A/N: The episode is bolded, while the story itself is in normal font. I don't know whether I'm going to do the whole season or if I'm just going to leave this here. I guess it depends on whether people ask me to do more or if someone else wants to take over. So let me know what you think.
I also decided not to include Luis. I loved him in the pilot, he was just so easygoing. So he gets to live a long and happy life! I replaced the first chapter, taking him out of it.
Warning: There is some mild, teenagery kind of language in here.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, unfortunately. Just an idea.
"The T.V. will pause whenever we stop and talk so that we don't miss anything that could be important," Mary let them know. She understood that they were about to be overwhelmed with information and would have a lot of questions to ask. "We're starting off on a night that everything began. So you understand why a lot of things happened."
The students nodded. While Mary was interested in all of them, she was mostly interested in Jess. After all, Sam had been about to ask her to marry him, and while she had seen her with Sam, she wanted to get to know her on a more intimate level. They all turned to the T.V. now where the words, "Lawrence, Kansas: 22 Years Ago"rested on the screen.
"Come on, let's say goodnight to your brother," Mary walks in holding a child, who seems to be about four years old. The child runs to a crib with a baby inside.
"G'night, Sam." The child kisses his forehead.
Now Mary leans over him, "Goodnight, love" and kisses his temple.
"Hey Dean," a man says. There is a shot of a man at the door. The child, now known as Dean, runs towards him.
"Daddy!"
"Hey buddy. So what do you think? D'you think Sammy's ready to toss around a football yet?"
Dean shakes his head, giggling, "No, daddy".
Sam's friends started in surprise. "What is it?" Mary asked. They looked at each other nervously knowing that it was her child they were going to talk about.
"It's just, at the funeral –" Cassandra started.
"He wasn't very…" Lizzie trailed off.
"He didn't belong there!" David finally said. "Nobody knew who he was. He was just some random guy. And he didn't leave Sam's side. He didn't let us talk to Sam at all, and he didn't talk at all."
"And it was only after he came and got Sam that the fire started. It was suspicious," Cassandra voiced.
Brady remained quiet. He hadn't been at the funeral. Instead, he had been running – or his body had been running – to inform some other guy about the "good news".
"I understand. You're going to see the life they lead though, and it's going to make you realize exactly why he was acting that way. This was before his entire life changed. Don't judge him too harshly," Mary reminded them.
Mary leaves the man hugging Dean, and he says "Sweet dreams, Sam". There is obvious love in his voice as he says this. He leaves with Dean and the baby is drawn to the mobile above the bed. The clock stops, and the light flickers before going out.
"Cause that's not creepy," Lizzie chuckled nervously. They all knew something bad was coming. Otherwise they wouldn't be watching this.
Mary is in bed when static is heard on the baby monitor. Sam can be heard as well. "John?" Mary asks. He's not there, so Mary gets up to check on Sam.
She goes to the nursery and finds John standing over the crib. "John? Is he hungry?" John turns his head and shushes her. "Okay", Mary says and turns away from the room. She pauses as the light down the hall starts flickering. With confusion on her face, she walks towards it and taps it. The light stops flickering. That's when Mary notices the sound of the television. With a questioning tilt to her head, she walks downstairs to find the television on and John asleep in front of it.
Everyone gasped and spoke at once.
"What the hell?"
"Oh my gawd."
"But Sam's up there! He's okay though, we know he is!"
"What's he doing in there?!"
"Oh shit," Brady whispered. He knew what was going on up there. He knew it from talking to the yellow-eyed … the yellow-eyed … person.
Mary's eyes go wide and she runs back up to the nursery, calling Sam's name. The scene cuts back to John as he wakes up to Mary's scream. "Mary!" he runs upstairs to the nursery. Mary isn't there.
"What? But you were just there?" Cassandra said uncertainly, looking at Mary. Mary just smiled sadly at her.
He walks to the crib and Sam looks up at him. There is a drop next to Sam's head. John reaches out to touch it and another drop lands on his hand. John looks up and finds Mary on the ceiling, staring at him.
Fresh gasps now. They stared at Mary, but Mary was watching Jess. Her face was pale and her lips were trembling. Mary reached out her hand and took hers, reassuring her. Jess turned to look at Mary, scared. All Mary could do was smile comfortingly
There is blood soaking through her nightgown. John collapses to the ground, screaming, "No, Mary!" and a fire erupts around her.
Jess stared at the T.V. What she had just seen – it couldn't be possible. It had happened to her, but she had to have been drugged somehow. Brady had to have drugged her. She had hallucinated the black eyes and the looking down on Sam and the sudden cut on her stomach, and the fire, and the pain. None of it had been real. She started shaking, and felt a pull on her hand as though from a distance, and someone said her name. With a gasp, everything came back into focus and she found Mary hugging her tightly.
"It's okay, it's okay," she was saying as she rubbed soothing circles on her back. Jess slowly felt herself relax. The others were carefully not looking at her. Jess focused on breathing evenly, before she decided to keep watching. She had to know what happened. She had to find out what this insanity was. And for now she was willing to trust this woman who had Sam's eyes and dimples. And his kindness and gentleness. Everything that Dean was lacking when he appeared in her apartment that Friday night.
John stares in shock as Sam starts to cry. He comes to his senses, and picks Sam up, going into the hallway.
"Daddy!" Dean is in the hallway.
"Take your brother outside as fast as you can!" John orders his son. "Don't look back! Now, Dean, go!"
As Dean runs outside, John goes back into the nursery to see if he can save his wife. The flames have grown and the entire nursery is engulfed. "Mary, no!"
Dean runs out of the house, carrying his brother. "It's okay Sammy." John runs out and picks up both boys, taking them further from the house before the top floor where the nursery is, explodes.
Firemen are at the scene and the three males are sitting on their car. John is distraught.
"What the hell just happened?!" David yelled, getting to his feet. Everyone turned to Mary expectantly. But Mary understood. Every teenager in this room had been possessed. Every. One. Except for Jess. They needed to know that everything that 'they' had done, wasn't their fault.
"What was that?" Jess asked quietly, but somehow more urgently than David had. Because she was the only one who really didn't know. Who didn't understand.
"What you just saw there was a demon attack." Mary was met with understanding and horrified looks. She mostly spoke to Jess. "You're going to have to believe me on this, because this whole thing is about the truth. There is no use in me lying to you, not now. Not here.
"David, Lizzie, Cassandra, and Brady, all of you were possessed by demons at some point. That's why you're here now. All of you should have lived longer lives than you did. And I know it doesn't make sense to you, and I know that it doesn't seem real, but demons are real, and some of them have greater powers. The one that attacked me was strong enough to hold me to the ceiling, cut me, and start the fire. That's what the smoke was, that came to you. The dark haze. And when you couldn't control your body, and you did terrible things? That wasn't you, and you have nothing to be ashamed about." Mary seemed to have found the right thing to say, because some of the tension that had appeared seemed to disappear, especially from Brady.
