They came for us a few hours later, fighting us down halls and into a huge, circular room. Aside from the entrance we just came from, there were doors spaced about a foot apart covering the walls, even on the second and third floors…was that a fourth floor as well?

I was too tired to fight right now, and the room too intriguing, so I made sure to try and take it all in.

In the center of floor was a circular pool of water that glowed blue. Strange runes were carved on the ledge around the pool of water, and on each of the arching doorways. All of the doors were made from the same rich, dark wood, and had metal plaques with the same strange writing on them.

Opposite from us, was a cloaked figure, decidedly feminine.

The Matriarch.

"Allison Freya Eastburn, Travis Merlin Stoll, Connor Arthur Stoll, and Cassandra Lynn Dellaro: You will step forward." A man said off to my left.

For some strange reason, we all did.

The Matriarch slowly reached up and guided her hood back from her face until it rested on her shoulders. Her face was unreadable, no emotion discernible.

But the resemblance to her sons was clear. Her curly hair was more tamed, and pulled back into an elaborate hairdo, but it was the same curly mass. Those blue eyes, like her father's and like her sons'. They had her cheekbones. If Hermes was the sharp edge of Travis and Connor's looks, she was blunt edge, softer and graceful looking.

"The time has come for initiates to be added to the fold of the meddlers. The time draws near that the meddlers will be needed again." Her voice was clear, with a slight accent to it, either English or Irish, I couldn't tell. Maybe it was a mixture of both. "Guardians of reality, to keep order, whatever may come. A guardian of magic and healing, a guardian to train and fight, a guardian to help and to seek, and a guardian of changes. Some abilities will be shared, for all meddlers have abilities in these realms. But you will all have specialties. I brand you as one of us—"

I gasped as the searing pain on my left arm started.

"You may enter the pool, one at a time."

Part of me was screaming to run, we weren't chained anymore. I should run. I should run and get away from these crazy people.

But that part wasn't winning.

I watched as Allison walked, trance-like into the pool, plunging in and disappearing.

Travis was more hesitant, stopping at the edge and looking at his mother. Maybe it was all of his emotions involving her that gave him the clarity of mind to do that. "Mom?"

She blinked slowly.

His shoulders straightened and he stepped into the pool, disappearing as Allison had.

Connor almost glanced back at me, but he must have been caught in the same daze I was, because he hopped into the pool as well.

I managed to look up at the room, notice that it wasn't four, but seven stories taller, then stepped into the water as well.

I came up gasping, the water was freezing.

"Cassie?" Sam grabbed one of my hands as I thrashed out, then he and Dean pulled me out and hurried me inside. It was snowing.

I frowned and looked around. I was back in Montauk.

Travis was in a chair.

Nico was tied up again, but when he saw me, he looked desperate to make sure I was okay, despite the gag.

"G-g-good, th-th-thh-they did-dn't sh-sh-shoot-t y-you," I said through chattering teeth.

Travis looked up a bit, but he seemed as out of it as I felt.

"You've been missing for two hours, and you reappear in the pool, you're lucky we were outside." Dean aggressively wrapped a blanket around me, then turned up the fireplace. "And this guy appeared in the bathroom, we haven't gotten a word out of him yet.

I nodded, shivering too much to actually speak.

Sam came back with a couple towels. "You need to get into dry clothes."

I nodded again looking toward the stairs.

Dean just picked me up, and carried me up the stairs, then made sure that I was okay, and waited outside of my room while I shivered into dry clothes.

"You okay?" He asked after a couple minutes.

"F-fine!" I pulled a couple blankets off the bed and pulling them around me. I shuffled to the door and opened it. "Thanks for the lift."

He nodded, not looking amused. He just looked grumpy. It was like a permanent look for him. "You want to explain what happened?"

I shivered a bit. "It was the meddlers."

He frowned at me. "I don't speak whatever that language is."

I frowned back. "What?"

"You just switched languages." Dean headed toward the stairs again. "That thing took you, how do we know that you're not one of them."

"Test me, I guess. Silver would burn me, right? But seriously, I just told you what happened. It was in a different language?"

"Yeah," He replied shortly.

"Look, I get that you don't like me, or kids or something but I was just dumped into freezing water, could you maybe put that aside for about three minutes because I'm too cold to deal with a Mr. Grumpygills."

"Did you just make a reference to Finding Nemo?"

"What do you think, Mr. Grumpgills?" I took the stairs slowly, refusing to go as fast as he was. Guess he really didn't like me, he didn't even contradict that statement.

He gave me a strange look, stopping to switch his weapon to the other hand. "Would you stop calling me that?"

"Only when you stop being it, old man."

"I am not old!"

"You're older than my mom was."

"You don't know how old I am."

"You're thirty seven. She was thirty-five." I folded my arms under the blankets. "Now, seriously. It was the meddlers that took us. They…the last sentence I said turned to gibberish, didn't it?"

