Hi there! I was on a roll yesterday so I managed to get another chapter done! Whoo! I hope you guys like it! Enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn

Milan, Ohio – 1988

CRASH. The sound of breaking glass is what drew the small girl from her sleep. She startled awake with a gasp, bolting upright in her bed to strain her ears and eyes against the darkness. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest, she wondered if it might burst right through her ribs, but she did her best to push down the sudden rush of fear. "Mommy?" she called out as loudly as she dared, reaching over to scoop up her stuffed teddy bear, cradling it against her chest in an effort to bring comfort to herself. With no answer, the girl kicked off her flower-covered blanket before swinging her legs over the edge of the bed.

The walk down the hall towards the main living space of the house felt excruciatingly long to the child. Each step was an effort, the fear swirling inside her making the short distance feel miles long. There was a terrible scent lingering in the air, growing stronger the closer she crept, and she wondered if her mother had been cooking something. Though, by how dark it was, that didn't seem to make much sense. There were no stars nor moonlight peeking in through the windows…the only thing guiding her way being the soft glow coming from the small nightlight plugged into the bathroom outlet. Though, even that failed to brighten the living room as she stepped into it. "Mommy?" she called again, frightened eyes bouncing around the small space.

"There you are." Came a woman's voice from the kitchen then, causing the girl to jump in alarm. A wave of relief quickly washed through her, however, when she turned to find her mother standing in the doorway. She was still dressed in the same long, white nightgown she had been wearing when she had tucked the girl into bed, and didn't seem to be displaying any signs of distress.

"I heard a loud sound." The girl said, rushing forward to wrap her arms around the woman's midsection. Tears had begun to fall from her eyes as the adrenaline faded, leaving her feeling shaky in its absence. "Why weren't you answering me?" she nearly sobbed.

"Such an innocent little thing." Her mother cooed then, reaching down to stroke the side of the girl's face in a tender caress.

"Why are you talking like that?" the girl asked, pulling away from her mother as a swirl of confusion churned in her gut. She craned her head back to look up at her mother, not understanding, but the eyes she found staring back sent a new wave of fear surging through her. They were not the same shade of blue she found every time she looked upon her mother's face. They were yellow.

"M-mommy?" the girl squeaked in terror as she stumbled away, the stuffed toy in her hold slipping from her grip and onto the ground. Her mother only smiled at her….a smile that did not hold the same love and tenderness it always did. It was a smile that was far too wide…far too happy…far too unnatural. The glint of metal caught the girl's eyes then, and she looked down to find a large blade in her mother's hand.

The girl didn't know what to do. Her mother had always been nice. She had always been safe. But everything happening in that moment felt wrong….it felt dangerous. "Mommy?" she cried again as she watched her mother bring the blade high into the air.

"And the armies of heaven and hordes of hell rejoiced in her creation." Her mother said then, grinning down at the girl as if they were merely playing a fun game. "For her life shall mark the beginning." She continued, arm raised straight over her head. "And her death shall bring forth the end." The woman brought her hand down in one swift movement then, eliciting a scream from the girl. She screamed in terror, unable to move as she watched that knife sink deep into her mother's abdomen.

Lost Creek, Colorado – November 10, 2005

Ariella startled awake with a sudden jolt, sucking in a sharp gasp as her eyes snapped open. She was covered in a thick layer of sweat which had saturated her thin camisole, making it stick tightly against her flushed skin as she sat up in the creaky motel bed. She let out a long breath as she fought to bring her heart rate back down, pushing her mussed up hair out of her face as the remnants of her nightmare faded away. Unfortunately, however, her dreams were never just dreams.

Her mind didn't have to conjure fictitious boogeyman to haunt her in her sleep. She had encountered so many monsters throughout her life, her mind had a plethora of options to choose from when it came to tormenting her subconscious. It had been years since she had last dreamt of that night, though. Seeing as the main perpetrator seemed to be making a comeback in her waking world, however, she supposed it was only a matter of time before those yellow eyes would return to haunt her dreams.

She glanced at the clock on the bedside table, the glowing red numbers indicating that it was just past dawn. She let out a groan before falling back into her pillows, only now registering the pounding from within her skull. She had drunk far too much the night prior, and would likely be feeling the repercussions of it for a while. A vibration coming from the side table filled the silence then, causing Ariella to reach blindly for her cellphone. After nearly knocking over a glass of water, she found her phone, quickly scooping it up and flipping it open. She squinted against the harsh light of it to find a new text message from Dean.

Updates?

I'm never drinking tequila again. She typed out before sending it off, letting her arm flop back down onto the mattress as she fought off the wave of nausea now creeping up her throat. After a few minutes, her phone went off again and she brought it back up to read Dean's response.

