The awkward hugging business only last a few seconds. It's strange, you'd expect a ghost to be cold and transparent. Cas is- warm. Solid. He almost feels alive.
"The circle is cast. He's contained," says Thomas. I don't move. Neither does Cas. "Anna? You can let go now."
"Oh, right." I open my arms and Cas snaps into the middle of the stone circle. Thomas leans over the mirror and starts chanting. Cas begins to struggle against invisible chains.
"No! No! Stop! Let me out, dammit! Let me out!"
"Sorry," I say quietly, "but you know we have to do this." The look in his eyes says we don't. "You could tell us, you know. It would make it quicker and we wouldn't have to bother with all this." I gesture towards Thomas and the mirror.
"I can't. I don't remember. But it's-" he breaks off with a cry and drops to the unforgivingly hard floor. For a moment, his whole body judders and shakes. Then he goes still, save for his hands, which scrabble against the ground. I'm sorry. But I have to know.
"Ready," says Thomas. Taking on a life of its own, the mirror skates forwards so that we can both see. He nods at me. "Talk to it."
Show me, I think. Show me how Cas died. Show us what did this to him.
The surface of the mirror ripples and goes misty. In the circle, Cas screams, but I barely hear him. Show me.
The smoke clears and I'm left with a fairly typical scene. A kitchen. The kitchen in this house, I realise with a jolt. Cas is there, and I do recognise him, but he's different. So much more alive. He's standing, a chair pushed back behind him, gripping something silver and shiny in his right hand. Across the room, a woman with auburn hair is also standing, arms folded. It looks like they're arguing.
"You've avenged him five times over, you know," she says in a soft voice. "Maybe you don't need to go after this thing. It might even have moved on by now."
"How many dead people just move on?" He yells back. "I'm going to find it, and I'm going to kill it." Kill a dead person? Was he like me?
"No!" The woman's voice rises. "I lost my husband, and I will not lose my son as well. Do you hear me? I said I won't lose you!" So she's his mother.
"You're not going to! But I'm leaving and you can't stop me!" He turns away and walks towards the door.
"Theseus Cassio Lowood, you get back here this instant!" She screams. "You are not leaving my house!"
"That's exactly what I'm doing." Cas wrenches open the door and blast of cold air rushes in. From this side of the mirror, I can almost feel the chill.
"Please. Don't go."
"I'm sorry." And then he's gone, slamming the door shut behind him.
