Wendigo
If my memories from several years ago served me right then the hunt the boys had dragged me into was the one with a Wendigo. Those god awful ugly things. I still remembered hiding behind an avocado plushie when I saw that episode. God. I hated the first two seasons for all the creepy monsters. Even the leviathans were less scary.
I rubbed my eyes and sat up from my sleeping spot in the backseat of the Impala.
"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!" God, Dean was always so loud. Especially this early in the morning. "Bump up ahead!"
I grimaced as I held onto the front seat to keep myself from being flung to the floor.
"You did that intentionally!" Sam complained. "Maybe if you'd slowed down a little bit, we wouldn't be flung around so much."
"What's that? I can't hear you!" Dean yelled and turned up the volume on that awful rock station.
Goodness. I was glad to have Sammy back, but seriously? They were gonna argue the whole time? I ran my hands down my face and felt the scar around my stomach, a constant reminder that the events of the show had started.
"Oh, Bobby was calling to check up on you." Sam handed me my phone. "He sounded worried."
"Oh. I'll talk to him for a bit."
I held the phone up to my ear. "Hey Bobby."
"Hey kid. How's it going?"
"Pretty good."
"Tell Dean to turn that thing down." he sounded exasperated as always with the older Winchester brother's antics.
"Dean, turn it down." Sam and I both told him.
"Like hell I will!" He only turned the music up louder, adding in his off tune vocals.
Why couldn't he shut up for a second.
"WHY WERE YOU CALLING BOBBY?" I screamed. I held back a smirk when Dean flinched at the loud volume. He grumpily turned the music back down to an acceptable level.
"That got him good." Bobby sighed. "Stay away from trouble, you idjits."
"Yes sir." I said, and he hung up. He'd just wanted to make sure we were all alive.
"Are we almost there?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, around 30 minutes." Dean answered. "Blackwater Ridge, Lost Creek, Colorado." with my worst nightmares of a Wendigo in there.
But maybe I could save Roy the idiot, just like I saved Jessica the beautiful.
"Everything going okay with you and Jess?" Dean asked.
"Yeah." Sam had the goofiest smile on his face. "We're going strong. It's a… slightly open relationship though. If one of us finds someone else by the time I can go back to her… then we're willing to break it off."
"So friends with benefits." Dean hummed. "Except it's kind of for emotional needs and not sexual."
"So kind of like you guys said you were okay with having friends with benefits on the side of a long distance relationship?" I rephrased what Dean said.
"Uh. Yeah. Put it like that I guess."
Sam crossed his arms and leaned against the window with a huff. How adorable. And things were looking up.
20 minutes later, brought to you by Dean's lack of attention to speed limits, we were walking into the park rangers' office.
'Blackwater Ridge' was written in big black grizzly bear letters above the office door. Interesting.
"Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote." Sam wondered aloud as he walked to the 3D model of the national forest. "It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver, and gold mines all over the place."
Dean headed for the aisles of decorations. "Dude, check out the size of this freaking bear."
"They've got bear plushies." I knelt down to the box of stuffed animals. "And coyotes. And wolves." They even had different colour schemes for each different toy.
"And a dozen or more grizzlies, real grizzlies, in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure." Sam knelt down with me to examine the bears. "Is this a polar bear?"
"You guys aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" a man spoke up.
"Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper." Dean lied in response. "Recycle man,"
"Bull." the Ranger called out his bluff.
"You're friends with that Haley girl, right?"
"Yeah, we are," I walked up next to Dean.
"Sorry about that, Ranger–." Sam joined us and scanned the man for his badge. "Ranger Wilkinson."
"Well I will tell you exactly what we told her." The Ranger glared. "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?"
"I suppose not." I looked down at my feet, feigning sadness. "It's just that– Haley's been so upset about the whole thing."
The Ranger's voice softened. "You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine."
"We'll tell her that." Dean smiled and nodded. "She's quite a pistol, isn't she?"
The Ranger rolled his eyes. "That's 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." Dean straight up lied with a smile.
The Ranger glanced at the three of us before skeptically turning around to go into his office. "Wait here,"
"Why are we even going to look for this woman?" Sam complained. "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 paused in front of the Impala. "I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?"
"What?" Sam looked dumbfounded.
I settled into the backseat, letting the brothers continue their fight.
"Since when are you all shoot first, ask questions later, anyway?"
"Since now." Sam got into the car and slammed the door shut.
"Really?" Dean too got in.
