Roads Untraveled ~ Sam Winchester

Chapter Forty-Seven - It's Not a Tulpa

The trio, joined by Marie and Maeve, made their way to the school library the next day to research.
"The Tulpas are monsters that are created on an intense, focused energy of an idea." Sam explained.
"Yeah, or a story." Marie continued.
"How do you kill an idea?" Maeve asked.
"Well, in 'Hell House', Sam and Dean burned the house down to take out the one Tulpa they hunted."
"There was one I hunted in the nineteen twenties. These cultists were using these ritual visualisations called Dragpoi Dubthab – a kind of spell used specifically to create Tulpa." Elizabeth nodded, looking down at the book on mythological creatures they'd found. "Eventually, the Tulpa turned on the cult and most of them ended up dead before I was able to stop it."
"The nineteen twenties? Seriously?" Marie scoffed.
"Yeah, we weren't kidding when we said she was a Vampire." Sam sighed.
Elizabeth flashed them a smile with her fangs and they quickly backed away, almost falling off their chairs in the process.
The Vampire rolled her eyes.
"If I wanted to hurt you, I would've done it when you didn't add me to the play. Now sit down and stop being... Well, children." She huffed.
The girls looked to Sam, who nodded.
"Anyway." Dean grumbled as he circled the table they were sat around. "You kill the symbol, you kill the Tulpa. It's, uh, actually a pretty good start. So, the scarecrow in your play, is it a person or prop?"
"Prop." Marie replied. "And it's terrifying." She looked down to Maeve, who nodded in agreement. "We keep it in the boiler room."
"That's, uh, great." Sam said, leaning over the table. "Okay, you guys read up, just give us a second."
The trio walked away from the table, assembling in front of a bookshelf a few rows down.
"Yeah, so, this doesn't add up." The younger brother said. "Tulpas require a tonne of psychic energy to juice up. Like the ritual you were talking about."
He motioned to Elizabeth, who nodded as she crossed her arms.
"Yeah." Dean agreed.
"Well, it's not like the 'Supernatural' books are tearing up the New York Times best-seller list, and I seriously doubt this whole play is even sold out." Sam continued.
"Hope not." Dean raised his brows.
"No, but, you know what? This flower – I know I've seen it in the lore somewhere. There's gotta be a connection." The younger brother held up a picture on his phone of a tiny lilac flower that had been found at both crime scenes. "'Liza, have you seen anything like it before?"
Elizabeth shrugged, shaking her head.
"Not that I can think of."
"Alright, you guys get on that, I'm gunna take a shot at burning man." Dean told him.
"Yeah, okay." Sam nodded.
Elizabeth looked over his shoulder, taking a closer look at the picture.
"God, it's annoying when I don't recognise things..." She huffed, earning a chuckle from Sam. "You'd think I'd have seen pretty much everything by now."
"Maybe you have but it was before the memory wipe." Sam suggested.
"Yeah... Maybe." Elizabeth sighed.

"We came, we saw, we kicked-"
"It's not a Tulpa." Sam huffed as Dean and Marie walked back into the library from the boiler room.
"What?" Dean asked.
"It's not a Tulpa." Sam repeated.
"Cue Dean referencing Arnie in three, two..." Elizabeth mumbled under her breath so only Maeve could hear it.
"Say it one more time but just a little bit more Arnold, you know, like... 'It's not a Tulpa'." Dean mimicked the actor.
Elizabeth glanced over at Maeve with a smirk. The student sniggered.
"It's Calliope." Sam said.
"Who?" Dean squinted.
"The Goddess of epic poetry – the muse." Maeve answered.
"She's associated with this – the Borage or 'Star Flower'. That's the picture." Sam explained, showing them a picture of the flower in the book he had in front of him.
"Okay, wait..." Dean frowned. "If this is a God thing, then what's with the scarecrow?"
"According to the lore, Calliope manifests creatures from the stories she's tuned into." Sam told him.
"So... The scarecrow is still alive and we burned my prop for nothing?" Marie gave a sarcastic smile to Dean.
"Oh, that thing needed to burn." The older brother replied.
"That bad, huh?" Elizabeth smirked.
"So bad..." Dean breathed, rolling his eyes into the back of his head.
"The only way to destroy the scarecrow is to kill Calliope." Maeve explained.
"Right." Sam nodded, looking to Marie. "She uses these manifestations, like the scarecrow, to inspire the author and protect them until their vision is realised."
"Then what?" Dean asked.
"Then she... Eats the author..." Sam's voice went quiet.
Everyone looked to Marie, who took in a strained breath.
"Okay, that's bad... Um, well, you get your wish." She looked up at Dean. "Let's cancel the show."
Dean shrugged, clearly not thinking it was a bad idea for more than one reason.
"That's what your teacher and classmate did." Sam pointed out. "They tried to shut you down and the scarecrow took them – protected you and the show."
"Okay, so the scarecrow's the Boogeyman. We gotta take our shot with this, um..."
"Calliope." Sam stepped in for his brother.
"Calliope." Dean nodded. "But she won't show herself until your vision is realised."
He looked to a frowning Marie.
"So... What are you saying?" She asked.
"The show must go on..." Dean replied.