Chapter 1: Into The Woods


The dark woods stood utterly quiet, a tranquility settled in the inhabitants of the area. It was odd for them to be able to relax in this way these days, everything had begun to change. The woods now longer belonged to those speechless creatures of whom many were born there. No, a new creature now inhabited amongst them -temporarily but no less threatening. Wolves.

Though as many of the animals had come to expect peace could never last upon the Beacon Hills preserve, though they had never come witnessed something quite as startling as this. A bright light burst through the trees sending a small heard of deers galloping away from their small clearing in panic, the blinding light continuing to spread. On and on the light grew beginning to light the darkest shadows of the area until all at once it vanished leaving in its place two men.

"Son of a bitch!" The shorter man snapped angrily as he jumped to his feet and recovered his shotgun from where it lay upon the floor. "Just once I'd like to come across a demon who doesn't resort to cheap tricks to make their getaway." Reaching one hand out he hulled his brother to his feet, green eyes running over the taller man analytically. "You okay Sammy?"

The taller hunter nodded as he began to dust himself off. "Where do you think we are Dean?" He asked, glancing around the small clearing in which they'd appeared, a certain change from the warehouse they'd been in not a minute previously.

"Beats me. I've never seen this place before." He cocked his gun and raised it upwards. "But last time I ended up in a place like this was when I got outta purgatory. I'm taking no chances."

Sam cringed at the thought of his brothers strife unable to halt the guilt that swirled in his gut at any mention of Dean's time there. "Come on. Let's try and find the nearest town." He said, anything to distract his thoughts from meandering down that pathway, even if it meant hours of walking. "Unless we use the angel express. Castiel? Cas? Can you hear me?"

Dean slipped his phone from his pocket, growling angrily at the no service written in block capitals upon the screen mockingly. "Well we can't map our location..." He looked up to the sky and crossed his arms. "C'mon Cas, get your feathery butt down here and help us." He huffed, glancing around for any sign of the familiar beige trenchcoat.

After a few minutes without a response Sam sighed heavily. "Well, if he isn't coming for you then he probably can't come at all." He said knowledgeably, turning on his heal to head through a gap in the trees.

Dean held back a light flush, clenching his jaw several times frustratedly. "I don't know what you're...you don't know what you're...shut up Sammy."He snapped as he started off after him.

Sam's resultant laughter trickled throughout the overgrowth as the tall man ducked and turned to slip through the greenery. "Come on Dean. Who're you trying to kid. You could sneeze and Cas would come running with a tissue. I'd pretty much have to have a gun to my head."

"Cas and I are just...better attuned..."

"Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?" Sam quipped, growing increasingly amused by Dean's obvious discomfort, even in the dark of the woods the flush upon his brothers cheeks was visible. His smile fell when he noticed Dean's shoulders tense visibly making him feel a swell of guilt for taunting him. "Dean, I'm not dad. You know I wouldn't judge you man, I just want you to be happ-"

"Can we just focus on finding out where the hell we are Sammy?!" Dean snapped sharply, pushing through a thicket of trees and finally coming out onto a road. His eyes rose to look upon a nearby sign taking in the words painted upon it."Beacon Hills? Doesn't sound familiar."

"No..." Sam agreed, his gaze still fixed upon his brother, though he knew better than to try and bring up the topic once more lest he send Dean into another of his epic drunken benders. "Me neither, we need to find a cafe then maybe try and find out what's going on."

The darkened road around them illuminated with an artificial glow as a car turned around the bend, coming to stop just before them. Both Dean and Sam straightened up as they caught sight of the cop car, last thing they needed was to be arrested - again. "You kids alright?" The man in the car asked as he wound down his window, his kindly face coloured in concern.

Sam spoke up first, running a hand through his long hair. "We were camping up in the woods when we heard something." He lied. "Thought it best to get out of there only we seem to have taken a bad turn somewhere."

"Without any of your stuff?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked to their empty hands skeptically.

Dean frowned up at Sam. "Yeah, when we heard the growl grabbing together our stuff wasn't exactly the first thing on our minds." He mumbled in an irritated growl.

For a moment the driver looked between them in silence seemingly coming to a decision as he reached for the radio in the middle of his dashboard. "You kids jump in the back, I'll drive you into town." He said to the brothers before lifting the radio to his mouth. "Sheriff Stilinski here, we've got reports of a dangerous animal roaming the preserve near the south border. Get a team together for a search in the morning. Over."

Sam and Dean shared a glance as they slid into the back of the car - hardly a new experience for either of them, though at least it wasn't in handcuffs this time. The ride passed in silence, the sheriff shooting glances to the pair in the back seat on occasion. Only as buildings came into view just ahead did he begin to speak. "Family hunting trip?"

"You could say that." Dean mumbled gruffly, holding back a grimace when Sam elbowed him in the ribs, the younger Winchester quickly cutting in. "Yeah. A friend of ours says that the game here is good. We wanted to see for ourselves."

"Normally you guys would be right but I wouldn't advise you to head back up there. There have been a string of disappearances around here, my bet is an animal attack."

"Animal attack?" The taller hunter asked, his interest piqued. "Any idea what kind of animal?" At a bemused look from the Sheriff he forced a studious look onto his face. "My brother and I work animal control back at home." He lied.

"Animal control? So you've come across situations like this before?"

"Yeah." Dean replied quickly. "So what're we talking here. Bears? Cougars?..Wolves?"

"Something like that." Sheriff Stilinski added evasively as he pulled into the motel, turning back to face the brothers. "Just give Tom my name, he should give the pair of you a room for the night until you can sort yourselves out."

Seeing that the Sheriff didn't seem prepared to say more Sam slid out from the car, starting to walk towards the reception. As Dean fell into step beside him he glanced over. "Get the feeling something supernatural is going on here?"

Dean nodded once in agreement. "I'm thinking we need to pay a visit into the station tomorrow and get a look at those files. Whatever's going on here I want to get to the bottom of it."