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#best of Toledo
nipuni · 1 year
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A few more photos in Toledo 😊 
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koool-thing · 7 months
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You guys NEED to see this live performance, this version of Something Soon was so for it makes me wanna die
(also Will is so silly here)
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moonfulofstars · 2 months
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vrtualcsh · 2 months
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guys i literally applaud william howard toledo everyday because of his creation of maud gone i love ghag skng so muuchhhh aaahhzhnznd
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lvcky7 · 2 years
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i think we as a society need to talk more abt the breakdown in the ballad of the costa concordia because it is wonderful and makes me feel a sadness sooooo deep that i want to eat 10 chairs
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hide-your-bugs-away · 2 months
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Thank you to the state of Ohio and English record producer Mickie Most for giving me a wonderful eclipse day, yesterday 🙏
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#maumee ohio thank you your dr pepper was good#seeing the eclipse was sOOOO COOL. SO COOL. I LOVE ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS I LOVE SPACE ROCKS.#brought the animals with me of course because i always bring them with me to ohio#I WANTED THEM TO SEE IT TOO!!!!!!#my mom and i went to an antique store as well and gOSH THE HAUL WAS GOOD!!!#got a couple of herman's hermits albums because Mickie Most Moment (thanks peter noone for talking about him in your shows)#and ANIMALS!!! OHHHH WHENEVER I FIND ANIMALS I CRY.#i didn't have the 'bury my body' ep yet or the '73 'best of the animals' album yet!!!!!!!!#love how barry doesn't play on a single one of those songs on the larger album b u t he's on the front picture 😔🙏#and i found..... 'take it easy/i'm crying'....... ooohhhh PRICE-BURDON HELP ME#i had to snatch it... i'm going to give it to my friend in england!!! 😭🙏 since i have two copies already aaa......#i also found a copy of 'o lucky man!' and i was sooo tempted b u t again#i own two copies already so ..... i left it so someone else can enjoy alan for the first time 😭😭😭😭💞 ALAN PRICE SAVED MY LIFE.#...going to listen to 'o lucky man!' as i finish his birthday drawing eeee......#almost got a donovan album too b u t all of the donovan albums i've been finidng recently are soooo expensive 😭😭 maybe later...#saving up for london part 2 and magazines.... also a convention next month#anyway. THANK YOU MICKIE MOST.#the seviper card too eeeee one of my favorite pokémon#FOUND A SHINY WIMPOD IN TOLEDO HASHTAG WIN#the animals#eclipse 2024#herman's hermits#things i said today
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nostalgia-tblr · 1 year
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five four comfort characters, five tags
I got tagged by @aurorawest to whom I apologise for my failures here <3
Doctor Who - all of them even the slightly naff ones i don't care i love them so muchhhh
Max Klinger - no but see it says "comfort character" and while some others might appeal to me more in other ways Klinger is clearly the kindest and most comforting M*A*S*H character, if you felt a bit below the weather he'd bring you soft furnishings and baklava. (idk how he'd get hold of those but he'd manage it somehow.)
Romana from Dr Who - she's very Comfort Who, it's always nice to watch her complain that the Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.
I find Ben Sisko very comforting too, even when he's angsting. He has a happy loving family and he can cook and okay he lied and he cheated and he bribed men to cover the crimes of other men but there's something weirdly comforting about that too.
I've been trying to think of a 5th for a while now but not doing well on that, party because I like a lot of characters who aren't really all that comforting but also because conversely I can think of too many who are somewhat comforting but probably no more so than whoever I'd think of five minutes later. So you're only getting four, sorry.
As ever I am too chicken to name names and tag people. PLS VOLUNTEER, thanks in advance.
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arthropooda · 1 year
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youtube
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orelpuppington · 1 year
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piastriblogging · 2 years
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really sad that the only driver on the grid that’s probably listened to bladee in the past year is lando norris. really sad.
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Guys I’ve been listening to madlo on repeat for months I need to find something similar to it to listen to. Recs?
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i can't stop listening to it help
youtube
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ratsovereignity · 1 year
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spotted a pair of extremely lightly used New Rock M-373-S2 's on Marktplaats at one third of the brand new price.... hello girl
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besthomelifts · 2 years
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Best Elevator Company in Abu Dhabi
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TOLEDO Elevators one of the top elevator suppliers & maintenance companies in UAE, Best Elevator Company in Abu Dhabi. More details https://toledoelevators.com/
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doctorbitchcrxft · 3 months
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Bloody Mary | Supernatural Series Rewrite | Dean Winchester x Reader
Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader (Eventual)
Warnings: canon violence, canon gore, mentions/descriptions of parental death, implication of suicide (take care of yourselves, my loves)
Word Count: 6379
A/N: Happy Saturday! Asks/Taglists are open!!
