Hello lovely people.
I hope you can forgive me, I am so so sorry, life got in the way of things for a long while so I tried to make this a nice long chapter and will promise to try and get more updates quicker.
And I hope you all dont mind too much but I have changed the title to Freedom Fighters from Fading Amaranth, bit of a change in plot ;)
I do not own supernatural or lyrics.

…
I think it's gonna be alright
Yeah, the worst is over now
The mornin' sun is shinin'
..

Ben Speaks

The kink in my neck was all I needed to wake up.
The pain shot down to my shoulder and I jolted up in the car seat; I loved my baby but sometimes a night with her leaves me aching all day.

Rolling slightly in the seat, I covered my yawn under my jacket, the faint smell of dirt and rock salt easing me. It was mornings like these, minus the sore neck and burning eyes, that I enjoyed very much. No need to rush, no need to put of a nice suit and pretend to be someone else… I could take my time and just be me for a little while.
The sun was still casually making its way to the sky; the orange glow over the empty field in front of the car something that reminded me just why I do what I do.

It was still way too early to be up on a day off and I grumbled as I tried to get comfortable again. Settling down with my jacket keeping my warm from the chilly air, the blood in my ears stopped pounding and the ache behind my eyes eased, I could head soft talking.
Cracking an eye open I watched as Claire huddled around, back to me as she talked quietly into her mobile.
Now, if she really wanted me to not hear or be disturbed, she could have stepped out of the car, but that would have been louder than mumbling a few things into the phone.

'Dam it Lance you sound like my mother.'
Lance.
Of course she would have another half.
I'm not saying that I am jealous or anything, I mean yeah she is an attractive woman, a very attractive one and she had an awesome personality, plus she was a hunter but that was just the problem.
Hunters couldn't friends, lovers or even partners. It was just too risky.
Yeah alright I'm jealous.

Keeping my eyes shut and body still, I honestly tried not to listen, but it is a bit hard to when the person talking is only less than a foot away.
'That's a days drive away, its quicker if we came to you first and take the job up in-'
The voice on the other end deepened with question and I tried to hide the smile as Claire became flustered, trying to keep quiet.
'I only just met him, he helped on the shape shifter job… of course he is a hunter! What? No, I'm not as reckless as you think you jackass.'
She was hissing into the phone and she glanced at me but I quickly shut my eyes, shuffling gently as though slightly disturbed in my slumber.

'Alright, fine. We'll come to you first, I could use a little rest… no I didn't do anything stupid!'
I grinned behind the collar of my jacket; it was interesting to see my new partner fluster like a teenager in trouble.

Partner.
I had to stop thinking that. All she had agreed to was me giving her a lift. I hardly knew anything about her. What I did know was that she was fierce, independent and a hunter. Plus it felt as though I have known her for years.

'Come on Lance, It's me! You know I'm always safe.'
She huffed out a harsh breath of air, twisting blonde hair around her fingers.
'Ben Braeden.'
My ears sharpened, I wanted to stop her, to tell her that she didn't need to look me up; I knew what it was Lance would want to be doing. If Claire asked me, I would tell her. After all, my life was probably as exciting as that of a cockroach.
But, there would always be some secrets.

I had no idea what Lance would be able to find; what sort of sources did he have access to?
My nerves were getting the better of me; knowing someone was trying to find out as much as they could about me, and I didn't even know what was out there about me.
I can still remember when they came knocking on my door a few years ago, ordering me to sign up for the war. It is a sick thought but I was grateful that my mother was ill, it allowed me to stay home and live for a few short weeks until she died.
I don't know how badly she suffered or even how long.

I was gallivanting around the country; hunting. For all I knew I was the one that caused her to die of a broken heart. Countless times she had pleaded for me to remain with her, to just forget about hunting and the creatures crawling in the dark.

Of course the army came after me, signed me up and I was on my way to be shipped off the battle front. Why couldn't these people understand that there was another war right behind them? Right in the homes, their streets!
A deserter.
That was what I was labelled. But if a deserter meant I was away from that battle front; away from humans that were doing things worse than what a demon would I didn't care.
There were still times I would flinch around people, still cower from certain smells or sounds. I would get over it, one day; I mean what good was I like that in a job like this?

Stretching, I decided to cut Lance short as Claire mumbled that she had to go, snapping her phone shut.
'Morning.' She spoke lazily, pretending that she had only been up for a few minutes herself.
'Hey. Sleep well?' I asked, rolling my neck to rid of the kink. Yawning again, I tossed my jacket onto the back seat and smiled at Claire, who tied up her hair again and opened the car door to stretch.
'Been a while since I've slept in a car. I feel crooked.' She chuckled and I could only smile to myself as I watched her, grumbling about the frost covered grass and stunning scenery.
God she was beautiful.

