Chapter 7: Wendigo (Part One)

I looked over at Sam worriedly as he muttered in his sleep. His eyes twitched under his eyelids. He couldn't be getting a very good amount of sleep. I sighed and turned to look at Dean from my place in the backseat. I put my head on his shoulder and asked quietly, "You think he'll be ok?"

Dean was silent for a moment before answering, "We'll help him through it."

I nodded and leaned back. I knew from experience that the pain from losing someone close to you didn't just go away. But having people to look out for him would help Sam. I looked over at him again just in time to see him jerk awake with a gasp.

Sam blinked before rubbing his eyes. Dean looked over at him with a concerned look on his face. "You okay?"

Sam glanced over at him before looking out the window. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Dean nodded as I kept looking at Sam, knowing he wasn't really fine. "Another nightmare?" Dean asked him.

Sam just cleared his throat and kept looking out the window. Dean and I looked at each other at his evasion of the question. I mouthed, "Do something," at him.

"You wanna drive for a while?" Dean asked. I sighed, knowing Dean was trying but that wasn't really what I meant.

Sam laughed and I smiled hearing it. "Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that."

"Just thought you might want to. Never mind," Dean said in a stiff voice. I laughed.

"Look, man, you're worried about me," he told him and then looked back at me. "You're both worried." He turned back to Dean, "I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay."

An "Mm-hm," came from Dean.

Realizing there was no point in trying to convince us he grabbed the map. "All right, where are we?" he asked.

"We are just outside of Grand Junction," Dean answered.

"Yeah, and the drive's been boring. What with you snoozing and Dean being all quiet. Not to mention the crappy scenery. It's all trees," I complained trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm sorry you weren't being entertained the whole time, Emi," Sam responded laughing.

He looked down for a second before saying, "You know what? Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."

"Sam, we dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica—," Dean said.

"We gotta find Dad first," Sam finished.

"Dad disappearing and this thing showing up again after twenty years, it's no coincidence," Dean told him.

"Dad will have answers. He'll know what to do," Dean continued.

"It's weird, man," Sam told him. "These coordinates he left us. This Blackwater Ridge."

"What about it?" Dean asked.

"There's nothing here. It's just woods," Sam told him. "Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?"

About 10 minutes later we got to the Ranger Station of Lost Creek National Park. We went in and Sam walked over to the model while Dean and I made our way over to the picture hanging on the wall.

"So Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote. It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place." Sam said sounding very intelligent.

Then Dean said, "Dude, check out the size of this freaking bear," and I started cracking up. Sam and Dean looked at me like I was crazy but I just kept laughing. So Sam just walked over and said, "And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure."

At this point I had gotten a hold of myself enough that I wasn't hysterically laughing just chuckling.

I stopped immediately when I heard a voice ask, "You kids aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?"

We all turned around, startled. The Sam answered, "Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper."

Sam laughed a little. Then Dean raised his fist in the air, smiling, and said, "Recycle, man."

"Bull," the ranger responded.

"Your friends with that Haley girl, right?" he asked us.

"That we are, Ranger… Wilckinson," I told him after checking his nametag.

"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?" he answered briskly.

Dean shook his head.

"You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine," the ranger told us.

"We will. Well that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?" Dean asked.

"That is putting it mildly," the ranger responded.

"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 brother's return date," Dean said. He was right, if we could talk to this Haley girl then we could find out why she thought her brother was in trouble.

Five minutes later we walked out with Dean smiling triumphantly.

"You know if Emi wasn't here, I would ask you if you were cruising for a hookup or something," Sam told Dean in an irritated.

I stopped for a second and said, "I don't know whether to be insulted or thankful."

"It wasn't meant to be insulting to you , Emi," Sam told me.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked Sam about his earlier comment.

"The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?" Dean answered.

"Yeah, we don't wanna walk into something we're not ready for," I added.

There was a pause and then Sam asked, "What?"

"Since when are you all shoot first ask questions later, anyway?" Dean asked.

"Since now," Sam answered as he opened the door.

"Really?" Dean asked as he got into the car.

I sighed at Sam's attitude before getting in the car too.

AN: So there's the first chapter of Wendigo. Let me know what you think. I'll post the next one soon.