Bloody Mary
Alex sat in the back of the impala, her legs were stretched out against the backseat with a blanket tossed across her feat. They had been driving for hours and recently pulled over for a bite to eat and some coffee. Sam was asleep in the front seat, his eyelids were flickering and he was mumbling in his sleep.
Dean was inside grabbing some coffee for him and Sam, she'd already ordered her food and was in the process of stuffing a chocolate donut into her mouth when the driver side door opens and Dean slides in with two cups of coffee in hand. Their eyes meet, her cheeks stuffed full like a hamster, she maintains eye contact as she chews then swallows her donut. The grimace on his face was well worth it in her opinion.
They don't get a chance to say anything before Sam is suddenly struggling in his sleep, calling out for Jessica. Alex leans forward in her seat reaching for her distressed brother, while Dean begins to lightly shake his shoulder.
"Sam, Sammy, wake up."
Sam jolts awake, and confused. He sits up and looks around himself rubbing the sleep out of his face as he tries to calm his heart. He notices both of his siblings staring at him in concern, with a heavy sigh and a refusal to meet their eyes he speaks up, "I take it I was having a nightmare." Alex nods, wiping chocolate from her cheeks.
"Yeah, another one." Dean eyes his brother trying to peer into his head and figure out if he's alright.
Sam tries to play it off with a strained chuckle, "Hey, at least I got some sleep."
"You know, sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this." Alex can see the way Sam curls in on himself a bit, that's one thing they could agree on, not wanting to talk about their dreams.
Sam takes one of the coffees from Dean and drags a big gulp from it, "Are we here?"
Alex pokes his cheek, giving him what she hoped was an encouraging grin, "yup! We just arrived in Toledo and decided to stop for a bite to eat."
Sam leans forward and reaches down by his feet and picks up a newspaper with an obituary circled. It read..
"SHOEMAKER, Steven
The Shoemaker family is sad to announce the sudden death of their beloved husband and father Steven Shoemaker. Steven was 46…." It continued on talking about his life and a brief mention of how he died.
"So what do you think really happened to this guy?" Sam tosses the paper into the backseat hitting Alex in the face. Her annoyed shreak brings a smile to both of the boys faces.
Dean puts the car into drive, and pulls out of the parking lot, "That's what we're gonna find out."
After several minutes in slightly tense silence, the three of them arrive outside a dreary looking building. "Let's go."
Dean and Sam climb out of the car, Alex stays in her spot in the back unsure if they want her to go. The sound of a knock on glass has her looking out the window, Dean is there smiling and waves for her to follow them inside. She quickly clambers out of the car pulling on her shoes as she goes. She gives her dad's jacket the briefest glance before leaving it where she had thrown it earlier that week. She wasn't over that last hunt yet. Leaving the car in her jeans and one of deans metallica shirts her marked arms bare to the world.
Sam's eyes briefly glance at her markings before turning and heading for the station entrance. Dean throws an arm across her shoulders as they follow Close behind Sam.
The three of them cross through several hallways before heading into room 144, with a copper plaque on the door marked morgue. Alex notices that There's two desks in the room. The empty one has a nameplate that says Dr. D. Feiklowicz. The second desk has an slightly older man in scrubs sitting behind it. Alex couldnt help but think he looked like a sleeze.
The man looks up from his work giving them a cursory glance, "Hey."
Dean smiles and nods his own greeting, "Hey." The four of them stand there in awkward silence as the guy waits for him to continue. When no one speaks up he glances between the 3 strangers in front of him. Slightly eyeing up the girl.
"Can I help you?"
Alex shoves her elbow into Dean's side and gives him a look telling him to handle it, "Yeah. We're the, uh...med students."
The man just looks more confused than before, "Sorry?"
Dean panics as he quickly glances around the room, his eyes landing on the nameplate on the other desk before blurting out the first bullshit lie he could think of. "Oh, Doctor—," Dean stumbles over the name. "—Figlavitch didn't tell you? We talked to him on the phone. He, uh, we're from Ohio State. He's supposed to show us the Shoemaker corpse. It's for our paper."
The man gives them a suspicious look, eyeing their clothes, his eyes straying a bit too long on the girl's chest and arms, something the three of them don't miss by the tightening of her brother's eyes, "Well, I'm sorry, he's at lunch."
Dean clears his throat, tamping down his anger, "Oh well he said, uh—oh, well, you know, it doesn't matter. You don't mind just showing us the body, do you?"
The man runs his eyes up and down the girl one last time before turning back to dean and giving him a fake sympathetic look, "Sorry, I can't. Doc will be back in an hour. You can wait for him if you want." He side eyes Alex, "I could show your friend here a place to eat while you wait if you like."
Alex watches as Sam's jaw ticks and a vein seems to bulge on Dean's face, "An hour? Ooh. We gotta be heading back to Columbus by then."
Dean and Sam share a look, having one of their silent convos, Alex glances between the two of them, 'I really need to learn that too..'
Sam sighs in irritation, "Yeah."
Alex finally speaks up, walking around Dean to talk to the creep, "Please this paper is half our grade, if we don't finish it we'll have to take another semester.
"Uh, look, Your pretty and all but i really can't, but i can show ya around town later.."
Dean laughs a little then turns around and mumbles so only Sam could hear. "I'm gonna hit him in his face, I swear." Sam nods in agreement, his baby sister was not to be ogled at. He steps in front of Dean gently pulling Alex behind him and opens his wallet and pulls out some twenties. He lays a few of them, at least five, down on the dudes desk. The man picks up the money with a slimy grin.
