Chapter 13: Jessica: Deduction is so damn hard!

"Oh god! I feel like a dumbass!"

Jessica growled after checking into a hotel room. She glanced at her wallet, which was disturbingly empty. "You know...Charlie actually gave me a good idea! What do you say we go to some wealthy family's mansions, create some 'ghosts', and then we step in and get rid of the 'ghosts' for a price?"

At least this trip wasn't completely worthless! She found herself a way to make some money!

"If you really want money, just rob a bank or something." Killian shrugged. "No one's gonna stop you."

"Yeah, but that's against the law."

"No one's gonna know it's you."

"Robber's not really my career choice. I mean...I can have any job in the world. Why would I be a robber?" Jessica shook her head and refused. "Targeting the wealthy is different though. Makes me feel like Robin Hood, you know? Take from the rich and give to the poor."

"Are you giving to the poor?"

These bickerings were like an everyday thing between the two.

"No, but I'm using that money on helping the poor!" Jessica growled. "You want some time with the body before I go to sleep?"

"Nah. I'm good."

"Suit yourself."

As Jessica fell asleep, Killian couldn't help but frown. The body he saw in the morgue was definitely killed by something supernatural. Add that to what Lily said and everything seemed to be pieced together, but why wasn't Jessica attacked? She said the words.

Also, it suddenly occurred to him that Lily said the words as well, but it was his father who bit the dust. So...either Bloody Mary was really sexist, or there was something else up here.

Anyways. Not his problem. Bloody Mary was probably a ghost, and ghosts, due to their nature, weren't good soldiers. If Jessica wanted to leave this town like this, then so be it. Yeah...Bloody Mary would probably kill again, but he didn't have the duty to defend the people here.

This was not his world.

---

There were a lot of dangers in the world of Supernatural. Most of them, you couldn't avoid. If a werewolf wanted to jump on you when you were out jogging and bite your head off, there was only so much you could do to fend it off. But some of these dangers, a small amount of them in comparison, were brought onto the victims by themselves.

If you made a deal with a Crossroad Demon and 10 years later you find yourself being shredded to pieces by a Hellhound, well, the only person you could blame was yourself.

Likewise, if you knew something might be up with Bloody Mary, and you still decided to summon it. Well, Bloody Mary might have done the scratching, but you, my friend, are your own killer.

"You're such a freak! I'll call you tomorrow."

As she drove back home, Charlie was on her phone with her friend Jill, who was in the comfort of her room. Both were at the Shoemaker house when Lily said the words and her father fell dead, but while Charlie was a bit cautious, Jill was ready to find some fun from the unfortunate death.

Just a few minutes ago, to prove a point, Jill walked to a mirror and said 'Bloody Mary' three times. She even did some screaming just to make Charlie think something terrible has happened.

"Wait!" Charlie suddenly spoke up as Jill tried to end the call. "I still feel like something's off."

"What can possibly be off, Charlie? You said it yourself! That girl back there, Jessica something, right? She said the words in front of a mirror and nothing happened!"

"Yeah...I guess." Charlie nodded slowly. Made sense. If the fraud said the words and lived, then this whole Bloody Mary thing must be fake. Speaking off the fraud...Charlie slowly laid her finger on her shoulder, where Jessica touched her hours ago.

Ever since that happened, she felt like she was strangely energetic. Her neck wasn't as aching and she felt healthier than ever. Wait...did this fraud give her some drugs or something? To get her to feel really good for a while and then suddenly collapse after Jessica got her money?

Charlie sighed. Girls these days...someone like Jessica could at least be a waitress in a restaurant or something, but she chose to be a fake psychic and cheat people out of their money. How unfortunate…

Charlie drove straight home. Her parents were already asleep, so she went straight into her room. As she got in, her eyes landed on a mirror in her closet. After the whole thing that happened today, even if it was fake, she subconsciously wanted to avoid it.

Wait...this is so stupid! There is no such thing as Bloody Mary and a mirror is just a mirror. Damn scammers! I am going to stand in front of the mirror and if there really is a Bloody Mary, let it come after me!

With that thought in mind, Charlie walked to the mirror and looked inside. Yep. Nothing out of ordinary. Just my own reflection. Wait, what is that on the corner of my eyes…

In the mirror, Charlie's reflection started to bleed through her eyes.

A vicious smirk was on her face.

Charlie herself wasn't smiling, but the reflection was, creating a horrifying image that defied the rules of physics.

Charlie's mouth hung open, ready to scream, but no voice came out. Suddenly, she felt a burning pain in her eyes, as if they were being slowly crushed. Even worse, she seemed to have lost control of her body. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make a single sound.

It was a slow, painful death.

Suddenly, just as the pain was about to overwhelm her, Charlie suddenly felt something warm at her eyes. This warmness quickly overwhelmed the pain, and all of a sudden she felt like she could move again. As soon as she regained control of her body, Charlie collapsed on the ground.

In the mirror, the foul reflection looked like it has taken a blow. Its figure started shaking until, when Charlie blinked again, it was nowhere to be seen.

Charlie touched her face and felt blood. Normally, she would be dashing to the bathroom already to clean herself, but she had no time for that.

Bloody Mary is real! Also, Bloody Mary just tried to kill her! Screw the stroke! It must be Bloody Mary that killed Mr. Shoemaker too!

The scammer was right all along...wait! The girl wasn't a scammer! She must be a real psychic or something and she tried to warn her! And the thing that saved her at the last minute...it must be a trick she left! Jessica must've sensed she would be in danger, and although she has been rude, Jessica still left something to protect her!

