Author's notes: No reviews for the last chapter! It's devestating to me! But I got some for ep 1 and 2 so all hope is not lost! Whew. Please, if you guys read this then let me know what you think and that you're interested because motivation and comments(exspecially in a fic like this one) is needed. Anyways, I am currently almost halway through writing eposode nine! So all is going well, but faster updates are only as frequent as my reviewers. Well...here it is and enjoy (anyone that's reading). When I wrote this I though it wasn't going to be as good, but now I'm really quite proud of it! As usual...there's a trailer at the end:) Enjoy y'all!
Song(teaser): Shakira - Sombra De Ti (shadow Of You)
04 Bloody Footprints
Aldrich, Missouri
'I told you I would be home late' Samantha frowned as she was on the phone with her husband. She wandered out of the office building and glanced at the time. It was just after 11:30 at night and she was thoroughly worn out.
'No, I will be home soon okay?' she hung up on him and shook her head. Samantha reached into her pocket and pulled out her car keys, inserting the key into the lock and turning. She jumped as she heard a twig snap nearby and looked around the car park in panic. She took a deep breath and calmed herself. She turned back to the car and removed the keys, pulling the driver's side door open. She got inside and slammed the door. Samantha sat very still as she heard a sound of dragging feet.
'I knew I shouldn't have watched that movie last night' she muttered to herself and started the engine almost frantically. She drove out of the car park and down the road for several minutes before she reached her neighborhood. She parked the car in front of the garage and saw the lights were off; Larry had gone to bed without her again no doubt.
After locking up, Samantha heard a sound again…like heavy breathing.
She gasped and froze as she spotted a dark shape across the road. It looked like a large, very hairy man and he was dragging…a young girl along the ground behind him. He stopped and turned to stare at her, his eyes glowing red and then he grabbed the dead child, swinging her over his shoulder and running into the bushes.
Samantha stood in horror and then just screamed at the top of her lungs…
Dean got out of the Impala and ran to catch up with Sam. He looked down at his suit and sighed, reaching into his pocket for his fake ID.
'Agent Millen' Sam introduced himself and held out his own ID to the police officer.
'Agent Barker' Dean held his up and followed his brother over to the distraught group.
'You take the family, I'll take the neighbor' Dean said to Sam quickly and they both changed directions.
'Samantha Johns?' Dean asked and the shaken up woman nodded. 'I'm Agent Barker' he showed her his ID. 'I was just wondering if I could ask you a few questions about what you saw?' he asked in a serious tone.
'Um sure' she nodded. 'I-I drove home from work and once I got out of the car I saw this…this guy' she explained but seemed uncertain.
'A guy?' Dean nodded and pulled out a notepad. 'Anything unusual about him?'
'He was really hairy, like all over…like ah, some kind of gorilla. Only he had these claws…' she frowned. 'I must have been seeing things' she then realized as her statement sounded crazy.
'Never mind that, keep going' Dean encouraged.
'Well um, he was dragging that poor child along behind him like she was some kind of doll' Samantha's voice broke and her eyes teared up but she tried to stay calm. 'That poor family' she looked over at the couple that Sam was trying to talk to. 'They had just moved in last week and now their only daughter has been taken by…him' she lost it then and turned to her husband for support.
'Okay, thank you for your time' Dean knew he wasn't going to get much further with her. 'If you remember anything' he wrote his number down and handed it to her. 'Give me a call okay?'
Samantha accepted the note and nodded.
Dean turned to leave the same time Sam did. The boys met up halfway to the Impala and Dean stopped to look around.
'The neighbor said she saw a hairy man…like a gorilla, dragging the girl away' Dean explained. 'How about the family?'
'They're pretty messed up' Sam sighed. 'There's blood upstairs in her room and the window is smashed, but they never heard anything and their daughter was gone when they woke by the neighbor's scream' Sam reported and followed Dean as he crossed the road.
'So we're looking at some kind of creature?' Dean thought aloud and frowned. He walked over to a bush area where one particular bush seemed to have been attacked. Twigs were snapped and leaves yanked off, there was also a large, human-like footprint in front of it.
'Blood' Dean announced as he crouched down to look at the liquid beside the footprint. 'Maybe it was just a Gorilla' he shrugged but knew it was highly unlikely that a Gorilla was going to sneak out of a zoo unnoticed and kidnap a girl from her bedroom.
