November 10th – November 14th, 2005
It had been about a week since the fire at Sam's. He hadn't spoken much, only when he had to. I asked Dean what was wrong with him and what happened the night of the fire, and he told me that the same thing that killed their mom, Mary, killed Sam's girlfriend, Jessica. I felt horrible because the worst part about Jessica's death wasn't that she was killed by the same thing. It was that she was killed in the same way. Her back was pinned against the ceiling, and her stomach was cut, and then she burst into flames, which all happened right above Sam's head... again.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when Sam jerked himself awake. Dean and I made eye contact concerned for our brother.
"You okay?" Dean asked.
Sam looked at Dean, still frantic from the nightmare he just had. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Another nightmare?" Dean asked.
Sam cleared his throat but didn't answer. He clearly didn't want to talk about it.
"You wanna drive for a while?" Dean asked.
I couldn't believe Dean offered. He and Dad never wanted anyone else to touch their "baby."
Sam chuckled. "Dean, your whole life, you never once asked me that."
"Just thought you might want to." Dean shrugged. "Never mind."
Sam sighed. "Look, man, you're worried about me... I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay."
"We just love you, Sammy..." I said, "That's all. Regardless of what you say, we will always worry."
Dean nodded. "Mm-hmm." He looked at me in the rear-view mirror and winked. "I couldn't have said it better myself."
Sam was quiet for a bit, but then he grabbed the map that he had marked with the coordinates Dad left us. "All right, where are we?"
"We're just outside of Grand Junction," Dean said.
"Ya know what?" Sam asked. "Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."
Dean shook his head. "Sam, we dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica—"
Sam nodded. "We gotta find Dad first."
"Dad disappearing... and this thing showing up again after twenty years?" Dean shook his head. "It's no coincidence." He glanced over at Sam. "Dad will have answers. He'll know what to do."
"It's weird, man..." Sam shook his head. "These coordinates he left us. This Blackwater Ridge."
Dean glanced at the map. "What about it?"
"There's nothing there." Sam shrugged. "It's just woods. Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?"
Eventually, we pulled up to a ranger station in Lost Creek Colorado National Forest. We walked in to see if someone might be able to clue us in as to why Dad would send us there. Inside, the walls were covered with maps of the area and pictures of animals that people had caught while hunting.
"So, Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote," Sam said while looking at a 3D map of the forest in the middle of the room. "It's cut off by these canyons here..." He pointed out. "Rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place."
"Dude, check out the size of this friggin' bear," Dean said, completely amazed.
Sam and I walked over to look at the picture, and he wasn't kidding. It was huge.
"Wow, that bear is friggin' huge," I said, also impressed by the picture.
Dean nudged me. "Language."
I looked up to see he was giving me a stern look. I shrugged and put on the best innocent face I had in my arsenal. "You said it first."
Sam chuckled softly.
"Yeah, well, just because I say something doesn't mean you're allowed to," Dean said.
"You kids aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" someone asked behind us loudly.
We turned around, startled by the sudden appearance. Sam and Dean both put an arm in front of me, ready to defend against any dangers, but when they realized it was just one of the rangers, they relaxed.
"Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from U.C. Boulder, just working on a paper..." Sam chuckled and put his hand on my shoulder. "And this is my little sister."
"Recycle, man." Dean raised his fist to show some enthusiasm.
"Bull." The ranger scoffed. "You're friends with that Haley girl, right?"
Dean sighed and put his arms out in defeat. "Yes. Yes, we are, Ranger..." He spotted his name tag. "Wilkinson."
Ranger Wilkinson smirked slightly. "Well, I will tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a back-country permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-forth, so it's not exactly a missing-persons now, is it?"
Dean shook his head.
Ranger Wilkinson nodded. "You tell that girl to quit worrying. I'm sure her brother's just fine."
"We will." Dean nodded and chuckled. "Well, that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?"
Ranger Wilkinson raised his eyebrows and nodded. "That is putting it mildly."
"Actually, you know what would help is if I could show her a copy of that back-country permit." Dean shrugged. "Ya know, so she could see her brother's return date."
Ranger Wilkinson rolled his eyes and sighed but ended up giving him the paperwork anyway.
When we walked out of the ranger station, Dean was laughing and had a huge smile on his face.
"What, are you cruising for a hookup or something?" Sam asked, annoyed.
