Maya sat in the corner of cabin where she and the hunters had taken refuge. She sat next to two teenage girls, who seemed just as scared and unprepared as she was. Everybody else, she could gather, hunted evil creatures for a living. They were at the hotel for a very different conference than she was. She had been there to meet with travel agencies.
As the other hunters argued, gathered around a large wooden trunk that served as their meeting table, the small boy who had knocked down Maya slunk over to apologize to her again.
"Are you okay?" he asked in a small voice, trying unsuccessfully to make eye contact. He had rosy cheeks, and bright blond hair.
Maya mustered a smile and patted his small head. "I'm just fine. You didn't hurt me at all—no need to worry. What's your name? Are you here with your mommy and daddy?" Maya shuddered to think of such a young boy being raised in this lifestyle—having to see monsters shot daily, even if they were invisible.
The little boy smiled. "My name's Archie. My mommy's been missing since my last birthday, but I'm here with my daddy. He's trying to find her." Archie pointed to a think man with heavily-shadowed eyes and hunched shoulders. "That's my daddy."
"I hope you find your mother soon, sweetie." She had a feeling that he would never see her again.
At that moment, the door burst open, and Sam and Dean entered.
"Is anyone hurt?" Sam asked.
"No, everyone is fine," Doctor Marsden answered. "I believe the only injury was that woman's fall—" he pointed to Maya "—but she seems in fine condition at the moment."
"Sweet," Dean said. "So, any idea about what these...things are?"
"Well, my initial thought was hellhounds, as they are invisible—"
"But they can't be," Archie's father butted in. "They don't bleed black blood or anything. And if you listen to them, they don't sound like hellhounds either. These are less...dog-like, and more, ya know...soul-sucking monster-y."
Dean tilted his head, studying the man. "Yeah, sure. So do you have any idea what they are? How to kill 'em?"
He shook his head. "No clue. Never seen these kinda things before."
"Great." Dean slammed his gun down on the wooden trunk. "So we're fighting invisible monsters that nobody has ever encountered before. Anybody have an idea for how to go about this?"
The hunters began arguing again, and Maya stood up. "Ahem," she said quietly, stepping forward. "I—uh..." She cleared her throat and said loudly, "I dreamed about this last night. I saw the future. I know what's going on."
Everyone quieted and turned to her. Sam stepped forward.
"You...you can see the future?"
"Well, this is the first time, but yeah. I had a dream, then I woke up, and things from the dream started happening."
Dean stepped in. "Do you know how to kill these things?"
Maya shrugged. "I guess. I mean, it's not like you have to shoot them with a silver bullet three times and then cut the head off. Just...you know, shoot it, stab it, whatever should work."
Dean smiled. "Awesome, that should make things easier."
"And I also know how you can make them visible, too."
"Wait, seriously?"
"Yes. If one of them bites you, then you can see it."
Dean paused, then rubbed his forehead. "Oh, fantastic. We might just be better off, you know, not seeing them."
"And, um, if it bites you, you go insane, too."
"Wait, seriously? What the hell kind of monster is this?"
Maya shrugged. "Beats me. I was at the hotel for a travel agency conference."
Sam stepped closer to Maya and put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, can I ask you some questions?"
"Yeah, of course."
The two stepped away, as Dean talked with the other hunters and appointed leaders.
"I used to have visions too," Sam said. "Tell me, when did your powers start?"
Maya furrowed her brows. "Um, last night? This has never happened before."
Sam raised his eyebrows. "Really? Did your mother die in a fire when you were six months old? Have you encountered any demons lately, or ghosts, or other creatures? Have you had any other supernatural powers, like telekinesis, or mind-reading, or the ability to control other people's actions?"
Maya shook her head slowly, giving Sam a funny look. Which, she realized, was unnecessary, because given the circumstances she should have expected questions ranging from 'where do you work?' to 'have you made any deals with the dark lord Satan?'
"No, none of that has happened to me. My mom's still alive, I haven't run into anything weird before today, and I've never been able to do magical things."
Sam looked down, deep in thought, a finger on his lips. "This is strange, this is very strange." He looked up. "Okay, then how much do you remember?"
"Not much, honestly." She closed her eyes, trying to recall the blurry pictures from her sleep. "Well, a red-headed girl got bitten...we escape from here to another location...there's a big fight, but most of us get out alive...except a skinny boy in a sweatshirt...um...screaming, fighting...we're at somebody's home, doing research...then the monsters attack again...then we fight and we win...then later on there's something about Egypt." Maya opened her eyes. "I'm sorry if that's not much help. My dream was really detailed, but I just can't remember it."
"No, no, it's fantastic," Sam said. He leaned closer and put his arm around Maya, then turned her to look at all the hunters in the room. "Can you point to the red-headed girl who got bitten? Was it Doctor Marsden's wife?" Sam indicated to the pretty auburn-haired woman.
"No, no. It was..." Maya look around, then her eyes landed on the teenage girls. One was chubby brunette, and the other was a skinny redhead. "Them. Both of them will be bitten. One of them dies, but I can't remember who."
"Okay, okay. Look around—can you tell me anything else?"
There were thirteen people in the room. Sam and Dean, Maya, the teenage girls, Doctor Marsden and his wife, Archie and his father, a blonde girl in a crop-top, two muscular men who looked like twins, and a lanky gun-wielding boy in a sweatshirt.
"That boy dies," she said, pointing at sweatshirt-boy. Her complete coolness at those words surprised her. She figured she must be going into shock. "One of the twins dies, I think. Archie...Archie finds something, but I don't remember what. We go to the brunette girl's house. I guess it's the redhead who dies, then. The blonde girl and the little boy's father—" Maya blinked and grimaced, as images of the two in the throws of passion suddenly came flooding back to her.
"What, what is it?" Sam asked.
"...Um, they're together, I guess... Anyway, keep an eye on the teenage girls. They go missing before the attack, and we have to go search for them." Maya turned to Sam and looked up at him imploringly. "Can we prevent my future from happening? Is there some way for us to keep them safe, or will the future come irregardless?"
"I honestly have no idea. When I got visions, sometimes I was able to prevent them from occurring, but not always. But I think you have your abilities for different reasons, so I'm not sure if what you saw was actually the future, or just a warning."
Sam stepped back from Maya, looking her up and down with a little bit of suspicion. "Hold out your hand."
"Okay..." Maya did as he asked.
Sam took out a flask and sprinkled a little bit of holy water on it, then some salt. Maya didn't flinch.
"All right, you're good."
"What was that for..."
"Just some precautions." Sam turned toward the others. "Hey, guys, Maya has some information for us."