A/N: Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter. I am over the moon with the responses I have gotten from the first chapter. I really wasn't expecting to get one review let alone four! That's fantastic and I love you four for liking the story! I hope you continue to keep up with my updates and leave more reviews because it really warms my heart. Okay, enough fluff and enjoy the chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Supernatural characters.
Episode: Wendigo
We stayed in California for a couple of more days. Sam helped Jess's family with the funeral, which was such a heartbreaker to watch. Sam is torn up about Jess's death and although he will not admit it, he wakes up every night crying from nightmares. I don't blame him. I can't get the picture of Jess's burning body out of my head either. And to top it all off, her death has us all thinking of Mom and her death. There was no way that them dying the exact same way is a coincidence.
The day after the funeral is when we planned to take off. We stop at the cemetery for Sam to say his one last goodbye to Jess. Dean and I stayed a couple feet behind him so he could have his moment alone. We watch as Sam knelt down by her grave and placed flowers by her headstone with tears running down his face. I almost had tears running down my face from just watching him. Whatever anger I had for him before had dissipated. He had bigger problems now.
A couple of minutes later he walks back to us silently. Dean and I keep our mouths shut and walk to the car to take off for Colorado.
One the ride to Blackwater, Sam fell asleep after not talking to us for a good four hours.
"You think he's going to be all right?" I whispered from the backseat. My eyes glanced over to Sam's sleeping body where he started to stir, probably from another nightmare.
"I don't know," Dean said slowly, glancing at Sam too. "Not for a while."
Sam sat up abruptly and blinked his eyes rapidly. Reality soon set in to his features and he visibly calmed down.
"You okay?" I asked.
Sam glanced over his shoulder at me and nodded, "Yeah. I'm fine."
"Another nightmare?" Dean asked. Sam cleared his throat but doesn't say anything, not wanting to admit to it. "You wanna drive for a while?"
"What?" I asked in a high-pitched voice. He doesn't let anyone drive Baby beside himself and Dad.
"Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that," Sam said.
Dean shrugged, "Just thought you might want to. Never mind."
Sam shook his head, "Look, you guys are worried about me. I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay."
"Okay," I said, although I didn't believe him. I watched Dean nod his head and hum in response. He didn't believe him either.
Sam grabbed the map he was drawing on before we dropped him off. "All right, where are we?" He asked.
"We are just outside of Grand Junction," Dean answered.
Sam licked his lips and folded the map down, "You know what? Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."
"Sam, we dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica—"
"We gotta find Dad first," Sam finished Dean's sentence for him, being told this before.
Dean continued, "Dad disappearing and the thing showing up again after twenty years, it's not coincidence. Dad will have answers. He'll know what to do."
"It's weird, man," Sam said, "These coordinates he left us."
"What about it?" I asked. I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the back of Sam and Dean's seat.
"There's nothing there. Its just woods," Sam explained. "Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?"
"Maybe we're looking for Big Foot," I smirked, glancing at Dean's profile. Dean rolled his eyes, but kept his eyes on the road. We have had multiple arguments over whether Big Foot was real. I said he is, but Dean doesn't think so. Sometimes the argument gets heated. That's why I liked bringing it up every chance I could—just to mess with him.
Dean drove by a sign that read, "Welcome to Lost Creek Colorado National Forest." I got excited thinking we were getting closer to finding Dad.
Dean pulled up to a Ranger Station that looked to be in the middle of the woods. Dean looked over his shoulder at me and shrugged when I gave him a confused look. Why were we out here?
"So Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote," Sam said after approaching a 3D map of the national forest. I skipped towards him and looked at where his finger was pointed—on a ridge called Blackwater Ridge. "It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place."
I never was one for frolicking in the forest. Maybe it was trauma from the scary movies Dean showed me as a kid or maybe it was the bugs and itching feeling I always got when I walked through them. Either way, I didn't like the woods, so something told me I wasn't going to enjoy the next couple of days.
"Dude, check out this size of this freaking bear," Dean said, ignoring everything Sam just said. He was staring up at a picture of a man standing next to a bear that was standing on its two hind legs.
"And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area," Sam said, as if continuing his speech about Colorado's forest history. I swear this guy was like walking Google. "It's not a nature hike, that's for sure."
Dean laughed and grabbed my shoulders with his hands. He stood behind me and leaned his head in so that his chin was on my shoulder. "This is gonna be fun."
He was talking about my hatred towards the woods and how I was going to react to the unfriendly creatures crawling around out there. I turn around and punch him in the shoulder.
"You three aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" Someone behind us said. The three of us whipped around and find a Park Ranger standing behind us. He was dressed like an old-fashioned sheriff with a mustache.
"Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper." Sam quickly came up with a lie. I was impressed with how fast he pulled that one out of his ass.
I laughed a little and Dean raised a fist, "Recycle, man."
"Bull," The Ranger called our bluff. But I didn't know how? "You're friends with that Haley girl, right?"
Sam and I didn't speak so Dean took the lead and answered, "Yes. Yes, we are, Ranger Wilkinson."
"Well I will tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-fourth, so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it?" Dean reluctantly shook his head. "You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine."
"We will," Dean nodded. He kept the smile on his face and continued talking to the ranger before he could turn his back on us. "Well that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?"
The Ranger scoffed, "That is putting it mildly."
"Actually you know what would help is if I could show her a copy of that backcountry permit. You know, so she could see her brother's return date."
I smirked to myself when the ranger looked at Dean skeptically and he just raised his eyebrows. His plan had worked. Despite the ranger's suspicion, he gave us a copy of the permit and we took it gratefully. On the permit was Haley's home address.
"What, are you cruising for a hookup or something?" Sam asked Dean as we walked to the Impala.
"What do you mean?" Dean looked at him.
"The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?"
Dean stopped by the driver side door and Sam and I stopped on the other side, looking at each other before getting in.
"I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?" Dean said with a "duh" kind of tone.
