Dark Hunters

What is a Dark Hunter? I wish I had a dollar for every time Dawn and I have been asked that! It began with a road trip that became a fanfiction story that snowballed into the most amazing family.

The thing you have to understand is that Dawn and I had never met in person when we started planning this trip. We met through Twitter and our mutual love of Supernatural. Many hours of calling, texting, and Skyping followed.

Have you ever met someone and you just clicked? This is what happened with Dawn and I. So it was nothing for her to make a 22 hour drive to meet me, her new sister, for the first time! Sister, I don’t use that word lightly. That is what Dawn is to me. Without her, this journey would never have happened. Without her, I would never have started writing again (my own Dark Hunters stories as well as others). Without her there would be no Dark Hunters.

Thank you Dawn, for being there through it all, the ups and downs, the crazy, the wacky, the tears and the joy. Thank you for having my back.

Dawn and I had no idea that what we started would turn into what it has become;or would go as far as it has. I’m looking forward to seeing where the road takes us next!

So, to answer your question, what is a Dark Hunter? It is so much more than a trip or a story, or two sisters for that matter. Read on and let Dawn’s words tell you where our journey began.

Deb White (AKA-Danni Danvers)

The Tale of Two Hunters - One Road Trip

The plans for the trip to drive out and meet Deb White weren’t fixed but there was definitely something brewing. Here’s what we knew so far: April vacation from school, a 22-hour road trip by car, one overnight stay at a hotel in Ohio, first full day in Tulsa, meeting Megan and Mary the Impala the next, and a photo shoot with the car. That was the set itinerary, at least in December. By the time that January had popped up more was added to it, checking out Stull (from the side… other side of the road) a trip to Lawrence, and overnight stay and dinner at the house the night we got back.

So what happens when a writer has way too much time to herself? She comes up with a “what if”. That’s right, this whole story began with a road trip and a “what if”, as in “what if the night I’m all by myself at the hotel in London, Ohio things happen and I run into Sam and Dean, I mean the real Sam and Dean? What do you think could possibly go wrong?” And that my friends, is the beginning of this adventure.

We decided on character names, the adventure was pretty much outlined, because who wouldn’t use an actual photo shoot with an actual replica of Baby in their story? All we needed was a name, and we hashed that out over a phone call at lunch one day from work. Sam and Dean were darker, they weren’t the boys in the show, they were just a bit more… haunted. They were Dark Hunters, and that, my friends, began the ball rolling.

Where it went from there was some place more amazing than we could have ever hoped. The story was written over the course of a month and a half time. 150k words and 33 chapters later, on February 22, 2017 the very first chapter of Dark Hunters was published on FanFiction, on March 3, 2017, it joined the many other works on Archive of Our Own. An epic adventure was beginning, not only for us, but for those who heard about it since conception.

When Danni Met Ali

The story was completely published by the time I left my house in Massachusetts to start the 22-hour trip to Oklahoma, there wasn’t any surprises waiting for those who had followed along, nothing but pictures and the long awaited meeting between me and Deb, or Danni in the story.

The first 11-hours were spent between Massachusetts and Ohio, and mostly on the wireless call with Deb, that I found funny as it came over the speakers. I felt like I was on a Supernatural Road Trip, there were signs everywhere, most I chose to ignore, but the coffee, that was unnaturally good and kept me singing at the top of my lungs to classic rock power ballads, and some Shinedown.

Stopping for the night in London, Ohio, I was surprised to have made it in enough time to actually arrive at a Waffle House, right down the street from the motel at almost exactly 8:43 pm, the time that things started going just a little sideways in the story.

I took pictures, posted them, hashtagged them with fun little things like #DarkHunters #FunFacts so those who followed along really could follow along, because I put things about the story in the description. These pictures were worth more than the thousand words they brought to the page, they were bringing the words I had put down on paper to life.

The adventure continued with the fact that while there may have not been a black 67’ Impala outside my door, but a silver instead, I still found myself a little on edge. Seriously, I wanted to know if things were going to come flying through my window, but nothing of the sort happened. In the morning, I was back on the road and headed to Fred & Red’s Chili diner in Joplin, just like in the story, to meet up with my Supernatural Sister for the very first time.

The Strangeness of it All

It usually never is this easy, finding the tribe you always knew was out there, but that’s how it worked. A story, a fan fiction, was suddenly becoming family. The days spent together were beyond interesting. While the pivotal points of the story had been researched, the major places we were going were known to the both of us, we still found ourselves finding little oddities that we had never dreamed of seeing.

Impala Bridge (Chapter 13 in the story) wasn’t supposed to exist, but there it was. The park that they stopped at in Chapter 12 as a rest area had been closed forever but it was now open. The garage the boys camped out in was never actually shown to me, or described, yet there it was in living color right out my bedroom window and all I could do is imagine Sam standing there.

The entire trip was a strange and surreal experience but Deb and I wouldn’t have put anything past the universe at this point because look how far we had come. And it wasn’t done yet, we still had the opportunity to get to Lawrence, Kansas, and with that came the crazy story of Mary the Impala and our four hour photoshoot with her and Megan.

Imagine driving around Lawrence, home of our boys in the front seat, in SAM’S seat, watching traffic go by, seeing the town that Eric Kripke had deemed their hometown. That was something I never thought would happen. We stopped at the Airport Motel, went out by an abandoned house on a dirty road, took pictures by an old silo, it was intense to say the least, but it was so much fun. We met up again with Megan at Chicago in July, and it was like meeting family again, but more on that later. Let me tell you about Sam and Dean.