"And demons aren't the only things out there. There are also vampires, and werewolves, ghosts and poltergeists…"
"How could we have not noticed any of that?!" Jess said. "That doesn't make any sense! It can't! I had to have been imagining things that night."
Her friends looked at each other, not knowing what to say.
"She's right," Brady said finally, quietly speaking up. "They really do exist. It was…" Brady took a deep breath, knowing how crazy he sounded. "During Thanksgiving, I was outside, taking a break from my family when a lot of black smoke came – it came right at me. Don't give me that look! I know how crazy it seems, but it's the truth! It came at me, and suddenly I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't control anything. I was trapped. Inside my own body. And that night… I wouldn't hurt you. I swear." Brady said to Jess, shaking with the memory.
Jess looked at him. "I know," she said quietly. It was hard to believe, it really was. But seeing Brady here, now, it wasn't the same. He looked like he did that night, but here he was… softer. There was a more gentle air about him than there had been for the little while before her death. He didn't make her cringe or feel sick to be around. She had recognized that immediately, and knowing that she was already dead, knowing that he was too, that was why she hadn't bothered being angry when she had first seen him. There was nothing she could do to him here. And now she knew for sure that it wasn't him. That he had no control over himself that night. She felt a huge weight lift from her shoulders suddenly and breathed out, relieved.
Brady looked up at Mary. "I have to know what happened."
"Me too," Cassandra said.
"And me," added Lizzie.
"Me four," David spoke up.
"And me," Jess said, quietly but surely.
"I promise you that it will all make sense soon," Mary finally said. They turned back to the T.V.
Stanford University: Present Day
"Sam." A young woman, Jess, walks into the room, dressed in a nurse's outfit. "Get a move on, would ya? We were supposed to be there fifteen minutes ago. Sam! You coming, or what?"
"A bit demanding there, Jess?" Cassandra laughed.
"Shut up," Jess blushed.
A young man, Sam, pops his head into the room.
"Do I have to?"
Jess smiled. Sam was just so cute. And she knew that he had only gone for her. He hated going out to packed places, he always felt uneasy. And she also knew that he hated Hallowe'en. Now she knew why, Mary burning on the ceiling running through her head.
We see a picture of Mary and John from the house in Lawrence.
Mary smiled, happy that her son had managed to hold onto something of their old life.
"Yes! It'll be fun." Sam walks fully into the room. "And where is your costume?" Jess asks, accusingly.
The man grins, and steps closer. "You know how I feel about Halloween."
The scene cuts to a club. Sam, Jess and their friend Luis are sitting around a table.
"Luis!" David yelled. The two of them had been roommates at Stanford.
"Here's to Sam and his awesome LSAT victory." Jess raises her shot glass.
"All right, all right, it's not that big of a deal," Sam says, but he raises his glass to her and throws the shot back.
"He acts all humble, but he scored a 174."
"Seriously?!" Lizzie shrieked. "A 174?! How did he even manage that?!"
"He's just that good," Jess replied, grinning, obviously proud of her boyfriend.
"Who knew he had it in him?" David grinned.
"All he ever did was study, how could he not get that score?" Cassandra grinned as well. She had done pretty well too, but not that well.
Jess stuck her tongue out at them in reply.
Luis, also in costume, throws his shot back. "Is that good?"
"Scary good," she replies, taking her own shot.
"So there you go," Luis says, clapping his hand on Sam's shoulder. "You a first round draft pick. You can go to any law school you want."
"Actually, I got an interview here. Monday. If it goes okay, I think I've got a shot at a full ride next year."
"Hey," Jess leans forwards. "It's gonna go great."
"It'd better," Sam smiles at her.
"How does it feel to be the golden boy in your family?" Luis asks.
"Ah, they don't know."
"I would be gloating! Why not?"
"'Cause we're not exactly the Brady's," Sam throws some peanuts at him.
"And I'm not exactly the Huxstable's," Luis throws peanuts right back. "More shots." He leaves to get more as Sam and Jess protest.
Lizzie had a sad smile on her face. She understood not being close to your family – she wasn't very close to hers. She was just lucky that she had found such great friends at Stanford that she could turn to.
"Seriously. I'm proud of you and you're gonna knock 'em dead on Monday and you're gonna get that full ride. I know it."
"What would I do without you?" Sam asks her.
"Crash and burn." Jess smiles and the couple kisses.
"Awww," Lizzie and Cassandra cooed at the scene.
"Go Sam!" David shouted, and Brady grinned.
Jess glared at them.
Back in the apartment, Sam and Jess are both sleeping when suddenly there's a small crash.
"What?"
Sam's eyes open immediately and he's fully aware as he throws the covers off and gets out of bed. He walks out of the bedroom noiselessly and stops where he can see an open window. He waits for the person to walk by a door, and then walks to another door. He waits for the person to walk through.
"How did he know what to do?" Lizzie asked, biting her lip. Everyone shook their heads, unable to believe it. Sam had been quiet, but not stealthy. It was like he was suddenly the hunter instead of the victim though.
When the person enters, Sam immediately attacks. The two scuffle. Sam's good, but the other person is better, and seems to know every move Sam's going to make. Suddenly Sam's on the ground, with a shape on top of him. "Woah, easy tiger," the man says with a grin.
"Dean?" Sam asks in disbelief. Dean chuckles. "You scared the crap outta me."
"That's cause you're outta practice." Suddenly Sam moves and quickly pins Dean down. "Or not," Dean laughs. "Get off me."
The group of friends looked at each other, startled. "Since when did he know how to fight?" one of them asked.
Even Jess had no answer for him. She hadn't seen him move like that, ever.
Sam easily pulls him up. "Dean, what the hell are you doing here?"
"I was looking for a beer," Dean claps his hands on Sam's shoulders.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Sam asks more seriously.
"He just said he was looking for a beer?" Lizzie said, confused.
"You know, it's just you that thinks it's okay for someone to stumble into your apartment at whatever in the morning for a beer, right?" Cassandra asked her, grinning.
Lizzie just shrugged.
"Okay, all right. We gotta talk."
"Ah, the phone?"
"If I'da called, would you have picked up?"
"Wow, what happened there?" Cassandra asked.
"You'll see," was all Mary said.
The two are interrupted by Jess and the light she turns on. "Sam?" The boys turn to her in unison.
"Jess." Sam looks kind of nervous. "Hey. Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."