I groaned and facepalmed. I knew if that were true, I would have to endure my brother flirting with this girl awkwardly, and then they would go off for hours to do god knows what. I didn't want to wait. I wanted to find Dad.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked with a smirk.
"The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for?" Sam asked. "Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?"
Dean furrowed his brow at Sam when we reached the Impala. "I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?" He gave Sam a look.
"What?" Sam snapped.
Dean shook his head. "Since when are you all shoot first, ask questions later, anyway?"
Sam shrugged. "Since now." He opened his door and got in, shaking his head.
Dean raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really?"
When we pulled up to Haley's house, Dean turned to me. "All right, Maddi. Stay in the car. This girl isn't going to buy that you're a ranger."
I groaned and rolled my eyes. "Fine."
They got out, and I could hear their muffled voices as they walked to the house.
"See, man?" Dean asked. "This is what I'm talking about. She knows the routine, but she's been giving me attitude about it lately."
Sam sighed. "Well, what do you—"
I watched as they knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, a young woman opened it. Dean pulled his fake badge out and held it up for her. Then they followed her into the house shortly after. I decided to watch people out of my window as I waited and saw a boy about my age riding his bike around the area. Sometimes I wished that I could hang out with kids my age, at least that way I would be doing something instead of waiting in a car. I turned around and sat on my knees so I could watch him out of the rear window. I wanted to go over to him and ask if I could ride his bike. My whole life I've only ever watched people on TV or the streets riding bikes, I've never learned how to. Eventually, he rode out of view, and I had nothing to do... again.
I sighed as I flipped upside down, so I had the back of my legs against the seat with my feet touching the ceiling of the car. I looked down and saw an old car magazine sitting on the floor under the passenger seat. I picked it up and decided to look at the pictures while I waited. Finally, the car doors opened, and I felt a light tap on my leg.
"Get your shoes off the roof," Dean said.
I flipped over and looked up at him, he was leaning down on my windowsill. "Sorry. I was bored waiting for you guys." I gave him puppy dog eyes. "Can we get food? I'm hungry."
Dean's annoyance melted away, and he smiled. "Of course." He got into the car and started it. "Buckle up." He watched in the rear-view mirror to make sure I did before he backed out of the driveway.
We decided to get food at a local bar. Once we sat at a table in the back, Dean ordered me a cheeseburger and fries. I hated going to bars, it was always loud and smelled funny, but on the bright side, the food was pretty much always good.
Sam opened Dad's journal. "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."
"Any before that?" Dean asked.
Sam pulled newspaper articles out of his bag and showed Dean. "Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack." He took his laptop out and placed it on the table. "And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936. Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork." He clicked a few buttons. "Okay. Watch this. Here's the clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out." He turned the computer toward Dean and started playing a video, but I, unfortunately, couldn't see it.
"Do it again?" Dean asked, squinting at the screen.
Sam tapped some more buttons on his computer. "That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move."
Dean backhanded Sam in the chest. "Told you something weird was going on." While still looking at the computer, he reached over and grabbed one of my fries. I smacked his hand, but he still took it and popped it into his mouth.
"Yeah." Sam closed his laptop. "I got one more thing." He handed Dean another newspaper article. "In '59, one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."
I heard someone to the right of me cheer happily. I looked to see what was going on, but when I turned back, Dean had picked up my entire burger. I slapped the table, tilted my head, and stared him down. He smirked and took a giant bite out of it before putting it back. I kicked him under the table and crossed my arms.
Dean raised an eyebrow. "Did you just kick me?" he asked with food still in his mouth.
"You ate half of my burger in one bite. Yeah, I kicked you." I glared at him with my arms still crossed.
"It was just a bite, Maddi," Dean said.
"Would you like it if I took a bite out of your burger?" I asked.
Dean nodded as he gulped down the food. "Touché."
Sam laughed. "You two are so much alike. It's scary."
We both looked at him, not understanding what he was talking about, but he just laughed and shook his head.
Dean pointed to the newspaper article. "So, Sammy, does this guy have a name?"
We pulled into the driveway of the man from the newspaper. I wasn't allowed to go in again, but this time I was okay with it because I was tired. The last thing I saw before my eyes closed and I drifted off was Sam and Dean walking into the house.
Later, I woke up slightly and realized Sam was carrying me into our motel.
"Man, she's out." Dean chuckled.
Sam laughed. "Yeah, it's been a while since I've put her to bed. It feels kinda nice to be back."
