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Stanford University, Present Day
31st October 2005
Halloween...

One Harriet Winchester clinked her red heels against the leg of a bar stool, getting impatient waiting for her twin brother Sam and his girlfriend Jessica, her best friend. Even Sam, in particular, hated Halloween because it was so close to the day their mother lost her life. They knew of the horrors that existed in this world. So here she sat in a university bar dressed as a devil, just for the heck of it because she still held a childlike love for the holiday, and she was going to enjoy herself.

"Wow, you're looking fine, girlfriend," her friend Sophie whistled, dressed as an overly sexy vampire in a low-cut black dress, red lipstick, fake blood drips on either side of her mouth, and false fangs.

"Looking gorgeous as always, Soph," she complimented as she sat beside her.

Let's say it was a bit ironic reminder of her past because vamps had once been a forte of hers when it had come to hunting. Only now, it was a long time ago, having since given up that life just a couple of years ago. She internally sighed. Knowing that her friends here at Stanford didn't know of her and Sam's mysterious past, they both agreed should be forever kept swept under the carpet. If they told another soul about what their family business entailed, they'd probably be committed.

Harriet has hunted every monster you could think of, ghosts, vampires, demons, and all of the above that lurked in the shadows at night. Her family had been hunting for as long as she and Sam could care to remember, ever since her mother's death 22 years ago, and whatever that thing had been, it still hasn't been found to this very day.

She and Sam never wanted this life. They just wanted to have an everyday existence. And that day of becoming normal came when she and Sam received their acceptance letters to Stanford, but it all went to a massive blowout with their dad once he found out. He thought they're going was letting down their family. Harriet frowned unhappily, recalling one of the awful nights of her life. Nobody liked to have a shouting match with their family, not even her all over the way John had gone way over the top with his reaction. He was questioning why they should live their lives hunting monsters. Why couldn't she and Sam couldn't become a lawyer or a doctor?

Suddenly she feels a pair of long-familiar arms wrapping around her and hands coverings her eyes, "Hey, chipmunk."

"Hey, moose," she turned her stool around, greeting her twin brother soon as he removed his hands. She saw her brother's girlfriend, Jessica, wearing a nurse costume while her brother was dressed in his usual everyday clothes.

With a sigh, she hopped off her stall, hands on her hips with a raised eyebrow. Even as she stood next to him in high heels, Sam was still gigantic compared to her, "No costume Sam?"

"You know I don't like Halloween," he shakes his head at her as she responds with a shake of her head and a roll of her eyes. He now looked over his sister's costume with amusement, "A devil Harriet, it's a little much don't you think."

"What?" Harriet glares at him folding her arms across her chest. "What's wrong with it?"

"I think she looks great," Jessica interrupted with a compliment to break the awkwardness.

"Why thank you, Jess," Harriet returned with a smile, "You look great too."

"Thanks," Jessica said, before walking towards the refreshment table, pouring the group some shots, and going to raise her glass, "So here's to Sam," she now toasted, everyone else raising their shot glasses, "And his awesome LSAT victory."

"All right, all right," Sam bowed his head, a slight smile on his face, "It's not that big of a deal."

Harriet scoffed before downing her shot, "Not a big deal, you scored a 175 on that test."

"That's amazing, Sam," Harriet beamed joyfully, "You'll get a pick of any law school you want."

"I've got that interview on Monday," he reminds his sister, "If it all pans out, I might get a shot at a full ride next year."

"So, what are you guys talking about?" Sophie asked, popping up beside Harriet, making her and the others almost jump. The girl was now pouring out some more shots.

"My brother's LSAT score," Harriet replied.

"It's not a big deal," Sam bluffs it off as nothing.

"Quit acting so humble," Jessica laughed, "When you scored a 175."

Sophie almost choked on her shot, "Is that supposed to be good?"

"It's scary good," Jessica replied.

"That's so cool," Sophie offered her congratulations, "So what's next for you, big shot?" she asked a little sarcastically, which Harriet knew she never meant to come out that way. So jabs her in the side with her elbow.

"Law school, hopefully," Sam rolled his eyes, "I have an interview on Monday."

"You've got this in the bag already, Sam," Harriet insisted happily as he returned a smile.

"So what about you, bestie?" Sophie asked, "When will you get thrown into an emergency room with a white coat and stethoscope?"

