A/N: Howdy! How's everyone doing?
Ok, so the other day I had a break between lessons at college, and I made a really good start on the third episode's chapters, so I thought I'd start posting the second one a liiiiiitle earlier than I planned :D
Thanks for all the reviews/follows etc! I really appreciate them, and they motive me a lot, so keep them coming! haha :)
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise does not belong to me, no matter how much I kick and scream (believe me, I've tried it haha)
I'm going to be quiet now :) Remember to R+R! They really help, and I love to read them. Even criticism, as long as it is constructive, is more than welcomed, so if you think this chapter is the worst stringment of words on the face of the planet, let me know!
lots of hugs and virtual cookies,
xoloveJBox
Chapter Four- Wendigo.- Part 1
Lena stretched out on the back seat, barely awake as she reached for her glasses and pushed them onto her face.
"Morning Princess." Dean smiled, and Lena looked around groggily as she tried to roll the tension from her shoulders. She had forgotten just how uncomfortable it was to sleep in the back seat of the impala. The sun was high in the sky, shining warmly through the window. Sam had his head against the back of his seat, snoring lightly.
"How long was I asleep?" Lena asked quietly, knowing that Sammy hadn't had much sleep in the week since Jess's funeral.
"A couple of hours." Dean replied simply.
"What about Samson?" Lena questioned, nodding her head at Sam.
"A little less than you. Took a while for him to go, but he finally did." Dean explained, casting a quick glance at Sam.
"You think he's gonna be ok?" Lena wondered, leaning forwards with her chin on her folded arms on the back of the chair.
Dean thought for a second before shaking his head "Not even close."
Sam's head shot up as he jolted awake, breathing hard, eyes wide for a second before he realised that he was awake.
"You ok?" Lena asked him softly.
Sam sighed, holding his head in his hands "I'm fine."
Lena and Dean glanced at each other dejectedly. Sam was lying, and they both knew it. He was far from fine.
"Another nightmare?" Dean guessed. Sam gave him all the confirmation he needed when he simply cleared his throat rather than actually answering. Lena had no clue what her brother had dreamt about, but she was pretty sure she had a good idea.
"You wanna drive?" Dean asked.
"In your whole life you never once asked me that." Sam chuckled incredulously.
"Just thought you might want to, never mind." Dean muttered, mock defensively.
"Can I drive?" Lena queried hopefully.
Dean scoffed "Not a chance Princess." Lena pouted and leaned back in her seat, pulling her knees up to her chest.
"Look man," Sam continued "You're worried about me. I get it- and thank you- but I'm perfectly ok." Dean nodded, but they all knew that the conversation wasn't really finished, though Sam seemed perfectly content to pretend "Alright. Where are we?"
"We are just outside Grand Junction." Dean told him as Sam pulled out a map from the glove compartment and began to study it.
"You know what?" Sam sighed, trying to locate the right place on the map on his lap "Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."
"Sam, we dug around there for a week." Dean replied, slightly exasperated. It wasn't the first time the topic had come up."We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica..."
"We gotta find Dad first." Sam finished with a sigh. Lena knew that Sam just wanted answers, and she wished she had some to give him, but she was just as clueless as her brothers.
"Dad disappearing and this thing showing up again after twenty years, it's no coincidence." Dean remarked "Dad will have answers. He'll know what to do."
Dean sounded so confident that Lena almost believed him. But their father had been searching for answers for twenty-two years, and as far as she knew, he had come up with nothing. What made now any different?
"It's weird man. These coordinated he left us, this Blackwater Ridge." Sam murmured, clearly wanting to shift the conversational topic.
"What about it?" Lena asked, grateful for the distraction herself.
"There's nothing there." Sam told them "It's just woods. Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?"
Unable to answer the question, along with a growing pile of others, the three of them sat silently, and they soon passed a sign that announced "Welcome to Lost Creek, Colorado." Within a few minutes, Dean was pulling up outside of a visitors centre
"So, Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote," Sam explained as they got out of the car and walked towards the building "It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain and dense forest. Abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place."
