Chapter 1

August 31st 0300

What was it about the dark night that called to her? She couldn't figure it out. Try as she might for some sort of normalcy the night wouldn't leave her alone. Maybe it was instinct something breed deep inside of her, something that wouldn't let her go. Maybe it was the challenge and the thrill of the chase something to spice up her otherwise dull life. She had craved normal all of her life so when she finally found the nice normal guy, the nice normal house, with the nice normal car, and a nice normal job she found that normal was not all it was cracked up to be; not when you knew what lurked outside. There was something about knowing what was out there and not doing anything to stop the death and turmoil that just didn't sit well with her. Sure she had picked a civilian job that called upon her skills Detective Buffy Summers with Chicago Police Department. She hunted the human monsters now, yet something was drawing her back in to the world of the supernatural and she couldn't quiet place her finger on it. So tonight she slipped on her jeans and tank top, holstered her gun to her hip with her badge and threw a sweater over it to conceal it. She put on her sensible sneakers, strapped a wooden steak to her other side, and pulled her long blond hair back into a pony tail and took a walk in the cemetery near her home. Most people would think this was creepy, but Buffy was a slayer, at least she had been in a previous life.

As she walked amongst the headstones scanning the area she thought back to what had changed since Sunnydale had collapsed in on itself. It had been determined by 'Experts' that Sunnydale had been sitting on a large sinkhole. The crater that was left was studied intensely, but they wouldn't find anything. Buffy knew that no matter how hard they tired they would never understand that it had been hell it's self that had swallowed the city whole. The scoobies had decided that the Watcher's counsel was better left in the past with the 100's of slayers that had been awoken by Willow's spell now pouring in from around the world a central Slayer Counsel had been founded in New York City. Dozens of slayers had decided that slaying wasn't for them and returned to their lives. Buffy, having been the only Slayer for so long had decided to walk away it was no longer her sole responsibility to defend the world from the evil that went bump in the night so she had packed up and moved to Chicago. For the past 5 years she had established herself as a person and as a cop. Her strength and stamina gave her an edge over her fellow officers, that had granted her the ability to rise through the ranks quickly and in those short few years she had already made detective.

Buffy stopped for a second hearing a scream off in the distance. She couldn't be 100% sure but she picked a direction and started running. There was another scream, closer this time, Buffy vaulted over the low cemetery wall and rounded a street corner only to find a women lying on the side walk blood pooled around her. Buffy had her gun in her hands in seconds and her phone out calling 911 as she approached. She scanned the area with her eyes before kneeling down to check the women's pulse.

"911 what is your emergency?" a man's voice said over the phone.

"This is Detective Buffy Summers" she said then gave him her badge information and location. "Yeah the victim is DOA" she said frowning. Buffy looked the women over without touching her further, she was young early to mid twenties was her guess. Her dark black hair fell over her face hiding her from sight. Buffy could tell that the woman had been sliced wide open from sternum to just below the navel and her throat cut. The brutality of this killing was intense even for her.

Flashing lights brought Buffy from her thoughts she glanced up to see an officer walking towards her. "Detective Summers?" the officer called.

"Yeah, tape off the area and get me some gloves" she called back

"Yes ma'am" the officer responded returning to his car.

Buffy could hardly make him out against the headlights, her senses kicked in as the officer started towards her as he got closer and closer her body went ridged as if ready for a fight. It was odd because that hadn't happened to her in a long time. She couldn't place what was wrong with the man that approached her but something felt off.

"Here you go ma'am" he said holding out a pair of blue medical gloves. She took them cautiously afraid to take her eyes off of him. More units started to arrive and the officer walked away to tape off the scene.

"Summers what the hell?" her partner and lover Jeffrey Driscole asked as he approached. "I had to hear it over the scanner what the hell are you doing out here anyway?" he asked.

"Couldn't sleep so I took a walk" She said looking up at him. He was dressed in the jeans and t-shirt he had worn earlier the previous day. She surmised he didn't bother to try and find anything else to wear. His brown hair was short but a little shaggy and went in every which direction which meant he hadn't bothered to comb his hair. He had deep blue eyes though in the lights of the squad cars you couldn't make them out. He stood about 6'3" with muscles, a body that put even Spike or Riley to shame. She immediately chastised herself for thinking about her former lovers. She had tried to put them in a tight little box in the back of her mind. Angel, her first love was in California, Spike was dead, and Riley, last she knew he was married and happily living the covert life style with his wife.

"Walks this late at night are you crazy? That's not safe!" Jeffrey chastised.

Buffy watched him for a second she wasn't exactly the kind that need his protection but given that she was a shot, petite blond it seemed to her male coworkers that she needed some sort of protection. Sometimes she wanted the scream that she was a cop and a damn slayer and had been fighting vampires, hell beasts, and stopping apocalypses long before she had moved here. Alas she had to keep that to herself. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't realize that I wasn't allowed to go for walks in the middle of the night without a big strong man to escort me. I will try to remember that in the future." she said rolling her eyes. "Can we get back to the case?" she asked glancing back down at their victim.

"Sorry" Jeffrey mumbled kneeling down beside the victim taking care not to step in any blood and contaminate evidence. "She's young" he commented

"Looks like she was a working girl" Buffy said taking in the cloths she was wearing. Under all the blood she could tell that the girl had been wearing a white mini skirt. She had on 6 inch stilettos and a crop top.

"Detective" someone called.

