The Lone Wolf: Neelys Cemetery
Title: The Lone Wolf: Neelys Cemetery
Author: Quicksilvermad
Fandom(s): The Twilight Series
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2665
Inspiration: Breaking Dawn Chapter 12 - Some People Just Don't Grasp the Concept of "Unwelcome" (Part I), The Wedding Crashers
Warnings: Nudity, violence, and future Leah/Castiel
Summary: Leah's been on the road by herself for a while now. That's all about to change when she meets the Winchesters.
Disclaimer: Meyer owns Twilight. Kripke and Warner Brothers own Supernatural. das_mervin and Mrs. Hyde own The Wedding Crashers. I'm using their timeline with permission.
Author's Note: The places mentioned are real. And this is another example of "writing while drunk." Or buzzed. Don't worry. I went back and edited it.
Endzone Pizza and Pub in Somerset, Kentucky was having a slow night. For Leah Clearwater, this was ideal. She sat in a corner booth with a feast covering the table. A couple of plates of hot wings and an entire pizza were the most appetizing things she'd had in front of her face in a long time. With a great amount of joy, she started eating and opened a map of the local area.
There had been a rash of disappearances lately in Burnside and Parkers Lake. Leah had been studying both towns for a week now and had pinned down the location of the vampires responsible. She just needed to work out a plan of attack-which direction she'd approach and what time to strike.
Cramming another slice of pizza into her mouth, Leah decided that a morning attack would be best. She'd just have to find somewhere to crash in the mean time. She was so absorbed in her food and her research that she almost didn't hear it.
"…either Neelys or Grave Hill. There's barns near both of 'em."
"Dean, we still need a plan."
"I have a plan. Go in there at noon and cut off some vampire heads."
The first man let out an exasperated sigh. "That's not a plan."
Leah frowned and put down her last pizza slice. Across the room, she could see two men seated at another booth. The short-haired one had a beer glued to his lips and the long-haired one had his face lit up by the screen of his laptop. She absently ate another hot wing and listened in.
"The noon part is a plan."
"We don't even know where they're holed up, Dean."
"Sure we do, Sam. They're in one of the barns between Burnside and Parkers Lake. They're almost always in barns."
Sam gave Dean a dry look, and Leah shook her head. This would not be good. A pair of humans hunting after an group of bloodsuckers was a terrible idea. Morning was a bust. The faster she struck, the safer these two idiots would be. Leah finished as much of her meal as fast as she could, stood abruptly, and headed towards the two men.
"Besides, it's not like they're any good at hiding when they're hungry."
"Dean-" Sam stopped talking, his eyes were locked on the woman standing next to their booth.
"You're both idiots," she said.
Dean raised both eyebrows and Sam closed his laptop. "Excuse me?" Dean asked.
"You're going to get yourselves killed."
Sam frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you two morons going after a group of bloodsuckers. Leave the dirty work to the professionals," she said.
Dean snorted. "And who are you? The professional?"
"Just be smart and stay out of it," Leah warned. Without a backwards look, she grabbed her backpack, walked towards the bar, threw a few twenties at the bartender, and left. She had some doubts that the two men would listen to her and decided that a she'd play bait for the night. If she handled the problem now, then they would be out in harm's way. She would let the vampires take her back to their nest and phase once she was in the thick of it all.
Leah started walking out of town and followed her nose down the same path she'd taken two days earlier. She ignored the smell of coming rain and focused for nearly two hours, following the vampire stink to Neelys Cemetery. The road ended in a parking lot and she came to a stop, glancing back for headlights and seeing none. She had a sinking feeling that the two men from the bar might have followed her.
Leah carefully placed her backpack against the main building, hopped the lichgate, and meandered through the cemetery grounds. She pretended to look for a specific grave marker and spent the better part of an hour wandering around tombstones before the scent of bloodsucker intensified and she found herself face to face with a man dressed in coveralls and carrying a shovel.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
A cold rain started to fall.
"Looking for a friend of mine. He died five years ago tonight, and I wanted to come pay my respects," Leah answered, deliberately making herself look startled.
"Well, my name's Ted. I'm the groundskeeper here. What's his name? Maybe I can help you."
Leah shoved her hands in her back pockets and gave her best grateful smile. "Thanks. His name was John Mason," she lied.
