Just a warning, may be a bit gruesome for some, and I'm sorry if it is. Shouldn't be too bad though.
I do not own Supernatural or the lyrics.

…

The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows where
But I'm strong
..

'Who the hell do you think you are?'
'What are you doing here?'
'Why am I here, why are you here?'
'I live here!'
'Oh so you're the shape shifter I'm after then?'
'Shape… what? How do you know that?'
'Long story, your name isn't really Troy is it?'
'No. And yours isn't Mila?'
'No.'

We both stopped, lowering our guns. Our cover was blown if the creature was here and I growled deep in my throat, holding onto the temptation of shooting him anyway.
Cautiously we both stepped closer, weary of each other until he nudged his head at me.
'You a hunter?'
'Not of the fur and sport kind.'

Uncocking his gun, "Troy" lowered it completely and held out his hand, a smile on his face now. White teeth were bright in the light and I raised an eyebrow, wondering whether I could trust a man that tried to hit on me only a day ago. Another hunter, what were the odds of bumping into another one on the same hunt?

'I'm Ben.'
I knew he wasn't lying that time and I extended my arm, gripping his hand tightly.
'Claire.'
We stood there for a moment, just watching each other as if waiting for the other to attack or speak or something. But he just grinned, dropping his hand back to his side as I kept my eyes firmly locked on him.

'So, hunter. Got a partner I should know about in case I shoot them?'
I just rolled my eyes, tucking my gun back into my pants as I walked from the room. My heels were quiet as we I reached the front door, but Ben behind me was not very stealthy at all.
'Never met a hunter that does the job in heals.'
I glanced at him over my shoulder.
'Have to be pretty dam good if you ask me.'

Ben followed me out of the house and as I got on my motor bike, ready to shove my helmet on, Ben grabbed my wrist. All my instincts screamed at me to fight back or to wrench my hand free but I reframed from doing it and glared at the young man. He couldn't have been any older than me but his face held a maturity that was surprising for the way he seemed to act.

'Can I buy you a beer?'

Acceptance; that was all she wanted.
Not to be labelled as some sort of creature, a hideous monster that needed to be slain.

It wasn't her fault she was born this way, brought into this world somehow deformed a hideous. The only way she learnt to survive was to change her appearance into something that the humans could cope with but it never stopped her from feeling ugly.

So each couple of years she would move from town to town, changing her appearance and her name in a vain attempt that one day it could lead to her feeling something other than hate and self-loathing. It never worked and one day she found a way to make herself feel better.

The first time she killed someone was purely out of rage.
She had gotten a job with the name Ashleigh, just working as a waitress in some crappy pub with a new look. She liked this one, short black hair, small petite frame and face with a face dusted with freckles. This so far was her favourite.
But one of the women she was working with called her ugly. Not to her face, but to a group of workers when their shift ended for the night. Katelyn was laughing with them, laughing at her and she felt all that anger she had kept under control for weeks fall apart. She waited until she was alone in the street before she jumped on her, dragging her by her blonde hair into the abandoned building before beating her.

The blood was thick and heavy on her flesh it almost didn't feel real.
Taking her anger out on Katelyn was the best she had felt in years. Pent up emotions channelled from her into her fists and hands; beating, biting and slashing at the screaming woman beneath her. The metallic liquid filled her mouth and slowly coated her throat as she sighed with joy, gurgling the blood in her mouth before swallowing it.
She knew this was only confirming to the world that she was a monster but dam she felt good.

When Katelyn had stopped squirming, her voice silent and eye blank she actually realised she killed her. Her face was still so pretty but Ashleigh fixed that up, cutting away her hair and dragging the knife into the firm skin on her face, cutting away the eye lids and lips and ripped apart the cheeks until she looked like something from a horror movie. To Ashleigh, life was the scariest horror movie anyone could ever witness and participate in.

For a few minutes Katelyn remained where she was, Ashleigh not knowing what to do with the body. She couldn't stop staring at it with a smile; now who was prettier?

She decided to leave the body there; it wasn't like she could ever be pinned for it. Police wouldn't be looking for a creature such as herself, perhaps only some guy that has a thing for women.
From that day she had killed more than a few people; those that laugh at her or those that laugh at others. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but the world was already screwed up enough, why couldn't she have some fun and justice for all those years she was beaten and tortured?

It would never be right but Ashleigh could feel so alive, so beautiful as she stared into the mangled body of her victim.
And no one would ever be able to stop her.

I had to admit that I was enjoying myself.

Ben had followed me back to the motel; turns out he was only a few rooms down from me, and we made our way to the pub. Even though he was a fellow hunter, I had heard it wasn't unusual for them to simply use and dispose of the other.