He nodded.

I groaned. "Oh, I hate my life!"

Nico made an indignant sound from the living room.

"You know what I mean!" I yelled. Then I glared at the floor. "You can be a Mr. Grumpygills. I'm done criticizing you for it. Try splashing Travis with cold water, I'll try calling Grandpa."

Dean stopped me, lowering his voice and looking serious. "Are you okay? They didn't hurt you?"

I frowned a bit, everything that had happened was becoming a bit fuzzy. My arm really hurt…

I shrugged off the blankets and didn't even fight my sleeve, just pulled from the shoulder until I could see the tattoo on my arm. A strange symbol next to a Celtic knot, a Norse rune and a version of the Greek lower-case letter sigma.

Dean stepped closer and looked. "That's a new one. Sam, we've got a clue."

"What is this, Scooby-Doo and Gang?" I asked.

He didn't respond, nodding toward me once we were close to Sam. "Check it out. See if you recognize it from your reading."

Sam came over, frowning over it. "I've never seen the one symbol, but the others look familiar."

I was racking my brain. "The one is a Norse rune…Ansuz maybe? The other is a version of sigma, like a lower case. The last…" I shook my head.

Sam pointed to my school tablet. "Can I use that?"

"Yeah, go ahead. The code is 1203."

Dean gave me a questioning look.

I shrugged. "It's my birthday."

Nico was glaring at me.

"Winter isn't officially here until the twenty-first. I didn't lie. My birthday is technically in the fall, okay? I think of it as fall, because snow usually has melted again." I put a pillow under his head.

"You were right about both of those. According to this chart, Ansuz means communication, insight, truth and wisdom. Does that mean anything to you?" Sam asked.

I shivered. "You could say that."

"Do any groups use these symbols together?" Dean asked.

"Um…" Sam did a quick search. "Electrical cords…"

"I don't think that's what you're looking for." I shuffled to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water.

"Can't you just tell us?"

"Been there, tried that, came out gibberish." I shuffled back, then tossed the glass of water into Travis' face.

"Dah! What the heck?!" He looked around, then blinked at me a couple times. "Cassie? How'd we get back here?"

"Well, I appeared above the pool and plummeted in. You appeared in the bathtub." I set the glass down and stood next to the fire place. Blessed heat.

"What about the Celtic knot thing?" Dean asked Sam.

Sam frowned, then looked at me. "Can I see it again?"

I pushed my sleeve up this time, and left it up so that he could continue to reference it.

"Quarternary, symbolizes balance, nature, the four seasons, the four directions, the four elements, and is sometimes thought to be a protective mark. Can also symbolize the four treasures of Tuatha, the Latin gospels, the Celtic fire festivals, is the emblem of Brigid. The symbol on the other side of sigma looks like a zodiac sign. You said your birthday is the third?"

I nodded.

Travis got up, looking shaken. "Why is Nico tied up?"

"Didn't know if he was an enemy or not," Dean said in a suspicious voice.

"He's not," Travis said, pulled a knife from his pocket and cutting the ropes holding Nico. "Cass, why didn't you free him?"

"You heard the part about the freezing water, right?" I asked, just now realizing what Sam had asked. I grabbed my arm and turned it so that I could see the other symbols I hadn't before.

Dean noticed it too. "That wasn't there before. Neither was that other one."

Travis looked at it, then looked at the floor, his thoughts and emotions veiled.

I looked back at my arm. "Triple infinity symbol."

"Symbol of Sagittarius."

"But we still don't know what this one is?" I tentatively touched the unknown symbol. It was sort of shaped like a C, but it definitely wasn't a C. Thankfully touching didn't hurt. It was like it had always been there. It definitely hid some of the scarring from getting my arm injured and then cut off. Not completely, since the scar went all the way around, but it hid the largest spot of scarring.

Dean came over to look closer at it. "How do you have a scar all the way around your arm?"

"Connor cut it off, Will put it back on," I shrugged. "Permanent nerve damage, but I didn't completely lose my mind."

He didn't respond to that, except to turn to Travis. "You have one of these too?"

Travis hesitated, then nodded. "It's on my shoulder."

"Same or different?" I asked.

He shrugged, then pulled off his shirt and turned so we could see.

It was similar, it had the same celtic design, and sigma underneath that. The strange symbol on his had one part shaped like mine, but the top part of it was different. He had the runes Eihwaz and Tiwaz, and what must have been his zodiac sign, but looked like roman-numeral two. And an Acorn.

"What the heck is all of this for? I never wanted a tattoo. I think they're stupid," I grumbled, going back to the fire place. "I definitely never wanted to be branded."

Travis didn't say anything.

Sam went back to researching after taking a picture of Travis' tattoo, and one of mine. "I might not be able to find anything online, but maybe I can when we get back to the bunker."

