Chapter 4
In The Mirror
(Season 1, episode 5 - Bloody Mary)
The crew climbed into the Impala in the early hours of the next day. Their destination was Fort Wayne, Indiana. There, they would find the answers they were looking for about Mary Worthington's murder.
Sarah sat quietly in the back. She didn't speak. She only stared out the window and watched the earth flew by.
Sam and Dean both noticed her silence. They wondered what it was that shut her up. Sam was more concerned about than Dean. Neither of them wanted to ask her about it, though. They knew she wouldn't say anything about it.
Dean had found out the detective's name and where he lived. The plan was to pretend to be reporters who were writing about the murder.
The detective let them in without any trouble. That's a breath of fresh air, Dean thought.
After offering the trio a drink and they refused, the detective started his story. "I was on the job for 35 years, 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."
Sam and Dean walked around the living room. Sarah sat on the couch with a pad of paper and a blue ink pen. She jotted down every word that was said, even Dean's question. "What exactly happened?"
"You three said you were reporters."
Sam saved the from suspicion. "We know Mary was 19, lived by herself. We know she won a few 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."
The detective nodded. "That's right."
Wow. These boys did a lot of research. I need to pull myself together. Sarah's mind was in a million places at once, but she brought it back to the case. That was the important thing right now. Personal things will be dealt with on personal time.
"See, Sir, when we ask you what happened, we want to know what you think happened," Dean added.
He nodded and walked over to the filing cabinet. He opened the top drawer and pulled out a thick file. "Technically, I'm not supposed to have a copy of this."
Sam, Dean, and Sarah gathered around the detective's desk. He pulled out pictures and detailed notes about the crime.
"Now..." The first picture he grabbed was of Mary in front of the mirror. Letters were drawn on with blood. "See that there, 'T-R-E'? I think Mary was trying to spell out the name of her killer."
"You know who it was?" Sam asked.
The detective stared at the picture. "Not for sure. But there was a local man, a surgeon, Trevor Sampson." He pulled out another photo of the surgeon. "And I think he cut her up good."
"Now, why would he do something like that?"
"Her diary mentioned a man she was seeing. She called him by his initial, 'T.' Well, her last entry, she was gonna tell T's wife about their affair."
Dean straightened his back. "Yeah, but how do you know it was this guy Sampson that killed her?"
"It's hard to say. But the way her eyes were cut out, it was almost professional."
"But you could never prove it?"
"No. No prints, no witnesses. He was meticulous."
Dean shoved his hands in his pockets. "Is he still alive?"
The detective grabbed his papers and sat down in his desk chair. "Nope. If you ask me, Mary spent her last living moments trying to expose this guy's secret. But she never could."
Sam looked up from the photographs. "Where is she buried?"
"She wasn't. She was cremated."
Sarah stopped writing for a second. Damn. Now what?
Dean pointed to the first picture. "What about that mirror? It's not in some evidence lockup somewhere, is it?"
That's right. That makes sense. Sarah hurriedly scribbled the last few sentences to catch up. She wanted to leave nothing out.
The detective adjusted his seat. "No. It was returned to Mary's family a long time ago."
"You have the names of her family by any chance?"
The detective stared at Sam a bit confused, but gave in. He handed over the list of Mary's family members and their last known locations and phone numbers.
They thanked him and went back to the car. Dean took the drivers seat like always and Sam was by his side. Sarah slowly climbed in the back seat and tossed her notes next to her.
"Jesus. Did you take notes of the entire conversation?" Dean looked at her through his rearview mirror.
Sarah didn't return the look. She sat and fiddled with her notes, trying to make it appear as if she was trying to organize them.
"Okay. Why?"
"I like to be thorough. You miss one thing and someone winds up dead."
"Okay then." Dean started up the car and began to drive back to Ohio.
"I'll start calling the families, see if anyone knows what happened to that mirror." Sam flipped open his phone and pressed numbers.
While Sam worked to get the information, Dean watched as Sarah nervously flipped through her notes. He hated to admit it, and claimed he never would out loud, but this behavior was starting to worry him. Only knowing her for a few short hours, he knew that this wasn't normal. If it was, she had a good way of hiding it.
