Chapter 5.

Jess was slowly coming about, everything was blurry and foggy at first, but the instant that shapes became clearer, she wished she could force herself to pass out again. What she woke up to was nothing short of a gore fest straight out of House of 1000 Corpses: bloody limbs hanged to dry, bits and pieces of muscle and bone just lying on a table right above her head, bags of remains scattered around. The smell alone made Jess sick. She looked around, two body bags with what looked like bodies inside, towards the narrow, dark part of the hollow, which was unnaturally big, as if man-carved. Also there, close to her and close to the hollow opening, Dean. Both of them were lying on the floor, with all limbs tied, arms to back and legs together.

"Dean", she whispered. Dean was still out cold.

"Dean", she tried louder. "DEAN!", she said while managing to kick him. Unfortunately, she could not really direct her legs properly, so her two-legged kick, weak as it may have been, landed very close to his groin. This made Dean jerk up, in an almost comical way, whereby he had the intention to jump on his feet, but the nooses tying him down denied that attempt vehemently. He ended up looking like a fish on dry land.

"Sorry! Sorry!", Jess whispered. "Just wanted to make sure you're still alive!"

"Where the hell are we?", he replied barely coming around.

"I think under that tree that we saw earlier, remember?"

He nodded.

"Are you hurt?", he asked her. "I saw you hit your head"

"I didn't, actually. In fact, I think I just fainted", she said, embarrassed.

"Oh, great", he said sarcastically.

Jess realized the whole reason they were in this situation was because of her. She could not contain her fear, she made noises, she fainted. Dean had been right all along, when he said that she was not ready for this. She had probably killed them both.

"I'm so sorry"

"Yeah, what good does that do now? I've fought the worst monsters in the world, terrors you cannot even imagine, and I'm going to die at the hands of a stupid Wendigo. No, at the hands of a stupid chick"

"Yeah, OK, that's fair.", she admitted. She had decided to get off her high horse, even though it may have been too late. "You were right, Dean. I am so so sorry for the position I've put us in, and if we ever get out of here, I swear on anything loved and dear that I will always listen to every single word you say. I wanna learn, I still want to tag along, but I will not come on missions unless I have your say so, and when I do, I'll do what you tell me, I promise and swear.", but she wasn't bargaining just with him, but also with any sort of God or higher being that may be listening at the moment. She was not particularly religious, but right now some sort of higher power intervention would be great.

Dean rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Wait.", he said, looking up still. "There, on the table, carving knives."

Jess looked up as well. Surely enough, she could see some knives and other tools through the cracks of the wooden table above her. But, even though the table was not particularly high, she couldn't really figure out how to get up at all, let alone reach the table. She looked around once more and saw some ropes hanging on the walls of the hollow, similar to the ones that had limbs and body parts drying on them. She managed to grab the rope in her mouth and pull her body up.

"All right!", Dean cheered, impressed.

But the cheer was a bit premature, as Jess slipped and slid right back down. She had not been inspired enough to let go of the rope, which burned the side of her mouth while gliding. She tried again, same result. And again, no-go. Some would say the definition of insanity was to keep trying the same thing and expecting different results, but those people were not going to be gutted like pigs before Christmas. Finally, on her 6th or 12th try, she managed to plop herself vertically. From there, she threw herself at the table.

"Oh man", she exclaimed as her elbow hit the corner of the table with a loud thud. "Oh man, oh boy, uuuuuuuuh, aaaah", she kept whispering to stop herself from yelling out in pain.

"Ok, here we go", she was now talking to Dean, as she managed to shimmy her shoulder around and push a knife on the floor with the upper part of her arm. She then threw herself back on the floor and grabbed the knife between her feet. Dean turned around and managed to grab it in his hands. Soon enough they managed to set themselves free.

"Ok", Dean whispered. "The Wendigo is not very close, else we would have been toast. Supersonic hearing, don't forget."

She nodded. That was also an indication to keep quiet. There would be no second chance if she messed up again.

"Let's look for the brothers and get the hell out of here. We don't have any flare guns."

"I think the brothers are over there", she said, pointing at the body bags.

"Aw damn it!", Dean exclaimed, probably thinking they were too late.

"No, wait, look, they're breathing", she pointed at little air bumps in the bags going up and down. The breathing was almost unnoticeable, but sure enough it was there. They rushed to the body bags, and saw that they had not been shut closed, so air was still flowing in. The brothers were still alive.

"We need to go get help", Dean stated.

"We can't leave them!"

"Yes, we can, and we will. It hasn't killed them yet; it won't kill them in the next half hour either. But if we carry them out, we will be slow, there is a high chance it will catch us. And then we all die"

"Right", Jess said as they both managed to sneak out of the hollow and into the night.