CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The four hunters take Sarah back to Evelyn's house, and Sam kneels down to start picking the lock. "Uh, isn't this a crime scene​?" She asks.

"You've already lied to the cops. What's another infraction?" Dean says and then cuts the sticker telling them not to go inside.

Sam gets the door open, and then they all go back into the living room where the haunted painting is. He takes it off of the wall and sets it down on a couch. The father's looking​ down again, like he was the first time that they saw it.

"Aren't​ you worried that it's gonna, you know, kill us?" Sarah asks.

"No, it seems to do its thing at night. I think we're alright in daylight." Sam tells her.

"Hey, check it out." Dean says, and they all look over at him. "The razor, it's closed in this one, but it's open in that one." He hands the copy of the original painting to Sam.

"What are you guys looking for?" Sarah asks.

"If the spirit's changing aspects of the painting, maybe it's doing so for a reason."

"Look at that, the painting in the painting." Nyx points it out to Sam since they're both looking at them. "It looks like a crypt or a mausoleum or something." She says as Dean walks over to them and looks at it.

Dean grabs something to use as a magnifying glass. "Merchant." He reads the name on the crypt in the painting.

The five of them leave Evelyn's house in search of the Merchant family mausoleum, and that leads them to wandering different cemeteries in and around town.

"I have to pee." Nyx grumbles as they're walking through some grass in another cemetery.

"You just went." Dean says as he looks down at her.

The teenager narrows her eyes as she looks at him, then she moves over to walk beside him. His eyebrows furrow as she puts her hand on his stomach and starts pushing on different spots.

"Baby, what are you doing?" He questions.

"Looking for the little Gremlins that are dancing on your bladder, giving you room to talk." She then smacks his stomach. "Yep, there are none. So, shut your trap, Winchester." She tells him, and he chuckles as he wraps his arm around her, but she pushes him away.

"You're pregnant?" Sarah asks, surprised.

"Yes, ma'am." The brunette turns and lifts the oversized t-shirt that she's wearing. Sarah can now see the white spaghetti strap that's hugging the small baby bump there.

"How far along are you?"

"About nineteen weeks." She tells her as she fixes her shirt. "I wear Dean's shirts to hide the bump while we're hunting."

"Don't let her fool you, she's been stealing my clothes since long before we got together." Dean says, and Nyx smiles, pleased with herself.

"You don't look like you're nineteen weeks pregnant." Sarah tells her. "But I guess that's convenient."

"Very." The brunette nods, and then her boyfriend sighs.

"This is the third boneyard we've checked. This ghost is jerking us around." Dean says, clearly annoyed as they continue through the large cemetery. "And you..." He points at Nyx, making her raise her eyebrows. "Stop calling my kids Gremlins."

"You'd rather I refer to them different foods?" She questions, and Jeremy chuckles as he glances back at his older sister.

"Foods?" Sarah asks, confused.

"My doctor's a friend of mine. She texts me every week to tell me what size the babies are, and she uses food as a reference." Nyx explains. "I guess that's actually fairly common, but Dean here gets a kick out of it." She tells her.

"This week they're my little twin mangos." He smiles as he places his hand over Nyx's stomach, while his other arm wraps around her and pulls her closer to him. He kisses the top of her head. "They're not Gremlins."

"They are when they bounce on my bladder, and make me pee fifty times a day." She argues, taking his hand in hers as they continue walking.

"So, this is what you four do for a living?" Sarah asks as she looks at the younger of the Winchester men.

"Not exactly." Sam says. "We don't get paid."

"Well, mazel tov."

"Over there." Nyx says when she sees a crypt, and they walk over to it. It says Merchant on it, just like in the painting.

Dean uses the bolt cutters and opens the door. Then he goes through the webs before they follow him in.

"Okay, that right there is the creepiest thing I've ever seen." Sarah says, and they turn to her.

"It was sort of a tradition at the time." Sam says as they look at a doll that's in the crypt. "Whenever a child died, sometimes they'd preserve the kid's favorite toy in a glass case, put it next to the headstone in the crypt."

"That's definitely creepy." Jeremy says.

"Notice anything strange here?" Dean asks.

"You mean besides the fact that we were led here by a ghost trapped in a painting?" Nyx asks.

"Where do I start?" Sarah asks, and Sam chuckles.

"No, that's not what I mean. Look at the urns." Dean tells them.

"Yeah, there are only four." His brother says.

"Mom and the three kids. Daddy Dearest isn't here." Nyx says.

"So, where is he?" Dean questions.

They go to look for the death certificates of the Merchant family and see what happened to the father. Dean and Nyx go inside while Jeremy, Sam, and Sarah wait for them to finish and come back. When they walk out, Sam and Sarah look like they're in the middle of a pretty heavy conversation, and Jeremy's​ standing a few feet away from them, giving the pair some privacy. A concept that Dean apparently isn't familiar with.

"Are we interrupting something?" He asks as he bends down closer to their level and successfully​ startles them.

