The sound of crunching gravel reached Rauna's ears as she woke. A sharp pain stabbed through her neck causing her to sit up suddenly. Sam turned to her briefly, before concentrating on parking once more. Rauna blinked hard, focusing her eyes on the scene outside the window. She was met with a quaint cabin, like something you would see in a Christmas movie. The cabin was half swallowed in greenery and glistening snow; the only light was a warm orangey lantern swinging gently just outside the door. She turned to Ellie, who was still asleep and punched her lightly, before climbing out of the now-parked car. Ellie jumped and took a second to assess the situation, before joining her friend out in the mid-afternoon air.

"You okay?" Sam asked her as he approached them by the stairs. She nodded, still dazed by sleep. The others were close behind; Grace smiling at the picturesque scene in front of her. As someone who had gone from south east England to an apartment in Chicago, she had missed any sort of countryside sorely. Inside, it was warm and the air seemed to carry the sweet scent of pine. In one corner there was a rundown TV that you could almost feel sorry for, cornered by two sofa's, a paint-chipped coffee table and festive rug, that looked as if it had been knitted by someone's grandma. Closer to where they all filed in was a simple wooden dining set, a circular table and three chairs, and across from that, an average kitchen area. Other than the buzz of fridge, and infrequent sound of the snow sliding off the branches of the looming forest, there was little sound; the girl's couldn't decide whether it was soothing and eerie.

"Make yourselves comfortable" Dean almost smiled, dumping his bag down with a thud.

The events of that morning had soon been forgotten as everyone forced themselves to get past it and move on, concentrating on their current survival. They had reached their destination a little over thirty minutes ago and were now setting up in the warm, wooden lodge. Rauna was already feeling pent up, having thoroughly explored every room, escape route and hiding spot (a habit of hers) and found herself increasingly eager to explore the great outdoors. Sam and Dean, however, had other ideas; they both sat at the small breakfast table, sifting through a sea of documents and eye witness accounts. Ellie was in the corner, flicking through the three channels available on the poor excuse for a TV.

"Are you seriously telling me that we have to stay here with this," she explained, pointing at the dusty box, "as our only form of entertainment."

"Yes, we are" Sam said firmly. He didn't mean to be harsh, but it was important that they stayed safe. Ellie was quiet; she sank further into the couch and folded her arms, as fed up as everyone else. Tessa joined her on the couch and began filing through the array of magazines on the table in front of her. Suddenly, something on the TV caught Dean's attention; a news reporter was giving the latest information on a recent attack near a hotel in the town. Sam saw the look on his face and turned to follow his gaze. "Hey, can you turn that up?" he said, gesturing to Ellie, who had the remote. They watched for a few more seconds, before the woman on the screen ended with, "More on this story, after nine."

"Time to go," Dean stated, standing up and headed towards the door. Sam nodded, before grabbing his jacket and following behind him.

"Psst" Rauna hissed at Ellie from one of the many bedroom doorways, grabbing her attention. She gestured for her friend to join her and Ellie obeyed, quickly sneaking across the floor, watching Castiel who had his back turned.

"What?" Ellie whispered, creeping further into the dark room. Rauna moved over to the window.

"I've already checked, all the windows are looked, but this pane is missing most of its putty" she explained. Ellie shrugged, looking confused.

"Meaning?" Rauna rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Meaning," she repeated exaggeratedly, "We can get out idiot."

"Ooohh" Ellie replied, before smiling mischievously. 1…2…3 Rauna mouthed, not making a sound. She lifted her leg effortlessly, kicking out with all the strength that was expected of her kickboxer frame. The window pane flew out, landing on the white blanketed ground. As Rauna had expected, the glass was shatter proof and so it lay intact, while invisible against the snow. Suddenly, a noise coming from the door turned the girls' heads. Rauna winced as she suspected they had been caught by trench coat, but was supressed to be greeted by Grace and Tessa, who were intrigued by their schemes. Tessa noticed the gaping hole in the window frame and her flame-like eyes lit up further. The girls exchanged glances… and the alliance was formed.

