Though I had only seen John Winchester on TV, I could see him in the post-Sam.
He was not doing well. He had barely slept. If he ever did, he woke up muttering about fire. It seemed to set him back on the chase fresh as the night it happened. Most waking hours were spent getting any information on Azazel. It was awful to seem him falling apart.
Such as the morning a week after the funeral. He had barely slept the drive over. There was a silent agreement to not disturb Sam whenever he managed to close his eyes. Dean drove on smooth roads, when he could. If there was a plot hole he drove around it. I kept myself in the backseat, quiet as a church mouse. The map was given to me, so Sam didn't need to be the GPS. Any conversation was whispered.
Still, his nightmares woke him up. Our best efforts did nothing against Sam's own mind.
Sam shot up. There was a word caught in his throat, coming out as a pained choked gasp. He blinked hard, rubbing at his eyes. He'd slept for an hour that time.
"Sam?" I quietly asked.
He let out a quick huff. "Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
Sam glanced away, pretending he had no idea what could be wrong. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Another nightmare?" Dean noted, giving Sam a meaningful look.
Sam didn't say 'no'.
Dean and I exchanged a short look.
"You wanna drive for a while?" Dean offered, half awkward.
Sam stared at his brother, surprised. "Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that." He stated.
"Just thought you might want to." Dean huffed. "Never mind."
Sam looked between Dean and I. "Look, guys, you're worried about me. I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay."
"Mm-hm."
"Gotcha."
Sam wisely did not believe us.
"Alright, where are we?" He asked, reaching for the dashboard only to find the map was in my hands.
"We are just outside of Grand Junction." I reported gleefully. I showed off the giant red X Dean had left.
He shook his head at me. When he tried to take the map, I pulled it away. "You know what guys? Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."
I rolled my eyes, falling back in my seat.
"Sam, we dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica-" Dean explained.
"We gotta find Dad first." Sam agreed.
"Dad disappearing and this thing showing up again after twenty years, it's no coincidence." Dean went on. "Dad will have answers. He'll know what to do."
I moved forward, holding the map up.
"It's weird, man. These coordinates he left Blackwater Ridge..." I read off.
"What about it?" Dean asked.
"There's nothing there. It's just woods." I pointed at the patch of green on the map. "Why is your father sending us to the middle of nowhere?"
Neither brother answered.
==DG==
We drove to the ranger's station.
Once inside, Sam and I looked down at the map. Dean was staring at the decorations on the walls.
"So Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote." Sam stated. "It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place."
"Dudes, check out the size of this freaking bear." Dean motioned to a photo he was standing in front of.
I walked up next to him. Seeing the bear, I shrugged. "Meh. Fought bigger."
Dean scoffed. "You did not."
"Did too and it could've gotten that bear stuck between it's teeth." I bragged. 'The Red Death wasn't anything to joke about. That scaly white bitch nearly took my arm!'
Sam stood at my other side. He was looking at Dean and I with what I think is a step below the Bitch-Face TM. "And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure."
"You kids aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" Wilkinson asked, startling the boys.
"Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper." Sam lied easily.
Dean caught on, grinning. "Recycle, man."
"Respect nature." I held up a peace sign.
The sheriff didn't miss a beat. "Bull."
I didn't blink.
"You're friends with that Haley girl, right?" Wilkinson asked.
"Okay yes." I stepped up, putting on my best desperate friend voice. "But-Ranger Wilkinson, Haley's just worried."
"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?" Wilkinson challenged.
"And I get that, it's just that Haley can't." I explained, sounding exasperated.
"You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine." Wilkinson explained gruffly.
"We will. Well that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?" Dean threw in.
Wilkinson snorted. "That is putting it mildly."
"You know what, maybe it would help if you gave us a copy of his backcountry permit. That way she'd see her brother's return date, and stop worrying. I'm sure she'd understand then."
Wilkinson seemed to think on it.
==DG==
Dean held the permit in his hands. He was laughing. "That, Raven, was awesome."
I smiled proudly at the attention, straightening out my jacket like a hero. "Thanks, Dean. I just pretend to care better than you."
He laughed again.
"What, are you two cruising for a hookup or something?" Sam asked.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked.
'Not to mention I'm offended he thinks I'll screw any woman just because she's a woman.'
We walked towards our seats.
"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 snappily.
"I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?" Dean countered.
I bit my lip, trying to keep myself from saying anything.
"What?" Sam asked, catching my look.
"Nothing." I shrugged, pushing my hands in my jacket pockets. "I just thought Dean was the one who was 'shoot first, ask questions later'."