There was no one around inside, so Sam and Lena examined the 3D map of the area in the centre of the room, hoping to salvage a little more information from it, while Dean looked around at the pictures on the wall.
"Dude," he suddenly murmured, nodding towards the picture in front of him "check out the size of this friggin' bear."
"And a dozen or so more grizzlies in the area." Sam commented, looking over and rolling his eyes "It's no nature hike, that's for sure."
A sudden voice behind them made them all jump "You boys aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" The Winchesters spun around to spot a ranger, his thumbs tucked into the waistband of his pants, looking at them with expectant eyes.
"Oh, no sir," Sam stammered, slightly taken by surprise "We're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper."
"Recycle man." Dean added with a wide grin.
"Bull," the ranger scoffed, making Lena shot a worried glance across at her brothers "You're friends with that Haley girl, right?"
Dean nodded quickly, looking at the man's id tag. "Yes, yes we are ranger...Wilkinson."
"Well," Ranger Wilkinson sighed, clearly exasperated and annoyed "I'll 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 person now, is it?"
Sam and Dean shook their heads as if they actually knew what he was talking about, and all three of them allowed their selves a brief sigh of relief that they still had at least a chance of salvaging their lie. The ranger, however, seemed completely oblivious to their expressions, so he simply continued "You tell that girl to quit worrying; I'm sure her brother's just fine."
"We will," Dean promised before adding "Well that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?"
Lena mentally rolled her eyes. Why did he have to damn well push it?
"That's putting it mildly." Ranger Wilkinson replied, shaking his head slightly.
"Actually, you know what would help, is if I could show her a copy of that backcountry permit. You know, so she could see her brothers return date." Dean added quickly, a charming innocence that would calm an angry rhino oozing from every pore. Lena had almost forgotten how convincing he could be, and she could almost imagine him jumping on the desk, beating his chest triumphantly and calling 'Oh the cleverness of me!' like Peter Pan, only a little more X rated. She had to admit that her eldest brother did have a certain quality about him that, in the past, had kept her from remaining angry at him for long, no matter what he did.
Lena couldn't believe it when, less than five minutes later, they were walking out of the building, a copy of the permit flapping slightly in the light breeze, pinched between Dean's fingers to keep it from escaping. She couldn't believe how easy it had been- Dean had simply asked for it- but then she remembered just how naively trusting people could be if you were good enough at convincing them that you were telling the truth.
"What, are you cruising for a hook up or something?" Sam asked with a slightly biting undertone to his voice as they reached the car.
Dean chuckled absent-mindedly "What do you mean?"
"The coordinates lead to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for?" Sam explained "Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?"
Lena knew that Sam had a point, but she wasn't sure she liked this new gung-ho, keyed up Sam. It just wasn't him.
"I dunno. Maybe we should know what we're walking into, before we actually walk into it." Dean shrugged, but Lena could tell that he was thinking the same as she was. Sam was the one who kept them grounded; he did most of the research so that they always knew what they were up against. He always calculated the best plan so that they could do the job and leave, relatively unharmed. If Sam started to adapt an overzealous attitude to hunting, they were all screwed.
"What?" Sam demanded, catching the questioning look that Dean was throwing at him.
"Well, since when are you all shoot first, ask questions later anyway?" Dean asked with a slight smirk.
"Since now." Sam replied simply.
"Oh really?" Dean scoffed, pretending to be amused. Sam scowled wordlessly, getting into the car. Conversation over, apparently. Dean shot Lena a look of concern and confusion, and she mirrored it to tell him that she knew what he meant. Needless to say, they would both be keeping their eye on Sammy for a while.
The air in the impala on the drive to the girl's house was stifling, and Lena had to crack open the window to feel like she could breathe.