Ted the vampire groundskeeper led her towards the furthest row of graves and pretended to look for the headstone. He whistled a high and jaunty tune as they went, and, sure enough, another vampire appeared across the roadway. Leah watched out of the corner of her eye as he approached.
They stared at her as the thrill of the hunt filled her blood, and the game began in earnest when Ted grabbed both of her arms and locked them behind her back.
"Hey!" Leah protested. She struggled half-heartedly and allowed them to lead her toward a red barn across the street. Halfway across the street, she could hear the two men from the bar walking through the cemetery and prayed that she could get this job over with before they caught up to her. The last thing she wanted was to get civilians in harm's way.
There were more vampires in the hayloft. At least ten. Each beady eye tracked her movement through the drafty barn, and Leah put up a good show of being terrified. She pleaded, asked for mercy, and even managed a few tears as they tied her up to a structural beam.
Then things got complicated.
The two men from the bar burst in carrying machetes. The tallest one, Sam, pointed his at Ted and waved his free hand in Leah's direction. "Let her go," he intoned.
Ted laughed. He turned his back on Leah and she took the opportunity to phase. The rope broke uselessly against her straining wolf body and she immediately bit through Ted's neck, severing his spine and flinging his head against the same structural beam that she'd been tied to. Stunned, the ten other vampires could only try to run from her as she tore them limb from limb, slinging gore and tendons across the walls of the barn in a killing frenzy.
Sam and Dean easily dispatched of the stragglers as they ran towards the barn door. By the end of it all, the floor was strewn with body parts and a pissed off wolf the size of a carthorse.
Her muzzle covered in blood, Leah stalked toward the two humans and let out an annoyed chuff before she phased back and stood naked in front of them.
"Why the hell did you follow me?!"
"You're a some kind of shapeshifter?" Sam asked.
Furious, Leah took two steps toward the pair of them and jabbed a finger directly into Sam's chest. "I said to stay out of it! You could have gotten hurt."
"Hey!" Dean interrupted, tired of being treated like a newbie. "We've taken on bigger nests than this one, so ease up there, Lady Godiva."
Leah dropped her hands on her naked hips and frowned mightily at them pair of them. "What, so you followed me to try an save me? Get real."
"We knew there would be a nest, and this isn't our first rodeo, lady. We're just trying to help," Dean snapped. He was momentarily distracted when Leah crossed her arms across her breasts.
"You wanna help? Then take me back to my stuff."
Sam, blushing, carefully removed his jacket and handed it to her. "Might wanna cover up a bit."
Leah sighed and slid into the large jacket, zipping it up. "Thanks," she muttered.
The three of them ventured out into the rain and picked their way through the cemetery at a steady pace, each floundering for something to say.
Sam cleared his throat once they reached the parking lot. "So, you're a shapeshifter?" he repeated.
Leah snorted and rummaged through her backpack. Stepping into a pair of yoga pants and swapping Sam's jacket for a T-shirt, she thought over her answer. These two men obviously knew about the supernatural world, and she'd already phased in front of them, so…
"I was part of a pack."
"What, like a wolf pack?" Dean asked.
Leah nodded.
"How come you're on your own, then?" Sam asked.
"Reasons," Leah hedged. "How do you know about vampires?"
"Reasons," Dean taunted.
Leah scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You want answers to questions that are going to take a lot longer to explain and I'd rather not do it in the rain."
"We've got a room at a bed and breakfast up in Burnside," said Dean. "That good enough?"
Leah looked him up and down, her curiosity finally getting the better of her as she thought about two normal guys going after vampires. She wanted to know how they knew what to do. And after being on her own for so long, it might be nice to sit down and talk with some other people.
"Sure," she said, shouldering her backpack.
She handed Sam his jacket and swiped at the rain gathering on her face. Dean nodded, satisfied, and headed for his car. Sam offered Leah the barest of smiles and matched her pace through the parking lot. He opened the back door of the Impala for her and, once Sam was settled in the passenger seat up front, Dean cranked the stereo and started driving.
Leah curled up in the back seat, glad to be out of the rain, and wondered about the odds of finding other vampire hunters.
*
The room was tiny and only had one extra chair next to a small desk in the corner. The desk itself was covered in newspaper clippings and a map of the area with red Sharpie circling certain buildings. Leah sat in the chair and touched the map. Grave Hill Cemetery and Neelys Cemetery were circled.
