CHAPTER EIGHT

Sam's throwing up in the bathroom the next morning, and Nyx has a pillow over her head. Dean walks back into the room and sees his younger brother.

"How you feelin', Sammy?" He asks as he laughs at him. "I guess mixing Whiskey and Jager wasn't such a gangbuster idea, was it? I bet you don't remember a thing from last night, do you?" He asks, and Nyx lets go of the pillow as she quickly sits up.

"No." Sam says as she gets up off the bed. "I can still taste the Tequila."

"Our little secret." Nyx whispers, and the older boy nods.

"You know, there's a really good hang over remedy." Dean says. "It's a greasy pork sandwich served up on a dirty ashtray."

Sam groans. "I hate you."

"You're a dick." Nyx smirks, obviously amused, and Dean laughs.

"Hey, turns out when Grandma Rose was a tyke, she had a creole nanny who had a hoodoo necklace." He says as Nyx gets a water bottle.

"So, you think she taught Rose hoodoo?" Sam asks.

"Yes, I do."

"Hey." Nyx gets Deans attention, and he looks at her. She tosses him the water bottle, and he holds onto it for when his brother's done vomiting.

"I think it's time we talk to Rose then." Sam says.

"You need to brush your teeth first." Dean tells him. Nycole's phone starts ringing, and she lays down on the bed as she looks at the caller ID. "Damon?" He asks, and she looks at him, confused.

"What? No. It's Tyler." She tells him and then answers the call. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"I don't know." Tyler sighs. "Thanks for coming to the funeral. It meant a lot."

"Of course. I told you I'd be there." She says as Sam walks around, getting ready. "I used to spend so much time at your house when we were growing up, no way I wasn't gonna be there for your mom. Especially after she got the council to let me be a part of the Miss Mystic Falls pageant for my mom." She sighs. "You know how much I loved your mom, Ty, she was great."

As Sam's changing his shirt, he sees his brother drop his gaze from Nyx to the floor. Dean's got this sad look in his eyes as he listens to her talk.

"I still can't believe she's gone." Tyler says, and she sighs.

"I know."

"Hey, we're gonna go talk to Grandma Rose." Dean tells her, and she nods as she glances over at them.

"Hey, that Carter guy showed up a few days ago." Tyler says suddenly. "You sent him?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I want him to be there to help Jeremy." Nyx tells him. "I know my brother trusts him, and that's important to me with everything that's going on lately."

"And you trust this guy​? How well do you really even know him?"

"His dad and my dad used to be friends. Plus, I trust Ellen's judgement, and Ellen trusts him enough to let him live with her and her daughter." She says.

"Well, I guess if you trust him, that's good enough for me." He says. "So, how are you doing with everything out there?"

"Oh, you know..." She sighs. "Just, uh..."

"That bad?"

"I don't know."

"How are you and Dean?"

"You mean besides broken up and barely speaking to each other unless​ it's case or baby related?"

"What?" He asks, confused. "So, he has no idea what's going on over here?"

"Nope." She shakes her head. "Not other than that I went for the funeral."

"Why aren't you telling him, Nyx?"

"You don't get it, Tyler." She sighs. "I feel like I have to walk eggshells around here. Everything I say and do is wrong, and I can't fix it. I can't stand close enough to him to hold his hand, much less share a bed. Being in the car is torture enough. And I don't like mentioning when I need to feed."

"So, what do you do?"

"Disappear for a couple hours."

"Nycole."

"I know." She sighs. "But I don't know what else to do. I keep hurting him, no matter how hard I try not to. I say something that I shouldn't and it hurts him, or I don't say something that I should and he gets upset. I feel guilty all the time. And then he reaches for my hand, and he sees that I'm uncomfortable, so he lets go. And then I'm ashamed for being what I am. I can hardly even look at myself in the mirror...and it's killing me, Tyler."

"Oh, man..." He doesn't know what to say to help her.

