I'm warning you now there is smut in this chapter. x
In the car, Sam was being shaken awake by Shia pushing lightly on his shoulders from the back seat.
"Sam wake up," Shia called as Sam slipped back into the land of the living, looking around curiously at his surroundings.
"I take it I was having a nightmare," Sam said simply.
"Yeah, another one," Dean answered.
"Hey, at least I got some sleep," Sam said, trying to joke his way out of actually having to talk about his nightmare. But Dean wasn't having any of it.
"You know, sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this," he said defiantly. Sam nodded, but didn't acknowledge his statement properly.
"Are we here?" he asked.
"Yup, welcome to Toledo, Ohio," Dean answered. Sam picked up the newspaper from the dashboard, going over the article they had circled. It was an obituary for Steven Shoemaker.
"So what do you think really happened to him?" Sam asked.
"He took a look at this zit on my forehead," Shia said as covered the zit with her hand. Dean hated when she would get insecure. Does she know she's beautiful?
"You're gorgeous, don't forget that," Dean turning around to give her a kiss. "And to answer your question Sam. No, I don't know what happen to him. That's why were here. Let's go."
Inside the morgue they had been parked outside, Sam, Dean and Shia walked into room 144. Walking past the absent doctor's desk, Dean looked at the name. Dr D. Feiklowicz. Brilliant! Had to pick the doctor with the unpronounceable name! His own girlfriend couldn't pronounce the name.
"Hey," the morgue tech said as they walked up to his desk.
"Hey," Dean replied.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"Yeah," Dean said. "We're the uh... med students."
"Sorry?" the morgue tech said.
"Oh Doctor… Feiklowicz didn't tell you?" Dean said, hopefully managing to get the name right. "We talked to him on the phone. We uh… We're from Ohio State. He's supposed to show us the Shoemaker corpse. It's for our paper."
"Well I'm sorry, he's at lunch," the morgue tech said.
"Oh well he said uh… Oh well, you know, it doesn't matter. You don't mind showing us the body do you?"
"Sorry, I can't," the morgue tech answered. "Doc will be back in an hour, you can wait for him if you want."
"An hour? Ooh. We gotta be heading back to Columbus by then," Dean said, looking over at Sam and Shia beside him.
"Yeah," Sam said quietly.
"Uh look man, this paper's like half hour grade, so if you don't mind helping us out," Dean said.
"Oh look man," the morgue tech said mockingly. "No."
"I'm gonna hit him in his face I swear," Dean mumbled as he turned away from the morgue tech. Shia had a great idea, she unbutton her shirt to where the top of her breast was showing, then she pulled her hair out of the ponytail it was in so her hair could cover up that ugly zit.
"Hey," Shia said seductively. The morgue tech looked up at Shia and smiled.
"Hello," he said.
"Uh, you see, I have this paper to write and I really need to get it done soon before it's too late. So, if you don't mind...can you take us back there?" Shia asked leaning forward on his desk giving him a wink.
"I want to take you back there, sweetheart, but I don't know if I can," He said staring at Shia's breast. Dean really wanted to punch that guy in the face. Shia turned around and grabbed Dean's wallet from his pocket and pulled out a couple of twenties, she slammed the money in the desk. The morgue tech gave her a smile.
"Follow me," he said, picking up the money and walking away. Sam went to follow, but Dean grabbed Shia's arm before she could walk away, Dean waved at Sam to go on.
"Shia, I earned that money," Dean said.
"Dean, you won it in a poker game," Shia answered truthfully.
"Yeah," Dean said in a so what manner. Shia shook her and turned to walk away, Dean grabbed her arm again.
"What?!" Shia asked annoyed with Dean a little.
"What the hell was that, huh?" Dean asked motioning towards the desk and her shirt. Shia's face softened and she smiled.
"What? Don't tell me you're jealous? I only did it for this job, Dean," Shia said pulling Dean closer wrapping her arms around his waist. "How many times do I have to tell you that you are my one and only?" Dean gave her a smile and kiss her on the lips leaving her breathless.
"Why don't we go back there before they think we disappeared?" Dean said motioning her to go ahead of him, Shia smiled before turning around.
In the morgue, Sam, Dean, Shia and the morgue tech all stood around the body, covered up for the moment.
"Now the newspaper said his daughter found him," Sam said. "She said his eyes were bleeding."
"More than that. They practically liquefied," the morgue tech said as he pulled back the blanket to reveal Steven Shoemaker, who's eyes were now missing.
"Any sign of a struggle? Maybe somebody did it to him?" Dean said, all three of them hiding grimaces. Even though they saw stuff like this every day, it still wasn't too nice to be around.
"Nope," the morgue tech answered. "Besides the daughter, he was all alone."
