Supernatural, Hunting, Living and Love (Revisited) Part 2

It has been a year since I met the Winchesters. I tried so hard to get back to life as it was before the Winchesters but knowing there were things out there that could kill me at any moment made it difficult for me to concentrate on anything else. So, I decided to hit the road. I packed up my most important belongings into my car, dropped out of university and began looking for other hunters. It’s not like the Winchesters left me a how-to guide on hunting monsters. I travelled around leaving messages for hunters everywhere I could think of monster books in libraries, on notice boards, online chat boards everywhere. It took 2 months, but I was finally contacted by a guy named Johnny. Johnny owned a roadhouse out near Broken Hill which was one of many hubs for hunters. Johnny gave me a list of known hunters’ hubs, a list of tools I would need and a job to get me started. ‘An easy find and burn’ he said. He recommended I stick to jobs at the hubs for now and that I would slowly learn what to look for to find my own jobs. Which is how I got to the job I was working today.

I had driven through the night to get back to Sydney to the suburb of Blacktown where my story began. This was the first time I had been back since everything that happened with the boys. It was also a similar case that brought me back. A ghost was causing accidents at the local pool and had so far caused 11 deaths. Something needed to be done soon. The latest incident occurred the week before. A kid who was paraplegic had seemingly stood up from her wheelchair climbed up onto a diving board and drove headfirst onto the cement below. The ghost was ramping up putting the case at the top of my list. Before I got working on the case though I wanted to book into a hotel, have a hot shower, eat and sleep. I found a hotel close to the pool with vaccines and pulled in. I pulled up to the office and hopped out of my car. I walked in and managed to book a room quite quickly without much fuss. I walked back out to my car and drove over to my given room. As I parked a certain car caught my eye. Everything else was quickly forgotten as I ran to the room the car was parked in front of. I stopped to catch my breath before knocking on the door.

“Well, well look who we have here” Dean crossed his arms as he opened the door smirk on his face.

“Hay Dean” I smiled.

“Y/N is that you?” Sam asked.

“In the flesh,” I said, “What brings you two back to town?”

“Working this case, a friend of ours called us after he got a call from a friend here, some ghost killing a bunch of people at a pool,” Dean said.

“What a coincidence I’m working that case too, it’s been on my radar for the last 3 months but it’s really ramped up in the last month so I figured I should probably get my ass back here and take care of it”.

“I thought I told you to stay away from all this” Dean suddenly got mad.

“I tried Dean, I really did I just couldn’t shake it, I was second-guessing everything and everyone and I felt like I needed to do this to feel safe” I recoiled at his words.

“I told you there were other people like us doing this job so you could be safe, trust me this isn’t the life you want”.

“You packed up and went back to the States, you left me here where there are barely any hunters what do you expect me to do?” I snapped back.

“I expected you to listen to me” Dean yelled jabbing a finger to the ground.

I flinched away from Dean. Something he immediately noticed. I could tell from the look on his face that Dean regretted his actions. He tried reaching out to touch my arm, but I moved back away from him. He sighed and moved out of the doorway allowing me into the room. Sam motioned for me to come over to the sole table in the room where he was busy working away on his laptop. Dean on the other hand moved to sit on his bed on the opposite side of the room. Sam ran me through everything they had found so far. He told me about a friend of theirs named Bobby who had been contacted by a hunter here who was in over their heads on the case. It was something I had noticed too and had only served to motivate me more to become a hunter. I had found myself over the last year picking up the harder cases that other hunters struggled to complete. I had made contacts in all the hunters’ roadhouses in Australia and had hardly had a day to myself since. I told Sam about Johnny a name he instantly recognised, apparently, he had been the one to call Bobby to request the boy's help after many other hunters had come up short.

“What have you found so far?” I asked Sam.

“Well, I found out that the earliest accident recorded at the pool was 2 months after it opened,” Sam said.

“I found that too during my initial research, she was running, slipped on the wet floor and became impaled on a sign pole, not a nice way to go but doesn’t seem like something to create a vengeful spirit either”.

“My thoughts exactly” Sam sighed “But I can’t find anything about the place being built on a burial ground or sacred site or anything”.

“So, what you saying is there is no reason for these deaths to be amping up at this joint?” Dean finally joined the conversation.

“Well, none we can find” I said, “This is why I avoid the case for so long, every time I’ve looked at it I haven’t been able to find a reason, nothing I know of could be causing this, nothing Johnny knows of could be causing this, maybe Bobby might know something?”

“I’ll call him,” Sam said.