I had just finished filling up the car when Claire collapsed into the passengers seat.
With neat hair and fresh clothing on, she looked like a different Claire to the one I had seen for the last couple of days. I hadn't done anything and probably looked like something come back alive from the dead.

Scratches and grazes were still visible on her arms, a violent red to the pale pink of her skin, but she didn't seem to care. Her shoulder was better to, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to punch me as I dropped myself into the driver's seat, reaching over to take a bag of chips from her hands.

I rubbed at it, pretending that it hurt and well it did but I wasn't going to admit that.
'I took a guess that you were a black coffee sort of man, or you were a coca cola sort of morning person.'
Steadily she handed over the coffee and I took a sip, hissing as it stung my lip.
'Close, black with three sugar.'
Claire smiled, 'three sugars?' she scoffed and I frowned at her as she crunched into a biscuit.
'What..? That disappoints you? You more of a glass of orange juice type of girl?'
'No I'm more of a shot of whiskey in the morning type of girl.'
She didn't have a bottle with her but I could just imagine her taking a gulp just to prove her point.

Accepting the bag of chips from her, I opened them up as I pulled away from the gas station. I had to say, it was really nice having the company.
'So where to?' I asked at the intersection. The sky was a dark blue, the heavy clouds suspended threateningly in the distance.
Claire glanced around, finding the sign before pointing left.
'Oklahoma if you don't mind. I have a friend who lives there.'

Nodding I followed her direction, merging in with the light traffic on the highway.
Oklahoma wasn't that far away and I felt a part of me sink at the realisation that I would have to leave her so soon.
Claire didn't seem too bothered; if she was she was hiding it very well. The cool air gushed in from her open window and I shivered slightly as it raised goosbumps up my arms.

It was an awkward silence for some of the eight hour trip, music filling in the gap between an exchange of brief words of directions and questions. So yes, I liked the company but now that I had it, what do I do with it?

Being a hunter, the first question you want to ask is how but the last thing you want to be asked is how. Then again we had already asked one another; neither of them exactly the whole truth but still enough to satisfy. Plus the more I thought about it the more I seemed to be slamming my head into a wall.

My whole life just seemed… dull. Believe me it wasn't as dull as it could be.
I mean, risking my life on a daily basis, driving around the country meeting new people and creatures day in day out, better or worse, who wouldn't like that? But give it a year or so and I swear to you it will start to become more of a burden. Little pieces of your soul torn away slowly because of what we see, what we hear, what we do.

Then it becomes dullish.
Nothing new in the routine, just like having the same job for more than a few years; only hunting doesn't pay as well.

Yet as I drove, Claire relaxed comfortably in the seat beside me, this was just the sort of change I liked.

Lazily she turned her head, piercing blue eyes focused on me.
'What's your favourite colour?'
A little surprise at the question, half of me expecting a growl because of last night, I blinked a for a few seconds before I grinned.
'A tie between silver and blue.'

Claire rolled her eyes and I couldn't help but chuckle, sharing my gaze between the road and her.
'Everybody likes blue.'
'Not for the reason I do.' I grinned again and Claire looked at me steadily, waiting for me to explain but I just kept my eyes on the road.
'And yours are…?'
'Green, orange and yellow.'
'Wow.' I laughed gently, leaning back in my seat as Claire chuckled, crossing her arms challengingly.

'What's wrong with them?'
I had never taken Claire to be a pink girl, or even a purple girl even though I had known her for a total of a day. She was too strong and free to have cool, calm colours. It was evident in every way; her fierce gaze to her rational mind and lethal body.

Just like the rest of us, she was a trained hunter.

'Nothing.' I answered, biting my bottom lip and shaking my head slowly, 'just they're nice and hot colours.'
'Bit of an art boy are we?' she snapped but I knew there was no venom behind it.
'I try to be, chicks dig that sort of thing. Everyone girl likes the heat. Bit of a typical summer girl are we?' I returned the bit but as I turned to look at her, my smug smirk dropped; I knew that look well.

A memory.
A memory that is too horrid and painful to live with yet it can never be forgotten because it is who they are; the very foundation of why they are who they are.
Yeah, I know that look.

Defensively she pulled her feet up onto the seat; anyone else and I would have yelled at them. Tearing her eyes from mine, she smirked as she gazed out onto the road before us.
'Try to be, guys dig that sort of thing. But not for the reason I do.'
There was an icy edge to her smile of reassurance but I tried to give the warmest I could.
Just as I said before.

Everyone has to start somehow.

It was mid afternoon when we arrived in Oklahoma City. The once great city was nothing now that a dark shadow of what it once was. The streets were quiet, those walking or driving along the cracked tar looked lost, as though they were carrying a heavy burden.

