A/N: Thank you, guys. I appreciate everything. As you know, reviews are the thing that keeps me writing, since I'm obviously not getting paid for this. This was a very recent one-shot. I like it, but it had a lousy reception. So, I'm trying it again.

I got this idea from a couple places: a rerun of House that I recently saw (yes, another one), and a new horror movie that's out that I haven't seen yet.

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural. Kripke does. And maybe I should repeat the MST3K mantra to myself "This is just a show. I should really just relax."

Dark Mirror

Rick looked around the crowded bar. Although it was packed, he felt all alone. His friends insisted that he come out with them. He didn't want to go, but he had been cooped up for weeks now. Or was it months? Maybe his whole life. He didn't know.

They got him out to the bar, and then they deserted him. Each one quickly paired off, either with their girlfriends or with hookups.

It was typical. He was dragging his friends down, so why not desert him? If he could, he'd leave himself as well.

The music was pounding. He wanted to leave. To crawl into his bed and stay there until Jenny called him. But Dan drove. Dan always drove, because he didn't drink.

Although he knew that Jenny was never going to call him.

"Who am I kidding?" he asked himself out loud, although it was drowned out by the hip hop music.

The smoke started bothering him. He downed his beer and went to the bathroom. He locked the stall and sat down. The music was still shaking the walls and the smoke was bad, but it was better in here.

He knew he couldn't stay in the stall.

After a few minutes, he left the bathroom. A pretty woman was sitting at his table. He sighed. He couldn't go there now.

But, she spotted him and gave him a big grin. He had to smile back.

He walked over to her and sat down opposite of her. "I thought you'd never get out of the bathroom!" she yelled over the music.

He grinned sheepishly and shrugged.

She handed him one of her two beers. "Wanna get out of here?"

Rick looked over at his friends. Only Tony and Cate seemed to even notice him. Tony gave him a thumb's up and left with Cate.

Rick wanted to leave, but he really wasn't in the mood to leave with this girl. But, she might be able to take his mind off of Jenny.

"Yeah, let's get out of here."

She grinned at him seductively and stood up from the table. He grabbed his jacket and followed her out the door.

It was a chilly night. Rick could see his breath as he shivered in his jacket as they walked toward his apartment. The girl seemed oblivious to the cold.

But, she no longer smiled. In fact, she seemed focused on something.

Rick was uncomfortable. "What's your name?"

She stared straight ahead. "Mara."

"Well, Mara, to be honest, I'm not comfortable with this." She turned to him, her brown eyes giving him a cold look. He continued, "I just got out of a serious relationship."

"OK." She stepped forward, rubbing his arm.

He frowned and stepped back. "I can't. I shouldn't." He looked away from her. "See, I'm still in love with Jenny. Even if she doesn't love me anymore."

"I don't know what that feels like."

Rick turned back, but Mara was gone.

He looked around. She seemed to vanish into thin air. "Mara?" He called out.

"Hey, buddy," Dan said as he and Scott walked up. "We were looking for you inside. Although, I really hoped you hooked up with that girl Tony and Cate said you left with. They said she was a real looker. So, where is she?"

Rick shrugged. "Gone. She left. What else is new?"

Scott sighed. "We're ready to leave. So, let's go."

Rick took one last look around him before following his roommates to the car. He wondered where Mara disappeared to. She was there one moment and gone the next.

Although, he had the feeling that someone was watching him.

Rick couldn't sleep. He kept seeing Jenny in bed with him. Mark's fancy car, nice clothes, movie star good looks, wealth.

"Mark stole Jenny away from you, didn't he?"

He sat up in bed to see Mara sitting beside him. "How did you get in here? Did Dan or Scott let you in?"

"You let me in. But, don't you want to do something to ease your pain? Pay them back for all this torment? Mark stole Jenny from you, but Jenny let herself be taken. All this unbearable heartache. Don't you want to feel something other than pain again?"

