Chapter 1
"This is Hope's other phone, you know what to do." Dani signed and tossed her cell phone in the passenger seat. This was the tenth time she called and still no answer. "Dammit!" she yelled hitting the steering wheel. They were in the middle of hunting a rogue wendigo that has been attacking campers in Smith Falls State Park when the Wendigo tossed Hope into a tree knocking her out. Running on adrenaline, Dani ran after him thinking Hope would be okay. She wasn't able to catch up to it; it was too fast, too swift. She walked back to tend to Hope, but when she got to the area Hope was nowhere to be found.
She quickly started to panic. Did the Wendigo come back and grab her? Was she okay? She called out for her and looked around the area before trekking back to her car hoping that is where Hope went. When she got to the car she found no sign of Hope.
The wendigo was still on the loose and it was starting to get dark so she had to take care of the Wendigo with or without Hope. She hoped that Hope was okay. She knew she shouldn't worry too much, Hope was an exceptional hunter and can take care of herself, but that didn't stop the worry in the pit of her stomach. Hope was injured, she left her injured, if something happened to her it would be her fault.
Grabbing her phone and stuffing it in her pocket, Dani got out of the car and popped the trunk to her weapons. She wasn't going to sit around and wait for Hope to show up or for someone to get hurt by the wendigo, not to mention it would be twice as hard to hunt it at night. She also needed to find Hope, she was possibly by passed out somewhere, but the Wendigo had to go first then she would know Hope was safe. Getting out of her car, she walked over to the trunk and grabbed another flare gun to strap on to her thigh holster. She double checked her weapons before heading off.
Dani headed towards the location she had last seen Hope and the wendigo, before they were split up. Wendigo's normally lived in caves. As she got closer, she spotted an opening to a cave. She continued walking towards the entrance and further away from her car and civilization. Suddenly, she began to hear noises and they grew louder as she reached the mouth of the cave. She heard growls and then a yell coming from deep inside the cave. If the wendigo did capture Hope, there was still a chance she could be alive since wendigo's like to store their food. She tried not to think of the negative and chose to believe her friend was okay along with all the other people that have gone missing.
Pulling out her gun she scaled closely to the walls as she entered the cave. The noises continued and as she got closer, she realized it was feeding. She sighed in relief knowing she would be able to get the creature by surprise, although that didn't mean she was safe, and it meant the worst for those it had captured. Wendigo's were outstanding hunters and if she made one mistake he could snap her neck in a second. The wendigo was still out of her sights, but she could hear it chewing and snapping away at its prey. She finally reached the spot in the cave where the wendigo was feeding and keeping his other food. She began surveying the area, it was an open area with a lot of dark areas to hide, and the only light was the one coming from the small fire in the middle of the area.
The wendigo was off in the corner finishing its meal. There were 3 other people in the area tied against the walls and none of them were Hope. Her heart dropped a little and something in the back of her mind told her that her friend might be gone. However, she refused to believe it. Pulling the flare gun from her thigh holster, Dani stepped out of the shadow and called out to the wendigo, "Hey fugly!" And when the creature turned around she pulled the trigger sending the flame directly into its chest. The wendigo burst into flames and then dropped dead. Dani sighed in relief but in her mind thought that that was way too easy, however she was not going to complain. Her attention then turned to one of the victims crying to her left, the girl couldn't have been older than 18.
"Hey, you're okay now, you're safe, let's get you out of here," she told the girl, crouching down in front of her. The girl looked up at her and whispered something but she couldn't understand. Before she had the chance to ask the girl to repeat herself she saw the girls eyes widen and heard a sickening growl behind her. Oh fuck me! Dani thought and the next thing she knew she was flying across the cave until she finally hit a wall and fell to the ground, her flare gun flying out of her hands. Dani was suddenly staring up at a 10 foot inhuman like creature. He growled a deep horrifying sound before charging at her again. He moved so quickly she didn't have time to think. It lifted her up in the air by her throat thoroughly cutting off her air supply. The beast let out another grueling sound before leaning forward and sinking its teeth into her shoulder.
Dani let out a scream before reaching down to grab her gun with silver bullets that was tucked in the back of her jeans. She knew the silver wouldn't kill the creature, but it could hurt it as it would any other supernatural being and hopefully give her the chance to retrieve her flare gun. She emptied out her clip into the wendigo's chest and he recoiled, dropping Dani to the ground. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she dove for the flare gun and dropped to her back, pointing the flare gun towards the location where the wendigo was standing except he wasn't there anymore. She stood up quickly looking around for it, but he was faster than she was.
