Simple salt and burn {Sam, Greg, Li}

[ZZZ - Dean - RETIRED]

When you had spent as much time in cemetary's as Dean had, you started to notice how repetative they all were. Sure, now and then there'd be a memorable mausoleum, or an unusual headstone or statue to break up the monotany, but more often than not, it was row upon row of similar sized stones all saying pretty much the same thing.

Here lies somebody...born on this day, died on that day....loving father/mother/daughter/son. Sadly missed by those who loved them...blah blah blah...

Occasionally there'd be one that read: Yes I'm dead. Tough luck if I owed you money. Dean liked those but they were like gold dust in a dreary desert. For the most part, cemetaries to the casual observer were pretty dull and lifeless. Which, when you consider what they are made for, is probably very fitting. Most people don't seem to want a theme park setting for their grief and loss.

But that was back home. Here, in Italy where they'd had a couple thousand years to perfect the art of the graveyard, the situation was a little less dull and a little more grand. In fact the sheer scale of this graveyard was something that even Dean could admit was impressive. Until of course it came to trying to find the marker for the grave they wanted to come and dig up.

"Anyone else thinking needle in a needlestack?" He grumbled out loud, walking beside Annali through the mazelike grounds as they searched for the crispy corpse they'd come to salt and burn to free them from their curse. Or at least that was the general idea. To say Dean was running on fumes now was probably an understatement. He was so worn out after the last couple of weeks, last few months, that he felt like just one raw and exposed nerve and everything that he could normally brush off easily was now grating harshly on his crumbling emotional walls.

"This is gonna take us friggin hours...."

The curse itself was a major factor, especially after the last near death experience at the airport, he honestly had thought that his heart would not take anymore strain like that. One more squeeze by invisible hands and it was gonna burst. Then there was the flight out itself and Dean wondered why that particular scenario had never come up in Hell because he was sure he'd have caved much sooner than he had if nonstop turbulance was to be his eternity. He'd spent at least ten hours of the journey impossibly tense so that by the time they did land his muscles were sore and he was exhausted. The other couple of hours in the air, Annali had managed to lull him to sleep but that only ended in disaster too, when he woke up gasping and acting as though Hellhounds were chewing on his legs. The other passengers didn't seem to appreciate it and Dean felt the sudden desire to jump out of the plane without a parachute. If it hadn't been for Annali, he'd have gone and hidden in the bathroom for the remainder of the flight.

So there was a very good explanation for why he was getting impatient and snappy, part of him hoped that Li in particular would understand because she seemed a tiny bit on edge herself when he was being moody. Part of him also didn't care if he was being a dick because he felt like he'd suffered enough to almost make it acceptable. Especially when it came to Greg.

Yes, Dean was jealous of the history between him and Annali, hard not to be when he had feelings for her and when Greg was her ex. But now it even the stupid little things were starting to bother him. Like Greg accidentally switching on his flashlight in Dean's face so that he spent the next ten minutes seeing nothing but white blobs in his vision. Or how Greg had pointed out that it didn't really matter what order they poured salt and gasoline over the corpse because the salt would get soaked in in either case which just irritated Dean to no end because dammit if he didn't know all that shit already.

He'd considered accidentally smacking Greg around the head with the shovel he was carrying over his shoulder but so far he was managing to hold back the urge to be a complete asshole. Just about.

"You sure we're in the right area Greg? Cause I can't see any Shelley's around here."

Yep, it was even Greg's fault Dean couldn't read Italian.

[Wil Marsh]

Greg had had a hard time explaining this little trip to his mother. A flight to Italy wasn't exactly cheap, and although Greg had a little bit of money in his savings, he wasn't exactly rich. He was able to live off of it when he was between jobs... The kind of jobs that paid, not the kind that required Devil's Traps and salt and silver.

A flight to Italy would've damn near drained his bank account, and he couldn't really afford that unless he started working as soon as he got back. He'd drain his account if he had no other choice - this was Annali, after all. But that was strictly a last resort.

