Chapter 1: The Hunt is On

Jed moved silently into the misty clearing. He slid he knife from it's leather sheath and ran his finger along the the silver blade. Looking up at the moon peeking out between the shifting clouds, he quickly but quietly ran the knife through the muddy ground and tufts of wet grass, coating it's surface as best he could with earth. No sense risking a reflection and advertising his whereabouts. He stared into the mist again. Somewhere up ahead was the pond – more of a big pool, really. The thing had existed since before recorded history. But that wasn't the biggest anomaly that had brought Jed here. He was a Hunter. And something that lived in that pool had been picking off locals in this Louisiana bayou at regular ten-year intervals since as long as people could remember. The attacks ran for six days, one victim a night, and then nothing. Ten years of peace.

He had read the info on the creature from an old journal of Bobby Singer's. The Winchester boys had sent out all of Bobby's old journals in a mass data file once Garth had written it all down digitally. It was, everyone thought, a cold case. The pond had been identified as the lair, dredged, searched, drained, electrocuted, covered in cement and sealed with every type of demon trap imaginable in the last couple of years. The Hunters thought that must've done it for sure. But here it was, the ten-year mark, and the attacks just picked right up again.

No one had ever spotted the thing. Judging by the corpses it left, it was a nasty critter. Jed checked his double holsters at his waist, made sure his weapons were clear. He was packing two identical .357's, one loaded with silver bullets, the other with rock salt. Couldn't be too careful. And Jed had been doing this for a long time. He shuddered as he thought about the crime-scene photos of the victims. No sir, can't be too careful with this critter at all.

He edged forward at a crouch. The clearing was far too big for his liking, anything that might be living there would be able to spot any approach easily. He thought about low-crawling but decided against it because of the marshy ground. His weapons or something else could get tangled up and caught there. And getting caught out in the open here was a one-way ticket to the morgue.

He got within sight distance of the pond. Sure enough, there were chunks of broken concrete laying all around the outside of it. He whistled to himself mentally as he noticed the claw marks that were ripped across their surfaces, right through the demon traps and sigils. Nasty critter, no joke.

He froze as he heard a soft ripple move across the water's surface. He cussed to himself. He had figured it might be still sleeping, the night was young and this thing seemed to prefer the middle of the night for it's attacks. He cleared the silver-bullet loaded Magnum and held it to his side in his right hand. He gripped the knife tight in his left, moving it into a number two position, the blade running along his forearm.

There was an explosion of water as something huge, fast and bellowing broke out of the pond, slimy water and mud trailing behind it as it sprang through the air. Jed could only make out the massive, slavering jaws of the thing and the wet, coal-black eyes as it landed on him. The Magnum went off dead in the thing's chest, but it didn't faze it. His left arm was pinned immediately by a wet, powerful claw. He fired the weapon as fast as he could right into the thing's neck and chest. He could hear the wet thuds the slugs made as they went into the creature's body, but it didn't faze it one bit. He dropped the pistol and wrenched his right arm to his waistband, pulling the second pistol and firing point-blank, full clip into the thing's face.

It shook it's massive head. It's skin was slimy and mottled in the moonlight. The teeth were as long as his fingers, and spit ran from it's wide jaw in streams. It smelled like old, stagnant water. And old, very old. It stopped moving it's head and stared at him with it's deep black eyes, and smiled.

Jed tried to pull himself away, but it was impossibly strong and had him pinned completely under him. Jed's eyes widened in panic. This was it. End of the road. It opened it's mouth wide, layed down horizontally on him, and moved it's jaws over the top of his head. He could feel the slaver running into his ears, the stench of it's breath was of a pure predator. He felt it start to bite down when he heard a voice from somewhere behind him.

"Now that's exactly why you lot never managed to stay in control here. All impulse. No table manners whatsoever."

The thing moved it's jaws back slowly off of Jed's skull, a sickening slurping sound filled his ears. He was shaking like a leaf from the surge of adrenalin and fear. He felt rather than heard a deep growl building in the thing's massive chest. Jed saw a reflection in it's eyes, an upside-down dark figure standing in the middle of the field, still as a statue. The creature let out a deep, wet hiss.

"Well, that's just rude, " the voice replied. "No one, human or alternate, has even seen one of you chaps in about a hundred million years. Well, seen you and lived that is...and that's how you say hello?"

The creature stood up, dripping murky water onto Jed, who was now free. He lay still, though, too afraid to make a move in case it changed it's mind and decided to rip out his throat while it decided what to do with the new guy.

"Now, let's try this again. My name's Crowley..." the voice continued in a tone like he was talking to a small child. "and you must be...oh dear, how many letters did they use to have in your names, anyway? I remember it was alot..."

The thing let out a earth-shattering, deep and furious scream. It charged head first at the figure. Jed twisted onto his stomach and watched it charge, scrambling back on his hand and butt at the same time to get some distance.

Just before it reached the lone figure, however, something fell from the sky behind it. Something incredibly fast. It's arm flashed out, a silver trail catching the moonlight in a wide arch angled toward the thing's back. There was deep thud as something went through the monster's back. It arched backwards, screaming into the night sky, it's arms splayed out, and fell heavily to the earth.

The figure that came from the sky pulled the silver blade from it's back and shook it off. The other man took at step back. "Watch it, this suit is Armani!" He shook his head and moved past him, striding purposefully towards Jed. The other man, Jed noticed, was wearing a trenchcoat and what looked like a dark business suit. All Jed could think of was how badly they were dressed to be out in a swamp...

The first man, Crowley he had called himself, kneeled down in front of Jed and cocked his head to the side. "Do you have any idea how lucky you are right now young man?", he asked, smiling. "Well, beside getting to meet me, of course. That thing, " he gestured behind him him with a calm wave. " is called a … well, I can't even pronounce it... but a certain talented writer and magician once named it a 'Deep One'." He shook his head. "Yeah, I know, not very impressive when you say it out loud...doesn't really capture the ooziness of it, you know?" He stood up, offering a hand up. Jed cautiously took it and hauled himself up. "Those things are older than the dinosaurs, older even than my friend here," he said, gesturing to the man in trenchcoat walking towards them. "Castiel, say hello to tonight's almost-appetizer."

The man named Castiel cocked his head quizzically as he looked at Jed. "Hello. May I ask, what were you doing out here alone with that thing?"

"Oh you make it sound so scandalous, " said Crowley. "Look, Castiel, we'vetalked about this, human observation and deduction..." He indicated Jed with his hand, waving it from his head to his toes in a quick gesture. "Camouflage suit, silver weapons, salt, various means of destruction, he's obviously a Hunter. Aren't you?", Crowley asked, grinning triumphantly.

Jed looked from one to the other. "How do you two know about Hunters?", he asked, still shaken."Who in the hell are you two?" Jed began to feel a bit nervous.

Crowley smiled and held a hand on his shoulder. "We're your guardian angels, love, " Crowley grinned. Castiel's eyes narrowed in irritation. "Hunters take care of the things that go bump in the night, right?", he asked rhetorically.

"We're the ones that take care of the things that make the big bumps."