Ooh, Bugs!

I hate this episode. So. Much. Did you know that the actor of Samandriel(aka Heaven's Most Adorable Angel) is in this episode? Only reason I even considered rewatching this episode. Sorry for the Twist and Shout reference last chapter, I'm still upset over it Tbh Aug. 1st is my goto birthday for characters, idk why, but I am determined to make her birthday NOT August 1st

Lucille refrained from actually going on any hunts for the next few months. She generally stayed back and did research- which, without having an episode based on each hunt, was a lot harder than it looked. She spent most of her free time finishing watching the rest of Supernatural, which messed with her head a bit. For example, she half expected thin black veins to be creeping up Sam's neck when she started season 11.

Christmas came and went uneventfully, as the boys had both been out on a hunt at the time. Lucille now knew a lot more about the supernatural than she ever thought she would due to the amount of free time she had to read in the bunker.

Sam, at last, found the case that corresponded with the next episode. He found it in a newspaper article from Oasis Plains, Oklahoma.

"A gas company employee, Dustin Burwash, supposedly died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob," he said as he read the paper.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Lucille asked incredulously. She met Dean's glare evenly, both refusing to back down.

"Language," he warned before looking back towards Sam. She smiled triumphantly and turned her attention the the younger Winchester as well.

"Human mad cow disease," he responded. Dean looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Mad cow. Wasn't that on Oprah?" Lucille let out a short burst of laughter before slapping a hand over her mouth. She had to bite her lip to stop giggling.

"You watch Oprah?" Sam asked incredulously. Dean, obviously embarrassed, looked down and quickly changed the subject.

"So this guy eats a bad burger. Why is it our kind of thing?" he asked his brother. Sam looked rather exasperated, while Lucille's face mirrored Dean's until she remembered what episode it was. She could kind of remember what had happened this episode, but it was a little fuzzy. It had, after all, been quite a while since she watched it.

He sighed. "Mad cow disease causes massive brain degeneration. It takes months, even years, for the damage to appear. But this guy, Dustin? Sounds like his brain disintegrated in about an hour. Maybe less."

"Okay, that's weird," Dean admitted.

"Yeah. Now, it could be a disease. Or, it could be somethin' much nastier."

"All right. Oklahoma. Man. Work, work, work. No time to spend my money," Dean complained.

"Not your money," Lucille reminded him. She had shown them the safe as soon as they had gotten back from the last hunt, and now Dean was determined to spend as much money as possible. It seemed like there was a limitless supply.

Fifteen minutes later they left for Oasis Plains, Oklahoma. Then six hours after that, they arrived at their destination. They were outside a large office building with a big sign that read 'Oklahoma Gas & Power Co.' They got out of the Impala and crossed the parking lot, greeting a man with thick brown hair.

"Travis Weaver?" The man looked up and smiled.

"Yeah, that's right."

"Are you the Travis who worked with Uncle Dusty?" Dean asked.

"Dustin never mentioned nephews, or a niece," Travis said in confusion.

Dean looked surprised. "Really? Well, he sure mentioned you."

"He said you were the greatest!" Lucille chimed in. She grinned at seeing how Travis looked so ecstatic at the compliments.

"Yeah," the younger Winchester agreed. Travis smiled even wider and looked down bashfully.

"Oh, he did? Huh."

Dean's voice suddenly became a lot more gentle, being used to talking to people who had just suffered a loss. "Listen, we wanted to ask you... what exactly happened out there?"

Travis' smile dropped and his brows furrowed. "I'm not sure. He fell in a sinkhole, I went to the truck to get some rope, and, uh… by the time I got back…"

"What did you see?" Dean asked tentatively. Travis looked down sadly.

"Nothin'. Just Dustin."

Sam quickly stepped into the conversation. "No wounds or anything?"

"Well, he was bleeding... from his eyes and his ears, his nose. But that's it." His brows knitted together, a sign that he was distressed by the conversation.

"So you think it could be this whole mad cow thing?" Dean asked. Travis shrugged.

"I don't know. That's what the doctors are sayin'."

Sam frowned. "But if it was, he would've acted strange beforehand, like dementia, loss of motor control. You ever notice anything like that?" he asked.

"No. No way. But then again, if it wasn't some disease, what the hell was it?" He scoffed lightly and Lucille barely resisted being a smartass.

"That's a good question," Dean agreed. She could tell he also wanted to say something else.

"You know, can you tell us where this happened?" Sam asked the other man. He nodded.

"Yeah." He quickly gave them directions to the construction site. They thanked him and left for the address he had given them.

They pulled up to a house that was in the process of being built. There was a large square of dirt sectioned off by yellow caution tape, which the trio completely ignored. In the middle of the square was a large hole in the ground, with roots crossing through it in a sort of web.

