We pulled up to the address Dean had gotten and we climbed out going over to the door. I reached forward and knocked. We waited a moment before the door swung open, revealing a girl with brown eyes and brown hair.

"You must be Haley Collins. I'm Dean, this is Sam and Cameron, we're, ah, we're rangers with the Park Service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. He wanted us to ask a few questions about your brother Tommy." Dean lied, not quite so smoothly. I frowned sure that I looked way too young to be a Park Ranger.

Haley hesitated. "Lemme see some ID."

Dean pulled out a fake ID with the name 'Samuel Cole' on it and he held it up against the screen. I felt slight panic run through me. This lie was definitely going to fall through. He introduced himself as Dean, but his ID said Samuel? You would have to be stupid to fall for that.

Haley looked at it, then at Dean, who smiled. After a moment of silence Haley opened the door. "Come on in."

"Thanks." Dean said. Apparently we were dealing with stupid, I thought.

The door swung open and I walked past Haley and into the house, waiting for Sam and Dean.

"That yours?" Haley asked, looking at the Impala.

"Yeah." Dean said.

"Nice car." She said before she turned and led us into the kitchen where a boy about my age was sitting at the table on a laptop. I looked around at the bright colors with slight distaste.

"So if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?" Sam inquired. Haley came back into the room and I watched as she placed a bowl onto the table.

"He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos—we haven't heard

anything in over three days now." Haley explained.

"Well, maybe he can't get cell reception." Sam suggested.

"He's got a satellite phone, too." Haley added.

"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean suggested.

"He wouldn't do that." The guy at the table said and I looked over at him. He looked away and I looked back over at Haley who was setting more food on the table.

"Our parents are gone. It's just Tommy, Ben, and I." Haley told us. "We all keep pretty close tabs on each other."

"Makes sense." I murmured, looking back over at Ben.

"Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam inquired.

"Yeah." Haley said, going over to Ben who handed the laptop over. I walked over and watched as Haley pulled up the pictures. "That's Tommy." She said, pointing at him. Haley clicked twice and another picture came up, then the still frame opened the latest video.

"Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow." Tommy said, smiling before he stopped the video.

I frowned as I spotted something that looked like a shadow flitting across the screen behind Tommy, but it was gone so fast that I wasn't sure I had actually seen it.

"Well, we'll find your brother." Dean said and I looked up at him. "We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing."

"Then maybe I'll see you there. Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself." Haley told us. I looked at her. Unfortunately for her, she didn't know anything about what we might be up against.

"I think I know how you feel." Dean said and I sighed. He must be talking about his - our Dad. Although, I didn't know if I should consider him that. After all he had left me and hadn't even told Sam and Dean about me.

"Hey, do you mind forwarding these to me?" Sam asked Haley.

"Sure." She said and got to sending them.

Later, Sam and Dean led me into a bar and we sat down at a table. Well, this was different, I thought, looking around.

"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." Sam said, opening Jhon's journal.

"Any before that?" Dean asked.

Sam pulled out a newspaper and showed Dean and I. "Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities all said it was a grizzly attack."

I read the title of the newspaper article. It read: GRIZZLY BEAR ATTACKS! UP TO EIGHT HIKERS VANISH IN LOST CREEK AREA HIKERS DISAPPEARANCE BAFFLE AUTHORITIES'

Families continue search and rescue efforts in spite of disappointing [...]

I looked up as Sam pulled out his laptop. "And again in 1995 and again before that in 1936."

I moved closer to Sam as he opened up the video of Tommy on his computer. "Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork. Okay. Watch this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out." Sam went through three frames of the video, one at a time. A shaadow crossed the screen.

"I thought I had imagined that." I murmured.

"Do it again." Dean said. Sam repeated the three frames.

"That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move." Sam said.

I looked up in shock as Dean hit Sam. Sam looked up as well.

"Told you something weird was going on." Dean said.

"Yeah." Sam said, closing the laptop. "I got one more thing." Sam handed over another newspaper article. "In 'fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."

"Is there a name?" Dean asked, looking at the article.

