"No," I muttered under my breath as I ran into the room to see whether we beat that bitch Lilith at her own game and saved Dean. Instead I was greeted by the sight of Sam, Dean's younger brother, cradling Dean's horribly mauled body in his arms. I couldn't stop myself from breaking down. "No! No! No! Dean!" I screamed as my body moved to collapse next to Sam, who moved out of the way to let me hold my boyfriend's corpse. I was balling my eyes out as I cradled his bloodied head in my arms and rested my forehead on his. My desperate voice incessantly pleaded with the dead man to be okay. "No, please, come back to me Dean, I need you, please…"

With that I slowly woke up to find myself still crying in a cold sweat and my cheap motel pillow wet from the tears. I had arrived in Santa Carla, California earlier this morning, checked into this motel called The Sea Bed, and stupidly decided to go to sleep for a little bit. I had been so tired from all the driving that I had risked the nightmares to try and get even an hour of sleep. It had been a month and a half since my boyfriend and fellow hunter, Dean Winchester, had been dragged to Hell by Lilith and my brain refused to let me forget that whenever I closed my eyes. It had also been 2 weeks since I ditched Dean's little brother Sam after finding out what he had been doing behind my back. I had tried to watch over him like Dean asked me to, to make sure he didn't do anything stupid, but I had no control nor authority over his actions.

After being abandoned by him for what felt like the 100th time, I decided to put a tracker on his car without him knowing it. The next time he abandoned me to finish a hunt on my own, I tracked his ass to a motel a couple towns over from where we were and was outraged by what I found. I busted down the door to his room to find him in bed with that demon bitch Ruby. This had led to a fight that eventually turned physical, ending in Sam pushing me so hard that I made a sizable dent in the motel room's wall. After that I stormed out and I haven't seen or heard from him since.

Unfortunately, having been the girlfriend of one of the hunters on the Hell's most wanted list meant that the price on my head went up as soon as I went out on my own. Not that I mind, the only cases I cared about now were the ones involving demons. Since I couldn't save Dean from being dragged to Hell, I am going to take down every demon I can get my hands on. So now here I was in a relatively decent motel room in Santa Carla, California. Why Santa Carla you ask? Well, there are two main reasons why:

I really needed to relax after everything that had happened to me the last month and a half and what better place than a small beach town with a nice boardwalk.

It's also known as the "Murder Capital of the World," so I figured that I would probably stumble onto a job here anyways.

Staring at the dingy blue ceiling above me I sighed. "Guess I should hit the town," I said aloud to myself. My whole body felt like it was complaining as I sat up and threw my legs over the edge of the bed. With the constant nightmares, I barely ever got enough sleep and it was starting to catch up with me. I was starting to feel weaker both mentally and physically, causing me to question whether I should even be hunting right now. Looking at the clock on the nightstand it read 10:30 am, meaning I had slept less than 2 hours. I couldn't help but groan at my inability to just get some restful sleep. My eyes were then draw to the cell phone I had sitting next to the clock. For the next couple minutes, I sat there staring at it, wondering if I should call Bobby. I know that he would let me crash at his place until I felt okay enough to hunt without all the added risks of sleep deprivation. But he would ask me about Sam, since the giant idiot never called him, and I don't think I have the heart to tell him the truth. And since I hated lying to Bobby, that idea was a scrapped from the drawing board.

I had also already decided that I wouldn't hole up in some place and wallow around in my grief. Bobby would probably tell me that I was running away from issues by burying myself in our work. I got up and stretched, hearing some things pop and crack in the process, and looked at the mess that was me in the full-length mirror attached to the outside of the closet door. I had gone to sleep in my clothes that I had been traveling in since I left the last town I had stayed in and my wavy walnut hair was all over the place. I groaned and rubbed my once vibrant azure eyes that were now a cloudy steel blue with large bags under them. Then I smiled, remembering how one time Dean looked at me with those shiny emeralds of his and told me how he would face his fear of flying if it meant he could soar forever in the endless blue of my eyes. "Hey, what happened to no 'chick-flick' moments?" I had joked with him to lighten the mood. After he had decided to accept his fate and not try to get out of his crossroads deal, he got in the habit of telling me mushy stuff like that all the time, like he wanted to make sure that I verbally knew how much he loved me before he couldn't tell me anymore.

Shaking my head out of those memories before they turned from sweet to sorrowful, I grabbed my toiletries and entered the bathroom to get ready for the day. After showering, blow-drying my hair, and brushing my teeth, I was finally digging through my clothes and trying to decide what to wear.