The 15 minute car ride to Haley's house was silent. Man, it was awkward.
"This the place?" Dean asked.
"Yep," I checked the address one more time. "This is it."
"Okay, here goes." Sam squared his shoulders, put on his best polite smile and rang the doorbell.
"You must be Haley Collins." Dean pretty much shoved Sam to the side. Sam threw him a glare. "I'm Dean, this is Sam, and that's Sharon. We're, uh, we're rangers with the Park Service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. He wanted us to ask a few questions about your brother Tommy."
"Lemme see some ID." Haley said quietly from behind the door.
Dean flashed his fake ID. Haley analysed it for a moment, decided it was legit and opened the door completely. "Come on in."
"Thank you," I said as she closed the door behind me. Man, she was taller than me even in her bare feet and with me in my platform shoes.
"That yours?" Haley said, referring to the Impala.
"Yeah," Dean grinned proudly.
"Nice car." Haley gave a small smile. Man, was she flirting with him? Did no one ever see the matching silver rings on our left ring fingers?
"So if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?" Sam started questioning.
"He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos-we haven't heard anything in over three days now." Haley wrung her wrists. She was clearly distressed. I could empathise. I couldn't even imagine having my brother missing for days. It had been distressing enough that one time he ran away from home for 30 minutes for some dumb reason I can't even remember anymore.
"Well, maybe he can't get cell reception." Sam offered.
"He's got a satellite phone, too." Haley pointed out.
"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean leaned over the other brother's shoulder, peeking at the videos playing over and over again. The brother was clearly trying not to cry.
"He wouldn't do that." the brother choked out.
"He's right. Our parents are gone. It's just me, Tommy, and Ben. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other." Haley sniffled.
Poor thing. "Hey," I made her look at me. "It's gonna be okay. We're gonna find him. Alright? Everything's gonna be okay."
She nodded weakly before breaking down into tears.
"Hey, uh, Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam asked gently.
Haley nodded her head towards Ben. "It's– it's on his computer."
"I'm looking at 'em right now." Dean turned up the volume on the current video. "Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge." Sam stood next to him, his eyes squinting as the video came to an end. "We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow."
"Well, we'll find your brother. We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing." Dean reassured the siblings.
Haley cleared her throat. "Then maybe I'll see you there."
"I'm not sure that's a really good idea." I held her hand.
"Look, I can't sit around here anymore." Haley insisted. "So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."
"Hey, do you mind forwarding these to me?" Sam asked, replaying the video once more.
"Sure." Haley nodded, then shepherded us out the door. "I'll see you guys tomorrow morning then."
"Yeah, see you then." I clasped Haley's hands in mine. "Hang in there."
She nodded. "Thanks."
"We're seriously at a bar again?" I groaned at Dean's choice of dinner place. "We can't just sit down at some legit diner or something established for food and not drinks?"
"What can I say sweetheart, this is where the fun happens." Dean lazily draped an arm over my chair and went to sipping his glass of whiskey.
"I should have picked up a shift." I sighed. "But this place doesn't look like it gets crowded at all. I doubt they need another bartender."
"They definitely don't need one with a fake license." Dean teased.
I shoved his calves with my boot. "Shut it. You treat me like your personal bartender all the time."
"Hey, you do mix them well."
"So if you two are done flirting." Sam cleared his throat. "Here, in Dad's journal–"
"We weren't flirting." I muttered.
"Right." Sam snorted. "Anyways. Here, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the Same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack."
Dean and I leaned in as Sam turned the newspaper clipping around.
'Grizzly Bear Attacks! Up to eight hikers vanish in Lost Creek Area. Hikers disappearing baffle authorities. Families continue search and rescue efforts in spite of disappointing…'
Sam then spun his laptop around. "And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936. Every 23 years, just like clockwork. So, look at this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out."
He hit play and then immediately paused it, letting the video proceed frame by frame. A shadow had passed by in just three frames.
"Do it again." Dean gestured.
Sam repeated it. "That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move."
"It moves horribly fast and I know that's no grizzly bear." I swirled the water in my glass. Was I seriously going to join them on a Wendigo hunt? For some reason vampires, werewolves, ghosts, wraiths, whatever didn't scare me, but these Wendigos were terrifying.
"Told you something weird was going on." Dean gloated.
"Yeah." Sam ignored Dean's mocking tone. Sam closed his laptop and then presented us with another news clipping. "Another thing. In 59, one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."
"Is there a name?" Dean asked.
