Our Journey

07

The trio stood outside the house of Hailey Collins hearing voices and movement in the house, so they knew someone was home. Felix rocked back and forth on her heels gazing up at how modern and cute the house was. The sound of a door opening caught her attention,

"You must be Hailey Collins. I'm Felix, this is Dean and Sam. We're Rangers with the park service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over, we wanted to ask you some questions about your brother Tommy", she says seeing the girl check her out. Dean caught this and raised an eyebrow at her actions. Sam held in a laugh seeing his brother all worked up.

"Let me see some ID?", Hailey asked.

Felix pulls out her ID placing it up to where Hailey could see. Hailey glanced between them before pushing the screen door open,

"That yours?", Hailey spoke up seeing the impala. Dean nodded, " Yeah, well most times it's my girls but yeah", he said. Hailey smirked at Felix who smiled walking into the house.

Felix followed her into the dining area,

"So, if Tommy's not due back for a while. How do you know somethings wrong?", Sam questioned.

"He checks in every day by cell", Hailey responds by walking back to them with a bowl," He emails photos, stupid little videos. But we haven't heard anything in over three days now", she says to Sam.

"Well, maybe he can't get cell reception", Sam suggested.

"He's got a satellite photo, too", she dejected.

Dean leaned up against the wall behind Felix, " Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?', he suggested.

"He wouldn't do that", the younger brother speaks up dropping his fork. Dean looks at the boy in confusion and Ben turns away.

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

Sam nods, " Can I see the pictures he sent you?", he requested. Hailey nods and walked away followed by the trio who watches as she opens up a laptop, "that's Tommy", she points to a young dark-haired boy, " this is his last message", Hailey presses play on the video.

"Hey, Hailey. Day six. We're still out near Black Water Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow".

Sam's eyes furrowed as Felix leaned over not wanting to alert them that she saw something. It was some sort of shadow running past,

"We'll find your brother", Dean says to Hailey, "we're heading out to Black Water Ridge first thing", he nods. Felix stood up straight looking at Hailey, "Then maybe I'll see you there", she paused looking at them,

"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", she says.

Felix nodded, "I know how you feel", she stated feeling Dean's eyes on her.

Sam spoke up, " Hey, you mind forwarding these to me?", he asked.

"Sure", Hailey nods. Felix smiled gently as that was their cue to leave.

~~BAR~~

Felix looked around the bar, Down South Jukin plays. A man breaks a game of pool, and she sees a bear stuffed on the wall. A woman with a tight outfit on. She scrunched her face up at that,

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", he slides a notepad over to Dean.

"And before that?"

"Yeah. 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year", Sam hands the article to Dean, "Authorities said it was a grizzly attack. And again, in 1959, and again, before that, in 1936- -", he pulls open his laptop, "Every 23 years, just like clockwork...okay, watch this cause Felix caught this before I could", he said earning a smile from the girl.

"Here's the clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out", he hits the spacebar a few times watching the blurred thing moves past it.

Dean frowned, " Do it again", Dean tells him. He scrubs backward and hits the spacebar a few times, " That's three frames", he explains, "it's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move", Sam finished.

Dean smacked his shoulder, " I told you something weird was going on", he mused closing the laptop.

"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", Sam says.

"is there a name?"...

Dean suggested that he and Sam would go question the survivor. He wanted Felix to stay in the motel room and try to get some rest, seeing as the car ride, she never got much sleep. As the warm water hits her skin, she let out a soft sigh as the bones in her body relaxed for the first time in a whole week. She washed her along with her body, rinsing the suds off before hopping out of the shower. She wrapped the towel around her body, walked out to the bed, and climbed on top. She didn't tend to fall asleep with only a towel but her mind had other plans. She slowly dozed off letting the darkness consume her.

Sam and Dean entered the motel room but stopped instantly when they saw Felix on the bed snoring softly and only in a towel. Sam gulped looking away as Dean walked forward taking off his coat and placing it over her body,

"We'll rest for a bit then head out", Dean states shoving Sam. Dean lay in bed beside Felix who turned to curl up on his side. He kissed her temple, closing his eyes.

~~Midnight~~

Felix had woken up in the middle of the night with a soft sigh, she looked over at Dean to see he was sleeping. She turned to see Sam staring at her,

"can't sleep?" he asked softly as she crawled out of bed and sat quietly beside him.

"I know how it feels and I'm sorry you have to go through that" Sam said placing his father's journal down. Felix smiled with a nod, "Thanks...you know they both missed you soo much, they tried hard not to go to your college and kidnap you. Although there had been times when John would want to stop by and watch you from afar, I could see it", she looked at Sam, " I could see the instant regret he had every time we left. Dean mostly wasn't there, but I would be there", she said looking down at her hands. Sam nodded listening intently, he hadn't known how close she had come to the family, especially for Dean. The way he looked at her is the way he looked at Jessica. But with Felix, he felt like he had a sister.

"You should get some sleep though", Felix stood up giving his arm a gentle pat, " I have a feeling it will be very eventful...and possibly bad", she says walking back to the bed and crawling back into Dean's side who squeezed her waist as soon as she placed her head on his chest. She made herself comfortable, hearing footsteps and the other bed creek. She smiled to herself knowing she got Sam to at least catch a few shut eyes. She sighed softly snuggling closer before she let the darkness fade through her mind.