Chapter Text
Annabeth adjusted the strap of her backpack with one hand, her other held out towards the road, thumb up. It was sort of useless, and it was likely that most cars didn't even see her as they sped by, but she held it out anyway in some sort of naive hope that she might not have to walk all the way to Long Island. She would be safe there, if only she could make it.
Another car sped by; she thought it might be called a muscle car. Definitely a classic like the ones in her Dad’s magazines. She tensed; all of the other cars had clearly wanted to take her to social services or something of that nature.
The car screeched to a stop and parked on the shoulder. Annabeth tensed, hand drifting to her left jeans pocket, the one full of loose dirt. It would buy her a few seconds, maybe more. She hadn't met anyone truly dangerous so far—besides the monsters, that is—but that didn't mean it couldn’t happen.
A very tall man stepped out of the passenger side as the blaring rock music from inside cut off. His hair sort of flopped into his eyes and he was young, maybe early twenties.
Another man stepped out of the driver’s side. He looked to be a few years older, but he was definitely shorter than the other one. His hair was much shorter and lighter and he wore a leather jacket. They both looked normal, but she was hesitant.
“Holy shit, it is a kid,” the shorter one said. She didn't think it was loud enough that she was supposed to have heard him.
“Told you.”
“Bitch.”
“Jerk,” the taller one muttered. He waved to her. “Hey, we’re not going to hurt you. Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I'm just looking for a ride north.”
The taller one looked like he wanted to say something, but the other one elbowed him, again speaking at a volume that she probably wasn't supposed to hear. “Shut up. I wouldn't have wanted someone asking questions when I was her age.”
“Come on in,” the older one said, opening the back door on the passenger side and walking around to the other side of the car. “I'm Dean, the nerd’s my brother Sam.”
“Annabeth.”
She examined the backseat quickly. It was pretty clean, and an older car like this might not have child locks. It was risky, but she'd accepted the risk when she first stuck out her thumb while walking. She slid into the backseat and closed the door behind her, setting her bag at her feet and buckling in. The car started up again and with it the music, albeit at a lower volume.
“So, where are you headed?” Dean asked as they tore off down the road. Annabeth thought for a moment.
“Long Island,” she said. “I have family there.”
It was mostly not true, besides the suspicion that her mother might be there. She knew what was happening to her had something to do with her mother, so it was possible she was in Long Island.
Sam hesitated, then said, “Do your parents, uh, know where you are?”
“No,” she said, thinking quickly. “It wasn't . . . safe. I had to leave.”
She knew what they would assume, and it wasn't like they were completely wrong. She was aware that her stepmother hadn't treated her like she should have, but the spiders were the real problem. She suppressed a shiver just thinking of them.
“Are you hungry?” Sam asked. He reached for a plastic bag by his feet. “We have snacks.”
She shook her head. Annabeth was already taking a risk accepting a ride from two adult males as a little girl. They could easily do something to the food. Sam seemed to catch on to this, however.
“It's pre-packaged,” he said. He reached around and set the bag in the backseat. “Take whatever you want. Dean ate an entire apple pie like an hour ago.”
Dean snorted but didn't contest this. He just cranked the music up. She cautiously reached into the bag, pulling out a plastic water bottle and some wafers.
Sam relaxed slightly when she drank the water, and she thought for a minute he really had drugged it, but she felt fine.
They drove for another half hour without incident, and Annabeth felt a bit bad, but she still ate a bunch of their snacks and slipped a few into her bag. She knew Dean saw her, though, and he didn't seem to mind.
“So,” Dean said after a while, “we’re going upstate, but we can take you as far as—woah!”
Annabeth unbuckled to look out the windshield as the car screeched to a stop. In the middle of the road stood a giant, shadowy black dog.
It looked exactly like the one she'd run away from in Trenton. She'd heard howling the last few nights, but she hadn't been sure it was real.
She lurched forwards in her seat as the car switched gears and made an abrupt U-turn in record time as the thing began chasing them. Annabeth’s hands shook as she tried to re-buckle her seat belt.
“That's a fu—freaking black dog!”
“I know, Sammy!”
“Wait, you can see it?” Annabeth said. Sam shot her an incredulous look. But no one else had seen the creatures she saw. She had run into a few in the weeks since she left home. One had even abducted her and . . .
