Chapter 16
The Winchesters woke up early and headed for the Auction House. Sam felt nervous going back as he was starting to feel something start to grow in the pit of his stomach. He knew of that feeling as he had felt that same way when he first met Jessica. But he was feeling that towards Sarah.
"Alright," Dean said breaking Sam's thoughts. "There's Sarah. Sam go and see if you can make a purchase of that painting."
"But that paintings not there." Christina said looking as though she had barely slept the night before.
"I know it's not there." Dean snapped. "But this way we will know where it is."
Sam saw Sarah unlocking the doors of the Auction House and quickly leapt out of the impala to rush to her side. The sight made her startle which made Sam mentally kick himself for. "Sarah I need to ask you about something."
"Sam...it's good to see you too." Sarah said trying to control the interesting confrontation of Sam looking like a mad man.
"Yes, Sarah it is good to see you too. I'm sorry but my siblings and I would like to purchase the Merchant Portrait if we can."
Sarah nodded and lead them inside heading to a small cherry desk off to one corner. "Let's see if it's here in this folder." She smiled as she grabbed a small black box and began to thumb through the many folders before looking around the desk and picking up one that was on top of some papers. "It seems that someone else previously bought it." Sarah said looking up at Sam expecting to see a downtrodden man but instead found three frightened people. "Is something wrong?"
"Who bought that painting?" Dean asked his voice not something to confuse with being funny.
"Looks like," Sarah said looking through some papers and back up at Dean. "Evelyn Miles, one of my father's friends." She watched as Dean and Christina head towards the front of the Auction house and managed to grab Sam's shoulder stopping him from following. "What's going on? Why were they asking about who bought the painting?"
Sam looked into Sarah's soft blue eyes and felt his mouth dry up. He sighed and looked back at Dean and Christina who was trying to urge him to follow. "Evelyn Miles is in danger. That painting something sinister is inside it, killing those that have bought it. We got to get to it before it kills again."
Sarah looked up at Sam to try and see if the man she barely knew was serious. When she could see his face remain the same serious as before her face started to pale. "I guess I can give you her address."
"Please, Sarah. It's needed."
~DSCWIN~
The neighborhood was quiet as the Winchesters and Sarah, who drove her own car, pulled up in front of a lovey Victorian styled home. The soft glow from lights inside was strange given that the time was barely noon and that the house still had its lights were on. As the two vehicles stopped Sarah was the first to leave her car and headed for the porch to look inside the curtained windows, but didn't have such luck.
"Sarah step back." Sam said as Christina raced to the door and pulled out her lockpick.
"This is a felony!" Sarah exclaimed as the door slowly slid open and Dean rushed in first.
"It's what we do." Sam said failing to sooth Sarah down.
Sarah opened her mouth to ask more questions did she notice that Dean and even Christina stopping just in the entrance of the large livingroom. "Let me," Sarah said gently placing a hand on Dean's arm who nodded silently but she noticed that Christina hand slid something behind Dean. But Sarah ignored the gesture and slowly made her way towards the woman that was sitting in a wingback chair and was facing away seeming not to notice that she had four other guests in her house. "Evelyn," Sarah spoke softly trying not to scare the older woman who didn't move when spoken to. "Evelyn, it's me Sarah Miller from the auction house. I just wanted to come and see if you were-"
The Winchesters all watched as Sarah's face paled as she turned to face the woman. All three slowly the three moved over and saw the reason for Sarah's discomfort.
Evelyn Miles was sitting looking as if she had been fascinated with something on the wall but when Christina accidentally bumped into the chair to get a better look Evelyn's head fell backwards reveling a large bloody gash across her throat nearly decapitating the unsuspecting woman. All four looked at each other then back at the woman that was now another victim of the painting that hung on the wall above the fireplace.
"Oh my god!" Sarah cried turning and burring her face into Sam's chest. Her body trembled but calmed down as she felt his arms wrap around her but she could feel it was just a reaction with nothing more to it.
