𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 > 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 {𝟏}

𝐈𝐈

On their way to Black Water Ridge together as a trio, Sam had been having nightmares about Jessica. Why did he come sooner? Who would kill his girlfriend? Shouldn't he have told her about who he actually is? A hunter?

Dean was the driver of his Impala, and Sam was sleeping in his passenger seat; moving constantly stating he was having nightmares again. In the back, there is Karina; examining the scene between the Winchesters.

Moment of silence with classic rock playing on the radio. Karina had been rereading John's journal; learning more and more about him and the boys about their past of hunting.

Dean looks at Karina from his rearview mirror, thinking of himself. Who is that huntress? Why was she so intrigued with them? Without looking up from the journal, Karina starts the conversation. "You know, it's creepy to stare, right?"

Dean quickly looks back on the road trying to avoid it. "Too late."

Dean shook his head by her personality, softly smiling from the huntress's humor. "All right, you caught me... happy now?"

"Eh, I get used to it. I mean you know how many people stare at me? A lot. Including lesbians." Dean turns his head to Karina, and she helplessly shrugs at him. "So... who was Jess?"

"Well, uh... I just met her before I dragged my brother to find our dad. She was his girlfriend. The only problem was that he didn't tell her who he was."

Karina closed the journal and moves closer to Dean as he drives. "Why? I mean she should love him for who he is right?"

"Sammy only wanted his life to be normal. Away from hunting experience, go to college, becoming a lawyer. I don't know. That's another reason that me and my brother haven't talked for a while for two years."

"Huh... you learn something new every day."

After that moment, Sam jolts up from his sleep. Dean and Karina looked at Sam in worry. Karina moves back in her position, so Dean can talk to Sam. "You okay?"

Sam slowly wakes himself up, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Another nightmare?"

Sam cleared his throat. Dean checked Karina from the rearview mirror again. She lifts her eyebrows to proceed with the conversation. And he did.

"Want to drive for a while?"

Sam looked at Dean as he chuckled from his last sentence. "In your whole life, you never once asked that."

"Just thought you might want to. Never mind."

Sam looked at Karina and Dean as he continued on. "Look, guys, you're worried about me, I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay. Karina, you shouldn't have to anyway."

"Well, it is my job, right?" Sam rolled his eyes and turned his back from her. Karina looked down for a moment and moved on. "So where are we?"

Sam grabs the map in front of him and reads the destination they're heading to. Dean answers Karina's question as he keeps reading. "We are just outside of Grand Junction."

Sam takes a big sigh, "You know what? Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon."

"Sam, we dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you want to find the thing that killed Jessica. "

"Got to find Dad first."

Karina moves closer to the boys. "You know it doesn't make sense. Your father is disappearing. This thing showed up 20 years after your mother's death?"

"Well, Karina, it's no coincidence," Dean answered her question again, and Sam kept looking at the map. "Dad will have answers. He'll know what to do."

"It's weird, man. These coordinates he left us, this Black Water Ridge..."

"What's wrong with that?" asked Karina.

"There's nothing there. It's just woods." Sam put down the map, looking at the road. Thinking about it. "Why would he send us to the middle of nowhere?" Sam and Dean shared the look while Karina left curious about John's message to her.

Take care of my sons. The best you can.

***

Huntress and the Winchesters stopped at Lost Creek Ranger Station in Colorado. Looking for answers due to Sam's last question. They all examine the pictures of rangers. Animals they hunted. Sam looked at the map on the table, while Dean and Karina examined the pictures hanging up on the walls.

"So Black Water Ridge is pretty remote. It's cut off these canyons here-rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place... "

"Dude, check out the size of this friggin' bear."

"God, I hope they didn't use it as a rug. I hate when they do that."

Sam finished his sentence, standing beside Karina. "...and a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure."

They all looked at the same picture until the voice interrupted them. "You guys aren't planning to go out near Black Water Ridge, by any chance?"

They turned to the person who was speaking, and it was the manager who owned the place. Ranger manager. Sam answered his question first, "Oh no, sir. We're environmental-study majors from U.C. Boulder--just working on the paper."

"Recycle, man." Dean laughed a little, and Karina looked at him, thinking that was his big comment to that?

"Bull." Trio swallows their throats. Thinking they have been caught. Ranger proceeds, "You're friends with that Hailey girl, right?"

Karina begins to speak to avoid awkwardness. "Yes. Yes, we are, Ranger...Wilkinson." She got his name off by reading his tag, softly smiling at him.

Winchesters looked at each other, suddenly by her greeting so easily to make Ranger continue on without suspension.

Ranger looked down at his tag, smiling at the woman as he continued on. "Well, I will tell you exactly what I told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Black Water until the 24th. So it's not exactly a missing person now, is it?'

