It had been a week since the fire before the Winchester's finally packed up and left. Sam had refused to leave without investigating, so they stuck around and tried to do some digging. Hannah had hoped that the demon would still be there. It was a foolish hope—the demon had split as quickly as it had hit, leaving nothing but death and devastation in its wake.
They were making their way to Blackwater Ridge, Colorado now. The scenery passed by out the windows. Sitting there, Hannah couldn't help but wonder why the demon had come twenty-two years later. She thought about her father's recent disappearance and thought that maybe he was closing in on it, once and for all.
In the backseat, Sam jerked awake. Hannah tried to ignore the fact that Sam had just woken up from another nightmare. Not that she could blame him. Losing the love the love of your life to the same thing that killed your mom was a horrible ordeal to go through. Hannah wished that it hadn't happened to her brother of all people.
Dean looked in the rearview mirror, glancing at his brother concerned. "You okay?"
Sam glanced at Hannah and Dean before quickly looking away again. "Yeah, I'm fine." Hannah tried to ignore the blatant lie.
"Nightmare?" She asked. The only answer she got was the clearing of his throat, but it was the only one she needed.
"You wanna drive for a while?" Dean offered. Under different circumstances, Hannah would've been offended that she wasn't asked. But she knew that Dean was only trying to distract Sam.
Sam laughed in disbelief. "Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that."
"Or me," Hannah added.
"Just thought you might want to," Dean grumbled. "Never mind."
"Look, guys, you're worried about me. I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay."
Hannah glanced back at him. "So is this gonna become a thing?" She asked.
Sam looked confused. "Is what?"
"Lying to each other?" She answered. Sam shifted in his seat. His legs were scrunched up, an uncomfortable position for him. "It's okay if you're not fine. We wouldn't expect you to be. But if we're gonna deal with this, we gotta be honest about it. Capeesh?"
Sam nodded. Hannah glanced around, noting that Dean was avoiding looking at her. She narrowed her eyes, but said nothing. Instead, she grabbed one of her knives and started twirling it around her fingers. "So how far are we from X marks the spot, Captain?"
Dean grinned. "We are just outside of Grand Junction." Sam grabbed the map and started looking at their position.
"You know what?" He said. "Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."
Dean sighed at the conflict that they'd been having the day before they left. "Sam, we dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica-"
"We gotta find Dad first." Sam finished.
"Atta boy," Hannah teased. She set the knife beside her. "Dad's disappearance and this thing showing up exactly twenty-two years later? There's a link somewhere."
"Exactly. Dad will have answers." Dean continued. "He'll know what to do."
Sam's eyes scanned over the map sitting on his lap. "It's weird, guys. These coordinates he left us, this Blackwater Ridge."
Dean frowned. "What about it?"
"There's nothing there. It's just woods." Sam folded up the map. "Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?"
-~\/~-
They had reached a ranger station. Inside, they were looking around at the maps and stuffed animals. Hannah was looking at a 3D map model of the forest surrounding them. "Whoa."
Sam turned to look at her. "What? What is it?"
"See this?" She gestured to the map. "It's like nature's Fort Knox. Blackwater Ridge is surrounded by canyons—" she traced the board with her finger as she spoke, mapping out the surrounding area. "—rough terrain, forest, and several abandoned mines."
"Dude, dudette," Dean said from behind Hannah. "Check out the size of this friggin' bear." She turned around to see Dean looking at a photo. When she got closer, she saw that the photo was of a man standing behind a large bear. Hannah let out a long whistle.
"Jesus," she muttered. "That's bigger than your average Yogi bear."
"And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area," Sam said. "It's no nature hike, that's for sure."
"You three aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" A voice asked from behind the trio. Startled, they all jumped and whipped around. A man, park ranger by the looks of it, was staring at them.
"Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder," Sam lied off the top of his head. "Just working on a paper."
Dean grinned and raised his fist. "Recycle, man."
"Bull." The ranger said. Hannah leaned back, making eye contact with Sam. They shared a quick look of worry. "Your friends with that Haley girl, right?"
Dean paused. "Yes." He said after a second. Behind him, Sam pondered what Dean had just gotten them into. "Yes, we are, Ranger—" he looked at the nametag. "—Wilkinson."
"Well, I will tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-fourth, so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it?" The ranger explained, leading them back away from the photo. "Tell that girl to quit worrying. I'm sure her brother's just fine."
"We will." Dean agreed. "Well, that Haley girl's quite a pistol huh?"
Wilkinson huffed out a laugh. "That is putting it mildly."
Hannah stepped forward, connecting the dots. "So I know you've told her, but maybe she needs to see it. I'm sure you could get us a copy of that backcountry permit. It'd get her off your back."
