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SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
Buffy turned in her seat when she heard moaning from the back seat. "He's at it again," she sighed.
"At least you're not this bad. You get one about once a month, he's getting them three times a day," Dean grumbled. "Wake him up, would you?"
"It's been almost a month, Dean. Give him more time." Buffy said, before leaning forward and pulling on Sam's shoulder.
He awoke with a start, looking around and taking in his surroundings. "I take it I was having a nightmare."
"Yeah. Again," Dean grumbled, ignoring the look Buffy sent his way.
"At least I got some sleep," Sam muttered.
"Sooner or later we're going to have to talk about this," Buffy said, turning in her seat to face front.
"Are we here?" Sam asked, sitting up and placing his feet on the floor of the Impala.
"Yeah. Welcome to Toledo, Ohio," Dean said, turning left at a stop sign.
"What do we know about this guy?" Sam asked, picking up a newspaper.
"He was a stockbroker who was survived by his two daughters, Donna, age 16 and Lily, age 12. He was found on the floor of his house in the upstairs bathroom. According to the obit, it was a stroke," Buffy recited.
"What do we think really happened to him?" Sam asked.
"That's what we're here to find out," Dean said, parking the Impala in front of the University of Toledo Hospital.
"We all going?" Buffy asked, taking off her over shirt and pulling down on her baby tee.
"Yeah, I guess," Dean said.
When they found the morgue they found, not a doctor, but a technician in charge of the morgue. "May I help you?" he asked.
"Yeah. We're here to see the Shoemaker corpse," Buffy said.
"Do you have an appointment?" he asked.
"I didn't realize I needed one. I'm his niece. We were really close, and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye," Buffy said, looking at the man, tears in her eyes.
Apparently the man was one who didn't like to see women cry. He escorted the three of them to the body of the man after handing Buffy several tissues.
They watched at the man opened the compartment and pulled out Steven Shoemaker. The body was pale, and the eyes were missing.
"The newspaper said that his daughter found him and his eyes were bleeding?" Sam asked.
"More than that, they liquified," the morgue tech corrected.
"Was there any sign of a struggle? Any indication that anyone did this to him?" Dean asked.
The tech shook his head. "Not that I know of. You'd have to see the police report."
"What's the official cause of death?" Buffy asked.
"I'm not sure. The preliminary diagnosis is a heart attack, or an aneurysm. Something burst in there, that's for sue," the tech explained.
"What does that mean?" Buffy asked.
"Your uncle had more blood in his head than anyone I've ever seen."
"Do you have a copy of the police report?" Sam asked.
"I'm not supposed to give that to people," the tech said, "not even family members."
Sam sighed and pulled out his wallet, handing over a handful of twenties and ignoring the painful look on Dean's face.
"I earned that money!" Dean hissed after the tech had left.
"You won it in a poker game!" Sam corrected, without sympathy.
Ten minutes later, Sam was leafing through a freshly xeroxed stack of papers as they walked out of the hospital. "Might not be one of ours. Might be just a freak medical thing."
Buffy and Dean snorted. "Really?" Buffy's voice was sarcastic. "In our long and varied career of almost thirty years, has it ever been a freak medical thing?"
"Never," Sam sighed, defeated.
"Exactly. Now, let's go talk to the elder daughter," Dean said, taking the keys out of his pocket and swinging them into his palm.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
It didn't take long to get to the Shoemaker house, after they finally got going. Buffy insisted on changing into 'something dressy' and made them wait for fifteen minutes. She came out dressed in a simple dark blue dress with faux a pearl necklace and matching earrings. Her honey blonde hair, a shade darker than Dean's, was twisted into a simple bun.
Sam and Dean stared in surprise for a moment before she broke their concentration. "We're going into a wake. You should spiff up."
They didn't and she shook her head and followed her brothers into the car. The three of them walked in the front door when they got to the house and Dean and Sam noticed the formal wear. "I feel underdressed," Dean muttered.
"Not my fault," Buffy murmured back. "Did you actually read the article?"
"Do you know what Donna looks like?" Sam asked, looking around.
"She's in the back," an elderly man said, and gave them directions.
Buffy thanked the man and led the way to the back of the house. "That must be her," Buffy said, pointing with her chin at the young woman sitting with two others around the same age, and a younger girl a short distance away.
