Chapter 4

Thanks for all the favourites, follows and reviews. Feeling the love guys. Plus I have great news, as of last Wednesday I've finished school forever! Hopefully I've done well enough in my exams to go to university in September to study Law with Business, I'm so excited. Anyway, that also means I can devote most of my time to finishing all my fics, so please enjoy this next chapter.

Katie stared at Sam for what seemed like hours, afraid that if she looked away for even a second, Sam would stop breathing. She had tried numerous times to wake Sam, but hadn't succeeded at all. His face had gone pale by what she guessed was blood loss.

"Sam." She whispered, being quiet not wanting to attract the creature's attention again. "Sam, wake up!" She continued daring to raise her voice a little. Her efforts were successful this time, receiving a soft moan from the man. She could only wait anxiously for Sam to wake fully, could only watch as Sam's long lashes fluttered open slowly, revealing wide eyes, it was dark in the cave, but Kate guessed Sam would have brown eyes to go with his brown hair, Sam had that whole "baby-face-puppy-dog-eyes" thing going on, so the big brown eyes assumption went along with that fact. He was very handsome, and Katie, despite being in their sucky situation, found herself being attracted to him, she always had a thing for heroes, and Sam definitely fell into that category, he did save her from being clawed up, and possibly even from being killed, after all.

It took a moment for Sam to gain his bearings, his eyes floating around the room for a moment before they landed on Katie. He frowned confused, his memory still obviously a little bit hazy, before it all came back to him like a sucker-punch.

"Katie, are you alright?" His voice was slightly slurred, but Katie understood him and couldn't help but laugh at the question. Sam swung himself towards Katie, regretting it a bit when the ropes bit into his wrist more and the pain that was already coming from his shoulder intensified, but his worry for the girl made him not care. She reminded him a bit of Jess, mainly because she had light hair.

"Am I alright? I wasn't the one that was attacked by that thing." She replied.

"So you're okay? It didn't hurt you?" Sam asked again, still completely forgetting his own injuries, and that made Katie fall for Sam even more.

"No, it didn't. I'm fine, but Sam, you're not fine, your shoulder has been torn to shreds, and those cuts." She could just make out the long cuts across Sam's stomach and down his chest, and his injured shoulder was facing towards the light, so she could see the severe damage that had been done, it looked like raw meat, a mass of red and shredded flesh and muscle.

"It's okay, the cuts aren't that deep." Sam reassured her, looking down and feeling relieved when he saw that the cuts had crusted over with blood, that was good because it meant he wasn't bleeding out, his shoulder though, that might be a problem, he didn't need to look to know that it would need some serious medical attention, he could feel warm liquid falling from that area and knew he was bleeding.

"What about your shoulder?" Katie asked, she could see the worried look on his face as he assessed his own wounds.

"It'll be okay." Sam mumbled, his tone not reassuring at all, and Katie knew he was just saying he was fine to reassure her, and maybe even himself. "Has it come back while I was out?" He then asked, and Katie just shook her head.

"What is this thing anyway?" She questioned, whatever it has, it's wasn't any animal she had seen before, it had human characteristics, apart from the razor sharp teeth and long claws of course.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, trust me." Sam replied, looking back up to check around the room again, if he could just find his bag and get to it, they'd be fine.

"Yeah well try m-" A groan cut Katie off and also disturbed Sam's search for his bag, the two's eyes following the noise to the opposite wall where one of the four guys was waking. The man looked the oldest out of the six guys hanging there. Katie felt sympathy for the guy when he started whimpering in fear as he came to.

"Hey man, are you okay?" Sam spoke first, his voice quiet but it still carried across the cave and the guy's head snapped up, but ignored them.

"Wha-? Where am I? Matt? Where's Matty?" The man started thrashing in a panic, his eyes frantically searching the room before they stopped on the younger looking guy hanging next to him who Sam had thought was dead. The man gasped and then started screaming.

"MATT? MATTY?! OH GOD MATT, WAKE UP! WAKE UP YOU HEAR ME!" He yelled, using his foot to nudge at the guy's legs, trying to rouse him from unconsciousness as he continued to yell the younger guy's name.

Sam also started to yell to try to stop the guy from making so much noise, they had to be quiet otherwise the wendigo would come back and probably kill them all.

"Hey! HEY! YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN! STOP SHOUTING! BE QUIET!" The man ignored Sam, only yelling louder over Sam.