"Wait, your brother Dean?" Jess asks, surprised, with a smile.
"He'd barely even said anything about the guy. I was starting to think he was imaginary."
"I love the smurfs," Dean says as he points to her shirt. It's cut down the middle. "You know, I gotta tell you, you are completely out of my brother's league."
"Oh my gawd, what a perv," Lizzie said without thinking. She looked up at Mary in horror. "Sorry, sorry I didn't mean –"
"Don't worry about it," Mary smiled. She understood, and if it had been her in Jess' position, she would've said that herself. Dean was, however, her son and he had been a ladies man from the moment he had started kicking.
"Just, let me put something on."
"No, no, no. I wouldn't dream of it." Dean stares at her. "Seriously. Anyway, I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, and talk about some private family business, but uh, nice meetin' you."
Jess smiles unsure, looking at Sam. "No," he says, going to stand beside her, "no, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."
"Good for him!" Lizzie said. "I always knew I liked him."
"Okay," Dean relents. "Dad hasn't been home in a few days."
The group looked at each other, confused. Why was their dad not being home in a few days important enough for Dean to break in, in the middle of the night no less?
"So he's working overtime on a miller time shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later."
Dean nods, coming to an understanding. "Dad's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been home in a few days." This seems to take on a whole different meaning to Sam as there is a close-up on his face.
"Jess, excuse us. We have to go outside."
"What?" David asked. Sam always spoke with reason, and he never really changed his mind.
The boys are walking down stairs, outside of the apartment.
"Dean, come on. You can't just break in, in the middle of the night and expect me to hit the road with you."
"You're not hearing me Sammy. He's missing. I need you to help me find him."
"Remember the poltergeist in Amhurst? Or the Devil's gates in Clifton? He was missing then too. He's always missing, and he's always fine."
Dean turns to him. "Not for this long. Now are you going to come with me, or not?"
"I'm not." Sam is sure of it.
"Why not?"
"I swore I was done hunting. For good."
"Come on. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad." Dean turns away and continues walking.
"Yeah? When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45."
"What?!" Jess yelled. "He gave a child a gun?! What's wrong with him?!" The others were muttering as well.
Mary wasn't too happy with that decision either. She had seen that in her first look through of their lives, and she had only wished that John had comforted his youngest child instead of arming him.
"Well what was he supposed to do?"
"What?" Jess said again, shocked. How could that be normal?
"I was nine years old. He was supposed to say, 'Don't be afraid of the dark'."
The boys pause at a gate.
"Don't be afraid of the dark? What, are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there!"
Those who had been possessed – Lizzie, Cassandra, David, and Brady – shifted uncomfortably. They had been part of that. People had armed themselves and been scared of them.
"Yeah, but still, the way we grew up after Mom was killed. And Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her. But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find."
"This is crazy," Jess interrupted again, shaking her head. She didn't want to believe it.
"And save a lot of people doing it, too."
After a pause, Sam continues on a different track. "You think Mom would've wanted this for us?"
The students looked at her. Mary only shook her head. She hadn't wanted it. It was essentially her very worst nightmare, that her children be subjected to the kind of life that she had been.
Dean pushes through the gate, and you get a sudden feeling that he doesn't like that tactic very much.
"The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors."
Cassandra shuddered. "I couldn't imagine being raised like that." Everyone else agreed.
"It definitely isn't as glamorous as it seems to some people." They looked at Mary.
"You were raised like that too?" Jess asked, appalled.
"Yes. My parents were hunters, and they raised me like that. They taught me how to read out of mythology textbooks, and I became an expert in lore before high school. I learned how to shoot a gun, and how to use a knife before I learned how to cook. And that was back in the 50's-60's. They were sure that I had to carry on the family business. And I hated every moment of it. The whole time, all I wanted was to be a normal kid, to go to school and parties and not have to hide who I was. Instead I spent my Friday and Saturday nights digging in graveyards, or beheading vampires. I swore that my kids would never live that kind of life."
Everyone stared at her in shock, not knowing what to say.
"Shall we?" Mary asked. The rest of the group nodded, turning back to the T.V.
"So what're you gonna do? Just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?" The two of them have stopped at a car as they talk.
"No, not normal. Safe."
"And that's why you ran away?" Dean lets out a small snort of disbelief. Sam looks at him incredulously.
"I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go, I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."
"He said that?! To his kid?!" Jess raved. "I knew Sam didn't have a good home life! He never talked about it! Never mentioned his father and I only found out about his brother accidentally! If he didn't want to live that life, then he shouldn't have had to! I'm glad he got out," she finished resolutely. The others nodding, with various degrees of disgust on their faces.
Despite agreeing with Jess somewhat, Mary still felt the need to defend her husband. "In John's defense, he only wanted to be able to watch out for Sam. If Sam wasn't with him, he could have been getting into all kinds of trouble. John wasn't really angry at Sam, just terrified that he was going to lose him."
"It doesn't mean it was right," Jess answered, more calmly.
"No, it wasn't."
"Yeah, well Dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already, I can feel it."
Brady bit his lip. He knew from having the demon inside him that John should've died somewhere around here. He didn't understand everything in the conversation between the demon inside him and the yellow-eyed one. From what he did understand, John was hunting the other demon and there had been a trap set for him while yellow-eyes made his escape.
The boys stare at each other, seemingly trying to will the other into understanding. "I can't do this alone."
"Yes you can."
Dean looks away, at the ground. "Yeah, well, I don't want to."
Sam's resolve flickers. Reluctantly, he asks, "What was he hunting?"
"Just like that?" Cassandra asked. "What about the interview?" Jess shrugged. She had tried to convince him not to, but she also knew that he needed to help his family.
Dean opens the trunk of the car they stopped at, and then lifts it to reveal a hidden compartment, full of weaponry.
"Crap." David said.
"You got that right," Lizzie said, her jaw hanging.
They had never seen that many weapons in one place, except for a museum maybe. But there were all kinds of weird looking knives, and several guns, and machetes, and the list went on and on.
He holds the top up with a sawed-off and starts looking for something.
"So when Dad left, why didn't you go with him?"
"I was on my own gig, this voodoo thing down in New Orleans."
Sam snorts. "Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?"
Dean looks up. "I'm twenty-six, dude."
"He looks pretty good for a twenty-six year old though," Lizzie raised her eyebrows suggestively, causing Cassandra to giggle and the guys to groan.
"I look pretty good too, Liz," said David with a smirk.
Lizzie hit him playfully in the back of the head.
Mary watched them, amused. She wished her kids had been given the chance to just be kids like this.
"Right, here we go." He pulls some papers out. "So dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy, they found his car, but he vanished. Completely MIA." Sam looks at the paper, titled 'Centennial Highway Disappearance'.
