"Help me!" Came a voice from the woods. All of us jumped up at the sound of the call. The voice continued moaning and we all crowded into the center of camp. Sam whipped out his flashlight so we could see more clearly.
"It's trying to draw us out." Dean pointed out to us. "Just stay cool. Stay put." His voice was strong, but I'd known him all my life. I could tell how afraid he was. So I anchored myself to his elbow so it looked like he was supporting me, when really we were protecting each other.
"Inside the magic circle?" Ranger Prick decided it was smart to speak up. Dean placed a hand over my own, warning me not to kill him. I huffed in frustration, and noticed my twin looked just as bothered as I was.
"Help!" The voice came again. It was followed by rustling bushes all around us, and growling unlike anything I'd ever heard before. I clasped Dean's arm tightly, but he released his hand from mine to hold his gun more steadily. Even though it wouldn't kill the wendigo, we could at least hurt it.
"Okay, that's no grizzly." Ranger Prick pointed out. Thank you captain obvious. The growling grew closer, and Hailey screamed. Roy cocked his gun and fired, despite my warning him not to. He shot multiple times until a screech was heard. "I hit it!" Roy yelled before running out into the woods.
"Roy, no!" Dean stepped to follow him, but I held him back. "Roy!" He yelled again.
"Dean, you can't." I told him, trying to stay calm.
"I can't let him die, either." Dean didn't look at me. "No matter how much I hate the man, I can't let him die Lucy."
"Sammy, please. Back me up." I looked to my twin who looked as frantic as I felt.
"Neither of you can stop me." Dean pointed a finger at everyone left in camp. "Don't move." And then Dean ran after Roy into the woods. I hesitated before grabbing Sam's wrist, and dragging him along after Dean. I knew he told us to stay put, but he was crazy if he thought I would let him run headfirst into the fire without us.
I dropped Sam's wrist and he took off after Dean, but I followed Roy's voice. I watched him get dragged up into a tree by what looked like a claw. I hid behind a tree trunk, completely shell shocked. Dean and Sam showed up, using their flashlights to try and locate Roy.
"Wait," Sam turned around. "Where's Lucy?"
"Whaddya mean, where's Lucy?" Dean just about yelled at Sam. "She's supposed to be in camp, and so are you!"
"Here, Sam. Dean." I regained my voice, and stepped out from my hiding spot. "I'm alright. But we need to go back now. Roy's already dead."
Dean wordlessly removed his jacket, which was actually Dad's, and laid it over my shoulders. I hadn't even realized I was shaking. I shot him a scared smile, and the three of us walked back into camp together.
We somehow managed to convince Hailey and her brother, Ben, that it was safe to sleep. That the circle we created really would keep us safe. We all grabbed a piece of ground to sleep on, but I couldn't let myself drift off. I tossed and turned, gasping at every noise around us. I had been hunting monsters since I was a little kid. But the wendigo I had seen take Roy, that was different.
I had never witnessed something so real. I had seen many victims, but I'd never witnessed an actual abduction. And there was nothing I could've done to stop it. All I could do was watch the claw lean down and pick up Ranger Wilkinson.
Then my mind filled with what ifs. What if I hadn't held Dean up for a few extra seconds. Would the wendigo have taken him instead? What if I hadn't left and followed my boys into the woods. Would they have found Tommy already? Would Roy still be alive? I wasn't sure how I felt, or what I should've been feeling. All I knew was that something about what I had just seen, was unlike anything I'd ever witnessed.
"Lucy, you gotta shut up and go to sleep. You're talking to yourself." Dean murmured in annoyance. His eyes met mine, and he sat up on the ground. Our eyes were identical, but mine were undoubtedly filled with tears. Dean glanced at Sam, who was either asleep, or pretending to sleep. He sighed before crawling over to where I lay, and wrapping his arms around me.