"Huh. What do you think?" asked Dean, leaning over the sinkhole. Lucille remained standing, not willing to get her outfit dirty. It probably seemed a bit vain, but it was white. She couldn't risk it.

"I don't know," Sam responded. "But if that guy, Travis, was right, it happened pretty damn fast." Dean clicked on a flashlight and shone it into the hole curiously.

"So, what? Some sort of creature chewed on his brain?" Lucille bit her lip, trying to remember what had happened. It was some sort of Native American curse, maybe.

"No, there'd be an entry wound. Sounds like this thing worked from the inside." Sam, with all his knowledge, responded.

Huh. Looks like there's only room for one. Alright Feathers, you're up," Dean said. She scoffed and crossed her arms.

"Uh, no." She pointed at her skirt. "White." Dean rolled his eyes and turned to his brother.

"You wanna flip a coin?" Sam looked at his brother incredulously.

"Dean, we have no idea what's down there."

Dean shrugged and passed under the yellow tape, picking up a nearby coil of rope.

"All right, I'll go if you're scared. You scared?" Sam scowled at the accusation, pulling the rope from him. Lucille snickered at his defensiveness.

"Flip the damn coin." Dean chuckled and took a coin out of his pocket, which Lucille then took from him.

"I'm flipping the coin," she declared. "Call it in the air." She flipped the coin and leant back as Sam's hand flew in front of her face to catch it.

"I'm going," he said in an absolute tone. Dean held up his hands defensively.

"I said I'd go." Sam glared at him.

"I'm going."

Dean smirked and put his hands down, shrugging. "Alright."

Lucille helped Sam tighten the rope around his waist before stepping back.

"Don't drop me," he warned his brother.

They left later with no clear destination in mind. Lucille guessed that they were probably just going to a motel to do more research. Sam had found a few small beetles in the sinkhole, but that was it.

"So you found some beetles. In a hole, in the ground. That's shocking, Sam." Dean spoke with so much sarcasm Lucille could almost feel it in the air.

"There were no tunnels, no tracks. No evidence of any other kind of creature down there. You know, some beetles do eat meat. Now, it's usually dead meat, but-"

"How many did you find down there?" Dean said, interrupting his brother. Lucille held up the small bug resting in her palm and looked closely at it.

"Ten," he answered. Lucille's brows furrowed as she contemplated the answer.

"Exactly?" Sam glanced over his shoulder to Lucille in the backseat and nodded. "Huh."

"It'd take a whole lot more than that to eat out some dude's brain," Dean argued.

"Well, maybe there were more," countered Sam, sweeping his hair out of his eyes. Lucille made a mental note to get him the haircut from the later seasons.

"I don't know, it sounds like a stretch to me."

"Y'know, we don't really have much info. Stuff like this might've happened here before," Lucille chimed in. She glanced out the window as they passed a sign for an open house, red balloons floating above it. It looked like Dean saw it too, judging by how he turned around in his seat to look at it as it grew smaller behind them.

"What?" asked Sam, confused at their seemingly random actions- they looked like dogs watching a squirrel from the kitchen window.

"Squirrel!" Lucille barked sarcastically, before quickly returning to her previously calm manner.

Ignoring the younger girl, Dean said, "I know a good place to start." Another sign in front of them read, 'Models Open. New Buyers' BBQ Today!' "I'm kinda hungry for a little barbeque, how 'bout you?" Sam gave him a knowing look, to which he responded defensively. "What, we can't talk to the locals?"

"And the free food's got nothin' to do with it?" asked Sam suspiciously. Lucille laughed quietly at Dean's face.

"Of course not. I'm a professional," Dean scoffed.

"Right," said Sam, unconvinced, as they got out of the car. They walked the rest of the way down the street to the open house.

Growin' up in a place like this would freak me out," stated Dean as they paused at the end of the driveway, taking in the house.

"Why?" Lucille and Sam asked at the same time.

"Well, manicured lawns, "How was your day, honey?" I'd blow my brains out!" he exclaimed. Lucille frowned- that was what her life had been like before… There wasn't anything bad about, and it seemed like Sam had the same thoughts.

"There's nothing wrong with 'normal'," he said, a defensive edge to his voice.

Dean shook his head. "I'd take our family over normal any day."

"Alright, c'mon, Winchesters," Lucille interrupted, taking each of their wrists and leading them to the door. She knocked on the white wooden door, quickly adopting a friendly, 'I'm an innocent little teenage' look. A clean shaven man opened the door and smiled.

"Welcome!"

"This the barbeque?" Dean asked, cutting right to the chase.

The man leaned out of the door and peered into the gray sky. "Yeah, not the best weather, but... I'm Larry Pike, the developer here. And you are…?" He trailed off, a question in his voice.

"Dean. This is Sam." They shook hands.

"Lucille," she said when Larry looked at her. She shook his hand as well.

Larry addressed the two oldest of their little trio. "Good to meet you! So, you two are interested in Oasis Plains?" Dean nodded.

