NPOV

"Take care of her man, she's more special than you realise" those were the last words my brother Dean had said to me before he and Sam drove off in the impala out of Tree Hill. This had been over a year ago, and I was still here in Tree Hill, in high school. Never had I been in a school for this long, and something told me I would be in this town long after I graduated, as Deans words were still as true as they had been the last time I saw him, it was my job to make sure Haley stayed safe and to protect her.

XXXX

As Haley and I walked to school the air was cooler than it had been, but that always came with the seasons changing from Summer to Autumn. I tried to survey the area as we walked in order to check for danger while also looking like I wasn't doing anything of the such.

"Nate, you in there?" I heard Haley say smiling up at me.

"Huh? Yeah sorry, I got distracted" I wonder how long she had been talking.

"I was saying that after school Brooke, Peyton, Lucas, Mouth and I are planning on getting some food at Karen's café, did you wanna join?" her voice always sounded so cheerful, which for someone with such a dark past, I had to wonder how that was possible.

"You sure? Lucas doesn't seem to like me much" Lucas had been more than just cold to me since my arrival in Tree Hill.

"He just takes a while to warm up to someone, trust me he likes you" yeah a year is more than I while I thought to myself as we walked to our lockers.

"Sure, count me in"

"Great, I can't wait" she beamed up at me, her smile was more than infectious, it was the best part about my day.

XXXX

Classes when by as normal, math, English, History etc but oddly enough it wasn't until basketball practise that things started to seem weird. As we walked into the gym Skills came up to me asking how I was and giving me a smile before heading off for laps, as he walked away the lights started to flicker in the gym and the air seemed to become much colder around us, our breath was visible it was so cold.

"God this crap hole is becoming well… a crap hole" Whitey said loud enough that we could all hear "But until one of you gets the ceiling on your head we are going to practise! Suicides, now!"

As I started to run I thought I saw something walk past the locker room doors, I had to be sure "coach I'm going to the toilet" I yelled and ran over that way ignoring Whiteys protests.

Once through the locker room doors I pressed my body as close to the walls as possible and slowly walked to the showers area, where I could hear shuffling and grunting, I stuck my head around the corner and saw a big creature rummaging through Jake and Lucas' belongings. I couldn't see its face but from the back he looked like a Wendigo, but that made no sense, they never travel to populated areas but wait for campers in the woods for easy prey, and so they are often mistaken as animal attacks. The creature turned confirming my suspicions of a Wendigo but my confusing stayed the same, what in the world was going on in this town?

I looked around for something to use in order to kill it but unless Masons feet really were deadly, shoes weren't going to do anything against this creature. One of the shoes I had just been holding fell from the bench causing the Wendigo to turn and look me dead in the eyes, I was in trouble. He ran straight for me, knocking me off my feet, I landed two punches on him, severely hurting my hand but my main concern were his teeth so close to my neck, when I heard a gunshot go off, it wouldn't kill him but it would injury the Wendigo, he let out a roar and ran out of the locker room, hopefully heading for the woods. I looked up to see who I was thanking trying to figure out a cover story.

I was shocked for a second before I said anything.

"Dean…? Sam…?" They were back.