the prophecy, spn [ 1 ]

004. wendigo

Sam and Rachel are both in the backseat of the Impala as Dean drives and Thomas is sitting in the passenger seat.

Sam is slouched down, practically completely lying down, his head on Rachel's shoulder as he sleeps. The girl refuses to move more than an inch, not wanting to wake her older brother up knowing he hasn't gotten much sleep in the past week.

Rachel flinches when Sam's hand grips onto her arm suddenly and he jumps awake with wide eyes.

Dean and Thomas both glance back at them, Thomas noticing the tight grip Sam has on the youngest.

"You okay?" Thomas asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sam says. He glances down, quickly letting go of Rachel's arm. He looks at her, not missing the concerned look. "I'm fine." He mumbles.

"Another nightmare?" Dean asks. Sam doesn't answer. "You wanna drive for a while?"

"Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that." Sam laughs.

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

"Look, man, you're worried about me. I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay." Sam says. Dean hums. Sam grabs a map.

"Where are we?" Sam asks.

"We are just outside of Grand Junction." Dean says.

"Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon." Sam says.

"We were there for two weeks. If we wanna find the thing that killed Jessica--"

"We gotta find dad first."

"Dad disappearing and this thing showing up again after twenty years, it's no coincidence. Dad will have answers. He'll know what to do."

"It's weird, man. These coordinates he left us. This Blackwater Ridge."

"What about it?"

"There's nothing there. It's just woods. Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?"

+++

They walk into the ranger station and start looking around at everything.

"So Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote." Sam comments. "It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place." He says, looking at a 3D map of the national forest.

"Dude, check out the size of this fucking bear." Dean says, pointing to a photo of a man standing behind a giant bear.

"And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure." Sam comments.

"You kids aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge, by any chance?" The four quickly turn to the voice, finding a ranger, Rachel stepping closer to Sam.

"Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper." Sam says.

"Recycle, man." Dean holds up a fist.

"Go green." Thomas holds up a thumbs up.

"Bull." The ranger says. "You're friends with that Haley girl, right?"

"Yes. Yes, we are. Ranger... Wilkinson." Dean says, reading his name tag.

"Well, I will tell you exactly what we told her." Wilkinson says. "Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the 24th, so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it?" Dean shakes his head. "You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine."