The Hunter

The Impala rumbled up to the spot closest to the Katy mine they could drive and Dean cut the engine. There was going to be at least a quarter to half a mile walk to the mouth of the mine through thickets of trees and up the side of a mountain. Noora slipped out of the backseat of the car and closed the door behind her, stretching her arms above her head and letting out a small noise. She glanced toward the trees before turning to Sam and Dean as they exited the car.

“Apparently, the Hope and Katy mines connected at some point and they had a conjoined exit elsewhere,” Sam said, glancing between Dean and Noora. Noora frowned a bit as she looked at the younger Winchester, her brow furrowing slightly.

“So that means that, if the mines haven’t collapsed somewhere, there’s more than one way out for us and the ghost,” she deducted, running her tongue over her lips as she eyed the trees they would soon be walking through. “Do you know if there’s any quartz in the ground here? Any limestone?” She asked, turning back to Sam. “I would have researched this myself, but I’m betting there’s only dialup around here and it wasn’t provided in my hotel room.” Sam suddenly had a look of recognition on his features, as if he realized why she was asking what she was. Dean eyed his brother for a moment before his brow furrowed.

“What? What’s that look for?” He asked quickly, glancing between Sam and Noora.

“I’m not sure if there’s any quartz or limestone around here, but it would make a difference. It’s theorized that quartz and limestone can kind of channel paranormal activity. So if there are strings of those in the mines and they disturbed them, or there are strings lying under the city, it could possibly explain the haunting and why the ghost is moving around the town,” Sam explained to Dean, who merely nodded before blowing out a heavy sigh and running a hand over his hair

“Well that’s great. So that means we could be going into these mines and it could have absolutely no effect on the outcome,” Dean asked, sighing heavily as he glanced between the two of them.

“It’s a good place to start, at least,” Noora replied, turning back to Dean. “If there’s no activity in the mines, then it just means that this is a completely normal, run-of-the-mill hunt and it should be easy to get rid of the ghost. Now we’re wasting daylight, so let’s get moving,” she finished, glancing between both of the brothers before hooking her thumb into the strap of her messenger and started in the general direction of the mine. Sam and Dean took their time in starting after her after making sure that no one was going to bother the Impala and locking it up just to be safe.



By ten in the morning, the three had already scouted out the two mines and decided that the day ahead of them was going to be even less of a cakewalk than they thought it was going to be. They had found a local hardware store and the three of them were browsing through the small selection they had. The three items they were sure to get were the hardhats and they’d wiped the stock clean. When they figured that they had the only things they needed sitting in the trunk of the Impala, they walked over to the cash register. The old man that had bartended at the restaurant the night before was behind the counter, still looking like he could pass out at any time.

As the three set their hardhats on the counter, the man jumped to life and blinked blearily before taking in the three hunters staring back at him. He gave them a scrutinizing look, pursing his thin lips in a bit before pounding a few buttons on the archaic looking cash register and the till popped open. Noora immediately handed over money and Dean fished around for his credit card.

“Don’t bother thumbing for a card, son. I don’t take no plastic,” he said in a brittle voice. Noora shot a look over her shoulder at Dean before handing over the proper amount for all three of them. “You wouldn’t happen to be going up in them mines would you?” He asked as he stuffed the bills in the till and shut the drawer. Noora immediately answered, having already thought up a lie in the off instance that someone asked what they were doing.

“Oh no, we’re working a restoration job around here,” she told the old man with a small smile.

“Didn’t hear about anything like that going on,” the old man replied, eyeing the woman carefully. Noora merely stared right back, the brothers shooting each other glances. There was a longer pause this time, as Noora hadn’t thought past her excuse

“Well…it’s a relatively new project and they said they hadn’t told many people about it,” she finally replied, hoping the delay hadn’t been long enough as to cause apprehension in the man. The old man’s gaze wandered the three before he gave them a nod, though he still looked like he didn’t believe them.

“Y’all have a good one, now,” he said, though there was no evidence in his tone that he wanted them to ‘have a good one’. Gathering their hard hats, the three hunters made their way out of the hardware store and back toward the Impala. Dean waited until they were just about inside the car before shooting a glance over to Noora.

