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03.04: sin city
01. ❝ lucky strike ❞
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     It was clear for Dinah Vincent that wherever she went, trouble was soon to follow.

  This idea was acknowledged at a young age for the girl. Life never had a way of going according to plan in her case. Not that she actually had a plan for herself — to a certain extent — however, it didn't exactly matter because no matter what, everything that she pictured didn't really come to true. Some would joke and say that she was born unlucky. To Dinah, that word really didn't meet up to her potential. Ever heard of the phase, dead girl walking? Well, she was a cursed girl walking.

     She would like to think that life for her had been easy for her up until the age of seven. That is where it all began for her. At age seven, most children are concerned with doing the simple things in life. Gaining new friends, discovering new milestones, developing new responsibilities. For Dinah, these things had been stripped from her within a blink of an eye. Instead of learning how to ride pretty pink bikes, she had been learning how to defend herself with silver bullets. Instead of gaining new friends, she had to learn how to speak the classical language of Latin. Instead of prepping for her first dates, she had to learn how to create perfect pentagrams. Trading in her childhood for the supernatural was something that Dinah hadn't planned for, but again, when exactly does life ever go according to plan?

   Regardless of whatever she thought, she had responsibilities that she had no choice to pick up at a young age. And if she wasn't going to do anything about it, then quite frankly, she was throwing herself out to the wolves. Even though these things seemed difficult for the average person to grasp, she owed all of the credit to what she called her saving grace.

   After the death of her parents, life had a funny way of giving Dinah some type of crazy sense of peace. (Although peace wouldn't be the most accurate word to describe this situation, however, this is Dinah's story and unfortunately, this was something that quite close to peace. Moving on.). She had been only fourteen when she had run away from her current foster home. In her defense, the night she decided to disappear, her foster mother had decided to cook her infamous brussel sprouts casserole and Dinah wasn't planning to stick around for another second. Having this idea already planned out, it didn't take long before she was packed up and out of the window, grabbing her bike and racing out of the city just in time for supper. When things decided to settle down and her legs were well rested from her cycling marathon, she had made the executive decision that she needed better transportation.

   She doesn't exactly recall how she even did, but all she remembered was being chased down by some guy who didn't exactly agree with her compromise of a chocolate bar and the keys to his truck. Nevertheless, the origin story of Frank and Dinah had been born. Nothing at that moment had been planned, however, in a trade for saving her life from a weird black-eyed raging human, she decided to stick around since clearly, he had more to offer than just a set of keys.

    Looking back, although her life had seemed clear that it was past abnormal, it was something that she would never trade for in the world. Throughout the years, she learned more about herself than she probably wouldn't have if her life was normal. And even though this curse had been dreadful to her in the past, life had a way of giving her a break. At least up until now.

   What seemed like only a week quickly turned into a year for Dinah. A year that had completely turned her world upside down. It had been a year since she had got the dreadful voicemail from Frank. It had been a year since she had last heard anything about any crazy supernatural activity. It had been a year since she found any sign of hope from anyone. But although, she still preserved.

   When she wasn't exactly going crazy over the fact of her missing friend, she had spent her nights in bottomless parts of town, looking for men who happened to be too wasted to even pay attention to their actions. One thing that life had given her was the gift of hustling. And this was something that she did not take for granted.

   "You know the drill boys," she called out as she reached over to grab the bills that had been scattered all over the pool table. An echo of groans could be heard from across the small bar as the men cursed at their loss. This had been Dinah's seventh win of the night and they were getting tired of it. "This pains me as much as it pains you, but there must be a winner and it just so happens to be me."

   Scattering in defeat, the group of men that once surrounded the old table walked away. Some calling it in for the night, while others disappeared into the bar. Dinah sighs in relief as she gathers the last of the wrinkled bills before throwing the wad into a neat stack into her hand. Nights like these she considered the world to be on her side.

   Life on the road hadn't been all peaches and cream for the Vincent girl. When Dinah first started on her adventure, she had at least two thousand dollars to her name. Thanks to Frank's thinking, his emergency stash came easy to her. However, that big treasure seems to lose its value every day she was on the road. Between gas, hotels, and food, money wasn't something that was easy to keep. But that was until she decided to press her luck with a group of tourists.