So, he'd gone to his mother, telling her ne needed to take a trip to Italy. She was thrilled that he was traveling someplace that had 'historical significance', but of course she demanded to know why.

He could've told her the truth. "Well, you see, Ma, Annali's cursed... Some guy opened a locket in her house and now they're stuck together and might die of heart failure. What's in Italy? Oh, the corpse we have to salt and burn to end the curse.

Yeah. That would've gone over well.

Instead, he told her Annali was meeting her father there and she didn't want to go alone, so he was going with her. She seemed skeptical, but she bought it and gave him enough money for a flight there and back as well as a little extra for things like food and a place to stay.

If he had known Layla had some kind of scheme in mind, it would've made all that a hell of a lot easier. At least now he could give his mother her money back and call it a day, instead of her holding it over his head forever.

The graveyard was bigger than he'd expected. Then again, it was Italy. They liked to do everything with flair over there, right?

Although Annali had been a little excited that one of the locket’s owners had been Percy Shelley, they’d quickly discovered he wasn’t the guy they’d have to salt and burn. He’d been cremated and his ashes were laid to rest somewhere in this graveyard. But, Rome was still the only city the locket had traveled to twice, and both times it had somehow ended up within ten miles of this graveyard. There had to be something here linked to it.

So, here they were. Greg was carrying a shovel and a flashlight while Dean and Sam walked around with EMF detectors looking for ghostly activity. The way Greg saw it, at least, they had to salt and burn somebody in this cemetery. It was just a question of who.

Greg looked at Dean, slightly annoyed at his question. Greg hadn’t exactly liked this guy when he met him, and he was liking him less and less the more time he had to spend with him.

“Yeah. This is the right cemetery,” Greg said.

It was a little weird that whoever they were looking for was buried in the same cemetery as Percy Shelley. Then again, it was a huge place, so Greg took it as an interesting coincidence.

“You see that big ass pyramid over there?” Greg asked, nodding toward the looming structure that, even in the dark, no one with eyes could miss. “His ashes are under that.”

Greg sighed. For once he wished these ghosts would make an appearance already so they could get this over with.

[Sam Winchester (NPC)]

Sam

Sam was walking through the cemetery trailing behind the others. He had an EMF detection meter in one hand and a huge iron crow bar in the other. Sam was grumpy. Layla hadn't come with them, they had agreed it was best she stay back at the motel. Sam didn't want her getting in harms way but he was finding himself not liking it very much being away from her. He thought about the irony of it though. At least he wasn't cursed like Dean and Annali and the separation causing his heart to explode but he still didn't like the feeling and it was making him cranky.

He kept pace with the others but laid back a little as he swept the area with the EMF device. Sam could here the conversation and the tone of voice going back and forth between Sam and Greg. Dean was still being snarky to the dude and he couldn't really blame him. Sam was still a little miffed about the airport incident. Greg's voice was betraying his own aggravation with the situation and it probably wouldn't be long until the got outright hostile with each other.

Sam saw as Greg pointed out the big pyramid crypt where Shelley's ashes were kept. They weren't actually looking for Percy Shelley after what they found out but it seemed like a logical place to search. Maybe it was a couple close to him. So Sam started to wander in that general direction. As he started to get closer the EMF detector in his hands started to show some signs of life.

Looking around at their little grouping he quirked up his eyebrows and gave a little shrug. Then he moved more directly toward the pyramid, waving the EMF in front of him as he walk. The machine started to get louder and the lights bars filled up.

"I think we definitely have something over here. Maybe there was a couple connected to the necklace that actually knew Percy?"

Sam kept sweeping the area, hoping that the EMF would lead them to something more tangible than just a general area. With all the graves here he wasn't sure how they were going to know which one's were the right ones.

[The Preceptor]

Annali wasn't the sort of girl who was often grumpy, but having to be around Dean and Greg bickering all damn day was really wearing on her nerves. She had absolutely no idea why the two of them weren't getting along. On their own, she was quite fond of both of them, but putting them both together was like two angry cobras just spitting at each other for hours. Neither of them had made a move to hurt the other... instead they just irritated the hell out of one another... and out of her. For the first time, she was wishing it had been Sam that she was chained to. That way Greg and Dean could duke it out... whatever the issue was... and she and Sam could go somewhere else more peaceful.