Sam narrowed his eyes at me. "He is. But now it's me." He shrunk down (for a man as tall as him, I'm surprised he didn't bang his head against the Impala) to climb in the passenger seat.
His brother snorted. "Really?" He climbed into the driver's seat.
I rolled my eyes. "Winchesters." Then I climbed down in the back seat.
==DG==
The three of us stood at Haley's house. Dean knocked on the door. Haley answered.
'It's too bad I like blondes. She's actually pretty cute. Oh well, I can still appreciate the art without buying it.'
"You must be Haley Collins. I'm Dean, this is Sam, that's Raven, we're, ah, we're rangers with the Park Service." Dean explained. "Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. He wanted us to ask a few questions about your brother, Tommy."
Haley looked us over. "Lemme see some ID."
Dean pulled his out, pressing it against the screen. My 'Jordan Ashford' was burning a hole in my pocket. Haley stared at Dean's a moment, before opening the door.
"Come on in."
Dean was smiling. "Thanks."
"That yours?" Haley gestures over to the Impala.
Dean grinned, proud of his car. "Yeah."
"Nice car." Haley turned to go inside, not before giving Dean a smile.
Dean turned back to us when she wasn't looking. 'Oh my god.' He mouthed.
I winked. 'All your's.' I mouthed back.
Sam was wishing flames would come from the sky to smight Dean and I so that maybe he could get some shit done.
==DG==
"So if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?" Sam asked.
Haley was setting the table for dinner. Her brother was on his laptop, seemingly tuning us out. "He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos-we haven't heard anything in over three days now."
"Have you thought that maybe he doesn't get cell reception?" I asked.
"He's got a satellite phone, too." Haley replied.
"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean asked.
"He wouldn't do that." Ben Collins insisted.
There was brief eye contact between Dean and Ben. The younger boy looked back to his laptop.
Haley brought out more food. "Our parents are gone. It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other." She explained for her brother.
"Do you mind showing me the pictures Tommy sent you?" I asked.
Haley nodded. "Of course. Yeah."
She took a minute to get her laptop out. It barely felt like any time before she had the photos up. Good thing too, I think Dean was drooling staring at the food.
"That's Tommy." She pointed to the smiling man in the tent. She showed us some more photos before reaching the video message.
"Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow."
A shadow flicked past the tent. I tensed only slightly, standing up straighter. Sam spots the shadow flicking past. Dean "Well, we'll find your brother. We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing."
"Then maybe I'll see you there." Dean and Sam raised their eyebrows at her. I grinned, knowingly. Haley just stared the boys down. "Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guide. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."
"I think I know how you feel." Dean mused.
I nodded in agreement.
The two elder siblings had a silent exchange, both standing protectively behind their younger brothers.
"Hey, do you mind forwarding these to me?" Sam asked, unknowingly cutting off Dean and Haley's connection.
Haley agreed.
==DG==
Dean took us to a bar next. Sam got right on with research.
"So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found." He opened his dad's journal.
"Any before that?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack." Sam handed Dean the newspaper articles.
I sat across from them, eating peanuts.
"And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936." Sam reported.
"So every twenty-three years, this thing comes up into the woods looking for a snack, then goes to sleep?" 'If I didn't know it was a wendigo, I'd start looking for clowns in the sewer.'
"Exactly." Sam pulled up the video message. "Okay. Watch this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out."
He pauses at a specific part in the message. He clicks ahead three times, showing off the shadow moving across the tent in the background.
"Play it back."
Sam does so.
"That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move." Sam noted.
Dean slapped his brother's arm. Sam looked at him in confusion. "Told you something weird was going on."
Sam wasn't as amused. It made me snort. "Yeah." He clapped his laptop shut, putting it away in his backpack. "I got one more thing." He gave me the newspaper article. I gave it a brief glance before passing it to Dean. "In 'fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."
"Is there a name?"
I pointed it out for him.
==DG==
Shaw lived a few minutes away.
He lived in this ratty old house, it smelled as awful as you'd think. He'd welcomed us into his home, so I said nothing to his face.
"Look, rangers, I don't know why you're asking me about this. It's public record." Shaw pulled the cigarette out of his mouth. "I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a-"
"Grizzly? That's what attacked them?" Sam interrupted.
Shaw nodded.
"The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?" Dean asked. Shaw was silent. "What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?" Again, Shaw was silent. "We knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it." Dean suggested.
Shaw pulled his cig out of his mouth. "I seriously doubt that. Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make." Shaw sits down. Shaw "You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did."
