December 4th, 2019
Briarwood, Colorado

"You recognize any of that crap?" Jack leaned forward in his seat so he could look over Will's shoulder at the box of stuff he'd taken from Solomon's lair.

Will shook his head, glancing up from the piles of paper he'd buried himself under. "Not yet. Grab my computer and look up anything that has to do with ancient spells."

"You know how much crap a search like that will bring up? Shouldn't we talk to an expert or some shit?" He put the laptop on the seat beside him and pulled up the web-browser. "Do you even get WiFi out here?"

Will muttered something unintelligible under his breath. "Forget it. I'll do it." Reaching back, he snatched the computer faster than Jack could stop him.

"I didn't say I wouldn't-" Before Jack managed another word Ash's phone rang abruptly, silencing all of them.

"Hello? Shit," he growled. "Okay, we'll be there in eight hours. Bye."

"Who was that?" Jack and Will asked in unison.

"Kit. Something's up with Marley, we've gotta get back to the scrapyard. Now." The gleam in Ash's eyes made Jack more nervous than he ever would've thought.

"Something's wrong with Marley?" Jack echoed the words quietly and they tasted bitter in his mouth.

Ash grunted from behind the wheel, stepping harder on the gas as he sped down the empty highway. They'd planned on spending the night in a motel, but it looked like they would be driving, instead. "Not sure. Sounded urgent though."

They made it to the scrapyard sooner than Jack would've thought possible, but he should've expected it since Ash had always been fond of pushing the speed limits. "We're here," he muttered, shaking Will's shoulder to wake him from the fitful sleep he'd fallen into sometime during their long drive.

"Huh...?" Will mumbled, sitting up as he tried to keep hold of all the papers he'd been looking through until he couldn't force his eyes to remain open for even a second longer.

"Get up." Ash unclicked his seat belt and threw his door open.

Keala barked happily, jumping passed Jack when he started to stumble out of the truck, and darting into the field of crap surrounding Kit Westing's entire house. "Need help with any of that?" Jack asked, nodding at the stack of stuff at Will's feet, but his older brother shook his head.

"I got it." Jack shrugged in response and followed Ash up the rickety front steps and into Kit's old house. On the outside it didn't look like much, the inside, however, was well kempt and comfortable.

"Marley? Kit?" Ash growled, slamming through the screen door and stepping into the front hallway. His voice carried loudly throughout the house. It was noon, and yet the place was silent enough to hear a pin drop.

"Ash!" Kit's relieved sigh carried from the sitting room on the far side of the house, near the kitchen. The old woman appeared before the boys could reach her, a stricken look on her face. "We need to talk."

Jack's heart started to pound erratically at the sound of her words. "Where's Marley?" he asked suspiciously. Ash always had a certain pensive expression on his face whenever anything relating to their younger half-sister happened.

A stern look crossed Kit's features. "Now, boys, I know how this is going to look, but let's think about this logically..."

"How what will look?" Will dropped his duffel bag on the floor and gazed from Ash to Kit to Jack and then back.

"Where is she?" Ash demanded, ignoring his younger brother's question.

"Just wait a minute-"

"What the hell is going on?" Jack growled before the old woman had a chance to finish.

"Marley may be more like her mother than we thought." Kit sighed, moving her eyes to the ground, refusing to look at the Slayer boys. While confusion crossed both Jack and Will's faces, Ash paled, his cheeks draining of blood.

"Shit," he hissed through his teeth, sliding down to the floor of the hallway and sticking his head between his knees. Jack recognized it as the old trick he used to do when he felt nauseated.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Will got defensive every time anyone ever brought up Marley's mother. She'd been one of his elementary school teachers, and he'd liked her a lot. Not to mention, he'd always been completely against badmouthing the dead woman in front of her daughter.

"It means I'm a freak."

"You're not a freak," Jack snapped quickly, his gaze locking on the girl tumbling out of the hall closet. Sprawled on the hardwood floor with her hair in messy, tangled tufts, Marley glared up at him.

"Have you ever accidentally set an entire bed on fire just by reading a couple of weird words in your head? I didn't even know what they meant." She hid her face in her hands as tears ran down her tanned cheeks. "I didn't mean to, Ash. I swear." Her head snapped up and her watery eyes caught his as she pleaded with him.

"What do we do with her?" Ash sighed, his gaze landing on the old woman who eyed them all thoughtfully. "What if someone finds out she's a half-witch?" He kept his voice low even though there was no one else in the house with them.

"What if someone finds out I've been talking to ghosts for as long as I can remember?" Jack shot back. "She's our baby sister and we won't let anything fucking happen to her."

"Wait a second," Will interrupted whatever reply Ash had been about to form. "Marley's a witch? Are you fucking on crack?"

A groan rumbled in Ash's chest. "Must you question fucking everything? She's half-witch. Trust me. Ms. Maggie wasn't the saint you always thought," he sneered bitterly. Marley flinched at the sound of her mother's name, jumping slightly when Jack knelt down beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Willie, kid," Kit warned, "if you don't open that head of yours to all this shit, you might just get yourself killed. Anything you see or hear or do, from now on will be a whole lot easier to handle if you just listen to your brother about the witches. 'Cause, kid, they're real and they're scary."

"And ghosts?" Will asked after a minute of tense silence.

Kit smirked at Jack. "Them too. Although, Jack's the only one I've met in a long time who can communicate with those bastards. It's a waning skill, I'm afraid."

Jack shook his head wryly. "I wonder fucking why?"

Marley's wide-eyed gaze jerked in Jack's direction. "You talk to ghosts?" In his peripheral vision, Jack saw Will roll his eyes.

"Sometimes. They're assholes, though. So, what's going to happen now?" He kept his stare firmly on Kit for answers. She always had them.

The smirk on the old woman's face morphed into grim dissatisfaction. "If news of Marley spreads, people will find her here and they'll take her. Half-breeds are rare because people are terrified of them. You have to keep moving."

"But if we leave, won't that put her in even more danger?" Will asked hesitantly. "What if someone sees us and starts following us?"

Kit shook her head sadly, her eyes landing on Marley. "If it ain't a damn Catch-22..." she muttered practically under her breath. "You have to learn to protect each other. I ain't saying it's gonna be easy, 'cause it won't, but ya'll are Slayers, dammit. You'll be fine. And I'm just a phone call away if you need me."

"I know of a place it might be safe for a while, where we can rest up. But..." Ash trailed off, his voice coated with dread.

"But what?" Will sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He'd never been big on surprises. He was more comfortable sitting alone reading books at the cemetery than anywhere else – he didn't like his daily routine to change.

"But I kinda pissed off the owner of the compound," he admitted, his gaze resting on the tough old woman who barely batted an eyelash at him.

"Oh, man up, for fuck's sake," Kit snapped. "The Lockwood girl ain't that scary and her brother's a damn genius. They'll help you figure out a safe way to find your dad and that cursed witch. But you might as well call Charley too. She and Piper are in the area anyway."

"Charley as in...?" Will's face paled and he choked on whatever words he'd intended to say.

"My best friend," Ash filled in gravely. "Alright. I'll call her."

"'Bout damn time you grow up. You and that Lockwood girl are just about perfect for each other."

"Oh, shut up," Ash growled, earning himself a smack to the back of the head, much to the satisfaction of his younger siblings. "Ow, shit. I'm sorry."