And protect her it did.

Wait...but there was no way Jessica could know Jill also said the words...oh no! Jill!

Charlie ran to her phone and dialed a number. Jill might be asleep now, but Charlie kept on dialing. Waking her friend up was better than having her friend killed in her sleep.

But no one answered. No matter how long Charlie called, no one answered.

On the other hand, Jill's body laid on the ground. Her eyes, two bloody holes.

Finally, Charlie knew what must have happened. She sat on the ground, her eyes filled with tears. Death came so quickly. So unexpectedly.

Suddenly, the girl made up her mind. She walked to a table and pulled out her wallet from a drawer.

They say money can do anything. Let's put that to a test.

---

The next morning.

Knock. Knock.

"Who's there?" Jessica growled with a grumpy voice. She was in her pajamas and she could barely keep her eyes open. To be fair, people who were woken up 6 o'clock in the morning tended to be like this.

She opened the door and found herself facing…

"You! Wait…" Jessica looked at Charlie and scratched her head.

What was her name again?

"Killian…"

A little help here...

"Charlie." Charlie smiled. Jessica looked like she just emerged from a pillow fight, but Charlie didn't look too well either. Ever since last night, she hasn't been able to get even a second of sleep. After calling the police and being told Jill was gone, she was busy trying to track Jessica down. Thankfully, this was a small town, and a while into her inquiry, one of the hotels talked about seeing Jessica.

Charlie went straight to Jessica's hotel, but she didn't go straight to knocking. She literally kicked Jessica out of the house, and now charging into her room and waking her up from her sleep just didn't feel too nice, especially when her life depended on Jessica.

She waited outside the door until now. The entire time, she couldn't sleep. She only knocked when it was a little later and she simply couldn't keep waiting.

"Look, Jessica, I am so sorry!" Charlie exclaimed. "You were right about Bloody Mary! I was attacked last night! Whatever you did when you touched me protected me, thank god, but my friend was also attacked. She...she's dead."

"Oh god…" Jessica frowned. That didn't make any sense. What touch? "Killian?"

"The energy we passed onto her is exhausted." Killian was already on it. "It must have detected when she was under attack and made the decision to defend her. Whatever this Bloody Mary is, it's real."

"But why didn't it attack me?" Jessica asked Killian as she moved aside and invited Charlie into the room. The girl's legs were shaking even as she walked, and Jessica had to help her sit on a sofa in the room. She was going to take Charlie to the bed but her bed was so messy it made Jessica herself embarrassed.

Charlie didn't have the energy to comment on how untidy Jessica was. She was terrified. Jessica frowned and tapped her shoulder again.

Familiar energy flowed into Charlie.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed as Jessica sat down. At least now she wouldn't have to worry about being defenselessly murdered in front of a mirror again. "Look," She reached into her pocket and pulled out a stack of paper bills. "I am hiring you to take care of this Bloody Mary."

Jessica glanced at the money. A little over four hundred bucks.

Yay...I can pay for my food and car! Speaking off…"Killian! Remind me to go find that morgue room attendant and take back the $200! How did I forget that yesterday? It's 200 god damn dollars!"

"Don't know. Maybe you're getting old."

"Is that not enough?" Charlie saw Jessica looking down on the money in silence. This was someone who could save lives with the touch of a finger! $400 was probably nothing to her! Giving her $400 and sending her after a murdering ghost? Even she thought that was ridiculous!

"This is the most money I can find right now, but I can talk to my parents if that's not enough." She added. "Price isn't a problem. I just want that Bloody Mary taken care of. Forever."

"Oh no!" Jessica was pulled back to the realm of reality. "No! This is more than enough." She returned the money into her pocket. "A moment, please." The girl charged into the bathroom and came out two minutes later in her T-shirt and jeans.

Now that she was getting paid, Charlie was a business client! And she had to look good in front of a business client, not that she was hoping on returning clients.

"Ok." The girl started thinking. "So…"

And then she stopped. Looking at the hopeful look on Charlie's face, Jessica suddenly realized she had no idea what to say. "Umm...a little help here?"

It's not my fault! I was asleep ten minutes ago! You try thinking about something other than food and sex ten minutes after you wake up!

"I never said...well, you know what." Charlie was the one who started. "But it still came after me. It must have locked onto me at the room, when you said the words!"

"But why didn't it come after me?" Jessica could feel her fist closing. She swore if Bloody Mary jumped out at her right now she would pound her to ghost dust. That moment back there was so damn embarrassing! "I mean...I said the same words and nothing happened to me."

"And Mr. Shoemaker didn't say the words either. Lily did. But Jill said the words and she was…"

"So what do the three of you have in common?" Jessica tried deducing. "If we can find a common connection, we can maybe track down this Bloody Mary!"

Sherlock Holmes mode, activated!

Ghosts were after vengeance, right? So maybe all the victims did something? And Sam and Dean said ghosts were frequently people who died violent deaths. She could look into that...

Ten minutes later...

"Oh fuck it!" Jessica grabbed onto Charlie and pulled her in front of a mirror.

Do you think I'm the type of Hunter who has to go through loads of clues to find out the origins of a monster before I can kill it? Hell no! I am the biggest, baddest monster in the park! The way I kill monsters, I don't go to them! I wait until they come to me and I take them out!

I'm the cool type of hunters!

Also, deduction is so damn hard...