Chapter 11: Wendigo (Part Five)

My head snapped up as I heard a twig snap. Then the screams started again. "Help me! Please!"

We all stood and Dean pulled out his gun.

"Help!" The shout came again. Sam shone the flashlight around.

"He's trying to draw us out. Just stay calm, stay put," Dean commanded.

"Inside the magic circle?" Roy said skeptically. We all ignored him as the voice yelled again. "Help! Help me!" Then something growled.

Roy pointed his gun at place the sound was coming from. "Okay, that's no grizzly."

"It's okay. You'll be all right, I promise," Haley told her little brother.

Something rushed past the circle and Haley shrieked.

"It's here," Sam said.

Roy shot twice at the rustling. "I hit it!" he yelled triumphantly. I almost growled in frustration. Did he not listen to us at all?

Apparently not because he ran into the woods to see what he had hit.

"Roy, no! Roy" Dean yelled at him. He turned to Haley and Ben. "Don't move."

"It's over here! It's in the tree!" the voice yelled. We ran into the woods to find Roy.

"Roy!" Dean called as Sam shone the flashlight around.

Somehow we got through the night. Sam was sitting over by a log as Dean and I talked to Haley and Ben.

"I don't...I mean, these types of things, they aren't supposed to be real," Haley said.

"I wish I could tell you different," Dean told her.

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

"We don't. But we're safe for now," Dean told her.

"How do you know about this stuff?" Haley asked.

Dean paused as he considered the question.

"Kind of runs in the family," he told her.

Sam came over. "Hey."

Haley stood up.

"So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch," Sam told us.

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

"Me too," I said nodding.

Sam showed the wendigo page of John's journal to Haley and Ben.

"'Wendigo' is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours'," he told them.

"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," Dean put in.

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

"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," he explained.

"Like the Donner Party," Ben said.

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

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

"So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" Haley asked.

"You're not gonna like it," I warned her.

"Tell me," she demanded.

"Wendigos are adept at surviving long winters without food. It hibernates for years and when it wakes up it keeps victims alive. It stores them so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother is alive, then it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden and safe. We have to track it back there," I told her.

"And then how do we stop it?" Haley asked.

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

Dean led us through the woods. We followed the path of claw marks and blood on trees.

Sometime in the next hour Dean dropped back to walk with me and Sam took the lead.

Suddenly Sam said, "Dean." Dean and I caught up with him.

"What is it?" he asked. We looked around us and I noticed that all of the trees had claw marks and blood on them.

"You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow," Sam told us.

We heard growling. We turned around quickly to hear trees rustling.

Haley stood under a tree and something started dripping on her. She noticed and looked up only to leap out of the way as Roy's body dropped where she was standing.

Dean went over to the body as Sam and I went to Haley.

"You okay? You got it?" Sam asked.

"His neck's broke," Dean told us.

Sam and I helped Haley up. We heard more growling.

"Okay, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!" Dean yelled at us.

We ran through the woods and then the wendigo appeared in front of us and we stopped and Haley screamed. It hit Dena first and he went down I was about to run to him when I felt a sharp pain as something hit my head and everything went black.

When I woke up my hands were tied above me and I was hanging. I searched frantically for Dean and found him next to me. I inspected him for a moment until I was positive he was breathing. I tried to pull at my bound hands but was only met with a blinding pain in my shoulders. I looked around for something to help me. We were in some sort of cave, maybe a mine. Our duffel bags were against the wall. Well, fat lot of help that did me when I couldn't reach them! Suddenly there was the sound of rocks crumbling and I could see two someones fall into the cave where we were. I heard one of them say something and recognized their voice.

"Sam!" I called, trying to keep my voice relatively quiet. They ran over. Sam ran to me while Ben ran to Haley.

"Just cut the rope," I told him.

Sam complied and while I rubbed my wrists and rolled my aching shoulders he shook Dean. "Dean!"

Dean opened his eyes and Sam asked, "Hey, you okay?"

He winced before replying, "Yeah."

Sam cut him down and Ben cut Haley down and we brought them over to the wall.

Dean made a pained noise and I sat next to him looking at him worriedly.

"You sure you're all right?" Sam asked.

Dean grimaced. "Yeah. Yep. Where is he?" That bastard was gonna pay for hurting Dean.

"He's gone for now," Sam replied.

Haley suddenly saw Tommy hanging and she started crying.

"Tommy…" she whispered as she touched his cheek. His head jerked up and she jumped back with a shriek.

"Cut him down!" she told Sam.

He cut him down.

"We're gonna get you home," Haley told her brother.

Dean picked up a flare gun from our duffel bags I had noticed before. "Check it out."

"Flare guns. Those'll work," Sam said. He grinned and Dean laughed as twirled the flare gun. I smiled. We were gonna take this thing down.

AN: Here's Chapter 11. I figure one more chapter and the second episode will be over. This one was definitely easier to write than the pilot. Well, anyways, Chapter 12 will be out soon!