Okay, so I actually already had this chapter done and thought it would be fun to throw it into the story as a nice little look into the past. If you guys end up liking the flashbacks, I'll try throwing in a few more here and there, so I'd appreciate some feedback on it! With that, I hope you like this little blast from the past before we move back into Dead Man's Blood. Xoxo-NickyLynn

Santa Fe, New Mexico—May 1995

"Tell me the rules again." John said as he sorted through his duffle bag, ensuring all his weapons were accounted for.

Ariella, who had been busy stirring a boiling pot of noodles on the stove, let out a sigh as she leaned against the counter on her forearms, blowing the bangs out of her eyes in exasperation. "Stay inside." she said, recanting the rules having been drilled into them. "Don't open the door for anyone…especially cops."

"And if you're not back by tomorrow then call Uncle Bobby." Sam added from his spot on the couch, face buried behind a comic book.

"Good." John said as he finished zipping up his bag. "This shouldn't take too long. They've got their nest holed up in an old barn out of town. Should be a quick and easy job."

"I should be going with you." Dean huffed in frustration, moving to stand next to John as he pulled his arms up across his chest. Dean was sixteen now and had been more adamant than ever to be out in the field with his dad. John had begun taking him and Ariella out on smaller, easier jobs, but had still been reluctant to bring them out on more dangerous jobs like this.

"You think I can't handle a few vampires?" John asked with a shake of his head. "No, I want you here with your brother and Ariella." He ordered sternly. "Besides, I won't be alone. I'm meeting up with another hunter who's got a lot of experience dealing with vamps. I told you that."

"Come on, Dad!" Dean tried insisting. "I'm sick of being stuck on babysitting duty! I can help!"

"Dean." John warned, voice dropping as he leveled him with a hard look.

Dean let out a breath as he dropped his arms, submitting to his father's orders with no further argument. "Yes, sir." He relented, head dropping down obediently.

"I'll be back." John said as he scooped up his bag, tossing it over one of his shoulders before turning and walking out the door, not so much as giving any of them a goodbye. Ariella watched him leave before dropping her eyes back down to the stove as the door latched shut behind him, reaching down to turn off the gas as silence wrapped around the three of them.

As she went to drain the noodles, Dean moved over to the couch and flicked on the TV, the sound of static greeting him and filling the room as the screen powered into life. Ariella worked on finishing the spaghetti as he flipped through channel after channel. After switching through nearly a dozen channels with nothing but static, however, he let out a groan. "Ugh, I hate it here." He complained, letting his head fall against the couch as he released a long breath.

John had brought them out to the cabin in the middle of nowhere nearly a week ago now, having been tracking down a nest of vampires feasting on the local population. He had finally managed to track them down the previous day, and now all that was left to do was to sit and wait while he took care of business. Unfortunately, however, the isolated cabin held absolutely no sources of entertainment. They had managed to dig out an old board game from the attic during their first few days there, but there was only so much Monopoly one could take, and after a rather heated dispute between Ariella and Dean during their last game, even that had been cast aside. There was nothing to do but get on each other's nerves and Ariella would be lying if she said she wasn't itching to get out of there too.

"We'll be out of here by tomorrow, quit complaining." she tossed at a moody Dean, moving towards the couch with two bowls of the sauce covered noodles. She lowered one of them down between Sam's face and his book, releasing it into his grasp as he sat up, and kept the other for herself as she dropped down between the two boys.

"Where's mine?" Dean asked, holding his hand out expectantly.

Ariella rolled her head towards him as she stuck the fork into the bowl, twirling it around the spaghetti before popping a large portion of it into her mouth. "Get your own." She mumbled around the bite of food. "Payback for the babysitter comment." Dean just rolled his eyes before turning the television off and letting the remote drop to the table in front of them with a clunk.

"If anything, Ariella is always the one babysitting you." Sam interjected with a smirk as he pulled a bite of food into his own mouth, sauce dripping onto his chin as he did. "She does all the cooking and cleaning while all you do is take unnecessarily long showers."

"Oh!" Ariella laughed, reaching over to high-five Sam as Dean glowered at them. "Ariella two points, Dean zero!" she exclaimed, relishing in the annoyed look that washed across his face.

