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(5.2) ─ T-R-E

𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫:
‧⁺˚*‧☾ 𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐲𝐢𝐬𝐭, 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐲 𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐬 ☽‧*˚⁺‧

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Dean sat at the computer, now back at the hotel room. "Wait, you're doing a nationwide search?" Carmen asked grabbing a water bottle. "Yup, the NCIS, the FBI database – at this point any Mary who died in front of a mirror is good enough for me."

"But if she's haunting the town, she should have died in the town." Sam questioned.

"I'm telling you there's nothing local, I've checked. So, unless you got a better idea." Dean protested looking up at the younger brother. "The way Mary's choosing..." Carmen trailed off slowly blinking as the pounding in her head started to bother her more and more. "Uh, choosing her...victims, there has to be a pattern."

"Carmen, are you okay?" Sam asked as both brothers' eyes were trained on her.

"Yeah, I just, uh, got a bit dizzy...That's all nothing to worry–" She explained, pressing two fingers to the bridge of her nose while her arm reached out searching for a countertop. Missing it and starting to fall forward. Dean jumped upholding her waist as Sam grabbed her shoulders. "Carmen?!"

"I'm fine," She tiredly said, waving her hand at the two.

"Why don't you take a nap? We can pick this up in the morning, okay?" The oldest offered as she nodded, shutting her head lightly. Dean went on her right while Sam moved to her left, each wrapping either arm around their necks and their arms around her waist. Guiding her to one of the beds, "You'll feel better in the morning," he said softly after they placed her in the bed. "Mr. Whiskeys," She mumbled pulling the blanket closer to herself. He looked over at Sam who shrugged, neither one of them knew where the missing cat was. "Well, look for him." Sam told her as she mumbled an 'okay'.

The two waited until she was fully asleep, before focusing back on the case. "I'm really starting to worry about her." Sam said crossing his arms glancing back at Carmen.

"Same here." Dean agreed sitting back at the table, wanting to distract himself from the worry, anxious feeling filling him. "She had a point, though, about there being a pattern. I was thinking about the Mister Shoemarker and Jill's hit and run. Both had secrets where people died."

"Right. I mean there's a lot of folklore about mirrors–that they reveal all your lies, all your secrets, that they're a true reflection of your soul, which is why it's bad luck to break them." Sam added.

"Right, right. So, maybe if you've got a secret. I mean like a really nasty one where someone died, then Mary sees it, and punishes you for it."

"Whether you're the one that summoned her or not,"

"Take a look at this," Dean said, showing him the pictures, he had found. Pictures of a woman lying by a mirror in a puddle of blood. A handprint next to three letters 'TRE'.

"Looks like the same handprint,"

"Her name was Mary Worthington–an unsolved murder in Fort Wayne, Indiana."

💾

"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." The old detective explained to the two brothers. "What exactly happened?" The oldest asked as the man frowned, "You boys said you were reporters?"

"We know Mary was 19, lived by herself. We know she won a few local 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 her eyes out with a knife." Sam informed him on the basic knowledge anyone would know.

He nodded, "That's right,"

"See sir, when we asked you what happened, we wanted to know what you think happened."

He moved over towards a dusty file cabinet, pulling out some yellowed aged files. "Technically I'm not supposed to have a copy of this." He opened one of the files to the picture Dean had found on the computer. "Now, see that there? T-R-E?" Both nodded, "I think Mary was trying to spell out the name of her killer."

"You know who it was?" Sam asked.

"Not for sure. But there was a local man, a surgeon– Trevor Sampson." He pulled out a photo of the man. "And I think he cut her up good."

"Why would he do something like that?" Dean asked as Sam nodded thinking the same question. "Her diary mentioned a man that she was seeing. She called him by his initial. 'T'. Well, her last entry, she was gonna tell 'T's wife about their affair."

"Yeah, but how do you know it was Sampson who killed her?"

"It's hard to say, but the way her eyes were cut out...it was almost professional." He trailed off showing it still affected him. The image of her eyes being cut out still got to him even after all these eyes. "But you could never prove it?" Dean asked as gentle as possible. "No. No prints, no witnesses. He was meticulous."

"Is he still alive?"

"Nope," He answered, sitting down in his chair letting out a heavy sigh. "If you ask me, Mary spent her last living moments trying to expose this guy's secret. But she never could."

"Where is she buried?"

"She wasn't. She was cremated."

"What about the mirror," Dean asked as the detective nodded towards one of the pictures. "It's not in some evidence lockup somewhere, is it?" He added as the older man shook his head, "Ah, no. It was returned to Mary's family a long time ago."

"Do you have the names of her family by any chance?" The younger brother asked.