"Already done." Sam smirked as he tossed a sheet with the address written down.
"Sorry Dean, Sammy wins this one." I teased.
"Traitor," Dean huffed.
Dean parked the car right outside the old man's home and the three of us climbed out.
"We're still Rangers?" I had to check.
"Yep," Dean pulled out his fake badge.
"I'll do the talking this time." Sam knocked on the door before Dean could protest. "Hello," he said when the door finally opened. "Mr. Shaw?" The old man nodded feebly. "We're Rangers from Blackwater Ridge. We were doing some cleaning and stumbled onto your file from 59, the grizzly attack. And we thought that the current grizzly attacks could have something to do with your attack. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?"
"Uh, uh. Sure," The old man stammered and let us in. He sat down in his rocking armchair. "Look Ranger, I don't know why you're asking me about this. It's a public record. I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a—"
"Grizzly? That's what attacked them?" Sam challenged.
The old man closed his eyes and nodded.
"What about all the other people that went missing this year? Same thing?"
"Hey now look man." Dean stepped forward. "If we knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it."
"I seriously doubt that." The old man scoffed. "Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make. You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did."
I knelt down to the old man's level and put on my best 'good innocent girl' smile. "Mr. Shaw. We're more open minded than you think. We just want to know what you saw. Just tell us like you saw it. We're not here to judge."
"Nothing." He trembled. "I saw nothing. It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it though. A roar. Like… no man or animal I ever heard."
"It came at night?" Sam raised an eyebrow. The old man nodded. "It got inside your tent?"
"Cabin. It got inside our cabin." The old man shook his head as his memories came flooding back. Poor guy. "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. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that?" The man looked at me. "I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screaming."
"My goodness." I sympathised.
"It killed them?" Dean asked.
"Dragged them off into the night." A single tear rolled down his cheek. I reached for the tissue box and handed him a tissue. He wiped his face before mumbling a thank you. "Why it left me alive… Been asking myself that ever since. Did leave me this though." He pulled the collar of his shirt down to reveal three angry slashes at his neck. If one didn't know better they would say it was a bear claw. "There's something evil in those woods." He whispered. "It was some sort of a demon."
"Well, thank you for your time." Sam shook his hand.
"We'll see ourselves out." Dean headed for the door.
"Thank you." I patted the old man's hand and followed the brothers back to the car.
"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they just go through the walls."
"So it's probably something else, something corporeal." Sam wondered aloud.
"Corporeal?" Dean scoffed. "Excuse me professor."
"Sharon's the professor here." Sam grumbled. Dean looked at me and shook his head. I shrugged. "So what do you think?"
I wondered if I could say it was a wendigo now. It was only a matter of time until they figured it out. "It's a—" But of course it wouldn't come out. I threw my hands in defeat and flopped onto the motel bed. I kicked my boots off as Sam and Dean looked at me quizzically. "What? I can't say it!" How else could I explain it to them though? "Fireplace." There.
"What? It's scared of fireplaces and chimneys?" Dean huffed.
"Maybe it is." Sam took me seriously at least. "It could be weak to fire. Now what monster do we hunt that's scared of fire?" Bruh, they really didn't get it even now?
"Anyways. We should get our beauty sleep." Dean shook off his boots haphazardly next to the bed and stuffed his socks into them. His looked comically big next to my smaller boots that were almost half his size. "And I'll sleep with my beauty." Dean gave me his flirtiest smirk.
Cheeky little bastard. I rolled away from him, but made sure to wiggle back to his chest. He was always so warm. In these cold motel rooms with drafts blowing in through the cracks in the walls, he was like a personal space heater. His arms settled around my waist, his hands ducking under my nightgown to rub circles on my stomach.
"You two better be keeping things PG under there." I heard Sam mutter.
"Don't listen to him." Dean whispered. His hands started to rise up to my chest, but I quickly grabbed his hand. He whined but complied.
"I'm getting a different motel room next time." Sam loudly enough for us to hear.
"Sure Sammy," Dean mumbled.
Slowly but surely, we all fell asleep.
I shoved my feet into my boots and double tied my laces. I tucked them into each other until I was sure there was no way they were gonna give out. I watched Dean do the same. Sam just tied his boots with a simple knot and called it a day.
We piled into the car and Dean drove us to the edge of the national forest. Roy, Haley, and Ben were already there.
"You guys got room for three more?" Dean yelled as he handed me my backpack for the hunt. The shotgun rested heavily in my bag and the flamethrower hidden carefully under my jacket.