"Follow me."
As the slimeball walks further into a back room Dean grabs Sams shoulder, "Dude, Alex and I earned that money."
"You guys won it in a poker game. One that she shouldn't even be allowed to play at 16 by the way."
Dean looks affronted, "Yeah. So." Alex just sighs her annoyance at losing all that money written plain as day on her face.
"You owe us that money back Samantha.."
The three of them follow the guy into the other room, finding him standing next to a covered body, "Now the newspaper said his daughter found him. She said his eyes were bleeding."
The Techie pulls back the sheet over Stevens face. "More than that. They are practically liquefied."
"Any sign of a struggle? Maybe somebody did it to him?"
Alex leans in close to the face of the corpse completely mystified by his empty eye sockets. She'd never seen anything liquify a dude's eyes before, 'gross but kinda cool too.'
"Nope. Besides the daughter, he was all alone.
Alex looks up at him, "What's the official cause of death?"
The guy gives what he believes is a charming grin, "Ah, Doc's not sure. He's thinking of a massive stroke, maybe an aneurysm? Something burst up in there, that's for sure."
"What do you mean?"
Morgue douche looks between Sam and Dean with a sick grin, "Intense cerebral bleeding. This guy had more blood in his skull than anyone I've ever seen."
ALex looks back down at the corpse's face, "The eyes;what would cause something like that?" She realizes she should probably be more disgusted than curious and almost awed by the dude's missing eyes, but she really couldn't help it, this was something new.
"Capillaries can burst. See a lot of bloodshot eyes with stroke victims."
"Yeah? You ever see exploding eyeballs?" Dean was giving the man an icy stare but the idiot didn't seem to notice.
"That's a first for me, but hey, I'm not the doctor."
Alex finally leans away from the body done with her inspection, "Hey, think we could take a look at that police report? You know for, uh...our paper."
He smirks staring down at her chest, "I'm not really supposed to show you that."
Sam practically growls, annoyed, pulls out his wallet. While DEan steps in front of his little sister.
The three of them are leaving the morgue climbing the stares back up to the first floor entrance. Dean and Sam are bracketed on each side of Alex as if to protect her from outside view. She couldn't blame them, that dude was giving her the whim whams. 'Fuckin pig'
Her brothers were arguing about the case, Sam thinks it could possibly be just a freak accident but Alex and Dean were not so sure. The dude's eyes literally melted out of his face, and gallons of blood poured from his empty sockets, apparently coating the entire floor of his bathroom. That's not a freak medical thing. She looks up at Sam, "Either way you guys gotta talk to the Daughters, i'll set up whatever motel room we get, I need a nap, that dude was gross." They didn't need to know that she actually just wanted to see the dream man again, even though it might not happen, she hadnt had the dreams since she got to talk to him. She didn't want to make assumptions considering it was just a dream but she almost felt blocked or something like that whenever slept. She always felt almost oppressed or weighted when she woke up some days during the last week or so.
Her brothers share a glance of surprise, she never wanted to be left out of a part of the hunt. They even brought her to the morgue because they felt after handling a demon with them it was time for her to learn more of the ropes. She could handle herself there was no denying that but she'd always been more of a background helper during lone hunts with Dean. Helping with research and the occasional interview.
"Okay then shortcake, we'll find the closest motel." The 2 of them get in the front seat while she ragdolls into the backseat, staring up at the roof of the impala her fingers subconsciously trace her arm markings as she gets lost in thought.
She stays like that getting lost to the world around her, silence encompaces the car as they ride through the town. Homes and buildings pass them by, she briefly spots a library and catalogs it away to tell her brothers later during the research portion of the hunt, before once again going over things in her mind. 'I've been so tired and drained lately…is it because of Dad? We haven't found anything having to do with him at all, my back doesnt hurt anymore, but my shoulders feel all kinds of tight. It's probably from the stress of that demon hunt and constantly being in the back seat…Dad..does he even care about anything other than the hunt..I shouldn't be letting this distract me, my brothers need me' She deftly ignores the dark almost wispy whisper in the back of her mind telling her that they don't, that she isn't even supposed to be here with them and they would be better off without her. The rumbling purr of the engines comes to a halt as the car rolls to a stop in front of another dingy run down looking motel.
She silently sits up, her voice shattering the silence causing her brothers to jump in their seats, "Y'know one of these days I'm gonna force you guys to get a hotel room instead of a shitty cockroach infested cesspool.."
Dean gives her one of those looks that tells her to shut her trap before mock glaring at Sam with a smirk, "Well maybe we could if Sam wasn't giving our hard earned poker money away to lowlife douchebags." That earns him a slap from Sam as they exit the vehicle and enter the front door to the Motel front desk area.
Dean and Sam begin talking to the receptionist while Alex looks around the room, dusty chairs that look older than her dad line the cracked and fugly dull orange wall. The carpet was that old movie theater crap with the random coloured shapes. The light above the Desk was flickering and on its last legs, and holy shit..'thats a fucking dead rat in the corner' Alex stares at it in complete horror, there was no fucking way she was sleeping under any sheets while they were here. She quickly exits back out the door not wanting to be inside anymore.