She didn't need to think about that. What was important was that she'd gotten out, and that she'd found a knife that could hurt the things that were after her.
She did not think about what must have happened to the boy who left it there, or what she had to do as she left.
“We gotta get her out of here before we deal with it,” Dean said. “We sure it's a black dog?”
“Glowing eyes, appearing on the road, and all three of us can see it, so I'd say yes,” Sam said.
“You know how to kill it?”
“Let me consult the lore.”
“Don't really have time for that,” Dean said. “We got a damn civilian in the car, gotta figure this out fast!”
She couldn't stay silent and let them risk their lives for her. “It's after me.”
“Huh?”
“It's after me. It will leave you alone if . . .”
“No way in hell,” Dean said. “Do you know why it's after you, kid?”
“It's got something to do with my mom,” she said, glancing through the rearview. It was getting closer. “That's what the other monsters said.”
“Hold on, other monsters?” Sam asked. “What kind?”
“Doesn't matter, Sammy, we need to kill it!”
“I can kill it,” she said, taking out her knife. It didn't matter that she'd only used it twice, and was only successful once. This was her problem.
“Ever seen a knife like that, Sammy?” Dean said. “She might be right.”
“I’ll deal with it,” Sam said.
“It's after me.”
“Doesn't matter, I'm not letting it hurt you. So you can either give me the knife and let me deal with it, or I can try to deal with it anyway and get killed.”
“I shouldn't . . .” Annabeth frowned and handed him the knife.
“Can you pass us the duffel next to you?” Sam zipped it open and pulled out a sawed-off shotgun. “Dean, you distract it. I'll try to sneak around, so you gotta park the car—”
“Yeah, yeah, I get what you mean,” Dean said. He sped up, gaining some distance, then slowed and parked the car with the driver’s side facing the monster. Dean got out and aimed the shotgun. Annabeth scrambled out of the driver’s side door before Sam could stop her.
“Annabeth, what are you doing?” Dean exclaimed, but he didn't take his eyes off of the monster.
“I'm a better distraction. It's a lot more focused on me.”
It had stopped now to sniff the air. It scratched the ground, leaving giant claw marks in the pavement. Its head snapped towards her and it growled. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam through the trees on the side of the road, inching closer.
It sniffed the air again, then sprang towards her. Dean immediately fired his gun, which did nothing. At the same time, Sam leapt into the air and drove Annabeth’s knife into the dog’s back. It exploded into a giant pile of golden dust right before it reached them.
Sam landed on the pavement and groaned. Annabeth let out a shaky breath and tried to brush the dust off her clothes.
Sam got to his feet and stared down at the ground. “Why did it turn into dust?”
“It's what the other monsters did,” Annabeth said, and held out her hand. Sam handed her knife back to her. “Also, thanks.”
“What other monsters?”
“She can explain that in the car,” Dean said. “I don't think we should stick around.”
Annabeth glanced back at the pile of dust and climbed in, securing her knife in her bag as Dean started the car. She really didn't want to talk about the monsters but her only other option was walking all that way.
“So,” Dean said, “why’s it after you?”
“The monsters don't like my mom.”
“So who is your mom?” Sam asked.
“I don't know. Dad didn’t really talk about her.”
“No name or anything?”
“No, I don't know who she is!” Annabeth yelled. She slumped into her seat. “All I know is that these things are after me and I couldn't stay home and there's something in Long Island but I don't know what!”
The car was silent for a minute. Finally Sam asked, “So how do you know to go to Long Island?”
“It was just a feeling at first,” Annabeth said, fidgeting. “To head North. Then the monster said that I’d never make it there, to Long Island. I think . . . I hope that it's somewhere safe.”
“You don't have to tell us if you don't want to,” Dean said, eyes carefully on the road. “But if you could tell us about the monsters we might be able to figure out what they are.”
“She looked sort of human,” Annabeth began, trying not to think about what happened. “But instead of regular legs she had—they were like two snakes instead of legs. And her skin was green and scaly. Her teeth were really, really sharp and her eyes were green but they turned red when . . . They could turn red.”
She paused again then added, “And she sounded like a snake. She spoke normally but whenever she said S, it was like ssss.”