  First, things started off small. A little trade here and there. There was nothing wrong with that. Until she found herself stranded in a town with no money to her name. A night that was listed as a disaster, turned into the first night that she ever won three hundred bucks just because she was able to beat some drunk guy in a staring contest. Odd, yes, but sometimes you have to risk it to get the biscuit.

  Without even thinking twice, Dinah shoves the stack of the cash into her boots and makes her way to the bar. Because of her luck, she got enough to buy herself a couple of drinks and a meal before she heads out for the night.

  But just as her excitement over a cheeseburger and a cold beer tingles inside her, a voice from behind her trickles it down. "We don't take losing kindly around here, ma'am."

  She groaned and turned glanced at the owner of the voice, only to find it sitting across from the bar, leaning against an unoccupied table. Dinah wasn't really surprised by this reaction when she took note of the person who was trying to seek her attention. Just because her winning streak was lucky, that didn't mean that she was. After all, she was the cursed girl walking.

   Ignoring his comment, she turns back to the bar, grabbing her beer and cheeseburger before heading back to her booth. Seeing that she wasn't exactly phased, the owner of the voice took this as an opportunity to follow the girl to her table, welcoming himself in by sliding into the opposite side of her.

   Instead of the Vincent girl buying into his action, she rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her drink. Clutching a beer in his own hands, he grumbles, "I don't think you heard me the first time when I said, we don't take kindly to losing."

   Dinah looks at him, her expression was not bothered as she grabs a fry from her basket. "I remember not caring the first time. And now that you say it again, I still don't care a second time."

   The man takes a sip of his beer and angrily places it down, "Look lady, I don't wanna hurt you. Just give me back my money and I'll leave."

   "Hold that thought while I think about it," she says. The man creases his brows as Dinah picks up her burger and takes a bite. She points her finger as she chews slowly, which happens to irritate the man. But once she finishes, she continues. "Okay, I thought about it. Like really hard about it, and I decided on the answer no. Maybe next time don't play if you aren't willing to risk it. But maybe next time, kay."

  At this, she would have assumed the man would have gotten the idea and would've given up. But ideally, she figured that because he seemed too stubborn and drunk that he wasn't going to give up that easily. And to her surprise, her gut proved her to be right as the man chuckles, saying, "I am giving you one last warning."

   Dinah creases her eyebrows at him, "Or what? You'll cry like a bitch all night. Grow a pair, asswipe."

   Sighing, the man pushes himself out of the booth. Not really interested in his next moves, the girl happily dives into her awaited meal. However, it wasn't until she watched her food going flying across the room without the man even touching it. She quickly turns to look at him as the man smirks and says, "Are you gonna give me the money now? Or do I have to give you another glimpse of what I can do?"

   "Well, that wasn't very nice of you. I was eating that."

   Suddenly, the man's eyes turn from a shade of blue to dark black. A smile sweeps across from his face as he lifts his fingers and with a flick, Dinah is thrown out of her booth and into his chokehold. His fingers press firmly on her throat as pushes her against the wall.

    "She said you would be a tough one," he mumbles. "The moment we escaped Hell, we just knew we had to make it our duty to come after you?"

   "We?" she questioned, fighting back, she tries to get out of the demon's grip, but he was too strong. She glances behind him and sees the group of people, who were, in fact, normal before, turn into black-eyed demons. "Well, aren't I just a lucky gal. A whole demon party just for me. Now if you let me go, I'll be sure to return the favor for you guys."

   "Nice try," the demon laughs. "But I'll think I will take my chances killing you first before I even think about letting you go."

   Dinah tries her best to crawl her away out of his grip, but the more that she moves the tighter his grip forms around her neck. Things are starting to seem a little unlucky for Dinah. Her eyes slowly begin to drift as everything around her becomes dark. Just as she loses, hope, a sudden and haunting scream echoes from the opposite side of the bar.

   The screams become louder as each of the demons run behind the noise. From Dinah's point of view, she can only see a blurb figure, pushing and punching past the pack of demons that crowded around. Before she could make out of the blurb, the darkness around grows intense.

  Instantly, her body gives out as the last thing she sees is a tall dark-haired individual, running over to save her.

