𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐀𝐍

𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

The click of Katherine's boots is nothing more than a soft echo down the sewer pipe. The heel is rubber, sole is leather—easy for pivoting. The heel only brought her an inch higher, which is rather comical.

She really should be seeming quite tall, but she doesn't feel it.

Rats squeak and scurry with the hunters' footsteps and flashlights. One darts right across the footpath and Katherine gasps, stepping backwards into Sam. He smiles, putting a hand on the back of her shoulders. "You're afraid of rats?"

"I'm not afraid of them, I just think they're disgusting and I don't want fleas...or anything else they carry." He chuckles and Katherine starts forward again, moving towards a slightly amused Dean Winchester up ahead.

"I think we're close to its lair," he says.

"Why do you say that?" Katherine wonders, glancing around the top of the sewer. After receiving no response, she turns to Dean. He's grimacing, staring nearly at her.

"Because there's another puke-inducing pile right next to your hair."

Katherine leaps away immediately, pulling her ponytail over her shoulder to inspect. "Is there anything—"

"You're fine," he tells her, staring at the sludge on the pipes with disgust. Katherine creeps over to the other side of the walkway and crouches down before a pile of gross.

"Looks like it's been here for a while," she says, staring at the shedded goop with a sour expression. "Is that...mold growing on it, or...?" 

"Who knows how many murders it's gotten away with? Katherine!"

She barely sees a blur of anything as she turns before she's thrown against the pipes on the other side, shoving Dean into the wall with her shoulder, and Sam fires down the corridor.

Her head throbs as she struggles to right herself in her tipping world. "Well go get the sonuva bitch!" She cries, gripping the pipes for stability. Sam and Dean run after the thing, and she follows suit, watching for any yuck piles.

Sam reaches down the manhole, grips her hands, and pulls her up onto the ground. She's seemed to regain most of her balance, and there's a small cut onthe side of her forehead. Katherine lets out a deep sigh, wincing as she wipes the blood away from her head.

Dean's shoulder is hurt—his left one. She can tell by the way he's holding his arm against his chest.

"We should split up," Sam says. Katherine nods in agreement, staring out at the dark downtown area.

Had they really been underground all night?

Her stomach is on the verge of growling, a testament to her lack of food since that morning.

"Just promise me one thing," she says. "We get food later."

"Oh, God, I'm starving," Dean groans, tilting his head back.

Sam chuckles and nods. "Sounds great."

"Okay, go," she murmurs, waving away from the two boys.

Forty-five minutes of scouring back alleys and common streets, small shops and dark places—all nothing.

Katherine had just grabbed a burrito from a food truck when Dean found her, looking a little too...content. A creature had just escaped. Normally, he'd be all shades of brooding.

"You find anything?" He asks.

"Besides a burrito and several stray dogs? No." She turns on her toes and starts forward. "Did you?"