💾

"Oh really? Ah that's too bad Mr. Worthington. I would have paid a lot for that mirror. Okay, well maybe next time. All right, thanks." Sam said hanging up his phone while Dean drove down the road. "So?" He asked, glancing at him.

"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,"

"So, whatever the mirror goes, that's where Mary goes?"

"Her spirits definitely tied up with it somehow,"

"Isn't there-" Dean started to ask before his phone ringing cut him off. Digging into his pocket and looking down at the number, "Shouldn't you be knocked out?" He huffed out answering. "I was until I got a visitor." Carmen answered with a small yawn. "Visitor? Who?"

"Get here to find out."

"Carmen, wait, don't you-" He stuttered out knowing she was about to hang up, and she did. "I'm going to kill her." He threatened throwing his phone into an empty cup holder. "What she says now?"

"We have company."

💾

The motel door opened; Dean's fisted still up about to knock on it. Carmen nodded before walking backwards, turning on her heel and sat on the bed next to Charlie, whose head was on her knees. "The curtains are closed, and everything that even looks reflective is covered." She told her glancing up at her brother's as they had shut the door behind them. Charlie was scared, she looked scared out of her mind even with her eyes shut tightly. She was petrified. "Charlie, I promise you it's okay to open your eyes."

Sam kneeled down next to her, as Charlie slowly looked up. "Now listen. You're gonna stay right here on this bed, and you're not gonna look at glass, or anything else that has a reflection, okay? And as long as you do that, she cannot get you."

"But I can't keep that up forever. I'm gonna die, aren't I?

"No." All three quickly said, "Not anytime soon." Sam added as Dean sat down on the other side of her, "Alright Charlie. We need to know what happened."

"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it,"

"That's not what we're talking about." Dean told her making her look up at him. "Something happened, didn't it? In your life...a secret...where someone got hurt?" He said using what Carmen told him on how to softly ask someone something. A silent tear fell from Charlie's cheek, "Can you tell us about it?"

She was silent for a moment before swallowing harshly, "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 going to kill myself'. And you know what I said? I said 'Go ahead'. And I left. How could I say that? How could I leave him like that? I just... I didn't believe him; you know I should have." She brought her knees back up to her chest and rested her chin on them.

💾

After comforting Charlie and making sure she was fine with them leaving. "You know her boyfriend killing himself, that's not really Charlie's fault." Dean stated driving through the rain. "You know that spirits don't exactly see shades of gray, Dean. She has a secret, someone died, that's good enough for Mary." Carmen said, gazing out of the window. "I guess," He muttered.

"You know, I've been thinking. It might not be enough to just smash the mirror." Sam suggested getting both their attention. "Mary's hard to pin down, right? I mean she moves around from mirror to mirror so who's to say that she's not just gonna keep hiding in them forever? So, maybe we should try to pin her down, you, know summon her to her mirror and then smash it."

"How do you know that's going to work?"

"I don't, not for sure."

"Well, who's gonna summon her?"

"I will. She'll come after me." Dean quickly pulled the car over, as both siblings looked over at Sam. "This is about Jessica, isn't it?" The oldest questioned, but he didn't reply. "You think that's your dirty little secret that you killed her somehow?" Carmen held onto the front seat as she leaned in between the two, "Sam, this has to stop. The nightmare, the calling out her name in the middle of the night. It's going to kill you." She told him keeping her voice calm. "Now listen to me, it wasn't your fault. If you wanna blame something, then blame the thing that killed her. Or hell, why don't you take a swing at me? I mean I'm the one that dragged you away from her in the first place." Dean stated.

"I don't blame you." He said softly.

"You shouldn't blame yourself either, there was actually nothing you could've done."

"I could've warned her!"

"About what? You didn't know what was gonna happen! And besides, all of this isn't a secret, I mean Carmen and I know all about it. It's not gonna work with Mary anyway." Dean said trying to reason with his younger brother. "No, you don't!" The youngest finally spoke up making Carmen's head tilted as her brows knit, "Sam, what aren't you telling us?"

"You guys don't know about it. I haven't told you everything," He finally confessed.

"What are you talking about?" Dean worried. "Well, it wouldn't really be a secret if I told you, would it?" He shot back.

"No. Nope. Not no but hell no. It's not gonna happen forget it!" She protested shaking her head leaning back in her seat. "Carmen, 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 two have to let me do this." He argued back.

💾

Neither Dean nor Carmen understood how or why but they eventually caved. Agreeing that Sam would be the one to lore Mary into her mirror and smash it to pieces. Neither one liked it, but it still was the only one that had. She smiled as she successfully picked the lock, opening the door as she turned to both of her brothers. "Well... that's just great," Dean muttered with heavy sarcasm. He handed her his crowbar as she turned to see the store filled wall to wall with mirrors. He pulled out the picture of Mary, "Alright, let's start looking." Sam declared. Splitting up each walking their separate ways around the store.