"Yeah. Mr. Shaw." Sam answered.

Dean set the article down and stood up. "Let's go pay him a visit then."

I stood up and headed for the door. "That name sounds familiar."

"Really?" Sam asked. "You know, whatever happened the last time you were here, what if it has to do with what's going on now?"

"Then I'll tell you. If it comes to that." I answered, opening the Impala's door and climbing in.

Sam and Dean climbed in and Dean threw a look at me. "You know, I understand not wanting to talk about certain things, but with things like this I think you should tell us. Espescially with what happened with that thing at your house. We can't help you, if we don't know what it is."

"Like I said, I'll tell you if it comes to that." I said before remaining silent.

Later Mr. Shaw spoke as he led us into his house. "Look, ranger, I don't know why you're asking me about this. It's public record. I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a—"

"Grizzly?" Sam interrupted. "That's what attacked them?"

Mr. Shaw nodded, looking at me for like the fiftieth time since we had arrived at his place.

"The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?" Dean asked. There was a pause. "What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?" There was another pause where Mr. Shaw refused to answer. "We knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it."

"I seriously doubt that. Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make." Mr. Shaw said as he sat down. "You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did."

I felt surprise when it suddenly clicked in my head who Mr. Shaw was and why he looked familiar. "It was you."

"You finally recognize me then, huh?" He said, looking up at me. "I wondered how long it would take. Although, to your credit you were half unconscious when we met."

"Thank you." I murmured with a small smile. "I've wanted to say that for a while now. Why did you help me back then? You had no reason to."

"Because I've been in a similar situation before and I couldn't leave you there to die." Mr. Shaw answered.

Sam sat down in front of Mr. Shaw. "Mr. Shaw, what did you see?"

Mr. Shaw was silent for a moment. "Nothing. It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it, though. A roar. Like...no man or animal I ever heard."

"It came at night?" I queried, my voice soft. Mr. Shaw nodded.

"Got inside your tent?" Sam inquired.

"It got inside our cabin." Mr. Shaw corrected with a sigh. "I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break the door. It unlocked it. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up until I heard my parents screaming."

"It killed them?" Sam asked.

"Dragged them off into the night." Shaw said, shaking his head. "Why it left me alive...been asking myself that ever since." He paused, his hands going to his collar. "It did leave me this, though." He opened his collar to reveal three long scars. Claw marks. "There's something evil in those woods. It was some sort of demon."

I stared at the scars, my blood running cold. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that."

"Thank you and the same to you." Mr. Shaw said. "I'm glad you're okay."

"We should get going." Sam said. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Shaw."

Mr. Shaw didn't say anything as we turned and left, going back out to the car.

"So, you two know each other?" Dean asked as I buckled up.

"Not exactly. He's the one who carried me out of the woods the last time I was here." I answered. "I'll explain when we get to the hotel."

Later Sam, Dean and I walked down the corridor of rooms as they discussed things.

"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they just go through the walls." Dean said.

"So it's probably something else, something corporeal." Sam commented and I sighed softly, looking around.

"Corporeal?" Dean teased. "Excuse me, professor."

"Shut up. So, what do you think?" Sam asked. I looked between the two of them.

"The claws, the speed that it moves...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." Dean said. I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest, rubbing my arms as I followed the two of them back out to the car.

Dean opened the trunk, then the box that was in there and I stared in shock at all the different weapons they had as Dean propped open the hood with a shotgun. He put some guns in a duffel bag.

Sam leaned forward. "We cannot let that Haley girl go out there."

"Oh, yeah?" Dean asked. "What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of some big scary monster?"

"Yeah." Sam said. I looked up at him. Did he actually think that would work? She would just think we were nuts and she would still go out there. So nothing would change except it would be harder to look after her because she wouldn't believe anything we said.

"Her brother's missing, Sam. She's not just gonna sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend." Dean said, picking up the duffel bag.

"Finding Dad's not enough?" Sam asked, slamming the weapon's box shut and then the trunk. "Now we gotta babysit too?" Dean stared at Sam. "What?"