But such was not this case. It was bad enough that she had to deal with their grumpy asses, she had to do so now while trudging through a creepy cemetery at night. Annali's hands were shoved in the pockets of her jeans. She wore a few layers of clothes but still shivered in spite of the warmth. She hadn't ever considered herself particularly afraid of graveyards but that was before she had found out that so much of the horror film genre was real. That was before she had flown all the way to Italy just to watch someone dig up a corpse and burn it.

Greg pointed out the gravestone of Percy Shelley and Annali paused, the literary geek in her wanting to go check it out... take pictures, whatever. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Sam moving toward Shelley's grave and Annali slipped her hand into Dean's, tugging him after his brother. She watched as the lights on the EMF began to light up, her heart skipping a beat as she glanced between the three of them, trying to read their expressions.

It seemed that they were in the right area but as she glanced around, she noticed that there were several graves just within the immediate area and it would be impossible to guess who they should dig up. Annali took a step forward, toward Percy Shelley's stone, and as she did so, she felt a quick jerk on her heart. She turned around sharply, fully expecting that she had stepped too far from Dean, and was surprised to find that he was still right behind her. It was then that she felt a tug again, just a slight one, only it felt more like it was pulling her to the left than feeling like a squeeze like the rest. Puzzled, she looked at Dean, her eyes wide with alarm. "Do you feel that??"

[ZZZ - Dean - RETIRED]

The closer they got to Shelley's grave, the more Dean felt the eerie sense of foreboding. He paused for a moment to turn a slow circle in the spot he stood, eyes scanning the area in search of whatever it was prickling his spidey senses while the rest of them headed forward to the pyramid marker. He didn't want some pissed off spook getting the drop on them, especially when they didn't have any guns on them. Not for the first time during this trip, Dean longed to be back home were gun laws were less strict and people drove on the right side of the road. And yes, he was missing his baby. The cars over here were just way too small and soul-less in comparison to his Impala.

Sam's iron crow bar and a decent supply of salt were about the best they could come up with on short notice. Hopefully, they'd be all they needed because Dean did not want to be getting into a dirty fight with a ghost when Annali was forced to be so close to him. keeping her out of harm's way was his priority, but he figured with three hunters around her, she should be safe enough. When she took hold of his hand and gently tugged him along, the eerie sense disappeared again until they got to about four grave stones away from where they thought they had to be searching.

"Do you feel that??"

"Yeah..." Oh he felt it alright, like a fish hook caught under his skin, more irritating than painful but distracting enough for him to bring a hand up to his chest while he tried to figure out what it was. Annali was now standing right in front of him, she hadn't moved more than a couple of feet away from him so it couldn't have been the curse, but if she was feeling it too, then it had to be linked in someway. For a dreaded second he wondered if this was their time up, that any minute now a crushing heart attack would sneak up on them and kill them dead, but the pain was different to what he'd experienced before.

Taking Annali's hand again, Dean led the way around the side of Shelley's crypt, following the tug on his heart like a homing beacon as it steadily grew in strength. They passed a small and neglected statue of two angels entwined ontop of a headstone but soon found that the pull began to die away. Doubling back on themselves, it soon became clear that the grave marked by the twin angels was what was luring them in.

"Sam!" Dean called back to bring his and Greg's attention their way as he put his shovel down and crouched in front of the headstone to brush away the dirt that covered up the name.

((I forget who we said was in this grave, so I'll let someone else fill that bit in.))

[Wil Marsh]

It took Greg a moment to realize the crowd had started veering toward Percy Shelley’s resting place. He was taking slow steps, waving his flashlight over gravestones and crypts, reading the names. He tried to mentally match them up with names he remembered from the Provenance, but he wasn’t doing very well. He didn’t know if he wasn’t recognizing any names because none of these dead folks were linked with the locket, or because he just wasn’t remembering the names from the Provenance. He gave up and put down the shovel, leaning it against a gravestone, to get the Provenance out of his jacket pocket. He’d carefully rolled it up, though it was getting a little beat up. It was an old document and wasn’t meant to be carried around.

