outtake from chapter 1:
Connie, as in Constance like the ghost chick we just ganked.
or. Are you seriously telling me a chick named Constance is this hot! c'mon.
XxXxXxXxX
There was nothing around them but miles and miles of woods, and Connie loved it. She loved how connected to nature it made her feel and it gave her an excuse to look out the window and ignore Dean Winchester's stares.
"So why are you coming with us again?" Great, now that Sam was finally sleeping, he had to interrogate her. The whole week they had stayed in Palo Alto was spent in her house, which she had offered after Sam became adamant in staying to look for clues. Connie and Sam also spent their week putting their affairs in order to leave. Her going to them was a really contentious point and she had argued endlessly for it, Sam did not really have the energy for it and Dean was still arguing with her about it.
She turned her head towards him and flipped through her grimoire. "I told you that something is telling me to." She was being rude and she knew it, but she was tired of having to explain this.
"And you expect me to believe this." He was also being rude to her back, so it wasn't like he would mind.
"Yes," she snapped her book shut. And the sound seemed to wake up Sam. The brothers had a non-conversation about Sam's nightmares in which Connie stayed eerily still for, even if she did want to say that she would love to drive the car. And when they moved on, she relaxed, but remained silent for the rest of the drive.
XxXxXxXxX
When they arrived at the Ranger's Station Sam and Connie were looking at a 3D map of the national forest, paying particular attention to the ridge labelled "BLACKWATER RIDGE". Connie could only wonder why the coordinates that the Winchester's dad had left them led to a place so remote and cut-off. She turned around to say this to Sam and found him looking at a picture with his brother, with their backs turned to her. It was no surprise they were startled when the ranger walked in and spoke.
"You folks aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?"
The boys turned around and Sam casually said, "Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper." Connie was impressed at how fast and easy the lie had come to him.
"We were wondering if you could show us… uh" Connie was so not good at lying this fast, she normally had the time and energy to prepare the lies and get into character. And it seemed that the ranger had caught on to the fact that they were lying.
"Bull," was quickly spat out by the ranger as soon as she had stumbled.
"You're friends with that Haley girl, right?" That gave them an excuse so good that Dean took it immediately.
"Yes. Yes, we are, Ranger…" Dean quickly checked the ranger's nametag, "...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," Dean nodded, "so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it?"
Ranger Wilkinson wasn't quite finished yet though. "You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine."
"We will," Connie stated, starting to head out. For some reason, Dean asked if he could have a copy of the backcountry permit to show Haley, which Connie found weird, but who was she to judge, she had done stranger things.
Connie was waiting by the car, leaning against it, when the brothers reached her, arguing.
"… I mean, why even talk to this girl?" Sam whined.
"I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?" After Dean said it, there was an awkward pause, and the older brother questioned Sam about his change in attitude. There was a brief discussion inside the car where they decided that they would pose as park rangers to talk to Haley. Connie's long flowy skirt and assorted jewellery marked decidedly as not a park ranger.
"Wait, I gotta change." Connie piped up from the back seat.
"What?" Dean was confused.
"If we're going to pretend to be park rangers, I gotta change. One sec."Connie took off her shoes and grabbed a pair of pants and a different shirt from her bag. The brothers looked at each other. She then shimmied on the pants without taking off her skirt, and then put on the shirt without taking the other one off. She then took off her skirt and shirt without a word. She noticed the silence and glanced up at the brothers.
"What? You've never seen a girl change clothes?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Not like that, that was freaky," Dean said.
"You have not been around enough women. Whatever, let's get going," and with that they were off to Haleys' house.
XxXxXxXxX
After Haley's house where they found out that Haley was going to head out into the woods in search of her brother Tommy with a guide, Sam headed to the library to do some research and Connie trailed after him. To Connie, it seemed that Sam seemed exactly where to look to get all of the information, it was a bit uncanny, still she did everything she could to help him out.
