First Hunt

Chapter 5

Dad stared at him and tried to not show any fear but he saw it. “Dad?”

“It's fine. They do this sometimes.”

The ghost appeared inches in front of his face with an inhuman howl. He stumbled back, dropping the gun in the process and threw his hands up. “Get away from me!!”

“Shoot it!” Dad ordered. He was too terrified to do anything other than run away. Dad fired again but the ghost flickered then reappeared in front of Dad who went flying into a wall. He had no idea how that happened, the ghost hadn't even touched Dad.

“Dad! No!” He wanted to move, but he couldn't. We're gonna die! I know it! This thing, it's stronger than we are. I don't wanna die! Please! Dad's not moving! What do I do? All he could do was stare as the ghost wrapped it's hands around Dad's head and started to twist it. No! He pushed his fear down, crawled to where his gun was, stood up and ran to the door. He got behind the ghost and pointed the gun at it's back. Dad's eyes grew wide as he tried to breathe, his right hand moved in the signal to wait but all he knew was that the ghost was choking Dad. The muzzle of the shotgun touched the back of the ghost and it must have felt it because it let go and Dad ducked just as he fired. Several small holes appeared in the wall where Dad's face had been.

“Dean! Don't fire at me! Jesus!”

He was panting with fear, “Dad I...I”m....” He couldn't lower the gun, it was like he was paralyzed.

Dad must have realized how bad off he was because he lowered his voice and raised his hands “Dean, sorry. I didn't mean to yell. Take your finger off the trigger and point the gun at the floor. Do it son, slowly.”

“I can't...,”

“Dean,” Dad's voice took on a stronger note of command. “Do what I said. Finger off the trigger.”

He closed his eyes and forced his trigger finger to relax.

“Good, now, lower the muzzle. Point. It. At. The. Floor.”

It took all his focus to allow the gun to dip towards the ground.

“Take a deep breath.” The temperature started dropping again, “It's coming back. Look at me Dean.”

When he opened his eyes Dad was moving towards his bag. “New plan. Come with me.”

He followed Dad down the hall and back into the room where they had detected the EMF spike. Once they crossed the threshold Dad threw him a box of salt. “Line across the door now!”

This he could do, he and Sam had done this for years in the hotel rooms. He laid a line of salt across the threshold and Dad poured a circle of salt by the shelf where the statues were. “Here's what we do. We get inside that circle and try to figure out where the object is. Grab your gun, if you see the ghost, shoot it. Even if it manifests outside that line it could kill the EMF detector so we have to keep it busy. Spare shells are in the bag, put some in your pockets so you can reload faster. ” He pulled out another EMF reader and it immediately started to squeal when he held it by the statues. “I need time to figure this out. Stay sharp.”

He grabbed a handful of shells, shoved them in his pocket, and pointed the gun at the door. “Yes sir.”

The ghost reappeared and started pacing back and forth in the hall, shrieking in frustration causing the lights in the room to short out and sparks to start flying. It stopped moving and stared at him, it's hair streamed down one side of it's face since it's neck was at such an unnatural angle. A sick, twisted smile and a gurgling, broken yet still girlish sounding giggle erupted from it's lips as it pointed at the books on the desk and flicked it's hand. The books flew towards him, he ducked but the books hit Dad's leg.