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Later that evening, the three siblings found themselves in the home and of Mr. Shaw, an older man in his late sixties cigarette in his mouth, having gained entry by Dean using the fake park ranger badge to garner a conversation with him.
"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..." the man spoke.
"Grizzly?" Sam interrupted, finishing off the man's story, "That's what attacked them?" Mr. Shaw paused for a moment taking a puff of his cigarette, took it out, and nodded.
"The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?" Dean now went to enquire, the older man froze at the question, but he doesn't utter a word, so Dean carried on, "What about all the people that went missing this year? the same thing?" it caused Mr. Shaw to halt in his tracks again, still not saying anything.
Sometimes Harriet didn't understand why her brothers had adopted such an accusing manner. It concerned her they would frighten the older man and probably stop him from divulging anything to them. The only way to do that was in a more calming manner.
"Mr. Shaw," the young woman began to offer with a steady, reassuring tone, "If we exactly knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it. So it wouldn't harm anyone else again."
But at the young woman's words, Mr. Shaw disagreed, "I seriously doubt that. Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make," He carefully lowered himself into a chair nearby and went on, "You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did."
Harriet sympathizing walked over to the man and went to sit opposite him, leaning forwards and speaking softly, "Mr. Shaw, what did you see?"
He was silent for a moment both the twins saw a flicker of fear in Mr. Shaw's eyes which resulted in some worry that Harriet thought might have gone too far and frightened him to bring up such painful memories.
"Nothing, " Mr. Shaw replied, "It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it, though. A roar. Like...no man or animal I ever heard."
Harriet glanced back at her brothers before turning back to Mr. Shaw just as Sam asked, "It came at night?" the man nodded, "Got inside your tent?"
"It got inside our cabin, " Mr. Shaw replied mournfully, a far off look in his eyes recalling that night's events, "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," at that point, he glanced up and stared straight into young woman's eyes, "Do you know of a bear that could do something like that?" all three siblings briefly shared a knowing look, with the idea of what it could be, "I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screaming."
"It killed them?" Harriet inquired soothingly, fiddling with the necklace around her neck.
"Dragged them off into the night. Why it left me alive...been asking myself that ever since," Mr. Shaw confirmed before he paused and shook his head hand moving towards the collar of his shirt, "Did leave me this, though," Mr. Shaw pulled his shirt down, Harriet and her brothers see three long wide raised scars in the shape of claw marks that spread across Mr. Shaw's shoulder and collar bone, as he finally added, "There's something evil in those woods. It was some sort of a demon."
On that very thought, the siblings took their leave from Mr. Shaw's apartment and began walking down the hallway outside as they began to discuss what information they had learned so far.
"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they go through the walls," Dean began to ponder aloud what they all must be probably thinking.
"So it's probably something else, something corporeal," Sam indicated as Harriet nodded in agreement with twin.
"I agree it has been something corporeal."
"Ohh, Stanford twins bringing out the big words, " Dean teased his siblings before then asking in a mocking tone, "Corporeal? Excuse me, professors."
Harriet throws her older brother an irritated glared his way, knowing well it hit a nerve, something both she and Sam hated was Dean for poking fun at their intellect, "Shut up, " they both said in unison, rather unamused expressions on their faces before continuing down the hallway.
"Then what do you think it is genius?" Harriet asked snarkily and wanted to get back to focusing on the mystery at hand that needed to be solved.
Dean sarcastically rolled his eyes at his sister before responding, "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," Dean finished off with teasing his siblings again, "Which means we can kill it."
Making both Harriet and Sam roll their eyes in response.
-*-
They now followed after Dean out the Impala just as he had opened up the trunk and opened up the weapons compartment that he promptly used a shotgun to keep it propped up. Pulling some guns out of the chest and into a duffle bag, Sam and Harriet leaning in either side.
"We cannot let that Haley girl go out there."
"Oh yeah?" Dean asked sarcastically, glaring at his brother and then sister, who both held equally stony expressions, "What are we going to tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?"
"Yes!" Harriet and Sam returned together bitterly.
He looked between them both once again and tried to reason with them, as he was beginning to get uncomfortable with the number of impulsive decisions they have made on this hunt, "Her brother's missing, guys. She's not going to just sit this out," he takes a deep breath before continuing and picking up the duffle bag, "Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend."
