December 5th, 2019
Ouray, Colorado

"What's so special about Marley being a witch, anyway?" Will grumbled, skimming through his schoolbooks, attempting to finish some paper on microbiology.

Jack shrugged, sitting on the bed beside Will's, doodling a picture of Dick Grayson in his sketchbook. "Ask Ash," he responded, concentrating on getting Dick's dark black eyes just right.

Will snorted, closing his textbooks and yawning. "Right, because he's always so forthcoming with information."

Jack smirked as he put the finishing touches on his sketch for Marley, and stretched his stiff muscles. "Isn't being a witch special enough? She can do magic." He laid back against his pillows surrounded by his sketchbook and dozens of colored pencils he didn't feel like cleaning up.

"I've been doing research. Witches aren't good, Jack," Will insisted, carefully stacking his schoolbooks on the floor beside his bed.

Jack shrugged. "Marley's good. Besides, I'm pretty sure spirit communicators are supposed to be bat shit crazy and I'm not."

Will shook his head derisively, shutting off the lamp on the bedside table between their beds. "You're fucking naïve, man. You think all of this shit is so cool, but it's not."

"Dude, I fucking pretend I'm digging for treasure when I'm digging graves, just to make it more entertaining. Call it naïve if you want, but I'm not gonna try making Mars feel bad about herself because she can do strange shit." Jack's eyes were glued to the ceiling above them as he absently snapped the rubber band around his wrist to keep from falling asleep.

Will didn't respond for a long time, choosing to change the subject when he finally did. "Are you planning on getting any sleep tonight?" he asked, sounding more interested than irritated.

Jack shrugged, petting Keala as she curled up on the bed next to him. "Not really. I went down into the tunnels, I'd rather not know who died there."

Will's head snapped in his direction. "They always show you how they died?"

Jack sat up, leaning against the wall. "Not always. A couple of times they've just tried to kill me first."

Will sat up rigidly, staring at him like he was trying to find any hint of a lie in his features, but he couldn't. "How can you talk about it like that?"

A smirk tugged at the corner of Jack's lips, and he was suddenly glad everyone else was bunking in different rooms, leaving just the two of them. "Remember that day, we burned down Old Man Summer's cabin on the mountain?"

Will grimaced at the mention. "I wish I could forget it."

"A ghost possessed Justin and tried to kill every single one of us," Jack confessed, still haunted by the memory. He'd never forgiven himself for what happened there. He wouldn't. Reaching out, he ran his fingers through Keala's soft fur for comfort. She'd saved his life that night.

"But that wasn't the only time?"

"No. Wasn't the first time, wasn't the last either. You'd be surprised how many places are home to trapped spirits, restless or not."

"How do you live like that?"

Jack shook out his dark hair and blinked against the exhaustion that threatened to overtake him. "I pretend everything's normal. It's pretty much kept me sane until now." He shrugged his shoulders casually, a hint of a grin making an appearance on his face.

"B-b-but we live in a cemetery," Will stuttered. "And you dig graves."

Jack nodded absently. "Yep. Sometimes the ghosts are pissed and sometimes they're sad and mopey. Usually they end up turning angry and vengeful. Ninety nine percent of them are fucking assholes. Don't interact if you can help it."

"Huh," Will muttered drily, "thanks for the advice." They sat in silence for a long time, before he finally spoke again. "So that time when you were in first grade and you started crying because you saw a little boy die in the bathroom at school, you weren't just trying to go home early?"

Jack laughed at the question, remembering the day as soon as his older brother brought it up. "No. That was scary as shit, I thought he was real. Now, it's just kinda funny."

"Damn. I'm sorry I ever doubted you. Wake me up if someone tries to kill you."

Jack listened to his older brother's breathing slow until he was lost in dream world, while staring unseeingly at a blank page in his sketchbook. Lifting a pencil to the paper, he started to draw the wolf that had been posed to attack Will while he stood on top of the truck, snapping the rubber band on his wrist every so often as his eyes drooped tiredly. But eventually, he succumbed to sleep the same way he always did.