Sam grabbed his phone and left the room. I looked at Dean with confusion. We were working this case together so why would Sam leave the room? Dean mumbled something about Sam thinking best when he was walking around. I just shrugged and stayed at the table waiting for Sam to come back. Dean and I had fallen into an uncomfortable silence. I knew he wasn’t happy with me being here and giving everything up to be a hunter, but I didn’t see any other choice. I knew the dangers; I knew a life as a hunter was a short life but if it meant I made a difference while I was still here then so be it. Dean needed to know this.

“Dean…”

“Save it, I know I’m not going to be able to change your mind, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you leave my side” Dean looked over at me “I wanted to save you from this life, I wanted you to walk away and never look back, I don’t want you to end up broken like me”.

“It’s not like I have anything to lose, my father abandoned me, my mother and I barely talk, and I don’t exactly have any other family, just friends and as far as they know I came into a small fortune and I’m off travelling the world” I sighed.

“Sounds like every hunter origin story I’ve heard before” Dean chuckled coldly.

“Why what’s your story?” I asked.

“Mum died, Dad abandoned us then he died, I’m one of the lucky ones though because I got Sammy and I guess now I have your dumbass to look out for too”. Dean smiled over at me.

“You make that sound like a bad thing” I laughed.

“Oh, it is, you’re a pain in my ass” Dean laughed too.

“Who me? Nah I’m delightful”.

It was then that Sam walked back into the room. He was greeted by the site of Dean and I laughing our asses off completely different from how he had left us. He looked between us before awkwardly starting to explain that Bobby would investigate the situation, contact some other hunters in the area he knew and call Sam back if he found anything. Until then Dean decided it would be best if we grabbed some food and called it a night. Dean left Sam and me to clean up the table while he went to get the world’s smallest McDonald’s burgers. Sam and I just shook our heads at him and continued to clean the table. We talked about what the guys had been up to since they were last here and everything I had done. He was quite impressed at just how quickly I had learnt to look for signs that something was out of the ordinary and my ability to research and remove the problem. Turns out they had heard from Bobby that there was a badass new hunter on the scene out here but had no clue it was me. It didn’t take us long to clean off the table and for Dean to return with food. He dumped the bags on the table and began tossing burgers at each of us. He then started cursing when he reached for the fries to find they had all fallen out in the bag. Sam and I just shook our heads at Dean and started on our burgers while Dean fixed the fries. After we had eaten, we all agreed that we should get some sleep while we waited for Bobby to get back to us. Sam went off to shower first while Dean kicked off his shoes and flopped into bed. I on the other hand moved for the door planning on sleeping in my car for the night.

“Where are you staying?” Dean suddenly asked stopping me in my tracks.

“Probably going to sleep in my car until this one is over why?” I asked turning towards Dean.

“You can’t be serious”.

“Well, normally I would look for a free camping ground but we’re in the middle of a city, luckily I recently found this really cool blow-up bed thing, you move your seats forward and put it in the back seat and it acts like a real bed, it's comfy to sleep on too” I started to ramble.

“Like hell you’re sleeping in your car, take my bed and I’ll take the couch” Dean grumbled getting up from his bed.

 “Dean I can’t kick you to the lounge again” I sighed.

“Nonsense hunters need a safe place to sleep”.

“We don’t exactly get paid Dean; I do odd jobs in the towns I’m in between or sometimes even during hunts just to get enough to eat and to put fuel in my car I can’t afford a hotel room”.

“And that’s where credit card scams come into it” Dean smirked.

“How? I mean you would need fake IDs and birth certificates not to mention the limits, eventually they would cut the card off”.

“Bobby hooks us up with a whole host of fake IDs cops, FBI, CIA, you name it, the trick with credit cards is to get the card with the highest amount of money on it, for instance, a card with a limit of $10,000 before repayments are needed then use it for the case and before you get out of dodge you withdraw the remain amount, that way when they come looking for Mr Hector Rodriguez it looks like he never left the town”

“Jesus Dean that’s insane”.

“That’s the life” Dean shrugged making himself comfy on the lounge.

