Wasted

As it got later, we decided that at least one of the three of us would stay up just keeping watch. I took the first shift so the boys would get some sleep. Dean refused to sleep and insisted on staying up with me. Dean sat, leaning against a tree. We didn’t talk so I ended up laying with my head in his lap. He put a hand on the back of my neck, softly massaging it until I fell asleep. When I woke up Dean was sleeping against the tree looking very uncomfortable. I smiled at his willingness to sleep like that for me. I moved slowly, being careful not to wake him up. As soon as he felt the movement, though, he shot awake and grabbed my arm defensively.

“Dean!” I whispered. “It’s alright.” He looked around on red alert. He let out a breath realizing everything was okay and let go of my hand. “How’d you sleep?”

“Like crap.” He said, rubbing at his neck. I rolled my eyes. I moved to sit on a rock that was next to the tree and I grabbed his shoulders, pulling him in front of me. He questioned and stayed tense for a minute, before I started to massage his neck harder than he had done to me last night. Immediately, a soft groan omitted from his lips.

“Good?” I asked.

“Hell yeah.” He said. I massaged his neck for about five minutes, watching the rest of our group. Sam was leaning against a stump with his dad’s journal playing with the lanyard on it. Ben and Haley were around the dying fire. That is, until Haley got up and came over to me and Dean. I took my hands from his neck quickly. She looked confused.

“I don’t… I mean, these types of things, they aren’t supposed to be real.” She said, stumbling over her words. I felt bad. I hate when we have to tell people what is really out there.

“I wish I could tell you different.” Dean told her.

“How do we know it’s not out there watching us?”

“We don’t. But I’m pretty sure that we’re safe for now.” I answered this time.

“How do you know about this stuff?” Haley asked a second question. Dean looked to me and half smiled before turning back to Haley.

“Kinda runs in the family.” He said. I turned my head when I saw Sam move towards us.

“So we’ve got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch.” Sam said.

“Well, hell, you know I’m in.”

Dean looked to me and I looked to Sam who, with only a facial expression questioned whether I was with them or not. “Of course.” I answered. “I’m in.”

“Good.” Sam said, holding out his dad’s journal for us to look at. Haley waved Ben over so he could see, too. “”Wendigo” is a Cree Indian word. It means “evil that devours”.”

“They are hundreds of years old.” Dean added. “Each was once a man. Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter.”

Haley looked to each of us. “How’s a man turn into one of those things?” she asked.

I answered. “Well, it’s really strange actually. During some insanely harsh winter, a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help. Eventually he becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp.”

“Like the Donner Party.” Ben pointed out.

“Exactly.” I congratulated, smiling at how he was catching on. I glanced over at Dean and he did not seem to like the gesture.

“Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality.” Sam explained. I opened my mouth to continue explaining but Dean talked over me.

“If you eat enough of it, over years, you become this less than human thing. You’re always hungry.” He said, not looking over at me. I glared at him though since he decided just to talk over me.

“So if that’s true, how can Tommy still be alive?” Haley asked.

“You’re not gonna like it.” Dean said, glancing at Sam then me. Now he didn’t want to teach them about it. I rolled my eyes and looked to 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…” I tuned to Ben. “it keeps their victims alive. I guess, it’s storing bodies, so it can feed whenever it gets hungry. If Tommy is alive, he’s being kept somewhere dark, hidden and safe. Probably like a cave.”

“And that’s where we need to track it to.” Dean finished. I shook my head. It was like this kid had mood swings for whenever he wanted to help out.

“So how do we stop it?” Ben asked.

“That’s the tricky part.” I started. “Guns and knives are useless. Weapons like that will only make it more angry and vengeful.”

“So basically…” Dean held up a can of lighter fluid, a beer bottle and a scrap from a t-shirt. “we gotta torch the sucker.” He smirked at me and I just turned away from him. I walked around the campground checking the perimeter, making sure that the symbols hadn’t been messed up overnight. They were fine, and I knew it. I only needed an excuse to be away from Dean right now. I took a deep breath trying to collect myself. Dean was my family, but sometimes he’s so stupid and protective. I hated it. “McKenly!” Dean shouted. I turned to see him wave me over. “We’re moving out.”

I nodded to him as I followed behind the group. Dean had his Molotov cocktail in his hand. He was leading the group first followed by Haley and Ben, with Sam and I bringing up the rear. I didn’t talk. I just kept marching through the woods following the group, checking the ground for tracks. The trees and bushes were lined with claw marks and fresh blood. Later in the day, Dean got lazy and let Sam take over the lead. I still was the last in the line, but I didn’t care. Dean was talking with Haley and Ben was just hiking along with everyone else. I wanted to talk to Ben just to get back at Dean for ignoring me this whole time, but I decided against it. Sam was looking carefully through the trees and I knew that he was brewing up something in his mind.

