How Are You Alive (Dean Winchester Love Story Book 4)

Chapter 38

Chapter 38

We say "goodbye, see you around"
We turn our backs then turn back around
We break up, we make up, and we make love
We can't seem to let go, girl

I'm Coming Over by Chris Young

~WOODS - DAY~

"Trust me. This will help. That ghost is dead. I'm gonna rip it's lungs out! Well, you know what I mean." He says as he stitches me up. "It knew my name, Dean. My real name. We burned Barry's bones. What the hell?" I ask.

"Well, maybe it wasn't Barry. Maybe we missed something. We just got to go back." He says as he reads off a file while talking. "No way. How did we not see this before?" Dean asks.

"What?" I ask. "Check it out...Look, Martha Dumptruck, Revenge of the Nerds, and Nerds, and Hello Kitty...they rode the same bus." Dean shows the file to me. "Unless this one can. Dean, there's lore about spirits possessing people and riding them for miles, then whenever they leave the body, they're bungeed back to their usual haunt. But until then, the ghosts can go wherever they want." I say.

"So a spook just grabs a kid on the bus and walks right into Truman?" Dean asks. "It's possible." I say. "Ghosts getting creative...well, that's super." Dean scoffs.

~SCHOOL BUS - DAY~

Dean is in the back of the bus with an EMF meter, while I'm up front, searching for some clue of the ghost. "Definitely ain't clean." I say. "Here, ghosty, ghosty, ghosty! Come out, come out, wherever you are!" I hear Dean say. "Dean, I don't get it. No one ever died on this bus, and it's not like there's a body hidden in here." I tell him. "Yeah, but a flap of skin, a hair, I mean, hell, a hangnail...something's got to be tying the ghost to this place. We just got to find it." He says.

"Yeah." I sigh as I continue to look through papers at the front of the bus. "Got a new driving permit. Issued two weeks ago." I read aloud. "Just before the first attack." Dean says. "Yeah. Name of the bus driver is Dirk McGregor Sr., 39 North Central Avenue." I say, looking over at Dean.

"McGregor?" Dean asks. "Yeah. Why?" I ask. "Didn't Sam know his son?" I ask. "Did Sam know everybody at this school?" Dean chuckles.

~MR. MCGREGOR'S LIVING ROOM~

"So, you were friends with Dirk?" Mr. McGregor asks. "Yes, sir, in high school." I say. "I don't recall Dirk having many friends a Truman. Would you like any tea or coffee?" He asks. "No thank you." I smile politely.

"When did, uh...when did Dirk pass?" Dean asks. "He was 18." Mr. McGregor says sadly. "What happened to him?" I ask. "Well, there was, first, drinking, then drugs, and then too many drugs. And then he just slipped through my fingers. It was my fault. I should have seen it coming, you know? Dirk, he, uh....he had his troubles." His voice cracks. "What kind of troubles?" Dean asks.

"School was never easy fro Dirk. We didn't have much money, and, well, you know, kids...they can be cruel. They picked on him." He says. "They picked on him?" I ask. Dirk use to be a bully to Sam and Barry.

"They called him poor and dirty and stupid. They even had a nickname for him...Dirk the jerk. And after what happened to his mother, he..." He stops himself to wipe his tears. Dirk the Jerk. Sam came up with that after he took on Dirk in a fight one day after school, Sam watched. We celebrated at the Motel that night.

"His mother?" Dean asks. "Yeah, Jane, my wife. She died when Dirk was 13. Cancer. I was working three jobs, so it fell to Dirk to take care of her. And he was a great kid. He made sure Jane got her medicine. He helped her, cleaned up after her. But, you know, you...you watch somebody die clow, waste away to nothing...it does things to a person. Horrible things." He sniffles.

"We didn't know about his mother." I say, sadly. "He...he wouldn't talk about her, not even to me. Lot of anger in that boy." He sighs. "I'm sorry." I say. "Well, we'd really like to pay our respects, Mr. mcGregor. Um, you mind telling us where Dirk is buried?" Dean asks.

"Oh, he wasn't. I had him cremated." He says. "All of him?" Dean asks and Mr. McGregor gives him a weird look. "Well, I kept a lock of his hair." He says. "Oh, that's...that's nice. Where do you keep that?" Dean asks. "On my bus, in my bible." He says.

~SCHOOL BUS~

Dean and I watch as the us drives over the spikes we left on the road, it swerves and comes to a stop. We watch as the bus door opens and steps out of the bus is the driver. I walk up and cock my shotgun.

"What are you gonna do, shoot me?" He laughs. I smirk as Dean sneaks his way behind him and wraps a rope around the guy's stomach. "Don't need to. That rope is soaked in salt water, Dirk. You're not going anywhere." I say as Dean ties him up.

I walk onto the bus. "Aren't you the librarian?" A jock on the bus says. "The sexy librarian." Chuckles another. "Not really. I'm like 21 Jump Street and way to good for you young boys. Also the bus driver sells pot. So yeah." I wink which causes all the boys to hoot, holler, and whistle. I giggle and get to work on looking for the bible with the lock of hair.

I find it and flip through every page and even shake it. Nothing. I slam it closed. "Fuck! It's not here!" I yell to Dean and come outside. "Where is it?" Dean yells. "Dean Winchester. I bet your brother is still a bully. Must have gotten it from you...You, you jocks, you cheerleaders...you popular kids. You always thought you were better than everybody else. And to you, I was Dirk the Jerk, right? Now you evil sons of bitches are gonna get what's coming to you." The driver chuckles.

"We aren't evil, Dirk. Sam isn't. And neither were you. Trust me. We've seen real evil. We were scared and miserable, and we took it out on each other, us, and everybody else. That's high school. But you suffer through that, and it gets better. I'm just sorry you didn't get a chance to see that...you or Barry." I say, sincerely.

"Nothing is gonna get better for me. Not ever." He says as he breaks out of the rope. I fire salt at him from my shotgun, and the ghost of Dirk flies back into the bus. A student gets off the bus and tackles me. I try to get him off me as Dean fires salt shots at him but he keeps missing. "Dean! Find the hair!" I yell to him as I send a punch to the guys left cheek.