Dean and I glanced at each other, unsure of how to feel towards Sam's new attitude. "What?" Sam asked after noticing our hesitation to get in the car and our worried expressions.
"Since when are you all shoot first ask questions later?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Out of the three of us, Sam was always the most cautious and never wanted to shoot his gun unless it was absolutely necessary.
"Since now," Sam said shortly. He got into the car and didn't say anything else for the entire ride to the Collins's house.
We pulled up to a small home in a woodsy area. I didn't really understand why a guy would want to camp out in the middle of the woods when he lived in the middle of the woods. But hey. Who am I to judge?
When we knocked on the door, a woman about Dean's age walked to the screen door but didn't open it. She looked at us with a skeptical look on her face and eyed the three of us down with furrowed eyebrows.
Dean grinned at her, obviously pleased with her looks knowing that coming here wasn't a complete waste of our time. I could only scowl from behind him and bite my tongue.
"You must be Haley Collins. I'm Dean, this is Sam and Allie, 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."
Haley narrows her eyes, "Lemme see some ID."
Dean pulled out his fake ID with the name Samuel Cole written on it and held it up against the screen. Haley's eyes scanned the card and reluctantly opened the door for us.
"Come on in," She said.
"Thanks," Dean replied.
Haley looked over Dean's shoulder and pointed to his car. "That yours?"
"Yeah," Dean said.
"Nice car," She grinned, walking away.
"No freaking way," I whispered to myself, just loud enough for Sam and Dean to hear. We were here for barely five minutes and this chick had already caught an interest in Dean.
When her back was turned, Dean sent a smirk across his shoulder at Sam and I. I glared at the back of his head as we walked into her kitchen.
There was another person in Haley's kitchen. It was a boy who was probably in his teens on his laptop with headphones in his ears. I assumed it was her other brother.
"So if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?" Sam asked.
"He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos-we haven't heard anything in over three days now." She answered.
"Maybe he can't get cell reception," I suggested.
"He's got a satellite phone, too," Haley responded. She didn't give us attitude, but it was like she knew we were going to ask these questions because she probably went over the same questions in her head. I don't blame her. I would be freaking out too if I felt that either Sam or Dean were missing.
"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean asked.
"He wouldn't do that," The kid from the table spoke up. He removed his headphones and eyed us suspiciously just like Haley had when she opened the door for us.
"Our parents are gone. It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other," Haley explained.
I nodded my head, feeling pretty ironic that my brothers and I were literally in the same boat as she was. Weird.
"Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam asked.
"Yeah," Haley moved around the kitchen table to her laptop and pulled up a couple of pictures from her email.
"That's Tommy," Haley pointed to a very attractive man next to two of his buddies who were also fairly good looking. She clicked on another picture and then opened a video for us to watch.
It was her brother speaking into the camera, "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."
Despite my staring at her older brother's handsome face, I saw a shadow or something move behind him faster than the speed of light. I saw it because I was raised to look for things that other people wouldn't see. Haley didn't mention anything about the shadow so I'm assuming she didn't see it either.
"Well, we'll find you brother," Dean said. "We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing."
"Then maybe I'll see you there." She said. I glanced at Dean who was about to open his mouth a protest. Haley saw this too and spoke before he could tell her no. "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."
Dean glanced at Sam and I and nodded. "I think I know how you feel."
I looked at Dean and then back at Haley, nodding my head in agreement. I felt that way too.
"Hey, do you mind forwarding these to me?" Sam asked.
Haley nodded, "Sure."
Sam must have saw it too.
Dean's POV:
We hit a bar close to our motel on our way home from Haley's. It was getting late and we've done enough research as we could. We didn't know exactly what we were looking for and we wouldn't know until we got out there tomorrow morning.
Sam was diddle-dallying on his laptop at the table with me. I tried making small talk with him, asking again if he was okay, but just like usual he brushed me off with a simple "Yeah I'm fine." He knew I didn't believe him, but he wanted me to stop asking and I understood that. Doesn't mean I was any less worried about him.
I was watching Allie intently as she tried getting close to the man she was partnered up with in a game of pool. Every fiber in my being was yelling at me to pull her way and sock the guy in the mouth that was looking at her every body part but her eyes. But when Allie hustled for money, she got way more than I could get out of someone. She would never fail to gloat about it either, so I made her promise me that whenever she hustled it had to be in plain-view so I could see.
Sam scoffed in disgust next to me, "How does that not make your blood boil?" I casted a glance his way. He was sending daggers at the guy too.
"Self control, Sammy," I took a swig of beer.
"So you bouncing your leg like that is helping that self control?" I glanced down at my leg that is bouncing up and down frantically out of an anxious habit. I stopped. He had a point. "She really grew up."
I turned around in my seat to look at him. His expression moved from angry to soft. His attention was on Allie, not the guy undressing her with his eyes. "I guess that's what happens after four years." When I said it, I didn't say it accusingly, but Sam misunderstood. "Sam—"
"No, no, no, you're right," Sam shook his head. "I guess I still pictured her as that eighteen year old that always found pleasure in hiding my stuff and eating your left overs just to get us riled up, you know?"
"She'll still do that for the sheer pleasure of making me mad," I shook my head. "I mean these Winchester looks…they're not always a blessing. The past couple of years have been hell for me. I swear there is not one decent guy in this world."
"Yeah well just thank god you didn't have to be in the same high school class as her," Sam rolled his eyes. I shuttered at the thought. "So how has she been?"
"With the guys?"
"No," Sam shook his head. I let out a breath of relief. I was over this topic of conversation. "Just about me…and me being back."
"I mean there were a few bumps in the road in the beginning, but we're both happy you're back on the road with us. Plus, she's worried about you." Sam rolled his eyes at the mention of his nightmares again. "I mean so am I. But whatever it is that you're going through is more important than holding a grudge about you going to college." I looked back up to Allie and saw her whisper something in the guy's ear and walk away with a smirk. She was walking back to us. "Heads up."
