Sam and Dean aren't mine. . .although at this point, I would settle for a powdered doughnut.

.~o()o~.

An eerie mist stole across the unruffled surface of the lake. There was no sound but the occasional frog, timidly disrupting the silence with its croak. The night held its breath, waiting, not a whisper or a sigh of wind to chase away the gloom.

"Honestly, Derek, could you have picked a worse spot to break down?" A strident female voice shattered the calm and squelching footsteps began to take shape in the distance.

"Whose idea was it to take this stupid trip into the middle of the nowhere, Northern Montana, Alanna?" a male voice sneered, fraught with frustration and exhaustion."

"Don't you put this on me. I assumed we would have a tent and supplies and a car with heat if it got too cold. I pictured us in a cozy little meadow with cute and friendly wildlife looking on, not slogging through the mud and wet to find help because YOU ignored the check engine light again," Alanna yelled back.

"That thing has been on for years. I figured it was broken. How was I supposed to know that this time it would turn out to be correct?"

"Doesn't matter, its still your fault. This was supposed to be fun, but you're turning it into the vacation from hell."

"Shut up, Alanna," Derek muttered before turning and peering forward in the dim light of their flashlight. "I think its this way."

"If you get us lost, then so help me. . ." she stopped to catch her breath before starting to whine once more. "I'm so cold I could cry icicles. How much farther is it?"

"It can't be too much farther. I am sure I saw a farmhouse somewhere around here when we drove through earlier."

"Wait, what's that?" Alanna interrupted him.

"What now?" Derek groaned.

"Listen. . ." And a wail slowly grew in the air as a breeze finally blew through the fog. It grew enough to drive the mist away, revealing the bright moonlight reflecting off the water that was slowly growing choppy. "Look!" she cried, pointing to a figure on the bank. "There is a child."

"Mama, mama!" the child sobbed.

"Derek, we have to help her," Alanna's heart broke at the plaintive wails. "Poor thing, alone and lost on a night like this."

With new spring in their step, they strode over to where the child stood, head in her hands.

"Sweetie. . ." Alanna placed her hand on the child's shoulder. "Where is your mama?"

The child's head snapped up, no trace of tears on her pale face, tousled dark hair tangling in the still rising winds. She reached out and grabbed Alanna's hand fiercely, sending a chill through her entire body. "Sing for me," she cried, the emotion in her voice not showing on her face.

"What?" Alanna tried to reclaim her hand, to no avail. Derek reached out to pull her away, but the child would not let go.

"Sing for me," the little girl insisted.

"I know a place where the grass is really greener," Alanna sang the first song that popped into her mind. "Warm, wet and wild, there must be something in the water. . ."

The child tore her hand away and clamped both tightly to her ears. "You are not my mama!" she screamed, her face finally breaking the mask of calm and expressing terrible pain.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, I'm sorry."

The child screamed and threw herself backwards, hitting the water with a huge splash.

"Derek, go after her! She'll drown!" Alanna cried.

Derek stripped off his shirt and ran into the lake, submerging himself quickly in order to find the child that had already disappeared from sight.

Finally he came up out of the water, dripping and gulping in air. "There was no sign of her." And at that moment, he gave a bloodcurdling scream and was pulled out of sight.

"DEREK! DEREK!" Alanna screamed frantically. She rushed to the edge of the water, afraid to step in for fear the thing that had taken Derek would grab her too. She came as close as she dared, looking for a part of him, or even an air bubble to see where he was, but there was no sign of him. She cried out his name and went closer, her toes dipping into the cold water at the edge of the lake. A cold, slimy hand reached out and grasped her ankle, pulling her under with hardly the time to scream.

"What did you do with my mama?" a child's voice wailed pathetically on the night air as once again the wind died away, the fog returned and everything was silent as it had been before, the only sign of life the slowly disappearing footprints in the mud.

.~o()o~.

"All set?" Samantha asked as she forced the trunk lid closed over the mountain of back packs, camp food and tents that filled every available space.

"I'll say," Leah grinned. "I have been looking forward to this for forever. I can't wait to get out there."

"Definitely ready to spend some time in the great outdoors," Shelby said excitedly. "I am so pumped we all managed to get the same time off so we could go do this."

"I am glad you guys are coming too," Samantha said. "This is Nathan's first time camping and I want to make sure he has a good time. It's good to have some help!"

"It is going to be super awesome, I just know it. No fast food work, no schedules, no rules, just sleeping under the stars and doing what we like for four whole days," Leah was almost bouncing in excitement. "And hopefully I will have some time to work on my tan."

"Well, lets gets started," Sam said, "Montana here we come!"

.~o()o~.

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