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Dean glanced back over at his sleeping brother, glad to see he was finally getting some semblance of rest. They’d gone back to the motel, Sam took a ridiculously long shower to remove the glitter, and Dean cleaned out as much of the vile substance as possible out of his baby. He thought about forcing Sam to do it, but the kid seemed miserable enough. No need for Dean to make it any worse.
As soon as the glitter was as gone as possible, they’d gathered their gear and booked it out of Kansas. Sam took a long time to settle, obviously still keyed up from fighting his biggest fear. Now he was curled up against the window, cheek pressed to the cool glass of the window. Dean caught movement out of the corner of his eye and looked over to Sam. Sam’s face was pinched and he was pressing his thumb into his palm. Dean sighed inwardly. His brother couldn’t seem to catch a break. Or any sleep.
Dean had been driving aimlessly up until that moment, the only goal being to get the hell out of Kansas. Seeing his brother constantly tormented made his heart ache. Not that he’d ever admit to such a girly notion, but it was true all the same. It was then that he decided they needed a well deserved break. He aimed the Impala towards the one place the brothers frequently talked about, but never seemed to make it to: the Grand Canyon.
They drove straight through the night. Sam continued to pretend to sleep, pressing his hand every so often. Dean pretended not to notice and pressed down the accelerator just a tiny bit harder. When they arrived in Cameron, Arizona, they booked a room at the Grand Canyon Motel and Dean dropped right into bed. The motel was a little nicer and busier than they normally chose, but it was close to the canyon and Dean was too tired to care much about it.
Despite the fact that Sam had been pretending to sleep and not actually sleeping, Sam didn’t follow Dean’s lead. Instead he left to grab coffee. As Dean slept, Sam researched more on Dick Roman. Not that he found any useful info, but Lucifer wouldn’t let him sleep much, so Sam didn’t even bother to try.
Dean woke in the early afternoon, Sam tapping away furiously at the keyboard. Coffee at the ready right in front of him. As Dean walked to the bathroom to shower he glanced at the trashcan already half full with empty coffee cups. He sighed, but kept his mouth shut. He knew there was nothing he could say to Sam that would do any good and he really didn’t want to start an argument.
When Dean was done with his shower they found the nearest diner for lunch. Dean scarfed down his double cheeseburger with extra onions as Sam picked at his grilled chicken salad. Dean tried to encourage his brother to eat, but Sam refused to eat more than a few bites.
“Are y’all done with your food?” The waitress asked as she walked up to the table. Sam jerked in surprise.
“Yes, Ma'am,” Dean said, scooting his plate towards her. Sam scooted over his plate without a word.
“You sure you’re done honey?” she asked Sam.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“You should eat more if you’re planning on heading down to the Canyon. Gotta keep your strength up. Too many people have gone missing lately and all the recent sightings. Can’t be too careful.”
“Sightings of what?”
“Why the Mogollon monster of course.” She said, walking away with the dishes. “Be careful out there boys.” She called over her shoulder.
“So much for our vacation.” Dean sighed.
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“So this Mogollon monster. It’s not usually spotted in this area, but it isn’t too far of a stretch to say it could have made its way out here. It’s been known to act extremely violent and its scream sounds like a woman in distress. It’s essentially the Arizona version of Bigfoot. No lore on how to kill it, so we’ll have to take several weapons with us when we go after it.” Sam said as Dean walked into the room in his Fed suit. “What‘d you find?”
“There have been 7 missing persons cases in the park in the past 4 months. No patterns connecting them that I can see right away. They found traces of body dragging. They assumed it was a mountain lion. Attacks by mountain lions aren’t super common though, so it’s definitely unlikely that’s what’s actually happening. Sounds like this moglin creature is our most likely suspect.”
“Mogollon, and yeah, seems like it. Did you get any info on the last sightings of any of these people. It’s a big park. We need to narrow down where to search.”
“Only on two of them. One was with his group of friends. He went missing overnight from the campground on the South rim. There weren't any signs of brute force near his tent, so my guess is he went to take a piss and was snatched.”
“And the other?”
“She was on a solo trip, but the night before she officially went missing, she checked in with her mother, said she was going to be on the Roaring Springs Trail. Then, when she didn’t check in that night like she was supposed to, her mom reported her missing.”
“You said they found some drag marks, where were those?”
“Out near the Cliff Springs Trail.”
“Ok. Let me pull up a map. See where those spots are and see if we can’t find a likely spot to find this thing.”
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“Ok, since we’re hiking in, we gotta be smart about what we take with us. I’m glad we’re getting to see this damn thing, but I do not want to die in this canyon.” Dean snorted as they dug through the trunk.
“Yeah. A decent amount of water for sure. We each have our sidearms. A machete each. A couple different mags, one silver, one iron. What else should we take? There is absolutely no lore on ways to kill it.”
