Wasted

We had been walking for a while. The sun was shining brighter now through the trees. I looked up, squinting, wondering where we were. Dean was walking with Haley again and I did everything that I could to block my jealousy. Sam was walking closely behind Roy and I was with Ben. He’s a quiet kid, but when I got him to talk I saw what a cool guy he was. Then Roy addressed all of us.

“This is it.” He said, boldly. “Blackwater Ridge.” Sam and I walked past Roy to look around.

“What coordinates are we at?” Sam asked him. Roy pulled out his GPS and checked it.

“Thirty-five minus one-eleven.”

Dean came over to us and spoke lowly. “Do you hear that?”

“It’s so quiet.” I told him.

“Not even crickets.” Sam added. Roy ignored us gathering on our own. He started to wander off.

“You shouldn’t go off there by yourself.” I told him, warning.

“That’s sweet.” Roy cooed back. “Don’t worry about me, sweetheart.” I turned away from him, just in time for him to bring our attention to his gun. I rolled my eyes.

“I don’t think that’ll help him.” I admitted to my friends.” That might just make it angry.” Dean nodded, agreeing with me. We all turned back to face Haley and Ben, seeing them catch up to us.

“Alright, everybody stays together.” Dean took the lead of the five of us. Roy was still off on his own. I was scared for him. Especially since we hadn’t figured out what this thing is yet. We walked for another half hour before I sat down on a large rock. The other four were looking closely, trying to find clues.

“Haley!” We heard Roy shout. “Over here!” I pushed myself off the rock and ran with Haley to find him. She and I came to a clearing and were quickly joined by the others.

“Oh, my God.” Haley and I gasped at the same time at the sight before us. There were tents torn open. Blood splattered everywhere. Supplies scattered throughout the circular clearing.

“Looks like a grizzly.” Roy pointed out, standing amongst the mess. All of us looked around analyzing the mess.

“Tommy?” Haley called quietly. She took off her backpack and joined Roy on the campsite and looked around. “Tommy?” She called louder. I followed her, trying to shush her. “Tommy!” She called, even louder.

“Haley.” I said, getting her attention. “We have to keep very quiet.” She turned to face me.

“What?” she asked, “Why?”

“There might still be something out there. We don’t want to lead it here.” I said, warning her. She nodded in response.

“McKenly. Sam.” Dean called. I turned my head to look at him and he waved us over. Sam and I approached Dean and crouched next to him. “The bodies were dragged from their campsite.”

“Their bodies, Dean.” I argued. “We don’t know they’re dead yet.”

Dean glared at me before speaking again. “Okay, their bodies.” I smiled at his change. “Anyway. Here,” He pointed to the ground, “the tracks just vanish.”

“That’s weird,” I said, as we all stood up. Sam and Dean nodded, agreeing.

“I’ll tell you what.” Dean started. “That’s no skinwalker or black dog.” He walked passed me and Sam to join Haley who was holding a cell phone and looking worried.

Sam startled me when he spoke. “So what exactly happened last night?” I rolled my eyes, ignoring him and continued to watch Haley and Dean. “Oh, come on, Ken. I go away for twenty minutes with you ready to rip his throat out. I came back and it’s like nothing ever happened with you two.”

I shook my head and opened my mouth to respond, but we heard a scream.

“Help! Help me!” They screamed. Roy instantly ran to go to aid who screamed. We followed him, running. “Help! Somebody! Please!” it shouted again. We didn’t find anyone. I stood in one place and turned slowly looking out of the forest in each direction. Haley joined me.

“It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn’t it?” She asked me. I nodded and looked around again. I turned my head quickly, thinking I say moment.

“McKenly?” Dean questioned noticing my sudden alertness.

“We need to get out of here.” I said, my voice shaking, slightly. Dean came over to me and grabbed my elbow, gently.

“Everybody back to camp,” Sam ordered. Dean pulled me along when I didn’t move. Eventually, I followed willingly. When we returned to Tommy’s campsite, we noticed that all of or stuff was missing.

“Our packs!” Haley shouted, exasperated.

“So much for my GPS and satellite phone.” Roy said.

“What the hell is going on?” Haley asked us. I couldn’t answer. I was still trying to figure out what I saw, going through my list of the supernatural in my head.

“It’s smart.” Sam told her. “It wants to cut us off so we can’t call for help.”

“You mean someone.” Roy pointed out. “Some nutjob out there just stole all our gear.”

Sam came over to me and Dean. “I need to talk to you.” He said to us. “In private.” Dean started to pull me along with him to talk to Sam. We went to the edge of the clearing and sat down on a couple rocks.

“Let me see Dad’s journal.” Sam asked his brother. Dean reached inside his jacket to take it out of the pocket and hand it to Sam. Sam opened it and began to search for a particular page. “Alright. Check that out.” Sam handed the book to Dean, pointing to a drawing.