As soon as the ranger had made a copy and given it to them, they left. Dean started laughing. Sam stopped and faced him. "Alright. Dean, I get. Cruising for a hookup—" Dean gave him an affronted look that Sam pointedly ignored. "—but you, Hannah?"
His sister shrugged. "What can I say other than Dad sent us here and now suddenly, oh look, a missing person!"
"According to this permit, Tommy Collins and a couple of his friends agreed that they wouldn't be back until the twenty-fourth. It's only the tenth!" Sam argued. "If finding Dad meant as much to you as I thought it did, then we wouldn't check this out. We'd be out in Blackwater Ridge lookin' for him." With a huff, he turned and stomped back to the Impala.
Dean leaned over towards Hannah. "Since when is he all shoot first ask questions later?"
Hannah watched Sam slam the passenger door of the Impala. "Since now, apparently." She took off after her younger brother, leaving Dean standing by himself.
"Really?" He muttered to himself.
-~\/~-
Dean, Hannah, and Sam stood on the porch of what was supposed to be the Collin's house. The floor creaked under Hannah's boot. She wondered if the thing would collapse under everyone's weight. The door opened, revealing a woman not that much younger than Hannah or Sam perhaps. They were separated by a screen door.
"You must be Haley Collins. I'm Dean, this is Hannah—" he gestured to Hannah who gave a small wave. "—and this is Sam, we're ah, we're rangers with the Park Service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. We wanted to ask a few questions about your brother Tommy."
Haley hesitated. "Lemme see some ID."
Hannah and Dean pulled out their badges. They pressed them against the screen door for Haley to see. She looked at the badge, and then at the siblings. Haley opened the door after a couple seconds. "Come on in."
"Thanks," Dean said walking by her. Haley looked past him and caught sight of the Impala.
"That yours?" She pointed at it. Hannah and Sam turned to look at the Impala. Dean smiled.
"Yeah."
"Nice car."
Dean headed in after Haley. He turned back around to Sam and Hannah and mouthed 'hot'. Sam rolled his eyes while Hannah wrinkled her nose at their brother's behavior.
Haley led them to the kitchen, where a young boy sat at the table on his laptop. "So if Tommy's not due back for a while," Sam questioned. "how do you know something's wrong?"
Haley entered the room carrying a bowl. She set the bowl on the table before answering, "He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos—we haven't heard anything in over three days now."
"How would he get cell reception in a place like that?" Hannah asked.
"He's got a satellite phone, too."
"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean offered.
Ben spoke up for the first time since the Winchesters had entered. "He wouldn't do that." Dean eyed Ben who looked away from him.
Haley put more food on the table. "Our parents are gone." She said clarifying her brother. "It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other."
Hannah looked at her siblings. "I know how that is." Haley turned to her. "Me and my brothers are practically inseparable."
Sam cleared his throat. "Can I see the pictures he sent you?"
Haley agreed. She grabbed the laptop from Ben and pulled up the pictures. Sam sat down in the chair while Hannah leaned over his shoulder. "That's Tommy." She gestured to the figure on the screen. She played the video for them.
"Hey Haley," Tommy greeted enthusiastically. "day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge." As the video played on, Hannah noticed a flicker of something in the background. Her eyebrows furrowed as she leaned closer to the screen.
"Well, we'll find your brother," Dean informed the Collins siblings. "We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing."
Haley turned to him. "Then maybe I'll see you there. Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself." Behind Haley's back, Hannah sent a worried look over to her Dean. It was hard enough for them to do their job. Having random civilians decide they want to join in on the action made it ten times worse.
"I think I know how you feel," Dean told her. He was referring to their dad, and it was clear to Hannah that not knowing where he was, it was killing them all slowly.
During the entire conversation, Sam had stared at the screen where Tommy's latest video was still pulled up. "Hey, do you mind forwarding these to me?"
-~\/~-
After leaving the Collin's house, they traveled to the nearest bar. Around them, people played pool and waitresses carried trays of beer. At their table, the Winchester siblings sat doing research.
"So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic," Sam informed his siblings as he unloaded his stuff. "Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found." He opened Dad's journal and reached for the newspaper clip that sat in the pocket.
"Any before that?"
Sam set the article on the table. Hannah grabbed it and pulled it closer to her, reading and listening to Sam.
"Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack." Hannah nodded absent-mindedly, still scanning through the article on the disappearances. To her left, Sam pulled out his laptop. "And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936. Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork. Okay. Watch this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out." Hannah looked over at his screen along with Dean. Sam clicked through the video at a slow rate, allowing her to see more clearly what she had noticed at the Collin's house.
"Hold up," she said. Hannah leaned even closer.
