Oh hello there. I'm back with another chapter! As always, I want to give you all a quick thank you for making it this far before sending you on your way! Hope you like it! :) Xoxo-NiclyLynn

Sam was sitting alone, away from the others, trying to sort through his inner turmoil of thoughts in silence. He had his father's journal in his grasp, twisting his hands around it anxiously as he tried quelling the chaos in his mind. Ariella was gone. Taken by the Wendigo to be stored God only knew where, and Sam was doing his best not to let himself fall apart from that knowledge. The truth was, he hadn't even blamed the Wendigo…it was Roy he set the blame at. If he hadn't been foolish enough to go running after the thing, then Ariella would have never gone after him, and she would still be there…probably lecturing him about being so broody.

It was all of them…Roy, Hailey, her brother…if it hadn't been for any of them, then they would have already found the bastard by now and been on the road again tracking down their Dad. Instead, Ariella was gone. And now Sam and Dean were left, not only to save her, but keep on babysitting the others along the way. It was infuriating. The most infuriating thing about it though, was that he knew Ariella would be furious with him if she knew the thoughts filling him in that moment. She would tell him that saving the others was all that mattered. That saving them was more important than saving her. But, selfishly, he just couldn't bear the thought of losing her. Of losing another person he cared about.

Letting out a frustrated breath, and knowing Dean would be getting worried if he sat out there much longer, he stood back up and made his way back to the campsite. "So, we've got half a chance in the daylight." He said loud enough for everyone to hear when he rejoined the others, doing his best not to let his anger at the entire situation show. "And I, for one….want to kill this evil son of a bitch." He declared, gaze sliding onto Dean as he stood. They locked eyes for a moment, and Sam could see the determination filling him as well.

"Well, hell, you know I'm in." he said in response, having already been spending his time waiting for the sun to come back up making Molotov cocktails to fry the bastard with. "Let's go get this son of a bitch."

The first thing Ariella was vividly aware of when she broke back through the surface of unconsciousness was the pounding emanating from the back of her skull. It was more intense than any hangover she had ever had and left her guts sloshing uneasily. She let out a groan as she peeled her eyes open, her other senses slowly awakening the more she pried herself free from sleep. It took her a moment to make sense of the images filtering in through her vision, the room she had woken in being so dark and musty it was hard to get a good look at anything around her. Though, perhaps the headwound, too, had a part to play in that.

The next sense she was vividly aware of was the pain biting into the flesh around her already tender wrists. It was an effort to loll her head to the side, trying to get her bearings about her, and when she realized that she had been strung up to the ceiling by her bound hands, yet another groan slipped out her throat.

"Shit." She breathed out as she began pulling against the restraints, testing their strength. The pain ebbing from her previously burned flesh flared in response, and she let out a hiss as she began straining against it. The wood she was suspended from groaned as she struggled against the thick rope, but the Wendigo had been proficient in his skills, and it would not give in the slightest.

"You okay?" she heard an unfamiliar voice call out to her then, causing her to stop in her attempts to free herself as her head shot up in alarm. She squinted against the darkness until the outline of another person became visible, strung up across from her. It was a younger man, cuts and bruises marring what flesh she could see and looking incredibly haggard, but alive, at least.

"Tommy?" she asked in a raspy voice, finding that her throat had grown incredibly scratchy and irritated, perhaps from the thick layer of dust hanging in the air around them.

"H-how do you know my name?" he questioned, his voice, too, coming out low and raspy.

"I've been looking for you with your sister." She told him as began craning her head around to get a good look at their surroundings. She couldn't make out much, but from what she could see, it seemed to be some type of old mineshaft. They were the only ones in there, which meant that Roy had likely been eaten or killed.

"Hailey?" he asked in a near-cry. "S-she's out there? No. No, she has to leave! She has to get out of here! That….that thing is going to get her, too!"

"She's with friends of mine." Ariella told him in reassurance, eyes moving back onto the frightened man. "She's safe with them."

"No. You don't understand." He said, shaking his head as he drew in a loud sniffle. "That thing is a monster! It's…it ate the others! It-"

"It's called a Wendigo." Ariella said, cutting him off.

"A what?" he asked.