"So maybe he was kidnapped."
"Yeah, well, here's another one in April, another one in December, '04, '03, '98, '92. Ten of them over the past twenty years." He takes the paper back from Sam. "All men. All same five mile stretch of road. Started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. Hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough." Picking up a recorder, he continues, "Then I get this voicemail yesterday."
"Dean…Something big is starting to happen… I need to try and figure out what's going on… It may… Be very careful, Dean, we're all in danger."
"That doesn't sound ominous," Cassandra said, biting her nails nervously.
"Not at all," Brady said quietly.
Dean clicks stop on the recorder, looking at Sam. "You know there's EVP on that?" Sam asks him.
"There's what?" Lizzie asked.
"Not bad, Sammy. Kind of like riding a bike, in'it? All right, I slowed the message down, ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got." Dean presses play again, looking at Sam expectantly.
"Did you understand any of that?" David asked. Everyone just shook their heads.
"I can never go home." Stop again.
"I can never go home," Sam repeats. Dean tosses the recorder back into the trunk and closes it.
"You know, in almost two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing."
"Don't go. Don't do it Sam," Brady said, closing his eyes. Jess looked at him in understanding.
"Why not? He can make it back before Monday," David replied.
"No, it's just not right. It's not good," Brady was shaking. "He shouldn't leave. He shouldn't leave Jess there."
No one could argue – this was the weekend she had died in the fire, after all.
Sam sighs and looks around, before his eyes settle back on Dean. "All right. I'll go. I'll help you find him. But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here." Sam turns away.
"What's first thing Monday?"
"I have this…" Sam steels himself. "I have an interview."
"Why should he be nervous about telling his brother about the interview? It's a good thing," Cassandra said, confused.
"What, a job interview? Skip it."
"What? He couldn't just skip a job interview!" Jess said indignantly.
"It's a law school interview," Sam corrects. "And it's my whole future on a plate."
"Law school?"
"So we got a deal or not?" Dean just looks at him.
Back in the apartment, Sam is putting a hook shaped knife into a duffle bag.
"It's kind of creepy that I didn't even notice that there. Am I really that blind?" Jess asked the room.
"I'd say so," David replied with a smirk. "That thing's huge."
They were all kind of concerned though. Since Jess hadn't noticed weapons in her own apartment, how many other people were in danger from just some psycho killer who knew how to hide a weapon?
"Wait, you're taking off?" Jess asks, coming into the bedroom. "Is this about your dad? Is he all right?"
"Yeah, you know, just a little family drama."
"It's a little bit more than a little," Lizzie rolled her eyes.
"I thought your brother said he was on some kind of hunting trip."
"Uh, yeah, he's just deer hunting up at the cabin. He's probably got Jim, Jack and José along with him. I'm just going to go bring him back."
"I just can't understand why he'd keep lying to me," Jess said sadly. "Did I ever really know him?"
"You knew him in all the ways it counted," Mary reassured her. "He had an extra skill set on the side, but he loved you, and he would do anything to keep you safe. Knowing what he knew, it would've put you in danger, and he couldn't do that."
"What about the interview?"
"I'll make the interview. This is only for a couple days."
"Sam, I mean, please. Stop for a second. You sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine."
"It's just, you won't even talk about your family. And now you're taking off in the middle of the night to spend a weekend with them? And with Monday coming up, which is kind of a huge deal –"
"Hey, everything's going to be okay," Sam assures her. "I will be back in time, I promise." After a kiss on the cheek, he leaves.
"I still can't believe that after not even speaking to them in two years, Sam's just going to see them," Lizzie said.
"They're still his family though," Brady said. "He had to make sure his father was okay."
"At least tell me where you're going!" Jess calls to his retreating back.
"Sneaky, sneaky," David chirped.
Jericho, California
"Amy, I can't come over tonight," a young man says, driving. "Because I've got work in the morning, that's why… Yeah, okay, if I miss it my dad's going to have my ass." He stops and stares as a woman in white appears by the side of the road.
"Ohhhhh naughty, naughty," David said in a sing-song voice.
"He'd better not stop," said Lizzie, glaring.
"What if she just needs help?" Jess asked, albeit nervously.
She flickers. He tells Amy he'll call her back and hangs up. The car radio starts breaking up into static as he pulls up beside the woman.
"This is like the beginning of a horror movie or something," Cassandra said. She had a fondness for horror movies, but at least she knew those were fake, and a friend of hers wasn't right in the middle of one.
"Take me home," the woman says when he stops. She is wearing a white dress, ripped and torn. He opens the door.
"Sure, get in." She gets in the car, and he look nervous. "So, where do you live?"
"At the end of Breckenridge Road." She replies. Her dress is low cut, not leaving much to the imagination.
"Coming from a Hallowe'en party, or something?" He looks at her chest. "Look, a girl like you really shouldn't be alone out here." She turns her head towards him, and pulls up her dress, uncovering her leg.
"I'm with you." He looks away and she turns his head back towards her. "Do you think I'm pretty?"
"Oh my gawd. Get out of there!" David yelled.
He stares at her breasts. "Uh huh."
"He needs to rethink his life choices," Cassandra said.
"Boys are disgusting," Lizzie grumbled out.
"Hey!" both Brady and David yelled out at the same time.
"Okay, okay, not all boys. Just pervs and cheaters," Lizzie relented.
"Damn straight," was David's reply.
"Will you come home with me?"
He laughs, "Hell yeah!" and drives.
The group shook their heads in disgust.
The house at the end of Breckenridge Road is old, and hasn't been lived in for a very long time. "Come on, you don't live here."
"I can never go home," says the woman as she looks wistfully out the window. She disappears from the car while the young man looks at the house, talking to her. He doesn't notice the hand print on the outside of the windshield as he gets out.
"Don't get out of the car! Never get out of the car!" Cassandra yelled at him.
"You know he can't hear you, right?"
"Shut up, David."
He walks up to the house, trying to talk to her. She isn't anywhere. At the door, he peers in and a bird flies out, making him scream. He runs back to the car and speeds off. As he's driving, the woman appears in his backseat. He screams and jerks the wheel, driving onto a bridge. There is a close up of the car, and his screams are heard, and suddenly a splatter of blood as he goes silent.
"It is always that nasty?" Lizzie asked.
"It's pretty par for the course," Mary admitted. "You can't be a hunter without seeing your fair share of blood and gore."
Dean walks out of a gas station and asks Sam, who's sorting through cassettes in the car, if he wants breakfast, holding up a bag of chips, a bottle of pop, and what look like mints.
"So how'd you pay for that stuff? You and dad still running credit card scams?"