“I thought you didn’t like to lie,” he murmured, brows furrowing slightly as he eyed the woman. She frowned a bit and shrugged, glancing between the brothers before they slipped into the car.

“Would you rather have him call up someone to watch us go into the mines or wait for us once we get back out? Lying’s necessary, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it,” she explained as they shut themselves in the Impala. Sam shot a glance to Dean, setting his hard hat in the expanse of seat between the two of them. Dean didn’t have anything else to ask her and Noora didn’t have anything to add, so the car fell quiet as Dean reversed out of the parking spot and started back toward the Katy mine.

Within a six minute drive, they reached the place where Dean had parked the Impala before just as the sun was reaching a pinnacle. That gave them at least six more decent hours of sunlight before it fell dark. Not that sunlight really mattered when you were in the mine, but if and when the sun went down, it only meant that the mines would become deathly cold. As they exited the car, they took a thorough glance at their surroundings, making sure that no one was watching and no one would try to prevent them from going into the mines or follow them. Once they were sure the coast was clear, they gathered their weapons and gear and started toward the mouth of the mine.

It was a windy day and fluffy white clouds dotted the sky and would occasionally filter out the sun for a few moments. The wind whipped at the trees that surrounded them as they trekked up side of the mountain, chilling them a bit even though the sun was beating down on them. Once they reached the entryway of the Katy mine, they paused for a moment, putting on their hard hats—Dean with much grumbling and frowning—and prepared themselves for the confined spaces and pressing darkness of the mine.

The portal of the mine had a few old rectangular blocks of timber supporting it and it looked like the land and soil had sagged around it. There were very few plants around it and a scarce amount of small wildlife and the wind had died down, at least a little. Taking in what could be their last glimpse of daylight in a solid few hours, the three turned on their headlamps, their flashlights, and kept their guns in their hands as they entered the mine.

The drastic change in temperature that occurred just a few paces into the mine was immediately apparent, though the three knew that it was nothing paranormal. In fact, they knew that it was only going to get colder the deeper they got into the mine. The floor was a thin layer of mud and muck, sloshing beneath their feet as they stepped. A track for a mining cart cut through the middle of the path and occasionally they would pass by support timbers that looked like they could crumble in at any moment. There were occasional drips of water from the ceiling and the air was damp.

“Well, if this isn’t one of the sketchiest places I’ve been in,” Dean murmured to himself, tracing the post and lintel with the beam of his flashlight. As they pressed forward, they noticed the mine curving to the right and eventually, all natural light was gone and it was just them and their flashlights. Noora tried to listen out for anything, but if there was any presence of ghosts or a ghost in the mine, she couldn’t hear it over the noise their boots were making through the slosh and mud beneath their feet.

“Hold on guys,” she said, stopping and causing the two to follow suit, “let’s just stop and listen for stuff for a little while. We should probably start inspecting an area before we walk into it as well. The further we get from the front of the mine, the less support they’ll have put in.” The brothers glanced over to the woman before to themselves as they all paused and listened for any signs of life or otherwise in the abandoned tunnel. The air was still around them, but cold enough that they could begin to see their breath. Again, another telltale sign of a spirit that could be explained away to the environment. After a few moments, all they heard was the pitter-patter of water droplets and the occasional rumble of rock around them or creak of the support timbers.

“If I take out my EMF will you cover me in case this bad boy decides to attack?” She finally asked, knowing they’d have to resort to detecting things they couldn’t feel outright since a temperature flux because of a ghost could be counted out. Both of the brothers nodded as Noora tucked her pistol in the back of her jeans as her other hand dove into her pocket and pulled out a rectangular plastic box of sorts with a series of green, yellow, and red lights on the top. With the flick of a switch, she turned it on and watched as one of the green lights flickered a bit before the device fell dark once more. She took a step forward and the light flickered once more, this time cascading into the yellow. She let out a curious hum, watching the device for a moment.

“Two questions: what are you humming about and what is that in your hand?” Dean asked, nodding his head toward the sporadically flickering device. Noora turned to look at him, brows lifted slightly as her eyes darted over him before she decided to answer.

