The Approaching Storm

by the Lady of the Mists

Chapter One: A Hunter Born

Kathryn Lawrence ran her fingers through her brown hair as she pulled the car into the space outside of her apartment that she shared with her fiancé Zack Oliver. With a small groan, she climbed out of her car and climbed up the stairs to apartment 4B, opening up the door as she tossed her purse and coat on the chair before looking around for her fiancé.

"Zack?" she called out, half-expecting him to come out to greet her, his cocky smile on his face before asking her about her day. Probably slimy and smelly from his job at the construction company, too. But Zack didn't appear. She frowned, closing the door behind her, looking around the apartment uneasily. "Zack?" Kat called again. "Sweetie, are you here? Hello?"

Apprehension swarmed through her as she walked through the apartment, not sure what she was looking for when she looked around, grabbing a bat from the closet to be on the safe side. After all, it was Los Angeles. And despite her imploring, Zack was being stupidly stubborn about not installing a security system.

"Honey, there's nothing coming through that door that I can't handle," he had told her jokingly before giving her a quick kiss and headed off to work, calling back words of adoration as he left. Kat had rolled her eyes in annoyance, but reluctant acceptance at the time, but now she wished that she had worked harder for him to install it.

Heart beating, Kat walked through the apartment and into their bedroom, where she found the curtains closed and the room dark and quiet as she saw a figure lying on the bed, quiet and still. "Zack?" she asked, softly this time, in case he was sleeping. There was no answer. "Zack, are you asleep? It's after five o'clock."

When there was once again no answer, Kat shook her head, realising how exhausted he must've been, and closed the door behind her, letting him sleep. Suppressing a sigh, she headed into the kitchen, taking a deep breath as she laid her head down on the table.

Hearing a noise behind her, Kat looked around fearfully, but her shoulders relaxed when she saw a soda can floating in midair behind her and she reluctantly took it, knowing she needed some caffeine.

Almost a week had passed since her ability started and she discovered that she could move things with her mind. She wasn't even entirely sure how she could do it, how she was moving them, all that she knew was that she could. It freaked her out at first and she locked herself in the bathroom for two hours before Zack convinced her to come out. Kat couldn't bring herself to tell him what had really happened. His father was a scientist and had brought his son up in such a way that such things didn't happen.

Kat sometimes wondered how they even got along, considering how much she did believe in things that couldn't be explained away by logic or stone-cold facts. But she loved Zack; he was so good to her that she couldn't let one minor disagreement get in the way of their love.

Still, she could tell that he was worried about her, but most likely decided that it was nerves for their upcoming wedding.

Sipping the soda, Kat almost jumped when the phone rang and she shook her head, standing up and walking over to answer it. "Hello?"

"Hey, stranger, what's up?" a familiar, bright, happy voice said excitedly at the other end. Kat smiled faintly as she recognised her little sister's voice.

"Hi, Stephanie," she said as she moved back over to the refrigerator, trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. Zack would probably be up soon; not even sleep would get him out of a meal. "How's everything back home?"

"Everything's great, Mom just got a new boyfriend and he's amazing. He cooks almost as well as you do," Stephanie babbled on. "I really think that this one might be a keeper."

"Uh-huh. Wasn't that what you said about Jim the bartender, Andrew the lawyer, Quentin the palaeontologist, and . . . who was the last one? Matthew the . . . oh, what was he, a car salesman?"

Stephanie said something under her voice that Kat guessed probably wasn't to be said within their mother's hearing. "You know what, you're the one who went all the way across the country to go to school and then decided that you liked L.A. so much you wanted to live there and hooked up with a really hot carpenter and got engaged. So excuse me, but I'm the one who has to live around our messed up mother who can't decide what she wants in a guy. I'm trying to be optimistic and hope that this one sticks around."

"Sure, until he rides out of town on his Harley with half of her cash stuck in his wallet."

"Ha, ha. That was only Jim and it was only about two hundred bucks. Which, compared to how much she has in the bank, isn't a whole lot." She sighed. "You know, this isn't why I was calling."

"Never is," Kat agreed as she pulled some chicken out of the freezer and began to prepare them. "So what's up, little sister? Why'd you suddenly want to call me up? Not that I mind talking, it's just that you never call unless you've got a good reason. So what's the reason?"

"Hey, I call sometimes just to chat," Stephanie insisted. Kat rolled her eyes before sticking the chicken in the oven. "Okay, occasionally . . . almost never do I call. Jeez, why do you have to be so darn perceptive?"

"Because I'm a Cancer," Kat answered. "Why are you avoiding the subject?"

"Oh, because . . . oh!" Stephanie grunted and Kat smiled as she heard her sister run into something. "Why does Mom always have to keep her stuff lying around? I just bumped into a freaking box of computer disks."

"Because she's Mom," Kat said smoothly. "Now, did you want to tell me what you call me about or do we just keep chatting and run up the phone bill?" She glanced up as she heard something behind her, but when she looked, there was nothing there.

"Okay, well, it's about Dad," Stephanie said almost awkwardly. "I was . . . I was going through some of the stuff in the attic the other day and there was this whole box of Dad's old stuff, in a fire safe."