"Yes, sir."

"Let me just say - we accept homeowners of any race, religion, color, or…" He paused, looking between them. "sexual orientation." Lucille laughed at Sam and Dean's expressions as they realized what he was trying to say.

"We're brothers," Dean quickly assured him. The man seemed embarrassed, looking down.

"Our father is getting on in years, and we're just lookin' for a place for him," Sam informed him. Lucille smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Great, great. Well, seniors are welcome, too. Come on in," he said, stepping to the side to let them in. He led them to the backyard, where a mass of people were walking around, chatting and eating.

"You said you were the developer?" asked Sam, looking around the backyard.

"Eighteen months ago, I was walking this valley with my survey team. There was nothing here but scrub brush and squirrels. And you know what, we built such a nice place to live that I actually bought into it myself. This is our house. We're the first family in Oasis Plains."

Lucille smiled. "Nice story," she said dryly, walking away as the boys continued to talk to the homeowner.

Suddenly she froze, a face catching her eye. "Samandriel?" she asked in surprise. The boy turned to face her, confused.

"Huh?" Oh. Was he… Samandriel's vessel, maybe? He was a little taller than her, and probably only a couple years older. He wore khakis, with a button-up shirt, open over a black tee.

"Uh, nothing," she said quickly, blushing at the mistake. He turned away, smiling excitedly at something on the table in front of them. Sam stood next to it, talking to a woman. A tarantula crawled towards the woman's hand, and it seemed like Sam noticed it too. Lucille nodded to him, signifying that she would get it. She stepped up behind the woman and let the spider crawl slowly into her hand, before turning back the the boy.

"I believe this," she said, holding out the spider, "is yours." He took the spider and frowned.

"You gonna tell my dad?" he asked automatically. She raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"Now, why would I do that?" He grinned excitedly in return.

"Really? Cool," he said. Lucille followed him as he walked towards the corner of the fence, away from the rest of the people.

"What's your name?" she asked curiously. He glanced over his shoulder at her.

"Matt. Yours?"

"Luci," she responded, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets. "You said something about your dad. Who is he?" Matt scoffed, and Lucille could tell she had stumbled across a sensitive subject.

"Yeah, Larry usually skips me in the family introductions."

"The developer? Wow. And first name basis? Damn."

"Well, I'm not exactly brochure material." Lucille frowned.

"He sounds kinda sucky, if you ask me," she said. He laughed.

"Tell me about it," muttered Matt under his breath.

"Matthew," a stern voice behind them said. They both turned to find Matt's dad and Dean walking towards him. "I am so sorry about my son and his… pet," Larry apologized to Lucille, who narrowed her eyes.

"Why would you be sorry? I mean, I'm the one that started talking to him in the first place. If anything, I should be apologizing for being such a nuisance." Larry looked taken aback.

"Excuse us," he said sharply, leading his son away. Lucille stopped Matt with a hand on his shoulder.

"I see what you mean," she whispered quietly to him, smiling, before pulling away and rejoining Sam and Dean as they walked towards the house. She looked over her shoulder towards him to find his eyes fixed on her even as his dad was talking. She smirked slightly and winked at him before turning back towards the Winchesters.

"Alright, what the Hell was that?" Dean asked aggressively as soon as they were in the car.

"What?" said Lucille defensively. Dean twisted around in his seat to look at her. He was letting Sam drive for once, so he was in the passenger seat.

"Oh, you know what. What was all that, with th- with the talking, and the flirti-" Lucille cut him off before he could finish his accusation.

"Oh, so now I'm not allowed to talk to boys, is that so?" she asked sarcastically.

"You- you winked at him. That's not talking, that's-" He threw his hands up in place of completing the sentence. Her face flushed pink and she looked down.

"Shut up," she muttered. "I can do what I want."

"Anyway," said Sam, changing the subject, "How was your tour?"

"Oh, it was excellent. I'm ready to buy." Sam laughed and Lucille would've as well, but alas, she wasn't quite done being embarrassed. "So you might be onto somethin'. Looks like Dustin Burwash wasn't the first strange death around here."

"What happened?" Sam asked, glancing across the seat at his brother. Lucille also looked up, curious.

"About a year ago, before they broke ground, one of Larry's surveyors dropped dead while on the job. Get this severe allergic reaction to bee stings." Lucille grimaced. That couldn't have felt good.

"More bugs," said Sam. Dean nodded.

"More bugs," he repeated. Nobody spoke until a few minutes later as the were driving through the neighborhood.

"You know, I've heard of killer bees, but killer beetles? What is it that could make different bugs attack?" Dean said, leafing through their dad's journal.

"Well, hauntings sometimes include bug manifestations," reasoned Sam.

"Yeah, but I didn't see any evidence of ghost activity," countered Dean. Lucille frowned, still trying to remember what it had actually been.