The boys noticed there were no other footprints nearby, meaning no trail to follow.
'So a creature that looks like a Gorilla?' Dean looked at Sam. 'This means a trip to the library right?'
'Looks like it' Sam nodded and Dean groaned in reply.
'Nothing!' Dean hissed in annoyance and moved away from his book. He had a whole table covered in books of everything from the beginning of time. Mythologies, legends, urban tales and folklore…but nothing seemed to quite fit this investigation. Dean was beginning to think that maybe it really was just an Ape gone nuts. The computers being out of order were not helping his mood any either.
'I think I have something' Sam's voice reached Dean and a large book was dumped in front of him.
Dean sighed and looked down at the place Sam was pointing to. There was an old picture of a Gorilla, but he looked more human-like. Dean read down to the text under the image and snorted.
'Bigfoot?' Dean looked up at his brother. 'Bigfoot's a hoax!'
'I don't think so' Sam said with an honest look.
'Come on, seriously?' Dean asked and frowned.
Sam sat beside him and shrugged. 'Well there are stories of him all over the place and even in different countries. A few people have apparently spotted him but he seems to just vanish if they follow him or get a closer look and he's not easy to track down, which is why people call him a myth'
'Okay, so we shoot him?' Dean asked, still skeptical.
'I guess so' Sam replied. 'But I did find an interesting legend about Bigfoot, a more older one dating back in the 30's' Sam pushed a photocopied page towards Dean. 'It saids that a Gorilla creature lived in the forest and he would appear at the nights near a full moon to steal children or animals from their homes. They claimed he feasted on them and then they became part of the forest'
'Okay' Dean gave in. 'So how do we find him?'
'Ah…no idea' Sam sighed.
'A room please' Dean smiled at the lady behind the counter.
'Sure…Mr Klein' she read his ID and smiled. 'Room 13' she nodded and handed over a key.
The boys stood in front of the motel room door and Dean frowned suspiciously at the number "13"
'You're superstitious?' Sam asked.
'No' Dean lied and unlocked the door. He noticed how the room looked as though it was rarely used and tried to shake it off as Sam smirked at him. They dumped their bags and Dean claimed the shower while Sam settled for some TV.
A bald man yawned and flipped through the TV channels with his remote. He rolled his eyes and got up off the couch. It was late at night, but he was hungry. So he wandered over to he kitchen and searched the fridge for a snack. His dog out the back suddenly started barking madly.
'Shut up!' the man yelled out to it and waited for silence but the dog kept going, occasionally growling.
'Damned dog' he cursed and went to the back door, swinging it open. 'Shut up Rocky!' he snapped and the dog yelped, tucking it's tail between it's legs and hid in his kennel.
The man rolled his eyes and went back inside, he smelt stinking trash and grabbed the bag from the bin. He made his way outside and yanked open the large bin that was near the road in front of this house. He dumped the bag inside and slammed the lid shut.
His dog started barking and growling madly again, making him more annoyed.
'I swear I'm gonna kill that dog' he grumbled as he turned to go back to the house. But then his dog gave a yelp loudly and it continued as though something was attacking it.
'Rocky?' the man panicked, as there was silence. He was uncertain, but rushed back to the house anyway and checked out the back door. He looked down and saw large claw marks on the ground and a lot of blood…but no dog.
Sam shoved Dean again but gave up. He grabbed his jacket and headed out the door. It was almost 5am when he'd just woken. He'd gone out to buy coffee and breakfast for himself and Dean, but caught glimpse of the morning paper. He instantly connected the story to what had happened to the girl the other day and ditched breakfast. He tried to wake his brother but eventually gave up and went out to investigate it himself.
Sam got out of the Impala and knocked in the house indicated in the papers.
'Yeah what?' a short, chubby, bald man asked as he yanked the door open.
'Mr Patrick?' Sam flashed his FBI ID and the man nodded. 'I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about last night.
'What for?' he asked. 'Some animal killed me dog and took him…what's to tell?'
'I was just hoping for some more detail on the attack, if you don't mind?'
'Like what? How much blood?' the guy was clearly not okay with this conversation.
'Um yeah, and could you run through what you saw? What happened…?'
The man glared for a moment and figured Sam was serious so gave in. 'Rocky was barking his head off and I went to yell at him. Then I took out the trash and he kept going. After that I heard him yelping and sorts, I rushed to check on him and that's when I saw…' he trailed off.