Karina nodded from his statement, understanding the situation, "Tell that girl to quit worrying. I'm sure her brother's just fine."

Ranger begins to leave until Dean stops him. "We will. That Hailey girl's quite a pistol, huh?"

"That would be putting it mildly."

Dean walks to Ranger a little, suggesting one more thing. "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."

Ranger looked at the trio, and he did.

Meanwhile, after that, they went outside, walking to Impala. Dean laughed, holding on to the permit. Karina shakes her head, and Sam infers, "What, are you cruising for a hookup or something?"

Dean looked at Sam, "What do you mean?"

"The coordinates point to Black Water Ridge. So what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?"

They all stopped at the Impala as Dean answered his brother's questions. "I don't know. Maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it."

Sam and Karina look at Dean by his answer with confused looks on their faces. "What?"

"Since when are you all "shoot first, ask questions later"?"

"Since now."

Sam got in the car, and Karina was a little curious about Sam more than Dean actually agreed with that.

***

"You must be Hailey Collins. I'm Dean, this is Karina and Sam." The trio is willing to talk to a relative about her brother's disappearance. Might be a case of their kind yet. "We're rangers with the park service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. We wanted to ask you some questions about your brother, Tommy."

"Let me see some I.D." Dean reaches for his fake I.D. in his jacket pocket and shows it to Hailey. After a short look, she gave in and let them come into her home. She caught something as they were heading in. It was Dean's car that she was intrigued by. "That's yours?"

"Yeah."

"Nice car." Hailey goes in, and Dean turns to his brother and huntress, and mouths "Oh my." Sam rolled his eyes as Karina smiled a little at the chemistry between them.

As Hailey prepares dinner for her family, Sam begins the questioning. "So, if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?"

"He checks every day by cell. He e-mails photos, stupid little videos, but we haven't heard anything in over three days now."

Karina inferred with the topic, "Some woods can't get cell reception. Maybe he couldn't get back to you."

Hailey turns to Karina, "He got a satellite phone too." Karina nods with the understanding of the fact that she had one since she had been living in the woods.

"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean asked.

"He wouldn't do that." Another brother, Ben, comments back on Dean's question.

Hailey continues on, "Our parents are gone. It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other."

Sam asked Hailey one more thing, "Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Hailey agreed, and then Sam went to her computer, seeing the pictures of Tommy in the woods, and lastly a video message he sent before he disappeared.

The trio examines the video carefully. Tommy sent his love to his sister but something caught Sam and Karina's attention as he kept talking to the camera. Shadow flashes behind him.

After the video sighting ends, Dean comforts Hailey. "We'll find your brother."

"Maybe I'll see you there." Dean and Karina shared a look, and Hailey continued on. "Look, I can't sit around here anymore, so I hired a guide. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."

"I think I know how you feel."

Karina looks down on the floor, clearly reading Dean's mind about him finding his father. She is really worried that letting Hailey go out into the woods is dangerous. But she's like Dean. She will not give up.

The questioning ends with Sam asking Hailey for sending the videos and pictures for investing more.

Now it moves on with the trio in the bar. Talking after the questioning and investigation of Sam's research. The waitress gave the trio some beers as Sam kept talking to Dean and Karina. "So, Black Water Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic--local campers mostly. But, still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found."

Karina asked Sam, who is sitting beside Dean, "Anymore before that?"

"Yeah." Sam passes some newspapers to Karina and Dean. "In 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack. And, again, in 1959, and again, before that, in 1936--every 23 years just like clockwork."

"Additionally in four years, thank God, Pennywise didn't come to the woods just now."

Dean laughed little at the reference, but secretly the fact that his little brother is afraid of clowns. Sam grabs his laptop, ignoring Karina's comment that she doesn't exist. Mostly because he's feeling really uncomfortable around her. Certainly, because she's a stranger.

He began to show the video of Tommy to Karina and Dean. "I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out." Sam pauses by each frame, showing what Karina and Sam saw, the shadow behind Tommy.

"Do it again."

Sam repeats again for Dean. "That's three frames. It's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move."

Dean hit Sam, "I told you something weird was going on."

"Yeah, I got one more thing. In 59' one camper survived the supposed grizzly attack, just a kid--barely crawled out of the woods alive."

"Is there a name?"

***

Karina waited outside in the hallway while the boys were questioning a survivor of the attack in 1959. Karina already had a friendly connection with Dean Winchester, but for some reason, she couldn't from Sam. She already knew how he feels around her. Trying so hard to understand when he was clearly grieving his girlfriend's death.

Karina has so many questions to ask John. Why did he let her go to them? Why are they important to her? What could they possibly help her with?

The boys came out of the apartment and saw Karina waiting for them. "So what's the verdict?"