"Yeah, me neither," agreed Sam thoughtfully.

"Maybe a curse? Or someone might be controlling them," Lucille guessed, chewing on her lip.

"You mean, like Willard?" Lucille's brows furrowed at Sam's comment.

"I don't understand that reference, but sure!"

Apparently Dean got it, though. "Yeah, bugs instead of rats."

Sam pondered the idea for a minute. "There are cases of psychic connections between people and animals- elementals, telepaths."

"Yeah, that whole Timmy-Lassie thing." Lucille didn't understand that reference either. Dean thought for a second and seemed to realize something. "Larry's kid, Feathers' boyfriend- he's got bugs for pets." Lucille gaped at him- first at the fact that he called Matt her boyfriend, and second that he actually had the nerve to accuse him of something.

"Matt wouldn't do that," she said, stressing his name. "And he's not my boyfriend."

"I mean, he did try to scare the realtor with a tarantula," Sam said gently, trying not to provoke the beast that was Lucille.

"Sam!" she scolded him. "He's a teenager. Of course he's going to pull some stupid prank on people! He's not going to do some creepy witchcraft shit." It seemed like they were done arguing after that.

"Ooh, hey. Pull over here," said Dean, pointing to a house. Sam pulled into the empty driveway of one of the Oasis Plains homes.

"What are we doing here?" Sam asked as Dean got out of the car.

The older Winchester grunted as he lifted up the garage door. "It's too late to talk to anybody else."

"We're gonna squat in an empty house?" questioned Sam, not sounding very surprised.

"I wanna try the steam shower. Come on." He motioned with the hand that wasn't supporting the garage. Sam refused to move. "Come on!"

Reluctantly, Sam pulled the car into the garage, and the garage door fell closed as Dean stepped out from under it with a resounding crash.

The next morning Sam woke Lucille up urgently, saying something about a police call on some scanner and someone being dead. Or at least something like that- her brain wasn't really functioning at the point in the morning. She quickly got dressed while Sam convinced Dean to get out of the shower.

They pulled up outside one of the houses in Oasis Plains where several different emergency vehicles were parked. It was pouring rain, something that Lucille was quite unhappy with. She scowled as they got out of the car, pulling her beanie lower over her head.

"Seriously? You only have two umbrellas?" she complained as the brothers each opened a black umbrella. She quickly ducked under Sam's as soon as it was above his head, clinging as close as possible. She could feel the rumble in his chest as he chuckled lightly, looking down at her. She smiled broadly as the arm not holding the umbrella wrapped around her shoulders.

The trio approached Larry, who was finishing talking to someone on the phone. Lucille glanced over at the body being carried out in a body bag on a stretcher.

"Hello. You're, uh, back early," Larry greeted them. Dean made a show of looking around at the scene.

"Yeah, we just drove in, wanted to take another look at the neighborhood."

"What's goin' on?" asked Sam, also looking around.

"You guys met, uh…" He seemed to choke up just saying her name, glancing over his shoulder at the body. "Lynda Bloome at the barbeque?"

"The realtor," Sam confirmed.

"Well, she, uh… passed away last night." Both Winchesters seemed shocked, but Lucille knew it was just an act. They were accustomed to people dying seemingly out of nowhere.

"What happened?" Dean asked, his expression concerned. Larry shook his head and looked down sadly.

"I'm still tryin' to find out. Identified the body for the police. Look, I- I'm sorry, this isn't a good time now."

"It's okay." Sam smiled reassuringly.

"Excuse me." Larry turned and walked away from them. Dean turned to his brother.

"You know what we have to do, right?"

"Yeah. Get in that house."

"See if we got a bug problem," Dean said, walking around to the side of the house as the emergency vehicles drove away with sirens on. The two Winchesters helped Lucille up onto the top of the tall wooden fence, her being much too short to do it herself, before following her up. They quickly pried open the bedroom window and swung into the crime scene.

Sam and Lucille knelt down next to the outline of Lynda's dead body on the carpet. Small splatters of blood surrounded it, as well as sharp shards of glass.

"I thought they only did this in movies," she said skeptically.

"This looks like the place." Dean walked past her into the bathroom and she looked up as he shook out a towel laying on the floor. He dropped it as soon as he realized it was covered in dead spiders. "Spiders. From Spider Boy?"

"His name is Matt," Lucille said irritatedly. "And I highly doubt that they're from him."

"Right, 'cause your boyfriend could never do anything wrong," mocked Dean. He stood and brushed off his pants. "Look at the facts, Feathers. Maybe he's not as perfect as you think." Lucille's lips curled back in an instinctive, animalistic expression. Dean's gaze met her's evenly.

"I don't think he's perfect..." she muttered, backing down.

The Impala slowed to a stop across the street from a yellow school bus. The trio watched as Matt hopped off the bus and began walking down towards the woods.