But the twins stared back at him as if he were crazy as Sam now asked angrily with a scoff, aggressively slamming the weapons trunk shut, "Is finding dad not enough?"
Harriet added in the same manner, arms crossed over her chest, "Now we've got to babysit too?"
But all Dean could do was stare at the twins oddly, wondering what on earth was going on inside his sibling's heads, "What?" they both asked him angrily.
He gazed at them for another moment longer before dismissing it completely, "Nothing," he throws the duffle at Harriet with some force, who thankfully caught it, to only then walk off.
They both stared moodily after him because, honestly, everything was getting too much from the tension building up between them and Dean. But they honestly weren't in the right state of mind to care.
Later that night, or possibly in the early hours of the morning, Sam woke up in a cold sweat from another nightmare about Jessica. He glanced to the alarm clock on the bedside table, seeing that it was two o'clock in the morning. That's when he suddenly noticed Harriet's side of the bed was empty. Seeing as she was up, Sam might as well too. In doing so, he got out of bed quietly, pulling his boots as not to disturb Dean; even though he slept like a log, there probably wasn't a chance of waking him anyway, finally grabbing his hoodie, Sam slung it on over the t-shirt he was wearing.
He sneaked out the door shutting it behind him. Still, He didn't have to go far in looking for his twin sister finding her perched on the bonnet of Baby, a cigarette in hand as she took a long drag and blew out a stream of white smoke that vapourised into the midnight sky her face void of emotion.
Sam went and sat beside her just as she began to speak, "I don't know how much more of this I can take."
"Take what?" he side glanced at her as she took another drag and blew out more smoke.
"The guilt Sam," Harriet replied, voice thick with emotion tears starting brim her eyes, "The failure of knowing I could've done something to save Jess, and I'm reminded about it every night I fall asleep I see her face."
"Hey," Sam went to cup Harriet's face turning her head to face him, wiping away a lone tear that had begun to cascade down her face, his expression equally sad, "Don't you think I feel just as guilty as you about Jess."
Harriet nodded and sniffed before flicking what remained of her cigarette on the ground stomping it out with her foot. She went to rest her head on Sam's shoulder then asked, "When is this going to end, Sam?"
Sam responded with uncertainty shaking his head as his fingers combed through Harriet's hair to try and keep her at ease, "I honestly don't know."
-*-
It was the following morning, and to Dean, his siblings looked tired as hell, which was always is a significant concern to him due to their lack of sleep over the last few weeks and from grieving Jessica. He was trying to understand older, but he couldn't do that if they didn't let him into what was going on inside their heads.
Yet this was a problem for another time, as he pulled the Impala up to the edge of the forest and just saw Haley up ahead, along with her brother Ben and some unknown man. It looked as if they were preparing to go for a hike into the forest. Dean puts Baby into the park, and all three of the siblings pile out of the car with Sam holding the duffle bag.
"You guys got room for three more?" Dean inquired as Haley put her hands on her hips, gazing back in disbelief.
"Wait, you want to come with us?" The young woman now asked, a little surprised but doubtful about these three strangers tagging along to help find her missing brother.
The unknown man that neither of the Winchester siblings recognized finally spoke up, "Who are these guys?"
"Apparently, this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue," Haley answered, glancing over at him.
They later learn his name is Roy, who eyed the threesome suspiciously and inquired, "You're rangers?"
Harriet and Sam entirely blank the question altogether, walking forward, making the female of the two narrow her eyes, she's only just met the man, and he's already getting on her nerves.
"That's right," Dean responded.
"And you're hiking out in, " Haley quickly scans Dean's outfit over, "Biker boots and jeans?"
He looks down at his attire for just a brief moment and backs up again with a cocky smile, "Well, sweetheart, I don't do shorts," he goes to walk past her, heading after his siblings.
Just as he passed Roy, the man snapped at him for flirting slightly, "What, you think this is funny? It's dangerous backcountry out there. Her brother might be hurt."
At that moment, Harriet and Sam turned back with the man, still implying how incompetent they were, and honest to God, it was starting to make them boil with anger, both glaring daggers at the man. Because he didn't know them, what they've done and here Roy was making assumptions about them.