Series Rewrite Masterlist
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You and Dean hadn’t talked much since the events on the plane. In fact, the two of you barely looked at each other anymore. Not out of disgust, your stomach just fluttered every time you caught a glimpse of him for reasons you couldn’t explain. You didn’t exactly like him, but you definitely didn’t hate him, either. In fact, your most recent journal drawing had been of your hand wrapped in Dean’s. You smiled at the memory.
Sam slept in the front seat while Dean drove the three of you to Toledo, Ohio. You had actually been the one to find this case. Steven Shoemaker’s eyes had bled when he died. According to his obituary, his death had been swift. He was much too young to have had a stroke or an aneurysm, and seemed to be in good health. Therefore, you concluded this was your kind of gig. 
Sam began to stir, catching your attention. You straightened in your seat as the Impala came to a halt in front of a large hospital complex. Sam’s stirring and whimpering was getting worse by the second.
Dean shook his brother. “Sam, wake up.”
He bolted straight up, confused, taking both you and Dean by surprise. After taking a second to catch his breath, he said, “I take it I was having a nightmare.”
“Yeah, another one,” Dean reminded him.
“Hey, at least I got some sleep.” Sam’s faux optimism caused you to shake your head. 
“You know, sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this.” 
Apparently, Sam was choosing the latter. “Are we here?” he asked.
Dean was happy to drop the subject, too. “Yup. Welcome to Toledo, Ohio.”
The three of you began to approach the morgue wing of the hospital. You noticed Sam was holding the newspaper you’d circled Mr. Shoemaker’s death in. “So what do you think really happened to this guy?”
“That's what we're gonna find out. Ladies first,” you joked, holding the door to the first floor of the hospital open for the brothers. 
After making your way through the labyrinth of hallways, you found the dimly lit and vacated morgue. In the large room were two desks. One was labeled with a nameplate for Dr. D. Feiklowicz with neatly stacked packets, files, and books atop it. The other was a chaotic mess of stray papers labeled “Morgue Technician.”
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“Yeah. We're the, uh, med students,” Dean responded.
“Sorry?” the morgue tech asked.
“Oh, Doctor—” Dean gave his best shot at the name, “—Figlavitch didn't tell you? We talked to him on the phone. He— uh, we're from Ohio State. He's supposed to show us the Shoemaker corpse. It's for our paper.”
“Well, I'm sorry, he's at lunch.” The morgue tech was smug, snarky, and clearly lacked people skills.
‘No wonder they have him locked up down here,’ you thought.
Dean changed course. “Oh, well, he said, uh— oh, well, you know, it doesn't matter. You don't mind just showing us the body, do you?”
“Sorry, I can't.” The morgue tech gave a tight-lipped smile. “Doc will be back in an hour. You can wait for him if you want.”
“An hour? Ooh. We gotta be heading back to Columbus by then,” Dean tried. “Uh, look, man, this paper's like half our grade, so if you don't mind helping us out—”
“Uh, look, man,” the technician mocked, “No.”
Dean laughed a little and turned around, mumbling. “I'm gonna hit him in his face I swear.”
You took the opportunity to try a different tactic. You leaned down on the morgue technician’s desk, doing your best to take advantage of the fact that he probably has had little contact with women. “Please?” you asked innocently. “These guys are my tutors. I’m really struggling in this class, and I just—” you bit your lip, “—I really need a good grade on this paper.” You used your arms to push your breasts together. “Please?” 
You could tell you had him on the ropes. “Uh…” He couldn’t tear his eyes away from your cleavage. He cleared his throat. “I, uh, I guess I could do that for you.”
You smiled innocently. “Thank you so much.”
He began leading the three of you into an attached room to where the bodies were stored for autopsies. You turned around and winked at the boys with a smug smile. Dean rolled his eyes.
The morgue technician pulled the rack Steven Shoemaker’s corpse rested on out from the wall of stainless steel cells.
“Now the newspaper said his daughter found him. She said his eyes were bleeding,” Sam said.
The technician pulled the sheet back from over Steven’s face. “More than that. They practically liquefied.” The poor man’s eye sockets were still bloody, and they hadn’t yet been sewn shut. You could see the dried blood peeking out from under his partially-closed eyes. 
“Any sign of a struggle? Maybe somebody did it to him?” Dean suggested.
“Nope. Besides the daughter, he was all alone,” the technician answered.
“What's the official cause of death?” Sam asked.
“Ah, Doc's not sure. He's thinking massive stroke, maybe an aneurysm? Something burst up in there, that's for sure.”
‘Nope, he’s way too young and in much too good health for that to have been the cause,’ you thought, but kept the thought at bay.
“What do you mean?” you asked. You didn’t like playing dumb, but with this guy, it was necessary. 
“Intense cerebral bleeding. This guy had more blood in his skull than anyone I've ever seen,” the tech answered. Although, he was more responding to your boobs than to your face. You fought the urge to snap in front of his face and get his eyes back on target. 
“The eyes?” Sam asked. “What would cause something like that?”