"And now introducing, Interstate Blues!" An announcer stood on a small stage holding a mic, in a dimly lit room surrounded by smoke. The crowd cheered sloppily, all faceless in the haze, as five men filed onto the stage.

"Thank you, sir," said the frontman, a fat guy with a graying beard and a guitar that looked too small in his pudgy hands. "We're Interstate Blues, and we'd like to thank ya'll for staying out so late just to hear us in such a remote place." The crowd cheered again while the men on stage grinned at each other, starting to play their instruments heartily.

The blues music reached every crevice in the building, filling the void with the melodic tunes, enrapturing everyone. Something fell over the room, an eerie foreboding feeling, and whatever it was, it wasn't right. A girl in the crowd squirmed in her seat, moving toward the exit as quietly as she dared, while the others drank heartily and swayed with the music that made her feel empty inside.

"Where do you think you're going, missy?" some guy growled, the moment her fingers brushed the doorknob. Whirling around, she found herself face to face with a man wearing a greasy smile, with a sinister gleam glowing in his piercing yellow eyes.

"Nowhere." Dejectedly, she turned away from the exit and dragged herself back toward the bar. Maybe there was a side door? She had to find a way out. Something was not right. She'd just barely managed to slip into the back storeroom unnoticed, when the music stopped and a sickeningly sweet voice coyly thanked everyone for coming.

The second the words stopped spewing from his mouth, a scream erupted from the crowd and chaos shattered the pregnant silence that briefly followed. The girl in the storage room, searched frantically for a window, but the best she'd found was a tiny crawl space, hidden behind a false panel in the wall.

"Don't worry, people! If you all just calm down it will end soon," someone promised insincerely, followed by a sickening cackle that had her throwing her hands over her mouth to stifle her terrified scream. Tears streamed down her face, and her glasses were precariously askew, as she listened to every wail of those caught by whoever – whatever – was out there.

The sound of footsteps entering the storage room had her heart pounding furiously in her throat, while she cowered further into the webs, caring less and less about the creepy spiders she could feel crawling down her shirt and brushing against her bare arms. As the noise out in the main room grew fainter and fainter, the footsteps became increasingly louder, until they stopped in front of the wall panel she'd hidden behind.

"Oh, you lucky, lucky, little streetwalker," a voice hissed on the other side of the panel. Behind it, she held her breath, hoping that whatever he did, her death was quick. Squeezing her eyes shut, she wrapped her arms tightly around herself and let the tears flow freely. "You smell so good, you know? I wanted to take you first, but it turns out you're smarter than the rest, little whore." Without warning, a fist shattered the flimsy wood into a dozen pieces, wrapping around her throat before she had a chance to defend herself.

"No!" She screamed, her voice high and piercing.

The man grinned, his teeth rotting right out of his head. His eyes flashed dangerously and his hold tightened around her throat, blocking her airways. "Bitch, you get to live, this time," he snarled, as her kicking stilled and her vision grew spotty. The beast laughed, tossing her to the hardwood floor like a ragdoll, ignoring the way she gasped and sucked air into her lungs greedily.

She curled into a protective ball as sobs wracked her chest and the man gleefully chuckled, stepping over her and disappearing from sight, while she remained in her position until she didn't hear a single noise for nearly forty-five minutes. Dragging herself to her feet, she staggered out of the storage room and into the main room, where a blood curdling scream ripped through her throat at the gruesome, gory, scene that awaited her.

Another sob wracked her chest as a herd of pounding footsteps stampeded into the bar, guns drawn. "Ma'am! Get down on your knees and put your-"

"Jack!" Marley shook his shoulders violently until his eyes fluttered opened. "Jack, are you okay?" Concern glowed in her big dark eyes.

"I-I-I'm f-fine," he stuttered out, laying back against his sweat soaked pillow and staring up at the ceiling, breathing heavily and kicking off his blankets. Glancing at the bed next to him, he spotted Will still sleeping soundly, while in front of him, his little sister looked like she'd been tossing and turning for hours.