Sarah knew how she must have looked to them, but she couldn't help it. She needs something to keep her mind occupied. She would do anything to keep her mind from drifting too far away.
"Oh, really?" Sam had gotten in contact with a family member of Mary. Sarah had zoned out, but hearing Sam's conversation brought her back to reality. "Ah, that's too bad, Mr. Worthington. I would have paid a lot of money for that mirror. Okay, well, maybe next time. All right, thanks." He snapped the phone closed.
"So?" Dean took his eyes away from the girl and back to the road.
"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."
"Well, that's convenient," Sarah mumbled.
"So wherever the mirror goes, that's where Mary goes?" Dean didn't understand. It wasn't a usual occurance for a spirit to move with objects.
"Her spirit's definitely tied up with it somehow." Sam didn't think it was too common either.
"Isn't there an old superstition that says mirrors can capture spirits?"
Sarah listened silently to the boy's discussion. She answered silently to herself. Yes, Dean. There is.
"Yeah, there is." Sam rested his arm against the car door. "When someone would die in a house, people would cover up the mirrors so the ghost wouldn't get trapped."
"So Mary does in front of the mirror, and it draws in her spirit."
"Yeah, but how could she move through like a hundred different mirrors?"
Maybe she was bored and decided that she hated that old mirror. Who knows? Sarah sighed. I should just join the conversation. It's better than talking to myself.
"I don't know, but if the mirror is the source, I say we find it and smash it," Dean suggested.
Sarah cleared her throat. "And pray we don't bring seven years of bad luck down upon us."
Dean nodded, secretly glad that she decided to join in. "Exactly."
"Yeah, I don't know. Maybe." Just then, Sam's cell phone started to ring. He flicked it open and answered. "Hello?" He shifted uncomfortably. "Charlie?" He listened as the girl cried and explained her hysteria. "Okay, Charlie calm down. We are on our way. Don't look in any mirrors. Keep your eyes closed. We'll be there soon." he closed his phone.
"She said it?" Sarah asked.
Sam looked back at Sarah. "Donna did. Now, Charlie is seeing Mary."
"So, wait. If Charlie is seeing her, doesn't that mean she killed someone." Dean scrunched his face in surprise.
"God. I wonder what happened." Sarah couldn't believe it either. She dropped her notes on her lap and looked at Dean in the mirror.
"I don't know. I guess we'll find out when we get there. How much farther?" Sam looked over at his brother.
"Not much. We're almost there." Dean pressed down on the gas pedal and sped down the highway. He wasn't going to let another die, not today.
In no time, Dean was pulling up to Charlie's house. She was waiting outside on the curb. Her arms were around her legs and her face was planted between her knees.
Sarah hopped out first. "Charlie. Charlie, it's us. Give me your hand. Don't open your eyes."Sarah places her hand on top of Charlie's and gripped it tight. "Come on. We're gonna take you to a safe place." Sarah helped Charlie to her feet and into the car. "Remember, keep your eyes closed," Sarah instructed again.
Dean blew every stop light and sign and floored it back to the motel.
Once the car was to a complete stop, Sam got out and helped Charlie into the room. He made her sit on the bed with her hands around her eyes to make sure she didn't sneak and peaks.
Together, Sam, Dean, and Sarah covered every surface that could possibly hold a reflection. They closed the curtains, took down picture frames, put a sheet over the tv, and made sure that the mirrors were nowhere in sight.
Sam sat with Charlie, trying hard to comfort her. Once they were sure all reflective surfaces had disappeared, Sam said, "You can open up your eyes, Charlie. It's okay, all right?"
Dean and Sarah stood by the bed as Sam continued to talk to the girl. "Now, listen. You're gonna stay right here on this bed. You're not gonna look at glass or anything else that has a reflection, okay? As long as you do that she cannot get you."
Charlie's eyes fluttered open and she hugged herself in fear. "But I can't keep that up forever. I'm gonna die, aren't i?"
"No. No. Not anytime soon."
Dean couldn't take it anymore. He needed to know the truth. "All right, Charlie, we need to know what happened."
"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it."
"That's not what we're talking about."
Charlie stared at Dean with tear filled eyes.