"You must be Donna, correct?" Dean asked, approaching the little group.
Donna had short dark hair that ended at her chin, and shiny blue eyes from crying. "That's right," she confirmed.
"We're terribly sorry for your loss," Sam said softly.
"Thank you," Donna said, finally looking up at them. "Who are you?"
"We worked with your dad," Buffy said.
"This whole thing, a stroke?" Dean asked. "Were there ever any signs? Migraines or dizziness?"
"I don't think she wants to talk about this!" one of Donna's friends barked. Dean's attention focused on her. She was tall and very thin with straight bronzed hair and a stern expression.
"I'm okay, Charlie," Donna said, raising a hand to calm her friend, before turning to Dean. "There was nothing, no signs or anything."
"That's because it wasn't a stroke," the younger girl declared adamantly.
"Don't say that Lily," Donna urged.
"What?" Sam asked.
"Don't worry about her. She's very upset," Donna said to Sam, Dean, and Buffy, while giving Lily a stern look.
"Why do you say that, Lily?" Dean asked crouching in front of the girl.
"Because it happened because of me!" Lily insisted.
"It didn't, sweetie," Donna assured her.
"Yes, it did!" Lily insisted. "Right before he died, I said it!"
"Said what?" Dean asked, causing Lily to look back at him instead of her sister.
"Bloody Mary, three times in the bathroom mirror," Lily explained. "She took his eyes, it what she does."
Dean grabbed Lily's hand in his. "I think your sister's right on this one. I mean, your dad didn't say it, did he?"
Lily looked less certain. "I don't think so."
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
"Which bathroom was it?" Dean asked, as they climbed the stairs to the second floor landing.
"The upstairs one off the hall," Buffy answered, "It's the first door on the left."
"Who would have this many mirrors in their house?" Sam wondered, as they passed four on the way up the stairs. "There's one every three feet!"
They reached the bathroom and Dean pushed the door open. They could barely see the blood stain, but it was clear where the blood had gone. The stain extended three feet, starting four inches outside the bathroom door and ending right in front of the sink. The stain was eighteen inches wide and Buffy could understand why the tech had mentioned the blood in Shoemaker's head. Judging by the size of the stain, most of his blood had exited his body through his eyes.
Dean and Sam slowly made their way inside, Dean flicking on the light. "Did Dad ever find any indication that Bloody Mary was a real phenomenon?"
"Not to my knowledge," Dean answered, opening the medicine cabinet and looking through the pill bottles.
"Kids all over the country play . . ." Sam started. He stopped mid sentence when he noticed that the mirror, which served as the door to the medicine cabinet, was facing him, and he had already said it once. ". . it, and as far as we know, no one has ever died from it."
"Maybe that's because here is where the legend began, so it's happening here for real," Buffy suggested as she examined the floor.
"But the little girl's right. You-Know-Who. . ."
"Voldemort?" Buffy interjected.
Dean rolled his eyes. " . . . is supposed to come and scratch your eyes out. She's not supposed to go after other people," he finished.
"Yeah. This time dear old dad gets it," Sam mused.
There was an echo of heels clicking on the floor. Dean and Sam closed doors and drawers and Buffy got to her feet and together they went to greet the person walking in on them.
"What are you doing up here?" one of Donna's friends, Charlie, Buffy thought her name was, demanded.
"We had to use the bathroom," Dean said in a rush.
Charlie crossed her arms. "Who are you?"
"Like we said downstairs, we worked with Donna's dad," Dean answered.
"He was a day trader or something, he worked by himself!"
"Same office," Buffy added, but Charlie still didn't buy it.
"And all those questions downstairs? I don't trust you, so either you tell me what you want, or I start screaming."
"Alright, hold on. We think something happened to Donna's dad," Sam explained.
"Yeah! A stroke!" Charlie insisted.
"That's not the sign of a typical stroke," Sam denied. "We think it's something else."
"Like what?" Charlie demanded.
"We don't know yet," Buffy answered.
"But we don't want anyone else to die. If you're going to scream, go ahead," Sam finished.
"Who are you?" Charlie repeated. "Cops?"
Buffy and Dean laughed. "Something like that," they said together.