I set myself across from him. "Mr Shaw, what did you see?" I asked, using all the skills I had as an FBI agent.
Shaw seemed to fight it. He glanced at my eyes, pausing. Something in there must have shown him my belief. "Nothing." He began. Behind me, I heard Sam move forward. "It moved too fast to see." Sam stopped, my guess he was surprised. "It hid too well. I heard it, though. A roar. Like...no man or animal I ever heard."
"It came at night?" I asked. Shaw nodded, the memories playing behind his eyes. "Found you where you slept?"
Shaw nodded again. "It got inside our cabin. I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break the door. It unlocked it. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screaming."
"It killed them?" My voice was kind, understanding, insistent.
"Dragged them off into the night." He seemed to stare off. I swear I could see the memory of that night, see his own fear as he heard his parents' screams then all the blood. "Why it left me alive...been asking myself that ever since." He reached up for his collar. "Did leave me this, though."
He showed off three long scars.
Some of my own scars ached in sympathy.
"There's something evil in those woods. It was some sort of a demon." Shaw finished.
'Knowing Azazel, I wouldn't put it past him.'
==DG==
"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors." Dean reasoned as we went back into our motel room. "If they want inside, they just go through the walls."
'Not the polite ones. Thank you, Crowley...did I just thank a demon? Dammit that's what he gets for being nice!'
"So it's probably something else, something corporeal." Sam continued.
"Corporeal? Excuse me, professor." Dean teased.
"Hey it's not that complicated a word." I defended, but I was grinning.
Sam rolled his eyes all the same. "Shut up. So what do you think?"
"The claws, the speed that it moves...could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog." Dean thought out loud.
"Mm, no. None of these attacks are canine in nature. There's a reason they keep saying 'bear attack' and not 'wolf'." I explained. "There is something this reminds me of, but my mind just isn't connecting it."
"Whatever we're talking about, we're talking about a creature, and it's corporeal." Dean admitted. "Which means we can kill it."
==DG==
Dean started packing guns in the duffel bag. The other duffel bag I packed with matchboxes, and flare guns. You can find a lot of weird stuff at a motel gift shop.
As we packed, Sam arrived. "We cannot let that Haley girl go out there." He spoke with some long suffering tone.
I scoffed. "Good luck telling her that. Her brother is missing, and the rangers won't listen to her. She's not exactly going to stop because we tell her too."
"We still need to keep her out of this." San argued.
"Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?" Dean asked, sarcastically.
"Yeah." Sam answered, not sarcastically.
Dean stared at Sam as if the boy had gone insane. It reminded me of those episodes in old cartoons, when a weird science experimented would switch the brains of two characters so they both had to be each other. Except here, Dean seemed to be the only brother that noticed. Then again, as much as Dean denied it, he was always more of a lover than a fighter.
"Her brother's missing, Sam. She's not gonna just sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend." Dean lifted up the packed duffel bag.
"Finding Dad's not enough?" The younger brother honest to Chuck whined. He slammed the trunk shut with such force I backed away in case of Dean Baby Rage. "Now we gotta babysit too?"
Dean stared again at his brother. I looked on, not matching up this Sam with the one I had net last week.
Sam gave us humoring looks. "What?"
'You sound like John Winchester.' I realized. The John that hated bringing kids on a hunt, the John that always told Dean to 'man up' and keep his brother out of danger.
Dean shrugged. "Nothing." He threw the bag at Sam.
Sam caught it, glaring at Dean as he walked to the driver's seat. When Sam went to glare at me, I lifted my hands up.
"I'm not getting involved in whatever this is." I went towards the back seat, keeping my bag close.
==DG==
'Oh look. Another glorious morning.' I glared at the bright sun overhead. 'Makes me sick.'
Dean pulled up to the small group. I could see Haley, Ben, and the man I recognized as Roy.
As we moved from the motel to the woods, I changed into more hiking appropriate clothes. I had on khaki shorts, bug spray, a tan tank top, a flannel jacket, and hiking boots.
It had been funny to Dean sneak glances in the mirror, then pretend he wasn't sneaking glances. Every time I caught him, I whacked the back of his head.
Hopping out of the car, I watched Dean swagger up to the search party.
"You guys got room for three more?" He asked with his usual 'grown five-year-old' attitude.
"Wait, you want to come with us?" Haley asked.
"Who are these people?" Roy asked Haley.
Haley answered over her shoulder. "Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue."
"You're rangers?" Roy looked us all over.
"That's right." Dean grinned.
"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?" Haley asked, skeptical.
"Well, sweetheart, I don't do shorts." Dean stated, walking up to where Sam was.
