Post by Silwyna on May 17, 2009 14:14:41 GMT 1
Many thanks to Yor for beta reading
Chapter 8
Impatiently, Dean waited for the other hunter to pick up his phone. After the sixth ring his call was finally answered.
“Caleb, I need your help.”
“Dean? What’s wrong? Where are you?” Caleb Reaves, seasoned hunter and one of the few friends John Winchester hadn’t scared off yet, asked worried. He knew that the Winchesters had been held in a town due to the blocked road, but the last time he had talked to John, everything had been all right. Dean’s tone of voice told him otherwise now.
“We’re still in Rosehill. Dad and Sam are trapped.” Dean quickly explained to Caleb what had happened.
“Oh man, that’s … I’m sorry, Dean.” Caleb said; his voice filled with grief.
Dean wanted to punch him. “They’re not dead yet, Reaves.”
"No, of course not." Caleb replied quickly. "You read about it all the time. They dig out people days after they’ve been trapped and they’re still alive. They survive on rain water and ...”
"Dude, shut up and listen!" Dean interrupted him irritated. "There’s something else."
"Something?" Caleb asked and the tone of his voice told Dean he was back to full hunter mode. Something almost never meant anything good in their world.
"There’s this woman, she works ... worked at the hotel. A few years ago she followed some guy into these tunnels that are everywhere under the town, only apparently no one knows about them. The guy gets snatched by some dwarf-like creatures, gets pinned to a cross and tubes stuck in his skin. That’s all she saw before she ran." Dean finished what Amy had told him earlier.
"She’s a lucky girl." Caleb said thoughtfully.
"Yeah. Sam also found out people have been disappearing in the area; it could be connected." Dean went on, swallowing down the guilt over not really caring before about what his brother had told him. "Look, I know it sounds crazy, but she seems legit. I believe her."
"So do I." Caleb said without hesitation.
Dean stared at his phone. Caleb Reaves usually didn’t believe anything without doing tons of research on the matter – for a hunter he was a pretty big skeptic.
"Okay, good." Dean eventually said. "Have you heard of this before?"
"I have, yes. My old man took care of something like it years ago. I thought he got them all, but some must have gotten away. Or maybe it’s another tribe. I didn’t know it was still going on. Damn!"
Dean heard something being punched through the phone. "Caleb?"
"This has been going on right in my neighborhood and I didn’t notice. How many people have disappeared in the last twenty years?"
"You’ll have to ask Sammy. He never got around to telling me." Again the guilt welled up in Dean. "What do you know?"
"They’re called Redcaps and they do look like dwarfs. They first appeared in England in medieval times, living in old ..."
"I don’t need a history lesson, Reaves. How do I kill them?"
"Legend has it that you have to remove their hats. They color it with human blood and it’s supposed to give them magic strength and ..."
"Caleb!"
"Beheading." Caleb answered quickly. "You chop off their heads and they’re gone. With or without their bloody caps."
“Sounds easy enough.” Dean said relieved. After fending off a bunch of vampires the other week, dwarves shouldn’t be a problem.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. They’re fast… And strong. There’s a pretty good chance they get to you before you even see them.” Caleb warned him.
Dean stayed quiet for a moment. “I’ll have to try, Caleb.”
“Yeah, I know. Listen, don’t go into the tunnels alone. I can be with you in three, four hours. Six tops, if the roads are still blocked … I’ll find a way.” He added.
Dean shook his head, even though Caleb couldn’t see it. “I can’t wait that long, Caleb. They might not have that long.”
This time it was Caleb who stayed quiet for a moment. “Okay, fine.” He sighed. “There is a spell you could use.”
Dean raised a brow. “A spell for what?”
“To get rid of the Redcaps, what else?” Caleb replied irritated.
Again Dean felt the urge to punch him. “And you mention this just now? After the beheading?”
Caleb shrugged. “You know me. I don’t think too much of all this magic mumbo jumbo. But I know your Dad taught you enough about it, so if you wanna try …”
“Yeah, I wanna try. Tell me what I need …”
“So, your Dad … he seems to know what he’s doing.” Ben said.
