Karin tossed and turned in her bed, the names whispering through her head, John Winchester, Robert Singer, Rufus Turner, James Murphy, and Daniel Elkins. Then there were the nightmares, five men who looked like game hunters carrying shotguns, she didn't know what scared her so much, her own father shot deer with Aislin's dad when it was hunting season. But these men haunted her nightmares almost every night for two weeks now, and as if that wasn't enough to keep her awake, that damned cat Aislin had brought home four years ago had scratched up her arms when she tried to pick it up. Karin rolled out of bed and walked downstairs, she hadn't bothered changing out of her clothes; the nightmares had affected her for too long for her to think she would get a good night's sleep. Aislin wouldn't be awake, her cousin had slept like a rock ever since that beast of hers had come into the picture; suddenly a shrill scream ripped through the night air and Karin, without thinking rushed after the source of the noise,
"Dad, dead ahead!" came the shout of a young man, then his father hurried into view and held up a shotgun and fired into the alley,
"Where's your gun, Dean?" the older man asked, turning around to look at his son, Karin gasped quietly, it was one of the men from her nightmares, the one called John Winchester and the boy, that must be the son he had referred to after killing the girl they had been after. Karin hadn't thought the guy would actually be real, in her dream they had been hunting a witch of all things, Karin had enough sense to know that the actual spell-casting witches didn't exist, she knew about Wiccans, but they weren't exactly the same thing.
"The ghoul kicked it down a drain," Dean said and John sighed at his son,
"Be more careful, go put it in the trunk, we'll dispose of it properly later," John said and she almost gasped, she only knew about ghouls by what Aislin had told her; her cousin had been obsessed by all that supernatural stuff recently, talking about demons and ghosts and other creatures, Wendigos, Rougarous, Werewolves and vampires; and of course she had mentioned the ghouls, what if they hurt someone, thinking that they were a ghoul? It was possible that this was some kind of cult that Aislin had come across on the internet. But she couldn't shake the foreboding feeling when she thought of the name John Winchester, for some reason she just knew that he was dangerous.
Maybe Aislin knows about this guy, it wasn't too great an assumption, Karin had seen her talk with an older guy in a black suit and coat outside the school gates before the two of them walked home together, and she'd been getting weird emails from people that Karin had never heard of before.
Karin crept back and threw a rock at her cousin's window, she better be in, it wouldn't be the first time that Aislin had snuck out; Karin always kept her secrets though, their parents were both really strict and she would probably be grounded forever if they found out about it. Her mum and dad had gotten a divorce and her dad had moved out of state to New York for a job as a journalist for a big newspaper. Her new stepdad wasn't bad in Karin's opinion, a pastor at the local church, but for some reason, Aislin disliked him; Karin hadn't really blamed her for not liking the guy, he wasn't her dad and was having his own kid with her mother.
Surely enough, Aislin opened her window and stuck her head out,
"Karin?" she called quietly, a flicker of surprise colouring her voice,
"Is the back door unlocked?" Karin asked and her cousin nodded, retreating into her bedroom and closing the window. She hurried around her cousin's house and entered through the back door and tiptoed up the stars where she found Aislin waiting for her on the first landing.
"What's this about?" he cousin asked, her blue eyes flashing in the dim light,
"You know those nightmares I've been having?" Karin asked and Aislin nodded, "Well I saw a guy from my dream; John Winchester, he was with his son Dean and they were talking about disposing of a dead ghoul."
"You sure you weren't dreaming?" Aislin asked, laying on her bed and Karin shook her head,
"It was him, and they were both real, I swear." Aislin nodded slowly, "I'm not crazy,"
"I don't think you are." Her cousin said, "I don't think you should worry about it, I mean, if he killed a ghoul, he's one of the good guys, right?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Karin muttered, not entirely convinced, "I just wish I knew who they were, I know their names; John Winchester, Robert Singer, Pastor James Murphy, Rufus Turner and Daniel Elkins. If one of them are real, then doesn't that mean the rest of them are too?" Aislin shrugged,
"I read that sometimes if you're not sleeping much, you start to see things that aren't real," Aislin said slowly and calmly, "Maybe you were just worrying about the nightmares again and you thought you saw this John guy because you think the nightmare means something."
"What should I do? Am I crazy?" Karin asked and her cousin put a hand on her shoulder,
"Just go to sleep, and I don't think you're crazy," she still wasn't quite sure, but she did trust Aislin, and even if there was some hunting guy called John Winchester out there, it would be a hell of a coincidence for her to happen to run into him.
"Okay, thanks," she mumbled half-heartedly and Aislin walked her down the stairs to the back door, "See you at school tomorrow."
Aislin mumbled a goodbye and closed the door as Karin hopped across the cold pavement to her own home. Well, at least she doesn't think I'm crazy, Karin had no reason to ever suspect that her cousin might be lying, they were closer than cousins usually were, like a mixture of siblings and best friends. Karin walked into her house and after hurtling noiselessly up the carpeted stairs, she flopped into bed and closed her eyes, Aislin's right, Aislin's always right, maybe I was just imagining them.