He turns sharply to the left and the car squeals to a stop. They were in a small clearing of dirt with corn fields surrounding them.
Jackson pushes his way out of the car and runs a few feet before falling to his knees.
"Dad, are you okay?" Scarlet shouts, starting to get out of the car.
"Stay there!" Jackson shouts. "Both of you! Stay in the car! And shut the door!"
Max reaches up front and pulls the driver's door shut. Jackson squeezes his head and screams.
"No, leave me alone!" he shouts to no one. "Don't make me hurt them! Please!" Jackson screams again and suddenly becomes calm. Scarlet gasps when her father looks at her. His eyes were black and he had an evil look on his face.
"Honey, I'm home," Jackson says with a grin. He stands up and starts walking back towards the car. Scarlet screams and locks the door.
"Max, stay down and keep the door locked!" she orders.
Jackson slams his hands on the window. Scarlet and Max flinch. He raises his hands once again to hit the window and Scarlet slides over to the driver's seat. She was sure he was going to break through the window. She puts the car into reverse.
"Driver's Ed, please don't fail me now," she mutters. Just before she hits the gas a black Chevy Impala races into the small clearing. It comes to a stop right their car, blocking them in. "You idiot!" Scarlet shouts at them. How is she going to get out now?
Two men step out of the car. One was a tall, good-looking man with a shotgun. The other was so tall he made the first one look short. He had long hair and a dagger. What the hell were they doing? The giant shouts something at Jackson and Jackson smirks.
"I've heard of you boys. Sam and Dean Winchester, right?" Scarlet cracks the driver's side window to hear what the others were saying. She picked up mid-sentence.
"And you're not going to touch those kids." The one with the shotgun said. Jackson laughs.
"But, they're my kids," he says.
"No, they're Jackson Walters' kids," the tall one said. Scarlet was taken aback. How did they know who her father was?
"Oh, same difference. They all believe I'm him. Hell, I was able to drive to the middle of nowhere with these kids believing I was their father!"
"But now they know you're not," Shotgun Guy said.
"But now it's not going to matter." Jackson raises his arm to hit the window again the man with the shotgun shoots him. Scarlet screams and moves back to the passenger side. She was shocked to see that her father was just fine.
The man with the gun runs over to Jackson and the giant runs to the driver's side.
"Are you guys alright?" He asks. Scarlet nods numbly. She looks back at her younger brother. He was cowering behind the driver's seat with his knees pulled up to his chest.
"Yeah, we're fine."
"Alright, don't get out of the car." The man starts pouring something around them. He comes around the passenger side and she sees that it's just table salt.
"What good will that do?" She mutters to herself.
Meanwhile, there was a battle going on with the other man and Jackson. It looked like it was in Jackson's favor.
"Sam, a little help!" Sam takes out a book from his car and starts reading from it. He was speaking in Latin.
"Who the heck are these guys?" Scarlet asks herself. She glances back at Max, who was enthralled by the scene.
Sam finishes reading and looks up at Jackson and Dean. Nothing had changed. They were still struggling. Jackson laughs.
"Sorry boys, that won't work on me."
"Dean, get in the salt circle!" Sam shouts, stepping back himself. Dean manages to get away just long enough to get behind the circle. Sam looks down at Dean. "I should at least try."
"Sam, no, we've been over this."
"Maybe I can do it this time."
"I don't care if you can do it or not! We've been fighting demons the normal way for years and haven't died yet!" Dean tells him angrily.
"Trouble in paradise, boys?" Jackson asks with a smirk. Sam looks at the demon and focuses.
"Sam, no!" Dean yells at him. Sam ignores at him and squints in concentration. His nose starts to bleed and he drops his dagger. Soon he drops too. "Sam!" Dean catches him before he falls.
"Oh, that tickled, Sammy-boy! Wanna do it again?"
Dean clenches his jaw and glares at Jackson. Sam pushes away from Dean and leans against the car the kids were in. Dean picks up his shotgun and shoots Jackson again. He steps back from the force. Dean does it again and again.
Scarlet quietly unlocks the driver's side door. She looks at Max and puts a finger to her lips. "Stay here," she mouths. He nods and she opens the door. She sneaks around the front of the car. Sam looks at her.
"Stay in the circle," he tells hers. She shakes her head.
"Not a chance," she grabs the dagger and sneaks into the tall grass. Sam tries to go after her, but he's too weak.