“Ex-Marine.” Sam replied. That usually explained everything.
Ben nodded knowingly. “My uncle was in the Marines too.”
“Really.” Sam let the flashlight roam the room they were in, looking for anything that might look like an entrance to the tunnels.
“You two don’t get along too well, do you?”
Sam raised a brow, but refrained from replying.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry … I had issues with my dad too.” Ben said thoughtfully.
“Uh huh …” Sam knocked on a wall, hoping to find something. He didn’t.
“I can understand you didn’t want to go with him. You need to get away from your parents, even in situations like these.” Ben went on.
Sam sighed. “That’s not … whatever.” He waved his hand through the air and turned to leave the room. They weren’t going to find a tunnel in here. “Let’s check the next room.”
A crashing sound from the other side of the hall made him stop in his tracks.
“What now!” He groaned. “Dad?”
When he didn’t get a reply, he started limping down the hall as fast as he could, cursing his injuries which made it impossible to run. “Dad!”
He heard Ben coming along behind him, stumbling over the debris, now that Sam wasn’t there to light the way for him.
“Dad? Whoa!” Sam saw the hole at the last second, coming to a sudden stop just in front of the edge. His arms flailed in the air as he tried to keep his balance. A hand pulled him back, keeping him from falling down.
“You okay?” Ben’s worried voice asked from behind.
Sam didn’t hear him. He leaned forward again and let the beam of the flashlight brighten the hole, searching the ground for his father. “Dad?”
“I’m here.” A familiar growl answered from the darkness.
“You all right?”
“I’m fine.” John groaned. Slowly, he pulled himself to a sitting position.
“I’m coming down.” Sam said, already trying to find a way down.
“Where’s Roberta?” Ben suddenly asked.
Sam turned to him, wincing at the movement. Running hadn’t helped with his ribs. Passing out would be great right about now, but he couldn’t afford that luxury. Gritting his teeth, he forced the pain to the back of his mind, hoping he could ignore it long enough for them to find a way out of here.
“Shouldn’t we have passed her on the way here?” Ben went on, looking worried at him.
“Damn.” Sam cursed. “Roberta?” He called loudly.
No reply.
Sam searched the hall with the flashlight, but there was no sign of the older woman. “Where the hell did she go?”
“Sam, what’s going on?” John called from downstairs.
“She’s gone, Dad. Roberta …” Sam looked down at his father, shrugging his shoulders helplessly.
“I think I heard her screaming, right before the ground gave out.” John said. “I found the tunnels!”
“Screaming?” Sam asked.
“The tunnels?” Ben cut in.
“Sam, check the area, maybe I’m not the only one who fell.”
Sam nodded and immediately started to search.
“What about me?” Ben asked.
“You help me out.” John growled.
Five minutes later John had crawled out of the hole and Sam had finished his search.
“She’s gone. This is all I found.” He said, holding up a single shoe. “Could it be hers? I didn’t find any…” He cleared his throat, looking clearly uncomfortable. “… anyone it could belong to.”
“Yeah, you’d think there would be more bodies down here.” John said thoughtfully.
“Maybe there were and now they’re gone.” Sam added gloomily. “Like Roberta.”
“That’s insane, people just don’t disappear like that.” Ben called out. He held out his hand. “Give me the flashlight, I’ll look again.”
Sam and John exchanged a glance.
“We all look, together.” John said. “Room for room. If she’s still here, we’ll find her.”
“Of course she’s still here.” Ben said. “There’s no where to go!”
Both John and Sam’s eyes immediately went down the hole and to the tunnels hiding in the darkness.
“You always have to be right, don’t you?” John grumbled.
“Damn it!” Chris Adams cursed as half the wall came down in front of him. Quickly, he jumped back, barely escaping the falling debris. He had been trying to find a way upstairs – with little luck.
“You’re gonna get yourself killed, Chris.” Stan said quietly. He sat a few feet away, massaging his bruised ankle. He had tripped and lost his footing when the stairs had collapsed. Chris had then ordered him to sit down and not get up until they found a way out – leaving the work to himself and Eddie.
“We’ll get killed the longer we stay here. You know this building isn’t gonna hold forever.” Chris argued.