Sam reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a piece of paper. "Take this," he said, scribbling his cell number, "and call us if you or any of your friends come across anything strange or out of the ordinary."
Charlie nodded and the Winchesters filed out of the house.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
"We need to find any local legend about a woman named Mary, if the legend did start here," Buffy said as Dean pulled into the parking lot of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.
"That's a big 'if'," Sam said, getting out of the Impala. "There are literally hundreds of versions of the legend with only two common factors: the woman's name was Mary and she died in front of a mirror. Depending on the version, she's a witch, a mutilated bride, in others she's a young mother who's daughter was kidnapped. There's not just one story."
"So what, specifically, are we going to be looking for?" Dean asked as they walked into the library and over to the closest bank of computers.
"We've got to search local lore for the two common factors, Mary and died in front of a mirror," Sam said.
"That sounds annoying," Dean griped.
"No, it's not too. . ." Sam started. He, Dean, and Buffy stared at the out of order signs taped to the monitors of the last four free computers. "I take it back. This will be very annoying."
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
Instead of researching in the library, Dean, Sam, and Buffy took out several books and brought them back to the hotel room. Buffy and Dean were seated at the table by the front window, but Sam took his work to the bed. The only noise for a couple hours was the turning of pages, before Sam fell asleep on top of his work.
"Should we wake him up?" Buffy asked. She had given up on the books shortly after they began and had taken out her computer. It was lucky this motel had wi-fi.
Dean shook his head. "He needs his sleep, nightmares or not."
Silently, Buffy agreed. She nodded before turning back to her work. They managed not to get a lot done. Dean searched through all the books they had, and Buffy looked on the internet. The only things involving people and mirrors involved a Laura, a Catherine, and a Dave.
"Maybe our parameters are too narrow," Buffy suggested. "We didn't consider a cursed object that could've been brought into the area."
Dean sighed. "That would mean that it could be anything!"
Buffy shook her head. "Not necessarily. We're still looking for a Mary who died in front of a mirror, just nationwide."
There was a sudden intake of breath from the bed next to the wall. "Why did you let me fall asleep?" Sam asked, his voice full of sleep.
"Because I'm an awesome brother," Dean answered, tossing his book onto the table. "What did you dream about?"
"Sugarplums and candy canes," Sam answered dryly. "You two find anything?"
"Depends on how you look at it," Buffy said. "We've found that nothing unusual has happened here, before now, that is."
Sam sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the ringing of his cell. "Hello?" he asked, hoarsely.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
They met Charlie outside in a park, not far from her high school. Sam stood in front of her, Dean sat on the back of the bench, looking down at Charlie, and Buffy sat beside her. Charlie had her face in her hands, tears flowing down her face. Her friend, Jill, had been found earlier that morning in her bathroom with her eyes cut out.
"And they found her lying there, on the bathroom floor. And her. . . eyes. . . they're gone," Charlie sobbed.
"I'm sorry," Sam said.
"And she said it," Charlie cried. "But it couldn't be because of that!" Sam, Dean, and Buffy exchanged glances. "I'm insane right?"
"No, you're not insane," Dean said.
"Oh, god! That makes it so much worse!" Charlie insisted.
"We think there might be something going on here. Something that can't be explained," Buffy soothed.
"We're going to stop it, but we're going to need your help. We need to see Jill's room," Dean said.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
Charlie led the way to Jill's house and showed them which window belonged to Jill's bedroom before ringing the doorbell. "We're lucky her room's in the back," Buffy muttered as she followed Dean and Sam up onto the roof, Sam carrying a bag over his shoulder.
There was a flash and she saw herself climbing out a window on the second floor of a white two story colonial house then climbing down a tree. Buffy shook her head and Charlie appeared in the window in front of her, bringing her back to where she was.
Sam went in first and Dean followed. "What did you tell Jill's mom?" he asked as Buffy crawled through the window.
"Just that I wanted to be alone with Jill's things," Charlie answered. Sam reached into the bag and pulled out a camcorder. "I hate lying to her."
"Trust us, it's for the best," Buffy said.
"Get the lights, would you?" Dean asked walking to the window to close it.
"What are you looking for?" Charlie asked, crossing the room and flicking the lights.