Yet, before Harriet could even utter a word, her older brother went to insist seriously, "Believe me, I know how dangerous it can be. We just wanna help them find their brother, that's all," and with that, Dean headed after his siblings who were waiting for him. Harriet sent a warning glare in Roy's direction for good measure to then continue walking with her brothers.
A while later, they were hiking through the forest with Roy taking the lead, followed by Dean, Harriet, Hayley, and Ben, with Sam taking the rear. It seemed to the female Winchester that her older brother is set on antagonizing Roy and proving that he was the more experienced hunter, sure, but at what cost.
"Roy, you said you did a little hunting."
"Yeah, more than a little," Roy responded with ease.
"Uh-huh. What kind of furry critters do you hunt?" Dean asked out of interest.
"Mostly buck, sometimes bear."
Dean goes to walk in front of Roy with a slight tone of humor to his voice and asks, "Tell me, uh, Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" he struts forwards in confidence before Roy suddenly yanked him back, "Whatcha doing, Roy?"
Harriet moved forwards slightly, fearful that Dean had angered the man somehow, but Roy merely grabbed hold of a stick nearby and poked it in a bear trap that Dean had almost stepped in. The trap clasped shut instantly and cleaved the end of the stick clean off. It just sent a chill up Harriet's spine how close her brother had come to going through a lot of pain and possibly almost losing a limb.
As Roy now looked at Dean and stated coldly dropping the stick, "You should watch where you're stepping. Ranger."
Only but Dean pretended to brush it off casually with a laugh as he said with a slight feigned levity, "It's a bear trap."
Harriet continued walking on behind the obnoxious man when she heard Haley declaring to Dean with a slight irritation to her voice, "You didn't pack any provisions. You guys are carrying a duffel bag. You're not rangers," the young Winchester just turns back to face them as Haley grabbed her older brothers arm, "So who the hell are you?"
She lightly winced at Haley's question. Knowing now that they've been figured out and seeing they had both stopped further back, she trudged back towards them through the shrubbery to stand beside her brother in case he needed assistance with this conversation.
But before that even happened, she saw her twin brother offer Dean a questioning glance that seemed to inquire if he wanted help or not handle the situation. Yet Harriet couldn't exactly read the expression off of her older brother's face that he had responded to him that everything was under control, so Sam continued walking and nodded at his sister for her to do the same.
The young Winchester didn't quite catch much of the conversation between her brother and Haley. Still, by the looks of things, it had gone down pretty well as he now caught up beside his younger sister with a casual grin on his features, holding a large bag of peanut M&M's that he had brought along. Peering over her shoulder, she sees Haley coming to catch up behind them. Glad that her brother had smoothed things out, Harriet looked back at Dean and yanked the bag of M&M's out of his hand, making a noise of complaint before he could grab another handful. He gives her a fatigued expression but being the patient big brother lets Harriet pour as many into the palm of her hand as she could to put in her coat pocket and chucked the bag back at him.
"Still got a sweet tooth, huh, Harry," Dean implied with a small laugh as he caught the bag.
"You don't need to be a genius to know that by now, dummy," she responded with a raised eyebrow at him before popping a chocolate into her mouth and giving it a loud crunch.
"I think Dean is a bad influence on you sometimes, Harry," Sam chimed to his twin sister, "Especially when it comes to eating healthy snacks, which M&M's are not."
"Nobody, asked for your opinion Samuel," Harriet dismissed her brother's remark with a shrug and threw an M&M, silently pumping her fist in triumph just as it hits the back of Sam's head.
"Hey! What the hell was that for?" Sam turned back, rubbing the back of his head.
Harriet gave with another shrug and a cheese-eating grin, "For insulting my eating habits. Totally worth it."
Sam rolled his eyes with disbelief at his twin before turning back around. Still, for Dean, it was definitely worth the entertainment and to see Harriet smile for a while and be her usual cheeky self, even though it was only for a short moment.
-*-
After another half hour of walking, they came to a stop as Roy a the front of the group and proclaimed as the others took in surroundings of the small clearing around them, "This is it. Blackwater Ridge."
"What coordinates are we at?" Sam inquired as he took another quick step. His sister is coming to stand alongside him and Dean as well.