She catches her bearings while breathing in the slightly musty town air. Old shops line the street, antiques in many of the windows, She briefly spots what looks like an antique mirror shop when a somewhat familiar yet different shiver wracks her spine, She quickly looks around her. Her stance becomes weary when all of sudden a flicker of white appears then disappears in her peripheral vision. Whipping around in the direction she nearly slams face first into Sam's chest. He'd been reaching out to her to grab her attention when she suddenly spun around surprising him.
The three of them stare at each other startled. "Hey you ok Alex? Ya look like you just saw a ghost, literally..Do we need to be worried or anything?"
She shakes her head not really sure what she saw, "I don't know to be honest, i got that feeling again like the one with the demon, only it was different, it wasn't bad not like on the plane, I don't really know how to explain it." The two brothers share a worried glance before ushering her towards their room.
Dean looks around slowly outside the door, checking for any threats before unlocking it and leading her inside. "Get some rest ok, Sam and I will be back soon, salt the door and window if you need to." Alex nods.
"OH! I spotted a library on our way from the morgue, it's just down the street, you guys should stop by there and look up any possible cases that match this guy."
Sam nods in agreement, "Good eye, We'll go there after seeing the daughter." Alex Hesitantly searches the room, making sure that she won't stumble upon any surprise rat bodies during their stay here. Pulling her blanket out of her bag she slowly lowers herself onto the bed on top of the comforter not willing to test the cleanliness of the room, she watches in mild disgust as Dean pulls back the sheets on the other side of the bed and sets his own bag down. Didn't they see how much of a disgusting bed of disease and death this motel was…ugh boys were so gross.
Wrapping herself into a blanket burrito, she's out before her head even hits the pillow, lost to the land of sleep and dead to the room around her and its occupants.
Sam looks at his sister's peaceful face before turning to Dean, "Do you think she is ok, I mean, She can feel things Dean, and she's not sleeping well…and look at her arms..i noticed earlier outside the morgue." Dean looks confused, and Sam sighs "The marks on her arms, they..i don't know, they're darker than before, almost more defined, when you guys came to get me from stanford, they were practically just swirled splotches and curves on her skin…now they almost look more like symbols than before.."
A sigh makes its way past Deans lips before he's running his hands down his face, "I know…Dad and i noticed a while back a little after you left, They get more defined as she gets older, The 3 of us went over every book we could find on birthmarks and their meanings and stuff, We couldn't find anything so we just finally chalked it up to having to do with the whole red eye thing…but now her eyes are shining the goddamn rainbow…and i'll be honest..i'm worried and i don't think i can do anything about this and that pisses me off because that's our sister Sam, And shes scared of herself i can see it every time something new with her happens and I'm supposed to be able to protect her..I just– we can worry about this after we find Dad–ok?" Sam gulps, his own worry for his sister plain as day.
"Right..let's focus on this hunt for now…The daughter is having a funeral service at their house today that we can go to." The two of them leave the motel room, locking the door behind them as they go.
Alex spent several hours like that, unconscious and unaware of her surroundings, like with all the other times she fell asleep this week, there was no icy stare to greet her, no unending black void, just an oppressive silence as she lay semi aware of her body laying in the bed. Until She is suddenly and violently ripped from her sleep by an arm slamming into her back and the panicked shout of her brother Sam. Her burrito wrapped blanket body is sent tumbling off the side of the bed, a yelp of distress forced from her throat as her face, becomes intimately introduced to the grungy carpet via a hard smack to the floor.
Dean watches his sister's ungraceful plummet to the floor and has to hold in his snickers, when she ends up tangled in her blanket her face flush with the carpet and her body twisted into a weird pretzel with her feet above her still mostly on the bed. Sam slowly comes around from his nightmare while Alex tries to pry herself from the deathtrap that's become her blanket.
"Why'd you let me fall asleep?" His voice is strained and cuts straight through Deans snickers.
"Cause I'm an awesome brother. So what did you dream about?"
Sams head falls limp back onto the sheets, "Lollipops and candy canes."
A small pale hand flys up from the floor and smacks his legs, "Bullshit! You just spartan launched me from the damn bad you giant harry mammoth!"
Sam smacks The small flailing hands away from his body, "Did you find anything?"
Dean just groans and throws the paper he had been reading onto the table in front of him, "Oh besides a whole new level of frustration? {SAM sits up.} No. I'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, but uh, no Mary."
Alex is finally able to untangle herself and halts her flying hands of death, but secretly vows vengeance for her interrupted nap. "Were you guys not able to find anything at all? Whats this about a mary… and a mirror?"
Sam was the one to answer her questions about the hunt so far, "We went to see the daughters, we didn't get much from the older one, but the younger one says she had played that old Bloody mary game, soon before her father kicked it, we were able to find the bathroom, but it had already been mostly cleaned. We were interrupted by one of the daughter's friends though and had to leave. We gave her our number in case she knew anything, and then we finally stopped at the library on the way back, computers were out so we just headed back here, after checking out any possible records we could find." Alex nods along with explanation.
"Bloody Mary could explain the eyes, but it doesn't explain why it was the father and not the girl. Do we know anything else? It also doesn't explain why now, if it is bloody Mary the myth had to have started somewhere but I feel we would have seen or heard of something like this before..hmm."
Dean leans forward in his seat, frustration present in his posture as he picks up where Sam left off, "I've also been searching for strange deaths in the area, you know...eyeball bleeding, that sort of thing. There's nothing. Whatever's happening here, maybe it just ain't Mary."
"That's possible too, but if not Mary then what the hell is it? I've never heard of any monster that targets the eyes and causes brain melt, well so far at least." They don't get a chance to keep talking about it when Sam's phone rings.