"We'll know when we find it," Buffy answered.
"Night vision?" Sam asked. Buffy flicked it on. "Perfect."
He aimed the camera at Dean who posed. "Do I look like Paris Hilton?"
Buffy ignored the byplay. Something was pulling at her. There was a faint tinge of something unnatural in the area, and it was coming from the bathroom. She walked over and pushed the bathroom door open and the feeling got stronger. She halted in front of the bathroom mirror and cocked her head. The feeling in her gut told her that she was where Jill had been when she died. She turned her head. "Sam!"
Sam, followed by Dean and Charlie, walked into the bathroom. "There's something here," Buffy said, pointing at the mirror.
"Another gut feeling?" Dean asked.
"Another gut feeling," Buffy repeated, nodding her head and stepping out of the way, allowing Sam to get in front of the mirror.
"She's right," Sam said, holding the camera on the lower left hand corner of the mirror. There was some kind of fluid dripping down the wall from behind the mirror. He handed Buffy the camera and took the mirror off the wall.
Dean led the way back into the bedroom and Sam placed his load on the bed, back face up. He tore off the paper covering on the back and cocked his head at the barely visible letters on the back. "We've got a black light in the trunk, right?"
Buffy quickly left through the window with a practiced ease and was back inside of five minutes. She turned it on and handed it to Sam. "Gary Bryman?" Sam read, confused, fingers glossing over the handprint that accompanied the name.
"Hold the light up, I'm going to take a picture," Buffy said, and Sam obliged.
"Who is he?" Dean asked, looking at Charlie.
"I don't know," she said.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
Dean and Buffy were sitting on a bench outside of city hall with Charlie.
"I don't get it, the first victim didn't summon Mary, but the second one did. How is she choosing her victims?" Buffy asked.
"I don't know. Why did she even say it in the first place?" Dean asked.
"It was a joke. She did it because I believed it," Charlie said, wrapping her arms around her waist.
Sam walked over to them at that point and the three waiting looked up at him. "Gary Bryman was an eight year old boy. He was killed in a hit and run two years ago. The car was a black Toyota Camry. No one saw the driver or got the plates."
"Oh, god!" Charlie exclaimed. "Jill drove that car!"
Buffy and Dean looked at one another before looking at Sam. "We need to get back to Donna's house," they chorused.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
Donna reluctantly let the group of four into the house, and Charlie led the way to the bathroom. Dean glanced at Buffy. "You don't feel anything?" he asked.
"No. It must've happened too long ago. The feeling at Jill's was faint, and that happened just last night," Buffy answered, as Sam took down the bathroom carefully.
On the back of the mirror was another name, Linda Shoemaker, and another handprint. "Who's Linda Shoemaker?" Dean asked. "Donna's mom?"
"Yeah, Linda was my mom, so what?" Donna demanded from the doorway.
"It's important. Are there any more details?"
"She overdosed on sleeping pills when I was twelve, and that's it! I think you should leave," Donna insisted.
"Donna," Dean began, but it was clear that Linda was a very sensitive subject.
"Get out of my house!" Donna yelled, pointing to the steps.
"We're just leaving," Buffy said in a calming voice, glare telling her brothers to leave without fighting.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
They didn't say anything until they reached their motel room. "I'll get the FBI, you get NCIC?" Buffy asked Dean, sitting in front of her computer.
"Wait, you're going to do a nationwide search?" Sam demanded.
"Yeah. There is absolutely nothing local, we've checked, so unless you've got a better idea," Dean began.
"You know, the way Mary's choosing her victims, it's almost like there's a pattern to it," Buffy said.
"I was just think the same thing," Sam agreed. "Mr. Shoemaker, and Jill's hit and run. . ."
"Both had secrets where people died," Dean concluded.
"Exactly. There are many myths and superstitions about mirrors. A lot about mirrors revealing all your lies and secrets," Buffy said.
"That they truly are a reflection of your soul, which is why it's bad luck to break them, and why Native Americans didn't like their pictures taken," Sam added.
Dean stood up and began to pace. "So if you have a secret, a real doozy like where someone died, Mary sees it and punishes you for it."
"Whether you're the on that summoned her or not," Sam concluded.