"What's the official cause of death?" Sam asked.
"Doc's not sure. Massive stroke, maybe an aneurysm? Something burst up in there, that's for sure."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked.
"Intense cerebral bleeding. This guy had more blood in his skull than anyone I've ever seen."
"The eyes—what would cause something like that?"
"Capillaries can burst. See a lot of bloodshot eyes with stroke victims."
"Yeah? You ever see exploding eyeballs?" Shia said.
"That's a first for me, but hey, I'm not the doctor."
"Think we could take a look at that police report?" Dean asked. "You know for, uh… our paper."
"I'm not really supposed to show you that," the morgue tech answered with a sly smile.
"Please, it would really help me," Shia said walking towards him, he looked at her with lust and desire. Shia was disgusted but didn't let her face show it.
"Mmmm. I'm really sorry but I can't do it," He said with a smile smile. Shia rolled her eyes and turned around and pulled out her own wallet and took out four twenties and giving it to him. "I'll be right back." He left the room and Shia turned around to the boys with a frown on her face.
"What's wrong," Sam asked her.
"I was going to use that money to get more face cream," Shia pouted. Dean grinned walking towards her and kiss her once again. Sam rolled his eyes.
"Guys, really? In the morgue," Sam said. Dean and Shia burst out in laughter.
Now they had got what they wanted from the morgue tech, as well as him getting quite a bit from them, Sam, Dean and Shia were making their way to the car.
"Might not be one of ours," Sam said. "Might just be some freak medical thing."
"How many times in dad's long and varied career has it actually been a freak medical thing and not some sign of an awful supernatural death?" Dean said.
"Uh, almost never," Sam answered, thinking about the answer.
"Exactly," Dean said.
"All right, let's go talk to the daughter. I can put my 'We can be BFFs' game face on," Shia said, walking out in front of the boys and putting her back into a ponytail.
Arriving at the daughters, house, Sam, Dean and Shia arrived in the middle of the funeral reception. Pictures of him were scattered over all the counters, and everyone in the room were wearing either suits for the men of black dresses when it came to the women.
"Feel like we're underdressed," Dean mumbled as they walked through the house.
"Yeah, we're underdressed, but we have to walk like we own the place. We are absolutely flawless! Just fabulous," Shia said dramatically. Sam rolled his eyes playfully while Dean grinned. They were lead to group of girls. All of them looked at Sam and Dean like they were meat and the girls were the hungry lion. Shia shifted on her feet uncomfortably, she noticed that one of the girl were staring at her zit.
"You must be Donna right?" Dean said as they stepped up to her.
"Yeah," Donna answered.
"Hi uh—we're really sorry," Sam said with true sympathy.
"Thank you," Donna said with a small smile.
"I'm Sam, this is Dean and his girlfriend Shia. Us two," Sam said, indicating himself and Dean. "We worked with your dad."
"You did?" Donna said skeptically.
"Yeah. This whole thing. I mean, a stroke," Dean said.
"I don't think she really wants to talk about this right now," her friend sat beside her, Charlie, said, looking sternly up at Sam, Dean and Shia.
"It's okay. I'm okay," Donna said to her friend.
"Were there any symptoms?" Dean said after a short pause, knowing that Donna was ok with the going on. "Dizziness? Migraines?"
"No," Donna answered.
"That's because it wasn't a stroke," Lily sat from behind Donna, finally turning to the rest of the group.
"Lily, don't say that," Donna said to her little sister.
"What?" Shia asked both Lily and Donna.
"I'm sorry, she's just upset," Donna said.
"No, it happened because of me," Lily said, tears welling up behind her eyes.
"Sweetie, it didn't," her sister told her.
"Lily," Shia said, walking to her and kneeling down to her eye level. "Why would you say something like that?"
"Right before he died, I said it," Lily said almost cryptically.
"You said what, honey?" Shia asked.
"Bloody Mary- Three times in the bathroom mirror," Lily answered, to which Shia looked up to gage Sam and Dean's reactions. "She took his eyes, that's what she does."
"That's not why dad died," Donna said. "This isn't your fault."
"I think your sister's right, Lily," Dean said. "There's no way it could have been Bloody Mary. Your dad didn't say it, did he?"
"No I don't think so," Lily said. Dean smiled down at her, although he made a mental note to look into the theory of Bloody Mary, like he was sure Sam and Shia were.
Now having talked to the daughters, the trio snuck inside the house, and up the stairs. Walking down the same hallway Mr. Shoemaker and his daughter had a couple of nights ago, they made their way to the bathroom. They pushed open the bathroom door, a clear blood stain on the floor.
"The Bloody Mary legend. Damn," Shia said in an almost whisper.
