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By now, night had since fallen, the Winchesters were almost finished making the campsite as secure as they possibly could over what remained of the previous one. While Dean was currently pacing around the boundary of the camp, copying strange symbols from their father's journal into the dirt. Symbols that would protect them.

Haley watched Dean intently from the crackling warmth of the campfire that had since begun to spread a more calming atmosphere as the young woman went to inquire, poking at the fire with a stick, "One more time, that's-"

"Anasazi symbols, " Dean offered in explanation, wiping a hand on his jeans, "It's for protection. The wendigo can't cross over them."

Roy laughed from where he currently stood, gun slung across his shoulder but not commenting anything about it. Sam, from his position next to his twin sister Harriet, held his hand back in silence, not wanting her to cause any more drama. She wasn't bothered, instead not wanting to punch him out near the campfire and cause an accident. But she won't let his disbelief get to her and ignores him.

"Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy," Dean returned sassily.

He now walked over to siblings, who had just been sitting in silence on a log, probably locked away in their thoughts ever since Stanford. Dean watches them for another moment, but they are so misplaced they barely notice him there. Seriously what was going inside those heads of theirs?

"Either of you wanna tell me what's going on in those freaky heads of yours?" he went to inquire gently with a frown crouching before them.

"Dean-"

Dean cut Sam off before he could continue talking, "No, you're not fine, neither of you," he glanced between them both with concern, "You're both like powder kegs, guys. It's not like you. I'm supposed to be the belligerent one, remember?"

There's a brief pause as they sat in silence before Sam dared to speak what was probably both on his and Harriet's minds, "Dad's not here. I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sign, right?"

"Yeah, you're probably right," Dean admits with a sigh and nods, "Tell you the truth, I don't think Dad's ever been to Lost Creek."

But this only seemed to have worried the twins all the more as Harriet severely whispered, but still trying to hide their conversation from the others, "Then let's get these people back to town and let's hit the road, " it surprisingly reminds Dean, that Harry and Sam weren't the same as he remembered from their childhood. Maybe Stanford changed them; perhaps it was also Jessica, but they're not the same. That much Dean knew for sure, "Go find Dad. I mean, why are we still even here?"

He carefully thought on how to answer this for a moment before moving to sit across from the twins and pulled their father's journal out, "This is why," holding it out to them, "This book. This is Dad's single most valuable possession-everything 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, " Dean concluded, "You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business."

Sam shook his head, and Harriet rolled her eyes, both of them feeling equally disappointed as Sam now spoke, "That makes no sense. Why doesn't he-call us? Why doesn't he-tell us what he wants, tell us where he is?"

"I dunno. But the way I see it, Dad's giving us a job to do, and I intend to do it."

"Dean...no. We have to find Dad. We have to find Jessica's killer. It's the only thing Sam, and I can think about," as Harriet spoke in desperation, all Dean could see was nothing but emptiness in his sibling's eyes the very same night Jessica had died. Sam goes to wrap an arm around her and pulls her into his side.

"Okay," Dean reassured, "All right, we'll find them, I promise. Listen to me. You have to prepare yourself. I mean, this search could take a while, and all that anger, you can't keep it burning over the long haul. It's going to kill you," Dean stares directly at them, both putting some emphasis on his words, "You gotta have patience, dudes."

Sam looked down at his feet, then up and shook his in disbelief head as Harriet buried herself into his chest, "How do you do it? How does Dad do it?"

The eldest Winchester took a moment to glance over at where Haley and Ben sat gathered beside the fire for warmth as he replied, "Well for one, them," he sees the twins both gazing in the direction he was as he continued to speak, "I mean, I figure our family's so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable," there's a brief pause just as Dean finally added to his statement, "I'll tell you what else helps. Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can."

Both of them smile in return at his assertion, but the moment gets cut short by the loud snapping of a twig in the dark shadows surrounding the campsite as a voice suddenly cries out, "Help me! Please!"

All three Winchesters jumped to their feet as Dean pulled out his gun while Sam clicked on his flashlight, shining it around as everyone scanned the woods. Harriet, on the other hand, stayed beside her older brother, but neither of them found anything.

"Help!"

"He's trying to draw us out. Just stay calm, stay put, " Dean announced.

"Inside the magic circle?" Roy asked mockingly just when the female Winchester was about to turn and say something only to be interrupted by another outburst from the Wendigo, reminding her there were more important things to worry about right now than her having it out with Roy.

"Help! Help me!"