I took my shoes off and made myself comfy on the bed while waiting for Sam to be done with the shower. The plan was to use the bathroom to change but I guess I must have been more tired than I thought because I nodded off. I awoke the next morning to an empty room. Dean’s Impala was gone too. They must have heard back from Bobby and had headed off to chase a lead. Kinda sucked that they didn’t wake me up first but nothing I could do about that now. I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV mostly for background noise before heading to my car to grab a change of clothes. Clothes in hand I headed for the shower. I always found the shower to be the best place to organise my day. I turned the water on, making the heat as high as possible before it became intolerable. As the shower screen fogged I began to write out my plan for the day. First I would need to find some breakfast, then I would need to find the guys. The hang-up there was I didn’t have either of their numbers to call them and I certainly wasn’t going to be driving aimlessly around a huge ass city to find them. I washed myself down and begrudgingly turned off the water. I exited the shower and went to grab a towel when to my horror I realized there were only 2 towels. I dug through the room but came up empty-handed when it came to another towel. I returned to the bathroom and looked at the two towels on the rack. At this point, I was almost dry so I grabbed the obviously unused towel and quickly dried what wasn’t dry, hanging the towel back up as neat as possible when I was done. Once I was dry and dressed I grabbed my phone and keys before heading out to my car. I was honestly quite surprised that Dean had managed to pick which car was his and which was mine. The engine revved to life as I made myself comfortable in the car. I drove to Mcdonalds' to grab a breakfast deal. Once I had a full stomach I figured I might as well continue investigating the case on my own. I went through the drive-through and was told to wait for my food to be ready. As I was waiting I pulled out my phone to continue my research. It was then I noticed I had a text message from Dean which caught me off guard considering I never put his number in my phone.

Hay sleeping beauty when you get this give me a call. If I don’t answer I put Sammy’s number in your phone too.

I chuckled to myself before hitting the dial. After a couple of rings, Dean picked up.

“Hay enjoy your sleep?” Dean laughed

“It was great thank you, your bed is very comfy”

“At least someone is enjoying my bed” Dean chuckled

“Yeah you should really try it sometime, it's so comfy and warm, would put you straight to sleep” I taunted

“Pfft who would want an awesome bed when they have a perfect lounge to sleep on”

“Where are you anyway?” I laughed on the phone

“About to head to the pool” Dean sighed “We’ve exhausted the library they have nothing on the pool that we didn’t already know so seems the only place left is the pool”

“Have fun with that, I’m getting breakfast, oh look and here it comes” I squealed winding down the window

“Yeah, yeah stuff your face then get your ass over here” Dean chuckled hanging up the phone

I took my food with a thank you before pulling around into the parking lot. I parked my car before starting my breakfast. It didn’t take me long to finish my food. I tossed my rubbish in a close by bin and began the short drive to the pool. When I arrived I parked towards the back of the lot and headed inside. It annoyed me more than it should of that I had to pay to enter the pool even though I had no intention of swimming. But being that I was on my own it would have been weird to pay to watch. I walked down the ramp into the main pool area which consisted of a wave pool, splash pool and two 25 meter pools. It wasn’t overly busy so it didn’t take any more than a quick glance to spot Sam and Dean. It also helped that they were the only people in the build in suits. They were standing near the wave pool controls speaking to a lifeguard. I started making my way towards it but was quickly halted when I heard the lifeguard giggle. It was a giggle I would know anywhere, it sent an ice-cold shiver down my spine. I almost wanted to turn around and run back to the safety of my car and wait for Sam and Dean to be done. The only thing that stopped me was that Dean had spotted me and gave me a wink causing the lifeguard to look over her shoulder towards me. I tucked my shoulders back, held my head high and wandered over to them. Upon reaching them, however, my mouth began spewing out words before my brain could filter them.

“Hay Babe” I pushed myself against Dean's side “I thought I would come for a swim while you do what you need to do but I don’t have any swimmer” Oh the cringe I cringed. “Oh hi Rachel haven’t seen you since graduation, still lifeguarding I see”

“Y/n yes I am it pays quite good money how did you end up with such a handsome man?” She crossed her arms and gave me a dirty look

“Oh well as you probably heard I’ve been travelling the world and it was during a trip through America that I found this handsome man” I smiled up at Dean

“Lucky you” Rachel scoffed

“Yeah lucky me” I smiled up at Dean

“Anyway baby here is my card go get yourself some swimmers and have a good time”

“Thank you” I took the card and gave Dean a quick peck on the cheek before running off.

“Now if you don’t mind we would like to ask all the staff about the incident” I heard Dean say before I was out of earshot.

I went to the main counter and purchased a swimsuit. It was honestly one of the things I left behind when I packed up and left because I didn’t think it was something I would ever use again. Once I had the swimsuit in hand I went to find Sam and Dean again to return his card thank him for the help and apologise for putting him on the spot like that. I wandered back into the main pool area and began looking for Sam and Dean again. I quickly found Dean standing at the edge of the splash pool speaking with a lifeguard. I was about to start walking towards him when a hand suddenly came down on my shoulder. I jumped and spun around ready to punch whoever had touched me.

