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The Chambers Brothers-Time Has Come Today

Chapter 4 Truth

The air was tense. No one was saying anything and they had all stopped eating.

"Well?" She asked looking around at each of them in turn waiting for someone to speak.

John was the first to say anything. "Well you're right, you just turned twelve. You're a lot older than Dean and Sam were when they got into this."

"Got into what?"

"Hunting."

"Hunting? You mean… wait you guys hunt…wait, wait, wait." She waved her hands in front of her, working it out in her head. They could see the realization of what exactly is what they hunted as everything clicked into place for her. "All that stuff I've read, the stuff I've overheard you guys talking about, it's all real isn't it?"

They all nodded.

"No way!? vampires are real? And shifters and demons?!"

"Well don't sound so excited. We hunt them for a reason," Bobby said seriously.

They sat around the table for hours talking. Abigail had a million questions and then a million more. Finally when the spring sky was growing dark outside she repeated the question everyone had been avoiding.

"So something you guys hunt killed my mom?"

The table was silent once more until John spoke up. "Yes. She made a deal with a demon. It was before you were born. She had cancer but by the time they found it had spread. She had months to live so she made a deal. The deal cured her cancer, and she got you years later, which was what she wanted when she made that deal, a family. When you make a deal with a demon you usually get a certain number of years before you're taken to Hell."

"By hellhounds," she answered for them, remembering it from one of Bobby's books. She bit her lip and tears welled in her eyes. "You mean she was dragged to hell?" She shook her head. "I don't want to hear anymore. I'm going to bed. Um, thanks for telling me all this you guys."

She hugged and kissed the cheeks of all of them and headed upstairs to her room. Once there she grabbed her clothes and headed to the shower. Afterwards she climbed into bed still thinking about all she had learned. She didn't go to sleep though. She sat with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. She looked around her room. The walls were deep purple, except for the one her bed was against, which had black and grey flour-de-Lis patterned wallpaper. The walls were covered in posters of old bands and movies. She got up and went to her cassette player on her dresser and put in a Metallica tape Dean had given her on her previous birthday. Abigail lay back in bed and when she was almost asleep her door opened.

"Hey little miss," Dean said. The concerned smile on his face was obvious.

"Hey," she said, sitting up.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he entered her room. He stood in the middle and looked around.

"I guess. It's just a lot to take in. I mean I knew there was something going on but…wow."

"Yeah, but it'll be alright," he said taking a sit on her bed.

He'd automatically begun humming along with the Metallica song that was playing and she interrupted him.

"I just can't believe my mom would have a kid knowing she wouldn't be there long to raise me."

"Yeah but to be fair you weren't exactly planned."

"You heard dad, she wanted a kid, she wanted me but it's just…selfish!" She was standing now, crossing back and forth in front of her bed. "You send a little kid who can barely read to find their dad on their own!? You couldn't have done that yourself if you knew what was coming!? And just leaving me all alone!"

"You're not all alone, Abby. You have me and Sammy and Bobby and Dad."

She flopped down onto the bed. "I know. But, it's just,"

"This is a lot to take in," Dean added for her.

She nodded and after a moment she spoke, "so will you teach me?"

"What?"

"Teach me how to hunt?"

"I think you're gonna' have to ask dad if he's okay with you hunting first. If he says yeah then I'll teach you some things."

"Like what?"

"Well first off how to defend yourself, with and without weapons."

"So you'll show me how to use knives? And how to shoot?"

"If dad gives the okay."

She nodded and he could see the excitement in her eyes, which worried him.

"Look, Abby, it's not like it seems. Hunting isn't all fun and being the hero and there are time when we don't always save people, and sometimes what we're hunting gets away. It's not a game out there."

"So do you get scared?"

Dean leaned back, rolling his eyes and blowing a puff of air out through his lips, making a pft sound, "of course not."

She raised a brow at him, seeing through him easily, he was her big brother after all.

"Okay yeah I do but usually if it's Sammy or dad in trouble. You don't have much time to get scared when you're facing off with something. The adrenalines pumping and you're just focusing on staying alive. You've got to keep calm and alert as much as possible out there."