"Dad ever find any evidence that it was a real thing?" Sam asked.
"Not that I know of," Dean said as he and Shia walked into the bathroom. Sam stayed by the door, stooping to the floor to examine the blood stain
"I mean, everywhere else all over the country, kids will play Bloody Mary, and as far as we know, no one dies from it," Sam said.
"Yeah well maybe everywhere it's just a story but here it's actually happening," Dean suggested.
"The place where the legend began?" Sam asked. Dean merely shrugged his shoulders.
"But according to the legend, the person who says…." Before going on, Sam looked sideways to the mirror of the medicine cabinet. Shia had just opened it and it was now pointing his way. For fear of what might happen, Sam shut the mirror before continuing."The person who says you know what, gets it. But here…."
"Shoemaker gets it instead, yeah," Shia said.
"Right," Sam said.
"Never heard anything like that before."
"Still, the guy did die right in front of the mirror," Dean said. "And the daughter's right. The way the legend goes, 'you know who' scratches your eyes out."
"It's worth checking in to," Shia said. From outside of there bathroom, the three heard the sound of shoes approaching them. Seeing who it was, Sam, Dean and Shia quickly left the bathroom just as Charlie stopped in front of them.
"What are you doing up here?" Charlie asked.
"We… we, had to go to the bathroom," Dean said, clearly the first thing that came to his mind, and earning a glare from Sam and Shia.
"Who are you?" Charlie asked.
"Like we said downstairs, we worked with Donna's dad," Dean said.
"He was a day trader or something, he worked by himself."
"No, I know, I meant…." Dean began to stammer out, just having been caught.
"And all those weird questions downstairs, what was that? So you tell me what's going on, or I start screaming."
"Oh please," Shia said rolling her eyes.
"All right, all right," Sam said, taking over before Dean could come up with another ridiculous lie. "We think something happened to Donna's dad."
"Yeah, a stroke," Charlie said matter-of-factly.
"That's not a sign of a typical stroke, honey," Shia said, pointing towards the blood marked floor.
"We think it might be something else," Sam said.
"Like what?" Charlie asked, still with the questions.
"Honestly? We don't know yet," Sam said. "But we don't want it to happen to anyone else. That's the truth."
"So… If you're gonna scream, go right ahead," Shia told Charlie, who remained quiet.
"Who are you, cops?" she said finally.
"Something like that," Dean said.
"I'll tell you what. Here," Sam said, taking a pen and a small piece of paper from his pocket which he wrote his number on. "If you think of anything, you or your friends notice anything strange, out of the ordinary… just give us a call."
Handing the paper to Charlie, Sam smiled politely before he, Dean and Shia left.
Searching up on Bloody Mary, if that was actually what was haunting this town, Sam, Dean and Shia made their way to the library.
"Say Bloody Mary really is haunting this town," Dean said as they walked to the library entrance. "There's gonna be some sort of proof. Like a local woman who died nasty."
"Yeah but a legend this widespread it's hard," Shia said as they stepped through the library door. "I mean, there's like 50 versions of who she actually is. One story says she's a witch, another says she's a mutilated bride, there's a lot more."
"All right so what are we supposed to be looking for?" Dean asked.
"Every version's got a few things in common," Sam said. "It's always a woman named Mary, and she always dies right in front of a mirror. So we've gotta search local newspapers, public records as far back as they go. See if we can find a Mary who fits the bill."
"Well that sounds annoying."
"No it won't be so bad, as long as we…." Shia began, turning to see that all the computers had 'Out of Order' written across them. "I take it back. This will be very annoying."
Sam was having another nightmare. Dean and Shia watched him with concern.
"We should wake him," Shia told Dean.
"Nah, he hasn't had much sleep lately," Dean said. Shia nodded as a response.
Gasping for breath, Sam woke up on his bed in the motel room, Dean and Shia looking up from their research as he woke.
"Why'd you let me fall asleep?" Sam asked simply.
"Cause I'm an awesome brother," Dean answered.
"So what did you dream about?" Shia asked.
"Lollipops and candy canes," was the answer Sam gave.
"Really? Must have been a fucked up candyland," Shia said.
"Did you find anything?" Sam asked, trying to draw the conversation away from his dreams.
"Oh besides a whole new level of frustration?" Shia said as Sam sat up. "No. We've looked at everything. A few local women, a Laura and a Catherine committed suicide in front of a mirror, and a giant mirror fell on a guy named Dave, which was oddly entertaining to read about , but uh, no Mary."
"Maybe we just haven't found it yet," Sam said, falling back against the bed.
"We've also been searching for strange deaths in the area," Dean said. "You know… eyeball bleeding, that sort of thing. There's nothing. Whatever's happening here, maybe it just ain't Mary."