“I say we take the bronze dagger and flare guns too and obviously some salt and lighter fluid. Honestly, I don’t want to take much more than that. Worst case scenario none of what we have with us works and we regroup, come back later with different stuff.”
Sam sighs at Dean’s response. “I really don’t want to have to come back out here again. I just want to kill this thing and be done with it.”
“Me too, Sammy. Me too.”
With that, Dean closes the trunk and they head down the trail towards their monster of the week. They hike for close to 3 hours before they hear sounds of movement nearby. Simultaneously, the boys stop, straining to hear where the sound may be coming from. With a quick hand gesture, the boys split, Dean moving to the left and Sam to the right, guns raised and ready to shoot.
The hairs raise on the back of Dean’s neck, alerting his hunter sixth sense to something nearby. He glances at Sam, only to see a hairy beast at least a foot taller than Sam and twice as buff right behind his brother.
“Sam! Look out!”
Sam spins around, only for a massive arm to swing, sending Sam flying into a nearby rock. Sam slumps sideways upon impact, clearly unconscious.
“Hey! Ugly!”
As soon as the furry beast turns toward Dean, he send 2 bullets into the monster’s chest and 2 into his head. The monster drops and Dean can hardly believe it. Was it seriously that easy to drop the damn thing? WIthout dropping his firearm, Dean walks over to the beast. Its brown eyes are staring up, unseeing and there is no rise to its chest. Dean kicks it for good measure, but when there is no reaction from it he knows it’s dead.
Dean scrambles to Sam’s side and shakes his brother’s shoulder, but Sam doesn’t respond. Quickly he checks for a pulse and sighs in relief when he feels it bounding along. Dean feels the back of Sam’s head only to find a decent bump already forming. If he doesn’t have a concussion, he’ll have a wicked headache at least. Dean takes the opportunity of Sam’s unconsciousness to feel along his ribcage as well. Unfortunately at least one rib is broken on the left side and 2 on the right. Dean pats down the rest of Sam’s body, thankful to find no other apparent injuries.
Sam still hasn’t woken up by this point, so Dean presses his knuckles into Sam’s sternum. Sam groans in response and Dean lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.
“Come on, Sammy” he says as he digs his knuckles in harder. Sam blinks his eyes open. Almost immediately, Sam’s eyes dart behind Dean’s right shoulder and winces. Dean glances behind him, but doesn’t see anything over his shoulder. When Dean looks back at Sam, there are tears in Sam’s eyes and looks seconds away from a breakdown.
“Sam?” he asks tentatively. He keeps his voice soothing and low as if speaking to a frightened child or animal.
“I can’t take this anymore, Dean.”
“What?”
“It’s too much. The clowns from earlier this week, and Bobby dying, and Lucifer is screaming his head off behind you. Now it hurts to breathe and we’re 3 hours from the car, I have a splitting headache and I just can’t. I can’t do it.” The dam broke, and tears spilled out of Sam’s eyes.
“Oh Sammy.” Dean literally feels his heart breaking as he listens to Sam give up. But he can’t let him. “Look, I know it’s been really shitty lately. Losing Bobby was a serious blow. And I know those clowns hit you real hard, but we’re going to figure out how to get Lucifer out of your head and it will get better. I promise you. Everything just feels worse right now cause of that head injury. Pretty sure you got a good concussion going and I’m sure your head hurts something fierce. We’ll get you back to the motel, wrap up those ribs and get on some real nice pain meds. You can rest for as long as you need. I won’t look for any hunts until you’re back in tip top shape ok?”
Sam looked at Dean hesitantly. Dean couldn’t blame him. Lucifer was only getting worse and they had no idea how to make it go away. Plus they were at a stalemate in the Leviathan issue with no leads on where to even look. And a 3 hour hike sounded daunting to even Dean right now, and he didn’t have 3 broken ribs and a concussion. But Sam nodded anyway.
Dean cupped his hand on the back of Sam’s neck, offering him strength. “I’m gonna salt and burn this bitch real quick and then we’ll get you out of here. Ok Sammy?”
Dean waited until he saw Sam’s nodded answer before turning back to the monster. He pulled out the small canister of salt and sprinkled it liberally over the entire beast.
“Damn Sammy, I thought you were a giant, but you got nothing on this dude.” Dean heard a small huff of laughter and took that as a good sign as he poured the lighter fluid on top of the salt layer. He opened a pack of matches and stuck one. He tossed it on the monster and turned away without looking back for any confirmation that the monster was burning. Sam was visibly attempting to get himself under control. As Dean turned back towards him, he steeled his expression and let Dean help him to his feet.
“Okay little brother. Let’s get you out of here.”