Harriet rolled her eyes, "I have an exam Tuesday. If I ace it, I'll be a step closer to choosing the medical school of my choice."

Sophie rolled her eyes before looking at Harriet, "Are you coming back to ours later tonight?"

"Yeah, why?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at her friend and smirking, "Have you got company coming over?"

"Well, I will if I get lucky," she returned with a playful grin.

"Do you mind if I stay with you guys?" Harriet looked at her brother and Jessica.

"Of course you can," Jessica replied.

"Our sofa is always available to you," Sam added as she returned him a thankful smile.

"So, how about more shots?" Sophie offered.

"No!" Sam and Jess declined in unison.

Sophie rolled her eyes with disbelief, "Come on, guys, the party is just getting started. Let's loosen ourselves up a little."

"We're fine, Soph," Sam firmly insisted.

She sighed, looking at her best friend, "Harriet?"

"Okay, one more," she sighed, caving into pressure.

With a nod, Sophie goes wandering off to get two more shots. Sam now looks sternly at his sister, "That better be all you'll have tonight. Because we don't want to have a repeat of the last time you drank too many shots."

Harriet groaned and shook her head, recalling when it happened, "I'm going to regret that for a long time, aren't I?"

"No," Sam and Jessica replied in unison with equally smug grins.

Harriet glared at them, "You both suck."

"Come on. You love us, really," Sam tells her.

"Yeah," she sighed along with a nod, "Yeah, I love you guys."

-Supernatural-

Harriet was passed out on her brother's sofa in his and Jessica's apartment. It was deafeningly silent throughout the place; you could probably hear a pin drop, but still quite enough for someone to break in. The noise of a window grinding opens suddenly made the young woman wake up. Harriet was an exceptionally light sleeper and always had been that the little noises could awaken her. He sat straight up and scanned the room cautiously with her hazel-green eyes.

The next thing to alert her was the gentle thudding footsteps across the floorboards. Harriet felt a little tense, ever so quietly, and tip-toed towards Sam's bedroom. She was slithering inside to find him and Jessica in bed, still fast asleep.

Crouching before Sam and gently poking him in the arm as she hissed, "Sam!"

Just like her, Sam was also a light sleeper and instantly woke up to see the panicked look on his sister's face, "Hey, what's going on?"

"Someone has broken into your apartment," she whispered.

Throwing back his bed covers, Sam immediately gets out of bed but is mindful not to wake Jessica. Both the twins creep out of the room.

Down at the end of the hallway, a man's figure walked past towards the kitchen, "So have we got a plan to catch this idiot?" Harriet asked him, exchanging a look with Sam, keeping her voice quiet so the intruder wouldn't hear.

"Let's attack him from both sides. I'll take the front. You take the back," he suggests what they do. With a nod of agreement, they both snuck into the kitchen.

Sam was first to lunge forwards at the intruder from behind, grabbing them by the shoulder. The man whizzed around and grasped Sam's arm, shoving him back. Harriet charged forwards about hitting the man's face, only to have her punch blocked, and he returned one. Harriet avoids it, only for Sam to receive it instead. With a grimace, Sam twisted the man's arm. But the man yanked it free from Sam's hold. Sam tried sending another punch at him, only to have it blocked, and his arm grabbed, swinging him and pushing him backwards. Harriet aims a few kicks at the intruder, nailing him in the balls. He doubled over, allowing Sam to punch him. But the man dodged it and knocked both siblings onto the floor. He pins them to the floor before they can even get up.

"Whoa, take it easy," he tells them both.

Harriet instantly recognized the familiar voice. The light of the streetlamp outside grazed the man's features through the window. Her eyes widened in surprise, recognizing her big brother's face, "Dean?"

Her older brother Dean grinned, "Hey."

"You scared the crap out of us!" Sam yelled, glaring at his brother annoyingly.

"That's 'cause you're both out of practice," Dean pointed out cockily with a smirk.

The twins shared a look. Harriet took one of Dean's arms, Sam took the other, and with ease, pushed their brother off. Harriet let go and rolled away as Sam pinned Dean to the ground.

"Or not," Dean nervously chuckled before gently shoving at Sam, "Get off of me."

Sam rolled off and helped him to his feet, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, I was looking for a beer," he joked. Sam and Harriet both returned him equal looks of disbelief. He now glanced at his sister, "Was it really necessary for you to kick me in the nads, Harry?"

