Against My Better Judgement
 

Runa leaned against her car, absently playing a game on her phone, as she waited for her friend. They'd caught wind of a possible job, and it was definitely not Runa's turn to do the preliminary asking around this time. So she waited, one hand occasionally disappearing into her jacket pocket to pull out a couple of candies from the Reeses Pieces bag she had stashed there.

Kyra headed back over to the car, stretching briefly before settling her suit jacket again properly. Bright blue eyes flashed over Runa before her lips quirked into a little smile and she shook dark auburn hair out of its bun.

"So, we've definitely got a case here," she said. "Not entirely sure what it is yet, but there's something munching on people."

"Fantastic," Runa said with only slight sarcasm as she put her phone away. She brushed some of her short, dark hair out of her gray eyes. "And we're sure it's neutral? Not on your side or mine?"

"Yup. Not demonic, and angels aren't involved in this kind of thing." Kyra shrugged. "Not sure what it is, but it's not involved with either side. So we just have to find it."

"Town this size, can't be too hard," Runa muttered, munching on a few more candies. She dropped the empty bag in a trash can. "Any thoughts on what it might be yet?"

"Something flesh-eating," Kyra said after a moment, moving to the passenger side to let Runa drive. "I'd say werewolf, but the cycle isn't right."

"It's the wrong time of month," Runa agreed. "And without getting into the coroner's office, we won't know if the hearts were missing." She turned on the car, already running through her mental checklist of monsters. "Is it really flesh-eating? Or could it be a vampire trying to start a nest? Or a particularly violent ghost?"

"It could be any of those," Kyra agreed mildly. "But we are in the right part of the country for chupacabras too. Could be one of those. Would be nice, they're not too bad to deal with."

"I hope it's just a chupa," Runa replied as they headed towards home to prep themselves. "Those are easy compared to some other things."

"No kidding," Kyra muttered. They'd tangled with enough things to know that there were much worse things out there than chupas. "Maybe we'll get lucky."

"It'd be about damn time," Runa muttered as she pulled into the lot of the apartment building. Their apartment was sparse, but it had what they needed.

Kyra headed inside and made sure she had all the appropriate weapons before doing a bit more research. Just to make sure it was a chupa so they could go out and kill it that night.

While Kyra was doing the research, Runa made sure their weapons were in good order. Nothing worse than having a blade snap or a gun jam in the middle of a hunt. Once she was done with her checks, she went to see what her friend was doing.

"Well, it's a chupa," Kyra said as Runa approached. "I've got two possible lairs, so we'll just have to check both."

"At least it's only two," Runa said. "Not bad at all. Everything's in good order, so we can head out as soon as the sun sets."

Kyra nodded. "So, you haven't spotted any demons in town or anything, right?" They had the occasional demon problem, but since they lived in a small town it wasn't bad.

"Not recently," Runa replied, shaking her head. "Not since a few months ago, at least." She made sure to keep on top of that information; demons were bad news and she didn't want to get dragged to Hell. And demons brought omens with them, and omens drew other Hunters. Also bad.

"Good." Kyra stretched a bit. "And we only had the one angel blow through town a while back. Back when the big prize fight was still on."

"We're lucky it was only the one," Runa said. "There were a few demons running around during the smackdown, but they weren't hard to take care of. And there haven't been many more since, maybe one or two that I took care of."

"Right. I think the angels are busy with their angel-stuff again." Kyra shrugged. "Or at least that's what I hear. But for a few, most of them are busy. And Castiel is just everywhere."

"Busy little bee," Runa joked, grinning a bit. She stretched some. "Well, as long as we keep things under control here, I figure we'll be left alone."

"I don't see why anyone would want to bother us," Kyra agreed. Because, really, nephilim weren't exactly popular with their angel kin, and the Apocalypse had been averted, so there was no need for an antichrist.

Runa nodded.

"Let's hope it stays that way," she said. She would be regretting those words the next morning. The hunt for the chupacabra hadn't been hard at all, and the girls had decided that going out for breakfast the next day wasn't a bad idea. They'd heard whispers of some ghost activity, so they figured asking around the breakfast diner was a good place to start.

But the girls weren't the only ones who had heard about a ghost in the area and were getting ready to take care of it. Sam and Dean were already sitting in a booth, and Dean was happily munching on pancakes as he let Sam do the research.

Sam was indeed already on his laptop, looking up the local lore.

"So apparently the place is a restaurant in town," he said, reading the website he found. "I found a paranormal site about it... Some group was there a few years ago and apparently caught evidence of at least six different spirits." He glanced at his brother. "That's kind of impressive for one place."

An older man at the table behind them turned around.

"You boys talking about Pasco's?" he asked.

Meanwhile, Runa walked with Kyra to their usual table, sitting down. She idly listened to the people around them to see if she could catch anything that might help them on their hunt.