Sam sighed, this investigation going nowhere. Just then, Sam's cell phone rang and he pulled it from his pocket, answering it.
"Hello?" he said. As the voice on the other end answered, Sam sat up, a look of concern across his features.
The caller had been Charlie. The three had just met up with her at a park. Charlie was sat crying, Shia beside her and Dean sat on the back of the bench while Sam stood over them.
"And they found her on the bathroom floor," Charlie said, continuing to tell them Jill's story. "And her… her eyes. They were gone."
"I'm sorry," Sam said.
"And she said it," Charlie continued, causing Dean and Shia to look up at Sam. "I heard her say it. But it couldn't be because of that. I'm insane, right?"
"Trust me, baby girl, you are not insane," Shia said, trying to be comforting.
"Oh God, that makes me feel so much worse," Charlie said as she dropped her head into her hands.
"Look," Sam began, making Charlie look up at him. "We think something's happening here. Something that can't be explained."
"And we're gonna stop it but we could use your help," Dean finished.
There first stop was now Jill's bedroom, the newest crime scene. Charlie walked into the room, closing the door behind her and walking over to the window. Sam, Dean and Shia were knelt beside the window, climbing in as Charlie opened it for them. Sam and Shia entered first, Shia catching the duffle bag that Dean threw her way, laying it on the bed and searching through it.
"What did you tell Jill's mom?" Sam asked as Dean climbed in the window.
"Just that I needed some time alone with Jill's pictures and things," Charlie answered, watching as Shia pulled something out of the bag and Dean closed the curtains. "I hate lying to her."
"Trust us, this is for the greater good," Dean said. "Hit the lights," he told Charlie, and she switched them all off.
"What are you guys looking for?" she asked as she walked back over to them.
"We'll let you know as soon as we find it," Dean answered. Shia switched on the digital camera she had in her hand, checking the image on the screen.
"Hey, night vision," she said to Dean as she held it out to her. Dean flicked a switch ad the camera went to night vision.
"Thanks, babe, it's perfect," Shia said, the camera now focused on Dean and he knew it.
"Do I look like Paris Hilton?" he asked, striking a pose. Laughing slightly, Shia walked to Jill's closet with the camera. She opened the door and aimed the camera round the edges of the mirror, searching for something only the night vision could see.
"So I don't get it," Sam said. "I mean… the first victim didn't summon Mary, and the second victim did. How's she choosing them?"
"Beats me," Dean said as Shia closed the closet and moved to Jill's dresser. "I want to know why Jill said it in the first place," Dean said, pointedly turning to Charlie.
"It's just a joke," Charlie answered.
"Yeah well somebody's gonna say it again, it's just a matter of time," Dean said.
Shia was now in the bathroom, aiming the camera round the edges of the bathroom mirror. She stopped at the bottom when the camera caught something. A trickle of something running down from behind the mirror.
"Hey, babe," Shia called from the bathroom, Dean turned to look her way."There's a black light in the trunk, right?" she asked.
There was, and Dean went to get it while Sam carried the mirror out of the bathroom lying it on the bed in front of Shia as climbed back in the window and threw Shia the black light. Peeling of the brown paper from the back, Shia shone the black light over the back. Under the black light, she found the image of a smudged handprint and a name written beneath it.
"Gary Bryman?" Charlie read off the name.
"You know who that is?" Sam asked.
"No," Charlie answered.
"Well, we have a mystery person I guess," Shia said.
Following up the Gary Bryman link, it had led them to a small house in town. Dean, Shia and Charlie sat outside while Sam went inside.
"So," Sam said, coming out of the house and stopping beside them. "Gary Bryman was an 8-year-old boy. Two years ago he was killed in a hit and run. The car was described as a black Toyota Camry. But nobody got the plates or saw the driver."
"Oh my God," Charlie mumbled as she heard the car name.
"What?" Sam asked.
"Jill drove that car," she told them.
"We need to get back to your friend Donna's house," Dean said, new theory's beginning to slip into place.
In the bathroom in the Shoemaker house, the trio had pulled the mirror from the bathroom wall and were now hunched over it while Sam shone the black light across the back. They found the same handprint, and another name written across the bottom.
"Linda Shoemaker. Damn, that bastard murdered his wife," Shia said as she read off the name. Looking further into this, Sam, Dean and Shia went downstairs to Donna and Charlie and asked about Linda Shoemaker.
"Why are you asking me this?" Donna said.
"Look, we're sorry, but it's important," Shia said.
"Yeah. Linda's my mom okay?" Donna said, answering their questions. "She overdosed on sleeping pills, it was an accident, and that's it. I think you should leave."
"Now Donna, just listen…."
