Beginning
Another hunt. But this time, it was just John and Danella. Young Sammy stayed behind at the hotel room doing research. He'd found out that they were hunting a skin walker. Those monsters in particular scared him more than any of the others. His sister spent most of her time when they were together helping him out and comforting him. He was thankful for his sister. She helped him get through a lot of moments that he knew he couldn't have gotten through without her.
"Heya Sammy. Whatcha got for me kiddo?" Danella greeted, answering the phone call from her younger brother.
"Skinwalker. You're hunting a skinwalker. The last records I could find are of it being in Colorado Springs about four hours ago. He was..."
"Dammit Sam, who's meat suit was the sonnovabitch wearing?" their father asked rudely from the driver's seat. It earned him a sharp glare from his daughter sitting in the backseat.
"Sammy, it's okay, kiddo. Who is the walker pretending to be?" That was a much nicer way of asking. John could surely use a lesson or two from his daughter.
"The mayor's wife."
"Thank you, Sam. We'll be home tomorrow night, 'kay?"
"Be safe, Dani. I love you." The teenager smiled to herself, ending the call.
"What'd he say? Did he find anything?"
"Skinwalker. It's wearing the mayor's wife."
"Fantastic," John muttered, putting the pedal to the medal. "Get some shut eye, Dani. You're gonna need it." So that's what the young woman did. She always obeyed her father. Sometimes to a fault.
-----
The bright moonlight filters into the cabin ever so beautifully. If it had been any other night, Dani would have thought of it as a pretty sight. But tonight it wasn't. Tonight is was horror. Tonight it send cold shivers down her spine and made her taste metal in her mouth.
"Stay close, Dani. Remember, silver bullets. It's our only chance."
She nodded and held her shotgun up in acknowledgement to his words. They both held their shotguns, loaded with silver buckshot and cautiously crept deeper into the cabin's unpleasantly sickening shadows. The scent of the skinwalker, a mix of wet fur and decaying flesh, hung in the air as if death was just beyond the veil, taunting the father and daughter, sliding his cold fingertips down their spines.. John motioned for his daughter to go through the kitchen while he went through the living room through the second entrance to the kitchen.
This wasn't her first hunt but this one just felt...different. Dangerous. Something was off. She whipped around, brandishing her gun and fired without a second thought. The silver pellets slammed into the creature's stomach, sending it flying backwards against the glass table in the living room. The creature managed to give her a small cut on her wrist but she didn't care. Not with the amount of adrenaline pumping through her veins at the moment.
The creature writhed and screeched in agony as layers of flesh peeled from its body until finally it was just a slime and blood covered young man in his mid twenties perhaps. He looked like a baby who had just exited the womb.
"Is he...normal? Is he okay now?" Danella asked, looking horrified at the sight that lay at her feet. Her father approached the wounded man cautiously, keeping his gun at the ready just in case.
"Once. Once he was. A very long time ago. He lost himself to the beast long ago. There's no saving him now." Generally he didn't care what happened to such creatures and he cursed like a sailor. But he tended to act a bit different when he was hunting with his daughter. Still a blood thirsty hunter. But one that was nicer to be around.
Still, the hunter fired another shot into the man's chest, causing the body to go limp after a loud momentary shout of pain.
"We had to...right? Tell me we had to, Dad...please..." While indeed a hunter, she was still a girl. Still a teenager. Still had feelings and remorse.
"Sometimes, baby, there's no other choice," he said, gathering her into his arms as she sobbed. "We do what we have to do to protect the ones we love. Sometimes things we don't want to do. But that's part of life." He swore to her every day that he would never go against those words.
The Impala’s engine hummed, breaking the silence that hung heavy in the air. John Winchester sat in the driver’s seat, glancing at the rear view mirror from time to time, his brow furrowed with concern. She seemed nervous and that made him a bit nervous.
The teen sat in the back seat, fidgeting with unease, sensing the weight of the conversation that was about to unfold. She'd been silent since they stepped out of the cabin. Her heart pounded in her chest as she prepared to share something she’d been carrying for years. “Dad,” she began, her voice quivering, “I need to tell you something important.”
John's eyes met Danella's in the rearview mirror, his stern gaze unwavering. "What is it, honey?"
Danella hesitated then swallowed hard. "I don't want to keep living a lie, Dad. I'm not...comfortable here. I'm not comfortable with who I am. With what I look like. I don't think I'm a girl. I'm a boy. I'm not your daughter. I'm your son..."
A heavy silence hung in the closed quarters of the Impala as John processed the sudden revelation. It didn't take him long to slam his feet on the brakes, skid over to the side of the road and shut the car off.
"Dani what the hell are you talking about? Don't you ever say things like that. It's not a thing to joke about. You're my daughter and I won't have you spouting out nonsense like this. Stop it. You hear me, girl?!" John shouted, his face contorting with anger.
Tears welled up in the teenager's eyes as he pleaded, "Dad, please! I can't just keep pretending to be someone I'm not, whether it would make you happy or not. I want to go further into life as the boy I know I am. Why can't you just...be happy with that?"
John’s jaw clenched, and he slammed his hand on the steering wheel, causing Danella to flinch. “Dammit, Dani, this is not the time for your ridiculous fantasies! You’re a girl, and you’re going to stay that way! End of discussion!”
The child's heart sank, and the tears that had welled in his eyes began to stream down his cheeks. He knew this was a vital moment, and his father’s lack of acceptance felt like a knife to the heart. “Dad, I can’t live a lie anymore. I love you, but if you can’t accept me for who I am, then I have to go."
John’s grip on the steering wheel tightened, his face flushed with anger. He climbed out of the driver's seat, walked over to the teenager's door, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him out of the back of the car. “If that’s how you feel, then fine! GO! Live your freak filth of a life. But you’re not my son, you never will be, and don’t expect any help or support from me.”
Danella sat on the gravel covered pavement, rubbing the blood off the heels of his hands from when he was tossed to the ground. His heart ached as he watched his father climb back into the car after a slap to his face just seconds before.
"And you stay away from Samuel! I don't need you filling his head up with your bullshit."
He watched the taillights trail off into the night fog.
"What's your name?" the woman asked the teenager. She'd stopped about two hours later when she'd seen the child sobbing on the side of the road.
"Dean. Dean Campbell."
"Where ya' headed, Dean?"
"Anywhere."
