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Max thought this was going to be a normal hunt, a simple find and slash. Now she was trying to hack at the ropes that tied her arms together. Thank God, she always kept a nail file on her person. She let out some small grunts, she didn’t know what the shapeshifter was going to do with the hunter she partnered up with for this hunt. The funny thing was, she wanted to do this alone, and now she was begging that they could realise that the shifter for what it was. She finally got her arms free, and they dropped down onto her lap as she got up. She needed to find the shifter before they could do whatever they were planning to do, knowing they were most likely going to go for the kill. Max was already on edge. She hadn’t wanted to come back to Toledo ever since Julia's death. She even promised to herself to keep this town in the rearview mirror once she turned 18. But even so, she cared about this town. It was her home, the place where she was born, and you can’t escape home forever.
She took a deep breath as she started to look for an exit to the sewer. As she walked down the sides of the sewer to avoid the water, her vision was interrupted with the sight of skin shed from the shapeshifter littering the sides and ledges of the wall. She’s always had a strong stomach, she’s been doing this gig since she was 17 after being trained by Bobby Singer. Sadly that doesn’t mean that she never feels like puking when she sees some things that even she finds disgusting. She soon found a ladder and an opening, and looked up to see that the cover was still off and the moonlight was flooding in. Seems like the shapeshifter forgot to shut the manhole cover. Good for her, bad for the shifter when she gets her gun back.
She teared up a little bit as she started to look around the place, trying to keep the memories of her and Julia in the 90’s in the back of her head. God, sometimes the city never changes. She walked a few blocks as she was calling out the hunter’s name hoping they would respond, then again with the shifter using her skin it would make sense that they would be paranoid. She entered an alleyway and a little ways in she heard a squelch from under her foot. She took a step back and lifted her foot, gagging a bit as she found that whatever she stepped on was stuck to her boot. She dug into her jeans pockets for her small flashlight which she kept as a precaution. Paranoia always had the girl over prepared for everything - even if it did backfire on her. She found it and pulled the flashlight out. It was the only backup that the shapeshifter didn’t steal.
She turned the flashlight on and pointed it at the ground that was in front of her and knelt down. Great. It was skin covering her stolen clothes. She picked up her brown jacket and gagged, she hated the texture and smell that was a pain to wash out. She always kept the best care of her jacket because it was a hand-me-down from her mother. The tags were her father’s from before he was killed in battle. She missed the old man a lot, she had a lot of good memories with him. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Now’s not the time. She tries to find her weapons in the pile of skin, but there was nothing except what she kept in her jacket. Salt, a small journal for spells and exorcisms, and some silver items that she knew the shapeshifter couldn’t touch.
She heard a noise behind her and she quickly whipped her head around. Her eyes widened and her breath quickened as she saw the girl she missed so much. She stared at the dark skinned girl in front of her. This was it, Max was actually snapping. Sure sometimes her mind haunts her with the twisted memory of the night of her best friend’s death, but this was a whole new level for her, actually seeing Julia as if she was really there. Her heart started to pound out of her chest. She started crying while apologizing, she didn’t even realize that she was doing it. She didn’t know if this Julia was real or not but she just couldn’t stand it. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you killed, I didn’t know that that ghost would have killed you! I just thought it would have just been fun, I didn’t even think ghosts could hurt people!”
‘Julia’ looked worried, they thought that wearing her best friend’s skin would make her back off, not cause this mess. How were they meant to fix this, anyway? Reassurance? They had to play the part, but Julia was long dead, so they couldn’t access her memories. They swallowed thickly and walked over to Max “Hey, Maxie…It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”
“I still killed you Jules…” Her shoulders heaved as she sobbed, filled with guilt. Then again, who isn’t in this work environment. Someone loses someone close to them and they do this job for revenge. That’s just how it works.
“Like you said, you didn’t know. You didn’t know that it would kill me…” They placed a hand on the 23-year-old’s shoulder, as if trying to comfort her. “You really need to stop blaming yourself, idiota.”
“I can’t, you’re the whole reason I’m in this hunting business.” She started to wipe the tears away with her hand, small sniffles accompanying. “I wanted to avenge you. Make my mistake right.”
“Just for revenge?” ‘Julia’ questioned, if it was just for revenge then she probably already killed the ghost. So it was mostly pointless to keep hunting. Max shook her head, “No Jules. It’s because I didn’t want anyone else to end up like you. Dead.” Max grabbed her gun filled with silver bullets. This wasn’t Julia. She knew now for sure. The little quirks she remembered of her friend was something this imposter was missing.
“That’s why I have to do this,” she said as she cocked the revolver with her thumb, “Because you’ve killed too many people.” The shifter’s eyes widened as it turned to run, but Max shot the shifter before it had even lifted a foot off the ground. It dropped to the ground with a thump. Max closed her tearful eyes as she took a deep breath. The idea of seeing Julia’s dead body again made her sick. Maybe she should burn the body with her eyes closed, because she knows that she couldn’t do it if she could see her best friend’s face. She took another breath and walked over to the body, her heart still beating out of her chest, memories flooded back. Vivid memories. She started sobbing. Luckily the hunter she worked with finally found her, aiming their gun at her. Max looked over at them with bloodshot, tearful eyes.
“Here.” They went to grab the body, and Max let them knowing that she was not able to fight them in this state. “Do you want to burn them?”
Max nodded and the hunter went over to Max’s car, Jessica, opening the trunk and putting the body in it before quickly shutting the back so Max couldn’t see it. The hunter helped Max into the passenger seat of the Mustang, putting the tags and jacket in the back to be cleaned when they got to the motel after burning the body.