Dean shook his head, knowing that ghosts didn’t just get to stay.  They grew frustrated somehow.  John hadn’t figured out exactly how but they always seemed to.  His eyes teared up a bit as she spoke, drudging up a lot of pain that he had thought he was over.  Hell, who was he kidding.  He hadn’t even begun to try and move on.  He just drown himself in a bottle.

“Yeah well…”, he started before she mentioned demon.  He then balled up his fist on the top of the table, grunting quietly, “…I’m hoping most demons in the world know that’s a mistake.  I’ll find a way to kill them.”

He ran a single hand down his face to wipe away his tears and sighed, “And we all know Wendigos don’t spread their diseases.  So, there’s gotta be something else.   I’m tired, Kenzi.  I’m tired of the what ifs and the over theres.  I’m tired of worrying that she’s alive out there somewhere, and is so messed up that not even I could bring her back to reality…I’m just tired.”


——


Anna nodded, agreeing with him about leaving.  Her mother was just as unhinged when she came back from a rough hunt, and would pop off the handle at any mention of her going to school, outside of old books she found at the library.  But her mother also went off the rails about her asking to come with her on “jobs”.  

“I honestly wish you could just run away…”, she whispered, barely even noticing that she had spoke, before pulling herself out of her daydream at his question about the bandages.

“Sometimes running away comes…in different forms.”, she stuttered, pulling her now blood soaked, bandaged wrist behind her back, “Me and mom got into a fight.  I tried to leave and her friends brought me back to her.  So, I figured I would take the path of least resistance out, but alas…God, or Satan, or Whoever had other plans.  They stitched me back up, and here I am.”