"Come on fucker, you got your taste, don't you want to finish the job?" Nothing. She was on her toes knowing that the wendigo wasn't done, he would pop up again when she least expected it. She heard a growl and spotted him from the corner of her right eye. She turned and discharged a flare in its direction, but nothing. He was weakened from the silver, she needed to hurry and burn his ass before he regained his strength and snapped her neck. With the hand that wasn't holding on to the flare gun she touched the wound on her shoulder that was bleeding freely down her arm and torso. She held out her bloodied hand in front of her while still staying completely alert, eyes scanning the cave.
"Smell that? I smell good don't I?" she continued to taunt the monster, luring him out of the darkness with the smell of her blood. Finally, it jumped out of the shadows and tackled her down again. This time she held on to her gun and when he knocked her on to her back she managed to quickly kick him off and release a flare in his direction. The flame hit him in the shoulder and he was engulfed in fire just as quickly. Dani laid on the cold ground for a moment catching her breath. She let out a laugh before sitting up. The lore always said that wendigo's hunted alone; she never would believe them to hole up together in the same cave. What was with these monsters these days?
She slowly stalked back over to the crying girl and untied her. Then proceeded to walk over to the boy a little ways from her only to realize he was dead, his neck snapped and most of his limbs missing. The boy next to him was pale and bloodied but was breathing, barely. She touched his wrist and felt a faint heartbeat. She shook him lightly trying to wake him up and was relieved when he finally opened his eyes. They were tired and scared as realization of where he was took over.
"You're okay, I'm getting you out of here," she explained helping him up. "Can you walk?" He nodded. Dani took one final glance around the room, there were no more bodies to be found. The trio began walking out of the cave towards civilization and away from this horrible nightmare. Once they reached her car Dani drove them to a nearby hospital. As soon as they got out and Dani saw that they were safe she sped off in search of a gas station knowing they would be fine. Once she found one she walked in and asked for a yellow book. She looked for the first motel listed in the immediate area that is how she and Hope reunited if they ever separated, something they had been doing for years.
The motel was about 5 miles from the gas station and was one of about 4 motels in the immediate area. The Ashburn Inn wasn't the nicest in the area, but which motel was? Pulling on a hoodie to cover up her throbbing bite and the blood, Dani walked up to the reception and asked if room 7 was available and when the receptionist shook his head no, Dani didn't know if to be relieved or if she should still be worried. They only requested rooms in multiples of 7, a trick an old hunter and friend of the family had taught them. After confirming that room 14 and 21 were still available, Dani trekked across the lot, heading straight to the room marked 7. Worry and frustration returned as Dani discovered room 7 was occupied by a pair of horny college kids drunk off their asses, neither of which was Hope.
She returned to the reception desk asking for room 14 and then walked back over to her car to gather her things from the trunk. For now all she could do was wait, so she might as well take care of her shoulder in the process. She unlocked the door and headed into the room, dropping her things onto the first bed. She pulled off her hoodie with a slight wince, now that all the adrenaline was out of her system she could feel the agonizing pain running down her shoulder and arm. Getting up from the bed, Dani searched her duffel for her "bag of fun". After locating the small makeup bag where she held a good deal of drugs and antibiotics (courtesy of a one night stand Hope had with a traveling medical sales rep a couple of months ago) she popped 2 hydrocodone's and washed it down with some whiskey.
This wasn't the first time she had to tend to herself, so she got to it grabbing a bottle of whiskey and her med kit and heading to the bathroom hoping she wouldn't need stitches. Dani didn't remember falling asleep, but when she woke up, she rolled over to find that it was almost 3am. She looked around the room, finding it was still the same, bloodied towels next to the bed and on the floor, a bottle of Whiskey on the nightstand, and her bloody clothes on the ground. She looked to the other bed in hopes that her friend was passed out on it, even passed out naked with an unknown man, but instead she was alone. Grabbing her phone she decided to try Hope's phone again and once again nothing.
"Dammit Hope at least send me a text so I know you're alive," she complained getting up from the bed to get her laptop. She searched for the GPS on her phone and found that it was shut off. "Fuck!" she yelled slamming down the screen wincing because she flexed her bad arm. She had decided she had no other option but to ask Bobby for help, he could probably do a summoning spell to find out her whereabouts and he could send the message out to other hunters to keep an eye out for her.
This wasn't the first time Hope had disappeared, she would often disappear for hours after a hunt or whenever she felt like it, but she always sent Dani a text to tell her she was alive because she knew how much Dani worried. She was always late and almost always let her phone die, but this time Dani had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was very wrong. As annoying and stubborn as Hope was, she wouldn't allow this much time to pass without letting Dani know she was alive, especially since they separated in the middle of a hunt.