Scarlet sneaks behind Jackson, waiting for the right moment. Dean was still pelting him with his shotgun. He reloads the gun and starts shooting again, but soon he was out of rounds.
"Uh oh, what's the Big Bad Wolf going to do now?" Jackson taunts. Scarlet strikes. She leaps out of the grass and thrusts the knife into his back. It catches and she applies more force until the knife is hilt deep into Jackson's back.
Yellow light flashes out of his fingertips, eyes and mouth. It lasted for a moment then he looked normal again. Except for the dead part. Scarlet gasps and steps back.
"What did do? I killed my dad, that's what I did! God, please save my soul!" she was shaking all over. Sam and Dean walk over to her and she backs away. "You! This was your fault! You made me do it!" Even as she was accusing them she knew it wasn't true. She had willingly taken the knife. Sam had told her to stay in the salt circle. She's the one who didn't listen. She's the one who plunged the knife into her father's back. She puts her face in her hands and starts sobbing.
Sam puts a hand on her shoulder and she flinches.
"Hey, you didn't kill your dad. It wasn't him," he says gently. Scarlet hiccups and looks up at Sam.
"Then who was it?" She asks.
"Well, technically it was his body, but it was a demon. A weird one too. Chances are with a demon that powerful and the trouble it liked to get into, your dad had been dead for a long while." Dean explains. Sam glares at him.
"How long has he been dead?" Scarlet asks, though she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
"There's no way to know for sure without a coroner's report." Sam tells her gently.
"Can I come out now?" a small voice shouts from the car. Scarlet gasp.
"Max! Oh, God, did he see me do that? Oh, he's going to hate me!"
"Nah, the kid's cool. He gets it," Dean says. "Hey, come on out, little man!"
Max jumps out of the car and runs over to the three of them. He high five's Dean.
"Dude, that was awesome! Hey, Scar, can I get a shotgun?" Scarlet couldn't answer. She'd stabbed a knife into their father's back and that was his reaction? Dean laughs.
"I think you need to wait a little longer before you can handle this baby."
"Dean," Sam snaps.
"What? He likes my gun." Sam sighs and turns to Scarlet.
"Are you going to be okay?" he asks her. Scarlet pauses and it dawns on her.
"We have nowhere to go," she whispers, mainly to herself.
"We can drop you off somewhere. A friend's house maybe." Scarlet shakes her head.
"We just moved here a few days ago. And I am not taking Max to an orphanage," she sighs and rubs her temple. "What are we going to do?"
Sam looks up at Dean and Dean frowns.
"No. Sam, no. I know that look. We're not doing it."
"Come on, just for a few weeks. They just lost their dad." Sam reasons. "Think of how you were when we lost Dad."
"Sam, we don't live a safe life. It'd be dangerous."
"That's why it wouldn't be permanent. Just long enough to teach the how to take care of themselves."
"Do we even get a say in this?" Scarlet interrupts.
"Of course you do," Sam says. Scarlet crosses her arms.
"No, it's too dangerous," Dean insists.
"Well, I think I'm the judge of that." Scarlet interjects.
"You'll get hurt."
"Not if you teach me how to fight." Scarlet sighs. "I'm just thinking of Max. Wouldn't you do anything to protect your brother?" Dean and Sam share a look.
"I don't know," Dean was still unconvinced.
"How about we make a deal? You tell me about, well, I don't know, demons and anything that could cause us harm and then I'll decide if we should do this. After that, if I think it's too dangerous you can take us back to town." Scarlet proposes. Dean sighs and looks at Sam. Sam shrugs.
"Alright, fine. We'll do that." Dean finally says. Scarlet looks down at her father's body.
"First, what do we do about my dad? Obviously, we can't take him back to town."
"We'll handle it," Dean says, going back to his car. Scarlet looks uneasily at Sam.
"We'll have our own funeral for him." Sam assures.
The funeral was simple, but it meant a lot of Scarlet. They wrapped her father in white, put his body on a wooden alter they'd constructed, then burned his body. It was kind of beautiful.
After some time for mourning Dean drove them back to town for dinner. They ended up at an old, dilapidated diner on the side of the road. After they ordered Dean started explaining what they knew about demons.
It was pretty simple, really. Demons were, well, demons that possess people to get out of hell. Demons are not good. They're stronger and faster than people. To get rid of them you have to exercise them. Scarlet asked about the knife she'd killed the demon with and they said that was a special, one of a kind knife.