"Well, in my defense, I didn't know it was you at the time," she responded, putting her hands up in mock surrender, "What the hell are you doing here, Dean?" Harriet now repeats Sam's question in a more urgent yet firm tone, arms folded across her chest, glaring at him.

"Okay. All right," he gets all defensive, not liking the way his sister is looking at him, "We gotta talk."

Harriet looked back with a raised eyebrow, "How about the phone?"

"If I'd called, would you have picked up?" Dean asked, glancing between them as both twins looked away from him. Because yes, neither of them wouldn't have bothered even to pick up the phone with Dean or their father.

The kitchen light suddenly comes on, filling the room with life. Harriet sees a very tired Jess standing in the doorway, wearing a Smurf t-shirt and shorts.

"Sam? Harriet?" She asked, half asleep.

Sam and Dean now turned to face her as well, "Jess," Sam spoke up before introducing her, "Hey, Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."

"Wait, your brother Dean?" Jess asked.

Harriet rolled her eyes in disbelief just as she saw Dean smirking, his eyes checking her over with interest, "Oh, I love the Smurfs," his eyes now wandering to Jessica's shirt, more specifically, her chest area. His smirk was getting more expansive, "You know, I gotta tell you. You are completely out of my brother's league."

Harriet goes to tread on her brother's foot. Who winced before shooting a warning glare his way.

"Just let me put something on," Jess announced, probably feeling rather uncomfortable from his leering.

"No, no, no, I wouldn't dream of it. Seriously," Dean offered quickly, continuing his leering at her. Sam gave him a rather stony expression as Dean continued objectifying Jessica before changing the subject, "Anyway, I gotta borrow my brother and sister here. Talk about some private family business."

Harriet frowned. Please, don't be something to do with hunting, she thought.

"No," Sam frowned before walking over to Jess, wrapping a protective arm around her, "No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."

"Okay," Dean said with a sigh, turning to face them, seeing as he had no choice, "Um. Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

"Yeah, so he's working overtime on a Miller Timeshift," Harriet remarked with a shrug of her shoulders, not bothered.

"She's right. He'll stumble back in sooner or later," Sam agreed to his sister's comment.

Dean sighed and ducked his head for a moment before looking back up at them, trying to rephrase it in a way he knew they could both understand, "Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days."

Harriet now internally groaned sarcastically. Well, that's just great! Just when she thought they were finally out, Dean showed up and only told them they were getting dragged back in.

The twin's expressions became tense and hard at their brother's words, "Jess, excuse us. We have to go outside."

Jess frowned in confusion but nodded with understanding. On the way out of Sam's apartment, he grabbed two hoodies and passed one to his sister, who had borrowed a white tank top and a pair of pyjama bottoms from Jessica. She slides the hoodie over her and follows after her brother outside.

She made her way down the staircase along with Sam, both following after their older brother, "I mean, come on. You can't just break-in in at night and expect us to hit the road with you," Sam complained.

"You're not hearing me, Sammy. Dad's missing. But I need you and Harry to help me find him," Dean explained, letting out an aggravated sigh.

"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gates in Clifton? He was missing then, too. He's always missing then, too. He's always missing, and he's always fine," Harriet reminds him, knowing well enough how their dad gets on a hunting trip. Sam remembered when he was always gone, days at a time on a job when they were younger, and soon as Dean was old enough, he went with him, leaving only him and Harriet to look out for one another.

Dean stopped and turned to face his siblings, who also stopped to gaze back at him, "Not for this long. Now, are you gonna come with me or not?" he looked between them, waiting for an answer.

Harriet took a deep breath, meeting her brother's green eyes and shaking her head, "No, Dean, I can't..."

"Me either," Sam answered, being equally as honest.

"Why not?"

"Sam and I swore we were done hunting. For good," Harriet stares daggers at him, folding her arms across her chest.

Dean, now getting rather aggravated by his siblings, spoke up, "Come on. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad," He continued down the stairs.

"Wasn't... wasn't that bad!" the female Winchester began to argue her case, not taking her older brother seriously, marching angrily down the stairs after him with Sam keeping in step beside her, "Can you hear yourself, Dean? Sam and I were just six months old when Dad started all this crap! It's invaded our lives since the moment we could walk and talk! So I'm sorry, but there's not a chance in hell that I'm coming with you..." yanking out her cell phone from the pocket of her hoodie to glance at the illuminated screen, "...at four in the morning..." looking back up glaring at Dean before continuing, now gesturing between herself and Sam, "Because you know what we have a life now...a normal life like other people..." Harriet ended with a scoff.