“Dean.” He called. Dean caught up to him. Everyone stopped as they looked around.

“What is it?” Dean asked. Sam pointed out in the trees.

“You know, I was thinking… These claw prints, they’re so clear and distinct.”

I got where he was coming from and caught up to the two of them. “It’s almost like they were too easy to follow. Like they were put here purposefully.” Sam nodded, agreeing with me. A second later, we heard growling. The three of us whipped around in our spots as we heard the trees rustle. I looked to Haley and a drop of something dropped on her shirt. I followed it up from where it came from and she did, too. I nearly screamed when I saw it and my hand wrapped itself tightly around Dean’s forearm. Haley jumped out of the way just in time for the body to fall to the ground. I looked down at my hand and Dean’s arm. He pulled himself away from my grasp and went to check the body. It kind of hurt me that he just ripped himself away, but I tried not to let it affect me. I failed miserably. It did hurt me that he ripped away from me like that. I got lost in my own thoughts. The next thing I knew, Sam had wrapped his hand around my arm and was pulling me in another direction. I couldn’t see though. There was water in my eyes. Was I crying?

“Come on, I gotcha.” I heard Sam say. But I didn’t know if it was to me or to someone else. A loud growl brought me back to the real world. I heard it and immediately started to run on my own even a little faster than the group. Once we heard the growling stop, I slowed until I stood on a slight hill. I looked behind me to see only Sam and Ben.

“Sam?” He looked up at me as I took in short breaths. “Sam, where’s Dean?” He turned around in his spot and noticed that they weren’t there.

“I – I don’t know. He was behind us. With Haley.” He said, stumbling for words. “He was behind us.” I looked around, wide-eyed and in a panic. I started to run back towards the way we came but stopped when something shiny caught my eye. I bent down and picked it up. It was a piece of the glass Dean used for his fire bomb. I stood back up and showed Sam and Ben. I was shaking. Sam tried to take it from my hand so that I wouldn’t cut myself on it, but that only made me create a more firm grasp on it. I had ended up cutting myself but I didn’t seem to feel the pain. I tried to keep my cool for Ben but I couldn’t.

I took in a deep breath and yelled, “Dean!” At this point I didn’t care if the wendigo heard me. “Dean!” I screamed again, waiting for an answer this time. When there was no sound, Ben yelled for his sister and Sam yelled for Dean again. I turned in my spot hoping to see some kind of movement. I didn’t. I dropped the glass and didn’t bother tending to my hand. It would dry out in minutes.

“McKenly, we gotta fix your hand.” Sam told me. I shook my head and started to move forward following the path.

“I’m fine, Sam. We have to find Haley and Dean.”

“Mc –”

“I said I’m fine!” I screamed at him. I jogged a little bit more back towards the way we came, trying to get away from Sam. I heard he and Ben talking about Roy and I really didn’t want to think of what this stupid creature could do to Dean. I looked down and noticed something that wasn’t forest-colored. I knelt down again to pick it up. It was a peanut M&M. “Dean, you’re a fucking genius.” I said out loud. Sam and Ben heard me and came over to me to see me holding the candy. Sam and Ben smiled.

“It’s better than breadcrumbs.” He said. I nodded my head and rushed off to in that direction, in search of more chocolates. The M&M trail went on for twenty minutes before we saw the end of it. It lead us to a mine with a door. There were warning signs all around it, but I didn’t care. I had to find Dean. I quickly opened it and snuck inside, turning on my flashlight so I could see where I was going. I was so focused on getting through the mine maze that I didn’t hear growling. Sam pushed me and Ben against a wall, shutting off our flashlights and putting a hand over Ben’s mouth so he wouldn’t scream. I heard the wendigo shuffle by, stop, and almost turn down the tunnel connected to ours. However, he kept going. I peered around the corner and saw that the wendigo was no longer in sight. I walked with light feet, but with Sam and Ben close behind me they made the floor creek. I turned around to put a finger to my lips to tell them to shush their feet, but we feel through the floor. I groaned as I hit the floor below, and struggled to get myself up and out of the bones that were scattered all over it, wasting no time to continue on. Ben noticed what we were on and leaped back towards us. Sam told him to calm down and Ben slowly got his breathing back to normal. I looked up though and saw Dean and Haley just ahead of us, hanging from their arms from the ceiling.

I smiled. “Dean.” I said with a sigh. I ran over to him and put his face in between my hands, lightly shaking his head. “Dean, come on, wake up.” I begged. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times. “Oh, thank God. Dean, are you alright?”

