I hope you're somewhere prayin', prayin',

I hope your soul is changin', changin',

I hope you find your peace,

Falling on your knees, prayin'...

-Praying; by Kesha

Have you ever stopped to think about how small you are? How insignificant your life truly is? No matter how badly you strive to do better, to be better, that it won't matter in the long run. Everyone seemed to be in a mad scramble to find significance, to find happiness and belonging, in a world that didn't care about them at all. A world that's filled with viciousness and hatred, pain and bloodshed. Throughout history, people tried maintaining a halo of importance around themselves, a glow of entitlement. A pedestal of being the only intelligent beings on the planet, the only creatures capable of thinking and behaving the way they do. Until, somewhere down the line, more and more humans started realizing they weren't the only intelligent life on the planet. There were other beings, capable of great power, that could easily wipe humanity out.

That showed how insignificant and small humans really were. These supernatural beings, who could control so many things humans could not. They posed a threat. So, among those who knew of their existence, humans formed a hunting community to eliminate the threat of this new world. Stories would eventually come into light about some of these creatures — werewolves and vampires; poltergeists and evil spirits; demons and angels; witches and other spell casters; God and Lucifer; Heaven and Hell. These stories would evolve over time, becoming movies and TV shows, comic books and countless web-series on the internet, even video games and board games. The hunting community eventually grew and grew, drawing in countless people, while a majority of society deemed all of these supernatural beings as nothing more than myths and legends.

But for Sophia, these supernatural beings weren't just myths or legends, they were reality. She had been born into the hunting community, forced to undergo unforgiving training in order to take down nonhuman threats. But if Sophia were to be completely honest with herself, she found her role as a hunter ironic, considering her half-human status.

~8~

Sophia Wilkinson was born to renown human hunter, Bodhi Wilkinson. He came from a long line of hunters, who specialized in taking down evil spirits, demons, and vamps. Occasionally the Wilkinson family would handle cases outside of their usual territory, but not very often. Evil spirits, demons, and vamps were the norm.

As for Sophia's mother, she had been fairly young in appearance, at least from what she's been told. Her mother supposedly had long raven-black hair, deep blue eyes, and a smile that seemed brighter than the sun. That was how Bodhi described it. Sophia never met her mother, so she couldn't confirm whether or not her father's statements were true.

Lainie O'Hara was Sophia's mother. She had come from Ireland in hopes of starting a new beginning.

"She wanted the opportunity to live the 'American Dream'," Bodhi would say. "Your mother thought America would be the answer she was looking for."

When Bodhi described seeing Lainie for the first time, Sophia, for the longest time, thought of it as love at first sight. Bodhi would speak so fondly of Lainie that Sophia couldn't help but think that. Unfortunately, though, in the beginning of Lainie's and Bodhi's relationship, Bodhi failed to noticed a very important part of Lainie. That she wasn't actually human at all. Lainie O'Hara was a vampire; and she did a magnificent job hiding it for a majority of her relationship with Bodhi. She didn't want to scare him off, or have him think she was crazy. But what Lainie failed to recognize in Bodhi was that he was a hunter, someone who killed beings like her. It wasn't until at least six months after they started dating that Lainie fell pregnant, and everything they built started crumbling. Lainie's desperate attempts to be as human as possible started falling apart when her bloodlust started becoming too much to handle. Bodhi started hearing about bodies appearing, completely drained of blood. It had been a while since he'd done a case so he decided to look into it.

The last person he expected to see was Lainie, feeding on a young boy. She then admitted to being a vampire, but kept it hidden in fear that she'd scare him off. When he attempted to kill her, Lainie also admitted to being pregnant with his kid. That changed everything. No one in Bodhi's family knew of his relationship with the Irishwoman, though he did want to introduce her to them in the future. After finding out that she was a vampire and pregnant, he knew that couldn't happen. Instead, Bodhi decided he'd keep her alive long enough for her to have the baby, then he'd kill her. And Bodhi kept that promise. Once the baby was born, Bodhi killed Lainie, even though every part of him was screaming at him not to.

After burning her body, Bodhi took it upon himself to raise his daughter by himself. He named her Sophia, after Lainie's deceased sister. As it would turn out, Lainie had been a vampire for quite a few centuries, having been bitten by an accomplice of the Alpha Vampire when she was barely twenty.

Sophia would grow up into the hunter world, learning about countless supernatural species and the countless ways to kill them. Bodhi made sure Sophia grew up as humanly as possible, despite a few setbacks Sophia had. Because of her status as half-vampire, that meant she inherited a few characteristics common among vamps, but Sophia always said those characteristics were "watered down" thanks to her human half. Sophia was stronger than the average human, but not immensely so; she was more agile, though not overly so, and seemed to possess a tad more speed than an average human would possess. Sophia's senses were heightened enough for her to be able to at least hear and smell others from a certain distance. The one characteristic Sophia hated the most was her need for blood. She didn't need it as frequently as a full-blooded vampire did, but she did need it often to at least function. The one thing Sophia was grateful for was that, unlike every vampire on the planet, she was able to walk out into sunlight without being harmed. Bodhi had explained that vampires couldn't walk out into sunlight without it causing them a great deal of pain; not killing them directly like pop culture claimed.

Bodhi did his best to take care of Sophia, to help her control herself and at least act as humanly as she possibly can. He wanted Sophia to be able to handle her own in the violent world they lived in, but there was also a sense of regret Bodhi had for raising his daughter in that world. She was half-vampire, and because she did need blood to at least function at a normal level, that meant she was always at risk. Should they have to work with other hunters and Sophia's feedings set in, they'd both be screwed. Bodhi made it very clear that, once Sophia decided she wanted to hunt on her own, she'd have to be a solo hunter. Working with others was too dangerous.

One thing that seemed to hurt the most was that none of Bodhi's living family knew of Sophia's existence. He did his best to keep her hidden away from them, knowing that the second they found out she was half-vampire, she'd be dead.

For Sophia, she understood her father's precautions. She understood that he wanted her to be as safe as possible, despite the environment she grew up in. She was grateful to have an understanding father. Sophia knew that the world she was born into would be the only one for her; the mundane human life just wouldn't suit her. With her need for blood and everything else about her that didn't fit the human mold would make her stick out like a sore thumb. Hunting was her life, and she knew better than to just up and leave; hunters don't just decide to stop and live normally. They usually died before it happened. Or if one did manage to get out, they were never truly out. Something always came up to drag them back in.

That's, unfortunately, how the hunting life worked.

(A/N):

Sorry for the wait on this chapter. Hopefully you guys enjoy it! Let me know what you think OK? Constructive criticism is important.

I own nothing in the SPN fandom.

Let me know where you think improvements need to be made.

Thanks.

Zahra