Getting up from the bed, Dani walked over the bathroom to check out her shoulder because she didn't remember stitching or patching it up. Removing the gauze patch on her shoulder she saw that she in fact did have to give herself stitches, but not many, only 4 and that was only in the front. She couldn't really reach the top back of her shoulder. She wasn't sure if she needed anymore, she just hoped it would heal. She cleaned out the wound and then placed an antibacterial cream before patching it up again with gauze and tape.
Dani had decided she would call Bobby in the morning, giving Hope a couple more hours to play run away, not wanting to jump to conclusions too quickly. She was tempted to take another pain killer but decided against it since she would be driving in the morning. Instead she took a couple of shots to help knock her out again, she laid down on the bed, not worrying about cleaning till she had to leave. She turned on the TV and began flipping through the channels and stopped on a romantic comedy. She watched it for about 15 minutes before falling asleep. When Dani woke up again it was 8am. Her shoulder ached slightly, but only if she moved her arm.
Getting up from the bed, Dani brushed her teeth and washed her face with cold water. She noticed in the mirror that the right side of her face was slightly purple and she had slight red scratches, she guessed from flying around in a cave. She wondered if it looked this bad last night. Finding her brush in her makeup bag, she brushed out her long chocolate brown hair with lighter brown to blonde ends with one arm and then sighed knowing she wouldn't be able to pull it into a ponytail or do anything with it until her arm got better.
Once she was satisfied with her hair, she changed her clothes and began packing up and cleaning the room. She took all her bloodied clothes and towels and placed them all in a plastic bag so she can burn it later and wiped the room clean. Once she was done, she grabbed her things and went to check out. She returned her room keys, she walked over to her 1970 Dodge Challenger and started making the drive to Sioux Falls. With a sigh Dani switched her screen on and decided to call Bobby, on the third ring he picked up.
"Bobby, I need your help, Hope's missing."
The drive to Sioux Falls was just under 4 hours. She was slightly anxious and she couldn't help it, Hope had been missing for about 12 hours already, and she hasn't heard anything from her and she was hurt. Her anxiety subsided for a second and she smiled as she drove under the Singer Auto Salvage sign. This was the only place she considered home; she had many memories of this place. This is where she and Hope met, became friends and grew up. This is where she met the Winchesters and fell in love for the first time. This is where she lived when she graduated high school and got her first car which she fixed up herself with the help of Bobby and Dean. Dani grew up a normal kid, yes, not knowing of the things that go bump in the night, but what she didn't know was that she was meant to be part of this world that she had no idea of.
Dani came to the Singer Salvage at the age of 12. Sam and Dean were attending her school at this time because their father was working a case in the area. She did not know of this of course because she was unaware of the world that the Winchester's grew up with. Sam was up a grade which put him in the same grade as her and Dean was behind a grade. The middle school was connected to a high school, so the student population was pretty large, and it was also a small town. She met Sam on his first day although they did not say a word to each other, but it didn't take long for them to be friends, they connected right away. There was something about him that she found interesting and since no one else seemed to pay attention to him she thought she would introduce herself.
Sam was sitting alone during their lunch period, he was picking at his food while trying to balance reading a book. It wasn't a school or any book that she recognized for that matter, but she couldn't tell what it was because it was just a dark brown bound book. Dani sat across from him and he didn't even look up. She raised an eyebrow at him and decided not to say anything just yet. Instead she set her tray down and pulled her sketch pad from her backpack. She began working on a sketch as she picked at her lunch.
Every once in a while she would look up at glance at him, but he was too engrossed in his book to even notice her, at least that's what she thought, but he did notice her, he was always aware of everything around him that's just how he'd been raised. Dani wanted to say something, yet she couldn't think of what to say so instead she sat there and drew and every so often she would look his way. Right before the bell rang she looked up and he was looking right at her. She smiled and looked down at her sketch before closing the book and getting up.
For the next couple of days this is what they both did, he would read and she would draw, but by the end of the week it changed. She reached across the table and closed his book and introduced herself. Sam looked over at her with wide eyes and waited a minute before replying. He looked over at her sketch pad and saw a drawing of himself. He was sitting as he was now reading his book but instead of looking down at his book he was looking straight up and in front of him.
"That's a really good drawing, I'm Sam," Sam told her.
"Sam I am, what you reading?"
"Just a book about monsters…it's like a fairy tale book," he quickly quipped. Her eyebrows pulled together and she started at him before they both smiled. They ended up talking for the rest of their lunch break and quickly became friends. She had later met his older and protective brother Dean, who was probably the most gorgeous boy she had ever laid eyes on. After school they would hang out at the library, sometimes Dean would be there and other times he would just come get Sam and leave. Dani's mother always picked her up from the library at 6:30, and she was never late.