The trio walked down the hallway, and Dean answered her question. "There is something in the woods for sure. He couldn't get an eye because it was too fast. The big claw on his shoulder."

"How many per claw?"

"4. He thought it was a demon. But spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. They just go through the walls."

"It's probably something else--something corporeal," said Sam

"Corporeal? Excuse me, professor." Karina smiles a little at Dean's comment.

"Shut up." Sam turns to Karina, " So what do you think?"

"Well, there are claws, and the speed by the way they move. Maybe it's a skinwalker."

"Or it's a black dog." Karina's eyes squinted at Dean and shook her head. "Whatever we're talking about, we're talking about a creature, and it's corporeal, which means we can kill it."

The trio walks outside in the dark night, heading toward the car. They went to the back of the trunk, getting ready for tomorrow morning. Karina grabs her swords and throwing knives. All silver, just in case of shapeshifter. As they continued on, Sam began the conversation. "We cannot let that Hailey girl go out there."

"I agree with you there, Sam, but how can we tell her though?"

"That there is there a big, scary monster there?"

Sam answered Dean's question, "Yeah."

Karina inferred, "Her brother's missing, Sam. She's not just gonna sit this out."

"Karina's right. We go with her, we protect her and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend," said Dean.

Karina and Dean got their weapons. "So finding Dad is not enough?" Sam shut the trunk in rage, "Now we go to babysit, too?"

Karina and Dean look at Sam with emptiness in their eyes. This side of Sam does not give himself to save people but focuses on revenge. Sam looks at both of them, "What?"

Karina shakes her head and goes to the car in the backseat. While Dean responds to Sam with one word, nothing.

***

Now the trio has finally accomplished joining in the search with Hailey and her brother, Ben. While this guide ranger named Roy is leading them to where Tommy was taken. Sam and Karina have been silent treatment with each other ever since last night. Dean makes jokes during the search and slowly flirted with Hailey.

Karina, who is walking behind Dean, decides to ask Roy about his interest. "Roy, you said you did a little hunting, am I correct?"

"Yeah, more than a little."

"Really? That's interesting. What kind of animals do you actually hunt?" Dean smiled a little at what point the huntress was going for. His arrogance.

"Mostly buck, sometimes bear."

Karina and Dean shared a look. Dean asked Roy a question, more like a side comment. "Tell me, uh, Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" Roy grabs Dean from his back to stop him. That causes little tension between them and the people behind them. "What you doing, Roy?"

Roy picked up a stick and showed the people a hidden bear trap, more like showing them off. "You should watch you're stepping... ranger."

Roy walked away, leaving Dean in stood-up embarrassment. Dean turns to the people behind him and points out, "It's a bear trap." The people continue walking along, leaving Sam to examine the trap for a little while. Leaving him in terrifying thought that there will be more.

Hailey walked a little closer to Dean. "You didn't pack any provisions. You guys are carrying a duffel bag. You're not rangers, so who the hell are you?"

Hailey grabs Dean to interrogate the truth about them. Dean looks at Karina and Sam, and they both leave him alone. To handle the question she's asking. "Sam and I are brothers, and we're looking for our father. Karina is a friend who's helping us to find him. He might be here we don't know. I just figured that you and me, we're in the same boat."

"Why didn't you just tell that from the start?"

"I'm telling you now. Besides, it's probably the most honest I've ever been with a woman...ever. So, we okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

"And what do you mean I didn't pack provisions?" He showed Hailey that he brought a bag of peanut M&Ms.

Sam and Karina walk together, side by side. Sam looks at Karina in curiosity as they continue walking. "So how did you meet my Dad?"

"We were on a hunting case. Werewolves in North Carolina. That's where I lived before I got the call."

"If you are that good of a huntress, how did he save you?"

Karina turned to Sam, "Well, I lost my father in a tragic fire in my home. I was 10. He taught me everything about hunting. Every weapon you can think of. After he died, all I ever did was proclaim my father's last wish of becoming a huntress. I read some lores, did some training, and prayed a little prayer every day. Until I meet John, he's a good man. Now what I hear the experience from you boys, he's still a good man. Whether you like it or not."

Sam shook his head, hearing about her past, her background, "Look, I'm sorry that I wasn't very comfortable with you."

"I get it, I mean if I have a dad that I haven't heard from for years and someone claiming that they know him. I would feel the same thing. Just so you know that I'll be there for you and Dean and I'm willing to help you find your girlfriend's killer and your father."

"Thank you."

Karina stopped Sam and looked up at him due to their height difference. Straight in his hazel eyes, and ask him one thing to move on. "Can we start over? I'm Karina. It's very nice to meet you."

She lifts her hand to shake his hand. Sam looks down at her hand and laughs a little. He accepts her hand, "I'm Sam, and it's nice to meet you as well."