"Wait, you're coming with us?" Haley sounded surprised.
"Who're these guys?" Roy glared at us.
"Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue." Haley rolled her eyes.
That ungrateful wench. In reality she was getting none for the search and rescue. We were fake rangers.
And Roy seemed to have caught onto that pretty quick. "You're Rangers?"
"That's right." Dean smirked confidently.
"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?"
Sam ignored the question. He trudged ahead with determination. His only purpose was finding John. I could respect that.
"You wanted me to show up in a skirt instead?" I couldn't help but comment.
"I don't do shorts either, sweetheart." Dean cackled as he followed behind me.
"What? You think this is funny? It's dangerous back country out there. Her brother might be hurt."
"Safety in numbers Roy," I told him. "Sammy, wait up." I sped up a little to follow the taller Winchester.
"Those kids aren't leading this." Roy shoved past me and Sam to take the lead.
Sam just rolled his eyes. "You guys go on ahead. I'll bring up the rear."
Dean saluted in response and crossed to walk in front of me. I kept an eye on the brother and sister duo who were clinging onto their guns.
"Hey Roy," Dean suddenly spoke up. "You said you did a little hunting."
"Yeah, more than a little." was the snarky response.
"Uh-huh. What kind of furry critters do you hunt?"
"Mostly buck, sometimes bear."
"Tell me, uh, did Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?"
"Dean, trap." I chimed. He looked down just in time to dodge it.
"You didn't pack any provisions." Haley started walking next to me, barely managing to match my pace. "You guys are carrying a duffel bag and a school bag. You're not Rangers." She grabbed my arm. "Who the hell are you?"
"The three of us are family, and we're looking for our father. He might be here somewhere, we don't really know. So… I just figured that we were all in the same boat."" Dean answered for me.
"Why didn't you just say that from the start?"
"Would you have let three strangers into your home and just give them videos of your missing brother through email?" I questioned and she shut up real quick.
"And what do you even mean we didn't pack provisions." Dean said in mock offense. He pulled out a packet of M and Ms and tossed a handful into his mouth.
What a child he was. But so was I. I tilted the packet sideways enough so I could reach into it and popped a few in my own mouth. Mmm… delicious.
"This is it. Blackwater Ridge." Roy said as he paused to get his bearings.
"What coordinates are we at?" Sam finally spoke up after being silent the whole hike.
Roy showed him the satellite GPS. I was too lazy to actually read them so I just looked around with Dean. Sam joined us a minute later.
"You hear that?" Dean asked.
"Yeah. Not even crickets." Sam looked up in the trees.
"Something is scaring them." A wendigo to be precise.
"I'm gonna go look around." Roy grabbed his gun.
"Safety in numbers Roy!" I yelled.
"For young inexperienced ones like you maybe!" Roy pushed past us and took the lead once more.
"Idiot!" I felt my flamethrower under my jacket and ran after him. He was gonna get us both killed!
"All right, everybody stays together! Let's go." Dean yelled behind us and I felt better when I heard their footsteps behind us. At least I hoped it was them.
We reached Tommy's campsite before nightfall.
The tents had been torn apart and there was blood everywhere along with the supplies.
"Looks like a grizzly." Roy concluded. Incorrectly.
"Tommy!" Haley started yelling. "Tommy!"
"Shh!" Sam hissed.
"Why?!" Could this Haley girl get any stupider? I knew she was worried and I would be too if my brother went missing and left behind a bloody campsite but being dead wouldn't help either of us.
"Something might still be out there." Sam grabbed her shoulder and dragged her back to the group.
From the corner of my eye I caught Dean silently waving us over. "Sam." I touched his arm. "Dean wants us there."
Sam and I made our way over.
Dean was tapping the ground with a stick. "The bodies were dragged from the campsite. But here, the tracks just vanish. That's weird." Dean stretched his back. "I'll tell you what, that's no skinwalker or black dog."
"Um. Hello?" I waved my flamethrower in front of his face. How did they still not realise it was a wendigo?
"Help! Help!" Someone, or something, yelled. "Help! Somebody!"
"No." I grabbed Dean and Sam as they turned to run. "It's not a human cry!"
"What if it is. What if it's not playing how you expected it to?" Sam challenged. "You saved Jessica. That wasn't part of the script. Maybe this is different because of that. Butterfly effect, remember? What if this is Dad?"
Right. Maybe it was different this time.