Allie sat down at the open chair between Sam and I and smirked my way. "Have I ever told you how good I am at making money?"
I rolled my eyes, "Every time." I took another swig of my beer. "I hope what you whispered in that guy's ear was that I'm about kick his ass if he doesn't stop looking at yours."
Allie just shrugged and reached for her own beer that's been untouched, "Nah, I told him to keep staring and maybe he'll get lucky. I'm a sucker for attention," She snickered. My fists clenched instantly and I moved to stand up and beat the crap out of the guy, but Allie was quick to put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm just kidding. I told him I had to say goodbye to my friends—that's you two—so I could get back to relieve the babysitter who is watching my two year old child."
"Well apparently single mothers are a turn on," I said, glaring at the guy until he got the hint and turned around.
Allie looked at Sam but kept her goofy grin on her lips, knowing she got under my skin. "So what have we learned about Blackwater Ridge?"
Sam coughed, "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." He flipped through Dad's journal.
"Any before that?" I asked.
Sam pulled out a few newspaper articles from his laptop case and handed one to me and one to Allie. "Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack." Sam whipped open his laptop, "And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936. Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork." He turned his laptop around for Allie and I to see. Allie scooted her chair closer to me. "Okay. Watch this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out."
Sam showed the video through three frames slowly. I narrowed my eyes when I thought I saw some sort of shadow run across the screen. "Do it again." I said.
Sam played it again and nodded when he saw that I noticed it too. "That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move."
"I noticed that when Haley showed us the video at her house." Allie pointed and reached for Sam's plate and stole a fry.
"That's pretty impressive, considering you couldn't even see it at regular speed," Sam eyed her suspiciously. I tilted my head to look at her too.
"What can I say? I have super powers," She shrugged.
"I told you something weird was going on," I pointed at Sam and then to the video.
"Yeah," Sam closed his laptop. "I got one more thing. In 'fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."
"You got a name?" I asked. Sam nodded.
Allie took the last sip of her beer and stood up, "All right. You guys should go question this bear food survivor and I'll meet you back at the motel."
"Where do you think you're going?" I asked, standing up too.
Allie shrugged on her jacket and pulled her hair out of the collar. "You said it yourself back in Jericho. If three people go to question someone, it could blow our cover and since I'm the obvious choice to cut out of this unfairly treated threesome, I thought I'd catch up on my sleep."
"Sleep?"
"Yeah, you know that activity a lot of normal people do for about eight hours every night. They close their eyes and lay unconscious usually on a flat surface—"
"All right smart ass," I rolled my eyes, "As long as you promise me that you're not going to sleep with that guy."
She scoffed at me. "Come on, Dean. You of all people should know that guy is so not my type. Plus, he forgot to take his wedding ring off his left ring finger. Idiot," She rolled her eyes. "I promise I will be laying horizontally by myself."
"Fine," I caved in. "We'll wake you up tomorrow morning. Get your hiking gear ready."
"This is a case from hell," She sighed. "Remind me to yell at Dad for sending us here when find him."
"You got it, kiddo."
Allie's POV:
I fell asleep faster than I have in days. It was nice having a room to myself because I was able to shower whenever I want and watch whatever I want on the TV without Dean yelling at me to turn "that girly crap off". On top of that, I don't have to wake up to Dean's snores or Sam's nightmares…that may sound insensitive but if you had to wake up to it too, you would understand. But don't get me wrong, I was still worried about him.
Although I enjoyed sleeping and bathing without Dean in the room, I was still woken up the same I was before. Abruptly. I sprung out of bed as fast as a bunny when my brothers pounded on my door.
I trudged to the door with a bee's nest on top of my head—I rolled around a lot in my sleep. I was in a large white T-shirt that fell to my mid thighs and my face was clean from any makeup once so ever, so if this wasn't Dean and Sam at the door, I was going to be super embarrassed.
Luckily it was.
"Why do you look like you've been run over by a monster truck?" Dean swiveled behind me and entered the room. Sam grimaced and followed Dean inside. I scoffed and spun on my feet and shut the door behind me. "Why aren't you dressed? C'mon we have to get there before Haley does."
"Are we sure this is such a good idea?" I asked. "What did the guy last night tell you?"
"Whatever the guy was attacked by…he knew it wasn't a bear," Sam explained. "It got him good too. He refuses to leave his house now."
"And apparently whatever it was is a lot scarier than a bear," Dean added. He grabbed my duffel bag from the floor and chucked it at me. I had to duck or else it would have hit my head. Thank god it was zippered shut. "Get ready. We're either going with or without you."
"Without me sounds good to me," I tried. That resulted in another object thrown at my head. This time it was a pillow and I did not duck in time for that one. "Give me ten minutes," I said with hair in my mouth. I dragged my duffel bag to the bathroom.
"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they just go through the walls." Dean said, talking to Sam. I listened in from the bathroom.
"So it's probably something else, something corporeal." Sam responded.
"Corporeal?" Dean snickered, "Excuse me professor."
"Shut up. So what do you think?"
"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."
I walked out of the bathroom in skinny jeans and Sam's Stanford Law sweatshirt. I threw my hair up in a ponytail and applied light makeup because I looked extremely scary without any on.
"All right, let's go," Dean clapped his hand and led us to his car.
"Hey, isn't that mine?" Sam pointed to the sweatshirt and looked at me accusingly.
"No," I shook my head. "It's obviously mine. I'm the one who went to school, remember?" I smirked sarcastically.
Sam rolled his eyes with a silly grin on his face and ruffled my hair.
Dean threw my duffel bag in the trunk, loaded some guns and knives into a bag for the trip, and turned around to look at us. I had to fix my hair now.
"We cannot let that Haley girl go out there," Sam said.
"Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?" Dean asked.
"Sounds good to me," I shrugged. "I mean you know what they say, honesty is the best policy."