They slid silently from the car when Dean pulled up, and Dean rapped his knuckles determinedly on the door. Lena avoided both her brothers' gazes, unsure whether she would have preferred Sam's cold distantness, or Dean's uncertainty.
Lena was distracted from the internal mental debate, however, when a young woman, maybe a year or two younger than Dean, opened one door, but left the shutter between them.
"You must be Haley Collins." Dean commented with a cheerful grin, and she nodded a small confirmation.
"I'm Dean, this is Sam and Elena" he continued, nodding towards his siblings "We're rangers with the park service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. We wanted to ask you some questions about your brother Tommy."
Lena saw Haley's eyes brighten slightly at the mention of her brother, and Lena felt a stab of guilt over using the girl's worry to their advantage. She knew how pissed she would be if she found someone was doing that to her. However, Haley's eyes were still guarded and she looked over the three of them warily.
"Let me see some ID." She demanded. Lena couldn't blame her. In their jeans and leather jackets, they didn't exactly look like park rangers.
Dean pulled out his fake id and flicked it open for Haley to see with a confident grin "Here ya go."
Haley narrowed her eyes at the id, clearly inspecting it intently, and Lena could feel the odds stacking against them. She had a feeling that this hunt wasn't going to be straight-forward or easy.
Haley looked for a long minute before seeming content and letting them in.
"That yours?" She asked, looking at the impala.
Dean beamed proudly "Yeah."
Haley nodded "Nice car."
"So if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?" Sam asked, straight to the point, clearly still not in a very friendly, sociable mood as they followed Haley into the house.
"He checks in everyday by cell." She explained "He emails photos, stupid little videos, but we haven't heard anything in over three days now."
Sam shrugged "Well, maybe he can't get cell reception."
Lena knew that Sam was simply testing the water, trying to determine whether they were actually dealing with something that fell under their line of work. She knew that his pain and guilt over Jess had made Sam less considerate than he had been, but there was no need to be so cold about it.
"He's got a satellite phone too." Haley told him simply.
Dean began to wonder around, searching for signs of anything that may have made Tommy more likely to be targeted by something supernatural.
"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" he suggested casually.
"He wouldn't do that." Snapped a boy, around Lena's age, who was sitting at the table. Dean, Sam and Lena honestly hadn't noticed him, and he'd made them jump.
"Haley sighed "Our parents are gone." She explained sadly "it's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other." Haley finished, putting a comforting hand on her brother's shoulder.
Lena smiled. She knew what that was like. Boy, did she know.
"Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam asked, wondering if they could tell him more than Haley could spot.
"Yeah," Haley nodded, leading them over to her computer. Lena, Sam and Dean waited around while Haley clicked, curious to what the videos and pictures might show.
"That's Tommy." She pointed as the video came up. Lena looked at the still frame, noticing that Haley looked like her older brother. The video started, leaving the original image behind.
"Hey Haley," Tommy chimed happily "Day six. We're still out near Blackwater Ridge- we're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry. Talk to you tomorrow."
Sam frowned and looked around at Lena, and she automatically knew that he had spotted something.
"Well, we'll find your brother," Dean promised firmly "We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing."
"Then maybe I'll see you there." Haley told him, determination etched into her dark features. Dean shot her a questioning glance, and she sighed, defeated "Look, I can't sit around here anymore, so I hired a guide. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."
"I know how you feel." Lena told her, knowing that if it were her, if her life was normal enough for three days of no contact from her brothers to be worrying; she would do the exact same thing.
"Hey, you mind forwarding these to me?" Sam asked, still staring intently at the screen. Haley agreed, and within minutes, they were clambering back into the impala.
"Well, I need a drink." Dean muttered, tired after a long day. He looked across at Sam, slumped in his seat with his forehead pressed against the cool glass of the window, looking dejected and worn out.
"What about you? You fancy a few drinks?" Dean asked lightly. Sam shrugged; neither accepting nor declining the suggestion, but it was good enough for Dean. He sped off down the road as the sun dipped below the horizon, pulling the blinds down with it, leaving the starry night sky to blanket the world above them all.
