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Legend of Cypress Grove
Chapter seven
Most of the men turned away from the horrific sight, a few even became sick and emptied their stomach contents onto the ground.
"What the hell is going on?" One of the men asked backing away clearly frightened as some of the men began running back into the swamp.
"Everybody stay calm!" Dean shouted. "We need to stick together or more people are going to die!"
Sam ran over to the edge of the swamp where the men had run.
"You got to listen to my brother! If we stick together we'll get through this! You're only going to get lost out there!" He yelled into the swamp. Hearing him the men stopped running as they realized he was right, they had no idea what direction their camp was even in. Sam walked back over to Dean once he was certain that the men wouldn't take off.
"This is my fault; I should have been able to stop her from taking him." He said sadly looking at Paul's body. "I should have gotten you like we planned but he was already heading into the swamp and I was scared I'd lose him if I went to your tent, all I could do was yell for you…. He's dead because I couldn't stop her by myself."
"Sam there was nothing you could have done, don't go blaming yourself. You did the right thing, you stayed with him."
"Dean….it was like she had some kind of control over him. It seemed like he was in a trance… she had her hands all over him and he just stood there…."
"What did she look like?"
"She was naked with long black hair….she was beautiful Dean, really beautiful. Then she started kissing him and he kissed her back. But then….when I yelled at her to leave him alone she turned and looked at me….She had changed, she looked horrible Dean….she was …burned and deformed but he didn't seem to notice. She grabbed his hand and they just vanished into the swamp."
"Well at least now we know she does exist; now we just have to figure how to take her down."
"The first thing we got to do is get these guys out of here. Dean, they said this is an anniversary of her death. You know what that means. Anniversaries always cause these things to escalate and she could decide to wipe out all of us instead of just picking off a few."
"I know Sam but I think we better wait till tomorrow and get a fresh start, these guys look beat and scared. We got to get them back to camp and regroup, then tomorrow we'll try to get them out of here. I don't want them to be running around these swamps at night."
"What should we do with Paul?"
"He's beyond help and we can't be dragging his body with us through the swamp when we leave. We'll have to leave him."
They both glanced at each other, neither one wanted to leave Paul but they both realized it was the only practical thing to do; they had to concentrate on the living. Dean tapped Sam on the shoulder then nodded to an area behind Paul.
"Do you see what I see?"
Sam looked closely at the area where Dean was looking then nodded.
"It's a foundation of a home. You can barely see it but it's there."
"That must be her house….Let's get these guys back to camp, we'll mark the trail as we leave. Try not to let anyone see what you're doing though; I don't want to be answering a bunch of questions. Maybe tomorrow we can get them heading for home then we can come back here and salt this place and burn it."
Later
It took hours to find their way back to camp but finally they made it. Dean gave them a lecture about staying together and only leaving the tent in groups of three or more, never alone. They ignored the glares from some of the men who were still listening to Lloyd blame Paul's death on Sam. Dean knew he had to keep an eye on his brother in case any of the men decided Lloyd was right and that Sam had killed Paul. He knew if that happened the men could turn against Sam and attack or even kill him in retaliation for Paul's death. He knew they were scared, and almost anything could set them off. Dean walked over to his brother.
"You're not the most popular person in camp right now."
"Yeah, I can see that." Sam said looking over at the men.
"You better stick with me, I don't trust them. With Lloyd's big mouth he could turn the whole camp against you."
"That's just great. Now we don't only have to worry about the witch but everyone else too. What are we going to do about the rest of the night? We each need to take a tent; there are too many men to fit in one tent so we're going to have to split up again."
"I don't like it. If those guys decide to gang up on you…."
"I can handle them Dean. We don't have a choice in this."
One of the men walked over to Dean.
"How the hell are we going to get out of here? Paul was the guide; he's the only one who knew the trails."
Dean pulled a compass out of his pocket.
"All we have to do is keep heading west, which should eventually take us out to the road."
"You sure of that?"
"Yeah, I'm sure."
The man seemed convinced and walked back to the others.
"I don't like splitting up Sam but I guess we don't have a choice, we got to keep an eye on both tents. If those guys start ganging up on you, you yell for me, I'll hear you; you don't try to take them on yourself. Its obvious Lloyd doesn't like you and would like nothing better then to turn these men against you. Their scared and they're going to listen to a jerk like Lloyd before us because he's one of them."
"Don't worry about me. You watch your own back… he's in your tent."
"He's not gunning for me Sam. He thinks you made a fool out of him in front of his friends when he missed you and punched that tree. It's you he wants, not me."
Later
The night passed by uneventful but at five AM Dean was woken up by the sound of Lloyd heading out of the tent.
"Where are you going?" Dean asked sitting up.
"I got to take a leak."
"Hold on…I'll go with you."
"I'm just taking a leak; I don't need a baby sitter."
"Like I said no one goes off by themselves."
"Who the hell died and left you boss anyway?"
"Just shut up and let's go."
They left the tent and Dean turned his back while Lloyd relieved himself. They were heading back when Lloyd saw Sam leave his tent.
"What's your brother up to now?"
Dean looked over at Sam's tent and could barely make out Sam heading out into the swamp.
"Sam!" He called over to him. When Sam didn't answer him Dean looked at Lloyd. "Go get help!" He told him before he turned and ran after his brother.
TBC