"Credit card scams?!" Jess yelled while the others stared, shocked. "And why is Sam asking like it's so normal?!"
"Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro ball career." They discuss the current card scam.
Sam suddenly turns to him, "I swear man, you gotta update your cassette tape collection."
Jess stared in disbelief. "The cassettes bother him more than the fraud does? I don't believe it."
"Why?" Dean looks offended.
"Well for one, they're cassette tapes. And two, Black Sabbath? Motor Head? Metallica? It's the greatest hits of the mullet rock.
"I was offended by that. I love that music!" Mary said easily. The students stared at her and she shrugged.
"Well, house rules Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole." Dean picks up a cassette and puts it into the player.
"You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve year old. It's Sam." Dean cranks up the music, 'Back in Black' by ADCD.
"He gets mad at anyone who even tries to call him 'Sammy'. We think he's got a sensor about that or something, he just knows," David said.
"I called him Sammy once when I first met him and he glared at me so hard I thought I was going to catch on fire," Brady grinned.
"I'm sorry, I can't hear you, the music's too loud." We get the clearest look of the car, a 1967 Chevy Impala.
"That is a sweet ride," David said, his jaw dropping.
"Boys and their toys," Lizzie rolled her eyes.
As the two men enter Jericho, Sam is checking out morgues and hospitals searching for someone with their dad's description. They pull up to the bridge from the previous scene where police cars are sitting. Dean pulls over, reaches into the glove compartment and pulls out a small box. Opening that up, he rifles through fake I.D.'s until he finds one that suits his purpose. Sam doesn't really look surprised, just a bit nervous. "Let's go."
"No way. They aren't actually going to use them, are they?" Jess asked.
"That's so cool though!" David was grinning. "It's like being a spy or something!"
Sheriffs are looking at the car. "No sign of a struggle, no footprints, no fingerprints, spotless. It's almost too clean."
"So this kid, Troy. He's dating your daughter, isn't he? How's Amy doing?"
"She's putting up missing posters downtown."
That's when the sheriff notices Sam and Dean looking around.
"You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?"
"And who're you?"
Dean pulls out his I.D. "Federal Marshalls."
"Samuel Winchester!" Jess yelled. She seemed to be doing a lot of that.
"Woah, that's… wow," said Lizzie.
"I can't believe Sam's just going along with it!"
"What if they find out?" Cassandra started biting her nails again.
"It's easier to just pretend to be someone else on a hunt. You get information faster that way, and a lot of the time, the hunter doesn't stick around long enough for it to become a problem," Mary offered.
"So you're okay with this?" Jess asked, eyeing her.
"I don't like it, but they're hunters. It's what they do. I did it too, when I went on hunts with my dad."
"You two are a little young to be Marshalls, aren't you?"
Dean laughs. "Thanks, that's awfully kind of you. You did have another one just like this, correct?"
"Yeah, that's right. About a mile up the road. There have been others before then."
"So this victim, you knew him?" Sam intersects.
"Town like this, everybody knows everybody."
Dean's walking around the car. "Any connection between the victims, besides that they're all men?"
"No. Not so far as we can tell."
"So what's the theory," Sam asks.
"Honestly? We don't know. Serial murder. Kidnapping ring."
"Well that is exactly the king of crack police work I expect out of you guys." Sam stomps on Dean's foot, with an apologetic smile.
"If he keeps talking like that, he's going to give them away," Cassandra muttered.
"Thank you for your time. Gentlemen." Sam and Dean start walking away, the sheriff looking after them.
Dean smacks Sam in the back of the head. Sam looks murderous.
"Ow, what was that for?"
"Why'd you have to step on my foot?"
"Why do you have to talk to police like that?"
"Come on, man. They don't really know what's going on. We're all alone on this."
"Doesn't mean he had to talk back like that," Jess muttered.
"I mean, if we're gonna find dad, we've gotta get to the bottom of this thing ourselves." Sam looks over Dean's shoulder, and gives him a look. Dean turns around to find a sheriff and two FBI agents.
"Can I help you boys?"
"No sir, we were just leaving. Agent Mulder, Agent Scully."
Lizzie snorted. When everyone looked at her, she just shrugged. "I like the X-Files, okay?"
The brothers leave the crime scene to find Amy, who's putting up missing signs with a friend.
"You must be Amy. Troy told us about you. We're his uncles. I'm Dean, this is Sammy."
"He never mentioned you to me."
"Well that's Troy I guess. We're not around much. We're up in Modesto."
"How are they getting away with that?" David asked, stunned that they hadn't been caught in that lie.
"Practice," Mary said. "And their good looks." David made a retching sound, and Mary laughed.
"You're biased," David said decidedly.
"So we're looking for him too, and we're kind of asking around."
Amy's friend comes over, "Hey, are you okay?" Amy's good.
"You mind if we ask you a couple questions?"
The group of four are sitting in a diner, with Amy telling them about the phone call.
"He didn't say anything strange, or out of the ordinary?"
"Not that I can remember."
Sam comments on her necklace, which is a pentagram. Troy gave it to her to scare her parents with devil stuff. Sam tells her it's actually protection, and Dean shrugs him off, "Thank you unsolved mysteries."
"It's good to know, though," Brady spoke up. The other previously possessed students nodded in agreement. They wished they had known that.
Dean leans forwards in his seat. "Okay, here's the deal ladies. The way Troy disappeared. Something's not right. So if you've heard anything…" He trails off and the two girls look at each other. "What is it?"
Amy's friend speaks. "Well with all these guys going missing, people talk."
"What do they talk about?" Dean and Sam say in unison.
"Woah, that was weird. And kinda cool," Cassandra said.
She tells them about the local legend of a woman who was murder on Centennial Highway decades ago. Whoever picks her up when she's hitchhiking disappears forever.
"That's super creepy," Lizzie shuddered.
The boys are in the library, looking up news articles on the Jericho Herald website. Dean start off with 'Female Murder Hitchhiking', which yields no results. 'Female Murder Centennial Highway' also yields nothing.
"Let me try," Sam reaches for the mouse. Dean slaps his hand away. With a look, Sam pushes Dean's chair.
"Dude, you are such a control freak."
"Okay, definitely brothers," Cassandra said, and the group laughed.
"So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?"
"Yeah," Dean says.
"Then maybe it's not murder." Sam tries 'Female Suicide Centennial Highway', and comes up with an article on Constance Welch who jumped off Sylvania Bridge in 1963 after the death of her children. The bridge is the same one Troy was murdered on.
That night, the two go to check out the bridge. Dean says this hunt might take a while, and Sam reminds him about the interview Monday.
"You're really serious about this, aren't you?" Dean asks. "You think you're just going to become some lawyer, marry your girl?"
