CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Hey." Sam gets Nyx and Dean's attention as they start to walk past him.

"Hey. What do you got?" His brother asks.

"I couldn't find a Mordechai, but I did turn up a Martin Murdoch who lived in that house in the thirties. He did have children, but only two of them — both boys. There was no record he ever killed anyone." He tells them. "What about you two?"

"Those kids didn't give a clear description of the dead girl, but we did hit up the police station. No matching missing persons. It's like she never existed." Dean says. "We did our digging, this one's a bust."

"For all we know, those Hellhound boys made up the whole thing." Nyx says as they get to the car.

"Yeah, alright." Sam agrees.

"I say we find ourselves a bar and some beers, and leave the legend to the locals." Dean says as he opens the driver's side door.

He gets into the car, and Sam waves his hand, trying to get Nyx's attention. She looks at him, and he puts his hands over his ears, motioning for her to do the same.

She gives him a puzzled look, but puts her hands over her ears anyway. He leans down to look at his brother, who's about to start the car. Nyx looks into the car and immediately after Dean turns the key in the ignition, Mexican music blasts from the speakers, and he jumps as he fumbles, trying to quickly turn it down.

"What the..." He trails off, and Sam laughs as she removes her hands from her head.

"One. Me." Sam says as they get in the car, making a tally mark in the air.

"That's all you got? That's weak." Dean tells him. "That is bush-league."

The next morning, the hunters head to the Murdoch house after hearing that something happened there last night. They walk up outside and see two EMT's putting a body into the back of an ambulance.

"What happened?" Dean asks a guy that's already standing there, watching the commotion.

"Couple of cops say that poor girl hung herself in the house."

"Suicide?" Sam asks as Nyx's eyebrows furrow.

"Yeah." He says. "She was a straight A student with a full ride to UT too. It doesn't make sense." He tells them before walking away, and Nycole sighs.

"What do you think?" The younger boy asks, and his brother looks at him.

"I think maybe we missed something."

They decide to go back later that night, but there are cops everywhere.

"I guess the cops don't want any more kids screwing around in there." Sam says; the three of them are hiding in a bush.

"Yeah, but we still gotta get in there." Nyx says, and they hear sticks cracking.

"I don't believe it." Dean mutters.

She turns around to see Ed and Harry — Cameraman and Sidekick — trying to sneakily make their way toward the house.

"Fantastic." Nyx says sarcastically.

"I got an idea." Dean says as he stands up a little. He cups his hands around his mouth and faces the two idiots. "Who you gonna call?!"

The cops turn around and see them walking. "Hey! You! Freeze!" One of them yells as they start to chase them.

"I definitely wouldn't call Dumb and Dumber, that's for damn sure." Nyx mutters as they quickly run for the house.

The hunters make it inside and close the door behind them. Sam then gives Nyx and his brother both a rifle filled with rock salt, and Dean shines his flashlight on the symbol that he was asking about yesterday.

"Where have I seen that before? It's killing me." The oldest says.

"Focus. I don't really feel like dying tonight." She tells him.

"Come on. We don't have much time." Sam says, and they head down to the basement to start looking around there since that's where the girl died.

Dean picks up one of the jars on the shelf and looks at the contents floating in some mystery liquid. "Hey, Sam, I dare you to take a swig of this." He says, and Nyx shakes her head.

"The hell would I do that for?" Sam questions.

"I double dare you." He says with a smile.

"Grow up." Nycole says, and then they hear a noise.

They all immediately walk over to where it came from and aim their guns at an old cabinet. Sam opens it and rats run out squealing.

"I hate rats." Dean says as he backs up.

"You'd rather it was a ghost?" Sam asks.

"Yes."

"Wish granted." Nyx says when she turns around and sees a man holding up an axe.

She raises her gun and fires off a shot of the rock salt. Sam shoots too, but it doesn't work. It just goes right through the body as they shoot again.

"What the hell kind of spirit is immune to rock salt?" Nyx questions.

"I don't​ know." Dean says. "Come on, come on, come on!" He yells, and they start for the stairs.

The ghost slams the axe down hard, and breaks the shelves with the weird mystery fluids on them. Dean falls to the ground, and then Sam and Nyx quickly move back.

Murdoch takes a swing​ at Nyx, and she ducks just in time to not get her head cut off. It then goes after​ Sam, and he uses the rifle to block the axe from killing him.