"A Wendigo." Ariella repeated. "It's a creature that used to be a man. A miner, perhaps…." She said, eyes bouncing around the deteriorating walls around them. "Something would have happened to make him desperate. I'm guessing a mine collapse or bad winter storm. Either way, whatever circumstances led to it, he ate whoever he was trapped with…devoured them to stay alive…and it turned him into something inhuman…something with an insatiable appetite."

"What? Like…like Donner's Party?" he questioned in disbelief.

"Pretty much." Ariella told him. "I know it sounds crazy, but me and the guys with your sister…we hunt things like these. We kill them."

"So how do we? Kill it, I mean." He asked then.

"The only way we can." She told him with a sigh, knowing there was only one thing that could take down a Wendigo. "By torching its ass."

"This can't be happening." Tommy muttered as he dropped his head back down, voice coming out barely above a whisper. "This isn't real. This…this is insane."

"Tommy, I'm gonna get you out of here." Ariella promised, feeling sorry for the torment he had to have endured while stuck here all alone. "Those guys I'm with are good. Real good. They're probably out there right now trying to find us. We're all gonna get out of here, but I need you stay strong and focused." She implored. "You said there were others. How long ago did that thing eat?" she asked.

Tommy let out an audible sob then, his head shaking back and forth. "I…I don't know. Yesterday morning maybe." He said, voice quivering.

"Okay." she said, nodding as she processed that. "This thing isn't an opportunistic hunter. It only eats when it needs to. Which is why we're still stung up in the pantry. Which means, we've got time, okay? We're gonna be okay."

The following hours felt excruciatingly long to Ariella. Between the ache still throbbing in the back of her skull, the lack of blood flow in her fingers, and Tommy slipping in and out of consciousness, it was torment. It felt like days before she heard something else shifting around in the dark tunnels, and by the sound of low growling, she figured it wasn't Sam or Dean coming to the rescue. She could hear it getting closer, and by the sounds of dragging accompanying it, she could only guess the Wendigo had found another victim to add to its pantry.

Ariella let her eyes slip closed and went limp in her bindings, not wanting to draw its attention onto her, just as it rounded the corner. She did her best to focus on her breathing as it dragged whoever it was across the dirt, fear creeping up her spine as it began hoisting its prey up not even three feet to her right. She felt a jolt run through the wooden beam above her as it worked on stringing the person up, before another jolt came a few moments later. She realized there must have been two victims then and began silently praying it was not Sam and Dean.

After it seemed to have its latest victims secured, it swept right past Ariella, so close its breath filled her nose and turned her stomach sour. It smelt like spoiled meat…and it took everything in her not draw up her nose in disgust as it shuffled past. She remained as still as a statue, hypervigilant of every twitch of her muscles, before cracking open an eye once the room went silent again. She let out a sigh once she realized it was gone, quickly followed by a groan when she realized who the creature had strung up next to her. Dean was hanging limply from the same type of bindings, covered in enough cuts and scratches to indicate he had put up a fight. On his other side was Hailey, also unconscious, and although it was not the twist Ariella had been hoping for…she found herself thankful, at least, that Sam wasn't among them.

"Dean!" she whispered as loudly as she dared, not sure if the Wendigo was still somewhere in the mine. When he didn't respond, she swung her leg up and tried kicking him. Still, he remained in the throes of sleep. She let out a groan before giving up, figuring there was nothing more she could do but wait for him to wake…and just hope Sam was out there somewhere trying to find them.

By the time Dean's senses were beginning to kick back into gear, it like he had been hit by a car. There was a ringing in his ear, nearly every inch throbbed in pain, and there was something repetitively smacking against his leg that was driving him mad.

"Damn it, Dean." Ariella's voice cut in through the muddled mess of his mind. "Wake up!"

He began prying his eyes open, realizing that the persistent smacking against his leg had been Ariella's boot. "Would you stop kicking me." He grumbled as his mind began catching up with his senses. He opened his eyes to find himself strung up in a dark room that smelled strongly of dirt and mildew, and he wasn't the only one either. Ariella was hanging only a few feet to his left, and Hailey to his right. Across from them was another man, which he guessed was Hailey's brother. Only he and Ariella seemed to be conscious, however.