"Isn't his house that way?" asked Dean, pointing in the opposite direction.

"Yup," confirmed Sam.

"So where's he goin'?" Dean asked suspiciously. The Winchester's began getting out of the car, but Lucille leaned over the backseat and grabbed both of their wrists.

"Let me," she said shortly, climbing out. She turned around to face the Impala and walked backwards into the forest, waving goodbye once.

It didn't take long to catch up to the older boy. He had stopped a little ways into the cluster of trees, having found a long insect crawling up a low tree branch. In one hand he held a small container for bugs, the small creature resting on the other.

"Hey, Matt. What'd you find?" she asked, grinning. He glanced at her briefly before holding up the bug.

"Grasshopper. What are you doin' out here?" Lucille shrugged, leaning closer to examine the bug.

"Saw you coming out here, didn't have anything better to do," she lied. "My brothers were being dumb.

"Did you hear what happened to Lynda, the realtor?" she asked, making a show of looking around to see if anyone else was listening. Which, of course, was pointless, because they were in the middle of the woods.

Matt looked down like he was reluctant to answer, but he sounded pretty uninterested when he replied. "I hear she died this morning."

"Yeah. Spider bites! Can you believe it? I hear there's a lot of insect attacks in this area. Anything I should be worried about?" she asked in a teasing tone.

He hesitated, like he was about to tell her a big secret. "There is somethin' going on here. I don't know what, but something's happening with the insects. Let me show you something." He picked up his bag and swung it over his shoulder. Lucille followed him down to another area, talking as they walked.

"Did you try telling your dad about all the bugs? Maybe he could, you know, clear the people out," she suggested, shoving her hands in her pockets.

Matt scoffed. "Believe me, I've tried. But, uh, Larry doesn't listen to me."

"Huh." Lucille looked down. "Why not?" she asked curiously.

"Mostly?" He glanced at her. "He's too disappointed in his freak son." Lucille frowned, her resent for the kid's dad growing.

"Seriously? Wow." She whistled lowly. "You gonna go to college when you're eighteen?"

Matt didn't hesitate in his answer. "Yeah. As soon as I can."

"Cool. So, where are we going now?" she questioned, stepping over a fallen tree branch.

"You'll see. We're close." A few minutes later, the trees opened up to show a large clearing. The sounds of hundreds of different insects could be heard among the trees, and Lucille could see some sort of mound of grass or dirt in the middle of the clearing.

"I've been keeping track of insect populations. It's, um, part of an AP science class." Lucille looked around inquisitively, trying to figure out what was so special about the place.

"What's been happening?"

"A lot," he said. "I mean, from bees to earthworms, beetles… you name it. It's like they're congregating here."

"You know why?" she inquired. He shook his head, brows furrowed.

"Nope." Lucille crossed the open area and walked to a dark patch of grass.

"What's this?" She stepped back after discovering it a pile composed of hundreds of writhing earthworms. Matt walked over and looked at as well. Lucille quickly found a small stick and prodded the pile, which sort of caved in. Digging deeper, she found it hit something hard. She frowned and bit her lip.

"There's something down there," she declared. She thought for a moment before standing up. "I'll be right back." She ran back in the direction that they came without waiting for a response. She quickly found her way back to the Impala and knocked on the driver side door.

Dean rolled down the window and stuck his head out. "What, your boyfriend tried to murder you with bugs?" he asked, smirking. She rolled her eyes.

"No, and he's not my boyfriend. There's a shovel in the back, right? Cool. Don't ask," she said as Dean opened his mouth. "No time." She circled around the car and flung the trunk open, propping open the false bottom. She quickly found a collapsible shovel amidst the random weapons and slammed the trunk closed. "I'll be back in a bit, Mom!" she called sarcastically over her shoulder, dashing back to the clearing.

Matt was still there, sitting on the ground beside the pile of earthworms.

"Ta da!" said Lucille, holding up the shovel. She extended it to its full length and cautiously walked closer to the hole. She began carefully excavating the worms to uncover what was underneath. Once enough were out she knelt beside the hole and reached into it after rolling up her sleeves, pulling out a dirt covered skull. She quickly realized what it was and tossed it away in disgusted horror. She glanced over at Matt, who was still staring at it with wide eyes. She grinned shakily.

"Want to see if there's more?" Matt gaped at her and she held up her hands defensively.

"What? It's a cool discovery!" Instead of reaching into the hole again she picked up the shovel and pried another skull out of the hole. Peering in, it looked like there were only a couple more.

"Wha- That's a skull!" he exclaimed. She rolled her eyes as she pulled the rest of the human skulls out with the shovel.

"Excellent deduction, my dear Watson," she said in a posh British accent. "I'm going to see if my… brothers will find someone who can tell us when they're from," explained Lucille. She pulled off her jacket and wrapped the skulls in it, leaving her in a long sleeve flannel shirt and a tank top.

