Elizabeth jerks upright when she feels someone shaking her shoulder, looking around for some kind of threat before registering Dean's laughter. "Winchester," she growls, pushing her hair off her face," I'm not above disemboweling you while you sleep."
"Sorry, Liza, but it's hard to feel threatened by a woman half my size that has drool on her chin." Frowning, she wipes the drool off and gets out of bed, automatically grabbing her duffle bag and heading for the bathroom to change. She can't exactly walk around in her camisole and panties all day, though that would be a lot comfier than real clothes.
Too bad Sam gets embarrassed easily.
She'd gone to visit him during his first week in college so that he would have someone he knew there, but she'd made the mistake of walking around in a tee and panties the second day and he'd tripped trying to back up when he saw her. Three stitches and one massive blushing fit later, she'd learned to try and be modest around the poor guy.
"You'd better have me a cup of coffee ready or I'll bite your head off," Elizabeth warns, only half-joking.
"I'll believe it when I see it," Dean calls back, and she can hear the old springs creaking as he sits down on their bed. She kicks the bathroom door closed behind her and goes through her usual morning routine before deciding on a pair of white shorts, yellow Lord of the Rings tee, and a black beanie to cover her hurriedly brushed hair.
After making sure she doesn't look too much like swamp goblin, she leaves the bathroom and walks straight for the front door, snatching the coffee cup out of Dean's hand as she goes.
"Get a move on, Dean, we don't have all day."
"Says the woman that spends ten minutes just getting dressed." She grins at him over her shoulder before getting in the backseat, throwing her bag down beside her and snatching up the throw blanket. "Alright, Sammy, where are we supposed to meet Charlie at?"
"Park," Sam replies, already comfortable in the passenger's seat with a book in hand. Elizabeth leans forward to see what it is, barely able to make out a character name without her glasses on. I knew I forgot something. "Would you quit breathing on me?" With a snort, she sits back again and takes a long sip of the coffee before speaking up.
"Relax," she says with a smile," I can't give you spoilers about A Game of Thrones yet because you're a chapter ahead of me. What's Arya doing right now anyway?"
"Chasing a cat." She nods and digs her own copy out of her bag, content to let it and the warm cup in her hand to wake her up a little more.
The ten minutes it takes to find the right park is spent in silence, Sam and Elizabeth reading while Dean focuses on driving, and that's why the sudden squeal of Dean's door opening has Elizabeth nearly jumping out of her skin. Shaking her head, she marks her place in the book and hurries after the two men towards the lonely blonde woman sitting on a bench beneath a tree. The park isn't that crowded with school in session, just a couple of kids and their parents, so it's easy to spot Charlie.
"Hey, Charlie," Sam greets quietly as the three of them get closer.
"Alright," Elizabeth sighs," why don't you start at the beginning?" She sits on Charlie's right, wrapping an arm around her shoulders in a sort of hug to keep her grounded. Charlie's entire body is trembling as she sniffles, her eyeliner smudged from the tears she's trying to keep at bay. "It's alright, you're safe with us."
"Jill and I were talking on the phone," she starts, voice shaky and a little high," she said I was stupid for believing in the legend and then said... Said it three times in a mirror. Sh-she was fine when I hung up, but her parents found her in the bathroom this morning and h-her eyes were completely gone." Elizabeth tightens her hold as Charlie lets the tears fall, rubbing her arm as well as she can. "Why would she say it when I told her what you guys thought? How is it even possible that she was killed by an urban legend? I mean, it's supposed to be as dangerous as mixing Pop Rocks and soda."
"Trust me, we know how hard it is to believe, but it's good that you called us."
"Liza's right," Sam agrees. "Something is definitely happening here that can't be explained."
"And we're gonna stop it," Dean continues firmly, reaching out to squeeze Charlie's shoulder. "You think you're up to helping us out?" Charlie sits there a minute, biting her lip while the rest of them watch on anxiously.
"If it means keeping more people from dying like that, then I'll help," Charlie says with a nod. "What do you need me to do?"
"You know, I've got a bad case of Déjà vu," Dean states with a grunt as the three of them squat outside Jill's bedroom window. "I just can't figure out why." Elizabeth shifts closer to the window, meeting his gaze with raised brows. "Oh yeah, this is how I got into your room all those times."
"Seriously," Sam whines. "Can you guys not make me listen to your past adventures?"