With a quick glance and a flip he answers, "Hello?" He listens to a feminine voice on the other line until his eyes suddenly harden becoming serious. "What happened-" Sam stands from the bed motioning for them to get up, "We'll meet you there, see you soon."
Alex looks at her brothers lost, 'Damn i should've just gone with them..'
"We need to go, that was charlie, the girl from the house, someone else was just found, a friend of hers" He hasn't even finished explaining before all three were heading out the door.
$% #$
Alex examines the sobbing girl, She hasn't introduced herself yet, she could see the girl was distraught over the death of her friend. She was borderline hysterical trying to explain what had happened. "And they found her on the bathroom floor. And her," another sob, "her eyes. They were gone."
Sam sat next to her on the bench while Dean stood Next to Alex in front of the bench, Sam leveled the girl with a sympathetic gaze, "I'm sorry."
Charlie looks up from her hands, tears streaking her face, "And she said it.," The three of them share a knowing look, "I heard her say it. But it couldn't be because of that. I'm insane, right?"
Alex finally speaks to the girl slightly awkward at the sigh of the older girl's tears, "No, you're not insane."
Alex internally panics when more tears spill past the women's lashes, unflattering tracks being left behind in her makeup, "Oh God, that makes me feel so much worse."
While Alex backs away feeling bad for upsetting the girl even more, Sam takes over comforting the girl and trying to get some answers, "Look. We think something's happening here. Something that can't be explained."
Dean nods along, "And we're gonna stop it but we could use your help."
The three siblings glance around nervously as they crouch outside the second story bedroom window of Bloody Mary's most recent victim, Jill. Charlie had gone inside to gain access to the girls room and get them inside, without disturbing the family. Alex carefully surveys their surroundings, making sure they arent spotted by any passerbys. The window next to her is suddenly slid open revealing Charlie who steps out of the way of Sam who enters first. Dean throws a duffel bag in after him before climbing in as well. Alex is the last to enter the room, silently lowering the window back into place as Dean looks around and Sam starts going through the bag.
"What did you tell Jill's mom?" Charlie looks at Sam before fiddling her hands with a small sniffle.
"Just that I needed some time alone with Jill's pictures and things." Alex shuts the curtain cutting out access light. "I hate lying to her."
Dean gives a brief nod and tosses Sam a Camera, "Trust us, this is for the greater good. Hit the lights."
Charlie flicks the switch coating the room in darkness, "What are you guys looking for?"
"We'll let you know as soon as we find it."
Sam is turning the camera in his hand, "Hey, Alex, night vision." She reaches over and pushes the button for him, "Perfect."
Sam aims the camera in Dean and Alexs direction as they dig through the bag pulling out items they may need such as uv lights and another camera that Alex swiftly turns on herself. The two of them look up at Sam, Dean smirks and poses his body turned away from the camera while looking over his shoulder.
"Do I look like Paris Hilton?" Alex snorts, raises her hand to her forehead in a faint with an over exaggerated blissful expression.
"As if you could ever surpass my beauty, men fall to their knees in worship."
Charlie giggles into her hand while Sam huffs and begins surveying Jill's room, opening her closet and begins inspecting her clothes before moving on to the mirror.
"So I don't get it. I mean...the first victim didn't summon Mary, and the second victim did. How's she choosing them?"
Dean shrugs, while shining a uv light over a vanity mirror on the dresser, "Beats me."
Sam closes the closet door. Alex Examines the walls and carpet with her own camera, looking for any clues that could explain how Mary possibly chose her victims. Mary is a ghost depending on which mythos you believed or read. So it may have something to do with the way she died, not including the mirror. Finding this could help find Mary's death and gravesite.
Dean lightly brushes past Alex giving her a brief pat on the head, before looking in another part of the room, "I want to know why Jill said it in the first place."
Charlie looks uncomfortable and guilt stricken at this, "It was just a joke."
"Yeah well somebody's gonna say it again, it's just a matter of time."
Sam has moved onto the bathroom while Alex begins inspection of the Vanity, She's slowly moving the camera around the mirror and stops at a few glowing drops on the vanities table top…its blood.
"Hey, I think it started over here, there's drops of blood on the vanity, not enough for it to be where Mary finished things though.."
Sam's voice echoes from the bathroom, "Yea, what we could find out says she was found in here, lets us know it's not restricted to bathrooms however." Sam runs his own camera around the outer edge of the mirror in the bathroom when he spots something that seems to be dripping from the bottom of the mirror. "Hey." He leans out the door, "Bring the UV light over here, i think i got something." Sam carries the mirror out to Jill's bed and lays it on the bed upside down. Dean throws him the black light. Alex sits on the bed next to the mirror and peels off the brown paper that is on the back of the mirror. Sam shines the black light over the back of the mirror a handprint glows underneath the purple rays of the light. Underneath the print is letters that look like they were written in blood. Charlie gazes down at the name written there in disgusted confusion.
"Gary Bryman?"
Sam snaps his head up, "You know who that is?"
"No." Alex quickly lifts the mirror backup to place it back on the wall in the bathroom. Before placing all of their things back into the duffel bag making sure nothing is left behind.
"Well whoever it is, it'll help us get one step closer to the truth." With that charlie, Quickly leaves the room while the three siblings once again climb out through the window.