"Dean, I'm fine. Really, you don't-"
"Just shut up, Kid." He laughed at my protests. "This worked when you were little, and you're keeping me awake. So just keep your mouth shut and go to sleep. We'll be fine."
I was asleep in minutes, just like how it used to be. In motels when I was afraid, Dean would lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling until we both fell asleep. Sometimes I'd go to Sam instead, but he had enough on his mind. The last thing I wanted to do was make him feel like he had to take care of me.
***
When I woke up, Dean was no longer holding me, but one of my hands was latched onto the sleeve of his shirt, and he had placed hand over my own. I decided to let Dean sleep, and edged away so I didn't disturb him. I looked around to find Hailey and Ben still asleep, but Sam was nowhere in sight. I stood to look for him, and spotted him sitting against a tree trunk by himself.
"Sammy, you alright?" I asked quietly as I approached him. He didn't answer, just shooting me a tired smile in response. I noticed the book he fiddled with in his hands, and ran a hand through his hair.
I was about to push him further, but I heard everyone else waking up. I pressed a short kiss to Sam's cheek before turning back to the rest of our group. Hailey, being the badass she was, bombarded us with questions as soon as she had fully woken up.
"Dean." He looked up at me. "You take care of the questions, kay?" He flipped me the finger, and I responded by holding up two. He laughed at my childishness and relented, waving me off.
I listened to Dean explain our lives to Hailey and Ben for a few seconds before making my way back to Sam. He was still mindlessly playing with the notebook in his hands.
"Hey, Baby Brother." I tried to sound casual.
"What do you want, Luce?"
"Well then, hello to you too Mister Grump. Any chance I can speak with Sam?"
"He's currently unavailable." Sam grinned slightly at my attempted joke. "He's busy grieving his normal life and his dead girlfriend."
"Yikes."
"Sorry, too dark?" Sam looked up at me, trying to smile. I could tell he didn't find it funny either.
"C'mere, Sam." I sighed sliding onto the dirt beside him. My plan was to let him rest his head on my shoulder, but he was so tall he ended up leaning on the top of my head. I wrapped an arm over his head to play with his hair gently. I fought back a laugh at how stupid we must've looked.
"She's dead." Was all Sam managed. His voice cracked on the last work. Dead.
"I'm so sorry, Sammy." I ignored the liquid that dripped down my forehead. I knew he was crying. But Sam was so determined to appear strong, I knew pointing out his emotional display would only make him distance himself further.
"I missed you guys so much, and then I found her. Now she's gone and I don't even know what to do with myself." Sam sniffed quietly, and I felt his tears stop. I pulled my hand off of his hair, and pushed our heads apart. I shifted onto my knees so he was only a few inches taller.
"You have both me and Dean." I pressed our foreheads together, squeezing my eyes closed. "And if you can't be vulnerable with Dean, you can be with me. Always. That's what big sisters are for." I tapped my foot over Sam's and he smiled at the contact. No matter how simple the ritual was, it was more meaningful than any words we shared.
"You know, you're only a few minutes older than me." Sam teased slightly. We both laughed, and I playfully shoved him away.
"It's 40 minutes, which is way more than a few." I stuck my tongue out at him. "Besides, you're such a shrimp people think I'm older anyway."
"So I'm a shrimp again?" He smiled teasingly. "I thought I was promoted to Jumbo Shrimp?"
"You're both." I ruffled his hair, before standing up and reaching down to pull him up after me. "Now, come on. I left Dean to do the crappy job of explaining to Hailey and Ben. He'll kill me if we don't help him out soon."Sam swatted my arm away playfully and got to his feet as well.
"Hey." Sam said to the group. "So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one, wanna kill this evil son of a bitch."
"Well hell yeah, you know I'm in." Dean spoke up from where he stood.
"That makes three of us." I smiled at Sam, who gently nudged my shoulder.
***
"Wendigo' is a Cree Indian word." Sam explained to Ben and Hailey. "It means 'evil that devours'."