“Oh come on, wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or – or northern Michigan. I’ve never heard of one of this far out west.” Dean said, rolling his eyes, and pushing the idea away. He closed the journal and put it back in his jacket.

“No, it makes sense.” I told him. “Think about it, Dean. The claws, the speed, the way it can mimic a human voice. And I saw it. It was fast but I caught just a glimpse of it and it looked kinda like that.”

Dean thought for a moment and sighed when it clicked. “Great.” He took out his gun. “Well, that means that this is useless.” I nodded, looking back to the group.

“We gotta let them know.” Sam said.

“No. We gotta get them safe.” I corrected. We went back to join the others.

Sam spoke in front of all of them. “Alright, listen up. It’s time to go. Things have gotten…more complicated.”

“What?” Haley said, turning to look at me. I nodded.

“Kid, don’t worry.” Roy started. “Whatever’s out there, I think I can handle it.”

“It’s not me that I’m worried about.” Sam argued. “If you shoot this thing, you’re just gonna make it mad. We have to leave. Now.”

“One: you’re talking nonsense.” Roy showed up one finger and added another. “Two: you’re in no position to give anybody orders.”

“Relax.” Dean added into the conversation. Things were getting heated.

“We never should have let you come out here with us in the first place, alright?” Sam shouted. “I’m trying to protect you.”

Roy stepped forward into Sam’s face. “You protect me? I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night.”

“Yeah?” Sam questioned, sarcastically. “It’s a damn near perfect hunter. It’s smarter than you, and it’s gonn hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here.”

“Sam!” I said, not believing what he was saying.

Roy laughed. “You know you’re crazy, right?”

“Yeah?” Sam yelled again, getting further into Roy’s face. I could see that things were heading down a more dangerous path, so I signaled to Dean to intervene. “You ever hunt a wen–” Dean went up to push Sam away from Roy.

“Chill out!” yelled to the two of them.

“Stop!” Haley shouted. “Stop it. Everybody just stop. Look. Tommy might still be alive. And I’m not leaving here without him.”

There was a pause until I stepped forward. “It’s getting late.” I said. “What is out there, it’s a good hunter in the day. But it’s an unbelievable hunter at night. We won’t beat it, not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves.”

“How?” Haley asked.

I smiled to her. “Now, that’s the fun part.” Dean handed me his father’s journal and I opened up to the page with the wendigo on it. While the group built a fire while Dean, Haley and I walked around the campsite drawing different symbols in the dirt. I held the book up for Dean so he could copy the symbol exactly.

“One more time, that’s…”

“An Anasazi symbol. It’s for protection. The wendigo can’t cross over them.” I told her. Roy laughed, throwing his gun over his shoulder.

Dean stood up from the ground. “Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy.” He said to Roy and then turned to me. “I’m gonna go talk to him.” I nodded watching him go over to Sam.

*3rd Person POV*

Dean walked over to his brother. Sam was sitting at the edge of the campsite. “You wanna tell me what’s going on in that freaky head of yours?” Dean asked.

“Dean–”

“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 pause before Sam spoke. “Dad’s not here.” He said. Dean nodded. “I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message or a sign, right?”

Dean agreed. “You’re probably right. Tell you the truth. I don’t think Dad’s ever been to Lost Creek.”

“Then we should get these people back to town and hit the road. We got to find Dad. I mean, why are we still even here?”

Dean pulled out his Dad’s journal and held it up to his brother. “This is why. This book. This is Dad’s single most valuable possession. Everything that 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. “The family business? How do you expect to continue with the family business without Ken?”

Dean looked away. “Do you think I asked her to leave? I don’t want her to.”

“So tell her!” Sam told him.

“I did. But we talked about it.” Dean sighed. “She thinks it’s best if she goes. Just for a while.”

“And what do you think?”

“I – I don’t know. But the way I see it, Dad is giving us a job to do, and I intend to do it. With or without McKenly.”

“Well I think that we should find Dad. With McKenly. I gotta find Jessica’s killer. It’s the only thing I can think about.”

“Okay. We’ll try to get her to stay.” Dean bargained. Sam gave him a hard stare. “Alright, I’ll try to get her to stay. And we’ll find them. I promise. But you have to do something for me. You’ve got to prepare yourself. I mean, this search could take a while. All that anger…” Dean thought for a second. “You can’t keep it burning over the long haul. It’s gonna kill you. You gotta have patience, man.”

Sam looked up and then back to Dean. “How do you do it? How do Dad and McKenly live this like this?”

“Well, for one, them.” Dean looked over to see Haley, Ben and McKenly sitting around the fire. He looked over more specifically at McKenly.

“You mean for Ken?” Sam asked. Dean quickly turned back to glare at Sam. Dean shook his head.

“I mean, I figure that our family is so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. It makes things a little bit more bearable.” He paused. “I’ll tell you what else helps.” Sam looked to Dean. “Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can.”

