Part 3

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"Hey, hey. Slow down." Sam's voice crackled over the receiver, sounding half-asleep.

"There was someone in the house. A woman, with this crazy looking hair, and, and her face was all smashed up. She was in Carter's room, and I didn't know what to do-"

"Where are you?"

"I'm- I'm in the car. On 123rd." I probably shouldn't have been driving in this state, all frantic and terrified. But I had to get some distance between us and the house, no matter how dangerous it was. It was all I could think about.

"Pull over. I'm coming to get you."

I released a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. "Yeah, okay. Okay, I'm pulling over."

"Just try to stay calm. I'll be there in a minute." I heard rustling on the other end of the line, like Sam was pulling on his jacket.

Stay calm? After what I'd just seen? No fucking way. "Sure. I can do that."

There was a beat of silence as I turned off the road into an empty parking lot. Sam seemed to be conferring with someone in hushed tones.

"Sam?"

"Yeah, I'm still here."

"Hurry."

-----------------------------------

Sam and his partner were staying at the Motel 6 across town, in a little room with two beds and a disturbing assortment of equipment strewn about its surfaces. The sawn-off shotguns and salt lines around the windows had taken me aback initially, but it all made a lot more sense when they explained the true nature of their job.

"You're fucking monster hunters?" I was still a little incredulous.

Sam grimaced. "Something like that. Sounds crazier when you say it out loud."

His brother (not partner) Dean gave Sam's shoulder a playful shove. "Aw, come on! We're heroes! Saving lives, kicking ass." Here he turned to me with a conspiratorial air. "Sammy's just being modest, he does that sometimes."

I wasn't swayed from my original line of inquiry. "And that's what's in my house? A monster?"

"Actually, we think it's a spirit," Sam corrected. "We had our... theories, but if she just disappeared into thin air the way you described, I can't see how it would be anything else."

Carter was finally asleep in my arms, but I wasn't letting myself relax just yet. Not until I got some answers from these guys. "What kind of theories?"

"Well, I always thought it was a spirit. Dean, had, uh, other ideas."

I stopped my pacing and fixed Dean with a suspicious stare. "Other ideas?"

Dean looked a little uncomfortable now, which made quite the contrast to his usual easy confidence. "I may have, uh, I may have thought you were a witch."

"You thought I was a what?" I exclaimed as indignantly as I could without waking the baby.

Dean threw his hands up in the air. "I just thought it was a little weird that you were a homeowner so young, okay, sue me."

"We've dealt with some people who use dark magic to get things they wanted- cars, houses, winning lottery numbers," Sam explained. "Dean thought maybe you were one of them."

"I told you, my grandma left me the house in her will!"

Dean shrugged defensively. "I don't know, I thought the timing was a little too convenient. What can I say, I had a theory and it didn't pan out, can we leave it alone now?"

I took a deep breath in through my nose. Truthfully, I was starting to feel a little faint with all the revelations I was having tonight- it was as though my entire life had turned into a shitty thriller show in one fell swoop. A spirit was haunting my house. These two monster-hunting brothers had shown up to my door to help me, not to hurt me. And one of them had thought I was a witch, which was apparently a thing that existed in real life, too.

"Yeah, okay."

Sam looked up at me from his spot on the armchair. His eyelashes looked pretty from this angle. "Okay? You believe us? Just like that?"

"I just saw a woman disappear into thin air. And you're right, it's crazy, but I can't think of any other explanation that makes any sense. Besides, I... I trust you guys."

Sam held my gaze as I said it, a little sad and soulful looking. I found myself wondering when the last time was that he'd been granted such trust- he looked so vulnerable, like a kicked puppy.

"Now that's crazy," Dean said.

I tossed him a dirty look. "Whatever. Just tell me what I'm supposed to do about it."

"We've gotta figure out who she is first. Then we can get rid of her. For now, you just need to sit tight while I do a little research." Sam stood now to cross over to the little side table with his laptop, reminding me of exactly how freakishly tall he was.

Now that I was faced with the possibility of rest, I didn't know quite what to do with it. My first instinct was to collapse into bed and never come out again, but I was still in my dirty scrubs from work. What I really needed was a hot shower and a clean change of clothes.

"Well, in that case, could I- could you watch him while I shower?" I nodded down at Carter sleeping in my arms. "I'll just set him down on the bed, you'll just have to make sure he doesn't roll over in his sleep or anything."

"Yeah, we'll watch him," Sam reassured me. "Do whatever you gotta do."

I nodded. Setting Carter down was always a gamble when he was sleeping, half the time he would wake up and start screaming his head off again. I did it anyway, desperate for a few minutes to myself and the chance to scrub this seriously shitty day off of me. Slowly, so slowly it was almost painful, I pulled back the covers on the neatly made hotel bed- who knew what had touched that duvet cover- and settled Carter down in the center on the clean, white sheets.

"Just make sure the blankets don't get near his face, or the pillows. And watch his breathing," I admonished the two brothers.

Dean gave me a cavalier thumbs up through a mouthful of doritos.

Great. Really inspired confidence, these two.

I gave Carter one last look to make sure he was settled. I'd just be 10 minutes in the shower, and maybe get some rest, and then I would figure out how to get rid of the ghost that was haunting my house with these two strangers. My life was getting seriously weird.

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