Together they found that Tommy's group was not the first to go missing that year, and that there had been many more before them. There was a cycle to these disappearances, they happened exactly every 23 years without a fault, and there was a survivor of one of the earlier attacks. Sam also showed her the mysterious shadow that appeared in the video that Haley had forwarded him. Slowing the video down, to show that the creature had sped by the screen in 3 frames.
There was a lull in the research, where both Sam and Connie were silently doing their own thing. Connie decided that it was now or never.
"Hey Sam," she started, softly, "I know you don't want to talk about it, and we totally don't have to," she said all this racing through her words. "But I can help you with your nightmares." She said that last part with confidence.
Sam was silent, weighing her words, and after a few moments he let out, "Yeah?"
"Yeah," Connie answers softly,"I made you this." She pulls out a small flat metal object, the size of a quarter. It had various runes and symbols hand-carved into it that Sam would look at in detail later. At that moment, he could only give a small thanks in return. Connie said not to mention it, and they went back into research.
XxXxXxXxX
Later on that day, they showed Dean what they had found at a local bar and decided to go to the place of the survivor of the '59 attack. The man, Mr. Shaw, who was nothing but a boy at the time of the attack, received them reluctantly with long lines in his face and a cigarette in his mouth. He started talking with his back turned to them.
"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?" Shaw nodded silently, smoking his cigarette.
"The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?" Sam queried. A pause. Shaw looked askance.
Now it was Dean's turn. ''What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?" Another pregnant pause. "If we knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it." Dean gestured to himself and his brother.
"I seriously doubt that." Shaw scoffed and went to sit down. "Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make. You wouldn't believe me," Shaw picked up a hard drink, "nobody ever did."
Connie approached Shaw meekly, and sat down close enough to reach him. Putting one of her hands on his closest arm, in a supportive gesture, she asked him, "Mr. Shaw, please tell us, what did you see?"
In the few seconds that Shaw paused to consider his thoughts, Connie picked up what Shaw felt, saw, and heard the night of the attack. She got the insurmountable amount of pain and fear that he had felt, but also the sense of disbelief that he still carried to this day. As soon as she processed all of this, Shaw began to speak.
"Nothing," the man was trembling, "it moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it, though." Shaw had a thousand yard stare. "A roar. Like...no man or animal I ever heard."
It came at night time?" Connie gently posed, and Shaw nodded.
"Got inside your tent?" Sam continued, and Shaw frowned at this.
"It got inside our cabin. 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. '" the brothers shared a quick glance with one another."Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screaming." Connie felt the pain that he felt at the loss in her soul.
"It killed them?"
"Dragged them off into the night." Shaw shook his head in confusion. "Why it left me alive...been asking myself that ever since."
Connie holds Shaw's hand tighter, never having completely moved away. Shaw freed his hand from Connie's grasp and accompanied his other one to his collar.
"Did leave me this, though."
Shaw opened his collar to reveal three long scars. Claw marks. The trio looked at them, Connie was quick to avert her gaze.
"There's something evil in those woods. It was some sort of a demon." Connie silently agreed with the first, although with what she had experienced from Shaw's head she knew that it was no demon.
XxXxXxXxX
Connie, Sam, and Dean stepped outside of Shaw's apartment and started making their way to the stairs, talking as they passed through multiple closed doors. Sam and Dean walk side by side, and Connie one step behind them, trailing after their long footsteps.
"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors," Dean started. "If they want inside, they just go through the walls."
From behind him, Connie spoke up, "And from what I saw from Shaw's memories it was something more physical, more…"
"Corporeal," Sam finished for her.
"Corporeal? Excuse me, professor." Dean said mockingly.
"Shut up," Sam sputtered.
"Wait, you can look inside people's heads?" This was aimed directly towards Connie.
"Yes. Moving on. What do you think it is?" Now was not the time to discuss what her abilities were.
"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."
When they arrived at the motel they were spending the night in, Connie went to secure the room, or more hopefully rooms. and the Winchesters stayed behind by the car, getting their bags. After getting the clothes bags out of the way, Dean opened the false bottom into the weapons box, and props it open with a shotgun. He put some guns in a duffel bag.
