shout as I keep shoving them down the hall.
~*****~
"Well, it's twelve o' four. You happy, Dean?" Sam asks irritably.
"Yeah, I am happy." Dean snaps.
"Let's go hunt the Morton House, you said," Sam argues. "It's our Grand Canyon!"
"Sam I don't want to hear this!" Dean snaps.
"You got two months left, Dean," Sam shoots back. "Instead, we're gonna die tonight." He slams a chair against the door, trying to open it.
"Whoa, whoa! What the hell is going on, guys?" The camera man asks.
"I'll tell you what's going on." Sam snaps. "Every door, every window, I'm guess every exit out of this house-- they're all sealed!"
"But w-why are they sealed?" The girl asks.
"It's a supernatural lockdown, okay?" I snap. "Whatever took Corbett doesn't want us to leave, and it's no death echo. This is a bad bitch, and it wants us scared."
"Or, it just wants us." The girl murmurs.
"Uh, the camera's fritzing again." The camera man states.
"EMF's starting to spike!" Ed exclaims.
"Everybody stay close. There's something coming." Sam orders.
Dean tugs me behind him as a spirit appears in the doorway. "Is this is the same echo you guys saw earlier?" I ask.
"No, it's a different guy." The camera man answers.
"What the fuck-- multiple echoes?" I mention. "What's going on?"
"Beats me." Sam answers.
"Okay, all right, all right," Dean surges forward and starts trying to tell the echo he's dead.
"What's he doing?" Harry asks.
"It's rare, but sometimes you can shock and echo out of it's loop if you can talk to the part of the ghost that's still human, but usually you have to have some kind of connection to the deceased." Sam explains briefly.
"Come on, wake up! Be dead!" Dean orders.
"Wait, what's that sound?" Ed asks.
"Is that... a train?" I ask. My answers are answered as the spirit is shot backwards, seemingly hit by a train.
"Where the hell did it go?" Harry asks.
Dean glances back at us and I just shrug wildly.