~O.o~

It was years later now. Her brothers, dad and Bobby had all taken turns helping her learn the family business. Of course, she was rarely allowed on a hunt, only if Bobby needed her or when it was a two man job and having her there wouldn't be too much. She had a vampire and two exorcisms under her belt, not to mention helping with a handful of ghosts. The vampire had been the hardest.

It had Dean in its grasp and Bobby was knocked out while Sam and John were at another location.

"Do it Abigail!" Dean yelled at her with what breath he could get.

She stood there, machete in her hand, pulse pounding in her ears, frozen.

It was a vampire but it didn't look like a vampire, it looked just like anybody else. She'd never killed anyone or anything for that matter, ghosts were already dead and you didn't kill demons you just sent them back to hell.

"Abigail!" Dean yelled.

The door to the warehouse they were in opened just as Abigail swung the machete, the strength training she'd been doing on her own coming into use as she successfully decapitated the vampire, it's head and body thudding as they hit the floor.

She stared at it for what seemed like forever. She could hear Dean, coughing and standing up.

"Abigail?" she heard her dad say, breaking her stare at the first creature she'd killed.

She looked up at him to see him smiling. "You did good kid," he said as he patted her on the back.

She was still slightly in shock and didn't notice the mixed looks of pride and worry on her brother's faces as Dean took the machete from her.

On the way back to Bobby's, who had woken up as Dean and John were getting rid of the vampire's body, the shock had finally left her system but she replayed the moment in her head.

"I can't believe I did that," she whispered.

Sam, who sat next to her in the back of the Impala, put an arm around her. "The first kill is always a shock. You'll be alright. You saved Dean from that vampire. You're a real hunter now."

"Yup!" Dean said from her other side. "My baby sister a hunter. I don't particularly like how that tastes in my mouth but you've got to be able to defend yourself and protect others. And guys you should have seen her! She was pretty fast! He couldn't get his hands on her! I guess that's a bonus to being a short-stop huh?" he teased. "But you're not perfect, you hesitated."

Abigail went to elbow him in the ribs for the short-stop comment but John's voice caused her to pause.

"You hesitated? What does he mean he hesitated?" John said, demanding.

The mood in the car changed quickly.

"I…I wasn't sure if I could do it," Abigail answered.

"That vampire had your brother and you weren't sure if you could do it?" John's voice began to rise.

"John calm down, it was her first time," Bobby interjected, trying to calm the tension.

"And what if that hesitation got Dean killed?"

"I'm sorry," Abigail said, looking down at her lap and for the first time noticing some of the vampire's blood on her jeans.

"Don't let it happen again," John warned.

"Yes sir."

The rest of the ride was silent and when they arrived at Bobby's Abigail was headed straight for the shower.

"Stop right there Abigail," she heard her father say.

She turned around to face him slowly.

"Out back with me, now."

She followed him to one of the many sheds in Bobby's backyard. One in particular they used to train in. As John stepped through the door he turned on the lights to reveal a floor mat, punching bag, shooting targets and more.

She watched as he hauled out one of the dummies they used as a target out into the yard and handed her a pistol.

"I want you to hit that target perfectly ten times. Every time you don't I'll make it harder for you and move it back five feet. We'll start at twenty-feet away."

He stepped behind her, folding his arms.

She was shaking. She had just made her first kill of one of the things they hunted and was still processing it.

She took a deep breath as she raised the gun to eye level then let out the breath. She took in another breath as she heard the others come out on the back porch to see what was going on. She let out half of the breath and pulled the trigger, missing by barely an inch. She lowered the gun as John walked to the dummy and moved it back.

It wasn't until a few hours later that she finally went to bed. She'd ended up missing three times and John seemed to be in a slightly better mood at her accuracy but he didn't end with that. He kept her in Bobby's study, drilling her with questions. Questions like ways to identify which monster and how to kill it once identified, reciting the incantation for an exorcism multiple times and finally having her take apart the pistol she had just shot with, clean it, and put it back together. Dean had taught her how to do it once so far and she was thankful, although it took her two hours.

After she was done John looked at her in a way he never had before and for the first time she felt fear as he did. "Don't hesitate again," was all he said before he turned and left the study.

She plopped down on the small couch in the study, exhausted, and quickly fell asleep.