Classy.

Ariella rolled her eyes before responding. Where are you?

Couple hours outside Grd Junction.

Ariella rolled her head to the side to glance at the clock once more, mentally doing the calculations in her head. They were about six or so hours out, depending on if they made any more stops, which would put them there by lunch.

After the fire, they had dug around for whatever information they could on what happened to Jess, but their searching had turned up absolute zilch. Knowing John had left coordinates to the middle of nowhere in the Lost Creek Wilderness, Ariella had gone ahead while Dean and Sam exhausted every trail they could find in Stanford. She had been in town a few days, trying to find any sign of John. Unfortunately, however, she had yet to find any. It seemed to be another dead-end, but there was something supernatural going on in the area. There were a string of disappearances happening, spanning back decades, and they all just so happened to be centered around the coordinates John had left. She had gathered what research she could on things, and now she was left to catch Sam and Dean up on everything once they got into town to help figure out what was responsible for so many missing people and what any of it had to do with John.

Dive bar in town. Lunch. She typed in response before biting on her lip for a moment. How's Sam?

Meet you there.

Ariella waited for an answer to her question, but after staring at the screen for a minute and realizing she would be getting no replies, she let out a frustrated sigh before snapping the phone shut. She tossed it onto the mattress next to her before letting her eyes slip shut once more. She wouldn't have to be meeting with Sam and Dean for several hours yet, which meant she still had a chance to sleep off more of her hangover. So, she pulled the covers back over her head before falling back into a, thankfully, dreamless slumber.

It was nearly one o'clock by the time Dean was pulling up to the one and only bar in Lost Creek, Colorado. Any worries they had the wrong spot were erased as he took in the Firebird with a gleaming red paintjob, parked right out front and unmistakable. He pulled up next to it, throwing the Impala into park before killing the engine and sliding a glance in Sam's direction. Dean was worried. Worried about John. Worried about Sam. Worried about what it all meant to have the thing that killed their mom make a reappearance after so many years.

Sam had been different since the night of the fire. He knew Sam had every right to grieve his girlfriend…but the thing was, it didn't seem to be grief fueling him…it was anger. He was hardly sleeping…he was hardly eating…hell, the only thing he was doing was damn near obsessing over solving the case. And Dean would be lying if he said he knew how to handle it. It had always been Ariella who understood Sam the best when it came to things like this, but he was determined to be there for Sam this time around. For once, he was going to be the one to help pull Sam out of the shit. He just didn't know how he was going to do it yet.

"Looks like Ari's already here." Sam said as he pushed open his door, getting out without waiting for Dean.

Dean let out a sigh before following suit, quickly making his was towards the entrance behind Sam. Once inside, the stench of stale beer filled their nostrils, though by this point, the smell almost brought Dean a sense of comfort more than anything. He squinted against the dim light as his eyes adjusted, searching for the familiar head of red hair. He caught sight of Ariella in a booth towards the back of the bar, and although her laptop blocked out the majority of her face, he knew it was her. He threw the back of his hand against Sam's chest before pointing her out and making his way towards her.

Her eyes flicked up over the edge of her screen as he and Sam approached, and the corner of Dean's lip pulled down into a frown when he caught sight of the dark circles hanging under her eyes. "You're late." She said as Sam slid into the booth opposite her, Dean then taking up the end.

"Yeah, well, there was an accident that had the highway backed up for an hour." Dean bit out with a grumble, having driven through the entire night and morning to get there, leaving him feeling tired and irritable. "Can't control the traffic, Sweetheart."

Ariella's eyes, which had previously been studying Sam, snapped over to him. "Jesus, who pissed in your coffee?" she asked, lip pulling up over her teeth as she regarded him.

"I haven't even had any coffee yet." Dean replied, leaning back into the booth as he drew his arms across his chest. "So if we could just get to the part where you fill us in on what you've found that'd be great."

"Oh, hi, Ari. How are you?" she said as she, too, leaned back into the wooden bench, eyes narrowing down on him unhappily. "Oh, I've been doing just fucking great since spending every waking moment of my life tracking down your wayward father." She threw at him sardonically. "Thanks for asking."

"I wasn't asking." came Dean's instant retort. He wasn't sure why it was Ariella could get under his skin in a way that no one else could, but he found it infuriatingly maddening. He watched a muscle in her jaw twitch in response, but just as her jaw dropped open to cast another smart-witted quip at him, Sam interrupted.

"Guys." he said, sounding genuinely irritated by their squabbling. "Can we please just focus?" he said before nodding towards her computer. "What do you got?"

