This is the final chapter. I hope it doesn't disappoint anyone. Thanks again for the reviews. I really do appreciate that you took the time to leave a little message and I love reading your comments.

The Spirit of Arrow Lake

Chapter nine

Dean quickly tried to raise the bow but the thing lashed out stripping it from his hand. Then it knocked them both to the ground. Sam screamed in agony as his shoulder hit the ground hard, blood splattering over the ground from his wound. The creature smelling the blood started to head toward him but Dean ran over and picked up the crossbow and stepped protectively in front of his brother. He had only a second to raise the bow and fire. Unfortunately the arrow hit the thing in its shoulder. It threw back its head, roared in rage and pain, and then charged Dean. He tried to roll out of its way but it grabbed his leg, picked him up by it like a toy, and then slung him across the cave. He grunted in pain as he slammed hard into the wall and slid down the side of it. He lay on the ground gasping for air as he tried to catch the breath that was knocked out of him and watched the thing once more advance on his brother who had backed himself against a large rock. Sam weakly put up his hand to ward off the creature but it slapped it aside. Dean watched as his brother shut his eyes and turned his head to the side waiting for the thing to attack, too weak to try and fight it.

"Get away from him you ugly son of a bitch!" Dean screamed trying to draw its attention away from Sam, it worked. The thing turned toward him as Dean fumbled for another arrow but he wasn't fast enough. It was on him in no time. It slashed out at his chest with its claws which shredded his shirt and put four deep scratch marks on his chest. He cried out in pain as the blood ran down the front of him. He scooted backward as fast as he could but the creature kept advancing toward him. It reached down and touched the drops of blood on the ground then licked its fingers. Liking what it tasted it started to reach for him.

Over on the other side of the cave Sam fought to stay conscious. He reached down and rolled up his pant's leg, then removed the crossbow and loaded it with an arrow. He tried to stand but his leg gave out and he crumbled back to the ground. There was nothing he could do but shoot the arrow to gets its attention off of Dean. The arrow hit it in its lower back. It screamed in rage and spun around. Hate and fear in its eyes.

"Come on…..come on you bastard." Sam yelled coaxing it over to him. The thing growled showing its fangs and headed to Sam who kept taunting it. "Come on you son of a bitch!"

"Sam! No!" Dean screamed as he watched the thing close in on his brother.

It reached down and yanked Sam off the ground and held him in front of it. It growled and opened its mouth, its fangs dripping foam and slime and started to lower its mouth to Sam's neck.

"Noooooo!" Dean screamed seeing what was happening. He knew he was about to watch his brother's throat being ripped out in front of him. He managed to get up and painfully made his way over to the thing. Not knowing what else to do he leaped onto its back. He held on with one hand while he pounded on the creature with the other trying to get it to release Sam. He could hear his brother gasping for breath as the thing began to squeeze the life out of him.

"Drop him you son of a bitch!" Dean screamed as he kept pounding on the creature which didn't seem to bother it at all. He could hear Sam wheezing as the last of the air was squeezed from his chest. Then suddenly the creature began to convulse violently and tossed Sam's body across the cave. He hit hard against a large rock and lay crumbled at the bottom of it. Next it shook Dean off of its back and he quickly crawled over to his brother.

"Sammy." He touched his brother's face and left out the breath he didn't know he was holding when Sam opened his eyes slightly and gave a little moan. Dean could sense the thing moving toward them and quickly crawled in front of Sam covering his body with his own and looked up at it. He could now see what had caused such a reaction in it. A silver arrow protruded from its chest where Sam had pushed it in when the creature was squeezing him. Dean prayed he had hit its heart. The creature gave them one last hateful look then stumbled out of the cave, hopefully to die Dean thought. He turned around and looked at Sam grinning.

"You did it Sam! You got the son of a bitch!" Dean's joy was short lived when his brother didn't answer him. "Sam?" Dean pulled his brother up into his arms and held him as Sam's head fell forward. "Sammy?" Dean gently pulled his brother away to look at him. Sam was unconscious and started to fall backward but was quickly grabbed by Dean. "Come on Sammy wake up!" When he saw blood start to bubble out from between Sam's lips he gently laid him back on the ground. "Sammy!" Dean cried out as he put his hands on either side of Sam's face. "Come on Sammy don't do this to me Bro!" He put his two fingers against the side of Sam's neck and felt a faint heartbeat. Dean closed his eyes, thankful that his brother was at least still alive. But how badly hurt was he? The creature must have busted something inside of him or punctured a lung when he squeezed him he couldn't be sure. He gently wiped the blood out of Sam's mouth in order to help him to breathe better. Tears filled Dean's eyes as he looked at his brother. Sam had drawn the creature's attention away from him and might now die because of it. "Damn it Sammy if you die on me I'll kill you." As soon as the words were out of his mouth Sam started going into convulsions from lack of oxygen as more blood started to fill his mouth. Dean tilted Sam's head back and once more wiped out the blood. He gave him two quick breaths, then two more. "Sammy! Don't you leave me!" He screamed as tears streamed down his face. "Please Sammy don't you die on me!" He was just about to give him more breaths when he suddenly was pulled away. He spun around expecting to come face to face with the creature but instead it was the search party Alex had said would come looking for them when they didn't report in. Alex and the family had been on their way back to camp when the search party had found them. He then had led them back to the cave.