Marley leveled him with a steady glare. "I was going to the bathroom when I heard you screaming." Her eyes were red-rimmed and anxiety laced her words.

"Shit," Jack murmured, running his fingers through his dark curls and shooting her an apologetic look. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

Marley shook her head, taking a deep breath in and holding it for a moment before letting it out. Jack knew she was tempted to argue about whether or not she'd been afraid, but instead she whispered, "It's okay. Can I stay with you, though? This house is creepy."

Jack scooted over on the mattress until he was closer to the wall, leaving just enough room for Marley to slide in next to him, while Keala relocated to the foot of the bed. "I'll protect you."

"My hero," Marley deadpanned, rolling her eyes and hiding her grin. Jack always knew the best ways to make her feel better. "Are you gonna go back to sleep?"

Jack shook his head, his mind going over the dream again and again until every detail was ingrained into his memory. "Probably not tonight," he answered honestly, watching her eyelids droop tiredly.

"What was your dream about?"

"A blues band that turned into monsters."

Marley giggled as she drifted off into dreamland, leaving him to dwell on the realistic nightmare he'd had. He'd thought for sure his nightmares would've revolved around the spirits haunting the old house, but he was reasonably sure, his dream had nothing to do with the Lockwood property.

That girl had seemed so familiar to him, though. He couldn't place where he knew her from. Realistically, it was probably one of those weird projections the subconscious provided sometimes when it needed an image of someone it didn't have, but something about her didn't sit right with him. Something about her was-

"Jack, are you even listening to me?" Charley demanded late that afternoon when they were holed up in the library doing research. Haru was off somewhere training with Marley, while Lee helped Ash replenish their arsenal, and Piper went shooting with Will.

"Huh? What was that?" Charley rolled her pale green eyes and brushed a loose strand of honey-colored hair out of her face.

"I asked if you guys even bothered looking through Solomon's things after you murdered the poor guy," she repeated with a smirk, humor lighting up her expression.

Jack shot a bitter glare in her direction. "The poor guy murdered six people and turned them into zombies. Besides I didn't even pull the trigger."

Charley snorted. "Oh, I know. I was there when you went into hiding during the werewolf attack."

"I didn't hide." Jack grinned at the girl as he scanned another page of the ancient book he'd been reading. "I was lured into the woods by your ghost friend."

Charley shook her head, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms indignantly. Narrowing her eyes, she said, "Oh, yeah? I still think you're just trying to get me back for locking you in the shed last summer."

Jack laughed heartily, brushing loose curls out of his face. "I almost forgot about that. But now that I think about it, you can kinda be a bitch sometimes."

Charley blushed, having the decency to at least look guilty. "I didn't know it would actually try to kill you."

"Eh... I'm over it. Besides, I'm not lying to you about that coin you took. It really does tether a ghost named, Dick Grayson."

"I guess if I'm gonna haul around a haunted spirit he might as well have a comic book name." She shrugged absently, narrowing her eyes at the nearly illegible scrawl she was attempting to decipher.

"That's the spirit," Jack muttered under his breath, refraining from asking why she would deliberately keep around someone who was bound to turn psycho crazy eventually. The ghost tried to possess him for fuck's sake.

"You never answered my question, you little twerp."

Jack shrugged, thinking back to what she'd asked him repeatedly at that point. "We scanned 'em. But we got distracted," he answered honestly, yawning as his eyes drooped. The library lighting was dim at best and the air was warm, offering the perfect environment to catch a quick nap...

"Hey! Check it out!" Charley exclaimed excitedly, startling Jack from his nearly asleep state of mind, causing his heart to beat spastically against his chest.

"What?" He glared pointedly at the woman before him, who grinned like she'd won something.

"I think I know what Georgia meant when she said you needed to learn to control your ghosts."

"What?"

"Says here, there's a way to summon a ghost and get its obedience. That'd certainly help with controlling them."

"Great, I wonder what price that comes at?" He shuddered as another thought entered his mind almost immediately. "And why the hell would I want to summon one of those assholes?"