'Okay' Sam nodded. 'Um, he was in the backyard?' he guessed.
'Yeah, so?'
'Could I have a look? Just quickly' Sam asked.
'Whatever' the man allowed him access and just watched as Sam went out the back. He checked the man wasn't following him and gave a better look around the area. There were deep scraps in the ground like someone had clawed it up pretty well and blood had stained the grass in various places near the scrapes. Sam moved around and spotted some blood on the wooden fence, along with some hair. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag, placing the hair into it. He shoved it into his pocket and spun back around to give it one more glance over before heading back into the house and out the front door
'Thank you for your time' he told the man, only to have the door slammed in his face. 'Or not' he sighed and headed back to the Impala.
Dean looked up as his brother came into the room with a take away bag and two coffee cups.
'Hey' Sam sighed.
'Hey' Dean snapped back, clearly not overly joyful about being awake at this time of day.
'You're up?' Sam asked and Dean frowned at him.
'Yes Captain obvious…I'm up' Dean replied and reached for a coffee.
'Um, there was another attack last night' Sam told him.
'Yeah? Another kid?'
'No, a dog' Sam noticed Dean's skeptical frowned. 'Well the Bloody Footprint legend I found yesterday did indicate that the thing came for children and animals' he shrugged. 'Anyway, the owner said-'
'Wait, you spoke to the owner without me?' Dean cut in.
'Yeah'
'And you didn't think to wake me?' Dean sipped his coffee in annoyance.
'Ah yeah' Sam replied. 'I tried man' he shook his head.
'Well…' Dean attempted at a reply in his own defense. 'Try harder'
'Whatever' Sam shook his head. 'Anyways, the man said his dog was barking like crazy and then as he took out the trash, the dog was yelping and stuff. The backyard had marks from being clawed up and a lot of blood'
'But no dog?' Dean guessed.
'No dog' Sam verified with a nod. 'However, I did find this' he pulled out the bagged hair he'd taken from the fence.
'Hair?' Dean looked at it. 'What, from the dog?'
'No' Sam replied. 'It's not dog hair'
'How can you tell?' Dean squinted at the hair but it just looked like any hair to him.
'Just, trust me okay?' Sam said. 'The point is: we're defiantly dealing with some sort of hairy creature'
'Were there any footprints?' Dean asked Sam after a moment of thinking.
'Ah no, not in the yard but there was one just outside. Like it jumped over the fence. But only that one footprint, no trail to follow this time either' he sighed.
'How are we supposed to stop it if we can't even find the damned thing?' Dean frowned and Sam just shrugged.
The boys spent all day doing some more endless research at the library and on Sam's laptop, but in the end the only information they'd uncovered that bared any use was that these attacks had been going on for several years, but usually occurred at times closer to the full moon, which was less than two weeks away.
Defeated, the boys headed back to their motel room for some rest since it was starting to get late.
After a few hours it started to rain and there was nothing interesting on TV so they just headed off to bed.
Sam got up early the next day and made sure to pick up the morning paper this time as he brought back their usual breakfast and coffee.
Dean took some effort to get up, but since they had a longer sleep the night before he was just happy to have some breakfast, despite it being almost 6am.
'Hey, check this out' Sam read the paper. 'A family are very upset as their son was kidnapped the night before. The police are looking for a killer due to the amount of blood left in the boy's room. Their only lead being a set of bloody footprints…' Sam trailed off and smirked at Dean.
'A trail?' Dean guessed and grabbed the take-away bag. 'Let's go'
They scanned the area and found the footprints leading into the woods behind the house. Armed with salt guns and knives, the boys started to follow the track.
'Here' Dean passed Sam and flashlight as the forest got deeper and a lot darker. There was no obvious track, other than some cleared areas and the footprints. So they just followed them deeper into the woods.
'Why are there footprints, I mean why now? How is this one different?' Dean wondered aloud, more to fill the tense, boring silence after about an hour of walking.
'Well, it was raining last night' Sam shrugged, like it was the simplest response.
'Oh, College boy thinks he has all the answers' Dean said sarcastically and frowned that he hadn't thought of it. 'Wait' Dean grabbed Sam's shirt to stop him and they realized the woods suddenly ended and they were looking down at…the edge of a cliff.