Sam's hand pressed against the smooth wood of the door, calmly, slowly; he had done this so many times before. Inside it was dark, a dim orange light was all that illuminated the area they found themselves in. The bar was several steps away, the floor was decorated with tens of round tables, all occupied by wood and red felt chairs or stools. The whole building smelt like cheap bear and cigarettes. His gaze resting upon the sweet blonde, slowly wiping the bar, he made his way over.

"Can I help you?" she said with a voice that had been victim to too much abuse, making it harsh and cold. Sam ordered for Dean and himself and, although the movement was almost undetectable, he could have sworn that she rolled her eyes at his alcoholic requests. "Sure" she half smiled, before turning to carry out his order. Dean made himself comfortable on the stool next to Sam's, resting his forearms on the dark wood in front of him. Moments later, the girl returned with their drinks and placed them down with a clink. "I ain't seen you boys around, you new in town?" She asked, resting her palms on the other side of the bar.

"You could say that," Dean replied, "We're visiting for a while."

"With our girls," Sam added. The blonde raised her eyebrows in surprise and tried her best not to make assumptions. Dean stuttered, reading her expression.

"Er, we're brothers" he corrected. She nodded, changing her understanding.

"How many?" The boys looked at her blankly. "…kids" she added.

"Oh um, two each" Sam smiled politely, before taking a sip of his beer.

"All girls?"

"Yep, all four" Dean spoke, whilst his brother held his glass up to his mouth. "But they're angels really." He furrowed his brow at his comment, the ironic truth of his word hitting him only after his spoke.

"I bet," she grinned, "Where are your wives?" her curiosity continued and Dean began to wonder how long his patience would last before he could slip in a few questions of his own.

"At a spar, no doubt" Sam laughed, placing his drink back on its coaster. The other two laughed along. "Ladies weekend" he smiled.

"You must be such great husbands, getting the kids out of their hair for a while, wow."

"Yeah, we were going to stay in the hotel in town, but after hearing about what happened, I'm glad we didn't" Dean slipped in sneakily.

"I know right" she gasped in recognition of the situation. "Animal attack, I suppose. It's kinda scary though, knowing something like that could just… happen down the road, you know?"

"Can you tell us anymore about the situation, you know for the girls' sake"…

The snow on the ground sparkled in the evening light. Trees danced statically throughout the forest, filling it with timid shadows and beautiful twists and dazzling lights that filtered generously through the leafless, glass-like branches. Ellie stumbled aimless through the icy white powder, head titled back and eyes gazing up in awe and the dusky shining sky, cut open by the frosted trees. The others travelled close; Rauna up front, dancing freely and Grace giggling a few steps behind. Tessa laughed too when Rauna stumbled and almost fell. Their nipped cheeks glowed a peachy pink colour, hiding behind their icy breath and washed away by the shimmering glaze of their eyes and the snowflakes sleeping on their eyelashes; one falling every so often to delicately brush past their skin.

"Grace." Their wonderland was shattered by an almost familiar voice. Grace's blood froze with the ground beneath her feet as she slowly turned. There stood Castiel. In his trench coat. Not looking very amused. "Girls," he added.

"Oh crap, run!" Rauna cried. All four of them turned on their heels and began sprinting. To them it was a game, a fun moment in time worth laughing about. To Castiel, it was letting his friends down, letting his kind down… letting the girls down. In less than a second he had caught up with them, but then they were gone. This continued for several seconds.

"Enough" Castiel demanded, forcing them to come skidding to a halt. He drew in a deep breath, opening his mouth to speak, but before his could get a word out, he was cut off by a panicked scream.

