A/N: ok, here it is chapter three. i want to thank everyone for their great reviews. i am using this story to try and break through the writers block i have been suffering while working on a book. it has been a while since anyone has read my work and i just want to thank everyone. it is really helping me along. i am really having alot of fun with this story, more then i thought i would. dont worry, the real action will be coming soon, i am still laying the ground work right now. sorry about all the cliff hangers, but i love suspense. i will try to update as quickly as i can. also, this is all imagination, i am not basing it on any myths, its just my mind.

sadly, i still own nothing.

SHADOW STALKER

Chapter 3

Sam awoke slowly, the night air biting the back of his neck. Consciousness did not come easily to him as he fought to wake from his dreams. They were not nightmare, per se, just those strange dreams that plague the mind as it journeys on the road to reality. He kept thinking he saw Dean return to the car or that his father had called them, demanding to know where they were. But as he finally won the battle against sleep he realized that he was still very much alone. Their father had not called, but then, how could he, since they were so far from civilization that they had no reception. He also realized that Dean had yet to return. 'It's just a tape, get over it,' Sam thought. He shifted around again, repositioning his jacket, shivering slightly as a chilling wind blew from somewhere behind the car. Sam knew he had fallen asleep and he began wondering if Dean had come back, and then driven on. The darkness outside the windows was so complete that there was no way of telling if they were in the same spot or miles away. Surly if they finally ran out of gas Dean wouldn't try walking anywhere in the dark. But then Sam's inner voice chimed in saying 'of course he would, he's Dean.'

Sam shifted a little more, noticing there was still no tape in the stereo. So, he thought, they probably haven't driven anywhere, since he was sure Dean would have put in another cassette if he hadn't found the one he was looking for. Sam sighed and looked down at his watch, hitting his head on the passenger window as he jumped up in shock. His digital watched blinked two fifty am. But that was impossible, Sam had checked his watch right after his brother had stormed from the car and distinctly remembered it saying four fifteen am. There was no way he would have slept for almost twenty three hours, and there was no way that Dean would spend that long looking for a tape. Sam took his watch off and began to fiddle with the buttons and displays. Obviously something was wrong with it, he must have laid on it wrong, hit a button somehow, there was no way that time could be right. He knew his mind was making up excuses though; his arm had been resting on his thigh, there was no way he could have hit a button, and no way Dean would have messed with it without waking him up. Sam quickly turned to survey the drivers seat, but it was unchanged from the way Dean had left it. The keys were still in the ignition and the yellow wrappers and coffee cups were still everywhere. It was obvious that Dean had not been back.

Sam was frantic at this point. Twenty three hours and no one had been by the car, no one had found them, their father hadn't found them, and Dean had not returned. Sam quickly reached into the glove box and pulled out two flashlights. He then grabbed the car keys and climbed out of the car, heading for the weapons in the trunk. He had no idea what could have happened to his brother. He knew they were in a mountainous area, perhaps Dean fell in the dark, maybe a bear got him. No, Sam shook himself, he would have heard that, he would have heard Dean. Sam tried to clear his head, he was starting a hunt, a hunt for his brother and he couldn't have his mind racing with the worst case scenarios. Maybe Dean was just lost, but even he found that idea absurd, Dean Winchester wouldn't get lost walking two hundred meters from his car, that just wouldn't happen. Standing over the weapons Sam was at a loss at what to bring, there was no indication that Dean's disappearance was supernatural in nature, but then most of their weapons were designed solely for fighting the creatures of the dark, the idea of Dean being taken down by something normal had never really crossed the younger hunter's mind. Sam compromised by filling a back pack with a little bit of everything. He took the first aid kit in case Dean had fallen, he then tucked a pistol loaded with iron rounds into the waistband of his jeans, and strapped a small knife around his forearm. He placed two shot guns loaded with rock salt into the back pack along with a lighter, salt, light fluid, holy water, a small book of rituals and his father's journal, along with the few provisions the car held, mainly bottled water and candy. Pulling the keys from the trunk Sam took one more look at his cell phone, the no signal message blinking up at him, mocking him. He turned from the car and clicked on his flashlight, sweeping widely across the road in front of him, willing Dean to be somewhere within its reach. Sam wished for nothing more then to see his brother, crouched down over the road looking for his tape, yelling at Sam for over reacting about a broken watch. But something in the back of his mind told him that that was not the case. His watch was fine, but his brother was not, and he berated himself for sleeping as his brother vanished into the shadows.

