They get to an old house where there's a case. Sam didn't want to bring Evie, but she sprained her ankle while playing with Dean the other day so he didn't want her alone.
They walk inside the house and they hear people talking in a different room. Sam sets Evie down on the floor and him and Dean barge into the room.
"Freeze! Police officers! Don't move!" Dean tells them.
"All right, all right. Take it easy." Sam tells them.
"Let's see some identification." Dean demands.
"What-- are we under arrest?" Corbett asks.
"We are unarmed." Ed states.
"Oh, God, oh, God." Corbett panics.
"Want to explain that weirdo stuff, Mr., uh, Corbett?" Dean asks.
"I know you." Ed states.
"Yeah, sure you do. Give me some identification." Dean says.
"Yeah, ho-- whoa, hold on a second. I know both of you guys. Yeah." Ed nods.
"What?" Corbett asks and Ed nods.
"Holy shit!" Sam exclaims.
"What?" Dean asks.
"Uh, West Texas... the-the tulpa we had to take out. These two goofballs that almost got us killed... the hellounds or something." Sam reminds him.
"Fuck me." Dean mutters.
"Yeah, we're not hellhounds anymore, okay? It didn't test that well." Ed says. Evie hobbles into the room which Sam hears and he picks her up.
"Ed, what's going on?" Corbett asks.
"They're not cops, buddy. No, not at all." Ed says.
"Ed, you had a partner, too, didn't you? A different guy?" Dean asks.
"Oh, yeah, yeah." Ed nods.
"Is he around here somewhere?" Dean asks.
"he's running around, chasing ghosts." Ed states.
"Okay, well, listen, you and Rambo need to get your girlfriends and get out of here." Dean tells him.
"All right. Listen here, chisel chest, okay? We were here first. We've already set up base camp. We beat you." Ed says.
"They were here first." Dean says to his brother and Ed nods. Dean grabs Ed.
"Oh, God." Ed panics.
"Ed."
"Yeah?"
"Where's your partner?"
+++
They're in the living room now.
"What are you doing in the Morton house, Ed? On leap year-- what are you thinking?" Dean asks.
"We're here to spend the night, okay? It's for our TV show." Ed states.
"What? Great. Perfect." Sam says.
"You got a TV show?" Evie asks in shock.
"Yes." Ed nods.
"Nobody's ever spent the night before." Corbett says.
"Uh, actually, yeah, they have." Dean says.
"Uh, we've never heard of them." Ed says.
"Yeah, you know why? Cause the ones that have haven't lived to talk about it!" Dean yells.
"OH, come on, I don't believe you." Ed says.
"Look-- missing persons reports going back almost half a century. 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." Sam tells them.
"These look legit." Ed says, looking at the reports.
"They are legit. Look, Ed, we ain't got much time here, buddy. Starting at midnight, your friends are going to die." Sam states.
Just then, 3 people run down the stairs, freaking out.
"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Guys! Guys! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! We got one! Corbett! Corbett, we saw one! We saw one!" Harry exclaims.
"Get outta here!" Ed says.
"It was a full apparition! It was like a class four. It was a spectral illumination! It--"
"It was amazing! Maggie cuts him off.
"Hey, aren't those the fuckers from Texas?" Harry asks, noticing the Winchesters.
"Yes." Ed nods.
"All right, let's have this reunion across the street, guys." Dean says.
"Crap. What are you guys doing here?" Harry asks.
"Come on, come on. We'll get you ice cream-- our treat. What do you say? Let's go." Dean tries to get them out.
"Yeah, I say no." harry says.
"Look at this. Look, look, Ed, Ed. No, look at this. Okay, honest-to-God-proof, all right?" Maggie tells them, showing them the footage on the laptop.
"Are you kidding me?" Ed asks.
"Yeah. No, not kidding." Harry says.
"What kind of reading did we get?" Spruce asks.
"Uh, it was a 10.9." Harry states.
"10.9?" Ed asks.
"Yeah, it was 10.9. It was almost 11. I came out and I was like "what's going on?" And I was like-- wait, watch this. Oh! He got blasted. It was crazy." Harry says.
The Winchesters walk away from the group a bit.
"Were they this crazy last time?" Evie asks, not really remembering that far back.
"Yes." The brothers answer.
"Think we were off on this? I mean, that was just a death echo." Sam says.
"Yeah, but what's it doing here? Did anybody get shot here?" Dean asks.
"No, not that I could find." Sam says.
"What's a death echo?" Spruce asks.
"Look, we got a problem here. That ghost ain't it." Sam states.
"Yeah, that's real. Like, that happened." Harry says.
"What's a death echo?" Spruce repeats the question.