Dean,Charlie and Alex head back to the park they met up at while Sam makes a quick run to the Library to find whatever he could on this Gary Bryman. Alex has left Dean to the mercy of Charlie while she happily plops herself down onto the park's nearby Merry-go-round. Their dad had never let her play in the parks…ever. Too easy for some monster to come in and snatch her up was always his excuse.
She's starting to believe however, that he just didn't want to be in her presence for too long. She happily wiggles herself onto the metal spinner and wraps her hands around one of the several metal bars on it. Letting one of her feet hang off the side she uses as much force as she could to push the roundabout into motion.
Dean silently watches over his little sister out of the corner of his eye. Seeing her face light up in childish joy as the simple little park ride spins, causes an ache in his chest, his precious sister…she's only 16 and she has seen too much to have ever truly been a child. He takes in her face, the dimples in her pale cheeks, her beaming tooth filled smile. Her flowing pearlescent locks waved into the wind causing her eye to just squint up even more. Her giggles were bell like, far different from her usual loud snorting guffaws that shake her shoulders and cause her to curl in on herself. His silent and vigel watch is interrupted by Sam jogging up to where he and Charlie are sitting on the bench.
Alex could see Sam approach and with a regretful sigh slows the spin of the merry-go-round and hops up from where she had been seated on it. Approaching the three of them her head spins from the sudden shift in movement, she walks unsteadily forward with a hobble in each step.
Sam opens and hands the information he was able to find to Dean, "So, 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."
Charlies eyes seem to widen in horror, "Oh my God."
"What?"
"Jill drove that car."
Dean runs a hand down his face and pushes himself up from the bench before sharing a look with Sam, "We need to get back to your friend Donna's house."
The four of them head for the exit of the park, Dean hesitantly wraps his arm around Alex's shoulder, ignoring her questioning gaze he just pulls her in closer to his side. Alex searches her brother's face before deciding it didn't matter and to just enjoy her brother's presence. When they get close to the impala Dean gives one last comforting squeeze before letting go and getting into the driver's seat. Alex climbs into the back followed by Charlie. She knows it's childish but she doesn't really enjoy having the other girl in the back with her. Ever since they picked Sam up, the backseat had become her domain, and she didn't really like sharing it. Metallica played lightly through the speakers as they drove to the first victim's house. Alex stays in the backseat when they arrive, knowing she can't go in because she had been absent when they had met the daughter the day before.
They had dropped Charlie off at her home once they had finished searching the shoemakers bathroom. Alex and Dean were currently back at the motel, Dean was on the computer, and she had just gotten out of the shower. She roughly took one of the motel towels to her dripping wet hair, as she entered the room dressed for sleep, the motel room door opened. Sam walks in, placing their dinner for the night onto the side table. He takes a double take at the computer screen over Dean's shoulder.
"Wait, wait, wait, you're doing a nationwide search?"
"Yep. 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?"
"I'm telling you there's nothing local, I've checked. So unless you got a better idea—"
Alex throws her damp towel into a random corner and settles on top of her blanket from the car. "Well there's the pattern of stuff being written on the mirror.."
Sam's head jerks in agreement, "She's right. The way Mary's choosing her victims, it seems like there's a pattern."
"I know, I was thinking the same thing. Both deaths had secrets where people died."
Picking at the dirt under her nails with one of her switchblades Alex zones in and out of the conversation, "Not to mention, their eyes, so look for deaths involving that MO with Mary.." She flicks the dirt at Dean, earning a grimace.
Sam shuffles through some papers looking over previous research and possible victims, "Right. 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. 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."
An alert rings from the computer, and Dean is quick to wave both of them over, "Take a look at this." The database had pulled a cold case picture of a woman laying face down in front of an antique mirror, both of her eyes had been gouged from her skull, Alex felt a spark of fascination, 'that explains the liquified eyeballs', staring into her empty sockets. A bloody handprint was pressed into the mirror, and a name was half written in blood below it. Sam points down at the mirror
"Looks like the same handprint."
"Her name was Mary Worthington—an unsolved murder in Fort Wayne, Indiana." Alex is quick to grab a clean pair of clothes to replace her fluffy oversized pajamas, and heads to the bathroom throwing a quick comment over her shoulder.
"The detective who was head of the case is listed, we should find out if there's any files left of the case, let's go!" She's quick to pull on her jeans and an old tshirt. When she's done the three of them are once again headed back out to the car. "This is gonna be a long drive, I'm going to get some sleep in the car while you guys talk to the people involved in the case."
The ride lasted a few hours, it had been 3am when they had left. Alex could now see the sun peeking over the horizon as the impala approached the outskirts of Fort Wayne. She stares out the side window taking in the long open fields and empty roads. AC/DC blares over the speakers, as they drift into town.
Sam flips through a few papers in his lap, "The Lead Detective of the Worthington case, recently retired after 35 years on the force. His current address is listed in his files, we should head there over the station."
Alex remains in the car after the park outside a homely garden. She watches from the back seat as the front door opens, an older looking male with graying hair and wrinkled dark brown skin. Both of her brothers enter the home and she leans back, prepared to wait for them to come back. She's not even aware of when she fell asleep.
Dreamscape
When a familiar weightless feeling encompases her body as her bright diamond white eyes take in the black landscape around her prone form. 'I'M BACK' she whips around, taking in her surroundings she searches for any hint of L's presence, she's met with complete darkness. A feeling of unease and worry coils in the bottom of her gut when she can't make out the familiar glacial gaze of her mystery dream companion. 'I'd hoped to talk to him some more..I hope he is alright…oh geez..listen to yourself Alex, he's probably not even real, it's a dream after all.' Her shoulders slump when there's still no sign of him, a freezing whisper of air blows past her ear, "Boo" a gruff voice in her personal space causes her to jump and an undignified squeak to get caught her throat.