"Castiel" Rauna screeched as something emerged from the new-found darkness and collided with his side, with an unmercifully force. He went flying and smashed into the thick trunk of a nearby fir tree; snow cascaded to the ground around him. The creature turned to the girls: its pupiless eyes glowed a deep crimson and it open its mouth, letting out an ear piecing screech and flashing several rows of knife like teeth. It appeared to have antler-like appendages, which was broken and jagged like smashed ice. Its large hand swung back, smashing into Rauna's abdomen. The wind was knocked from her as she was forced through the air. She hit the ground and skidding through the snow, letting out a pained cry as she landed on her slung wrist. Grace looked around frantically at the abused bodies lying amongst the white. Suddenly, her breathing laboured as a similar sensation to before force itself from her core. It hurt less than before, but still made her cry out, squeezing her violet eyes shut. The sound turned the creatures head and it looked at her with eyes belonging to a nightmare. It was about to strike, but stopped at glared at the wreathing girl. He turned. He left… running. Tessa hurried over to Grace, collapsing to her knees beside her, before clutching her shoulders comfortingly. Several meters away, Ellie was helping Rauna to her feet. Castiel was up and striding over to Rauna.

"I can heal that for you" he stated, reaching out his hand. She shied away, fear flashing in her eyes.

"No" she said quickly. He pulled away. Furrowing his brow, he wondered why she would reject such an offer and chose to deal with the pain.

"Okay," he agreed, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but if that wasn't a demon, what the hell was it?" they walked over, joining the other two. Castiel shrugged.

"I'm afraid, I don't know. This is why you can't go of on your own, I'll let this slip for now because I'm just glad you're all okay."

The hotel loomed over the carpark, a centre piece to all the chaos. The area was littered with police vehicles, type and men milling around in uniform, either yelling orders into a workie torkie or getting fed up with the next man in charge. Sam and Dean swiftly climbed out of the car, now changed into smart suits and armed with their fake identities. They flashed them as they approached and the men let them through without a second thought.

"Who are you?" A gruff voiced ordered.

"FBI" Sam replied confidently. The man shook his head.

"Why the hell are they sending the FBI down here? It's a bloody animal attack" he said, the irritation was more than evident.

"Look, we're just as unhappy to be here as you. There's been some cases similar to this one cropping up and we've been asked to investigate in case there's a pattern" Dean explained, equally as confident.

"Cases? What is this, A Saturday night bloody drama? Go ahead" he gestured for them to leave his presence and they made their way over to the tape, which they ducked under effortlessly.

"Some people" Sam raised his eyebrows. Dean nodded in agreement.

The body had already been taken away for examination, but additional factors and evidence still remained at the scene. Sam pulled out his phone, taking pictures of tracks, a tuft of fur on a branch and a patch of crimson stained snow. He could see why it was a suspected animal attack; if he didn't know better he would have said they were right. "What are you thinking?" Dean looked over at his brother.

"I have no idea," he admitted, roughly pushing his hair out of his face. "I guess we should just get what we can from here and head back to research some more. We should probably check up on Cas and the girls." Dean agreed.

"Are you sure you're all alright?" Cas checked as they all filtered back into the cabin. He turned, locking the door behind him. Tessa saw this and shrugged.

"Come on, we're not that bad."

"This is not to keep you in," he began.

"It kinda is" Ellie chipped in.

"It is to keep that thing from coming in," he explained, closing the curtains around the room.

"Oh yeah, because a door and some fabric is gonna hold it, I feel so safe." Rauna slapped Tessa playfully as she wandered past the sarcastic teenager, before slumping down effortlessly on the sofa. A small cloud of dust puffed up from the ancient piece of furniture as she hit it. She grabbed the remote lazily and switched on the equally as ancient TV. The kitchen was old and shabby, the fridge never failed to buzz tediously and the cooker looked like something produced from the scrapheap challenge, but still Grace found herself eager to see what she was capable off using such poor equipment. She made her way over to the kitchenette and began gathering the things she would need to make her not-so-famous mac and cheese.

The TV screen was irritatingly bright amongst the darkness of the room, forcing Rauna to squint to concentrate on what it displayed. She wasn't the only one, Tessa too was both bored and irritated by the screens inconvenient luminosity.