They pulled up outside the first bar they came to, and Sam got out, acting autonomously, like the lights were on but no one was really home, moving on autopilot to get himself through each day, each hour, each minute. Lena went to get out of the car but stopped halfway. Dean noticed her halt in movement and turned to look at her.
"You alright Le?" He questioned, corrugating his forehead.
"Yeah," she replied slowly, "I think I'm going to use the phone before I come in."
"Alright," Dean answered, slightly uneasily. "But don't stay out here too long, ok?"
Even without the possibility of something supernatural wandering around; Lena was still only sixteen, it was dark, they were at a bar, and Dean had no doubts that creeps would still be lurking. Dean even considered waiting outside the impala for her, but then decided against it. Lena would want her privacy and besides; she wasn't a baby anymore, and despite the fact that she was long and wiry, kind of on the small side of that scale, she was a good fighter. Hell, she had even taken him down once or twice, so Dean was confident that she could, and would, take care of herself.
Lena gave a nod and Dean got out, following after Sam's impatient strides to the door. Lena watched as they entered the bar. She quickly leaned over the front seat and locked the doors before doing the same in the back. Though she didn't like to admit it, she'd had the same thought process as Dean. She pulled the knife from her waistband and her phone from her pocket, one in each hand, and felt slightly better. She placed the knife on the seat next to her, ready to grab at a moment's notice, and raked a hand through her hair before dialling a familiar number.
Lena listened to the dialling tone for a while, and she almost hung up before she heard a thick, sleep-filled voice on the other end.
"Hello?" Taylor answered groggily.
"You're asleep already?" Lena asked, not exactly sure how she should greet her best friend after almost two weeks without speaking. "It's not even nine."
"Yeah, well, some of us have class in the morning." Taylor replied, the edges of a smile playing into her words. Through the phone, Lena could hear the shift of Taylor's mattress, and she could perfectly picture friend's petite, streamline, dancer's body pull itself into a seated position. Man, she missed her friends.
"Oh yeah." Lena joked playfully. She really couldn't understand why she'd been nervous about making the call in the first place. It might have been the fact that everything seemed more complicated than they had when she'd left. Not that it had been simple before.
"How's California?" Tay asked, breaking through Lena's fogged brain, making her remember that she was on the phone to someone who had no clue what she was doing, what she knew about, so Lena didn't have the luxury of being able to unload her worries onto her friend the way Taylor could to her.
"Actually," Lena sighed "I'm not in California anymore. I'm in Colorado."
"Oh," Taylor said, clearly surprised "Things aren't going the way you'd planned with your dad?"
"No, but we're getting there." She lied, stumbling over the words, her tongue feeling thick and clumsy with guilt over the slight fabrication.
Lena stayed silent for a dragging minute longer than was comfortable on the phone, and she could hear the quiet concern in Taylor's voice when she next spoke.
"Are you alright Elena?" she asked softly.
"Yeah, I just..." Just what? Just might be hunting something that most peopledon't even consider the possibility of being real? Just spent the previous night and most of the day driving across the country to look for their dad, who may or may not still be there, or may not even be alive anymore, guided by some coordinates in a book filled with apparent nonsense to the untrained eye? Just couldn't sleep properly from having nightmares of her brother's girlfriend dying in a fiery attack, caused by something she would have known nothing about? Though, she couldn't complain about the last one really, because she knew that she'd keep her nightmares, and a hundred times worse, if it meant that Sammy would be free to at least sleep the night away uninterrupted. Lena knew that she never could, or would ever dream of telling Taylor any of this, so she finally finished "...it's been a long day."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Taylor asked tentatively, but Lena kind of wished she hadn't because, yes, she wanted to, but she couldn't.
Lena sighed "Not really. But come on, what's going on with you guys? Tell me everything."
