Can't Fight This Feeling

The drive down to Texas was slow. Nyx was in no rush to get anywhere. She liked the idea of the drive so she took her time. It took her three days to finally get there, but she’d hardly slept. She couldn’t get Sam and Dean out of her mind.

Eventually she arrived at her destination; Richmond, East Texas. On her way down she’d discovered the Ghoul she was searching for was actually just a homeless man living in a graveyard. He’d been killing people for years, but there was nothing supernatural about him. However, in a few towns over there had been a report of a haunted house, not that she wanted to deal with another haunted house for a long time, but there had been reports that teenagers had seen a dead body, but when the police had investigated they’d found nothing. Nyx was sure it was nothing but kids messing around, but she had a feeling that she should go check it out.

So that is what she did. She went to check out the house, but not before talking to the teenagers who had claimed to have sighted the body. She wanted to know exactly what she was walking into this time.

Nyx decided to go straight to the source. According to the police reports the kids had all heard about it from Craig Thurston, so she went to speak to him first. She found him at the record store where he worked.

“Hey, you Craig Thurston?” she asked the young man who couldn’t have been over the age of nineteen.

“Yeah, you another one of those reporters?” he asked as he went about his business, barely stopping to look at her.

“Another one?” Who else had been here?

“Yeah two guys came in here earlier, asking me about my story.” she thought about who else could possibly have visited him, her mind wandered to the two people it shouldn’t have.

“What did they look like?” she asked curiously.

“One of them looked like a moose, that’s all I really remember.” he shrugged.

“What did you tell them?” she asked. It really was them, she was sure of it. Why were they here though? They were supposed to be going to Connecticut!

“Exactly what I told the police. Listen lady I have work to be doing…”

“Just tell me where the house is!” she snapped. He told her where the house was, and she was out of there like a shot. She couldn’t believe them. Somehow she knew Sam was behind this, Dean wasn’t going to come anywhere near where he thought she might be, but Sam, Sam would have followed her here.

She drove out to the old abandoned farm. It was the stereotypical, creepy, old farmhouse, falling to pieces and sure enough there was the impala parked out the front. She wanted to scream. Instead she stormed in the house, without even thinking.

“What the hell are you two doing here?” she snapped. They both jerked around at the same time, pointing their rock salt filled shotguns at her.

“You could have got yourself killed, what the hell were you thinking!” Dean shouted at her.

“Dean, it’s filled with rock salt. It’s not going to kill me.” she rolled her eyes. “You still haven’t answered my question, what are you doing here?” she’d never been more pissed off at the brothers before.

“It’s a job. What are you doing here?” Sam asked, far too innocently.

“Did you follow me here?” she glared at the younger brother.

“Sorry princess, but in case you hadn’t noticed, we were here first.” Dean rolled his eyes at her. She jerked her head in his direction, he had not just called her princess. She’d always hated it as a kid, but he’d called her it anyway. It was his way of showing affection, and she was sure it was just a slip of the tongue.

“This was my job! I told you I was coming to Texas!” she was sure Sammy was following her, probably trying to keep her safe. “Sammy, I am capable of taking care of myself. I always have been.” she looked at him in desperation. She just wanted him to believe she was okay, to trust her.

“I know you are, but genuinely, it was just a job that came up.” Somehow she didn’t believe him, but she decided against arguing it any further. She could always just leave. It didn’t need three of them to work this case. She was contemplating it, but something told her not to leave. What was the point? It was her job.

“So what have you guys got so far then?” she asked as she scanned the walls, looking at the symbols that covered them. “Someone added these recently, I mean more recently than when this guy was supposed to have died, and this spray paint isn’t much more than a few months old.” she commented.

“How can you tell that?” Sam asked. Dean hadn’t said anything.

“I just can. Plus these symbols, they’ve only been used this way since after the sixties. The inverted cross used to be a symbol of St Peter; Satanists only picked it up in the sixties. It’s probably just a bunch of kids messing around.” she shrugged, maybe she would be done here quicker than she thought.

“Maybe, but something doesn’t feel right…” Sam was hesitant. She could feel it too though, something wasn’t right about this.

“I recognise this symbol…” Dean suddenly muttered, “Where have I seen it before?” he thought out loud.

“I’ve never seen it before.” Sam stared at the symbol, somehow he couldn’t imagine Dean knowing a symbol that he didn’t, but then he realised. Dean had been doing this longer than he had, he’d given up and quit. Tried to have the apple pie life, but life just didn’t work that way.

“I have. I just can’t for the life of me think where.” Nyx muttered. It was so familiar to her, yet why?

“Great so I’m the only one who doesn’t recognise it…” Before Sam could finish there was a crash from the other room. Sam and Dean took up their positions either side of the door, Nyx stood behind Sam. Dean smashed open the door, only to be blinded by bright lights shining in his eyes.

All three stand in shock at the boys in front of them. Who the hell were they? Nyx thought to herself.

“Oh, cut. It's just a coupla humans.” He was holding an EMF reader which made Nyx chuckle, there was no way that was going to work in here, not with the interference from the electricity pole outside, “What are you guys doing here?”

“What they hell are you doing here?” Dean snapped back.

“Ah-ha-ha. We belong here, we're professionals?” The smaller of the two boys hadn’t spoken. He stood quietly, shocked, watching the conversation unfold before him.