Sam clicked through again. "That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move."
Dean hit Sam and gave Hannah a wide smile. Sam looked up at him annoyed.
"Told you something weird was going on," Dean exclaimed. He turned to Hannah. "Called it."
"Technically, I'm the one who said that." Hannah pointed out. She took a swig of her beer and wiped her mouth. Standing up, she brushed past Dean. "But sure. Right Sam?"
"Yeah," he grumbled. "I got one more thing. In 'fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."
Dean stared at the newspaper clip that was under Hannah's beer. "Is there a name?"
-~\/~-
Mr. Shaw, as it turned out, didn't live too far away. Sam, Hannah, and Dean stood in the entry of his small apartment as he smoked a cigarette. "Look, rangers, I don't know why you're asking me about this. It's public record. I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a—"
"Grizzly bear?" Hannah finished for him, her voice skeptical. Mr. Shaw looked at her. He took a puff of his cigarette. Slowly, he nodded.
"The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?" Dean questioned." Mr. Shaw paused. "What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?" They all watched Mr. Shaw as he continued to take a drag from his cigarette. "We knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it."
Mr. Shaw set his cigarette down. "I seriously doubt that. Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make." He sat down in the old armchair. "You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did."
"Mr. Shaw," Sam moved forward and sat on the edge of the mattress across from Mr. Shaw. Dean and Hannah stayed close behind, a couple feet away. "What did you see?"
"Nothing," he finally admitted. "It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it, though. A roar…" Sam looked back at his brother and sister while Mr. Shaw grimaced. "Like no man or animal I ever heard."
"It came at night? Got inside your tent?"
"It got inside our cabin." He corrected. "I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break a door. It unlocked it." Hannah shifted and looked at her brothers equally understanding faces. "Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screaming."
"It killed them?"
"Dragged them off into the night." Mr. Shaw shook his head. "Why it left me alive… been asking myself that ever since. Did leave me this, though." Mr. Shaw pulled down his collar to reveal three long scars, raised lines, like claw marks. "There's something evil in those woods. It was some sort of a demon."
-~\/~-
"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors." Dean reminded them as soon as the door closed to Mr. Shaw's apartment. They started walking back to the Impala. "If they want inside, they just go through the walls."
"So it's probably something else, something corporeal."
"Corporeal?" Dean repeated in disbelief. "Excuse me, professor."
"Shut up," Sam shot. "So what do you think?"
Hannah pondered it. "Well, half the things we hunt have claws, are fast, and is, as Sam called it, corporeal." Sam rolled his eyes.
"Which means we can kill it." Dean pointed out.
They rounded the corner and through the glass doors that led outside. Sitting in the front of the parking lot was the car. Dean opened the trunk, propping it open with the usual shotgun. He grabbed a duffel bag and started filling it with guns. Hannah leaned against the car while Sam leaned in next to Dean and helped him pack. "We cannot let that Haley girl go out there," Sam told them.
"Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her?" Dean asked Sam. "That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?"
"There has to be something that will stop her," Hannah said.
Dean turned to her. "Her brother's missing. She's not gonna just sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend." Hannah nodded.
"Finding Dad's not enough?" Sam slammed the weapons box shut and then the trunk. "Now we gotta babysit too?"
Dean stared at Sam.
"What?"
"Nothing." Dean shook his head. He threw the duffel bag at Sam and walked away from him. Sam turned to Hannah.
"Later."
-~\/~-
The next morning the three of them made their way out to meet Haley. Hannah watched Haley shake her head in disbelief as Dean drove the Impala up. They got out, Sam with the duffel bag slung over his shoulder. "You guys got room for three more?" Dean called.
Haley stopped. "Wait, you want to come with us?"
"Who are these guys?" The ranger Haley hired looked at them skeptically.
"Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue."
The ranger eyed Dean up and down, taking in the worn jeans and boots. "You're rangers?"
Dean nodded. "That's right."
"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?"
Offended, Dean looked down at his outfit. He turned back to Haley. "Well, sweetheart, I don't do shorts."
"What, you think this is funny?" The ranger got angry. "It's dangerous backcountry out there. Her brother might be hurt."
Hannah stepped forward. "Trust me, I think we have it handled. We're gonna find her brother and get him home."
The tension in the group was so thick, one could've cut it with a knife. Hannah didn't let it bother her. She just forged ahead with the ranger, whose name turned out to be Roy. The forest around her was quiet. She would've found it peaceful except for the fact that somewhere in those woods, a creature was lurking with Haley's brother. Behind her was Dean, Haley, Ben, and then Sam. Hannah turned back to Roy who had just finished telling her about a hunting story. "You hunt?"