Suddenly they all heard a growling noise erupt from within the darkness, and just as Harriet heard Roy comment, "Okay, that's no grizzly."

Dean stands beside Roy as they point their guns towards the noise and begin tracking it around the outside of the campsite as it moves. Harriet had since gone over towards Haley and Ben to protect them while keeping them calm and watching on them as she, too, looked out for the wendigo. Haley sat beside her little brother and told him reassuringly, "It's okay. You'll be all right, I promise."

Suddenly something flashes past, making Haley shriek and fall over just as Sam cries out, "It's here," Harriet's heart was pounding from within her chest as she stood before the pair on the ground as Roy took some shots into rustling bushes.

Being relatively successful with his next round letting out a triumphant yell as the creature screeched, "I hit it!"

Honest to God all three Winchesters wanted to slap him. Only for not to even give them a second glance went running out of the circle going to where he had shot the creature.

"Roy, no! Roy!" Dean yells after him before glancing back at Haley and Ben, "Harry, you stay here with them. Don't leave this spot."

Harriet, who was currently grasping a stick burning on one end in the form of a weapon, nodded hurriedly in understanding, watching as her brothers dashed into the woods searching for Roy.

She didn't move an inch, trying her best to keep Ben and Haley reassured, "Everything's going to be okay, guys. Her eyes nervously kept darting about the woods surrounding them as she awaited the return of her brother and Roy.

It had seemed like hours had passed when it was only likely to have been a couple of minutes when a sudden rustling in the bushes nearby alerted Harriet. Quickly whirling around towards the noise, the stick tightly grasped in her hands, praying to God it wasn't the Wendigo.

But thankfully, it was her brothers and offered them a questioning gaze when Roy hadn't appeared from behind them. Dean only shook his head in return and dropped her head that Roy hadn't made it. Of course, he had been annoying on the verge of her wanting almost to punch him, but she never wanted him to die.

Knowing there was nothing else they could do, the group settle down to wait out the night. Harriet came to lean with Sam against a hollowed-out tree stump as she now leaned against him, head resting on his shoulder.

The night felt like one of the longest in Sam and Harriet's lives until morning came. With a yawn of exhaustion, the female Winchester rubbed her eyes. To see her twin was still the same position he'd been in from last night. The almost dark circles under his eyes told her he had hardly slept much either. Sam had their father's journal in his grasp, playing with the bracelet hanging off it. Across the way, Dean was examining a tree with claw marks.

In doing so, she stood up and gave another yawn looking down at Sam with a small smile and squeezing his shoulder gently.

Now approaching just as she heard Haley pointing out with disbelief from where she sat with her brother Ben, "I don't...I mean, these types of things, they aren't supposed to be real."

"I wish I could tell you differently," Dean returned simply with a sigh.

"How do we know it's not out there watching us?" Haley now warily inquiries.

"We don't, " Dean assured with a shrug, "But we're safe for now."

"How do you know about this stuff?"

There's a drawn-out pause as the answer is carefully considered by Dean, only for the younger Winchester to reply sheepishly with a subtle smirk, "It kind of runs in the family."

Sam now comes over to stand beside his twin to announce just as Haley stood up, "Hey. So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I, for one, want to kill this evil son of a bitch."

"Oh, I wanna kill the son of a bitch about too," Harriet offered with a determined smile before she and Sam gave Dean a pointed look because it seemed they were finally taking their older brothers advice to heart, knowing that he was trying his best to help them get through such a difficult time.

Which Dean can't help but notice as he grinned and proclaimed, "Well, hell, you know I'm in."

He now nodded and smiled just as Sam passed their father's journal to her and opened up the page about wendigos to Ben and Haley, starting to explain, "'Wendigo' is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours.'"

Dean comes to join in on the lesson, "They're hundreds of years old. Each one was once a man. Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter," strolling past, he grabs a couple of things off the forest floor. He begins to assemble a weapon to use against the wendigo.

"How's a man turn into one of those things?" Harriet notices Haley shudder before asking.

"It's always been the same story. 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," Harriet chimes in.

"Like the Donner Party," Ben added in a comment.

Sam nodded, "Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities."

"Speed, strength, immortality," Harriet listed off her fingers.

"If you eat enough of it, over the years, you become this less than a human thing. You're always hungry," Dean elaborated further.

The family's little speech only concerned Haley all the more as she asked, "So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?"

All three Winchesters shared a look for a moment before Dean turned back to admit with a slight grimace, "You're not gonna like it."