"You're such an ass." Nyx tells her boyfriend as Jeremy walks over to them.

"No." Sam answers his brother.

"Not at all." Sarah says.

"Apparently." Dean says, and Nyx smacks his arm.

"So, what'd you guys get?" Sam asks.

"Pay dirt." He says. "Apparently, the surviving Merchant family were so ashamed of Isaiah that they didn't want him interred with the family, so they handed him over to the county. The county gave him a pauper's funeral, economy-style."

"Turns out he wasn't​ cremated. He was buried in a pine box." Nyx tells them.

"So, there are bones to burn." Sam says.

"There are bones to burn." Dean confirms.

"Tell me you know where."

Dean just smiles at them, and Nyx laughs at the look on his face.

They wait until after nightfall before going to the cemetery to dig up Isaiah's grave. Nyx holds a flashlight with Sarah right beside her as the three boys trade off who digs.

Once it gets deep, Sam climbs out of the hole and walks over to Sarah as his brother keeps working. Jeremy's now standing on the opposite side of the grave, across from his older sister.

"You guys seem to be uncomfortably comfortable with this." Sarah says.

"Well... This isn't exactly the first grave we dug." Sam tells her.

"It's my first grave." Jeremy interjects, and his sister chuckles as she looks at him. He has dirt all over his clothes and some smeared on his face.

"It was difficult for me to wrap my head around at first too, but you get used to it the longer that you do the job." Nyx tells Sarah as she walks around to the other side of the grave, near her brother, and shines the light on where Dean's digging now.

He glances up at his girlfriend, and she smiles at him. "Thanks." He says.

"Still think I'm a catch?" Sam asks Sarah.

"Think I got something." Dean says before busting into the box that he found.

Sam helps him out of the hole as Nyx goes to grab the salt and gasoline. They pour both over the bones, getting ready to set them on fire.

"You've been a real pain in the ass, Isaiah." Dean says, lighting a match. "Good riddance." He tosses it in.

They then go back to Evelyn's house.

"Dean, keep the motor running." Sam says as he opens the car door.

"I thought the painting was harmless now." Sarah says.

"Better safe than sorry. We're gonna bury the sucker." He tells her.

"I want to come with you." She says as she gets out of the backseat as well.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, hey, hey." Dean calls, and Sam looks back at his brother. "We'll stay here. You go make your move."

Sam and Sarah start walking up to the house, and Dean turns the music on in the car. The younger of the boys turns back to them, and Nyx shuts off the radio. Dean sighs as he looks at her.

"Go, I'll keep him quiet." She tells Sam, and then he and Sarah go inside.

"Yeah? And how are you gonna do that?" Dean asks with a smirk, and she puts her hand on his face when he starts moving toward her. He sighs, nodding. "Yeah, alright."

"There's something seriously​ wrong with you." She says, and he chuckles as he rests his hand on her leg.

"There's something wrong with both of you." Jeremy says​ from the backseat, and she starts laughing​. He's so quiet, sometimes they forget​ he's even there.

The front door to Evelyn's house suddenly slams shut, and Dean turns his head when he hears the thud. He climbs out of the car, and Nyx quickly follows after him. They run up the porch steps, and try to open the door as Jeremy comes up behind them.

"Dean! Nycole! Hey, is that you?!" Sam yells from the other side of the door.

"Sammy, are you alright?!" Dean yells, then his phone starts ringing, and he quickly answers it. "Tell me you slammed the front door."

Nyx looks up at him, annoyed that she can't hear Sam.

"Girl? What girl?"

Jeremy's watching his sister as she starts bouncing on her feet, watching Dean as he tries to get the door unlocked.

"Wasn't the dad looking down at her? Maybe he was trying to warn us." Dean says.

The youngest walks over to his sister. "He couldn't get that open by breaking it down yesterday, right?" He asks, and she shakes her head. "So, it has to be unlocked to get in or out?"

"I'm trying to pick the lock, but the door won't budge." He tells his younger brother.

"Sometimes deadbolts aren't the only things keeping a door shut, Jer." Nyx says.

"Okay, genius, let me grab my battering ram!" The oldest says sarcastically; Nycole really hates not knowing what's going on.

"A spirit can seal a house shut?" Jeremy asks, and she nods as she looks up at him.

"You're gonna have to hold it off until we figure something out. Get some salt or iron." Dean tells his brother.

"Jeremy, help me try to find another way into the house." Nyx says, and they start looking around at the windows on the sides.

"I don't see anything." The youngest tells her.

"Why are there bars on these damn windows?" She questions as she looks at them.

"Nyx, Jeremy, come on. We're going back to the mausoleum." Dean calls from the front, and they run over to the car.

On the way there, he explains that the creepy doll they were talking about before was most likely made with the daughter's real hair after she died — she's the spirit that's haunting the painting, and those are the remains they can burn to get rid of her. The two Gilberts both find that information incredibly disturbing.