“The others will find a way to get us out.”
“Who knows if they’re even still looking.” Chris sighed, giving the wall of debris a last frustrated glance before he joined Stan on the ground. “Where’s Eddie? It can’t take that long to check the rooms for survivors.”
“Knowing Eddie, he already started digging his way out through one of the windows.” Stan grinned.
Chris laughed. “Yeah, sounds like him. Still … I better go look for him.”
“Do that.” Stan sighed. “I’ll wait here for you.”
Ten minutes later Chris returned, a worried expression on his face. “I can’t find him.”
“What? That can’t be.” Stan replied astounded. “He has to be here somewhere.”
“He’s not.” Chris shook his head. “I don’t get it. There’s no way out. God knows we checked everything!”
“Let’s check again.” Stan said. With the help of Chris, he got up from the floor and together they started the search for their co-worker and friend.
Despite their combined search, Sam, John and Ben weren’t able to find Roberta. After searching everything twice, they finally had to give up.
“I don’t get this.” Ben said for the hundredth time. “Where is she? It’s like she just disappeared into nothing.”
“Wherever she is, we don’t have the time to search for her any longer.” John said gloomily.
Sam could see how much his father hated having to say it. He felt the same. They usually didn’t just abandon someone and left.
As it were though, they had no other choice. They didn’t know how long the building would stand and neither of them wanted to be here when it fully collapsed.
Together, they climbed down the hole where John had found an entrance to the tunnels. Sam needed his father’s help as his broken ribs protested against the extra strain. When his feet hit the ground, his vision blurred and he was breathing heavily, every breath sending spikes of pain through his body. His father’s hands steadying him were the only thing keeping him up.
“Just breath through it, Sammy.” His father said calmly.
Sam did, despite the pain, and after a few moments his vision cleared and the pain subsided. He hoped dearly they wouldn’t have to do much more climbing before getting out.
“I’ll be damned.” Ben said as he stared at the tunnel. “You were right.”
Sam gave him a pointed look, but refrained from replying. John couldn’t help but grin – he had seen this look too many times; it was nice not having it directed his way.
“You okay?” He asked, motioning at his son’s ribs.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Sam replied.
“Good. Here.” John handed him a gun, then turned to Ben. “You know how to handle these?”
“Y-yeah … why?” Ben asked confused.
“Just in case. Anything comes near you, shoot."
Sam shook his head in astonishment. “How many of those do you carry?"
"Not enough." John growled. "Let’s go."
John went ahead and climbed through the hole. Sam went to follow him, but Ben held him back.
"Who does he think we’re going to run into in there?" He asked worried.
“Not who … what. Don’t worry …” Sam tried to calm him. “It’s just a precaution. As long as we don’t know what happened to Roberta, it can’t hurt to be careful.
Ben looked doubtfully at the weapon in his hand. “What if I miss?”
Sam shrugged. “You keep shooting.” With that, he turned and followed his father into the tunnel.
They had walked through the tunnel for almost half an hour when they reached a crossing – and found something.
“There!” John pointed at something on the ground. “A trail, it looks like someone was dragged.”
“Roberta.” Ben whispered.
Sam narrowed his eyes as he tried to recognize the trail his father was pointing at. He saw several small foot steps next to it – too small for grown men.
“What do you think?” He asked.
“I don’t like it. Let’s go.”
They had no trouble following the trail. After a while, Sam was convinced that they had to be close. He could smell the scent of blood everywhere and the ground was scattered with bones.
“What do you think is going on here?” Sam asked quietly.
John shrugged. “Hard to say with nothing to go on.”
Sam raised a brow. “I’d say tunnels filled with bones is something. A Wendigo’s lair maybe?”
John frowned at his son. “What bones?”
“They’re everywhere.” Sam replied, slightly confused. It wasn’t like his father to miss such details. “You pointed the flashlight at them several times.”
John searched the ground more thoroughly as the flashlight danced around in the darkness.
“See?” Sam pointed at a spot near the wall. “It looks like a human skull.”
John stared at the spot the flashlight lighted. “Sam, there’s nothing but dirt.”