"Ok, you do know I'm the oldest right?" Dean countered. "By default, I'm the one in charge."

"And it's just so cute that you think you are." Ariella tossed back with a grin, pointing her fork at him.

In the next moment, Dean was pulling Ariella off of the couch, her bowl of noodles spilling on the cushions as she let out a yelp of surprise. He pulled her onto the ground, using his height and weight as leverage to press her into the wooden floor. "Who's in charge?" he goaded as he trapped her under his body weight.

"Get off!" she groaned in response, lungs struggling to draw in a breath as she was sandwiched between Dean and the floor. She did her best to wiggle herself free, but Dean had always been bigger than her, and the best she could manage was to kick helplessly under him. "Dean!" she growled as she struggled to free herself.

"Who's the boss?" he asked again as he grinned down at her, knowing how childish it was, yet still finding satisfaction in it. "Say I'm the boss and I'll let you up."

"I w-would ra…ther die!" she wheezed out, refusing to submit to him.

"Saaay it." He continued to goad, raising his upper body up enough to hover over her as he began drawing a glob of spit into the back of his throat.

"Stop!" Ariella squeaked, struggling even harder as she watched the stream of spit begin dripping out of his mouth. "Dean! Y-you're so g..gross!"

As she watched his saliva inch closer, she managed to get her foot high enough to wrap around his chest, and, in the next moment, she had them flipped over so that she was the one overpowering him. She had managed to trap his head between her knees in a choke hold and was squeezing as tightly as she could. "Ha!" she yelled out in victory as she watched his face turn red. "Who's the boss?" she snarked back at him.

After a few moments of him unsuccessfully trying to free himself, Dean tapped out on her leg, and she released him. He rolled over onto his back as he let out a few coughs, filling his lungs again as Ariella soaked up her moment of victory. "I'm sorry, I don't think I could hear you." She said, bringing her hand up to cup around her ear.

"Shut up." Dean said as he sat up, pushing her back down to the floor with a shove to her shoulder as he rose back onto his feet. Ariella let out a laugh as she hit the floor again, watching as Dean stormed past her and towards the stairs that lead to the upper bedrooms.

"Don't go using up all the hot water again!" she yelled from her spot on the floor as he made his way up the steps. Dean flipped her off from over his shoulder in response, to which she mimicked the gesture right back at him.

"You're both idiots." Sam said then, pulling his book back up with a shake of his head, this not having been the first time he watched the two of them wrestle around like a couple of kids.

"Yeah, but I got rid of him, didn't I?" Ariella countered with a grin as she pushed herself back up.

Later, while Ariella sat running her fingers through Sam's hair as he lay on her lap, the both of them watching an old Western movie they had managed to get to come in, Dean had come back downstairs. Thinking he was just coming to get some food, Ariella didn't pay him much mind. That was until the sound of the front door opening drew her attention over to him. "Where are you going?" she asked, swiveling her head around to find him moving through the doorway. "John said stay inside."

"Relax, I'm just going for a walk down to the lake." He said in response, sounding like he was still in a grumpy mood.

"Dean, John said-" Ariella went to say again, but Dean just pulled the door shut behind him, choosing to ignore the warning. Ariella let out a sigh, not sure if she should risk a fight in trying to run after him, or just let him be. She chose the latter option, and just turned back towards the TV with a shake of her head. If he wanted to go around ignoring John's orders, then that was on him.

She continued to watch the movie for a while longer, until the sun began to dip underneath the horizon. Dean had been gone for over an hour now and her mind was stuck between worrying about him and worrying about John, knowing there was nothing much she could do about either of them. She let out a breath as she ran her fingers through Sam's hair again, glad at least one of the Winchesters wasn't a constant strain on her nerves. A small smile wormed its way onto her face at the thought, before that smile fell completely as the power to the cabin suddenly went out.

