Spoilers: up to 4.03 "In the beginning". Tag to that episode.

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Thanks to Rinkle for the Beta!

Disclaimer: Supernatural is owned by it's creator Kripke and the CW network, and I am in no way affiliated with them.

Finding a stranger rummaging in his safe in the dead of the night had been bad, but at least he had faced him prepared. Finding yet another stranger sitting at his kitchen table the following morning was downright alarming, especially because this time he hadn't even been aware that someone had come in.

Elkins stilled on the threshold and hoped like hell the guy hadn't heard him. After all the trespasser was facing the other way, towards the window that looked east, where the sun was just beginning to rise. But as soon as he tried to step back and reach for any kind of weapon the stranger spoke, stopping him in his tracks.

"Hello, Daniel." The guy didn't turn around for a long moment, until finally Elkins just stepped forward and came to stand between the man and the back door. There was a loaded 9 mm in the cutlery drawer on this side of the table so he placed his hands casually over the back rest of the chair in front of it, frowning at the other guy and trying not to show just how freaked he was by the idea of strangers coming and going as they pleased. Two in less than twenty-four hours, ferchrissake.

"I've come to return something to you, though I'm not sure I should. You don't seem to care much for it." He raised his hands from where he had been resting them on the table, and what Elkins had already guessed to be a gun hidden underneath turned out to be his old colt. The one the other damn trespasser had done away with only a few hours before.

"It's a family heirloom," Daniel replied cautiously. "Who are you, and why do you have it? Are you Campbell?"

The stranger regarded him solemnly, ignoring all of his questions. He looked rumpled and his clothes were cut a little out of the ordinary, but what captured and held Daniel's attention was the intensity of the gaze. He scratched the back of his hand, reaching a finger casually to the drawer and hooking it through the opening. But the colt was still sitting between the guy's hands, and he didn't feel like he had much of a chance of coming ahead in a game of quick-draw, so he stopped there.

"Family heirloom, yes. Passed down from mother to youngest daughter through five generations, until your cousin died without an appropriate heir, and chose you."

Elkins didn't reply, just kept his face as neutral as possible. He hadn't know the colt had been in the family for so long. Cousin Daisy had given him a lot of stuff before the cancer took her, and the colt was just one of the many things.

"Daisy never told you what this is, did she, Daniel?" The guy tilted his head in a slightly awkward way. In that moment Elkins realized that the whole situation was potentially even worse than he had feared. He was now awash with the certainty that something not human had passed through his wards and was currently staring him down. He shifted his weight a bit, changing his stance: he was pretty sure he could deck the thing a good one from here and reach for the gun before it could react. He wasn't sure consecrated iron rounds would do much, though.

"She told me it was valuable, and she made me promise not to sell it. I haven't. I was supposed to pick it up from the Campbells; why do you have it?" The thing looked down at the colt for a moment, but before Daniel could act he was under its scrutiny again. Then it nodded.

"She did not have a proper heir. She thought it would be safer if it just sank into anonymity. She was wrong. It wasn't her choice to make, she was simply a guardian. She thought it would be lost amongst the weapons of a hunter, and then simply forgotten, but she herself forgot that there are things with memories longer than human lives."

It covered the colt again with one hand, then pushed it away but not towards Daniel. The hunter had tensed up so much he wasn't even sure he'd be able to strike with any measure of efficiency. He was rooted to the spot, coiled like a spring but unable to move. His throat had gone completely dry.

"I've come to warn you. Even the guardians never knew that this weapon against evil, were it to fall in the wrong hands, could herald the passage of Hell's legions onto this Earth." The thing's face relaxed for the first time in the conversation into an expression of earnestness that puzzled Elkins. "You must make sure that no one else besides your heir shall know of this. Any rumor could lead the wrong creature to it. Never speak of it again as long as you have breath, and stay away from those who seek it; remember that there are ways of prying open even the strongest human mind."

Daniel reached out but, before he could touch the colt, the stranger spoke again. "The Campbells are dead. They were killed by the very demon that seeks The Colt. Do not speak their name again, do not make yourself known to their friends, for he might find you." He finally turned his eyes away from Daniel, and faced the window once more. The sun had come up and the first rays were slanting through the glass, highlighting the dust motes that swirled in the air. Elkins closed his hand on the colt and cradled it to his chest. He didn't know why but he believed everything, feeling the responsibility weighting heavily on his shoulders. Guard it with his life. Never speak about it. Stay away from demons.

And between one blink and the next the stranger was gone and he was left alone in his kitchen, the gun still held tightly in both hands.