"Don't shy away from new people, new energy, new surroundings. Embrace new chance at happiness."
-Billy Chapata
~~~~~
- Jackson POV -
My sight was blinded at the sudden contrast between the black of the night and the fluorescent lighting of the shabby motel. The man working finally acknowledged my presence, groaning in despair at the thought of actually having to work during his shift. He plopped the old Harley Davidson magazine onto the desk in front of him and stared me down.
"What'll it be, kid?" He asked, voice scratchy from years of age.
"One room, one night." I requested, shaky from my lack of interaction with the outside world.
The Grand Coven believed that the people outside our our little bracket of witches would be a bad influence on my behavior and my practices. I always bid by their rules, mostly for the sake of my mother, therefore giving me zero people experience. Seeing this rough looking man in such a sketchy place gave me a feeling of dread, but I shook it off and watched him roll his eyes as he marked it down on a crinkled piece of paper. The perfectly usable computer in front of him sat, screen black, and I suppose he wrote it down for the sake of not having to go through the logging process.
"That'll be $105 Miss." He responded. His fingers tapped on the countertop, clearly annoyed and impatient.
I mumbled a quiet apology and rummaged through my sweatshirt pocket, finding a stash of crumpled ones, a couple twenties, and a hundred. As I exchanged the money for the key, the bell of the door rang behind me. Out of curiosity, I glanced at the entering figures. Who else would show up to a sketchy place this late into the night?
There were two men, built in stature, showing a subtle resemblance to each other. The taller one had to be over 6ft, with shaggy brown hair and calm hazel eyes. The shorter one, in comparison, was around 6ft and had a pair of mossy eyes, defined jawline, and a charming smirk. Both carried large duffel bags and eyed the room wearily.
"You gotta be kidding me." The man at the desk grumbled grimly behind me.
I glanced back at the worker, grabbed my key, and picked up my bag from where I placed it on the ground earlier. My eyes were already fighting to stay open from exhaustion, but when I spun around they shot open. My face happened to be inches away from the shorter of the pair.
"Hey, shortcake." He smirked, and I backed away until both of their faces could be seen.
The taller one stepped forward, glaring at the other before addressing me, "Sorry about him. He doesn't know the definition of boundaries."
"It's fine."
I cut off the shorter one, seeing his mouth open in rebuttal. I've had enough fights in my time to last a room full of people their whole lives. I didn't need to see these two men, which I've never met before, take it out on each other in a motel lobby.
"I'm Sam, by the way." The one with hazel eyes added. "And this is my brother, Dean."
"I'm Jackson." I introduced, my face growing red. "It was nice to meet you both, but I better get going; long night and all." I smiled weakly, before waving the two off and exiting the doors. Behind me I heard a faint "goodnight" and I smiled to myself, locating my room and drifting off into a peaceful slumber.
~~~~~
The next morning I woke up with a start, hearing a combination of banging, crashing, and screaming from a room beside me. The yelling was coming from a woman, clearly ticked off at whoever the guy was that accompanied her. I groaned to myself, rubbing my eyes and finding the TV remote. Why couldn't people keep their domestic disputes to themselves until after 10:00?
The television clicked on and the distant blaring of sirens from the channel snapped me further awake than I already was. A crime scene was shown on the little window of video that was present, and the reporter blabbed on about a teenage girl, blonde and around 16, who had been punctured in the neck twice in the back of a gas station. Not a speck of blood was found on or around her person, which was odd for a local, random murder.
My mother informed me at a young age that we weren't only beings that weren't "normal." The supernatural world was very complex and many creatures could snap our necks and take our lives in a millisecond. That said, I knew about the basics of some of the more common beasts simply for understanding and protection: werewolves, ghosts, vampires, and shapeshifters. If only she had known that one of those would be her end. My brain clicked as I analyzed the signs, and I knew what I had to do.
I quickly grabbed my cellphone, my room key, my wallet, and a few other little possessions before sprinting to the lobby of the motel. The same worker was still there, and by the look of it he was still pissed about my coming so late last night.
"What now?" He groaned, seeing that nothing indicating my leave was on my person.
"I'd like two more nights please."
I drawled my response out, my breath still caught in my throat from the burst of exercise I had just a moment before. He jotted it down on the paper and I handed him some of the extra cash I had stored in my bag.
"Oh, one more question." He looked up from the paper, eyes narrowed to judgmental slits. "How far away is the library?"
~~~~~
By the time my weak legs made it to the library, it had already been at least half an hour. I immediately drifted off into the folklore sections, seeing as that would be the closest relation to the incident this town was dealing with. My green eyes scanned the titles of the books before landing on the few labeled "Vampires" or something similiar to it. I grabbed as many as I could and found myself a quiet seat in the back of the library.
Going back for more, I rounded the corner only to slam into a towering figure and drop to the floor. My head ached as my eyes traveled up the wall of human, only to be pleasantly surprised.