Ten minutes later, Buffy called a meeting at her computer. "That handprint look familiar?" she asked, pointing to the picture.
In it, there was a young woman on the floor, blood everywhere. On the mirror there was a bloody handprint and three letters TRE.
"What's her name?" Sam asked.
"Mary Worthington." Buffy answered. "An unsolved murder in Fort Wayne, Indiana."
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
Sam successfully found the detective who was in charge of the case and they were standing in the living room of Detective Steven Wright two and a half hours later.
"I was on the job for 35 years, and a detective for most of that. Every cop retires with a few cold cases, but the Mary Worthington murder, it still gets me," Wright said, shaking his head.
"What exactly happened?" Dean asked.
Wright turned to look at him. "You said you were reporters."
"That's right, sir. We know Mary was nineteen an lived alone. We know she won a few local beauty contests," Buffy began.
"She wanted to get out of Indiana and become an actress. We know that the night of the murder she was found on the floor in front of her mirror by the landlord, eyes missing," Sam continued.
"That's right," Wright confirmed.
"What I meant was what did you think happened?" Dean clarified.
"I couldn't put that case to rest, so I kept a copy of the report," Right said, walking over to a filing cabinet in the corner. He pulled a copy of the digital picture that Sam, Buffy, and Dean had seen on the computer. "See here, the letters T-R-E?"
"Yeah," Buffy said.
"I think Mary was trying to spell out the name of her killer," Wright guessed.
"Any idea who it was?" Dean asked.
"According to her diary, Mary was seeing a man, Trevor Sampson, She called him by an abbreviation, 'T'," Wright said, pulling out a grainy picture of a man wearing sunglasses. "He was a surgeon and according to Mary's last entry. She was going to tell T's wife about their affair."
"How do you know it was Sampson who killed her?" Sam asked.
"There's nothing but circumstantial evidence, but the way her eyes were cut out, it was almost professional," Wright confessed. "We could never prove it."
"Is he still alive?" Buffy asked.
"No." Wright sat down heavily on a nearby chair. "If you ask me, Mary spent her last moments trying to expose this guy's secret."
"Where's she buried?" Sam asked.
Wright shook his head. "She wasn't. She was cremated."
Dean pointed to the mirror in the picture still in the detective's hand. "What about the mirror? Is that still around?"
"It was returned to Mary's family a long time ago," Wright said.
"You have their number?" Buffy asked.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
They drove through the night back to Toledo. Sam called the number Det. Wright had given them and came across interesting information. "The number was for Mary's brother. They kept the mirror in the family for a long time, until he sold it, a week ago, to an antique shop. A shop in Toledo."
"You think that Mary's following her mirror?" Buffy asked.
"Her spirit's definitely caught up with it somehow," Sam agreed.
"Isn't there an old superstition that says mirrors can capture spirits?" Dean asked.
Buffy nodded. "Yeah. That's why people used to cover mirrors after people died, so their spirit won't get caught in one."
"So Mary dies in front of a mirror, and it draws in her sprit," Dean said, thinking out loud.
"If that's true, how could she travel through anything with a reflective surface?" Sam asked.
"I don't know, but if the mirror's the source of her power, I say we get rid of it," Buffy suggested.
Sam opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the ringing of his phone. "Hello? Charlie?"
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
Sam and Dean left to get Charlie while Buffy covered everything in the room that looked like it might give a reflection. When Charlie got there, Sam put her in the middle of his bed and sat down beside her. Charlie was sobbing, curled up into a ball.
"You get everything?" Dean asked, scanning the room for anything Buffy missed.
"I think so," Buffy answered, wiping her brow.
Dean nodded to Sam who tapped Charlie on the arm. "Charlie, you can open your eyes, now." She followed Sam's instruction, eyes wet and full of fear. "Listen to me. You're going to stay right here and not look at anything that has a reflection. As long as you do that, she can't get you."
"But I can't keep that up forever," she whispered, tears falling down her face. "I'm going to die, aren't I?"
"Not if we can help it," Buffy promised, sitting opposite Sam.
Dean sat on the opposite bed, facing the three of them. "We need to know what happened."
"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it."
Buffy shook her head. "That's not what we mean. There's something in your past, something that you never told anyone, where someone got hurt."
