Chapter One
McKenna Munson never believed in ghosts or ghouls. She always thought that people who did were ridiculous. And she never, not once, encountered anything that would make her think twice that was until she met them. The Winchesters.
It was a humid summer's day in Muskegon, Michigan when McKenna was first introduced to these special boys. McKenna and her friends, Sophia, Jennie, Abby, and Diana, were enjoying the sun by the pool.
McKenna, going to school to become a criminal psychologist, had needed and deserved a break from class for a while along with the rest of her friends. So when the first nice day came since they left school, they seized the opportunity to soak up some vitamin D.
A rattle at the gate cause the lounging girls to look up. Two men were at the gate in full suits, despite the warm weather. McKenna got up to open the fencing.
"I don't remember making a milkshake," she whispered as she passed her friends. They soon followed after her.
"Hello, Miss Munson. I'm with the FBI-" shorter man started.
"FBI," Diana gasped. "Are we in trouble?"
The taller man with great sideburns and long brown hair spoke, "No of course not. I'm agent Hendrix and this is agent Tyler."
"We're here to talk to you about about the death of your friend. Mr. RTP? Am I saying that right?" Agent Tyler spoke.
"He's dead! Oh, my god! Someone hand me a bag!" Diana hyperventilated the rest of the girls were in shock and couldn't think to move.
"Yeah right," Jennie tried to shrug it off.
"I understand this may be a little hard to hear, but we were wondering if we could ask some questions about your friend," Agent Hendrix said with a comforting tone.
"Hell no! You come up here and announce that one of our best friends is dead than expect us to be able to answer questions?" Jennie yelled with great anger in her voice.
"I am sorry, miss, but our supervisor needs us to gather as much information as possible as it could help the uh, investigation." Hendrix lost concentration when he caught a glance at Abby.
"Let me talk to your supervisor then," Sophia spoke up for the first time since the announcement. The two agents glanced at each other before Agent Tyler reached into his coat pocket, pulled out a card, and handed it to the asian-looking non-asian with a wink.
"Knock yourself out!" Sophia pulled her phone out and dialled the number and on the third ring a voice she was familiar with answered.
"You've reached Special Agent Nixon. What do you want?" A gruff voice answered the phone.
"Bobby?"
"Sophia?"
"Yeah, that's me. What the hell, Bobby?"
"Sophia Baker, well I'll be damned. Haven't heard from you in a while. How's your dad?"
"My Dad's fine, he's off hunting a vamp pack in the U.P. Now do you care to explain what these poor excuses of fake FBI agents are doing here at my friend's house?"
The man on the other end sighed, "Balls. You're lookin' at Sam and Dean Winchester. I sent them to investigate the death of a young boy. Most likely killed by a Wendigo."
"That boy was my friend."
"Then help those two sons of bitches out. I'll talk to you later." He hung up.
Sophia looked up at the two turned men. "So, you're the two famous Winchesters who jump started the apocalypse."
"Um, what?" Agent Tyler glanced at Agent Hendrix.
"Jig is up, boys," Sophia smiled, "I'm one of you."
"You're FBI?" Diana gasped.
"I'm Sam," The tall one nodded.
The other man gave Sophia a wide grin. "And I'm Dean."
"Sophia, the girl whose job has been ten times harder thanks to you two."
Abby coughed to attract attention, "Anybody care to explain what is going on?"
The boys stared at Sophia, she obviously had not mentioned something very important to her friends.
"Not particularly," Sophia sighed. Keeping her friends out of the hunting life and safe had always been a top priority. But all her careful planning and lying were crumbling around her. The girls were like an unstoppable force, once they were onto something, there was no stopping them until they were satisfied. That's what would make them great hunters, and furthermore, that's what worried Sophia most.
The girls continued to stare at Sophia until she broke, "I'm going to hell for telling you this, but, I'm a hunter."
"So are half the boys in our old high school. We live in Michigan, deer hunting capital," Diana reminded her.
"Not that kind of hunting," Sophia told her. "My family and I track and kill the supernatural. Vampires, shapeshifters, demons, you name it. If it's not human, we're there with a shotgun and a devil's trap."
"You're kidding, right?" McKenna laughed. Like I said before, she never believed in such things. But when neither Sophia or the boys said anything, she stopped.
"So let me get this straight. Monsters, ghosts, all that stuff is real?" McKenna's startled look wasn't much different from the three others who had not, until recently, believed that all of that was real.
"And you," McKenna's face suddenly turned from startled to red hot anger as she confronted the one friend that was not startled by the newly acquired information. "You knew all this time and never thought to tell your best friends!" But the more she spoke the more she regretted it. She knew Sophia didn't like conflict and could become stressed out when it arose.
"Yeah, my dad is actually a hunter too. That's why he's always away on business. He used to take me on the less dangerous hunts occasionally, but when I went to college, it was hard to keep hunting, you know? I didn't want to tell you guys because I didn't want to freak you out with all of the ghosts and demons and stuff." Sophia shrugged. Her eyes darted nervously from person to person, who were all looking at her in shock.
"Well, shoot. Besides, uh, RTP dying . . . this is actually pretty awesome." Abby got up from her chair by the pool. "Let me make introductions. So, Sam and, uh, Dean, is it?" He nodded. "This is Diana," she waved, still a little red from her previous episode, "this is Jennie, this is McKenna, uh, you know Sophia, and this is- oh, I'm Abby." She stuttered as she caught Sam staring at her.
"Before we get into details about RTP, we need to address one thing," Jennie said, glaring at the two men. "What's all this shit about the apocalypse?" Sam and Dean exchanged a look.
"Well, we kind of, uh, raised Lucifer from Hell . . ." Dean said.
"Not on purpose, though, right?" McKenna asked.