“But, its right …” Realization hit him and Sam closed his eyes for a moment, groaning. “It’s happening again.” He cast a desperate glance at his father. “Dad …”
John grabbed his son’s arm at the same time as a blinding pain exploded in Sam’s skull. Doubling over, he pressed his fists against his temples, his legs sagging away. He was barely aware that he was lowered to the ground and propped up against a wall.
“Sam? Sam!”
“What’s wrong with him?”
Sam blinked, trying to look through the haze that obscured his vision. He saw a blurry version of his father in front of him, saw his lips moving, but he couldn’t hear his voice, let alone understand the words he was saying. He felt his father’s hands on his arms, stroking his head, running his fingers through his hair and around his face. He tried to focus on what was real – his father, his father was. Not the blood he could still smell or the bones that lay scattered on the floor. He kept his eyes focused on his father’s face, forcing his eyes to stay open even though the little bit of light the flashlight offered made the pain in his head even worse. He concentrated on the words his father was saying and at some point they were starting to make sense.
“That’s it, Sammy. Breathe through the pain.”
Sam nodded, wincing at the small motion. He tried to follow his father’s order. It had worked before. Breathe … he could do that. He just had to keep breathing.
While he concentrated on filling his lungs with air, he could swear he heard footsteps coming closer, but over the rushing in his ears it was hard to tell if it was real. A wave of nausea rolled over him and he struggled hard to stay conscious, trying to stay focused on his father.
And then the hands that had been holding him upright were gone and Sam felt the world tilting to the side, his shoulder hitting the ground. He wanted to call for his father, but couldn’t find the right words. It seemed almost impossible to even have a clear thought.
Even through the foggy haze in his brain though, he recognized the gunshots that suddenly rang loudly in his ears. He tried to force himself to get up, but he hadn’t even lifted his head more than an inch, when his whole body exploded in pain. He felt blows coming down on him, hard and painful, over and over again. He raised his arms to protect his head, not able to do anything to defend himself.
In less than a minute, unconsciousness claimed him and he succumbed to the darkness, almost grateful to escape the pain.
TBC
Chapter 8
Impatiently, Dean waited for the other hunter to pick up his phone. After the sixth ring his call was finally answered.
“Caleb, I need your help.”
“Dean? What’s wrong? Where are you?” Caleb Reaves, seasoned hunter and one of the few friends John Winchester hadn’t scared off yet, asked worried. He knew that the Winchesters had been held in a town due to the blocked road, but the last time he had talked to John, everything had been all right. Dean’s tone of voice told him otherwise now.
“We’re still in Rosehill. Dad and Sam are trapped.” Dean quickly explained to Caleb what had happened.
“Oh man, that’s … I’m sorry, Dean.” Caleb said; his voice filled with grief.
Dean wanted to punch him. “They’re not dead yet, Reaves.”
"No, of course not." Caleb replied quickly. "You read about it all the time. They dig out people days after they’ve been trapped and they’re still alive. They survive on rain water and ...”
"Dude, shut up and listen!" Dean interrupted him irritated. "There’s something else."
"Something?" Caleb asked and the tone of his voice told Dean he was back to full hunter mode. Something almost never meant anything good in their world.
"There’s this woman, she works ... worked at the hotel. A few years ago she followed some guy into these tunnels that are everywhere under the town, only apparently no one knows about them. The guy gets snatched by some dwarf-like creatures, gets pinned to a cross and tubes stuck in his skin. That’s all she saw before she ran." Dean finished what Amy had told him earlier.
"She’s a lucky girl." Caleb said thoughtfully.
"Yeah. Sam also found out people have been disappearing in the area; it could be connected." Dean went on, swallowing down the guilt over not really caring before about what his brother had told him. "Look, I know it sounds crazy, but she seems legit. I believe her."
"So do I." Caleb said without hesitation.
Dean stared at his phone. Caleb Reaves usually didn’t believe anything without doing tons of research on the matter – for a hunter he was a pretty big skeptic.
"Okay, good." Dean eventually said. "Have you heard of this before?"
