7 | The Hook Man

You had loved reading books since you had picked up your first novel in first grade. Your mom and dad greatly encouraged you to read books and bought you many.

You had read the classics by Micheal Crichton and Dan Brown. Other than that you had read other ones by not as famous authors.

Like you, even your parents were always engrossed in books. You had noticed a few strange books- they were like diaries that were leather bound, in your library but whenever you tried to read them, it was right at that moment that your mom or dad walked in and scolded you for touching their personal book.

If it was so personal, why didn't they keep it in their drawer or something?

But over the years, you lost interest in them.

"Here we are."

You look up from the lore book Sam had given you- it was leather bound and stuff about demons and monsters was written in it. Dean pulled up at a gas station. You get out of the back of the car and stretch. Even though you were grateful for him to stop so you could stretch, you were irritated as well.

"Do you have to pee again, Dean?"

In the little time that you'd known Dean, he had to use the toilet frequently. And Sam, well...

Let's just say that you wouldn't mind driving in seperate car.

Sam had climbed out of the car and chuckled at your statement. Dean just makes a face at you and walks off.

You turn to Sam and tell him that you had to buy some stuff from the store.

As you walk in, you immediately walk over to the aisle with the candy. You pick up loads of bubblegum and chocolate. You grab some soda too.

While paying, you used your credit card. You didn't agree with the guys method of credit card fraud but it's the least they can get for saving the world. There was a nagging at the back of your head that you would too have to follow their methods.

But you weren't going to stay for long.

As you exit the store, you yell at Sam.

"Think fast."

He turns to you and puts his hands up to catch whatever you were about to throw at him. You throw a candy packet and walk towards the car.

He chuckles and leans on the Impala.

"I don't think you get the use of shouting 'think fast', Y/n. You throw the stuff after I turn."

You grin at him and chuck your treasure in the car. "Mhmm."

~

"So, where's your dad?"

You were reading the diary at the back of the Impala again. You look up to see Sam and Dean sharing an uncomfortable look.

"What?"

"We don't know where our dad is." Sam says as he continues looking front.

"Wait, so what are we doing now?"

"Killing all the evil S.O.Bs we find on our way to dad."

"But- you don't know where he is."

Dean looks at you from the reir view mirror and sighs. "We're working on it. And why are you reading our dad's book?"

You look up for a moment and sigh. You knew that this question was going to come up eventually. The way you told Dean to reduce the volume of the music and how you were engrossed in the book.

You keep the book away and look down, feeling like a kid confessing something to her parents.

"It's just- I have no training. And I know that I'm only going to slow you guys down. Hell, after reading about what's out there, I'm pretty sure I'll get you guys killed like this."

Sam turns back and tries to speak but you cut him off.

"So, I'm trying to be as helpful as I can get. I'm reading up on this stuff so I can maybe help you guys."

Hearing it loud, you realized how stupid you must have sounded in front of them. You pinch the bridge of your nose and sigh.

"I'm sorry. I probably sound really stupid-"

"No, Y/n. We appreciate it." You look up and realize that it was Dean who spoke. You raise your eyebrows in surprise and look at Sam who says the same.

"Yeah, Y/n. You're not going to slow us down. And we'll figure something out. We'll- uh, we can train you. In our free time."

You smile as Sam tries to come up with solutions. He seems flustered. You chuckle and put your hand on his shoulder, which shuts him up.

"I get it, Sam. You'll figure something out."

He chuckles shyly and you lean back in your seat.

"If your that worried, be happy you weren't there when we were dealing with the wendigo."

You furrow your eyebrows and sit up straight. "Wendigos are an Algoquin legend. Some dude gets stuck in snow and because of starvation, starts eating other people, eventually becoming a monster. It's said that eating human meat gives you certain abilities; immortality, strength, speed. It's -"

You suddenly realise how Sam is looking at you and stop speaking.

"I-uh just read it." You say silently.

Sam bursts into laughter and Dean snickers.

"You want a golden star or something?" Dean mocks you as you feel your cheeks heat up, but you chuckle.

~~

"Your half-caff double vanilla latte is getting cold over here, Francis."

You look up from your phone and snicker. Sam walks over to the table you and Dean were sitting at and looks at Dean.

"Bite me."

"Oooh." You say lazily looking back down at your phone screen.

"So, anything?"

"I had them check the FBI's missing persons databank. No 'John Does' fit that description." Sam says irratatedly and continues. "I even ran his plates for traffic violations."

Dean then speaks in a that's-a-fact voice. "I'm telling you, I don't think dad wants to be found."

