Chapter Text
Jaime raced down the halls, his breathing rapid. The exit had to be somewhere close, right? As he turned another corner he gasped, almost stumbling backwards. Another ghost. Misshapen and disfigured. It turned its head a full one hundred and eighty degrees to stare dead into the young hunter's soul. It grinned, the flame above its head dancing in the empty air of the hallway.
It whispered to Jaime, so quietly that he had to strain to listen. “Candles.”
Jaime scrambled to reach into his bag and retrieve any amount of salt he could find. He tossed a handful at the spirit, which dissipated upon contact. The young man sighed with relief, eyes darting around the now barren area. Thank God. His parents had never mentioned anything like this in their notes. Maybe starting on one of their unfinished and undocumented jobs wasn't his smartest idea. Fuck, why was he so stupid-
Jaime froze. Footsteps. Not booming, but the small patters of a young child. He held his breath, gaze locked onto the direction he heard it. Please, God, please don't be a creepy ghost child.
Around the corner a small boy emerged. His hair was medium length and he was dressed in an outfit that likely belonged to the puritans.
The child stopped yards away from Jaime, his piercing blue eyes watching him with deadly precision.
Jaime screamed, bolting in the opposite direction. His heart leapt in his chest when he spotted the stairwell and the large double doors in the room below. The poor, inexperienced man, however, did not see the tendril twisting its way up the steps. Not when he was rushing down and not when he tripped on it. He only saw it as he toppled down the steps, head slamming against the bannister, neck snapping.
“Weird,” Sam murmured, as he scrolled on his computer.
“Weird?” Dean looked up from his breakfast, his words muffled by the food shoveled in his mouth. “What's weird?”
Sam lowered the lid of his laptop to look his brother in the eye. “Yeah weird. There's a city in New York that's home to a definitely haunted hotel.”
Dean quirked an eyebrow, taking another bite of his eggs. “Another hotel?” He leaned back in the booth, head practically crossing into the space of the family that sat behind him. “And why exactly is that weird? Seems pretty run of the mill for us.”
“There had been sightings there for over decades. The weird part is, no hunters have visited there in years, even though the sightings never stopped.”
“Huh.” Dean sat up. “So what’re we thinking? Some sort of hunter repellant?”
“Hard to say,” Sam concluded, closing his laptop. “Finish up. I think we should look into it.”
His older brother groaned. “What's the rush, Sammy? I never get to finish my breakfast.”
“You can box it and finish in the car!” Sam announced as he packed his bag and swung it over his shoulder. Dean stuck his tongue out at his brother, who simply turned and walked off.
As the Winchester brothers loaded into the impala, Dean turned to Sam.
“So!” He began as the engine turned over. “What made you notice this job if it'd been ignored for so long?”
Sam exhaled, “Apparently a guy Bobby knew, some rookie hunter with almost no experience, went there as the first hunter in years just a few days ago. He says the guy stopped answering calls and wants us to check it out.”
“A rookie?” Dean snorted as he began backing the impala out of their parking spot. “Why does Bobby know him? Or… did?”
“Something about his parents being former hunters.” Sam shrugged.
“Right.” Dean drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. “So, Tim Drake, what’ve we got on this place?”
“Actually? Quite a bit. It was originally an asylum, then a prison, and then… another asylum before becoming a hotel.”
Dean actually let out a laugh at that. “Well no wonder it's a cesspool of spirits.”
“Yeah, but that still doesn't explain why the place hasn't had any hunter activity in so long.”
“Maybe something is keeping all the ghosts there and stopping them from being exorcised?”
“Maybe.”
A few hours passed as they drove, Dean focusing on the road and the tunes blasting from the cassette player and Sam looking into the hotel some more until they stopped at a diner for lunch.
“Take a look at this,” Sam said as they sat down, flipping his laptop around. “The previous owner, Nathan Freeling? He killed himself there two days before our hunter friend paid a visit.”
“So?” Dean prompted.
“So there's a new owner. Freeling’s sister, Katherine.”
“We’ll have the chilli cheese fries to start.” Dean winked at the approaching waitress, tapping the words on the menu. She scrawled down the order and smiled warmly, leaving the boys alone again.
“So big bro kills himself and leaves little sis the creepy ass hotel?” Dean asked, folding up his menu.
“Pretty much.”
“What, was it in his will?”
“Yep. Everything he had was left to his sister, actually. From the hotel itself to…” Sam frowned as he continued scrolling. “A beanie boo collection?”
“Of course.” Dean nodded solemnly.
“And get this,” Sam began, “This guy was in a total of twelve cults throughout his life.”
“Holy shit, twelve?” Dean grinned, “Was he trying to speed run going to hell?”
The appetizer was placed softly on the table with a small clink.
“Thanks,” Dean murmured, flashing a rather lascivious smile at the young woman.
Sam rolled his eyes.
The rest of the drive was fairly quiet, save for the Led Zeppelin blasting from the cassette player. When the impala turned into town, Sam spoke up.
“So how should we go about this?”
“Well why don't we stay there?” Dean suggested.
Sam turned to his brother, a look of disbelief clear across his face. “Stay in the haunted hotel infamously known for driving out or killing hunters?”
“I don't see why not.”
“Yeah, not happening. There's a perfectly nice bed and breakfast a lot closer to civilization.”
“Look Sammy,” Dean said as the Impala turned down a dirt path leading into the forest surrounding the town. “It'll be pretty damn suspicious if we keep goin’ in and out without buying a room. Plus, investigating the place would put us in pretty much the same amount of danger.”
Sam let out a string of frustrated noises before sighing. “Fine.”