Hello folks!

Well here it is, my very first novel. I finished this story last year, helped by an amazing coach/mentor/editor who brought me to levels in my writing I never thought I'd achieve.

My goal was to get this published as a tie-in novel but as that hasn't happened yet, I've decided to go ahead and post this as a fic. It is set mid season 3 and I feel the storyline on the show has moved on so much now that I would have to write a whole new novel in order to get it published at this point. That's not a problem though, I have plenty of ideas inside of me so I'm quite happy to let you, the Supernatural fans, see this story, rather than letting it rot in my computer forever.

For those of you who have read any of the published Supernatural novels out there, I'd really like to know how you think this story compares.

Also for those of you waiting for an update on "Sibling Rivalry", have no fear. I will be doing that shortly. I will not be leaving Tony and Tim abandoned forever, I promise!

In the meantime, here are the first two chapters of this story. I'll be posting as time permits and depending upon how much interest there is in this story.

Enjoy!

-Moki

Chapter One

Marlie was going to die a horrible and violent death that night.

If she'd known it was going to be her last day on Earth she would have slept in. If she'd known that her neck would be broken she wouldn't have gone to work early. If she'd known that she'd be breathing her last breath in a few hours she would have eaten the bagel she had eyed in Starbucks. She would not have gone for the yogurt instead. She would not have ignored her boyfriend's last three text messages. She might have skipped out on her normal run after work. Corpses aren't known for running marathons after all.

Marlie didn't know what the evening had in store. She only knew that she was late.

She pulled into an empty parking spot near the running trail's entrance. She quickly got out of her car. Looking at her watch, she cursed out loud to no one in particular. She had hoped to have plenty of light for her run. That wasn't going to happen. Training for a marathon took a lot of work. She really didn't want to miss this run. It would ruin her entire schedule.

None of it really mattered since she wouldn't be running that marathon.

Marlie took out her iPod and sweater. She put her keys in her pocket and began to stretch briefly. She was finished within a few minutes. Glancing at her watch again she decided that she probably had a good hour of daylight. But that wasn't enough for her full workout. Not by a long shot.

Oh well, she thought, guess I'll be running in the dark on the way back.

Running in the dense woods in the dark didn't frighten Marlie. She had been coming to this trail for years. She'd had yet to see anyone even remotely suspicious. Sometimes she saw families out on hikes with their kids. It was one of the reasons she never feared wildlife. There were too many people around.

She put her headphones over her ears and set out on the trail. She ran the paths that she knew best. They were the paths that she'd been on more times than she could count. She hit her pace. The music put Marlie completely in her "zone".

Time went by and the sun began to fade. Marlie finally took note of it when the trail became hard to see. She looked at her watch and saw that she'd been out for over an hour already. She decided to keep going for a few more minutes. Her familiarity with the woods made her overly confident. She thought she could find her way back to her car without a problem.

She had kept her iPod playing loudly. She enjoyed the way it blocked out the entire world. It was the reason that she didn't even notice The Noise at first. Then it became louder, more insistent. Finally The Noise caught her attention. Marlie turned off the music and pulled the headphones over her head. She could have sworn she had heard something right before she got them off her ears. She wasn't sure what.

Then The Noise happened again.

It sounded like crying. It sounded like an animal. It was almost familiar. Marlie tried to put a finger on what it was. Another cry came out of the darkness and Marlie laughed at herself.

It was a cat.

She listened again and this time could hear the meowing from deep in the woods. She was about to start running again when the crying became more panicked. Marlie debated with herself for a few moments. Then she decided that she'd have to give up and go after The Noise. It sounded like the poor thing might be hurt. She'd never be able to live with herself if she didn't help it.

Listening carefully she figured out where the sound was coming from and headed that way. As soon as she left the well-beaten path, her way became more difficult. Loose branches shifted under her feet and even those branches still attached to the trees slowed her down. Pushing the branches aside, she kept moving forward towards The Noise until she finally found its source.

A tiny black kitten was sitting under a tree. Marlie barely saw it until she was right in front of it. The kitten didn't move. Then its eyes blinked slowly once. She reached down to pick it up. But the kitten took off.

"Hey kitty," she said softly into the growing darkness. She didn't want to frighten the animal. She kept her voice calm and reassuring. "It's okay. Let me help you out, okay?"

The cat must've heard and understood her. Marlie heard another meow up head. Pushing aside even more branches she saw the kitten's tail disappear under a bush. Marlie ducked farther down until she was crawling. Branches stuck to her hair and clothes and she did her best to pull them off as she went. Here and there she heard little cries and meows. She also caught glimpses of the little back body. These led Marlie inexorably forward. It was definitely turning into something a little more complicated than she'd planned.

She came out of the dense bushes. Looking up in surprise, she found a dark and obviously unoccupied house. It sat silently in silhouette in the last of the sun's glow. The area around the house was a small clearing. She barely made out the form of the kitten skittering across the grass. It ran right up the steps and jumped in a window.

Shivering a bit in the cold, she crossed the grass resolutely. She wasn't going to let the kitten get away now. An abandoned house was no place for a kitten that young. An adult cat might be able to hunt for food but a kitten? No way. It must have lost its mother. Marlie decided she would just have to save it. This had turned into a mission.

"Gone inside, have ya Little One?" Marlie said as she approached the closed door. More meows came clearly from inside. It looked like a house. But she doubted anyone lived up in the area. It must have been abandoned for a very long time. She was surprised to see that it was still standing. She was more surprised that the forest service hadn't torn it down long ago as a health hazard. But then again, it was far off the normal trail. Probably no one had seen it in a long while. No one would ever know about the kitten inside if she didn't help it.

Marlie had come up with so many logical explanations for what she was seeing. She had managed to do a really good job of convincing herself. There was absolutely nothing unusual about the situation. It was not at all like the beginning of every horror movie. It wasn't the end of her relatively short life.

Trouble was Marlie never watched horror movies. They were "stupid things, full of nothing but gore and T&A". And even if she had seen a horror movie, she'd never believe anything like that would actually happen to her. That stuff was fake. It was all fake. Nothing scary ever really happened to people all alone in the woods at night.

That was what she told herself as she climbed the steps of the small porch. Without any hesitation she tried the door. It opened immediately and she was rewarded with the sound of The Noise.

"Okay, I know, I hear you. No need to fuss," she called out into the darkness. Looking around she saw that the place was fairly empty except for some old furniture. The pieces of furniture were dilapidated. It was hard to tell what the pieces had once been. Facing the front door was a wide set of stairs that led up to a second floor. She paused at the foot of them, unsure where to go next. She heard another, even more urgent, meow and headed up them cautiously. She still felt no fear despite being alone in a very dark building in the middle of some very dark woods. But Marlie wasn't the kind of girl who got scared of the dark. Dark was just absence of light. There was no need to fear it. But she was careful where she stepped. She didn't trust the steps of the old structure as the wood creaked under her feet.

When she got to the top of the stairs she found herself in a small hallway. She followed the sounds to the end of it, stopping outside a closed door. The Noise was coming from the other side. She called out softly in triumph.

"Aha! Got ya! Okay now come on out and let's get you out of here," she said as she started opening the door slowly. She wanted to try and catch the animal if it made a hasty retreat. "Maybe you can come home with me if you're not one of those wild cats that try to rip out people's…"

If anyone had been walking on the trails at that moment they would have heard the screaming. But as it was there weren't and they didn't. Not that anyone would have been able to help anyway. But Marlie might like to have known that someone had heard her last moments on Earth.