“Professional what?” Dean scoffed, causing Nyx to let out a small laugh. These guys had to be kidding right? They clearly didn’t know the first thing about hunting.

“Paranormal Investigators. There you go, take a look at that, boys.” he said as he handed them each a business card.

“Oh you gotta be kidding me.” Dean stared incredulously at the piece of card in front of him.

“Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spangler? Hellhoundslair.com, you guys run that website.” Sam recognised the name of the website…Sam was going on paranormal websites? Nyx rolled her eyes, Sam was the last person she’d expect to look through them.

“What website?” she asked.

“It’s how I found out about this house.” Sam explained briefly.

“Oh yeah, yeah, we're huge fans.” Dean mocked.

“And ahh, we know who you guys are too.” Ed stated, causing sharp looks from all three of them. How the hell did he know who any of them were?

Sam looked uncertainly at the boys, “Oh yeah?”

“Amateurs Looking for ghosts and cheap thrills.” Dean suddenly lost all interest he’d had in the boys up to that point, and began looking aimlessly around the kitchen.

“Yep. So if you guys don't mind, we're trying to conduct a serious scientific investigation here.” Harry, the smaller of the two boys had suddenly plucked up the courage to talk.

“Yeah, what have you got so far?” Dean began to toy with them. They weren’t going anywhere so he may as well watch them make fools of themselves.

“Harry, why doncha tell 'em about EMF?” Ed rocked back and forth on his feet, puffing his chest out, clearly he was impressed with himself, and it took everything Nyx had not to burst out laughing.

“EMF?” Sam asked, trying desperately to hide his smile.

“Electromagnetic field? Spectral entities can cause energy fluctuations that can be read with an EMF detector. Like this bad boy right here.” They weren’t wrong, but the fact they hadn’t taken into account the electrical poll outside made Nyx smirk to herself. They had called them armatures, but in reality they had no idea what they were doing. Part of her felt sad for them, another part worried, they could really end up getting themselves hurt one day.

Harry turned the device on, and Dean turned to smirk at Sam, and even a little at Nyx.

“Whoa. Whoa. It's 2.8mg!” he seemed like a small, excited child.

“2.8. It's hot in here.” Ed was getting cockier by the second, and it was actually beginning to annoy Nyx, or it would have hadn’t she known how wrong he was.

Dean whistled in mock admiration. The poor boys had no idea that they were being taken the piss out of. She almost felt bad for them, but then she saw the smug looks on their faces, and suddenly it didn’t matter anymore.

“Huh. So you guys ever really seen a ghost before, or...” Dean tried not to laugh at them. How the boys hadn’t worked out they were being laughed at was beyond her.

“Once. We were, uh...we were investigating this old house, and we saw a vase fall right off the table...”

“By itself.” Harry interrupted, and Nyx nearly fell to the ground laughing. Instead she buried her head into Sam’s arm, he was too tall for her to reach his shoulder.

“Well we didn't actually see it, we heard it. And something like that...it uh...it changes you.” The fact Ed was being so serious made things more entertaining.

“Yeah. I think I get the picture. We should go, let them get back to work.” Dean looked between Nyx and Sam and rolled his eyes. With that they left. They managed to get outside before they all burst out laughing.

“Okay, that was so hard not to laugh. How you two kept a straight face for any of that, I do not know.” Nyx laughed and congratulated the boys.

“You were awfully quiet in there.” Dean mocked her normally loud mouthed ways.

“I swear to god if I’d have said anything I’d have just laughed and called them idiots. I mean the EMF? And oh god the vase that fell on its own.” she couldn’t stop herself laughing, and it felt good, it felt so good. She couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed. She thought back, and well she hadn’t laughed in a very long time, not a real laugh anyway.

Sam couldn’t help but laugh along with her, she had a smile that lit up the room. She always had done, but there was something magical about her laugh this time. He felt like he’d heard an angel sing. There was something so pure and beautiful about it, and though Dean could never admit it to anyone, not even himself, he thought the same. He’d always thought there was something magical about that girl.

“We have to deal with losers like that all the time, right Sammy?” Dean’s laugh cut short when he realised that Sammy hadn’t had to deal with anything like that in a long time. Sam didn’t seem to care though, or even remember, because he nodded and laughed along with it.

“Well how about we come back tomorrow when those losers aren’t around?” Nyx suggested, the smile still present on her face, and she felt like nothing could wipe it away. Not even a snide comment from Dean, and though she waited it never came.

“Where are you staying?” Sam asked her.

“I haven’t had a chance to check in anywhere yet. What about you guys?”

“Follow us, I’m sure there is still room where we’re staying.” she seemed hesitant. Though things had been going well so far, she didn’t want to step on Dean’s toes, and she herself wasn’t ready to go back to being ‘friends’ with the brothers yet. As far as she was concerned she was broken, and they deserved better. Dean clearly sensed her hesitation.

“It would be more convenient if you were staying at the same place as us, just in case anything happened.” he didn’t look at Nyx as he spoke, but she could tell there was something in his voice that said he wanted her there, and that made everything so much harder. She didn’t want to say no to Dean, but she didn’t want to let him down either, and embracing the brothers back into her life meant she would inevitably let them down again. She didn’t want to do that. But he was right it would be easier, so she agreed, against her better judgement and she followed them back to their motel where she got herself settled for the night. Tomorrow was a new day, and she was sure it would hold a lot of surprises, after all which days didn’t?