“I’m humming because this thing shouldn’t have gone into the yellow so soon. There’s no electricity in here and no power lines for miles,” she explained, eyes slipping back to the device. “And this is an EMF detector. It’s an older model, yeah, but it still runs alright so there’s no need for me to pay for a new one.”

“Why pay for one at all?” Dean questioned and Noora gave him a skeptical look, brows pinching together as her tongue darted across the corner of her lips. Dean rolled his eyes and let out a heavy sigh, tucking his flashlight beneath his arm as his hand dove into his pocket and fished out a rather primitive looking device. “An old Walkman and some wires,” he said, turning on the skeleton of a gadget to have it react the same way Noora’s device was. The woman looked the thing over before letting out a soft hum, glancing over to Dean.

“And it actually works,” she stated, comparing the two sets of lights and the accompanying tones that was coming from Dean’s EMF detector. “I’m impressed,” she told him, shooting him a coy, little smile before turning and slowly stepping further into the mine. Sam sent Dean a shit-eating grin to which Dean grumbled a bit and turned his EMF detector off, shoving it back into his pocket as they followed after Noora.

Little to nothing seemed to be happening in the mines, thought the further they ventured in, the more an unsaid, unease settled amongst them. On more than one occasion, they found themselves glancing around with a certain expression of paranoia on their features or asking if they felt like someone was watching them. It was evident to them that there was something in the mine and that it was a matter of time before something presented itself to them. It was slow progress, drudging their way through the mine. They would occasionally kick cans or bottles left over by the old miners, the hollow noise it produced startling them as it disrupted the normal amount of noise they had grown accustomed to.

Noora eventually stopped and glanced down at her EMF meter. It’d stopped reading anything a while back and she didn’t want to risk using up the batteries and having to replace them with the ones she wanted to save for flashlights. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and turned around to face the brothers. Her eyes darted between the two of them and it was apparent she wanted to say something to them. She opened her mouth as she went to speak but the words she wanted to say died in her throat as she watched her EMF meter go from green, to yellow, to red. Her eyes widened a bit before she glanced up to Dean and Sam, noticing their awestruck appearances. There must have been some seriously angry spirit to generate that sort of electromagnetic field.

Before Noora could even gather her thoughts to speak again, the distinct sound of footsteps echoed from in front of them. Noora spun around suddenly, gripping the steadily lit device in her hands as her eyes peered into the jagged cave in front of them. A few tense moments of silence and stillness settled over them and the three hunters readied themselves for whatever could come their way. Noora was torn between putting down her EMF and grabbing her gun or keeping her EMF up for safety measures. Her instinct to defend herself won and she quickly turned off her EMF detector, slipped it into her jacket pocket, and pulled her gun from the back of her jeans. She switched the safety off and aimed in the direction the noise of footsteps had come from. She could see each shaky breath she took and exhaled rising in front of her, though she couldn’t attribute it to the ghost at all. It was naturally very cold in the mine.

Footsteps suddenly resounded behind the trio and they all spun to face the direction they’d come from, pistols poised to shoot.

“Oh c’mon, stop playing around,” Dean called, since he was quite fed up with the mine and all it had to offer. His voice echoed outwards and the area around them grew still once more. Noora chanced a glance forward only to spot a shadowy figure just at a slight bend in the mine. Her eyes widened slightly before she took off toward the shadow, having much difficulty running in three inches of muck and mud that coated the mine floor. She heard the boys shout something behind her, but couldn’t understand with the sound she was making and her pulse pounding in her ears.

She paused once she lost sight of the shadow, thankful that she kept up with her fitness regimen or else she may be a bit more winded than she was. It didn’t help that the air was cold and it was entering her warm lungs, making them seize up a bit. Someone was making an almighty ruckus behind her as they jogged up to meet her and she turned suddenly, spying a rather winded Dean approaching her.

“I lost it,” she murmured, eyeing him as he doubled over to try and catch his breath. Her eyes glanced behind him, brow furrowing a bit. “Where’s Sam?” she questioned, eyes slipping back over to Dean as she switched the safety back on to her pistol.

“There’s another ghost in here…or the same one just screwing with us,” he said in between drawing in breaths of air. Noora let out a heavy sigh and shook her head, closing her eyes for a moment before reopening them.