It wasn’t until he heard the EMF detector go off and Sam called out to the rest of them that Greg turned around and saw where everyone was heading. Sam was saying that maybe there was a couple connected with the locket that knew Percy. Annali had slipped her arm through Dean’s and they were following Sam. Greg joined them and started examining the gravestones around them. He unrolled the Provenance and started comparing names when he heard Annali.

“Do you feel that?” she asked.

Greg turned to look at her, hearing the worry in her voice, and saw that she was talking to Dean.

“Yeah…” Dean replied, putting a hand on his chest.

Greg looked at Sam, wondering if he was feeling the same pang of concern.

“What?” Greg asked, looking around, gripping the shovel more tightly.

It wasn’t iron and wouldn’t do much to fend off a ghost, but it was the closest thing to a weapon he had at the moment.

Dean and Annali were close to one another, so it couldn’t have been the curse, could it?

Unless it is on some kind of time table, he thought.

Dean took Annali’s hand and started to circle around the pyramid. Greg followed them loosely, stopping once he realized they were just going in a circle for some reason. He heard Dean yell for Sam and jogged around the pyramid to see Dean crouching in front of a headstone. There were two angel statues entwined on top of it and Dean had put down his shovel to brush some dirt off the stone. Greg approached the stone and read the name and epitaph.

“‘Here lie two souls in life entwined
Who too soon left this world behind.
Beth and Liza Shephard.’”

He read the dates beneath both names. They were both ten years old when they died, and Greg guessed they were twins. He checked the Provenance for either name anyway – you could never be too careful. But, he shook his head.

“They’re not on here,” he said uneasily.

He was getting frustrated and antsy. He just wanted to dig up whoever they needed to, salt and burn the bones, and get the hell out of this creepy cemetery. But then he saw a name on the Provenance he could’ve sworn he’d seen a second ago while they were circling the pyramid. Edward John Trelawny.

He took a few steps from the grave Dean and Annali were standing in front of. Just behind the fancy angel statues was a very plain and non-descript stone – more of a grave-marker: just a slab of stone flat on the ground with an epitaph and a name.

“Hey, guys… I think we have a winner,” Greg said.

He shined his flashlight on the grave marker and read the name and epitaph aloud.

"'These are two friends whose lives were undivided.
So let their memory be now they have glided
Under the grave: let not their bone be parted
For their two hearts in life were single-hearted.
Edward John Trelawny.'"

He paused and glanced around at the others.

"Alright, I'm not trying to be an asshole here, but does that sound totally gay to anyone else, or have I lost my nack for analyzing creepy poetic epitaphs?"

[Sam Winchester (NPC)]

Sam

Sam was still scanning with the detector when Dean and Annali came over to the area. Then Greg made his way over shortly after. It wasn't long before both Annali and Dean felt something and started moving. Sam was a little worried and gave a little look to Greg but, this didn't seem to be like the curse symptoms they had before. Then Dean and Annali started moving off on their own, like something was leading them there.

Shrugging Sam took off after them. They seemed to be making their way around some of the graves near the pyramid. Sam's EMF meter started to go off like crazy. Finally Dean crouched down in front of a grave stone with two angels on it. Before Sam could take a good look Greg was there and reading out loud what was etched into the stone.

Sam stood back up and sighed. Well that wasn't who they were looking for. It couldn't have been a couple of kids. Especially what appeared to be a set of twins. That would be just wrong.

Wondering what they were going to do now, Sam saw that Greg had the provenance out and was looking at the names. Then a look of recognition lit up the man's face. As Greg moved toward another plot Sam followed. It seemed to be promising as Greg spoke out.

“Hey, guys… I think we have a winner,”

As Greg read out the inscription on this one Sam couldn't help but chuckle. It did seem to fit the theory that Percy was actually gay. Maybe this guy was one of his lovers. Most importantly the name was on the provenance. Sam stood up and turned to look at Greg and then his brother with a smirk.