"Yeah, and?"

"And it's all weird stuff. Books on demonology and other junk like that. There's a couple weapons in there, too, knives and some silver bullets. Why would Dad have had stuff like that?"

"I don't know, Steph, he went on a lot of hunting trips when we were kids, so maybe that stuff was just hunting stuff," Kat said, shrugging.

"Yeah, but the demonology stuff? I mean, if he was hunting, then what exactly was he hunting? I figured I should ask you, since you're the freak who believes in ghosts and whatever." Kat said nothing, all too aware of how her sister felt about the supernatural. "So, do you think he was hunting stuff or maybe they should've just had him admitted into a mental institution before he got killed?"

Kat said nothing, just ran her fingers over her hair impatiently. "Steph, I've got stuff to do, okay?"

"No, come on, you don't seriously believe that Dad could've been hunting demons and whatnot. I mean, those things don't exist."

"I'll talk to you later, Steph." Kat hung up before her sister could get in another word and she sighed, leaning her head back.

Was it possible? she wondered, trying to stay calm. Was it possible that her father, like her, believed in the supernatural and went to go and hunt it? What would he think of his daughter suddenly showing powers, powers that she couldn't explain?

Kat looked around as she heard a noise again and she whirled around, searching for whatever was inside their apartment. "Zack?" she said, her voice shaking. "Is that you?"

But the noise continued and she looked around for any sign of the source as she left the kitchen and looked around, gripping a knife tightly. Kat's heart was pounding as she heard the noise again, coming from the bedroom, and she slowly stepped towards it, opening the door.

"Zack?" she whispered, praying that he could hear her this time and answer him.

But still, there was no answer, but that didn't tell Kat whether or not he was all right. The man slept like the dead when he put his mind to it and Kat had long ago stopped trying to wake him up when he was asleep. But this was an emergency.

Flipping on the switch, Kat froze when she realised that the bed was empty. The sheets had been turned and it was clear someone had slept in it, but there was no one there. "Zack?" she asked worriedly. The bathroom door was open, so he couldn't be there.

Then she heard it; a faint splatter on the sheets and she turned around, not seeing anything at first, but then, out of nowhere, she saw it.

Blood.

On his pillow.

Breath quavering and praying against all odds that she was wrong, Kat slowly raised her head towards the ceiling and let out a bloodcurdling scream that came from deep within her heart.

Zack was on the ceiling, blood on his stomach, his expression twisted into fear and horror, and staring down blankly at his fiancée. Kat was still screaming as she stumbled away from the sight, horror running through her as he burst into flames.

"No! Zack!" she screamed as flames swarmed around the room and licked her skin. Kat batted them away, trying to get to Zack, but by now, the entire room was engulfed by the flames. There was no way that she could get to her fiancé and live.

Feeling as though she were abandoning him, Kat ran out of the apartment and nearly collided with Marcie, her next door neighbour.

"Kat? What's wrong?" she asked upon seeing the brunette's expression. She frowned slightly. "Is that smoke?" she asked.

"There's—there's a fire . . ." Kat tried to explain while her mind was in a state of shock. "Zack . . ."

Marcie's mouth opened in horror, but she said nothing, just dragged Kat back to her apartment, shoved her into a chair before dashing to the phone and calling the fire department.

--

Seven hours later, Kat was sitting out in her car, just starring at the wheel. What little that the fire department had been able to salvage from her apartment was in a box beside her.

They claimed that the fire had been accidental, maybe a candle caught fire or something, even though Kat insisted that they didn't keep candles in the bedroom. But she kept her mouth shut about what she saw, knowing that they wouldn't believe her, that they would just think she was crazy and lock her up in a mental institution.

Kat knew what she had seen. No one could've been pinned to the ceiling the way that Zack had. Nothing in the normal, mundane world could explain what had happened back there and why. She needed to find answers and the only place she knew was back home.

Back in Boston.

Stephanie had said that there was a fire safe with Dad's old stuff in it. Kat had always been suspicious about the way that he died, thinking maybe there was more to the story. And now, she was starting to think that she was stumbling onto his tale.

Starting up the car, Kat backed the car out of the parking lot, getting on the highway. It was a long drive from L.A. to Boston. But if she needed to find answers, then that's where she needed to go. And maybe, just maybe, she could find part of herself as well.

--

Kat turned on the street that she knew so well, heading towards the house that she had grown up in, that she and Stephanie had played in when they were little girls, but there was nothing there. Sucking in her breath, she realised that she was pulling towards the spot where her house had once stood and all that was left was the bare foundations.

Anguish ran through her as she climbed out of the car, running towards her old house and stepping into what used to be the foyer. "Oh, my god," she whispered as she looked around.

Zack. Stephanie. Mom. Maybe even Mom's new boyfriend. All of them, gone, in the space of twenty-four hours.

Rage ran through her and she let out a scream that was not that of a young girl. It was that of a hunter.

A hunter who had lost everything that she cared about, everyone that she loved, and everyone who meant anything to her.

With rage blazing in her blue eyes, Kat looked towards the sky. "Time to get to work," she whispered.

--

AN: Okay, please be kind, this is the first Supernatural fic that I've ever written.