28th May 2025

Dean's eyes flew open. There was something in the house. Despite the fact he hadn't seriously hunted in almost 10 years he still knew all the signs. Strange things had been going on around town for days now, two people had disappeared and things just didn't feel right. He rolled out of bed as quietly as possible and reached under the bed for his torch, and the gun that he had kept in case of emergencies, all the time trying not to wake his wife Chloe. He padded lightly across the bedroom floor and eased open the door onto the landing. Carefully holding the torch and gun out in front of him ready to leap into action at the sight of whatever it was that had entered his house.

Moving quietly towards the stairs, Dean quickly checked the other bedrooms and bathroom to make sure nothing was hiding in there waiting for him to pass. After checking upstairs was clear, Dean edged his way down the stairs as silently as possible. He reached the bottom of the stairs and paused briefly as he heard movement coming from the kitchen. He did a quick check of the other downstairs rooms before heading to the kitchen. Through the open door he could see a dark shape at the opposite end of the room, a shape that looked human, but after all his years of hunting he knew better than to assume anything was human. The shape did not appear to be waiting to attack, which Dean thought was strange, so instead of shooting first and asking questions later, which would be loud and messy, he noiselessly slid his hand across the wall and flicked on the light.

As soon as the light came on, the shape whirled around and there standing in his kitchen was a girl in her early twenties, holding a knife. She gasped as she saw the gun aimed at her and her hands flew up in the air, dropping the knife.

"Please don't shoot me!" She exclaimed, but Dean kept his gun pointed at her.

"Who are you and why are you in my kitchen?" He demanded, not wasting any time with pointless talk.

"My name is Katie. I think I'm a demon." The girl stammered and then flinched as she caught a glimpse of the anger that flashed through Dean's eyes.

"No wait," She continued, "I mean I think there is a demon inside me. Not actually me. I need your help, please." Dean relaxed a fraction,

"Katie, do you know the name of the demon inside you?" He asked, seeing the fear in the girl's eyes.

"Amanda," Katie replied, "Her name is Amanda". Dean rolled his eyes on hearing a name he recognised and lowered his gun, but still kept his guard up just incase she was playing him.

"How did you get in here?" Dean asked.

"Amanda knows how to disarm an alarm system and pick a lock," Katie replied, "I'm sorry for breaking in but I really need your help." She added and Dean could see the desperation in her eyes.

"I'm getting too old for this." Dean muttered to himself before turning his attention back to Katie,

"How did you know to come here?" He asked, already anticipating the answer.

"Amanda seems to be scared of you and your brother, so I thought you would be the best people to help me." Katie's words seemed forced and her facial expression betrayed the internal battle for control that Dean thought must have been going on in her head. This made Dean curious,

"Can you hear her, you know, in your head?" After a few moments the tension in Katie's face disappeared and she was able to speak.

"Yes. It's a constant battle for control. She's very strong. Help me. Or kill me. Please?" She pleaded, convincing Dean that she was telling the truth.

"Ok," Dean said slowly, " But I can't do it here. Just give me a few minutes to get dressed and call Sam."

"Thank you so much." She said with a small, sad smile. Dean nodded and went upstairs.

As he pulled on some clothes Chloe stirred and sat up.

"Dean? What's going on?" She asked, a worried edge to her voice.

"Don't worry baby, go back to sleep. I just need to see Sam about something." Dean replied in a soothing voice as he pulled a shirt over his head.

"But it's 4am." Chloe was not going to let him go without an explanation. Dean sighed.

"There is somebody who needs our help. Really, it's nothing for you to worry about. I won't be too long." He walked around the bed, leaned over Chloe and kissed her softly,

"Go back to sleep. I love you." He added.

"I love you too" Chloe called as Dean headed out the bedroom door, only to be met on the landing by a small, sleepy figure.

"Where are you going daddy?"

"Hey baby girl," Dean whispered, "I'm just going to see Uncle Sam. Why don't you go and get into bed with mummy? I'll be back soon, I promise."

"Ok daddy. Love you." Said the little girl hugging Dean around the waist.

"Love you too Cassie." Dean replied, bending down and kissing her head and then watched his 6-year-old daughter sleepily walk towards his own bed before pulling his phone out of his pocket and heading down the stairs. After a short conversation with Sam about what they should do, both Dean and Katie got into the Impala, that was still well looked after and in perfect working order and headed over to what used to be Bobby's house.

When they'd finally got out of hunting, Dean had married Chloe and they had Cassie (named, obviously, after his long-term angel friend) and Sam had married a nice girl called Gen last year, after finally going to law school. Dean and Sam both lived within a few miles of Bobby's house, so they'd both been close when he was diagnosed with cancer and began to get really sick. He knew that he was only going to get worse so he begged the boys to help him before he got too sick and couldn't look after himself. Bobby had been more of a father to them than their own dad ever was, so when he was gone they hadn't even considered selling his house. So this was where Dean and Sam took Katie.

Sam and Dean explained to Katie what they would need to do to exorcise the demon inside her and that this exorcism could be fatal for her because of the damage Amanda, the demon, could cause in the time that she had to be allowed to take over Katie's body.

"I would rather die than carry on living like this. Do whatever you have to." Katie said defiantly.

"She isn't going to willingly take back control," Sam explained as Dean secured Katie to the chair she was sitting on, "You are going to have to force her forwards. Do you think you can do that?" Katie nodded,

"I will try."

"Ok good" Sam replied, just as Dean finished the knots on the rope binding Katie.

"While we get ready, you do whatever you need to do to get her in control and then this should be over quickly." Sam said. Katie nodded again and went still, her eyes glazing over as she concentrated.

After a few minutes, Katie's eyes widened and her head snapped back.

"Nice to see you again Amanda." Dean taunted.

"Hi boys," said Katie's voice, despite the fact Katie was probably hidden away deep inside her own body, "You don't have to do this you know. I wasn't hurting anybody."

"Of course not." Dean retorted sarcastically.

"What about the poor whose body you've stolen?" Sam asked.

"Ah, yes. Such a lovely young meat-suit. It's such a shame about the girl inside it. Very headstrong." Amanda replied with a wicked smile.

"Goodbye Amanda." Dean said simply as Sam began reciting the exorcism in Latin, words that were ingrained into both of their brains. As soon as Sam started speaking, Katie's face contorted and her head snapped back again as thick, black smoke billowed from her mouth. As Sam finished speaking, the last of the black smoke was just disappearing out of the air vent in the ceiling and Katie's eyes drifted shut and her head dropped forwards. Dean and Sam hurried to her to check that she was still alive. Dean untied her quickly and gathered her up in his arms and laid her carefully on the bed in the centre of the room as Sam went to get her some water.

Ten minutes later Katie's eyes flickered open.

"Is she gone?" She whispered, sitting up.

"Yeah," Dean replied, "We're not going to be seeing her again anytime soon."

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked, looking worried. Katie stretched out, as if she was checking that everything was still working and answered,

"A bit tired, but apart from that I'm ok. I just want to go home."

"Ok," Dean smiled, "Can we give you a lift somewhere?"

A couple of hours later, they had dropped Katie off at the bus station and as the sun rose they arrived back at Dean's house, where Chloe and Cassie were inside making breakfast. Cassie loved seeing her Uncle Sam, so he kept her busy while Dean explained to Chloe what had happened. Chloe understood because she had once been a hunter too. That is how her and Dean met and immediately fell in love. Afterwards they all sat down to breakfast like the happy family that the brothers had always secretly longed for, although they would never openly admit it, and now they finally had it.