Then there are ghosts. They are spirits who aren't at rest in the afterlife. They can be harmful or peaceful. To get rid of them you have to salt and burn the bones. If there are no remains (for instance, if they were cremated) you burn anything that had their DNA; hair, old gloves, etc.
"There's more, but that's all you need to know," Dean says around his bacon cheeseburger. Scarlet nods and pushes her food around her plate. She looks over at Max, who had been totally enthralled by Dean's explanation. She looks at Sam.
"If we say yes you'll keep us safe while we're training? And give us a place to stay?" Scarlet asks.
"Of course," Sam says.
"Then we'll do it." Sam nods with a serious look.
"Yeah, well, we were on our way to a job when we found you guys, so let's hurry up." Dean says, shoving the last bite of his hamburger in his mouth.
They were on the road in less than twenty minutes. Scarlet didn't realize it until she saw the town sign pass by.
"What about our clothes?" She asks, leaning forward in the back seat. Dean didn't say anything. He just kept driving. Sam turns to face her as best he could.
"You'll show up as missing soon. May as well just get some new clothes," he explains. Scarlet sits back and crosses her legs.
"It sounds like you guys are pretty used to this kind of thing." Scarlet observes.
"What kind of thing?" Sam asks.
"Disappearing. Leaving town in a split second. That kind of thing." Sam clears his throat uncomfortably.
"Uh, yeah, I guess we are kind of used to it."
The car slips into an awkward silence. Dean turns on the radio and the song Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas plays. Sam sighs as Dean turns it up.
Four Years Later
Scarlet stabs the knife into the canvas of the tent and tears a large hole in it for the sun to shine through. The creature screams and jumps out of the light. Scarlet stands in the light, begging for the creature to come at her.
While Scarlet is distracting the creature Max sneaks behind the creature and raises his knife. Scarlet holds back a groan in frustration. He is going to get himself killed!
As if reading her mind, and it probably was, the creature whips around and knocks Max to the ground.
"Max, I told you to stay at the motel!" Scarlet slashes the creature with her knife and it hisses in pain. It didn't take too kindly to silver.
The creature tosses Max to the side and turns back to Scarlet. She curses under her breath. She was back in the shadows the sunlight was on the other side of the creature. At least Max fell in the light.
The creature starts towards Scarlet. She raises her knife, ready to battle with it. The creature lunges at her and Scarlet dodges and slashes its side as it passes. The thing hisses and stops just before it plows into the side of the tent. It turns around to attack Scarlet again, but she's back in the sunlight. It hisses at her and Scarlet takes up a defensive position.
"You can't s-s-stay there forever, deary. The s-s-sun with s-s-set eventually," the thing hisses on the s like a snake would.
"I was thinking the same thing." Scarlet lunges at the thing and jabs towards its heart with her knife. It dodges and flings her knife away. Scarlet cusses and backs towards the side of the tent. She glances at Max. He was still unconscious in the light.
The creature grimaces at her in an attempt to smile and slowly stalks towards her. Scarlet quickly gets to her feet and backs away. She runs into the tent wall and tries to cut through it with her nails, but it wasn't working. Suddenly Scarlet laughs.
"You think you death is-s-s funny, child?" The creature asks, getting ever closer.
"No, but I think yours is." Before the creature could react it was decapitated. Scarlet smiles and hugs Sam.
"I can see you paid attention during your training." Dean smirks. Scarlet starts and stands up straighter.
"Dean, I thought you were dead."
"Well, I came back. Again." After a moment of silence and glaring, Dean and Scarlet laugh and hug each other. Sam tosses Dean his knife and picks up Max.
"Let's get him back to your truck." Scarlet nods and they abandon the tent.
Scarlet can't help but smile when she sees that black '67 Impala. The time that Max and she had spent with Sam and Dean Winchester seemed like a dream from long ago, when they've only actually been alone for three years.
Sam puts Max in the cab of the truck and straightens up to his full, incredibly huge height.
"It was great to see you, but…" Sam trails off. Scarlet nods. She understood.
"Go." Dean climbs into his car. "And, thanks." Sam nods and scrunches into the passenger seat.
Scarlet smiles as she watches the brothers that saved her life drive away again. She sighs and climbs into her truck.
Scarlet starts the truck and lyrics to a song come to her. There'll be peace when you are done. She wonders when Sam and Dean will finally get their peace.