Hannah nodded. "Yeah. Me and my brothers go every once in a while." She lied. "What do you hunt?"
"Mostly buck, sometimes bear."
Dean walked passed Roy, taking the lead of the group. "Tell me, uh, Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" Roy grabbed the back of Dean's shirt and yanked him back. Sam and Hannah went on alert. "Whatcha doing, Roy?" Dean asked. There was an edge of danger to his tone.
Roy grabbed a stick from off the ground and stabbed it into the ground, triggering a bear trap. Hannah pressed her lips into a thin line. "You should watch where you're stepping… ranger." Roy dropped the stick and walked on, retaking the lead.
"It's a bear trap." Dean chuckled as he told the rest of the group. They hiked on, Dean slightly more cautious. Haley caught up to Dean.
"You didn't pack any provisions. You guys are carrying a duffel bag. You're not rangers." She grabbed his arm. "So who the hell are you?"
Dean glanced around. He nodded for the others to go on. Sam and Hannah walked on, Hannah keeping an ear out in case Dean needed backup.
She could hear Dean explaining how they were just three siblings looking for their father. Taking a look around, Hannah realized that the chances of actually finding their father here were slim. With a sigh and shake of her head, Hannah wondered if this was just a wild goose chase, or if her father had something planned.
-~\/~-
"This is it," Roy announced after an hour of hiking. "Blackwater Ridge."
Hannah stopped to grab a bottle of water that she'd been smart enough to bring. She drank half of it. Her forehead was beaded with sweat. Haley was right about one thing, she thought. No one should hike in jeans.
Sam walked on past Roy who had stepped off to the side. "What coordinates are we at?"
Roy reached into his pocket and pulled out a GPS. "Thirty-five and minus one-eleven."
Hannah and Dean walked up to stand on either side of Sam. "You hear that?" Dean asked.
"Yup." Hannah understood what her brother meant.
"Not even crickets." Sam finished for her.
The area around them was silent except for the crunching of leaves as the rest of the group moved on behind them. The eerie was unnerving. Hannah couldn't imagine her father being out here. She felt frustration build up in her.
Was this just some wild goose chase?
"I'm gonna go take a look around."
Hannah broke out of her thoughts and whirled around. "Not without a partner." Roy stared at her. "Not safe."
Roy chuckled. "That's sweet. Don't worry about me." He waved his gun as if to remind them that he would be perfectly fine. Hannah wanted to grab her own gun from her waistband and wave it in his face. He pushed between the Winchester siblings.
"All right," Dean spoke up. "Everybody stays together. Let's go."
They trudged on again. It wasn't long before Roy called from up ahead. "Haley! Over here!"
Haley took off, followed closely by the rest of the group. Hannah watched as Haley came to a halt. The campsite that Roy had found was gruesome; supplies scattered all around and the tents ripped open, the torn edges fluttering in the breeze. Upon closer look, Hannah realized that blood covered the tents.
"Looks like a grizzly," Roy commented.
Haley looked around. "Tommy?" She threw off her backpack and ran through the campsite. "Tommy!"
Sam ran forward to catch up with the panicked girl. "Shh."
"Tommy!"
"Shh-hh-hh!" Sam gently grabbed her elbow and pulled her back towards the group.
"Why?"
"Something might still be out there." He explained. Haley looked at the trees, searching for some unknown threat.
"Sam!"
Dean was crouched next to something in the dirt. He had a stick in his hand and was using it to point at the dirt tracks. Hannah was next to him. She had John's journal in her hands`, flicking through the pages. Sam walked over and crouched next to them.
"The bodies were dragged from the campsite. But here, the tracks just vanish. That's weird." The siblings stood up. "I'll tell you what, that's no skinwalker or black dog."
Hannah nodded. "You're right." She flipped the journal around, showing the page she had been reading.
"Wendigo's?" Dean asked in disbelief. "Oh come on, wendigos are in Minnesota woods or, or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west."
"Well come up with something better," Hannah told Dean.
Haley bent down to pick up a small object; Tom's bloody phone. She cried as she turned it over in her hand. Dean wrapped his arm around her. "Hey, he could still be alive." Dean tried to comfort the crying girl. He knew Sam would be better, he was always sympathetic and finding hope even when things got really bad.
The quiet moment was disrupted by a scream.
"Help! Help!"
Everyone was up and moving. Roy was ahead of everyone else as they ran to aid the shouter. Hannah pulled her gun out, keeping the safety on for the moment.
"Help! Somebody!"
They crashed through bushes, coming into a smaller clearing. Hannah's head spun as she looked for any sign of someone. Everything was still—too still for her liking.
"It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?" Haley said.
They listened for another moment.
"Get back to camp. Now!" Hannah shouted.