Ariella's eyes flicked back over Sam for a moment before letting out a sigh and reaching down to dig something out of the bag next to her. She pulled out a manila folder then, throwing it down onto the table between them. "I've searched all the local motels, hospitals, and morgues and no sign John, but there's been a bunch of unexplained disappearances linked to the coordinates he left." She flipped open the folder before shuffling through several of the papers within. Dean's gaze landed on the gauze still wrapped around Ariella's hands as she spread out some papers across the table, and he felt the corner of his mouth dip down further. "This past April, two hikers went missing out near Blackwater Ridge." She told them, finger tapping on the corresponding newspaper clipping. "They were never found."

"Two people going missing in the woods doesn't really sound all that supernatural." Dean commented skeptically, already feeling like they were left to go on yet another wild goose hunt.

"You're right." Ariella said with an arched brow before shuffling through more of the papers, pulling out several more. "But what about eight more in 1982?" she asked, sliding the printed-out internet article towards him which claimed the disappearances as grizzly attacks. "Twelve more in 1959." She continued, throwing that article down next. "And, again, in 1936." She said, adding that to the stack as well. "Every twenty-three years like clockwork. That sound supernatural enough for you?" she asked with a quirked brow, daring Dean to question her work again.

"Any idea what's doing it?" Sam asked, grabbing hold of the articles and studying them for himself.

Ariella continued to stare at Dean for a moment before eventually breaking away as she dropped her gaze to her laptop. "No." she told them before swiveling around her screen for them to see. "But this is the last video evidence of a guy that decided to go hiking a few days ago. He's been missing since but the police won't consider him a missing person until his permit expires. But, well…I managed to get this screenshot from his video and…just take a look." She said before pressing play.

The video on the screen showed a young man talking into the camera from within a tent. He continued talking for a moment before a shadow passed over the background, so quickly if you blinked you could miss it. "You see that?" Ariella asked as she stopped the video, scrubbing it back to the beginning to play again. She replayed it, but this time she lowered the playback time to slow it down.

"What is that?" Sam asked as he leaned in closer to the screen, trying to get a good look at the form outside the tent.

"I don't know." Ariella said with a shake of her head. "But whatever it is…" she said before pulling up a still shot of it. "It's fast. That clip was only three frames long….barely a second. So, safe to say something weird is going on." She said, eyes landing on Dean again.

"You got anything else?" he asked, knowing what she had already managed to dig up was convincing enough.

"Yeah, actually." She said, reaching forward to close her laptop. "That attack in 59'….there was a survivor." She told them, rifling through the papers before she found the one she was looking for. "A kid." She explained, handing that article over to them as well. "A kid that's a man now and the only witness we've got."

"You've got a name?" Sam asked.

"Benjamin Shaw." Ariella answered before reaching into her front jean pocket and pulling out a small paper, holding it up for them to see. "And I've got his address, too."

"Great." Dean said before catching eyes with a passing server and waving her down. "Let's get some grub in us then go pay Mr. Shaw a visit."

Ariella was standing behind Sam and Dean outside of Benjamin Shaw's apartment, letting them take the lead in the questioning. Dean had flashed him a fake Ranger badge, asking for just a moment of his time to discuss the latest disappearances, but Ariella could see the apprehension swirling behind the haggard man's eyes.

"Look Ranger, I don't know why you're asking me about this." the man said as he shuffled back into his apartment, half-smoked cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Dean hesitantly stepped through the doorway to follow after him, figuring that was as good of invitation as any before Sam slipped inside as well. Ariella was the last to enter, eyes flicking around the grubby and disorganized apartment apprehensively. It looked like the place hadn't had a good cleaning in twenty years, and smelled even worse, but she did her best to ignore the filth as the man lead them deeper inside. "My parents were killed by…" he was saying before Sam interrupted.

"A grizzly?" he supplied for him, sounding unconvinced. "Is that what killed them?"

Mr. Shaw froze for a moment before pulling the cigarette from his mouth and giving a small nod of his head. There was something behind his eyes though that gave the lie away.

"All the other people who disappeared that year…" Dean said, stepping closer to him. "Those bear attacks too?" he questioned. "What about all the people that went missing this year?" he pressed. "Same thing?"

Benjamin's eyes dipped down the floor then, unable to answer the question. But Ariella could see it in him….there was something he wanted to say. Something he was scared to say. "Look," Dean urged. "If we knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it."

"I seriously doubt that." he said lowly, dropping himself down into the only armchair in the room. "Besides…" he said, letting out a sigh. "I don't see what difference it would make. You wouldn't believe me…..no one ever did."