"Sam?" I groaned, holding my head in agony.
His eyes widened when he realized who it was, and he offered his hand for me to take. He swiftly pulled me to my feet and I brushed off my clothes. Two days in a row that I was seeing this guy, and I had no clue why nothing felt off about it.
"Jackson? I'm so sorry." He explained.
"What are you doing here?" We asked each other in unison, chuckling to ourselves afterwards.
"Just reading up on the history of this town. You know... history buff?" I laughed, trying to disguise the real inspiration behind my little field trip.
He glanced up at the section sign, eyeing me cautiously, "In the folklore books?"
"Sure?"
Sam chuckled and rubbed the nape of his neck shyly, "Could I join you? I actually need to look at a bit of folklore myself."
I nodded slowly and we walked down the aisle, neither of us stopping until we reached the rest of the Vampire books. Coincidentally, Sam also needed to read up on the creatures, so he assisted me in carrying the rest of them.
I looked at him with an appreciative smile. "Thank you."
We made our way to the table, me sitting down next to him and diving into the first book in front of me. For supposedly being fake and made up, there was a lot of valuable information on the supernatural beings. The only problem with having so many different cultures and beliefs written down is that there were about a thousand ways you could track down and kill a vampire.
Both Sam and I shot up from our books when Dean landed across from us, the same mischievous smirk gracing his lips and a dangerous twinkle lingering in his eyes.
"Hey Sammy. Sup, Red." He greeted, referring to my waving locks of hair. "Sammy, check this out."
Dean pulled out a weathered book from inside his jacket, flipping through the yellowing pages before landing on a specific one. He slid it towards his brother who picked it up and examined the contents with narrowed eyes. Dean glanced at me with a "You-know-the-drill" side smile. Little did he know that I probably did.
A million tiny thoughts raced through my mind while Sam looked at the book. Why were these two men, who seemed perfectly capable of living normal lives, searching through vampire folklore and sleeping in motels instead of going to work or seeing their families? Certainly this wasn't a hobby of theirs. Perhaps they were conspiracists or didn't have enough funds to afford a home or a permanent living situation. Or... the thought made me have a speck of hope in my gruesome life... they were hunters.
My mother was the main source of all my information for all of my life. What happened to my father, the way our world behaves, and even the actions of hunters all came from her. Remembering every little detail of the deaths that she warned me about of fellow witches was enough to make me despise all hunters. From the smallest kid to the oldest man, all hunters were sickening to me. How could these people make a living out of killing our kind? We have families, lives, lovers, homes, kids. We have needs, wants, wishes, and dark desires. We're just like everyone else, only we're a little gifted.
Now things were different. Now the ones that I wanted to protect were the ones I wanted to kill. My mother was the only family, the only love that I had left. These monsters took her away from me and I had nothing else but hunting this nest down to push me forward. The probability that the vampire that killed my mother belonged to the same nest as the one who drained the blonde was very high.
I cleared my throat and asked as bluntly as I possibly could, keeping my voice to whisper, "Are you two hunters?"
The pair exchanged shocked looks and turned to me with slight smiles. Dean shook his head, "You aren't subtle in the slightest. What's it to you?"
"It's not that hard to figure out that you're trying to track this vamp nest." I stated coolly. "So, for my own personal reasons, I want to help."
"No way." Dean chuckled. "We have enough to worry about without you wandering around, getting us in trouble."
I glared at him, "I'm more useful than you think, Mister. I'm not some helpless damsel in distress; I know a thing or two."
Sam shrugged, "Its probably a whole nest, Dean, we could use the extra hands."
"That's what we have Cas for!"
"He doesn't help us all the time. Besides, she seems to know what she's doing." Sam gestures to the piles of lore books I had in front of me.
Dean rolled his eyes, "Fine. But if she gets hurt it's not my problem. I'm gonna call Cas."
Dean walked away with an obnoxiously loud screech of the chair leg sliding on the floor. Sam grinned at me and I just laughed in response. Perhaps these two weren't so bad after all. If all goes well, I may have found myself some new partners.
"Large quantities of Dead Man's Blood can paralyze vampires or cause slow-healing wounds. Sunlight can hurt their eyes and cause sunburn, but decapitation is the way to kill it." Sam cited, reading the words right off the paper as if killing monsters was a common task.
"How do we know that that journal-thingy is reliable?" I questioned, noticing how trusting he was in the worn pages.
He cleared his throat, "I have a feeling, a good feeling. This book is the closest thing we have to seeing it happen ourselves."
I clapped, "Alright. Now, let's go kick some vamp-"
"Jackson!" Sam hissed, his gaze humored as people around us shot us dirty looks.
I giggled slightly and stood up, These guys were hunters. Real-life, monster slaying, no mercy hunters. The same type of people that could help me get revenge on the things that took away my family. I couldn't be more psyched to take on the challenges of the hunting world.
If only I knew how.
Word Count - 2138
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