"They're hundreds of years old." Dean continued. "Each one was once a man, sometimes an Indian or other times a frontiersman or a miner or a hunter."
"How does a man turn into one of those things?" Hailey asked.
"Well, it's always the same." I explained, nodding at Dean. "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 looks questioningly at Sam.
"That's right." Sam confirms. "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 be alive." I could feel Hailey's panic rising.
"You're not gonna like it." Dean warned her.
"Tell me." She snapped at my brother. I admired her stony expression. We all knew how worried she was, for both her brothers and herself, but she kept it down to stay collected. It was something I wish I would do if my brothers were in trouble. I was honestly more likely to panic and end up killing myself to get them out of trouble.
"More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food." Dean looked Hailey square in the face, his expression blank. "It hibernates for years at a time. When it's awake, it keeps its victims alive. It stores them so it can feed whenever it wants."
"If your brother's alive, it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden, and safe." I cautiously continued, trying to explain as gently as possible. "We've got to track it back there."
"And then how do we stop it." I could hear the urgency in Hailey's voice.
"Well, guns are useless, and so are knives." Dean walked around to grab a lighter and a bottle of alcohol. "Basically, we gotta torch the sucker."
After gathering some supplies together, the five of us took off into the woods. We walked closely together with Dean in the front and Sam and I taking the rear. I flinched at every noise, trying to hide my jumps from Sam. My attempt to conceal my fear didn't work out though, because I felt Sam's hand latch onto my own as we continued through the woods.
I squeezed it gratefully, but dropped his hand almost right away. I needed both hands if we stumbled upon the wendigo. Any distractions from the monster would get me, or someone else, killed.
Nobody else was going to die because of me.
Not if I could help it.
***
We followed wendigo claw marks through the woods all day. I knew in my gut that something was wrong. I didn't know what it was, but something was off.
"Dean." I called, stopping to examine a tree marked with claws.
"What is it?" He asked jogging back to stand beside me. He laid a hand on my shoulder, but I pushed it off, ignoring his worried expression. It was not the time to worry about emotions. We needed to fight for our lives.
Dean followed my eyeline to see all the trees around us with clean-cut slashes running along the bark. The wendigo had been there, that much was obvious. But that wasn't the unsettling part.
"You know, I was thinking that those claw prints, so clear and distinct..." I trailed off.
"They were almost too easy to follow." Sam finished my thought, gritting his teeth.
Of course, the second he finished speaking, the wendigo growled at us from the surrounding trees. Dean pushed me gently so he was barely in front of me. I grabbed for Hailey and Ben to draw them closer to the three of us, and Hailey screamed. I followed her eyes to find Roy's corpse had fallen in the place where she had once stood.
Sam went to check on Hailey while Dean checked Roy for a pulse. Of course, he found none. I fought to keep down what little food I had consumed in the past 24 hours.
I faintly heard Dean ordering us to run, but I kept my eyes on Roy while we fled. If I had tried harder, maybe I could've stopped the wendigo from killing him. Dean yanked my arm harder, and I snapped out of my trance.
I could beat myself up later.
For the time being, I had to focus on keeping the rest of us alive.
I saw Ben stumble and went to help him, but Sam got there first, ordering me to keep running. Normally, I would've yelled at him for giving orders. Only Dean and Dad could do that. But we were running for our lives. Snapping at Sam would've been in bad taste.
I kept running with Dean and Hailey, and the wendigo dropped out of nowhere right in front of us. Hailey screamed and got ready to fight. Sam had the backpack, and with it, all of our weapons. We were completely helpless. The wendigo grabbed Hailey first, then me, and it ended up having to knock Dean out to take him as well.
I managed to snag Dean's M&M's from his pocket. I didn't bother to fight, I knew I didn't stand a chance. Instead, I silently began dropping M&M's whenever I saw a soft patch of dirt. Sam needed a trail to follow, but if I dropped a piece of candy on a hard patch of ground, the wendigo would hear it.
