Silent
By : Swissalo
Started : 09/27/05
Finished : 10/09/05
Disclaimer : Sam and Dean I do not own, nor am I poor college student that I am making any money off this. Anything that doesn't belong to the Supernatural world, belongs to me... in some strange way.

"She was eight when she stopped talking, something… someone killed her parents. Everyone who's talked to her thinks she just doesn't want to talk about it because it scarred her. But…" Nurse Agie spoke as she lead the two unknown men towards her ward, she didn't ask about them since they had past the inspection of the Head Doctor that was all she needed to know. For now at least, if they bothered her charges there would be hell to pay, forget what the Head Doctor thought no one hurt her charges. As she took them past locked doors and card access only rooms, she did not see the two share a meaningful look with one another over her head as she continued on her way towards the day ward.

"But…" twenty-two year old Sam Winchester prompted as he and his brother followed the aging nurse. They had only been passing through Townstead when Dean happened to read a small story about a family who had been murdered somehow in a house they had just bought. Nothing out of the ordinary really except for the fact that the family's young son had been left alive but had died under mysterious causes after talking to the detective about what he had seen. The article had been enough for the two to stay in Townstead to figure out if the random wasn't really random at all. It had taken some digging but the two had found everything they needed to know, and the last clue had lead them here. To the only girl to live, the one that wouldn't speak.

"We, the nurses, we think it threatened her in some way. The doctors think we're insane, because there's not way for her late parents murderer to know." Agie told them as she led them into the solarium. Waving towards the guard who had let them into the solarium, Nurse Agie stopped at the door and watched the two men as they glanced around the room. "Biddy's over there in the rocking chair, she's not going to answer anything, so I don't know how much of a help she'll be."

"Thanks." Dean nodded as he located Biddy over in the corner, rocking back and forth slowly in the dark coloured chair. Biddy was staring at nothing, but had picked the best location in the room to see everything that was happening. Glancing over at Sam both brothers carefully made their way over to the silent girl, past other residents who looked to have more problems than just not speaking.

xXx

"She won't talk, but she paints." The Head Doctor had told them, after granting them admittance to see Biddy. Thinking they were detectives, as they came every so often to speak with Biddy. "It's the same thing everyday and if we don't have the two colours she uses, she doesn't paint, she'll just sit there."

"We'll probably have to see those paintings," Sam had spoken after the two had left the office to wait for their guide, "probably as she paints them."

"Yeah." Dean had grunted as he stared at the white walls, enough to make anyone crazy in their blaring plain colour.

xXx

Grabbing two chairs on their way Sam and Dean placed themselves on either side of Biddy to try and understand her world. Dean cleared his throat, this would almost be like talking to a wall. Glancing over at his younger brother Dean nodded before settling in the uncomfortable orange plastic chair of school year days.

"Biddy we want to ask you about your old house." Sam started off, speaking softly to the mute girl. Both were shocked when she turned her head, sharply, to stare at Sam, through a veil of chocolate cherry hair. Dull grey eyes sharpened as they locked onto Sam's green before Biddy's head slowly turned to face straight ahead. Dean lean forward slightly to glance at Biddy's face and noted that her eyes had become hazy again. Sharing a meaningful glance with one another, Sam continued to prod on hoping that something else would cause another reaction in the girl.

"Another family died in that house, Biddy, making it the eight family since your parents. We want to know what's going on, before we buy the house." Biddy never reacted, only continued to stare at nothing. If it weren't for the fact that she was breathing, rocking herself and occasionally blinking she could have been a manikin. As it was Biddy was currently only a living doll. Nodding to himself, Sam mulled over their short conversation with everyone before Biddy, and then with the woman herself.

"We want to try and solve whatever happened in your old house, Biddy. We know that something is in the house and that the murders aren't normal." Sam told her as he leaned back in his chair, he saw a slight hitch in her breath before she lowered her head and gave a ghost smile. Dean nodded his head as he watched his baby brother work on getting the mute girl to respond the only way she seemed willing to do so, with facial expressions. Heaven knows he wouldn't have the patience to deal with Biddy's actions, or lack thereof.

The sound of a chime brought about a change within the solarium as the residents began to stand and leave their games and books to head towards a door that one of the nurses had opened when the bell had gone off. Sam and Dean watched as the room cleared of residents and the nursing staff, glancing at the retreating form of Nurse Agie, who had smiled over at them they turned to study Biddy. She continued to rock back and forth in her rocking chair for another minute before standing up and started to make her way out of the room. Sam and Dean moved to follow after the girl, as she walked confidently out of the room. Once they entered the hallway, the brothers stopped to try and have their eyes adjust to the dull yellow of the hallway after being in a sun filled room.

