Chapter Text
The motel room in some nowhere stretch of rural Nebraska smelled like old carpet, burnt coffee, and the faint metallic tang of gun oil. It was late—past two a.m.—and the neon from the vacancy sign outside bled red through the slats of the blinds, painting thin stripes across the bedspread. Sam was asleep on the far bed, long limbs sprawled, breathing slow and even like he could will the clock to stop if he just stayed still enough.
Dean sat on the edge of his own mattress, boots still on, elbows on his knees.
In his right hand he turned over a small iron medallion the size of a quarter. Firefly shape—crude but deliberate, wings etched with tiny lines that caught the red light and threw it back in faint glints.
He’d bought it on a whim in Bellefleur back in ’96, from a roadside stand run by an old woman who’d called him “sugar” the same way Rose used to.
He’d paid three bucks for it, told himself it was stupid.
He rolled it between thumb and forefinger now, the iron cool against his skin despite the room’s stuffy heat. Four days. Maybe three, depending on how punctual hell’s collection agents were feeling. The deal was ticking down like a bad watch, and every second felt louder than the last.
He flipped the medallion over. No inscription. Just the shape—simple, almost childlike. He remembered the way Rose had laughed when he’d shown it to her the next day, dangling it from her finger like a charm. “You bought me a bug?” she’d teased, then kissed him quick and fierce behind the diner, tasting like peach ice cream and summer. He’d worn it on a leather cord for a while after she was gone—until the cord snapped during a hunt in ’99 and he’d tucked it into the Impala’s glovebox instead. It had rattled around in there through a dozen states, a dozen apocalypses, until he found it again last month while looking for spare ammo.
Now it sat in his palm like an accusation.
He closed his fingers around it, tight enough the edges bit into his skin.
“Stupid town,” he muttered under his breath. “Stupid summer. Stupid kid.”