HOME PART 2

Alice was shaking but there was only a slight tremble in her voice, not nearly enough to where her story wasn't incohesive to understand. She was firm and spoke through clenched teeth, hiding her anger behind them that was just on the boiling point. She lifted her finger and pointed down at the frozen frame of the kind-looking woman. "The woman in the picture is my grandmother, Jenna. She wasn't a Hunter and only married into the family, to Jefferson," she explained.

Dean began to feel his skin crawl when he looked down at Jefferson standing in the background, now realizing that he must've been alive when the picture was taken. "Judging by the bruises on her face...I guess they didn't have a happy marriage?" he grimaced.

Unfortunately, Alice shook her head and cast her eyes to the floor. "Believe it or not, he wasn't always like that. Still wasn't the best but never went as far as to hit his own wife. It's just...his attitude towards the world completely changed one day to the man we all knew and feared, especially to Jenna. She didn't leave him though. She was too forgiving and too afraid. He deeply hated my mom too because she wouldn't take any of his shit, which made him hate Aiden and I...even though we were only kids." She took in a breath and sighed with deep exhaustion that had been pent up for years now, it seemed. It's been a while since she's been this tired, simply just by talking too.

Alice leaned back against the glossy paint of the Impala and slumped down into her self. The warm hue on her face disappeared as a sick shade of green covered her skin. The boys were stunned for a good long time and went over everything in their head, analyzing Alice's words and the woman who spoke them. She looked heavily fatigued and that deeply worried them. For years, she had been working non-stop to try and find Jefferson as the stress slowly built up over time, worsening after losing Aiden. In the long run, she did this to herself, and at the moment...it all finally caught up.

"So what did it take to put down a guy like this? How'd he die?" Sam asked.

Alice crossed her arms over her chest and spoke once more with clenched teeth, still trying everything to keep herself together. "Jefferson was...angry. He was the most bitter and furious man who ever lived and can even put your own dad's temper to shame. One day...he was just worse than usual and, uh...struck his wife. Jenna quickly locked herself in the bathroom to hide from him so he wouldn't hurt her anymore. He tried to get in but she had deadbolts installed on that door for a reason. Jefferson eventually gave up and stormed out of the house to drink himself silly. He never came home though and the cops later found him, dead alongside the road. The stupid bastard died of alcohol poisoning after trying to make the long track back to the house."

Words were caught in everyone's throat as this chill suddenly ran under their skin and down the bone of their spines.

"He didn't really leave though, did he?" Dean said.

Alice closed her eyes and gently shook her head. "No. He didn't. The bastard was an angry man when alive, but in death...you can only imagine what he's like now." Her words were deadly cold just as much as her icy blue eyes were. "He didn't leave his wife alone. My mom had already passed from cancer so the only ones Jenna could look too were...Aiden and I. Yeah, we did everything we were supposed to do. We burned his bones and everything but nothing worked." Alice suddenly shuddered as these ugly and distressing memories flooded her head like a damn breaking. Her shaking started up once more and she just let it happen, her voice becoming jittery too. "He just wouldn't leave her alone and...nothing worked. Nothing...worked."

The air was thin and the atmosphere seemed to have shifted down a dark topic in a matter of seconds. Alice didn't say anything else about the matter but they knew what she meant by that.

Jenna died...

No wonder she was so hellbent on finding the spirit of Jefferson Cromwell. She and Aiden were out looking for revenge, to finish what they had started.

"Why did you wait so long to tell us something like this?" Dean pushed for more information but the answer he ended up getting was not at all what he was expecting.

"It's because I thought I could get away with it, Dean. That's why I didn't tell you." That was the quickest and straightest answer she gave all day. There was no hesitation, only rage seething in her voice, but it wasn't towards him though. "I don't like accepting the fact that we're related. That we share the same damn blood. I thought...I...I thought I could come up with another way to send his ass to hell but...I don't know. I really don't. I'm sorry, okay?" She was starting to grow frustrated now. "I know I'm an asshole for not telling you this. It's just..." She balled her hands up tightly into shaking white fists. They thought she was going to hit someone and knock them out but all she ended up doing was holding her face and hiding it.

Sam reached over and patted her on the shoulder, speaking as gently as he could. "Don't worry about it. We understand and we'll find a way to stop him, okay?" he looked up towards his brother.

"Damn right," Dean said confidently and walked over to her. He pulled her arms down from her face so he could see her. She wasn't crying but her eyes were glassy and heavy. It made his heart sway. "Hey. Things are going to be alright, you hear me? Trust us. Nothing's gonna happen to you or that family." He raised his hand up to her shoulder and gently touched the side of her face. She was warm but trembling. "We got your back from here on out."

