The gentle, smooth, sweet melody that echoed from the beaks of songbirds, which were resting in the branches of the tall trees, was the first thing that hit Emma's ears, causing her to slowly awaken. She felt the sharp rays of sunlight pierce her eyes, bringing her out of the darkness from her dreams, and the morning, early-spring air gave her goose bumps. She opened her eyes to see thick tree trees surrounding her except they were horizontal, making her feel the hard, damp surface her head was pushed against. Head and half of her torso on a log, the rest of her body was slumped on the soft yet sharp woodland floor. Feeling something beginning to slip off her shoulders, she slowly went to retrieve the unknown blanket, discovering that it was Dean's leather jacket, making her smiled slightly and turned to look at the sandy-haired man sitting by the fire, looking extremely tired with bags under his eyes. Then, she turned to her left to see Sam, sleeping on the log at a perpendicular angle to them, brown hair flopped over his eyes and body limp, which gave her the impression that he was in no way ready to be woken. A sudden yawn loudly escaped from her mouth, making Dean grin to see her awake. Wrapping the leather jacket around her arms, she tiredly got up, back aching from the awkward angle she'd been in for the past several hours and stood across from the older hunter.

"Hey Em," he greeted.

"Hey, what time is it?"

"About… half nine." He replied after looking briefly at his watch.

"How long have you been up?"

"Since Sam and I swapped night-watch at four-thirty."

"Bugger. Aren't you tired?" she yawned in concern.

"Sugar, I'm always tired."

"Well I don't want to die by vampires because you're feeling sleepy. Go sleep, I'll wake you when breakfast is ready."

"You're going to make breakfast?" he chuckled at the absurdity.

"No. Sam'll wake up soon I don't doubt. I'll probably give you food poisoning."

"Yeah…that'll shock the vamps." He stood up and stretched.

"Thanks for the blanket," the girl said before taking off his jacket and offering it to him. "I'll think you'll need this more than I do." Dean grinned before going to the log where Emma had just woken up from and fell asleep almost immediately after closing his eyes.

X

The two-hour period when she alone without company was mostly uneventful as she was too scared to fall asleep again in case a vampire came up behind and bit all their necks. Perhaps she was relying on her knowledge from movies a little too much and vampires were far less dramatic. Afterall, Dracula wasn't perticulary about the fanged beasts, despite its famous reputation. The fire was her only source of entertainment and her fatigue caused her to dozily see images in its flames. Luckily, Sam woke up not long after and immediately took on the role of preparing a breakfast of beans.

"So, what now?" Emma asked after they finished when they had finished their breakfast.

"Vampires need to die, we're going to be the ones who kill them." Dean explained simply.

"What, we're just going to knock on their front door?"

"Well it's better than a text to give them a five-minute warning." The older hunter joked.

"Vampires are asleep in the day. We will have the upper hand if we catch them unaware." Sam clarified.

"Cruel but clever." Emma admitted, feeling only slightly sorry for the creatures who were about to be attacked.

"So, Emma, how has your hiking experience been so far?" Dean questioned humorously. "S'pose you ain't used to sleeping on the floor rather than a king-sized mattress."

"I've done DofE, thank you very much."

"The hell is D-O-V?"

"It's something that involves a lot of walking with a bag that probably weighs as much as you on your back and in the middle of the freezing cold winter."

"Well then you can carry me through the woods sweetheart." Dean smiled smugly.

"Although, at least we had a tent then." Emma sighed.

"I'm not a fan of sleeping when I can't feel my skin either." Sam nodded.

"Why are the two of you such high maintence?" Dean rolled his eyes.

"Hey! Says the one who always has to have the freakshake when they want a milkshake."

"That Reece's Pieces shake tasted awesome and you know it!"

"Guys, I'm too exhausted to even listen to this debate."

"Emma's right." Sam nodded. "We got monsters to hunt."