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     When Dinah was introduced to the hunting deal, Frank taught her two critical takeaways: 1) never let your guard down at any moment and 2) never date a hunter, shit gets complicated. Although the second rule never seemed to phase Dinah, the first rule was something that Dinah didn't take lightly.

   No matter where she went, what places she visited, that rule stayed plastered her brain. Living life as a hunter, never got easy for Dinah. There were always things that she could never do that a normal person would take for granted. Like for example, making new friends was something that wasn't easy for Dinah. Sure, she had decent people skills, but that didn't mean she was a crowd favorite. After all, when you are being moved from state to state to chase after the unlikely, it's kinda hard to make friends when the latest topic of what you have to talk about is how to kill a vampire with your eyes closed. Not very tween-friendly.

  Not to mention that the hunting game involved countless of people that weren't trustworthy. Sure there were good ones out there, and then there were those who were just well, not so good. That's why it was important that at all times, Frank urged Dinah to always trust her gut and never let her guard down. Letting your guard down was a reason to get killed.

   This was why Dinah wasn't pleased with herself, the moment she woke up in a motel room that was nowhere near familiar to her own. She glanced around the room, looking for some type of familiarity, however, she couldn't find a piece of it. The only that came close was her jacket and shoes and which had been placed in the corner of the room.

   Her actions are far from graceful as she stumbles out of bed and races across to belongings. The first thing she checks is her boot. A sigh of relief escapes from her lips as she notices the cash still sitting in her shoes. Whoever was nice enough to save her at least had manners not to go through her stuff. Nice.

    She places her feet into her shoes and couldn't help but notice a black leather journal placed on top of the table across from her direction. On top, the pack of opened cigarettes sat neatly on it. By that, she could only assume that the room she was bought to belonged to someone else.

  Just as she's finished tying her left boot, she notices a shadow of an individual standing over. She looks up and makes out the individual to the familiar dark-haired male from before. "Oh look, she's alive," he says, his tone not enthused.

  Dinah pulls a look as she turns to watch the man grab the cigarettes from the table. He picks one up from the carton and put it to his lips. "Now, I don't have to explain to the cops why there's a dead girl in my room."

   "Uh, um . . ."

     "Oh, where are my manners," he says. He reaches for the carton of cigarettes and extends it to Dinah. Dinah shakes her head and he shrugs. "Well, you can't say that I didn't offer."

  Dinah scrunches her face as she slowly makes her way to grab her jacket. "So, uh, do you mind telling me a couple of things. Like for starters, where the hell am I? And who exactly are you?"

   With the cigarette lit in his mouth, the man pushes out a couple of puffs before responding, "Well, apparently, you didn't get my joke about this being my motel room. So, again, this my motel room. You just so happened to pass out after those pack of demons tried to kill you, which I saved you by the way, so there's that."

   She curses to herself. The one thing that Frank told her not to do, she did. Nice going, D.

   "Okay, I totally had that covered by the way," she says. Well, she lies. She actually didn't have that covered. You see, demon-killing was the last thing that was on Dinah's list tonight. Which was the reason why she didn't bother to bring any type of protection with her inside. Dumb move on her part. But was she going to admit that? Nope. "I had a plan. I was just waiting for the right moment."

   "And by the right moment you mean waiting until you passed out to make a move?" he questioned blowing a puff of smoke into the air. "Nice plan."

   Dinah rolls her eyes. "Again, I had a plan."

   "If this your way of saying thank you, then you are doing a terrific job,"

    "Whatever."

    "Fine."

   She groans as she places her jacket on her body and heads towards the door. She opens it only to find thunder clouds and rain. Her eyes scan the perimeter of the parking lot, however, once again nothing familiar is in her sight. Not even her car.

   "Yeah, so where the hell is my car?" she asks.

   Not even bothering to show a glimpse of concern, the man continues to smoke. "Probably back where you had it last?"

  "The bar?"

  "Wow, she's smart too."

  Rolling her eyes, she shuts the door behind her and moves back to the corner. "Okay, well, can you take me back, then?"

   He chuckles, "Um, yeah right? We just got attacked by some demons and the first thing you wanna do is go back? Yeah, that demon must've really fucked with your head."

