What he hadn't let the girls know, though, was that in the trunk of the car were all of the items his dad thought were necessary to accomplish this task. Shotguns, rock salt, pistols, books of exorcisms and flasks of holy water filled a false bottom in the trunk. John Winchester hunted monsters, searching for the thing that killed his wife. Dean had been hunting every summer with his father he could since he was ten, so he damn sure knew how to use the tools he was given
Sam, who followed close behind, keeping his hood drawn close to him as he watched dean pop open his trunk, looked at him warily. Sam hadn't been on nearly as many hunts with their father, but he too knew exactly what everything was for, even if he didn't like them.
"Dean, what's going on?" he asked, keeping close to his brother.
"I don't know, Sammy, but I'm gonna find out," responded the older brother stiffly. He propped open the trunk before going for the flap that was supposed to cover a spare tire, but instead hid his arsenal. From the selection before him, he picked out a shotgun for him, and an iron rod for Sam, something inconspicuous that the girls wouldn't get onto him for. Then, after handing his brother a flask of holy water, he glanced down at him, looking him in the eye. "Please Sam, when we go back in there, stay with the girls. Don't freak them out if you ca-"
Sam sighed. "I know, Dean. I've been playing this game just as long as you have. Don't let them know these things are real and we can take care of the rest…"
Dean smiled, and ruffled the fifteen-year-old's dark hair, trying to take some comfort from it. He was the oldest boy, and he'd always taken his job protecting the others seriously, even extending to the supernatural being's he had hoped the girls would never encounter."Do you still have that prayer book in your room?"
Sam nodded.
"Good. Be careful, alright?"
Sam nodded again, and stepped back a little as Dean closed the trunk and they started back up the steps.
"Dean," Sam started hesitantly as they neared the house again. "What…what if something does happen to them? Could we tell them…?"
Dean made a face at his little brother. "We'll deal with that if it happens, Sammy," he muttered, before opening the door and starting up the stairs where they could hear Piper and Prue talking.
They were just far away enough from the living room that they didn't see the lights shining down from the chandelier, and couldn't even start to predict what was going on.
(-:-)
Prue groaned as they crawled up from the basement. "What is wrong with this house?!"
"It's old, Prue," Piper sighed. "We'll have an electrician come in the morning. What we need to worry about is what the hell is going on around here…"
Prue sighed as she headed for the stairs, not exactly eager to find out what Phoebe had gotten up to in the attic. "I already told you, Piper. Dean and Phoebe are playing a joke. I mean, great timing with the lightning cutting the power, but still, a joke."
"Neither of them were touching it," Piper said with conviction as she started up the stairs after Prue. "Really, think about it. Phoebe just got home. How could they have planned this in one night?"
"Dean picked her up from the station. They could have come up with it there…"
"Dean didn't know you found the spirit board," Piper protested. "Not to mention that he hates that thing. You know that. Remember that one time-"
"What time about what now?"
The girls spun around to see that Dean and Sam had gotten back inside relatively dry. Piper tugged Sam, who still looked nervous, to her side as Prue looked at Dean and glared when she saw the gun in his hand.
"Dean!" she blurted.
"What?"
"What the hell is with the gun?"
"I told you-"
"No. No-no. You are not having that in the house while I'm here!"
"How about no, Prue? I know you don't exactly believe what we saw down there, but it's real, and I want a gun. Now, if you wouldn't mind, we might wanna make sure Phoebe isn't going exorcist on us upstairs. Got it?"
The two elder siblings glared at each other, but Prue saw the logic in what he was saying, and sighed before heading up to the top flight where the attic was. Everyone was shocked when they saw the door ajar, and Phoebe sitting down at one end of the cluttered room reading a book. Sam clutched closer to Piper.
"What are you doing?" Dean growled, his brow creasing when he saw the triquetra on the cover.
Phoebe didn't hear the tone in his voice, though, and looked up, smiling excitedly. "Uh, reading an incantation," she said, her voice shaking a little from the rush she had gotten with finding the book. "It was in this book of shadows, I found it in that trunk..."
"Let me see that..." Prue growled, stamping forward and taking the book from her.
Dean still looked angry though, the words 'book of shadows' only pressing that the girls should not be involved in anything involving magic. "An Incantation?" he repeated. "What-"
"How did you get in here?" interrupted Sam, who was glancing around, seeming far more interested in the upstairs room he'd never gotten to see.
"The door just opened," Phoebe said, still smiling.
The eldest boy still wasn't letting his point go, though. "Phoebe, what kind of incantation? Huh?"
Phoebe turned to him, her eyebrows tilting confusedly, not entirely getting why he was this upset about it. It was cool. Why would he be freaking out? "It said something about there being three essentials of magic: timing feeling and the phases of the moon. If we were ever going to do this, now, midnight on a full moon, is the most powerful time..."