"Hey," Dick grumbled to his left, popping up in a seat at the end of the table. "I resent all this crap you're spewing about us ghosts. We're not all bad."

Jack snorted. "Right, 'cause you're not all manipulating menaces," he responded shortly, earning a startled look from Charley.

"What the hell?" She narrowed her eyes across the table at him suspiciously.

With a muted groan, Jack pointed to where Dick sat as he buried his face into his folded arms. "Your ghost has decided to make an appearance."

"You're not joking, are you?" Trepidation dripped from her voice.

Jack lifted his head, smirking over at her. "I don't joke about ghosts."

"Goddammit," Charley grumbled, glaring down at the book she'd been reading.

"What's wrong with me?" Dick snapped. "I haven't screwed with her yet. I'm saving that for someone else."

"That's great," Jack muttered sarcastically. "Do you need something, or did you just come around to annoy me?"

Dick shrugged, something unsettling glowing in his black eyes. "Mostly I came to annoy you, but then I overheard something about summoning ghosts that piqued my curiosity."

Jack narrowed his eyes at the apparition at the end of the table. "Why?"

The man shrugged casually as if he didn't have a care in the world. "Because I know how to do it."

"Oh, yeah? How?"

"How do I know? Or how do you do it?"

"Both," Jack muttered, malice dripping from his stiff voice.

"I know because I've been a ghost since 1944 and I've learned a lot about my kind. And as for the other thing-"

"Hey, Sixth Sense, sorry if I'm interrupting, but what the hell is going on?" Charley interjected, shooting him a pouty look.

"Dick was about to tell me how to summon ghosts, before you interrupted."

Charley grinned back sheepishly, pulling her long honey blonde hair into a ponytail to keep from fidgeting anymore than she already had been. "Sorry. Continue."

"Right. Well, as I was saying, to summon a ghost, you've gotta be in a dream state while chanting a specific phrase. When you wake up, you'll have a visible ghost ready to do your bidding," Dick explained vaguely. "There is a downside, though. The person who summoned the ghost is essentially letting us borrow their life force, so if we are summoned for too long, both will die."

A frown creased Jack's forehead. "What happens if I kill a ghost after I've summoned it?"

Dick's eyes narrowed into slits and he folded his arms skeptically. "Why? You planning on summoning another ghost anytime soon? I'm not enough for you?"

"Don't be an asshole," Jack responded dismissively. "Just answer the question."

"What do you think? The ghost is killed. Nothing will happen to you, if that's what you're worried about."

"What did he say?" Charley intervened right as Jack opened his mouth to respond to the annoying thing.

"He said I have to be in a "dream state" to summon a ghost by chanting something, probably the words in your book. The only thing is, when I get their obedience, they get some of my life force, so it can't last for very long or we're both dead." Jack paused for a moment after his explanation.

Charley raised her eyebrows. "Well, shit, at least we know now."

"Damn, Jacky. I'm sorry," Dick murmured sympathetically. But before Jack could figure out what he meant, the ghost disappeared.

"Yeah," he grumbled drily, ignoring Dick's comment, "now we know I can purposefully let a ghost leech off me. Yay."

"Charley, Jacky, there you guys are." Ash slammed loudly through the library as he stomped toward them, a scowl on his face.

Jack was on his feet in a second. "What's the matter?" Anxiety flooded through him while Dick's words played on repeat in his head.

Ash ran a hand through his dark hair and murmured a series of curse words under his breath, his gaze moving anywhere other than Jack. "Will and Marley are in the parlor with Georgia, we should meet them there." Glancing over at his best friend he mumbled, "Piper's with Lee and Haru packing shit up, you should go help them."

"Wait. Just tell me now. What's going on?"

Leaning against the nearest bookcase, Ash sunk to the floor as his features darkened despairingly. "I'm sorry, Jacky," he choked out, covering his face with his hands, hiding the tears that welled in his eyes.