Dean looked at his phone. "Calls aren't going through to Gareth. We'll stay tonight. Put the circle in here. You three try to get some sleep. Sam and I will get the circle in place."

I almost protested, but he put a hand on my shoulder to stop me.

"He's the only adult I see, and he still seems to be in shock or something. We don't know what's going on, but we told Gareth we'd help you." He switched his shot-gun to the other hand, then left. Probably to get the salt.

I felt confused. I mean, did he like me? Did he dislike me? What was up with him?

Travis stood up all the way. "I'll grab some blankets and stuff. Cass, are those your blankets on the stairs?"

I nodded.

Nico gave me a quick hug. "I'll keep an eye on him."

I nodded again, then waited until they had made it up the stairs to turn to Sam.

He looked focused on the screen, but he glanced up and gave a bit of a smile.

"I can't tell if your brother absolutely hates me, or if he's just always grumpy."

He smiled. "He likes you. He just always feels like he needs to protect everyone and he knows he already failed once today. Not to mention you guys are well armed and not exactly surprised by all of this."

I hugged myself, giving an attempt at a smile. "Where was he eight months ago?" I joked half-heartedly.

"Who takes care of you?" Sam asked, looking after the boys.

"Travis is my legal guardian. My half-brother on our father's side. Jacob checks in on us, and another friend, Allison, she stops in when she can. Grandpa Stoll will pop by when things are really bad to try and alleviate some of the burden. He was there a lot during the trial."

"Trial for what?" Dean asked, setting down the bag of salt.

"Against the group of boys that drugged and raped me."

Dean had a weird look on his face. "How did that end up?"

"Two of them ended up in Juvie, the two of the others got sentenced as adults and put in jail. The last was about to be sentenced, but he got in a car accident on the way to the court. He's in a full-body cast. I sent flowers. Mom always said to kill with kindness. Apparently when he heard they were from me he asked if they were poisonous or something and wouldn't calm down until they were removed. When Nico found out about that, he sent stuffed animals. Similar reaction. Does it make me a bad person that it kind of felt good to hear that guy had that reaction?"

Both of them shook their heads.

"I probably would have shot them." Dean started pouring the salt in a circle around the center of the living room.

"There were offers to have that done, as well as stabbing," I said, trying to lighten the tone. "Anyway, it changed some things for the better at my school and in my community and I guess it's helped people, hearing my story. So, some good came of it. Who knows, right? Maybe this experience will help me help a lot of other people. Are you guys hungry? Cause I am." I headed for the kitchen to try and figure out something I could make really quickly.

"You're gonna cook?" Dean looked scared.

"Seriously?" Nico asked, looking excited. "I'm starving!"

I rolled my eyes. "No, you really aren't."

"My stomach says otherwise. What are you going to make?"

"Umm…" I looked in the fridge and then the cupboards. "Well, I have all of the ingredients for the turkey and ham dish I was telling you about. Or I could make turkey tacos. Or I could just make scalloped potatoes and ham. Or I could attempt turkey-pot-pie or stew."

"Do the turkey and ham thing, it looked so good on that show." Nico hopped onto one of the chairs.

I nodded. "Bring it up, would you?"

He grabbed his school tablet and pulled up the Masterclass British baking show.

I pulled up the recipe on my phone and started on it while he messed with the show, cutting the leeks and waiting while the butter melted in the pan.

Once Dean was done with the salt circle, he came over to observe.

I pointed to the turkey and ham on the counter. "Why don't you cut that for me."

He shrugged and got to it.

I put the zest and juice into the pan, then the leeks, and left that to simmer and work on chopping up the tarragon, and measuring out the stock and cream. I had made the pastry yesterday, because I thought I would be making it yesterday so I didn't have to worry about that, except to roll it out and put it on.

A lot of cooking later and half an hour of baking and then I was calling them all back to the kitchen to get their food and eat.

Sam and Dean ate like they hadn't eaten real food in a while.

Nico grinned. "It is good."

I rolled my eyes and kept eating, pretty pleased that I managed to make it well.

"Yeah, this is great," Dean said, continuing to eat as soon as he finished speaking.

"Hunger is the best sauce," I murmured.

Even Travis was eating with vigor. Probably helped that none of us had had lunch. Or breakfast.

After everyone was pretty much done, Nico did the dishes. "I don't think we're going to make it back to school in time."

Travis groaned. "Shoot. That's my area, isn't it?"

"Happy adulting," I told him with a smile.

He sighed and closed his eyes. "I'll do it first thing in the morning."

Sam and Dean went back to warding the house and preparing for the ghostly invasion.

"You guys try to get some sleep. We'll handle things until the ghosts show up." Sam helped Travis move the extra chair outside of the circle so there was more room for sleepers.

I didn't argue, considering it a futile effort at this point. I needed some sleep. Maybe then I could process what all had happened in the past twenty-four hours.