"No! Of course not. It was, a, uh, misunderstanding." Dean elbowed Sam in the ribs when he looked like he was going to add something.
"Yeah, but it's all good now. Michael and Lucifer are in the cage and the world is safe, for the most part." Sam shifted from foot to foot.
"I'll take your word for it," Jennie concluded, seemingly satisfied for the time being.
"Now, on to the case of your friend and the wendigo."
"What's a wendigo?" Diana asked with some enthusiasm.
"It's a cannibalistic spirit that possess people and makes them eat others, including your friend," Dean bluntly stated. Diana's eyes got wide and she started her panic attack again.
"How do you kill it?" McKenna jumped in.
"Fire is the only way you can kill it, but you can use silver tipped bows and arrows to injure it," Sophia said, just as Sam was opening his mouth to answer. Both boys, despite just being told Sophia was a hunter, had a look of surprise on their faces.
"My dad and I hunted one a few years back."
"How old are you, anyways?" Dean asked
"Twenty two everyone except lil Abby. She's only twenty one." Sophia went to pat Abby on the head but Abby flinched and almost fell over, which caused the rest of the group to burst out laughing, including the two attractive specimens they had just met.
"Legal, then." Dean mumbled under his breath once the laughing decreased.
"What was that?" Jennie asked, her bubbly smile plastered on her face.
"Nothing, Red." He answered then winked at Sophia while Abby and Sam rolled their eyes.
"Anyway, we think that your friend was attacked by the wendigo, so if-" Sam said.
"We want to help," Jennie butted in. "We want to help find and kill it."
"Hold up, Jenn. I think we want to consider all the risks first." Diana, the mother hen, called Jennie out.
"Come on, Moony, Sophia, Sam, and Dean will all be with us and train us. We have nothing to worry about," McKenna said with enthusiasm. Soon the young women were all arguing with Diana about the safety factor. That is, everyone except Sophia. Sophia went over by the attractive gentlemen and sighed as the arguing continued.
"Do they do this all the time?" Sam asked Sophia.
"Not all of the time, but once they get started you can't stop them. Normally," she replied. She had chosen not to tell them about her life for a reason. Her friends were always looking for adventure and once they found it, they held on for dear life, even if it was there life at risk. Sophia was off in a trance when a manly voice called out.
"Hey!" Dean screamed obviously annoyed with the girls. They stopped and turned, ears open to see what he had to say.
"I agree with mother hen over here. It's too dangerous for you."
"You're kidding me, right? There is no way in hell we are just going to let two practical strangers investigate the murder of our friend. Let alone the two morons who started the apocalypse," Jennie spat back.
"That has nothing to do with this. Plus, you weren't raised on hunting, like Sophia. I can't risk losing you too. That's not how the family business runs," Dean shot back.
"I can call the cops, you know, and tell them that you are impersonating FBI agents," Abby spoke up. Dean then looked at his brother then back to the girls then back to his brother.
"Listen, sister," Dean said, "I could take you down before you could even get your phone out. And, if by some miracle you actually managed to call the police, we'd be in the next town over buying drinks before they could show up."
"Dean, don't be rude," Sam gave Abby an apologetic smile.
"And I'd end you before you could even think about hurting her," Sophia flicked the safety off a gun she had seemed to have pulled from thin air.
"Oh god," Jennie gasped, "Did you have that on you the whole day?"
"Today and every day, along with a silver knife and a bottle of holy salt water."
Diana spoke, "So, last week at my church's breakfast thing you were-"
"Locked and loaded," Sophia said plainly.
"That's beside the point, we are not taking civilians on a hunt," Sam said.
"What makes us civilians and you not?" Jennie asked.
"Training," Dean said bluntly.
"We can be trained," Abby snapped.
"Knowledge," Sophia added.
"We can be taught," Diana countered.
Sam sighed, it was time to bring out the metaphorical big guns, "We didn't choose to be hunters, hell, no one would choose this life. We get thrust into it. Something happened to us, something that you can't just walk away from. Our lives were changed by some evil force that opened our eyes to how messed up the world really is. And it pulled us up from our cozy lives, and into the battle fields. After what happened to us, we try our best to prevent future happenings of the same kind. And once you're hunting you can't stop, not after all that you've seen. If by some chance you survive long enough to have kids, they'll be holding a salt loaded shotgun as soon as they can walk, same with their kids. All we want to do is save people and keep them from this whole mess, so don't insult us by trying to do what we do." That shut the girls up.
"Which one are you?" Abby asked.
"Pardon?" Sam asked.
"Shotgun and diapers or thrusting event?"
"That's none of your goddamn business," Dean snapped at her.
Diana went into her motherly defense mode, "Don't yell at her, it was just a question. Besides, doesn't our friend dying count as a reason to hunt?"
"No!" the three hunters snapped in unison.
"Look," Sophia sighed, "Even if it was a good enough reason, you're not trained to take on anything, let alone a Wendigo. I've been training for years, all those times I couldn't hang out were due to lessons, workouts, and hunts. Hunters are still uncovering new monsters, but they aren't finding ways to kill them off fast enough. Hunters spend time honing in on skills and abilities, time that you haven't that you never will spend because of your education and jobs. Training you to gank even one vampire you could take months."
"You stab them in the heart with a wooden stake, it's not that hard," McKenna said.
"Wrong, you'd just have a pissed off blood sucker to deal with then. Any hunter worth their salt knows decapitation is the way to go," Dean corrected.
Jennie decided to work around the problem, "If you won't teach us to hunt at least teach us to protect ourselves. We know this side of the world exists now, that makes us more vulnerable. The least you could do is give us a fighting chance."
Sophia grinned, "What do you say, boys? You up for being teachers?"
"Well, we have to stay in town until we gank the wendigo," Sam told the girls, "so until more information surfaces, we could probably show them the ropes."