Dean is being a total jerk for some reason in this chapter. Maybe he's just sleep deprived...

2: Meli

A few minutes and two stop lights later, the Impala pulled up in front of a hotel painted in several vibrant colors. Dean stared up at it when he got out, he honestly couldn't believe what he was seeing— pink, yellow, blue and green walls with window frames and shutters of interchanging colors.

The girl… Meli, was it? Yeah. Meli climbed out of the back seat and gestured for them to follow her into the lobby. At least she was polite enough not to slam Baby's already creaking door. The reception area just off the vestibule was much more normal than Dean had been expecting. Just a simple desk with matching chairs by the window and a few leafy, if only sparsely so, potted plants.

Meli stepped into the room adjacent to the lobby, the dining room, and went to the counter at the back where sat a few coffee dispensers. He looked back over his shoulder to Sam when the kid beckoned them to a table in the back with a wave of her hand. Sam gave him a 'why not' kind of look and walked on ahead of his brother.

Once seated, Dean looked around warily, it was habit. He could hear people moving in the kitchen though it was nearly midnight and saw a shadow move in the font room as the receptionist returned to the counter.

"Alright," he ordered "start talkin'."

"Anyone ever tell you you're a real charmer?"

"Yeah, a few folks."

She stared back at him defiantly, daring him to be rude to her again.

Sam broke the silence "Feel free to pretend he's not here. So you said you've been doing this for a few months, at least. What exactly is it that you do? You said you help the spirits, right?"

"Yeah, I've been doing it for about a year now." Meli answered.

Dean's right brow twitched. "Doing what exactly?"

"Dean—" Sam said reproachfully.

"Oh, c'mon! You're really willing to buy whatever crap she tells you about helping people?"

"Hey, screw you! You don't know the first thing about me." Meli bit back.

"I know what I saw you do in that apartment." Dean said dangerously.

"Oh yeah," Meli antagonized him "and what do you think you saw?"

Dean didn't know exactly how to respond to that because he wasn't entirely sure what he'd seen. "It looked like you were doing— I don't know, somethin' not normal."

Meli squeaked a laugh "Not normal, but who's standards?"

"So what was it?" Sam asked politely "It's just that anytime we've seen someone do… something out of the ordinary, they acquired the ability by some not-so-nice means." He was trying to be reasonable, though Dean couldn't understand why. "The typre means that require someone to get hurt."

"Demons, witches, you name it." Dean retorted.

"Yeah, some other hunters explained all that to me a while back, it still keeps me up at night. But I've never gone near that stuff. Let the cowboys handle it, I say. Since you just have to know, I discovered my little talent just over a year ago. Some nasty son of a bitch spirit got into my house and, I don't know, I just figured out that I could do this neat trick."

Dean was sure Sam was grateful when, for once, he stayed quiet.

"My guess is that you have some kind of ability to manipulate energies, right?"

"Kind of, by messing with their energies I can sort of clear their heads. Get them thinking clearly again. Spirits are made up almost entirely of emotion, internally anyway. So when they feel things it takes them over completely. That's why, no matter what mood they're in, lights flicker and things move. Why am I explaining this, you're hunters?"

"So you're psychic?" Dean asked, a little annoyed but trying to hide it.

"I don't know what I am, it's not like there are support groups for this kind of thing." Meli looked at the paper cup on the table in front of her, the water had turned a deep brown from the tea bag floating in it. "But I know that I'm helping. Once these people can think clearly again they can sometimes move on right then and there, since they're no longer bound by their anger or sadness. Other times I've helped them with a bit of unfinished business, it feels great. At least its not as brutal a burning bones."

"You're the friggin' Ghost Whisperer." Dean chuckled petulantly.

Meli ignored him, or at least tried to. He saw her bite her lip.

"What were you trying to do to that guy in the apartment?" Sam inquired.

She opened her mouth to answer but her phone began to chime and she asked him to excuse her for a moment.

When Meli had crossed to the other side of the dining room, Dean kicked Sam under the table. "Ow, what the hell?"

"You buyin' any of this? Girl wakes up one day able to power down pissed of spirits, I don't think so."

"What's with you, why are you being such a jerk about this?"

"You saw what she did, you ever see a normal person do something like that?"

"You think she's dangerous?"

"I don't trust it, that's all I'm saying."

"She's a kid."

"Yeah, a kid who it looks like lives in a hotel, she hasn't mentioned her parents or anything and she skulks around abandoned buildings in the middle of the night."

Sam said nothing, just gave his brother a look that asked remind you of anyone?

Meli returned to the table and leaned against the chair she'd been sitting on. "I have to go take care of something, but tell you what. Since you two were nice enough to drive me back here and not blow my head off, why don't we continue this little chat tomorrow?"

With that, she snatched up her backpack which she'd dropped on the floor and walked off; they saw her turn towards the elevator.

When Sam had asked where they could find a cheap place to stay, the receptionist had told them they wouldn't find anywhere like the place they'd described—a motel, around for miles. And ten minutes later, Dean was sprawled on a bed in the colorful hotel staring up at the ceiling.

"Quit pouting" Sam said, flipping through a town paper.

"I'm tellin' you, Sammy, something ain't right about this."