The group ran back to the campsite only to find it destroyed. The backpacks were shredded and strewn all over the ground.
"Our packs!" Haley shouted.
"So much for my GPS and my satellite phone."
Haley turned to Dean. "What the hell is going on?"
"It's isolating us," Hannah said. "Cutting us off so we can't leave."
Roy stomped forward towards her. "You mean someone, some nutjob out there just stole all our gear."
Sam walked towards Hannah. "I need to speak with you and Dean. In private."
Hannah nodded. She gestured Dean over, who looked glad to get away from Haley's questioning gaze. "What's up?"
"Hannah was right," Sam stated. "You got the claws, the impressive speed, the way it can mimic a human voice," he listed off.
"Wait…" Hannah held up her hand. "Are you saying that it's a Wendigo?" Sam nodded. Instead of feeling happy that she was right, she felt a slight moment of panic. "Shit." She showed off her gun. "This is useless."
"How are we gonna kill it?"
"We'll figure that out later," Sam said. "First we gotta get these people to safety." He took off for the campsite. "All right, listen up, it's time to go. Things have gotten….more complicated."
"What?" Haley asked.
"Kid, don't worry." Roy brushed his concern off. "Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it."
"It's not me I'm worried about. If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave." Sam repeated a little more forcefully. "Now."
"One, you're talking nonsense." Roy started listing. "Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders."
Dean stepped forward between the two. "Relax."
But the two kept on flighting. "We never should've let you come out here in the first place, all right?" Sam told him. "I'm trying to protect you."
Roy stepped forward right into Sam's space. Sam stood a good head taller than the ranger. "You protect me?" Roy scoffed. " I was hunting these woods when you're mommy was still kissing you goodnight."
Hannah waited for Sam to make his next move. She knew the comment about Mary would make him mad, and the ranger would suddenly find that he would have a very big problem.
"Yeah? It's a damn near perfect hunter." Sam smiled. "It's smarter than you, and it's gonna hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here."
Roy laughed. "You know you're crazy, right?"
"Yeah? You ever hunt a wen—"
Hannah pulled Sam back from Roy. Haley called for them to stop fighting.
"Stop. Stop it." She told everyone. "Everybody just stop. Look. Tommy might still be alive. And I'm not leaving here without him."
There was a pause as everyone came back to their senses and calmed down. Dean looked at the sky. "It's getting late. This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night. We'll never beat it, not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves."
-~\/~-
It wasn't too long later that they had a fire up and going. Haley and Ben sat around it warming themselves while Dean walked around the perimeter checking the protection symbols. Haley looked over curiously as he drew another one in the dirt by the fire.
"One more time, that's—"
"Anasazi symbols," Dean reminded her. "It's for protection. The wendigo can't cross over them." Roy laughed at him from the tree he had taken to leaning against. "Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy."
Dean finished the symbol and looked over at where Sam and Hannah were sitting, bodies tilted away from camp as they talked. The mood seemed somber. Neither of them were smiling, just talking with their voices low.
He made his way to the edge of the camp where they had decided to sit. "You wanna tell me what's going on in those freaky heads of yours?"
"Dean—"
"Uh, uh." Dean stopped Sam. "Remember what we said yesterday? No lying." Dean locked eyes with Hannah before turning back to Sam. "You're like a powder keg, man, it's not like you. I'm supposed to be the belligerent one, remember?"
There was a long pause, where Dean waited for an answer from Sam. "Dad's not here. I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sign, right?"
"I was thinking about this earlier," Hannah said. "Truth be told, I don't think Dad's here. I don't think he's ever been here." She sighed.
"Then let's get these people back to town and let's hit the road." Sam proposed to his older siblings. "Go find Dad. I mean, why are we even still here?"
"He sent us here for some reason. I just can't figure out what that reason is." Hannah said.
"This is why." Dean pulled out their dad's journal. "This book. This is Dad's most valuable possession—everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he's passed it on to us. I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business."
Hannah shook her head. "I wish he would call us. Why can't he just pick up the phone and at least tell us he's okay? It's so, so, frustrating." She groaned.
Dean shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. But the way I see it, Dad's giving us a job to do, and I intend to do it."
"Dean…no," Sam told him. "I gotta find Dad. I gotta find Jessica's killer. It's the only thing I can think about."
Hannah could hear the desperation in Sam's voice. The pleading. She imagined that her father had felt the same way right after their mom died. "Sam," she said softly. "We'll find the thing." She promised him. Hannah remembered when Sam was only five and asking for Hannah to promise to help him with his reading. His eyes had been so full of life back then. Right now, they seemed dull and void.
Hannah hated it.