The amused chuckle of L and shining blue eyes greet her when turns to face him, "L! Very funny, I'll get you back for that some day.."
"Oh I'm absolutely quaking."
A blush that she thankful he can't see in the darkness blooms across her cheeks, "Shut up."
L's shadowed form slightly turns from her, "She said shut up to me"
Her giggles make him face her again, and he feels himself freeze a bit in surprise, the crystalline diamond he'd began to get used too were now replaced with a glowing light pink, "...your eyes" those giggles snapped off in an instant the pink fading just as fast as she immediately started searching the darkness around them on high alert.
"What? What's wrong with my eyes?!"
"They were..pink" He can see the alert fear leave her gaze as confusion takes hold.
"Pink…that's..new"
"Just new? Is the glowing thing normal?"
"Well…i'm not really sure what it is to be honest..they used to just burn red when i was really angry…but then they started glowing violet recently…pink is new.."
"I see, is this what you meant by looking for answers?"
He loses sight of her eyes, but he can hear he take a deep breath before they appear in the darkness once more. "A bit…I'm sorry about that by the way, I shouldn't have dumped my issues on you like that."
"Hmmm, it's fine, you're the only interaction I've had outside of this blinding darkness for a very long time..I was beginning to think I may have scared you off when you did not appear again."
"What…No you didn't! I don't really have any control over these dreams…these last few weeks I've been waking up feeling like something inside me had slammed into some sort of wall, I don't really know how to explain."
L examines what he can see of the girl, a dark outline and her eyes. She was quite short compared to himself, seemed very young too, probably hasn't even seen her 20th year yet. She didn't seem to know where she was, and from what he could make out from her explanation, she was being dragged here to this realm whenever she slept. He found her quite fascinating…for a human..glowing eyes huh?
"Hmm, glad to know you weren't ignoring me, I was getting bored~!" Alex is taken aback by the playful whine. He had seemed like a serious and almost detached person when they had first spoken, she hadn't expected this playful and teasing nature that seemed to come from nowhere.
Settling down onto the ground to get more comfortable L follows and settles down beside the intriguing girl. "So..What kinds of things do you enjoy?"
L gazes down into her eyes, he was speechless. it had been a simple question, but Not even his siblings had ever been really interested in what he enjoyed.
"Well… I enjoyed playing music," He is silent for a moment contemplating his next words before he seems to decide on something, "and teaching my younger brother pranks."
"Music! I love music. Singing is one of my favorite things to do!" Her eyes seemed to light up with her excitement. "Maybe we could listen to some..or..maybe even play together in the future…it could be fun."
L is quiet, somber. "Right….sure." He decides not to mention how that would probably be impossible, he was stuck here, and if he were ever freed he doubts she would want anything to do with him and what he would have to do. He watches quietly as her presence once again begins to fade.
"..oh..i was hoping we'd have more time, i like talking with you." Before she could fully fade, she hesitantly and quickly wraps her arms around what she thinks is his waist in a quick hug, "See you next time L!"
She doesn't get to see the dumbstruck slack jawed surprise burning in his eyes at her willingness to touch him. He'd briefly held her before to stop her panic, but this was different. He hadn't been hugged since a time he wasnt willing to think about. She completely fades from view, a brief glimpse of pale skin, is all he can see before he is once again alone, waiting in silence for the realms next session of inevitable torture.
Dream end
When awareness returns to her, she can feel the rumble of the car engine underneath her. Slowly blinking her eyes clearing them of any residual sleep, she can see that the sun is lower in sky closer to late afternoon. She must have been sleeping for several hours. She couldn't wait to talk to L again. She couldn't really understand why her dreams don't frighten her anymore, but she feels as if she will truly come to enjoy them. From the back door window of the impala She could see the town of toledo passing them by, Sam was on the phone in the front seat.
"Oh really? Ah that's too bad Mr. Worthington. I would have paid a lot for that mirror. Okay, well maybe next time. All right, thanks." Sam flips his phone closed, ending the call.
Scooting forward in her seat, her cheek rests lightly against the back of his seat, Her yawn pops her jaw alerting both of her brothers of her being awake.
"Who was that?"
"That was one of Mary's remaining family, we were able to get their contact info from the retired detective. So basically, Mary was an unsolved murder case, and the man who killed her was never convicted, even when she tried to expose him before she died, we think thats why she goes after people who have secrets of people deaths."
Dean cuts in, "So?"
"So that was Mary's brother. The mirror was in the family for years, until he sold it one week ago to a store called Estate Antiques. A store in Toledo."
"So wherever the mirror goes, that's where Mary goes?"
Alex felt bad for Mary to be honest with herself, she had wanted to out her killer and he still got away with it. "So where is she buried?"
Her oldest brother gets an annoyed grimace, "She was cremated, so we looked for the mirror she died in front of."
Sam's shoulders relax into his seat, and ruffles the locks of her hair, "Her spirit's definitely tied up with it somehow."
"Isn't there an old superstition that says mirrors can capture spirits?"
"Yeah there is. Yeah, when someone would die in a house people would cover up the mirrors so the ghost wouldn't get trapped."
