Chapter 1

As she settled in to take her exam, Aria Stone gazed out the window of the five-story brick building. She was on the third floor of the building called Franklin Hall and she found herself wondering why she was even enrolled in this university. She watched the trees sway in the wind and thought about what her parents wanted for her. They worked in a lab and had been quite successful which of course made them want the same for her. The success part not the working in the lab part. She sighed as she thought about all the times she had asked about their work and they had gotten angry with her. She didn't quite understand why it made them so angry, usually people loved talking about something they were passionate about, but not her parents. They would usually change the subject when she asked. She received her paper on the desk, she felt the paper touch her arm and mumbled a 'Thank you' to the professor automatically even though she was still entranced by the movement of the trees. She didn't want to be one of those that said 'Trees were slaves to the wind' but she couldn't help but think it. What gave the wind the right to make the trees move? She felt a sensation in her chest and suddenly the trees halted. They stilled as the wind continued to gush around them. That group of trees stood completely still. Not one leaf moved. She took in a deep breath, almost in a panic, and before she knew it, they were swaying again. She was seeing things. She shook her head and went back to her exam. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a man outside heading towards her building. She saw him glance up to her window and squint at her before continuing his journey to the building. He was older than any student there and she didn't recognize him as a professor, but quickly let those thoughts escape her as she tried to focus on the exam. As the memory of the strange, determined man left her mind, she focused on the test that she didn't study for. At all. She closed her eyes, tried to remember what she could from the lectures and started writing. She completed her exam first and after turning it in, she left. She swung her bag over her shoulder and started down the hallway. She could feel someone following her and she spun around. The strange man from before stopped short about twenty feet away when he saw her spin around.

"Can I help you?" She asked him when he didn't stop staring at her with the same squint he gave her through the window.

"I think you damn well can, miss." He said roughly.

"With?" She asked, not feeling afraid of him as he intended.

"I'm looking for a girl, she's supposed to be in this building. Room…three twenty…something. Name's Stone." He looked up at her hoping she could help but doubting it slightly.

"Aria Stone?" She asked him, a bit concerned with why he was looking for her.

"Yes exactly! Do you know where the hell I can find her?"

"You found her." She lifted her arms from her sides and let them fall back again.

"Ah! Miss Stone…"

"Aria."

"Right. Aria. It's um, it's your parents." He said and looked down as he closed some of the space that stood between them.

"What about them?" She felt fear rise in her chest and he looked at her like she might explode.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but your parents are dead."

"What? You're lying! Who are you even?" She started to cry, and the man gave her a sad smile. He forgot his whole routine of posing as a fake FBI agent when she grabbed his arm to steady herself and asked.

"Name's Rufus. I'm hunting the thing that got your parents, I think it's after you next." He said with a straight face and when she released her grasp to look at him, he shook his head in disbelief that the words fell out of his mouth.

"Hunting? Who did this?" She asked him, not sure why he would think someone was after her too.

"No. No, what I meant to say was I'm agent Mercury. I'm trying to find who did this. Can I ask you some questions?" He looked at her hoping and begging that she would believe him and forget what he had already said.

"Rufus Mercury? What did this to my parents?" She looked him in the eyes.

He wavered his options for a moment and said, "I'm not sure. Did your parents have any enemies? Maybe people they sold their…creations to?"

"Their creations?" She looked up at him in confusion and his face fell when he realized she had no idea what he was talking about.

He drove her to a place called Singer's Auto where he said he would explain everything. She felt a ping of hesitation at accepting the invitation, but Rufus was much older than she was, and she was confident she could take him if he tried anything.

They arrived at the salvage yard and she looked puzzled at the abandonment of it.

"Thought your name was Mercury?" She asked as they pulled into a space to park.

"Bobby Singer is a good friend of mine." He said as he got out of the car.

She got out and stopped in her tracks at the sight of what looked like a freshly dug grave.

"You coming or what?" Rufus yelled from the porch door.

"Yep!" She said a little nervously before walking quickly to catch up with him.

They entered the worn-down house that wasn't much better off on the inside. It smelled of cheap liquor and gasoline. She looked around at the walls and how they were practically covered in stacked books. Not just any books, she noticed, the books were extremely old, some she recognized from her history class that she would assume to be around three hundred years old. She raised her eyebrows as she looked around which didn't go unnoticed.

"Yeah, sorry about the smell. Bobby's good people though. You'll like him." He went to the end of the steps and yelled, "BOBBY! You hear?" With no answer, he turned to Aria and shrugged.

"What now?" She asked, looking around.

"Well, usually Bobby has something from his books about these things. I think we're dealing with something else though." He went and sat at the table, motioning her to do the same.

She was still silently wiping her tears, having lost her parents not an hour before this.

"Tell me about my parents." She pleaded to him.

"You're not gonna believe me and even if you do you will just get upset again." He said stubbornly and she scoffed.

