SuperPsych

Chapter 5

Dean

Dean groaned as his eyelids fluttered open, his head buzzing. He tried to move his arms and found that he couldn't. He blinked a few more times, clearing his eyesight before looking down. His wrists and ankles were tied, and he was propped up against a tall, thick pine tree. He had a bad feeling about which tree it was.

Sarah Nicholson's pale, ghostly form stood in front of Dean, her back facing him. With her vengeful ghost juice, she probably had had no trouble tying Dean up. He could tell because she held another long piece of rope in her hands. And it looked like she was twisting it into a noose.

"Are you one of those ghosts that talk or do you just scream and attack people?" Dean said after straining against the ropes with no luck.

Nicholson turned around, glaring at Dean. The pale moonlight allowed him to really see what she looked like this time. She had long, dark hair that hung loose around her shoulders. She wore an old-fashioned flowing white dress, which would have been pretty if it wasn't stained with blood from multiple bullet holes. For a ghost, she looked surprisingly well put-together. Kind of like Bobby had been.

"I talk. When I want to." Nicholson said softly, examining the noose.

She held the rope up to Dean's head and he leaned away, but thankfully she didn't put it around his neck. Yet. Instead she tossed it up and over a large branch.

"So what's your deal?" Dean asked, trying to free his hands. "Was I too special for you to kill right away back at Tarpy's Roadhouse? Or are you sentimental? You have to kill me the way Tarpy was killed, in the same place?" Nicholson looked at him, surprised. "Yeah, I'm smarter than I look, sweetheart. This is Tarpy's Flats, isn't it? Do I remind you of your boyfriend?"

Instantly, Nicholson was right in front of Dean, and her hand pressed against his chest, right over his heart. He gasped, his lungs no longer working and his body temperature dropping below freezing. "Be. Quiet." Nicholson growled, and yanked her arm away.

Dean gasped, slouching as he caught his breath. He had no strength to fight as she untied his feet and forced him to stand. That's when she reached for the noose hanging from the tree branch.

Dean mustered up his strength. Before Nicholson turned back around, he took off running, simultaneously trying to free his hands.

Without warning, Nicholson appeared in front of Dean. She shoved him and he went flying through the air, slamming into the tree. He fell to the ground, groaning. Nicholson approached him and reached into his back pocket, pulling out a handkerchief.

"As long as you can't get rid of this, you're not escaping me," Nicholson muttered murderously, sticking the handkerchief back into Dean's pocket where he couldn't reach it with his hands still tied.

Before Dean could even think about resisting, Nicholson thrust her hand to his chest again to keep him from fighting as she slipped the noose around his neck. When she released him, he was too disoriented to fight back.

"Unfortunately for you, your death won't be as quick as Matt's was." Nicholson said from behind him.

Dean's senses quickly returned when she started pulling on the other end of the rope, lifting Dean into the air. The noose tightened around his neck, strangling him. He kicked his legs, but since she was a ghost there was nothing to kick, and he couldn't unwrap the noose from his neck. Dean couldn't get any air in his lungs, and he felt his face turn red. If he survived this, he was definitely going to have bruises on his neck.

"Hey!" Sam's familiar voice shouted and Dean looked down.

Sam, Shawn, and Gus stood below him. Shawn and Gus were looking up at Dean, while Sam was focused on the ghost beneath him. He held up his shotgun and pulled the trigger.

The force on the other end of the rope disappeared and Dean dropped to the ground, gasping. Finally, he was able to pull off the noose.

"Check on Dean," Dean heard Sam order Shawn and Gus. "I'll find the handkerchief."

Dean was still coughing too much to tell Sam he knew exactly where the handkerchief was. Shawn and Gus rushed over to him, but Shawn was knocked out of the way by an invisible force. Gus screamed and dropped to his knees in front of Dean and untied his hands. Then he, too, was tossed back by Sarah Nicholson.

Dean slowly sat up, still coughing. Sam kept shooting at Nicholson, but she kept him too busy to look for the handkerchief, and Shawn and Gus weren't close enough to help.

Dean reached into his pockets, pulling out a lighter and the handkerchief. Nicholson noticed and rushed him, but it was too late. The fire touched the corner of the handkerchief, and Nicholson went up in flames, screaming.

Dean dropped the handkerchief and laid back down. It was over.