Her face scrunches up in displeasure, "That sounds awful, getting caged like that." She couldn't help but think of L, She'd seen the somber look in his eyes, she wasnt stupid, even if it was a dream, she remembered the time she heard his screams in the darkness…the darkness of her dream sure felt like an oppressive trap.
Both of her brothers are unaware of her inner turmoil and she puts those thoughts aside when Dean talks next, "So Mary dies in front of a mirror, and it draws in her spirit."
"Yeah but how could she move through like a hundred different mirrors?"
Alex settles the front half of her body between the front seats, "Then we find it, and smash it, That should work right?"
"Yeah, I don't know, maybe." Sam's phone rings. "Hello." The same look of concern from the other day comes across his face again "Charlie?"
By the time they get back to their motel Charlie is already there with her head buried into her knees covering her eyes. They are quick to get her inside and begin taking down and covering everything with a possible reflective surface.
Sam tosses a final sheet over the vanity mirror, then settles down onto the bed beside charlie, "Hey, hey it's ok. Hey, you can open up your eyes Charlie. It's okay, all right?"
Charlie looks up slowly
"Now listen. 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. I'm gonna die, aren't I?"
"No. No. Not anytime soon."
Dean Sits down on the bed too, "All right Charlie. We need to know what happened."
"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it."
The three siblings share a serious look, and Alex hesitantly lays a comforting hand on her shoulder. "That's not what we're talking about. Something happened, didn't it? In your life...a secret...where someone got hurt. Can you tell us about it?"
Charlie stifled a sob, "I had this boyfriend. 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? I said "Go ahead." 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." She puts her face back on her knees and starts crying again. Alex has her hand running up and down her back lightly humming the first thing she can think of..maybe Metallica isn't the best choice but it was the first thing to pop up in her head.
"Stay here and don't look at anything charlie, my brothers and i will handle this and you dont ever have to worry about this again ok?" She gives a final parting squeeze to her shoulder and follows her brothers out into the car.
Rain patters against the impala windows as it coasts through town, the air in car is tense, but it isn't silent for long.
"You know her boyfriend killing himself, that's not really Charlie's fault."
"You know as well as I do spirits don't exactly see shades of gray, Dean. Charlie had a secret, someone died, that's good enough for Mary."
"Sam's right on this one, spirits are hurt and damaged souls that react off of their rage and vengeance."
"I guess."
Sam sighs, "You know, I've been thinking. It might not be enough to just smash that mirror."
"Why, what do you mean?"
"Well Mary's hard to pin down, right? 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."
Alex looks up at her brother, taking in every detail and twitch of his face, "Do you even know if that'll work?"
"I don't, not for sure."
"Well who's gonna summon her?"Dean was the one to ask, he was suspicious about where this was going too.
"I will. She'll come after me." Alex bores holes into the back of his head with her glare, 'I knew it, hes been off ever since we learned Mary's MO.'
"You know what, that's it." Dean pulls the car over. Practically slamming on the brakes, "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, man. I mean, the nightmares and calling her name out in the middle of the night—it's gonna kill you. Now listen to me—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? I mean I'm the one that dragged you away from her in the first place."
"What about me! I didn't feel that something was wrong fast enough…so why not blame me too?"
"I don't blame either of you."
Dean growls and looks ready to sucker punch him through the window, "Well you shouldn't blame yourself, because there's nothing you could've done."
"I could've warned her."
Alex scoffs, "And he would you have done that without telling her about all of this, about how we were raised?!"
"Alex is right! 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 ya'll don't." Sam has a guilty look suppressed in his eyes, he's not able to look either of them in the face.
"Sam…Dean and I don't what?"
"You don't know all about it. I haven't told you everything."
Dean looks completely lost, "What are you talking about?" Alex honestly wasn't all that surprised, Sam always ended up holding shit back from people, She wasn't one to judge on this one though, she wasn't telling her brothers about her dreams.
"Well it wouldn't really be a secret if I told either of you, now would it?"
Dean looked completely put out, "No. I don't like it. It's not gonna happen, forget it."
"Dean, Alex, that girl back there is going to die unless we do something about it. 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."
Alex's body slumps into the backseat dejected, some things would never change with Sam it would seem.
The car ride wasn't very long before a slightly familiar looking mirror shop was in view. It's the one she had noticed when they had first arrived in town. Their motel was only several blocks down. She and Dean stand guard behind Sam as he works on picking the lock, it's only a few moments before the door is open and they are met with a room filled with dozens of mirrors of all shapes and sizes.
"Well...that's just great." Dean fumbles and hastily pulls out the picture of Mary's dead body to look at the mirror. "All right let's start looking."
The three of them split up through the store, Alex is looking at every large mirror she could find, but can't see any that fit the evidence photo.
Dean's voice wanders over from his search area, "Maybe they've already sold it."
Sam waves his flashlight around the back area, before stopping on a large ornate antique mirror. "I don't think so."
Three of them gather around the mirror and compare it to the photo, it's an exact match. The closer she gets to the mirror the more a small tingle crawls down her spine, "I already hate this thing, it's givin my creepy ass shivers in my spine."
"That's it then." Dean sighs and lowers the photo, and turns to Sam, "Are you sure about this?"
Sam doesn't answer, just looks straight into the mirror, "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary." He looks at both of his siblings who give him an unsure look back. Sam raises up the crowbar, and with a nervous huff repeats it the final time. "Bloody Mary."
Alex gets her own crowbar ready, keeping an eye on several of the mirrors around them. Trying to see if she can possibly spot Mary among them when she appears. It isn't long until a bright flash of light from the front of the store catches Dean's attention.