The was had taken so much from everyone and even now, years later people were returning to normal, scars healing and moving on but the buildings were still half empty and people nervous to be outside. The fear of being condemned for your beliefs, shot for praying for protection.

Passing through the streets, the only evidence of a church was the burnt rubble in a pile on the ground and missing posters hanging from almost every pole. It was sad to admit, but most of them were probably hidden way in a mass grave.

The thing I could never understand; what sort of religion praises that?
Christianity, Muslim, Buddhism, even atheism, why would any of the Gods want bloodshed?
Myself? I fought for Christianity; my God that I knew no longer cared.
It was pointless, absolutely pointless. It had no meaning, just a circle of madness that seemed like it would never end. No one seemed able to back down and understand that there were differences, that there was always going to be a difference, just the same destruction again and again, the screams of the innocent stuck in my head, repeating over and over and over-

'Ben!'
Lurched from my thoughts I glanced around, seeing the light now green and driving on. Rubbing a hand over my face, I tried to ignore Claire beside me as she studied me.
'We were meant to turn there.'
'But I thought you said he lived up-'
Claire shook her head, blonde hair spilling around her face.
'One thing I learnt was never go to his place without an offering.'

After stopping in at a donut shop, myself grabbing a burger we were making our way up the stairs, the hollow footfalls around us loud.
'So how long have you know Lance?'
Claire was in front of me, leading me up the seemingly never ending staircase.
'More than a few years. We met just after the war.'
'So you both do hunts, together?'

A selfish part of me was praying that Lance was actually a middle aged man, too cripple to do anything more than offer her a home and keep an ear open to the world of hunters.
'Wait to you meet him.' She said with a grin, pushing open the stairwell door. The corridor in front of us was long and dark, the damp smell of old mould and old carpet overpowering. Luckily we turned to the first door, Claire knocking in a pattern; obviously not a man who liked to come out often.

'Come on, it's me Lancelot.'
Straightening my jacket as the locks behind the door began to slide out of their place.
'Paranoid?'
Claire just gave me a strange sort of disappointed confirmation. Tentatively the door opened, an eye peering through the slight gap before he caught sight of me, studying my face before scanning the rest of me. I shifted under the scrutinizing gaze.
'You're Ben Braeden?'

I turned my eyes to Claire, hesitant whether or not I should say yes or give him an alias. All my instincts were saying to say someone else but the corner of Claire's lip turned into a brief smile as she looked at me.
'Yes sir.'

The door opened wide then, and the skinny man on the other side stood proud in his baggy white tee shirt and stripped pyjama pants. Well, when I say proud I mean as proud as a skinny nerd could to a stranger like myself.
Pushing his glasses up his nose, Lance nudged his head to the side, gesturing us into the dark cool room.

Claire sauntered in first, so casual after doing it for so long but still weary; I could tell by the way her hand tensed beside her hip, ready to flex and grab her weapon if needed. I was the same, entering any room or building, especially one that was so dark. But I walked in anyway, as casually as I could, glancing around the large room. The hum of computers was loud and the bright blue and green lights pierced through the dark in rhythmic bursts.

'Don't call me sir, and I have asked you not to call me Lancelot!' he growled as he shut the door, bolting it back up. There was a sound of paper crunching, Claire slapped the bag of donuts into Lance's chest to shut him up. With a giggle Claire flopped down into the lounge, making herself comfortable with a cheeky grin on her face. Turning around I tried to take in as much of the room as I could, but it was dark and Lance paused in front of me, stretching with a yawn full of donut before he patted around the desk, searching through piles of paper.

I knew now what Claire meant, this man was so battle wounded that he could hardly leave his home, could not face other people other than on a computer screen.
I almost ended up like him.
It was a shame though, from the look of Lance he would have made a good hunter; lean and smart. He would have been quick and agile but years of being isolated and on a computer had a toll on his eyes and health; bones visible and the thick silver glasses almost magnifying his eyes to one like a crazed professor. Just to add to my already jealous self, he wasn't as old as I had thought of him, or as ugly and war ridden as I had pictured.
There was still a youthfulness in his face and a handsomeness to his soft features and brown mop hair.

'You know you would see better if you had the lights on in this bat cave of yours.'
Lance mumbled something to Claire around another donut before he marched over to the wall, flicking a switch. Blindingly the lights came on, drowning the dark with its stale light and revealing more than a small simple apartment.
The lights continued to turn on, flickering to life all along the ceiling, revealing a long line of computers and wall units. Walls had been knocked down between each apartment, creating a rather large hall separated by only a shower curtain pinned to the ceiling.