I followed the brothers after the voice. But of course, there was nothing.
"It came from here, right?" Haley looked around frantically.
"Everybody back to camp." Sam turned around first, and we followed him back.
"Our packs!" Haley shrieked.
"So much for my satellite phone and GPS." Roy sighed.
"What the hell is going on?" Haley cried.
"It's smart. It wants to cut us off so we can't call for help."
"You mean someone, some nutjob out there just stole our gear."
"Still think it's just a grizzly?" I asked Roy. Sam had dragged Dean a few feet away along with their dad's journal. He must have figured it out. Good.
"This is useless." Dean unzipped the bag still on my back and dropped his pistol inside.
"Your thing. You carry it." I shrugged off my backpack and hung it on his arm.
He visibly cringed at it. "It has a bunny hanging from it!"
"His name is Button!"
"We need to get these people to safety." Sam brought us back to reality from our petty argument. "All right, listen up!" He said loudly. The three others joined us in a circle. "It's time to go. Things have gotten… more complicated."
"What?" Haley scoffed.
"Kid, don't worry. Whatever is out there, I think I can handle it." Roy's voice had gone soft. "I was once scared of hunting things in the dark—"
"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."
Roy got angry. "One, you're talking nonsense. Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders."
"Hey hey, relax." Dean stepped in between Sam and Roy.
"What're they talking about?" Haley asked me. "Are we really in danger?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "You might really wanna get out of here with Ben. Dean, Sam, and I, we're kind of hunters. We have experience with a shotgun and fighting things. You guys are just normal kids. You don't have to be dragged into this mess."
"But it's too late. It's too dark." This was the first time I'd heard Ben speak. But he was right. Night had fallen and we were essentially left without any source of light or map or gps or even cell reception to get back out of the dense forest.
"Look. I have a phone. It's cellular, not satellite." I rummaged in my backpack. Where was the burner phone when I wanted it? "But there could randomly be enough bars for you to call 911." I fished it out from my pocket where I usually kept my sunglasses and reading glasses.
Ben held it in his hands before shaking his head. "I'm not going back without Tommy."
His sister held him in a hug. "Me neither. We'll stay with you guys."
Meanwhile, things were getting heated between the three gruff men with too much testosterone.
"How about we stop fighting." I held Sam back from punching Roy. "It's already dark outside. We can't go back tonight even if we tried."
"She's right. 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.
So we lit a fire and huddled around it as Dean drew Anasazi symbols all around us.
"Ana-ana what again?" Haley asked.
"Anasazi symbols." I explained. "The wendigo can't cross over them."
Roy cackled.
"Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy." Dean yelled back. "You still have your flamethrower on you?"
"Never left it." I nodded to my bag that he had dropped right next to the campfire. "I have a couple more in there."
"You're the best." Dean grinned. I placed a hand on my mouth when he leaned a little too close, most definitely looking for a kiss.
"Not in front of so many people, Dean." I could feel a blush forming though. This gorgeous man wanted to kiss me after all. I could never get used to his type of PDA.
"So it's fine when no one else is looking huh?" He smirked. "I'm gonna go talk to Sammy. He… he doesn't look too happy right now."
I nodded. "Go ahead."
I caught Hakey and Ben staring at us with wide eyes. "You two aren't siblings? But you said you guys were— Oh."
God, ew, no, the incest allegations. "No no. I'm a part of their family through marriage." I showed off my wedding ring. "I was Sharon Maris before Sharon Winchester. I'm just helping Dean and Sam look for their dad. He and my guardian were pretty close."
"So… why are you guys helping us?" Ben asked. "You three look like you know a lot about hunting and these weird symbols too. You could have looked for your dad together."
"Well, the thing is. Our families are screwed. My parents and my brother are dead. John, Dean and Sam's dad, is missing. And the man who takes care of me is a workaholic, and a bit of an alcoholic. He's a good man though. He just… definitely has cirrhosis." I explained. "Anyways, what I mean is. Just because our families are screwed doesn't mean other ones have to be. The family business isn't just about hunting things, it's about saving people too."
A twig snapped out of nowhere. It was here. Wendigo.
I grabbed my gun and stepped close to Roy. This bastard would not be the death of us. But he wasn't leaving the Anasazi circle today. But. If he didn't get killed, then how would we find Tommy? I had no idea where that kid would be in this giant forest.
"Help me! Please!"
The brothers and I tensed up.
"Help!"
Sam waved his flashlight about.