"I have, yes. My old man took care of something like it years ago. I thought he got them all, but some must have gotten away. Or maybe it’s another tribe. I didn’t know it was still going on. Damn!"
Dean heard something being punched through the phone. "Caleb?"
"This has been going on right in my neighborhood and I didn’t notice. How many people have disappeared in the last twenty years?"
"You’ll have to ask Sammy. He never got around to telling me." Again the guilt welled up in Dean. "What do you know?"
"They’re called Redcaps and they do look like dwarfs. They first appeared in England in medieval times, living in old ..."
"I don’t need a history lesson, Reaves. How do I kill them?"
"Legend has it that you have to remove their hats. They color it with human blood and it’s supposed to give them magic strength and ..."
"Caleb!"
"Beheading." Caleb answered quickly. "You chop off their heads and they’re gone. With or without their bloody caps."
“Sounds easy enough.” Dean said relieved. After fending off a bunch of vampires the other week, dwarves shouldn’t be a problem.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. They’re fast… And strong. There’s a pretty good chance they get to you before you even see them.” Caleb warned him.
Dean stayed quiet for a moment. “I’ll have to try, Caleb.”
“Yeah, I know. Listen, don’t go into the tunnels alone. I can be with you in three, four hours. Six tops, if the roads are still blocked … I’ll find a way.” He added.
Dean shook his head, even though Caleb couldn’t see it. “I can’t wait that long, Caleb. They might not have that long.”
This time it was Caleb who stayed quiet for a moment. “Okay, fine.” He sighed. “There is a spell you could use.”
Dean raised a brow. “A spell for what?”
“To get rid of the Redcaps, what else?” Caleb replied irritated.
Again Dean felt the urge to punch him. “And you mention this just now? After the beheading?”
Caleb shrugged. “You know me. I don’t think too much of all this magic mumbo jumbo. But I know your Dad taught you enough about it, so if you wanna try …”
“Yeah, I wanna try. Tell me what I need …”
---SPN---
“So, your Dad … he seems to know what he’s doing.” Ben said.
“Ex-Marine.” Sam replied. That usually explained everything.
Ben nodded knowingly. “My uncle was in the Marines too.”
“Really.” Sam let the flashlight roam the room they were in, looking for anything that might look like an entrance to the tunnels.
“You two don’t get along too well, do you?”
Sam raised a brow, but refrained from replying.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry … I had issues with my dad too.” Ben said thoughtfully.
“Uh huh …” Sam knocked on a wall, hoping to find something. He didn’t.
“I can understand you didn’t want to go with him. You need to get away from your parents, even in situations like these.” Ben went on.
Sam sighed. “That’s not … whatever.” He waved his hand through the air and turned to leave the room. They weren’t going to find a tunnel in here. “Let’s check the next room.”
A crashing sound from the other side of the hall made him stop in his tracks.
“What now!” He groaned. “Dad?”
When he didn’t get a reply, he started limping down the hall as fast as he could, cursing his injuries which made it impossible to run. “Dad!”
He heard Ben coming along behind him, stumbling over the debris, now that Sam wasn’t there to light the way for him.
“Dad? Whoa!” Sam saw the hole at the last second, coming to a sudden stop just in front of the edge. His arms flailed in the air as he tried to keep his balance. A hand pulled him back, keeping him from falling down.
“You okay?” Ben’s worried voice asked from behind.
Sam didn’t hear him. He leaned forward again and let the beam of the flashlight brighten the hole, searching the ground for his father. “Dad?”
“I’m here.” A familiar growl answered from the darkness.
“You all right?”
“I’m fine.” John groaned. Slowly, he pulled himself to a sitting position.
“I’m coming down.” Sam said, already trying to find a way down.
“Where’s Roberta?” Ben suddenly asked.
Sam turned to him, wincing at the movement. Running hadn’t helped with his ribs. Passing out would be great right about now, but he couldn’t afford that luxury. Gritting his teeth, he forced the pain to the back of his mind, hoping he could ignore it long enough for them to find a way out of here.
“Shouldn’t we have passed her on the way here?” Ben went on, looking worried at him.
“Damn.” Sam cursed. “Roberta?” He called loudly.
No reply.