The three of them get to the cemetery and run​ for the mausoleum as fast as they can. Dean tries to break the glass in front of the doll with his fist, but he doesn't have any luck. He pulls out his gun and starts hitting it with that. Nyx looks around for anything else that might work to bust it open so he can torch the damn thing.

"Wait." The brunette then pulls her own gun out. He looks at her as she backs up and aims the gun​ at the glass.

"That's my girl." Dean says as he backs​ away from the glass. "Jeremy, move."

She aims it just right and then turns her head so she's not facing it. She's careful not to move her hand and then she pulls the trigger. They hear the glass shatter, and then Dean uses his gun to knock down the rest of it.

He pulls the doll out of the case and tries setting its hair on fire, but his lighter isn't working. Nyx then pulls hers out of her pocket, and walks over to him. She lights it and then puts the flame next to the doll's hair. Dean drops it once the hair ignites and starts giving off smoke.

"Since when do you carry a lighter on you?" Dean asks as he looks at his girlfriend.

"I stole it from Jeremy last June before I left town. I didn't like that he was smoking, and figured he'd have to stop at least until he got a new one." She tells him. "I've had it ever since, but it's usually with my stuff in the motel."

"I was wondering what happened to that." Jeremy says, and his sister smiles at him.

"Well, I'm glad you had it today." Dean says, and she chuckles. He then pulls his phone out and calls his brother to check in on them. "They're alright." He tells them, and they leave the crypt after putting the doll's hair out.

—

"This was archived in the county records." Dean says as they walk over to his brother and Sarah in the Blake auction house. "The Merchant's adopted daughter — Melanie. Know why she was up for adoption?"

"Her biological family was murdered​ in their beds." Nyx tells them, and Sam scoffs.

"She killed them?" Sarah asks.

"Yeah. Who would suspect her? A sweet little girl." Dean says. "So, then she kills Isaiah and his family. The old man takes the blame. His spirit's been trying to warn people ever since."

"Where's this one go?" A worker asks Sarah. It's the Merchant family portrait.

"Take it out back and burn it." She tells him, and Nyx chuckles. "I'm serious, guys. Thanks​." She says, and the workers walk off, obviously confused.

"I definitely like you." Nyx says, and she chuckles as she looks at the younger girl.

"So, why'd the girl do it?" She asks.

"Killing others, killing herself. Some people are just born tortured." Sam says. "So, when they die, their spirits are just as dark."

"Maybe. I don't really care." Dean says, and Nyx shakes her head. "It's over. We move on."

Sarah sighs. "I guess this means you're leaving." She says, and Sam sighs.

"We'll be at the car." Nyx says as she takes Dean's hand in hers. "Bye, Sarah." She smiles, and Jeremy follows them outside.

"Bye, Sarah." Dean says as they leave.

Sam and Sarah walk out a couple of minutes later, and Sarah calls Nycole, so the teenager walks over to talk to her.

"Earlier, you made it sound like you haven't been doing this for very long, or at least not as long as they have." Sarah motions to the older boys at the car.

"I haven't. They've been doing this their whole lives, I just met Dean about a year ago." Nyx tells her.

"But Sam said you guys are married."

"Yeah, because Sam's a pain in the ass. He thinks telling people that is funny because it makes us a little uncomfortable." She tells her, and Sarah laughs. "We're together, yes, but we're definitely not married."

"So, how do you do it?" She asks. "How do you do this job every day?"

Nyx takes a deep breath. "It's not easy, and this job isn't for everyone. There are a lot of bad days and we see a lot of bad things. But they are what keeps me going." The girls look over at the boys for a second, and then Nyx turns back to her. "I lost both of my parents on the same day in an accident. Being without them both... I very quickly lost myself, but then I met Dean. He was working a job, just like we were doing here, and he helped me find a stronger, better version of myself. Someone that I could actually be proud of again." She explains.

"But how did you just leave your old life behind? Don't you ever miss it?"

She nods. "Yeah, I do. But not for the reasons you think​. I go home and I see my brother and sister, my family, and my friends. I miss who I was before the accident, but I'm not that girl anymore." She tells her. "I'm better out here than I am anywhere else. I'm better with the two of them." She smiles, remembering Stefan's words. "But that doesn't mean I can never go home."

She nods. "Well, good luck, Nycole." Sarah says, and she smiles at her.

"Same to you."

Nyx starts back toward the boys, and Sam walks past her. He goes over to Sarah, and Nycole makes her way over to Dean.

"What'd she wanna know?" He asks.

"How I left home."

"And you said?"

"I repeated the words of a friend of mine... I'm better off with you than anything else."

Her answer takes him by surprise. "Who told you that?"

"That's what Stefan told Damon when he told his brother to stay away from me." She smiles. "I didn't realize how right he was until just now."

They look over at Sam and Sarah, and they see them kissing. They both chuckle and then get in the car, and Nyx decides to sit in the front seat with Dean, which means Sam's gonna have to take the backseat with Jeremy for a while.