X

"That's the hut." Sam said, pointing to the wooden cabin about fifty feet away. It wasn't as modern or attractive looking as Everett's office, instead it's windows all had at least one crack in them and the rotting wood was discoloured, most parts had lost there vanish they were covered with a long time ago. There were no trees surrounding it, it was like they had sensed the danger inside the hut and decided to run for safety.

"And there are real vampires in there?" she whispered.

"Yeah, but they can't smell or sense us." Sam reassured her.

"Yeah but they can still see us, what if one of them looks out the window?"

"They're asleep remember?" Dean reminded.

"Do you want to stay out here? We're not going to force you to go in there." the long-haired brother. offered.

"No, I've come this far." She said, not wanting to be a coward.

"And you thought you weren't brave." Sam cooed, making her blush slightly.

They slowly began making their way to the wooden cabin. Every time a twig snapped or a bird shrieked from up above, she couldn't help but jump. Each step they took made the tension more concentrated. And she had to reassure herself every few seconds: Sam and Dean have hunted these things before, they're just vampires, and we have the upper hand here, just like Sam said.

"So, Sam and I will be in charge of cutting these bastards' heads off and Emma, you can be in charge of the dead man's blood darts." Dean said outside the door of the wooden cabin. The redhead nodded as she held the crossbow weapon, feeling slightly empowered by it but nervous at the same time. It was nowhere near an item on her bucket list to shoot a human- or a resemblance of them- but at least she didn't have the gruesome part of the job.

Dean slowly pushed open the hut door and crept in, followed by Sam and Emma. The cabin hallway was empty, the lack of light causing it to look gloomy as they quietly snuck through the corridor. There was no warmth in these walls, no sign that anyone lived here, it was just a loveless, abandoned accommodation.

The eldest hunter went up to the first door and slowly pushed it open, peering his head round before quickly coming back out and closing the door gently.

"How many?" Sam asked in a concerned whisper.

Dean held three fingers up before lifting the sharp machete and slowly opening the door once more. The two hunters followed the older man into the room to see it small and dark inside with no furniture. In fact, the only things in the room were three bodies: a girl and two boys all unconscious on the floor. Seeing as these strangers in the room looked no older than sixteen, Emma opened her mouth in surprise. These vampires were more alikened to kids than monsters.

Sam went to put his machete over one of the boys' head, joined by Dean aiming his knife at the young girl. Suddenly, the floorboard Emma had stepped on made a loud, unsettling groan. All the monsters' eyes flashed open. Sam and Dean quickly reacted by throwing their weapons down onto the two teens, cutting their heads right off. Emma squealed a little in fright after seeing the heads roll off their bodies like bowling balls. She had never seen anything more horrific in her life, not even in the movies.

"Where's the other one?" Sam asked standing up and looking around the room hastily, looking like he had no regret of just murdering a teenager.

Emma unexpectedly felt a pair of cold hands grab her and pull her to the edge of the room by a window blocked out with black paper. She felt one hand wrapped around her waist and the other pulling her head back by her hair, so her neck was free, she felt the vampire's presence in the corner of her eye. She felt her heart beat quicken along with her breathing. She was going to be murdered by a vampire, a fucking vampire.

"You'd drop that weapon if you were smart." He whispered in her ear. She did as he said instantly, dropping her crossbow full of dead man's blood on the floor. "You too." He said to the brothers, they hesitated before dropping their defence arms. He went to sniff her neck and pulled her body closer, she leant back on the monster behind her, feeling the blood pumping hot under her skin. She couldn't speak, she couldn't even move.

"You killed my friends." The vampire stated in a dangerous tone.

"Look buddy," Dean said lightly. "Let Em go and we can all sort this out like adults."

"You kill my blood, I kill yours." He said in a harsh tone. Emma felt a pair of fangs pierce the left side of her neck and she squirmed away from the man's teeth but he pulled her hair so she came back to him.

"So, is this like a kiddie vampire squad huh?" Dean asked. "Where's your alpha?"

"You're looking at him."