"Oh," Matt said softly. He's probably still freaked out, Lucille thought. And for good reason, too.

"I… should probably go," she said awkwardly. "My, uh… brothers wanted to go visit our dad today. So, uh, bye."

"Wait!" She turned back and Matt pressed a piece of paper into her hand. "Bye." She blushed heavily and smiled nervously before turning back around, walking away.

Oh my Chuck, I'm such a failure. Ugh, I probably sounded so stupid! Get it together, Winchester! Did I just call myself a Winchester? Huh. She groaned at her awkwardness as she trudged back through the woods to the Impala. She didn't say anything as she tossed the shovel in the trunk and slid into the backseat of the car.

"So, what was all that about?" Sam asked with a look of amusement.

"Here," she said, passing the jacket-wrapped bones up. She couldn't see their faces as the unwrapped them, but she guessed they were both surprised and revolted by the way they leaned away from it.

Lucille started at the quiet sound of the car doors opening. She had been drifting asleep just as the Winchesters left the department of anthropology at the local university. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, mostly due to Dean's insistence on exploring the entire house that they were staying in. Why he wanted to, she wasn't sure.

"Whose bones?" She yawned sleepily as Dean started the car. Sam passed the skulls back to her to set in the backseat. They had exchanged her jacket for a box to contain them, but Lucille refused to put the jacket back on.

"Native American," Dean informed her. She nodded and rubbed her eyes blearily. "You falling asleep?" he asked in amusement. Her demeanor changed almost instantly at the accusation, sitting up straight and putting her hands in her lap.

"No," she said indignantly, stifling another yawn with the back of her hand. She blushed and looked out the window. "Okay, maybe I was. But I'm not now!" she hastily assured them.

"We're heading out to a Euchee tribe in Sapulpa, about sixty miles from here," said Sam seriously, but Lucille could practically hear his smile. She quickly calculated the distance in her head.

"That's about an hour, maybe hour and a half, right? Uh… I take it back. I am going to sleep now. Leave me alone," she said, quickly adopting a mock grumpy attitude. Her eyes met Dean's in the rearview mirror and she fluttered her eyelashes sarcastically.

She woke up when she felt the car slow to a stop. She peered out the window and figured out that they were not, in fact, there yet. They were just asking an old Native American man for directions. She poked Dean's shoulder.

"Tell him I like his hat," she said as obnoxiously as possible. He ignored her and thanked the man, driving away. The parked in front of a diner that looked like it hadn't been in use for at least half a decade. The windows were covered in dust, and the wooden supports appeared ready to collapse. Lucille suspiciously followed the Winchesters inside, avoiding touching the dirt-covered, well, everything.

They found another Native American man with long silver hair playing cards at a table.

"Joe Whitetree?" asked Sam. The man, Joe, nodded. "We'd like to ask you a few questions, if that's all right."

"We're students from the university, and this is our little sister. She wants to be prepared for when she goes," said Dean, placing a hand and Lucille's shoulder. Joe, who had gone back to playing cards, looked up.

"No, you're not. You're lying." Dean seemed taken aback at the accusation.

He tried again. "Well, truth is-"

Joe glanced up from his cards, speaking over him. "You know who starts sentence with 'truth is'? Liars." Dean exchanged an exasperated look with Sam.

"Have you heard of Oasis Plains? It's a housing development near the Atoka Valley." Joe seemed to approve of what Sam said, turning to Dean.

"I like him. He's not a liar." Dean looked angry. Turning back to Sam, Joe said, "I know the area."

"What can you tell us about the history there?" Joe cocked his head to the side.

"Why do you wanna know?"

Lucille decided it was time to cut in. "There's something happening down there. We think it may be a curse- a Native American curse, that is. There've been strange deaths occurring in Oasis Plains. Bugs killing people. It may have to do with the Native American skulls I found in an extremely large pile of earthworms." Sam and Dean looked at her surprisedly- she hadn't told them about the earthworms, and they usually didn't just flat out say 'there's a curse' when trying to get information for a case.

Joe seemed to consider what she said for a moment. "I'll tell you what my grandfather told me, what his grandfather told him. Two hundred years ago, a band of my ancestors lived in that valley. One day, the American cavalry came to relocate them. They were resistant, the cavalry impatient. As my grandfather put it, on the night the moon and the sun share the sky as equals, the cavalry first raided our village. They murdered, raped. The next day, the cavalry came again, and the next, and the next. And on the sixth night, the cavalry came one last time. And by the time the sun rose, every man, woman, and child still in the village was dead. They say on the sixth night, as the chief of the village lay dying, he whispered to the heavens that no white man would ever tarnish this land again. Nature would rise up and protect the valley. And it would bring as many days of misery and death to the white man as the cavalry had brought upon his people." Dean glanced at Sam as Joe prepared to finish the story dramatically.