"Her brother's missing, Allie. She's not gonna just sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend."
"Finding Dad's not enough?" Sam walked to the trunk and slammed a tool box in it. I bit my lip, hoping this was not going to turn into a fight. "Now we gotta babysit too?" Dean didn't say anything. Instead he just stared. "What?" Sam asked.
"Nothing," Dean shook his head and hopped into the drivers seat. Sam looked at me,
as if for an explanation as to what was on Dean's mind. I could only sigh and shrug my shoulders. I hopped into the backseat, falling custom to the row to myself and not missing the shotgun seat a bit. I lied on my side and closed my eyes for the ride to hell.
Dean pulled up to the parking lot meant for people going out on hiking trips. At the beginning of the trail, Haley and her brother Ben were standing there in shorts and backpacks. They were talking to someone else—an older man loading a shotgun. He was also wearing a pair of cargo shorts and an odd vest men wear when they go fishing. He looked like trouble.
"You guys got room for three more?" Dean asked, stepping out of the impala. Sam walked around to the trunk and pulled out our duffel bag of weapons.
"Wait, you want to come with us?" Haley asked.
"Who are these guys?" The man wearing the vest asked. He sounded condescending.
"Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue," Haley responded. My eyes narrow to a glare. That was rude.
"You're rangers?" He asked us suspiciously.
"That's right," I crossed my arms. "What are you? A fisherman?"
The man glared at me.
Haley looked down at Dean's shoes, "And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?"
Dean looked down at his outfit and shrugged, "Well, sweetheart, I don't do shorts."
The guy stepped forward. "What, you think this is funny? It's dangerous back country out there. Her brother might be hurt."
Sam turned around, surprisingly staying quiet this entire time. He watched Dean, waiting for his reaction.
"Believe me, I know how dangerous this could get," Dean said. I smirked to myself, loving that my brothers and I knew more about what's out in the woods than Ranger Pain in the Ass. "We just wanna help her find her brother, that's all."
Dean walked past me, patting my back as indication to follow him. I fell into step with Sam and led the pack, much to the grumpy old guy's liking.
Sam, Dean, and I walked in silence for about fifteen minutes. We listened to Haley and Ben describing their older brother's daily activities he likes to do when he comes out here. I couldn't understand why someone would choose to live out in the dry cold forest just to sleep, hunt, walk, and fish. Through our eaves dropping, we also learned that the ranger's name was not Pain in the Ass but in fact, Roy.
When the conversation died, Dean moved to walk next to Roy. "Roy, you said you did a little hunting."
"Yeah, more than a little," Roy mumbled. He had made it clear he was not a fan of mine or Dean's. Sam had kept quiet this entire time, so he has no reason to hate Sam, but he still gave him the cold shoulder.
"Uh-huh," Dean nodded. I know what Dean was thinking. He was comparing our kind of hunting with Roy's. "What kind of furry critters do you hunt?"
"Mostly buck, sometimes bear."
"Tell me, uh, Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?"
I snickered behind him, which led to an elbow being jabbed in my side from Sam.
Unlike me, Roy didn't appreciate Dean's sarcasm and grabbed Dean by his jacket. My smile faded and his replaced by a frown that is about to slip a growl.
"Whatcha doing, Roy?" Dean asked.
Roy grabbed a large stick and poked the ground next to Dean's feet. The area erupts as a bear trap closes in on the stick, snapping it in half.
"You should watch where you're stepping," Roy looked Dean and up and down in disgust. "Ranger."
I looked at the bear trap with wide eyes. Great, another reason to hate the woods. I couldn't even walk without worrying.
"I hate the woods," I said loudly enough for just Sam to hear.
Sam laughed warmly at me and rubbed my back soothingly.
Haley moved to walk next to Dean, "You didn't pack any provisions. You guys are carrying a duffel bag," She looked over her shoulders at Sam. "You're not rangers." Haley grabbed Dean's arm to stop him from moving. Okay, she was officially on my nerves. "So who the hell are you?"
Sam and I stopped and turned around. Sam was looking at Dean to make sure he was okay, but I was glaring at Haley. She should be thanking us! Well…maybe. I don't want to speak too soon.
Dean looked at us for a moment and then nodded his head for us to continue walking with Ben and Roy. I didn't want too, but I also didn't want to hear the lecture I would get from Dean if I didn't do what he said. So, Sam and I trudged along slowly so we could still listen in. From what I could tell, Ben was doing the same thing.
"Sam's my brother and Allie's my sister, and we're looking for our father. He might be here, we don't know. I just figured that you and me, we're in the same boat."
"Why didn't you just tell me that from the start?" Haley's voice softened.
"I'm telling you now. 'sides, it's probably the most honest I've ever been with a woman besides my sister...ever. So we okay?"
There was a pause.
"Yeah, okay."
"And what do you mean I didn't pack provisions?" Dean asked incredulously. I turned around, thinking he was going to whip out one of our guns. Instead, he pulled out a bag of peanut m&ms. His favorite.
There was a buzzing in my ear and I squealed and whipped my wrist by my ear. When the bee flew away, I pouted and stomped my foot on the ground. I hated the woods.
"I can't believe you guys tried to pull off being Rangers," Roy scoffed as he walked past me.
I glared at the back of his head and moved to punch him across the face and make him eat dirt, but Sam grabbed me by the waist and pulled me back when I swung my arm and missed the back of his head.
"Stop acting like such a girl," Dean demanded.
"Contrary to your belief Dean, but I am a girl," I glared at him.
"That has yet to be determined," Dean grumbled, shoving some more m&ms in his mouth.
I smirked, "Actually I could name a couple of guys who have determined it."
Dean moved to hit me, but I was ready and grabbed Sam by the arms and shoved him in front of me.
"This is it. Blackwater Ridge," Roy announced.
Sam shrugged out of my grip and walked towards Roy. Dean continued to glare at me so I ran away towards Roy and Sam.