"You're the alpha?" Sam asked in a surprised voice.

"I'm the leader."

"That doesn't make you the alpha pal." The short haired hunter admitted.

"I ran away from my old 'vamp-family' and came made my own one and we were more powerful than ever, until you came along and ruined everything. Well guess what, I learnt about hunters before I ran away and vampires will always be stronger than man."

Emma looked at Sam and Dean with wide eyes, it may have been the last time she saw them, it may be the last time she saw anything again. She would die in this prison of trees by a monster from her nightmares, never to the light of day again. Her eyes widened even more. The sun. She quickly kicked the vampires shin, he yelled, giving her a split second to turn around and pull the black paper off the window, letting the light stream through. The vampire grabbed her again but growled angrily at the sun's power and let her go once more, covering his face with his hands.

A second later, his head was clean off and on the floor along with his crumpled body no longer keeping her captive and in decision about whether she lived or died.

"Fuck." Emma whispered weakly.

"Good thinking Em!" Dean said thumping her on the shoulder.

"I can't believe I was almost killed by a vampire." She turned to hug him.

"Ah don't worry. We wouldn't have let that happen."

"Uh-huh, very bloody convincing." She snapped before apologising, "Just a bit shocked, sorry."

"Are you okay?" Sam asked her.

"Yeah- wait, no…can we just get out of here?"

"Sure."

"What-what do we do with the bodies?"

"This place is abandoned. I don't want to waste time burying some goddamn monsters."

They made their way out of the hut, Emma was still shaking, still scared from the vampire's presence but thankful that he was dead and the hunt over.

X

Lewis' eyes snapped open, what time was it? Wondering about this question, he sat up. Seeing as Brian had turned him only a few days ago, he still wasn't used to being nocturnal, it was like jet lag from travelling to the other side the world. He growled angrily at his hunger for blood, they hadn't killed in two days, seeing as the mysterious killings were beginning to cause suspicion. He got up and went to the other room to see the others, he didn't feel like sleeping.

Bodies, heads, blood splayed on the floor like a city of red. Lewis opened his mouth in shock before an uncontrollable rage erupted in his stomach. He ran back to his room and woke the only other vampire. The blonde girl slowly woke before an irritable expression greeted him.

"Why the fuck did you wake me?" she groaned. "It's day."

"April, our family's been murdered!" Lewis told her in a harsh whisper.

"What?! It can't be true. You're lying!"

"I'm not, we're the only two left."

"How?"

"Remember how Brian warned us about those bastard who knew about our being and dedicated their dumb little lives to killing us?"

"Hunters." April growled. "They killed our family. I'm going to rip the heads off those sons of bitches! Are you with me?"

"Yeah, of course." Lewis said confidently, the people who killed his family would pay.

X

"We're about two miles now, we can make it out tonight, I ain't spending another night in these fricken woods." Dean announced, sounding tired but determined. The sun had gone down about an hour ago and they were now travelling by torch light.

"I just want to be back in civilisation again." Emma admitted, body still feeling tingly from being held hostage hours earlier.

Suddenly a twig snapped from around the corner, making all three of the hunters froze.

"What's that?" Emma nervously asked.

Two people emerged from the woods, two teenagers. "Murderers." The girl shouted before they bared their teeth, showing their pearly white fangs in the pale torch light.

"Emma," Sam said steadily as he and Dean got their machetes out, "Run."

Emma didn't run but instead she stood still on the spot; they were supposed to be dead. They were all supposed to be dead.

"Run!" Dean yelled at her. Before she knew it, she felt her legs moving at her running through the trees without looking back.

Lewis growled and stared after her hungrily, but Sam broke his concentration by saying "hey, it's us you want. We killed your family."

"You're gonna pay!" Lewis warned.

"Why, you were killing people?" Dean stated.

"For survival."

"Human blood is not survival." Sam spat.

