Within Me

Pairing: Sam/Dean
Rating: NC-17 (this chapter...PG)
Warnings: Rape, violence, angst. Not really any in this chapter.
Summary: Sam and Dean get caught up in something they can't handle.


The Winchesters sat there quietly, neither one knowing what to say to the other. Sounds of men yelling cheerful goodbyes filled the room and soon it was empty again, just as it had been when they arrived. Mae finished up with the register and then came over with three more beers.

"Quick day. Sometimes the boys get crazy and want to play pool and it takes me awhile to remind them their wives are likely to skin 'em if they get home too late."

Dean smiled. "Yeah, I get in trouble with Sammy sometimes when I'm not home by curfew."

Sam groaned. "I'm not that bad."

Mae just grinned. "Oh...I think I see now." She winked at Dean. "I knew there was a good reason you put up with this handsome, but moody, young man."

Sam wanted to protest, but figured he'd keep his mouth shut since she didn't seem to care one way or another. Dean had told her enough about them. He figured the less she knew the better at this point.

"So..." Dean opened up his beer and smiled at her. "You were telling us that the guy died in the house alone, right?"

"That's right. He died and left that house to his old nanny's family. She was gone by then, but her granddaughter had just gotten married and she took the house. They were a sweet couple. The guy was quiet, but you could tell he loved her. But then the same thing happened to them that happened before. He killed her and then he killed himself."

Dean blew out a breath of air. "That's pretty creepy. Nobody thought there was anything weird about that?"

"Oh, they sure did. In fact, since there wasn't really anyone left at that point the town took it over and made it off limits. Rumors were started up all the time. Nobody wanted to admit it was really happening, but we were all certain that house was cursed."

Sam interrupted. "But the deaths didn't happen that close to each other. Maybe they were unrelated."

"That's what Cyrus Buchanan thought, too. He's the man that saw to the business of the factory for his corporation. He had done everything from afar, but then showed up in...um...1995 I believe. That sounds right. Nobody was sure why the factory folk sent their own up. We'd been doing fine, but I guess sometimes people just want to keep things busy when they don't have to be." She smiled.

"So what happened to Cyrus?" Dean had finished his beer and was picking at another label.

"He helped the town out with some more debt and took that house." She shook her head. "Stupid fool...we told him what had happened, but he didn't care. He didn't believe in that nonsense. So he started renting it out." She took a deep breath. "The first couple was gone within two years. The second was there for less than one before they died."

Dean shook his head. "So did the house remain empty for long before another couple moved in?"

"No. That first couple was dead by '98 and the second...I think they died in '99. That's when the place emptied out for some time. Cyrus couldn't get anyone too interested because we made it our duty to warn everyone who came along. But then he found an adventurous couple who thought the legend was 'cool'. They moved in during the summer of 2002."

"The summer?" Sam shook his head in disbelief. "I understand how you can remember the years, but the seasons? Why are you so sure that they moved in during the summer?"

"Because they also died in the summer of 2002. After that, we all started to tell Cyrus that he was an idiot and we would do everything to keep people away from his stupid house. We never meant..." She took a napkin and dabbed at her lip.

Dean took her free hand. "What happened?"

"Cyrus brought his mother in and moved her in there. He moved in as well to just take care of her, like a good son should. Nobody thought anything about it. Before it had all been couples and this was a mother and a son, but..."

Dean squeezed her hand. "How long before they died?"

"A week." Mae moved her hand out from under Dean's and patted his gently. "Wait here..." She hurried to the back room.

Dean looked at Sam thoughtfully. "Well? What do you think?"

"I think that it's very interesting and you're going to make us check it out."

Dean smiled. "You know me so well." He turned when Mae came back with an old shoebox. "What do you got there, Mae?"

"I saved a lot of things on that house. When Cyrus died the house went back to the town. We haven't allowed anyone near it since." She pulled out a stack of papers and spread them out on the table. The obituaries were heartbreaking, all accompanied by photos of a very happy couple.

Sam looked at the names, but found they didn't have anything in common as far as he could see. He looked over the details and still nothing leapt out at him. "It seems like the only thing they had in common was their stay in that house."

Dean nodded. "And the time they spend in the house before they die gets shorter and shorter."

Sam looked through more of the papers. "Even the deaths are odd. The women all died the same." He swallowed the bile he felt rising and looked up at Mae. "You're sure this is accurate?"

She nodded. "All the women were brutally raped by their husbands for...varying amounts of time. One man held his missus for two days before strangling her."

"And all of them were strangled...." Dean dug into the bottom of the box and started looking at very old pictures of the house. "I guess we know what happened to Antonette then."

Mae shook her head and took one of the photos from Dean. "And she was so pretty."

The boys looked at the picture of the young woman. Her hair was dark and pulled back into a long braid that fell over one shoulder. She looked happy and apparently she was at a party of some type. A severe looking man stood behind her, his look one of possession and not protectiveness over the young woman.

Sam looked up at Mae. "Barnabas?"

She nodded her head. "Barnabas.