"And we're here with Dr. Aldridge on our mysterious animal attack, Dr. Aldridge could you shed some more light on this current situation?" The news reporter began. Some dorky looking professor began rambling on about how this attack was most likely a bear due to the nature of the attack and the evidence that was left behind. Ellie looked towards Castiel.

"Do you think that was the thing that attacked us?" she asked curiously. Castiel concentrated on the screen for a second before answering.

"Maybe, it would make sense" he replied. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, making Rauna and Tessa jump. Castiel got up and a swiftly made his over to the door, taking the time to unfasten the numerous heavy locks on the door. Two familiar faces appeared and were eager to get in out of the cold.

"We all okay?" Dean said cheerily, louder than usual.

"Well not exactly," was the response he was met with. He raised his eyebrows at Castiel in surprise. "We were attacked out in the forest" he explained. It was now he could see the scratches on his angelic friends face.

"What the hell were you doing out in the forest?" Sam questioned. The girls sank a few inches into their chairs, except Grace who was still working on dinner.

"Well it wasn't because we broke the window and snuck out, that's for sure" Rauna said quietly.

"Okay, so you did that" Dean said, pointing at her but looking towards where he was about to dump his jacket down. "Attacked by what exactly?"

"Imagine a reindeer and an abominable snowman having one nasty baby" Tessa replied, shuddering slightly at the memory of its appearance.

"You that's what attacked the man down at the hotel?" Sam asked. Dean nodded, fitting all the pieces together. At this, Sam grabbed his laptop and collapsed onto one of the dining chairs. He threw the lid open and quickly pulled up the internet.

"Is this what you saw?" he asked, spinning the laptop round on the table's surface. The girls were met with a similar copy of the monster they saw and Sam received nods and a few mumbled conformations. He twisted the laptop back around and began to read aloud.

"In Inuit mythology an Ijiraq is a sort of shape shifter who kidnaps children and hides them away and abandons them. The Inuksugaq of stone allow these children to find their way back if they can convince the Ijiraq to let them go." He looked around the room, caught in an exchange of mutual glances, everyone now understanding the truth.

"Great" Grace was the first to break the ice. "Who want's food?" she added. Despite the snapping and fearful tension in the room, everyone was grateful for her statement.

It was now dark outside and the fire was crackling loudly in the living room. Everyone was huddled around it with one blanket between them all.

"So why did that thing kill the man from the hotel, if it's supposedly a kidnapper?" Rauna asked.

"He wasn't a child, I guess" Sam replied from the other side of the fire. She nodded in acknowledgement. "It's getting late though, you should get some rest and we'll worry about it in the morning," He added.

"Yes dad" Ellie grinned as they got up and made their way to their separate rooms.

Rauna lay in bed, the covers drawn up to her shoulders. She couldn't sleep, like usual. She gazed out of the window; a cool breeze coming from the gaping hole in the window frame washed over her. The stars seemed to drown in the gentle blank ink of the sky, yet all sparkled so beautifully above the trees. They were so safe up in the sky and somehow that made Rauna feel safe too… but just then, something caught her eye in the tree line. She sat up, suddenly alarmed and it was then she could make out distant screaming. She snatched her pillow from her bed and threw it at Ellie, who woke suddenly.

"Ellie" she hissed.

"What?"

"Get up." They both jumped out of bed and hurried out of the bedroom. Rauna pushed the door open to Grace and Tessa's room. It wasn't long before they were up and joined by Castiel who was never asleep in the first place. A loud bang on door, followed by screams of help, forced Sam and Dean from their bedroom. Sam forced the lock open and yanked open the door. It was the girl from before. The bar tender. Sam ushered her in and quickly fasten the door behind her. Tears streamed down her face, uncontrollably, unwillingly.

"What happened?" Dean asked. She shook violently.

"That thing, it's after me" she sobbed, no louder than a whisper. He took her shoulders comfortingly. A loud crash came from Rauna and Ellie's bedroom, causing the girls to scream and run further away from the door.