As she listened to the casual, normal, wonderful, perfectly ordinary day-to-day goings on of her friends, Lena had to fight not to cry. It wasn't that she hadn't seen them in two weeks- she'd gone longer, though never without at least texting- it was that she didn't know when she'd see them again. She longed for their innocent ignorance, to not know about the things that go bump in the night, the things that could rip them apart with a single look.
Lena could feel her two worlds meshing as her thoughts combined, so she made an effort to concentrate on the sound of Taylor's voice.
"Listen Tay," she suddenly blurted, unsure of how much longer her voice and resolve would remain steady "you sound exhausted, and I have to make sure my brothers aren't doing something stupid, ok?"
"Umm, sure, alright." Taylor replied, taken aback slightly by being so off-handishly interrupted.
"I'll speak to you soon." Lena promised, though she wasn't entirely sure when 'soon' was going to be.
"Elena?"
"Yeah?" Lena answered shakily, because she was so close- so damn close- and she didn't want to cry on the phone, didn't want Taylor to know she had anything to cry over.
"Stay safe."
She doesn't know. She doesn't know. She doesn't know.
Lena let out a long, unsteady breath. She didn't talk. She wasn't sure she could. She simply let out a small agreeing sound before hanging up, just in time to hide an angry sob that roared through the silence in the car.
But just as abruptly as the urge to breakdown was there, it was gone again as Lena reigned herself in. She didn't even know what was wrong. All she knew was that she had a tight knot in the pit of her stomach that she couldn't explain away, that refused to calm or loosen. She just couldn't shake the feeling that things were going to go wrong, that they were wasting their time and efforts on something that was probably going to go belly-up, sooner or later. She didn't know how, or why or when, so there was nothing she could do about it but just carry on and hope that she was wrong. Things were bad enough already, without getting any worse.
Lena roughly wiped her face with the sleeve of her shirt, tucked her knife back into her pants but left her phone on the seat, as if it had anything to do with anything, before unlocking the doors and getting out. She strode confidently inside the bar and quickly spotted her brothers. She set her face in a quiet, steely resolve in hopes of squelching her uneasy feelings with an air of casual bravado.
"So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic, local campers mostly." Sam was saying as Lena approached and pulled up a chair at their table "but still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found."
Sam and Lena didn't even realise that Dean wasn't really listening until he didn't answer. Dean was looking intently at his sister, searching for cracks in the mask she had so obviously plastered onto her face.
"Are you alright?" He asked her, his eyes never leaving hers.
She furrowed her brow and looked incredulously at him "Yeah," she scoffed, feeling both Sam and Dean's eyes on her "Why wouldn't I be?"
"No reason," Dean shrugged. He knew there was something bothering her, he had always known when there was, even when they were younger, but he couldn't put his finger on it, so he turned back to Sam "Any before that?"
"Yeah," Sam replied, returning his gaze to the laptop screen in front of him "In 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack. And again in 1959, and again before that in 1936."
"Every twenty three years." Lena muttered, working it out in her head.
"Just like clockwork." Sam finished, confirming her calculation. "Ok, watch this," he continued, turning the computer towards Dean and Lena "Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy- Tommy's- video to the laptop. Check this out." He clicked through a few frames from the video, but Lena didn't see anything.
"Do it again." Dean demanded, so Lena guessed that her brother had noticed something.
"Wait, wait, wait." She muttered darkly, reluctantly pulling her glasses from her pocket and slipping them on her face. She hated wearing them, and would avoid them at all costs, but she wasn't going to let herself get behind on the case. No way.
Sam flipped through the images again, and Lena just about saw a shadow moving behind Tommy's head, but it was hard to tell exactly what it was making it.
"That's three frames" Sam explained "That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is; it can move."
Dean flung his hand out and hit Sam in the arm "Told ya something weird was going on." He smirked.
"Yeah," Sam scoffed and rolled his eyes "I got one more thing. In '59, one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."
"Is there a name" Dean asked, but by the smile on Sam's face, he could tell that there was.