"They're new." I excused, shrugging at Haley. This didn't help her opinion of us.
"What, you think this is funny? It's dangerous back country out there. Her brother might be hurt." Roy snapped at Dean and I.
"Believe me, I know how dangerous this could get." Dean argued. "We just wanna help her find her brother, that's all." He went up to Sam.
Giving a last look to the Collins clan, I caught up with the Winchesters.
==DG==
We'd been hiking for upwards of three hours, probably closer to four now that I think about it. We hadn't gotten close to the cave, then again I know nothing about hiking so maybe we were close.
I do know that it was cold, with it being early November and the mountains. It felt great, I'd always loved the cold.
"Roy, you said you did a little hunting." Dean asked.
"Yeah, more than a little." Roy answered. He had been guiding us. The Collins could probably do this themselves, if they camped often enough.
"Uh-huh. What kind of furry critters do you hunt?" Dean asked.
"Mostly buck, sometimes bear." Roy was more focused on the hike than on Dean's stupid questions.
"Tell me, uh, Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" Dean teased.
Before he could take another step, Roy pulled him back. "Whatcha doing, Roy?" Dean asked.
Roy tossed a stick down on the bear trap. It clapped shut, right where Dean's foot had almost stepped. "You should watch where you're stepping. Ranger." He went back on.
The older Winchester turned back to us. "It's a bear trap."
Behind me, I felt Sam's bitch face.
"You didn't pack any provisions. You guys are carrying a duffel bag. You're not rangers." Haley listed. She pulled Dean back. "So who the hell are you?"
Sam and I paused, looking at Dean asking if he needed backup. Dean nodded for us to go forward.
I walked alongside Sam.
For awhile, we just walked. At one point I felt it was a good idea to start a conversation. "So...Sam, I was wondering-"
"You don't have to do Dean's dirty work." Sam interrupted. He pulled the duffle bag tighter on his back. "I'm not some helpless kid."
I blinked at him in surprise. "Okay, whoa. That is not what I'm doing. I just wanted to talk about what we're hunting." My eyes gave him a once over. "You don't have to jump down my throat."
Sam sighed. He reached up, punching the bridge of his nose. "Yeah well I don't walk to talk. About anything. I just want to get this over with."
"Right." Sucking my lips, I slowly went along with his BS. "I get it. Because when my sister died, I couldn't talk to anyone." Sam groaned silently. "Not unless I started the conversation. Even that, it had to last a minute or else the other person was in danger of being punched."
"Yeah well I bet you didn't have to chase the thing that killed her." Sam ranted.
"I did." I stated, starting to feel detached. "Then I ripped his heart out."
"So you understand why this is so important! We shouldn't be in the woods, we should be looking for Dad then going after what killed Jess!" Sam ranted.
"Sam I regret what I did to him." I admitted, hand on my heart. "Oh he needed to be stopped, as awful as he was, but I shouldn't have fought so hard to kill him-"
This made Sam cut me off with a disbelieving snort. "You know what, Raven? I didn't ask you." He marched further ahead.
Sighing at my own stupidity at bringing it up, I hung my head in defeat.
Branches crunched behind me. Looking back, I saw Dean there with a confused look on his face. he came up to my side. He nodded towards his brother. "What's got his panties in a twist?"
Letting out another puff of air, I pulled my bag higher up on my shoulder. "Your dad better be in town. I don't think your brother can take this for much longer."
Dean's face tightened in held back concern for his brother. Candy apple eyes looked ahead, like looking at Sam would make a solution clear.
==DG==
It was another cold two hours of walking before we made it to the Ridge.
"This is it. Blackwater Ridge." Roy informed.
"What coordinates are we at?" Sam asked.
Roy checked the GPS. "Thirty-five and minus one-eleven."
I stood up beside Sam, Dean taking his other side. "You hear that?" Dean asked.
"Yeah." I agreed. "Nothing."
"Not even crickets." Sam commented.
"I'm gonna go take a look around." Roy decided.
The three of us turned to him. "You shouldn't go off by yourself." Sam suggested, or maybe warned?
"That's sweet. Don't worry about me." Roy scoffed at us. He showed off his gun, pushing between the boys to take the lead.
'Rude bastard.' Was my first thought. 'You're lucky I don't want you to die.'
Dean turned to the Collins'. "All right, everybody stays together. Let's go."
==DG==
Roy led us to the campsite. "Haley! Over here!" He shouted.
Haley had been looking over a giant rock, but she ran towards Roy's voice. When we caught up with her, it was too a horrific sight.
