Short Story~Phantom by Isra

It was the family’s first night. The night was dark. A breeze rustled the trees that lined the far end on the 27^th Street, and a full moon was up and shining clean white light over the proceedings. It was getting cold with every passing hour. The new family was preparing t sleep, when the lights in their room started fluctuating. There was a sudden cold that gripped the trio. The house shook for a moment.

“I’ll check what’s wrong.” frowned Mr. Jake.

“Be careful, honey.” Jake nodded once. The moment he left, all the disturbances subsided. Suddenly, a misty orange light that was filtering through the curtains from the street lamp outside the window, began to flicker.

“Come on, dear. Let’s go see where your father is.” Jake’s wife took her daughter’s hand as they started down the stairs….

The entire world seemed to sink beneath her feet as her eyes met the lifeless form on the floor. No stream of liquid flowed from the body. No signs of violence tattooed the flesh. There was only the fearful geometry of the man’s head… turned backward, twisted 180° in the wrong direction. It was Jake.

Far in Illinois, Sam Winchester woke up with a start.

“Why did you let me fall asleep?” Sam’s voice was hoarse.

“Because I’m an awesome brother. What did you dream about?”

Sam told Dean what he saw.

:That’s weird,” said Sam while scanning his laptop, after two hours of research.

“What you’ve got?” asked Dean as he sat on the bed.

“It’s this old town in Illinois. Many families come to live here, but they leave after  few weeks.”

“And that’s what’s got you worried, Sammy? Hah!” Cackled Dean.

“Yeah, very funny. A few houses are renovated. Here’s-“

“How many?”

“Not mentioned. That’s not the point, Dean. Two months ago, a family came to live in the town. A few members were killed. Same is what happened a year ago, and then five years back. Here’s an old legend.” Dean made a face when he heard Sam saying this.

“Look Dean. Our job is to hunt evil. We need to look into this. The vision I saw, and then after reading this, there’s definitely something supernatural going on there. The man must’ve been dead by now. It’s our job-“

“So what about the legend?” Dean cut him off.

“Early in 80s, residents of the town said that there lived a maniac who was a….lover.” Sam cleared his throat uneasily.

“I’m listening.” Dean smiled earnestly.

“Fell in love with a girl from the Radley’d place. People claimed he went out at night when the moon was high and peeped in the windows of the place. They say that any stealthy crimes committed in the town were his work. The girl died one day, and the dude never showed himself in public. Uh, that’s about it.”

“Poor fella.”

“They called him the ‘Phantom’.”

“Why that? Anyway, you think this phantom dude’s spirit’s got something to do with this?”

“I guess so.” replied Sam.

“Well then, let’s hit the road, Haley Joel.”

A tear rolled down Jake’s wife’s face. It felt as if everything had changed with unnatural suddenness. She began to sob. She had no clue as to how many hours had gone past sitting beside her husband’s corpse. She needed help. She grabbed her daughter and took the keys that hung beside the door. She got the key inside the hole and turned. The door remained locked. Awkward. She tried again. Damn! Nothing. What was wrong? Did they receive the wrong key? Why wasn’t it working? She started banging, when she heard a car stop, probably near her house.

“Hey! Hey! Stop. We’ve come to help. Stand back.” Someone yelled.

There was a bang.

The lock mechanism was now in tatters, the wood surrounding it entirely pulverized. The door was now fallen ajar, as the lock had released. Two men stood in the doorway-one in a leather jacket, and the other, sasquatch.

“Uh… This is Dean and I’m Sam. We are investigators, we were passing through the town, had some work to do. Think we could help you?”

Jake’s wife started crying. The Winchesters tried to help her.

“We need to talk.” Said Sam to his brother, after being told what happened in the house. “I’m gonna check the house and see if I can find anything about the dude.”

“What will you do? Isn’t it obvious? His spirit hunts whoever moves in the area.”

“I need to find where he’s buried. We gotta burn the bones, dean.”

Sam Winchester had just covered some distance on foot when he noticed a house with bare ground-unholy ground. Fantastic! This was his place. He opened the door and searched the rooms. He found clues about who the Phantom really was. He came across an album on the floor. He picked it up and saw the young lover standing in front of the same house. There was a tree nearby. Sam rushed outside. There was no tree. That was his place to dig.

“So, what do you think? What is it?” asked Jake’s wife, back at the house.

“We’re not sure. We think it’s an old man’s spirit.” Dean shrugged. The woman kept nagging.

“You think such things exist?” she gasped?

“Yeah-“ As soon as he said this, they heard a creaking far up ahead. Lights flickered. Dean got his gun out. Suddenly Jake’s wife got pinned to the wall, so did her daughter. Dean sensed something behind him. He turned around and shot the spirit with rock salt bullets.

“Thank God!” Jake’s wife gasped as she fell, from the wall.

“Yeah, you can call me Dean.” He winked and smirked back.

“Watch out!”

It came again. A sizzling pair of prongs scratched the back of Dean’s head; a searing pain shot through his body. He fell to his knees.

“Hurry up, Sam!” He screamed.

Sam saw the bones. That was it. He threw the matchstick, and the fire lit up. He ran back towards the Radley place.

“Dean!”

He moved towards his brother and helped him stand up. Curious eyes saw the brothers.

“Listen, we…we are hunters. We came across the mysterious killings and we thought we might check in.”

“So…why was it doing it?” she managed.

“It’s like some unfinished job…business.” Sam shrugged, “Maybe you didn’t get something you wanted. It may be for love, revenge. In this case, he lost his loved one. His soul won’t rest, and so he takes revenge from whoever comes in this place. It’s not his fault. Life wasn’t just fair with him.”

“Yeah, Sammy says pansy stuff like that. I don’t have any sympathies for them.”

After that the boys hit the road and Jake’s wife called 911.