Circle of Life (Book Three / The Life Series / Supernatural)

Yellow Fever

Sam had called to tell us that they were dealing with a job in a town where the victims went from jumpy to terrified to dead within a 48 hour time span.

And Dean was starting to have the same symptoms, and a EMF reader had a reaction to being near him.

Dean was sick with ghost sickness, because he used fear as a weapon.

So, Sam needed to go after the ghost and get rid of it to save Dean's life.

Trouble was, the ghost had been dragged down a length of dirt road by a chain around his neck and connected to a car, every part of him being scattered all along the road, making it impossible for him to find all the remains to burn.

So, Dad and I came to help, driving up to the lumber mill that Luther the ghost had been road-hauled, getting out of my car, a silver Ford Mustang GT500KR, walking toward Sam.

"Howdy, Sam," Dad told him.

"Hey, guys," Sam told us. "Thanks for coming so quick."

"Where's Dean?" I asked.

Sam sighed. "Uh, home sick."

~~~

"So, have his hallucinations started yet?" Dad asked.

"Yeah, a few hours ago," Sam answered.

"How we doing on time?" I asked.

"We saw the coroner about 8:00 AM Monday morning, so, uh... just under two hours," Sam answered. "What about you?"

"This, uh, encyclopedia of spirits dates to the Edo period," Dad explained, handing Sam the book with Japanese text.

"You can read Japanese?" Sam asked.

Dad answered in Japanese. "Izen kara, anata ga umaremashita. (Since before you were born)."

I spoke in Japanese. "Watashi wa dekiru kagiri. (As can I.)"

"Guess so, show offs," Sam told us.

"Anyway, this book lists a kind of ghost that could be our guy," I told him. "It, uh, infects people with fear. It's called a Buru Buru."

"It say how to kill it?" Sam asked.

"Same as usual," I answered. "Burn the remains."

"Wonderful," Sam said sarcastically. "Uh, is there a Plan B?"

"Well, the Buru Buru is born of fear," Dad explained. "Hell, it is fear. And the lore says we can kill it with fear."

"So we have to scare a ghost to death?" Sam asked.

"Pretty much," I answered.

Sam sighed. "How the hell are we gonna do that?"

~~~

Sam called Dean. "Hey. So, uh, just ride out the trip, okay? You're—you're gonna be fine. We got a plan. Uh, just a good plan, all right? Hang in there."

Sam hung up, turning to face us.

Dad and I had salt shell shotguns in hand.

"This is a terrible plan," Dad told us.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Sam told us.

Dad looked at me. "I know I said, 'scare the ghost to death', but this?"