"Maybe. Why not?"
Jess blushed. Did he really think about marrying her? They hadn't really discussed it, although she had been meaning to. He had just been so distant in the past couple weeks.
"Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you've done?"
"No, and she's not ever going to know."
"I wish he did tell me," Jess said sadly.
"Well, that's healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy, but sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are."
"Who's that?"
"One of us."
"No," Sam replies vehemently. "I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life."
"You have a responsibility."
"To dad and his crusade? If it weren't for pictures, I wouldn't even know what mom looks like. What difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, mom's gone. And she isn't coming back."
"That is really sad," Cassandra voiced.
"But it's true. I didn't want them wasting their lives, looking for what killed me. It wouldn't help. I guess a small part of me wanted him killed though." Mary looked as though she was trying to decide whether to tell them something.
"What is it?" Jess asked her gently.
"He killed my parents too," Mary finally said. "And it's all my fault that it happened. If I hadn't been so selfish, I would still be alive, and none of this would ever have happened." Mary couldn't help but think about that horrible night, and the deal she had made.
"I'm sure you had no other choice," Jess answered back. Mary smiled at Jess, thanking her.
Sam's hit a nerve. Dean grabs the front of his sweater and slams him up against the bridge railing.
"Ouch," David grimaced.
"Don't talk about her like that." He lets go of Sam and turns away. There's a woman on the opposite side of the bridge, Constance, about to dive into the river. "Sam," Dean draws his attention. She jumps and the two run over to see where she went. She disappeared. Suddenly the Impala starts up and the two stare at it.
"Uhhh. Run?" was Lizzie's suggestion.
"What the –?" Dean says.
"Who's driving your car?" Sam asks.
Dean pulls his keys from his pocket.
"Oh no," Cassandra stared wide-eyed at the T.V.
The car starts speeding towards them and they turn and run. They aren't going to make it and they both jump over the side of the bridge.
We see that Sam managed to hold onto the edge, and he yells for his brother. Dean crawls out of the river, covered in mud. The car is all right, but Dean's feeling angry, "That Constance chick, what a bitch!"
"He'll get her just for touching the car," David said confidently.
The two sit on the Impala. "You smell like a toilet," Sam points out to Dean.
Everyone laughed. Trust Sam to focus on the non-important aspect.
The two check in the next morning at a motel. There is already someone there using the name on the card that Dean's trying to use. They pick the lock on the door and go inside.
"Oh good, another criminal skill," Jess sighed, exasperated.
The walls are covered in notes.
"Wow" was the general consensus as the group got a good look around the room.
"It's like a crime scene investigation."
Dean turns on a lamp and sniffs a burger. "I don't think he's been here a couple days at least."
"Gross," Cassandra wrinkled her nose.
Sam is bending over to touch a line of white on the floor. "Salt, cat's eye shells. He was worried. Trying to keep something from coming in. What've you got here?"
"Trying to keep something out all right," Brady glared at the T.V.
Dean is looking at one of the walls. "Centennial highway victims. I don't get it. Different men, different ages, jobs, ethnicities. There's always a connection, right?" Sam walks over to a different wall. "What do these guys have in common?" Sam sees a note with 'Woman in White' written on it.
"What does that mean?" Lizzie asked.
Mary just nodded towards the T.V.
"Dad figured it out."
"What do you mean?"
"He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She's a woman in white."
Dean turns back to the wall of victims. "You sly dogs. All right, so if we're dealing with a woman in white, dad would've found the corpse and destroyed it."
"Is that always how you get rid of monsters?" Jess asked.
"Ghosts, you need to salt and burn the remains, vampires are beheaded, werewolves require a silver bullet through the heart, and wendigos need to be burned as well. There is a different way for dealing with each creature, but some of them share weakness. Neither ghosts or demons like salt, for example. And some ghosts can be destroyed by granting them peace another way," Mary explained.
"She might have another weakness."
"Dad would want to make sure. He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?"
"No, not that I can tell. If I were dad though, I'd go ask her husband. Maybe he's still alive."
"All right, why don't you see if you can find anything. I'm going to get cleaned up."
"Hey, Dean. What I said earlier, about mom and dad, I'm sorry."
Dean holds up his hand. "No chick flick moments."
Sam laughs a little. "All right. Jerk."
"Bitch."
"That's all it took to get over it?" Lizzie was surprised.
"They have a very different relationship. Dean practically raised Sam himself, when John wasn't there." Mary smiled fondly. She was happy that her boys got along so well that even after twi years apart they were still in sync.
Dean leaves to get cleaned up and Sam finds a picture in the mirror, of John, Dean and Sam.
"Awww!" The girls cooed.
Sam is listening to a voicemail from Jess, while Dean goes out to get some food. As he's leaving, he sees the sheriffs talking to the motel manager, who points out Dean.
"Oh shit," David swore loudly. "Knew they were going to get caught!"
Cassandra started biting her nails again, and Lizzie bounced in her seat.
"How could they be so stupid?! They had to know it wouldn't work!" Jess said frantically.
Dean calls Sam and warns him about the sheriffs, telling him to take off. Dean hangs up as the officer steps up behind him.
"Problem officers?"
"Where's your partner?"
"What partner?" The sheriff tells another to go and check out the motel room. Sam, peers through the window while Dean watches nervously.
"What's he gonna do?! Where's he gonna go?!" Cassandra panicked.
Jess seemed to be holding her breath.
"So. Fake U.S. Marshall. Fake credit cards. You got anything that's real?"
"My boobs," Dean says before he's arrested.
Brady and David started laughing, while the girls face-palmed.
"He didn't," Jess sighed. "I hope Sam got away."
At the police station, Dean is sitting at a desk and a sheriff walks in with a box. "So, you want to give us your real name?"
"I told you it's Nugent. Ted Nugent."
Brady raised his eyebrows. "Really? A rock star alias? How is he going to get away with that?"
Mary grinned. "There are less people who know that than you think."
"I'm not sure you realize just how much trouble you're in here."
"Are we talking like misdemeanour kind of trouble or uh squeal like a pig trouble?"
"How can he be so flippant about this?" Lizzie demanded.
"Flippant?" David questioned. "Who says that?"
"Shut up."
"You got the faces of ten missing persons taped to your wall. Along with a whole lot of satanic mumbo jumbo. Boy, you are officially a suspect."
"How does he get out of that?" Lizzie was fidgeting. "I can't just see Sam leaving him there, either."
"That makes sense. When the first one went missing in '82, I was three."
"I know you got partners. One of them's an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing."
They had started laughing at how ridiculous everything sounded, until the older man was mentioned. They immediately sobered.