'That's weird' Sam said and stepped back.
'Tell me about it' Dean frowned and pointed his flashlight down it but it only went a few inches before the beam of light hit a layer of thick fog.
'The tracks lead right up to here' Sam said in confusion as in fact the last footprint was right at the edge.
'Yeah, figure that one out College boy' Dean sighed and picked up a rock. He tossed it over the cliff. He expected to have to wait a few minutes for a response, but the rock landed soundly in only two seconds.
'Maybe it's not really a cliff' Sam frowned. 'I mean how many people would follow something off a cliff?'
'You almost did' Dean smirked then sighed. 'I hope you're right' Dean said seriously. 'Cuz I'm going in'
'What? No way' Sam grabbed him.
'You said it yourself, maybe it's just to stop people from following'
'Or maybe I'm wrong' Sam frowned. 'You're going to jump off a cliff at the possibly of it not being real?'
'Jump? No, that would just be stupid' Dean smirked. 'I'll climb'
'Dean!' Sam snapped but Dean had already started climbing down. Sam growled and debated for a moment before following him.
They climbed down the cliff and only went about three meters before their feet hit solid ground, even though it appeared as midair.
They cautiously released the rock and the image faded to the scene of trees and bushes. It was very dark, but they had attached their guns and flashlights to their belts etc before climbing down so it wasn't too much trouble.
'Now what?' Sam asked and pulled out the colt which he had really risked bringing but he was very doubtful that salt guns and knives were going to be enough since Bigfoot was rumored to be really tall, like seven or eight feet.
'Guess we're glad that wasn't a real cliff' Dean frowned as he saw the colt. 'As for what to do…HEY!!' Dean screamed at the top of his lungs, making his brother jump.
'What are you, nuts?' Sam hissed.
'You honestly expect me to search this dark middle of nowhere for this thing? I don't think so' he frowned and they both spun around as a soft growl reached their ears. Now they were face to face with a large seven-and-a-half foot tall man that was utterly covered from head to toe of hair. His hands were armed with large claws and with his teeth bared he looked very capable of killing them with ease.
'So, this is Bigfoot?' Dean muttered and pulled out a knife.
Sam raised the colt but was knocked off his feet as Bigfoot tackled him, leaning over him and drool dripped onto Sam's cheek. They struggled while Dean prepared to stab Bigfoot but his brother was making it hard to guarantee his target.
'He's strong' Sam gasped as Bigfoot pinned him to the ground and moved to eat him.
'Uuurrgh!' Bigfoot howled as Dean dug the knife into his back, as far in as it would go.
Bigfoot jerked away and grabbed Dean around the throat with one of his clawed hands, about to crush his throat all together.
Sam acted quickly and grabbed the colt from nearby. He tripped but rolled over and fired the gun at Bigfoot's head.
He went down hard and Dean was left gasping for air.
Sam lay down on his back in relief and his body was sore.
'Man that was one strong son of a bitch' Dean gasped and held his bruised throat. His voice even sounded a bit hoarse.
Sam sat back up and went to help Dean up off the ground where he'd been dropped suddenly.
They supported each other and reached the "cliff" side, looking up and wincing.
'This is going to be a bitch to climb' Dean whispered as Sam hung his head.
Several hours later, they were back in the Impala and looking forward to a long awaited rest to give their aching bodies some time to heal, which was perfectly okay with them because they were quite happy to spent a whole day sleeping and watching TV.
Teaser:
'You're such a freak, you know that?' Dean shook his head.
'Takes one to know one' Sam replied with a frown.
'She said her husband saw these two kids watching him the other night. They were sitting on the couch and then seemed to appear and disappear rapidly'
I'm going to leave…'She said he tried to call an hour ago to complain about flickering lights and he thinks there are rats in the basement'
It follows me aroundThe shadow of you…
'I-I have always hoped to meet you, but everyone said you disappeared with your brother just after the fire. I'm Caroline Moore…Jessica's mother'
'I couldn't…I couldn't save her…'
All the words that we saidAnd the kisses we didn't give…
'Jess?' he asked and stared at her as she sat beside him and smiled.
'Hey Sam' she said. 'Do you miss me?'
As alwaysToday I am
Thinking of you…
'You're right…I'm not really here. But I am' she said. 'Sam, you have to move on'
'Let me go'
Coming soon…