"So? It's fun doing it. First it was our maths teacher and then a Mr Brown, the shop keeper dick who wouldn't give us beer-"

"Wait, you were killing people you knew?"

"We were killing people we hate."

"Wow, you really are sickos." Dean said. "A bunch of kiddies turning themselves into monsters just for some dumb revenge."

"We're not kids." April screamed furiously.

"Yeah well killing people you hate isn't exactly mature." Sam defended.

"You know what, why aren't we killing you already?" April yelled before charging at him, while Lewis went to attack Dean.

After a matter of seconds, Dean had beheaded his attacker, the poor guy wasn't experienced enough, he doubted he had even killed before. He quickly grabbed the crossbow and shot a dart of dead man's blood into the girl attacking Sam's back. She yelled in pain, giving Sam the prime opportunity to cut off her head. The two brothers looked at each other as the girl's body slumped to the woodland floor.

"That was quick." Sam admitted.

"Why didn't we check the other rooms before we left? I mean there's dumb and then there's that." Dean sighed.

"C'mon we need to go find Emma."

"Yeah and then I want to go to sleep and never wake up again." Dean grumbled as he wiped his blade on the grass. "Frigging kids these days, man! Who's raising them!?"

X

They searched for Emma for twenty minutes, following her in the direction she started running away from them but the floor was dry, meaning there were no footsteps to suggest where she had gone.

"EMMA!" Sam yelled for the one hundredth time out into the darkness.

"How could she have gotten this far she was only- what- a minute ahead of us?" Dean frowned in frustration.

"These woods are confusing, it's easy to get lost."

"Well we're never going to find her in this fricken darkness."

"What do we do then?"

Dean sighed before answering "we go back to the motel."

"Dean, we can't leave her in here, she has no torch, no map, nothing."

"Well we ain't going to find her tonight." Dean yelled before sighing. "I don't want to leave her in here- of course I don't- but she's a smart kid, she could even be out of the woods. We don't know till we look. We're only less than a mile away from civillisation, she'll be easy to find and there are park rangers always patrolling the place. We'll find her, I promise." Dean said confidently.

"Fine." Sam sighed, he was in no way happy in abandoning Emma in the woods but there was a possibility that she had gotten out. Besides, he knew that a girl like Emma would be able to survive in the woods for one night without a doubt…or at least he had hoped.

X

Emma carried on sprinting through the forest for another five minutes, too scared that there was a vampire on her tail to stop. Had she escaped from them or were they slowly hunting her like a lion to a lamb? Were they even chasing her? Were they both focused on Sam and Dean instead? Had the brothers won, had they killed the monsters and now looking for her?

All the questions and worry made her stop, she was exhausted seeing as she had already been travelling for hours and was tired herself before they were intruded. She leant down to catch her breath, her skin feeling like it was on fire and her mouth dry as a desert in the hot sun. Where the hell was she? The trees were surrounding the redhead with their sharp thick daggers; they certainly weren't there to make her feel safe. She didn't hear anything, no crows flying away or no twigs snapping, maybe the vampires weren't chasing her anymore and perhaps they never were. Emma wanted to return to the brothers, she didn't know how to get out of these woods, certainly in the dark. Which way did she come from? Each direction was the same and every single tree looked identical.

Leaning against a wide, rough tree trunk, she put her heads in her hands. This was starting to become bloody terrifying, how did things become so complicated so quickly? She shook the worries from her head, knowing that the brothers would have defeated the villan, like they always did. There was nothing to be frightened about. Besides, Dean said they were only two miles away, she had to make her way through a forest for Duke of Edinburugh, and this was no different except she was on her own this time. She would make her way out of these woods and then she would find Everett and he could help her find Sam and Dean. Easy.

Beginning to make her way through the prison-like woodlands, she realised very soon how hard treking through the darkness was, having to be careful with every step incase she stood in a bear trap or tripped over a branch. She was considering setting up a campfire and stopping for the night, but she certainly didn't want to prolong her time these woods when she was so close to the open air and real world. Suddenly, she heard a twig snap behind her, she quickly went to hide behind one of the large trees, the fear returning to her once more. She glanced round to see a yellow torch light shining through the darkness, outlining the deadly trees.

