November 2, 1983

Mary heard Sammy over the monitor. "John," she said, hoping he would get up. He wasn't there, though. Sometimes, he couldn't sleep and went downstairs to watch old movies. She pulled herself out of bed and walked down the hall to the nursery. John was standing by the crib.

"John, is he hungry?" she asked.

"Shh," John said and put his hand up.

"OK," Mary said. She headed downstairs to fix a bottle anyway. There was no way John was going to get Sammy back to sleep before he got some milk.

She heard the TV. That was odd. How had John heard the baby if he'd been downstairs. She went down a couple of steps and saw John in front of the TV. She ran back up the stairs. "Sammy, Sammy," she yelled almost breathlessly. She burst into the room and the man turned to her with his yellow eyes. "It's you," she said. She remembered the deal. He would come by in ten years for something. That had been ten years ago. He was here for her son. "No," she said.

He flung her against the wall and she felt herself sliding up it. She was then slid across the ceiling and she felt her stomach being sliced. She wanted to yell out, but she couldn't make a sound. She watched as the demon, dripped some blood out of his wrist into Sammy's mouth. Why was he feeding her son demon blood? She knew that when you ingested vampire blood you became a vampire. She had never heard of anyone ingesting demon blood before, though. She didn't know if it turned you into a demon or not. The demon disappeared and John had coming running in, in response to her screams. He didn't look up. He didn't see her. He went straight to the crib. Mary wanted to call to him, but she couldn't.

John noticed her blood dripping into the crib, though. Then he looked up and she burst into flames. She didn't know such pain was possible. She really wanted to scream. Why couldn't she scream? She could feel her flesh boiling. She could hear it sizzle. She could smell herself burning. "Save the kids," she wanted to yell, as John stared stupidly up at her.

As if he heard her, he mobilized. He picked up Sammy and ran out into the hallway. She heard him give instructions to Dean to take him outside. He came back in the room, but there was nothing he could do. Finally he ran out and Mary knew no more.

SSS

The following week

John knew he had seen Mary burning alive on the ceiling. Nobody believed him. They said the trauma was making him remember things that didn't happen. Charlie was talking about calling social services on him.

Finally, he went to see a psychic. Her name was Missouri Mosely. He brought her back to the house. "Can you tell what did this to my wife?" he asked.

"No. But there was something evil here," she said.

Mary was still in the house. She had tried to leave it, but she couldn't. She knew her bones were totally burned up. She didn't know what was keeping her here, but she was apparently destined to be a ghost for eternity. She wanted to reach out to John. She wanted to tell this woman to shut up. Not to tell John about the things that go bump in the night. But, she also wanted to know what was wrong with Sammy. She screamed, but nobody could hear her. She didn't know how to manifest herself.

Mary watched as Missouri told John about ghosts, poltergeists, demons and many other creatures. She referred him to some hunters. He was going to be a hunter. She knew that he would end up raising Sam and Dean as hunters. Her worst fear had come true. She cried. She cried tears that nobody could see with sobs that nobody could hear.

SSS

"Charlie, you were right," John said. "I've been a fool."

Charlie sighed in relief. "It's OK, John. It was the grief. This would be hard on anybody."

"I'm going to take the kids to the park."

"Sam, too? He's kind of young. Why don't you just take Dean?"

"I want us to be together right now," John said. He was actually planning on leaving this town. He had cashed out all his accounts. He didn't have much, but he was going to see those hunters Missouri had referred him to.

He got the kids into the car and drove out of that town as fast as he could.

SSS

Dean hadn't spoken at all the first two weeks after Mary had died. After that, all he had done was ask questions. He had peeked into the room before running out with Sammy. He had seen his mother burning on the ceiling. Finally, John told him the truth about everything.

"I don't know what killed your mother," he ended, "But I'm going to kill everything until I get it."

"Me, too," Dean vowed.