"So, we never introduced ourselves. I'm Sam Winchester and this is my brother, Dean," Sam said from his perch on the end of one of the beds.
Leah rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm Leah Clearwater."
Dean was suddenly in front of her, holding out a beer. "Nice to meet you, Leah," he said.
She took the beer and watched as he opened his own bottle. Opening hers, Leah took a long swig and tapped a finger on the map. "How were you tracking the leeches?" she asked.
"The disappearances happened in a few close locations. Vampires tend to make nests near enough to their victims but far enough to avoid suspicion," said Sam.
"And you narrowed it down to places near cemeteries?"
"Like he said. Far enough away from prying eyes, close enough to pop into town and grab someone," said Dean.
Leah raised both eyebrows and took another drink of her beer, sitting on the edge of one of the beds.
"How did you track them?" Sam asked.
Leah tapped the side of her nose. "Vamps stink to high heaven."
"You can sniff out a vamp?" Dean asked, incredulous.
"They smell like rotting corpses."
"What I meant to say is 'how is it possible that you can sniff out a vamp?'"
Leah sighed. "Well, I'm a wolf. Some of those wolfy characteristics kinda linger in me even when I haven't phased. I've got great hearing and awesome eyesight, too."
"You said you used to be part of a pack," Sam said, wanting to get back to the conversation started at the cemetery.
Leah looked back down at her beer and began picking at the label. "Back in La Push, Washington. Some leeches showed up and a few of us started phasing. We all thought it was just an old campfire tale until it started happening. Our kind was meant to kill vampires to keep the people of the territory safe. A group of 'em only fed on animal blood, but they attracted a lot of others. Ones that weren't part of the same diet club.
"So we killed them and thought that might be the end of it. But more showed up. More kids started phasing. In the end, the first group of leeches moved on to Alaska and some of us decided to stop phasing. I…" Leah paused and took another drink of beer. "I was the only woman who phased and I wanted to get the hell out of there. The others were only too happy to see me head out of town on my own."
Sam leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "So you've only been killing vampires?" he asked.
Leah snorted. "What else is there for me to hunt?" she asked with a dubiously raised eyebrow.
Dean reached across her and grabbed a battered looking journal off the nightstand. He looked her in the eye as he handed it to her. "There's tons of evil things out there, Leah. We hunt 'em all."
Confused, Leah flipped through the pages of the journal. There were descriptions of monsters of every kind. Actual werewolves, the wendigo, chupacabras, ghosts, demons… Things she thought about every once in a while but discarded as mere myth. There was even a full page dedicated to angels with descriptions of their allegiances and physical characteristics. One in angel in particular was accompanied with a photograph and, of all things, a cell phone number.
Leah was slightly stunned. "Then there's more that I could be doing," she said.
Sam looked at Dean and raised an eyebrow. "We heard rumors about a haunting in West Virginia. You think you'd be interested in tagging along?" he asked.
Leah smiled slowly. "Sounds awesome!" she exclaimed.
She ended up staying the night. Sam grabbed a pillow and one of the comforters (Leah claimed that she didn't need one) and sacked out on the floor between the double beds. It was the first time in a long time that Leah spent sleeping on an actual mattress, and she ended up oversleeping when morning came. Dean had enough presence of mind to go out and buy some breakfast at the local gas station and woke her with a large cup of coffee.
"Wasn't sure how you took it, so I got one of those vanilla cappuccino things."
Leah swung her legs out over the edge of the mattress and took the cup from him with a grateful smile. "No, this is great," she met his eyes and winked. "Thanks."
Eager to get back on the road, Sam went about his morning routine with a brief "good morning" and left Dean and Leah to plan out the route to Weston, West Virginia. The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum held overnight ghost hunts that were usually group affairs at a hundred dollars per person, but Dean had done his research about when they held the guided tours. He was confident that they could avoid any staff.
Leah, borrowing Sam's laptop, researched all she could. She was so absorbed in reading through testimonials about increased activity since the asylum's renovation that she almost missed Dean telling her it was time to hit the road.
She had a lot of questions as soon as they got on the highway. How did one fight a ghost? What could be done to put the spirit to rest? What were the dangers of just leaving a spirit around to do its thing?
When she wasn't asking questions, she was singing along with Bon Jovi on the radio. The boys weren't used to so much chatter, but seemed to welcome it. They did, after all, join her in on the chorus for "Livin' on a Prayer."