"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 were ganked. It's about as dangerous as a scary movie." Dean informs.
"So maybe the echo's not dangerous, but maybe something else is." Sam says.
"You're right. All right, we need to get out of here, guys. Come on. Let's go. Pack it up." Dean says.
"Guys, time is running out!" Sam yells.
"We're moving!" Dean shouts.
"What about all of our equipment? What are we gonna--"
"Lots of fun. Let's go." Dean cuts Maggie off.
"We got more material. We got all kinds of stuff. We'll make you guys recurring guest stars." Harry says.
"Wait! Wait! Where's Corbett?" Ed asks. They all look away to see the said man gone. "No man left behind." They hear an anguished scream making Evie hug her dad tighter. "That was Corbett."
"That was Corbett! Corbett!" Harry yells.
"Corbett! It's okay!" Maggie yells, her, Ed, and Harry running upstairs despite the Winchester brothers protests.
"We'll get him! Go back!" Dean tells them.
"Guys! Fuck!" Sam yells. Sam puts Evie down by the stairs. "Okay, Evie, I need you to stay right here, okay, baby?"
"Okay." Evie says and Sam quickly kisses her head before him and Dean chase after the others.
+++
"Well, it's 12:04, Dean. You good? You happy?" Sam asks as the two stand near the stairs. Evie is sitting on the bottom step.
"Yeah, I am happy." Dean says.
""Let's go hunt the Morton house," you said, "it's our Grand Canyon."" Sam mocks.
"Sam, I don't want to hear this." Dean says.
"You got 2 months left, Dean. Instead, we're gonna die tonight." Sam states. He picks a chair up and smashes it against the door making Evie jump and hug her dog tighter.
"Whoa! What the hell is going on guys?" The four people left walk over to the brothers.
"I'll tell you what's going on. Every door, every window, I'm guessing every exit out of this house, they're all sealed." Sam states.
"But why are they sealed?" Maggie asks.
"It's a supernatural lockdown, okay? Whatever took Corbett doesn't want us to leave and it's no death echo. This is a bad mother and it wants us scared." Dean says.
"Or it just wants us." Maggie says.
The EMF goes off.
"Uh, guys, the camera's fritzing again." Spruce says.
"Whoa. Whoa. Guys, the EMF's starting to spike. This is a big one!" Ed says as they all huddle together.
"Everybody, stay close. There's something coming." Sam says, picking Evie up and holding her close to him.
"Whoa!" They all exclaim as another apparition appears.
"Is this the same echo you guys saw earlier?" Dean asks.
"No, it's a different guy." harry tells him.
"Multiple echoes? What the hell's going on?" Dean asks.
"Beats me." Sam says.
"Okay. All right, all right, all right." Dean walks over to echo. "Uh, hey, buddy! Hey. Hey, wake up. You're dead! Hello!"
"What's he doing?" Harry asks.
"It's rare, but sometimes you can shock an echo out of its 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 informs.
"Come on! Wake up! Be dead!" Dean yells at him.
"You guys hear that?" Harry asks.
"What's that sound?" Ed asks.
"Snap out of it, buddy, okay? Come on, what are you waiting for? You're gonzo! You're dead!" Dean shouts.
Bright lights shine on the apparition and the apparition is hit by a train that they can't see making it fly backwards. Everybody exclaims, jumping, and Evie screams, freaking out. Sam tightens his grip on her and uses his other arm to hold her so she doesn't fall out of his arms from moving too much. She buries her face in the crook of his neck, crying while he keeps a hand on the back of her head.
~ ~ ~
They're walking around the house and the group follow Sam and Dean, the former still holding Evie who is clinging to him like a koala.
"Dude, there's no records of any of this here. No one got shot here. Obviously, no one got run over by a freaking train." Dean says.
"Stay close." Sam tells the group.
"Did the echoes take Corbett?" Maggie asks.
"Yes. No. I don't know. We don't know what's doing what here. That's what we're trying to figure out, okay?" Dean says.
"All right, stay close. Okay, look, um, death echoes are ghosts, okay? Now, ghosts-- they usually haunt places where they lived or where they died." Sam informs.
"Except these mooks didn't live or die here." Dean says.
"Right." Sam nods.
"So, what are they doing here?" Maggie asks.
"Hey, give the lady a cigar." Dean says. Evie doesn't hear the rest of the conversation as Sam walks further through the house.
They walk into a room that is full of stuffed animal heads on the walls and file cabinets. Sam puts his flashlight in the hand that's holding Evie, using his now free hand to pick up a broken framed certificate.
"Freeman Daggett, house's last owner, officially commended for 20 years of fine service at the Gamble General Hospital." Sam says.