Ariella's heart lurched for the broken shell of a man then. She understood that fear in his eyes all too well…she understood what it felt like to face something horrid….something monstrous…and have no one believe you. He probably spent his entire life questioning himself. She stepped past Dean and Sam then, walking up to Benjamin and kneeling down in front of him so that she was eye-level with him.

"My mother was killed when I was seven." She told him honestly, searching his eyes for that shared understanding as she spoke. "The thing that killed her…" she said, shaking her head as she tried to suppress the flood of memories. "It wasn't normal….it wasn't human….and no one would believe me. They all thought I was crazy." She watched as something flashed across his eyes then and she knew he had seen something that night. "Tell us what happened, Mr. Shaw." She pressed, reaching forward to place her hand on top of his, giving it a quick reassuring squeeze. "We'll believe you….I swear it."

Benjamin and Ariella shared a moment as he searched her eyes before they flicked up to Sam and Dean from over her shoulder. He let out a long sigh before giving a shake of his head. "Nothing." He told them before his gaze landed on Ariella again. "It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I…I heard it though."

"What did you hear?" Sam asked quietly, urging the scared man to continue.

"A roar….like no man or animal I ever heard." He answered, voice shaking as he let the memory fill him.

"It came at night?" Sam questioned. "Get into your tent?"

"It got into our cabin." Benjamin corrected. "I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in." he began to explain, eyes misting over as he let himself get lost in the memory. "It didn't smash a window or break a door…it unlocked it. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that?"

Ariella let out a breath, looking over her shoulder to catch eyes with Sam and Dean. There was definitely something supernatural going on out in those woods. "I didn't even wake up until I heard my parents screaming." Benjamin continued, voice beginning to waver. "It dragged them off into the night." Ariella turned back around to place her hand back onto his in comfort as she watched tears form in his eyes. "Why it left me alive, I've been asking myself ever since." He nearly whispered, eyes searching Ariella's once again.

She felt her heart breaking for him in that moment. He was by all rights a stranger to her, but he also understood a part of her that so very few could. The yellow-eyed demon had taken her mother's life that night so long ago and left her alive to witness it all. She had never understood why. She gave his shaking hand a tight squeeze, knowing no amount of comfort could wash the horror from his mind, yet hoping she could make him feel even a little less alone in it. "Me too." she whispered.

You could nearly watch the relief wash over him then. The relief of having someone believe him. Ariella did her best to give him a reassuring smile before the sound of Dean clearing his throat drew Benjamin's focus back onto him. "Is there anything else you can tell us?" he asked. "Anything at all?"

"Only that it left this behind." Benjamin answered, pulling his hand free from Ariella's grasp to reach up and grab onto the collar of his shirt. He pulled it down enough to reveal a set of scars running across his shoulder down to his chest. A set of scars that looked nearly identical to the ones running down the length of Ariella's spine. Claw marks. "There's something evil in those woods." He said, letting the fabric fall back into place as his gaze landed on Ariella again. "Some sort of demon."

Ariella, Sam, and Dean thanked Benjamin for his time after that, promising to do whatever they could to stop whatever it was that took his parents. He didn't seem particularly relieved by it, but there was something different in him as he ushered them back out the door….like some weight had been lifted from his shoulders. As the three of them made their way back through the apartment building, Ariella tried to make sense of everything they had learned. Whatever the thing was it was fast…it was smart…..fed on several people at a time…and had claws. Despite what Benjamin believed though, it was no demon. It was something else entirely…the only problem was Ariella had no idea what.

"Spirts and demons don't have to unlock doors." Sam was saying as he and Dean trailed behind her in the tight hallway. "They just walk through them. So, it's probably something else…something corporeal." he reasoned.

"Oh, 'corporeal', is it, Professor?" Dean teased.

"Shut up." Sam shot back at him with a huff. "So what do you think?"
"Skinwalker maybe?" Ariella tossed out with a shrug as she mentally went through all the creatures she could think of that fit the bill.

"Or black dog?" Dean added.

"I just don't understand the timeline." Ariella said with a frustrated sigh. "Why every twenty-three years?" she asked.

"Mating season?" Dean supplied in amusement.

Ariella stopped in her tracks and turned to give Dean an unamused look. "I'm serious." She said before looking at Sam. "We're missing something." Sam hummed in agreement.

"Well, whatever it is, it's corporeal. Which means we can kill it." Dean said rationally.

"And we have to do it quick." Ariella added with a sigh. "It's on the move again, and if we don't act now, more people are going to die."

"So, what do we do?" Sam asked, looking between Dean and Ariella.

Silence passed between the three of them for a moment as they devised their next step before Ariella's eyes fell onto Dean's feet. "You should probably get different shoes." she said, nodding down at his old, worn-out biker boots before turning and continuing down the hall. "We have a long hike ahead of us."