"Good. I swear if that guy says one more thing about hunting, I'll kill myself."

Sam chuckled a little as did Karina. They walk together, side by side. Entering a new beginning for both of them. While that, Dean smiled a little at the view behind them.

Now they're connected.

***

People continued walking for many miles until Roy stopped them. "This is it--Black Water Ridge."

"What coordinates are we at?" asked Sam.

Roy checked to see the coordinates on his meter, and it was just like Sam was hoping for. 35-111. Sam and Karina shared the same look. Determination. Dean walks closer to them and suspects the noise. Silence. Not nothing, just silence. "Hear that?"

"Yep," Karina replies to Dean. "No crickets either."

Roy announced to the people that he was going to look around by himself. Sam infers, "You shouldn't go off by yourself."

Roy smiled smugly at Sam, "That's sweet. Don't worry about me."

Karina closed her eyes and thought to herself. Kill me now. Roy walks past the trio, leaving people behind him waiting. Karina turns to the people and leads them, "Everybody stays together, ok?" Karina followed Roy and people followed her lead.

Roy shouted at the people mentioning Hailey. All the people followed his voice that led to the campsite where Tommy disappeared. A tent was torn into shreds with claws, and blood all over the place. Dean mentions that it looked like a grizzly attack but in Karina's mind. It's not.

Hailey is taking the view, so scared that she lost her brother. She starts yelling his name repeatedly and Sam shushes her to be quiet.

"Why?"

"Something might still be out there."

"Sam! Karina!" They both followed Dean's voice, thinking that he found something. They see Dean, standing down on the ground. The ground leaves tracks into nothing. "The bodies were dragged from the campsite, but here the tracks just vanished. It's weird."

Karina crossed her arms, looking down at the tracks. "I tell you something, boys. It's not a skinwalker, or Dean's wish, a black dog." She looked at both of them, and walk away to the campsite.

Sam walks to Karina, while Dean is comforting Hailey. "What could this be?"

"I don't know, Sam. It seems so familiar to me."

"Yeah, me too."

A screaming voice interrupts everyone. The voice is begging them to help. All the people run to the voice, a little far from the campsite. Suddenly, the screaming voice stops when they arrive on the surface. Everyone looked around to see something, but it was gone.

Hailey urgently asks everyone who witnessed it, "It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?"

Sam takes his moment to look around more. Then he realized, "Everybody back to camp."

They arrived back at the campsite, but only the people's gears were gone. Roy mentioned his GPS and satellite phone.

Leaving Hailey in a panic, "What the hell's going on?"

Sam answered her question, "It's smart. It wants to cut us off so we can't call for help."

"You mean someone--some nut job out there just stole all our gear," said Roy.

Sam walked to the rest of his trio. "I need to speak with you... in private." They both followed Sam for privacy away from the people. Sam turned to Dean, "Okay, let me see Dad's journal." Dean hands the journal to Sam.

While Sam finds the page, Dean looks back to check if anyone is coming for them. There's not. It's just the Huntress and the Winchesters. Sam showed Dean and Karina a page. A particular page of Wendigo.

Karina's eyes widened at Sam, understanding his mind and the clues she was missing. Dean disagreed with Sam on the topic with another explanation. "Oh, come on. Wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or Northern Michigan. I never heard of this one in the far West."

"That's not actually true, Dean. I killed one in Oregon. Full of woods too. I mean, Sam and I knew all the clues are familiar. Claws, mimicking human voices."

Dean looked at Karina, "Great." He showed off his gun, "This is useless."

"Sorry."

"We got to get these people to safety," Sam warns them before he walks back to the people.

Sam announced to the people to leave until Roy stopped him. "Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it." Karina rolled her eyes and looked at Dean, shaking his head, thinking the same thing.

"If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave now."

"One, you're talking nonsense. Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders."

"Relax." Roy looked at Dean who was speaking to him, directly.

"We never should have let you come out in the first place. Alright? I'm trying to protect you."

Roy comes face-to-face with Sam, "You protect me? I was hunting these woods when your Mommy was still kissing you good night."

Karina made a fist after that comment. She knows dearly that Sam is all he ever wanted to see his Mom. She does too. Her own mother.

"It's a damn-near-perfect hunter. It's smarter than you. And it's gonna hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here."

Roy laughed and hit Sam's arm, "You know you're crazy, right?"

"Yeah, you ever hunt-" Karina approached Sam to stop talking, and calm him down.

Hailey is trying to get everyone to calm down. "Look, Tommy might still be alive and I'm not leaving here without him."

Trio shares each other's looks, and Dean replies back to Hailey. "It's getting late. This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night. We'll never beat it--not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves."

"How?"