Sam leant in to help and said, "We cannot let that Haley girl go out there."
"Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?"
"Yeah." Sam spat out. Dean stopped checking one of the guns to look at him.
"Her brother's missing, Sam. 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." Dean closed the duffel and picked it up.
"Finding Dad's not enough?" Sam huffed, slamming down the weapons box and then the trunk."Now we gotta babysit another girl too?" Dean gave Sam a stare that felt like steel.
"What?"
"Nothing." Dean threw the duffel bag at Sam and started walking off in the direction of the motel. Sam stood there, watching.
XxXxXxXxX
The next day, they pulled up to the forest and encountered Haley, her guide Roy, and her little brother Ben. After making arrangements to go into the forest together, Haley noticed that no one in the trio was dressed appropriately, commenting on Dean's biker boots and jeans, and Connie's long nails and jewellery. After a brief dick measuring contest with Roy, they headed out.
As they were hiking through the forest, Roy was in the lead, closely followed by Dean, then Haley, Ben, and Sam and Connie bringing up the rear. Roy and Dean were too far ahead of Connie to hear what they were saying, but she could imagine the sort of talk they were engaged in.
When suddenly, Roy grabbed Dean, stopping him from moving forward. He then grabbed a stick and stuck it in the ground. Wham! Dean had almost stepped on a bear trap.
"We are so busted." Connie whispered to Sam after they passed by Dean and an annoyed Haley who started questioning Dean, pointing out the discrepancies in their story and asking who they were.
"Sam and I are brothers, Connie is Sammy's friend, and we're looking for our father." Dean explained. "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?"
"I'm telling you now. 'sides, it's probably the most honest I've ever been with a woman. ...ever. So we okay?" There was a pause where Haley weighed his words.
"Yeah, okay." She finally said.
They started walking towards where the others had gone.
"And what do you mean I didn't pack provisions?" Dean obnoxiously pulled out a big bag of peanut M and stuck his hand in the bag as he hiked on. Haley waited for a moment, then followed after him.
XxXxXxXxX
They had finally reached Tommy's camping site. The tents were shredded open and bloody. Roy assured them that it had been a grizzly. Haley took off her backpack rummaging through the campsite and started calling for her brother but Sam shushed her, telling her that something might still be around. When suddenly Dean calls for his brother.
Dean had found tracks where the bodies had been dragged from the campsite. They led nowhere, they just vanished. With this information the boys determined that it was not a skinwalker or black dog. They went back to the others and Dean comforted Haley, telling her that Tommy might still be alive. Abruptly they started hearing a male voice calling for help. All of the group went searching, but there was nobody around. And when they returned to the campsite, all of their supplies were missing.
"What the hell is going on?" Haley asked.
"It's smart," Sam explained, "it wants to cut us off so we can't call for help."
Roy scoffed. "You mean someone, some nutjob out there just stole all our gear."
A realisation hit Sam and he grabbed Dean to have a private chat, Connie stared after them. Sam asked for their father's journal where he had written everything he knew about monsters and flipped through it. He pointed to the Wendigo entry.
"Oh come on," Dean said, "Wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or, or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west."
"Think about it, Dean, the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice."
Dean considered it for a second. "Great." He took out his pistol and gestured with it. "Well then this is useless."
Sam gave back the journal to Dean and told him that they needed to get those people to safety.
Back at the campsite, Sam addressed the group.
"All right, listen up, it's time to go. Things have gotten...more complicated."
"Kid, don't worry. Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it." Roy said, cockily.
"It's not me I'm worried about." Sam said. "If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave. Now." He insisted.
"One, you're talking nonsense." Roy got right in Sam's face. "Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders."
"Relax." Dean pleaded.
"We never should have let you come out here in the first place, all right? I'm trying to protect you."
"You protect me?" Roy scoffed. "I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night."
