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Weirdness was to be expected in a hunter’s life. There was no predicting what would turn up next. That said, Jo would never have believed that she would wake up one morning to find a twelve-year-old in her bed.
The young girl looked a great deal like the woman she had brought home the night before, which was both reassuring and frightening. From a hunter’s perspective, it was reassuring that this wasn’t something that had snuck into her room while she was asleep – no, she hadn’t been hurt this time, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t worry about her defenses for next time, or her mother’s reaction for letting something into their house. No, the fear here was that twelve was plenty old enough to have gotten into a spellbook somewhere or found something online to try, but nowhere near old enough for what Jo had done to her companion the night before.
She reached out to shake the girl awake, withdrawing quickly when she realized that neither of them had gotten dressed after the night’s activities. Finding clothes for herself was easy, and she dressed quickly. The kid, less so. Jo had never been one for skirts or dresses or shorts, and her pants would likely be ridiculously long on this kid. She came up with a pair of capris that might look a bit silly, but at least wouldn’t be deadly if she tried to go downstairs in them. Those and a T-shirt should be fine.
“Hey. Kid.” Jo quickly turned away as the girl sat up, letting the blanket and sheet fall away. “Get dressed, come downstairs. You and me need to have a chat.”
“So… no morning round like you promised…?” Her voice trailed off. “Never mind. I get why now. What the actual fuck.”
That was promising. Jo headed downstairs, starting the coffee while waiting for the kid to get down there.
She didn’t take long, thankfully. She even accepted the glass of orange juice with only a wistful look at the coffee pot, no complaints. “So I have no idea what’s going on, but I promise, I am twenty. Not twelve. I haven’t looked like this in eight years.” She grinned, an impish dimple coming out on her cheek. “It’s really a good thing I’m twelve and not fourteen. That haircut does not ever need to see the light of day again.” She pulled her phone out of a pocket, scrolling through pictures until she found the one she was looking for. “Here. My driver’s license. Not the fake one I use to buy alcohol, this is the real one.”
“When were you born?” Jo asked, taking the phone to look at the license. Her answer matched the date on the license, so Jo relaxed and smiled at… Charlie, according to the license. She’d called herself Gilda the night before, but then, Jo had called herself Annabeth. “Should I pretend I didn’t see the name on this?”
“Nah, saves me the trouble of remembering which alias I used last night. I have a few. So…” Charlie took a deep breath. “Is it going to be awkward if I say we should check the lore, figure out what could’ve caused this? I got a vibe, last night. You have the look.”
“What, a hunter?” Jo smirked at Charlie’s nod, masking the worst of her surprise. “You recognize the look, but you don’t have it yourself.”
“So I’m told.” Charlie shrugged with a wink. “I think it’s because I grew up reading Harry Potter and Oz and Lord of the Rings, so I was primed to believe in all this stuff, but I didn’t live the reality until later than some kids. I was prepared because of that, but I didn’t actually grow up with hunters. It wasn’t until I was twelve and a monster took out my dad and left my mom in a coma that I started to really believe, but I was still young enough to recover a little. My aunt took me until I finished high school. Only been hunting for real for two years.” She paused, head tilting, red hair falling into her face. “Huh. Twelve. The same age I appear to be now. I wonder if there’s any connection there.”
“Huh.” Now that she said that, it sounded familiar to Jo. She sent a text to Sam to ask if he knew anything about this.
The response came quickly, and had Jo raising her eyebrows. “Um… Charlie?”
“Yes?” Charlie looked up from her phone, which she was staring at in intense concentration.
“I texted a friend, and he got back to me right away. There’s an old legend about soulmates…”
Charlie gasped. “That’s what my friend told me when I told him what happened this morning! He said normally he’d dismiss it as so much bunk and tell us to look for hex bags, but he’s personally experienced it. Said it was awkward as hell waking up at four and a half years old again, but getting the confirmation of what people said was well worth a bunch of the awkward stuff that went with it.”
“Yeah, my friend said pretty much the same thing. When it was his turn, he woke up as a six-month-old baby.” Jo looked up from her phone, gazing softly at Charlie. “So I suppose I should tell you that my name’s really Jo – although it’s Joanna Beth, so not exactly… not the point. Name’s Jo Harvelle, and it looks like you and I are soulmates. The good news, this will wear off tomorrow morning. The bad news, next time we have sex, I’ll get punted back to some point in my past that was a traumatic moment for me, so you can know me before the scars set in. Mine’s probably going to be when I was six, and my dad got killed on a hunt. At least we’ll know, so I can have clothes available.”
“And six is still old enough to be potty trained and able to communicate with words and sentences!” Charlie agreed. “Charlie Bradbury, and it’s nice to meet you. Never would’ve suspected I’d have a soulmate, but here we are!”