"Stay put." I reminded Roy.
"What? In the magic circle?" he scoffed.
"Help! Help me!" and then the creature growled. It was an animal-like growl but it felt so human.
"Okay, that's no grizzly." Roy pointed his gun at the sound.
Haley and Ben were holding each other tight and whispering comforting words to one another. Until something rushed by and made them shriek.
"It's here." Sam reached for a flamethrower.
Something rustled in the bushes and Roy shot at it. "I got it! I shot something!" He cheered. I spotted his legs tensing to run.
"ROY! NO!" I grabbed him, but he was too strong. He easily wrestled out of my hold and ran for it.
"No, no, no!" Dean went after Roy.
"You three stay put!" Sam told us and went for Roy too.
"It's over here! It's in the tree!" The wendigo cried.
God, it was hard to stay put. I held Haley and Ben so that they wouldn't step over the circle.
"Roy!" I heard Dean yell, but it was confirmed from the tone of it. Roy was dead.
Morning rolled in, and Haley and Ben were still curled up with each other rolled in a thin blanket I had in my bag.
Roy hadn't survived. I couldn't save him. Of course I couldn't. I was just one tiny girl thrown into this whole mess by some stupid voice in my head. For all I knew I could be schizophrenic and drugged up and locked up in some psychiatric hospital with just my insane thoughts and hallucinations for over 8 years.
"You didn't sleep."
I jumped when Dean sat down next to me. "Yeah, wendigos scare me."
"No, it's more than that." Dean fixed me with a stare.
I couldn't meet his eyes. He knew I wasn't telling him everything. And honestly? I didn't know how to tell him everything either. "Sorry, Dean. I don't know how to talk about this."
"That's fine." He bumped my knees with his. "We can talk about it when you want."
"Yeah," But I was never going to tell him the dark thoughts in my head. That sometimes I wondered if I was even needed. The boys were obviously more than capable of taking care of themselves. It was just one or two of those people they could have saved if they had another person in the group or had better medical training. Anyone could fill that role. "Sam looks like he hasn't slept either."
"Yeah, well." Dean shrugged. "We did keep watch all night. In case that thing came back."
"Thanks for that." I turned around to see Haley standing in front of us. She sat down across from us and stared at the Anasazi symbols. "I can't believe it. I mean, these types of things, they aren't supposed to be real."
"Wish I could tell you different." Dean straightened up.
"How do we know it's not out there watching us?"
"We don't. But we're safe for now."
"Do these… pictures really keep them away?" Haley ran her fingers over one of the symbols.
"Try not to touch it. Any alteration to the symbols and we're dead meat." I reminded her. She snatched her hand away immediately. "But yeah, they work. I was skeptical too, but hey. We're still alive. And it hasn't tried to get any closer to us."
"How do you guys know all this stuff?"
"Kinda runs in the family." Dean answered after a short pause.
Haley looked at me. "And you knew that when you married him?"
I nodded. "Yeah,"
"So you married into all of this? Or did it run in the family too?"
"Uh. My family was killed by some creature several years ago. Might have been a wendigo. Or a werewolf. I don't really know. But a hunter saved me and I kind of ended up knowing one of their dad's friends and yeah. I kind of got thrown into the life." That was the outside story Bobby had created for me. Other than the Winchesters, not even the hunters knew what had really happened. Worked for me. The less people that knew I knew the future, the less chance of me getting kidnapped and tortured.
"Hey," Sam said as Ben started to stir. "Whoah, stay put. The wendigo is still here." He grabbed the still drowsy boy from accidentally stepping outside the symbolic circle. It took a few moments but Ben managed to rub the sleep from his eyes and sat down next to his sister.
Sam joined us in our makeshift human circle. "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 leaned over Sam's shoulder to look at what he was reading in John's journal.
"Me too," I chimed.
Haley and Ben nodded. "Us too." Haley said for both of them.
"Well, here." Sam turned around the journal towards the two. "'Wendigo' is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours'."
"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." Dean added.
I preferred the term Native American. Us Indians from India and the Natives from America misknown as Indians were not the same. I wanted to interject. People always thought I was Native American when I said I was Indian. There was nothing wrong with that of course. Native Americans were great. They had amazing jewellery designs. But getting mislabeled was not very pleasant. I doubted the other party liked it too.
"So, how's a man turn into one of those things?" Haley asked.
"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."
"Like the Donner Party?" Ben asked.
"Yeah," I answered.
The brothers continued.