"Excuse me for wanting to save our lives." Ariella threw back at him with a huff.

"Well, pump the breaks, Supergirl." He told her as he tipped his head back to get a better look at the rope binding him to the ceiling. He gave a strong tug against it, but it refused to budge an inch. "The way I see it, we aren't going anywhere anytime soon." He said, eyes dropping back down on her. "You hurt?" he asked, assessing her body for any damage.

"I'm fine, but listen…I think I can get us out of here." she said quickly, jutting her chin towards the bottom half of her body. "I've got a knife stashed in the in the waistband of my jeans." She explained.

"Great, why don't you just reach down and pull that out." Dean threw out sarcastically. "How's that gonna help us?" Ariella responded by bringing her foot back up again and kicking his shin. "Ow!"

"No, you asshat!" she said with a frustrated huff. "You're going to get it out."

"In case you didn't notice, I'm a little tied up at the moment!" Dean said, fingers splaying out above him for emphasis.

"Yeah, but your foot's not." Ariella said with a roll of her eyes.

Dean's eyes fell onto his feet before flicking back up to Ariella's waist. "Oh."

"Just help me get it out and once it's on the ground I can handle it from there." She instructed, turning her body so that she was as close to him as possible.

Dean brought his foot up then, letting out a grunt as he tried extending it up high enough to reach her beltline. He managed to get it up to her knee before his tendons began tightening up, keeping him from getting much higher. He struggled to raise it any further, toe slipping around the length of her thigh as he tried.

"Wow Dean, I didn't know you had such a hard time getting it up." Ariella sassed as she watched him struggle for longer than he would like to admit.

"Shut up." He groaned in response before managing to get his foot high enough. "Is that a knife in your pocket?" he said with a smirk as he hit the bulge within the waist of her jeans, eyes darting up to meet hers for a moment. "Or are you just happy to see me?"

"Be a lot happier if you'd just get it out." Ariella snipped amusedly.

"Yeah, yeah. Hold still." He muttered before dropping his focus back onto his foot, doing his best to wiggle it back and forth in an effort to coax the blade out. It took him a while to get it free, but once he managed to get it all the way out, watching as it dropped to the ground under Ariella, he let out a grunt of victory. "Okay." He said as he brought his leg back down with another grunt of effort. "Now what?"

"Now…" Ariella said as she pulled the knife across the dirt with one of her feet, lining it up in between her two boots. "I get us out of here."

She scooped the blade up between her feet, holding it tightly between them, before lifting her legs. She used her bound hands to give her something to pull against as she brought her legs up into the air, her core muscles straining as she practically flipped herself upside down in one swift motion. She brought her feet up to where her hands were bound together, passing the blade off into her grasp before letting her legs drop back down as a smile lit up her face.

She sent Dean a satisfied smirk then, who had been watching the display in disbelief. "What are you, a damn contortionist?" he asked as she flipped open her knife and began cutting into her bindings.

"It's called exercise." She said as she cut through the rope and dropped to the ground. She took a moment to shake out her hands and try to get circulation in them again before making her way over to him. "You should try it sometime." She told him with an arched brow as she began slicing into his own bindings.

"I exercise." He said in defense as he watched that satisfied grin of hers spread out across her face.

"Running from whatever monster happens to be chasing you doesn't count as exercise." She snarked as she cut through the rope, Dean's hands falling free as he dropped to the ground as well.

She didn't wait for him to throw out another response to that before moving onto Hailey, smacking against her check as she tried waking her up. "Come on, Hailey. Time to wake up!"

Hailey's eyes began to flutter open as Dean worked on pushing the rope from his wrists, letting out a groan as she came to. "W-where are we?" she asked in confusion as she blinked around groggily.

"Some old abandoned mine or something." Ariella answered before reaching up to cut through the rope keeping her held up. "I'm going to cut you down." Dean moved closer, reaching out to catch Hailey as her bindings broke free. He took her weight as she dropped down, letting her lean into him as she steadied herself on her feet. "Look, we need to hurry because I don't know when that thing is going to want to stop in for a snack, and I don't want to be here when it does." She said, glancing back to the other side of the room warily.

"You good?" Dean asked, making sure Hailey was steady on her feet before letting her take her full weight again.