“I haven’t heard of one like that before,” Sam said, after thinking for a minute. “I'll have to do some research.”
“And the other one, I just ran away from. It looked like a boy, except it had one eye and it was huge. It was taller than Sam. It–it wanted to eat me. It said it could smell me. I think that's how the dog found me.”
Dean’s hands were clenched tight around the steering wheel. “One eye . . . sounds like a cyclops. Which means Greek mythology.”
“That can be our starting point to identify the other monsters. But for now, we should check out Long Island.”
“We need sleep first,” Dean said. “We should get there, find a motel, get a couple rooms. We can look for this safe place in the morning.”
“You're helping me?”
“Well, yeah,” Sam said. “It’s actually kind of our job. We save people from monsters.”
“But you haven't seen the ones I've seen?”
“Nope,” Dean said. “Doesn't mean we can't figure this out. We've ganked monsters with less intel before.”
“Okay,” Annabeth said, staring out the window. She didn't really believe them—not about the monster hunting, but that they could fix it. She leaned her head against the cool window and let the sounds of the music and engine slowly lull her to sleep.
Annabeth yawned and tried to burrow into the car’s seats, before abruptly sitting up. She nearly hit Sam, who was standing over her.
“Oh good, you're awake,” he said. “We’re stopping for the night.”
“Where are we?”
“Long Island. We got you a motel room next to ours,” he gestured to blue painted doors, which were illuminated by the car’s headlights, “so come get us if you need anything.”
She trudged along after him and accepted the key to her room. Once she was inside, she tossed her backpack onto the table near the door and sat on the edge of the bed. Unfortunately, she was now wide awake.
“Think, Annabeth,” she said to herself, looking around. She needed to think through her options before anything else.
She rifled through her bag first. She had a few changes of clothes, a half-filled water bottle, and additional water and snacks from Sam and Dean. She had her toothbrush, but she'd run out of toothpaste a few days ago. There were also a few hair care items and some bandaids. Finally, she had some cash, her knife, and the stuffed owl she still carried everywhere. She picked it up and eyed it. She could throw it out.
She shoved it back into the bottom of the bag.
Annabeth took advantage of the motel’s lukewarm water before considering what to do. She had two options. She could leave—try to find this safe place on her own.
It would keep Sam and Dean safe, but she would be risking her own life. Yet it wasn't their problem. They didn't need to help her.
But they'd said they would. They'd said it was their job to kill monsters. Plus, Sam had handled himself fine against the giant dog. And they were adults.
She was seven, not stupid. It wouldn't be long before she got picked up and sent into some foster care program. Or back to her dad and the spiders.
Decision made, she zipped her backpack up and laid down to sleep. It wasn't like she would be with them long. She was closer than ever to this safe place. Just a little bit further.
After a quick gas station breakfast, they were off. Annabeth’s instincts had been directing her east, and with a lack of better information, the brothers followed her lead. They kept heading east, and as they went, Annabeth kept getting more and more frustrated.
“It felt like a signal,” she said, brows pinched. “I knew where I was going, but now it's quiet.”
“You don't feel anything?” Sam said, turning around in his seat.
“No,” Annabeth said, attempting to keep her voice from shaking. “It's gone. There's nothing there. I knew I had to go to Long Island, and I had an idea of how far away I was, but now . . .”
“We don't know what this place is,” Sam said. “What did you mean by safe place?”
“I don't know,” Annabeth said. “I don't know. I just knew—I thought I’d be safe there.”
“Maybe it's a hunter,” Dean said. “Maybe someone who knows about her monsters.”
“Or just someone else in the know,” Sam agreed. “It's gotta be warded.”
“It sucks that we don't know any hunters in the area.”
“We don't know any hunters, period, Dean,” Sam said. Dean scoffed. “Besides Bobby and Pastor Jim and a few contacts of Dad’s, sure, but we don't know the community.”
“I don't even know how to begin to find this place,” Dean said. Something on Sam’s face made him groan. “No.”
“Yes, Dean,” Sam said. “Research.”
They spent the rest of the day driving around to no avail, so for most of the next day they combed through information on the area and old news articles at a library near Montauk.
