Mary’s been bugging me for a couple of days. I should be finishing up Gabriel’s amazing pagan transformation, but here I am writing about the beloved missus Winchester. Le sigh.
Although this is set in the Wrapped Up ‘Verse, this piece is part of my personal head canon for the series and is therefore written without actually mentioning anything that happens in-verse.
prompt: DEATH
series: Wrapped Up In You
timeline: Waiting for the End
characters: Mary Winchester
words: 707
summary: (that which comes after)
———————————————
There are a number of ghosts, spirits, and poltergeist who are unable to tell that they are dead; that they are something that doesn’t fit into the living world. This is part of what makes them rage against the living so hard, and it is what makes them dangerous. That dangerous is what gives hunters a reason to hunt. Years ago, Mary Winchester had been a hunter; back when she had been Mary Campbell. She had been a damn good one, too, regardless of how it had all come to an end.
So she knows very well that she’s dead.
She never wanted to leave John and Dean and baby Sammy behind, never wanted her boys to grow up without their mother, or for John to have to learn to live on his own. They may have had their fights, but she loved him deeply.
But Mary is no fool, and she knows that it’s that sort of thinking that creates the ghosts and spirits she’d hunted all her life. She was ready for the Reaper to come and collect, although the Reaper wasn’t quite as ready as she was. Apparently it had expected to have to debate her down in order to get her to cross over.
That was how it was with the vast majority of hunters, and given that most of those died in the line of duty, that didn’t surprise Mary. She’d laughed a little and reached out to take the Reaper’s hand.
The Reaper didn’t get the chance to collect.
Apparently Mary’s ghost wasn’t the only thing left behind by that yellow eyed bastard. The being that was left in his wake was all darkness and malevolence, and apparently capable of possessing an unsuspecting Reaper. Mary couldn’t possibly leave that beast in her home, not with the way it attacked anyone who stepped through the doors. It fed off their fear, their anxiety, and their pain, and with the power of a reaper at it’s finger tips it could cause a lot of damage to it’s targets.
Targets that Mary did her best to shield and protect. Most of them weren’t even aware that there was something in the house with them, chalking up disturbances to problems and damage left by the fire. Even John, was finally let back into the house to collect their surviving belongings, assume that something crashing to the ground where his foot had been moments before was just structural damage. She kind of wanted to smack him upside the head for being so obtuse.
He wasn’t quite as obtuse when he caught a glimpse of her. Their eyes met through a mirror as she threw herself between him and the spirit. She knows that John damn near broke his neck whipping around to try and see her, but she hadn’t learned how to cross over into the physical world that early on. She grappled with the spirit and managed to keep it away from John until he left.
She’s careful to avoid reflective surfaces the next time John comes to the house.
He doesn’t come back a third time.
Mary doesn’t know what happened to her husband after that. She saw cleaning crews for the first few weeks, followed by the police when John turns up missing. He’s taken Sam and Dean with him and run, she learns. She’s kind of grateful for that. It’s hard enough to control the poltergeist around strangers, and she worries that it had been left behind to kill the rest of her family.
She knows that she would over extend herself if they were still here, and then where would they be?
She misses her family dearly, but she’s glad they’re not here. John will take care of them, raise them up right. They’d grow up strong and kind, and maybe they’ll be a little stubborn, but they’d come by that naturally. Both she and John could hold a grudge, after all. Despite that, and despite whatever damage that demon has done to her baby boy, they’ll be good boys. She’s sure of it.
She can feel the poltergeist stirring once again, and she sets herself for battle. She just needs to hold out here until a hunter can come along and rid her of her new companion.