Act Four

Sam is sitting against a hollow tree stump, holding John's journal and playing with a lanyard attached to it as Dean tried to stay calm so he could keep Haley and Ben calm. Both boys felt like they were at their wits end though. First their father went missing and now their sister had been taken.

Haley shook her head, crying, "I don't… I mean, these types of things, they aren't supposed to be real."

Deans gaze hardened, "I wish I could tell you different."

"How do we know it's not out there watching us?"

"We don't. But we're safe for now." His mind drifted to Angel though and how she wasn't while they just sat and waited

"How do you know about this stuff?"

Dean took a long paus, considering his words to her before he answered, "Kind of runs in the family."

Sam, not being able to sit anymore got up and went over to them. He gave his brother a look, "Hey." Haley stands up, "So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch and find Angel."

Dean grins, "Well, hell, you know I'm in."

Sam shows the wendigo page of John's journal to Haley and Ben, "Wendigo is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours'."

"They're hundreds of years old. Each one was once a man. Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter."

"How's a man turn into one of those things?"

Dean picks a couple things up off the ground, "Well, it's always the same. During some harsh winter a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help. Becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp."

Ben points, "Like the Donner Party."

Sam nods and goes on, "Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality."

"If you eat enough of it, over years, you become this less than human thing. You're always hungry."

"So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" Haley looks to Dean, "How can either of them still be alive?"

Deans jaw tensed as he threw a strong look to Sam, then back to Haley, "More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it's awake it keeps its victims alive. It, uh, it stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother's alive, if our sister is, it's keeping them somewhere dark, hidden, and safe. We gotta track it back there."

"And then how do we stop it?"

"Well, guns are useless, so are knives. Basically-"

Dean holds up the can of lighter fluid, the beer bottle, and the white cloth he'd picked up, "We gotta torch the sucker."

Mine: Angel

Angel grimaced as she woke up rom the pain in her upper body as well as her head. She hung painfully from rope bindings tied to her wrists and tasted blood from being knocked unconscious. She remembers chasing after Roy and seeing his neck getting snapped, wondering why the hell she was even alive right now. A mine shaft lets in enough light to let Angel see two men hanging by their wrists from the ceiling. As well as an assortment of other corpses with them. Before she could say anything to them though angry terrifying growling sounded. The man closest to her, one she recognized as a very disheveled and injured Tommy, looked to her and started shushing her immediately. Warning her to quiet, something the other man couldn't do. The other man spots a tall skinny shape and starts screaming terrified. Tommy does his best to turn away and does close his eyes tightly as the man yells and Angel grew petrified as she watched, trying to loosen her restraints with no luck.

Forest: One Day Later

Sam is leads the way through the woods, Molotov cocktail in hand. Haley follows, then Ben, then Dean. He stops, studying the claw marks and blood that marred the trees.

Dean catches up to him at the hesitation, "What is it?"

Sam motions to the trees where there are bloody claw marks and broken branches everywhere, "You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow."

Angry growling was heard and the boys whip around as the trees rustle. Haley, who is standing under a tree, looked down when blood drips on her shirt. She then leaps out of the way as Roy's corpse lands where she'd stood.

Dean runs over, his heart accelerating, thinking the worst to examine the body as Sam goes over to Haley, "You okay?" To Dean, "You got it?"

"It's Roy." Dean answered, relief was evident but still grim. "His neck is broken."

Sam helps Haley up and more growling erupts from the trees. Dean rushes the group, "Okay, run, run, go!"

Everybody takes off but Ben falls to the ground almost immediately and the boys hurry back to help him up, dividing the group two and two.

"Come on, I gotcha, I gotcha." Sam helps him

Dean looks around, "Where's Haley? She was right behind me!"

Her scream sounds and Ben looks up, terrified, "Haley?"

The three of them take off after her only to find the Molotov cocktail Dean gave her on the ground shattered, the bottle broken.