Lori isn't cursed. At the end of the day, the Hook Man went after her too. He was just a ghost reliving the crimes of his past with the same fervor as he did while he was alive. Lori isn't cursed.

Sam doesn't blame her for feeling that way, doesn't think she's stupid or naïve. Bad things –even supernaturally bad things –happen to people and it's not their fault, even if it might seem like it. It's not Lori's fault. It's a two-hundred year old ghost's fault, an old, dead preacher who was way too into the murder aesthetic when he was alive, and still seeking justice and moral purity, or whatever.

That's what Sam tells Lori. That it wasn't her fault. What happened to her friends and her father wasn't her fault. She can't control her feelings, and she certainly didn't want them dead. It's not her fault.

Lori just smiles at Sam. "That's nice," she sighs at the ambulance, before Dean comes over to parade them away, to the next town, next monster. "But I'm still responsible."

"You aren't, Lori," Sam insists passionately. "Ghosts…they're not rational. They can't be controlled. You didn't sic the Hook Man on your friends. You didn't want it. It's not your fault."

Lori shrugs. "It's over, right?" she asks. "There's not going to be any more weird deaths around me? I can –I can let go."

"Yeah," Sam sighs. "It's over." He feels so much older than twenty-two. It's not Lori's fault. Joseph Carns was evil. He murdered people while he was alive and so righteous that even death couldn't stop him. He took advantage of Lori's vulnerability to continue dolling out justice, to hand out punishments more severe than the crime, even if it meant killing his own host. But he was gone now. They torched him, just like they would torch Mom and Jessica's killers.

It's not Lori's fault. It's probably not Sam's fault either.

But it doesn't stop him from feeling responsible.

A/N: I may also be posting 1x08 and 1x09 this week so stayed tuned. This is really short. Thanks y'all.