Dean placed his hand on Sam's shoulder. "Listen to me. You've gotta prepare yourself. I mean, this search could take a while, and all that anger, you can't keep it burning over the long haul. It's gonna kill you. You gotta have patience, man."
Sam looked up at them. "How do you two do it? How does Dad do it?"
"Dad drinks himself to sleep half the nights." Hannah reminded Sam. "And we… well, it helps, knowing that even if our family is so screwed over, others don't have to be." She shrugged. "It's a little comforting to know that you are helping. Takes some weight off your shoulders."
There was a long pause as Sam soaked up what she said. He remembered the nights that Dad would come stumbling and tripping, smelling like a bar. Sam knew he couldn't become that kind of man. Jess would've hated him. He would hate himself.
"I'll tell you what else helps," Dean spoke up. "Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can."
Sam smiled, and for a second, everything seemed kinda okay to Hannah.
"Help me! Please!"
Everyone was on their feet. Hannah reached for her gun, seeing Dean do the same.
"Help!"
Sam shone a flashlight around, trying to catch a glimpse of the Wendigo lurking around.
"He's trying to draw us out," Dean informed the group. "Just stay cool, stay put."
"Inside the magic circle?" Roy asked.
"Help! Help me!"
Hannah heard a loud growl, like a demon screaming.
Roy raised his gun and aimed into the forest where the growl had come from. "Okay, that's no grizzly."
Haley was whispering to Ben. "It's okay. You'll be alright, I promise." She stood in front of him to protect him from anything that might burst through the bushes.
The wendigo ran around the campsite, too fast to see but everyone could hear its growl as it ran close to Haley and Ben. They shrieked and came closer to the center of the camp.
"It's here," Sam said.
The wendigo ran by again. Roy aimed his gun at the rustling leaves and took a shot. When the wendigo ran behind them, he quickly turned around fired off two more shots. The wendigo cried out as one of Roy's bullet's hit it.
"I hit it!" He shouted before running off to go see what he had hit.
"Roy!" Hannah called after him, chasing the ranger. "Roy, stop! Roy!" She ran after him, following the trail of bushes that swayed in Roy's wake.
"It's over here!" he shouted. "It's in the tree!"
Hannah burst into the clearing, expecting to see Roy aiming his gun up the tree. Instead, the area was clear. She went on alert. Bushes rustled behind her and she swung her gun up, preparing to shoot only to be met with her brother's faces. She quickly lowered her gun. Sam moved the flashlight around, looking for any sign of Roy.
But he was gone.
-~\/~-
The next morning, the group was in a somber mood.
"I don't" Haley stuttered as she tried to comprehend what had fully happened the night before. "…I mean, these types of things, they aren't supposed to be real."
"I wish I could tell you different," Dean said.
"How do we know it's not out there watching us?"
"We don't. But we're safe for now."
Haley looked up at him. "How do you know about this stuff?"
Dean paused. "Kind of runs in the family." He said eventually.
Hannah sat on the forest floor, stuck in her own head. It had been so long for her since someone under her watch had died on a hunt. Their job was to keep normal people safe from this kinda stuff. They had a life to get back to, jobs to do, people to see.
Sam walked over towards the group. "Hey." Hannah turned her head towards him. "So we got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch."
"Well, hell," Dean joined. "You know I'm in."
Hannah stood up and walked towards her brothers. "It's almost like you read my mind."
Sam smiled and took out their Dad's journal, opened to the page about Wendigo's. He showed it to Haley and Ben who stared at the First Nations-style drawing. "Wendigo is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours'."
"They're hundreds of years old. Each one was once a man." Dean told the two. "Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter."
Haley looked disgusted. "How's a man turn into one of those things?"
"Cannibalism," Hannah said. "You find yourself starving and cut off from any food, you start doing anything you can to survive. Including eating other members of your group."
"Like the Donner Party." Ben surmised.
"Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality," Sam listed.
"And it's true. The more you eat, the less human you become and the more monstrous." Hannah said with a grim look on her face. "Wendigos are constantly starving."
Haley looked at her. "So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?"
The Winchester's shared a look of 'I wouldn't do it' with each other.
"You're not gonna like it," Dean told her.
"Tell me."
Dean sighed. "More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it's awake it keeps its victims alive. It, uh, it stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother's alive, it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden, and safe. We gotta track it back there."
"And then how do we stop it?"
"Well, guns are useless, so are knives. Basically—" Dean held up the can of lighter fluid he'd been messing with, and the white cloth he'd picked up. "—We gotta torch the sucker."
After a little while, they headed into the forest. Dean led the group. Haley was close behind him, followed by Ben, while Sam and Hannah took the rear. In the daylight, it was easier to see the area surrounding them. The trees had claw marks scratched on them. Dean followed the trail of claws leading them deeper and deeper into the forest.