"Yeah, man, I'm glad you're back too." Dean chuckled slightly and sighed. "So... spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they just go through the walls."
"So, it's probably something else..." Sam said, "Something, corporeal."
"Corporeal? Excuse me, professor," Dean said sarcastically.
Sam laid me down on one of the beds. "Shut up. So, what do you think?"
"The claws, the speed that it moves..." Dean said, "Could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog. Whatever we're talking about... we're talking about a creature, and it's corporeal. Which means we can kill it."
I heard the door open as they walked out, still talking, and everything faded out again. I woke up again a little while later, to the door opening and closing. I could hear whispers and the boys going through their bags. I felt the bed shift under someone's weight, and then the blankets were pulled up over my body.
The next morning, I woke up to the sun shining through the windows, but the room was empty. I sat up quickly, now concerned, until I noticed a piece of paper hanging on the door. I stretched and then walked over to it, pulling the note off. It was in Dean's handwriting:
We went to look for Haley's brother. This one is
just too dangerous for you. Don't let anyone in and
don't leave. We will know if you left so just don't.
We left a phone on the nightstand. Sorry, kiddo. See
you later tonight. Promise.
-Dean and Sammy
P.S. There's food and drinks on the table for you.
I crumpled up the paper and threw it across the room. They could've at least woken me up to say bye. They didn't even know what they were dealing with. As hunters, you never know when you are going to see the people you care about for the last time, so I was frustrated. I looked down and remembered I was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. I went through my bag and grabbed pants, but I had no clean shirts, so I stole one of Dean's flannels out of his bag. I showered and decided to watch TV for a while.
A few hours later, I groaned and turned off the TV. There was nothing good on, and the signal kept cutting in and out anyway. I slammed the remote down on the seat next to me. I got up and slid the curtains over and opened the window to get some fresh air. That's when I saw the boy from yesterday riding his bike around again. I decided that there was no way Sam and Dean would find out I had left the room, so I grabbed the spare key and walked out.
When I walked up to the boy, he had parked his bike in front of a house and was just staring at it. "Hey."
The boy jumped and quickly wiped his face and sniffled. "Hey. Who are you? I've never seen you around here before."
I put my hand out. "I'm Maddison." I paused to think for a second. "Maddison Plant."
"I'm Noah." He shook my hand and laughed.
"What?" I looked at him, confused.
"You're last name. Have you ever heard of Led Zeppelin?" Noah asked.
"Uh... no..." I said awkwardly, knowing exactly why he had asked.
Noah looked down and kicked a rock. "Oh, okay. Never mind then."
"I'm new around here," I said, "Would you mind showing me around?"
A big smile spread across Noah's face. "Yeah, of course."
I followed him around town for a bit while he walked next to his bike. After a while, a group of boys ran up, yelling, "Noah! Noah!"
"What guys?" Noah asked, slightly annoyed, he nodded toward me and then looked down at the ground.
One of the boys looked at me, realizing Noah wasn't alone. "Hi," he sang, almost tauntingly.
Another one of the boys spoke up, "Look, dude!" He shook a video game in front of Noah's face. "My mom bought me the new Burnout game! Let's go play."
"I'm kinda showing Maddison around town," Noah whispered under his breath.
I nudged his arm. "I don't have anything else to do. Let's go."
Noah looked at me with wide eyes and a big smile. "Really? That's awesome."
I trailed behind the group of boys in front of me. I didn't mind though, because I was able to look around the town as we walked. The boys were walking shoulder to shoulder, so they could all look at the game.
"Noah, what are you doing hanging out with a girl?" one of the boys asked.
Noah didn't respond.
One of the other boys nudged him. "She's pretty."
All the boys erupted into giggles and taunting. "Ooo's."
"Shut up, guys," Noah whined.
All I could think was, awkward, and then the group of boys took a turn up a driveway.
I watched the boys play their video game for a while. The basic idea of the game was just to race and crash into other cars to make money. I didn't see the point of it, but I was having fun hanging out with people other than my brothers, so I stayed. Until suddenly, the TV started to cut in and out with static. All the boys yelled angrily about what was happening. One of the boys stood up and smacked the TV.
"Hey, don't hit my TV, Zack!" Noah yelled.
Then the system started smoking and sparking. We all jumped up, startled.
A woman ran into the room. "What is going on in here? Why are—" She spotted the system and quickly unplugged it. It immediately stopped sparking. She sighed and put her hand up. "I don't even want to know." Then she left the room.