Mr Shaw was clearly flustered as he led Dean, Sam and Lena through to his dark, dingy living room. He'd been surprised when they'd appeared at the door, but he'd let them in anyway, apparently accepting their fake ids as legit.
"Look rangers," he started "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?" Sam finished for him "That's what attacked them?"
Mr Shaw hesitantly nodded, as if he doubted what he'd always been led to believe he had seen.
"The other people that went missing that year" Dean started "Those were bear attacks too? What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?"
The anxiousness on the man's face was all too evident. He looked away, nervously inspecting his feet, and Dean continued, trying to ease out some answers.
"If we knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it."
"I seriously doubt that." Mr Shaw grumbled sceptically. "Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make. You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did."
"Mr Shaw," Sam said softly, stepping forwards, setting himself down on the coffee table in front of the armchair that Mr Shaw had slumped into "What did you see?"
"Nothing," the older man replied simply "it moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it though, a roar, like no man or animal I ever heard."
"It came at night?" Sam enquired, and Mr Shaw nodded in confirmation "Got inside your tent?"
"It got inside our cabin." Mr Shaw replied "I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window, or break the door. It unlocked it. Do you know of a bear that could do that? I didn't even wake up 'til I heard my parents screaming."
Lena grimaced. She could see Mr Shaw getting upset, but they were finally achieving something, and they couldn't afford to stop yet.
"Why it left me alive...been asking myself that ever since." He continued sadly "Did leave me this though," Mr Shaw opened up his shirt, revealing three long, jagged scars running down his chest, looking like something- something huge- had tried to claw its way into his body. But it wasn't a bear. That much was certain. "There's something evil in those woods." He finished "It was some sort of demon."
Lena glanced across at her brothers, and Dean cleared his throat loudly. "Thank you for your time." He grinned, and they all left. As soon as the door closed, the smile faded from his face, replaced by confusion.
"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside they just go through the walls." He remarked.
"So it's probably something else, something corporeal." Sam stated, matter-of-factly.
"Corporeal?" Dean chuckled, "Excuse me Professor."
"Shut up." Sam snapped with a smirk "So, what do you think?"
"The claws, the speed that it moves; could be a skin-walker, maybe a black dog." Lena suggested a little rustily, drawing on information that she hadn't had to recall for a while, things she had let ebb out of her brain while she was at school, despite the fact that their father had drilled it into her mind from a young age.
"Whatever we're talking about, we're talking about a creature, and it's corporeal" Dean continued with a slightly mocking sideways grin at Sam "Which means we can kill it."
By this point, they had reached the impala, and Dean opened the trunk, propping it up with a shotgun. He started loading up other weapons, and Lena followed suit, but Sam remained behind them, his arms folded across his chest defiantly.
"We cannot let that Haley girl go out there." He told their backs firmly
"Oh yeah?" Dean scoffed "What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?"
"Yeah." Sam replied, staring at them as if it were obvious.
"Her brother's missing, Sam." Lena appealed to him, but she didn't say anything else, because to her, it was the only explanation needed. Clearly, though, by the look on Sam's face still, he needed a little more convincing.
"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." Dean told him, thinking that he'd left no room for Sam to argue, but apparently Sam thought differently.
"Finding Dad's not enough?" He demanded, slamming the trunk closed. "Now we've got to babysit too?"
Sam spun around to see his brother and sister giving him expectant glares, with their eyebrows raised at him. If Sam had been in a better mood, he would have noticed that Lena looked like a younger, female Dean. "What?" He demanded angrily when their expressions didn't cease.
Dean shrugged, relenting "Nothing."
Lena, however, wasn't quite so satisfied and she continued to look intently at her brother, even after Dean had thrown his duffel bag at Sam and got into the car.
"What's going on in your melon Samson?" she asked quietly in a low, serious tone.
"Get in the car," Sam snapped irritably when he couldn't think of anything else to say "and stop asking stupid questions."