Dean suddenly grabbed hold of her arm tightly, "Do you think I wanted this life for you both?" he put to her seriously, "For either of you..." he met Sam's gaze before turning back to Harriet's, "Well... I didn't, ok?"

"Really? I know you didn't want this for us, Dean, but it doesn't change how our childhood was dedicated to killing God knows what," Harriet sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, trying to get her point across.

"She's right, Dean," Sam nodded, "When we told Dad that we were scared of the thing in our closet, he gave us a 45."

Dean paused at the door that leads outside, his hand upon the door's surface, "Well, what was he supposed to do?"

"We were nine years old, Dean! He was supposed to do the normal dad thing and tell us not to be afraid of the dark," Harriet argued back, "Not to give us a damn gun to tuck underneath our pillow!"

"Don't be afraid of the dark. Are you kidding me? Of course, you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there," Dean stated.

Sam knew he had a point, "Yeah, I know that, but still. The way we grew up after that thing killed Mom and Dad's obsession with finding it," he sighed. Dean looked away from them both, staring out through the doors mesh screen, "But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find!"

"But...we sure as hell have saved a lot of people doing it, too."

There's a drawn-out pause before Harriet quietly asks, "You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" Dean rolled his eyes and slammed the front door open. The three siblings climbed up the short staircase and towards the parking lot.

"The weapons training and melting the silver into bullets? Dean, we were raised like warriors," Harriet continued arguing as they crossed the lot, arriving before their father's much cherished black 1967 Chevy Impala that had since been passed to Dean when he turned eighteen.

Dean turned to face his siblings, "So what are you going to do? Are you just going to live some normal apple-pie life? Is that it?"

"Well, not normal persay," Harriet established, "But a safe life."

"So that's why you both decided to run away," Dean turned his back to them and shook his head.

Sam chuckled to him before speaking up, "Ran away?" he put a little more emphasis on the question, "Is that what you think happened, Dean?" he asked, "He chucked us out soon as he found out about our plans to go college."

"To get away..." Dean stated.

"We were just eighteen, Dean still just kids," Harriet interrupted her brother abruptly, "If we both had the option, we would have left years before that, but no, we stayed! Our family had been dedicated to its cause. Living in a shitty motel and rental homes, not seeing Dad for weeks, sending us endless trips to the library to research monsters and lore. We never stuck around anywhere long enough to have friends, an education, and maybe the occasional boyfriend or girlfriend... we had no life... It was killing me; I just kept climbing this never-ending wall...wanting to escape!" she took a deep, shuddering breath, "I wanted to go college and have a life. He told us if we were going, we should stay gone. So that's what we've done.

"Harry, I can't blame you for that. I'm not Dad," Dean shrugs, "But he's in real trouble right now if he's not dead already. I can feel it," Both Sam and Harriet shared a silent look, "I can't do this alone."

"Yes, you can," Harriet offers some words of encouragement, breaking the silence.

Dean mumbled awkwardly, looking at the ground, "Yeah, well, I don't want to."

Harriet and Sam exchange a look. Before Sam offered with a heavy sigh before meeting Dean's gaze, "What was he hunting?"

With a knowing smirk, Dean, sensing that he's won them over, walks over to the Impala and opens up the trunk, revealing a second compartment stocked with every weapon a hunter could need, along with those elusive fake IDs. But to Harriet, it was screaming for some proper organization.

Only she decides to keep her mouth shut as Dean rummaged inside the trunk, "All right, let's see, where the hell did I put that thing?"

"So," Sam starts to ask out of curiosity, "When Dad left, why didn't you go with him?" 

"I was working on a gig. This, uh, voodoo thing, down in New Orleans," Dean responded.

"Dad, let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?" Harriet questioned with a raised eyebrow. She thought how somewhat out of character that seemed for her father to let Dean go out on a case solo.

Dean glanced over at his siblings, noticing the apparent look of concern on their faces, "I'm twenty-six, dudes," He finally pulled out a folder full of papers, "All right, here we go. So Dad checked out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy," Dean handed one of the papers to Sam, "They found his car, but he vanished. Completely MIA."