*McKenly’s POV*

“Do you really think that we should get out of here?” Ben asked me. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I think it’s not safe for you guys. I think that you don’t know enough about what is out there to protect yourselves.” I told him. My head quickly turned when I heard a twig snap. I looked out to the woods but didn’t see anything. “Sam. Dean.” I whispered. The two of them came over to the fire. “I heard something.” They looked around.

“Help me!” We heard. I assumed it was the Wendigo. “Please!” Dean readied his gun and stood, protectively in front of me, Haley, and Ben. “Help!” Sam moved his flashlight around as the Wendigo screamed.

“He’s trying to draw us out.” Dean said. “Just stay cool, stay put.”

“Inside the magic circle?” Roy mocked.

“Help! Help me!” It growled.

Roy pointed his gun towards the sound. “Okay, that’s no grizzly.” He said.

I turned back to Haley and Ben. “You guys will be fine. We won’t let anything happen to you.” Just then, it felt like a gust of wind as we assumed it rushed passed us. Haley screamed.

“It’s here.” Sam said. Roy shot out into the woods.

“Roy!” I screamed. He was across the campsite “Don’t do that!”

Of course, he ignored my advice and shot to the trees again. He let a shot off and then there was a whine. “I hit it!” He said, with a winning smile on his face.

“Oh, no.” I turned to Dean. “That’s not a good thing.” We both turned quickly back to Roy. He was heading away from the campsite to see what he hit.

“Roy, no!” Dean shouted. “Roy! Get back here!” When he noticed that he wasn’t coming back her cursed under his breath. “Damn it.” He turned to me, Haley, and Ben and pointed to us. “Don’t move.”

I nodded to Dean before he ran off in search of Roy with Sam. I had my hand on my gun and Haley picked up a branch and held it in the fire, burning it on one end for a weapon. I looked at the fire, thinking that fire was probably a better idea. I looked back at Haley and Ben. “Don’t worry. Remember we’re safe.” I reassured them. “They’ll be back soon.” I turned away from them. “I hope.” I said to myself, feeling the worry in my own facial expression.

“It’s over here!” We head the creature yell. “It’s in the tree!”

My breathing was starting to get heavy and I was worrying. It had been almost ten minutes since Dean and Sam had run off. I still stood with my gun cocked and ready for it. Granted the gunshot would only make it angry, at least it would come after me first while Haley and Ben had time to get away. I started to hear some rustling in the bushes opposite of where Sam and Dean left. I turned to face them, lifting up my gun, aiming it towards the movement. I had my finger on the trigger and just as I was about to squeeze it, Dean popped out of the bushes. I sighed in relief. “Oh, thank God.” I said, jogging over to him and jumping in his arms, throwing my arms around his neck and hugging him. He hesitated a moment before hugging me back, but when his arms wrapped around me I instantly felt safe and okay. I sighed again, pulling away, awkwardly. “I, uh…I’m glad you’re okay.” I told him. Dean nodded in response. Sam started to move passed us to talk to Haley and Ben.

“Awkward…” he whispered, slightly leaning towards us as he walked. I made sure to slap his arm as he walked by. I turned back to Dean and smiled awkwardly, rubbing at the back of my neck.

“Did you guys find Roy?”

Dean shook his head, “Honestly, I think the wendigo got to him.”

I nodded, “Then we’re good for the night. We should, uh, get some rest.” I said, pointing back towards the group. When he didn’t say anything I turned and started to walk towards them.

“Ken, wait.” Dean said, grabbing the crook of my elbow. I turned back around to face him. He looked from my face down to his hand on my elbow and pulled away. “I – well I wanted to say something to you. But now that it’s just me and you I don’t know what to say.”

I bit my lip. “This is what I don’t want.”

He looked at me confused. “What?”

“I’m trying to avoid this awkwardness. Now that you know exactly why I’m leaving, you’ll probably make it all weird.”

“Whoa, whoa. Zero weirdness here.” He said pointing to himself. “You’re the one who jumped on me when I came back.”

“That’s because I couldn’t bear the thought of you dead, ya goof.” I said, shaking my head at him. There was a minute of silence before Dean started to laugh. “What are you laughing at?” I asked him.

“Goof?” he laughed. “That’s the best you can come up with?” That made me smile and laugh just a little bit. He held out his hand to pull me into a hug. His arms squeezed tight around my shoulders and I took in his smell. Sure, it was dangerous, and I shouldn’t be letting myself do this for my sanity. But I wanted to. I was gonna miss him. “It’s not gonna be the same without you around.” I nodded into his chest.

“You’ve got Sam. Besides, I won’t be gone long.” I pulled away from him. His face was hard. I knew that he was going to have a hard time letting me go alone. “And I’ll be safe. I promise, I can handle myself.” I reassured him.

“I know you can.” His said, with a monotone. I half-smiled at him.

“I’ll be fine.”