"Something happened, didn't it, in your life, a secret...Where someone got hurt?" When she looked away, Dean asked, "Can you tell us about it?"
Her lips quivered as she tried to hold it together. "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 do 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."
It was tragic and sad all at once. Sarah, Sam, and Dean didn't have words to help her.
It grew dark fast. It was the perfect chance to get the Estate Antiques and smash the mirror. It may or may not stop Mary, but they had to try. Charlie's life depended on it.
On this rainy night, they drove quickly. Dean's heart was heavy for that girl. "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 grey, Dean. Charlie had a secret, someone died. That's good enough for Mary." Sam looked at his brother, knowing how he felt.
"I guess."
"I wish spirits had some better judgment." Sarah sighed.
"Yeah, me too." Dean swallowed hard.
"You know, I've been thinking, it might not be enough to just smash the mirror."
Sarah leaned forward in her seat and Dean asked Sam, "Why, what do you mean?"
"Mary's hard to pin down, right?" Sam started. "I mean she moves around from mirror to mirror. So, who's to say that she's not gonna just keep hiding in them forever? So maybe... We should try to pin her down, you know, summon her to her mirror and them smash it."
"Well, how do you know that's gonna work?"
Sarah knew the answer. "He doesn't."
"I don't," Sam confirmed. "I'm not for sure."
"Well, who's gonna summon her?"
"I will. She'll come after me."
"What? No. Sam you can't do that." Sarah couldn't believe what Sam was saying. He was risking his life.
"Well, who else do you have?" Sam was annoyed with people telling him that he couldn't do something. He got wnough of it from Dean and his dad. He didn't need it from her, too.
"I'll do it." Sarah's eyes fell at the thought of her secret. "I can do it."
"No. Not you either." Why is everyone so hell bent on killing themselves today. I'm not going to let them do this to themselves. Dean cared more about Sarah than he thought. The very possibility of her being killed terrified him.
"Why?" Sam asked her. "What did you do?"
She didn't look up at him. "If I told you, it wouldn't exactly be a secret now, would it?"
"No. You're not going to feed yourselves to her." Dean couldn't look at them. Their suggestions were insane.
Sam ignored his brother. "No, Sarah. I have to do it."
Dean couldn't take it anymore. "All right, you know what? That's it's." He pulled the car over to the side of the road and halted. He didn't care if Sarah heard or not. His brother needed to start talking. He couldn't put it off anymore. "This is about Jessica, isn't it?"
Sam didn't answer. His eyes seemed to be dead.
Sarah leaned back in her seat. This conversation wasn't for her and she knew it.
"You think that's you dirty little secret, that you killed her somehow? Sam, this has got to stop, man. I mean, the nightmares and - 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 want to blame something, then blame the thing that killed her. Or, hell, why don't you take a swing at me? I'm the one that dragged you away from her in the first place."
Sam shook his head. "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." Deab was yelling now. He was getting frustrated with his brother. "And, besides, all of this isn't a secret. I mean, I know all about it. It's not gonna work with Mary anyway."
"No, you don't."
Dean was taken aback. "I don't what?"
"You don't know all about it. I haven't told you everything."
"What are you talking about?"
"Like Sarah said, it wouldn't really be a secret if I told you, would it?"
"No. 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. 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."
Sam had defeated Dean. Not knowing what else to do, Dean turned to Sarah. "And you."
"What? What did I do?" Sarah shrugged.
"You're doing what he's doing. Now, I don't know what you did and I doubt you're going to tell me, but it's got to stop. Your guilt is making him worse."
"Dean." Sam hated that Dean was blaming this on Sarah. It wasn't her fault that he felt guilty about Jessica.
Sarah held up a hand to Sam. "No, Sam. It's okay." She turned her attention to Dean's eyes, instantly melt ing in them. They shined like emeralds. She had planned on telling him off, but his beautiful eyes prevented her from doing so. "I'm sorry," was all she managed to say.
Dean nodded. "Okay. Let's just do this fast. If there is one shred of evidence proving this is unsafe, I'm pulling you out of there. You got it?" He pointed to Sam.
"Yeah, I got it."
"I still don't like this." Dean brought the car back to life and sped through the rain to Estate Antiques.