Alice took in a deep breath and opened her eyes up wide, her lips breaking out into a wary smile. She lifted her hand and patted his cheek a couple of times before roughly pulling him towards her. Dean was somewhat startled by her advances but gave her what she wanted and hugged her tightly. Thinking about it though, it may have been the first time she had ever embraced him, desperately too. It felt good though. Her arms were strong while his were comforting. Neither of them wanted to let go.

She buried her face in his shoulder and spoke these low and muffled words through the fabric of his shirt. "Alright. Thanks, boys."

Alice went and rented out a motel room for her and the boy's afterwords. While they went out to ask around about John, she was ordered to stay behind and try to sleep the stress off, though nothing was working. She spent what felt like hours staring up at the same spot on the ceiling, pondering over all her life's decisions that got her to this point in time.

When did things go wrong, she wondered.

It's not like Jefferson was the only black sheep of the family, and to her knowledge, there was a whole generation of black sheep at some point in time. Her grandad was a little different though because it felt like he changed overnight. Her dad was never like that though. Jackson had always given off the impression of being a kind and gentle man with a few screws loose, but not in a bad way. She understood where he got it from because Jenna was the exact same way. She always had a smile on her face, it being like a blending combo of genuine and fake though. It was like he hadn't got a single personality trait from his dad, which was a gift in of itself.

Why was Jefferson even the way he was? What happened in the past to make him change so drastically in such a short amount of time?

"Did that bastard know something that the rest of us didn't?" Alice muttered under her breath and sat up in bed, groaning to herself because of how heavy her body felt. She wanted to sleep because of how tired she was, but her mind just wasn't settling down to even give her the chance to relax.

She felt so out of tune with herself that it took a good five seconds of her phone ringing to finally notice it. She scrambled for it and about knocked it off the bedside table before answering it.

"What? What?" she answered with a groan, obviously tired as hell and annoyed.

"Something tells me that you didn't sleep a wink." It was Dean, playful as ever.

"Body's tired, brain's wired. What is it?" Alice urged him and flopped back in bed. "Find anything?"

"Yes and no. Turns out, shortly after the fire, Dad went to talk to a psychic."

Alice cocked a brow. "That's a weird start. You got a name?"

There was a shuffling sound on the other end and mild arguing. Sam answered back instead. "Hey, Alice. No, but we're wondering if there were any local newspapers in the motel room. Maybe we can find a few."

Alice turned her head to the side and saw one sitting on the desk. She begrudgingly got up and dragged herself over to it and sat down. "Yeah, yeah. I got you." She flipped through a couple of pages and studied over the small clippings until the word 'psychic' caught her eyes. Only a few though in the town. "We got only a small amount so hopefully your dad went to one of them."

"What are the names?"

"Ah...There's a dude name El Dibino, Mysterious Mister Fortinsky, and, Uh, Missouri Moseley—"

It sounded like Dean snatched back the phone. "Wait, wait. Missouri Moseley?"

"Yeah? What?"

"That's a psychic?"

"Apparently."

There were a couple of seconds of incohesive sounds but she could make out the squeaking noise of the Impala's door being opened and closed. "In Dad's journal…there was a page about him going to Missouri...and learning the truth."

"He didn't mean the state?" Alice asked, confused.

"I always thought that too."

When they go there, Missouri was already in an appointment with someone, so they had to wait for about an hour until she was done. Sam and Alice were just mindlessly reading the magazines on the couch while Dean was just laying back and dozing off until Missouri was finished.

Dean remarked that Alice seemed to have calmed down considerably after telling them about Jefferson Cromwell, but he was still pretty concerned about her. At the moment, It was like she had gone back to her usual self and was pretty stone-faced to everything around her. Neither Sam nor Dean knew if it was just a 'mask' she was wearing, or if she was actually alright. Either way, ever since the truth came out, the boys haven't let her out of their sight.

After some time had passed, Missouri finally came out and followed behind a man. "All right, there. Don't you worry 'bout a thing. Your wife is crazy about you," she said sweetly and saw him out the door. Once he was gone, she sighed and cocked a brow. "Whew. Poor bastard. His woman is cold-bangin' the gardener."

"Why didn't you tell him?" Dean asked.

"People don't come here for the truth. They come for good news." She only got odd looks from them, seeing how that actually was a good point. "Well? Sam and Dean, come on already, I ain't got all day." She was smiling at them gleefully and waved them into the living room. "Well, lemme look at ya. Oh, you boys grew up handsome." She then pointed at Dean. "And you were one goofy-lookin' kid, too."

Alice snorted and immediately looked away when Dean snapped his head over and glared at her.

"Now who's your friend? Is she one of your girlfriends?" Her eyes were sparkling with delight when they fell on Alice but was only hit with a massive wave of negativity. Missouri could sense something coming from her just by merely looking. Something cold, something dark, and something...extremely consumed. Naturally, Alice was fairly good at hiding it but Missouri saw things differently than from most people. She probably would've figured out a lot more through physical touch but there was a reason Alice was keeping a distance from her.