"My guess?" Carmen thought out loud, not finding anything. "Maybe they've already sold it?"

"I don't think so," Sam announced. Both Carmen and Dean walked over to the youngest brother. Standing on either side of him as Dean pulled out the picture to compare. It was the mirror. "That's it," He confirmed. The youngest Winchester let out a sigh, "You sure you want to do this?" He handed her his flashlight, she took it, huffing before looking into the mirror. "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary," He started, looking to his left towards Dean, and then to his right at Carmen. Before placing the crowbar into both hands. "Bloody Mary."

Lights started to shine through the store windows. Dean nudged Carmen's shoulder, "We'll go check that out. Stay here, Be careful." Dean told him before walking off. "Smash anything that moves," She added before turning on her heel looking back towards him, "Even if you didn't!"

Crouching down slowly making their way towards the front door, seeing a pair of headlights. It was the cops. "Crap." He cursed, turning towards Carmen. "You stay here. I'll deal with it." With that he silently placed the crowbar down beside her before walking out. Her head snapped from the three shadows having a conversation towards the loud sounds of smashing. Understanding it was Sam smashing mirrors. Looking back at the door, seeing Dean was still talking to the cops, and wasn't in cuffs yet, she thought things were going well. The sound of smashing quickly became background noise, until it stopped. Her stomach dropped and quickly started to knot. Something is incredibly wrong.

Turning the corner and seeing Sam falling to the ground in pain. "You never told her the truth-who you really were. But it's more than that, isn't it? Those nightmares you've been having of Jessica dying, screaming, burning– You had them for days before she died. Didn't you?! You were so desperate to ignore them, to believe they were just dreams. How could you ignore them like that? How could you leave her alone to die?! You dreamt it would happen!"

Throwing her arm back, having a death grip on the crowbar, she launched it forward smashing the thing into shards. Bending down next to Sam, not letting go of the bar. "Sam," She muttered, looking him over for any visible wounds. "Sammy, please be okay, please be okay." Blood was slowly flowing from his eyes.

Hearing footsteps she looked up seeing Dean's considered expression matching hers. "It's Sam," He weakly spoke as Dean bent down on the other side of him. "God, are you okay?" The oldest question.

"Ugh, yeah," He groaned.

"Come on, come on," Dean repeated both helping him up. Putting their arms around him balancing him between both of them. Slowly starting to walk towards the front door. Until a sound from behind them caught their attention. Slowly turning to see Mary, crawling over the broken glass. Carmen's eyes started to burn as it felt like something was coming out of them. Not tears but something thicker. All falling to the ground as Mary started walking towards them. Her mind started to go fuzzy as she struggled to breath.

"You're the reason your mother killed herself. You're the reason she died. You're the reason she had to do it in the first place. Her death is because of you." Mary's voiced echoed in her head.

Dean whizzed finding enough strength to reach his arm up and pulled a mirror down. Making Mary forced to see her own reflection. "You killed them! All those people! You killed them!"

Mary started choking and melting into a pile of blood. Dean throw down the mirror he held, and it shatters. "Hey guys?" Dean started. "Yeah?" Sam said, while I was wiping away the blood tears. "This has got to be like.... What? 600 years of bad luck?" Dean asked. We all chuckled weakly.

💾

Now, the next morning, "So this is really over?" Charlie asked she sat in the back of the Impala with Carmen. Dean nodded, pulling up to the front of her house, "Yeah, it's over." Her eyes soften as she all looked between us, "Thank you." She smiled getting out of the car starting the walk to her house. "Charlie?" Sam called and she turned around. "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,"

All watched as she smiled at them once more before walking inside. Dean gently hit Sam on the shoulder and Sam looked at him. "That's good advice,"

Dean drove off down the road as they all started to get situated for the ride. "Hey, Sam?" Dean stated.

"Yeah?"

"Now that this is all over, I want you to tell us what the secret is," Sam looked between Dean and Carmen, who was now leaning on the front seats. "Look...You're both my siblings and I'd die for you both, but there are some things I need to keep to myself."

Carmen smirked lightly, knowing her brother was happy with that answer and that she knew another way to upset him even more. "You wanna know something, Sam?" She asked. "What's that?" He turned towards her as she leaned back into her seat. "You're not the only sibling that has secrets." They both shot their heads towards her with shocked expression. "Hey! Eyes on the road!" She hit the back of Dean's head, laughing lightly. She started fumbling with her necklace, as the sounds of Mary's haunting voice ranged through her mind. Her mother was dead because of her.