Sam glanced around the hall, there were only two doors and no windows, the only light in the hall hummed over their heads. He couldn't understand how anyone could live like this, the white walls, and the structured lifestyle. Especially for a girl who was only here because she had no other family who wanted to take her in and the state thought she was disturbed from seeing her parents killed. Glancing over at his brother who was staring at the red haired girl, he narrowed his eyes, Dean for all that he was had noticed something that he wasn't going to talk about until he was ready. Granted Sam did most of the research but he hadn't been as enthusiastic about this as Dean had been.

It was as if, after looking further into the house of Townstead, Dean had found something kindred with the lost Biddy. Shaking his head, Sam was almost relieved to find that they had reached the other door, which Biddy had opened slightly to allow natural light to filter into the yellow hallway. Glancing into Biddy's now soft grey eyes Sam almost relaxed, before realizing that relaxing might cause him to miss something vital. Watching as Biddy turned and stared at both of them, Sam tried to understand what the silent girl was trying to convey in that one look.

Dean nodded as Biddy looked his way, before grasping the door and pulling it open. Biddy froze before letting go of the door handle and walking into the room, no longer looking at the Winchester brothers. Sam hit Dean on the arm, earning a 'what!' from his dense brother before walking into a room that was similar to the solarium except for the smell of paints and clay that permeated the air. Noticing that all of the nurses smiled as they watched Biddy walk past them but not offer to help her, showed either the woman's independence or the nurses' inability to understand her.

Through his musing, Dean had moved to watch as Biddy collected her paints, brushes and water cup, before moving to an unused easel on the other side of the room away from almost everyone else in the art room. Patting his brother on the shoulder to point out what Biddy was doing, before moving over to watch as she finished setting up her space. A distant look filtered over grey eyes as Biddy began to start working on her painting. Looking away from the deadened look, a look that haunted Dean still, he let Sam watch as Biddy began to let the brush drag black paint over it, forming the outline of a man and a shadow that only came from a doorway. Biddy had only started on the outline, but Sam was already staring hard at the painting as she finished haloing the figures body and the shadow, before starting to paint out from the outline. The only thing he couldn't understand was why in some places Biddy pushed the brush harder onto the paper and then softer in others, but still completely covering the white paper in black. Hitting Dean on the shoulder, the Winchester brothers watched as Biddy painted the shadow red, defying all logic, unless the red stood for blood but that was almost doubtable. All reports had pointed to the fact that Biddy had been asleep when her parents were murdered.

Biddy finished painting within twenty minutes having perfected the art piece over the years, but still taking her time to make sure the message stuck. Slowly she began to clean up, and walked away from the two men who had come to talk to her. She knew they were different, Raven had been telling her about them for years, but she never hoped they would come to Townstead, anywhere but Townstead. She didn't want any more nightmares about things to come, she didn't want to have to deal with the house demon that had been sealed into her house. The creature had already caused enough problems for her and anyone who tried to live in the house and had ever since her family had entered the house all those years ago. The demon had only become strong enough after she was eight and her eldest aunt had died. Only when Raven and Celesta had entered her life, only then had the house demon awakened and started to terrorize her family.

Watching as the two brothers stared at her painting, she flicked the black cross at her neck, the cross that no one had ever been able to take off her person. The cross that the house poltergeist had placed around her neck after threatening her to never speak, never tell a living soul in word written or otherwise it wasn't her fault that those other children hadn't taken him seriously and had talked, it wasn't her problem.

"She paints this everyday." Dean muttered as he studied the painting, before glancing at Biddy who was meticulously cleaning the two brushes she had been using. Looking over at his brother who was leafing through a book of Biddy's original drawings Dean turned back to the grey-eyed girl who was now staring unbashingly between them and the book Sam was holding before turning and leaving the room with the rest of the residents. Leaving them with only a book of black and red shadow to try and solve this mystery.

"That was helpful." Dean fumed, as he stormed down the stairs and started off towards his car. They had pressed the nurses and doctors a bit more but had turned up with nothing else but the art book, which according to the others was something the original detectives had never looked at.

"She's given us all the clues she can. I think she knows we can help, we just have to find out why she's unable to speak. What made her different from the other kids who have died." Sam spoke trying to calm his brother, even though Biddy was probably going to be one of their tougher cases they had agreed to try and solve this mystery.