Her and Sam were enveloped in near darkness as the television and lights went out, causing Sam to jolt up in fright and Ariella's senses to go on overdrive. The silence that followed was so much worse than the sudden thrust into darkness had been. Where once there had been the soft sounds of the movie echoing through the cabin, there was nothing but a deafening silence. To make matters worse, Ariella couldn't even pick up the faintest traces of crickets outside, nor any sound whatsoever. It was too quiet.

"Sammy." She whispered, head swiveling around as the feeling of something watching them crept up her spine. "You know that closet upstairs filled with all those smelly old coats?" she asked him, knowing something wasn't right.

Sam nodded his head as his wide eyes locked in on hers, before she gave him a small push off of the couch. "Go there. Now." she ordered. "Don't come out until I come and get you."

"But I-" Sam said, voice squeaking in fear as he took in her sudden shift in mood.

"Go!" she urged, giving him another firm push towards the stairs as she stood. Sam went running without any more dispute, feet padding across the floor as Ariella quickly moved to the kitchen. She pulled out the largest knife she could find from one of the drawers, straining her eyes and ears against the darkness. Something wasn't right. She could feel it. All the training John had instilled in her reared up and was screaming at her that something bad was there.

She began combing through her mind, trying to narrow down possible creatures she could be up against, but the most probable cause, she realized, were the vampires John had gone after. Perhaps something had gone wrong with the hunt and one of them got away. She began worrying about John…and Dean…then she began worrying about Sam, realizing she was now his only defense. Her back stiffened before she forced herself into action, quickly formulating a plan.

She began making her way towards the stairs as well, quickly drawing the blade across her palm as she did. With a hiss of pain, she drew a trail of blood into her hand, before grabbing hold of the railing as she jogged up as quickly as she could. Once she was at the top of the stairs, she went down the opposite hall than the one she knew Sam would be hiding in, trailing her bloody hand along as much of the doorframes and walls as she could.

Once she made it to the master bedroom, where John had been staying, she ran over to the large window and threw it open. She let her eyes sweep the darkness for a moment before cutting through the screen. She quickly slipped off her shoes then, before throwing them to the ground below. After she heard the soft thump of them hitting the ground, she rushed over to the closet and slipped inside, careful not to get any more of her blood on anything. She ripped one of the shirts hanging above off its hanger, using it as a makeshift bandage as she hunkered down and got as quiet as possible.

Time is a funny thing when you're scared. It felt like hours were passing by as she worked on quieting her heartrate and breathing, straining her ears for anything. But what had felt like torturous hours, had not even been a full minute. The sounds of slow, heavy footsteps eventually began echoing down the halls, causing Ariella to go rigid.

Clomp….clomp….clomp.

Whoever it was…or whatever it was, had seemed to take the bait. Ariella could hear the footsteps coming closer, and as the door to the bedroom creaked open, she threw her hand over to mouth and nose to stifle the sound of her breathing.

Clomp…clomp…clomp.

A shadow passed across the slim opening in front of her and Ariella stopped breathing all together…terrified to draw in even the slightest breath. She managed to catch the outline of what looked like a man standing by the window, and she drew back, just praying he would take the bait and think she jumped through the window to escape.

It was quiet for another moment before the man began walking back through the room. Ariella heard him walk back out into the hall, and, as his footsteps faded away, she let out the breath she had been holding. All too quickly her hope of safety evaporated away. The closet doors suddenly burst open, and Ariella let out a scream as pieces of the broken wood splintered around her.

"Tricky girl." The man said as he grabbed Ariella by the hair, yanking her out of the closet with another yelp from her. As she dangled in his grasp, she was able to make out the details of his face, and with a shock of terror, she realized that her suspicions had been right. He had his lips pulled back over his teeth, flashing her with a full set of sharp teeth. He had dark hair, which matched his dark eyes…eyes that were full of rage. She slashed out at him with the knife still in her hold, managing to catch him across the face.

The vampire let out a grunt of pain as she dropped from his hold, but she didn't even have a chance to run before his boot came driving into her gut, sending her flying back through the room until she collided with the wall, knocking the wind from her. "You little bitch!" the vampire sneered as she struggled to draw in a breath, her only source of defense having been knocked from her grip with the blow.

