Thanks for the reviews

The Jersey Devil

Chapter fourteen

Dean stayed perfectly still, not wanting to scare the creature off. He kept his eyes on Jason trying to see if he was still alive. He willed the boy to breathe.

"Come on Jason breathe….Come on kid take a breath, just let me know you're still here." Dean whispered softly to himself.

Finally he saw Jason move his arm and heard a little whimper of both fear and pain escape his lips. Seeing his prey move the creature tightened his grip on the boy and Jason let out a painful scream. The creature had already fed today and wasn't hungry but he knew when his hunger grew the boy would provide his next meal.

Dean breathed a sigh of relief, Jason was alive, but he still couldn't tell how badly hurt he was. It looked like the boy was covered in blood, but the creature was also saturated with blood and Dean hoped the blood could be from a recent kill and not the boy's blood. He could only hope that Jason wasn't as badly injured as he appeared to be. He slowly raised his gun. If the gun couldn't kill the creature maybe he could at least injure it enough so that it would release its hold on the boy, but if it did Jason would fall and the fall would more than likely kill him. Dean tried to maneuver himself under the creature, that way if it released Jason he might be able to catch him before he fell to his death.

As quietly as he could he inched himself closer and closer till he was finally a few yards beneath the creature. Now if he could just shoot the thing without hitting the boy. He slowly raised his gun but the slight movement caught the creature's eyes and it shifted itself putting Jason in the line of fire. Dean was an excellent shot but if the thing moved even an inch when he fired he knew he'd hit the boy.

"Damn it!" Dean whispered to himself.

The creature looked down at the man beneath him. It knew that most animals ran from him but this animal was actually coming after him. It put its head back and screamed in anger; the animal that was tracking it must die. Leaving Jason perched on the branch it suddenly dropped down a few branches and at the same time reached out a claw and swiped at the creature that was following it. Dean cried out in pain as a deep slash appeared on his upper arm.

Back at the campsite

The cry of pain was not lost on Sam.

"Dean?" He looked in the direction his brother had gone. "Dean!" He shouted as he struggled to his feet. He knew he wouldn't be of much help to his brother but if the creature had hurt his brother, or worse yet killed him, he had to be there for him. Maybe he could distract the thing and Dean would have time to get away, but if there was nothing he could do, he could at least die alongside his brother. He found a thick branch to use as a crutch and headed toward the cry.

Sam swore softly to himself, it seemed to take forever to reach his brother, and the silence in the woods only made the time it was taking seem even longer. Was his brother unconscious, or maybe even dead? He could easily track Dean from the bent down grass and knew he'd eventually find him but Sam had no idea how far into the woods his brother had gone and from the sound of the cry Dean needed him now.

Eventually the trail ended and Sam knew the only direction Dean could go was up. He looked up into the tall trees and eventually spotted his brother….and the creature above him.

"Dean!" Sam called to him.

Dean looked down to see his brother moving closer to the tree then attempting to climb it.

"Sammy stay back!" He knew Sam wasn't feeling well and knew he'd never make it up the tree in his condition.

Sammy could see Jason's body lying above the creature who now glared down at him.

"Is he…..? Sam didn't want to say what he was thinking.

"No, I saw him move." Dean reassured his brother.

"Oh thank God." Sam breathed a sigh of relief. "Can you get a good shot?"

Dean looked up and saw that the Devil was now away from the boy and knew he had to take the shot. He raised his gun slowly hoping not to spook the creature, but it recognized the thing in the man's hand and knew it had caused him pain in the past. With one glance back at Jason, its potential food for the night, it decided to leave the boy behind and take off…..after all there was more food out there that would be easier pickings and wouldn't cause him any pain. It gave a scream of anger then leapt from the branch and flew off into the darkness. Dean managed to get off a shot and thought he saw the thing flinch with pain but he couldn't be sure. Once it was gone Dean made his way up to Jason and quickly looked over the boy's body inspecting it for wounds. He saw some cuts and bruises on the boy but he quickly determined that most of the blood had come from another source, probably another one of the creature's victims. He gently cradled the boy in his good arm and carefully made his way down the tree to Sam. Once at the bottom of the tree he took more time and thoroughly checked out Jason. The boy appeared to be in good shape and Dean could only assume he had fainted from fright and not from his injuries.

"I think he's going to be fine." He told a worried Sam. "By the way you look like hell." Dean gave his brother a small smile thankful that they were still both alive.

"Back at cha." Sam said as he started to examine his brother's arm. "It's pretty deep."

"I'll be fine….. The others okay?"

Sam shook his head. "They took off. I couldn't stop them. I figured they'd be better together then splitting up. "

"They just left you there?" Dean's anger was starting to surface.

"They were scared Dean."

"And I bet Walt was the cause of it."

"I don't like the guy anymore then you do Dean, but he's scared. People act different when they're scared."

"Walt was a jerk before any of this happened."

"So how do we kill this thing?" Sam changed the subject.

"I don't know, but we got to get Jason back to his mom, I'm sure she's flipping out." Dean looked at Sam. "Can you make it?" His concern for his brother clear in his voice.

"Yeah, I can make it." Sam knew he had no choice. As lousy as he felt he knew they couldn't wait till he was feeling better, they had to get back to the group.

Just then Jason stirred.

"Mom?" He asked as he slowly opened his eyes.

"She's not here right now Jason but we're going to take you back to her." Dean reassured him.

Jason's eyes flew open as he remembered what had happened. He quickly jumped to his feet.

"Easy Jason." Sam put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "You're okay….It's gone."

"That thing grabbed me! It was going to kill me!"

"But you're safe now."

"What if it comes back for me? What if it tries to kill me?"

"We're not going to let that happen."

It was then they heard terrified screams coming from off in the distance. The Devil had caught up with the rest of the group.

TBC