"What coordinates are we at?" Sam asked.
"Thirty-five and minus one-eleven," Roy read from his GPS.
"You hear that?" Dean asked.
I listened for whatever it was that Dean was listening to, but I didn't hear anything. "I don't hear anything."
"Yeah," Sam said. "Not even crickets."
"I'm gonna go take a look around," Roy walked away.
Sam turned around, "You shouldn't go off by yourself."
Roy smiled, but there was no warmth behind it. "That's sweet. Don't worry about me." He waved his gun and pushed past the three of us to retake the lead.
Dean turned around to face, Sam, me, Ben, and Haley. "All right, everybody stays together. Let's go." I didn't know how much more of Ranger Roy I could take.
"Haley! Over here!" Roy called from a couple of feet ahead of us.
Haley ran away from us, followed by her younger brother Ben. Dean and I glanced at each other and jogged behind them.
Roy found an abandoned campsite. The tents were torn open and stained with blood. Food and other supplies were scattered across the ground in a disorganized manner.
I glanced nervously at Haley, thinking of what my first thoughts would be if I saw this. "Oh my god," her voice shook.
"Looks like a grizzly," Roy commented.
"Tommy?" Haley looked around. She walked slowly over the wreckage of this campsite, eyeing literally everything. "Tommy!" She screamed. Any kind of judgment I had about her before was wiped away. I hope I never have to feel what she is going through.
Sam walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Shh."
"Tommy!" She continued to scream.
"Shh-hh-hh!" Sam said soothingly.
"Why?"
"Something might still be out there," I explained, getting the idea after watching Sam's eyes scan the perimeter frantically as soon as Haley let out her first screech.
"Sam! Allie!" Dean called. I looked behind me, not even realizing he stalked off from the campsite. Sam and I walked over and crouched down next to him, "The bodies were dragged from the campsite. But here, the tracks just vanish. That's weird." We stood up. "I'll tell you what, that's no skinwalker or black dog."
We walked back over to the campsite. Haley was picking up a blood stained cell phone, I was assuming was her older brother's from the looks of a sad familiarity on her face. She was crying.
I felt bad and walked over to her. "Hey, he could still be alive." She looked over at me blankly. She had no reason to believe me.
"Help! Help!" Someone called out from the distance. Their terrified voice echoed through the trees. Every one of us ran towards the voice of the shouter. It continued to scream, "Help! Somebody!"
No matter how far we run, we don't find the person shouting, which was odd.
"It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?" Haley asked.
"Everybody back to camp," Sam demanded.
We walked back to the campsite, some of us more confused than others. I was starting to think that the cry for help was the thing trying to play a trick on us. I just didn't know what kind of creature could do that. When we reached camp again, all of our stuff was missing.
"Our packs!" Haley cried.
"So much for my GPS and my satellite phone," Roy scoffed.
"What the hell is going on?"
"It's smart," Sam said. "It wants to cut us off so we can't call for help."
"You mean someone, some nutjob out there just stole all our gear," Roy pointed in the direction we just walked back from.
Sam walked over to Dean and I. "I need to speak with you in private." We nodded and walked a couple of feet away from the group so we were out of earshot. "Good. Let me see Dad's journal."
Dean tilted his head and handed it over. Sam looked like he was on to something, which was good because I was completely stumped.
"All right, check that out." Sam pointed to a page on Dad's journal where Dad drew some sort of First Nations-style figure.
It clicked in my head, but I was still slightly confused. "Wendigos?"
Dean shook his head, "Oh come on, wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or, or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west."
"Think about it, Dean," Sam said, "the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice."
"Great," Dean rolled his eyes, agreeing with Sam that this was indeed a wendigo. I've never hunted one before, but from what I remember Dad telling me, these things were scary mother-effers. Dean pulled out his pistol from his pants, "Well then this is useless."
Sam gave Dean back Dad's journal and we walked back to camp where the rest were waiting for us.
Sam addressed the group, "All right, listen up. It's time to go. Things have gotten…more complicated."
Haley stepped forward. There was no way in hell she was leaving. I wouldn't either. "What?"
Roy held out his hand to Haley as if to say calm down. "Kid, don't worry. Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it."
"It's not me I'm worried about. If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave. Now." Sam pressed.
"One, you're talking nonsense. Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders."
"Relax," Dean ordered.
"We never should have let you come out here in the first place, all right? I'm trying to protect you." Sam defended. I was glad he was arguing with Roy. That douche face deserved it.
Roy, then, stepped right into Sam's personal space, getting all up in Sam's face. I glanced at Dean to see what he was going to do about it. He silently told me to stay where I was. "You protect me? I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night."
My heart skipped a beat when he brought up my mother. Yeah, I knew he didn't mean it personally considering he knew nothing about my family background, but it still struck a nerve within me.
"Hey!" I yelled at him. But like Dean told me to do, I didn't push him away from Sam. "Watch your mouth."
Sam continued, "It's a damn near perfect hunter. It's smarter than you, and it's gonna hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here."
Roy laughed, "You know you're crazy right?"
I rolled my eyes. Such a typical reply.
"Yeah? You ever hunt a wen—"
Dean pushed Sam away from Roy before he could give up the secret. Well, it wasn't much of a secret, but it was better to keep this information to ourselves than waste time with a bunch of people calling us crazy idiots. Lesson learned.
"Chill out," Dean said to Sam with his hands still on Sam's chest.
Haley stepped forward, "Stop. Stop it. Everybody just stop. Look. Tommy might still be alive. And I'm not leaving here without him."
There was a pause where no one knew what to say. Dean spoke up first, "It's getting late. This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night. We'll never beat it, not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves."
"How?" Haley asked.
This was going to be a long night.
The sun was setting, creating a pretty pink-purple color in the sky with a couple of clouds. Roy built a fire and Dean scavenged for logs that we could sit on around the fire while we sang Kumbaya and made smores! Just kidding. Everyone had a frown on their face.