"Damnit, I'll go check that out. Stay here, be careful. Both of you. Smash anything that moves." Dean crouches and slowly moves away towards the front door. There's a bright headlight shining through the front windows, "Crap." He puts the crowbar down and begins to walk to the door. He steps outside to distract, While Sam and Alex keep up their guard.
Alex gets a chill from her left and whips around to face it, She gets another from behind and the both of them hear a feminine exhale. The two of them keep their eyes peeled on the mirrors around them.
Alex can here dean talking to whoever is outside, 'he needs to get them out of here now'
Sam suddenly whips around in her direction making her jump in surprise, a chill spikes into her from her right, seconds before Sam has smashed his crowbar into the mirror next to her. Another chill and she swings at the same time as SAm, both of them taking out the same mirror. She can't see Mary, but she can definitely feel her. A Cold thrum makes its way through her skull right behind her eyes.
Sam faces Mary's mirror, "Come on. Come into this one."
Sam looks oddly at his reflection, which has started moving on its own. Alex raises her crowbar ready to smash the mirror when a spike of pain causes her to fall to the floor on her knees grabbing her head. She can see Sam start having trouble breathing and a trickle of blood coming out of his eyes. He drops the crowbar and grabs his chest. "S-Sammy!"
The Reflection begins speaking, "It's your fault. You killed her. You killed Jessica." Alex looks at her brother out of the corner of her eye, 'Killed jessica? Doubtful, what really happened in that room though Sammy?'
"You never told her the truth—who you really were." Sam falls towards the ground next to Alex. "But it's more than that, isn't it? 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!" Alex's eyes widened, her brother was having weird dreams too…what was happening to their family.
The mirror suddenly shatters along with Sam's reflection, and with it the pain in Alex's head dolls, her eyes weren't bleeding though…was that marys doing then?
Dean drops his crowbar to the floor and is quick to their sides, "Alex! SAMMY!"
Sam grimaces and struggles to lift himself from the floor, "It's SAM."
Alex can feel Deans hands cradle her face checking her for any blood, he runs a shaky hand through her hair then inspects Sam, "God, are you okay?"
"Ugh, yeah. I think so, Alex, you all right, you dropped before me?"
"I think so, it suddenly felt like my head was splitting, my eyes aren't bleeding though.."
"Come on, come on." Dean pulls Sam up. He puts an arm around his sister's back and the other under her knees, he's ready to lift her into the air, he stops however when he hears her gasp in pain again. Behind them, MAry crawls out of the mirror onto her hands and knees like a knock off Ring girl. Dean and Sam fall to their knees as she crawls closer over broken glass. Alex grabs her head and writhes in Dean's arms, a scream tearing from her throat as ice rips through her brain. Dean and Sam choke on air, and with as much strength as he could musters Dean pulls a mirror closer and holds it up in front of Mary before he could get any closer.
Her reflection shifts, "You killed them! All those people! You killed them!"
Mary starts choking to death and with a sob her face droops and red seeps from her skin before the burst and melts into a scattering of red stained glass. Dean throws down the mirror and it shatters.
"Hey Sam..Alex?"
"Yeah?" Sam sits up and Alex just whimpers as the pain fades.
"This has got to be like...what? 600 years of bad luck?"
Sam chuckles weakly. Alex slaps the back of Deans head.
The Impala Pulls up in front of a house, letting out Charlie from the backseat as Alex snuggles up in her blankets.
Charlie turns around to face Sams open window, "So this is really over?"
"Yeah, it's over."
"Thank you." She begins to walk away from the car, before Sam calls for her again.
"Charlie?" Charlie turns around, "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 smiles faintly, then turns around to go into the house.
Dean gently taps his hand against Sam's side, "That's good advice." Dean steers the car out of the driveway and begins heading out of town, "Hey SAM?"
"Yeah?"
"Now that this is all over, I want you to tell me what that secret is." Alex stays quiet, knowing it isn't her place to say, she wouldn't want anyone spilling her secret dreams.
"Look...you're my brother and little sister and I'd die for both of you, but there are some things I need to keep to myself." The car falls into silence as the drive through town square, When another shiver coasts along her spine, one she hadn't felt since they arrived in town. Shes quick to sit up in her seat and look out then windows. Her mouth goes dry, when she spot a familiar blond in a white gown standing on a street corner. From the corner of her eye she can see Sam notice her as well…Jessica..had she been following Sam all this time. She keeps her eye on the woman, they pass a street pole and when shes able to see that spot again, Jess is gone, and so is the feeling… 'I wont say anything…She didnt feel bad, not like mary and that Demon..'
#$
And that's this chapter Done! FINALLY! Also i would really like to bring something to attention just really quick. I received a private DM yesterday, after I posted my Authers note, about how I should be writing this story and that I'm apparently sick in the head.
I WOULD like to make ONE thing very clear! Yes this i Alex story, i wont say who L is if you haven't watched all of supernatural, but those of you who do know. Their relationship as of right now is COMPLETELY PLATONIC! Alex is 16, i have no intentions of anything ever going anywhere until at least season 5, SO i would appreciate it if i did not receive messages about how im a pedophile supporting sexual assault. She is going to age, and she will one day be with L, but not a single day before she is 18, understand me! Thank you for your time, and I am sorry to everyone else for the mini rant. I can't stand baseless accusations.
R&R
Love, Kitty
