Disclaimer: I own nothing but Emily.
I can't stop wondering where the hell dad might be. We left Colorado and picked up a random job and had to deal with a pissed off spirit. We waited to hear from Dad for a couple days after that but instead we got a call from an old friend, Jerry. We worked a case for him involving demon possession. Yup. Demons. We picked up a few tricks on exorcism. Surely that'll come in handy later. What we learned after the case however is that dad turned his phone back on. For weeks I dialed his number and left messages, then one day it was disconnected. It was obvious dad did it on purpose. So you can imagine my shock when Jerry says he got Dean's number from Dad's voicemail.
(Flashback)
After saying a quick goodbye to Jerry I made my way to the impala. I wanted to hear it for myself. The boys would be busy with Jerry only for a minute or so longer. I had to hurry. I dialed the all too familiar number, 3 rings… "This is John Winchester. If this is an emergency call my son Dean at *********, he can help." Dad's voice. I missed it. I miss him. Why is he doing this? Why won't he talk to me. My heart felt like it had cracked in half. The boys were walking back. I needed to pull it together. I don't want Dean on my back about this, he already knows I'm worried about Dad and he keeps trying to cover for him. I know he's gonna wanna listen to it, but I didn't want to hear it for the first time with him watching me react. Now I know what to expect and can hold back the emotion my face would have given away.
Sam got in first. "Emily call dad's phone." Sure, its right here on re-dial.
Dean and Sam were both turned around facing me and I had the phone on speaker between the 3 of us. Sam's eyes were glued to the phone as it rang while Dean looked back and forth between it and me. I simply stared straight ahead at the back of the seat in front of me. 3 rings later the same message was echoing in my ears again. Dean watched me. Just like I expected. I held my composure and turned the phone off when it finished. Sam turned around while Dean kept his eyes on me for a few seconds longer. He turned on the car and pulled out without saying a word.
(End flashback)
That was 3 days ago. Dean hasn't brought it up and neither have I. Sam on the other hand hasn't been so quiet about how he thought this whole thing was bullshit.
We're sitting at a diner in the middle of who knows where. Sam's reading through the paper and drinking ANOTHER cup of coffee. He's still having nightmares so he's avoiding sleep. Dean has tried to stay optimistic and I've been abnormally quiet today. I had a nightmare of my own last night. It does that sometimes. What happened. It comes back and reminds me. I woke up gasping for air but luckily Sam wasn't in the room, just Dean. He already knew what it was about so he didn't bother asking. He just told me I was okay and to go take a shower.
"Emily.."
"Helloooooo. Earth to Em." Sam was trying to get my attention but I was focused on something out the window. He snapped his finger in front of my face.
"Dude! What?" I jumped and asked a little angrier then I meant to.
"You haven't touched your food miss mini Dean. You sure you're okay? You've been off since I got back to the room this morning."
"Yes Sam I'm fine."
He looked to Dean confused as to why he wasn't pushing me to talk about whatever this was. Dean just shrugged him off and continued stuffing his face.
"Just tell me what's wrong. You've said maybe 10 words all morning. You have the biggest mouth I've ever seen. So what's wrong." I stared at him. Are you kidding me?
"You first Sam. When's the last time you slept? Having nightmares still?"
He looked away from me and dropped it after that. Dean just shook his head at me, I know I shouldn't have brought it up but it was the only way to get him off my back.
10 minutes later Sam speaks up. "Well looks like we've got something in Toledo Ohio."
It was another 9 hour drive to Toledo and I quickly took my place laying down in the back seat. I wanted to rest, since sleeping last night wasn't so great. An hour into the drive I realized I wasn't going to be sleeping anytime soon and was fixing to sit back up when I heard Sam ask Dean a question.
"She asleep man?"
Dean must have looked back in the mirror cause I didn't hear his body shift.
"Yeah looks like it." Hmmm.. what is this about?
"Dude what's going on with her. I know you already know or you woulda made her spill at the restaurant. She didn't even eat. Emily. Did not eat."
"Yeah well she wasn't hungry I guess."
"Dean that girl can rival you when it comes to eating. Why won't you just tell me."
"Because it's nothing Sam. She had a bad dream or something. I'm sure you know all about those."
I was silently thanking Dean for keeping my shit to himself. I wasn't ready to tell Sam. I wasn't ready to go back to that place and talk about it.
"Okay fine. Answer me this then. What's with her getting so scared lately."