"Insects. Sounds like nature to me." he said quietly. "Six days?"

Joe nodded. "And on the night of the sixth day, none would survive."

"When did the gas company man die?" asked Sam as they walked back to the car. Dean thought for a moment.

"Uh, let's see, we got here Tuesday, so, Friday the twentieth." Lucille looked at him incredulously.

"How do you remember stuff like that? Oh, and isn't that the spring equinox?" Sam and Dean both nodded.

"The night the sun and the moon share the sky as equals," said Dean.

"So, every year about this time, anybody in Oasis Plains is in danger. Larry built this neighborhood on cursed land." Sam gestured to the area in front of him, even though they were still in Sapulpa- nowhere near Oasis Plains.

"And on the sixth night - that's tonight."

"If we don't do something, Larry's family will be dead by sunrise. So how do we break the curse?" asked Sam, circling around the car to the passenger side. Lucille's eyes widened at the implications as she followed him, getting in the backseat.

"You don't break a curse. You get out of its way. We've gotta get those people out now," said Dean, starting the car. He called Larry about five minutes later.

"Larry Pike? Yes, Mr. Pike, there's a mainline gas leak in your neighborhood." He glanced at Sam.

"Well, it's fairly extensive. I don't want to alarm you, but we need your family out of the vicinity for at least twelve hours or so, just to be safe." Dean paused as Larry said something.

"Travis Weaver. I work for Oklahoma Gas and Power." His eyes grew wide and, panicking, he hung up. Lucille rolled her eyes and pulled her phone out of the front pocket of her jeans. She dialed the number on the slip of paper that Matt had given her earlier that day.

"Hello?" Lucille's smile fell as she realized how panicked he sounded.

"Hey Matt, it's Luci. What's wrong? You sound… scared." She ignored the looks Dean was giving her, her eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"My backyard is crawling with cockroaches." Her eyes widened dramatically.

"Shit. Matt, listen. You have to get your family out of there ASAP. Like, out of Oasis Plains," she said urgently. She bit her lip harshly, but immediately loosened her bite after tasting the distinct metallic tang of blood.

"What? Why?" Lucille leaned her head back and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm down.

"More bugs are coming, Matthew. A lot more." Matt scoffed.

"My dad doesn't listen in the best of circumstances, what am I supposed to tell him?"

"Uh…" She glanced between Sam and Dean, who were staring at her in the rearview mirror. "Well, you obviously can't tell him the truth, so… I guess tell him you need to go to the hospital? Like, say that you puked blood or some shit like that, 'kay?"

Matt hesitated before replying, "Yeah. Yeah, okay." They both hung up. The trio rode the rest of the way to Larry's house in silence, with Dean driving well over the set speed limit.

Dean looked at the car in their driveway as they got out of the Impala.

"Damn it, they're still here. Come on," he said, rushing towards the front door. Lucille and Sam followed him up just as the door swung open. An enraged Larry Pike stormed out, followed by a guilty looking Matt.

"Get off my property before I call the cops," Larry said loudly. He pointed sharply back towards Baby. Lucille stepped back to avoid being poked in the face, frowning irritatedly.

"Mr. Pike, listen," Sam tried.

"Dad. They're just tryin' to help." Matt seemed much more belligerent and rebellious around his father, Lucille noted. Larry turned sharply on his heel towards his son.

"Get in the house!" Larry said angrily. Lucille's fists balled at his tone of voice. It was one that she was used to, although she hadn't heard it in a couple years.

"Hey!" she shouted, drawing his attention back to her. She stepped forward in front of Sam and Dean and glared at the man. "That is no way to speak to your son! He is part of your family." Larry seemed to step back in fear as her voice broke. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as his eyes grew wide.

"Wha- what are you?" he asked, panicked. His voice quivered and shook as he spoke. She looked around to find Matt, Sam, and Dean all staring at her as well.

"Your eyes," Sam said quietly. She cocked her head to the side, still not understanding. "They're… glowing."

"I- what?" She glanced at her reflection in the glass door and almost fell over. "What the Hell!" Her irises glowed with a bright golden light, which quickly faded. She looked back up as they reverted back to their normal soft green hue. "I- Wha- What just-" She took a deep breath and calmed down. A faint buzzing sound came from her left and her head snapped towards it.

"Everyone get inside," she ordered, a large swarm of insects gathering down the street. "Now," she said when nobody moved, pointing towards the cloud of bugs. All five of them ran inside with Lucille closing the door behind her. She turned the lock and looked around as Larry's wife, Joanie, walked in. "I'll be back in a minute." She walked away with a composed facade, while she was actually panicking inside. What just happened? Why did her eyes glow?

She found herself in the kitchen and decided to make herself useful instead of just standing there like a complete failure. She dug through the cabinet beneath the sink and came up with two cans of bug spray. She wandered back into the living room and tossed one can to Dean, before glancing back over to the Pikes. Matt and Larry both still seemed scared of her, she noticed with a frown.