Well, Sam and Dean did that, while Annabeth sat at one of the computers playing games.
She seemed to be zoned out, but in reality she was watching the librarian, who was watching her. She kept looking over at Annabeth, then at the brothers, then pretended to look away before returning to Annabeth.
She drifted closer, busy dusting already clean shelves. Annabeth’s hand drifted to her bag, to the only thing that could keep her safe.
“Hi sweetheart,” the lady said, “my name’s Patricia, I am the librarian here.”
“Okay,” she said, frowning, “I’m Elizabeth.”
Clearly Patricia expected Annabeth to give her her name, but there was no way she was going to use her real one. She glanced over to Sam and Dean. Sam had leaned his chair back a little and was watching out of the corner of his eye. He reached over to nudge Dean.
“It's nice to meet you, Elizabeth,” the librarian said. “Are you in school?”
Right. Ten in the morning on a Monday. “I'm homeschooled.”
Patricia leaned closer, and Annabeth reached into her unzipped bag. “Sweetie, do you know these men?”
“We’re family,” Annabeth said, but both Sam and Dean weren't old enough to be her father, so, “Cousins.”
“Right, well, where are your parents?”
She let her face fall a little bit. “They're looking after me while my Dad’s in the hospital.”
Patricia leaned away a bit. Success. “Oh, I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
The name was really starting to get on her nerves, but she was pretty sure Patricia wasn't a monster. Annabeth didn't respond, opting to shrug and look away.
“Well, I've got some books to put away, but you just let me know if you need anything, okay?”
Annabeth turned back to the computer. Her hand slid out of her bag. “Everything okay, kid?”
She gave Dean a thumbs up and settled in.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing. Not even a hunt,” Sam complained when they left late that afternoon. Dean looked both disappointed and grateful that the library had closed for the day.
“We’ll find it,” Dean assured them, but she could detect the doubt in his voice. “Annabeth, is your compass working again?”
“No,” she said shortly, fidgeting with the strap of her bag. They all fell silent, even Dean.
They treated her to a diner dinner—a burger, fries, and a milkshake. She tried dipping her fries in the milkshake and discovered she didn't like it. She went back to the ketchup. Sam sat in the corner of the booth with his laptop, while Dean dug into his burger. Sam kept picking at his salad.
“Dude,” Dean said, “eat.”
“I'm trying to see if there's anything online.”
“It’s not gonna disappear while you eat your rabbit food.”
Annabeth snorted, but her mood was somber. As soon as she got close to the place she'd been searching for, it just vanished. It didn't make any sense.
“Maybe we need to work it like a case.”
“She's not a case, Dean.”
“I know, Sammy,” Dean said, punching his brother in the shoulder. “I'm just saying we should go over the facts.”
Sam paused for a moment, then shut his laptop. He shoved it and his food across the table and pulled out a notebook.
“Eat first.”
“It's salad, it's not gonna go cold.” Sam wrote something at the top of the page. “So we know you're being hunted by monsters. Nothing I've seen in Dad’s journal. And all of them could be killed by that knife.”
She nodded. Dean said, through bites of his burger, “We should test that out. See if it's just bronze or specifically that knife.”
Sam wrote that down, then asked her to describe the monsters in more detail.
“I think they can smell me,” she said. “The one with the eye—The cy-cy . . .”
“Cyclops.”
“The cyclops, it kept sniffing the air. And the snake, she said . . . she said I smelled, uh, delicious. They want to eat me.”
“I’m sorry, Annabeth,” Sam said. He was silent for a moment. “So, we know this knife kills them, but did you try anything else?”
“I threw a few things at one of them. And the cyclops, he touched fire. So that doesn't hurt him,” she said, thinking, “but I don't know. What usually kills monsters?”
“A lot of different things,” Sam said. “Salt and iron work for a bunch of monsters.”
“And they all explode like that? Into dust?” Dean asked. It was less gross now that he was finished with his burger.
“Mhm-hmm.”
“And they're after you because of your mom?” Sam asked. “Could be a family curse.”
“Maybe she's a hunter.”
“I don't get it,” Annabeth said. “I've never met her. Dad doesn't even have a picture of her.”
“A curse wouldn't care about that,” Sam said. “Maybe it's some sort of monster-attracting thing. But for a specific type of monster.”