"Nothing." Dean said, throwing the duffel bag at Sam and walking off. I followed him into our motel room and Sam followed us. Dean went and sat on the bed as Sam set the duffel on the floor. "Okay. So, tell us."

I sighed and leaned against the wall as Sam went to sit by Dean. "Okay. I don't know where to start."

"Start from the beginning." Sam said, trying to be helpful.

"Okay." I slid down so I was sitting on the ground, my legs pulled up to my chest. "Ryan decided to take me on a road trip. It was rather sudden, but this is where he took me. He said that he wanted to make things right with me and he knew he hadn't been much of a father figure. He said he thought a road trip was the perfect way to go about it. I was stupid...and I believed him." I paused. "Everything seemed fine for the first few nights we were here, but on the fifth day he invited me to go on a hike through the woods with him. Normally I would never have said yes, but it had gotten to the point where I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. We set out at 3:30 and...everything was fine for about three hours. We even spoke without yelling for once. It felt like I was finally getting to have the father I had wanted for awhile." I sighed. "But then he said he needed to take care of something and he told me to wait there for him. I waited for about half an hour before I got worried and tried to find him. I don't know how far into the woods I was by then, but the sun had started to set. This didn't seem like a problem before because Ryan had everything we would need if we didn't get back before dark, but he'd taken that with him." I paused again, assessing there expressions. They calmly waited for me to continue. "I didn't really get scared until the growls started. At first I thought I was hearing things, but when they got louder I started running, just hoping that I was heading back towards civilization. After about fifteen minutes of running I stopped and listened. I didn't hear anything. No growls, no birds, not even any crickets. None of the sounds you would expect to hear." I sighed and leaned my head back. "I caught my breath and started walking again, knowing I shouldn't exhaust myself. I was fine for about ten minutes before..." I trailed off.

"Before what?" Sam pressed.

"Before he appeared." I murmured. "One minute I was standing there, alone. The next there was something crawling across the ground, towards me. It looked kind of human, but at the same time, I knew it wasn't. It's eyes were full of sadistic pleasure and it had this smile on it's face. The only thing that I can think to compare it to is the cheshire cat's smile, only with sharp teeth and blood running down his chin. I didn't stand around waiting for it to get close to me, I just turned about to run, but when I turned around it was there, standing in front of me." I went silent as I thought about the piercing yellowish-orange eyes that had seemed to stare into my soul. "I couldn't move as it lifted it's hand to carress my cheek. It's touch burned, but I couldn't make myself pull away." I sighed and pulled my legs closer to my chest, going silent.

"What happened next?" Dean asked, his voice gentle.

I sighed. "It pulled away and told me to run. So I did. After a little bit it appeared right in front of me and I fell back. I tried to get back up but it wouldn't let me and it bit me. After that I don't remember much. I remember that it was feeding, I guess is the word for it. It's mouth opened wider then should've been possible and it felt like something was crawling around inside of me."

"How'd you survive?" Sam asked, his face horrified.

"I don't know, but for some reason it stopped and it left. I managed to crawl for a bit, trying to get out of the woods, but I passed out from blood loss pretty quickly." I murmured. "I remember, waking up for a moment and someone was carrying me out of the woods. It was Mr. Shaw. I was twelve at the time. And I don't think that we're dealing with the same thing."

I sighed and buried my head in my knees, the fear I had felt that night resurfacing and the scar I had from it burning. "At least I hope we aren't."

Sam and Dean were quiet for a moment before Dean cleared his throat. "Well, we should, uh, get some sleep."

"I'll sleep on the couch." I murmured, lifting my head up and standing.

"No. You're the one who's injured." Sam said. "You take the bed. I'm gonna do some more research anyways."

I sighed. "You know it's not a good idea to drive yourself further when you're exhausted."

I didn't approve, but at the same time I was exhausted so I went over to the bed and crawled into it. "We can share if you want." I kicked off my shoes and closed my eyes. "If it's necessary."

Sam didn't respond and I soon fell asleep.