"'Centennial Highway Disappearance. Andrew Carey MISSING', Sam looked up from the paper, not thinking much of the article, "So maybe he was kidnapped," he passed the missing person poster over to Harriet.

"Yeah. Well, here's another one in April," Dean informed, sifting through the papers, "Another one in December '04, '03, '98, '92, ten of them over the past twenty years," he tossed another Jericho Herald for each date mentioned, Harriet picks them leafing through to check the dates, as her brother continued to explain, "All men, all the same, five-mile stretch of road," Harriet frowned as she passed him back the papers and returned them to the folder before Dean rummaged around in the trunk again. He now pulled a bag out of the chest, "It started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around," he went on, "That was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough," he pulled out a handheld tape recorder from the bag, "Then I got this voicemail yesterday."

Dean pressed play. The recording is filled with static, choppy places where Harriet strained her ears to listen to what her father said over the hissing.

"Dean...something big is starting to happen...I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may... Be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger."

Dean stopped it from playing. Sam said with a raised eyebrow, "You know there's EVP on that?"

"Not bad, Sammy," Dean returned with a cheeky smile as Sam rolled his eyes, "Kinda like learning to ride a bike, isn't it?"

Dean now sighed, "All right. I slowed the message down, ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got."

He played it again, this time with the changes, "I can never go home..." a creepy woman's voice whispered.

Dean stops the tape again; the female Winchester frowns slightly and repeats under her breath, "Never go home," as her mind filters through the myths and legends she knew.

Dean puts the recorder away into his jacket pocket, removes the shotgun propping up the trunk, and shuts it. Turning to face his siblings, he leans against it, gazing back at them, "You know, in almost two years, I've never bothered you two, never asked you guys for a thing."

Harry let out a sigh. It's just one more hunt. What harm will it do? She glanced in Sam's direction, who nodded. Then at her older brother, "Okay...I'll go," she tells him, "Just as long I'm back first thing Tuesday."

"I also need to be back by Monday morning," Sam adds

"What's first thing Monday and Tuesday?" Dean inquired.

"I have an exam," Harriet implied seriously, "Which I can't afford to screw up."

"And I have an interview to go to," Sam offered honestly.

"What, a job interview? Skip it," he states with a raised eyebrow.

"I have a law school interview; it's my whole future on a plate," Sam returned with a severe tone.

"Law school and medical school?" Dean repeated with a smirk, not taking his sibling's ambitions seriously, "Sure you can't skip that exam of yours, Harry?"

"Yes, smartass, I'm sure," she replied, rolling her eyes, "So, have we got a deal or not?"

Dean let out a sigh before nodding.

"Right, I'll go and pack," Sam informed, returning to his apartment.

With a sigh, Harriet turned to ask her older brother, "Would you mind running by my apartment so I can pack a few things?"

He agreed with a nod, watching his sister as she let out a sigh, patting the car's hood fondly with a smile before getting in, "Wow, I've missed you, Baby," she uttered the Impalas nickname, just as Dean got into the car and turned on the car her engine purred into life.

With a happy smile, Dean recalled how much his sister loved this car, "So where am I taking you?"

Harriet offered him some directions to her apartment building. Once there, she hopped out and told him, "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Upon entering the building. Her mind was racing a hundred miles a minute because she couldn't believe she was doing this again after these years. Harriet never thought she'd be going out hunting again.

Harriet is greeted with a pitch-black apartment, so she figures either Sophie is still out or probably had pulled and had company over. She searched blindly in her closet, feeling around in the darkness until finding her duffel bag and going towards her chest of draws, being mindful of her squeaky drawers not to wake anyone and grabbing whatever clothes she could and stuffed them inside the bag. She grabbed a pair of black Converse, which are much more practical when hunting than the high heels she had been wearing with her costume. She also held a hairbrush and some essential toiletries.

Using her phone screen on its lowest setting of brightness got some paper and left a note for Sophie, explaining her going on a short road trip with her brothers and that she would see her on Tuesday. Finally, zipping her bag shut, she pulled on her Converse and left her apartment.

"Ready to roll, Harry?" Dean asked soon as Harriet got into the car.

"Yep," she nodded.

"Okay," he starts the Impala, "Let's pick up Sam and get this show on the road."

Graphic by Winter326