As the song wrapped up, Leah smiled. This felt like the start of something great.
Author: Quicksilvermad
Fandom(s): The Twilight Series
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2665
Inspiration: Breaking Dawn Chapter 12 - Some People Just Don't Grasp the Concept of "Unwelcome" (Part I), The Wedding Crashers
Warnings: Nudity, violence, and future Leah/Castiel
Summary: Leah's been on the road by herself for a while now. That's all about to change when she meets the Winchesters.
Disclaimer: Meyer owns Twilight. Kripke and Warner Brothers own Supernatural. das_mervin and Mrs. Hyde own The Wedding Crashers. I'm using their timeline with permission.
Author's Note: The places mentioned are real. And this is another example of "writing while drunk." Or buzzed. Don't worry. I went back and edited it.
Endzone Pizza and Pub in Somerset, Kentucky was having a slow night. For Leah Clearwater, this was ideal. She sat in a corner booth with a feast covering the table. A couple of plates of hot wings and an entire pizza were the most appetizing things she'd had in front of her face in a long time. With a great amount of joy, she started eating and opened a map of the local area.
There had been a rash of disappearances lately in Burnside and Parkers Lake. Leah had been studying both towns for a week now and had pinned down the location of the vampires responsible. She just needed to work out a plan of attack-which direction she'd approach and what time to strike.
Cramming another slice of pizza into her mouth, Leah decided that a morning attack would be best. She'd just have to find somewhere to crash in the mean time. She was so absorbed in her food and her research that she almost didn't hear it.
"…either Neelys or Grave Hill. There's barns near both of 'em."
"Dean, we still need a plan."
"I have a plan. Go in there at noon and cut off some vampire heads."
The first man let out an exasperated sigh. "That's not a plan."
Leah frowned and put down her last pizza slice. Across the room, she could see two men seated at another booth. The short-haired one had a beer glued to his lips and the long-haired one had his face lit up by the screen of his laptop. She absently ate another hot wing and listened in.
"The noon part is a plan."
"We don't even know where they're holed up, Dean."
"Sure we do, Sam. They're in one of the barns between Burnside and Parkers Lake. They're almost always in barns."
Sam gave Dean a dry look, and Leah shook her head. This would not be good. A pair of humans hunting after an group of bloodsuckers was a terrible idea. Morning was a bust. The faster she struck, the safer these two idiots would be. Leah finished as much of her meal as fast as she could, stood abruptly, and headed towards the two men.
"Besides, it's not like they're any good at hiding when they're hungry."
"Dean-" Sam stopped talking, his eyes were locked on the woman standing next to their booth.
"You're both idiots," she said.
Dean raised both eyebrows and Sam closed his laptop. "Excuse me?" Dean asked.
"You're going to get yourselves killed."
Sam frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you two morons going after a group of bloodsuckers. Leave the dirty work to the professionals," she said.
Dean snorted. "And who are you? The professional?"
"Just be smart and stay out of it," Leah warned. Without a backwards look, she grabbed her backpack, walked towards the bar, threw a few twenties at the bartender, and left. She had some doubts that the two men would listen to her and decided that a she'd play bait for the night. If she handled the problem now, then they would be out in harm's way. She would let the vampires take her back to their nest and phase once she was in the thick of it all.
Leah started walking out of town and followed her nose down the same path she'd taken two days earlier. She ignored the smell of coming rain and focused for nearly two hours, following the vampire stink to Neelys Cemetery. The road ended in a parking lot and she came to a stop, glancing back for headlights and seeing none. She had a sinking feeling that the two men from the bar might have followed her.
Leah carefully placed her backpack against the main building, hopped the lichgate, and meandered through the cemetery grounds. She pretended to look for a specific grave marker and spent the better part of an hour wandering around tombstones before the scent of bloodsucker intensified and she found herself face to face with a man dressed in coveralls and carrying a shovel.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
A cold rain started to fall.
"Looking for a friend of mine. He died five years ago tonight, and I wanted to come pay my respects," Leah answered, deliberately making herself look startled.
"Well, my name's Ted. I'm the groundskeeper here. What's his name? Maybe I can help you."
Leah shoved her hands in her back pockets and gave her best grateful smile. "Thanks. His name was John Mason," she lied.
Ted the vampire groundskeeper led her towards the furthest row of graves and pretended to look for the headstone. He whistled a high and jaunty tune as they went, and, sure enough, another vampire appeared across the roadway. Leah watched out of the corner of her eye as he approached.
