Arielle came down the stairs quietly. Finding the living room empty, she walked around the halls and found salt lines at every window and door. The sounds of pounding came from upstairs and directed her to her mother's bedroom where she found Sam boarding up a vent on the ceiling.
Leaning against the door frame, she watched him silently. He finally caught sight of her and gave her a wiry smile. "I've closed off every other way into the house," he explained, stepping off the ladder. Nodding towards the vent on the floor, he continued. "If this thing's coming, it's coming through here."
A creak came from down the hall, the sound of a door opening. Arielle raised a brow, standing straight. "You were saying?" she said, heading to grab the gun from the night stand.
"Arielle?! Arielle!" The blonde froze at the familiar voice, slowly turning away from the weapon.
"Mom?" she half-whispered, taking a step towards the bedroom door. Sam's eyes widened.
"No," he said, trying to get the girl's attention.
"Mom!" Arielle called out, dashing towards the voice.
"Arielle!" Sam yelled, snatching up the shotgun and chambering a round as he gave chase. He found Arielle staring at her mother, eyes wet.
Her voice broke as she spoke. "Mom."
"Arielle, wait!" Sam commanded, his eyes on the woman before them.
"It took me, but I got away," Kate sobbed, arms extended.
"It's okay," the blonde assured her, stepping towards her. "You're okay."
"I got away, sweetie," she repeated, fiercely wiping at her eyes.
Arielle couldn't help herself and stepped into her mother's open arms, embracing her tightly. "Arielle, step away from her," Sam warned, aiming the shotgun.
Blinking, she turned to her brother, tears streaming down her face. "Sam, what the hell?!"
"She's not your mother!" he started, never flinching the gun away.
"Who – Arielle, what's going on?" her mother asked, her eyes going from the girl in her arms to the brother.
Sam inched his way around the table, closing in on Arielle. "Get away from her!"
"What's going on?" Kate repeated, her eyes frantic.
Arielle stood in front of her, wide eyes on her half-brother. Her arm instinctively held her mother back. "It's really her, okay? It's her!"
"There was too much blood. You know that. Your mother's dead. There was too much blood in the vents!" Sam's speech caused Arielle to break contact with Kate momentarily and the brother took the chance to shove her away from the woman.
Reacting, Arielle snatched the shotgun from the unprepared Sam. She pointed it at him then quickly back to Kate. "Arielle!" her mother breathed out, eyes wide.
Sam stood with his hands up, not wanting to provoke her. "Shoot it," he ordered, his eyes going to the thing that called itself Kate. The woman shook her head vigorously.
"He's crazy! Honey, it's me!" her mother pleaded, the shotgun in Arielle's hand shaking at her words. She turned the barrel of the gun towards Sam now.
"Arielle! Look!" Sam begged, before being interrupted.
"Honey, it's me!" the woman cried again.
"Look, that's not your mother!"
"Baby, please!"
"Shoot it!" Sam roared. "It's not human!" Arielle levelled the gun back at Kate. Before she could pull the trigger, something smashed against the back of her head. "Arielle!" she heard Sam scream before a second thud echoed in her ears.
The world went dark.
Arielle came to, finding herself strapped down. Duct tape bound her to the table around the waist and her wrists and ankles were tied as well. She looked to her right to find Sam also rousing himself from unconsciousness. She saw who she thought was her mother circling them, cleaning her fingernails with a knife.
"Silver," Sam said, almost choking on the word. "No wonder the bullet didn't work. You're not shapeshifters. You're ghouls." At the mention of a gun wound, the woman wiggled her arm with a smirk.
"You know, I find that term racist," Kate said in a mocking tone, waving the knife in the air. The monster approached Arielle and the blonde watched in disgust as the thing sniffed from her wrist to her neck then nibbled on her ear. "Mmm. Fresh meat. So much better than what we're used to."
Arielle jerked her head away, hot tears springing into her eyes. "I should have known. It was the fresh kills that threw me. Ghouls don't usually go for the living," Sam continued, trying to get the attention away from his sister. Arielle focused her eyes on him as he spoke. "You see, you're just filthy scavengers, feeding off the dead – taking the form of the last corpse you choke down."
"And their thoughts," a new voice added. "And their memories." The man they knew as Joe Barton stepped into the room, flourishing another knife. "Like Joe and Kate here, for instance."
"Well, we are what we eat," Kate sighed, waltzing over to Arielle as Joe approached Sam.
Arielle turned her eyes from Sam to the creature. "You're monsters," she spat, face red as she struggled against the bonds.
"Now is that any way to talk to mommy dearest?" the thing chastised, sliding the knife across the blonde's arm, drawing blood. Arielle bit down on her lip to keep from screaming.
"Get away from her!" Sam roared, the ropes digging into his flesh as he pulled to free himself.
