Chapter 1

There was a breeze outside that made the branches from the nearby tree tap lightly on the side of the motel window. Inside, Sam Winchester was trying to get caught up on some much needed sleep. He thrashed around as he had another nightmare. Suddenly, it startled him awake. Sweat dripped from his forehead and matted his brown hair. Next to him, his brother Dean stirred slightly but continued to slumber.

"3:57am. Great, at least I got 43 minutes this time."

Sam turned from the clock and put a pillow over his head. The nightmares were becoming a nightly ritual, torturing him with information that he didn't know what to do with. There was something different about this dream though. Bits of it came back to him – a white, two story house, a young boy, a mean spirit, satchels of angelica root.

"What does it mean?" He put his fists to the side of his head, pressing deep to stop the throbbing headache that always ensued after a nightmare. I don't know how much more of this I can take.

Suddenly, Dean's phone rung once to indicate a text message.

"Sam?"

Without a thought, Sam grabbed the phone and flipped it open. He let out a sigh.

"What is it? Is it dad?"

Sam shook his head in frustration. "Coordinates. Never anything more."

The message read:

Time: 3:57am

Sender: Unknown

Message: 38.72 -94.45

"Safety first! At least we know he's still out there Sammy. That's something." Dean rolled up to a sitting position. His short brown hair never seemed out of place, no matter what he did. He pushed the sheets aside and his legs dropped to the floor. On the floor next to the bed was a shirt with the Ghostbusters symbol on it. Dean reached for it and quickly put it on. "Let me see."

Sam handed Dean the phone as he got up and went to turn on his computer. He did a quick stretch to get the 43 minutes of sleep out of his system and hit 'start' on the coffee maker. Might as well get it started early today.

"38.72 -94.45? Wow those are really specific" Dean wiped sleep from his eyes and made his way over to where Sam set up the computer. "You know, you'd think dad would be a little more considerate of our sleeping patterns when he sends a text message. I need my beauty sleep." Dean glanced at Sam who was not looking well. "Did you sleep at all?"

"I have a new record – 43 minutes." The coffee began to percolate from the $10 machine.

"I was up when the phone beeped."

"Now what?" Dean looked to his brother with concern. "Anything you can make sense of?" Dean was still not comfortable with the dreams, and they even scared him. He was beginning to understand they meant something; a warning. The impact it was having on his brother's health, and his own sleep, was becoming worrisome, however. It was like the dreams were intentionally trying to break Sam down.

"I was trying to put it together when the phone rang. Just images – a white house, a kid, those satchel things we used to help Jenny back home in Lawrence. Nothing else is coming to me." He got up and looked to the coffee. It was close enough for one cup which he poured for himself.

"Well that's weird as hell, John Edward. Did you recognize any of it?" Dean always tried to lighten the mood. "Where's mine?"

Sam took a sip of the coffee. Strong. "It'll be ready in a minute, and no I didn't recognize anything." Sam focused his attention to the computer screen. He paged through some information. A moment passed. "Well, this is peculiar"

"What is?"

"No, it's Peculiar. Peculiar, Missouri. That's where the coordinates lead" Sam turned the computer so Dean could see the results of the coordinates.

"Yes, quite peculiar. What's there?"

Sam scrolled down the website with the generic information listed. "It's about 30 miles from Kansas City, population 3,500, average age is 31."

"Sounds boring. What else?" Dean took the moment to get the cup of coffee that he should have been offered five minutes earlier.

"Well, the population change at the last census in the 90's was up 666 people." Sam continued to search "And it appears that the town was named by a spiritualist who declared it 'peculiar' that he had seen the town in a vision, whatever that means"

"Hey just like you! That's a little more up to speed." Dean's smile faded as Sam was in no mood to play along. "Do they have a link to the local paper?"

Sam clicked the mouse a few times. "Yeah, here we go. The town has been squeaky clean for years. No murders, rapes, robberies, then all of a sudden a woman suddenly dies in her home. There was no forced entry, no murder weapon, but there is a homicide investigation underway."

"Not much for the police to go on"

"No. Her name was Julie Davis. It seems she had a son who said he heard strange noises in the house. When he went downstairs, he found his mother dead, in a pool of blood. He claims that a ghost was haunting them, but the police are discounting his comments as stress induced."

"Yeah, I bet they're stress induced. Sounds like a winner." Dean got up and looked out the window. He saw the tree branches hitting the window. "Damn that's annoying. I almost couldn't fall asle…."

Sam gasped unexpectedly.

"What is it?"

He pointed to the computer. There was a picture of a young boy, scared and alone, in the middle of the screen. "That's the boy in my nightmare!"