So all I could do was continue to Hansel and Gretel the shit out of my current situation, hoping that Sam found the rainbow candies and followed them to us.
***
I must have been knocked out, because I felt myself stirring awake. I was standing up with my wrists tied to the ceiling. I considered waking Dean, who hung next to me, but I didn't want him to go all protective on me, so I just stayed silent and listened for his breathing. I let out a sigh of relief when I heard him breath.
Once learning Dean was alive, I slowly bent my arms and lifted my body off the ground. I managed, somehow, to flip myself upside down, and find a rock that stuck out from the ceiling. I curled my feet against it, holding most of my weight off of my wrists, allowing me to work on the ropes without hurting myself.
I heard footsteps coming, and started working faster. When it became clear I wouldn't cut free before the wendigo reached me, I dropped my weight completely, which really hurt my arm. It wasn't broken, or even sprained, but it still hurt like hell.
The wendigo's footsteps faded, and I lifted myself back into the upside down position. I began untying the ropes again, finally freeing my wrists. I dropped the ropes and instantly realized that was the wrong move. I had no way down. I couldn't grip the rock at my feet without dropping my foot first, which would send me head first into the ground.
So I was stuck.
Hanging.
Upside down.
I almost screamed when two figures came crashing through the roof, only remaining on the ceiling because my shoe was stuck between the roof of the cave and the rock. I recognized one of the figures as Sam who looked both terrified and relieved when he saw us.
After seeing I was awake, he went straight to Dean, completely ignoring the fact that I was hanging by my foot. I heard Dean grunt as he woke up, and slapped Sam on the head. He glared at me, before realizing that I couldn't get down on my own.
And then he laughed.
He went right back to helping Dean, who didn't laugh when he realized I was stuck. Instead, he raised his brow at me, and I nodded to assure him I was alright. Just really freaking uncomfortable.
I could hear Ben checking Hailey, and felt guilty for not checking to see if she was alive as well. I was relieved when I heard her wake up. By that point, Dean was cut down and leaned against a cave wall for support. He was most definitely concussed.
"Sam." I snapped at my brother, who wrapped his arms around me and yanked my foot free. I patted his chest, signaling for him to let me down. That I was okay to stand. "Took you long enough."
We walked to Dean and Hailey, who both used the wall to walk.
"You alright?" I asked Dean, putting a hand in his short hair. He nodded back at me.
"How'd you get upside down, Kiddo?"
"Later, Dean." I kissed the side of his head. "Let's worry about my acrobatics later."
"As long as you're okay, Lucy." Dean grimaced. "Where is it?"
"It's gone for now." Sam told him, and I almost cried in relief. As long as the wendigo was out we had half a chance at survival.
Ben and Hailey got up from where they sat to examine another hanging person, who I assumed was Tommy. I sat with Dean, who kept a hand on the back of my neck, while Sam followed Ben and Hailey. I jumped when he gasped awake, but Dean was busy going through bags that undoubtedly belonged to people the wendigo had killed.
"Check it out." Dean struggled to his feet, shaking me off when I tried to help him up. He smirked smugly at Sam and the newly reunited siblings. He held up solar flares.
"That'll work." I smiled at Dean, who casually slung an arm around me. Well, he tried to make it seem casual, but I could feel him lean on me. He was only using me to hold up his weight without appearing hurt or weak.
The six of us started out of the cave. Dean and I walked in the lead, Dean refused to accept my help, so I just walked beside him, ready to catch him if he stumbled. Sam followed to help the Collins siblings.
"Looks like someone's home for supper." Dean tried to joke when we heard a growl. I glared at him, but he just grinned. He knew the joke was in bad taste, he just didn't care.