"Get out of my house!" Donna cut in, running up her stairs and not listening at all.
"Oh my God," Charlie said once Donna was gone, turning to the three. "Do you really think her dad could've killed her mom?"
"Maybe," Sam answered.
"I think I should stick around," Charlie said.
"All right. Whatever you do, don't…." But Dean didn't need to finish that sentence.
"Believe me, I won't say it," Charlie told them.
Back at the motel, Dean sat at the laptop with Shia beside her, Sam wondering round the room and looking through what they already had.
"Wait, wait, wait, you're doing a nationwide search?" Sam asked.
"Yep," Dean said, his concentration still on the computer screen. "The NCIC, the FBI database. At this point any Mary who died in front of a mirror is good enough for me."
"But if she's haunting the town, she should have died in the town," Sam said.
"I'm telling you there's nothing local, we've checked. So unless you got a better idea…." Dean said, trailing off and knowing that he didn't.
"The way Mary's choosing her victims, it seems like there's a pattern," Sam said.
"I know, I was thinking the same thing," Shia said.
"With mister Shoemaker and Jill's hit and run," Sam said.
"Both had secrets where people died," Dean finished for him.
"Right," Sam said. "I mean there's a lot of folklore about mirrors-that they reveal all your lies, all your secrets, that they're a true reflection of your soul, which is why it's bad luck to break them."
"Right, right," Shia said, not noticing that the boy beside them seemed to have found something on the computer, his concentration kicking up a notch. "So maybe if you've got a secret, I mean like a really nasty one where someone died, then Mary sees it, and punishes you for it."
"Whether you're the one that summoned her or not," Sam said.
"Take a look at this," Dean said, letting them know he had fund something. Printing off from the site he had found, Dean printed two pictures. One of a woman lay by a mirror in a pool of blood, and the other of a handprint and the letter 'Tre'.
"Looks like the same handprint," Sam said, comparing it to the pictures they had taken from the mirror's in Jill's and Donna's house.
"Her name was Mary Worthington," Dean told them. "An unsolved murder in Fort Wayne, Indiana."
Finding out what they could on this case from the internet, Sam, Dean and Shia had tracked down the detective who had been on the case, and were now in Fort Wayne, Indiana, grilling the detective about Mary Worthington.
"I was on the job for 35 years," the detective told them. "Detective for most of that. Now everybody packs it in with a few loose ends, but the Mary Worthington murder. That one still gets me."
"What exactly happened?" Dean asked.
"You guys said you were reporters?" the detective said.
"We know Mary was 19, lived by herself," Sam began telling what they had probably thousands of other people who had the internet could easily find out. "We know she won a few local beauty contests, dreamt of getting out of Indiana, being an actress. And we know the night of March 29th someone broke into her apartment and murdered her, cut out her eyes with a knife."
"That's right," the detective said.
"See sir, when we asked you what happened, we wanted to know what you think happened," Dean said. Showing them what he thought happened, the detective led them into another room, pulling out his file on the Mary Worthington case.
"Technically I'm not supposed to have a copy of this," the detective said, opening up the folder to show them the pictures they had already found on the internet.
"Now see that there?" he said, pointing to the picture of the handprint. "T-R-E?"
"Yeah," Dean said.
"I think Mary was trying to spell out the name of her killer."
"You know who it was?" Sam asked.
"Not for sure. But there was a local man, a surgeon. Trevor Sampson," the detective said, pulling out a picture of him. "And I think her cut her up good."
"Now why would he do something like that?" Sam asked.
"Her diary mentioned a man that she was seeing. She called him by his initial, 'T'. Well, her last entry, she was gonna tell 'T' 's wife about their affair."
"Yeah but how do you know it was Sampson who killed her?" Shia asked.
"It's hard to say, but the way her eyes were cut out… it was almost professional."
"But you could never prove it?" Shia said.
"No. No prints, no witnesses. He was meticulous."
"Is he still alive?" Dean asked.
"Nope," the detective said, sitting down with a sigh. "If you ask me, Mary spent her last living moments trying to expose this guy's secret. But she never could."
"Where's she buried?" Sam asked.
"She wasn't. She was cremated," the detective said, and the three inwardly sighed in dismay.
"What about that mirror," Dean said, nodding at the picture. "It's not in some evidence lockup somewhere is it?"
"Ah, no. It was returned to Mary's family a long time ago."
"You have the names of her family by any chance?" Shia asked.
Sam, Dean and Shia were now driving away from Fort Wayne and back to Toledo, Shia on the phone ion the front seat of the car.
"Oh really?" she said into the phone. "Ah that's too bad Mr. Worthington. Me and my husband would have paid a lot for that mirror. Okay, well maybe next time. All right, thanks." She finished as she hung up the phone.
