Maisie Winchester: The Cursed Hunter

.sixteen.

DISCLAIMER; SUPERNATURAL ISN'T MINE AND THIS WORK IS COMPLETELY FAN-MADE AND HAS NO RELATION TO THE CANON STORY BESIDES THE FOLLOWING OF THE SEASON EVENTS (SEASON 11).

***

MAISIE AND DEAN SAT across from each other at a large wooden table in the library. Neither one of them knew the time, let alone the day. All they've done since their encounter with Lucifer and Amara is pull various books off the shelves and browse any and all online documents that they could. At this point, Maisie could recite every single word of Archangels and Everything (Un)Holy volumes 1-12 in her sleep, she had read them that many times.
"Dude," Sam speaks up, causing the young woman to jump so violently someone would think she'd been attacked. Her hair, usually in tight even braids was disheveled and crimped from letting it down the night prior. Her eyes were bloodshot with circles so dark they were nearly black and her chin still possessing residual drool from her previous zombie-like state. "Did either of you even move since last night?"
"Sleeping is the new smoking." Dean mutters out tiredly, staring at Sam blankly.
"What?" Sam scoffs. "No, it's not. It's sitting. Sitting is the new smoking."
"Huh..." Maisie says, taking a look at her phone as another call comes through. She hangs up and places it back face down. "That doesn't sound right."
"We'll find Cas, okay?" Sam says determinedly. "He's stronger that he looks."
"You know, we gambled with Cas, and now Amara has him." Dean's gravelly voice says as he looks to Sam, his expression still blank.
"For a reason!" Sam tries to argue. "Which means he's still alive."
"I've been with Amara." Dean shakes his head. "Her beef is with the big guys ... with God, with Lucifer. The small fries, even an angel like Cas, doesn't even register. Hell- as soon as she knew Tala wasn't technically Maisie, Amara didn't blink at trying to take her out. If it meant hurting Lucifer, killing Cas would mean nothing to her."
"Are you actually gonna answer your phone ever again?" Sam raises an eyebrow at his niece as her phone rings again. She doesn't even bother silencing it this time, she just lets it ring out. "Y'know, if it wasn't for me letting him know you were alive, I'm sure we'd be having a repeat of the Isabella incident we had a few months ago. Max is worried about you, Mai."
"You didn't tell him-" Maisie says quickly, slamming her laptop closed as quickly as her over-exhausted body would let her. "Did you?"
"It's not my place, Mai, I haven't told him anything." Sam sighs, leaning against the table beside to her. "But for the record, I think you should. It doesn't take a genius to know you two have something there. And what about the others? You said yourself, they're your family just as much as we are."
"It's better this way... Craig's sister was like me..." Maisie confesses for the first time since that night. "But she didn't survive. Best I can tell, the demon part of her murdered her... brutally... and now that- that I'm starting to control it? That I'm Wonder Woman in training wheels? That's not fair to them."
"And keeping them in the dark?" Dean raises an eyebrow. "Is that any better?"
"No..." Maisie admits with a deep sigh after a long deep silence. "It's completely selfish, I know it is... I'm just not ready, okay? To see their look? You know the one. The... 'if I didn't know you, I'd wanna hunt you' look?"
Dean and Sam look to each other instantly at her words, both men's faces lightening in shade and their eyes ever so slightly bulging. Sam clears his throat first, running a hand through his hair as he turns back to his niece.
"Yeah... yeah, believe me I know. But uh... trust me on this one? It's better that they know. Rip of the Band-Aid kinda deal. If they choose to not want anything to do with you, fine. But what if they don't do that? You're pushing away the same people that only a few months ago made you happier than I have ever seen you. That's not fair on yourself... which is why I asked Max to help us on a hunt."

"What!?" Dean and Maisie ask together.

"C'mon, It's been a week." Sam scoffs, shaking his head. "We've still got no leads."
"You think I don't know that?" Dean stands, shaking his head and walking to the another shelf in the library, browsing for another relevant book.
"... so we get back out there! We get back to work. We keep moving. We keep working. We'll catch a break on Cas. We have to. It's- it's karma!"
"You know," Dean stops reading the new book, looking back to Sam. "Karma's been kicking us in the teeth lately."
"So," Sam pulls open his laptop. "We're gonna kick it back... and Max is gonna meet us there, no arguing, Maisie."
"But that's my specialty." The girl rolls her eyes, leaning over to see the web page Sam has pulled up.
"I know, that's my point." Sam rolls his eyes, shaking his head. "Alright, check this out. Libby Strauss. Uh, went missing near Gunnison, Colorado. Now Libby's friend claimed she was carried off by a mutant creature with green eyes."