“Capillaries can burst. See a lot of bloodshot eyes with stroke victims,” the morgue tech shrugged.
Dean’s tone was still aggravated with the guy. “Yeah? You ever see exploding eyeballs?”
“That's a first for me, but hey, I'm not the doctor.”
“Hey, think we could take a look at that police report? You know for, uh...our paper.”
“I'm not really supposed to show you that.” The technician looked back at you.
You suppressed the bile rising in your throat. Before you could do anything else, Dean stepped in front of you and pulled out his wallet. He shoved two twenties at him, hoping that would be enough. You could see the technician deflate, but accepted the money anyway.
Dean’s actions puzzled you. But you would be lying if you said your heart didn’t flutter at the thought of him doing it out of protectiveness of you. 
When you had finished looking over the police report, the three of you began making your way out of the building. 
“Might not be one of ours. Might just be some freak medical thing,” Sam suggested after having seen the report. 
“How many times in Dad's long and varied career has it actually been a freak medical thing and not some sign of an awful supernatural death?” Dean replied. 
“Uh, almost never.”
“Exactly.”
“Alright, let's go talk to the daughter.” Sam started picking up his pace out of the building. You were happy to see him getting his mind off Jessica and back into the job.
“Wait, Dean.” You grabbed his arm lightly before he could catch up to his brother.
He turned to face you. 
“Why’d you do that?” you asked. 
“Do what?” He furrowed his brow.
“Give the morgue tech your hard-earned poker money,” you half-smiled. 
“I just didn’t wanna watch you prostitute yourself for information,” he replied gruffly, turning away from you. 
You took offense. “Hey, I was not—”
He turned back to you and brushed a hand over his hair. “You’re right, you werent.” He paused again, and his voice came back quiet. “I just didn’t like the way he was looking at you, ‘s all.”
Your heart swelled in your chest and your cheeks began to heat up. “Thanks, by the way,” you said as you continued walking. You nudged his shoulder with yours. “You’re going soft on me, Winchester.”
***
When you arrived at the Shoemaker house, you hadn’t expected to be in the midst of the funeral gathering. If you did, you would’ve dressed more appropriately. Given this fact, you felt slightly awkward when you knocked on the door. A man let you in and pointed you toward the backyard and the two daughters of Steven Shoemaker.
The two sisters were sitting with two blonde girls near the firepit. Dean addressed the older, dark-haired girl. “You must be Donna, right?”
“Yeah,” the girl responded.
“Hi, uh, we're really sorry,” Sam lamented.
“Thank you.”
“I'm Sam, this is Dean and (Y/N). We worked with your dad.”
The girl looked at her friend before looking back at your trio. “You did?” She seemed surprised. 
“Yeah. This whole thing. I mean, a stroke…” Sam trailed off.
“I don't think she really wants to talk about this right now,” one of Donna’s pretty blonde friends spoke up. 
“It's okay. I'm okay,” she assured her friend. 
“Were there any symptoms? Dizziness? Migraines?” Dean asked.
Donna shook her head. “No.”
The younger sister, who looked to be about twelve, turned around. “That's because it wasn't a stroke.”
You were intrigued.
“Lily, don't say that,” her sister urged her.
“What do you mean?” you asked the young girl.
“I'm sorry, she's just upset,” her sister responded for her.
“No,” Lily wasn’t having it. “It happened because of me.”
Donna placed a hand on her shoulder. “Sweetie, it didn't.”
You got down on Lily’s eye level. “Why would you say that?”
“Right before he died, I said it,” she said softly.
“Said what?”
She lowered her voice even more. “Bloody Mary, three times in the bathroom mirror. She took his eyes, that's what she does.”
Donna interrupted. “That's not why Dad died. This isn't your fault.”
“I think your sister's right, Lily,” Dean broke in. “There's no way it could have been Bloody Mary. Your dad didn't say it, did he?”
Lily tried to take this in. She shook her head. 
“Exactly,” you told her. “I’m sorry, we weren’t trying to upset you. We’ll just be leaving.” You pulled the boys away from Donna’s group and went back into the house. Making sure no one saw you three, you crept upstairs to the bathroom where Mr. Shoemaker passed away. 
Sam pushed the door open, and you noticed some dried blood still on the floor. “The Bloody Mary legend. Dad ever find any evidence that it was a real thing?”
“Not that I know of,” Dean replied. He walked ahead of Sam into the bathroom. 
Sam stooped to the floor and touched the dried blood. “I mean, everywhere else all over the country, kids will play Bloody Mary, and as far as we know, nobody dies from it.”
“Yeah, but maybe it’s fine everywhere else, but not here,” you suggested.
“The place where the legend began?” Sam tried.
You shrugged as Dean opened the medicine cabinet. 
“But according to the legend, the person who says B—” you stopped yourself and noticed your reflection in the medicine cabinet’s mirror. “You know what is the one that dies. But here—”
“Shoemaker gets it instead, yeah,” Dean finished for you.