"So?" Dean asked.
"So that was Mary's brother," Shia told the brothers. "The mirror was in the family for years, until he sold it one week ago to a store called Estate Antiques. A little store in Toledo."
"So wherever the mirror goes, that's where Mary goes?" Dean said.
"Her spirit's definitely tied up with it somehow," Sam stated.
"Isn't there an old superstition that says mirrors can capture spirits?" Dean asked.
"Yeah there is," Shia answered. "Yeah, when someone would die in a house people would cover up the mirrors so the ghost wouldn't get trapped."
"So Mary dies in front of a mirror, and it draws in her spirit," Dean stated more than asked.
"Yeah but how could she move through like a hundred different mirrors?" Sam asked.
"I don't know, but if the mirror is the source, I say we find it and smash it."
"Yeah, I don't know, maybe," Sam said. Before Dean or Shia could question his 'maybe', Sam's cell phone rang.
"Hello," he said into the phone. As the voice on the other end spoke, the look of concern came over Sam's face again.
"Charlie?"
At the motel where Sam, Dean and Shia were staying, they had Charlie sat on the bed, curled in a ball with her head in her knees. Shia sat beside her, watching as the two boys covered all the windows, mirrors, anything with a reflection. Any mirror they couldn't cover, they turned to the wall.
"Hey, hey it's ok," Shia said to Charlie as the boys finished covering the reflections. "Hey, you can open up your eyes Charlie. It's okay, all right?" Charlie did, slowly, as Sam sat on the bed beside Shia.
"Now listen," Shia continued. "You're gonna stay right here on this bed, and you're not gonna look at glass, or anything else that has a reflection, okay? And as long as you do that, she cannot get you."
"But I can't keep that up forever," Charlie said softly. "I'm gonna die, aren't I?"
"No. No. Not anytime soon," Sam said comfortingly as Dean sat on the bed the other side of Charlie.
"All right Charlie. We need to know what happened," he said.
"No, we don't. It's her business, we just know someone got hurt", Shia whispered in Dean's ear. Dean gave her a look and ignored her.
"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it," Charlie said.
"That's not what we're talking about," Dean said. "Something happened, didn't it? In your life… a secret… where someone got hurt. Can you tell us about it?" Charlie paused for a minute, looking round at the three in the room with her. Shia rolled her eyes at Dean, she didn't agree with them asking about her personal life.
"I had this boyfriend," Charlie began eventually. "I loved him. But he kind of scared me too, you know? And one night, at his house, we got in this fight. Then I broke up with him, and he got upset, and he said he needed me and he loved me, and he said 'Charlie, if you walk out that door right now, I'm gonna kill myself.' And you know what I said?" As her memories came flooding out, Charlie's voice began to break as the tears came with it.
"I said 'Go ahead," she continued. "And I left. How could I say that? How could I leave him like that? I just… I didn't believe him, you know? I should have." The tears escape and she dropped her heads into her knees again, sobbing softly.
"Honey, listen to me. That wasn't your fault. Okay? It was his choice," Shia said as she rubbed Charlie's back comforting her.
Leaving Charlie in the reflection free room, Sam, Dean and Shia were now driving down to the store to get rid of Mary.
"You know her boyfriend killing himself, that's not really Charlie's fault," Dean said.
"Oh, I know," Shia said. Dean knew she was still pissed about him ignoring her about making Charlie spill her little secret, she didn't see a reason for them to know. Mary was after her and that's they needed to know.
"You know as well as I do spirits don't exactly see shades of gray, Dean," Sam said, his focus on staring blankly out of the window. "Charlie had a secret, someone died, that's good enough for Mary."
"I guess," Dean said.
"You know, I've been thinking. It might not be enough to just smash that mirror," Sam told them.
"Why, what do you mean?" Shia said, leaning forward in the back seat.
"Well Mary's hard to pin down, right?" he told them. "I mean she moves around from mirror to mirror so who's to say that she's not just gonna keep hiding in them forever? So maybe we should try to pin her down, you know, summon her to her mirror and then smash it."
"Well how do you know that's going to work?" Shia asked.
"I don't, not for sure," Sam said.
"Well who's gonna summon her?" Shia asked.
"I will. She'll come after me," Sam said blankly.
"You know what, that's it," Dean said as he roughly pulled the car over, causing Shia to be pushed back into her seat again. She mumbled 'Damn it, Dean.'
"This is about Jessica, isn't it?" Dean said once the car had been pulled to a stop. "You think that's your dirty little secret that you killed her somehow? Sam, this has got to stop, man. I mean, the nightmares and calling her name out in the middle of the night, it's gonna kill you."