   "Well, I need to get back to my things, I can't just leave it behind." she protested, but the man is unphased. An idea sparks in her head and without thinking she says, "Well, let me just use your car—"

    "Negative."

    "But, I need to get to —"

    "Negative."

   "Those things to me are very important and if anything —"

    "It's still a no, princess. No matter whatever way you form it. If you want your stuff so bad then I'll take to you get it when it safe."

   Dinah scrunches at the given nickname. Who the hell does he think he is. "Well, stranger, who 'saved my life' when exactly would you consider it to be safe? Because I have places to be. Things to do."

  He finishes the last of his cigarette and puffs out the smoke. Placing the remainder of it in the ashtray, he stands up, grabbing the black journal and moving past Dinah. He jumps onto the bed and grabs the remote for the television. "Maybe like in two days? Three, if we are lucky."

   "Three days?" she yells. "I'm stuck in God knows where for three days with no transportation, with a guy I barely know, in a town that I have no clue of. This can't possibly be happening to me right now."

   "Well, believe or not, I am not exactly thrilled about it too, you know," he says. "I am on a hunting mission and I don't exactly have time to babysit."

   "Babysit?" she questioned. "Look, I don't need someone to watch over me. I can take care of myself."

   "Not this again. Do I have to go over the bar situation again?

   A groan escapes from her lips as she sits down at the table. Here, she was stranded without a clue of what her next move was going to be. Dinah never was unprepared like this before. Hell, she never was in a situation like this before. She had things that she had to do. She had to continue her search for Frank. She couldn't find him if she was stuck in a situation like this. She had to figure something out.

   Her hand reaches down for her boot as she fiddles and pulls out a couple of bills. She organizes the money together, her thumbs pushing through the bills as she counted. Her count stops at one hundred and fifty dollars. "Okay, so here's the deal," she starts. "I will give you this cash if you just drive me over to the bar. Nothing more, nothing less. I just need to get back to my car and go."

    "Okay, here's my deal," the man says, his tone filled with annoyance. He turns from the television and looks at her. "I kind of enjoy the idea of staying alive. It's pretty fun to me. So I'm thinking about staying alive for a little bit longer. Maybe you should try it? Seeing that just a couple of hours ago, you were wanted very much dead than alive with those demons."

   "I said, I could've taken them done myself. . ."

  "Come think of it, maybe if I do bring you back, I'll have my peace and quiet back," he says, playing with the idea. Dinah feels hopeful, but it fades quickly than it starts as he shook his head. "But I've played action hero enough for the night. So, keep your money."

   This was exactly what did she didn't want.

  "Besides, what's so important to you that you can't help but wait?" he asks. "If I were you, I wouldn't be too anxious to get back to the thing that wants me dead. But hey, it's your funeral."

   Dinah seems to hesitate for a minute before she gives her answer. Although, she wasn't exactly sure if whether or not the mystery man was able to be trusted, however, that idea did not seem to be too good of a reason, considering the fact that he did help her out the bar. Not to mention that he did not want any part of Dinah's offering, which did seem a bit strange considering that everyone doesn't mind pocketing a quick buck every now and then.

   "Well, if you must know," she begins. "Just like you, I am on a hunting mission too. Only, this one just happens to be a mission that has stretched out longer than I would've imagined."

   "Is that's why she wants you dead?" he questioned. Dinah gives him a puzzled look. "Back that the bar, I heard when that demon mentioned something about someone wanting you dead."

    At that moment, Dinah had almost forgotten about her. She had been so distracted and completely focused on getting Frank back, that the thought of her had slipped past Dinah's mind. After all, Dinah already had the clue that Frank's disappearance had her name written all over it.

   The night after she left Jasmine's house, Dinah was convinced that the infamous demon that reigned terror on her life, Delilah was the one that was held responsible for the chaos that irrupted just days before Frank vanished. Not long after, Dinah had spoken to Frank, Dinah began to have these weird nightmares about her. She figured that it was just old trauma that she had dealt with, but the feeling inside of was something hard that she couldn't shake off. It was almost as if something or someone was trying to warn her about everything, but Dinah ignored it.

  Something that she highly regrets, looking back at it all.