"We need a room with minimal entry points," she decided, realizing how non-fourteen-year-oldish she sounded. Reading all of those Men of Letters books must have done wonders for her vocabulary. "Do you have an attic by any chance?" She glanced towards the fireplace, which had begun to hum with bugs, as they nodded. She waved her hand urgently when they continued to stand there. The Pikes quickly caught her meaning and rushed up the stairs.

The Winchesters followed them up into the attic just as a swarm of bugs flooded the house. Lucille was only halfway up the ladder, but Sam and Dean quickly pulled her up. They yanked the door closed, a barrage of insects crashing into the other side. Lucille paced the room, quietly muttering under her breath.

"C'mon, I remember this part… Something about… Right! Okay, they're going to chew through the wood, probably," she announced to the room. She looked up towards the roof to see sawdust falling. She pointed to it. "See? Sam, take this." She tossed a thin, flat board off of some unimportant part of the attic to the younger Winchester. "Dean, here," she said, handing the older brother a long piece of wood that she pried from the attic's supports. She shooed the Pikes back into a corner to hide, a direction that they happily complied with.

"Okay, cover up the hole before they chew all the way through, like, right now, and then find more materials to cover other holes up," she instructed the Winchesters. She turned back to the Pikes, who were still cowering in the corner where she had pushed them. "Ya'll okay?"

"What are you?" Larry asked, his voice stronger than the first time he had asked. Joanie looked at her husband confusedly; they probably hadn't told her what had transpired outside. She bit her lip and pretended to think.

"I'm an angel," she said, a small, mischievous smirk dancing across her face. The upward tilt of her lips fell into a judgemental scowl as Larry scoffed.

"Yeah right. You're some… some demon child!" She put a hand to her chest and mock gasped.

"You know, I might have to smite you for that." She grinned at how easy it was to scare him, before her eyes fell to Matt. She looked down and sighed, seeing his frightened expression. "Relax. I lost all my powers a while back. I don't… I won't do anything." She twisted sharply on her heel at the loud shout behind her. Another hole had been chewed through the roof, and there didn't seem to be anything that they could use to cover it up. A rush of bugs came flooding in, swarming around the humans. Lucille and Dean both uncapped their bug sprays and began spraying the bugs, backing up towards the Pikes to better defend them.

The young girl began to panic as the bugs surrounded them. Her breathing came in short gasps; although any breathing at all was hard, with the risk of swallowing a bug. The air suddenly became almost unbearably warm, and she was fairly certain that she was going the faint at any moment. Her claustrophobia overwhelmed her as they swatted away the bugs. For whatever reason, however, the bugs seemed to target everyone except for her. It was… strange, to say the least.

Just as it seemed all six of them were ready to give up, the bugs began to filter back out of the holes in the roof. Everyone stopped moving for a moment to watch as the insects gathered in one enormous colony in the sky. Then, as soon as she was sure all of them were gone, Lucille rushed back down and out of the house, away from everyone else. Her mind played the events of the past couple of hours on repeat- her eyes, the bugs, everything. She unlocked the car, having pickpocketed the keys from Dean, and sunk into the backseat, eyes closed.

The next morning the Winchesters plus Lucille left Oasis Plains and began driving back to the bunker. Lucille still hadn't said a word to either of them, which proved to be a difficult feat given how much they bugged her. She wordlessly stepped out of the car once they arrived, walking inside the bunker. She headed directly to her room, slamming her door shut behind her.

Tossing her duffel on the bed, Lucille dramatically flung open the closet doors and pulled out every article of clothing that fit her. Somehow she managed to fit it all in the duffel, alongside everything else that was already in there. She stripped the walls of their drawings and cleared the entire desk out, putting all of that into a second duffel bag from the closet. Ignoring the insistent knocking at her door, she shoved both bags under her bed and collapsed on top of it.

It wasn't until late that night that she left her room again. Both of the duffels were slung over her shoulders, and she went into each room that wasn't a bedroom to find anything she may need. She stole a few weapons from the weapons room, along with a stack of useful books from the archives. She also grabbed a large sum of money, at least a few thousand dollars. Deciding that that would be enough, she crept up to the garage where several old cars and motorcycles sat, waiting.

Dean had taught her to drive a while back, just in case, and had gotten her a fake driver's license. She now knew how to shoot a gun properly, along with various other weapons.

She snagged the keys for one of her favorite cars- the '57 Chevy- off the hooks at the front of the garage and unlocked the millennial pink car that Dean had restored. Tossing her bags in the back, Lucille closed the trunk back up and frowned sadly. She pulled a small envelope out of her jacket pocket and laid it on the hood of the black Impala before getting into her car.

She left the bunker that night with no intentions of turning back. It was time for her figure all of this out.