Frozen stiff, Jack stared at his older brother, while Charley dropped down next to him, stoically looping her arm through his. "It's Dad, isn't it?" He felt his chest tighten and pain rip through him like he hadn't experienced since he was a jaded thirteen-year-old helping the girl of his dreams runaway for good.

Ash lifted his watery gaze to Jack's. "Kit called ten minutes ago. They found his body last night."

Seeing his seemingly infallible older brother broken and torn up at his feet, Jack swallowed back the urge to completely melt down and straightened his spine as his eyes narrowed. "Do Will and Marley know?"

Ash dropped his eyes and nodded. "They're waiting for us with Georgia. We should get down there." He let Charley drag him to his feet.

"How did he die?" she asked quietly, speaking up for the first time since Ash stormed into the library.

At her side, Ash's fists clenched and unclenched several times, his eyes flashing with barely contained rage. "Kit didn't say." Without another word, he led them out of the library and down long winding corridors until they reached the parlor. There, Georgia sat silently in her armchair, while Marley was curled up on one end of the couch sobbing. Will sat on the opposite side of Marley staring blankly at the wall in front of him, hardly blinking.

"Boys," Georgia greeted when they parted ways with Charley in the hallway and entered the room, "please sit down."

Marley's head snapped up and her eyes landed on Jack as he took the spot next to her. "Jack," she choked out through hiccupping sobs, "I'm an orphan." The sorrow bleeding through her words set free the tears he'd worked so hard to hold back. Tucking her into his arms, he buried his face in her shoulder.

"It's gonna be okay, Mars. You still have us." He tightened his hold on his little sister, as Keala loped into the room, curling up on the floor at their feet and whimpering softly.

"I knew your father for many years, kids. I met him in my first year of college. I was a med student and Johnny was working a job, we'd met in a bar and had a few drinks, I hadn't thought much more about him after that. But three days later, he ended up on my doorstep bloody and almost unconscious. It was the start of a magnificent friendship." Georgia's gentle, velvety voice folded around them like a warm embrace. "Many years ago, he forced me to promise him two things. One, to always live my life without regrets and to enjoy every moment I had. The second thing," she murmured staring straight ahead, her unseeing eyes holding an emotion Jack couldn't place his finger on, "was that if anything should ever happen to him, I was to give you this." She reached into her pockets and pulled out a dull gold key.

"What's it for?" Ash asked coldly, his arms folded, as he stood near the couch, closest to Will. Moving quickly, he took the key from her, before returning to his original position.

Georgia shrugged, a hint of a smile pulling at her lips. "He never said and I never inquired. Your father has been a very good friend to me for a great number of years, if you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"Yes, ma'am," Ash spoke, while the rest of them remained silent.

Jack gently released his sister, pulling out of her embrace, as her wails turned to sniffles, while her eyes remained red-rimmed and puffy. "Does anyone know how he died?"

Georgia shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, baby."

"When will we find-"

"Mom! Our guest is here!" Haru called, interrupting whatever Ash had been in the middle of saying. Footsteps echoed in the hallway, before Haru appeared with a pretty blonde woman standing at his side. She looked to be in her early thirties, and when she glanced around the room she smiled brightly.

"Good evening, everyone." A thick English accent bled through her voice as she greeted them.

"Emilia, I'm so glad you could make it. I fear, we have a problem only you can help us with," Georgia responded, while Ash's head snapped up and his eyes narrowed instantly.

Jack drew Marley closer to him, half hiding her from view of the stranger, as Ash growled, "What is the witch doing here?"

Emilia's dark eyes flashed with anger. "I'm the only witch willing to come within twenty feet of you, Slayer. I could get murdered just for my involvement. There's a hit out on you the size of the continent."

"Please, Ash. If Marley's power is going to be contained, we need Emilia's expertise." Turning her gaze on the interested witch, Georgia admitted, "Johnny's daughter is Maggie's."

"Shit," Emilia cursed, muttering under her breath in a language Jack couldn't understand. "No wonder, Annabeth and the rest of her foul tempered minions are so hellbent on getting rid of the Slayers. If I'd known you were harboring a half-breed, Georgia, I would've showed up hours ago." With a smirk, she moved curiously toward Jack and Marley.

