I was going for something more atmospheric with this one. Consider it an early Halloween story ^_^


Caught in a Storm

Day 9: The Very Noisy Night

(sleeping in shifts, caught in a storm)

Thunder crashed, and the sky lit up with the flash of lightening. For a brief moment, it was the only light that illuminated the inside of the car, before they were, once again, thrown into darkness.

Dean clutched the shotgun close to his chest, barely able to see anything outside due to the rain pouring buckets down on them. He shifted and gritted his teeth as the action pulled on his shoulder. Three claw marks were torn through his three layers of clothing, dried blood crusting them, stiff against the makeshift bandages. The marks had been deep and had bled more than was probably safe. The fact that Dean didn't know what the thing was that did this, was only a slightly less terrifying thought than the fact that it was still out there.

And they were currently trapped between the trailhead and the highway, stuck in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere, during a freak monsoon that had trapped the Impala in too much mud to move.

They'd had no choice but to stay put. Getting out on foot was way too dangerous in these conditions, not to mention the fact that bullets seemed to do little to kill the thing that might still be after them.

Dean took a deep breath. The car smelled of ozone, gunpowder, and blood. He glanced toward Sam who was currently trying to get a little sleep in the backseat. His pale face was only barely visible in the dim light. Dean would turn on a flashlight if he wasn't afraid it would instantly draw the monster to their location.

He hoped that it might also have also been forced to shelter in the rain, that the storm had at least blotted out their scent enough that it wouldn't be able to follow them.

It was then that Dean heard, even over the pounding rain, the wailing, inhuman hunting cry of the thing that had tracked them halfway through the forest earlier that day.

It sent the hair on the back of his neck standing straight up and goosebumps shot down his spine and across his stomach.

He heard Sam inhale sharply and shift in the backseat.

"It's still out there," he said, a statement, not a question.

"Yeah," Dean said, hating this feeling of being trapped, without a weapon he was sure would work against their inhuman pursuer. At this point their best chance of survival would likely be to just stay in the car and pretend not to be there.

Sam sat up, cringing as he pressed his back against the window and eased his legs out straight in front of him.

"How is that?" Dean asked, pointing to the matching crusted bloody tears on the thigh of Sam's jeans.

The younger man grimaced. "Not great."

"Is it still bleeding?" Dean asked worriedly.

Sam felt around the injury and nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, a little."

"Son of a bitch," Dean muttered, shifting so he could lean over the seats. "Let me see if I can do anything about it. Don't want you bleeding to death."

"Fresh blood might also attract that thing out there," Sam reminded him.

"Yeah, don't remind me," Dean muttered. Another flash of lightning lit up the night and the clap of thunder that followed shook the Impala, pounding in his ears and chest.

Dean grunted and slid over the seats to sit sideways in the footwell in the back so that he could better get to Sam's leg.

"I got it, Dean," Sam protested.

"It's fine," Dean insisted as he reached for the first aid kit under the seat, rummaging blindly until he found some cloths. He went by feel and peeled away the bandages they'd tied around Sam's leg earlier, all of them already soaked through. He pressed the cloth down hard and Sam tensed with a grunt of pain.

"I'm gonna try to get this to stop," Dean muttered. "They're deeper than I thought."

Sam's teeth gritted audibly in the dark. "How's your shoulder?"

"Not as bad." Not quite anyway. It was a painful injury, and slightly debilitating in a fight, but at least it had stopped bleeding.

Sam hissed through his teeth as Dean applied more pressure to the stubborn injury.

"I'm gonna be honest, I don't even know if we're gonna get out of here once it stops raining," Dean said. "The car's pretty stuck, and if the water rises any more than it already has…" He trailed off, leaving the obvious unsaid.

Sam glanced out the window and his face, covered in bruises and scratches from their mad dash through the woods, was briefly illuminated by another flash of lightening.

"As long as the water disperses, we should be able to dig ourselves out."

"Yeah, but before our friend out there comes back?"

Sam pressed his lips together. They both knew that was a serious possibility. Dean wondered just how good the thing's nose was. Could it smell the fresh blood?

"Let's get this wrapped up again," Dean muttered as he rummaged through the kit and found some fresh bandages, tearing the packaging open before wrapping them tightly around Sam's leg.

The surrounding area was again pierced by the monster's cry.

Much closer this time.

Dean froze in his bandaging, and could feel Sam shudder at the sound.

"This isn't good," Sam muttered. "I've tried to find any indication about what this might be in Dad's journal, but there was nothing definitive."

