I figured I'd post the first chapter of this before Christmas break but won't be able to post the next chapter till I get back in January. Hope everyone has a nice holiday.

The Spirit of Arrow Lake

Sam stretched and yawned as he looked over at his brother. They had been driving through out the night and all he wanted right now was a shower and a bed.

"How far?"

Dean glance over at him annoyed.

"You sound just like a kid. 'Are we there yet?' Every five minutes."

"What do you mean every five minutes? We've been driving through out the night. You said we'd be there in eight hours. I only started asking an hour ago."

"Well, what can I say, I miss calculated the distance a little."

"Yeah, by about two hundred miles."

"Well look at that." Dean said as he pointed to a sign on the side of the road and smiled, 'Northridge Sanitarium'. "Looks like we're here." Dean pulled into the parking lot and reached into the glove compartment. He pulled out a bunch of fake ID's and searched for the two he wanted. When he found them, he handed one to Sam.

"You know one of these days we're going down big if we ever get caught with all these fake IDs." Sam said looking at the ID in his hand.

"Ye of little faith Bro. As long as you talk the talk and walk the walk no one will be the wiser."

"Yeah, well I don't feel like sharing a cell with big Bubba and keeping him warm at night."

Dean grinned.

"Maybe you won't be his type."

"Well if I'm not, I hope you are, because you'll be right there with me." Sam grinned back at him.

They both climbed out of the car and went to the trunk where they pulled out two white jackets and attached their IDs to the pocket. They then walked into the building.

A few days earlier Dean had read in the paper a story about a boy of nineteen who was accused of murdering an entire camping party at Arrow Lake Idaho. The area was a popular tourist attraction with white water rafting and camping enthusiasts. The boy, the only survivor, swore he didn't do it. He told the interrogators that something came into their camp at night and he had passed out and when he woke up everyone was gone. Days later, the camping party's mutilated corpses began showing up, the bodies stripped of flesh. It was determined from the autopsies that the flesh had been torn off the bodies while the victims were still alive. Pieces of the some of the victim's bodies were found in each of the other's stomachs as if they had been forced fed each other's bodies. The boy was thought to be insane and was sent to the Northridge Sanitarium for treatment. Dean decided since it was on their way, why not stop in and check it out.

They walked up to the nurse's station and when the nurse looked up Dean gave her his most charming smile.

"Hi. I'm Dr. Johnson and this is my assistant Dr. Sanders. We're here to see Michael Tate."

The nurse looked at her chart.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have any appointment down for Michael for today."

Dean glanced up at the plaque behind her on the wall which showed which doctors were on duty and picked a name of one that wasn't.

"I had talked to Dr. Williams last night and he told me I could stop by this morning."

"I'm sorry but Dr. Williams isn't on duty today…I ….uh…." She began shuffling through her papers in case she had missed the appointment.

"Ah that's too bad, we drove all night and we have a conference scheduled for later today. I really wish we could just have a few words with Mr. Tate." Dean interrupted her.

"Well I guess it wouldn't hurt….Right now he's in with the others having breakfast."

"We really appreciate your help. We'd hate to have to make the long drive again."

"Just follow me." The nurse smiled at Dean and led them toward the dining room. Sam gave Dean a little punch on his arm when he noticed him admiring the nurse from the back as she walked; Dean gave him an elbow to the ribs in return. She entered the dining room then pointed over to Michael who sat alone at a table. They thanked her and walked over.

"Michael?" Dean asked.

"Yeah." He looked up at them suspiciously.

"May we talk to you for a few minutes? We'd like to hear about your story of what happened to you." Sam said.

"Why? I already told them everything…" He looked down. "They didn't believe me, you won't either so why bother."

"Well for one thing, we're not them." Dean said.

"Why don't you give us a try?" Sam added as they sat down at his table.

Michael looked at him and saw something in his eyes that made him think he could be trusted.

"I was on a camping trip down at Arrow Lake with a bunch of friends a couple of weeks ago…. We were having a good time for the first few days then…" Michael stopped and blinked back tears.

"What happened Michael?" Dean prodded gently.

"Our equipment, cell phones and stuff like that started to disappear one night, then our food and rafts the next night."

"No one saw or heard anything?" Sam asked.

"No, I can't believe someone didn't hear something, but no one did… Then the following night two of the people on the trip disappeared, we woke up and they were just gone. And then…" He turned away and shook his head sadly. "Then I was down by the river having a smoke when I smelled this horrible, horrible rotten smell. I must have passed out or something because when I woke up everyone was gone and….and there was blood all over the place…as if there had been a fight."

"The smell…what did it smell like."

"Like sulfur…rotten eggs….it was a horrible sickening smell."

Dean and Sam glanced at each other.

"What happened next?"

"A search party found me a day later, then they found the bodies a few days after that. They said it looked like they had been eaten."

"And they blamed you?"

"Yeah, I was the only survivor and I didn't have a scratch on me…."He looked at them. "But I swear I didn't do it….Some of them were my friends." He looked away as he tried to hide the tears that ran down his face.

"We believe you Michael, and we're going to check into it for you." Sam put his hand on Tate's shoulder and gave it a gently squeeze.