"Hannah. Dean."
Hannah headed over to Sam whose was looking up into the trees. She followed his gaze. There were claw marks everywhere, each so clear and visible even from twenty feet below.
"You know, I was thinking," Sam said, his voice low. "those claw prints, so clear and distinct." He chuckled. "They were almost too easy to follow."
The realization dawned on Hannah too late.
Trees rustled as the Wendigo ran past them, growling. Haley, startled, backed into a tree. Something dripped on her shoulder. She slowly looked up before screaming and jumping out of the way as something large fell from the tree.
The large something turned out to be Roy's body.
Sam went over to help Haley up who had fallen in her hurry while Hannah went to go check out Roy. Dean raised his Molotov cocktail.
Hannah lifted his head and realized that his neck was broken. "He broke his neck."
Sam helped Haley onto her feet as Hannah stood back up. The wendigo growled again, sounding much closer.
"Okay, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!" Dean shouted.
The group took off. They weaved between the trees and jumped over roots. Hannah saw out of the corner of her eye as Ben came around a corner and fell. She turned around and ran towards him.
"Come on, get up, you're fine."
Hannah and Ben kept running, now separated from the rest of the group. They heard Haley's scream.
"Haley?"
They stopped running, looking for any sign of the other three. Hannah noticed a part of a broken bottle that had been part of Dean's Molotov cocktail.
"Oh shit." She rapidly turned around, looking for her brothers. "Sam! Dean!"
Ben came up behind her. "If it keeps its victims alive, why would it kill Roy?"
Hannah heard the fear in his voice, and she realized why he was asking. "Don't worry. They'll be fine. Roy shot it, so naturally it was mad."
Ben nodded. He wandered off a little, leaving Hannah to worry about how to find her brothers. She had to think, where could a wendigo store people and wait out for years?
"The mines!"
"They went this way!"
Hannah and Ben shouted at the same time. They looked at each other. Hannah ran over to him and saw the trail of M&M's leading west. She laughed. "This is the only time I'll thank Dean for his eating habits."
They followed the trail off M&M's for a half-hour before they reached the entrance to a mine that had been marked off with several signs that said WARNING! DANGER! DO NOT ENTER EXTREMELY TOXIC MATERIAL and KEEP OUT NO ADMITTANCE. Hannah paid the signs to attention and squeezed her way in. Ben paused, looking at the signs before deciding to follow Hannah.
Hannah could see the appeal of the mines, and if she had been a monster herself, she would've chosen something exactly like this. Dark, spacious, and hidden very well from any humans. They walked along an old rail track. Hannah took out a flashlight and shined it up ahead.
She heard a growling sound and within a second, she had turned the flashlight off and was pulling Ben into the shadowy wall. The wendigo passed them, heading towards the exit of the mine. Ben saw the outline of the Wendigo and whimpered. Hannah pressed her hand against his mouth before he could make another sound.
Once the wendigo was gone, Hannah peeled herself from the wall and together they hurried down the tunnel in the direction that the wendigo had come from. It was a little farther down before the floor beneath them turned from dirt to wood, creaking under their feet.
When Hannah had been at the Collins' house and on their porch, she had thought the wood would break under them. This time it did.
Hannah hit the ground, landing on her side. She coughed, feeling a new pain bloom from her shoulder as something sharp pushed it. As the dust started to settle, she noticed that it wasn't a rock like she had thought, but a human bone.
She pushed herself up. They had landed in a huge pile of human bones. Ben looked at the skull he had landed next to and jumped away, bumping into Hannah. She steadied him. "Hey, don't worry. Don't worry."
Hannah pushed him up. The wood creaked overhead, and Hannah went still. Slowly, she turned to leave when she saw them.
Hanging from the ceiling was Dean, Sam, and Haley. She rushed over to them. Hannah felt partial victory at having found where her brothers were. Now all she needed was to get them out.
She shook them, trying to wake them. "Sam! Dean!" Hannah could hear Ben waking Haley up. "Sam!"
Sam's eyes opened, and he blinked, trying to look at her. "Hannah?"
"Someone had to be the knight in shining armor to rescue you two damsels in distress."
Dean's eyes fluttered open. Hannah turned to him. "Hey, you guys okay?"
Dean winced. "Yeah."
"Been better."
Hannah took out her knife and started cutting at the ropes. She helped Dean down first, then Sam. She took one arm from both boys and slung them over her shoulders, aiding them across the room. They made pained grunts and sighs that made Hannah wince. "You guys sure you're all right?"
Sam nodded while Dean said, "Yeah. Yep. Where is he?"
