After leaving Eliza's huge house, Sam made the short trek back to the crappy hotel that Dean and himself were staying in for the duration of their father's hunt. The sky was dark but there were a few starts peaking through the dark abyss as he stared up at the sky, wondering what laid beyond the veils of their world. The things he saw in his life were unimaginable and most people would run the other way when they saw them, but he was one of the few that ran towards them. He wondered how many more terrible things laid beyond the Earth since so many horrible things seemed to already exist in his world.
Only a couple of minutes passed before Sam found himself back at the hotel. He opened the door to see that Dean was sitting on the bed, waiting up for him and watching some stupid show on TV. Sam loosened his tie once he entered the room and had shut the door. "Having fun there?" He questioned Dean as it looked like Dean might have been watching an old episode of The Munsters.
"Shut up," Dean cracked at him. "How did it go?"
"Good," Sam responded. "But her house is really huge. It's so shocking to see someone living in a house like that."
Dean smirked teasingly. "So you even know how to ring in the rich ones? Damn Sam."
"I don't really care about her money." Sam responded before he yawned rather loudly.
Dean quickly stood up from the bed and grabbed his duffel full of hunting supplies. "Change your clothes," he demanded. "Dad wants us to check out the woods behind this hotel. He thinks that the creature might be in there but he's checking out another area across town."
Sam sighed for a moment. "Are you serious?" He asked. "I just got home and I have school tomorrow. It's already pretty late."
"Then don't go," Dean retorted. "You can do the whole thing I did and just stop attending class."
"I don't think so." Sam responded before going over to his bag and pulling out some clothes. He headed to the bathroom and changed into a simple pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and one of his heavier jackets since the weather was a bit chilly and it would get colder with the later it got.
After he dressed, Sam came out of the bathroom. He really hated doing recon work sometimes when it came to hunting. Sometimes it ended up messy, excruciating, or just took too damn long. There were only so many hours in a day and Sam seemed to have very few of them left after he got done with class everyday. He rarely even had time to do homework once he got home from school because Dean would insist on doing recon for their father when he got home.
"Come on, slowpoke." Dean teased his little brother before leaving the hotel room and walking out to the woods behind the rundown hotel they had been staying at.
Sam followed quickly behind his brother, staring up at the sky for a moment, his thoughts about the wonders of the world coming to mind again. He sighed as they stepped deeper and deeper into the woods, the farther they went, the darker it became. "So do you know what dad thinks this thing might be?" Sam asked, wondering which creature they were up against this time.
Dean walked deeper into the woods, a few branches snapping at his feet that had fallen to the ground during the fall. "He thinks it could be werewolves or a Wendigo. I'd go with the latter because the people have disappeared and no bodies have showed up. The werewolves would leave behind a body and the hearts would be ripped out."
Sam didn't say anything as he held up a gun, one hand ready to pull the trigger, the other hand underneath to hold it steady. He knew that the gun wouldn't actually hurt a Wendigo, but it was one of the few weapons they had on hand. Dean had most of the supplies, but he also had a gun on hand like Sam.
As Sam glanced around the woods, he stepped on branches that cracked and broke beneath his gigantic feet. He tried to be as quiet as possible, but with his extreme height, and muscular build now, he tended to be a bit louder out on hunts. It didn't help that the woods were covered in dead branches since spring hadn't really kicked in too much in the state of Michigan at this point. The leaves on the trees were only starting to bud.
"Geez, Sam." Dean commented about all of the noise. "Can you be any louder?" He whispered so he wouldn't scare anything away like Sam probably was. "You're going to scare the creature away."
"Good. Then we won't have to fight it." He replied as he continued to walk and follow Dean. They passed several types of trees in the woods; elms, oaks, and even birch trees. The woods smelled of wet dirt since the spring season had just begun and it rain quite a bit, soaking the ground and leaving it muddy.
As Sam soaked in the earthy quality of the woods, he suddenly heard a low whining sound that he found quite familiar. It was doglike, but Sam didn't think any dogs would be in the woods unless they were a stray. Dean and himself quietly crept further, following the noise with their ears until something white came into view. Dean pointed his gun directly at the thing but Sam put his hand overtop of Dean's arm as if telling him to lower his gun. "No!" He exclaimed, sending an echo through the woods and causing the animal to look up at them.
A white wolf, one more beautiful than Sam had ever seen, stared up at them with intense eyes. It didn't growl or bare its teeth at them, but it just stared and whined slightly because its leg was caught in some low brush on the floor of the woods. "It's a wolf, Sam!" Dean shouted at him. "It will bite our asses off the first thing it gets free!"