"Go!" Sam yells. "Get out of here!"

She runs for the stairs after Dean, and then hears Sam coming up right behind her. They make it out of the basement and then run out of the house. The three hunters burst through the door and fall off the porch because of how fast they're running.

"Get that out of my​ face!" Dean yells as they get up off of the ground and continue running.

"Move it! Go! Go!" Sam yells behind Nyx, helping her keep pace with his brother.

They head back to the motel to get some sleep, and the next morning Nyx's laying on her stomach on one of the two beds with Dean sitting next to her; he's drawing on a notepad. Sam's​ sitting at the table and he's doing some research.

Her phone starts vibrating in her back pocket and she pulls it out, then answers it. "Hello?" She didn't even bother looking to see who it is. Her eyes are still closed.

"Hey, it's been a while." Jeremy's voice comes through the phone, and she smiles. "How are you guys doing?"

"We're alright." She tells him. "We're working a job in Texas right now. How are you doing at the grill?"

"It sucks. I actually wanted to ask you something."

"What's up?"

"I was thinking — can I come and visit with you for a while?"

"I'm not on vacation, Jer." She says. "What we do is dangerous. I don't want you getting caught up in the middle of it."

"I don't wanna hunt." He tells her. "I can stay at the motel while you guys are working or just look around whatever town we're in."

She takes a deep breath. "Let me think about it, and talk to the guys. I'll call you back, alright?"

"Alright. Love you, Cole."

"I love you too, kid." She hangs up.

"What's he want?" Dean asks.

"To come and travel with us for a while." She tells him as she rolls onto her back and looks over at him. "What do you think?"

"You wanted to go back to Mystic Falls for your birthday. We could pick him up then."

"Maybe." She says as he continues drawing on that small sheet of paper.

"Damn. What the hell is this symbol? It's bugging the hell out of me." He says, and she sits up before leaning over to look at it. "This whole damn job's bugging me. I thought the legend said that Mordechai only goes after chicks, not that I wanted him to go after you."

"Mhm." She mumbles.

"That is what it says." Sam says.

"Well, that explains why it went after you two, but why me?" Dean asks.

"Hilarious." He says as Nyx smacks his brother's chest. "Legend also says he hung himself, but did you see those slit wrists?"

"No, I was too busy trying not to get hit with an axe." She says, and Dean pulls her to him so she's leaning against him.

"The axe too." Sam says as she pushes Dean's face away from hers, and grabs the paper he was drawing on. "Ghosts are usually pretty strict, right, following the same patterns over and over?"

"His mood keeps changing." Dean says.

"Exactly." He says. "I'm telling you, the way the story goes— Wait a minute." He sounds confused so they both look over at him.

"What?" Nyx asks.

"Someone added a new posting to the Hellhound site." He says. "Listen to this, they say Mordechai Murdoch was really a Satanist who chopped up his victims with an axe before slitting his own wrists. Now, he's imprisoned in the house for eternity." He reads. "Where the hell is this going?"

Dean takes the drawing back from Nycole, and she looks at him. "What?" She asks as he looks down at the blue ink.

"I think I might have just figured out where it all started." He says, and Sam turns and looks at them. "Come on." He motions for her to get up, and she quickly does.

They go back to the music shop to talk to the guy who told them the legend in the first place. "Hey, Craig. Remember us?" Dean asks, and the teenage boy turns to face them.

"Guys, look, I'm really not in the mood to answer any more of your questions, okay?" He says.

"Don't worry. We're just here to buy an album, that's all." He lies as he goes through the albums to find the one that he's looking for. "You know, I couldn't figure out what that symbol was, and then I realized it could mean anything. It's a logo for Blue Oyster Cult." He says as they walk over to Craig. "Tell me, Craig, you into BOC or just scaring the hell out of people?"

Craig takes the album and then looks at the back with the symbol that Dean's been obsessing over for days now. He sighs as he lowers the album and looks back at the three hunters.

"Why don't you tell us about that house, without lying through your ass this time?" Dean says.

Craig sighs and looks down. "My cousin, Dana, was on a break from TCU." He says as he looks at them. "I guess we were just bored, looking for something to do, so I showed her this abandoned dump I found. We thought it'd be funny if we made it look like it was haunted. So, we painted symbols on the walls, some from albums, some from some of Dana's theology textbooks. Then we found out this guy Murdoch used to live there, so we— We made up some story to go along with that. So, they told people who told other people. And then these two guys put it on their stupid website. Everything just took on a life of its own. I mean, I thought it was funny at first, but... Now, that girl's dead. It was just a joke, you know? None of it was real. We made the whole thing up. I swear."