"Y-yeah." Hailey responded with a nod, able to stand on her own. She caught sight of brother hanging across from them then and nearly let out a sob as she rushed over to him. "Oh my God! Tommy!"

"Don't worry, he's okay." Ariella told her reassuringly as she stepped up to him as well. "He's just unconscious is all….and weak."

"Tommy!" Hailey called out as she reached out to cradle the side of his face.

Tommy startled awake with a sharp gasp and Hailey nearly fell into him with a sob. "You're okay." She cried as she clung to him, relief etching her features.

"Hailey?" he said, tears forming in his eyes as he took her in. "What are you doing here? You have to get out of here!" he told her in a panic.

"I told you…" Ariella said as she began cutting through the rope around his wrists. "We're all getting out of here."

Once he was free, Hailey and Ariella both took his weight, keeping him suspended between them. "Alright, let's get the hell out of here." Dean said with a nod, turning to lead them out of the mine.

Ariella and Hailey followed after Dean, supporting Tommy's weight as they shuffled out. They moved as quickly as they could, but as they came up on a corner that intersected with the main shaft, they realized they had not been quick enough. There was something coming down the corridor, blocking their exit. Dean threw his hand up in a single to stop, and Ariella complied instantly, tugging Tommy towards the wall. They all clung to the moist rock, doing their best to keep quiet as it drew closer.

Ariella slipped herself out from under Tommy, moving with silent footsteps as she crept closer to Dean, pulling her knife back out and bracing for a fight. Her and Dean locked eyes for a moment before she threw herself around the corner, blade high in the air and ready to attack. The thing she came face-to-face with, however, was not the Wendigo like they had been expecting. Instead, her blade hovered just inches from Sam's startled face.

"Ari?" he gasped, wide eyes moving from the tip of her blade to her face.

"Oh, thank God." Ariella breathed out in relief as she let her arm drop down next to her side. "I really didn't want to fight this thing with nothing but a four-inch blade." She said as Dean and the others came out from around the corner as well.

"Well, we were coming to save you, but looks like you're already in the middle of saving yourself." Sam commented as he took in the group. Hailey's younger brother had been with him as well, and as soon as his eyes landed on Tommy's haggard form he bolted forward, the two of them hugging in relief.

"Alright, let's get out of here before that thing really does come back." Dean said, nodding his head down the corridor Sam had just come from. Before they could even take a step, however, a loud growl echoed though the mine, coming from the direction they were supposed to be heading.

"Or not." Ariella said, fear-laced eyes sweeping from Dean over to Sam.

"What do we do now?" Hailey asked in a hushed voice.

"I'll draw it off." Dean said, it being the one and only plan he could come up with. "You guys get them to safety."

"And let you go alone?" Ariella asked with a shake of her head. "No. We'll draw it off." She amended before nodding at Sam. "Get them out."

"Ariella, no. I can handle-" Dean tried to say in protest, but, as usual, she just ignored him and began running deeper into the mine.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean seethed before taking off after her.

"Come on you big nasty fuck!" Ariella yelled out as he caught up to her, voice bouncing off and echoing down the mine. "Looks like your dinner is on the run!"

"So, what's the plan here?" Dean asked as they ran deeper into the mine.

"Old mines like this usually have an escape tunnel built somewhere deeper in!" she told him through her labored breathing. "In case of collapses. The plan is to haul ass and hope we can find it before the wendigo finds us!"

The loud growl that came from behind them, however, did not bode well for their chances of escape. "Well, at least we know it's following us!" Dean shouted as they both pushed their feet to go faster.

Unfortunately, they didn't get a chance to run much further before coming across something that sent Dean's hope plummeting. At some point, some of the mine had collapsed, and now they were trapped between a wall of rocks and debris, and the ravenous killer. "Shit!" he hissed, spinning around to try to find any sort of exit or alternate path.

"This was a bad idea." Ariella complained as she searched too.

"Yeah, and I told you not to come!" Dean fumed.

"I wasn't going to let you die alone." Ariella snipped back at him before moving closer towards the rubble.

"Well, now get to die together. So, good plan." Dean breathed out in frustration, suddenly wishing he would have done more to stop her from coming with.