She wiped away a final tear and said, "No more crying. Promise. Tell me what I'm not understanding."

He sighed, "Okay. Well you see, your parents work at a lab," she nodded, and he couldn't help but smile slightly because she thought she knew but really she was just a naïve kid. "and they do experiments on, well, monsters. They collect them and torture them for information. Well at least they did this in the beginning. Lately they've been experimenting and creating hybrids. Why? It would get them money you and me can't imagine. Well, maybe you can. They would sell these things to the highest bidders and those bidders used them for who knows what." He took a break when he watched her face go from understanding to complete shock and horror.

"…Monsters?" She asked, almost as frightened as she looked.

"It's Turner, by the way." He said trying to derail the subject.

"What?" She looked at him confused.

"My last name isn't Mercury, it's Turner." He said and looked down after he met her eyes for a second.

"So, you're going from Freddie to Tina?" She laughed, temporarily distracted from the reality of the situation.

He chuckled and said, "No, it really is Turner. Rufus Turner." He continued to laugh.

"Let's stick with Rufus." They fell silent with this and they just sat there staring at the overcrowded table.

He broke the silence after a few moments, "So…monsters."

"Yes. Please continue." She said with determination. She was already learning how to bury her emotions, Rufus knew this because every hunter knew the look.

"Your parents created a whole lotta mess for a whole lotta people. Something that hunters have been trying to keep up with. I think one of those sons of bitches snapped loose and released holy hell on your family. Bobby knows what's been happening, but he doesn't know who you are. That's where a new name comes in."

"A new name?"

"If you want to keep breathing when Bobby gets here then yes, you'll need a new name and a new reason why you're here. Ya with me kid?"

"I'm with you and I want to help."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow your roll kid. You're gonna go back to school after this. Maybe not in this state but you'll get your normal life." He looked her up and down real fast trying to see how she would react.

"Rufus. I'm responsible for this mess. I don't have a normal life anymore. Whether or not you agree with it, I'm gonna start hunting these things." She looked into his eyes and he seemed to see something in them that showed him how serious she was.

"Alright, kid, alright. Relax, you here me? Please…relax…" He trailed off as he got up and started rifling through a pile of books.

"What are you looking for?" She asked as she watched him.

"Something that explains…" He stopped talking when he looked at her.

"What?"

"Dammit, it's Tuesday."

"So?" She had no idea if he was crazy or just lost in thought. Even his closest friends would wonder sometimes.

"Bobby will be back in about an hour. We need a new identity for you, since you're so damn keen on sticking around."

"Well I want it to remind me of my parents."

"Not too much, don't want to get busted down the road. If you make it that far…" He scoffed.

She rolled her eyes and said, "How about Jackie?"

"Too close to your mom's name, Jacqueline."

"Well my dad's name is Mark so we're kind of out of luck there."

"Mickey?"

"What?"

"Your name is Mickey. Mickey with no last name. Long time hunter. My friend, Keith's kid. Perfect." He nodded and went about rummaging through the books.

"You have a friend named Keith?" She asked, still not helping with the books because he refused to tell her what they were looking for.

"Yeah, he's dead. But was rumored to have a kid. Think he died too. Bobby doesn't know that though."

Before she could give her condolences to him for his friend, she heard him let out a "Ah! Yes!" on the other side of the dingy wall.

"What did you find?"

"Um, something I've just been curious about."

"Oh? A monster book?" she asked.

"Something like that." He tucked the book under his arm, and he noticed her looking at him confused.

"Are we leaving?" she asked.

"Hell, yeah girl, we need to leave before Bobby comes back. He'll be pissed if he knows I stole his book and a bottle of booze." As he finishes, he grabs the bottle that is mostly full sitting on the table.

She follows him out to the car, and they speed off. As they're leaving, they see Bobby coming home and cross paths. He hands her a baseball cap to put on and with her tied up hair she keeps her head down. Bobby's in his truck and Rufus is in his car, much lower to Bobby so he barely notices someone next to Rufus.

They stop side by side and Rufus greets him with a, "Hey Bobby!"

He returns with, "Rufus, what the hell! Come back inside."

"Can't Bobby, kind of in a rush." Rufus can't help but look over at Aria and then back to Bobby.

"Rufus, everything okay?" Bobby nods to the passenger seat that he can barely make out.

"Another day, another dollar, Bobby. Your mustache is growing in nicely. I gotta go now. Bye Bobby!" And as he yells bye he speeds off and leaves Bobby with a whirl of dust in his wake. Bobby also notices that he dropped a piece of paper out of the car. Bobby gets out and picks it up.

It reads, "Bobby, I found her. They killed the parents. I'll keep you updated. Bye, Bobby."

Bobby crumples it up and mumbles, "Idjit, you don't even know how much trouble you're getting yourself into."