Sammi and Sam's Supernatural Adventures

Scarred To Death

No matter who or what dies in your lifetime, you are never fully prepared to deal with the pain that comes with it. My family will never forget Halloween of 2016 because we lost someone close to us all that night. Even though we only had a short time to get to know her, we were all impacted in some way by her death. It started Halloween morning, with all of us preparing our costumes for Marissa's haunted house. The idea was that Dad and Marissa's house was actually decked out like a haunted house and we were all players in her little game. Naturally since she has a soft spot for kids, she decided to have something less scary at the end of the house tour: me, dressed as a princess, handing out the candy. Since Mary wasn't really a fan of Halloween, she was going to stay at our house and watch the kids for us. We all headed over just before dark, including Declan and Dana this time, and took our positions. Little did we know that our fake haunted house was going to wind up turning into a scene of chaos and terror. We had only been at it for about an hour when we heard a terrified shriek coming from Dana's post. At first I didn't think anything of it...the girl was doing a bang up job of scaring the kids, obviously. It wasn't until I heard my brother scream out his beloved girlfriend's name that I knew something was amiss. I ran toward the direction of the screams, princess dress and all, grabbing my gun from under my skirt as a I ran. Yes, I know it sounds douchey of me to do that, especially since this haunted house was supposed to be for the kids of the neighborhood, but please keep in mind what my family does for a living. By the time I got there, I saw exactly what had made Dana scream; standing beside her almost lifeless body (and keeping my brother at bay) was the same creature whose kind was responsible for putting my brother in his chair. "Are you freakin' kidding me right now?!" I yelled, more in shock than anything else. Luckily I had loaded my one gun with silver bullets. I quickly switched weapons, aimed right for the wolf's head and fired. The bullet hit him right between the eyes and he dropped with a loud thud. Declan was still in shock, so I ran over to Dana's side and felt for a pulse. "She's still alive, but barely," I told my brother. "Call 911, and make it quick." Declan did as he was told just as Sam and Dean came running in our direction. "We heard a gunshot," Sam said. "Are you two ok?" "We are," I pointed to the werewolf, then to Dana. "She's not. She barely has a pulse." "We thought the scream came from one of the kids," Dean admitted. "So did I at first," I agreed. "Then I heard my brother scream for his girl and I knew something wasn't right." Sam looked at Dana. "He got her good," he said with upset in his tone. "Poor Dana." "Not to sound like a douche, but didn't anyone prepare her for something like this?" Dean asked. "I mean, it IS Halloween and we ARE hunters." Declan had finished his call with the police by this time and he finally spoke up. "I hadn't told her about what you guys do yet," he admitted, tears in his eyes. "I had to make sure she was going to be in my life forever first. Call me sentimental, but I was going to propose to her next week, on the anniversary of our first date. I was planning on telling her about your lifestyle that night." "That's beautiful, big brother," I said. "You can still make that happen, bro," Dean replied. "Sammi said she still has a pulse, right princess?" All three boys had their eyes on me as I once again felt for Dana's pulse. In the five minutes that we had been discussing what happened, she must have taken her last breath because what I felt was death setting in. I could feel tears starting to swell in my eyes as I looked up and said, "I'm so sorry. She's gone." Declan screamed in agony and started crying as Sam walked over to comfort him, also with tears in his eyes. Dean ran over to where I was hovering over Dana's body and frantically searched for a pulse. When he realized that I wasn't joking, he too started to tear up. I left Dean next to Dana's body and rushed over to my brother and Sam. I took a seat on my brother's lap and wrapped him up in a hug, crying with him over the loss of the woman he was going to marry. "Dana!!!" he wailed as I continued to cry with him and try to console him. Sam walked over to where his big brother was sitting and they hugged it out as well. The ambulance pulled up a short while later, which was Dad and Marissa's cue to run over and find out what all the commotion was about. Once the paramedics confirmed Dana had passed, they loaded her into their rig and took off into the night. The coroner's official report listed cause of death as a dog attack, which as most of you know is basically what happened in the eyes of a non-hunter. They released her body a few days later, and, on the day that my brother was set to propose, we buried her next to Nana and Poppy. It was a quiet little ceremony...the only other people who came were Dana's parents. As we learned from Declan early in the relationship, she had been an only child and her only living grandparents lived on the other side of the world. We had a little get together at our house afterward and learned that Declan had met Dana's parents numerous times during their relationship, and they had already considered him like a son. Not to brag, but even before he was in a wheelchair, it was hard not to fall in love with my brother. He has such a good heart and he is truly a beautiful soul. His future in-laws even went as far as to build a ramp off their back deck for when he had gone to visit. Losing Dana was hard on all of us, since we had also considered her like family. Cate was too young to remember her, but Cam had questions after the fact, like where was his Aunt Dana and when was she coming back. As a parent, you always dread having to explain death to your kids, but when they lose someone they love so early in life, it's even harder being as they don't understand it as easy as say an older child might. We all knew life was going to be rough for quite some time following Dana's death, but as close-knit as our family is, we also knew that we were going to survive it. We always do.