Sam continued down the lonely highway, noticing how run down it was. 'Some short cut, Dean.' He thought to himself, leave it to his brother to choose the darkest road in the forest. It looked like this strip of asphalt had not been used in years, roots of trees could be seen seeping through the cracks as smaller saplings tugged at its edges, mere years away from taking this strip of land back into the wilderness. "Great, we're lost on an abandoned road. Huh, should have guessed." Sam shrugged to himself as he walked, that was just their luck. After about one hundred meters, Sam felt something small clatter around his feet, looking down he noticed the cassette tape, still intact. Sam picked up Black Sabbath and pocked it, knowing that Dean would be happy to have it returned. Turning back to the car Sam noticed that it was completely lost in the shadows, and he mentally kicked himself for not giving his brother a flashlight earlier. There was no way that Dean would have been able to see anything on this road without a light. He would have had no warning if something had been lucking in the shadows. Sam then began walking along the edges of the road, noticing the steep drop off a few meters off the right side of the shoulder. "Great." He signed, kneeling down and crawling over to the edge, looking for any signs that something had fallen over. He shined the light down as far as it would reach, the faint glow illuminating the forest beneath. Sam knew he wouldn't be able to see his brother from the road above through all the vegetation, the only way to find out what was down there was to climb.

"Dean... Dean, are you down there?" Sam called into the night leaning slightly farther over the edge, careful not to fall himself. "Dean." Sam continued to crawl along the edge of the escarpment on the way back to the car, calling his brother's name every few feet. "Dean, where the hell are you." Sam continued to shout but the night remained deathly silent. After a few more minutes of crawling Sam decided that his current approach wasn't working. He stood and turned to the car, maybe there was something in there to help him climb, he had now convinced himself that his brother had somehow fallen over the edge. But as he swung the light to his left Sam froze, in front of his eyes nothing. The car was gone, no where in sight. He turned around quickly, thinking maybe he had passed it, but the beam of his flashlight still found nothing. That was impossible, he wasn't that far from the car, and he didn't hear anything rolling or driving away, there was no where for the car to go. It was gone, just like his brother, lost somewhere in the night. But Sam knew as well as anyone that things didn't just vanish, people just stop looking, and he would not stop until he found Dean. It was obvious to him now that there was more to these woods then met they eye, and he silently thanked himself for preparing for more then just a fall down the hill. There was something supernatural here, and Sam knew it. He tensed slightly and stretched himself to his full height, eyes taking in all his surroundings, and in that moment Sam turned himself into what he truly was John Winchester's son, a hunter. He shifted the back pack slightly and aimed the light ahead, walking purposefully into the shadows, hunting that which had chosen to hunt them.

Sam walked on for another half an hour, steadily sweeping the flashlight from side to side, his brown eyes searching for signs of his brother, as well as looking for an easy way down the mountain. He knew that it was physically impossible to disappear without a trace, even ghosts and demons couldn't do it. There was always something left behind, be it a sulfur signature, a paper trail, tracks, or an electronic field; whether spirits or people there was always something to follow. As he continued to stare into the night he couldn't help but notice the shadows around him. The way they misted, turned and folded in on themselves, it was almost as though they were alive, and he could see why his brother was swerving. The shadows were so dense that, from a distance, it looked as those something were passing, only to be gone again into the darkness. Sam tightened the grip on his shot gun, having taken it, along with some extra rounds, out of his back pack shortly after the impala had done its disappearing act, and continued on down the road. The wind had picked up slightly, blowing against Sam from all directions, digging deep into his body despite his jacket. As he walked his mind again wandered to Dean and where he could be. 'Maybe something lured us here?' Sam thought to himself. 'Or maybe its a wrong time, wrong place kind of thing.' He continued, finding some solace in his inner monologue. 'I don't remember reading anything about the area though.' But then why would he, they were just passing through, it was Dean that had brought them here, he who had gotten them lost. And Sam could slowly feel the anger growing in him once more.

"God damn it, Dean. You couldn't just follow the map, stay on the highway." Sam said out loud, as if his brother were by his side. "No, you had to find a short cut, had to do it the hard way. And now look at you, You're Lost." Sam shouted the last part, feeling stupid. He was worried, there had been no sign of his brother at all, and now he was also lost in the darkness, deafened by the silence.

The wind began picking up around him, pushing him in all directions, the low moan and creak of the trees breaking the silence. 'Sam.' The word whispered faintly on the wind, almost lost amid the sudden eruption of noise. 'Sam.' Sam spun on the spot, shining his light in all directions. He couldn't tell if he was actually hearing his name, or if it was just his mind playing tricks, the noises nothing more then the wind through the trees.

He mentally shook himself, turned his flashlight forward and continued on. But the wind shot at him, pushing him back, stinging his face with its chill. 'Sam.' Something was here, something was trying to turn him around. "I wont leave without him." He shouted to the listening night. "I wont let him just disappear."

'Sam.' The wind pushed at him again, so fierce it pushed him from the road, his tall body landing softly in the grass.

"Where the hell is my brother!"

"Gone.''

"No he's not. I will find him." Sam struggled to his feet and push on down the road, his tall frame lost in the shadows, swallowed up by the night.

TBC

more to come soon...