"Dude she's not scared. That girl back there faces monsters without blinking."
"Well if she's not scared than what is it."
"She… I don't know. Sam. They're like panic attacks. They're just triggered by random things. Its not that she's necessarily afraid of something. Sometimes she just. Panics." I could tell Dean was trying to give him enough to get him to drop it but not give away too much.
Sam sounded concerned, "Since when did that start happening?"
"About a year and half or so after you left."
"Does Dad know?"
"Yeah. He does. He's seen it."
"What does he think about it all?"
"We were really worried at first. Not sure what to do when It happened. We both used to just get angry at her for it. I just didn't understand why the hell she would get so worked up. Then one night I sat down and really looked into it. We did some reading on how to stop them but it seems it was different for everyone. For her you just have to bring her back to the here and now. Remind her she's okay. Get her breathing again. I just figured out what it was and-"
"And then you figured out how to fix it. Typical Dean." Sam chuckled to himself.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You fix it when she freaks out. That's typical you Dean. There was a problem, and you found a way to solve it." Dean chuckled.
"Yeah I guess."
"So what started causing them in the first place."
My whole body felt tense. Don't you dare fucking answer that question Dean. You've said enough.
"Umm, not really sure man. Something on the job I guess.
Sam mumbled something under his breath I couldn't quite make out. Then he stopped asking questions. Thank God. Normally Dean would have demanded he repeat what he said out loud but he knew this conversation needed to end. I knew Sam would bring it up again though. Typical Sam. Dean likes to fix things, Sam likes to talk things through. I missed that about him, but I was a different person now. I can't just run to Sam and spill the beans on life like I used to.
I hated them. I hated how they made me feel. I hated that I couldn't control my body when they happened. I hated that I couldn't pin point the triggers. I hated that Dean had to be the one to stop them. They made me feel weak and stupid. Like I was less of a person because of them, like I was less of a hunter. I already had enough to prove being the only girl, the youngest child, and smaller built than the boys. This was just another nail in the coffin to make me look bad.
I finally fell asleep not long after that and Sam woke me awake when we got to Toledo. The first stop was the morgue. I was not thrilled about having to go in. We walked up to a desk to find a guy no older than Dean or Sam eating a sandwich and staring at the computer.
"Hey." Dean grabbed his attention.
"Can I help you?"
"Yeah. We're the, uh...med students."
"Sorry?"
"Oh, Doctor—" He was stumbling.
"—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."
"Well, I'm sorry, he's at lunch."
"Oh well he said, uh—" Seriously Dean?
"—oh, well, you know, it doesn't matter. You don't mind just showing us the body, do you?"
"Sorry, I can't. 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 turned to look at me and Sam we both nodded and spit out a "Yeah."
"Uh, look, man, this paper's like half our grade, so if you don't mind helping us out—"
"Uh, look, man...no."
Dean laughed a little before turning around to mumble to us… "I'm gonna hit him in his face I swear."
Sam went to pull some cash out of his wallet. WHAT? No way in Hell. I could spend that cash in a much better way. I slapped his hand and approached the desk pushing Dean to the side.
"Sir please. Its bad enough that I got stuck with these too dumbasses for Lab partners. You don't understand I have to get the fellowship to John Hopkins! My grade… no my career is gonna flop if I don't kick ass on this paper. These two have already set me so far back. I'm begging you. Please help me out here." I had laid my hand on top of his sometime during my ramble. I gently squeezed it and pushed some tears to the brim of my eyes. He looked at me, then up at the boys…
"Follow me."
I turned to the boys and winked as I pretended to sniffle.
"Nice job kiddo." Dean patted me on the back.
Sam followed the man in the smelly room. It was disgusting in here.
"Now the newspaper said his daughter found him. She said his eyes were bleeding." Sam stood close to the body.
"More than that. They practically liquefied."
Sam looked closely and I stood directly behind Dean, burying my face in his back and swallowing the sudden lump in my throat. His eye sockets were empty, It was bloody and dark. Terrifying. He reached back and squeezed my arm to let me know when the guy was covered back up.
"Any sign of a struggle? Maybe somebody did it to him?" he asked.
"Nope. Besides the daughter, he was all alone."
"What's the official cause of death."
"Ah, Doc's not sure. He's thinking massive stroke, maybe an aneurysm? Something burst up in there, that's for sure."
"What do you mean?"
"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?" Dean chimed in a little too perky.
"That's a first for me, but hey, I'm not the doctor."