Sam rose from the floor. “Right.”
“Never heard anything like that before. Still, the guy did die right in front of the mirror, and the daughter's right. The way the legend goes, you-know-who scratches your eyes out.”
You considered Dean’s words for a moment. “It's worth checking in to.” You went to leave the bathroom when you noticed one of Donna’s pretty blonde friends approaching you.
“What are you doing up here?” she asked. 
“We— We had to go to the bathroom,” you answered, not believing yourself.
“Who are you?” the girl pressed further.
Dean stepped closer to you from behind. “Like we said downstairs, we worked with Donna's dad.”
She shook her head with scrunched eyebrows. “He was a day trader or something. He worked by himself.”
“No, I know, I meant—” 
She cut Dean off. “And all those weird questions downstairs, what was that? So you tell me what's going on, or I start screaming.”
Sam put a hand up to calm her. “Alright, alright, we think something happened to Donna's dad.”
The blonde looked at you three like you were stupid. “Yeah, a stroke.”
“I don’t think so,” you argued. “He was pretty young to be having a stroke. His eyes wouldn’t have liquified if he’d had a stroke. I think it might be something else.”
She scoffed and crossed her arms. “Like what?’
“Honestly? We don't know yet. But we don't want it to happen to anyone else. That's the truth,” Sam responded.
“So, if you're gonna scream, go right ahead,” Dean snarked.
“Who are you, cops?” she asked, her brows still furrowed.
“Something like that,” you shrugged.
“I'll tell you what. Here.” Sam took a piece of paper and a pen out of his jacket pocket and wrote his phone number down. “If you think of anything, you or your friends notice anything strange, out of the ordinary, just give us a call.” He handed her the piece of paper before leading you and Dean down the hallway.
Your next stop was the public library. 
“Alright, say Bloody Mary really is haunting this town,” Dean began. “There's gonna be some sort of proof— Like a local woman who died nasty.”
“Yeah, but this is hard. The legend is unbelievably widespread with hundreds of different versions of who she actually is,” you rebutted. “One story says she's a witch, another says she's a mutilated bride, there's a lot more.”
“Okay, then, so what are we supposed to be looking for?” Dean asked you.
Sam answered. “Every version's got a few things in common. It's always a woman named Mary, and she always dies right in front of a mirror. So we've gotta search local newspapers, public records as far back as they go. See if we can find a Mary who fits the bill.”
“Well, that sounds annoying,” the older brother commented. 
“No, it won't be so bad,” Sam replied, “As long as we…”
You cleared your throat, gesturing to the only two computers in the library that had “Out of Order” signs on them. 
Sam chuckled humorlessly. “I take it back. This will be very annoying.”
The three of you picked up boxes of the town’s newspapers and numerous books of Toledo’s public records and brought them back to Sam and Dean’s motel room. 
You were beginning to go cross-eyed after reading for so long. Minutes turned into hours. Dean was sitting in a chair, you were sprawled across the floor with papers and books scattered around you, and Sam eventually fell asleep.
You stood up to stretch your legs and noticed his closed eyes. “Poor fella,” you said quietly. “How’s he been sleeping?”
“How d’you think?” Dean responded, eyes never leaving his book.
You nodded. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
“Maybe we should get him to take something,” you suggested.
Dean chuckled. “He won’t do it.”
“Is it just because I’m suggesting it that you’re saying that, or do you really think he won’t take it?” you countered.
He gave you a deadpan expression. 
“You Winchesters are just about the most stubborn people I’ve ever met in my life. Including your dad,” you jested. You heard Dean chuckle a little, too.
“And I wanted to tell you,” you started, “I understand why you’d suspect me in your dad’s disappearance.”
He looked away from his book and over at you. “What do you mean?”
“What you said back in Colorado? The Wendigo case? I get it.”
Dean raised an eyebrow. “You’re still on that?”
“I mean, yeah, that was just about the most heated fight we’ve had. It kinda stuck with me,” you answered honestly, looking down at your stripey-sock-covered feet. “Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I understand.”
A moment passed silently.
“And I, um—” you took a deep breath, “I want you to trust me.” You looked back at Dean who was studying you carefully.
The tense moment was interrupted by Sam jolting awake in his bed. “Why'd you let me fall asleep?”
“Cause I'm an awesome brother.” Dean’s attention was back on his book. “So what did you dream about?”
“Lollipops and candy canes,” the younger brother responded hazily while staring up at the ceiling.
You laughed humorlessly.
“Did you guys find anything?” Sam asked.
“Oh, besides a whole new level of frustration?” Dean responded sarcastically. “No. I've looked at everything. A few local women, a Laura and a Catherine committed suicide in front of a mirror—”
“And a giant mirror fell on a guy named Dave—” you chimed in.
“But no Mary,” Dean finished for you.
“Maybe we just haven't found it yet,” Sam tried.