"And I keep replaying the day that I turned in my head over and over again. I tried to attack him, and if Stefan hadn't been there..." She sniffs as she sits up. "And what if he gets hurt, and I attack him again because he's bleeding and I can't control myself? Stefan isn't here to stop me this time. Dean could get killed because of me."

"Nyx—"

"Hey, we gotta go." Dean says as he quickly walks back into the room with Sam following right behind him. "Now."

"Uh... Hey, Ty, I gotta call you back later. Something came up." She tells him, and he says bye before hanging up the phone.

Nyx stands up and quickly stuffs her phone into her back pocket. She turns her back to the boys as she wipes tears from her cheeks so that they won't see that she's been crying. Something tells her that this would only hurt Dean too.

—

The three hunters had to check out of the hotel because Susan saw the boys trying to talk to Rose. The problem is that Rose is basically catatonic because she had a stroke. Susan said that they had to leave or she was going to call the cops and have them all arrested.

So, they left, but they're still watching​ the hotel. They're currently watching from the trees surrounding the place, and they see the swings start moving on their own. Then the seesaw starts going, and then one of the other things on the playground begins to spin.

"What the hell?" Nyx mumbles.

Susan's watching the whole thing too and she looks terrified. Her car starts driving toward her all on its own, and Sam runs out and gets her out of the way before it can hit her. It crashes into a tree instead. Dean and Nyx run over to them to make sure that they're both okay.

"Come on. Come on. Let's get inside. Let's go." Dean says as they help Susan get up.

The four of them run inside, and Susan asks Sam to get her a drink. "What the hell happened out there?" She demands as she sits down.

"You want the truth?" Dean asks.

"Of course."

"At first, we thought it was a hoodoo curse, but that out there..." He points outside. "That was definitely a spirit."

"You're insane." She says as she takes the glass Sam's holding out to her.

"It's been said."

"Look, I'm sorry, Susan." Sam says. "We don't exactly have time to ease you into this, but we need to know when your mother had the stroke."

"What does that have to do—"

"Just answer the question." He cuts her off.

"About a month ago." She tells them.

"Right before the killings began. You see?" Sam looks at Nyx and Dean. "So, what if Rose was working hoodoo, but not to hurt anyone, to protect them?"

"She was using the urns​ to ward off the spirit." Dean says.

"Until she had a stroke and couldn't anymore." Nyx adds​.

"I don't believe this." Susan says.

"Listen, that car didn't try to run you down by itself, okay?" Dean says. "I mean, I guess it did technically—"

"Believe what you want, but you and your family are in danger." Sam says as he sits down beside her. "So, you need to clear everybody out of here. Your employees, your mother, your daughters, everyone."

"Um..." She looks at them and shakes her head. "I only have one daughter."

"One?" Nycole asks, all of them confused.

"I thought Tyler had a sister named Maggie." Dean says.

"Maggie's imaginary." Susan tells them.

"Where's Tyler?" Sam asks her.

"Upstairs."

"We need to find her. Now." Nyx says, and they all immediately run upstairs.

They get to the girls' room and see the porcelain dolls all over the place — in pieces now. Susan runs into another part of their living space calling out her daughter's name. "She's not here." She says, rushing back over to them.

"Susan, tell us what you know about Maggie." Sam says as he stops her from running around.

"Tyler's been talking about her since my mom got sick." She tells them.

"Okay, did you ever know anyone by that name?"

"No."

"Think. Somebody that could've lived here, might have passed away." Dean says.

"Wait." She looks back at them. "My mom had a sister named Margaret. She barely spoke about her."

"Did Margaret die when she was a kid?" Sam asks.

"Yeah, she drowned in the pool."

"Come on." Dean says, and they run out to where the pool is.

They get there — Nycole first — but they can't get inside, and they see Tyler standing by herself. She's on the wrong side of the railing, standing​ over where the pool is. Susan yells Tyler's name as the boys try to break the glass to get in.

"Mommy!" Tyler yells when she looks back and sees the four of them. She screams before falling off the railing.

"Is there another entrance?" Dean asks.

"Around back." Susan tells him, and they both start running.

"Sam, move." Nyx says, and he quickly steps away from the door.

