Tuno Negro
Written by Moralanqua
Disclaimer: Supernatural is a Warner Bros Television Production Inc., in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision. From executive producers McG and Peter Johnson with writer/executive producer/creator Eric Kripke and director/executive producer David Nutter. All copyrights to source material are duly noted and credited to these creators. No profit is being made by this author. The original aspects of this story which include characters, plot and demon mythology are original material and thusly are owned as intellectual property by copyright to this author. Permission to reproduce or distribute this material will not be granted unless in written form by the author. COPYRIGHT © 2007 Moralanqua
Chapter One
A thick, enveloping darkness came up quickly to shroud her surroundings from sight. The girl took a few stumbling steps into the black but gave in to defeat. She was blinded from her path. If only there was something else, something to give her a hint so she would know in what direction to go? Nothing. There was simply emptiness and she would have to give up. She would fail - again.
"Kitty Kat?" His voice called out through the dark.
That had been her father's special name for her. No one else in the world had ever called her Kitty Kat.
"Daddy? Where are you, I can't see you!" Desperation made her voice unusually high.
She faltered her way through the blackness in search of her father. He had to be nearby. His deep voice had sounded close and she knew if she found him they would be safe and the Monster wouldn't win...
Crying now, she reached out with shaking hands and tried to feel her way. "Please, Daddy! Please find me. He's coming. He'll get us." Her little girl voice was back and suddenly she was six years old again.
A deep, wicked laugh startled her. Where was it coming from? It started behind her but then reverberated all around the nothingness.
"Daddy, he's here!" She screamed.
That was when the fire erupted, the force of the heat blast sending her hurtling backwards farther and farther away from her Daddy.
"Nooo!" Her anguished cries made the demon laugh louder. His fire getting bigger until tounges of flame licked at her.
"Save me!" She begged.
But no one would. She stepped back away from the burning heat, hit something hard and began to fall. The demon appeared high above her and smiled, his yellow eyes mocking pity. She opened her mouth to scream but landed hard on the ground, the impact stealing the breath from her lungs.
'BEEP BEEP BEEP'
The digital alarm blasted Katherine awake. She sat up and pushed waves of long brown hair from her face so she could see to glare at the red digits. It was five am. The familiar dream that had been plauging her since she was a child was now over. She was awake and she was strong. She would never be that vulnerable again. Still, her t-shirt was sweat soaked and the bed sheets were tangled around her legs from her thrashing about. Maybe she could pretend the nightmares didn't bother her in the waking world but in dreams she was still haunted by demons.
Trying to go back to sleep was useless. She felt sticky and her thumping heartbeat made for restless tossing and turning before Katherine finally gave up, showered and then padded downstairs for a warm drink. As she put the kettle on for her first coffee of the day, a craving hit for something stronger, something alcoholic. Katherine was bordering on having a problem and she promised her cousin's and herself every day that she would not drink on a regular basis. Having some whiskey with her coffee would take the edge off that nightmare and no one would know, would they? She licked her lips and glanced around the kitchen wondering if there was a bottle hidden in one of the cupboards.
"You won't find anything. Elise poured the last of the bourbon down the drain last week." Camille shuffled into the kitchen with tousled blonde hair and faded bunny slippers. She wiped sleepy crud from her eyes reached past Katherine for a mug from the little wooden mug tree.
"I wasn't..." Katherine began but Camille gave her a knowing look and she relented.
"Sorry, Cam. I was tempted." She sighed and looked away with shame.
Camille wrapped her arms around her forlorn cousin and squeezed her tight. She knew how tough life was for Katherine and how easy she had things in comparison. Elise, the eldest of the three, was like Katherine and together they were out on the frontline doing the kind of things that drove Katherine to the bottle and Elise to vanish for weeks at a time. The things they must have seen when Camille was tucked up safely in bed... She hated thinking about it. Only her gratitude and her special talents would suffice in repaying her loved kin for their sacrifices.
"Come on, Kat. Lets have a cuppa Joe and then we can watch the sun rise. Remember how Aunt Gladys always said a sunrise was cleansing? I think she was right. Let's go let the sunshine wash away the dark." Camille smiled and hugged Katherine again.
The start of the new day would have been perfect were it not for the notable absence of their eldest cousin; Elise. While Katherine was a drinker and a brooder, Elise was a loner who jumped head first into danger to make herself feel alive. Destroying evil wasn't enough for her. She needed to make the things that went bump in the night suffer. She needed to avenge the deaths of the Curran family; every member slaughtered except for the three cousins and an estranged Aunt with a penchant for Witchery. Elise didn't really have a deathwish but she skirted that dangerous line and her cousins worried that one day she would go too far and get herself killed.
"Elise hasn't checked in?" Katherine asked.
"No, but it has only been a few days since your last hunt. I'm sure she is just out in the woods taking her rage out on the poor trees. She'll call when she has calmed down." Camille said.
The girls made their coffee and took the hot drinks from the kitchen to the glass conservatory, which Camille termed a 'greenhouse'. The sun's rays filtered through the glass and warmed them. They sat in silence, thoughtful.
"I'll go look for her after breakfast." Katherine stated.
Camille nodded her approval. Her bunnied feet gently shaking as the only sign of her inner agitation.