"Yeah? 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 barked out a laugh incredulously.
"You know you're crazy, right?" Roy mocked.
"Yeah? You ever hunt a wen—" Dean pushed Sam, interrupting him, and told him to chill out.
"Stop. Stop it. Everybody just stop." Haley pleaded. "Look. Tommy might still be alive. And I'm not leaving here without him." A long pause followed Haley's declaration.
"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." Dean finally said.
"How?"
XxXxXxXxX
By the time the sun went down, the group had built a campfire, and Dean started drawing something in the dirt around the campsite while Haley poked at the fire. She looked at him and asked what the symbols were.
"They're Anasazi symbols, for protection." Connie answered from where she was also observing Dean next to Haley. He gave her a once over.
"The wendigo can't cross over them." He added, at that Roy barked out a cocky laugh.
"Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy." Dean commented and headed out to sit next to Sam, at the edge of the campfire.
"You wanna tell me what's going on in that freaky head of yours?" Dean asked. Sam immediately tried to say that he was fine, but his older brother was having none of it.
"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?" There was a long pause.
"Dad's not here," Sam said angrily, "I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sign, right?" He almost pleaded.
"Yeah, you're probably right." Dean conceded. "Tell you the truth, I don't think Dad's ever been to Lost Creek."
"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?"
"This is why." Dean came around to Sam's front and took out their father's journal."This book." He gestured to it. "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 in distress. "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 I intend to do it." Dean affirmed.
"Dean...no." He shook his head. "I gotta find Dad. I gotta find Jessica's killer. It's the only thing I can think about."
"Okay, all right, Sam, we'll find them, I promise. 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, then up.
"How do you do it? How does Dad do it?"
Dean turned to look at Haley and Ben, who were being distracted by Connie as she was telling them a story that drew small wary smiles from them.
"Well for one, them."
Sam looked over at the group by the campfire, Connie was now holding both Haley and Ben's hands and finished saying something that managed to startle a small giggle out of Haley.
"I mean, I figure our family's so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable." Dean then paused. "I'll tell you what else helps." Sam looked at his older brother."Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can."
Sam finally smiled. A twig snapped loudly, and they started hearing calls for help once again. The brothers ran back to the others. Dean readied his gun and Sam shined his flashlight about.
"He's trying to draw us out. Just stay cool, stay put." Dean ordered.
"Inside the magic circle?" Roy side eyed dean.
The wendigo once again called out for help and then it started growling. Roy admitted that it wasn't a grizzly and pointed his gun at the sound. Something rushed past them and Haley let out a shriek.
"It's here." Sam said.
Roy shot at the rustling, then again. After realising that he had hit it, Roy went to see what it was despite Sam and Dean warming him not to. Sam and Dean ran after Roy, and Connie stayed behind with Haley and Ben.
"It's over here! It's in the tree!" Roy said. Roy had disappeared.
XxXxXxXxX
The next day, after spending an unrestful night, Sam and Connie were quietly chatting close to the tree line, Haley, Ben and Dean were among the tents.
"How did you guys get into hunting anyways?" asked Connie.
"It runs in the family" responded Sam. "What about you? How did you get into witchcraft?"
"It also runs in the family," admitted Connie with a small grin,"although I'm a born witch."
"Born?"
"Yeah, there's three types of witches. Those born into the powers, those who study and well, those that make deals with devils." Explained Connie.
"All these years hunting… you'd think I'd know that."
"It's a trade secret," said Connie. "And don't tell any witch this, but my coven and I don't really like the ones who make deals. We find it distasteful and the selling your soul is so not worthy."
"Coven?" Sam asked after a moment considering her words.
"Yeah, my mom, aunt, grandma and I are part of one. I miss them a lot."
"How come you aren't with them."
"I got a feeling that I should move to California when I was choosing colleges."
"The same one that made you come with us?"
Connie considered telling Sam that she had felt drawn to him the moment that she had met him. But decided otherwise, so she simply said,"Yeah."