They stared at her as the thrill of the hunt filled her blood, and the game began in earnest when Ted grabbed both of her arms and locked them behind her back.
"Hey!" Leah protested. She struggled half-heartedly and allowed them to lead her toward a red barn across the street. Halfway across the street, she could hear the two men from the bar walking through the cemetery and prayed that she could get this job over with before they caught up to her. The last thing she wanted was to get civilians in harm's way.
There were more vampires in the hayloft. At least ten. Each beady eye tracked her movement through the drafty barn, and Leah put up a good show of being terrified. She pleaded, asked for mercy, and even managed a few tears as they tied her up to a structural beam.
Then things got complicated.
The two men from the bar burst in carrying machetes. The tallest one, Sam, pointed his at Ted and waved his free hand in Leah's direction. "Let her go," he intoned.
Ted laughed. He turned his back on Leah and she took the opportunity to phase. The rope broke uselessly against her straining wolf body and she immediately bit through Ted's neck, severing his spine and flinging his head against the same structural beam that she'd been tied to. Stunned, the ten other vampires could only try to run from her as she tore them limb from limb, slinging gore and tendons across the walls of the barn in a killing frenzy.
Sam and Dean easily dispatched of the stragglers as they ran towards the barn door. By the end of it all, the floor was strewn with body parts and a pissed off wolf the size of a carthorse.
Her muzzle covered in blood, Leah stalked toward the two humans and let out an annoyed chuff before she phased back and stood naked in front of them.
"Why the hell did you follow me?!"
"You're a some kind of shapeshifter?" Sam asked.
Furious, Leah took two steps toward the pair of them and jabbed a finger directly into Sam's chest. "I said to stay out of it! You could have gotten hurt."
"Hey!" Dean interrupted, tired of being treated like a newbie. "We've taken on bigger nests than this one, so ease up there, Lady Godiva."
Leah dropped her hands on her naked hips and frowned mightily at them pair of them. "What, so you followed me to try an save me? Get real."
"We knew there would be a nest, and this isn't our first rodeo, lady. We're just trying to help," Dean snapped. He was momentarily distracted when Leah crossed her arms across her breasts.
"You wanna help? Then take me back to my stuff."
Sam, blushing, carefully removed his jacket and handed it to her. "Might wanna cover up a bit."
Leah sighed and slid into the large jacket, zipping it up. "Thanks," she muttered.
The three of them ventured out into the rain and picked their way through the cemetery at a steady pace, each floundering for something to say.
Sam cleared his throat once they reached the parking lot. "So, you're a shapeshifter?" he repeated.
Leah snorted and rummaged through her backpack. Stepping into a pair of yoga pants and swapping Sam's jacket for a T-shirt, she thought over her answer. These two men obviously knew about the supernatural world, and she'd already phased in front of them, so…
"I was part of a pack."
"What, like a wolf pack?" Dean asked.
Leah nodded.
"How come you're on your own, then?" Sam asked.
"Reasons," Leah hedged. "How do you know about vampires?"
"Reasons," Dean taunted.
Leah scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You want answers to questions that are going to take a lot longer to explain and I'd rather not do it in the rain."
"We've got a room at a bed and breakfast up in Burnside," said Dean. "That good enough?"
Leah looked him up and down, her curiosity finally getting the better of her as she thought about two normal guys going after vampires. She wanted to know how they knew what to do. And after being on her own for so long, it might be nice to sit down and talk with some other people.
"Sure," she said, shouldering her backpack.
She handed Sam his jacket and swiped at the rain gathering on her face. Dean nodded, satisfied, and headed for his car. Sam offered Leah the barest of smiles and matched her pace through the parking lot. He opened the back door of the Impala for her and, once Sam was settled in the passenger seat up front, Dean cranked the stereo and started driving.
Leah curled up in the back seat, glad to be out of the rain, and wondered about the odds of finding other vampire hunters.
*
The room was tiny and only had one extra chair next to a small desk in the corner. The desk itself was covered in newspaper clippings and a map of the area with red Sharpie circling certain buildings. Leah sat in the chair and touched the map. Grave Hill Cemetery and Neelys Cemetery were circled.
"So, we never introduced ourselves. I'm Sam Winchester and this is my brother, Dean," Sam said from his perch on the end of one of the beds.