“I've also been searching for strange deaths in the area, you know… eyeball bleeding, that sort of thing. There's nothing. Whatever's happening here, maybe it just ain't Mary,” Dean said.
Sam’s phone rang just as his brother finished talking. “Hello?” A look of concern crossed his face. He was trying to calm whoever it was on the other end down.
You waited until he got off the phone to bombard him with questions. “What? What happened?”
“Charlie,” he told you. “Her friend’s dead.”
***
Charlie sobbed as she relayed the story of what happened to her friend Jill. “And they found her on the bathroom floor. And her— her eyes. They were gone.”
You had met her in a park not an hour after she had called Sam.
“I'm sorry,” the latter responded.
“And she said it,” Charlie told you. “I heard her say it. But it couldn't be because of that. I'm insane, right?”
“No, you're not insane,” you said.
“Oh, god, that makes me feel so much worse.” You feared that might be the case.
Sam was honest with her. “Look. We think something's happening here. Something that can't be explained.”
“And we're gonna stop it,” Dean assured Charlie, “but we could use your help.”
You knew exactly where Dean was going with this. And thankfully, Charlie obliged. She snuck you and the boys into Jill’s room through the window. Dean and Sam gave you a boost into the second story room before throwing up Dean’s duffel bag.
“What did you tell Jill's mom?” you asked Charlie.
“Just that I needed some time alone with Jill's pictures and things,” she replied simply. “I hate lying to her.”
You heard someone closing the blinds and curtains behind you. “Trust us, this is for the greater good. Hit the lights,” Dean instructed her.
She obeyed but asked, “What are you guys looking for?”
“We'll let you know as soon as we find it,” the older brother responded.
Sam handed you a digital camera. “Hey, night vision!” You turned it on. You aimed the camera at Dean.
“Do I look like Paris Hilton?” he asked.
You rolled your eyes, suppressing an amused smile. You walked over to Jill’s closet door and began filming the mirror on it. 
“So I don't get it,” Sam began. “I mean, the first victim didn't summon Mary, and the second victim did. How's she choosing them?”
You shrugged. 
“Beats me,” Dean answered. “I want to know why Jill said it in the first place.”
“It was just a joke,” Charlie replied.
“Yeah, well somebody's gonna say it again, it's just a matter of time.”
You had made your way over to the bathroom and filmed around the mirror. You stopped when you noticed a trickle of something running from behind it. “Hey, Sam?”
“Yeah?” He came over to you. 
“Look at this.” You showed him the substance oozing from behind the mirror.
Sam looked to his brother. “There's a black light in the trunk, right?” 
While Dean left to get the light, you and Sam pulled the mirror off the wall. When Dean returned, you could see a handprint and the name “Gary Bryman” illuminated by the black light. 
“Gary Bryman?” Charlie asked.
You looked up at her. “You know who that is?”
She shook her head. “No.”
You learned from Sam’s research and Charlie that Jill had killed Gary Bryman, an eight-year-old boy, in a hit and run accident. Dean then decided you needed to return to Donna’s house. When you pulled the medicine cabinet mirror off the wall, sure enough, there was another handprint and the name “Linda Shoemaker.” You learned from Donna that her mother had overdosed on sleeping pills. You had left Charlie at Donna’s house to comfort her friend after you and the boys had upset her with your questions about her mother’s death. 
You then traveled to Fort Wayne, Indiana to investigate the death of a woman named Mary Worthington. She had died the same way these victims were; bleeding from the sockets where her eyes used to be. You spoke to the detective who was the lead on her case. He believed she spent her last moments trying to expose her killer she was having an affair with. She went as far as to start spelling out the name of her killer in her own blood on the back of her mirror. She only got to the third letter of her killer’s name before passing away. It made complete sense to you that her spirit would spend its time exposing the secrets of other murderers. Mary Worthington’s body had been cremated, but the mirror she wrote on had been returned to her family. Now, you and the boys were trying to track down where that mirror had ended up. 
“Oh really?” Sam responded to the man on the phone. “Ah, that's too bad Mr. Worthington. I would have paid a lot for that mirror… Okay, well maybe next time… Alright, thanks.” He hung up.
“So?” you asked.
“So that was Mary's brother,” he informed you. “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.”
Dean momentarily looked away from the road to his brother. “So wherever the mirror goes, that's where Mary goes?” 
“Her spirit's definitely tied up with it somehow,” Sam responded.
“Isn't there an old superstition that says mirrors can capture spirits?” you chimed in.
“Yeah, there is. Yeah, when someone would die in a house people would cover up the mirrors so the ghost wouldn't get trapped.”
Dean connected the dots. “So Mary dies in front of a mirror, and it draws in her spirit.”
“Yeah, but how could she move through like a hundred different mirrors?” you challenged.
“I don't know, but if the mirror is the source, I say we find it and smash it.”
“Yeah, I don't know, maybe,” Sam sighed. His phone rang. “Hello?... Charlie?”