Dean tried explaining to the group what a wendigo was. Now that we knew what we were looking for, Sam and Dean felt that it was safe to tell the group what it was that actually took Haley and Ben's brother.
Haley shook her head while she poked at the fire. She still wasn't getting it and I felt as if Dean had explained it to her a hundred times. "One more time, that's—"
"Anasazi symbols," Dean said, showing her Dad's journal. For some reason, that just didn't sit right with me. "It's for protection. The wendigo can't cross over them."
Roy laughed at Dean from across the fire. His large shot gun was tossed over his shoulder.
I glared from next to Dean, "Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy."
I moved to sit next to Sam at the edge of the campsite, secluded from everybody else. He was staring at the tree trunk in front of him like if he stared at it long enough it would move. I sat down next to him. The log was short so we were shoulder to shoulder. I didn't say anything. I just stared down the tree as well.
I got bored staring at the tree in less than five seconds, "Is it supposed to do a trick or something?"
Sam looked down at me with a blank space, not amused with my sarcasm. I smiled cutely at him.
Dean walked over to us and stood in front of the tree. "You wanna tell me what's going on in that freaky head of yours?" His question was directed at Sam.
"Dean—" Sam rolled his eyes, about to lie again by telling us he was feeling fine.
Dean shook his head, "No, you're not fine. You're like a powder keg, man, it's not like you. I'm supposed to be the belligerent one, remember?"
Sam sighed, "Dad's not here. I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sign, right?"
I shrugged my shoulders and shoved my hands into my jacket pockets.
"Yeah, you're probably right. Tell you the truth, I don't think Dad's ever been to Lost Creek." Dean admitted.
"Then let's get these people back to town and let's hit the road. Go find Dad. I mean, why are we still even here?"
"Because there are wendigos lurking in the trees," I said like it was super obvious.
Dean ignored me and gave Sam his own answer, "This is why." He held up Dad's journal. "This book. This is Dad's single most valuable possession—everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he's passed it on to us. I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business."
Sam shook his head, "That makes no sense. Why doesn't he just call us? Why doesn't he tell us what he wants, tell us where he is?"
"I dunno. But the way I see it, Dad's giving us a job to do, and like Allie said, we intend to do it."
"Dean...no. I gotta find Dad. I gotta find Jessica's killer. It's the only thing I can think about."
"We'll find them, Sam," I promised, rubbing his back comfortingly.
"Listen to me. You've gotta prepare yourself. I mean, this search could take a while, and all that anger, you can't keep it burning over the long haul. It's gonna kill you. You gotta have patience, man."
Sam looked down at his twiddling thumbs, thinking for a moment. He looked up again, "How do you guys do it? How does Dad do it?"
I looked up at Dean for his answer. He glanced over his shoulder and pointed to Haley and Ben behind us. "Well for one, them. I mean, I figure our family's so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable."
"Killing as many evil sons bitches as we possibly can is also a bonus," I grinned. Dean nodded in agreement.
Sam smiled at the two of us. I wish we had a camera to capture the moment of all three of us smiling at the same time.
"Help me! Please!" The voice from before fills the forest wind again. Picture-perfect moment was instantly ruined and our smiles were turned upside down. Dean quickly pulled out his gun from his jeans and walked back to the campsite. "Help!"
Sam and I followed Dean. Sam shined his flashlight into the trees. I could have ripped out my dagger from my boot, but that would be completely pointless to use against a wendigo.
"He's trying to draw us out," Dean told the group. "Just stay cool, stay put."
"Inside the magic circle?" Roy mocked, pointing towards the salt that Dean poured.
"Help! Help me!" The wendigo cried again.
"Okay, that's no grizzly," Roy growled, pointing his gun towards the direction the cries were coming from.
Haley was holding Ben, who was slightly freaking out, "It's okay. You'll be all right, I promise."
Something swooshed in the trees, so fast that it was obvious that it was a wendigo. Haley shrieked. The thing was close to our camp.
Roy shot at the trees a couple times. "I hit it!" Then he ran deeper into the forest.
"Roy!" I called out to him. Running into the forest without any knowledge of this thing was so stupid.
"Roy, no! Roy!" Dean called out to him too. He turned back to Haley and Ben. "Don't move. Allie, stay here!"
Haley picked up a stick to use as a weapon. I had to give her props for trying not to look scared.
"It's over here! It's in the tree!" I heard the Wendigo yell.
I walked over to Haley and Ben and had them sit down by the fire to help calm them down. They held each other in a tight embrace.
"Have you ever hunted this kind of thing before?" Haley asked. She was looking for reassurance that the three of us could protect her and find her brother.
"I haven't but my dad has and he taught Dean all that he knows. You got lucky, I promise." I answered. I don't think Haley liked my answer, but I don't think she would like any answer I could give her.
Sam and Dean came back with frowns but no Roy. My heart fell at the thought that Roy was dead—not that we were on good terms or anything, but dying by a wendigo really sucks.
"No Roy?" I asked, but it came out like a statement because I already knew the answer.
Dean shook his head. Haley cried harder and Ben's heart race sparked even more. The kid should have had a heart attack by now.
Sam was sitting against a hollow tree stump, flipping through Dad's journal. Dean said we should leave him alone so he could think faster. He had a point. I tend to distract my brothers quite a bit. I get bored easily.
"I don't…I mean, these types of things, they aren't supposed to be real," Haley stuttered. I let Dean take this one. I was tired to telling people we weren't crazy.
"I wish I could tell you different," Dean said.
We were sitting by the fire that Dean was constantly attending to.
"How do we know it's not out there watching us?" She asked.
"We don't," I grumbled.
"But we're safe for now," Dean added, casting a glare my way for scaring Haley even more.
"How do you about this stuff?" Haley asked.
Dean paused, thinking of our upbringing. "Kind of runs in the family." Haley looked at me for confirmation and I meekly nodded.