"Let them work on him." Alex said gently as he pulled Dean away. He stood there stunned covered in his brother's blood and his own. He reached up and wiped Sam's blood from his mouth.

"He also was shot in the back." Dean said as he watched the medic that had come with the search party insert a tube down Sam's throat and begin to suction the blood out and at the same time pump oxygen in with another tube. A few minutes after receiving the oxygen Sam began to moan. He started to panic when he felt the tubes down his throat and began to fight the medic. Dean knelt down beside him and grabbed his hands holding them down.

"Sammy don't fight them. They're trying to help you."

Sam looked up at Dean and he could see the fear in Sam's eyes lessened when they began to focus on him.

"You're going to be okay buddy. You just got to let them do their work."

Sam weakly reached up and pointed to Dean's bloody chest wanting the medic to help him as well.

"We'll get to him as soon as we have you taken care of." The medic said to Sam as he continued working on him.

Sam shook his head and pointed at his brother, he wanted Dean checked out.

"I'm fine Sammy, nothing but a couple of scratches." Dean said trying to reassure his brother. He knew Sam was concerned because of all the blood on him, but he also knew most of it was Sam's own blood. "How is he?" He asked the medic.

"We really can't tell till we get him to the hospital. But it seems likely he has a broken rib which punctured his lung, that's why the blood is such a bright red. He also has some nasty wounds on his chest and stomach where it looks like his skin was peeled off in spots. We can clean that up and give him some antibiotics which should take care of it." The medic then gently rolled Sam onto his side and examined the bullet wound. "It seems like the bullet is still in there but it doesn't appear to be in too deep. We'll take care of that once we get him to the hospital."

"Is he going to be okay?"

"As long as we keep suctioning the blood out of his lung he should be able to breathe but we need to keep him still and get him to a hospital as soon as possible."

"How are we going to do that?"

"We landed a helicopter back at the campsite and we got a couple of stretchers outside." The medic looked at Dean. "I need to take a look at you too, and him." He nodded toward Rob who was being helped by other members of the search team. "But first I need to stabilize him." He continued working on Sam until he was satisfied that the bleeding was under control. They then gently put him on a stretcher and taped the tubes in place. "Okay now you lay still and try to move as little as possible." He said to Sam as he turned his attention to Dean.

He pulled back Dean's shirt and hissed when he saw the deep scratch marks and large bruise over his ribs.

"Boy someone really did a number on you too." He said as he began to clean and dress Dean's wounds.

Alex stepped forward.

"It was that Bigfoot or what ever it was. What the hell happened to it?" He asked Dean.

Dean didn't want to go into the whole crossbow and silver arrow thing or there would have been questions, so he made it simple.

"My brother managed to stab it and it staggered out of the cave. I'm not sure if it's dead though."

"Well if it isn't we need to get out of here before it decides to come back."

They carried both Sam and Rob out on stretchers. Dean walked out on his own, his ribs now tightly taped by the medic. It was slow going, but no one wanted to stop and rest not knowing whether the creature was dead or not.

Dean walked by Sam's side and the medic walked on the other side of the stretcher making sure Sam's airway didn't close up. With the tube down his throat Sam was unable to talk so he reached up and touched Dean's hand.

"Yeah." Dean looked down at Sam who pointed to Dean's chest.

"Hurts a little." Dean grinned. "How 'bout yourself?"

Sam gave a slight nod and a thumbs up. Dean patted him on his shoulder and smiled. They both were injured and in pain, but at least they were alive.

Epilogue

Sam was forced to spend a week and a half in the hospital. His rib had punctured his lung and he needed surgery to repair it. The bullet in his back had lodged in his shoulder blade and was removed with no complications. Dean's injuries were less serious and he was held for two days then released. His ribs were badly bruised and he had a slight concussion and was told to take it easy for the next month. He stayed by his brother's side until he too was released. Rob was treated and then taken into custody. He was held on robbery, kidnapping, and attempted murder.

With all the witnesses to the creature's attack, Michael Tate was released from the sanitarium; he was no longer a suspect in the death of the other campers.

After leaving the hospital, Dean and Sam drove back to the cabin where the trip had begun from hoping to find the old man who had warned them about the spirit. They were in luck, the man sat at the edge of the river fishing. Dean pulled the car up next to him and got out, Sam, still sore from the surgery, stayed in the car but rolled down his window.

"Hi," Dean said as he approached the man.

"I see you made it out of the canyon." The man said but did not look up.

"Two died." Dean stated.

"The spirit takes who it wants."

"A good man died….for what?" Dean said referring to Dave.

"He was taken as a sacrifice." The man said simply.

"Why? He didn't harm the canyon."

"He brought evil men to the river. He died as a warning to others."

Sam leaned out the window.

"This thing…we think we might have killed it."

The man shook his head and looked out over the river.

"You can't kill a spirit."

Dean also looked out over the river wondering if the thing might be out there somewhere looking back at them. He looked over at Sam who shook his head and rolled up the window. Dean glanced back at the river then got in the car and pulled away.

"You think it really is a spirit that can't be killed?" Sam asked as he glanced at the river through the side window.

"I don't know… We can only hope its dead, and that it was the only one out there." Dean pressed down on the accelerator and sped off.

The canyon

The creature sat on a cliff once more guarding the river, a silver tipped arrow lying next to it. Its only thought revenge on the ones who had caused it pain.

The End