Silence. The woman stood, black hood of her black cloak pulled over her head. He stood facing her there in the shadows. "The new death, huh?" he asked, considering the offer on the table.
"You will need one, eventually. Let me have her in your world," the woman replied. He sighed. She had a point. He knew it. He almost hated it. He always hated when she was right.
"You were always so insistent on being apart from all this. Why the sudden change?" he inquired, crossing his arms. The woman let out a heavy sigh.
"We both know what's coming. It's inevitable," the woman told him. He slowly nodded, scratching his head. He'd felt it for a solid eon now, that creeping knowledge that something would end up forcing these two together.
"Fine, let her. Damn guardian of the souls…" he hissed, shaking his head. "But she'll need protection. You know that."
"And you know very well who will do that," the woman reminded him.
"The Winchesters," they both mused at once.
"Alright, let's make a deal," the man suggested, realizing he could use this to his advantage. And in the shadows he saw the woman smile, showing him that he was right to say yes.
Ara was sprawled out on her stomach on the bed in her rundown hotel room, totally fast asleep. She had her books of lore and poetry strewn across the floor, blankets kicked off the bed as she tried to fight the summer heat. Her windows were open to try and let any hint of a breeze in, but Georgia summers weren't really known for comfortable temperatures. She'd been running through the states as she could, drifting with nothing really to do with her life. Chasing something, a place she'd seen a thousand times in her dreams. Running from shadows that went after her.
Suddenly there was a bang on the door, and Ara jumped to her feet. Her green eyes grew wide, body tensing. She scrambled for the dagger she kept hidden under the pillow just as the door was thrust open. A man stepped in, a rather normal looking man. He had light blue eyes and wore a tee shirt and jeans, totally not the type of guy to take down a door. "We need to go. Now," the man insisted.
"Why?" Ara demanded. "Who the hell are you?" The man let out a heavy sigh.
"Call me Chuck. I don't have time for this. Pack your things. We need to leave. Now," Chuck explained. Ara's eyes narrowed. "Those things that are after you? They're back. Almost here. And I'm here on behalf of the one you see in your dreams to take you to the only two people that can protect you." Ara relaxed. How did he know about the woman? Ara had started seeing her when she was around ten or eleven. The woman would take her to this place, a forest. No words were ever exchanged, but Ara knew it had to be part of why she was hunted.
"Fine," Ara breathed, gathering her books and dirty clothes and tossing them in a bag with her laptop. She didn't have much, just enough so she could still travel with ease as it was needed. Right as she got the strap onto her shoulder, she heard footsteps and voices down the hall.
"Shit," Chuck hissed. "Alright, don't freak out. Original escape plan isn't going to work. New plan."
"What plan?" Ara asked. Chuck grabbed her hand, snapping his fingers on the other. The next thing Ara knew she was standing in front of some door on the side of a concrete building that looked to be in the middle of some woods far from Georgia.
"That plan," Chuck sighed. Ara looked over at him, eyes wide.
"W-What the actual…?"Ara gasped, looking around frantically.
"Yeah, that uh… That usually shocks people the first time. Come on, I'll explain inside," Chuck replied. He stepped forward and knocked on the door.
Sam was sitting reading in the main area of the bunker. Dean had gone for some drinks and probably wouldn't be back for hours, so Sam was just enjoying some time to himself. At least, that's what he was doing until the banging came. Tensed, Sam slowly stood, hand on his gun as he walked forward to the front door. He opened it after taking a deep breath. Needless to say, he was totally not expecting what he saw. Chuck stood next to a young girl, probably in her early twenties. She had dark brown choppy hair that reached down to her shoulders and bright green eyes. Her skin was covered in ink, mainly Celtic designs among some other mythological symbols. She was dressed in shorts and a tank top, looking barely awake.
"Chuck… What the hell? I thought you were with Amara," Sam remarked. Chuck shrugged, looking at the girl.
"Yeah, well, I'm doing an errand for someone. Can we come inside? It's, uh, safer to talk there," Chuck replied. Sam studied the girl. She was pretty. Seemed shocked, bewildered really, and half awake.
"She in danger?" Sam asked. The girl just looked to Chuck, shouldering her bag a little more.
"Yeah, that's one way of putting it," Chuck confirmed. Sam slowly nodded.
"Alright, fine, come in. I'll call Dean," Sam caved. Chuck nudged the girl inside.