"So tell me, Dean. Is this his?" The sheriff pulls a leather book out of the box and throws it on the table, in front of Dean. It seems to have a lot of meaning to him as he stares at it. "I thought that might be your name." The sheriff starts flipping through the book. "See, I leafed through this. What little I could make out, I mean it's nine kinds of crazy. But I found this, too." He settled on a page where 'Dean 35-111' is circled. "Now, you're staying right here until you tell me exactly what the hell that means." Dean looks up at him.
"What does that mean?" Jess asked.
"Their father was a marine. They're co-ordinates," Mary answered.
Meanwhile, Sam goes to see Joseph Welch and confirms that his father was there to speak to him as well. Sam tells Joseph that he's working with his father on a paper.
"That's the third alias he's used in this hunt," Cassandra said.
He finds out that Constance was buried in a plot by the house. Joseph moved because he didn't want to live in the same house his children died in. He claimed a happy marriage and Constance being the love of his life.
Before Sam gets into the Impala, he asks Joseph if he'd ever heard of a woman in white. Sam explains who she is, that they're spirits whose husbands cheated on them. The women murdered their children and then killed themselves, and upon finding an unfaithful man, they kill him and he's never seen again.
"Wow," David said. "No cheating for me. You with me man?" He turned to Brady.
"Hell yeah," Brady replied. "I'm not getting jumped by a ghost for cheating."
Joseph gets upset with the implications and tells Sam to get off his property and not come back.
"It's your fault!" Cassandra shouted to Joseph on T.V.
Back at the police station, Dean is trying to tell the sheriff that the numbers in the book refer to his high school locker combo. The sheriff doesn't believe him, but there's a call. He chains Dean to the table when he leaves to investigate.
"Can they even do that?" Lizzie asked.
"It doesn't matter," Brady answered. "Who's going to say anything? He's probably the chief, and it's not like he's going to get himself in trouble. It's a small town too, it probably wasn't worth the bother to move him."
Dean looks at the file on the table and finds a paperclip.
"Glad they left that there," David said lightly.
Picking the handcuffs off, he makes his escape with the journal and calls Sam, who's driving.
"Fake 9-1-1 phone call Sammy, I don't know, that's pretty illegal."
"If I was alive, I would kick his ass!" Jess glowered at Sam on T.V.
"You're welcome."
"Listen, we gotta talk."
"Tell me about it. So the husband was unfaithful. We are dealing with a woman in white and she's buried behind her old house, so that should've been dad's next stop."
Jess grinned fondly. "He always got so worked up when he figured something out. He would just keep talking about it."
"Sammy would you shut up for a second?"
"I just can't figure out why he hasn't destroyed the corpse yet."
"That's what I'm trying to tell you. He's gone. Dad left Jericho."
"What? How do you know?"
"I've got his journal."
"Most hunters keep a journal of creatures, their dealings with them and what they look like, and how to kill them," Mary supplied. "I have several, myself."
"He doesn't go anywhere without that thing."
"Yeah, well, he did this time."
"What's it say?"
"Same old ex-marine crap when he wants to let us know where he's going."
"Co-ordinates. Where to?"
"I'm not sure yet."
"I don't understand, I mean, what could be so important that dad would just skip out in the middle of a job? Dean, what the hell is going on?" Constance suddenly appears in front of Sam and the breaks squeal as he skids to a stop, phone dropping from his hand. Constance appears in the back seat.
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," David repeated.
"Oh my gawd, Sam, get out of there!"
"Why did you go in the first place?"
"Wait," Brady interjected. "Didn't they say she just went after cheaters? He should be safe, right?"
Jess sighed in relief. There's no way he was unfaithful. Not Sam.
"Take me home." And again, louder.
"No," Sam replies.
"Good," Lizzie praised him.
Constance locks the doors, and the gas pedal presses down. The car starts driving without Sam. He tries to get out and can't.
"Nooooo," someone moaned.
They arrive in front of the house and the car turns off. "Don't do this," Sam says.
"I can never go home," Constance laments.
"You're scared to go home," Sam notices. He turns around in his seat. She's gone. He's about to open the door when she appears in the front seat. Constance pushes Sam back and places her hand on his chest.
"Hold me. I'm so cold."
"Don't do it man," David said fearfully.
"You can't kill me. I'm not unfaithful. I've never been." She's causing him extreme pain.
Jess let out a breath that she hadn't known she was holding. Sam wasn't the kind of guy to be unfaithful, but when Constance had taken him, she had started to worry.
Leaning down, she whispers, "You will be," into his ear. "Just hold me." Constance kisses him, and he tries to reach his keys. She disappears again.
There is a moment of peace when suddenly Sam throws his head back against the headrest screaming.
The group stars in horror as he opens his sweater and burns can be seen in his shirt. Constance appears, her hand on his chest, and her fingers digging into his body.
"That has to the sketchiest thing I've ever seen," David broke the silence.
"Sketchiest?! She's killing him!" Jess panicked. The others stayed silent, just wanting to get on with the hunt and find out that Sam was okay.
The driver's side window shatters as bullets fly through it. Dean is standing on the other side.
There is a collective sigh of relief, and various "thank gawds" from around the room.
Constance disappears and then reappears, and Dean continues to fire. She disappears again.
Sam pulls himself up and starts the car. "I'm taking you home." He starts driving and crashes the car into the house.
Jess shrieked and clapped her hands over her mouth.
Dean runs in behind, opening the passenger door, and helps Sam out of the car.
Constance is in the house, and picks up a picture of herself and her two children. She looks at Sam and Dean and tosses the picture aside before shoving a bureau at them, pinning them to the car.
"Oh good, they pissed off the ghost. Number one thing in horror movies, you don't piss off the thing trying to kill you any more than you already have," Cassandra informed them.
The lights start to flicker and water runs down the stairs. Constance looks up and finds her children at the top. They hold hands and appear in front of her, "You've come home to us Mommy." They hug her and she screams before all three of them disappear into the floor.
"That was it?" David asked after a moment of silence.
"Sam found her weak spot. Digging up the corpse is harder, because they try to protect it as much as possible. Usually by throwing the hunter around, or things at them," Mary told them.
"Is that why Sam has all those scars?" Jess asked.
"Yes. Hunting is a dangerous job, and there are always risks involved."
The brothers toss the furniture away and walk over to the spot they disappeared. "So this is where she drowned her kids."
"That's why she could never go home. She was too scared to face them."
"You found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy." Dean hits him in the chest, and Sam laughs in pain.
"Yeah I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"
"Hey, it saved your ass. I'll tell you another thing. If you screwed up my car, I'll kill you." Dean says to Sam, who just laughs.
They're driving along the highway, Sam looking up the coordinates their dad left them. "Okay, so here's where dad went. It's called Blackwater Ridge, Colorado."