"Oh my God." Haley gasped.
The campsite reminded me of crime scenes I had seen over the years. The tent was torn to shreds. Some parts of it were soaked in blood. There wasn't any dead bodies, though based on the amount of blood they didn't have long.
"Looks like a grizzly." Roy noted.
"Tommy?" The female Collins started shouting. "Tommy!"
While Sam went to calm Haley, I followed the wendigo's trail. There was some heavy dirt prints that could be mistaken for bear prints..
"See that?" Dean pointed at a steak of kicked up dirt.
"Yeah." I nodded, pointing at my streak. "And that."
"Sam!" Dean called back.
Sam came over.
"The bodies were dragged from the campsite." Dean pointed at a spot on the ground. "But here, the tracks just vanish. That's weird." Dean huffed. "Raven was right, it's no skinwalker or black dog."
"Generally." I walked back to the campsite, seeing Haley crying over Tom's phone. "Hey." She looked up at me. "Have some faith. There's a chance he's still love."
Her eyes were filling with angry tears now.
The wendigo started screaming in the woods. "Help! Help!"
Everyone stood up on their feet. Roy foolishly lead them after it. I followed, if only because I didn't want to be left alone with the wendigo.
When we made it to it's clearing, it was empty.
"It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?" Haley asked us.
There was another beat of silence. Then Sam got a clue. "Everybody back to camp."
Our group ran back. All of the supplies the others left behind were gone. I held mine tighter to my back.
Haley gasped in dismay. "Our packs!"
Roy crouched down near where our packs had been. "So much for my GPS and my satellite phone."
"What the hell is going on?" Haley asked.
"It's smart. It wants to cut us off so we can't call for help." Sam kept trying to find the answer, pointing to the obvious answer left.
"You mean someone, some nutjob out there just stole all our gear." Roy falsely corrected.
Sam couldn't stand the stupidity at camp. He went to Dean, then myself.
"I need to speak with you two. In private." He stormed away from camp.
'Well not that strong, but anything looks like storming out when you're that tall.'
We walked far enough from camp that we could hear anything, but not so they could hear us.
"Let me see Dad's journal." Sam demanded.
Dean did so.
Sam rifled through the pages before finding the one he wanted. "Alright, check that out." He showed off the poorly drawn wendigo.
"Oh come on, wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or, or northern Michigan." Dean argued. "I've never even heard of one this far west."
"Dean, this is the only thing that makes sense." I tried to convince. "The claws, the unlocking of doors, we just heard it mimic a human voice!"
The older brother scoffed. "Great." He pulled out his pistol. "Well then this is useless."
Sam stormed back off to camp. "We gotta get these people to safety."
I pulled the matches and lighters from my bag. Dean stared at me in surprise. "Why do you have those?" He asked.
"I didn't think either of you could start a campfire." Was my sort of honest answer. Dean gave me a look. I leaned in so Sam wouldn't hear. "Or that neither of you would want to." He understood.
Dean got it.
Both of us went back to camp. Sam was giving a completely idiotic speech.
"All right, listen up, it's time to go. Things have gotten...more complicated." Sam ordered.
"What?" Haley gawked.
"Kid, don't worry. Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it." Roy assured.
"It's not me I'm worried about. If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave. Now." Sam ordered, more stern.
"One, you're talking nonsense. Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders." Roy snapped.
"Relax." Dean tried to placate the rising tensions.
"We never should have let you come out here in the first place, all right? I'm trying to protect you." Sam snapped.
Roy stepped up into Sam's face. "You protect me? I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you goodnight."
Oh that set him off. "Yeah? It's a damn near perfect hunter. It's smarter than you, and it's gonna hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here."
'Dear Chuck. If Sam could hear himself right now, he'd call himself a bitch.'
The non-supernatural laughed mockingly. "You know you're crazy, right?"
"Yeah? You ever hunt a wen-"
Sam was pushed back by Dean. "Roy!" Haley chided. Her brother seemed to snap out of whatever music haze he had been in for most of the hike up here.
"Chill out." Dean ordered Sam. The young ex Stanford student huffed, still gearing for a fight.
"Stop. Stop it. Everybody just stop!" Haley shouted. "Look. Tommy might still be alive. And I'm not leaving here without him."
I watched Dean accept that they couldn't turn back. Sam, on the other hand, was probably thinking of ways to break away from the camp to keep the civilians out of it.
Dean decided to just go for broke. "It's getting late. This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night." He explained. "We'll never beat it, not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves."
"How?" Haley asked.