"Listen to me," Shia said, leaning forward again. "It wasn't your fault. If you wanna blame something, then blame the thing that killed her."
"Or hell, why don't you take a swing at me?" Dean cut in. "I mean I'm the one that dragged you away from her in the first place."
"I don't blame you," Sam said quickly.
"Well you shouldn't blame yourself, because there's nothing you could've done."
"I could've warned her," Sam said, and the edge in his voice told Shia there was more to the story than they knew.
"About what?" Dean said, trying to keep his anger in check. "You didn't know what was gonna happen! And besides, all of this isn't a secret, I mean we know all about it. It's not gonna work with Mary anyway."
"No you don't," Sam said quietly.
"We don't what?"
"You guys don't know all about it. I haven't told you everything," Sam said, proving Shia's thoughts right.
"What are you talking about?" Dean said.
"Well it wouldn't really be a secret if I told you, would it?" Sam said, and all Dean could do was stare in shock and surprise.
"No," Dean said after a minute. "I don't like it. It's not gonna happen, forget it."
"Dean that girl back there is going to die unless we do something about it," Sam told his brother, his voice now adamant. "And you know what? Who knows how many more people are gonna die after that? Now we're doing this. You've got to let me do this."
Dean and Shia having been forced to give in, Sam was now trying to pick the lock outside of the antiques shop. The door successfully opened and the trio walked in only to be confronted with a shop full of antique mirrors.
"Well… that's just great," Shia said. Dean pulled out the picture of Mary's body lying beside the mirror, showing it to Sam and Shia so they knew what they were looking for.
"All right let's start looking," Dean said as they walked off in separate directions, Sam going one way, Shia and Dean the other. What they failed to notice was the small flashing light, signaling they had tripped the silent alarm.
"Maybe they've already sold it," Dean said as their search came up with nothing. While in the other side of the shop, Sam's flashlight came to rest ion the mirror in question.
"I don't think so," Sam called to Dean and Shia. They stepped up behind him, Dean taking out the picture of the mirror to make a comparison.
"That's it," Dean said, sighing heavily at what he knew was coming next.
"You sure about this?" Shia asked. In answer, Sam simply handed her the flashlight and heaved his own sigh before he turned to the mirror.
"Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary," Sam began, glancing over at Dean and Shia before he finished to find them both staring at him with an unsure look. Sam held his crowbar higher before he finished, ready to smash the mirror the minute Mary entered it.
"Bloody Mary," he finished.
Before Mary could appear in the mirror, they were distracted as a light flowed in through the store windows, Dean and Shia turning to it.
"We'll go check that out," Dean said. "Stay here."
"Be careful, Sam. I mean it," Shia said as they walked away. Being careful, Sam held a tighter grip on the crowbar.
"Smash anything that moves," Dean said as he and Shia cautiously rounded the corner. They found the source of the light outside the store. Car headlights.
"Crap," Dean muttered. Thinking that maybe the crowbar in Dean's hand looked a little too guilty, Shia took it from him and slid it down the back of a chest of drawers before she and Dean walked towards the door.
Outside of the shop, Dean and Shia found that the headlights belonged to a police car.
"Hold it," one of the officers now stood in front of Dean and Shia said.
"Whoa guys, false alarm," Shia said, raising her hands in a sign of surrender.
"We tripped the system," Dean finished.
"Who are you?" the officer asked.
"I'm the boss's kid, this is my wife," Dean answered.
"You're Mister Yamashiro's kid?" the officer asked.
Dean and Shia were still trying to explain their presence to the cops.
"Like I said, I was adopted," Dean said.
"Yeah," one cop said as the two cornered Dean and Shia, coming in closely from both sides. Dean looked over at him, who simply shrugged slightly at him, knowing just what he was gonna do.
"You know, we just—we really don't have time for this right now," Dean said. Getting rid of the ops the easy way to them, Dean and Shia went for the cops closest to them. Moving in quick motion, Shia elbowed her cop in the face and kicked his feet from under him, while Dean punched and backhanded his cop, both falling to the floor.
"Not bad," Dean said, looking over at Shia.
"You know me. Never was much for authority figures," Shia said with a smile as she turned back towards the shop, Dean following.
Inside the shop and Sam is still struggling against his reflection.
"You never told her the truth. Who you really were," Sam's reflection said as Sam continued falling closer to the ground.
"But it's more than that, isn't it?" the reflection continued. "Those nightmares you've been having of Jessica dying, screaming, burning—You had them for days before she died. Didn't you!? You were so desperate to ignore them, to believe they were just dreams. How could you ignore them like that? How could you leave her alone to die!? You dreamt it would happen!"