“If it's a curse,” Annabeth said, “I'm not the only one.”
“What do you mean?” Sam asked. Annabeth stared at the table. She really didn't want to talk about it, but she knew it was important. She needed to, if they were going to figure this out.
Annabeth kept screaming all the way through the door and into the cell in the basement. No matter how much she kicked, the woman wouldn't let go of her. She didn't care how much she cried, didn't bleed as Annabeth’s nails scratched her.
The cell clanked closed, and Annabeth curled up into a ball in the corner, tears streaming down her face. She clutched her backpack to her chest, grateful for something to hold on to. The woman hadn't even bothered to take it from her.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Annabeth jumped. It was a boy's voice, on the other side of the wall. “I’m Luke.”
“And I’m Thalia,” a girl said. “We got trapped here too.”
“I don't understand,” Annabeth said, voice raw. “Why is she doing this?”
“What do you mean?” Thalia asked. “She's a monster. It's what they do.”
“A monster?”
“You don't know?” Thalia said. “She is a monster. She wants to—”
“Thalia,” Luke said, cutting her off. “Hey, this is probably pretty scary, right?”
“Right,” Annabeth said, voice muffled from how her face was buried into her hands.
“What’s your name?”
“Annabeth.”
“How old are you, Annabeth?”
“I’m seven.”
“You got anyone looking out for you, Annabeth? A mom, a dad?”
She was silent for a while, so long that Luke probably thought she wasn't going to respond. “I ran away. They didn't . . . they didn't believe me.”
“You saw a monster?” Luke waited for a moment, then continued. “Parents are like that. They don't help, even though they're the reason the monsters are after us. We could—”
“Shh,” Thalia whispered, “she’s here.”
Annabeth lifted her head, shifting so she could see the door to the basement. She flinched at the sudden light and sound. She could see it now. The snake legs, the scales . . . Annabeth shivered. She scrambled backwards as the monster got closer until her back hit the wall.
The snake walked right by her and opened the other door. “We're heaving a feast tonight!”
She dragged Luke and Thalia out, both tied up, and Annabeth could see them for the first time. Two teenagers: a white blonde boy with blue eyes in ripped clothes, and a dark-skinned girl with blue hair wearing a beat-up jacket covered in pins. Thalia was in front, the monster practically salivating, so it didn't notice when Luke shifted so his pant leg lifted up slightly and revealed a knife strapped to his ankle. He nodded to her and mouthed something, but she couldn't understand what he was trying to say.
“What about the kid?” There was another voice at the top of the stairs, hissy like the snake woman, but she couldn't make them out.
“A midnight sssnack, maybe.”
She tried to be still and quiet, lest she do something that would make the monster change its mind, but ultimately, she started sobbing as Thalia and Luke were led up the stairs.
She didn't know it then, but she wouldn't see them again. They'd be dead by the time she left.
Annabeth had somehow fallen into a half-sleep when she heard noise from upstairs. It was different from the unintelligible conversation the monsters were having. There was a shout of rage, and then a scream.
She heard a couple of thuds and other noises of a scuffle that went on for a few minutes. Then something she didn't understand.
It sounded a lot like thunder, like a storm cloud was inside the building. But that wasn't possible.
It was silent for a few minutes, and she thought briefly that she might be safe, but then Annabeth realized what she was smelling. The smoke wasn't too bad down here, but the fire would only get worse, and she was trapped. She got to her feet. She had to find a way.
The monster that had taken her clambered down the stairs and unlocked her cell shakily. “Plans changed, little one. We're having take out.”
The monster grabbed her wrist and knocked her off of her feet, dragging her across the room. Annabeth tried and failed to gain purchase on the floor. Her grip on the stairs wasn't strong enough to stop the monster, either.
She stopped struggling when she saw what was upstairs.
The floor was covered in golden dust and ashes, and the building was lit up in flames. The monster dragged her towards the exit as she started kicking and screaming again. She didn't want to die here. She needed to find a way, something that might give her an advantage. She scanned the little hall that led to the side entrance and saw a glint from the corner of her eye. Luke’s knife, dropped under a cabinet near the door. She was right near it.