"Hello?" a thick Irish voice echoed through the forest. She studied his face, he was blonde and so he wasn't the brown-haired vampire she saw earlier. "Is anyone out there? I'm lost." His voice sounded hopeful, like he was depending on someone to be out there in the forest's cage to help him out, Emma felt like they had that in common. Slowly came out from behind the tree, the light immediately found her, causing her to squint in the bright, painful light, which contrasted with the darkness she had been struggling to see for the last half an hour or so.

"Who are you?" she asked as the light came off her face.

"Oh, thank god someone's here!" he said, quickly walking over to her. "I'm Daegal," he said, shining the torch on himself to reveal his identity. He was tall, maybe Dean's height, with defined cheekbones and an equally sharp jawline, his eyes were a piercing blue and rested under a pair of thick eyebrows. He had light, brown stubble which surrounded a pair of pink, smooth lips. His hair was a dark blonde which flopped over his eyes like an adorable teenage boy you'd see in the movies.

"I'm Emma," she replied, quite over taken by the man's handsomeness but hoping that the torchlight wouldn't locate her blush.

"You're English," he stated in a surprised voice. "How lost am I?"

"No, don't worry." She laughed. "You're still in America. How did you get lost?"

"I don't know, I was camping with a couple of lads on holiday and then we were attacked by a bear, we all ran and here I am."

"Oh gosh." She said in shock.

"I know it's been quite a day."

"Well I don't think we're that far away from the edge of the woods, they'll be park rangers, they could help you find your friends."

"Thank you." Daegal said in relief, running a hand through his hair. "I thought I was going to be in here forever!"

"I know how you feel." She giggled.

"So, can you help me get out of here?"

"Yeah, sure!" she said eagerly, feeling quite flushed, this guy needed her help.

They began continuing in the direction Emma thought was the way out, Daegal shone his torch to guide their feet, which she was thankful for, she hated travelling alone in the dark.

"So, are you on holiday from Ireland?" she asked a couple of minutes later, not wanting to make him feel bored about the lack of conversation she was giving.

"No, no, I came here two years ago, for work, to support my mam."

"Aw, that's so kind of you." She said, feeling her heart warm and make her stomach feel as if it were fainting.

"I know, I'd do anything for her. So, are you here on holiday?"

"No, well, I'm kind of on a road trip." She explained. "Not in a forest…this is just hiking."

"How old are you?" Daegal asked.

"Seventeen."

"I'm twenty-one. What's a sweet girl like you doing in the woods?"

"Just exploring," she said casually, blushing at the word 'sweet'. "With two other guys."

"One of these guys your boyfriend by any chance?"

"No," she replied maybe a little too quickly.

Daegal chuckled before stopping before shining his torch on the tree in front of him.

"What is it?" Emma asked enthusiastically.

"I recognize this tree, we passed it when we first entered these woods." He said in excitement.

"You did?" she said feeling hopeful once more.

"Yeah, I know the way, follow me."

They reached the edge of the forest around ten minutes later after they almost started running their way there, both wanting to escape this cage of trees as fast as they could. They both stood on the edge line by the final trees before the green, sweet grass. Emma hesitated, she felt the freedom on her shoulders like a heavy armour, they were so close to being out of the woods. She saw the huts where the park rangers would be along with Everett to help both her and Daegal.

"Thank you for helping me." The blonde man said, turning to face her.

"It's fine." She grinned, "You helped me too remember."

"I did." He said, looking into her eyes, she looked back into his blue ones shining in the darkness. They both slowly leant forward before their lips met.

It was warm and sweet, Daegal's soft lips locking on hers. Suddenly it felt weird, like something was trying to burst out of her stomach. She felt her body go limp and her vision fading before everything went completely black and motionless.