   "Okay," says Dinah, she a deep breath. "If you must know, I am looking for my friend. He's been missing for quite some time and I am just trying to figure everything out. The last time I heard from him, he left me this strange voicemail about her, Delilah being back. Which is kind of strange because she been out of the realm for more than a decade so it's weird that suddenly she's back."

   The man raises a brow at her, "The crazy bitch demon who so happens to be the second-dangerous demon in all of hunting history." he says. "Your friend went after her?"

   "He's strong-minded like that. He can be a total ass sometimes, not to mention stupid for doing all of this," Dinah comments. "But that's the beside the point. One minute, Frank is missing, and now I am hearing rumors that Delilah is back. I just think that this all connected."

    "Delilah, I haven't heard that name in a minute," he chuckles in belief. "So, let me get this, your friend, decided to go after this one crazy bitch who feeds after chaos because?"

    "It's a complicated story," she confesses. Even though, she did trust this guy to a certain extent — a small extent — she wasn't going confess everything to him. After all, she didn't even know his name. "All, I know is that I need to get back so I can look for Frank and kill this crazy bitch once and for all."

   Silence falls in between them as Dinah gets from her chair. She turns to face the window and watches as the rain falls down from the sky. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place and she desperate for an escape.

   Just as she was about to get lost in her thoughts, the man clears his throat, Dinah bringing her attention back to him. "Well, if you think you are going to kill that bitch by yourself then you must be still out of your mind from —"

   "If you mention the demon fight back at the bar, I swear to God,"

  He throws his hands up defensively, "Fair enough. Anyways, my point is. Now that I am considered your lucky strike, I figured might just stick around, but I just gotta ask; so if I help you, what exactly is in it for me?"

    "How about world peace and the joyous fact that you'll never hear from me again?"

   A dry chuckle escapes from his lips, shaking his head, "As tempting as that sounds, I was thinking about something else."

   Without thinking twice, she questions, "What did you have in mind?"

   She didn't really know what to think. Here she was with the again, a guy that she barely knew, getting ready to cut a deal with him. To some, this was something that seemed a bit too risky. You don't make deals with people that you don't know. But, Dinah didn't have that many options. And at this point, Dinah was a gambler. Ready to risk it all.

    "Well," he sighs heavily. "I might have a little task that I might need your help with. Details are to come later, but as of right now, all I need is your yes."

   Her expression stayed stern as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "What makes you so sure that I'll agree to your little deal?"

   "Because if you don't, the next time I'll hear about you is when I reading the obituaries in the newspaper," he points out. Dinah rolls her eyes. "And besides, you seem like might have the slightest idea of Delilah so if we are going to track her down at least I have a partner who knows of what they are talking about."

   "Okay, point taken. But it just so happens that I don't exactly know who you are? Let alone, why exactly do you trust me?"

   "Well, I trust you because you have yet to take anything from my wallet," he says, pointing to his wallet that sat on the nightstand. "So then there's that. Secondly, the name is Harvey."

   "Dinah."

  Harvey stands up from his placement and walks over to Dinah. His green eyes stare into hers as he put his hand out. "So, Dinah, do we have a deal?"

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NOTES:

   i can tell you this right now: writing about dinah and harvey is going to be the thing that i enjoy writing the most. for reasons that i will not disclose, all have to say is to be prepared for the unexpected with these two.

so like i said before, there's gonna be a couple of chapters before i get to the actual canon storyline so sam and dean won't come into play for a while. which is a good thing because it allows me to play on some other things. (this explains the "then" located in the chapter description. since supernatural enjoys using then and now, I thought it would be a good reason use it to explain pre-cannon events.)

  stating the obvious, this is the first chapter, and not going to lie, i struggled with this tremendously because i was debating if this was a good start, but if you look back at every supernatural ep, there's always chaos stirring the beginning so i figured that i'm at a good pace.

   also, can we enjoy the fact that I'm adding my own gif edits into the chapters?! we love some good quality visual content.

    p.s. this chapter is dedicated to elena because a) in more ways than one she's helped me out with story. between helping with gifs, chapter inspiration, and layouts, I wouldn't have got it done without her. b) her story lost time is superior and if you haven't read it then do yourself a favor and go read it

  as always let me know what you think!