Dean's head snapped up to look at her. "How did you know that?"
"She's got a picture, Dean," Sam said, looking over Peyton's shoulder at the picture in her hands.
"A picture?" He got up to walk over to her. It was certainly a picture. One of him that he had never seen before.
"Where did you get this?" he asked, taking the picture from her hands and turning it over. On the back was scrawled Dean Winchester. He looked up at Sam.
"That's Dad's handwriting," Sam said slowly.
Dean nodded. "Where did you get this?" he asked again.
"You won't believe me," Peyton said, taking the picture back from Dean.
"You'd be surprised what we believe," Sam said encouragingly.
She looked up at Ellen who gave her a nod. Taking a deep breath, she started. "I was nine years old. My dad was still at work and I was laying down on my bed just staring at the ceiling when this figure entered my room."
"Figure?" Dean interrupted. "What'd it look like?"
"It was silvery and translucent. I think it was a ghost. It came to the end of my bed and held out this picture. Then it said 'This is my son. You'll meet him in the future and he can help you.' Then it just disappeared."
Everyone was quiet when she finished her short summary of how she got Dean's picture even though she had never met him before.
"Dean," Sam said quietly. His brother was just staring at the floor, eyebrows furrowed as if he was trying hard to figure out what the girl was talking about. "Dean," he said again.
Dean looked up at his little brother. "It was Dad," he said simply, his eyes watering. He went to take his seat, resting his head in his hands.
That was Sam's cue to start asking questions. "What's your name?" he asked her.
She turned on her seat towards him. "Peyton."
"Did your mom die in a fire when you were a baby, Peyton?" he asked, skipping his usual subtlety questions.
Peyton slowly nodded. "Yeah. How did you know that?"
Sam sighed. "My mom did, too. There's this thing that causes the fires and Dean and I are trying to find it."
"Thing? What are you saying?"
He tapped his fingertips on his knees. "I'm saying that…" He stopped. "Do you want me to be perfectly honest?"
She nodded, and Sam continued, "My brother and I hunt demons. Actually anything that is supernatural and evil. We find it and we kill it."
Peyton stared at him trying to comprehend what she had just heard. "You kill evil supernatural things?" she said slowly.
"Yes, we do." That was Dean. She turned to face him. "A demon started the fires that killed our mom and your mom and we're trying to find it."
"So that guy who was following me…what was he?"
"He's a hunter, too," Dean told her. He was in the mood to talk and here he could tell a girl just how screwed up his life was. "He specializes in vampires."
"Vampires?" She was getting scared. She had been stalked and had many attempts on her life and now she was learning that those scary things in movies were true.
"Yeah. You're not a vampire though are you?" Dean knew she was scared. He was being harsh to her but she just needed to know the truth.
"No. I didn't even know they existed," Peyton said, noting Dean's harsh stare.
"Yeah, they do," he said, as if it was the most normal thing to tell someone.
"Then why was he after me?" she asked.
"I know why," Sam spoke up.
She turned back to him. "Why? I'm not a vampire so why was he after you?"
"This may sound a little strange but every child that was saved by their father in a fire by that demon, has some sort of psychic ability," he explained.
"Ability? What is this? Buffy or the X-Men or something?" This was just too outrages for her to comprehend.
Sam smiled. He actually chuckled a little too. "Not exactly. A few months ago I met this kid, Max. He could control things with his mind."
"Like telekinesis?" Peyton asked.
He nodded. "Exactly. And I…I have visions. They're actually premonitions."
She shook her head. "You've got to be kidding me."
"No. I can't control them but they happen. I only have them when it has to do with this demon."
"So what should my power be?" Peyton asked. "Should I be able to read minds or turn invisible?"
Sam glanced over at Dean. "Gordon said that he knew what your ability was."
"That guy who was trying to kill me?"
"Yeah, he's the one."
"And he said my ability was?"
Sam took a deep breath. "He said that your shadow is a different entity of you. It has it's own mind and it does things that you don't know about."