Rick nodded, and Mara grinned. "Let's go."

He got out of bed and followed her to his closet. She reached up and handed him the pistol he got from his grandfather when he turned 17.

"Are you ready to do this?" she asked.

He grabbed the gun from her and checked it. It was loaded. "Yeah. Let's go."

He walked up the porch of Jenny's house, wondering, not for the first time why Mark was staying with Jenny instead of Jenny staying at his big country house. He shook off the thoughts and did something he didn't know how to do—pick the front door's lock.

Inside the house, Mara grinned at him delightedly from the stairs. She followed him up them and to Jenny and Mark's bedroom.

He burst inside the room. Mark and Jenny immediately woke up and screamed when they saw the pistol in Rick's hand.

Rick shot twice before turning to Mara. Mara stood over the bloody bed, grinning at him. From Jenny's dead body, he could see a wisp of clear smoke rising to engulf Mara. Nothing came off Mark. For a brief moment, Mara's eyes shone.

For the first time, Rick could see the evilness in her grin and brown eyes.

"Go ahead and do it." She whispered. "I want to live."

Rick raised the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

Sam woke up to find Dean still sitting at the motel's table, looking throughout newspapers and scribbling furiously on a pad. He checked his watch. It read a little before 3 a.m.

"Dude, you need to get some sleep," Sam said sleepily as he sat in bed.

Dean took a swig of coffee and went back to reading. "I'm OK. I think I found a case."

Sam got up and stumbled to the table to take a seat opposite Dean. Dean was pretty jittery. He kept nervously shaking his leg. Sam thought it had to do with all the coffee Dean was drinking to stay awake. "Dean, I know what you're going through."

"No, you don't."

"Yeah, I do." Although Dean's eyes were locked on him like lasers. Sam played with the edge of a paper. "You don't want to deal with these memories."

"I'm OK."

"No, you're not. You need to get some rest."

"Thank you for your diagnosis. I didn't realize you were a doctor now. Don't worry about me."

"You're still drinking in order to sleep!" Sam objected. "So, please, get some sleep!"

"I can't. The whiskey ran out." He grabbed a paper. "OK, so, Springfield has been having a strange rash of murder-suicides. They've been escalating too."

Sam sighed. "Murder-suicides? Dean, this doesn't sound like type of gig. Not everything is supernatural, you know. In fact, the odds are that these are just murder-suicides. Even though it's too bad. I think you're still running, trying not to think. You're exhausted. Let's take a break. Recuperate. Both of us need rest."

Dean shook his head. "These murder-suicides don't usually take place the same way. The last one was a shooting. The one before that was drugs. Sometimes the methods of death are different."

"See? No pattern. So get some sleep."

"There was one survivor from the last incident. A guy named Mark Reynolds. He was pretty seriously injured, but he was able to give his statement to the police. According to his statement, Richard Adams came in and shot both him and his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself."

"So?" Sam got up and staggered back to bed.

"So, there was a girl in that bedroom that kept flickering in and out. In fact, he claims he felt her there before Dicky boy came in."

Sam sat back up. "It could be him losing consciousness."

"Or it could be a ghost."

"It was supposed to be a ghost last time," Sam muttered.

Dean sighed and leaned back in his chair. "It doesn't hurt for us to check it out," he mumbled.

Sam lay back in the bed. He wanted to sleep, to rest, to take a break. If they were going to hunt, they should be going after Lilith, instead of these simple hunts. He also knew that Dean was just running away from his memories. He was seeing a hunt in everything.

"It doesn't hurt for us to check it out. But please get some sleep first."

He felt Dean's laser-like eyes on him again although they were in shadow before Dean turned off the little desk lamp.

"OK, Sammy. I'll try."

TBC

A/N: I do have a direction. I'm a little worried that I'm going to write Dean flat in this one, and he's the one I usually get right. But, I do have a direction. Bear with me. And please review.