You keep your phone away and sigh. You take a sip of your beverage and look between the boys.

After a while, Dean speaks. "Check this out. News item out of Plains courier Ankeny, Iowa. It's about a hundred miles from here."

He shifts the laptop to you and Sam and you read out what was on the screen.

"Mutilated body was found near the victim's car parked on nine mile road."

"Keep reading."

Sam starts reading now as you lean into the laptop to look at the article.

"Authorities are unable to provide a realistic description of the killer. The sole eyewitness, who's name has been withheld, is quoted as saying that the attacker-"

Sam elbows you.

"Ow!"

"Move. I can't see the laptop screen."

You swear as Dean snickers and you take a sip of your drink with a frown. You slide back on your chair as Sam continues.

"Was invisible."

Dean looks at Sam. "Could be something interesting."

You zone out for the rest of the conversation. It was just... Sam was so different now. More stressed, you could say. His mom had died. His dad was missing. And Dean is... Well, he is Dean.

You mentally slap yourself for being rude. You didn't know Dean that long so it was wrong to already label him as that. Sure he loved drinking and women. But he was nice and kind too.

"Y/n."

You look up to see Dean smiling and Sam with an irritated expression.

If you were right, that meant that you guys were taking a road trip.

~~~

Dean parks out of a fraternity house and all of you get off.

"Victim lived here." You nod and follow them when they convince them that they're from Ohio. It took extra convincing to let you in.

You make your way inside to the a room with the sticker Purple Man on the door.

Strange.

You and Sam share a look and enter the room with Dean. You stifle a giggle when you see who's in there.

Of course. A guy painted purple.

Dean knocks on the door and the guy stops painting himself.

"Who are you?" He eyes you warily.

"We're your new roommates."

"Who's she?" He tilts his head in your direction.

Dean puts his arm around your waist without hesitating and looks down at you. You raise your eyebrows slightly.

"This...is my girlfriend. Ain't that right, sweetheart?" He gives you a face and you try not to growl the words out.

"Yes, that's right."

You pinch him and move towards Sam who just grins at the two of you.

The guy raises his hand and looks at Dean. "Nice!"

You give him your bitch face and you were pretty sure the guys did too because he puts his hand down.

Dean walks into the room while you stick close to Sam.

"Do me a favour? Get my back. Big game today."

"He's the artist." Dean points at Sam with his thumb. "Things he can do with a brush..."

Sam looks down at you with a frightened expression and you shrug.

"Go get 'em." He sighs and takes the brush from the boy.

Dean and Sam try to get information out of the guy Murph while you examine the room. It was pretty messy for you. You had an OCD problem but it wasn't too bad.

"Who's Lori Sorenson?" You look up at Dean asking Murph a question. "And you missed a spot."

Sam looks at you, exasperated. You smirk and walk closer to the guys.

"Lori's a freshman. She's a local. Super hot."

You feel yourself get self conscious. It was true. You were in a place crawling with hormonal teenage boys. Sure they rated girls on how they looked. You pull your jacket around you, trying to cover your body. Sam notices and gives you a small smile which you return. You wonder if when you were in college, guys talked about like that.

Probably not.

Murph tells some church's adress to Dean. You shrug off the feeling you had earlier. You had to find this innocent kid's murderer. Well, 'kid-who-was-about-your-age's murderer.

As you walk to exit the house, you notice a boy about your age who had golden locks and blue eyes. He smiles at you as you walk by and so do you. It had been a while since you'd been on a date. You didn't mind going with this guy.

Right when you were about to open the door of the Impala, you feel a hand on your shoulder. And it's obviously the cute guy.

"Hey." You say. You look over to Sam and Dean who are looking at you both with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey. I'm Ryan." He puts his hand out and you shake it.

"Y/n."

"So... You're new here?"

"Yeah, my...brothers are staying here. Well, not now but they're moving in."

Ryan looks at Dean and Sam and back at you. Dean just gives an awkward smile and Sam scoffs. They get into the car and leave you two outside. You didn't want to refer to Dean as your boyfriend if this guy wanted to ask you out.

"Oh. Um- if you want anyone to show you around... I'm always here."

You smile shyly at him. "Thanks. That's really sweet. How about you give me your number."

He smiles brightly at your straightforwardness and punches his number in your phone.

You tell bye and opens and shuts your car door like a gentleman. You giggle as he stands there and waves at you as you as Dean drives away.

~~

After the awkward entrance into the church, the three of you walk up to Lori.

