( PROLOGUE )

   THE ROAR of a car engine belonging to a certain 1967 Chevy Impala sounded for what Emily Winchester swore could be heard from miles away. The midnight black car carried within it four people; one man, two boys, and one girl.

   The man driving the car; John Winchester, was the father to the two boys and one girl. Sitting next to him in the passenger's seat of the car was the oldest of the siblings, a seventeen-year-old boy named Dean Winchester.

   Dean Winchester in the eyes of most was considered to be quite handsome. The boy was tall and rather muscular for his age. If someone were to look close enough on his fair-skinned face, they would easily be able to see the light freckles dusting across his cheeks, grouping together in a small cluster at the very bottom of his chin.

   Jade green irises accompanied his eyes, striking most people in a positive manner, for the color appeared to give off a trusting and warm vibe. The green of his eyes along with his dark blond tresses made Dean look all the more appealing, many teenaged females going into a frenzy when they lay their eyes upon him.

   While it was true that Dean was, in fact, a good-natured person, he was also a seventeen-year-old boy. A teenage boy who had a special love for girls, but it was a love that he considered to be a 'one-time deal', or in other terms, 'a hump and dump' sort of situation. Dean Winchester was not one for long-term relationships, he preferred to only interact with girls as sexual partners.

   However, he could not be blamed for this behavior as when you lived as he did, there was truly no time for long-term relationships.

   If you turned back the clock thirteen years, this is where the story of the Winchester family truly began.

   John and Mary Winchester were a happy couple, young and in love. This love only grew when their first child was born; Dean Winchester, named after Mary's mother; Deanna. For two years, the small family was living in harmony, and then, another pregnancy came along. Of course, John and Mary were thrilled at the news, and so was little Dean.

   Nine months later, John and Mary were gifted with their first baby girl. Emily Winchester was born on a chilly January night, in the U.S. state of Lawrence, Kansas. From the moment she was born, Dean had taken his big brother role to an entirely new level, claiming that nothing would ever happen to her under his watch.

   It was after another two years that the third and final child of the Winchester family was born; Samuel Winchester, or as he prefers to be called now (13 years later), just Sam.

   The family was happy, John and Mary perfectly content with living the 'apple pie' lifestyle. However, it was only a matter of time before their perfect life was torn to shreds.

   It was exactly three months after Sam was born, Emily was two, and Dean was four, that tragedy struck.

   In the middle of the night, a demon named Azazel managed to slip into the nursery of Sam, taunting the little baby. Mary, with her motherly instincts, instantly knew something was wrong and went to investigate. Unfortunately for Mary, her drive to protect her son got her killed and the demon left, setting her body on fire in its wake.

   John had come running in the nursery hearing Mary's screams and Sam's cries. The fire was quickly spreading from Mary's body to the rest of the room, setting anything it touched on fire. In horror, John watched Mary's body float to the ceiling of the room, the roof beginning to cave with the heat.

   With a motion as swift as a rabbit, John took Sam Winchester from his crib, racing out of the room. Dean and Emily Winchester had already woke up to the noise, the two toddlers terrified at the smoke and heat.

   Despite being only four, Dean rushed to grab Emily's hand, making sure she did not get lost in the chaos of everything. The second John ran from the nursery with baby Sam in his grasp, his eyes made contact with his other two children.

   Leaning down, John thrust baby Sam into Dean's hold, forcing the four-year-old to let go of his sister's hand. Emily immediately began sobbing, thick tears rolling down her cheeks.

   Looking his son in his eyes, John commanded one thing of him. "Take your brother and sister outside as fast as you can and don't look back. Now, Dean, go!"

   Nodding, trying to keep a brave face, Dean turned, using his body to push Emily toward the front door. "C' mon, Emily! We need to go!" He shouted, Emily and him making a mad dash for the door.

   As the children left the house, John looked back at the body of his wife in flames. He knew then that she was already dead and staying would only mean certain death for John. His three children already lost their mother, he would not make them go through losing their father as well.

   With that thought in mind, John sprinted out of the house, following his children to the safety of the street. Ambulances and firetrucks had already begun arriving on the scene, the neighbors seeing the madness taking it upon themselves to call 911.

   The second all four of them were on the sidewalk, the house exploded in a mass of firey havoc.

   Emily sobbed wildly as Dean attempted to shush both her and his younger infant brother who was also in a mess of tears. John seeing his son's struggles, stepped in, taking Sam away from Dean. With his newfound free hands, Dean was able to grab Emily in a hug, the two siblings watching as their home burned to the ground with the body of their mother still inside.