A sudden roar sounded through the cave, louder than the two men shouting. Sam, Katie and the newly conscious man froze, fearing what was about to happen.

Everything went silent for a minute, the three paralysed with fear, listening out for the wendigo.

After what felt like 20 minutes, everything was still quiet, and Sam sagged in his restrains, relief washing over him, the wendigo was just warning them, wanting them to keep quiet.

"We're okay for now I think. Just everyone keep the noise down." Sam bet the man with a stern look, directing the order towards him, and the man nodded. Message received.

Sam watched as the man turned back to the man, Matt, hanging next to him, and continued to try to rouse him, but this time quietly.

"Matty, come on little brother, wake up." The man whispered, nudging Matt with his foot again. Sam's heart clenched at his words, Matt was he man's little brother, and the way the man was worrying over his little brother reminded him of Dean, realisation hit him like a train that he's probably never going to see Dean again, or his father. Things had ended so badly between him and his family, and he had said horrible things to his father, and his dad had done the same to him, but that didn't stop him from loving them, hadn't stopped him from missing them while he was in Stanford, they just hadn't understood that he left to leave hunting behind, not them. If he could do anything before the wendigo killed him, he would tell that he loved them.

A groan from across the room tore him from his thoughts, he looked across to see Matt starting to wake, his older brother watching over him while he did so.

"Matty?" The older brother asked, and the younger brother's eyes immediately swung up to find his brother.

"Joe? Wha's goin' on?" Matt slurred, his eyes permanently locked on his big brother for the time being and searching his brother's eyes for answers.

"Just relax bro, we got jumped by something, but don't worry, I'll get us out of here alright." Joe reassured Matt, his voice calm even though Sam could tell he was freaking out. Matt seemed to buy it though as he nodded, his head falling back down, chin resting on his chest, and then passed out again.

"Matt? C'mon, stay awake!" Joe hissed out a whisper, but it was no use.

"He alright?" Sam asked, and Joe seemed to focus on him fully for the first since he's been awake. Joe gave him the once over with his eyes, assessing if he could trust Sam or not, his eyes softened when he realised Sam was in the same situation as he was.

"Yeah, he better be." The older brother obviously refusing to believe anything but. "Are you?" Joe's eyes narrowed and focused on the wounds on Sam's body.

"Yeah I'm fine." Sam replied, "we're fine." He added, his head nodding towards Katie next to him.

"Where are we? What is that thing?" He had obviously already seen the wendigo, and Sam opened his mouth, to begin to answer but Katie answered before him.

"Trapped in a cave, and you wouldn't believe him if he told you, right Sam?" Katie joked and Sam laughed at her attempt to lighten the mood.

"Pretty much yeah." Sam mumbled, before noticing that two sets of eyes were staring at him, waiting for a proper answer.

"It's a wendigo. It's a human, kind of, lore states that a human gets lost in a forest, to it turns to cannibalism to survive, it then turns into a immortal creature that is a perfect hunter." He explained, hoping that they wouldn't think he was completely insane.

"You're kidding, right?" Joe scoffed.

"He's not, we've both seen it. There is something distinctly human about it, but it has mutilated into something else." Sam turned to stare at Katie, wondering how she had so quickly been able to grasp their situation and the thing that held them prisoner.

"Okay, if that is true, if we try to escape, it'll probably kill us right?" Joe asked, his tone still unbelieving.

"Yeah probably." Sam grumbled in return.

"So what do we do?" Katie asked, she had got the impression before that Sam would know how to escape.

"I don't know, if I can just get out of these and find my bag, we might have the slightest chance." Sam then looked at his wrists, twisting and turning them to try to break free, ignoring the ache radiating from his shoulder, he concentrated on his task.

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Meanwhile, somewhere in the forest...

"So wendigos usually live in caves, right?" Dean asked quietly, alert and listening for any noises that might tell them that the creature's close, covering their backs while John took the lead.

"Right, caves, mines, or anywhere dark and remote." John agreed and added, feeling pride at his eldest's thirst for knowledge when it came to hunting.

"Well hold up. I'll check on the map for anything like that, cover us." John frowned slightly at Dean's ordering tone; he didn't like being ordered around by anyone. He hadn't heard that tone from Dean in a long time, the last time being when Sam was with them, but he guessed it was because Sam was on the line, and even he could admit that Dean knew best when it came to Sam. John decided to let it go, Dean was just worried about his brother and wanted to find him as quick as possible. He stopped to let Dean dig the map out of his bag that he had snagged on the way out of the ranger's office.