The silence that followed was not uncomfortable, but since their conversation was pretty much over, with a tilt of his head in the direction of the others, Sam and Connie headed towards them.
"Hey." Sam said as they reached them. "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," said Dean emphatically.
Sam then showed the wendigo page of John's journal to Haley, Ben and Connie.
"'Wendigo' is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours'." He explained.
Dean continued, "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?" asked Haley.
"I know this," said Connie. "It happens when someone in a harsh winter becomes desperate and consumes a member of their tribe or camp." The brothers nodded.
"Like the Donner Party." commented Ben.
"Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality." Sam continued with the explanation.
"If you eat enough of it, over years, you become this less than human thing. You're always hungry." said Dean.
"So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" Queried Haley.
"You're not gonna like it." Replied dean, sharing a knowing glance with Sam.
"Tell me." Demanded Haley.
"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," Dean hesitated at this part, "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?" asked Haley.
"Well, guns are useless, so are knives." Dean said. "Basically…" he held up a can of lighter fluid, a beer bottle, and a piece of a white cloth he had picked up from the campsite."We gotta torch the sucker."
Later that same day, Dean led them through the woods, ready with a molotov cocktail in his hand, Haley was behind him, followed by Ben, Connie and finally Sam. They passed through trees marked with claws and blood.
Sam caught up to Dean and said, "You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow." Suddenly they heard growling, Sam and Dean whipped around and they all heard the sound of rustling trees.
Haley was standing underneath a tree, and blood started dripping on her shirt. When she noticed, she looked up, then leapt out of the way of Roy's corpse that fell right where she had been standing. Dean examined his body and concluded that his neck had been broken. They heard more growling and started running away from the wendigo.
Ben tripped on a root and Connie tripped on him, since she had been right behind him. Sam hurried back to help them up, dividing the group. Ahead of them, Dean and Haley were stopped short, the wendigo standing before them. Haley let out a scream.
XxXxXxXxX
The trio of younger siblings stopped running and they ran into Dean's broken molotov cocktail, evidence that Dean and Haley had been taken.
The trio kept walking for a while, when Ben interrupted the silence. "If it keeps its victims alive, why would it kill Roy?"
"Honestly? I think because Roy shot at it, pissed it off." Sam simply said.
Ben then found a trail of peanut M and picked one up.
"They went this way." Sam and Connie caught up to Ben, who handed the M to him. Sam let out a laugh.
"It's better than breadcrumbs," said Sam.
"Since Dean is Hansel, does this make you Gretel?" teased Connie.
XxXxXxXxX
Sam, Connie and Ben followed the trail. They came to a mine entrance marked with signs that warned them of danger inside it.
Inside the mine, Sam led them with his flashlight, when they heard growling. Sam quickly turned his flashlight off and pushed the other two against the wall, putting his hand over Ben's mouth so he wouldn't scream. Connie had a death grip on his jacket. The wendigo came close to finding them but headed towards another tunnel at the last minute. They continued their exploration of the mine, the floorboards underneath their feet creaked and they fell through the floor, they fortunately fell from a small height into a pile of bones. Ben spotted a pile of skulls and leapt backwards at the sight. Connie was surprised at the amount but was not startled, since human bones were unfortunately a common spell component, so she had gotten used to the sight of them.
XxXxXxXxX
"Hey, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay." Sam comforted Ben.
Sam and Ben looked up to see their siblings hanging by their wrists from the ceiling, Sam and Connie ran to Dean, and Ben to Haley. Sam grabbed Dean and shook him to wake him up. The older Winchester brother opened his eyes. Sam asked if he was okay and Dean groaned but said that he was fine. Sam cut Dean down and held him up with Connie's help, while Ben took care of Haley. They helped them over to an empty spot on the floor and got them to sit down.
After checking that they were alright, Connie looked up and spotted Tom, also hanging by his wrists. She let Haley know, who started crying and approached her brother. She touched his cheek, saying his name, which made his head jerk up. She frantically asked Sam to cut him down and he did.
