Takes place a year after the end of What if the Benders.

Scruffy was laying out in the sun. Missy was sitting on the porch. The rest of the family was in town, but as soon as they had realized that Scruffy really thought he was a dog, they pretty much left him alone. At first they thought he was faking, but soon it became clear he wasn't.

Missy had really cleaned up her act in the last year. There was this boy at school she really liked. Her crazy family embarrassed her. She knew hunting people was wrong. They had skipped last year's hunt because Kathleen had died at a bank robbery and Jared had been distraught. They were fixing for another one, though. That's why they were in town.

Missy sighed. She didn't think there was anything she could do to stop it. If she tried to go against her family, she was afraid they would kill her. She would leave as soon as she could, though. Maybe Tommy would run off with her. She smiled at that thought.

As if her thoughts had conjured him, she saw him approaching down the long road to their house. He knew where she lived, because she got off the bus before him. Was he here to see her? All those thoughts flew out of her head when Scruffy started barking. He tore off towards the kid and tackled him. Missy ran behind him and pulled Scruffy off yelling at him.

"Missy, what's going on?" Tommy asked.

There was no way to explain what was going on without looking like a freak or without getting her family in serious trouble. She wanted the killings to stop. She wanted a normal family. But, she loved her family and didn't want them to get in any trouble. She let Scruffy go, so that he could pin Tommy down again.

Scruffy wasn't sure what to do. Nobody but the family had ever come to the house before. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but he had to protect Missy. She was definitely the nicest of the family. He decided to just continuing holding down the interloper.

The same squeaky truck the family had for years came down the road.

"What's going on?" Pa demanded as he jumped out of the truck.

"My friend, Tommy, came to visit and Scruffy attacked him," Missy explained.

"Lee, throw him in the cage," Pa commanded.

"What are you going to do to him, Daddy?" Missy asked.

"We'll hunt him of course. Couldn't find anyone in town."

"No, Daddy!"

Lee was pulling Tommy up from underneath Scruffy.

"Hunt me?" Tommy said. He tried to shake Lee off, but was unable to. He found himself dragged to a dirty old barn and thrown into a cage.

"Well, we told him we were going to hunt him, so he'll have to be the second victim," Pa decided.

"But, you can't. I love him," Missy said. True, she had never said more than three words to him at a time, but she was 14. It didn't take much to be in love.

"I'm sorry, Missy. We just can't take the chance."

Missy realized that they didn't have their first hunt yet, so she had at least a couple of days.

Scruffy followed Missy into the house and lay down on the kitchen floor. Missy usually gave him some extra table scraps and it was almost time for supper.

SSS

Two Days Later

"Dad, a 14 year old boy disappeared in Hibbing. It's the thing that killed Sam. It's back," Dean said.

"Let's go," John said. They had been waiting for that thing to come back. John had noticed that disappearances always came in twos. One and then about five days later, another.

"Good thing we're only a couple of hours away," Dean said. "We can get started right away."

John hoped they found whatever it was this time. He had turned Mary's death into a lifelong obsession for revenge and he didn't want Dean to do the same thing with Sam's.

SSS

"I think whatever is happening is happening in these backroads," Dean said.

"OK, let's look around," John said. He looked around. It looked pretty hopeless. There were going to be miles and miles of farms around here.

SSS

"Tommy," Missy said as she crept into the barn. "I'm so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Let me go," Tommy said.

"I can't do that," Missy said.

"They said they were going to hunt me," he said in a total panic.

"I know. That's what they do," Missy admitted.

"You mean they've done this before?" Tommy asked, shocked.

"Sure. They do it every year. Well, they didn't do it last year, but every other year they have. It's a tradition. "

"Christmas is a tradition. This is just sick," Tommy said in disgust.

"I really wish you hadn't come over here. I tried to talk them out of hunting you. Can you please forgive me?"

"The only way I can forgive you is if you let me go," Tommy begged. He wasn't even sure he could forgive her then, but she seemed desperate for forgiveness. Maybe she would do it.

"I can't," Missy said.

"Can't or won't?" Tommy asked. It was possible she didn't know where the key was. If that was the case, he would have to get her to go to the cops.

"Won't, I guess. I can't betray my family like that."

"Juliette went against her family to be with Romeo." Tommy thought that might not have been the best analogy considering where they ended up, but they had just finished reading the play and it's what came into his head.

"I can't," Missy said, and ran out of the barn crying.