"Yeah, it does sound a little gay. But, if the name is on the provenance then it makes since right? I think this is where you need to start digging."

Sam smiled and held up the iron bar in his hand. Indicating that he would stand guard while they dug. He thought it was going to be interesting to have both Dean and Greg doing the digging. Sam was still feeling a little bit jealous of Greg from the airport incident. He knew it was totally not warranted since Layla had explained what happened. But, he wasn't exactly feeling rational when it came to Layla.

[The Preceptor]

When Greg came over and checked the name on the tombstone against the names on the provenance, Annali watched him with mixed feelings. In a way, the idea that they were so close to solving this problem and being free of this curse was such a sigh of relief it was impossible to properly describe. On the other hand, once the curse was broken would mean that she and Dean would be parting ways... and that wasn't something she was looking forward to in the slightest. She decided to try not thinking about it.

Greg's confirmation that the names were not on the provenance caused her shoulders to slump, and she realized that Dean being in her life wasn't good if it was only due to a life or death curse. She perched herself lightly on a nearby tall tombstone and stared at him thoughtfully. She noted the hair that looked like it was cut in such a way that he could just get out of bed, out of the shower, wherever, run his hand through it and go. She noted the warmth of his green eyes, at the history hidden in their depths and the fine lines that had started to lightly form at the outer corners. She noted his full, perfect, beautiful lips that were probably the envy or desire of thin-lipped women across the U.S., and thought about how they seemed to draw her in every time he had leaned in to kiss her.

“Hey, guys… I think we have a winner,”

Greg's voice snapped her out of her trance. Immediately she stood up, walking around the angel tombstone to see that Greg and Sam were looking down at a rather pointless-looking stone. She frowned, her eyebrows drawing together slightly. "There can't possibly be someone buried in this small space, can there?" she asked, looking confused. "You don't suppose this is one of those cases where they buried him vertically because there wasn't room otherwise, do you?"

[ZZZ - Dean - RETIRED]

"Well, there's only one way to find out." Dean said grimly, picking up his shovel again to press into the dirt in front of the plain grave marker. He pulled a face at Sam and his non-verbal announcement that he'd stand guard and let Dean and Greg get on with the dirty work, but inside he was more than happy to have him watching his back. It wasn't often that spirits haunted their burial sites with the intention of causing harm to anyone insane enough to want to dig them up, but it did happen. He'd been on the receiving end of that kind of welcome more times than he'd cared to be before now. Given the weird supernatural pull he and Annali were feeling about this place, it would be just their luck to have a pissed off Casper come throw a spanner in the works here too.

A couple of shovel fulls of dirt later and Dean noticed that Greg was still engrossed in reading the provenance, matching it up to the epitaph on the head stone. Basically, allowing Dean to do all the heavy work. Unamused, Dean stopped and leant on the handle of his shovel, staring at the back of Greg's head as though he had lazer vision like Superman.

"Hey, you wanna come give me a hand here Greg? I mean, I hate to tear you away from the creepy gay poetry an' all but this grave ain't gonna dig itself."

[Wil Marsh]

“Yeah, it does sound a little gay,” Sam agreed when Greg read the stone’s epitaph. “But, if the name is on the provenance then it makes since right? I think this is where you need to start digging.”

Sam held up an iron bar, and Greg took that to mean he and Dean were going to be doing the grunt work here.

“There can’t possibly be someone buried in this small space, can there?” Annali asked. “You don’t suppose this is one of those cases where they buried him vertically because there wasn’t room otherwise, do you?”

Greg panned around with his flashlight. “I don’t know, seems like a pretty big place.” He shrugged. “Maybe whoever buried the guy blew their budget on the epitaph and cheaped out on the stone.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Dean said, starting to dig.

Greg read over the epitaph a few more times and kept looking at the guy’s name. Both the poem and the name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place them.

Edward John Trelawny… Edward John Trelawny… Where do I know you from…?

“Hey, you wanna come give me a hand here Greg?”

Greg glanced up suddenly at Dean’s voice.

