Disclaimer: Not mine. If you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Kripke et. al. I just borrowed for a minute.

Note: Okay guys, I'm starting a new story. I'm going to try my best to get this done in about a month. Updates should be fairly regular, but bear with me. I'm at school right now and things are a little crazy.

Sam leaned forward in his seat as Dean collected the last few necessities into the spare duffle. John had left them ten minutes ago with strict orders on when to follow. Sam had been trying to quell the uneasy feeling in his gut for that entire time. As Dean was climbing out of the driver seat, Sam finally spoke up.

"I don't like this hunt. Something doesn't add up."

Dean shouldered his bag and slammed the car door. Sam scrambled to keep up with him.

"Quit whining. You're just mad 'cause Dad made you come with us instead of leaving you with your textbooks. You need to get your head in the game and stop worrying about your reading."

"It's math.," Sam huffed. "The test tomorrow is a third of my grade this term."

"Whatever, dork," Dean said as he stuffed a few odds and ends into the duffle bag.

"I'm serious though," Sam said. "Something doesn't seem right. The last victim doesn't line up with the pattern."

Dean shrugged. "So the witch got bored. What's new? It's not like they make a lot of sense to begin with."

"But-"

"Enough, Sam. Dad says it's a witch. It's a witch."

"Right. Because Dad can't be wrong."

"Don't," Dean said, turning away from Sam. His shoulders were tense and Sam could tell his brother was trying to take calm, even breaths.

"Don't what?" Sam demanded. He knew he might push Dean too far, but his brother's blind faith in John's leadership was troubling. "Don't tell the truth?"

"I'm not getting in the middle of this again. Dad did the research. He wouldn't be sending us in if he weren't sure. We have a job to do, so let's do it."

"It's not a witch," Sam said as Dean started walking towards the tree line. "We should-"

"Sam!" Dean snapped, spinning on his heel. Sam froze. "I said enough. We're going to do this tonight, whether you want to or not. Dad is counting on us to have his back. Now man up, arm up, and start marching."

Sam's mouth snapped shut on the reply he was about to make. Dean was pissed and wouldn't listen anyway. And he was right. Dad was already out there about to face who knew what. Sam palmed some holy water and checked that his silver knife was tucked securely into his boot, and slid the pistol with the consecrated rounds into his waistband before setting out. He didn't know what was out there, but he was fairly certain it wasn't a witch – or not just a witch – and he was going to be prepared for anything that could come at him. If Dean wouldn't take him seriously, he'd just have to make sure he was the one doing the protecting tonight.

When he reached Dean, a sawed off was shoved into his hands and they set off into the woods.

They got a few feet in before Dean stopped them. "Did you hear that?"

Sam froze and listened intently. There to the right. A shuffling of leaves and a twig broke.

"I think it's just an animal. Probably a possum."

Dean listened for a minute then nodded. "Too small to be a person."

Sam eyed his brother. "You okay man? You're not usually that jumpy."

Dean shrugged and started walking. "I hate witches."

They walked for fifteen minutes before they came up on the south side of the clearing. Across from them, cast into deep shadow in the moonlight, stood the mouth of a cave. It was tall and narrow. It would be a squeeze for even Sam. Dean would have to squirm his way in with his stockier build.

"That's it," Dean whispered in Sam's ear.

Sam refrained from rolling his eyes. It's not like there were any other caves in the general vicinity. "Has it been long enough? Should we go in?"

"Dad said twenty minutes." Dean checked his watch, moonlight glinting off the plastic face. "It's been sixteen."

Sam strained his ears, hoping to hear some indication of how things were going in the cave, but all was quiet. He caught Dean's eye. Dean nodded. It was too quiet. Four minutes or not, they were going in.

Dean held his gun in his right hand and steadied it with his left. He pushed his way into the clearing through the bushes. Sam followed as quietly as he could. They reached the entrance of the cave and Dean motioned for Sam to follow close as he turned to squeeze himself through the crack.

Sam was standing behind Dean, waiting for his turn to enter when there was a high, shrill scream and he found himself shoved to the ground, serving as Dean's unceremonious pillow.

Dean cursed and shot up, Sam jumping to his feet right behind him. He scanned the area, shotgun loaded and ready. It was Dean's cussing that made him look back.

There, on the ground, not ten feet from Dean was a small creature. It had short, spindly legs that sprouted like spider legs from a furred torso that was maybe a foot long. Its head swayed side to side on a long, sinuous neck. It had black beetle eyes and a long snout that ended in a sucker mouth. Under any other circumstances, it would have been funny. In the dark of the woods, with only the moonlight to see by, it made Sam's heart race.