***
You and the boys picked up Charlie and brought her to the motel you were staying in. You and the Winchesters were busying yourselves with covering every reflective surface in Sam and Dean’s room with sheets, blankets, jackets; anything. Charlie’s gorgeous blonde hair was knotted and messy, her eyes were puffy from crying but remained closed, and her knees were drawn into her chest. 
Sam sat on the bed next to Charlie. “Hey, hey, it's ok. Hey, you can open up your eyes Charlie. It's okay, alright?”
She looked up slowly. 
“Now listen,” he began softly. “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?” Charlie’s voice trembled.
“No. No. Not anytime soon,” the brunet assured her. 
You sat on the floor in front of her and put a hand on her knee. “We need to know what happened, babe.”
“We were in the bathroom.” Her eyes brimmed with tears again. “Donna said it.”
“That's not what we're talking about,” Dean stated. There was something dark behind his tone. “Something happened, didn't it? In your life— .a secret— where someone got hurt. Can you tell us about it?”
The tears were flowing from her eyes now. “I had this boyfriend. I loved him. But he kind of scared me too, you know? And one night, at his house, we got in this fight. Then I broke up with him, and he got upset, and he said he needed me and he loved me, and he said "Charlie, if you walk out that door right now, I'm gonna kill myself." And 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 pulled her knees back to her chest and buried her face between them. 
You felt completely horrible for her. But there was no time for a therapy session because you and the boys were off to that Toledo antique store where Mary’s mirror was being kept.
Dean sped down the road despite the pouring rain which you deeply wanted to protest against. You remained silent anyway.
“You know, her boyfriend killing himself, that's not really Charlie's fault.” Dean broke the silence.
“You know spirits don't exactly see shades of gray, Dean. Charlie had a secret, somebody died, and that's good enough for Mary,” you told him.
“I guess,” he shrugged.
“You know, I've been thinking. It might not be enough to just smash that mirror,” Sam chimed in.
Dean turned his head to his brother. “Why, what do you mean?”
“Well, 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.”
“Well, how do you know that's going to work?” Dean asked. 
Sam shook his head. “I don't; not for sure.”
“Well who's gonna summon her?” his brother’s tone got a little panicked.
“I will. She'll come after me,” Sam replied solemnly.
“You know what, that's it.” Dean pulled over to the side of the road. “This is about Jessica, isn't it? You think that's your dirty little secret that you killed her somehow? Sam, this has got to stop, man. I mean, the nightmares and calling her name out in the middle of the night— it's gonna kill you. Now, listen to me, it wasn't your fault. If you 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.”
“I don't blame you.” Sam’s voice cracked.
“Well, you shouldn't blame yourself, because there's nothing you could've done,” Dean responded sharply.
Sam tried to shake his emotion away. “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 I know all about it. It's not gonna work with Mary anyway,” Dean said.
“No you don't,” was all Sam could muster.
“I don't what?” 
“You don't know all about it. I haven't told you everything.”
You had been trying to stay out of it, but couldn’t hold it back anymore. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, it wouldn't really be a secret if I told you, would it?” 
You and Dean were taken aback. “No. I don't like it. It's not gonna happen, forget it.” 
“Guys, that girl back there is going to die unless we do something about it. And you know what? Who knows how many more people are gonna die after that? Now we're doing this. You've got to let me do this.”
Dean gripped the steering wheel, clenched his jaw, and pulled back out onto the road. The air was heavy and tense in the car. You sat back in your chair with your arms crossed over your chest. No one spoke for the rest of the drive.
When you reached the shop, you picked the lock on the door to reveal dozens of mirrors. 
“Well, that's just great,” Dean grumbled. He pulled out the picture you’d gotten from the detective in Indiana of Mary’s body next to the mirror. “Alright, let's start looking.”
The three of you split up. You were an incredibly detail-oriented person, but even still, all of the mirrors seemed the same to you. 
“Maybe they've already sold it,” Dean called from across the room.
Your flashlight came to rest on a mirror you could swear you’d seen before. “I don't think so. C’mere, Dean.”
He came over to you and held up the photo to the mirror. And sure enough, it was a match. 
“You sure about this?” Dean asked his brother. 
Sam nodded and handed you his flashlight. Taking a deep breath, he says, “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.”
You whipped your head in the direction of a light coming through the store.
“I'll go check that out. Stay here, be careful,” Dean ordered. “Smash anything that moves.” He crawled away from you and you heard him distantly say, “Crap.”
You paid no mind to Dean as you tightened your grip on the crowbar. 
You heard a whooshing sound behind you and wheeled around. In the mirror was Mary. You sprang to action and smashed your crowbar through the dead center of it. 
You could hear a distorted version of Sam’s voice coming from behind you, but before you could aid him, your own reflection caught your attention. It wasn’t quite syncing with your movements; instead looking at you menacingly. 
Before you could move to hit it, you felt an insane pressure coming from behind your eyes, your throat constricted, and blood began to ooze down your face. 