Alice shook her head. "Nah, just a friend who's helping them out," Alice answered back right away just when she noticed Dean opening his mouth to speak. He closed it right away though after that. She didn't doubt for one second that he was going to say something else to try and get under her skin like usual. Dean was a creature of habit so she learned pretty fast to shut him down before he could even think about speaking.

Missouri smiled when she suddenly reached her hand out towards Sam, grasping it firmly. "Sam." She gasped slightly and had a look of pity in her eyes. "Oh, honey…I'm sorry about your girlfriend." This astounded the three Hunters. "And your father –- he's missin'?"

"How'd you know all that?" Sam asked, baffled more than anyone.

"Well, you were just thinkin' it just now."

Dean became a little more eager. "Well, where is he? Is he okay?"

Missouri looked grim. "I don't know."

"Don't know? Well, you're supposed to be a psychic, right?"

"Dean," Alice spoke up before he could get too ahead of himself. "She's a psychic. Not a magician."

"You better listen to your little friend, Dean Winchester." Missouri pointed her finger right into his face and watched as he flinched. "I may be able to read thoughts and sense energies in a room, but I can't just pull facts out of thin air. Sit, please." Everyone went to sit down when she suddenly snapped at Dean. "Boy, you put your foot on my coffee table, I'm 'a whack you with a spoon!

Dean looked startled by her sudden outburst and froze where he was. "I didn't do anything."

"But you were thinkin' about it."

Alice's lips stretched out far into a grin and she snorted. "Okay. So, when did you meet John?"

"He came for a reading. A few days after the fire. I just told him what was really out there in the dark. I guess you could say…I drew back the curtains for him," she claimed.

Dean hesitated a few and seemed to stutter on his words. "What about the fire? Do you know about what killed our mom?"

"A little. Your daddy took me to your house. He was hopin' I could sense the echoes, the fingerprints of this thing."

"Could you?" Alice asked.

"I..." She looked like she was going to say something but stopped herself, suddenly turning grim and becoming pale.

"What was it?" Sam urged her.

" I don't know. Oh, but it was evil." Missouri's words were strained with dread and despair. "So…you think somethin' is back in that house?"

"Not one...two, actually." Alice intertwined her fingers together. There was something about the way she said those words that immediately made Missouri shiver. "One of them...is probably the thing that killed there mom, but the other though...is from my own family. A man by the name of Jefferson Cromwell. You don't know him, but I'm telling you...he's bad news." her voice was coarse like a rusty knife.

Missouri felt breathless all of a sudden because Alice's emotions were suffocating her. "I don't understand. I haven't been back inside, but I've been keepin' an eye on the place, and it's been quiet. No sudden deaths, no freak accidents. Why is it actin' up now?"

Alice frowned strongly and felt her heart and entire being become heavy with distress. It was like a dark cloud gathering overhead, brewing with dark intention, and growing in size. "It would be nice if we knew all the answers for once."

They went back to the old Winchester house the next day with Missouri and knocked on the door, but the moment Jenny opened it, they all marked that she seemed pretty troubled. She was holding her son closely and was ghostly pale. "Sam, Dean. What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Hey, Jenny. This is our friend, Missouri," Sam introduced.

"If it's not too much trouble, we were hoping to show her the old house. You know, for old time's sake." Dean asked but Jenny was hesitant.

"You know, this isn't a good time. I'm kind of busy."

"Listen, Jenny, it's important." Missouri cut him off by smacking him on the back of the head. "Ow!" he shouted and snapped his head over at her, glaring.

"Give the poor girl a break, can't you see she's upset?" Missouri hushed him before turning to Jenny. "Forgive this boy, he means well, he's just not the sharpest tool in the shed, but hear me out."

Alice snickered before turning her head up to the windows. She wouldn't be lying if she said she didn't want to go back inside the house. The last time felt so tiring that it knocked all the energy from her body. Even now, just standing outside it felt like a chore. Her mind was telling her to get over it, but her body was saying something entirely different. She knew it was her own fear that was holding her back. Jefferson has always been the equivalent of a monster even when he was alive, and that fear ran deep. Standing there now, she knew he was there...and so did he.

"About what?" Jenny asked.

"About this house."

"What are you talking about?"

Missouri sighed softly and looked at Jenny with an understanding expression. "I think you know what I'm talking about. You think there's something in this house, something that wants to hurt your family. Am I mistaken?"

It then finally dawned on Jenny and her eyes grew with fright. "Who are you?"

"We're people who can help, who can stop this thing. But you're gonna have to trust us, just a little."

