Dean and Sam trudged through the wretched forest, silently. Their hunter eyes were trained on the environment around, ready, waiting for something to happen out of the ordinary. An out of place footstep, the unnatural crack of branched when nothing is around.
Sam Winchester had a thought occur in his mind, as he dug through his pockets, pulling out a leather bound journal that was covered in odd runes.
'I think I know what we're dealing with, a Wendigo.'
Dean scoffed and looked at his litter brother, who was staring back with conviction. He knew he was right, the signs were all there and they all fit.
'No way, Sam. I haven't heard of any this far north.' Dean replied, with a headshake.
'Look at the facts Dean. It's incredibly fast, the way it can mimic a human voice.' Sam paused. 'The way it takes victims. It's gotta be! What else would take Aria? We have to look for any cave or… or dwelling.'
Dean sighed, he knew his brother was right, but he didn't want to acknowledge the fact that the creature was a Wendigo. He had only ever killed one Wendigo and that was with their father, when he was fourteen-years-old. They were working a case, down in Texas. People were going missing in the woods, not far from the town's local school. Ten teenagers ranging from thirteen to seventeen, all went missing in the space of two weeks. Dean was the one to kill the creature. Unfortunately, they were only able to save two of the teens.
He pulled out his two pistols from the back of his jeans and shook them, as if they would change into a more useful weapon, 'Well, these are useless.'
A loud scream suddenly echoed throughout the woods, scaring off crows that sat, perched on their branches.
'That was probably Aria. This way!' Dean hollered, sprinting off to the right in a dash of fury and anxiety. Sam followed behind, he was able to overtake Dean, but that was only due to his much longer legs.
The scream stopped as soon as they started, causing the men to panic.
Up ahead, the path split into two directions. Dean saw the small speckles of blood on the ground and knew, deep in his gut, that the blood belonged to Aria.
'Sam, look at this, blood. Aria's, you think?'
Sam knelt down, getting a closer look at the small amount. 'If it is, that means she has an injury, not a large one, but an injury at that.'
'Okay, guns out.' Dean said, even though the two already had them out, aimed and ready to shoot. 'Even if they are totally useless.'
At the end of the slight path was a cave. 'This has gotta be it.' Sam said, slowly entering the dark cave. They only had one flashlight between them and that wasn't very bright. It just managed to illuminate a few inches in front of them. The rest of the space was total darkness.
'Dean, did that kid, Aria, seem familiar to you?' Sam asked unexpectedly.
Dean nodded, even though Sam couldn't see it, 'Yeah she did. She reminded me of our little sister… But she can't be, she died, almost fifteen years ago.' Dean mumbled the last sentence to himself. He too, couldn't shake the familiarity of Aria.
Sam looked at his brothers bowed head for a minute, opening his mouth hesitantly before closing it again.
It felt as if they had been walking blindly for hours, but according to Sam's trusty watch, it had only been twenty minutes since they entered the winding tunnels of the mine.
A low growl penetrated the silence. It seemed angry and fierce, but Sam and Dean couldn't see anything around, even if it was pitch black. There was no crackling of the stones that sprinkled the floor. No distorted shapes in the little light that the flashlight gave, no nothing. Just eerie silence that is, except for the light breathing and footsteps coming from the Winchester brothers.