"Who said it was in the past? It certainly keeps things from getting stale."
"Just shut it, Dean." Before Dean can say anything else, the window is opened and Charlie helps Elizabeth inside with Sam and Dean following behind. Sam throws his duffle on the bed once he's inside, digging through it as he addresses Charlie. "What'd you end up telling Jill's mom?"
"That I just needed some time alone with her pictures and stuff," she answers. "I hate lying to her since she's basically helped raise me." Elizabeth moves over to the bed to grab her camera out of the bag, Dean shutting the curtain before joining the others and digging through the equipment. "Are you guys sure this is the best idea?"
"It's the only one we got right now," Dean admits. "Go and turn off the lights." Charlie does as she's told without questioning it, only a faint amount of sunlight keeping the room from being pitch black. Elizabeth turns on the camera, waiting for the photo screen the clear up before allowing a smile to show. It's old, but she won't trade it in until it completely dies on her.
"What are you guys looking for?"
"We'll let you know as soon as we find it." Noticing Sammy struggling with the camcorder, Elizabeth reaches over and presses the button that flips on the night vision, winking at him when he gives her a smile of thanks. Dean turns to show the camcorder his jean-covered ass, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Do I look like Paris Hilton?"
"You wish," Elizabeth says teasingly, pressing the shudder button on her camera just in time to capture Dean's offended expression. "Let's get this ghost busting over with before my show comes on, boys." The three of them take different parts of the room, Elizabeth ending up in the main part near the vanity. It's surprisingly cluttered considering Jill has an entire bathroom for herself, several pieces of jewelry and bobby pins scattered over the surface.
"How does this even work," Sam asks, running the camcorder around the edges of the long mirror in Jill's walk-in closet.
"Well, you point in the right direction and hope that it's actually recording stuff, Sammy." He sends Elizabeth a look over his shoulder and she laughs in return.
"I mean, the first victim didn't even summon Mary yet he got his eyes scratched out anyway. It's like she's choosing or something, I just can't figure out how."
"I have no clue," Dean says, walking around with the EMF detector held up. It's humming, but it isn't the high-pitched whine it gives out when there are ghosts nearby. "Why the hell would she say it in the first place?"
"She's a teenaged girl and it's supposed to be a stupid legend," Elizabeth puts in, moving around slowly and snapping pictures. "Put those two factors together and you basically have catnip for stupid kids." Dean raises a brow and she gives him a warning point, her look alone conveying that he'd have to get her camera surgically removed if he makes a comment. She and Sam had been kids when they'd tried the legend out and they'd suffered enough comments about it over the years.
"Guys," Sam calls from the bathroom," I think I've got something." He pokes his head out of the bathroom before talking again. "We've still got that black light in the trunk, don't we?" Elizabeth powers down her camera and tucks it away in the bag, already knowing what's about to happen.
"Come on, I know you're too lazy to do it without motivation." Dean grins, readying his hands for the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors that always pops up when there's a task to be done. Lucky for Elizabeth, Dean always chooses the same thing, so it's easy for her to beat him and then send him back out the window to the car. "He's such a nerd."
"He makes it way too easy to beat him. Come check this out, Liza." She nods, moving into the bathroom with Sam to see what had caught his eye. Using the night vision on the camcorder, she's able to make out a stain of something that had been dripping down the wall beneath the mirror.
"What the hell is it?"
"I'm not actually sure I want to know."
"Well, let's get this down before your dork of a brother comes back." He snorts, both of them lifting the heavy mirror off the wall and maneuvering it through the doorway. Elizabeth lets out a relieved sound as they set it on the bed, the glass side against the comforter, and rubs her hands on her shorts to rid them of sweat. "That sucker weighs a God dang ton."
"At least it wasn't one of those antique ones." Dean climbs back inside a moment later, tossing Sam the small black light John had lifted off a health inspector a few years ago. Elizabeth tears the brown paper off the back of the frame, the group gathering closer to Sam as the light clicks on and he runs it down the smooth wood. There is a handprint there, almost looking blue from the light, and a name written in some sort of liquid. Please tell me that's not blood.
"Gary Bryman," Charlie says, able to make out the name just a few inches away from the handprint. She sounds confused and Elizabeth can't say she blames her because why would anyone write a random guy's name on the back of their mirror where no one will ever find it?
"I guess that means we have more research to do."