“I mean, I hate to tear you away from the creepy gay poetry an’ all but this grave ain’t gonna dig itself.”

“Yeah…” Greg said, scratching his head.

He rolled the provenance back up and placed it in his jacket pocket. His mind blanked for a moment. He knew he’d been carrying a shovel and now he wasn’t, but he couldn’t quite remember where he’d put it down. It was one of those things he’d done without thinking about it. Then he remembered he’d leaned the shovel against a gravestone before he’d followed the others over here.

“Shit,” he muttered. “I gotta go find my shovel. I’ll be right back.”

Greg started walking quickly in the vague direction they’d come from, shining his flashlight over the gravestones and scanning the names on the headstones. He didn’t have a photographic memory, but he could recognize the names he’d read and checked from the ones he hadn’t. After a moment his light fell on the handle of the shovel, now lying flat on the ground. As he jogged over to it he slowed his pace when he got a sudden chill. He tried to shake it off as he bent to pick up the shovel, but the chill stayed with him.

“Shit…” he said slowly, uncertainly, his eyes darting around as he held the flashlight in one hand and the shovel in the other.

Chill out, man, it’s a graveyard, he thought as he started making his way back, keeping alert and scanning the area for any signs of hostility. Of course there are spirits. Makes perfect sense…

For a frightening moment he thought the chill would follow him the whole way, but then it was gone as quickly as it had come and he felt relieved.

He approached Sam first, since he was the one with the iron. He gave him a nod and dropped his voice to a whisper – he didn’t want to scare Annali.

“Hey. I think I might have felt a chill out there,” he said, nodding in the direction he’d just come from. “The dead kind, not the ‘I should’ve brought a sweatshirt ‘cause it’s cold’ kind.” He shrugged. “Could’ve been nothing, but… just a heads up.”

He headed over to the grave where Dean was still digging and not looking at all pleased that Greg had taken a little detour first.

“Relax, Mullet Rock. I’m comin’,” Greg said. “I could’ve started digging with my hands or something, but that would’ve taken forever and you would’ve ended up doing most of the work anyway.”

Greg started digging alongside Dean, hoping this guy wasn’t buried upright. That’d be a deeper hole for them to dig if they had to fit a whole coffin in there.

[Sam Winchester (NPC)]

Sam

Sam moved a little off to the side and out of the way. Standing their quietly he didn't move too far. He could still hear the others talking or in the case of Greg and Dean, making snide comments back and forth. He held the iron bar up and scanned the area looking for anything that seemed out of place. Keeping his guard up. Not like he would really see a ghost coming but he still kept his eyes and ears open.

Shaking his head as he watched Greg wander off to go find his shovel. Then as Greg came back with shovel in hand the man told him about feeling a cold spot out there. Sam nodded in acknowledgment and went back to keeping watch. He couldn't help but chuckle every once in a while as Dean and Greg exchanged barbs back and forth. When they finally started digging he heaved a sigh of relief. The faster they got this thing dug up the sooner they could get this over with. Sam was starting to get a funny feeling and he didn't like it one little bit. He tightened his grip on the bar in his hand. Looking around again, trying to stay alert.

[ZZZ - Dean - RETIRED]

Where the hell's he going now...?

Dean watched Greg wander off to find his shovel with a look of disbelief on his face as though he couldn't quite understand how much this guy was not prepared for a simple salt and burn.

Some hunter he is...

Shaking his head and grumbling curses under his breath, Dean lifted up his own shovel again and slammed it down hard into the dirt to help rid himself of the growing frustration that was building inside. If he took it out on the ground then he wouldn't say or do anything he'd regret in front of Annali (plus, he'd get this grave dug in half the time ). She liked Greg, though Dean had yet to determine just why exactly that was. He was clinging to the hope that it wasn't because she still had feelings for him.

"About damn time." Dean commented when Greg finally returned, concentrating digging near the headstone to find out if the body was vertical or horizontal in the hole.

“Relax, Mullet Rock. I’m comin’, I could’ve started digging with my hands or something, but that would’ve taken forever and you would’ve ended up doing most of the work anyway.”