"Call the cops and meet us back at the hotel." Dean said grabbing his sister while Sam let go of Sarah and they all left through the door.
~DSCWIN~
The Winchesters only had to wait just thirty minutes of leaving the house before a knock came from their hotel room door. Christina was the one to answer it. She barely twisted the door knob before Sarah barged in nearly slamming the door into Christina.
"You all have some explaining to do!" Sarah yelled looking flustered. She watched as the Winchesters looked at each other as if silently talking to one another before she couldn't stand the silence. "You guys are criminals aren't you? How else did you manage to unlock a door?"
"What did you tell the police?" Dean asked making Sarah look confused.
"What?"
"What did you tell the police?" Dean repeated softly.
"I told them that I was worried about my friend who said she needed to talk about the auction house when I discovered her with the door unlocked." Sarah admitted making all three Winchesters relax. "Now what's our plan so that this doesn't happen again?"
"Our plan?" Sam asked seeing the determined look on Sarah's face.
"Yes our plan." Sarah said standing up against Sam's resistance.
"I like her." Dean whispered to Christina who nodded as they both watched the confrontation before them.
"Look, Sarah this is really dangerous. You've already had to lie to the police...I don't think you'd want to get involved with anything else."
"Well, I'm already involved." Sarah stated giving Sam a hard stare. "So come on and lets solve this right now."
Sam opened his mouth to say something to stop her but she had already left the hotel room. He looked over at his siblings with hope that they would have something helpful to say to stop Sarah from getting involved. But the look on their faces made it known that they did not.
"Sam, there is only one thing to do now." Dean said looking impressed after Sarah had left.
"What's that?" Sam asked already dreading that Dean would say.
"Marry her."
Sam stood with his mouth slightly ajar with how forward his brother was. He turned to face his sister who stood in front of him. "You think I should marry her too one day?"
"No." Christina said shaking her head. "Marry her asap in Vegas," smiling as she left the hotel room leaving her brother behind.
Sam stared in disbelief that his sister had said that but he know that they had a job to do and would then talk to his siblings about his current attraction to Sarah.
~DSCWIN~
Dean and Christina sat around a computer at the town library while Sam and Sarah sat outside both wanting to not be forced in such a small space. Dean typed but looked disappointed as he couldn't come up with anything. While he continued to try and search for anything on the painting besides all the previous owners were murdered, Christina wandered off as she felt something was pulling her. Dean didn't seemed to notice his sister gone until he looked over realizing how quiet his sister had been. "Christy?" He called standing up and leaving the computer not only because he had finished with his research but to find out where his sister ran off to.
As Dean started to look for his sister, Christina stood in front of a wall of large leather bound books. Her face was blank as she reached out and grabbed hold of one of the large volumes and placed it gently onto a small metal table. As she continued to stare blankly her hands began to move on their own, grabbing on of the covers and pulled it open grabbing a few of the pages inside as well. She only regained her reality when she was now staring at a large photo of the Merchant family portrait. She quickly looked up when she heard footsteps coming towards her almost like she was afraid she was in a restricted section of the library.
"There you are." Dean said seeing his sister standing next to the table with the book still open. "Oh look you found that portrait."
"Uh...yeah I did." Christina said rubbing her head slightly embarrassed as to how she ended up there. She then stared at the photo and gently smacked her brother's arm even as he stared at the photo himself. "Look," she said pointing to the table. "Wasn't that opened in the portrait at that lady's house?"
Dean looked closer at where his sister was pointing then back up at the full photo. "Hey the dad wasn't looking out but-"
"But looking down away." Christina finished making Dean nod.
"Grab a copy. I'm gonna see if I can find out where the family's buried."
As her brother left, Christina heaved the large book and made a copy of the photo before sliding the large volume back onto the shelf. As she headed towards the stairs the soft smell of rain and pine gently blanketed her making her whip around to see if she missed someone standing there. She thought back to where she had smelled that same fragrance then it hit her, it was when she had that bar fight a few days before she ran into her brothers. She quickly shook her head when she could feel her brother's annoyance that it was taking her a long time to make one copy.