"We'll never outrun it." Hailey spoke up. Sam, who held up a flare gun, met my eyes. We both knew that. We had no chance against a wendigo. Two of us were limping, and Tommy was literally being carried by his siblings.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Dean spoke up, and I fought the urge to hit him. I hated Dean and his stupid self-sacrificing persona. I glared at Sam when he gave his approval. "Alright, listen to me. Stay with Sam. He's gonna get you out of here."
"What're you gonna do?" Hailey asked.
Dean winked at her before taking off by himself, screaming at the wendigo. I shot Sam a look, and he just nodded his head. Sam and the Collins would be fine. Dean could barely walk. I was going with him.
"It's chow time you freaky bastard!" I shouted, and Dean looked at me in surprise. I just looped his free arm around my shoulders for support. "Bring it on baby, I taste good!"
Dean tried to push me back towards Sam, but I slapped the back of his head and glared at him. He shot me an annoyed smile before reluctantly continuing on. We kept yelling for the wendigo, getting completely lost in the tunnels of the old mine shaft.
Dean stumbled a few times, but I squeezed his wrist to keep him upright.
"Aren't you glad I'm here?" I stopped yelling for a minute to tease Dean's stubbornness.
"Not a chance, Ghostie." Dean grinned at me. "You're only slowing me down."
I laughed at his comment, and so did he. We both very well knew that the pace would be much slower if Dean had gone off on his own.
After hearing a gunshot, I glanced at Dean worriedly. Dean looked nervous as well, but he just yanked his arm away from me, insisting he would be fine on his own. We knew where the wendigo was, and they only ever hunted alone. If the beast was with Sam, it wouldn't get Dean unless it killed Sam first.
I snatched the solar flare from Dean's hand, and took off towards the sound. Screaming followed, and I pushed myself to run faster, hoping I wasn't too late. I shouted for the beast when I finally found it, and fired a shot into its torso. It shrieked while it's body dissolved into flames.
Dean caught up, and I once again looped his arm over me. He didn't protest.
"Not bad, huh?" Dean called, and I pinched his ear.
"Lucy, stop it! They know you took the shot. They watched you take it."
"Don't steal my glory." I huffed at him playfully.
"I wouldn't dare." Dean pressed a firm kiss to my head. "All glory has belonged to you since the day you were born. And you know what?"
"What?" I looked up at my big brother.
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
***
I sat in the car while my brothers handled the cops and said goodbye to the Collins siblings. I didn't want to see any rangers. I had gotten one of their own killed. So what if Roy wasn't a great guy, I should have at least tried to help him. But I just stood as he was dragged off to his death.
I watched as the ambulance pulled away with Tommy, Hailey and Ben inside. And much to my surprise, Sam ended up in the driver's seat. I watched Dean hesitate at the passenger door, shooting me a look through the window. I shot him a grin, telling him he didn't have to join me in the back.
Sam grinned at me evilly in the rearview mirror before changing the music. Dean leaned up to turn the dial back up but Sam slapped his hand away.
"Nuhuh, Dean." Sam mocked. "Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole."
"I'm the oldest." Dean jokingly shoved Sam towards the window. "Driver or not, you're the youngest. I overrule both of you every time."
"Breaking your own rules." Sam laughed. "How disgraceful, Dean."
"Bitch." Dean muttered playfully.
"Jerk." Sam replied.
I laughed at them, before adding my part of the inside joke. "You're both morons."
Sam smiled at the road ahead, and Dean turned to make a face at me. After sticking my tongue out at him, I pushed his face away so he faced forward again.
For a few precious moments, things were exactly like they should've been. We were just three siblings piled into their car, laughing at a joke that stopped being funny a long time ago. It was no longer a funny inside joke, but a sentimental one.
Sam revved the engine a few times, looking happier than a kid on Christmas morning. Dean watched him, clearly relieved to see Sam smile. I took a mental picture of how happy my boys looked at that moment and stored it away in my head.
God only knew how long it would be before my siblings and I had a somewhat normal moment.