In the shower and while drying my hair, I had decided that I was going to check out the boardwalk tonight and just let go a little. After all, it had been quite a long time since I was single, so why shouldn't I try to have a little bit of fun? I certainly felt that I deserved it. I didn't really plan on hooking up with anyone since I couldn't even imagine being with someone like that who wasn't Dean. But I was going to get all done up so that I could extort some free drinks out of dopy drunks and dirty minded bartenders and hustle them out of their money.

I chose my favorite off the shoulder lavender top with my old faded pair of high waisted jeans. Once my boots were on, I started arming myself with the standard things I always carry with me. Silver blade sheathed in my right boot, pocket knife and flask of holy water on my hip, a couple sticks of chalk in my pocket (You never know when you'll need to make a quick demon trap.), and my trusty handgun tucked into the back of my jeans (with the safety on of course). Makeup was never really my thing, since taking out monsters didn't really require looking like a model and my natural beauty was impressive on its own. Looking in the mirror again, I reached up to blue chalcedony pendent around my neck. The gemstone hasn't left my neck since I put it on many years ago when my father had gotten it for me. Before my mind started to drift too far into the past, my phone dinged from the nightstand. I walked over and picked it up, reading that it was a text from Jo Harvelle. It read, "Hey Brandy! You still alive and in one piece?"

I couldn't help but smile ear to ear at her concern. Jo was like a little sister and best friend to me. I had been relieved when we had found out that she and Ellen hadn't been at the Roadhouse when it was destroyed. I answered back, "Yeah, I'm still breathing with all my limbs intact." While I waited for her response, I grabbed my wallet and room key, stuffing them in my chalk free pocket. I would be walking to the boardwalk instead of driving since the motel was only a block away. Finally ready to leave, I scooped my worn-down leather jacket off the floor, headed out the door and locked it behind me. As I started to my walk to the boardwalk, my phone pinged again.

"Good to hear. Just worried about you. Be careful and keep in touch k?"

"Ok." It then dawned on me that at least one person should know where I am, that way if I die or disappear they'll know where to find my body and can end whatever monster killed me. "Btw, I'm in Santa Carla, Cali right now. Gonna get some free drinks at the first bar I find once the sun goes down and hustle some idiots out of their money. 😉"

It was now around noon and I was on my way to the boardwalk. Unlike the Winchesters, I prefer to not drink at all hours of the day so I was saving the bar for later. It would give me a chance to scope out which bar has the cheapest prices and happy hour wouldn't be for another 5 hours anyways. The wooden planks of the boardwalk creaked underneath the feet of all the people and the air was filled with screams from the rides and the laughter from the beach. The salty ocean air blended together seamlessly with the heavenly smells of junk food from the food stalls, bringing my attention to how hungry I was. I pulled out my wallet to see how much cash was in there. There was only a 20, a 5, and five 1's. Man, I had my work cut out for me tonight hustling at the bars. The nearest food stall had soft serve ice cream, so I got a medium cup of chocolate custard with rainbow jimmies and a bottle of water. It satisfied my stomach for now, but I knew that I would have to get something more substantial later once I had the money.

I threw out my trash and continued to investigate the boardwalk. Personally, I found it kind of ridiculous that there were tourist souvenirs all over the place that said, "I survived Santa Carla!" Maybe I'll buy a keychain when I eventually leave this place. Leaning up against a railing overlooking all the people on the beach, I considered buying a bathing suit from one of the stores so that could join them tomorrow. It was a tempting notion, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to make myself that vulnerable, cause after all, you can't store any weapons in a bathing suit. Just the thought made me wish that for once I wasn't a hunter and could live a normal life, blissfully ignorant to all that goes bump in the night. A sigh escaped me as I reminded myself of all the lives that I've saved. Yeah, but you couldn't even save the lives of your father or Dean. Ugh, not helping.

Trying to get my head out of those negative thoughts, I went back to window shopping. Eventually I came upon a comic store and just had to go in. It's not like I knew much about comics or anything, but Sam used to read them whenever he could get his hands on some when we were younger. I guess a small part of me figured that I would buy some in case I ever ran into him again and we managed to patch everything up. I knew that this was just wishful thinking on my part, but it actually made me feel a little better imagining that scenario playing out. While gazing at the many different comic books, my hunter instincts kicked in and I instantly felt like I was being watched. When I looked up, my eyes were greeted by two men in at least their mid-30s staring at me.