"Did you get it?" Dean asked as they headed for the exit.
"Yeah," Christina answered forgetting about the strange smell she had experienced. "So I can tell there's only a few differences. Could we head to the house again to see if we can find more?"
"You read my thoughts exactly." Dean said smacking her arm and they left the building seeing Sam and Sarah still sitting on a small curb but this time really close as if they were about to share an intimate moment. "Are we interrupting something?" Dean asked clearly teasing the situation as both him and Christina could see sparks flying between their brother and Sarah.
"No," Sam said quickly scooting away from Sarah who blushed and slowly climbed to her feet. "So did you guys find anything?"
"Yes we have." Christina said with a smile. "We're needing to head back to the house."
~DSCWIN~
The house was dark and surprisingly empty when the Winchesters and Sarah walked up. They walked through the front door, which was still unlocked, before walking back into the living room. The portrait continued to hang on the wall above the mantel. Gently grabbing both sides, Sam and Dean lifted and leaned the portrait onto a small table near the fireplace.
"What's going on?" Sarah asked as Dean and Christina began to search the portrait while holding their small copy of it.
"We're looking for any differences." Christina said pointing to the father and the straight razor before Dean pointed to a small picture inside the portrait.
"Looks like a mausoleum." Sam stated. "What's so exciting about that?"
"In the photo, it's supposed to be a landscape," Christina said looking at the two. "So why would there be a mausoleum?"
"Let's go find out." Dean suggested and they left leaving the portrait still leaning on the table and closing the door behind them.
~DSCWIN~
It was nearly four when the Winchesters and Sarah walked through the very last cemetery. The Winchesters were tired to think of asking Sarah why she didn't tell them about the six cemeteries in the area and figured it was just because none of them thought to communicate amongst themselves.
"I hope this is the one." Dean groaned as they headed for a large marble mausoleum with the off brass name of Merchants over the door. "This would make what...six?"
"Relax Dean." Sam groaned as they walked inside the opened mausoleum.
Four safely glass cases lined one side of the wall. Three of them had small child toys while the last one was some jewelry.
"That's creepy." Christina and Dean said as they looked at a doll in one of the child's cases.
"Back then the parents would make the doll to look like the child and even sometimes would use their real hair." Sarah pointed out.
"Looks like daddy dearest isn't here with his family." Dean said as he looked to see if perhaps the father's remains were with the wife.
"That's because when the family found out what he had done with his family they buried him separately so that he would never be with the rest of his family." Sarah answered as if she was a tour guide of the graveyard.
"Then we got to find out where his remains are and burn them." Dean said nonchalantly making a flash of concern and nervousness spread across Sarah's face which Sam gently grabbed her shoulder for comfort before the rest of the three followed him out of the mausoleum and headed back to his car.
"Is this a normal thing you guys do?" Sarah started to ask as Sam and Sarah slid into the back seat while Christina had taken the front seat. "Digging up graves and burning remains?"
"It's kind of what we do." Sam said not trying to hide his comfort in telling her. "It's the best way to keep the spirit from manifesting and killing more people."
Sarah gave a soft nod and leaned back into the seat trying her hardest not to jump out and run screaming like a mad woman. But as Dean continued to drive something about being around these three Winchesters made her feel safe despite something in the back of her mind telling her that what they claim was going on in her town was more unbelievable with each minute.
A/N:
Attention readers I am so sorry for being so slow on my updates. Life was making it hard to find time and motivation to write. I want to thank all your patience and I hope this chapter did help. Please comment and continue to follow. Also just like a couple of chapters ago, this is really an original rendition of the episode which some of the plot points coming in different times then the episode. The characters still belong to the creative minds of Eric Kripke while Christina is my own. Thank you for your patience and I hope that you enjoy this! God bless everyone and stay safe!