How Dark Can You Be?

Right away in the story I knew that this couldn’t just be Sam and Dean Winchester from the show, there had to be an edge about them, so as I said before, they became darker, with just a little bit of a twist. What if Sam’s visions didn’t start when he was 22, what if he had them right along? What if not only did Dean have to watch over Sam when John handed him the baby, but also had to help control him? What if those characters we knew and loved in the series didn’t die, or didn’t die in the same way as the show? How would that change them, what would they be like? And where did Dean get that scar on his cheek? Where was Cas? Where was John? What happened to Bobby?

Yes, in this one our boys are a bit more on the rough side, but they need to be because life doesn’t just hand you an apocalypse and tell you to deal with it, there will be some ramifications with dealing with Lucifer, some sort of backlash, some left over emotions that you can either deal with, or you don’t.

I wrote this while listening to the characters in my head, I wanted to let them tell me how they felt, how they handled things and from that came characters that started out as one pair and turned into something more than just the names and faces that we all came to love. They became their own people, like most do when you watch them or observe someone for so long. Dean was Dean but such a genius, nothing got by him, there was no way that he didn’t see everything that was going on. Sam was Sam but more brutal because he had to be, more pulled back because he couldn’t trust the way he should have been able to. There were reasons why they were the way they were and slowly, through the story, we watch those walls break down, we get to see under the surface, and maybe get a glimpse of who they were supposed to be before the monsters, before all the bad things happened.

Oh, yeah, and they had some interesting new toys in their arsenal...now that was fun.

The Road So Far and Con-nation

After the success of the road trip, things got crazy! Our Dark Hunters family was starting to grow by leaps and bound. People wanted to know how to become one. There is no becoming a hunter, you are one, but there are a few simple rules to follow, something that everyone should be practicing no matter what.

There is no judgement here, you ship who you ship and that’s fine with us. If you think Dean should be with the toaster, who are we to say no.

We encourage each other, because no one should be putting anyone else down, for any reason.

We are the hands in the darkness that reach out to pull you towards the light, and trust me, everyone who started out in this family has come from some very dark places, myself included. We embrace your weirdness, your normalcy, your way of doing things.

We love our artists, our poets, our painters, and our writers. The singers, the players and the rockstars. You may feel you are not creative in that sense but what you put out of yourself, we love that as well. We have healers and defenders, leaders and followers. We have met them all and we love them all.

The road so far has taken us from one side of the country back to the other. We’ve met the boys, supported the cast, hugged the vendors at the cons, become family with those we have only met through social media. From Chicago and Vancouver to Pittsburgh, New Orleans and San Francisco we have become a family of huggers, selfie-takers and when I hear my name shouted out from the crowd, it’s only ever met with love.

Our family has even grown to include a few of the Supernatural cast and I’m sure anyone who was at Friday Night Karaoke in San Francisco would remember the shout out from stage. That was the first time that this became more real to me than I could have ever imagined. Deb and I never thought it would get that far, this far.

Meeting Family

“If you see me at a con, don’t be afraid to ask for a hug!” It has always been that way from the get go,for both myself and Deb, but it has turned into so much more than that. Through random acts of kindness and the help of Creation Entertainment and their awesome staff, and IamAlive, we have stepped up and helped people during cons that would have gone unnoticed.

In Pittsburgh, I had the pleasure, along with other members of the Hunters, to make it an exceptionally special time for one young lady and her father by arranging for her to meet the boys, get autographs, make sure they had what they needed to enjoy the day, like food and water, because this young woman was not only Wayward AF, but she was a fighter, and she still fights today but there is never a promise of a future, or a future con for her. This one needed to be special.

In San Francisco, I proudly watched one of our Hunters take her IamAlive training to the next level by helping someone in need. Was she there as a volunteer, no, she was a con-goer just like the rest of us, but she stepped up, she made the difference, and she made us proud.

In NOLA, we met the most wildest people, but the one I will never forget is Liz herself from Little Pops Workshop. Months before she had designed a pop for Ali and Danni, the characters in the books and we had followed her straight through, she had become family, so when she had donated her autographed Cas for the Hurricane relief, we couldn’t let that deed go unrecognized or unrewarded and Deb and I had to make sure that this fine woman didn’t miss out. With Deb’s pop and my auto, Liz went home with an autographed Castiel pop, signed by Misha. She put her trust in us to deliver Alex his very own Little Jack pop, so I made sure not only did he get his own, but that Liz got hers autoed. The look on his face was priceless.

This is what family should be doing, not just for family members but for everyone. Support, encourage, lift up... love.

Dark Hunters Day and SPNLV

The anniversary of the start of Dark Hunters falls on the first day of Las Vegas this year and we are happy to have a group get together while there to celebrate. It has special meaning not only to myself and Deb but to those who have become part of the family. It’s our first chance to meet some who are traveling from across the ocean to be there, and we can’t wait to celebrate our first year together.

No matter what comes of this, we will always be Supernatural Family. Our boys, the cast, the crew and now with the spin-off of Wayward Sisters happening, our family needs more togetherness. We need to bring everything, everyone to the same place and do what family does, support one another, so there will definitely be pictures from the Dark Hunters Gathering to share with the page.

What Family Means to Me

(We’ve asked people to share with us some thoughts on this section, and we hope that we can get different stories to give a little insight on what we’ve become.)