==DG==
The sun had set hours ago. There was a campfire in the middle of our camp.
I had just finished carving a protective Anasazi symbol when Ben came up behind me.
"What does that do?" Ben asked, kneeling down to get a better look.
"It's an Anasazi symbol of protection." I explained, pointing at a view trees. "I carved them in some trees too, just in case."
Ben nodded though I'm sure he still had no idea. "And this will keep that...thing...from getting us? Like it got Tommy?"
I paused for a second, adjusting myself. Crouching wasn't an easy pose to keep for long. "Hey, don't lose hope. Your brother is alive, I need you to believe that."
The youngest Collins nodded.
Off to the side, Dean was teaching the same thing to Haley.
This left Sam alone with Roy. The guide snickered at us. I could see rage about to go off in Sam's eyes.
Dean saw it too. "Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy." He walked over towards Sam. I stayed where I was, close enough to hear what they were saying. "You wanna tell me what's going on in that freaky head of yours?"
Sam mentally groaned. "Dean-"
"No, you're not fine. You're like a powder keg, man, it's not like you." Dean laughed, derisively. "I'm supposed to be the belligerent one, remember?"
There was a heavy pause as I waited for Sam's answer. When it came, it was like he didn't want it to be in his mouth. The words were hollow, empty except for that slow heating anger behind them.
"Dad's not here." He stared off into the dark woods, fists clenching and unclenching. "I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sign, right?"
"Yeah, you're probably right." His brother agreed, his tone nonchalant as if they had missed a turn instead of their father. "Tell you the truth, I don't think Dad's ever been to Lost Creek."
"Then let's get these people back to town and let's hit the road. Go find Dad. I mean, why are we still even here?"
'Sam.' I was disgusted. 'Can you hear yourself? Leave a family broken? Leave two men to die? Who...who am I looking at right now?'
"This is why." Dean showed Sam the journal. "This book. This is Dad's single most valuable possession-everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he's passed it on to us. I think he wants us to pick up where he left off." I leaned in more, keeping myself from being known. "You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business."
"That makes no sense. Why doesn't he just call us?" Sam argued. "Why doesn't he tell us what he wants, tell us where he is?"
"I dunno. But the way I see it, Dad's giving us a job to do, and I intend to do it." Dean stated, making me smile. That was the Dean I knew. I stood up, watching Haley and Ben sit in front of the fire.
"Dean...no. I gotta find Dad. I gotta find Jessica's killer." Sam insisted. "It's the only thing I can think about."
"Okay, all right, Sam, we'll find them, I promise. Listen to me." Sam looked up at Dean. "You've gotta prepare yourself. I mean, this search could take a while, and all that anger, you can't keep it burning over the long haul. It's gonna kill you. You gotta have patience, man."
His brother shook his head, sadness heavy on his shoulders. "How do you do it? How does Dad do it?"
"Well for one, them." Dean looked over to Haley and Ben. I smirked at him, adding a nod. "I mean, I figure our family's so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable. I'll tell you what else helps. Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can."
Sam finally smiled.
==DG==
Then the wendigo called for help again.
Reaching in my bag, I pulled out the flare gun. Dean came back from his chick-flick love fest, pulling out his gun.
"Help!" The wendigo screamed again.
"He's trying to draw us out. Just stay cool, stay put." Dean advised.
"Inside the magic circle?" Roy snarked.
"Help! Help me!" The wendigo cried out. It cut itself off with a hideous sounding growl.
"Okay, that's no grizzly." Roy admitted. He aimed his rifle in the direction of the growling.
"That's only gonna make it angry, Roy." I warned.
He cocked it.
Behind me, I heard Haley assuring Ben. "It's okay. You'll be alright, I promise."
The bushes moved again.
"It's here." Sam told Dean and I.
I tried to aim at it with the flare gun. The problem was, if I missed then the trees around us could go up in flames. So there was one shot.
"Got it!" I fired the pistol the same time Roy fired.
"I hit it!" He shouted.
We both had.
The wendigo shrieked in pain. It was hard to see it in the dark but I saw the flames on it. I pulled out another flare gun.
Roy ran out to see his hunt. I chased after him.
"Roy, Raven, no! Roy!" Dean shouted. "Don't move."
I chased after Roy.
"It's over here! It's in the tree!" The wendigo called out.
I raised the flare gun. As the wendigo reached down, I fired at its arm.
It screeched again. It pulled away from us, running off into the night.
"Raven!" Dean shouted. He and Sam entered the clearing, only to stop after seeing We were fine.
Roy stared up at the tree, shocked. I looked down to him. "We told you to stay in the magic circle." I threw the flare gun at him.