“You can’t keep running, (Y/N),” your reflection told you. “How could you? How could you be so careless?”
The blood dripping from your eyes began to mix with your tears. You didn’t have enough breath to protest. You began to sink to the floor, the crowbar clanging to the ground.
“It’s your fault that they’re gone. Why didn’t you try harder? Why didn’t you fight to keep them alive? Why did you have to kill them? Your guilt should eat you alive. You don’t deserve another family. You know you don’t deserve to be happy again. You know your recklessness will get these boys killed, too. You are so selfish! And your brother! If you hadn’t done what you did, he would still be alive, too. You are worthless. All you bring is death and—” 
The pressure around your throat released when Dean’s crowbar went through the mirror. He barely spared you a second look before going over to his brother. 
“Sam, Sammy!” you heard from behind you. 
You clutched at your throat and began to cry. You knew Dean had turned cold once more because he heard what your reflection said.
Sam groaned in pain as you saw Dean shouldering his brother and pulling him toward the exit of the shop. 
“C’mon, (Y/N),” Sam urged you. 
You shakily stood and did your best to follow the brothers out. Your dizziness caused you to fall back down to the ground on top of shards of glass, making you yelp as they pierced your hands. 
“Help her, Dean!” you heard Sam demand. 
Dean came to your side, clearly in no hurry, and cradled you in his arms. Before he could get anymore than two steps, you noticed Mary crawling out of the frame of her original mirror. Her dark hair was matted and fell in front of her face. Her dress was tattered, and her limbs moved in an inhuman manner; cracking with every movement. You and Dean were sent flying across the floor toward Sam, and the bleeding of your eyes started again.
You looked to the mirror inches from your head. Despite your weakness, you forced yourself to grab it and turn its face toward Mary.
“You killed them!” you heard her reflection cry. “All those people! You killed them!” Mary started choking just as you had and then melted into a pool of blood on the ground. You threw the mirror you’d been holding and shattered it completely.
You dropped your head back to the floor.
“Hey Sam?” you heard Dean say.
“Yeah?”
“This has got to be like,what, six hundred years of bad luck?” the older brother joked. 
Sam chuckled weakly. You couldn’t even muster up a laugh due to the bile rising in your throat. Memories were eating away at you, and the fact that Dean had heard your reflection was only adding to your anxiety. Your breath began to quicken, but you did your best to soothe yourself.
“(Y/N).” Sam drew you out of your trance. “Can you stand?” 
You tried your best to, but couldn’t. Dean squatted down next to you. “C’mon.” He motioned for you to let him carry you. You complied. You looked up at his chiseled face. You swore he was handcrafted by the gods; perhaps Adonis himself. Your hazy mind couldn’t focus on anything aside from his beautiful green eyes. You had so much to say to him about what he’d heard. You knew he didn’t think highly of you, but your relationship had begun to get better. You didn’t want, well, you, to ruin it all now. 
“Dean, I—” you started.
He cut you off. “We’ll talk later,” he said gruffly. Despite his cold and guarded tone, he put you down gently in the back of the Impala.
You ended up falling asleep in the back of the Impala. When you next awoke, you had been tucked into your bed in the motel. Your boots had been discarded, your jacket had been removed, and your key that you kept in your jacket pocket was now on the nightstand beside you. The gesture was sweet, but your mind immediately started reeling about the conversation you needed to have with Dean. 
You checked the clock; it was ten in the morning. You were surprised how late you had slept, and figured the boys had dropped Charlie off; potentially had even left town without you. Your anxiety getting the best of you, you rushed over to their door. Dean opened it when you knocked.
“Hey,” you breathed.
“Hey,” he echoed.
“Can we talk?”
He nodded. 
You led Dean back to your room. You sat cross-legged on your bed and Dean chose the chair across from you.
“Okay, um,” you sighed. “What do you want to know?”
“Who’d you kill, (Y/N)?” came his straightforward and dry response. “Why did it say you’d get us killed, too?”
You looked down at the floor, the tears beginning to well up in your waterline. “I wanna tell you, I just—”
“Look at me.” His voice was firm.
You did.
“I need to know.”
You took a deep breath. “When I was eighteen, I was coming back home from one of my first solo hunts. My dad had sent me to take out a vampire nest on the edge of the town we were staying in. There were only three vamps there at the time. I got so excited that I had nuked them all, I didn’t account for the fact that all three of them seemed like newbies. I didn’t… register, I guess, that one or more was probably missing.” You averted his gaze, struggling to keep your voice level. “And so, I left. I went back to the house we were squatting in, and, um, one of them followed me.” Tears began to roll down your cheeks.