"Alright." Dean says, and they start walking away from him. "If none of it was real, how the hell do you explain Mordechai?" He asks his brother and their friend.

—

"Hey, I'm back." Dean calls, and Nyx looks at him for a second. He's doing something to his brother's clothes.

"I don't even want to know." She shakes her head as she lays down on the bed and faces away from him.

"Where were you?" Sam calls from the bathroom; he just got out of the shower.

"Oh, I went out." The older boy says.

"So, I think I might have a theory about what's going on."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. What if Mordechai is a tulpa?"

"Tulpa?" Nyx asks as she sits up.

"Yeah, a Tibetan thought form." Sam says as he walks out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Hey, whoa, whoa." Dean walks over to his girlfriend and puts his hand over her eyes.

"What are you doing?" She questions.

"He's not wearing any clothes."

"I have a towel on." Sam says as he looks at his brother like he's crazy.

"It's not like I haven't seen him without a shirt before. I've been living with him for close to eight months now." Nyx reminds him.

"I don't care." Dean says as he makes her get up off of the bed, still covering her eyes. "Get dressed, and we'll go grab something to eat."

"What if I face away from him? Then will you let me go?"

"Yeah. When we're outside."

"How have you not driven me completely crazy yet?" She mutters as he closes the door behind them. "You never cared before."

"Maybe I did." He argues as she leans against the wall beside the door.

"Is someone feeling insecure?" She jokes as she holds onto the front of his jacket.

"Yeah, right." He laughs, but she can see that something a little more is going on here. "I have nothing to worry about. I know how obsessed you are with me." He says, and she scoffs.

"Okay." She says sarcastically​.

He smiles as he leans down and kisses her cheek. "Don't lie."

"I think it's you who's obsessed with me." She argues as he leans against her, pinning her body to the wall.

"Maybe I just don't think my younger brother should be half naked in front of my girlfriend." He reasons, and she pauses as she looks up at him.

"We could start getting separate rooms, if you want." She suggests.

"Costs more." He says. "He can just get dressed in the bathroom, like you've always done."

"Listen, if it really bothers you, I'm not gonna give you a hard time. But I do think maybe this is a conversation we should include Sam in." She says. "Establish clearer boundaries, make sure that there's no confusion anywhere on certain rules and dynamics."

"Probably." He stands up straight before leaning down to kiss her, making her smile as she wraps her arms around his neck.

"But I can promise you one thing." Nyx starts, and he lifts his head to look down at her. "The only one I wanna see half naked is you. Fully naked is good too." She says, and he laughs.

"Oh, yeah? When?"

"Let's finish this case and then kick your brother out of the room for a few hours?" She smiles, and he nods.

"I'll kick him out right now." He tells her, and she chuckles.

"I know you would." She shakes her head at him. "But you do know that I only have eyes for you, right? Not for Damon, no guys in bars, and certainly not for your brother. Seeing Sam just now was basically the same as me seeing Jeremy in a swimsuit."

"I like that comparison." He says, and she smirks. "But I do know that. I didn't mean to make you think I'm that insecure. I think what you said is right though, just establishing boundaries."

"I don't think you're insecure." She shakes her head. "It's— No, it's nothing."

"Don't go back to that. I thought we were communicating better."

"We are. It's not what you did in the room. It's..." She sighs as she looks up at him, and he raises his eyebrows as he waits for her to continue. "I'm a little insecure."

He blinks, confused. "You think that I'm looking—"

"No. No, um... Insecure might be the wrong word. Maybe paranoid." She says as the door opens, and Sam walks out of the room.

"Paranoid about what?" Dean asks.

"My evil, manipulative doppelganger showing up, pretending to be me and putting more nonsense into your head — either of your heads." She says as she looks between the two boys.

"Has this been bothering you since we had that conversation after you got out of the hospital?"

"This has been bothering me for months." She tells him. "She pretended to be me while I was with you so she could get into my house and try to kill John, and just for fun, she kissed Damon and screwed with his head. And there have been a few times that she's pretended to be both me and my sister for multiple reasons between then and now. The last time she did it, she lied to you, and before that..." She closes her eyes as she looks down.