"Hey, think we could take a look at that police report? You know for, uh...our paper."
"I'm not really supposed to show you that."
He turned back towards me and I had a pleading look on my face and my hands crossed in front of me, plus I was squeezing together the girls to make they spring a little more forward than they originally sat in the cami under my flannel top.
The tech looked from my face to my chest, held his gaze there, and then turned around to make a copy.
I looked up to meet Sam's glare, I quickly dropped my arms and let the girls fall back into place.
Dean looked at Sam and then at me as if asking what he had missed. Good thing he didn't see that one.
We climbed back into the impala.
"Might not be one of ours. Might just be some freak medical thing." Sam said.
"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?"
"Uh, almost never."
"Exactly."
"All right, let's go talk to the daughter. I think you're safe to leave your cleavage tucked away this time Emily." Sam said staring back at me through the mirror.
"Wait what?! When did I miss that?... Is that how we got the file?!" Dean jumped and looked back to me.
"Oh please it was either I show a little skin or that guy get our money that Sam here was overly eager to give away. I worked hard to earn that money! I've got better things to do with it!" I shot him an accusing look.
"Alright alright that's enough! Sam, quit giving away our money. Emily, pull those things out again and I'll make you wear a turtleneck for the rest of your life!" I scoffed and pulled my cami down to reveal a little more than necessary. Pushing my luck.
Dean's glare hardened and his eyes went wide. "Okay. Okay.. don't have a heart attack geez. Its not like anyone else is in the car."
"Yeah well we certainly don't wanna see them either." Sam added. I just rolled my eyes and we left.
When we pulled up the daughter's house it was obvious there was a funeral going on. We were underdressed for sure, the lawn was full of people. Older people, younger people. He had a daughter in highschool. Many of her friends were here. Male and female, a guy standing in the driveway caught my attention and when he looked over I smiled from the back seat. He returned it. He was cute.
"Yeah that's it. Emily you're staying in the car."
"WHAT? Why!"
"Because I can't trust you to put your tits up and that guy over there is already staring at them! Stay in the car and wait for us to come back. Get out and your dead, understand?"
I rolled my eyes and huffed, Dean didn't take that as an answer I guess.
"Emily Anne Winchester! Do you understand?" Wow. Pulling out my full name. I must have really struck a nerve.
I looked at him, "Sir yes sir." And looked away.
This motel room is super shitty. I mean they're all shitty. But this one was extra shitty. Sam was finally asleep on the bed. I sat on the other one and tried to dig up some information on Bloody Mary. Dean's skeptical but I guess anything is possible right?
Sam started making noises and then jumped awake. He looked up at us.
"Dude did you let me fall asleep?" he was not happy.
"Uh Yeah. Your welcome." Dean snapped back.
Sam just rolled his eyes.
"You know we're gonna have to talk about these nightmares eventually right Sam?
"Yeah sure Dean whatever." He got up and walked to the bathroom.
"Find anything yet?" I asked Dean.
"No not really… but mayb-" he was interrupted by Sam's phone ringing.
He answered. Apparently it was a friend of the vic's daughter. Its happened again. We ran out to meet her at the local park.
"And they found her on the bathroom floor. And her—her eyes. They were gone." The poor girl named Charlie was in tears.
"I'm sorry." Sam said sincerely. He was good at comforting people.
"And she said it. I heard her say it. But it couldn't be because of that. I'm insane, right?"
"No, you're not insane."
"Oh God, that makes me feel so much worse."
"Look. We think something's happening here. Something that can't be explained."
"And we're gonna stop it but we could use your help."
We were currently trying to climb into a two story window at Jill's house. I was pushed into the window by Sam who was right behind me, but when I got in I couldn't get up because a giant fell on top of me.
"Dude! Get off!"
"Sorry Dean shoved me in!"
We all three were finally standing in front of Charlie. Dean laughing.
"What did you tell Jill's mom?"
"Just that I needed some time alone with Jill's pictures and things. I hate lying to her."
"Trust us, this is for the greater good. Hit the lights."
She did so. "What are you guys looking for?"
"We'll let you know as soon as we find it."
"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?"
"Beats me."
"I want to know why Jill said it in the first place." Dean mused irritably.
"It's just a joke." Charlie tried to defend her dead friend.
"Yeah well somebody's gonna say it again, it's just a matter of time."
"Hey. There's a black light in the trunk, right?" Sam asked.