"Are you Lori?" Sam asks the girl.

She replies with a yes and you all proceed to introduce yourselves.

"My name is Sam and this is my brother Dean and my friend Y/n"

"Best friend." You shake hands with the girl as Sam scoffs.

After introducing giving your apologies, Sam speaks. "I get what you're going through. I saw someone get hurt once. Y/n and I, both. It's something you don't forget."

Lori looks at you and you give her a sad smile that doesn't reach your eyes. You feel yourself shudder as your memory takes you back to that awful day.

Lori's father, the reverend walks up to you guys and she introduces you to him.

Dean starts talking to the reverend and beckons you to follow him, leaving Sam and Lori alone. You feel a pang of...jealousy?

No! Couldn't be. Sam was just your friend.

Then why couldn't you shake the feeling away. The same feeling you had, seeing him with Jessica.

No! Shut up, Y/n!

You stop the voice in your head. He just lost someone he loved dearly.

You look at the both of them as they walk away.

~

After talking to the reverend, Dean faces you. Sam had also come back after talking to Lori and you guys were heading to the library.

"Y/n, can I have your phone?"

You hand your phone to Dean.

"Why, though?" You lean in to see what he was doing and squel.

"What the hell, Dean! Did you just delete Ryan's number?" You look up at him in anger.

"Well, yeah. We wouldn't want anything tying you here."

"What does that mean?!" You were on the verge of stomping your foot on his foot.

Sam interrupts and speaks. "Dean's right, Y/n. If something happens here, if we get caught by cops or anything, you need someone who would back you up. Not a frat boy."

You sigh, not understanding what they said; but they were the expert monster hunters and you thought better than to argue. But you hold a grudge.

"Okay. Fine!" You snatch your phone from Dean and stomp the both of their legs as you walk to the Impala.

You grin cheekily when you hear the both of them swear and hurry after you.

~~

"So you believe her?" You ask, your voice coming a bit harsher than intended.

Sam looks taken aback for a second but follows you and Dean into the library.

"I do."

"Yeah, I think she's hot too." You smack Dean's hand.

Sam continues speaking."No, man, there's something in her eyes. And listen to this. She heard scratching on the roof and found the bloody body suspended upside down over the car."

You frown at how someone could do that. But Dean interrupts your thinking by speaking.

"But body upside down-"

"Yeah, I know, the Hookman legend."

"What?" You interupt their little theory and look up at them in confusion.

Dean looks at you. "It's one of the most famous urban legends. But we don't know if we're dealing with the Hookman."

"Every legend has its source. A place where it all began."

You look up at the two of them conversing as they try to figure out who the attacker was. Suddenly you felt nervous.

You're just going to drag them down..

You silence the voice in your head and listen to them.

"Maybe the Hookman isn't a man."

You snicker. You were going to say something but Dean and Sam look at you as you interrupted their thinking process. You raise your hands in mock surrender and they turn back to eachother.

"Maybe it's a spirit."

~

"Arrest records back to 1851."

"This is how you spent four good years of your life, huh?"

"Me, yes. Y/n, not so much." You look up from the dust box at Dean who looked at you in surprise.

"Yes, well, I'm full of surprises, honey." You say, as you open the box, the nostalgic smell of old paper reaching your nose.

~~

After finding the culprit responsible, the spirit of Jacob Karns, a preacher who killed 13 prostitutes in one night, you guys decided to do a bit of investigating.

Dean was not sure if you should join them or not but you convinced him.

Dean opens up the trunk of the Impala and you gasp as he opens a secret compartment full of weapons and vials of water and crucifixes.

"That's...nice." You say, swallowing the gulp of saliva in your mouth.

"Yeah, well." Dean says as he searches the trunk for something. Maybe a weapon for you.

"I'm holding the flashlight."

"Sounds good to me." Dean smirks and hands you a torch while he gives Sam a shotgun.

He looked like a real life oxymoron. He looked gentle, innocent but the shotgun made him look dangerous.

You listen in on them talk about salt bullets.

Okay...?

But them Sam mentions that they are spirit deterents and then you understand.

"But it won't kill them right? It's only gonna slow them down?" You ask, remembering reading about how powerful salt was in John's diary.

Sam smiles and says yes. You follow them as they walk around the car.

"That's pretty good. Did you and dad think of this?" Sam asks as he loads the gun with the salt bullets.

"I told you, you don't have to be a college graduate to be a genius."

"Well, there go my college years." You say, sadly. Sam chuckles slightly and Dean smirks.

The three of you suddenly stop when you hear the sound of something.