"Before that what?" He places his fingers under her chin and gently lifts her head; she looks up at him with glassy eyes.

"Klaus called Jenna and had Katherine pretend to be me while I was with you, before the sacrifice." She tells him. "She lured Jenna out so that Klaus could kidnap and turn her... I just want you and I to be clear on everything so there's no room for confusion."

"Nyx, I..." He takes a deep breath as he brushes her hair back, then he cups her face in his hands as he looks into her eyes. "I'm not confused about us. I know where you and I stand, and if I suddenly hear something that makes no sense, and it doesn't sound like something you would say — I know it's not you. Okay? There's no confusion." He tells her, and she nods.

"Good." She says, and he pulls her into his arms before looking at his brother.

"Can you do me a favor?" Dean asks. "Start taking your clothes with you when you shower, get dressed in there. I don't actually give a shit if you're shirtless in front of her, but at least be wearing more than a towel."

Sam nods. "Yeah, you got it." He agrees, and they then head to the local diner to get some coffee.

The younger boy's walking weird as the three of them make their way over to a table, and Nyx's eyebrows furrow as she watches him move uncomfortably, but she doesn't say anything.

"Dude, what's your problem?" Dean finally asks.

"Nothing, I'm fine." Sam says, obviously lying.

"Alright, so keep going. What about these tulpas?" Dean asks as they all sit down.

"Okay, so, there was this incident in Tibet in 1915. A group of monks visualize​ a golem in their heads. They meditate on it so hard, they bring the thing to life out of thin air."

"So?"

"That was twenty monks. Imagine what ten thousand web servers can do." He says. "I mean, Craig starts the story about Mordechai, then it spreads, goes online. Now, there are countless people all believing in the bastard."

"Okay, wait a second. You're trying to tell us that just because people believe in Mordechai, he's real?" Dean questions.

"I don't know. Maybe."

"People believe in Santa Claus. How come I'm not getting hooked up every Christmas?"

"Because you don't make the nice list." Nyx says, and Dean narrows his eye as he looks at her; she smiles at him.

"'Cause you're a bad person, and 'cause of this." Sam says, and she laughs at the first part. He turns​ his laptop and shows them a picture. "That's a Tibetan spirit sigil on the wall of the house."

"Craig said they were painting symbols from a theology textbook." The brunette says, and he nods.

"I bet you they painted this, not even knowing what it was." He says. "That sigil has been used for centuries, concentrating meditative thoughts like a magnifying glass. So, people are on the Hellhounds website, staring at the symbol, thinking about Mordechai. I mean, I don't know, but it might be enough to bring a tulpa to life."

"It would explain why it keeps changing." Dean says as Sam continues to move uncomfortably in his chair.

Nyx nudges Dean's foot with hers, and he looks at her. She motions toward Sam with her head, and Dean just smiles and winks at her. She shakes her head, now knowing that it's a part of their stupid prank war.

"As the legend changes, people think different things, so Mordechai himself changes, like a game of telephone. That would also explain why the rock salt didn't work." Sam continues, unaware of the exchange between Dean and Nyx.

"Yeah, 'cause he's not a traditional spirit." Dean says. "Okay, so why don't we just get this spirit-sigil thingy off the wall and off the website?"

"It's not that simple." He says. "You see, once tulpas are created, they take on a life of their own."

"Great." He sighs. "So, if he really is a thought form, how the hell are we supposed to kill an idea?"

"Well, it's not gonna be easy with these guys helping us. Check out their homepage." Sam starts typing on his computer and he pulls up the Hellhounds website. "Since they posted the video, the number of hits have quadrupled in the last day alone."

They were recording when they were there last night. That's what Dean was talking about when he yelled to get something out of his face. Cameraman was videotaping as the hunters ran out.

"Now can I hit them?" Nyx asks, and her boyfriend looks at her.

"Um... No." He shakes his head and then stands up. "I got an idea. Come on."

"Where are we going?" Sam asks.

"Find a copy store."

"Man, I think I'm allergic to our soap or something." Sam says, and Dean starts laughing. "You did this?" He questions.

"Damn prank war." Nyx mumbles.

"You're a friggin' jerk!" He calls after him as his brother walks away from them.

"And he wonders why Santa doesn't bring him anything on Christmas." She says, and Sam shakes his head as he follows her in the direction that Dean went.