She glanced back at the monster, then jerked to the right. The monster didn't even look back at her as she grabbed the knife, finally got to her feet, and drove it into its back as hard as she could.
The monster gasped and staggered forwards. It twisted around and she flinched back at the sight of its angry red eyes. “You’ll never make it to Long Island, daughter of—”
Before she could finish speaking, Annabeth stabbed her again, watching as she exploded into golden dust, similar to the dust she'd seen in the other room.
She stood there for a minute, staring at the space where the monster had been and coughing. It took a part of the ceiling falling behind her to get her moving. She slung her bag over her shoulder. Long Island. She could get to Long Island.
Annabeth fell silent once she finished explaining her escape. As soon as she'd started talking, the words had just come pouring out of her. She still felt guilty about it. She had taken a dead boy's knife and ran. Because she knew he was dead. He wouldn't have left her behind like that—trapped in a burning building with the monster that wanted to eat her. He had wanted to help her, and while she hadn't seen him in the chaos of the fire, the knife lying there was damning enough.
“That's not your fault,” Sam said immediately. “The building was on fire, you had to get out. A few more minutes and you could have died from smoke inhalation.”
“What if they were there and they were hurt?”
“They could've made it out,” Dean said. “Might not have had time to look for you.”
“No. Luke, the way he acted . . . he really wanted to help me.”
“They're kids too,” Sam said, “which means they might have reacted like kids would and ran. You're a kid, Annabeth. That's not on you.”
“Okay,” Annabeth said. “You should eat your food. If that's what that is.”
She got a laugh and a fist bump from Dean, and Sam started eating again while she finished her milkshake. She felt lighter, like it really didn't matter that she didn't look for Thalia and Luke. Like it was really possible that they were alive.
After another half-day of driving around, Dean offered to get her some clothes. She hesitated, but before she could even respond, he pulled into a thrift store parking lot.
She looked over the clothes Dean had helped her select, fidgeting. “I don't have any money.”
“Don't worry,” Dean said. He held up a credit card. “Will Lawson’s paying.”
She didn't get the joke, but she didn't protest, watching as he paid for her clothes. He then brought her to get new toiletries, a duffel bag, and even got her hair redone. She sat in the nearby laundromat now, listening as her clothing spun around.
The dryer beeped, so she shoveled her clothes into her duffel bag and zipped it shut.
As she walked back to her room, she heard voices from right around the corner. Sam and Dean, talking about her.
“We have to figure out what we're gonna do if we can't find this safe place, Dean.”
“We’ll find it,” Dean insisted. She peeked around the corner. The two of them were leaning against Dean’s car.
“Eventually, sure, but we should focus on what we can figure out: the monsters,” Sam said. “While you were taking her on that shopping trip, I did some research. I think the snake woman she was talking about is also from Greek mythology. A drakaina, a dragon spirit. They're represented as snakes with the torso and head of a woman, and—”
“Okay, Sammy,” Dean said. “What about the black dog?”
“I'm thinking maybe it's not a black dog. What if it's a hellhound? They're in a lot of cultures, but maybe this is a Greek one. Like Cerberus, you know, the guard dog in the Underworld? Just without the three heads. They usually come from British folklore, but . . .”
“So maybe if she's cursed, it's by a Greek witch.”
“Or a god,” Sam said. “I think we’re just gonna have to wait and see if we learn more.”
“You really think we’re not gonna find it?”
“I'm not saying that, Dean. We just need to prepare, in case we don't find it.”
“Okay,” Dean said. “She hasn't talked about him much, but I don't think taking her back to her dad is an option.”
Annabeth slid to the ground, listening intently. She didn't want to go home. She wanted to find the place the monster had talked about. Sam and Dean had promised they'd help her find it. The brothers continued talking around the corner.
“Foster care could put her back with him, if they figure out who she is,” Dean continued. “I don't really even know how that works, anyway. But if she starts getting attacked by monsters in a normal home . . .”
“Yeah,” Sam said. “She'd need to be with someone who could protect her. A hunter.”
“I never thought I'd hear you say that.”
“I don't like how we grew up, you know that,” Sam said. “But these monsters are after her. Though most hunters live on the road.”
“Not a good environment for a kid.”