Leah rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm Leah Clearwater."
Dean was suddenly in front of her, holding out a beer. "Nice to meet you, Leah," he said.
She took the beer and watched as he opened his own bottle. Opening hers, Leah took a long swig and tapped a finger on the map. "How were you tracking the leeches?" she asked.
"The disappearances happened in a few close locations. Vampires tend to make nests near enough to their victims but far enough to avoid suspicion," said Sam.
"And you narrowed it down to places near cemeteries?"
"Like he said. Far enough away from prying eyes, close enough to pop into town and grab someone," said Dean.
Leah raised both eyebrows and took another drink of her beer, sitting on the edge of one of the beds.
"How did you track them?" Sam asked.
Leah tapped the side of her nose. "Vamps stink to high heaven."
"You can sniff out a vamp?" Dean asked, incredulous.
"They smell like rotting corpses."
"What I meant to say is 'how is it possible that you can sniff out a vamp?'"
Leah sighed. "Well, I'm a wolf. Some of those wolfy characteristics kinda linger in me even when I haven't phased. I've got great hearing and awesome eyesight, too."
"You said you used to be part of a pack," Sam said, wanting to get back to the conversation started at the cemetery.
Leah looked back down at her beer and began picking at the label. "Back in La Push, Washington. Some leeches showed up and a few of us started phasing. We all thought it was just an old campfire tale until it started happening. Our kind was meant to kill vampires to keep the people of the territory safe. A group of 'em only fed on animal blood, but they attracted a lot of others. Ones that weren't part of the same diet club.
"So we killed them and thought that might be the end of it. But more showed up. More kids started phasing. In the end, the first group of leeches moved on to Alaska and some of us decided to stop phasing. I…" Leah paused and took another drink of beer. "I was the only woman who phased and I wanted to get the hell out of there. The others were only too happy to see me head out of town on my own."
Sam leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "So you've only been killing vampires?" he asked.
Leah snorted. "What else is there for me to hunt?" she asked with a dubiously raised eyebrow.
Dean reached across her and grabbed a battered looking journal off the nightstand. He looked her in the eye as he handed it to her. "There's tons of evil things out there, Leah. We hunt 'em all."
Confused, Leah flipped through the pages of the journal. There were descriptions of monsters of every kind. Actual werewolves, the wendigo, chupacabras, ghosts, demons… Things she thought about every once in a while but discarded as mere myth. There was even a full page dedicated to angels with descriptions of their allegiances and physical characteristics. One in angel in particular was accompanied with a photograph and, of all things, a cell phone number.
Leah was slightly stunned. "Then there's more that I could be doing," she said.
Sam looked at Dean and raised an eyebrow. "We heard rumors about a haunting in West Virginia. You think you'd be interested in tagging along?" he asked.
Leah smiled slowly. "Sounds awesome!" she exclaimed.
She ended up staying the night. Sam grabbed a pillow and one of the comforters (Leah claimed that she didn't need one) and sacked out on the floor between the double beds. It was the first time in a long time that Leah spent sleeping on an actual mattress, and she ended up oversleeping when morning came. Dean had enough presence of mind to go out and buy some breakfast at the local gas station and woke her with a large cup of coffee.
"Wasn't sure how you took it, so I got one of those vanilla cappuccino things."
Leah swung her legs out over the edge of the mattress and took the cup from him with a grateful smile. "No, this is great," she met his eyes and winked. "Thanks."
Eager to get back on the road, Sam went about his morning routine with a brief "good morning" and left Dean and Leah to plan out the route to Weston, West Virginia. The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum held overnight ghost hunts that were usually group affairs at a hundred dollars per person, but Dean had done his research about when they held the guided tours. He was confident that they could avoid any staff.
Leah, borrowing Sam's laptop, researched all she could. She was so absorbed in reading through testimonials about increased activity since the asylum's renovation that she almost missed Dean telling her it was time to hit the road.
She had a lot of questions as soon as they got on the highway. How did one fight a ghost? What could be done to put the spirit to rest? What were the dangers of just leaving a spirit around to do its thing?
When she wasn't asking questions, she was singing along with Bon Jovi on the radio. The boys weren't used to so much chatter, but seemed to welcome it. They did, after all, join her in on the chorus for "Livin' on a Prayer."
As the song wrapped up, Leah smiled. This felt like the start of something great.