   If you asked them today, thirteen years later, Emily would say that she could still see the black ashy smoke rising to the heavens and feel the heat of the fire burning her skin.

   Dean would say he could still hear the wails of his younger siblings, a sound which haunted him.

   And John, well John Winchester would say he could still feel the bubbling anger inside him. The anger that a demon would come and destroy his life, kill his wife, and leave their family shattered. A rage which was so powerful that it could rival with an ocean's hurricane. It was that rage which pushed John to become the man he is today. And that rage still ran through him today.

   John had wasted no time in taking anything that remained in the burnt house packing it up in his midnight black Chevy Impala. The exact car he was currently driving with Sam, Dean, and Emily as his passengers.

   From that horrible night where his wife died, John swore upon vengeance. He declared he would take the life of the demon who thought himself so arrogant that he would take his wife's life. In John's mind, it was a life for a life.

   And so, for the next thirteen years, John would spend his days riding around America with his children, hunting anything out of the supernatural world. Monsters, ghosts, demons, you name it and John has probably killed it.

   He raised his children to be 'warriors', training them in the art of being a hunter. To protect those from the things lurking in the shadows.

  After the fire, the four never had a real home outside of the 1967 Chevy Impala. Of course, when they were in a town for a hunt, John rented a motel room for a few days, allowing the children to have an actual bed to sleep on. But once whatever evil supernatural thing it was that was terrorizing said town was taken care of by John, it was back on the road to the next place in need of help from a hunter.

   The children were enrolled in a new school with every hunt, sometimes, not even going to a school. However, that was the least of John's concerns, as is in his mind, his children had much more to worry about rather than when their next homework assignment was due.

   Sam; however, disagreed. Sam Winchester, who was currently sitting in the back of his father's Chevy Impala, leaned against his arm, bored at watching the trees fly by. Sam was the youngest of his two siblings, sitting at the exact age of thirteen.

   Two years younger than Emily and four years younger than Dean. Sam did not look at all like his brother. While his brother sported those leaf-like eyes and clean-cut blond hair, he was the complete opposite.

   Sam was a rather scrawny and pale kid having not even come close to hitting puberty yet. Wild syrup-colored hair went in every which way, and in Emily's opinion, it was in desperate need of a haircut. Baby blue eyes rested ideally on his youthful face, Sam was usually able to pull a move that Dean referred to as the 'puppy-dog expression' with his sweet looking face. The puppy-dog expression was essentially Sam's way of getting something when he wanted it, it seemed that whenever he pulled that face John, Dean, and Emily were unable to say no.

   Despite being the youngest, Sam was the only one out of his two siblings that actually cared about school. While Dean and Emily only went because they were forced to by the law (not that they cared about the law all that much) and their dad, Sam attended because he truly enjoyed his studies.

   He knew Dean and Emily were fine with growing up as hunters, but Sam was not. He more than anything wanted a normal life where he could attend a regular school and get a normal education. He would rather not have Monster-lecture Mondays as his father called it, preferring to learn about physics more than what the correct way to maim a werewolf was.

   It was because of this that Sam tried his very best in each and every school he attended, getting nothing lower than 89.8% on any test he took. He was determined to not be a hunter as his father wanted when he was older, but rather go to a university and get a job he actually wanted.

   So, as the thirteen-year-old sat in the backseat, he mentally went over the formula for Pythagorean Theorem.

   Sitting next to her little brother was the last and final piece to the Winchester family. Emily Lauren Winchester herself, the self-proclaimed 'badass hunter bitch'.

   Emily Winchester was fifteen and alike to her older brother, a sight for sore eyes. Thankfully, Emily had not hit puberty late, but rather a little earlier than normal making her body much more developed and mature than others her own age.

   The girl was not very tall, but she was definitely not short either. Emily was slender with long legs and well-defined arms, she suspected it was from all the running she did while she was hunting ghosts and shit with Dean and her dad; Sam was still too young to go on hunts, so he was often left in the motel room.

   The current year was 1989, and with this came the popular hairstyles. Big hair was in, and Emily was lucky that her hair was naturally thick and bouncy making it so she had to do little to no work to get her hair to fit in with what the other girls were doing. Not that Emily cared all that much with fitting in, after all, she was a hunter of the supernatural, she would never be able to fit in, so why try as she always thought.

   With her big cinnamon-colored hair, Emily had a fringe which covered most of her forehead. Alike to Dean, Emily's face was dotted with freckles, but with her fringe in the way, many of the freckles other than on her cheeks were left hidden.