"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."
"So if that's true, how can Tommy…" Haley's voice broke, "…still be alive?"
" You're not gonna like it." Dean glanced at me and Sam.
"It's her brother Dean. She needs to know what to expect." I held the girl's hand who gratefully squeezed back. Her other hand held onto Ben, both their knuckles almost turning white from the force.
Dean sighed. "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?" Haley looked around at our weapons.
"Flamethrowers." I showed her the one I had on my person. "Press here and we should be able to kill it."
"Just torch the sucker." Dean stood up and handed one each to Haley and Ben.
"We don't have enough for everybody." Ben said.
"That's fine." Sam presented us with a can of lighter fluid, a beer bottle, and a white cloth he'd picked up. "We'll make our own."
"We should start looking before it's nightfall and it gets stronger again." I grabbed my flamethrower and packed it neatly into my jacket. The others did the same.
"M and Ms? Seriously, Dean?" Sam rolled his eyes at the sight.
"What?" Dean shook the packet in my direction. I dipped my hand in and munched on a few. "We might get hungry." Little did he know, those M and Ms would save his life.
Sam and Dean took turns leading us through the forest as we tracked the claw marks and bloody prints.
The next time we took a break, Sam stared at the broken branches and bloody claw marks all around us. "You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow."
We all heard growling and rustling in the trees. Something dripped onto my shirt. Did a bird poop on me? I pulled on the fabric to examine what had happened. The wet spot was red. Blood.
"Is there a corpse above me?" I whispered. My heart was hammering in my chest. This was fear. I hadn't felt fear like this since I'd been trying to save Jessica.
"Shit. Roy." Dean tugged me out from under the corpse. The corpse dropped a second later.
"You okay? You got it?" Sam patted me down as he checked for anything wrong. I nodded. "Remember, breathe."
"I know." I took a deep breath and held it for three seconds before exhaling slowly.
"His neck's broke." Dean shook his head. The growling from around us grew louder. "Okay, run, run, run, run. Go, go, go!"
Dean and I ran in front. I could hear Haley, Ben, and Sam tracing our steps.
"Back to camp?" I yelled.
"Yeah–" Dean yelled. "Son of a bi–!" he stopped abruptly in his tracks. He held out an arm in front of me as the Wendigo appeared in sight.
It looked like slenderman. With its emaciated appearance and sunken eyes, it appeared more horrifying than the nightmares I sometimes got. It took slow calculated steps towards us.
"Other way!" Dean pulled on me. But I couldn't make my legs move.
Whoever said that the body had two reactions to danger be damned. Fight or flight? More like fight, flight, or freeze. And I was the kind that would freeze in the headlights. "Fuck." I was going to die. That was when I fainted.
"Sh-sharon!" someone was shaking me. My head throbbed, and my whole body ached. But mostly my wrists. It was like something was digging into them. I could barely feel my arms anymore.
"Here, knife."
Knife?
I was suddenly falling. Someone caught me. This someone was soft. A woman. Woman? I snapped my eyes open and looked around. Haley. The girl whose brother we were saving from the Wendigo.
"Was I caught by the Wendigo?" I looked around in the cold, wet, dark place. There were scraps of human hanging from the cave ceiling. Was this even a cave? It smelled like death.
"It's not here right now." Haley tugged me up.
I stumbled onto my feet. "I should have been saving you." I held her shoulder for a second while my feet stabilised. "Let's find Tommy."
The place was large. There were scraps on the ceiling and the floor. The brothers and Haley, Ben, and I split up into two groups. Ben kept his flashlight trained on the floor while Haley kept hers aimed up, trying to identify which one was her brother. The other kids that had been with him had been found by Sam and Dean, and they were most definitely beyond saving. I brought up the rear of the trio, ready to scream and run with the siblings if the Wendigo appeared again.
"Tommy," Haley suddenly stopped and started cutting away at the ropes holding the boy up. Chunks of flesh were missing from his legs, but he was still breathing. "Wake up Tommy!" she pleaded.
"Haley?" Tommy shot up straight, trembling in his sister's arms.
"We found the flamethrowers." Dean and Sam joined us. "Cell reception too." Dean handed me my phone.
"Didn't know Wendigos had family they needed to call." I checked the number of bars I had. Stable enough to make a 911 call.
"For all our sakes I hope they don't have a family dinner planned." Dean clapped me between the shoulders. "Let's roll."