Sam looked through the obituaries again. "I don't see any glaring physical resemblences. The fourth couple to die in that house was African-American so..." He shook his head. "That's not really going to be a help. It looks like the only similarity is the method of death."

Dean shrugged. "For the wife, yeah, but there's really nothing in here about the men except that they committed suicide."

Mae smiled sadly. "I remember all of it. It was all so horrifying. The first man, the one with the child, he threw himself off the roof of that house. Snapped his neck and left quite a mess on the garden path so the story goes."

"And you were here to see the rest first hand." Dean leaned forward. "Did they all jump?"

She shook her head. "The husband of the nanny's granddaughter was found hanging from the chandelier in the dining room. The one after him was in the bathtub, bloated and disgusting. I guess he drowned himself. The next man...the one who lived there for two years? He was in the same bathroom. He'd broken the mirror and slit his wrists with the shards. Cyrus tried to pay some of the ladies around here to clean up all the blood, but none of us were stupid enough to go in that house. This man..." She pointed to the picture of the African American couple. "...he swallowed a lot of pills. They were something his wife was taking for pain from some illness she had. They found out she was dying anyway. I'm not sure why she was denied going in peace."

Dean frowned. "I'm sorry if this is upsetting you."

"Oh no. It's our history. We might as well tell it." She smiled gently and looked at the other pictures. She picked up the obituary of the last married couple to live in the home. "He was in that bathtub just like the other. But he filled it with water and dropped a stereo in."

Sam was starting to get creeped out. "And Cyrus? Surely he didn't...I mean his elderly mother..."

She nodded. "Yes. Cyrus was a good man, albeit stupid. What made him take his mother in that fashion is beyond me. He blew his brains out in the bedroom where her body was found. I guess knowing that he'd ravaged his own mama that way just did him in. Maybe that's what happened to the others."

"It would explain the different ways of suicide, wouldn't it?" Dean picked up another photo of a young girl. "Now this is one pretty little lady."

Mae smiled. "That is my great great-grandmother, Bess. I think she was about fourteen or fifteen when that was taken. She was very beautiful, but..."

"She looks so sad." Sam took the picture and studied it more. "...Haunted..."

Mae nodded. "I was told that she was like that the rest of her days. Sometimes she'd get a smile on her face like she was just so relieved about something and then other times..." She pointed to the photo. "...most of the time she was like that."

Dean looked outside. "It's getting late. We need to get moving."

Mae frowned. "So soon? Heck, I've loved the company. Where are you off to now?"

Dean winked. "Do you really want to know?"

Her eyes widened. "No... You're not going to that house. I won't tell you where it is. You'll never find it."

Dean tilted his head. "Come on, Mae. We can help."

"Help? Help how? If the house is cursed then there's nothing to be done. We should have burned the damn thing down, but Cyrus just had to put it in his will that it be kept safe and then he had it declared a historical landmark....Damn fool...he knew folks around here couldn't go against a last man's dying wish if they wanted to."

"If the house is being haunted then it's probably by the spirits of Barnabas and Antonette, Mae. You said they disappeared and I'm betting that we'll find their graves on that land. We just find them and burn them and it's all over."

"That simple?"

Dean nodded. "That simple. We've done this before. We've faced death and won."

Sam shrugged. "We do tend to have a way of surviving when nobody else has."

Mae studied both of them. "I'll take you over there, but I want you in here every day before the rush to tell me that you're okay. Otherwise I'm setting fire to the damn thing and ending it once and for all."

Dean could tell that it was hurting her to say that she was going against Cyrus's wishes, but she obviously had reached her breaking point and couldn't stand to see anyone else in pain. He stood and helped her up. "We'll be careful. Hopefully we won't be there very long. It might take some time to find the graves...if they're even there."

Mae looked out at their car. "Alright...let's go. I'll go in your car and then I'll walk back."

"I don't want you walking back alone..."

"The only monsters around here are inside that house, not outside."

She put the pictures away and climbed into the passenger seat with Sam crowded in the back and Dean driving. She led them up the path to the house. Dean stopped the car and looked up at it. "It doesn't look so bad...."

Mae smiled at the obvious lie and got out of the car, turning on her flashlight. She poked around one of the hedges and finally held up a key. "Here we go." She led the boys to the door once they had all of their gear and looked at them again. "You're certain you want to be in here?"

Sam nodded. "We have to try..."

Mae unlocked the door, but didn't go in. "If there's something in there I don't want it to get me and put me in the position of those other women." She handed the key to Dean. "Everything works. Cyrus was a very wealthy man and his estate, along with a grant from the state, pays for the electric, water, and other utilities. Of course, it doesn't use much now since nobody's been in it. Oh...and it's never been cleaned since...."

Dean took a deep breath. "We can handle it." He gave her a quick hug. "See you tomorrow." He walked into the house with Sam close behind and then closed the door.

Mae just stood there and tried not to drop to her knees in prayer right there on the porch. "I hope you will, young man...I hope you will."

TBC...