“Sweetheart, that’s not your—”
You shook your head. “It is. He turned them, Dean. He turned my mom and my dad. I— I had no choice. I had to—” Your sentence was cut off by a sob, but Dean understood what you meant. You wiped a hand over your face and did your best to continue your story. “I sat with their bodies for a long time after. When my brother came back and saw what I’d done, he drew his gun on me. He, um, he wouldn’t listen. He wouldn’t let me explain. He couldn’t shoot me, though. He… He just… left. And then— And then, his best friend called me a few days later.” The tears came back. “He found my brother’s car.” You pressed a hand to your mouth. “And he was dead in it.” Broken sobs wracked your body once again. “It’s my fault that they’re gone, Dean, it’s my fault.”
You couldn’t bear to look at him. You knew how disgusted he must be with you. And then, you felt the bed dip beside you. Then, a hand on your arm. Then, he pulled you to his chest, and you melted into his embrace. Your cries still shook your body, but Dean’s strong arms held you together. He sat with you like that for a long time. 
You and the boys had decided to leave Toledo sooner rather than later after Sam told you what Dean had done to the cops in front of the antique store. Long after leaving Toledo, Dean broke the comfortable silence that had settled over the car.
“Hey Sam?”
“Yeah?”
“Now that this is all over, I want you to tell me what that secret is.”
The younger Winchester sighed. “Look, you're my brother and I'd die for you, but there are some things I need to keep to myself.”
Your eyes remained trained on Sam as he looked out the window at something you were passing by. His expression went from confused to scared to saddened, and you knew he was seeing Jessica. After all, you had no doubt your face mirrored his every time you saw your mom standing on a street corner or your dad’s bloodied body lying in your footpath. In time, you knew he would learn to live with it just as you had. 
Series Rewrite Taglist: @polireader @brightlilith @atcamillanorrman @jrizzelle @insomnia-bookworm @procrastination20 @mrs-liebgott @djs8891 @tiggytaylor @staple-your-mouth @iloveshawn @jesstherebel @rach5ive @strawberrykiwisdogog @bruhidkjustwannaread @mxltifxnd0m @sunshine-on-marz
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deancaspinefest · 4 months
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Take The Long Way Home
Author: sidewinder | Artist: caught-a-dragonfly (Sarah)
Posting on Monday April 15
Two months ago, the world didn’t end. But for Dean Winchester, who fully expected to sacrifice not just his life but his very soul in order to stop Amara? The celebration has been clouded by the disappearance of his best friend, Cas—the friend he’d started to realize meant more to him than he’d been willing to accept until now. The last anyone’s seen of Castiel was when he was banished from the bunker by Toni Bevell. The Brits swear they don’t have him. Neither Heaven nor Hell claim to know of his whereabouts. All of Dean’s calls, texts and prayers to the angel have gone unanswered, and Dean can’t help but worry that a "Winchester win" has once again come at a terrible price. One day hope finally arrives in a lead from an unexpected if not always trustworthy ally. However finding Cas might end up being only the first step in saving him—not simply from the forces holding him captive, but from the prison of his own mind.
Keep reading for a sneak preview!
As Dean approached the galley, he saw the light on there already, meaning he wasn’t the only early bird up and about today. His mood brightened with a momentary spark of hope—Cas rarely slept, and when he was around the bunker, he usually enjoyed hanging around in the kitchen to read or watch cat videos and shit all night on one of their laptops. But Dean’s bubble of hope burst when he saw it was just his brother, sitting there in his sweatpants and a ratty old t-shirt, chugging a disgusting-looking green smoothie. Sam was no doubt ready to head out on his morning self-imposed torture session—that is, a five-mile run looping around the bunker to Lebanon and back.
Kid seriously had to be the devil’s vessel if he found that kind of physical torment enjoyable.
“Hey,” Dean grunted at his brother.
Sam looked up from his laptop at Dean and nodded. “Hey. You’re up early.”
“You too. Couldn’t sleep?”
“Rarely do.”
Yeah, that was something they had in common. “Anything up?” Dean asked on his way to fill the coffeepot with water. 
“Not really. Just restless, I guess. I found a case, maybe. Not that I was looking for one,” Sam added quickly. “But while I was searching for any signs of Cas, or Lucifer, I came across a news story about some strange deaths in Wichita. It’s not far from here, and—”
“If you wanna go hunt whatever it is, go for it,” Dean cut him off. “Take mom. I know she’s itching to get out of here and do somethin’ other than stare at our ugly mugs all day.” 
“Dean—”
“No, Sam. I mean it. Until I know where Cas is, I just can’t. My head’s not in the game.” A distracted hunter was a dead hunter. That was the rule their father had drilled into them as soon as they each could carry a weapon, and learn about the things that went bump in the night being real. A week ago, Dean had let Sam talk him into going on a “milk run” hunt to clear out a small vampire nest near Toledo and he’d nearly lost his neck thanks to not fully concentrating on the job at hand.
“Okay, I get it.”
“Do you?” Dean snapped. “Cas has been missing for two months, Sam! We have no idea where he is, if he even—”
Dean cut himself off. He couldn’t say it. Not out loud.
If he even survived.
(continue reading on Ao3 on Monday April 15)
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