Outside of the hospital

"It could be a Sasquatch." Dean looked at Sam.

"Sounds like it but they're usually found in Washington and Oregon. I never heard of a Bigfoot being sighted in this area."

"Well there are a lot of caves and mine shafts in the area for it to hide out in."

"Yeah but usually they hang out in thick forest areas like Washington."

"That's where Dad killed one. He sent me pictures." Dean said smiling proudly.

"Yeah all Dad's take pictures of their first big game kill." Sam said sarcastically.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"Well most Dads take pictures of deer or bear, but not our Dad, he takes pictures of a dead Bigfoot."

Dean glared at Sam.

"Don't go talking about Dad that way."

Sam just shook his head and looked away for a minute.

"If it is a Bigfoot how do we kill it?"

"Crossbow. That's what Dad killed his with."

"How the hell are we going to take a crossbow on a camping trip? No weapons allowed remember, only the guide can take something in case of emergencies."

Dean grinned as he dug around in his trunk and pulled out two umbrellas.

"We're going to beat it to death with umbrellas?" Sam laughed.

"Very funny…No I have mini crossbows hidden inside the umbrellas."

Sam smiled.

"We can't take umbrellas on a camping trip."

"Why not?"

"Dean, who would take umbrellas on a camping trip? We'd look like a couple of dorks. We'd be laughed out of camp."

"Well it's the only way I knew how to disguise them. The spokes are the arrows which have been dipped in silver, known to kill a variety of creatures." Dean said grinning. "And the middle bar snaps into place to form a crossbow." When he saw Sam trying not to laugh he continued. "Hey…what can I say, it's the best I could do."

Sam shook his head and gave a little laugh then looked at Dean.

"I always thought Bigfoots were harmless. I never heard of them actually attacking anyone."

"We thought so to, Dad and me. But he was camping one day by himself and one came into his campsite. It attacked him and he ended up killing it with a crossbow with silver arrows. He said bullets didn't seem to have any effect on it. … You would have known that if you would have hung around."

"Boy, you really like rubbing that in don't you? You could have left too you know."

"Yeah, but I didn't, Dad needed us."

"For what?…To spend the rest of our lives looking for monsters. I wanted to find out what killed mom just as much as you. But we spent almost twenty years looking and we never found it….I wanted a life Dean. As corny as it sounds, I wanted a nine to five job. I wanted to get married, have kids….It's what Mom would have wanted for us."

"Mom would have wanted us to stick together….to find her killer and stop it from happening again."

"Well it did happen again. Jessica died because I wasn't there to protect her. I should never have run off with you. Jess needed me with her, and because I wasn't there… she's dead." Sam turned away from Dean not wanting him to see the tears in his eyes.

"Look Sam, I'm sorry about your girlfriend. I'd give anything to make it not have happened…"Dean swallowed hard when Sam turned around and he saw his pained expression.

"I know….I know you would have." Sam gave his brother a small smile then changed the subject. "Let's go sign up for a camping trip."

Later at Arrow Lake Idaho

They parked the car outside an old log cabin with a sign outside saying 'Weekly white water adventures – Sign up inside' they entered the cabin and walked over to a man with long hair sitting behind a desk.

"May I help you?" He asked looking up.

"My brother and I want to sign up for a whitewater trip." Dean said.

The man tossed a calendar to Dean.

"Pick the date, I'll see if I can fit you in."

"Well actually we're only in the area for a few days and would like to go out as soon as possible."

"Well you two boys are in luck. I have a trip going out tomorrow morning and we have two vacant seats if you're interested."

"Hell yeah, we're interested." Dean smiled.

"Well then I'll sign you up. The price is two hundred and fifty a piece for a four day trip."

"What supplies will we need?" Dean asked as he pulled out his wallet and began counting out the money.

"You'll need a sleeping bag, that's about it. We have campsites set up along the way, plus we supply the food. We do suggest you take an extra set of clothes, wrapped in plastic to keep it dry, in case the raft flips or it rains. I'll also need you to sign this release form incase of accident."

Sam picked up the release forms and looked them over.

"We heard there were some people killed up here a few weeks ago."

"Oh that…We had a camper flip out and injure some of the other campers."

"Injure? I heard about eight people were killed."

"Well yeah…some of them died."

It was obvious the man didn't want them to know the full story fearing they'd back out and he'd lose the money.

"I also heard the guy they arrested swears he didn't do it."

"Of course he's going to claim he didn't do it, but he did. There were no other suspects; it was obvious it was him. It was an unfortunate incident but the police took care of it."

"So it should be a safe trip then?"

"No problems I can foresee, just the usual precautions."

"Which are?"

"Well mostly snakebites and a few poisonous spiders, but our guides carry bite kits with them plus we have radios at each campsite in case of emergencies. And of course there is always the possibility of flipping the raft and getting banged up a little."

"Of course." Dean looked over at Sam and could see the hint of fear in his eyes He knew his brother hated spiders ever since he was little and had fallen into a pit full of them. They couldn't find him for hours, and when they did he was covered by them and in a deep state of shock. He gave Sam a reassuring smile.

"Sign us up."

TBC