"Sounds charming. How far?"
"About six hundred miles."
"If we shag ass we can make it by the morning."
Sam looks at Dean. "Dean, I, um…"
"You're not going."
"Dean, the interview's in like ten hours. I've gotta be there."
Dean looks away from Sam, upset. "Yeah. Yeah, whatever. I'll take you home."
"Does anyone else feel bad for Dean?" Lizzie asked. "I mean, he hasn't seen his brother, who he raised in two years. Then he has him back and has to leave again? It's not fair."
Jess wanted to argue. God, did she want to argue, but her insides had gone ice cold. She was sure that if she opened her mouth she would be sick. Mary pulled her close and held her.
Brady was shaking now. He remembered walking into her apartment that night and her surprise at seeing him. He remembered talking to her, telling her that she was beautiful and that it was a pity they didn't have more time. He could still smell the cookies she had made for Sam. He hated himself for what he had done, for not being stronger and for not being able to prevent the possession. He felt sick to his stomach. Looking at Jess almost made him want to throw up, but of course he hadn't eaten anything since dying. She looked so scared, and it was entirely his fault.
The others noticed Jess and Brady's reactions and wisely said nothing. The atmosphere was suffocating as they sat there, tense and waiting.
Dean stops the car outside Sam's apartment. Sam gets out and turns to talk to Dean through the window.
"Call me when you find him?" Dean nods. "Maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?"
"Yeah, all right." Sam taps the car and walks away. "Sam!" He turns. "You know, we made a hell of a team back there."
"Yeah." Dean drives off.
Sam sighs and enters the apartment, calling for Jess. He finds a plate of cookies on the table and a note, 'Miss you! Love you!' The shower is running as Sam finds his way to the bedroom, content. He lays back on the bed, eyes closed and a drop hits his face. And another and another. He opens his eyes to find Jess on the ceiling, blood soaking through her nightgown. A fire erupts from behind her and Sam starts screaming. Dean bursts through the door.
"Oh my gawd," Cassandra and Lizzie said, gaping at the screen. Tears started to roll down their faces and they turned to Jess, as though terrified that she would burst into flames there and then.
David had a hand clapped over his mouth as though trying not to be sick. Jess was a good friend of his and it had been bad enough to know that she had died in a fire. To actually see what had happened to her, it was terrifying.
"I'm sorry Jess, I am so sorry," Brady said. "I couldn't help it, I couldn't do anything, but I didn't want to," he was rambling. There weren't words to describe how sorry he was about what had happened to her.
"It was you?!" Lizzie yelled, enraged. David and Cassandra were glaring daggers at him as well. David made a motion as though he was getting ready to launch himself at Brady.
"Yes, yes. I went to the apartment. I knew Sam was out, I had been watching for weeks and –"
"No," Mary cut him off. Everyone looked at her. "It wasn't you. You were possessed. By a demon. All of you know that. You can't feel guilty or be responsible for something you didn't even do."
All eyes turned to Jess now as she pulled herself away from where she had been sobbing into Mary's shoulder. "She's right, Brady. I know it wasn't you and I know there was nothing you could do. I've accepted that already."
"I should've been stronger, Jess. I should've been able to fight it off."
"It's very hard to fight off a demon. Even the best hunters have trouble doing it," Mary intervened. "Now I don't want anyone in here to think that it was Brady. We know better, and there's no point in being angry at the wrong person, for lack of a better word."
"Sam!"
"Jess! No, Jess!" Dean has to physically push him out the door and into the street; the entire apartment in flames.
"How did –?" Lizzie jerked her head at the T.V., tears still in her eyes. She looked like she hadn't wanted to say anything, but at the same time, wanted to know.
"When Dean started to drive away, his radio stopped working. He's been doing this long enough to recognize the signs of a demon presence and he immediately turned around to make sure Sam was okay," Mary answered.
Dean goes from watching the firemen to Sam, who's staring into the trunk of the Impala, holding a gun. They look at each other, and Sam throws down the gun.
"We've got work to do," Sam says and closes the trunk.
The silence in the room was deafening. Everyone was drowning in their own thoughts. First there was the revelation of the death of Mary. Then the revelation that Sam was a – a hunter. Of the supernatural. Ghosts at least. And then the fact that these things existed in the first place, that they weren't just a story or a prank. That Sam was a whole different person than the quiet, couldn't hurt a fly, studious, and sweet person they knew at Stanford. They didn't know him at all. Then Jess' death and the revelation that it had been Brady, but not Brady, who had killed her.
But then, they had seen how compassionate and awkward he had been on this hunt. They had seen his quick thinking, and a smile that they had never seen before when he was with his brother. They had been able to see a part of Sam that they wish he had shown them. They wished that he had shared some aspect of this life with them.
They also understood that Sam just wanted to keep them safe. That if they had known what was really out there, and had believed it and not tried to put him in a mental hospital, they probably would've gone looking for something. They would've thought it would be fun, and they probably would've been killed.
The group still didn't know why they had been targeted though. They still didn't know why they had been possessed or killed. Was it because they knew Sam after all, or had they been randomly selected? They had all 'died' while at Stanford, their bodies having been through too much. Soon enough the demons had simply taken over completely, with the individual not comprehending those things around them. Why?
Mary patiently let them collect their thoughts, knowing that they were reeling from everything they had just seen. She couldn't blame them – it was a lot to take in.
"We still don't know everything," said Cassandra after a little while. "I don't know about you, but I mean, this showed us Sam's life, but we don't know why we were possessed or why we did the things we did." The others nodded their heads.
"And did I – we – really all have to die?" asked Jess. She was still shaken from having seen her own death. Brady clenched his jaw at that. He knew it wasn't him, but he still couldn't help but feel guilty.
"We can continue watching, if you like," Mary offered. "The purpose of this hunt was to open you up to the idea that there were ghosts and the like out there. You were also able to get to know Sam differently, and to see the other side of him. The reason for your deaths, and for your possessions does come up about four years from now. A lot happens in between though, and I wouldn't want to simply skip that. There are things you need to understand before then, things that you need to know. If we continue, you will see things that you don't want to see. Sam reaches his lowest point, and Dean is broken in a way that you cannot truly comprehend. I can show you, but you won't like the answer."
"But we would know? We would really know?" David asked quietly.
"Yes."
"Then, let's do it," Lizzie said decisively.
"Are you sure?" Mary asked.
She looked around as they all nodded.
"I want to know what happened to Sam too, after that," Jess spoke up. "And I want to understand why that happened to me. What the point of it all was."
"Okay. Let's start then."
The group turned back to the T.V., preparing themselves for what was to come.