I looked up and yelled "nose goes" while putting my finger on my nose. Dean was last, therefore he had to scale the house to get back out to the car and in again. Once we had the blacklight we found a name and a handprint on the back of the mirror.
"Gary Bryman?" Charlie asked outloud.
"You know who that is?"
"No."
We left to go find out.
"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."
"Oh my God." Charlie gasped.
"What?"
"Jill drove that car."
"We need to get back to your friend Donna's house."
When we got there we found a name on the first mirror too.
"Linda Shoemaker."
Turns out that is the vic's wife. She "accidentally" OD'd on some sleeping pills one night a few years back. The conclusion we came to didn't thrill the daughter and she threw us out promptly. Charlie stuck around to keep any eye on her.
We were at the local library trying to find who Mary actually is.
"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—"
"The way Mary's choosing her victims, it seems like there's a pattern."
"I know, I was thinking the same thing."
"With mister Shoemaker and Jill's hit and run."
"Both had secrets where people died."
"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."
"Take a look at this…"
"Looks like the same handprint."
"Her name was Mary Worthington—an unsolved murder in Fort Wayne, Indiana."
"Well I guess that's where we're headed then boys."
Dean went and met with a retired detective who worked the case. It was a sad story. The girl never got justice. They think the boyfriend did it. But no proof could be found. Sam tried to call the family and track down the original mirror, it was literally sold days ago, to a store in Toledo. That explains why it's started happening in this town. On our way back Sam's phone rings. It was Charlie, Mary was after her.
We rushed back and brought Charlie to our hotel. We covered every reflective surface before Charlie would reluctantly open her eyes again.
"Hey, hey it's ok. Hey, you can open up your eyes Charlie. It's okay, all right?" Sam tried to soothe her.
"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 sat down on the bed. "All right Charlie. We need to know what happened."
"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it to be a smart ass."
"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?"
"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." The poor girl was in tears all over again.
We left and headed for the antique store that holds the mirror.
"You know her boyfriend killing himself, that's not really Charlie's fault." I spoke up after a few minutes.
"You know as well as I do spirits don't exactly see shades of gray. Charlie had a secret, someone died, that's good enough for Mary." Sam said.
"I guess."
"You know, I've been thinking. It might not be enough to just smash that mirror."
This caught Dean's attention.
"Why, what do you mean?" he asked.
"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."
"Well how do you know that's going to work?"
Sam was quite for a second before he spoke. "I don't, not for sure."
"Well who's gonna summon her?" I asked.
"I will. She'll come after me." Sam said confidently.
"You know what, that's it. 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." Dean was snapping.
"I don't blame you."
"Well you shouldn't blame yourself, because there's nothing you could've done."
"I could've warned her."
"About what? 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." I tried to convince him.
"No you don't." What? What is he talking about. I had leaned forward now placing my arm on the back of the front seat and trying to get Sam to look at me. But it was Dean who spoke first.
"We don't what?"
"You don't know all about it. I haven't told you everything."
"What are you talking about Sam?" I still wasn't sure why he wouldn't look at me.
"Well it wouldn't really be a secret if I told you, would it?" He said quietly.
What a load of shit. I was getting pissed fast. Damn this Winchester temper.
"No. Sam this is fucking stupid. You're not gonna go in there and summon this bitch. You're gonna fucking talk to us about this. What the hell is going on?
Well that finally got him to look at me.
"Oh yeah Em? I tell you what. You first. When did you start having panic attacks? I knew when you showed up at my apartment something was off. I could see it in your eyes. You're keeping shit from me too. I thought we were good-"
"We are good Sam this isn't the same thing!" I tried to interrupt.
"Okay knock it off!" Dean yelled.
"Dean 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."
I was fuming. I couldn't believe Dean was gonna let Sam go through with this.
We walked in the back door of the store after some pro lock picking skills from yours truly. This place was FULL of mirrors.
"Well… That's just great." I can't believe this shit.
"Maybe they've already sold it." Dean said hopefully.
"I don't think so." Sam said standing in front of the mirror that matches the one in our picture.
"Sam, are you sure about this?"
Sam sighed… "Bloody Mary…. Bloody Mary…" He paused. Looked at us both and gripped his crowbar. I did the same with my bat. "Bloody Mary."
Suddenly lights enter the room from the front of the store. Shit, we must have tripped an alarm.
"I'll go check that out. Stay here, be careful." Dean eyed me especially before walking out.