One day, about two weeks later, Sam, Dean and Dani were waiting on the front stairs of the library for Dani's mother to pick her up. Sam sat next to Dani as Dean stood at the bottom of the stairs in a weird pose as Dani drew him. Dean was yelling at her telling her to make sure he was shirtless and had bulging muscles everywhere. She rolled her eyes and continued working on her drawing. She was creating a superhero series of the three of them. She had finished a couple of pages and now she was just drawing Dean as a superhero.
"Dean stop moving you goof," Dani said as she glanced up and saw him in a different position. She turned her wrist to look at the time and noticed it was already 6:40 and her mother was not there. She looked at Sam and then Dean, then resumed drawing not questioning her mother's whereabouts just yet. Another 10 minutes passed by and Dani was done with the drawing, she glanced at her clock again and then looked up towards the road. Sam seemed to sense her worry because he stood up and offered to walk her home. Dani nodded and began to pack up her sketch pad and pencils, not before ripping out the page she had just drew.
She handed the page to Dean with a small smile and continued to look down the road. Dean put a hand on her shoulder and the trio began to walk down the road towards the direction of Dani's house. She lived about a half a mile from the school and with no more school buses running she would have to walk home. In the far distance they could see smoke and flames and is they got closer they could smell burning. Dani's eyes widened as she realized it was on her street. She began running towards the flames, towards the house on fire. The boys followed behind her, breaking out into a run to keep up. Dani stood as close as the cops allowed her to get as she watched her home burn and then she saw a body on the ground covered in a while cloth.
"MOM? MOM!" she yelled running towards the body, but she was grabbed by another police officer not allowing her to get anywhere near the body. She started thrashing and yelling for her mother. Dean and Sam were by her side in an instant; Dean grabbed her and took her away from the police officers. He held her as she cried and then behind her noticed his father's car. He motioned for Sam to take over and he did immediately, holding on to Dani for dear life as she cried into his chest.
Everything after that was a blur for Dani, the next thing she knew she was in a car with Sam, Dean and their father whom she had never seen or met up until that day. She didn't have any other family and she had refused to leave Sam's side. She never got the full details of her mother's death she just knew she was gone and now she was alone. Eventually, she learned that there was a whole other life out there that she didn't know about, but it took a while for her to process everything. Months after her depression subsided and she began to act like her normal self, she was taught about the Supernatural.
Vampires, werewolves and demons, what the fuck? And that wasn't even the half of it. Everything that went bump in the night was real. Everything she was once afraid of she had a reason to be afraid of because it was real. She became dedicated to learning more about this world and learning to defend herself. She noticed quickly that John was always very secretive, there was so much that she wasn't allowed to know or do. She also noticed how John was toward Hope and she hated it. She never understood why John hated her so much and why no one stood up for her, well Dani did, but she also tried to stay on John's good side so it wasn't something she made a priority, and she hated it.
She was only taken to Bobby's for them to protect her until they could find a place for her to go, she didn't want to end up speaking up and getting herself kicked out on the streets. However, instead of leaving she spent the next almost 6 years of her life living with Bobby, learning about all the monsters in existence, to research, hunt and defend herself. She promised Bobby that she wouldn't hunt till she graduated high school, and that was a promise she kept. She had taken on a couple of cases with John and Bobby, even took on a poltergeist at their own school, but that was all for practice, nothing too serious.
She learned how to shoot and eventually learned her way around a bow and arrow as well as different blades. She also learned self-defense, how to fight, and finally, she learned to hustle in poker and pool thanks to Dean. She was pretty deadly with weapons, but not right away, she didn't pick up a weapon till a year after moving into Bobby's, truth was she was scared, she was terrified. She met Hope two weeks after officially moving into the Singer home and since she was the only other girl in a house full of men, they became quick friends. Hope became a sister she never had, she's the one that encouraged her and pushed, Dani really looked up to her. Hope was brave and smart. Passing all of the old cars, she remembered the day Bobby let her pick out a car.
It was the day of her 16th birthday she had just gotten back from getting her drivers permit and Bobby surprised her by allowing her to pick out her own car to start working on. Once she set eyes on the run down 5-speed 1970 Dodge Challenger she knew it was the car, a car that was in desperate need of a paint job. Even Dean tried to get her to pick another but she knew that that was the car she wanted, something about it called to her. It took almost a year of restoration, repairing, replacing parts and repainting for her to be fully functional and run again, but it was successful with Bobby and Dean's help. She couldn't be happier with her car, and it only took her about 2 days to learn to drive stick thanks to Dean.