Sam points his gun into bushes as you shine the light over there. You feel your breath quicken at the thought of seeing a spirit.

The light shines on a the sheriff's bagde as he shouts at the three of you to get down on your knees.

"Shit!" You mutter as you get down first. Sam puts the gun down and Dean puts down the rope he was holding.

You put your arms behind your head as you look at the sheriff in fear.

"Get down on your bellies, now!"

You lie down and feel the gravel cut into your cheek. You grunt and look at Sam who was right beside you.

"He had the gun!" Dean whines as he goes down and you try not to giggle.

Dean and his childish behaviour.

~~

You wait in the Impala as Dean went to the sheriff's office to get Sam. Apparently, you didn't have the professional lying skills that he seemed to possess.

Dean and Sam get in the car and it creaks in protest.

"How old is this car, anyway?" You ask as you get ready for a drive.

"It was Dad's for a while," Dean answers. "Gave it to me for my 17th."

You nod your head in acknowledgement, remembering that until a month ago, you thought the Winchesters were traders and not-well monster hunters. A wave of disbelief washes over you once again and you shake it off quickly. "Where are we going now?"

"Following the cops. Seems to be a murder."

Even with the murder and all, hearing it from Sam, you felt calm. His voice was soothing and made you feel like nothing was wrong.

Though stuff was in fact, very wrong.

~~

"Why would the Hookman come here? Don't ghosts only haunt one place?" You ask as the three of you sneak up behind the fraternity house.

"Maybe he's not haunting the scene of his crime. Maybe it's about something else." Dean replies.

After some girls pass by and Dean makes some absurd statements, Sam starts climbing the side of the wall.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" You ask as Dean hoists you up on the balcony of the place of murder. You slip past Sam and go in first, ignoring the feeling of having him pressed against your body. You still feel your cheeks warm up.

It's wrong.

You go in first. You turn back to see Dean fall on Sam. You chuckle as quietly as you can. The cops shouldn't know that you were there.

You felt a feeling of exhilaration pass through you. Sure the cops had once busted a party you were at and you almost got arrested but checking out a murder scene was pretty messed up. And with a guy who's supposed to be dead according to the authorities.

"Oh sorry." Dean apologizes to Sam as they straighten up.

"Be quiet!" Sam whisper-shouts.

"Me be quiet? You be quiet!" You laugh inwardly at Dean's immaturity but you beckon the two of them to follow you into Lori and her friend's room. Dean shuts the window as you leave the room.

As you enter the room after the cop leaves you look at the front door.

Lori and Taylor's room.

You smile sadly at it and enter the room with the boys.

There was blood soaking the sheets and dripping onto the wooden floor. The room reeked of iron and something else.

"Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" Sam reads out what was carved on the wall. "That's right out of the legend."

"Yeah that's classic Hook Man alright. It's definitely a spirit."

"What's that strong smell?" You ask as you rub at your nose, trying not to sneeze.

"Ozone. You're right. I've never smelled ozone this strong before." Sam replies.

"Hey, come here." You walk to the window as Sam beckons Dean to him.

"Does that look familiar to you?" You turn around to look at the symbol on the wall. You were surprised that you didn't feel sick looking at the blood but it was probably all The Walking Dead.

"It was on his hook." You say, remembering it after a second.

~~

"It's the same symbol." Sam says.

"Glad we got that out of the way." You say sarcastically and lean over to look at the picture of the hook.

Dean ignores you and continues. "Seems like it is the spirit of Jacob Karns." You frown at him ignoring you but Sam doesn't seem to notice what happened. You shrug it off.

"So, we have to find this guy's grave and salt burn his remains?" You ask and Sam turns to you.

"Yeah." His expression is unreadable.

"That's not creepy at all!" You exclaim and give them a cheeky smile. Dean cracks a smile and Sam chuckles.

Sam turns back to the sheet of paper and recites what was written. "After execution, Jacob Karns was laid to rest in old north cemetery in an unmarked grave."

"Super." Dean gets off the hood of the car and walks to the door.

You give Sam a look. The one where you act like you're fine but you're not.

He smiles and continues talking. "Okay, so we know it's Jacob Karns but we still don't know where he'll manifest next. Or why."

You think to yourself. Why was it that Lori was the one to find the bodies. She was the one who was with the victims the last too.

Before you can voice out your opinion, Dean speaks. " I'll take a wild guess about why. I think you're little friend Lori has something to do with this." You scoff and get in the car.

Dean Winchester stole your line.