"Just left."
Hannah heard a cry and turned around. Haley was standing in front of who she assumed to be Tommy. He looked dead, something that didn't reassure her. "Tommy," Haley cried. She reached out to touch his cheek. As soon as she touched him, Tom's head jerked up. Haley jumped back and shrieked, turning to Hannah. "Cut him down!"
Hannah rushed over with her knife and started cutting. Haley caught Tommy as he came down. "We're gonna get you home," she told him gently.
Dean looked over next to him. He beckoned Sam over. "Check it out." In the corner were all their stolen supplies stashed in a pile. There were supplies that weren't their too, left over from previous victims. Included in that pile were—
"Flare guns." Sam grinned. "Those'll work."
Dean laughed as he twirled the gun. He handed one to Sam and pocketed one for himself and Hannah before standing up. He wandered over to the rest of the group, where Haley and Hannah were supporting Tom, Ben just behind them. Dean handed her a flare gun and then they began making their exit.
A growl echoed through the mine.
"Looks like someone's home for supper," Dean commented.
"We'll never outrun it."
Dean looked back at the others. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Sam nodded. "Yeah, I think so."
"Let's do this then," Hannah motioned Ben over and swapped spots with him. "I'm gonna get you guys outta here." She nodded at her brothers. "See you on the other side."
"Wait, what are you two gonna do?" Haley asked.
Dean winked at her before walking away. "Chow time, you freaky bastard!" He shouted. "Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby, I taste good!"
Hannah laughed. "Have fun with him," she told Sam. "And stay safe." Sam nodded and followed after Dean. After they were gone, Hannah turned back the Collins. "Okay, now let's go. Hurry!"
They ran down the tunnels as best they could, with Haley and Ben practically carrying Tom who was limping pretty bad. Hannah heard a growl come from the tunnel to their left. She aimed her gun down the tunnel. "Get outa here." She told them over her shoulder.
"What?" Haley asked. "No."
"Go!"
"Come on, Haley!" Ben tugged them down the opposite tunnel. Hannah slowly inched closer towards the dark tunnel.
"Let's go you bastard." She muttered, waiting for it. After a few seconds, she heard another growl… right beside her.
She turned and shot at the Wendigo. It lurched out of the way and the flare hit the rocks. Hannah cursed and ran down the tunnel towards the Collins'. They looked back at her when they heard her footsteps.
"Run!" she shouted. They jumped a little when she shouted, but started running when they saw the wendigo behind Hannah. The tunnel ended, cornering the group. Hannah stood in front of them. The wendigo walked towards them, knowing they were trapped.
"Hey!"
Dean and Sam stood at the end of the tunnel with their flare guns up. Sam fired at the flare hit the wendigo in the stomach. It burst, sending the wendigo into flames. Hannah looked up from the dead monster to her brothers.
"Not bad, huh?" Dean asked.
"Timing was a bit off." Hannah grinned. "Come on, let's get outta here."
-~\/~-
They had made it out of the forest. An ambulance was loading Tom, preparing to take him to the hospital. Hannah was getting checked by the other ambulance. Ben and Sam were getting interviewed by two police officers.
"And the bear came back again after you yelled at it?" An officer asked.
"That's when it circled the campsite," Ben told. "I mean, this grizzly must have weighed eight hundred, nine hundred pounds." Sam nodded along.
The officer closed his notebook. "All right, we'll go after it first thing."
Meanwhile, Haley was talking to Dean. "So I don't know how to thank you," Dean smirked at her. Haley smiled at him. "Must you cheapen the moment?"
"Yeah," Dean said like it was obvious.
A paramedic came up to them. "You riding with your brother?" They asked Haley.
"Yeah." Haley turned to Ben. "Let's go."
Hannah wandered over. She gave a small wave to Ben, who nodded his head at her. Haley gave Dean a kiss on the cheek. "I hope you find your father," she told him.
Then they were gone, hopping into the back of the ambulance were Tom was waiting, heavily bandaged. The Winchesters headed over to the Impala. Sam sat on the hood with Hannah while Dean stood in front of them. "Man, I hate camping," Dean remarked after the ambulance had driven off.
"Me too," Hannah agreed.
"Me three."
They sat for a little while. Eventually, Dean spoke back up. "You know we're gonna find Dad, right?"
"Yeah, I know." Sam smiled. "But in the meantime? I'm driving."
"Shotgun," Hannah called. Dean shook his head, smiling. He tossed Sam the keys and they gathered in the car.
"Man, how do you do this?" Dean complained. "So small…"
Sam off down the road. Hannah didn't know exactly where they were going, or what the plan would be for tomorrow, but she did know one thing.
They had to find Dad.