"Alright, let's see..." He mumbled as he unfolded it and scanned it with his eyes. "Any mines or caves would be marked, right? To warn people to stay away from that area, just in case it's dangerous to go in them." Dean said more to himself.

"Not necessarily, lots of caves could be undiscovered, meaning they won't be marked." The eldest Winchester replied.

"Great, knowing our luck the wendigo will be in one of the unmarked caves." Dean sighed.

"I do have a plan, but you're not going to like it." John levelled his eldest with a look that said 'please trust me'.

"What?" Dean gulped, he trusted his father, but most of his father's plans in sticky situations were reckless and dangerous and usually resulted in them getting more than a little beaten and bruised.

"One of us be bait, while the other hides and then follows the wendigo back to its lair." John explained.

"You do know wendigos usually have claws, right? Like really long, sharp claws. Claws that would hurt if you get slashed by them." His father's plan definitely met the usual danger level that his previous plans had.

"Yes, I do. Which is why I'll be the bait, and I'll pretend to go down easy, so I won't get hurt that bad." His father replied, his tone starting to sound harsh, which was usually the first sign for Dean to know it's time to back down, but this time was different because Sam was already missing, and he and their father were the only ones who could help him, so if the plan went wrong and his father ended up getting hurt, they'd be screwed, meaning Sam would be screwed, and Dean couldn't risk his little brother like that, his hurt feelings that still lingered from when Sam had walked out on them, on him, didn't overrun the love and protectiveness he still had for Sam.

"But dad, Sam-" He started to try to reason with his father, but the older man interrupted.

"No Dean. We're doing this. No more arguing from you." John replied sternly, glaring at Dean, daring his son to argue.

Dean stared pleadingly at his dad for a moment, before surrendering, his body deflating as his strong emotions did.

"Alright fine."

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Half an hour later...

"And you're sure it won't know that you're a lure?" Dean asked as he stood over his father who drew patterns around the base of a tree that would keep the wendigo away. The plan was that John was going to walk out into the small clearing that was just a few metres north from they were standing, while Dean would hide in the tree, waiting for the wendigo to attack his father and then he would quietly follow the wendigo hopefully back to where it was keeping Sam and the rest of the hikers.

"Not if I annoy it, then it won't care." His father grinned at him, but that didn't calm Dean's nerves at all. "Up you go son." John continued, motioning Dean up the tree, checking the symbols once making sure Dean would be safe.

"Can you see the clearing?" He asked after Dean had settled himself on one of the lower branches.

He got a "Yes sir." and smiled, although he knew Dean wasn't happy with his plans, his son still respected his plans and ideas.

"Alright, be ready to follow, wendigos are fast." John took out a shotgun from his bag before hefting it back up onto his shoulder, he had taken all his irreplaceable weapons that he had had in his bag out and put them into Dean's, in case he lost his bag whilst with the wendigo. Dean nodded down at him from his position.

John gave Dean a quick glance before heading towards the clearing.

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Dean's POV

Dean watched John enter the small clearing, walking towards the middle of the clearing. His dad stopped and raised the shotgun, pointing it towards the sky, and letting off a shot. Dean jumped at the deafening noise of the shotgun, nearly falling out of the tree, he cursed as he balanced himself again, he knew his father let off the shot to attract attention, but he could have at least let him prepare himself before doing so.

He scanned the tree line looking for the creature, nothing. He sat up there for what seemed like hours, ready to give up and go and join his dad, he checked the trees one last time.

Then he saw it, a tall pale figure hiding slightly behind a tree on the far side of the clearing, watching his father. He was going to shout out a warning, but his father then saw it as well, he quickly raised his shotgun and aimed, Dean didn't know if he missed on purpose or not, but the shot hit the tree the creature was hiding behind. A loud shriek sounded as the beast flashed across the grass, backhanding his dad hard and sending him down to the floor. He watched anxiously as his father went limp, unsure if he was unconscious or just pretending, he froze as the wendigo grabbed the older man and pulled him up and over his shoulder before taking off, fast.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." Dean cursed as he jumped down from the tree and took off after the creature carrying his father. He sprinted across the clearing, eyes set on the gap where the creature had gone.

It wasn't far into the trees when he was tackled to the ground, hearing a growl before everything went black.

To Be Continued...

So that's it for now. Please let me know what you think.