Before his reflection could say any more, Dean and Shia came running into the room, Shia smashing the crowbar through Mary's mirror. Sam remained still on the floor, and Shia knelt down beside him, making him look at her.
"Sam, Sammy! Are you alright?!" Shia called to him.
"It's Sam," Sam said weakly. Smiling with relief, Shia pulled Sam forward and kissed his forehead. Pulling back, Shia saw the blood trickling down Sam's eyes.
"God, are you really okay?" she said, the concern back.
"Uh, yeah," Sam said. Smiling at him again, Shia gently touched Sam's cheek as he smiled back at her. Shia put her forehead against his.
Standing a little away from them, Dean watched the two of them together. It was times like this when it really hit him how close his girlfriend and his baby brother were. He had never seen Shia worry about anyone as much as she did for Sam. They were two of a kind those two, always the ones with the information. So much in common. In the little moments of tenderness like this, he could see how much she cared about him.
And he knew Sam cared about her. He knew deep down that if it wasn't for Shia, Sam probably wouldn't have come on the hunt in the first place. When they had first pulled Sam away from college, Shia had gotten a much warmer welcome then he had. And he had expected that. Of all the people, Sam chose to keep in contact with Shia. He knew there was a bond between Sam and Shia he could never break or get into.
Pushing his thoughts aside, Dean moved closer to Sam and Shia.
"Come on, come on," Dean said as he and Shia helped Sam to his feet. Swinging his arms over their shoulders, they began to slowly walk out of the store. But what they didn't see behind them was Mary, crawling out of her frame. As the sound of glass cracking met their ears, the three turned to see Mary walking towards them. All three fell to the floor as blood began trickling from their eyes, Mary now extremely pissed.
Thinking fast, Dean weakly reached across and pulled a Mary in front of them, Mary now forced to look at her own reflection.
"You killed them!" her reflection echoed. "All those people! You killed them!"
Like all her victims before her, Mary began to choke, falling towards the ground. Before she could hit the floor, her body melted away, leaving a pile of blood where she stood. Dean threw the mirror forward, shattering it as it fell.
"Hey guys?" Dean said to the two beside him.
"Yeah?" Sam answered.
"This has got to be like… what? 600 years of bad luck?" Dean said. Sam and Shia chuckled weakly as Shia wiped some of the blood from her face.
The next morning, Sam, Dean and Shia drove Charlie back to her house.
"So this is really over?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah, it's over," Dean said with a nod.
"Thank you," Charlie said softly to the three. Dean reached back and shook her hand gently as she stepped out of the car and began walking back to her house.
"Charlie?" Sam called to her, and she turned round."Your boyfriend's death… you really should try to forgive yourself. No matter what you did, you probably couldn't have stopped it. Sometimes bad things just happen."
Charlie smiled faintly as she turned back towards her house. Shia pulled forward in the back, leaning against Sam's chair.
"That's good advice," she said softly into his ear. Sam smiled weakly as Shia sat back and Dean drove off.
"Hey Sam?" Dean said once they had been driving for a few minutes.
"Yeah?" Sam answered.
"Now that this is all over, I want you to tell us what that secret is," Dean said.
"Look… you guys are my family and I'd die for either you," Sam said truthfully. "But there are some things I need to keep to myself."
Turning away from Dean and Shia, Sam held his attention on the street passing him by through the window. And the first thing that caught his eyes was Jessica, standing on the corner of the street in a white dress. Sam tried to keep his eyes on her, but as they turned the corner, she vanished. Sam continued to stare out of the window, wondering what had just happened. Had he really just seen Jessica, or was it his mind? The thought of his dead girlfriend was all that dominated his mind as they continued to drive.
A couple of hours later the were at a motel, Shia noticed that something was bothering Dean. She wanted a little time with her boyfriend.
"Sam, why don't you talk the impala and go get some supplies for me from the grocery store. Please?" Shia asked as she gave him a list. Sam leaves and Dean comes from out of the bathroom.
"Where did Sam go?" Dean asked walking over to Shia sitting beside her on the bed.
"Oh, I sent him the store for a bit. I just thought we needed sometime together," Shia said seductively. Dean looked at her and leaned in and kissed her on lips. The kiss deepened as she moved closer to him, Dean hands was roaming her body. She took his shirt off and start to kiss his neck. Moments later all of their clothing were gone, Dean laid her on the bed. He showered her face with kisses.
"Dean, I love you," Shia said breathlessly. Dean smiled at her. He kissed her as he moved inside her gently. The room was filled with moans from them both as they both reached their climax. When they were finished they cuddled together closely on the bed.
"We should get dress before Sam gets back," Dean said grabbing his shirt.
"Yeah, we should," Shia said heading to the bathroom. Dean smiled as he watched her leave. She was so beautiful.