They pulled up to the older looking building. It was dark inside and closed up for the night.
The trio approached the front door. Dean hit Sam on the back. "This was your genius idea. You pick the lock."
Sam sighed, annoyed at his brother, but went to pick the lock anyway. He did it quickly, too.
Imside, mirrors were displayed all over along with other antiques. It creeped Sarah out to see her reflection so many times at once. She hated looking at her self in mirrors and photos. Those things just remind her who she truly is.
Dean couldnt't believe the amount of mirrors that were there. "Well, that's just great." He didn't think they would ever find the mirror they needed in this mess. Dean pulled out the picture to compare it to every mirror in sight. "All right, let's start looking."
Sam and Dean each went down a separate isle. Seeing that there were only two isles to choose from, Sarah followed Dean. She convinced herself that Dean needed her because he didn't have a flashlight and she did.
"Man, this place could use a dusting."
"Eh, it's not the worst I've seen. At least we can still breathe." Dean wanted to tell her a story about when Sam and him were kids, but decided against it. It was too personal to share at a moment like this. "Maybe they've already sold it," Dean called to Sam.
"I don't think so."
Dean and Sarah followed the sound of Sam's voice. When they were once again united with him, they were all standing in front of a mirror. The mirror that Mary herself was murdered in front of. Dean double checked with the photo. "That's it."
He shoved it back into his pocket and looked questionably at his brother. "You sure about this?
Sam didn't respond. He only handed his flashlight to Dean and stepped closer to the mirror. He took a deep breath and then he said it. "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary." Before saying it the third time, Sam readied himself with a crowbar to smash the mirror. "Bloody Mary."
Just then, headlights flashed into the front of the store.
"I'll go check that out," Dean volunteered. "You stay here. Be careful. Smash anything that moves."
Sam leaned over to Sarah. "Go with him. Mary might not come if I have someone with me."
Sarah hated leaving Sam alone like this, but his theory made sense. "Okay." She crouched down and jogged to catch up with Dean.
Dean looked back and saw Sarah behind him. "You should be with him. I don't want him by himself when that thing shows up."
"Me either, but Sam sent me away. He doesn't think she'll show if he's with someone."
Dean shook his head. "Whatever. Just stay low."
The two of them approached slowly and quietly. Dean reached the front first. "Crap."
"What?" Sarah asked. She peaked over Dean's shoulder. They must have set off the alarm because the police were parked right outside. "Crap," she repeated.
Dean set down the flashlight and stood up straight. "Okay. Just follow my lead."
Sarah didn't feel like questioning him. She stood up as well and trusted Dean. The two of them walked out of the store together.
"Hold it," one of the officers demanded.
Dean held out his hands. "Whoa, guys, false alarm. I tripped the system."
"Who are you?" asked another cop.
"I'm the boss's kid and this is my girlfriend." Girlfriend. There was just something about that word that Dean liked using to describe the girl standing next to him.
"You're Mr. Yamashiro's kid?"
"Well, yeah. I was adopted. I get that reaction all of the time."
The cops weren't buying his story. "I'm pretty sure Mr. Yamashiro didn't have any kids."
"Like I said, I was adopted."
"Yeah." The policemen started closing the gap between them.
Dean knew this wasn't going to end well. "You know, I just... We really don't have time for this right now." He threw the first punch causing the one officer to go down followed by another.
One grabbed Dean from behind, but Sarah grabbed her gun, hit him on the side of the head, knocking him out cold.
Dean fixed his jacket. "Thanks."
Sarah secured her weapon back on her side. "No problem."
Before walking back inside, Dean stopped Sarah. "Hey, I'm guessing there's no chance you're going to tell me about that person who died, is there?"
Sarah stared at the ground. "No. There's no chance."
"Well, in that case, I'm sorry for your loss."
Sarah stared up at him in shock. "Thank you." She had expected him to pry and ask multiple questions until he guessed it right. This was a relief for once.
"Come on. We need to get back to Sam."
Sarah shook her head. "Yeah. Let's go."
They jogged quickly back inside. They found Sam lying on the floor as his reflection spoke to him in the mirror.