With a shaking voice, Charlie told them about an ex-boyfriend who had committed suicide when she broke up with him. "Oh, sweetie, that wasn't your fault. You did the right thing. If he scared you, the best thing you could've done was get out early," Buffy said, hugging Charlie.
"Let's put this bitch down," Dean growled, grabbing his leather jacket and keys as he walked out the door.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
Dean was driving, as per usual, Sam was in the passenger's side, and Buffy was in the back. "You know, her boyfriend killing himself, that's not Charlie's fault," Dean said.
"You know as well as I do that spirits tend to see in black and white. Charlie had a secret, and someone died," Buffy answered, leaning on the front seat so her head was between Sam's and Dean's.
"I guess," Dean sighed.
"I was thinking," Sam started.
"Don't hurt yourself," Buffy teased.
"Ha, ha," Sam said dryly. "I was thinking. It might not be enough to just smash Mary's mirror."
"I thought that as well. Salt and burn?" Buffy suggested.
"Not exactly," Sam corrected. "Mary's hard to pin down, since she can go through any mirror so she can just hind in them forever. What would happen if we summoned her to her mirror, then smashed it?"
"How do we know that's going to work?" Dean asked.
"We don't," Sam said.
"Who's going to summon her?" Buffy asked.
"I will. She'll come after me," Sam said.
"That's enough," Dean demanded, pulling the car to the side of the road. "This is about Jessica, isn't it? You think that's your dirty little secret? That you killed her somehow? Sam, this has got to stop!" he insisted, turning to face Sam. "I mean the nightmares and calling her name in the middle of the night, it's going to kill you! Listen to me, it was not your fault. If you want to blame something, blame the thing that killed her. Better yet, take a swing at me! I'm the one that insisted we leave that night!"
"I don't blame you," Sam said. "Either of you," he added, seeing Buffy's guilty face.
"Well, you shouldn't blame yourself," Buffy said in a soft voice.
"There's nothing you could've done!" Dean insisted.
"I could've warned her!" Sam shouted.
"About what?" Dean asked. "You didn't know what was going to happen! Besides this isn't a secret, we know all about it. It's not going to work with Mary anyway!"
Sam shook his head. "You don't know all of it. I haven't told you everything."
"Sam, please don't do anything stupid," Buffy said.
"What are you talking about?" Dean asked.
"If I told you it wouldn't be a secret, would it?" Sam asked, showing the rebellious side that Dean and Buffy had dealt with since Sam was twelve.
Dean glared at Sam and changed tactics. "No. I don't like it. It's not going to happen." Buffy shook her head. Sam might follow Dean's orders better than Dad's, but she knew this was something that Sam wouldn't budge on.
"Charlie's going to die, unless we do something about it, not to mention anyone else in this town playing stupid kids' games. Now, we're doing this. You've got to let me do this."
Dean looked to Buffy for support, followed quickly by Sam. "I don't like it anymore than you do, Dean, but the only other option I can think of is to risk Charlie. If Sam thinks he's got something that can bring Mary, I suggest we monitor him as closely as possible to make sure he lives through this."
Sam turned to face the road, a small smug smile on his face. Dean looked pissed, but took the Impala out of neutral and started driving to the antique store again.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
Buffy quickly picked the lock and led the three of them into the store. "How many mirrors does a place need?" she asked.
The first room of the store had mirrors on every available area of wall, the occasional clock dotted here and there. Dressers, tables, lamps, and floor clocks littered the floor. Dean pulled out the picture of the murder scene and the three studied it before splitting up to look for it. Fifteen minutes later Dean called out, "Maybe they sold it!"
"I don't think so," Sam called back, from the depths of the shop.
Buffy and Dean meandered over to him and looked at the ancient mirror. It was a gelded mirror, about four feel long and three feet wide. The gold glinted in the light of their flashlights. Dean held out the picture again for a final comparison.
"That's it," Dean agreed. "You ready?"
Sam raised his crow bar. "As I'll ever be," he answered. Buffy and Dean flanked him, holding their crowbars at the ready. Sam took a deep breath. "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary," Sam inhaled deeply the released it. "Bloody Mary."
A light from the front lit up the back room they were in, distracting the three Winchesters. "I'll deal with that. You two be careful. Smash anything that moves!" Dean left.