She kicks the center of the double doors, by the locking mechanism, and they fly open. Sam immediately runs past her and jumps over the railing, into the pool. She sees the stairs and runs down as Sam grabs the little girl.

He gets Tyler out of the water and brings her to side of the pool where Nyx is waiting. He sets her down on her back, and Nyx kneels down beside her. Tyler isn't breathing, so she starts doing chest compressions — careful not to hurt her — as Dean and Susan run in behind her.

Tyler starts coughing then, and Nycole rolls her gently onto her side as water spills out of her mouth. Susan pulls Tyler to her as Nyx moves out of the way.

"Mommy." Tyler mutters.

"Yeah, baby, I'm here." She says as she hugs her daughter.

"Tyler, do you see Maggie anywhere?" Nyx asks her.

She looks around. "No, she's gone."

Nyx looks up at Dean, and he sighs. They all go back to the hotel, and Susan takes Tyler upstairs to get her mom.

"I don't get it. Did Maggie just stop?" Nyx asks.

"Seems like it." Sam says.

"Where the hell did she go?" Dean asks.

They hear screaming and immediately run up the stairs to find Susan and Tyler. Nyx disappears from the boys' sides and finds the two girls in Rose's room. She puts her hand over her mouth when she realizes that Rose is dead. The boys run up behind Nyx, almost knocking into her, and Susan quickly takes Tyler out of the room and back down the stairs.

The hunters later walk over to Susan, who's now standing on the porch as her mother's taken away. "Paramedics said it was another stroke." She tells the three of them. "Do you think...Margaret could have had something to do with it?" She asks.

"We don't know." Dean says.

"But, it's possible, yeah." Sam adds, and she looks down. "Susan, I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for." She says, looking back at them. "You've given me everything." She then turns to Tyler. "You ready to go, kiddo."

"Yeah." Tyler says as she walks outside.

"Tyler, you're sure Maggie's not around anymore?" Dean asks her.

"I'm sure." She says. "I'd see her."

Susan and Tyler walk toward their cab, and the hunters follow behind them. "I guess whatever's going on here is over." Dean tells Susan.

"You two take care of yourselves, alright?" Sam says, and she hugs him.

"Thank you." Susan says and then looks at Dean and Nyx. "All of you." She adds before climbing in the cab, and Sam closes the door.

"Hey, how'd you know how to do that to save Tyler?" Dean asks as he looks at Nyx.

"I practically lived on that lake by the house we stayed at last Summer. I loved the water and I was a damn good swimmer. So, I was lifeguard at the community pool the Summer before my parents died. Knowing CPR is required for all lifeguards." She tells him.

"God, you get hotter everyday." He says, and she chuckles, grateful for the little moments when they still feel like them.

"I've never blindly jumped into a pool cover before though." The brunette says as she looks over at Sam. "That, my friend, is ten times more impressive than what I did back there. You had to actually get her out of the water."

"Yeah, you both did good." Dean agrees, and she smiles. "Feels good getting back in the saddle, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it does." Sam says. "But it doesn't change what we talked about last night."

"We talked about a lot of things last night."

"You know what I mean." He says as he looks between the two of them.

"You were wasted."

"But you weren't...and you promised."

Sam gets in the car, and Dean and Nyx look at each other. Neither of them are happy with what happened, and now... She sighs as they climb into the car. Dean turns the radio on, and she remembers more from the Summer that she and Dean spent at the lake house.

"Do you have anything else to listen to besides these stupid cassette tapes?" Nyx questions, and Dean looks at her.

"You're lucky I'm even letting you pick what we listen to. Don't knock my music or I'll play something I know you'll hate." He tells her, and she glares at him. "If looks could kill, you might actually have a fighting chance out there in the real world."

"I thought you said I was getting better."

"I did, and you are." He nods. "But better isn't good enough if you want to survive this job, Nycole." He says, and she rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever."

"No, not whatever." He glances at her as he drives. "I'm serious."

Her dark eyes narrow as she looks over at him. "Aren't you always?"