“Not to mention they might be suspicious of her,” Sam said. “They might start thinking she's a monster, or part-monster or something.”
Annabeth’s eyes widened. Could that happen? Would someone hurt her because of the monsters? “Shit, I didn't even think of that. I was gonna say Pastor Jim could be an option, since he doesn't move around, but . . .”
“You're right. I love Pastor Jim, I do,” Sam said, “but I'd need to be sure. Dean, what if she isn't human?”
“She seems pretty human to me,” Dean replied, and Annabeth let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, “and even if she isn't completely human, she's a kid.”
“I wasn't saying I was going to be weird about that, just, y’know, hunters.”
“She’ll be fine,” Dean said. “Okay, let's keep going. Who else?”
“There's Bobby.”
“Last time we saw him, Bobby chased Dad out of his yard with a shotgun.”
“Yeah, but he was mad at Dad. Not us.”
“Sammy, I still don't think he'd love it if a Winchester came and abandoned a kid with him. Again.”
“It's not like she's your kid. Or mine.”
“Still.”
“I guess you're right,” Sam said. “That really only leaves us with two options.”
“Yeah,” Dean said. “We could leave her, which—no way in Hell. Or we could take her with us.”
“Yeah, but . . .” Sam paused for a moment, “it’s just not a great environment for a kid. Us hunting, looking for Dad, living in motels, that’s how we grew up.”
“I'm not saying it would be for forever,” Dean said. “Just until we can find the place, or figure something else out. We’re not even finished looking yet.”
She didn't hear Sam respond, so he must have nodded. She leaned against the wall, trying to take it all in.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps from around the corner. She scrambled away, then started walking towards the brothers again, nearly bumping into Dean.
“Hey kid, we were just about to come look for you. Got your laundry?”
“Yeah,” Annabeth said, holding up the bag. “So what's next?”
It took another day of searching for the brothers to say anything. She could tell instantly that Dean was going to talk about it. They were leaning against the impala, waiting for Sam to finish getting ready.
“We gotta talk about what happens if we don't find this safe place, kid.”
“I know,” Annabeth said, and then because why not, “I heard you and Sam talking yesterday.”
“Oh,” Dean said, “so you know.”
“Yeah.”
“You don't have to come with us if you don't want to,” Dean said. “This isn’t a kidnapping. We could drop you off with your dad, or try to see if Bobby would be willing to take you in. He's a good guy, took care of me and Sam a lot when we were kids.”
Annabeth didn't want to do this on her own. But she didn't want to abandon Long Island either. She'd been chasing this dream for so long—what if it wasn't as far out of reach as it seemed? What if by leaving she somehow lost the place forever, and would never find it? What if she stayed here, on her own, and kept looking but never found it? Then she'd be on her own, but it'd be too late, and—
“Kid,” Dean said. “Annabeth. Look at me.”
She hadn't realized she'd started crying, shaking like a leaf in the parking lot. Dean crouched to match her height and she finally met his eyes. “You have choices here. You don't have to choose right away, and if you want to change your mind later, you can. Sam and I aren't just gonna leave you here. But if you really, really don't want to, you don't have to come with us.”
Annabeth deflated and wiped her tears with her hands. “I don't wanna be alone. But I don't want to leave.”
“You wouldn't have to,” Sam said. She hadn't even noticed him walking over. “If you came with us, we could still stop by here every now and then and look. And if your internal compass thing comes back, we’ll drive straight here. Plus we’re not done searching yet.”
“Okay,” Annabeth said. “I just need to—to think.”
“Take as long as you want,” Dean said. “You want to hit the road, think it over while we’re driving?”
“Breakfast first,” Sam said. “It's essential to a—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Dean said, “we’ll get breakfast, Sammy.”
“It's Sam.”
“Sammy.”
She laughed, a kind of choked noise, but a laugh. She opened the car door and sat down. Now she just had to wait for the brothers to stop bickering.
She decided only a few hours into their drive, but she waited another few days to be sure. They were having lunch in yet another diner, sitting in a booth near the heater. Sam was on his laptop, looking through articles, while Dean perused local newspapers on the off chance he'd find something, a clue to the safe place or a monster in the area. She picked up her second-to-last fry and spoke.
“I want to come with you.”