Sam searched the hall with the flashlight, but there was no sign of the older woman. “Where the hell did she go?”
“Sam, what’s going on?” John called from downstairs.
“She’s gone, Dad. Roberta …” Sam looked down at his father, shrugging his shoulders helplessly.
“I think I heard her screaming, right before the ground gave out.” John said. “I found the tunnels!”
“Screaming?” Sam asked.
“The tunnels?” Ben cut in.
“Sam, check the area, maybe I’m not the only one who fell.”
Sam nodded and immediately started to search.
“What about me?” Ben asked.
“You help me out.” John growled.
Five minutes later John had crawled out of the hole and Sam had finished his search.
“She’s gone. This is all I found.” He said, holding up a single shoe. “Could it be hers? I didn’t find any…” He cleared his throat, looking clearly uncomfortable. “… anyone it could belong to.”
“Yeah, you’d think there would be more bodies down here.” John said thoughtfully.
“Maybe there were and now they’re gone.” Sam added gloomily. “Like Roberta.”
“That’s insane, people just don’t disappear like that.” Ben called out. He held out his hand. “Give me the flashlight, I’ll look again.”
Sam and John exchanged a glance.
“We all look, together.” John said. “Room for room. If she’s still here, we’ll find her.”
“Of course she’s still here.” Ben said. “There’s no where to go!”
Both John and Sam’s eyes immediately went down the hole and to the tunnels hiding in the darkness.
“You always have to be right, don’t you?” John grumbled.
---SPN---
“Damn it!” Chris Adams cursed as half the wall came down in front of him. Quickly, he jumped back, barely escaping the falling debris. He had been trying to find a way upstairs – with little luck.
“You’re gonna get yourself killed, Chris.” Stan said quietly. He sat a few feet away, massaging his bruised ankle. He had tripped and lost his footing when the stairs had collapsed. Chris had then ordered him to sit down and not get up until they found a way out – leaving the work to himself and Eddie.
“We’ll get killed the longer we stay here. You know this building isn’t gonna hold forever.” Chris argued.
“The others will find a way to get us out.”
“Who knows if they’re even still looking.” Chris sighed, giving the wall of debris a last frustrated glance before he joined Stan on the ground. “Where’s Eddie? It can’t take that long to check the rooms for survivors.”
“Knowing Eddie, he already started digging his way out through one of the windows.” Stan grinned.
Chris laughed. “Yeah, sounds like him. Still … I better go look for him.”
“Do that.” Stan sighed. “I’ll wait here for you.”
Ten minutes later Chris returned, a worried expression on his face. “I can’t find him.”
“What? That can’t be.” Stan replied astounded. “He has to be here somewhere.”
“He’s not.” Chris shook his head. “I don’t get it. There’s no way out. God knows we checked everything!”
“Let’s check again.” Stan said. With the help of Chris, he got up from the floor and together they started the search for their co-worker and friend.
---SPN---
Despite their combined search, Sam, John and Ben weren’t able to find Roberta. After searching everything twice, they finally had to give up.
“I don’t get this.” Ben said for the hundredth time. “Where is she? It’s like she just disappeared into nothing.”
“Wherever she is, we don’t have the time to search for her any longer.” John said gloomily.
Sam could see how much his father hated having to say it. He felt the same. They usually didn’t just abandon someone and left.
As it were though, they had no other choice. They didn’t know how long the building would stand and neither of them wanted to be here when it fully collapsed.
Together, they climbed down the hole where John had found an entrance to the tunnels. Sam needed his father’s help as his broken ribs protested against the extra strain. When his feet hit the ground, his vision blurred and he was breathing heavily, every breath sending spikes of pain through his body. His father’s hands steadying him were the only thing keeping him up.
“Just breath through it, Sammy.” His father said calmly.
Sam did, despite the pain, and after a few moments his vision cleared and the pain subsided. He hoped dearly they wouldn’t have to do much more climbing before getting out.
“I’ll be damned.” Ben said as he stared at the tunnel. “You were right.”
Sam gave him a pointed look, but refrained from replying. John couldn’t help but grin – he had seen this look too many times; it was nice not having it directed his way.