I must have had a stunned look on my face or missed a question or something because Claire bumped my shoulder roughly.
'Cool isn't it? Constant surveillance of areas and updates on crimes and whatever else.'
'It really is a bat cave…' I whispered back, watching as Lance moved along the wall, scanning the numerous coloured files until her pulled out the one he wanted.
'The case for you.'
Claire caught the file as it was tossed towards her, opening it up and scanning through it.
'Several people missing after a hike in a forest?'

I didn't move my eyes from the vast network of power cords, computer screens and multi coloured files with names printed neatly. Lance was silent as Claire read, sitting in his chair munching on the donuts, myself now a good three apartments own from them studying his well-organised book collection. It had anything and everything to do with hunting, from herbs to symbols, from typical monsters to the Bible.

'Don't go any further than that…please.' Lance called to me. Shrugging his shoulders, Lance pushed his glasses back up his nose. 'That's my room.'
Spinning around to look at it quickly, because yes I can be that nosey, all I saw was a pathetic looking camp bed beside a small desk riddled with paper and pictures. The kitchen was messy; half eaten cans of soup and empty coffee jars littered every inch. Other than that, the rest of the apartments had been gutted.

I was moving back towards them, Claire asking questions like who they were and what Lance had found could have done it, Lance handing over portrait pictures of faces that were obviously in the morgue when I saw an open file in front of a computer, my face staring back at me.
Snatching it up from the table, I read over what was typed neatly.

Name: Ben Braeden
Age: 22. Born 4th August 1998
Status: American citizen, hunter

'This file is about me…' I murmured, still reading through it.

- Attended four separate high schools before graduating with top marks in 2016. Majored in History and English.
- Raised by single mother, Lisa Braeden. Father unknown.
- Mother died of causes unknown in 2018
- Enlisted for WWIII. Stationed in Italy, platoon 7. Labelled a deserter in 2019.

Psychological / mental status: Unstable
Causes: Insecure childhood, lack of fatherly figure, world war, death of family, hunter

'Ben?'
Claire's concerned voice made me snap the file shut, quickly hiding from her all the words and scanned images of my life.
'Are you alright? You look sick…'
Wiping my eyes quickly, I rolled the file on my hands tightly, nodding my head. Lance noticed the file missing from the desk and stood, moving back slightly from me.
Claire moved aside, confused as I moved towards Lance quickly.
'What gives you the right? What gives you the right to put my life in a file and label me mentally unstable?' I growled, Lance pushing back against the wall before a grabbed his grubby white shirt, shaking him a few times.

'Ben!' Claire shrieked, running over and grabbing my arm, trying to make me ease the little nerd down.
'No Claire, he didn't have to write that, he didn't have to label me like that, or my mother in such a way!'
Yeah, I wasn't the only one in the file he had made diagnoses about.
'I'm sure he didn't mean to offend you, it's just the way he is!'
Lance was shielding his face with his scrawny hands, body trembling in fear.

I dropped him, his legs failing to catch him.
I wanted to shout, I wanted to hit him and make him remember that I was the one who came out of the war better off, I was the one that had a family but as I looked back up to Claire, I realised that Lance had Claire, and Claire had Lance and I had nobody.

Hanging onto the file, I slammed the door behind me and made my way angrily down the stairs.
So maybe I did over react but he had no right. He had no right!
My fist slammed into the white wall beside me, my knuckles cracking painfully but I savoured the pain.
I guess I was more frightened and sad than anything. It reminded me of what I had lost, what I had been through and was trying to run from…

I shoved open the door and continued over to my car.
This was practically the only family I had left, my black Ford Torino Cobra that I had to basically steal from a junk yard and rebuild myself. I guess she was my baby.

I had just started the engine and ready leave when the passenger door opened and a wave of blonde hair sat beside me. Claire didn't say anything, she didn't even look at me but the smile on her face was one that made me raise my eyebrow. Lifting the bag on her lap she threw it to the back seat and only then did she look at me.
'What are you doing?' I snapped.
'Coming with you of course.'
We stared for a while, waiting for the other to give in and when Claire didn't I just shook my head.
'Why?'
I mean, I just terrorised Lance and probably confirmed his diagnosis of being mentally unstable. I was a threat, a danger to Claire, I'm surprised that he let her go.

'You destroyed my bike, I need a lift to Lewiston Idaho. And you know; if we have to do a couple of hunts along the way…' she smiled nervously until I couldn't help but chuckle. Without a thought of Lance or my history, I pulled out of the old car park and onto the road again as Claire chatted happily to me.
Whatever was going to happen, if anything, surely it couldn't be as bad as what I've been through before right?

Thanks for reading!
Don't forget to leave a comment and anything you would like to read.

Silver-Kirin
xXx