Sam led us in the front. Haley and Ben supported Tommy as we went through the tunnels. Dean and I remained in the back, waving our flashlights around cautiously, hoping that the thing wouldn't show up again.
There was growling down the tunnel. "Someone's home for supper." Dean whispered. He looked at me, Sam, and then the siblings in between us. "Sam and Sharon are gonna get you guys out of here."
"What? But what about you?" Haley and I looked at him.
"You've got a brother to carry out." Dean pointed towards Tommy. "And you," he pointed to me. "You fainted the last time you saw that guy. So leave this to me."
"Dean–"
"No, get out of here, alright?"
"Do you even have a plan?"
"Sure I do." he smirked. He walked away from the group. "Chow time, you freaky bastard! Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby, I'm feeling good." his voice faded into the distance.
"Alright, come on." Sam hustled. "He'll be fine, Sharon. He's strong. You know that."
"I do."
"Alright then, come on."
We went as fast as we could with an injured person. But clearly we weren't fast enough, or Dean hadn't been able to fight off the wendigo or maybe the wendigo did have a family dinner planned, because there was growling right next to my ear.
"Sharon!" Sam yelled and a stream of fire erupted, separating the wendigo from me.
"Don't stop, keep going!" I pushed on the three siblings.
Sam held the creature back as we made our way down the tunnel. And then there was a shaft we had to climb out of. We could never do it fast enough with a wendigo hot on our tails. I was starting to get dizzy from the panic. If Sam could hold it off long enough then we could get the three out of here–
"Shit!" Sam yelled and pressed against us, hiding us behind him. "Ran out of fuel." he hissed.
"H-here's mine–" I passed the one in my hand to him.
He held it and pressed on the button. The stream of fire kept the wendigo far away from us so that it couldn't touch us. But it could just wait out until the fuel ran out, and then it was chow time.
Dean. Where was Dean? Had he become chowder too? Or was he still alive and waiting for the right time to strike?
"Hey!" Dean's voice finally echoed through the tunnel, and the Wendigo was set ablaze.
Haley clung onto me as the thing burned. And that was that. All that fear, just burned to a pile of ashes on the floor of an old tunnel.
"Not bad, huh?" Dean laughed, even out of breath. He was alive. We were alive. I was alive. But Roy was dead.
"That's when it circled the campsite. I mean, this grizzly must have weighed eight hundred, nine hundred pounds." I could vaguely hear Ben giving his false testimony to cover up the supernatural events of the past couple of days.
My own thoughts were louder. I had failed. I had failed in saving someone. I knew I couldn't save everybody. But still. Roy had been mean and stuff, but he was an overall good guy that had wanted to help out three siblings. I'd later learned how much Haley had paid Roy. It was barely a couple hundred bucks. It was a lot to the broken family of three kids with no real source of income, but truthfully that wouldn't have even covered the fees of a visitors tour of the national forest for one person.
"We couldn't find Dad." Sam sat down next to me on the edge of the sidewalk. "I would have said that this trip was a bust, but…" he looked down at his hands. "We saved a kid."
"At the price of another man."
"The other two would have died too if we hadn't been there." Dean sat down on my other side. "That's what was really bothering you huh? Not saving Roy?"
I nodded. My bootlaces had come undone. Dean leaned down to retie them. I watched his large hands expertly weave the laces with each other, and with each tug the boot fit snugger. "Tight enough?"
I nodded. The lump in my throat wouldn't let me thank him.
"You should buy sneakers." Sam tapped my other boot with his own boots.
"Other one." Dean motioned for my other foot.
"It's fine." I forced out.
"Don't want the other shoe to drop. C'mon."
I relented and lifted my foot up. He patted his thigh. "No,"
"Just let him." Sam chuckled. "He likes it."
"Psh," Dean scoffed. "I don't like being stepped on."
"Sure you don't Dean. Remember when you fell over in 11th grade and Sally accidentally stepped on your leg?"
"That– that was ten years ago!" Dean tried to defend himself.
"But you liked it." Sam laughed.
His laughter was contagious. I couldn't help but break a smile myself.
"She smiles." Dean gasped in exaggeration.
I plopped my boot on his thigh. "Then tie it." I turned around to see Sam smiling at the two of us. "Thanks Sammy. For everything. Especially down there."
"No thanks for me?" Dean pouted.
Maybe I could tease him a bit more. "You can get your thanks later." I dragged the tip of my boot down his leg.
"Separate motel room please." Sam grumbled.
Dean threw his head back and laughed.