Joe examined the knife and then the man before him, plunging the weapon halfway into Sam's side. "Monster. You know, you humans use that word a lot," he said in a thoughtful tone, slowly retracting the knife. "But I don't think you know what it means."
Sam's breath quickened as the blood soaked through his shirt, grunting when Kate came round and plunged a finger into the wound. Licking the blood, her eyes turned skyward. "His blood, it tastes different," she noted, repeating the procedure.
Joe went to Arielle, slashing her other arm. The girl forced herself to lay still, her chest heaving as the creature placed a bowl to gather the blood. "Our father was a monster? Why? Because of what he ate?" he continued, ignoring the comment on Sam's blood. "He never hurt anyone. Living, anyway."
"No, he was no monster," Kate agreed, twirling her knife before pointing it at Sam. "The thing that killed him was though. A monster named John Winchester."
"Thanks to your daddy, my sister and I grew up on our own," Joe snarled, slashing Sam's arm and placing a bowl below it. Sam tugged harder at his ropes and Arielle saw the blood oozing out faster. "At least we had each other," the man said, a warm glance directed at the woman.
"Like you and your brother. Inseparable," Kate said, planting a kiss on the cheek of the man known as Joe Barton.
Joe smiled before turning back to Sam. "Actually, it was very hard to get you on your own. We weren't much too worried about this one, though," Barton said, nodding to Arielle. "We knew it'd be easy to get her to doubt you, not being close to you and your brother, that is."
"Like you said, Sam, the only thing you can count on is family." Kate grinned and took a sip from a bowl filled with Arielle's blood. "For twenty years we lived like rats."
"Graveyard after graveyard," Joe recalled, his nose wrinkling in disgust. "All that stinking flesh."
Kate patted his arm before swiping up some of Sam's blood next. "Then we thought, 'Hey, why not move up to fresher game?'" she said, taking two fingers and digging them into Sam's side wound again, causing him to groan through gritted teeth.
Joe grinned. "And we knew just where to start, of course." He dug the knife into Sam's arm again, a new bloody trail running down his forearm. "Revenge – it's never over, is it, Sam?"
"First it was John's cop friend," Kate said, pointing at her brother. "Then his slut. We almost had the little bastard child, but somehow," she paused, twirling a strand of Arielle's hair in her finger. "Somehow the brat got away."
The creature slashed at the girl's stomach, eliciting a muted whimper, and bent at the waist, greedily licking up the seeping blood. "We figured she'd call John, father of the year," Joe stated, creating another slash on Sam's arm to gather more blood. "But, it seems the son of a bitch is already dead."
"So I guess you three will have to do," the sister ghoul sighed, standing back straight and neatly wiping at her mouth with a napkin. "Dean won't interrupt us this time. We're going to feed on you nice and slow – like we did with Kate. Oh and by the way," the woman added. "Arielle really is your sister." She tapped at her temple, grinning. "You should know that."
Joe laughed, licking his lips. "She was still alive when we took our first bites," Joe reminisced, running his tongue across the blade lap up the blood. "And she was a screamer."
Arielle screamed in rage and fought against her own ropes, the blood pooling into the bowls under her. "Darling, the more you struggle, the faster you're gonna bleed out," Kate soothed, running her hand over the girl's forehead. Arielle snapped at it with her teeth and the creature laughed. "You might as well lie back and relax."
"Hey!" a voice called out. All of them snapped their attention towards the door. A gunshot echoed in the room and Joe was sent flying against the wall, a hole in his shoulder.
The woman snarled. "Dean, they're ghouls!" Sam informed him. They watched Dean pause before aiming and firing at the thing imitating Kate.
Blood and bones splattered against the wall and Arielle watched as the headless body crumpled to the ground. "Which means head-shot," Dean replied. Joe slammed against Dean and the other two siblings heard struggling in the ground.
"Dean!" Arielle shouted, her voice tense with worry. Sounds of bone thumping against the floor reverberated and a hand grabbing a metal bar was seen by Sam and Arielle. Hammering followed for a couple of seconds, then silence.
The tied down siblings held their breaths. "Dean?!" Sam called out this time. Their brother's figure rose and he went to the other two, first cutting off Arielle's rope then Sam's. He exited the room but quickly returned, towels bundled up in his arms.
"Come on. Come on. Hang on," he said, handing a pair of towels to Sam before turning to Arielle and helping her up. "Here we go. Hang on, kid. All right." Arielle followed Sam's example and wrapped the towels around the wounds in her arms.
Turning her green eyes to Dean, she gave him a tired smile. "Thank you."
The oldest son pressed another towel to her stomach as he took turns checking on her and Sam. "That's what family's for, right?" he said, a small smile on his face. "Keep pressure on that." She did as she was told, her eyes watching Dean retrieve a first aid kit.
That's what family's for.