Sam gaped at it for a whole second before he registered that it was moving right for them. Fast.

Sam and Dean reacted simultaneously, aiming their guns and firing. It dodged both shots and let out the same horrific wail that it had before, raising the hackles on Sam's neck.

Then it was on top of them. It launched itself from the ground at Dean and landed, latching onto his arm. Dean pulled his knife and made to swipe at it, but it was already gone, clinging to the front of Sam's shirt.

Sam was momentarily stunned at the thing's speed, but it seemed primarily interested in climbing up his front.

"Sam, fall!"

Sam closed his eyes and let himself pitch forward, hoping to crush the creature under his weight. But the thing was too fast. It had skirted around him and up to his neck before he could land. He felt it tickling the back of his head and he flipped, but instead of dislodging, the thing skittered around to his face. He found himself eye to eye with the creature.

Sam tried to swat it away from his face, but it was too fast. It moved around him as he rolled. The one time he did manage to swipe at it with his knife, it was fastened on so tight, he couldn't displace it at all.

Sam registered the fact that the creature had sunk some sort of talons from the ends of its feet into his chest at the same moment the sucker-like mouth closed over his own.

Sam tried to yell, but it felt like all the air was being sucked from his lungs. He thrashed as hard as he could, but the thing was stuck fast.

"Sam! Hold still!"

Sam froze. There was a deafening shot and the talons ripped free from his chest. He would have screamed, but his lungs were too busy sucking in fresh, cool air. He heard a grunt by his ear as the creature curled in on itself. It had fallen to the side and was squirming and twitching, not quite dead.

Dean took aim again. Sam flung himself away from it as the creature let out another cry, this time much deeper. The cry was cut off by the rapport of the gun. When Sam glanced back, he saw the shattered remains of the creature splattered across the bare ground.

He let himself collapse back onto the dirt, gasping for air.

Dean walked over and examined the thing. He kicked some dirt at it. When he was satisfied it was dead, he stepped over to Sam, offering him a hand.

"You good?"

Sam nodded. He was about to ask if they should try the cave again when there was a crash through the brush and John burst through into the clearing looking slightly panicked.

"What the hell is going on over here? Where have you two been? I thought I heard someone screaming." He caught sight of the thing in the grass and grunted. "What is that?"

"Dunno," Dean said. "We were about to go in the cave when it came charging out. It attacked Sammy and I shot it."

"What?" He turned to Sam. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Sam tried to say. The word caught in his throat and he choked so badly he found himself gasping for air. Dean reached over and smacked his back.

"Dude, breathe." Turning to John he said, "Thing had this sucker mouth and was making out with Sammy. It was damn fast too."

Sam had gotten himself under control enough to glare at Dean, who ignored him. Instead he asked, "The witch?"

"Roasted." John said. "Finished her and got her burning then came to look for you two."

"Apparently we got the wrong cave."

John eyed the narrow entrance. "Let's take this one and throw it on the fire too. Don't want to leave anything laying around. We can come back and do a sweep for more after we do some research on them. I don't like going in there with that narrow opening without knowing what we're dealing with."

Sam stepped forward to volunteer, knowing he was the mostly likely to fit through, but the minute he took a breath to speak, he fell into another coughing fit.

"Dude, seriously." Dean said, arched brow. "Maybe you shouldn't talk."

Sam glared at him, but nodded. He pointed at himself, then at the cave. John eyed him for a minute then shook his head. "Not tonight. Not with you not at your peak. I don't want you going in and getting stuck. Plus, it's getting late. We need to get this cleaned up before some curious hiker comes along."

John walked closer to the thing and shrugged off his flannel shirt, which had been all but shredded at some point. Sam scanned him closely, but there wasn't much blood, and none of it seemed to be his. John threw the shirt over the mess and gathered as much of it as he could into the fabric, trying not to touch it.

"You boys hide the rest and come meet me. I'm about a hundred yards over along the cliff face." Dean and Sam nodded.

Dean produced a pocket trowel from his jeans and began turning under the soil now stained black from the creature's blood. Sam set to work smoothing out the signs of the scuffle and collected the bullet from Dean's shot, which he buried under a bush. Sam stamped the dirt down so it was less obvious that anything had been disturbed. Both boys rose and set out to meet John.

They stayed until everything was ash. Sam watched as the grey pile eddied and swirled with the slight draft in the cave. Finally, John was ready to leave. Sam glanced at his watch and barely repressed a groan. It was just after three in the morning and it would take them another hour to get back to the hotel. That would give him about an hour and a half of sleep before he had to be up and walking to the bus stop for school.

It was going to be a long day.