"He was a doctor?" Dean asks.
"Janitor." Sam informs.
"This looks like his den. When'd you say he died? '64?" Dean asks.
"Yeah, heart attack." Sam says.
"What are these, c-rations?" Maggie asks, pointing her camera at boxes that Dean has his flashlight pointed at.
"Yeah, army issued, three squares. Like a lifetime supply." Dean says.
"God, is that all he ate?" Maggie asks.
"One stop shopping." Dean says before trying to open a file cabinet. "Hello, locked."
"Oh, come on, guys. This is ridiculous. I mean, how the hell is this supposed to find Corbett, huh? We should be digging up the friggin' floorboards right now." Ed says.
"Huh." Sam holds up a pamphlet. "Survival Under Atomic Attack. An optimist."
"Crap. Crap. Taxidermy. Okay. You said Daggett was a hospital janitor?" Dean asks his brother after leafing through a file box.
"Yeah." Sam nods, standing next to him.
"Ew." Dean grimaces. "I got three toe tags here. Death by gunshots, train accident, and suicide."
"Eww." Sam says.
"What?" Harry asks.
"Well, that explains why all the death echoes are here. They're here because their bodies are here. Somewhere in the house." Sam says.
"Daggett brought the remains home from the morgue. To play." Dean says.
"Ewwwwwwww." Harry and Ed realize.
"How do you play with dead people?" Evie asks her dad. Dean winces, feeling Sam's glare coming on.
"It's hard to explain, honey. Just... just don't think about it." Sam tells her and she nods.
"Wait a minute." Dean mutters, looking around.
They found Maggie after she wandered off.
"Harry. Harry, I got an 8.6 and climbing fast. Something huge is coming. Look, something big is coming." Ed says.
"It's past 11, you guys." Harry says.
"What? Nobody move! Hold on, hold on. Stay quiet." Dean says.
Everything goes back to normal after a few seconds. Dean looks around to make sure everybody is still there.
"Sam? Evie?" Dean calls, not seeing his brother, also not seeing his niece. "Evie? Sam?"
"Where'd they go?" Spruce asks.
"Oh, no." Maggie sighs sadly.
Dean looks down and finds Sam's flashlight and Evie's dog and he picks them up with one hand. "Sam!"
+++
Evie is tied to a chair to the right of Sam who is tied to a chair at the end of the table. Corbett is across from Sam and there is a corpse beside Evie and two corpses on the other side of the table.
"Corbett? Corbett, hey. Corbett." Sam calls until Corbett wakes up.
"Sam?" Corbett asks.
"Corbett, hey, you got to keep listening to my voice. I'm right here. Stay awake." Sam tells him. Evie is crying, not knowing what's going to happen.
"Don't listen." Daggett tells Corbett, picking up a knife. "It stops hurting so don't worry."
"Corbett, stay with me. Stay with me, you got it? I'm right here. Hey. Stay with me." Sam says before directing his words to Daggett who stands behind Corbett. "Don't. Don't." Daggett stabs Corbett through the throat. Evie screams, sobbing. "No. Corbett! No! Corbett!"
Daggett begins walking over to Sam.
"Get away from me." Sam tells him.
"This won't hurt. It's okay. It's okay. Relax, relax." Daggett tells him. He puts a party hat on Sam. He then walks to a still sobbing Evie.
"Stay away from her." Sam says, fighting against the rope.
"It won't hurt." Daggett says, putting a party hat on her.
"I've been waiting for some more friends. I get lonely. But you two are coming to my party, aren't you?" Daggett asks while Evie continues to sob. "You'll stay a good, long time." He says, walking behind Sam who struggles against the ropes.
"Sam! Evie!" Dean yells after breaking open the door. Dean shoots Daggett and he disappears. He unties Evie who refuses to move while Dean unties Sam.
Sam stands up and immediately goes to Evie and rips the party hat off her head, picking her up and holding her, hugging her close to him while she sobs into his shoulder. Sam gently shushes her, rubbing her back.
"Shh. I'm okay, you're okay. We're okay, baby." Sam comforts her.
"But he's not." Evie sobs, pointing to Corbett's direction without looking up from Sam's shoulder.
"I know, I know. It'll be okay, baby." Sam mumbles, hugging her tighter, kissing the side of her head. He looks up and sees Spruce's camera in his face. He glares at the guy, shoving the camera away.
~ ~ ~
"What's this Daggett guy's problem anyway?" Spruce asks as they walk through the basement.
"Loneliness." Sam answers. He's holding Evie who is no longer sobbing, but still crying.
"What, he's never heard of a Realdoll?" Dean asks.