Buffy and Jeffrey got to their feet and walked over to the officer looking down at the ground where he was pointing. Buffy knelt down and picked up the silver purse inside was a wallet. Buffy glanced up at her partner as she opened it up and let out a whistle. "We can rule out robbery, there is at least 2G's in here." she said as she pulled out an ID. "Mary Nichols" she read.

"Coroner is here" Jeffrey said looking over at the incoming vehicle.

"Pictures and bag this" she said to the officer and walked over to the body as the coroner walked up.

"Wow, I haven't seen something this brutal in all my time in this city." Audrey Malone said kneeling down. "I'd say she hasn't been dead very long put my estimate at about" she paused to look at her watch, "0330"

"Sounds about right that's when I heard the scream, I didn't get here fast enough" Buffy sighed.

"Damn, you found the body?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah, was out for a walk heard the scream by the time I got here she was like this." Buffy motioned to the body.

"Well I will get her back to the morgue and get you a definitive cause of death, though if I were to guess I would say the slit throat or the evisceration" Audrey frowned.

"That would probably be a good guess" Buffy nodded.

Dean didn't like waking up this early it wasn't like he was some sort of morning person. Unlike his brother he liked to stay up late, sleep with beautiful girls, enjoy some whisky and then pass out and wake up whenever the hell he felt like it. His brother however had something up his ass about getting up and moving on to the next big case. For god's sake they were in the middle of trying to prevent an apocalypse, his brother was drinking demon blood and screwing some demon and Dean, well he was dealing with his own shit and he wanted to deal with it in peace. Dean rarely slept as it was and when he did sleep he tried to make sure he was so drunk that he wouldn't dream because in those dreams hell lurked. It wasn't the metaphorical hell either, he kept hearing the screams, his screams, their screams, everyone was screaming and it rung in his ears so loud sometimes he wanted to stab his ear drums out only for the chance to go deaf and never have to hear again. He was sweating, why was he always sweating? His skin felt like it was on fire, he could feel the fire burning away at him. He was so tired he wanted it all to stop but he kept his mouth shut because Sam didn't need to know about hell. He didn't need to know that he remembered everything from his time in hell.

"Come on Dean, I have a case for us" Sam said walking back from the bathroom.

"Haven't you ever heard of a thing called sleep?" Dean asked groaning.

"Sleep in the car, I'll drive." He insisted buttoning the sleeve on his plaid button up.

Dean frowned as he gathered his jeans, T-shirt, socks, and boxers. "Let me shower go find us something to eat." he sighed as he grabbed a towel and walked into the bathroom. Inside the quiet of the bathroom Dean dropped everything on the floor and looked in the mirror. "God when did I get so old" he said to himself as he inspected himself. He did look older; he was starting to get wrinkles around his eyes. His eyes looked sad and a darker shade of green. His dirty blond hair was getting to long; he would need a hair cut soon. He stripped off his old t-shirt and inspected the scars on his body including the mark from Castiel's hand. He remembered meeting Cas for the first time. It had shaken his very soul to learn that god and angel's where a real thing. He had been saved by an Angel for some master plan and he wanted none of it. He decided he needed a shave before stripping off the rest of his cloths. When he was finished he turned on the water in the tub and stepped into the cool shower. These days hot showers gave him flash backs, he tried to stay away from that feeling of heat on his skin it was still too much. He scrubbed up taking his time letting the water wash away his worries and fears. Dean would never admit that he was scared. He would never admit that each day he fought to keep from going crazy. His father had made him swear to care for his brother and no matter what else happened he would do just that regardless of what he was going through himself.

"Dean?" he heard his brother call.

Dean stepped out of the shower, "Coming" He called as he dried off and dressed quickly. He could smell the diner food from the bathroom door. "Smells good" he commented as he moved over to the bed and pulled on his boots and green jacket. He stuffed his dirty cloths into the hamper bag, applied his deodorant and tucked away his toiletries. Dean was normally a mess, hell Sam always yelled at him to pick up after himself and do his part. After being put through hell it seemed like the least he could do to make their lives a little easier.

"Bacon, waffles, eggs, and home fires" Sam told him as he handed him the Styrofoam container.

"Let me guess, egg white omelet with rabbit food and a side of plain oatmeal with milk" he said glancing over at his brothers containers.

"No" Sam snapped then added sheepishly, "Yes"

"Live a little Sammy, we're going to hell anyway might as well enjoy the ride." Dean said putting on his brave face and suppressing the inner turmoil.

"Yeah I would rather not speed up that process" Sam said glancing at his brother.

"Right because drinking demon blood is so healthy for you" Dean retorted.

"You know what Dean; I am not talking about this." Sam turned away from his brother to eat his breakfast.

Dean regretted being so hard on him, he just couldn't get over the fact that Sam thought this was a good idea. So it gave him some pretty neat powers but at what cost? It was changing him and not for the better.

"I have a case for us" Sam mumbled.

"What kind of case?" Dean asked sighing between bites.

Sam turned to him suddenly getting a little excited. "Ghost in a Chicago School, kids are getting hurt. Did some research turns out a little 10 year old girl killed herself recently because of bullying. Each instance is against a kid who bullied her and each one is getting slightly more violent then the last. These kids keep getting attacked over and over again; one kid in the hospital and another has a broken arm. If we don't do something quick this ghost is going to start killing."

"Alright let's go gank a ghost" Dean nodded