"Honestly? Never seen anything like it," Dean admitted grimly as he finished up and tied off the bandage. "Never heard any stories from Dad or Bobby either—"

There was another flash of lightning and Dean could see Sam's eyes widen in horror, looking out the window. "Dean."

Dean spun around, and was just able to catch a shape silhouetted by the light, standing near the tree line. It's head and shoulders were hidden by the upper leaves and branches, but the thin, elongated body could be seen among the tree trunks.

"Holy crap," Dean muttered.

They both instinctively reached for their weapons, but were instantly thrown into darkness again as the lightning and thunder died away. The rain seemed to pour down even more insistently.

It was silent for a long moment, until another cry pierced the night and something shifted in the darkness at the edge of the woods.

"Shit, shit, shit," Dean hissed under his breath as all he could do was clutch his gun and hope the thing was not going to come out here.

Another flash of lightning came, and they could now both clearly see the creature emerging from between the trees, dark and sinewy, a good ten feet fall at least—built to be an apex predator. How long it had been out here, causing unsuspecting hikers and hunters to go missing, Dean could only guess. His only goal right now was not to let it make two more out of them.

"Get down," Sam suddenly said, throwing one of the blankets at Dean before he slid underneath his own, pulling it over him entirely so that he was nothing but an indistinguishable lump.

Dean scrambled with the blanket and did the same, jamming himself into the footwell of the backseat. He tugged the blanket over him, shotgun held ready against his chest as he tried to even his breathing, bring his heartrate down in case that thing could detect it even from where it was.

There were more inhuman grunts, too close for comfort. Dean left one corner of the blanket turned back so he could look out of it with one eye.

A dark shape shifted outside the car, getting closer and closer. There was no Jurassic Park rumble from the huge thing; instead it was terrifyingly silent. The main reason it had been able to sneak up on them before. Aside from them being woefully unprepared to face whatever this was.

It stopped, right beside the car, only two feet away from the back window. Dean's finger found the trigger on the gun, angling it so that it was pointed in that direction. He didn't know what it would do, if anything, but it was better to be prepared.

Sam didn't even seem to be breathing at this point. Dean wasn't either. They both lay there, frozen, waiting with the sickening certainty that any second this thing would try to get into the car and finish the job it had started earlier.

Dean squeezed his eyes shut, biting back a curse, as the thing suddenly bumped into the side of the Impala, rocking it alarmingly easily.

Don't bend down, don't bend down, he pleaded silently in some childlike terror. He wasn't sure he would be able to get a shot off if that thing bent over and he was forced to look the huge being in the eyes before it killed them.

The flash of lightning couldn't have come at a worse time. Dean was sure it would have spotted them, could smell them and the blood from their wounds.

But at that moment, it spun back toward the woods instead and darted toward something. Another shadow streaking through the storm-drenched night.

All Dean saw was a flash of fur and antlers before the lightning stopped illuminating the surroundings. Over the rain he could hear the sound of grunting, and breaking bones. Red streaks slithered down the windows before being washed away by the rain as the plinks of bone and meat chucks fell onto the roof while the thing consumed the deer.

Dean and Sam lay there breathless, not daring to so much as blink until the thing turned slowly and finally made its way back toward the woods, slipping between the trees and disappearing into the darkness.

Dean slowly let out a breath and sat up. "Holy crap," he said in a strangled voice.

Sam reappeared from under the blanket, pale in the darkness. Dean was sure he looked no better. "What the hell even is that thing?" he muttered to himself.

"I don't know, but I'll tell you one thing: I don't want to tangle with it," Dean said firmly as he got up and slid back over to the front seat. "I say we get the hell out of here as soon as we can and forget it."

"But Dean—"

"We don't know how to kill it, Sammy," Dean reminded his brother. "I think we're gonna have to let this one go."

Sam swallowed hard, but finally nodded, wincing again as he shifted into a more comfortable position.

It wasn't something they ever liked to do, but sometimes there was nothing else for it, and this was one of those times they were just going to have to live with the idea that this thing was still out there.

The night dragged on, rain pounding ceaselessly against the metal roof of the Impala washing away the deer's blood, as the two brothers slept in shifts, ready and dreading the sound of the monster's hunting call sounding again.


If you are interested in checking it out, I also have a couple original novels out now and there is a preorder going on that you can find the info for on my Tumblr (at: lady-wallace) It would mean a lot to me if you would take a look ^_^