Smart ass...

Dean clamped his mouth shut but growled something unintelligable to himself as he pushed the shovel into the dirt again. The temptation to throw a pile of earth in Greg's face was nearly irresistable but he tossed it over his shoulder instead, catching sight of Annali out of the corner of his eye as he did so. She was close by, making sure not to let Dean get too far away, and he noticed she was shivering slightly in the cool night air.

Knowing he'd only get warmer the deeper they dug, Dean paused digging himself and shrugged off his top shirt before it got all sweaty from effort and crossed the three steps to where Annali was so he could wrap it around her shoulders.

"Look after this for me will ya?" He gave her a soft smile then returned to digging again.

[The Preceptor]

Annali felt her skin tingle with warmth, and she knew that it had nothing to do with the shirt itself. The thin flannel was a bit warmer but not enough to completely protect her from the chill night air. No, it was the way Dean's eyes caught hers... the fact that he even made any effort at all to comfort her in this dreadful situation, as simple as the gesture may have been.

She hated the fact that she didn't really have anything to contribute right then. It made her feel guilty that Dean and Greg were doing all of the work. Annali liked to consider herself a proper lady but she was no princess who refused to put in her share of hard labor. But there were only two shovels and that would mean either digging with her bare hands or taking a shovel from one of them. Both options would have slowed them down. Instead she stood up and wandered over to Sam, glancing behind her carefully at Dean as she did, making sure to keep the distance between them as minimal as possible.

"Is everything okay?" she asked Sam softly as she came up to stand beside him. She had noticed that Greg had muttered something to him on his way to assisting with the digging. Annali looked into Sam's handsome face and allowed her eyes to dart lightly to Greg so that he would understand what she was referring to. A light breeze blew by and she shivered slightly, and then slipped her arms into the sleeves of Dean's shirt. The sleeves were far too long for her and hung down to disguise her hands, and she crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself for warmth.

[Wil Marsh]

As Greg started digging he heard Dean mutter something to himself and couldn't help smirking. The guy had gotten under his skin enough since they'd met, it was kind of nice to know he'd returned the favor.

Greg paused in his task as Dean took off his shirt and started to walk away. Where the hell did this guy think he was going? Then it became clear when he wrapped the shirt around Annali's shoulders. Greg looked away quickly and, without realizing it, started stabbing the ground a little more vigorously than necessary with every shovel scoop.

"You couldn't have just handed it to her, macho?" he muttered as Dean returned to his side to resume digging.

Greg was too busy taking his frustration out on the ground and glaring at Dean every few seconds to notice Annali talking to Sam.

[Sam Winchester (NPC)]

Sam

Sam stayed on alert. His eyes continually scanning the area for anything that might be a problem. Dean and Greg were still bickering and Sam found it slightly amusing. Though he really wanted them to just hurry up so they could get the hell out of their. He didn't like this standing around waiting for something to happen at all.

Not long after Dean and Greg had started digging Sam heard Annali's soft voice by his side. He turned to look at her and couldn't help but notice that she had Dean's shirt on now. A slight smirk threatened his lips at the thought and he wondered just how much his brother liked this girl. She sure had him acting differently and Sam was not entirely sure it had anything to do with the curse. Giving her a smile he shook his head.

"No, nothing wrong. Greg just thought he felt a cold spot, which could be the indicator of a spirit. But, then again we are in a graveyard so... I don't think it's anything to worry about. Nothing has come around that seems threatening at this point."

Just about the time the words left his mouth then he felt a wave of cold rush by him. It didn't slow down or stop but seemed to be heading in the direction of Dean and Greg. Sam turned to look at Annali.

"Uh... Did you feel that?"

He practically whispered to her as the hairs on the back of his neck were still prickling. Waiting for her response he finally turned toward the two who were digging.

"Dean... I think... Do you feel anything? Maybe something cold?"

Sam looked back and forth between Greg and Dean. Not sure if he had just imagined it or not. It had passed him very quickly. He couldn't see anything and so far everything seemed to be quiet. Cautiously though he took a step or two closer to his brother.