"Thirty-five and minus one-eleven," Roy offered, briefly checking his GPS as Harriet realized it was the exact coordinates their dad had left them in his journal. The Winchester's were silent for a moment as they scanned and listened to the natural noise of the forest around them.
"You hear that?" Dean asked his siblings quietly.
"Yeah. Not even crickets," Harriet muttered with a rather ominous tone, blown away by the oddness of the silence around them in a forest that should be thriving with activity and the sound of wildlife.
"I'm gonna go take a look around," Roy declared, putting away his GPS.
"You shouldn't go off by yourself," Harriet stepped towards him and held out her hand motioning, for him to cease. Sam knew his twin was suitable; because the creature could be lurking about anywhere in this forest.
However, Roy wasn't discouraged by it as he replied with a sarcastic grin, "That's sweet. Don't worry about me."
After Roy shoved his way through the family huddle, the female Winchester muttered bitterly under her breath and shook her head, "Jackass," which Dean nodded in agreement to her statement.
The man was starting to grate on Harriet's nerves with condescending behavior and disregarding everything they had said. He didn't know what was out there, well she and her brothers weren't exactly sure either, but at least they had a clue. Because that man's ignorance was going to get him killed one day, no matter how much the man annoyed her, she certainly didn't wish him any harm. Glancing over at her brothers, who were just equally annoyed by Roy's strategies, and knew no matter what, everyone had to stick together.
So Dean turned back to Ben and Haley to demand, "All right, everybody stays together. Let's go," he turned back around and began taking the lead further into the wilderness in the direction Roy had disappeared.
After a few more minutes of walking, they hear the man yelling not a too short distance away, "Haley! Over here!"
Haley and the rest of the group sprinted to where they heard Roy's voice calling. They finally reach a clearing, much larger than the first they had stopped. It was Tommy's campsite, and the place was like a bomb site, tents ripped to shreds and mixed-blood spatters. Camping equipment is littered haphazardly across the forest floor, but as Harriet wandered through what remained, she didn't see one body.
"Looks like a grizzly," Roy offered with observation.
When suddenly, Haley took a step forwards, gazing out into the woods, and began calling her brother's name, "Tommy? Tommy!"
The twins quickly dashed over to hush her, both their eyes darting about nervously on a lookout for the creature that might be still around.
"Why?" Haley challenged them both with a look of confusion.
"Something might still be out there."
"Sam! Harriet!" Dean called to his siblings, and they both went towards where he was crouched, snapping a stick as they now crouched either side of him, inspecting some odd tracks marks in the dirt.
"The bodies were dragged from the campsite," their older brother starts to explain, "But here, the tracks just vanish. That's weird," they stood up and headed back towards the vandalized campsite.
"Then it's no skinwalker or black dog," Harriet commented just before they reached the group.
Once there, Harriet noticed Haley bending down to pick up what must be Tommy's cell phone. Which had some blood coated over it, and the screen was smashed and saw the unhappiness in her face as she looked the phone over. She watched her eldest brother go towards Haley and crouch next to her to give some reassurance and comfort that Tommy may still be alive.
It's when suddenly a voice called out, breaking the silence, "Help! Help!"
The entire group stood up to face the direction of the noise and became frozen with fear in that very moment just when Roy goes darting off towards the noise, Dean following on closely a second later, his pistol in hand and the rest right behind them.
"Help! Somebody!" the disembodied voice echoed once again as they continued towards it until finally reaching another clearing, and the voice had suddenly gone silent.
Harriet and Sam checked their surroundings rather hurriedly, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise, but neither couldn't find who had made it.
"It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?" Haley inquired nervously.
They all continued to listen intently when Sam suddenly declared, "Everybody back to camp," the group followed his lead back to the campsite.
Once they got there, all of their packs have disappeared. Harriet thought about brightening up the mood with a joke lamenting about the missing peanut M&M's but had decided against it, for now, knowing this wasn't the best of times.
"Our packs!" Haley cried out.
"So much for my GPS and my satellite phone," Roy stated with a grumble.
"What the hell is going on?" Haley marveled as she looked around her.
"It's smart. It wants to cut us off so we can't call for help," Harriet states from where she stood behind her as she takes the situation into deliberation.