He failed to catch it.
I stormed off back to camp.
==DG==
The sun was up now.
No one had slept after the wendigo attacked.
Especially not Roy, the man that had nearly died last night. He was being more mature about the whole thing.
"I don't...I mean, these types of things, they aren't supposed to be real." Haley muttered.
"I wish I could tell you different." Dean shrugged.
"How do we know it's not out there watching us?" Haley asked.
"We don't. But we're safe for now." Dean stated.
"How do you know about this stuff?" Haley asked.
Dean paused. "Kind of runs in the family." He half joked.
"Hey." Sam stepped up towards the middle of camp. "So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch."
"Well, hell, you know I'm in." Dean stated.
"Same here." I nodded.
Sam smirked at us. He pulled out the wendigo page in the journal. He showed it to the Collins' and Roy. "'Wendigo' is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours'." He explained.
"They're hundreds of years old. Each one was once a man." Dean went on. "Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter."
"How's a man turn into one of those things?" Roy asked, looking horrified at the question and disgusted at the idea of the answer.
"It's always the same story." I began. "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."
"Like the Donner Party." Ben mused.
I didn't really know what to say to that, so I just smirked at Ben.
"Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities." Sam explained. "Speed, strength, immortality."
"If you eat enough of it, over years, you become this less than human thing. You're always hungry." Dean went on.
"So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" Haley asked, voice shaking at the end.
"You're not gonna like it." Dean warned.
"Tell me." Haley insisted.
"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." Dean explained. "If your brother's alive, it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden, and safe. We gotta track it back there."
Haley was covering her dismay really well.
"And then how do we stop it?" Roy asked.
"Well, guns are useless, so are knives. Basically-" Dean held up lighter fluid, a beer bottle, and a white cloth. "We gotta torch the sucker." He nodded at me. "You still got the flare guns?"
"Yeah. And I've got some extra ammo in my bag." I tossed one gun to Dean. He caught it.
He grinned at the gun. "Awesome."
==DG==
Roy let Dean lead. Or at least that's what Roy said as Dean marched off into the woods. I let him keep his pride, though he followed behind me. I followed behind Haley.
We'd been tracking it for hours. It was afternoon before things got interesting.
Sam had walked ahead, searching for the tracks. "Dean, Raven." Sam called out.
Dean and I ran ahead to him.
"What is it?" Dean asked.
"He found tracks." I mused, looking up at the bloody claw marks.
"You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow." Sam remarked.
I let out a huff.
The wendigo rushed by some bushes. The group jumped back. I stood in place, looking up at clouds wondering if Chuck thought this was funny or not.
"Okay, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!" Dean ordered. He started pushing the group on, breaking me out of my anti-Chuck thoughts.
The group split apart in all the chaos of running away. Dean and Sam with Ben, myself with Haley and Roy. Oh yeah that's not gonna end in disaster.
I lead the two of them through the woods. The wendigo was jumping from tree to tree overhead.
Then it jumped down. It snarled I'm out faces.
Roy, Haley and I froze.
It grabbed me, then tossed me over it's back.
Haley screamed.
It picked Roy up with it's unburnt hand. It flicked it's wrist, snapping Roy's neck with an awful crunch. Once that was handled, it grabbed Haley
We were gone before the Winchesters arrived.
==DG==
The sweet serenade of a moose and squirrel brought me back to conscious.
'And I'm gonna kill 'um for it.' I thought, struggling against the wire on my wrists. 'As soon as I get out of these things!'
The memories of what happened before I woke up came back. The wendigo, Roy dying, Haley screaming-Haley!
"Hey, you okay?" Dean asked, checking my neck for a pulse.
'Holy fuck shit no.' I winced in pain. "Think so." My focus moved over to the Collins family.
"Haley, Haley, wake up, wake up!" Ben pleaded.
Sam pulled out a blade, quickly using it to cut the wire. I fell on the floor in a heap. A grunt of pain burst up from my throat. The wendigo had left cuts on my body that didn't appreciate being rubbed in dirt.
The boys lifted me up. They walked me over to a much nicer path of dirt.
"You sure you're all right?" Sam asked, lowering me to the ground.
"Fine. Where is that son of a bitch?" I seethed.
"He's gone for now." Dean answered, sounding ready to tear it apart.
"Tommy..." Haley's voice echoed. Looking over at it, I saw Haley touch her brother's cheek.
The man jerked awake.
"Cut him down!" Haley ordered the Winchester's.
Sam did so. Dean stayed by me, checking the stolen bags of supplies near me.