"It's okay, Jack." Marley stepped out from behind his protective stance and held her hand out to the tall woman, who almost looked like a supermodel. "Whoa. Are all witches that pretty?" She directed the question at Jack, who shrugged absently.

"No," Ash answered stonily. "Most of them are-"

"Don't disrespect me, young man, or I'll have you running around like an abominable pest before you can even snap your fingers," Emilia threatened darkly, while Marley's eyes shined with humor.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" She innocently batted her eyelashes at the woman.

Emilia grinned, showing off two rows of the whitest teeth Jack had ever seen in his life. "I imagine we'll get on absolutely marvelous, love. Don't you think?"

Marley nodded cautiously. "Maybe."

"Everything will be okay, Mars," Jack assured her gently, pushing through his own pain to try and ease hers.

"I'm rather tired. Haru, be a dear and show me to my room?" Emilia asked him, as Haru leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded and an unreadable expression adorning his face.

"Sure."

"Thank you. Marley, we'll start bright and early tomorrow morning, darling." She left the room before anyone could say another word.

"I'm going to bed too." Will stood up stiffly and wandered out of the room in a daze. It was just nearing eight o'clock and they hadn't even eaten dinner, but Jack felt as exhausted as his older brothers looked, all he wanted to do was collapse onto his mattress.

"Ash," Georgia spoke up, her voice strictly professional, "there's a job Kit has for you, if you're up for it."

Something close to relief sparked in Ash's eyes and he stiffened visibly. "I am."

"An exterminator called in for some back up about a half hour ago. He's a little over an hour drive from here, in Pine Crest, so you'd have to leave now." She too stood up, unfolding her long white cane.

"What's the job?" Jack glanced over to see Marley shooting him a pained look.

"You're leaving me here?" she whispered under her breath, keeping her dark eyes trained on the floor. Jack wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him.

"I can't let Ash go out by himself." He might never come home too, he added silently in his head. Marley seemed to understand his unspoken sentiment and relaxed into his embrace, burying her face into his hoodie.

He half expected his brother to argue with him, but Ash only shrugged. "Fine, you can come. But I'm leaving in ten minutes."

"Okay." Jack dug around in his pockets and fingered his Altoids tin, considering lighting up one of the joints inside, despite needing to replenish the few he'd smoked already.

"Why don't you go on and get ready, Jack? And Marley, dinner will be ready in a bit, why not help your brother." Georgia dismissed them both easily, and they obliged, leaving Ash alone with her.

"I uh... made something for you today," Marley blurted out the moment Jack emerged from the room he'd shared with Will. His stuff was already packed, and Will was pretending to sleep, so it only took him a few seconds to gather his things together.

"Really?" Shock colored his face for just a few seconds. As much as he adored his little sister, she'd always been slightly cold and standoffish. She kept to herself more than anything else, not one for giving gifts or outward expressions of love and affection.

She nodded shyly, pulling a dream catcher out from behind her back. "When I was working with Haru, I found a spell for it in one of the books Emilia let him borrow. I used real animal sinew and stuff just like the ingredients called for. You have to hang it in a window for it to catch the nightmares. I cast a spell on it, to keep the ghosts away while you sleep."

Jack felt tears welling in his eyes and he furiously blinked them back as he gently took the intricately beaded and braided dream catcher. "This is beautiful," he breathed. "Thank you."

Throwing her arms around his waist she squeezed once before quickly stepping back. "Come back in one piece. Or I'll find a way to bring you back from the dead and kill you myself." Her threat had tingles running up and down his spine.

"You're kind of scary sometimes, Mars. But I love you anyway," Jack responded with a slight smirk, shaking his head at his kid sister. "I would never leave you for good." Hiking his duffel higher up on his shoulder, he whistled for Keala as he headed toward the front door. "Oh, I made something for you too. It's under my pillow."

Marley's head snapped up athis voice and her eyes sparkled brightly as he turned and left.