He stormed over to her and pulled her from the ground again, a long gash now marring his face from jaw to nose. He had his hand wound into her hair again, keeping her feet suspended above the floor as she struggled against him. "That bastard took my family from me." He seethed, eyes darkening as Ariella was stuck helpless to him. "Now I'm going to take his."

Ariella had been no stranger to pain, but the feeling of that vampire's teeth piercing into the soft flesh of her throat left her screaming in agony. White hot pain took hold of her as she felt the warmth of her blood slipping down her neck. She screamed because it hurt. She screamed because she was terrified. She screamed because there was nothing else she could do.

In the next moment, his grip on her broke again and she dropped to the floor in a heap. "Let go of her!" she heard a shrill voice yell. Ariella struggled to roll over, but once she had her arms under her again, her stomach dropped at the sight waiting for her. Sam was standing with a fire poker, holding it up at the vampire now lumbering towards him.

"SAM! RUN!" Ariella yelled, but the warning came too late. With a strong swing of his hand, the vampire sent his small body flying into the wall, the impact vibrating through the floor. As Sam fell to the ground, he remained unmoving. The vampire stormed over to him and the rush of adrenaline that coursed through Ariella was enough to push her back onto her feet. She grabbed a piece of broken wood next to her, before running at the creature and throwing herself onto his back. She reared back her arm and thrust it into the side of his neck as hard as she could, eliciting a pain-filled roar from him.

He went stumbling back before grabbing hold of Ariella by the leg, ripping her off of him and sending her smashing into the bedframe behind them. Her back singed in agony as she collided with the thick timber, driving the air from her again as she crumpled onto the floor.

"I was going to do it quick, you know!" the man bellowed as he loomed over her, face distorted in fury. "But now…" he said as he pulled the piece of wood from his neck, throwing the bloody makeshift weapon on the floor next to her. "I'm going to break every bone in your body!"

He raised his foot then, and, with more force than a human would ever be capable of, brought it down onto her leg. If Ariella had thought the bite had been painful…the pain blossoming from her leg as he shattered her bones was unimaginable. She screamed yet again and kept screaming as he brought his foot down on her again and again.

Ariella prayed for the second time that night, only this time she prayed to be liberated from the pain. And it seemed like her prayers were answered, for in the next moment the pain stopped. The kicks stopped dropping down on her as a warm wetness splashed across her face. The vampire let out another scream, and, as he turned, she realized Dean was standing behind him, gripping onto the knife she had dropped. He had tried going for the man's neck, but he hadn't cut deep enough and only succeeded in pissing the vampire off.

He brought up his foot then, slamming it into Dean's chest and knocking him across the room. Dean let out a grunt as he went flying backwards, being sent straight through the wall and into the hallway behind him. The vampire stormed after him, leaving Ariella to watch in a blind panic as he picked Dean back up by the neck before dangling him over the balcony. She pushed herself up with shaky arms, willing the searing pain in her leg to stop as she pried herself back up using the bedframe. The knife had fallen to the floor again and she hobbled towards it, fighting to ignore the screaming emanating from her leg.

She managed to scoop up the knife as the vampire tossed out some nasty remarks towards Dean, though, Ariella couldn't hear the words said over the blood pumping though her ears as she struggled towards them. The vampire was so focused on Dean he didn't notice her sneaking back up behind him until it was too late. She lunged for the side of his neck with a scream, driving the blade as deep into as she could before yanking it free, tearing through the entire right half of it. The vampire dropped his hold on Dean, who managed to catch himself on the railing, before stumbling away from Ariella in shock.

His hand instantly shot up to the side of his neck, but before he had a chance to react, she threw herself at him, knocking him to the ground as she brought the knife down on him over and over again. She lost count of how many times she plunged the knife into his throat. She screamed as she slashed at it, not stopping until it was severed completely, rolling away from his body with a sickening squelch.

Ariella was left staring down at his headless form with frenzied eyes, frozen in place as she struggled to force the air in and out of her lungs evenly. Her vision had begun to tunnel in, black specks flickering around her peripherals. She could vaguely hear someone shouting, barely able to pick out the sound of John's voice above it all, before she toppled to the side and straight into a numbing darkness.