Sam walked back over to us, "Hey." Haley stood up at the thought of Sam about to tell her something good. "So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch."
"Well, hell, you know I'm in," Dean said.
"Me too," I raised my hand.
Sam showed a picture of a wendigo in Dad's journal. "Wendigo is a Cree Indian word. It means evil that devours."
Dean stood up, "They're hundreds of years old. Each one was once a man. Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter."
"How's a man turn into one of those things?" Haley asked.
"It's super gross," I said.
"Well, it's always the same. During some harsh winter a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help. Becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp." Dean explained.
"Like the Donner Party," Ben piped up. I raised my eyebrows. It was the first time I heard him talk all trip.
Sam nodded, "Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality."
"If you eat enough of it, over years, you become this less than human thing. You're always hungry." Dean said.
"So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" Haley asked.
"You're not gonna like it," I stood up and joined my brothers in front of Haley and Ben as if we were there parents giving them a lecture.
"Tell me," She said
"More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it's awake it keeps its victims alive. It, uh, it stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother's alive, it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden, and safe. We gotta track it back there."
"And then how do we stop it?"
"Well, guns are useless, so are knives. Basically—" Dean held up a can of lighter fluid, a beer bottle, and white cloth. "We gotta torch the sucker."
After we made one Molotov cocktail—which is basically a bomb that blows up when you throw it at something—Dean led the group through the forest. Now that we explained the legend of the wendigo, we knew where to look.
The forest was getting darker by the hour, but the dim lighting didn't make it hard for us to see the claw marks and blood on the passing trees—which was good because that's how we knew where to go. Follow the path of the scary trees.
"Dean," Sam said, walking past me to stand next to Dean. He leaned in closer so he could speak without Haley and Ben overhearing. This got my attention so I stepped closer so I could eavesdrop. "You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow."
Another growl came from above us. We stopped in our tracks and look around. It sounded so close.
My eyes caught Haley's shirt, which had drops of blood on it. Blood that hasn't been there before.
"Haley…" I said slowly. I didn't want to scare her, but I didn't think that blood was hers. She didn't look hurt nor did she say anything about it.
She followed my gaze and looked down at her shirt. Her eyes go wide, seeing the blood for the first time. Then she looked up, shrieked, and jumped to the left. Roy's body fell from the sky and landed right where Haley was standing. The blood must have been his.
Dean examined Roy's body while Sam tried to calm Haley down by asking her if she was all right.
"What happened to him?" I asked Dean.
"His neck's broke," He said dully.
Another growl rumbled in the trees.
Dean waved at us, "Okay, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!"
We all took off in a sprint. The five of us jumped over stray logs and ducked under low tree branches. At one point, I ran into a spider web and was ready to give up then and there.
I heard a thump behind me and looked back to see Ben had fallen because of a small hole. I turned around to help him without telling Sam or Dean. When I looked up, Dean and Haley were out of my sight but Sam jogged over to us.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked Ben. Ben nodded, but I looked at his ankle and it was beginning to swell. "Come on, I gotcha, I gotcha."
Ben put an arm over each of our shoulders and we started speed walking in the direction that Dean and Haley ran off to. But we were too far behind and didn't see them anywhere. I really started to panic when we came across Dean's Molotov cocktail—but at this point, it was just a broken bottle.
"Where's Haley?" Ben asked.
My heart started to race even faster. I felt the tears gather in my eyes at the thought of Dean being the next person to fall out of a tree with a broken neck. They got him.
We kept walking. Ben was feeling fine enough to walk on his own so we let him. He was asking more questions about the wendigo and luckily Sam was sane enough to answer them. Me? I was a silent wreck. I tried keeping my composure together so as to not frighten Ben, but I had a million things on my mind. The biggest one being: I hate the woods.
"If it keeps its victims alive, why would it kill Roy?" Ben asked.
"Honestly?" Sam said, "I think because Roy shot at it, pissed it off."
My foot stepped on something crunchy, and I looked down to see tiny specks of yellow in the ground. I leaned down and ran my fingers over it. It was Dean's peanut m&ms. When I looked forward and saw more m&ms leading a trail. He left us breadcrumbs to follow. I smiled. Dean always knew what to do.
"They went this way," I said.
Sam looked at what I was holding in my hand and laughed with a shake of his head, "It's better than breadcrumbs."
We followed the trail for about half a mile until we reached a mine entrance. Outside the entrance was a sign that read "Warning! Danger! Do Not Enter Extremely Toxic Material." So what do we do? We go in anyway.
Sam and I whipped out our flashlights and shined them into the dark tunnel. About two steps into the mine, the wendigo growled. It was close. We immediately shut off the flashlights. Sam put a hand on Ben's chest and pushed him so that their backs were to the wall. I did the same thing.
The shadow of the Wendigo was becoming prominent with each step it took. It was huge and looked nothing like a human. He looked like he should be a character in Scooby Doo, just a lot scarier.
I raised my hand and covered Ben's mouth when I saw that it was open to scream in fear. I didn't blame him either. If that thing came any closer to me, I would have done the same thing.
The wendigo takes a different tunnel at the crossing. We waited a couple of minutes before sprinting off in the opposite direction. As we were jogging through the mines, the ground below us creaked. Then, it completely broke and we fell through the floor, landing on something hard and pointy. I closed my eyes, not wanting to look at what I think it was. Eventually I had no other choice but to look down and unfortunately I was right. It was freaking bones.
"Hey, it's okay. It's okay, it's okay." Sam said. I looked to my left and saw that he was talking to Ben.
I looked ahead and saw three figures hanging by from the top of the tunnel, their feet missing the floor. I narrowed my eyes to look at them more closely. I couldn't mistake Dean's body from a mile away.
"Dean!" I screamed. Yeah, it was stupid to yell when the wendigo could have been in earshot, but I was so relieved to see him.