“Yeah.” He answered, but still winced. Ben was over at Haley trying to get her to wake up. Sam came over next to me to cut Dean down. Dean’s arms went around my neck and we ended up sinking into the floor.

“Whoa, easy there.” I said, but I held him anyway, bringing him slowly to the ground. “So much for a damsel in distress.” I told him, smirking.

“Shut up.” he said, removing his arms from around my neck.

“Well, at least we know you’re perfectly fine.” I rolled my eyes. “What the hell happened?”

“Where is he?” Dean asked, ignoring my question. I hated when he ignored what I said, but I answered anyway.

“He’s gone for now.” I told him. Sam had gone to help get Haley down. Dean made noises indicating that he was in pain. “Hey, hey.” I said, pulling him back down when he tried to get up. “Take is slow, cowboy. You’ve been hanging there for a while.” I had to readjust him, making sure that he was a little bit comfortable as he leaned against me.

“Don’t go.” He said.

“I’m not going anywhere.” I told him. “We can sit for a while.” He shook his head.

“No, I mean don’t leave us.” I looked down at him, as he tried to sit himself up. I sighed when I saw it in his face that he was begging.

“Dean, I have t –”

“No, you don’t have to.” He said harshly. “You can stay, here, with me and Sam.” He paused. “Well, not here here. But you know what I mean.” I shook my head and looked over to Haley. They had found Tommy and were trying to cut him down. “C’mon, Ken. You really don’t have to go. Just tell me you’ll stay.”

I shook my head again. “I can’t. Dean, I wish I could, but I –” I looked away and saw different backpacks next to us. I turned over to one of them and searched through it. Inside, I saw flare guns. Three of them. I smiled, stood up and went over to Sam, leaving Dean to push himself off the ground. “Sam, check this out.”

“Flare guns. Those’ll work.” He said grinning at me. I smiled big, glad that I could help out. I gave one to Sam and threw a gun to Dean behind me and he almost didn’t catch it. I avoided his eyes though. I really didn’t want to talk about me staying. I wasn’t going to let him talk me into it. We headed down a tunnel with me and Dean in the lead with the guns. Haley and Ben had Tommy’s arms around their shoulders. He was limping. A second later we heard growling. All of our heads snapped in the direction of the noise.

“Looks like someone’s home for supper.” Dean said, trying to be comedic. I shook my head.

“We’ll never outrun it.” Haley panicked. I looked back at the group and then back down the tunnel. I took a step forward but Dean’s hand went around my arm. I stopped and looked back at him, confused.

“What are you doing?” Dean asked me.

“I’m gonna draw it away.”

“Like hell you are.” Dean argued.

“C’mon, Dean we don’t have time for your protective, chauvinist crap.” I said pulling my hand away from him like he had done to me. “We need to get these people outta here.” I pointed back at Ben, Haley, and Tommy.

Dean groaned, looking at the three. “Alright. You three stay with Sam. He’ll get you outta here.”

“Are you guys crazy?” Haley questioned.

“Little bit.” I admitted, turning with Dean to go towards the wendigo.

“Chow time, you freaky bastard!” Dean shouted.

“Bring it on!” I shouted, smirking back at him. The two of us continued down the dark tunnel, screaming at the top of our lungs trying to lead him to us. I tuned around watching Sam push Haley and her brothers towards the exit f the mine. We had been shouting and walking for a while now and it seemed like the Wendigos growls were getting softer.

“Dean, we should go back.” I said, quietly. He shined his flashlight in my direction. “It’s just a hunch, but we could be going the wrong way.” He nodded, agreeing, and we turned back the way we came. There was a silence between us as we crept through the mine tunnels. I was half-surprised Dean didn’t try to convince me to stay again. Then again, after being shut down twice already, I don’t think he was willing to try a third time. The growling started to get louder. We came next to the same tunnel as the wendigo. Sam was on the other end trying to hide the others. Dean grabbed ahold of me, pushing me against a wall, holding me there.

“Okay.” He whispered. “We need a plan.”

I sighed, heavily, pushed his arm away from me and went down the tunnel. “Hey, asshole.” I shouted at the wendigo. Sam stood on the other end, wide-eyed. I smirked as the wendigo turned to face me. I help up my flare gun and shot it in the stomach. The fire quickly started and the monster went up in flames. I could feel the heat radiating off the hand I’d burnt almost two weeks ago. I looked down at it and from the glow of the fire, I saw that it was red, as if I had only just singed it. For a moment I thought it was weird, but I decided to ignore it until we got outta this stupid mine.