Zack approached Noah aggressively. "Ever since what happened... we can never be around you. Everything breaks. You're bad luck." He shoved Noah back onto the sofa. "Let's get out of here, guys."
All the boys followed him to the door.
Zack yelled back, "And you better buy me a new game!"
They all stormed out and slammed the door behind them.
I looked down at Noah. I could see tears in his eyes, so I sat down next to him. "Are you okay?"
Noah looked up at me and sniffled, a tear rolling down his cheek. "They're right, you know."
"Right about what?" I asked.
"Ever since my best friend Brandon died, everything has been going wrong," Noah said, sadly.
I furrowed my brow. "Like what?"
"Well, whenever we play video games stuff like that happens." Noah gestured to the system. "Every time we play football, soccer, or basketball, the balls pop. And if we play baseball, the balls always get lost."
"Hmm..." I thought for a second and looked at him sympathetically. "Could I ask you what happened to Brandon?"
Noah sighed. "One day, we were tossing a football around in front of his house. I threw it to him, and it went over his head and landed in the middle of the road. He ran out to get it, but it was too late by the time we saw the car..." He burst into tears.
"I am so sorry, Noah." I felt tears forming in my eyes. I almost wished I hadn't asked him, but I kind of got the feeling he needed my help. I leaned over and hugged him.
Noah cried a little more and then sat up and wiped his tears.
I looked at him very seriously. "You know what Zack said to you wasn't how friends are supposed to treat each other, right?" I asked. "And those other boys, well, they're just followers. You deserve better."
Noah looked up at me with sad eyes. "Yeah, I know. Zack's always been mean, but the other guys aren't like that when he's not around."
"Maybe they know he's a jerk, but don't want to say anything," I said.
"Noah! Dinner! Time for your friends to go home!" Noah's mom called. "Finally..." she said, a little louder than she probably intended.
Dinner time already? I needed to get back to the motel. Noah and I said our goodbyes, and I quickly left his house. I realized it was already getting dark out, and my heart was pounding, and I ran. What if Sam and Dean were back?
When I got back, I unlocked the door and whipped it open, but the room was empty. I turned around and realized that the Impala wasn't in the parking lot. I spotted the phone on the nightstand, and my heart sank when I realized I had forgotten to take it with me. What if they had called? I ran over and picked it up. I took a deep breath before clicking the button to turn the screen on, but I exhaled when I saw there were no missed calls.
Since the boys weren't back yet, I decided to eat dinner. It consisted of potato chips, beef jerky, and a piece of pie for dessert. When I was done eating, I watched some TV, but it was getting late, and I was starting to worry.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
I ran to my phone and quickly answered, "Hello?"
"Hey, kiddo," Dean said, "The search is going a little longer than we thought, so we are camping out here tonight."
"Oh..." I sighed in disappointment. "Okay."
"I know. I'm sorry, Mads," Dean said, "How was your day?"
"It was boring." I sighed, still sad that I was going to be alone for the night. "I just watched TV all day."
"Don't be sad, okay?" Dean asked. "Keep the door locked and if you haven't already done it... put salt around the door and windows. We will be back tomorrow."
"Promise?" I asked.
"Promise," Dean said and then hung up.
I put the phone down and got to work. I made sure the door and windows were closed and locked, then salted them. I put my pajamas on, which was just one of my brother's old shirts, and then crawled into bed and turned the light off. It was kind of early to go to bed, but I just wanted the day to be over.
I woke up to the sun shining in on me again. I got up and showered, and then I ate breakfast. I decided to watch TV for a while, but I eventually got bored, and when I checked the time, it was 11 AM. I took a chance and figured Sam and Dean wouldn't be back for a while, so I grabbed matches out of Dean's bag and left for Noah's house.
When I got to Noah's, I started to get worried that he wouldn't be home. I walked up to the door and rang the doorbell, and a few minutes later, I saw Noah's face peer out of the window before he smiled at me and opened the door.
"Hi, Maddi!" Noah shouted excitedly as he opened the door. "I thought you said you would be leaving yesterday."
I followed him into the house and closed the door. "Yeah, I thought I would be, but the plans changed."
"Awesome." Noah smiled. "What do you want to do today?"
"Is anyone else here?" I asked. He shook his head, looking confused. I nodded. "Okay, good. Um... this is going to sound crazy, but I think you're being haunted, and I think I can help you."