"Tell me," Haley strongly insisted, and Harriet could help but admire her resilience. She was starting to take this situation very well, only not having long been introduced to the supernatural world.

"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, it keeps its victims alive. It, uh, stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother's alive, it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden, and safe. We gotta track it back there," Harriet concluded, noticing that Haley was now a little green but knew she was taking it in her stride. As for Ben, she wasn't so sure.

"And then how do we stop it?" Haley finally asked.

"Well, guns are useless, so are knives. Basically..." Dean now holds up a can of lighter fluid, a beer bottle, and a white cloth, "We gotta torch the sucker."

-*-

They now make way through the woods, with Dean taking the lead as he held onto the homemade Molotov cocktail, following a trail of broken branches and bloody claw marks in the trees. After a while, Sam, along with Harriet, took the lead to scout the area more until they both sensed something wasn't right as they both now called after their brother peering up at the forest canopy, "Dean."

"What is it?" Dean comes jogging up to them as he notices what his siblings are looking at-tipping his head to take note of the long bloody claw marks on every tree surrounding them.

"Something about this just doesn't feel right..." Harriet voiced slowly with concern.

Sam nodded in agreement with her before whispering, "You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow."

Harry glanced at him nervously, "You're not thinking the..." but a loud growl interrupted her as they carefully backed up in search of it. When the female Winchester sees a drop of blood land on Haley's shirt, only for her to have realized it as well and they glanced up, rolling out just in time for Roy's dead body to fall as Haley now screamed.

Dean examined Roy's body as Sam went to help Haley back to her feet, asking, "You okay?" She nods, "You got it?" he now directed at Dean.

"His neck's broke." Just as Haley was back on her feet, another growl came from nearby. "Okay, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!"

They all take off, sprinting through the forest. Dean, being the fastest, was further ahead in front with his sister and Haley right behind, with Sam and Ben not far behind.

Harriet hears Ben falling over from behind and goes to help him when her twin calls to her, "Harry, keep going. I've got him!"

She didn't hesitate for another moment and kept running, following after Haley, who was in front. There was adrenaline coursing through her veins to give that much-needed energy pushing her body as much as it would allow. Sprinting was something she sucked at and could already feel her lungs starting to burn, not sure how much she could keep the pace.

She began to fall behind, noting that her brother and Haley were much fitter than her. Also, it had been a while since she ran from or chased after monsters. Of course, she went for the occasional jog with Sam when they were at college but always gave up halfway through. Maybe it was time to get more training in her daily routine once they ganked this son of a bitch. Gave her that determination and a new burst of speed.

Checking behind to see if her brother had gotten Ben was her failure. Turning back again, she notices a log blocking her path. Only that it was too late to avert it, and with all her might, Harriet leaps over but with her legs being too tired to give her enough height to get over. Her legs catch the log tearing a massive hole in her tights, and her face plants into the ground with a shriek as she lands to knock the air out of her lungs.

From hearing the yell, Harry sees Haley running back towards her coming to help her up from where she currently lay while struggling to breathe, trying to tell the woman to keep going and leave her. There's a sudden growling from behind them that was way too close for their liking, and the last thing Harriet remembered was Haley screaming and sharp pain on the back of her head to be enveloped by darkness suddenly.

-*-

The feeling of hands tightly grasping her shoulders and violently shaking Harriet was what brought her back into the realm of consciousness. She moaned in agitation from the throbbing pain of her sore head as she became more aware of her surroundings, hearing the echoes of her name being called over and over frantically but that of her brothers.

"Harry! Come on. Harry, wake up!"

With another wince from the pain in her head, Harriet slowly peeled open her eyes to the image before her. Sam's face was swimming before her, now realizing it was him that had been calling and shaking her about not only that she's also hanging from a ceiling by her wrists, a rather painful position to be in.

"Hey, hey, stay with me! You doing okay?" Sam gave his sister another shake just as her eyes began slipping closed again.

"Yeah, I'll be just peachy when you stop shaking me," she sassed back groggily.

"Right, I'm going to cut you down," Sam reaches up, cutting the binding around his sister's wrists, and she immediately falls onto the floor, unable to stand up. But thankfully, Sam catches her in time before she hits the ground but lets out a small groan of pain as his arms wound around her sore ribs and now feeling the delightful ache of blood rushing back into her arms hits her. Sam lets his sister lean against his side, wraps her arm around his shoulders, and starts to walk half, half carry her forwards.