Eventually, after a little more convincing, Jenny saw no way around Missouri and finally left them back into the house, and in that very instant, Alice found it extremely hard to breathe. The air smelled stale and her body was sluggish, almost as if she was moving through thick tar. She wanted to breathe and fill her lungs with oxygen but it was like the house was rejecting her entirely. The cold emotions were radiating off the walls and pressing against her as they went upstairs to Sari's bedroom.

"If there's a dark energy around here, this room should be the center of it," Missouri said and looked around the young girl's room. Nothing out of the ordinary as of yet, but she noticed how pale Alice had gotten in such a short amount of time. "Honey, are you alright?"

The boys turned to her. Alice was standing near the doorway with her back to the wall, arms crossed over her chest. Her breathing was slightly irregular and she didn't look good. She looked sick and uncomfortable.

Alice nodded her head sharply. "Yeah. For now at least. Let's just get this over with. I don't like it inside this house," she declared firmly, voice trembling with tension and dread. "Why would it be inside this room?" she asked as Dean checked over her briefly. She smiled at him to ease his concern but he still didn't look convinced and stood by her side.

"This used to be Sam's nursery," Missouri answered softly. "This is where it all happened." She glanced back at Dean and noticed him pulling out an EMF meter. "That an EMF?"

"Yeah."

Missouri scoffed. "Amateur."

Dean shot her a glare but still continued to work the EMF, and by no surprise, the thing was beeping frantically. He leaned over and showed Alice and saw her face drop. His chest tightened up and he immediately pulled it away from view to not worry her anymore, but with the way she was acting, it came as no surprise to him that Alice was already aware of Jefferson's spirit lingering around.

"I don't know if you boys should be disappointed or relieved, but this ain't the thing that took your mom." Missouri suddenly said and caught their attention, shocked.

"Wait, are you sure?" Sam asked. "How do you know?"

"It isn't the same energy I felt the last time I was here. It's somethin' different." Her lips turned into a concerned frown. "But to be honest with you, Alice, your granddaddy sure has some nasty energy."

"That doesn't surprise me," she said and cocked a brow. "But why the hell did he end up in this place after all these years? Aiden and I had heard nothing about him until now. And what about the other spirit?"

Missouri pondered on that for a moment and glanced over to the closet. She opened it up and stepped inside. "They both may be here...just because of the evil that once came to this house, real evil. That kind of evil leaves wounds. And sometimes, wounds get infected."

Alice sighed and dropped her head, pushing herself off the wall and wondering around the small room, looking at the walls, the reflection in the mirror, and in the windows. It was like she was expecting to see something and wouldn't be surprised if she did. "Let me guess. This place is a magnet for paranormal energy, huh? No wonder Jefferson's here. The damn house gradually pulled him in overtime. No wonder Aiden and I never found him."

Missouri's voice increased. She sounded angry yet concerned at the same time. "Jefferson Cromwell had turned into a nasty poltergeist. He won't stop. He's never going to stop until Jenny and her babies are dead."

"Why's he even doing this? That bastard doesn't even know Jenny and he wants to kill her family?" Dean nearly shouted with all his pent up frustration coming forth. "What the hell did they ever do to him? "

Missouri stared at him, eyes glassy and lips trembling. She was breathless and spoke only two words that just killed the Winchester brothers. "Absolutely nothing."

Alice bit down on her lips. "So...wrong place at the wrong time."

Missouri nodded grimly.

She felt her heart shrink three sizes smaller as the room grew oddly cold to her, and without another word, she walked out into the hallway to escape the chill. She didn't want to be inside the house anymore. She couldn't breathe, the air was stale, the smell was revolting, and it felt like the walls were closing in on her. There was not enough oxygen in the air and her chest felt like it was going to burst from the strain and tension all the negative emotions were having on her, pressuring her.

She wanted to leave. She wanted to leave so badly that her body was just naturally walking in the directions of the stairs. She wasn't thinking anymore. She didn't care. She was leaving the damn house just so she could be given the chance to breathe again.

Her feet tapped lightly against the soft carpet as her ears picked up on the sound of heavy and rushed footsteps behind her. They were loud and it sounded like massive boots angrily slamming against the ground with every stride. Alice made it to the staircase when her heart about leaped out from her chest when the cold chill followed right at her back. She snapped her head over her shoulder and was stunned to meet these ebony eyes that were glossy and sinister. His features were hardened and he had these dark shadows under his sunken-in eyes. He was as every tall as Sam and Dean but gave off this suffocating air that was entirely made of rage. He was rage incarnated.

Alice couldn't speak and she couldn't breathe when she felt these large and cold hands shove against her shoulders. She gasped weakly as her body began to tilt backwards, the world rushing by in a blur when she descended down the stairs, the wicked entity fading away before her fleeting vision. Everything darkened though upon impact and nothing but silence followed soon after.