Noah looked at me like I was insane and shook his head. "What?"
"Do you have anything that belonged to Brandon?" I asked.
He hesitated and then pointed to a bookshelf. "Yeah, that baseball glove." He furrowed his brow at me in confusion, but then his baseball bat came flying across the room at us.
I grabbed Noah, and we ducked together. I stood up with authority. "Brandon! Please show yourself. We can help you, but you need to let us."
Noah grabbed my shoulders so I would face him. He looked angry and scared all at once. "Maddison, this isn't funny, stop playing games."
Suddenly, a dark ghostly figure of a boy appeared in front of us. "Leave him alone! He's my friend!" He started to charge toward me, but Noah stepped in front.
"Brandon, stop!" Noah shouted. "Have you been the reason everything is going wrong for me?" he asked angrily, but his voice started to break. "Why would you do that to me?"
"You're hanging out with other people! I'm your best friend, and you just forgot about me!" Brandon yelled.
Noah shook his head, looking hurt. "No, I would never forget about you. I think about you every day. I'm sad all the time, and I wish you were still here. You were my best friend, but you aren't here anymore. I need other friends, Brandon, or I'm scared I will never be happy again."
The look on Brandon's face became scary as he grew angrier. "You don't care that I'm gone! You want to forget about me!"
Things in the room started to swirl around us.
Noah began crying. "How could you think that? You will always be my best friend. I just feel so lonely!" He dropped to his knees and started sobbing.
Brandon's figure lightened, and the feeling of sadness and anger lifted from the room. "I never wanted to make you sad, Noah. I just wanted to be able to hang out so bad that I got angry whenever I saw you with other people." He took a step forward.
Noah looked up at him.
"I'm sorry." Brandon held his hand out.
Noah took his hand and stood up, and the two embraced. "I could never forget you, Brandon."
After a while, they released from the hug. Brandon took a step back and waved as his figure disappeared into a bright light.
I sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. I thought I was going to have to burn his baseball glove."
Noah looked at me, confused. "What?"
I laughed awkwardly. "Uh, nothing."
"Thank you, Maddison." Noah shook his head, looking stunned. "I can't believe that just happened, but I'm glad you were here to help."
"You're welcome." I hugged Noah. "Hey, what time is it?"
Noah looked down at his watch. "Almost one."
"Seriously?" I asked, shocked. "I'm so sorry, but I have to go."
"I'm really happy I met you, Maddi." Noah smiled at me and gave me one last hug.
"I'm happy I met you too," I said as I released from the embrace and kissed him on his cheek. "Bye, Noah." Then I turned and ran out of the house for the motel.
When I finally got back to the motel, I was short of breath from running. I looked around the parking lot, but there was still no Impala. I approached my door and started frantically looking for the room key. I peered through the window and saw it sitting on the table. How could I forget it? I had watched my dad and brothers pick locks a thousand times. It couldn't be that hard, right? I took two bobby pins out of my hair and spread them apart. I put them in the lock and started maneuvering them around. I had no idea what I was doing. I was just going on luck.
A few minutes later, I heard the latch release, and I was in. I opened the door, slammed it shut, and then locked it again. I walked to the bed, sighed, and then fell back onto it. I felt amazing and horrible all at once. I did all these awesome things the past few days, I even had a case of my own, but I had to lie to my brothers about it.
Then the door suddenly swung open, and I sat up to see Sam and Dean standing there with cuts and bandages all over them. I ran to them and hugged them both.
"I am so glad you guys are back." I smiled up at them but felt bad because they both looked exhausted.
Sam rubbed my back.
Dean put his hand on my head and smiled. "Hey, kiddo."
Sam walked over to his bag. "All right, get your stuff together. We are getting out of this town."
"That bad, huh?" I asked.
"Yeah." They sighed in unison.
I packed my bag and picked it up, ready to walk out of the door. "What happened to you guys? What were you hunting?"
We walked out and locked up.
Sam looked at me. "It was a Wendigo."
We walked to the Impala, and to my surprise, Sam got into the driver's seat.
"What's a Wendigo?" I asked after we all sat down.
Dean turned to look at me. "Something I never want you to have to deal with."
As we drove through the town, I saw Noah and all the boys except for Zack playing soccer. Noah spotted me and waved, and I waved back.
"Who's that kid?" Dean asked.
I shrugged. "Just a kid."
Sam gave me a curious look in the rear-view mirror but didn't question it.