We had taken the same table I had the night before, ordering a few drinks as we pulled out the files we each had on the case.
I was actually surprised to see his as neat and organised as mine; I thought all men were messy slobs, but he seemed to be doing alright.
And now we were drinking away and chatting about the case and each other. I was sure to keep my tongue tight; it was never wise to go around and speaking wildly about ones past as bad as mine but I was beginning to feel comfortable around this man.

'So Ben Braeden, how did you get into hunting? I haven't heard of you before.'
Ben sipped from his beer before leaning back in his chair, gazing across the busying pub before looking back at me. His hazel eyes seemed to be almost glass now, a pale shade of green and I grinned before looking down at my own drink.
'Well, Miss…' he waved his hand and I just rolled my head, not realising I hadn't told him my name. I was not one hundred per cent sure of telling him my name, but he wasn't lying to me so I knew his and could hunt him down if he tried anything.

'Novak.'
'Miss Novak, I can't tell you exactly how I got into hunting…' his smile dimmed and his wide eyes became narrow as his dark fringe covered them, 'I honestly can't even remember. I just decided to go on a trip and never looked back.' He was lost in thought for a while and I didn't want to interrupt him so busied myself with folding my paper neatly back into the file until we were ready to focus on it properly.
'How about you?' he asked suddenly, tossing his head to get the hair from his eyes. They locked back on me again like he hadn't just had a moment of regret and I sighed heavily.
'I don't know, I guess we all start out tragically somehow don't we?'
'Come on, can't be anything I haven't heard.'

Again I had to reframe from hurting him. Rolling my shoulders with a crunch, I drank the last of my beer and put the bottle on the table with a loud clap.
'My father was taken from me and my mother slowly tortured in front of me for years.' I snapped my head to him, frowning. 'I was always the freak at school anyway. Too smart for my own good so busied myself with finding out what it was that was responsible for killing my father. Lead me down this road and I haven't been able to look back.'

Something heavy fell over the two of us, what were we expecting? No hunter really chooses this life, if they do it is not one on terms that are of free will.

'At least we know what it is we are dealing with. A dam shape shifter.'
I opened slid my next drink closer to me, nodding my head before knocking half of it back in one go.
'Ever dealt with one before?'
Ben nodded weakly and with a sigh gestured to my file, opening it and reading what I had down on the pages.
'Once. Simple enough when they come after you. Silver to the heart. But this one…'

We both looked down at the gruesome pictures. Why would it do such a thing like that? It was so horrible and somewhat unusual for a shape shifter to go after a type and to mangle a body in such a way. Then again, when going down this road, who knew what you were going to come across?

'What the hell is it doing?'
We both shrugged and ended up chuckling weakly to each other before I stood, ready to call it a night.
'Claire,'
It was unusual to hear my name off someone else's lips other than Lance and I twisted around as Ben stood also, following me to the door.

'I'm sorry for the way I was the other night…'
I raised my hand, trying to stop him but he shook his head.
'No wait, I still mean what I said about it not being safe. If this thing has a type, then you fit under it.'
'It won't come for me…' I chuckled nervously, the thought never actually occurring to me.
'If it finds out you're a hunter, it has all the more reason to.'
I frowned, crossing my arms as I watched him carefully.

Normally I had people figured out in the first five minutes, but this young man was something entirely different. Sure he was a typical male; thinking he was king of the world but there was a side to him already that was caring and selfless.
'What are you proposing?'
Ben shuffled nervously under my stare… good.
'That we share this hunt. Just this one, I've come too far to let this one go and I hate to leave the job half done.'

I thought about it for a moment; how bad could it be?
We already knew what we were dealing with and where and how to find it, so now it was just a case of killing it. It would be nice to have some company.
'Sure. Don't see any harm in that.'

A smile broke out on Ben's face like he was a child being rewarded a lolly pop.
'Guess I'll see you tomorrow then.'
He shoved his hands into his pockets as he smiled at me, making his way to his own room, disappearing behind the door. I just stood there for a minute, watching nothing in particular.
I was really glad to not be alone on this hunt, but should I get too comfortable? I mean, one more day and then I'll be back to being on my own again.

Maybe I should just enjoy it while it was here, I was tough enough to take anything but yet I trembled at socialising with someone who was practically like me. I may never meet him again and he did seem like a nice enough man.

I wasn't really one to believe in destiny and fate but I do see life as a road, as boring and unoriginal as it may sound but I'm serious. A straight road going on for a certain time with lots of other roads crossing through it and over it. Who knows if you can ever meet with the same road again, or how long it remains together. All I could hope for was that I was strong enough to see it through to the end.

Thanks for reading.

Silver-Kirin
xXx