"How the hell did it get in?" Grace cried.

"I broke the bloody window, remember?" Rauna screamed as they rapidly backed away further. Three… two… one! Bang! It burst out past the kitchenette and into the living room. It roared, like a thousand nails being scraped down a board of metal. It grabbed the girl and she let out a plethora of screams, crying out for help. Sam swung at it with the baseball bat he had armed himself with and several deafening shots rang out as Dean fired his desert eagle, but… she was gone.

"What the hell are we going to do?" Tessa asked, looking around frantically.

"Going after that thing" Dean said gruffly. He began searching round for weapons and anything of use. Sam joined him.

"Grace?"…

"What?" …

"Where's Grace?" …

Castiel looked around the room, almost panic stricken. She wasn't there. She wasn't there. Without a second thought her burst out into the freezing cold and began trekking threw the snow.

"Castiel" Sam called out into the night after him. "God dammit" he cursed to himself.

Grace's breath quivered. She was terrified, but she had to do this. All her life she had been nothing but a get on and move on kinda of girl, nothing had mattered. This, this mattered… for once it wasn't just another task given to her so she could progress onto the next task and the next one, leading nowhere. That night, she was important, not her aimless road of task. She could live with that. She could die with that. She was so scared, but that was okay. Stumbling shakily through the snow, following the blood trail the Ijiraq had left behind, she came to a cave like formation. The ice was illuminated by glistening reflections, dancing like water and glass on the roof of the cave. She could hear the quiet, terrified cries of the bar girl and knew that if she was to do anything that night it was that she would save that girl.

"Hey" she cried, as loudly as she physically could. The monster turned, its red eyes beaming down; two red dots trailed across the snow and then across her skin, stopping in her eyes. "You don't get her" she called, "You get me" she tried her hardest to sound threatening. The creature roared once more like screeching metal, but this time she stepped forwards strongly, finally confidently. The creature was engulfed in anger and charged at her. It all happened so quickly. In a flash of bright light Grace had gasped and all the air in her lungs left her body in one breath. Her arms thrown back, she was suspended in the air, an antler of the creature twisting through her flesh, impaling her completely.

"No" Castiel screamed. He ran forward to reach her, but was frozen in his tracks; as was everyone else who had followed close behind. A tear rolled down the bar girl's face, the girl had come to save her and it cost her life. Grace's body fell and the crimson poured out into the crystal white around her. The light slipped too quickly from her eyes. The air got colder, bitterer and the world got a little darker. An angel. A child had gone. Suddenly, the snow around her began to freeze up and it spread, slowly at first but then faster. Castiel was free. He ran over to her side and collapsed to the ground. He cradled her, shaking her head to get any kind of response. Nothing. The others were free. The monster seemed to cry out in pain as the ice reached it. Castiel looked down and Grace's beautiful red blood was now as black as the night. The ice turned black, spreading like the first layer. It reached the monster and it screamed out as if the black as was like acid. Suddenly another blast like the one before, exploded from her chest; a jet black blast of light. Everyone had to shield their eyes, but when the cave was once again visible to monster was gone. It no longer existed a long side them. Grace's eyes shot open like springs and she coughed and spluttered as cold air forced its way down her throat. She was met with Castiel's worried expression. He smiled at her.

"My saving Grace" he whispered under his breath.

"Castiel" she whispered weakly. She looked around at everyone.

Several days later, they were gone. It was like they were never in that cabin. All that remained of them there was in the memories of the bar girl, who had sworn to secrecy. They had moved onto another place, and so it began. Here they were in a hotel of some sort, Grace wasn't concentrating in the car. She sat, twisting her fingers nervously as Dean paced the room. It was just them and Grace's heart was thudding. Dean stopped. He looked at her.

"I know this is hard," he begun, "but we have to take about this ability you have? Do you have any idea what it is?" Grace sighed.

"I don't."