Buffy caught sight of a faceless girl dressed in rags in a mirror to her left. She turned and smashed it just as Sam smashed one on the other side of the room. "Come on!" Sam shouted, standing back in front of Mary's mirror. "Come into this one!"
Buffy was at his side, prepared to smash the mirror when her reflection's determinate look turned into a smirk. She cocked her head, unaware that Sam was doing the same.
Blood started falling down her face like tears. "You killed him!" the reflection accused. "You killed Merrick! He told you to wait until you were better trained, but you didn't listen, did you! You thought you knew better!"
Buffy fell to her knees, struggling to breathe. "He followed you to keep you safe when you weren't ready. He was the one who was staked in your place! And when he was turned, you killed him again! Thrust a stake through his heart!"
There was a crunching noise then the crash of breaking glass. Buffy fell to the floor, coughing.
"Sam? Sammy?" Dean's voice called from far away. She didn't hear a response, but jerked when someone grabbed her and pulled her up. "Buffy? Are you alright?"
"Dean?" Buffy's voice was hoarse and she opened her eyes. Sam's plan had worked. Whatever he secret he had had been enough to bring Mary. She focused her gaze on him and noticed that Sam had his own tears of blood.
"What happened to you?" Dean asked, brushing her hair off her face. Buffy didn't understand what he was talking about until she looked into a nearby mirror. Sam's face looked like he had a small cry, with two lines running down his face. Her face, however, was glistening. Blood covered her face in a light coat.
"I don't know. . ." Buffy answered, still not sure what was going on.
Dean carefully helped both Sam and Buffy up. They were headed for the door when they heard the crunch of glass behind them. Stopping in their tracks, they turned and watched as something crawled out of the mirror. Mary straightened and began walking toward them. Buffy could feel the blood, this time, making its way down her face. She stretched and grabbed a corner of a fallen mirror. She pulled it up and used it as a shield and heard as Mary was forced to destroy herself. After hearing Mary shatter, Buffy dropped the mirror and collapsed on her back.
"Hey, guys? This is at least, what? 600 years bad luck?" Dean asked, drawing a weak chuckle from his siblings.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
They dropped Charlie off hen headed out of Toledo, before anyone mentioned anything that happened the night before.
"What made you think to use the mirror to gank Mary?" Dean asked.
"If she could look into people's souls, I figured she could look into her own," Buffy reasoned.
"Do you have any idea why you were bleeding more than I was?" Sam asked.
Buffy thought back to what Mary had said. She didn't remembering meeting anyone by the name of Merrick, either people she had saved or people she had met in passing, who she could say she had a hand in their deaths. She didn't know who the Merrick person was, or why she felt guilty over it.
"The only reason I can think of is I had a secret that was worse than the one you had. But I don't know what it is," Buffy answered, throughly terrified.
"What was your secret, anyway?" Dean asked, glancing at Sam.
Sam smiled, "You're my brother, and I'd die for you, but there are some things I'm going to keep to myself."
Dean was busy driving, but Buffy noticed when Sam sat transfixed at something outside the car, near a telephone pole. As Dean completed his turn, Sam jolted, facing forward. Buffy sat back on her seat, thinking.
SPN/BtVS:Bloody Mary
"Any news on Buffy?" the third asked. "Last I heard she was an hour away."
"Yeah, she spent a week in Toledo," the first answered. "The scrying spell I've been using hasn't detected any more danger than Buffy's usually in."
"Damn, I'd never guess that Bloody Mary was real," the second laughed.
"It was something we weren't expecting," the fourth agreed.
"Any more luck on the prophecy?" the fifth asked.
"Yes and no," the third said. "We've clarified that Buffy is the Returned, but that brings us no closer to figuring out who the Protector or the Boy King are. If Buffy's supposed to be related to them, then I'm not sure where to continue to look."
"How sure are we that Buffy isn't related to Sam and Dean?" the fourth asked. "She lived another life, how are we to know something didn't change?"
"If they are part of this, then their lives just got more complicated," the first said. "They'll have a demon out for their blood and they won't know why."
"Do what you can to verify that Dean and Sam are related to Buffy. Then we'll decide what to do," the fourth decided.