“Wow easy there” Sam chuckled

“Sam why would you do that” I slapped him on the chest

“I didn’t mean to scare you just figured I should fill you in before you blow anymore of our cover story”

“Yeah sorry about that” I dropped my head

“Oh it’s fine no harm done” Sam smiled “Anyway we were researching the deaths this morning and one of them happened to be a young girl on a holiday from America so Dean and I thought we could come in and ask some questions under the guise of being from the American Embassy investigating on behalf of the parents”

“That’s actually pretty smart, I will go change into these swimmers then and stay out of your way, oh also can you give Dean back his card” I handed it off to Sam “I feel kinda bad for taking it”

“Well it’s not our money anyway so nothing to feel bad about” Sam smirked

I laughed at that statement and walked away with a wave towards the female changing room. Only two other people were in the changing room when I walked in. Two young girls likely no older than 18. It looked like they had been for their swim and were getting ready to shower and change. I ducked into an empty changing booth on the opposite side of the changing room from them. They were giggling and whispering between themselves when I walked by. If only they knew what was happening here. Happening in the world. I quickly slipped into the swimsuit, no easy feat when you and the suit are both dryer than the Sahara desert. Just as I bundled my clothes up in my arms and was about to open the door the room was suddenly filled with a blood-curdling scream. I dropped my clothes and quickly threw open the door. One of the girls from earlier was now pressed up against the wall on the opposite side of the room while the other girl lay motionless on the floor. I ran over to the girl on the floor dropping down by her side. I assessed her for any signs of life. She was gone, her neck broken. I stood up and walked over to the other girl as other people began pushing their way into the bathroom. Sam and Dean were among them. When they saw what had happened they began pushing people back from the room and asking for someone to call emergency services. I took the other girl into my arms and shielded her face from the sight encouraging her to look away while nodding to Sam and Dean. I knew they would have to leave the building quickly but quietly while I stayed behind to answer questions. I tried asking the girl what happened but all I could get was the word why spoken in a whisper between sobs. I just stood there holding her rubbing circles into her back while waiting for help to arrive.

It seemed to take forever but was likely no more than 15 minutes before the police and ambulance were on the scene. The police stood back and allowed the paramedics to do their thing. Once they had confirmed there was nothing they could do for the girl on the floor they turned to her friend. They checked her over before walking her out of the building to a waiting ambulance. The police followed them making sure I stayed put in the room first. I went back to where I had discarded my clothes. I gathered them up and sat on the bench that was running the length of the room. I held my clothes to my chest suddenly feeling naked in the now empty room. This wasn’t the first time I had seen a dead body and living the life I chose I knew it wouldn’t be the last. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t still jarring to the sense. The absolute motionlessness of her body. No rise and fall of her chest, no little jerks that would be expected from someone playing dead, the normal pink hue you see in living people gone, just like that in the blink of an eye. I closed my eyes and prayed she went quickly.

The quiet of the room was soon broken by footsteps. I looked up to see crime scene techs and coroners entering the room. They completely ignored my presence and went about looking over the dead girl and the room. The only contact any of them had with me was a woman who came over and asked me for my clothes. I asked her why in confusion since they had been nowhere near the girl but she insisted it was needed just in case and they would get them back to me as soon as possible. I handed her my clothes with a sigh and filled in the paperwork she handed me in return. I had no choice but to give her my mother's address to return the clothes to as I had nowhere else to send them. I watched as the coroner bagged the girl's body up and removed her from the room while the techs continued to take pictures and talk amongst themselves about theories of what had happened.

Eventually, after what must have been 30 minutes the police came back into the room to speak to me. They asked me many questions but they all blurred together. Did you know the victim? No. Did you see what happened? No. Do you know Samantha? Was that the other girl, no. What where you doing here? Changing to swim. On and on, question after question. For an hour or more, they questioned me. It was a waste of their time though I knew nothing, I saw nothing. Before they let me go I asked them what the other girl, Samantha had said had happened. They gave me the usual we can’t tell you much but before telling me what they were told finishing with the investigation will tell us the truth line.

I thanked the officers and left the room. I went into a sort of autopilot mode at that moment. Before I knew it I had walked out of the pool, climbed into the car and driven back to the hotel without so much as remembering a second of the trip. I parked next to Dean Impala. As soon as the engine shut off I began to shake. I took a few shaky breaths and squeezed the steering wheel between my hands. I climbed out of the car and walked over to the room door. I knocked and waited for someone to answer. When the door finally did open it was Dean standing on the other side.

“They took my clothes” was all I managed to get out before the weight of the day hit me. In my year doing cases I’d never once seen someone die or had to look at a body. I had only read all about it making it easy to distance myself from the true horrors. But I guess it was only a matter of time. The only dead body I had seen before this was that of my grandmother. She was the first and I had hoped the only person I would have to see die in my life. Today had brought back all those memories for me and emotions I tried so hard to bury. As I broke Dean pulled me into the room and closed the door. He pulled me into his arms creating a safe, warm place for me to let my emotions go.