A/N: Damn, I was gone a long time. Sorry 'bout that. Well, I finally came back with the next chapter in tow. I've got another in the offings, so hopefully it won't take as long to upload.
Also I feel I should warn you all, the characters from my novel learned a few new words and took it upon themselves to teach my other characters. So, erm, language. Not a lot, but it'll probably get worse.
"If this kid turns out to be a psycho ax-murderer or something, I have permission to kill him and hold it over you forever, right?" Dean asked, "I mean, it was you who made us come here." A knock at the door interrupted Sam's answer. Both of them were up in an instant, weapons at the ready.
Sam looked through the peephole and saw a kid with a mop of curly black hair. He fidgeted where he stood, looking nervous and unsure of himself.
Damn, he's young to be a hunter, Sam thought, But then again so were we.
"Sam? Dean? It's Milo." he said. Sam let him in and saw that he was able to cross over the salt line and the Devil's Trap rug.
"Alright kid, you go us out here, what's the problem?" Dean asked, standing up. Milo white-knuckled the strap of his mail bag and twisted it as he looked Dean up and down. He had a good three or four inches and ten years over Milo, not to mention the fact he could probably snap his neck in an instant if he had to. Even a backwoods hunter like Milo had heard of the Winchesters (Milo moonlighted as a HAM radio operator, and he tended to hear things) and he knew these two were not to be screwed with.
"Pfft, which one?" Milo snorted, "We've got ghosts in the college basement and I'm pretty sure that old man McGuffin twelve miles into the forest is actually a shifter, but I can handle that. I called you out here for what's in the forest."
"What's out in the forest?" Sam asked. Already his mind was going, taking the clues presented and trying to put them together into an answer. They were pretty close to the US-Canada border, way back in the mountains and surrounded by forest, so it could be werewolves. He made a mental note to ask Milo about the lunar phase at the times of the attacks.
"Besides McGuffin-the-possible-shifter." Dean put in.
"That's just it; I don't know." Milo said, digging out his journal and flipping to a page with photos clipped to it. At first glance, they seemed like normal photos of the forest and a site where Milo had found some pottery and jewelry, but the longer Sam looked at them, the more something odd stood out.
One look at Dean and Sam knew that he'd seen the tall, blurry figure in the backgrounds, too.
" Took these about ten miles into the forest north of here. I didn't see anything, if that's what you want to know. Didn't hear anything either. I'm totally at a loss at this point, and if you've got suggestions I'd love to hear them."
"Well, could you be a little more specific as to what your problem is?" Sam asked. Milo craned his head back to look at Sam and heard a few of his vertebrae crack. He pulled a manila folder out of his journal and opened it up. H laid out his information in chronological order and slipped into presentation mode
"Over the past few weeks, a total of twenty-two hikers have gone missing in the woods just North of here. Why they haven't kept people out is beyond me, but it is what it is. Nine days ago, Michael Greene went into the forest on a solo hike and five days ago failed to check in with his sister, which is who reported him missing. So far no bodies have been found. What has been found is wrecked campsites and way too much blood to not be considered anything other than fatal, but no bodies."
"And no one's thought that this is even the littlest bit strange?" Dean asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Apparently not, since three people left yesterday for the overlook. They've all been classified as bear attacks. Which is bullshit."
"And why's that?"
"Twenty three bear attacks in six weeks? I don't think so. I'd believe three, maybe four, in a nine or ten month span, but what they're proposing is crazy and I refuse to believe it. There aren't any other hunters around here, so I'm the only one who can do anything. Not the best man for the job, but there's no one else."
"Have there been any similar attacks in the past? This sort of thing usually doesn't just start out of the blue." Sam said, taking the desk chair. Milo shook his head and sighed.
"Yeah, this sort of thing has happened before. Few years back, I'm pretty sure the bastard killed my friend Jordan. Gutted him right in front of me and royally screwed up my leg. Probably would have killed me next if I hadn't accidentally started a brush fire." Milo limped over to where Sam sat and Dean saw that Milo's self-deprecation had been right: he really wasn't the best man for the job. He hadn't noticed it before because he'd been too busy looking for indications he'd been lying. How the kid hadn't gotten killed in his line of work was beyond him.
If he was being totally honest, Dean didn't think the kid had ever actually killed anything at all. He just knew enough about it to know it when he saw it, and since he couldn't do anything about it he'd called in someone who could. Now that Milo had brought the case to his and Sam's attention, he wasn't really needed anymore. Sam would be on research and it probably wouldn't take too long to find the SOB and gank it
Milo sensed almost the exact instant he lost his purpose and use in the situation when Dean thanked him for bringing the case to their attention and turned his attention to his bag. He knew when he wasn't wanted anymore and shut everything back in the journal. He bade the two hunters goodbye and only got a response from Sam.
Milo sagged against the wall outside their door, contemplating the feeling of being used and thrown out. It was incredibly similar to being dumped. There was the feeling of abandonment, and also the wondering if he could have done something different to change the outcome. Although Milo had to admit if he were the Winchesters, he probably wouldn't want to work with a crippled novice hunter, either.
So, what'd you think? Good? Bad? Should I never write again?