Skin Deep

Chapter 1: Visitors

Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter! Feel free to leave comments or thoughts! Luv ya!

The cold water is soothing on my burning face as I cup another handful and splash it against my skin. My head hangs between my arms braced on either side of the sink, the soft sound of water dripping into the porcelain bowl strangely soothing as my aching lungs resume a more normal pace. Rolling my shoulders, I raise my head up staring into the mirror at the thing that looks back.

Admittedly I don't look bad today. If anything, I look more put together than I have in the last month. My question is, though, why the hell did I choose blond? Frowning, I rake a hand through the sandy colored locks. Well, at least the grey eyes are the same as always, glaring back at me from the mirror with the same tired expression. Waking up at God knows what time and then proceeding to beat the living daylights out of a punching bag for a couple of hours will do that to you. The door opens and I glance over to see my pal Gavin yawning in the doorway.

"You're up early," I mutter shutting off the faucet. Gavin frowns at me.

"I could say the same to you. You're still wearing what you had on last night, couldn't sleep?" I nod brusquely and dry my hands. I am definitely not in the mood to talk about last night and gauging from the grin that is rapidly spreading over Gavin's face he does not share the same feelings. "Kind of surprising considering how much you drank. You never told me you knew how to do body shots!" I roll my eyes in exasperation.

"Gavin, I don't want to talk about last night."

"But dude! You did karaoke to Cyrus's entire song 'Wrecking ball'-"

"Gavin-"

"In dolphin noises! I didn't know that was even possible!" I groaned raking a hand back through my hair. "We are so getting you drunk again soon!"

"Never again I muttered pushing past him and trudging back towards my room.

"Hey Ben, one thing." I turned to face him, his joking demeanor gone. "Rohn needs to see us as soon as you're able. It sounds like something in the Young case has come up." I frown at him.

"The Young case? We resolved that over a year ago." Gavin shrugged at me apologetically.

"I don't know man, but whatever it is, it involves that."

"I'll see you in twenty." Turning I stride back to my room. How? That case had been taken care of; I was the one who handled it for goodness sake. Kicking the door closed, I grabbed the things necessary for a shower. Whatever this situation is I would make sure that it was resolved.

Half an hour later and I, Gavin, and a few others, including Rohn our unofficial leader, are gathered in the conference room. Rohn has his usual expression of tired bemusement as he sorts through a handful of documents that are spilling out of a manila folder.

Sitting across from me is Jeremy, a rather rough worn man who hails from up near Bemidji. His dark eyes scan the room wearily as he tugs at the collar of his dress shirt. I find it almost amusing that he has chosen to dress in something other than his usual Carhart pants and t-shirt. Considering how many times we've worked with him it always confuses me as to why he feels the need to dress up for these meetings. I turn my attention back to Rohn as he finally speaks.

"So we have a problem," He says calmly glancing around at us. "There are hunters in town." My grip on the arms of the chair tighten as Gavin speaks up.

"I'm guessing you mean besides Jer-bear over there."

"Don't fucking call me that." Jeremy growls.

"New hunters I should say," Rohn grimaced.

"We've had new hunters in the area before and they usually pass on through, especially because of the permanents," I say slowly raising an eyebrow at Jeremy questioningly. He sighs and goes to rake his hair back, dropping his hand when he remembers it's in a ponytail. I can feel the frustration rolling off of him, but there is something else too. An undercurrent that makes me more alert than normal. He's worried.

"They came by my house yesterday wanting to talk about the murders from last year and the one that happened last week. I told them that I had already handled the murders from last year and had already started looking into the new case. But the bastards are too damn eager to prove their merit and are insisting on sticking around especially considering the circumstances of the girl who was found last week."

"That wasn't any of us," Rohn said quietly. "I've already checked with Jenny and Marcus with the other houses and all of their people are accounted for as well."

"I know," Jeremy sighs rubbing his forehead. I can almost see the headache forming. "I've talked to them too, and I trust your people. My guess is it's either a rogue or a human copy cat, but that would be damn impressive if it was. It's not a ghoul or vampires' style and if it was a werewolf than we would have had Jason down here raising Hell up one side and down the other."

"So you just feed them some bull and keep them out of our way and we'll find out what's going on," Gavin says with a shrug. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"I wish, but these guys are a step ahead, they've already done their research and were asking about your loose end, that Goldblume girl."

I felt my back stiffen, this was not good. "She saw the shift," I mutter.

"Exactly. And on top of that she ended up under psychiatric eval for three days because of it. Sure sign that she saw what it was even if she didn't know what it was, and these guys want to talk to her because of that."

"I think they'll have a pretty difficult time of that," I said raising an eyebrow. "That girl refused to talk about that even to the cops. Plus she's sharp, she wouldn't spill everything to a few low-level hunters."

"These aren't the damn Winchester brothers!" Jeremy booms slamming his hand down on the table, a move that causes all of us to jump. "These guys are the Ghostbusters on crack and with a vendetta I told them that she didn't remember anything, hell, I told them that she was a damn mute. All they said was that they knew how to make her remember and get her to talk." You didn't have to be a mind reader to figure out the menace those words held.

"Son of a..." Gavin clenched his teeth together.

"They wouldn't," Rohn's voice was laced with disbelief.

"And they say we're monsters," Gavin growls.

"It's not going to take them long to find the girl, so I suggest you get to her first. Get her out of harm's way and then we go after this damn thing and get those bastards out of this area before they figure out about all of you. Last thing we need is a damn massacre." Rohn nods and looks at me.

"You and Gavin handled this last year, I'll entrust this to you again. I'm going to contact Ryan and see if he's missing anyone. Don't bung this up."

"Don't worry," My voice sounds resigned even in my own ears. How much more hell does this girl have to go through? "We'll get the girl."

Until next time my peeps!