Yet they only had just managed a couple of steps before Harriet's legs gave way from underneath her again, refusing to hold her weight. Sam was now gently guiding his sister to sit on the ground, lean against the wall, and give herself a moment to absorb in her surroundings.

It looked like a cave system, possibly an abandoned mine shaft, Harriet thought, from only a few rays of sunlight peeking through the ceiling. Beside her, she sees Ben helping his sister Haley and is relieved she is still alive, yet felt relatively guilty that she's the very reason Haley had also gotten caught.

"Harry! You okay?" she turned towards the panicked voice of her older brother, who's hurrying towards her to where he'd been standing guard as Sam had cut her down. Dean crouches down beside his younger sister, who makes pained noises as he unravels the ropes from around her wrists and begins rubbing them to bring back the blood flow.

She grimaces and declares with a slightly pained voice, "Oh, I'm great. Where's that son of bitch of a wendigo got to?"

"He's gone for now," Sam replied to his sister while Dean couldn't help but still look at his sister with nothing but concern.

"Tommy..." Haley cries out from beside the Winchester's, and the female Winchester turns her gaze towards the decrepit ceiling she had gotten cut down from. Harriet had to figure it must be Haley's brother; she tried getting up, wanting to help, watching as Haley, assisted by Ben, limped towards her brother.

Dean lightly pushed his sister back, telling her seriously, "Hey, cool it for a moment, Harry. Sam will go and help."

With a heavy sigh of defeat, Harriet leaned back against the wall and could nothing but watch her twin go over to Haley, who was shaking her brother Tom and desperately sobbing. Her hand trembled as she touched his cheek, and suddenly Tommy gasped and jerked his head, causing Haley to jump back with a shriek. To then quickly regroup herself and hold onto him, glancing in Sam's direction, "Cut him down!"

While Sam was occupied with freeing Tommy, Harriet spotted something to the right of her vision and noticed all the stolen backpacks and camping supplies all piled up in the corner beside her. She quickly gives her older brother a nudge, "Dean, look!"

Both siblings quickly began scavenging through the pile, searching for anything to help. Harriet sees her older brother grinning triumphantly as he pulls out two flare guns from one of the bags.

"Awesome!" he exclaimed with satisfaction before placing them on the floor and turning to check on his sister, "You feeling any better, Harry?"

"A little better, can you help me up?" with Dean's assistance and using the wall for leverage, Harriet manages to stand back upright without any support even though her head was still spinning just for a moment. Once Dean knew for sure his sister was stable enough to stand, he grabbed the flare guns and hollered out to Sam, who was still helping the others.

"Check it out," Dean smirked, showing Sam the guns.

"Flare guns. Those'll work," Sam returned with a grin as Dean twirled both guns theatrically with his hands which Harriet couldn't help roll her eyes in disbelief.

With everyone now standing up, they slowly progressed down the tunnel and towards the surface. Ben and Haley were helping their brother Tommy walk while Sam hovered behind just in case they needed any more help. Harriet trudges along in front of them and just behind her big brother, who had offered his support to walk but is stubborn as she is refused despite the struggle of her staying upright and moving. Not wanting herself to be any more of a burden on Dean as it was already, besides, she and her brothers are the only protection these people have for them to be free if the wendigo returns.

And as if right on cue, a loud growl echoed throughout the tunnels of the mine just as Dean comments, "Looks like someone's home for supper."

"We'll never outrun it," Haley muttered with uncertainty.

The three Winchesters exchanged glances trying to consider what to do before Dean goes to the question, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah, I think so, " Sam replied.

"Most likely, yeah," Harriet added, she and Sam now glancing in Haley, Ben, and Tommy's direction to make sure they will follow along with the plan they have in mind.

Dean now turns to Haley and Ben, "All right, listen to me. Stay with Sam and Harry. They're going to get you out of here."

"What are you gonna do?" Haley asked Dean with worry.

With that, Dean just winked at her and began walking away down the tunnel, yelling, "Chow time, you freaky bastard! Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby; I'm feeling good!"

Harriet chuckles from what he said, only to wince in pain from her injuries. Sam taking notice of this, puts an arm around his sister's waist, which lets him support her weight-returning a grateful smile.

It was now hard to make out what Dean was yelling anymore, but Sam waited until he was a safe enough distance from everyone, "All right, come on! Hurry!" Sam rushes them down a different tunnel. He leads the way through mazes of tunnels, flares gun in his grasp with Harriet now walking behind feeling a little more steady on her feet kept watch of the family behind.