XxXxXxXxX
Meanwhile, Dean and Connie were looking at the stolen supplies that were piled in the corner. Dean picked up flare guns.
"Check it out." Dean called out to his brother.
"Flare guns. Those'll work." Sam grinned.
Dean laughed and twirled the guns.
Soon, they headed down a tunnel. Sam and Dean in the lead with the flare guns, Connie right behind them, and Haley and Ben supporting Tom.
They were slowly heading to the way out when they heard growling.
"Looks like someone's home for supper." Quipped dean.
"It's too fast and we're in its home territory. We'll never outrun it." Connie said.
Dean looked back at the others. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" He asked Sam.
"Yeah, I think so."
"All right, listen to me. Stay with Sam. He's gonna get you out of here."
"What are you gonna do?" Haley asked.
Dean winked and started walking and yelling. "Chow time, you freaky bastard! Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby, I taste good."
Sam waited until Dean was a safe distance away where his voice faded out and led the group down the tunnel.
XxXxXxXxX
They had been walking rapidly for a small while when they heard growling once again, the wendigo had found them. Sam pointed the gun at it and told the Collins siblings and Connie to get out of there. The Collinses did but Connie stayed.
"If you're staying I am too," she said. Sam briefly considered her words, but there was no time to argue. He nodded and readied his gun ready to shoot. They turned on a corridor and heard growling, they whipped around and the wendigo was right in their faces, Sam fired a shot and missed; the wendigo had dodged and gotten out of the way. Sam and Connie started running after the Collinses. They reached them before too long and hurried along the tunnel, the end of which they quickly reached, the wendigo hot on their trail.
"Get behind me." Sam said. He was tall and broad enough that the Collinses and Connie were able to hide behind him. However, Connie had other plans, she had a spell that could at least slow it down. She stepped out from behind Sam, her normally blue eyes, glowing purple.
"Wait! I've got this! Manete!" Oh this was hard, she had never done it outside of stopping a ball or roughhousing with her cousins. And never without a hexbag. Connie's hands were trembling and she could start to taste the blood that was coming out of her nose. Just when she was at the end of her strength, she sensed that Dean was coming up behind the wendigo, gave a sigh of relief, and slumped against Sam's warm arms.
"Hey!" Dean called the attention of the wendigo, who turned to look at him. Dean shot it in the stomach. The flare went off and the wendigo went up in flames.
"Not bad, huh?" Dean asked his brother and Sam grinned, still holding Connie.
XxXxXxXxX
They traversed the forest, back to the ranger's station, Haley and Ben still supporting Tom, and Sam holding Connie in his arms, since she was still unconscious. By the time they had reached the ranger's station she had woken up but was still groggy.
Dean and Haley were checked by the paramedics first. Then Connie who told them she had hit her head, but felt alright, just tired. The ambulance was loading Tom up to go to a hospital and Ben was being interviewed by the police, Sam behind him. Ben lied to them, telling them it was a giant grizzly. Haley thanked Dean with a kiss on the cheek and a wish for him and Sam to find their father. She, along with Ben, climbed up the ambulance to ride with Tom.
The Winchesters and Connie sat on the hood of the impala, watching the ambulance drive off.
"You alright princess," asked Dean.
"Yeah," there was a pause, "but what's with the princess?" Connie raised an eyebrow.
"It's because after that badass stunt you pulled you fainted and Sammy had to carry you like one." Dean teased and Connie blushed, the red coming up to her ears, which were hidden behind her fair hair.
"Guys, I used to like camping, " she said abruptly, rapidly changing the subject.
"I hate it," said Dean.
"Me too," added Sam.
"Sam, you know we're gonna find Dad, right?" said Dean, after a short silence.
"Yeah, I know. But in the meantime? I'm driving." Sam said. Dean tossed Sam the keys. Sam and Dean got in the car, Connie a step behind them, they all slammed their doors almost in sync.