"You mean someone, some nutjob out there just stole all our gear," Roy urged angrily, and just when Harriet was about to retort something in response to it, Sam grabbed her firmly by the arm and sharply tugged her away.
Talking lowly as he went, "I need to speak with you. In private," as he walked towards Dean, telling him the same thing, and all three siblings walked a short distance away from the group.
Once they are finally out of earshot, just close enough just in case danger showed up, Sam now went to face his older brother and whispered, "Good. Let me see Dad's journal," Dean passed him over the journal, Sam ruffling through its pages until eventually coming across what he was looking for and holding out for his brother and sister to see.
"All right, check that out," he points at the simple illustration of a figure almost taking up half the page.
"Oh come on, wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or, or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west, " the elder Winchester exclaimed.
"Sorry, but I'm with Sam on this. Think about it, Dean, the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice, " Harriet reasoned with her older brother.
"Great, " Dean declared, his voice was dripping with sarcasm pulling out his pistol and holding it up, "Well then, this is useless."
The twins both stared back annoyingly at him for a moment, and with a sigh, Sam roughly handed back their father's journal to Dean, insisted, "We gotta get these people to safety," with that, both he and Harriet walked past him. He followed after them, and soon as he broke through the foliage back at the campsite, he heard Sam announcing to the group, "All right, listen up, it's time to go. Things have gotten...more complicated," he ended with a slight grimace.
"What?" Haley asked, her anger now replaced with doubt. Harriet feels awful for her. Knowing that if either of her brothers went missing, she'd be exactly in the same way, and only for a brief second, she almost images it. Nope, please don't go there, Harry, she hastily concluded, knowing she's been through enough already since Jessica died.
"Kid, don't worry. Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it," Roy asserted in that same condescending manner which just irritated Harriet so much, and the way he was treating her and brothers was uncalled for. She's had enough of his crap. Sam sensing his sister has reached her boiling point, goes to grab her, but she's too quick and, in a few short strides, was almost up in Roy's face.
"Seriously? Because it's not just me that I'm worried about," she declared through gritted teeth, "If you shoot this thing, you're going to make it mad. That little gun of yours won't do a thing."
"We have to leave. Now."
But, regardless of what Roy is told, the man wasn't entirely convinced of her words stepped closer into her space, "One, you're talking nonsense. Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders."
Dean noticed his sister balling up her hand into a fist, and Sam could feel the anger coming off her in waves
"You assh..." her twin cuts her off with his hand now on her shoulder, gently guiding Harriet back over towards Dean, who looked about ready to start throwing punches. He rested a hand on her other shoulder, effectively warning her not to attack. But the temptation to knock Roy's lights out hadn't been snuffed out.
"Well, guess what, Roy, " Sam began to inform the man in full bitchface mode, stepping forwards, he too has also reached the same boiling point as his twin, making the tension in the air all the more toxic, "We should never have let you come out here in the first place, all right? We're just trying to protect you."
But all Roy does is get up Sam's face glancing briefly in Harriet's direction and back to him again as he laughed with disbelief, "You protect me? I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night."
In that very moment, all Harriet sees is red having hit a nerve by bringing up their mom, "Yeah?" she yanked herself out of Dean's grasp and charged towards him, neither of her brothers attempting to stop her, still thoroughly pissed off, "It's a damn near perfect hunter. It's smarter than you, and it's going to hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid, sorry ass out of here," she's rather grateful that he's not that tall for a man so that she could stare him right in the eye.
Roy laughed at her, "You know you're one crazy chick, right?"
"Yeah?!" she challenged, shoving Roy hard in the chest, almost making him topple over, "You ever hunt a wen-"
"Alright, that's it; cut it out!" Dean cuts in between his sister and Roy, firmly grasping her by the arm and dragging her away from the situation before it got way worse. His sibling's rash and destructive behavior since the start of this hunt was honestly starting to worry him much, "Chill out."
"Stop. Stop it. Everybody just stop!" Haley yelled, "Look. Tommy might still be alive. And I'm not leaving here without him."
There's a long, drawn-out pause between everyone and Dean. Haley looks as though this whole situation has tired her out.
"It's getting late, " Dean now breaks the silence, "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."
"How?" Haley asked, furrowing her brows.
Graphic by Winter326