"Holy freaking shit," the girl breathed as they walked inside and Sam closed the door.
"Welcome to the bunker," Sam sighed. "I'm Sam by the way, Sam Winchester."
"Ara. Ara Smith," the girl replied, offering her hand to Sam. She flashed a bit of a smile as Sam shook it.
"So. What's going on here Chuck? You go hell knows where after what happened and suddenly you're back?" Sam pushed. Chuck groaned, looking over at Ara as she started going around the room looking at the books.
"That girl… She's part of something, something important," Chuck quickly explained. "I'll explain more when Dean gets here."
"How bad is this one?" Sam asked. "At least tell me this much." Chuck looked down.
"Complicated. More complicated than bad," Chuck replied. "Let's just say that this is not what you and Dean have ever faced before."
"Isn't that what it always ends up as?" Sam sighed. Chuck slowly nodded.
"Crap ton of books. What is this place?" Ara inquired, setting down her bag.
"It's a hub of sorts. Um, what do you know about the paranormal?" Sam asked.
"I know stories. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves… I'm pretty into researching that stuff," Ara explained.
"It's all real. Very, very real," Chuck told her, taking a seat.
"I figured so," Ara chuckled.
"It's not something to chuckle about. It's serious stuff. Deadly even. My brother Dean and I…We fight it," Sam explained. Ara frowned.
"Since I was 16, I've been chased down by things I don't even know how to explain. People in some ways. In others…Not human at all," Ara replied. Sam slowly nodded, texting Dean.
"Come on, while we wait for my brother, I'll at least get you set up in a room," Sam offered.
"Okay, yeah, fine," Ara agreed, grabbing her bag and following Sam down a hall.
"So… Where are you from?" Sam asked. Ara let out a heavy sigh.
"Not fully sure. Got dropped in an orphanage in Ohio as a baby. Kinda got moved around for a while," Ara replied.
"I get that. My dad… He was a hunter, same as me and Dean, my brother, are. We lived on the road," Sam explained. Ara slowly nodded.
"So you hunt the weird things, werewolves and stuff like that," Ara remarked. Sam nodded. "Damn… I don't know what it is that keeps haunting me. Kinda reminds me of those damn elves in Skyrim."
"You play Skyrim?" Sam asked as they got to a guest room. Sam opened the door for her and she smiled, stepping inside.
"Yeah," she chuckled. "I'm a bit of a fantasy nerd actually." She sat down her bag on the bed, opening it to dig through and find a sweatshirt which she tossed on.
"Same here. Game of Thrones, Skyrim, Lord of the Rings…" Sam sighed. Ara raised an eyebrow, pulling up the side of her sweatshirt and tank top.
"The tree symbol, the one of the door to Moria," Ara pointed out, pointing to another tattoo up her right side.
"Nice, I like it," Sam replied, studying her figure. He heard the door open. "We should get back. Dean's here. And I think we all want some answers."
"Hell yeah," Ara agreed. They walked back out to find Dean glaring at Chuck.
"Dean, this is Ara. Ara, meet Dean," Chuck introduced. Ara lightly waved. Dean just studied her.
"Yeah, nice to meet you," Dean muttered. "Alright, Chuck, what the hell is going on here?" Chuck let out a heavy sigh, looking over at Ara.
"Ara is a part of a deal. She's being hunter by dark elves from another realm called Arathia. She… She is the chosen keeper of souls. The new Death in a way," Chuck began. Ara's eyes widened as she slowly took a seat.
"Deal? Deal with who? And what's Arathia?" Dean demanded. Chuck took a deep breath.
"Arathia is another world, like this but with way more magic," Chuck explained. He looked at everyone else in the room. "It was created by the third sibling to me and Amara, our sister, Morgan."
A/N: Hello dear readers! I have returned. After so long I come back with a new fan fiction. In my break from this I have actually published a fantasy novel called The Flames of Arathia. While watching Supernatural on Netflix I really just felt the need to write this. I wanted to match my own world of Arathia to the this and just see what happened. I'm really excited for this project. I'll be playing with all real characters of my own making that are in my novel and the novels to follow it, so I do ask for some respect to that. Obviously I don't own Supernatural, but I do own Arathia. I'm not sure how often I'll be posting for this. I really sort of retired fan fiction writing for over a year so jumping back into this will be interesting to figure out. Can't wait to see what happens though! Love you all and I'm excited to be back to work on here.