"We're not gonna die!" Ariella shouted, voice lifting in excitement. "Dean there's dynamite back here!" she said, spinning around to face him as she pointed down at an old, rotting box.

"What, seriously?" he asked as he rushed closer to see for himself. Sure enough, sitting inside the half-decomposed box were several sticks of explosives. They were old and corroded, but still capable of doing the job. "Well, I'll be." He said as he went to scoop one up. As he reached down to grab hold of one, however, a deafening roar sounded behind the pair. Before either one of them could react, Ariella let out a scream of her own as the Wendigo dug its claws into her shoulder. In the next moment she was sent soaring across the room, quickly followed by Dean being tossed in the opposite direction.

Dean hit the ground with a grunt, a sharp pain shooting through his arm. He pushed himself back up as quickly as he could, but the Wendigo was on him quicker than his eyes could keep track of. It sprang on top of him, keeping him pressed into the ground as it attacked. Dean brought his arm up, keeping the thing's snapping teeth from biting into his flesh. Its putrid breath filled Dean's nostrils as it snarled viciously above him, and if it weren't for pure panic coursing through him, he'd have probably puked from the atrocity of it.

Dean let out a yell as he kept the Wendigo held back, the muscles of his arm shaking with effort as it worked on overpowering him. In the next moment, the thing's weight suddenly lifted off of him as it let out a scream of its own. Ariella had managed to drive her foot into its side as it was distracted, sending it flying backwards. It went flying towards the rock pile and, with a strike of luck, fell right on top of the unstable explosives. Ariella threw herself around Dean just as the explosion shook through the room- rock, flames, and pieces of the Wendigo filling the space around them in a volatile blast.

The ground trembled under them as they cowered together, and as the explosion dissipated, Ariella pulled back enough to lock wide eyes with Dean. Dust and rocks began raining down on them as the rumbling grew and, before Dean could even process his next thought, Ariella was hauling him back onto his feet.

"RUN!" she screamed in panic as she pulled him upright and began dragging him.

The ceiling began crumbling into pieces around them as the mine began collapsing, sending the two of them sprinting for the exit. The stretch of corridor began to disintegrate above them as they ran, dropping massive stones that could easily crush them. It sounded like a train was barreling through the mine as stone after stone fell, the sound of it nearly deafening. It was like a scene straight out of Indiana Jones, and Dean would have found it awesome had he not been so scared for his life.

"Go! Go, go!" he screamed as they drew closer to the entrance. The air was so thick with dust that it nearly blocked out the light filtering in through it, only pushing them to go faster as they tried to out-run the collapse.

Dean pushed his legs to go faster, Ariella managing to keep pace with him as they began feeling rock kick up against the heels. By the time they managed to make it to the opening, Dean and Ariella nearly collapsed on the ground. They burst out into the open in a frenzy, quickly followed by a wave of rocks that sealed off the mine.

Ariella had dropped down onto her knees, hunched over as she struggled to even out her breathing. She swung wide eyes onto Dean after watching the last of the stone tumble down the massive pile, her throat bobbing up and down as she swallowed thickly. Dean, who was also hunched over and struggling to catch his breath, let his eyes flick from her back over to the pile of stone they had almost been crushed by. "I…I can't believe…that j-just happened." He panted between breaths, mind still reeling from the series of events that had just transpired all too quickly.

"You and me both." Ariella breathed out before letting herself fall onto the ground on her back as she let out a long breath, chest still heaving up and down as she worked on calming her racing heart. "Oh God I hate camping." She then complained with a shake of her head.

"Me too." Dean said, finding it ironic that they had finally found something they could agree on.

Ariella rolled her head to the side to look at him once more, and the smile that followed nearly split her face in half. The laugh that bubbled out of her throat then echoed around the tree line, pulling a laugh from Dean as well. "We just blew up a Wendigo with century old TNT." She snorted in between a fit of giggles, hand moving to cover her mouth as she laughed at the absurdity of it all.

Dean let himself laugh along with her, the sheer amount of adrenaline still coursing through his system leaving him feeling nearly lightheaded. "Yeah." He said as he caught sight of Sam and the others rushing towards them. "And it was fucking awesome."