Sam and Ben's head shot up and watched me sprint towards our siblings.
Ben followed me and tapped his sister's face lightly, "Haley! Wake up!"
Sam shook Dean's body, "Dean!" Dean opened his eyes tiredly. His face was covered in dirt and sweat and he had a few scratches, but other than that, he looked okay. "Hey, you okay?"
"Hey Dean," I said after I did a check to make sure he wasn't severely injured. "How's it hanging?" I smirked a little when he tried to move to hit me.
"Haley, Haley, wake up, wake up!" Ben pleaded with his sleeping sister.
I leave Sam to cut down Dean and move to stand next to Ben. I bring my knife out of my boots and cut off her ties. Ben helped me carry her over to Dean where they can sit down and relax.
"You sure you're all right?" Sam asked Dean one more time. He was making these weird grunts I'm sure were from the pain.
Dean winced, "Yeah. Yep. Where is he?"
"He's gone for now," Sam answered.
Haley looked up at the third person that was still hanging. It was her brother Tommy. We didn't help him down yet because we thought he was dead.
She walked over to him and lightly ran her hand over his cheek, "Tommy…" Tears ran down her face. I looked down at my shoes.
Tommy's head jerks up at Haley's touch. My head whipped up to see Tommy alive. His eyes were wide with shock. Haley jumped back and shrieked. No one was expecting that.
Sam hurried over to cut him down and Haley helped him over to where she used to be sitting.
"We're gonna get you home," She told her older brother.
I walked over to the corner of the tunnel when I saw something that caught my eye. It was a pile of our stolen supplies plus a few others from Tommy's camp. I picked up a flare gun and smirked.
However, Dean walked over to the pile too and stole my thunder by taking it out of my hand and showed it to Sammy, "Check it out."
"Flare guns," Sam smirked. "Those'll work."
"You're welcome for finding it," I said with an eye roll.
"Yeah whatever, Shortstack." Dean said, but he was smiling down at me. He wrapped an arm around my neck, pulling me in closer to him. "All right, let's get out of here."
Sam and Dean were in charge of the two flare guns even though they were my findings! But apparently, I couldn't be trusted with a flare gun, which I thought was BS considering I had the second best shot out of the three of us—Dean being the first.
There was another growl.
"Looks like someone's home for supper," Dean said.
"I bet that sounded cooler in your head," I said in a low voice. Dean glared at me.
"We'll never outrun it," Haley said. I looked over at her. She was right. Her brother was wrapped around her shoulder, limping.
Dean looked back at us and then to Sam and I. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah, I think so," Sam nodded. I thought so, and I didn't like it.
"All right, listen to me," Dean addressed the other three, "Stay with Sam and Allie. They're gonna get you out of here."
"What are you gonna do?" Haley asked worriedly.
Dean's response was a wink and then he ran off yelling, "Chow time, you freaky bastard! Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby, I'm feeling good!"
"All right, come on! Hurry!" Sam said to us when Dean was out of our sights. Although I wanted to run after Dean to make sure he was going to be okay, I followed Sam and the others.
We ran as fast as we could down the tunnel without Haley and Tommy falling behind. The growl was getting closer to us, which meant Dean's plan wasn't exactly working.
Sam turned around and pointed his gun, but since he didn't have a good shot, he didn't fire it.
"Get him outta here!" Sam shouted at Haley and Ben.
"Sam, no!" Haley pleaded. She looked at me for help.
"You take care of your brothers and I'll take care of mine," I said to her. She paused, but then nodded when considering the time.
"Allie, go with them. Don't be stupid," Sam said.
"Well according to Dean, stupid happens to be my middle name so…" I shrugged and stood right next to him.
Sam glanced behind him at the other family. Something was tugging on his heart, "Come on, come on," Sam said. We ran to the Collins family and helped usher them out of the tunnel.
I felt a swoosh of wind behind me. I glanced back and saw the wendigo was awfully close.
"Sam!" I screamed.
Sam snapped back and fired the gun at the wendigo but he missed. However, it slowed it down.
"Come on, hurry, hurry!" Sam yelled.
We kept running. I felt like my lungs were going to fall out of my body. We reached a dead end.
"Get behind me," Sam demanded.
Sam pushed me behind him with the three others when he saw that I wasn't going to move away from his side. I scowled from behind him.
Sam held up the gun tauntingly, but we both knew he did not have another bullet in that thing. We were wendigo food at this point.
"Hey!" Someone behind the Wendigo shouted. It was Dean. My chest felt lighter at the sound of his voice. The wendigo turned around and Dean shot him in the chest with the flare gun. The wendigo shrieked, put on a drama show, then fell to the ground in flames. Dean walked around it to make sure we were okay, "Not bad, huh?"
We walked back to where we parked our car, which is where the ambulance was waiting for Tommy. We called for it on our walk back. We told Haley, Ben, and Tommy to blame everything on a bear. Their life would be a lot easier that way.
I walked over to Dean and Haley after interviewing with a police officer. She was about to get into the ambulance with Tommy.
"I hope you find your father," She said to Dean before hopping in and taking off.
Sam approached us and we walked back to the car, none of us getting in. We just stared into the woods.
"Man, I hate camping," Dean said.
"Right?" I exclaimed.
Dean glanced over at Sam, "Sam, you know we're gonna find Dad, right?"
"Yeah, I know," Sam said. "But in the meantime? I'm driving."
I scoffed. Yeah, like Dean would ever let that happen. Then, I kid you not. Dean DID let that happen. I saw it through my very own eyes. He tossed Sam the keys. My mouth dropped open.
"What? How come you never let me drive?" I shout.
"Because I have better luck with a blind dog driving me than letting you get behind the wheel," Dean said, walking to the passenger side.
"You're so annoying," I rolled my eyes and hopped into the backseat.
"But you love me anyway," He smiled.
I rolled my eyes and slumped in the back seat. Not gonna argue with him there.