“You okay?” He asked, motioning at his son’s ribs.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Sam replied.
“Good. Here.” John handed him a gun, then turned to Ben. “You know how to handle these?”
“Y-yeah … why?” Ben asked confused.
“Just in case. Anything comes near you, shoot."
Sam shook his head in astonishment. “How many of those do you carry?"
"Not enough." John growled. "Let’s go."
John went ahead and climbed through the hole. Sam went to follow him, but Ben held him back.
"Who does he think we’re going to run into in there?" He asked worried.
“Not who … what. Don’t worry …” Sam tried to calm him. “It’s just a precaution. As long as we don’t know what happened to Roberta, it can’t hurt to be careful.
Ben looked doubtfully at the weapon in his hand. “What if I miss?”
Sam shrugged. “You keep shooting.” With that, he turned and followed his father into the tunnel.
---SPN---
They had walked through the tunnel for almost half an hour when they reached a crossing – and found something.
“There!” John pointed at something on the ground. “A trail, it looks like someone was dragged.”
“Roberta.” Ben whispered.
Sam narrowed his eyes as he tried to recognize the trail his father was pointing at. He saw several small foot steps next to it – too small for grown men.
“What do you think?” He asked.
“I don’t like it. Let’s go.”
They had no trouble following the trail. After a while, Sam was convinced that they had to be close. He could smell the scent of blood everywhere and the ground was scattered with bones.
“What do you think is going on here?” Sam asked quietly.
John shrugged. “Hard to say with nothing to go on.”
Sam raised a brow. “I’d say tunnels filled with bones is something. A Wendigo’s lair maybe?”
John frowned at his son. “What bones?”
“They’re everywhere.” Sam replied, slightly confused. It wasn’t like his father to miss such details. “You pointed the flashlight at them several times.”
John searched the ground more thoroughly as the flashlight danced around in the darkness.
“See?” Sam pointed at a spot near the wall. “It looks like a human skull.”
John stared at the spot the flashlight lighted. “Sam, there’s nothing but dirt.”
“But, its right …” Realization hit him and Sam closed his eyes for a moment, groaning. “It’s happening again.” He cast a desperate glance at his father. “Dad …”
John grabbed his son’s arm at the same time as a blinding pain exploded in Sam’s skull. Doubling over, he pressed his fists against his temples, his legs sagging away. He was barely aware that he was lowered to the ground and propped up against a wall.
“Sam? Sam!”
“What’s wrong with him?”
Sam blinked, trying to look through the haze that obscured his vision. He saw a blurry version of his father in front of him, saw his lips moving, but he couldn’t hear his voice, let alone understand the words he was saying. He felt his father’s hands on his arms, stroking his head, running his fingers through his hair and around his face. He tried to focus on what was real – his father, his father was. Not the blood he could still smell or the bones that lay scattered on the floor. He kept his eyes focused on his father’s face, forcing his eyes to stay open even though the little bit of light the flashlight offered made the pain in his head even worse. He concentrated on the words his father was saying and at some point they were starting to make sense.
“That’s it, Sammy. Breathe through the pain.”
Sam nodded, wincing at the small motion. He tried to follow his father’s order. It had worked before. Breathe … he could do that. He just had to keep breathing.
While he concentrated on filling his lungs with air, he could swear he heard footsteps coming closer, but over the rushing in his ears it was hard to tell if it was real. A wave of nausea rolled over him and he struggled hard to stay conscious, trying to stay focused on his father.
And then the hands that had been holding him upright were gone and Sam felt the world tilting to the side, his shoulder hitting the ground. He wanted to call for his father, but couldn’t find the right words. It seemed almost impossible to even have a clear thought.
Even through the foggy haze in his brain though, he recognized the gunshots that suddenly rang loudly in his ears. He tried to force himself to get up, but he hadn’t even lifted his head more than an inch, when his whole body exploded in pain. He felt blows coming down on him, hard and painful, over and over again. He raised his arms to protect his head, not able to do anything to defend himself.
In less than a minute, unconsciousness claimed him and he succumbed to the darkness, almost grateful to escape the pain.
TBC