I chuckled when he pulled out the flare guns.
"Check it out." Dean called out to his brother. Sam turned to see Dean and I holding flares.
"More flare guns. Perfect." Sam helped keep Tommy on his feet.
So six of us were making our way out. Dean lead the group, flare gun in hand. I walked on his side. Sam held up the rear. The Collins family was in the middle, supporting their brother.
The wendigo had noticed we were gone. It growled loudly.
"Looks like someone's home for supper." Dean joked.
"We'll never outrun it." Haley voiced.
Dean seemed to agree. He looked to Sam and me. "Either of you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah, I think so." Sam nodded.
"And if you survive, I'm punching you for it." I warned.
Dean just smirked.
"All right, listen to me. Stay with Sam and Raven. They're gonna get you out of here." He advised Haley and Ben.
"What are you gonna do?" Haley asked.
He winked, then started yelling. "Chow time, you freaky bastard! Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby, I'm feeling good." He ran after the wendigo.
Once he was far enough that we couldn't hear his words, Sam and I led the Collins family out to safety.
"All right, come on! Hurry!"
"We don't have much time."
They pulled their brother along for the ride.
For two, maybe three minutes, we were doing okay. The wendigo must have realized I was in this group. It growled from further in the tunnel.
"Get him outta here." Sam insisted.
"Sam, Raven, no." Haley pleaded.
"Go now! Do it!" I ordered.
Ben began guiding them out. "Come on, Haley!"
With a look of sadness, Haley joined her brothers in leaving.
Sam and I hid in the tunnel, listening for its footsteps.
"Come on. Come on." Sam grunted in impatience.
The growling was closer. And wetter.
There was this 'oh shit' moment, like when you're in a horror movie and realize the killer is right behind you. That's what this felt like.
Sam and I turned around.
The wendigo roared at us. It was still pissed off I burned his arm
Sam fired, hitting rocks. I fired, probably would've hit his arm if it wasn't already burnt to a crisp.
"Sam! Raven!" Haley cried out.
We ran to her.
"Come on, hurry, hurry, hurry." Sam lifted up Tommy, trying to encourage a faster pace.
There was sunlight just a few meters away. The wendigo was nearly on us.
They run to the end of the tunnel, the wendigo right behind.
"Get behind us." Sam ordered, moving to protect the Collins. I stood beside, holding up the flare gun for when I had a shot.
It came closer. Closer. Closer. Still no shot.
"Hey!"
It moved to face Dean. It gave us both space to fire. The hunter didn't hesitate firing a flare right in its stomach. I set one off into its neck. The flares went off, torching the bastard.
"Not bad, huh?" Dean smirked.
I smirked. "I hate you." I laughed.
==DG==
Finally we were out of the woods. I'd never been happier to be back in civilization.
Dean had patched up my cuts on the way back. None of them had been infected, by some miracle. My hiking clothes were toast, though. Not that I had much use for them anyway.
The rangers called in an ambulance for Tommy. He was being checked up, before being driven to the hospital.
Ben was giving a statement about the attack. Sam stood behind him, as support. Ben was saying it was a bear.
Haley and Dean were...I guess flirting?
I didn't care either way. Walking from the ranger's station, having dressed back into clean none shredded clothes.
When I got to the police cars, Haley had just kissed Dean on the cheek.
"I hope you find your father." Haley and Ben went to climb in the the ambulance. "Thanks, Sam. You too, Raven."
I waved, sitting on the hood of the Impala. Sam and Dean joined me.
The doors shut.
My hands clapped on their shoulders. "Either of you take me camping again, I'll make you wish the wendigo had eaten you."
The boys snorted.
"Man, I hate camping." Dean remarked.
"Me too." Sam spoke.
The three of us laughed, without real mirth.
"You boys are gonna find your dad, I know you will."
"Yeah?" Dean asked.
"Yeah." I elbowed Sam. "You're both too stubborn to quit."
Sam agreed. "Yeah, I know. But in the meantime? I'm driving."
Dean gave his brother the keys, with little fight.
The three of us went to our respective doors. We climbed inside, slamming our doors in sync.
I stopped, as Sam turned the car on. I leaned in towards Dean. "Dude. We did that at the same time."
Dean smirked. "I know."
We first bumped at the coolness.
Sam was silently hoping my injuries would make me pass out, and that Dean would follow.
==DG==
AN: Sorry this took awhile. I'm in a sorta fight with my friend, we're in limbo at the moment. Bright side, I finished my first session of my new college!
Thanks to Irrelevant86 for following