They were going at a steady pace when finally reaching an intersection not far from the exit before there was another growl once again. Sam aims his gun in the direction of the noise briefly to lower it and turns to face his sister.

"Get them out of here," she orders sternly to his twin.

"No, Sam, I'm not leaving you here by yourself," Harriet protested.

"Go! Go! Go!" Sam yelled back, gesturing for them to evacuate only, but Harriet still stayed.

Now deciding to move, she feels Haley tug on her shirt sleeve and whimper, "Harriet, come on! We have to go."

In doing so, the young Winchester leads them further down the tunnel, scrambling them along hastily as they would go. Yet they hadn't managed to get very far when the sound of a gun being fired further in the tunnels behind them.

Fearing the worst, sensing that Sam was in mortal danger, Harriet whipped herself around in panic and cried out, "Sam!"

She instantly sees her twin's outline jogging towards them to catch up. When he finally does, Sam urges them to move even faster, "Come on, hurry, hurry, hurry," the female Winchester hears more growling of the wendigo that was right on their tails chasing them through the tunnels. But the growling seemed to be getting much closer soon as they turned the corner and hit a dead end.

"Damn it!" Sam cried out, eyes searching for a different path, but it was too late to do anything. The wendigo has already turned the corner, now no less than 50 feet from them.

The Collins huddled together beside the twins in fear, and Harry knew they were undoubtedly done for as she now instructed, "Get behind us."

Harriet and Sam stood guard in front of the family, arms stretched out protectively for a boundary between them and the monster before them. The wendigo has seemed to realize they are trapped and takes its time stalking towards them as it growls at them once again. Even though it was dark within the tunnel, Harriet could make out the grotesque creature's features of its leathery skin and its human but not so human-like appearance.

"Hey!" her older brothers yell, interrupting her examination of the wendigo as it turns to face Dean. Now confronting him, Dean fires the flare gun straight into the monster's stomach, causing it to catch fire instantly, and the wendigo goes up into flames as it screeches in agony. Harriet couldn't help but be grossly fascinated, watching as its flesh slowly melted away before dropping down dead into a pile still burning.

"Not bad, huh?" Dean offered cockily. Harriet and Sam couldn't help but grin at their big brother for a moment, both glad that he was okay that everyone was OK.

The female Winchester now walked up to him and stated to him, playfully hitting his arm, "Yeah, not bad for a loser."

-*-

Harry sat patiently waiting on the bed inside the ambulance as the paramedics finished fixing her up. Thankfully she hadn't sustained any significant injuries, only a few cuts, scrapes, and a few bruises. But she couldn't help but overhear the brief conversation her older brother was having with Haley.

"So I don't know how to thank you," she heard Haley say and peered to have a look at them, her older staring at the woman with nothing but intent, making not only her roll her eyes but Haley as well, who also smiled despite herself, "Must you cheapen the moment?"

"Yeah."

"You are riding with your brothers?" Harriet hears one of the paramedics ask Haley and knows that it was her and her brother's cue to go as well.

"Yeah," Harriet gently hopped down, watching as Haley draped a comforting arm around Ben's shoulders, "Let's go."

Sam sits on the Impala's hood with Ben giving him a slight nod. The female Winchester spots Haley kissing Dean on the cheek and can't help but wolf whistle at them and turn around, giving her a look as they now come towards them. Sam is covering up his laughter with a cough.

Haley turns to Harriet and smiles, "I hope you find your father," she could see the pity in Haley's eyes but returned a grateful smile.

"Yeah, I do too," Harriet returned honestly.

"Thanks, guys," Haley confessed before going to put her arm back around Ben's shoulders and walk towards the waiting ambulance Tommy was getting loaded into.

Harriet nodded in response before hopping up to sit on the hood between her brothers. Watching on in silence as the ambulance doors closed shut as the Collins family was taken off to the hospital.

"Man, I hate camping," Dean remarks.

"Me too," Sam and Harriet returned in unison.

There were another few moments of drawn-out silence all three siblings lost in their thoughts
before Dean told his younger siblings, who nod their heads."You guys know we're going to find Dad, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Harriet paused with a sigh to then slyly remark with a grin as she hopped off the Impala's hood, "But in the meantime? I'm driving."

Dean considered this for a moment before letting out a sigh of defeat tossed the car keys for his sister to catch before he got off the hood going towards the passenger's side. Harriet saw the keys with a thankful smile and wandered over to the driver's side. It honestly surprised Sam that after all these years, Dean was letting their sister have a go of driving the Impala for the very first time in her life.

Graphic by Winter326