“Well…that’s just dandy,” she murmured grumpily before turning and glancing both ways up and down the mine. “Let’s go see if we can’t find Sam since we lost the—” Her voice died off abruptly as the sharp sound of metal on rock echoed throughout the mine three distinct times and Noora fell her stomach drop and her mouth fall open. She slowly turned to face Dean, meeting his wide eyes. It was apparent they were thinking the same thing of those knocks and knew that they better high-tail it out of the mine as soon and as fast as they could. They turned and started in the direction they had come from, their feet sloshing heavily through the water, mud, and rock around their feet.

When they passed the bend, they saw Sam at the distant end of a straight stretch of the mine, watching them with the same expression with they had worn when they first heard the knocking.

“You guys heard that, right?” He asked, stepping toward the two of them. Both Noora and Dean nodded as they stepped toward him. “What do you think it was?”

“Tommy Knock—” Noora’s voice died off abruptly once more as her flashlight began to flicker ominously. She stopped for a moment and stared down at it, noticing that all their lights were either growing dim or cutting out altogether. She slammed the head of the flashlight against the heel of her palm a few times, knowing that she had just changed the batteries for the reason that she didn’t want her flashlight to cut out. One by one, their lights flickered out and the three of them were plunged into darkness. Nobody moved from their spot spare the frantic movement of their hands as the three hunters tried to get their flashlights and headlamps to cut back on and alleviate the pressing, inky darkness that surrounded them.

There was suddenly the sound of timber creaking, louder than any other noise they had heard before then the sickening noise of rock grinding against rock and the rumble of an immense weight falling to the mine floor. Noora turned away from the noise and dove to the ground, her hardhat falling from her head with the movement as her arms came to cover her head and her cheek pressed against the muddied floor. She felt a weight fall on top of hers and let out a loud ‘oof’ as the air was squeezed from her lungs and her eyes squeezed shut as she immediately feared the worst. That was until she felt the warmth of a chest against her back through her clothes and realized that Dean had either fallen on top of her or had thrown himself on top of her.

It seemed the noise of rocks and ground falling lasted forever and Noora kept her eyes shut tight even though she knew that their lights had probably not come back on. She could feel Dean’s even breathing against her back and a few pieces of rubble and rock falling or rolling past the two of them. Eventually, all movement stopped and all they heard was the sound of their breathing and the occasional drip of water or tiny rock scampering over bigger rocks. Noora eventually opened her eyes, finding that her headlamp had turned back on and that the beam was directed toward the two of them. She could feel Dean slowly moving off of her back and she was suddenly aware of the mud and moisture seeping through her layers of clothing and dampening her skin.

“You alright, Noora?” He asked as she slowly pushed herself up to her knees, reaching forward and putting her hardhat back onto her head despite the fact it was dripping with mud. A little mud in her hair was better than having her skull cracked open by a falling rock.

“Yeah,” she breathed, turning to look at him and frowning a bit when she noticed a trickle of blood down his temple. “Are you feeling alright?” She asked, eyes darting over him for a moment as he lifted his fingertips to his head and winced slightly as he grabbed his hard hat.

“I’ve had worse,” he murmured before he grabbed his flashlight from the mud and used his shirt to clean the plastic protective covering of the light off. He turned the beam to the cave it and saw that it spanned from the floor, all the way to the ceiling. Neither of them knew how thick the cave in was, but there was a sudden sinking feeling that they two of them were trapped in a seemingly endless mine.

“Sam?” Dean tried to call through the cave-in, his tone suddenly frantic as he put his hardhat back on and stepped out of the mud and walked over to the occasionally shifting rubble pile. Noora soon followed after him, keeping quiet as the direness of the situation began to slowly sink in. What if Sam had been caught in the cave-in and they had no way of quickly reaching him. “Sam!?” Dean called again, eyes darting over the pile to see if there was a gap he could widen, but there was none.

Silence fell over the two of them as they waited for Sam to reply, hoping for Sam to reply. A few bone-chilling seconds passed and there was no noise or indication that Sam was trying to reply to them. Dean slowly turned to look over at Noora; the look in his eyes causing her gut to twist and her blood to run cold.