Flashfic: Imminence
Imminence
Summary: I wrote this last year while the Sharp Teeth meme was going on--it was actually an unfilled prompt from I think the previous year. Something about transporting a corpse and eyes popping open repeatedly. This was done in about 20 minutes, so…yeah. Never posted.
Warnings: A corpse. Some minor swearing.
Spoilers: Dean’s deal
Imminence
He stood by the window, looking out. The lights baptized the pavement in weird light. He had two coins in his front pocket, that he hadn’t told Sam about.
He’d only said, “You cover my eyes.
“You cover my eyes, when I’m gone.”
--
Sam knew better. They both knew better. Someone dies with their eyes open, they stay that way. Something about the muscles, maybe.
So the sun was going down. Had been going down for a while, it seemed, just kind of hanging on the horizon with ragged determination. The evening star seared straight through the atmosphere. Dean grimaced as his brother manhandled one hundred sixty-five pounds of dead weight into the back seat, on top of the blanket.
“You know, you could help me,” Sam snarled, shaking his hair out of his face. So Dean shrugged and went around the other side and hauled on the heavy door. Leaned in and grabbed the stiff’s shoulders and dragged it the rest of the way into the car, ignoring the way the head lolled around, like an out-of-whack gyroscope.
He ignored the eyes, filled up with the blazing light of the sky. Fire, fire, fire.
They dragged their own bodies into the front seat and Sam contorted his giant frame, squeezing himself over the seat back and raking his fingers awkwardly across the dead man’s face.
“Jesus!” Dean blurted, gaze flickering to the rearview mirror and away, then back again when Sam’s hand pulled away and the eyes, bright with borrowed light, went on staring.
He turned his head sharply and banged the heel of his hand on the steering wheel, once. Hard.
“Get a-put a goddamned blanket over it or something,” he bit out. Sam had to get back out of the car and Dean didn’t watch him fling one of the spare blankets across the corpse.
They made the jog to the reburial site in silence, Dean’s gaze flickering from the road to the mirror, the green blanket and the two blank pits hidden behind it.
They buried Jacob Lee six feet down, in the empty place they’d scouted earlier, surrounded by tall grass and wildflowers nodding their heads in the breeze. The stars were out now, like a blanket thrown across the world. Sam left their own blanket wrapped around Jacob, and Dean fingered the two heavy coins in his pocket, but didn’t say anything.
Didn’t say, “This is where we’re going.”
Didn’t say, “I’ll get there before you.”
--
Sam sacked out on the motel bed without even showering. The whole room smelled of damp earth and stars.
Dean spent the night in vigil, first on the end of his bed and later by the window. He knew the glass would reflect the lights in the parking lot, making it impossible for anyone outside to see in.
He pulled the coins out of his pocket and rolled them together, listening to the rasp of metal.
He’d said, “You cover my eyes.”
Didn’t say, “I don’t want to see.”
I don’t want to see what he saw.
-end
_______________________
567 words. Sheesh.
Summary: I wrote this last year while the Sharp Teeth meme was going on--it was actually an unfilled prompt from I think the previous year. Something about transporting a corpse and eyes popping open repeatedly. This was done in about 20 minutes, so…yeah. Never posted.
Warnings: A corpse. Some minor swearing.
Spoilers: Dean’s deal
Imminence
He stood by the window, looking out. The lights baptized the pavement in weird light. He had two coins in his front pocket, that he hadn’t told Sam about.
He’d only said, “You cover my eyes.
“You cover my eyes, when I’m gone.”
--
Sam knew better. They both knew better. Someone dies with their eyes open, they stay that way. Something about the muscles, maybe.
So the sun was going down. Had been going down for a while, it seemed, just kind of hanging on the horizon with ragged determination. The evening star seared straight through the atmosphere. Dean grimaced as his brother manhandled one hundred sixty-five pounds of dead weight into the back seat, on top of the blanket.
“You know, you could help me,” Sam snarled, shaking his hair out of his face. So Dean shrugged and went around the other side and hauled on the heavy door. Leaned in and grabbed the stiff’s shoulders and dragged it the rest of the way into the car, ignoring the way the head lolled around, like an out-of-whack gyroscope.
He ignored the eyes, filled up with the blazing light of the sky. Fire, fire, fire.
They dragged their own bodies into the front seat and Sam contorted his giant frame, squeezing himself over the seat back and raking his fingers awkwardly across the dead man’s face.
“Jesus!” Dean blurted, gaze flickering to the rearview mirror and away, then back again when Sam’s hand pulled away and the eyes, bright with borrowed light, went on staring.
He turned his head sharply and banged the heel of his hand on the steering wheel, once. Hard.
“Get a-put a goddamned blanket over it or something,” he bit out. Sam had to get back out of the car and Dean didn’t watch him fling one of the spare blankets across the corpse.
They made the jog to the reburial site in silence, Dean’s gaze flickering from the road to the mirror, the green blanket and the two blank pits hidden behind it.
They buried Jacob Lee six feet down, in the empty place they’d scouted earlier, surrounded by tall grass and wildflowers nodding their heads in the breeze. The stars were out now, like a blanket thrown across the world. Sam left their own blanket wrapped around Jacob, and Dean fingered the two heavy coins in his pocket, but didn’t say anything.
Didn’t say, “This is where we’re going.”
Didn’t say, “I’ll get there before you.”
--
Sam sacked out on the motel bed without even showering. The whole room smelled of damp earth and stars.
Dean spent the night in vigil, first on the end of his bed and later by the window. He knew the glass would reflect the lights in the parking lot, making it impossible for anyone outside to see in.
He pulled the coins out of his pocket and rolled them together, listening to the rasp of metal.
He’d said, “You cover my eyes.”
Didn’t say, “I don’t want to see.”
I don’t want to see what he saw.
-end
_______________________
567 words. Sheesh.