Dean grabbed the nearest stick, ran to the mirror, and smashed it into thousands of pieces.
Sarah fell to Sam's side, making sure he was still breathing. She laId his head in her lap. She pulled out a rag and started to gently wipe the blood that ran from his eyes.
Dean joined them and grabbed Sam's face. "Sammy, Sammy!"
"It's Sam," he replied.
"God, are you okay?"
"Uh, yeah." Sam moved his attention to Sarah. "Thanks for wiping my face."
Sarah chuckled slightly. "No problem."
Dean grabbed Sam's arm and tried to bring him to his feet. "Come on, come on." He wrapped his brother's arm around himself and started walking toward the door thinking it was over.
Sarah picked herself up and was about to start following them when she heard something from the mirror. "Uh, guys."
Sam and Dean both turned around as Mary crawled out of the mirror.
Dean grabbed Sarah and pulled her back toward them. He wanted to keep her out of harm's way.
His attempt didn't matter, however, because Mary took her anger out on all three of them. Sarah, Dean, and Sam all started to bleed from their eyes. The pain they felt was unbearable and they fell to the floor.
Dean saw the pain that Sarah was in and he hated it. He felt that it was his responsibility to stop that pain. He reached over her and grabbed a large, square mirror and flashed it in Mary's face.
The ghost stopped suddenly and looks at herself in the mirror. Her reflection spoke back to her. "You killed them! All those people! You killed them!" She started bleeding from her eyes just like her victims. She couldn't breathe and started to melt. Her apparition spilled on to the floor and disappeared.
Dean threw the mirror he was holding, making it crash where she stood. The pain they all were feeling vanished and they could breathe again.
"Hey, Sam?" Dean spoke to his brother.
"Yeah?"
"That's gotta be like what, 600 years of bad luck?"
Sam wasn't exactly in the mood for jokes. That one got Sarah, though. She couldn't help but release a small chuckle.
Sam, Sarah, and Dean carried themselves to the car. It was finally over.
The sun was rising already by the time they reached the motel, picked up Charlie, and told her the good news. She was overwhelmed with joy. She was going to live another day.
They gave her a lift home. When Dean parked the car in front of her house, Charlie looked at all three of them. "So this is really over?"
"Yeah, it's over," Dean assured her.
"Thank you," she said and shook Dean's hand. She exited the car and started walking up her driveway.
"Charlie?" Sam called. "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."
After Charlie was safely back inside, Dean slapped his brother. "That's good advice." He started the car and drove back to the motel.
Sarah gathered up her things and shoved them into her bags. Sam and Dean did the same. They did this without saying a word. None of them knew what the next step was going to be.
Not believing that Dean was going to say something, Sarah grabbed her bags and headed for the door.
At first, he was just going to let her go. A split second of thinking changed his mind. Dean wanted to be near this girl. He wanted her to tag along with them. "Sarah, wait."
Sarah swallowed hard and turned back to Dean. "Yeah?"
"Why, uh, why don't you come with us?"
"What?"
"You know, traveling alone like that isn't exactly safe. Maybe you could tag along."
Sarah desperately wanted to tell him yes, but she couldn't. Working with others gets you killed. Getting close to someone like that will only end in heartbreak. "No. I'm sorry, Dean, but I work alone."
Dean had expected a completely different answer. "Seriously? Are you sure?"
Sarah nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure. Thanks for the offer, though. Maybe I'll see you around sometime."
"Yeah, maybe."
"It was nice working with you both. Goodbye, Sam. Goodbye, Dean."
"See ya, Sarah." Sam waved to her.
"Yeah. See ya." Dean would be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed. He thought the two of them connected at least a little. Did she hate me that much where she didn't even want to come? Dean blamed himself.
Sarah was drawn to them, but she couldn't tie herself down. Her only option was to turn down the offer. She was going to miss seeing Dean's beautiful eyes sparkle everyday.
A/N- Thank you all for sticking with me through this story. Don't worry. Sarah and the boys will see each other again soon. Just so you all know, I made a playlist on YouTube of the songs I used to title my chapters. I posted the link in my bio. Check it out if you want to hear the songs :) This chapter was named after In The Mirror by Common Kings. Thank you all for reading.