Dani's heart skipped a beat when she noticed the sleek black impala sitting in front of the house. Was Sam here? She hadn't seen or spoken to him since Dean had died. She parked the car next to the impala, turned off her engine and pulled up her e-brake before opened the door. She took a deep breath before opening her door and stepping out of her car. The gravel crunched underneath her boots and the crisp wind blew her hair all over the place. She wished she could pull it in to a pony tail but she couldn't and that irritated her.
She started to step up the stairs to the house when the voices slipped past the barriers in to her head, and there were three, but she couldn't quite make out the third person. The voices were familiar but she was trying to block them out before she reached the door but she was exhausted from the drive and her arm was throbbing and sometimes it became really hard to concentrate on keeping up the walls. She raised her hand up to knock on the door but before she could lay her hand on the door the door swung opened and revealed a tall brunette man. She looked up and her eyes met his and she couldn't help the smile.
"Sam, hi," she acknowledged stepping in to give him a hug. Sam embraced her, wrapping his long arms around her. Dani smiled and took a deep breath, he still smelled the same. God she missed him.
"I hope you saved some of that love for me, I could sure use a hug." Dani's head snapped back and she pushed away from Sam to see that directly behind him was a man she knew to be dead. But there he was, dusty blonde hair and green eyes staring at her with his signature smug smirk. Her jaw dropped slightly and her wide eyes turned to look at Sam and when he nodded she threw herself in to his arms. "Dean, how? When?" she wasn't sure she could form a full sentence right now because she was still in shock. She held on to Dean for what seemed like forever, but finally when she pulled away she remembered what she was here for although she just wanted to know how Dean was breathing air. She punched Dean in the stomach making him stumble back a bit.
"Don't ever leave us again!" she threatened and then turned to Sam. "Don't you know how to pick up a phone? Does Hope know?" she was suddenly irritated. Rolling her eyes and ignoring any comments from the boys she continued to walk forward and towards the kitchen. "Where's Bobby?"
"In the study, he's been working on a lead on Hope," Sam explained. Dani began to walk towards the study, the boys following behind her.
"Anything?" Dani asked as she walked in to the study. Bobby looked up from a laptop which she assumed was Sam's because she couldn't recall Bobby having a laptop. Bobby sighed and shook his head.
"She's never done this shit before, something has to be wrong," she said as she paced the room. Bobby had searched through online news and he had called every hospital in a 50 mile radius from Valentine prior to Dani's arrival. The Winchesters had arrived a couple of hours before Dani and called other hunters and the Roadhouse to ask them to keep an eye out. "Wait, what are you guys doing here? And when did Dean... how?" Bobby was the first to speak up.
"Dean's been back about 6 months now, he was pulled out of hell by an angel."
"Left one hell of a love mark too if you want to see the proof," Dean threw in with a smirk.
"An Angel? Because Angels really exist," she laughed. It wasn't that she didn't believe in angels, she had just never seen one. Dean nodded obviously agreeing with her.
"Wouldn't believe it if I hadn't met the Angel myself." Dani looked at him.
"You've met the Angel?" Dani questioned and Dean nodded. "Angels don't exist Dean," she added.
"Well apparently they do and to answer your question we got here last night, we were working a case a state over and decided to pass through. Bobby told us Hope was missing last night when we arrived and we were hoping we would help, so maybe it was fate…" Sam explained looking directly at her. It made her feel all hot the way his hazel-green eyes stared into hers, she could feel the blood rushing up her neck and to her cheeks. She hated that he could make her feel this way. She finally looked away and looked over at Dean and then Bobby. She didn't understand why she needed their help, she could do this all by herself. Where were they when she really needed their help?
If she was honest with herself, she was just annoyed at them for not calling and letting her know Dean was alive. Why would Sam never call? She suddenly wondered if Hope knew and was keeping it from her too, but why would she? If Dean was alive, she would have been with him. At most she was mad because she hadn't talked to Sam in months, a couple of months after Dean's death, and right now he was making her head spin. He fell off the face of the planet, which she didn't blame him for, the guy just lost his brother. But she was trying to help and he just pushed her away.
"No offence guys, but I really don't need your help. We hunt separately remember, it's what your father wanted, his dying wish if I remember correctly and I am assuming that's why you never called after Dean was resurrected, didn't care enough to let me know right?" The two brothers looked at her and then turned to Bobby. Dani raised her eyebrows at them and then turned to Bobby.
"There are things you don't know about Hope, things that could change everything. There are also things about your past that you don't know, I think it's time to finally come clean about everything." Bobby announced. Fucking great.