   When most people saw Emily for the first time, they compared her eyes to that of lightning. The girl carried lightning colored irises with a nearly unnoticeable ring of green around the edges. It was almost ironic that Emily's irises reminded so many of lightning as her personality often reflected that of a thunderstorm.

   Being raised around three males, Emily was bound to pick up many tendencies that were normally saved for boys. She was more aggressive than other fifteen-year-old girls, deciding that she spoke better with her fists than words.

   Of course, that got her in trouble at school, John unable to even count how many times he was forced to leave a hunting case to pick his daughter from the principles office because she had just beat up another student.

   In Emily's defense, the students she had beat up got what was coming to them. Besides, what was the point of training with her father in the art of self-defense if she only ever got to use her skills while hunting monsters.

   Emily, just because of her gender, did not get the short end of the stick. Emily was entirely capable of defending herself, even if Dean was always protective of her. Not to mention that as she grew older, Emily got even more eager to try and figure things out for herself.

   It was because of this that she had begged her father to allow her this summer to figure out a hunting case of her own. She wanted to do her own hunting journey, not that she disliked working with her father and brothers, she simply wanted to try one out herself one time.

   Of course, John was very apprehensive at first. Even though he pushed her hard, she was still his daughter, and monster cases could get dangerous quickly. Not to mention if you're working it alone, John could not even count all the times he almost got himself killed when all his children were still too young to accompany him on hunts and he was stuck fighting the monster himself.

   But, Emily was adamant and persistent with him. Persistent enough that he finally gave in and agreed to let Emily have the summer to hunt her own monster.

   That was what brought them to their current situation, driving to where Emily would be stationed for the hunting case. In Maine, the state known for its green forests and rocky coastline, was a small town named Derry.

   Derry was a small community situated along Interstate 95, to the south of Dexter, the southwest of Old Town, and the west of Bangor and Haven in the southwestern corner of Penobscot County. The little town was named after the county of the same name in Ireland back when it was first established in the year 1859.

   For the past year and a half people, especially children had been going inexplicably missing with not a trace in their wake. John suspected it could be one of three things. A vampire, werewolf, or wendigo.

   He talked his theories over with Emily the previous day, Emily explaining how she suspected it was probably a wendigo.

   In Emily's opinion, a werewolf was unlikely as they usually only devoured the heart of people and left the carcass to rot.

   A vampire was always plausible, as a small nest could have easily decided that Derry was a small and cloudy town whom no one cared enough about to truly investigate. However, vampires normally stuck to draining their victims of blood, they did not take the entire body.

   A wendigo seemed to fit the description of what was happening almost perfectly. Wendigos generally ate people leaving nothing to be found, and for the most part, they hunted in the woods. As Derry was surrounded by miles of forests, it was the ideal habitat for a wendigo to thrive in.

   Emily Winchester hunted plenty of wendigos with her father and brother, so she was not that worried. In fact, if it truly was a Wendigo as she was so confident to believe it was, she thought that she may not even need the entire summer to kill it.

   John was currently driving to drop her off at the 'Derry Townhouse', the place which for the next three months would serve to be Emily's temporary home. John Winchester would give Emily from the first of May all the way up until the 30th day of August to hunt and kill whatever it was that was tormenting Derry.

   While Emily did this, John would continue with Dean and Sam on his own hunting cases across America. However, while Emily was away from him, John decided that he would stick around the states nearest to Maine so that if anything went wrong, the drive to get to her took less than a day.

   If by the time August 30th rolled around and Emily still had not managed to kill it, John along with Dean would come to her assistance whether she liked it or not. If Emily did kill the beast before her time was up, she would have the choice for John to either come and pick her up or to stay in Derry for the remainder of the summer.

   Unfortunately, the school in Derry did not get out for the summer until the first of June and John was forcing Emily to attend it for the last few weeks of May. John Winchester wanted the fifteen-year-old to finish her last month of the ninth grade. Emily, of course, claimed it was pointless, but John would hear none of it. He also warned her that because he would not be in town with her, he was not going to be able to get her out of any trouble she may stir up at school.

   Dean Winchester was definitely not comfortable with Emily staying alone on a case for four months, after all, he was her big brother. It was his job to protect her. It was because of this that he begged John to allow him to stay with Emily and help her on the hunt. Emily, before John could even answer, immediately disagreed, arguing that she wanted to do this herself.

   And so, this brought the four Winchester's to their current location. Just passing the sign of Derry, the 1967 Chevy Impala roaring with its loud engine as they rode into town.