Suddenly Sam caught a glimpse and smashed a mirror. Dammit. I can't see her.
Sam smashed mirror after mirror asking her to come into the one in front of him. Suddenly he fell to the ground. I ran to his side, his eyes were bleeding. I still couldn't see her.
"Dammit!" I can't fight what I can't see. Then something clicked. I knew what to do.
I stood up and looked into the mirror and yelled it three times, "Bloody Mary Bloody Mary Bloody Mary!" Suddenly there she was on my left, I swung. Then on my right, I swung again, and again. I couldn't get her to stay in one spot. Atleast her attention was taken off of Sam for now. Then she appeared behind me. I couldn't turn fast enough and all of a sudden I felt this overwhelming pain radiating in my head. I fell to the ground and screamed. Now I could hear her, I could see her, she was killing me. I looked to Sam who was bleeding again.
"What a pair you two make. Murderers!"
"Sam why didn't you tell her? Why didn't you warn her? You watched her die for weeks in your dreams! You should have known it was coming for her like it did your mother! You left her all alone."
I looked to see Sam losing the color in his face. He was dying.
"Sam! NO! Don't listen.. Sam!"
Then she turned to me, "Oh and you! What a hateful little bitch. You basically taunted and pushed that Man to go after the Wendigo! If you weren't such a little bitch he would have stayed put. Listened. But no, he wanted to prove you and your loud mouth wrong!" I cried out in pain as she stared at me.
"Dean!"
Suddenly a crowbar flies through the mirror and all the pain stops. I crawled over to Sam. He put an arm around me and Dean helped both of us stand.
"Oh God, Sammy.. Em are you okay?" I nodded still unable to speak, Sam spoke up.
"Yeah Yeah, did you get her?"
"Yeah man Its smashed."
We were walking away but I stopped and bent down to grab my bat. Out of nowhere a hand is around my ankle and is dragging my backwards. This crazy bitch just climbed out of the mirror. The pain in my head returns and I can hear Sammy behind me scream out in pain. I swung the bat and shattered the mirror above me. Glass fell all over me but my hand finally found a piece big enough for me to pick up. I shoved it in front of me and the pain stopped. Mary killed herself, the same way she did all her victims.
"Now we got her." I added breathlessly.
When we got back to the motel I was covered in cuts from the glass that fell all over me. Tiny shards in my wounds made it hard to use my hands, they were the worst, the shard of glass I used to kill mary dug a good two inches or more into the side of my hand.
"Alright kiddo. We gotta get all this glass out of you. Its gonna hurt." Dean sat at the table across from me and laid down a clean white towel. He put down a bowel with hot water, tweezers, alcohol, gauze, and a needle and thread.
"Yeah yeah yeah, lets get this over with."
"Hey Sammy I might need you to come hold her arms down, last time I did this she swung at me." Dean said while eyeing me.
"You were literally digging in my hand with tweezers Dean! You were making the wound worse!"
Sam laughed sat beside me. I laid my Right hand down on the towel and pushed it across so dean could reach it. He moved the lamp closer and started to pick out the glass piece by tiny damn piece. Mother fuck. This hurts.
Sam watches me sympathetically and chuckles when I occasionally jump and curse at Dean.
"Hey Em." Sam says.
"Yes Sam.." I said with my eyes closed biting on my lip trying to tough out the pain.
"Remember when we played hide and seek at Bobby's and we lost you for like 2 hours?" Sam laughed to himself and I could hear dean chuckle.
"Ha, yeah I do. You two were taking so long, and it was nice and warm in the backseat of that car. I didn't mean to fall asleep, but I did."
Dean chimed in, "I remember how pissed off Bobby was when he got back from the store and we wouldn't tell him where you were. We couldn't even if we wanted to. We knew he'd call dad and then Dad would beat our asses for losing you."
I smiled at the memory and realized what they were doing, they were distracting me from the pain.
"Thank you Sammy." I said eyeing him sincerely.
"But that doesn't come close to the time I busted you making out with that girl at the library and I ran in telling dad I saw you having sex." I laughed hard after I got the words out.
Dean laughed out loud and had to stop what he was doing for a second. Sam just shook his head and looked down with a small smile pulling at his lips.
"Man you don't even know the amount of trouble you got me in. I was only 13! After I was finally able to convince dad that didn't happen he spent the next hour giving me "the talk"."
Its nice having both my brothers back, but we're still missing one member of the Winchester Family Reunion. My Daddy. I've got to find him. I need him.