Disclaimer: Supernatural and all its characters belong to The CW and Eric Kripke.

Suggested Songs:

"Street Fighting Man" by The Rolling Stones

"This Ain't the Summer of Love" by Blue Öyster Cult

Chapter One: Part One

Melissa almost couldn't hear the Wendigo shuffling around the old mine. Every other noise was being drowned out by the blood pumping loudly in her ears. The monster had been a bitch to find, as it turned out. It was late afternoon of the following day before she had caught a glimpse of it dragging two bodies through the damp undergrowth of the forest as she leaned against a tree, resting. Voices heard in the distance during mid-morning had made Melissa nervous. She'd thought about warning the clueless campers who had stayed in the woods overnight despite the recent disappearances about the true danger lurking behind the trees, but then decided against it. They would most likely pack up their RV and get back to suburban life at some point soon.

She probably should have just approached the nature lovers and told them to get the hell out of the woods. There were plenty of other places to set up shop for bird-watching, or whatever it was they wanted to do. And it was not uncommon for Melissa to pull a gun on people to get them to leave a dangerous area. If it meant saving lives, and getting the job done quickly, she wasn't afraid to scare a few cityfolk. Her gun was always on safety when she used that tactic anyway, but no innocent bystander ever noticed.

But no, on that particular morning she had felt tired from a full night on stakeout, and thought it would be fine to leave them be. Melissa's stomach sank gravely as soon as she saw the man and woman being hauled through the dusky light of the woods, just as she was getting ready to head back to the motel and regroup. She cursed herself now as she watched the Wendigo string up the bodies.

She had not seen one up close in years, and she was struck by its slightly reptilian nature. She'd forgotten about the grotesque scaliness a Wendigo's skin had, and the way it would fade to a sickly gray or yellowish color over the years. Another thing that was surprising about this particular Wendigo was its height. Wendigos often stood at over twenty feet, but this one actually seemed slightly shorter. However, a creature that harvested humans was not made any less intimidating by being fourteen feet tall instead of twenty.

Her hands were shaking and her knees were slightly weak from the adrenaline she was feeling, but Melissa still let the rush wash over her. The rush of the life. The rush she felt whenever she knew she had a monster by the balls.

She felt proud that she had managed to follow the monster all the way through the woods to a door marked: EXTREMELY TOXIC MATERIAL. And somehow, probably just through dumb luck (though that was so uncommon for her these days, or really ever) she had managed to go unnoticed all the way down into the mine. She was hidden around a corner crouching behind a large metal minecart, watching the Wendigo as discreetly as possible. It was almost finished tying up the two bodies, among a line of many others.

Some were half eaten already. It seemed from the look of one of the corpses that this particular monster preferred to go for the eyes first. It had turned out to be a long hunt, and she was about ready to get the hell outta dodge. But, she had to wait until the Wendigo was done tying up its future meals. Even if she only hit the Wendigo with the flare, if it was too close to the people it had captured, they could also ignite. And Melissa, sitting exhausted and grimy in the dark, did not need to deal with an underground fire.

She pulled back the hammer of her gun, ready to make her move as the monster shuffled away from its work, and it made an audible click as she stood up straight. She squeezed her eyes shut and her breath caught in her throat, hoping she hadn't been discovered. Her stomach sank when she was met with only silence. She glanced around the corner, and saw the Wendigo standing stiffly, sniffing the air. It froze, then turned around quickly, but Melissa managed to turn behind the wall in time. Still, she knew it had caught her scent. It was still too close to the bodies to shoot.

"Lissa? Where have you been?" she heard the monster imitate in a child's voice. Melissa almost faltered, remembering the small figure from her dream the evening before. "It's so lonely here in the dark."

Melissa bowed her head and sighed inaudibly. Mimicry was one of the Wendigo's most dangerous traits. But luckily, she had done her research and wasn't phased. She also knew that it didn't need to try to mimic anyone, it could just round the corner and eat her. But it was doing it for fun. It wanted to fuck with her. That only added fuel to the fire inside her, and she knew now was the time to kill the bastard. She took just a moment to craft the plan for her next move, and then stepped out from behind the wall, hiding her gun in one hand behind her back. The monsters that were more animal than anything else, driven by hunger and need, were often stupid enough to fall for such easy tricks.

"Nice try," she taunted the monster loudly, and it turned around in a hurry. She saw an animalistic hunger blooming in its dark orange eyes. She smiled wickedly.

"Come and get me, bitch."

The monster charged her, and when it had made its way far enough over to her across the large mineshaft, she revealed the gun and took her best shot without missing a beat. The flare seemed to be absorbed into the creature, glowing orange in the pit of its stomach. The monster look at her almost if she had betrayed it, and then burned away all at once. If she had blinked, she would have missed it. She sighed triumphantly, the exaltation of killing another monster consuming her. Revenge, in her opinion, was never all sweet. But this did feel pretty good.

. . .

Dean couldn't tell where he was as his sight began to come back to him, shades of black and blue swam in his head as his eyes struggled to focus in the dark mineshaft. Where the hell am I? he thought, becoming aware of his raw, bound wrists. He winced at his aching neck as he looked up at them, trying unsuccessfully to wriggle out of the rope.

He vaguely heard a little girl's voice, sounding like it was underwater in his pounding ears, and tiredly turned his head forward. He was met with the back of a Wendigo. Dammit, he thought, It fucking captured me. He continued to curse himself before he saw a slender woman step out from behind a corner at the other end of the room. He could barely make her out with his fuzzy eyesight and the cold, bluish light of the mine.

"Nice try," he thought he heard her say. Then, his heavy eyes widened when he saw her take out a flare gun. He realized only then that he previously thought he was going to have to witness the Wendigo eat this woman out of rage, as he hung helplessly on the other side of the room. But now, he felt only safety at the sight of her flare gun. She has to be a hunter, he thought with slightly naive absolution. Nobody else would be that calm or know how to go after a Wendigo.

"Come and get me, bitch," he heard more clearly this time. He felt the familiar sense of euphoric relief as the Wendigo dissolved into ashes right before his eyes and another evil son of a bitch was dead for good.

. . .

Across the room a man hanging from the ceiling began to cough and grunt as he awoke. Melissa rushed over to him and took out her knife, beginning to cut him down. It was a stretch for her to reach so high and she was standing on tiptoe.

"Are you a hunter?" the man asked groggily, nearly face-to-face with her as she continued straining to cut him down. A moment later, he was finally free. He dropped only a short distance to the ground.

Melissa stood back, a little breathless, regarding him warily. She took in the scuffed boots on his feet and protection charm he wore on a leather cord around his neck. The real kicker was the flare gun she caught a glimpse of in the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Yeah," she said, brows furrowed. "Are you?"