Sam stared at the wolf also with intense eyes. He had this feeling in his gut that radiated throughout his body. His heart raced a little and he wasn't sure it had anything to do with fear. "I don't think it will hurt us." He said as if he knew somehow by instinct. With that said, he slowly stepped towards the wolf, trying not to make any sudden movements that might frighten it. His hands stayed up in the air, like he was being confronted with a cop that wanted to arrest him. He did this so the wolf could see that his hands weren't reaching for anything that might hurt it.
Keeping his eyes on the wolf before him, Sam slowly knelt down to the ground, listening to the wolf whine and try to get free from the brush. He noticed that a small cut, one that had become red due to a bit of bleeding, had formed on the wolf's right front leg. Slowly reaching forward to grab the wolf's leg, he carefully loosened and pulled away the brush that had hurt the wolf.
At this point, Sam thought about running for it, but he was surprised when the wolf gently licked his hand after releasing it. He laughed slightly since the tongue tickled from feeling all sandpapery. Then he ripped a piece of the bottom of his shirt off and tied it gently around the wolf's cut on its leg. The wolf didn't seem to be phased by him or want to hurt him at all.
"Are you nuts?! Get away from that thing now!" Dean exclaimed, thinking that the wolf would do a complete 180 and hurt Sam.
The wolf looked at Dean and a low growl came from within its throat. Sam chuckled slightly. "I guess it doesn't like you."
The wild animal nudged Sam's hand gently as if it was telling him to pet it. Sam smiled with a big toothy grin gently touched the white fur of the wolf. It was the softest thing he had ever felt and he gently rubbed behind its ears. The wolf started wagging its tail, letting Sam know that it liked the rubbing of its ears. "Wow. It's so beautiful." Sam stated as he continued to pet the wolf. "You should try to pet it Dean."
"I'm just fine over here." He responded, watching Sam but glancing around the woods to make sure nothing would come out and attack them.
Sam kept petting the wolf but then he watched its ears perk up as if it had heard something. Before he knew it, the wolf started running off into the woods, leaving Sam there, watching as it ran away. "I wonder where it went."
"Who cares? We need to be searching." Dean said as he continued to walk through the woods, making his brother follow.
Sam sighed as he stared in the direction the wolf had gone, hoping it would come back. It was rare that a wild animal would be so friendly, so Sam found it all the more intriguing. After giving up hope that the wolf would return, he followed his brother and continued the recon work they were doing for anything suspicious. However, Sam didn't know if a friendly wolf should be put under the suspicious list.
The recon work had led into the late morning hours before Sam and Dean finally went back to the hotel. Their search left them with no luck at all. They found no signs of a werewolf or Wendigo, or anything supernatural at all. They didn't know if they were searching in the wrong spot, or the thing responsible for the disappearances had been in another place.
In the morning, Sam awoke with his eyelids feeling heavy. He barely got any sleep after searching the woods for the creature. He rubbed his eyes gently before going to the bathroom and taking a nice hot shower, one that he hoped would wake him up a bit. It did do the trick, but he was still half asleep when he dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a navy t-shirt, and put on his Carhart brown jacket overtop.
Seeing that Dean was still asleep, Sam quietly grabbed his backpack and left the hotel. He made the short trek to the school as usual and went to his first class of the day: World History. His heart leapt because he knew that Eliza would be in that class and he just couldn't wait to see her. As his excitement grew, Sam walked faster to class until he finally reached it and sat in the seat next to Eliza's. "Hey!" He exclaimed with such enthusiasm.
She jumped a little and looked at him. "Oh hey." She said quietly. Apparent distress was on her face.
A grin spread across Sam's mouth. "You seem kind of jumpy."
"I'm fine." She replied quietly before looking up at the teacher who had just entered and insisted on teaching them more about the Roman Empire. At least this time they were discussing the reign of Julius Caesar and then his downfall.
After class, Eliza walked quietly to her locker and Sam just followed her. She seemed even more quiet than usual and this bothered Sam. "Is something bothering you?" He asked sincerely, concerned about her well-being.
"No." She said simply before doing the three digit combination for her locker. She raised her arm up to place a book on the top shelf and that is when Sam noticed the bandage on her arm.
Sam stared at it and gasped as the image of the wolf from last night popped into his head. He remembered helping it and how it had a cut on its front leg from being stuck in the brush. His heart pounded rapidly as he looked at Sara with fear that she might be some type of supernatural creature. Everything just seemed to come into place. "Oh my god….." Sam said in shock as he realized the girl he liked might be more than just a girl.
