Beach Blanket Poltergeist by hansbekhart (R)

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Fandom: SUPERNATURAL
Pairing: none
Length: ~30K words
Author on LJ: hansbekhart
Author Website: Curtailed of Fair Proportion
Why this must be read:

Set late in season one, this is a fabulous, tense, creepy, emotionally true, and just plain gripping story about Sam and Dean coming to Santa Cruz on what they think is a routine hunt (if it's not just a serial killer, and therefore, not their job) and getting in way over their heads.

"Where are we?" Dean grumbles, starting to life and rubbing a hand over his face.

"Los Gatos," Sam replies. "About a half an hour outside of Santa Cruz," he adds when Dean gives him a dark look. He says it the way the natives do, blurring it together into one word, unconsciously: Sannacruz. He tosses Dean the newspaper without looking at him, most of his attention saved for his soda. He watches it fizz rather than watch Dean unfold the paper and scan the front page.

"Apple Rivers -- seriously? -- 20 years old, found murdered in Mission Plaza last night. No witnesses, no leads. Body was slashed, mutilated and partially dismembered." He glances over at Sam. "That makes five bodies in two weeks, all women, all murdered in the same little courtyard thing outside of Holy Cross Church. The town thinks it has another serial killer. Not exactly a rare occurrence for the area."

"Yeah," Sam says. "But they don't know what we do."

They had been tipped off when the second death had hit the papers with the only lead that the case had so far: a tiny bit of wire that had broken off in the girl's eye socket. Hand-forged, rusted so badly that it was little more than dust, more than a hundred years old. The name of the town had sparked some connection in Dean's brain that sent him leafing through Dad's journal to find a page with POGONIP scrawled across the top in dark letters.

"You sure this isn't just some serial killer?" Dean had griped, even though the link had been made in Dad's journal, normally Dean's bible. "It's not like they haven't had a million of them in Santa Cruz." They had come anyway, regardless of Dean's inexplicable need to hustle them as far away from California as possible. He wouldn't shut up about how much he hated California until Sam asked him why.

Wonderful characterization, with both Sam and Dean still working to fit back together again after Sam's years at Stanford, and going through rough patches that come along with that, though their love for each other is never in doubt, even when they're fighting; plus a strong, sure, evocative sense of place, with Santa Cruz itself a major character in the story. Well worth reading.

If you enjoy the story, please let the author know.

Beach Blanket Poltergeist by hansbekhart

***