"No, no, no, Daggett was the Norman Bates, stuff-your-mother kind of lonely. I mean, that's why he lifted these bodies from the morgue, threw himself a birthday party, except they were the only ones who would come. Anyway, so, at midnight, he sealed them in the bomb shelter and went upstairs and o.d'd on horse tranqs." Sam informs.
"How do you know this?" Dean asks.
"Cause he told me." Sam says.
"Oh, yeah. Okay, so now that he's dead, what? Same song, different verse, trying to get people to come to his party?" Dean asks.
"Pretty much, yeah. Stay forever." Sam says.
"Are those real bullets?" Spruce asks Dean who is reloading his gun.
"It's rock salt." Dean states.
~ ~ ~
Dean is trying to break down the door that is separating them from the others. Sam is standing halfway up the stairs while Spruce is behind him a few steps.
"Seriously-- you're still shooting?" Sam asks Spruce.
"It' makes him feel better. Don't ask." Dean says.
"Ah, hell, guys. Get in your ghost role thing. Something's coming." Spruce says.
"No, no, no, no, no." Evie mumbles, shaking her head as much as she can since she still has her face buried in the crook of Sam's neck. Sam tightens his hold on her, trying to calm her down.
Spruce turns around only to be thrown across the room by Daggett. Sam rushes down the stairs, Dean following, and he shoots Daggett making him dissipate.
They help Spruce up and are standing somewhat close to each other.
"Take it easy. You all right?" Sam asks Spruce.
"Uh, guys..." Spruce trails off, seeing Daggett behind Dean. The brothers turn in the direction only for Daggett to immediately throw Dean. He throws Sam against the wall who holds Evie's head to his chest making sure he takes the burnt of crash and fall.
Evie starts to sob again, wanting to leave.
Spruce watches as Corbett's spirit fights Daggett's before they both disappear. Sam and Dean both get up, Sam back to trying to calm Evie down.
"You all right?" Spruce asks them. They walk closer to each other, Sam ignoring his pain to comfort Evie.
Dean looks at the camera before covering it with his hand.
+++
The sun is now rising and they all walk out of the house. Sam gives Ed a piece of paper with his phone number on it. The two walk over to the Impala and Sam tries to put Evie in her car seat, but she doesn't let go of him.
"Evie--"
"No!" Evie yells. "No, please. Stay with you." She tells him, her sad puppy dog eyes staring up at him.
"Okay." Sam mumbles, picking her up and heading to the passenger seat. Dean puts his duffel bag in the trunk and is about to close it before he remembers something. He unzips his duffel bag and pulls Evie's dog out. He shuts the trunk, getting in the driver's seat.
Dean looks over at Evie and she's still clinging to Sam, her face buried in his shoulder while he rubs her back to comfort her. Dean taps Evie's head a few times cause her to slowly lift her head.
Dean smiles softly at her before holding the dog out to her. Evie sniffles, taking the dog from him and burying her face in Sam's shoulder again.
+++
They're in the garage where the Ghostfacers work. They showed the family of 3 the episode, although Sam kept his hands over Evie's ears majority of the time while she kept her eyes shut and a tight grip on her dog.
"So, guys, what do you think?" Ed asks after the tape finishes and Dean rubs his eye. "Are you alright?"
"You know, I kind of think it was half awesome." Dean says.
"Half awesome? That-that's full-on good, right?" Maggie asks.
"Yeah, um, I mean it's bizarre how you all are able to honor Corbett's memory while grossly exploiting the manner of his death. Well done." Sam says, standing up after Dean planted something to mess with their video.
"Yeah. It's a real tight rope you guys are walking there." Dean says, standing up.
"Yeah, all right, guys." Sam says.
"Nah, that's reality, man. Yeah, Corbett gave his life searching for the truth, and it's our job over here to share it with the world." Ed says.
"Right. Well, um, our experience, you know what you get when you show the world the truth?" Sam asks.
"A straitjacket. Or a punch in the face. Sometimes both." Dean says.
"Right." Sam nods.
"Oh, come on, guys, don't be 'facer haters just because we happen to have gotten the footage of the century." Harry says.
"Oh, yeah." Ed nods.
"You got us there." Dean says.
"Yeah." Sam agrees.
"Yeah, well, we'll see you guys around." Dean says.
"Peace out." Spruce says and they leave.
"We clean?" Sam asks as they get to the Impala.
"Noooooooo!" They hear Ed scream and chuckle.
"Electromagnet wiped out every tape and hard drive that they have." Dean says as they get in the car.
"The world just isn't ready for the Ghostfacers." Sam says.
"It's too bad. I kinda liked the show." Dean says.
"Had its moments." Sam says.
Dean starts the car and drives away.