……………………………………………CHAPTER 8……………………………………...

As Sam stares intently at his laptop while sitting on his bed, Nina checks over her playing cards one more time before smiling at Dean and placing them face up on the table.

"HA HA read them and weep Dean."

Seeing Nina's straight flush, Dean throws his cards down in anger and begins to mumble something under his breath. After handing over his money Dean picks up the cards and begins to shuffle them.

"Where did you say you learnt to play again?"

"I didn't." Nina gives a slight smile out of the corner of her mouth while Dean almost drops the cards as he tries to hide his anger at losing to a girl. "My grandmother had a weekly poker game she used to take me to."

Dean continues to shuffle the cards and then re-deals them.

"You're not used to losing are you Dean?" Nina says as she picks up her cards.

"Just warming up ok. It's been a while."

"I'm sure it's not the first time you've used that line." Nina says raising her eyebrows while trying to hide her smug grin behind her cards. Just as Dean goes to fight back he is cut off as Sam comes over and places the laptop down in the middle of the table. Sam doesn't notice as Nina and Dean look up at him unimpressed.

"Guys I think I got something. So far I've found 53 deaths all with the same pattern as our Mr Wells dating back to nearly 300 years ago. And check this out, so far ten people from Mr Wells immediate family have all died from suspicious circumstances. His Uncle, his great grandfather, his great great Uncle before that, the list goes on. This woman here, Kelly Velour, she died last year from another supposed Bear attack in her home. I managed to track down at least eight people from her family tree all dying in the same way."

"And all of these deaths go back 300 years?" Dean says putting down his cards followed by Nina.

"To the day. You want to know another weird thing. Everyone in Wells, Madison, Dealeys and Kelly Velour's family where all the same age when they died."

"You mean the same age as each other?" Says Nina as she takes a sip of water.

"No I mean everyone in the Wells family who died were all forty four, the Madison family were thirty seven, Dealeys forty five…"

Nina and Dean nod as they start to understand.

"In all I have found ten people whose family trees are full of more murders then you can imagine. One of them is a Mrs Porter who is our lady from the last vision you had."

"You sure all these people have had the same deaths going back to 300 years ago? I mean can you be exact?" Dean asks.

"Well some peoples records were harder to track down than others because of adoption and some being lost but I'm pretty certain. Plus they all tie in with the connection I found."

"Don't tell me? The connection is that they've all had murders in their family?" Dean looks up at Sam who now begins to type on his laptop.

"No…..they are connected to this." Sam brings up on screen a pencil drawing of a young lady with long black hair who is being burned at the stake. "This is Elizabeth West. She was only 22 years old when ten people from the local village beat, wiped and then finally burnt her at the stake for being a witch."

"But there were thousands of women who got burnt at the stake for being a witch. What makes you think that Elizabeth is the one causing all these deaths?" Dean looks at Nina as if he was just about to say the exact same question.

"Because unlike some others Elizabeth was really a witch. Potions, spells, black magic, you name it she did it. Also look what she has around her neck."

Dean leans in for a closer look as Nina pulls the laptop over towards her and scans the picture.

"That's the necklace from around the creature we saw." Swiping back the laptop Dean takes a look for himself.

"I only managed to find one article about Elizabeth which says that before she died a curse was placed on all ten people involved in her death. A curse which Elizabeth placed"

"What kind of curse?" Dean says looking up from the screen.

"A hex. Elizabeth said that she would return to kill each immediate member of their family once they turned to the exact age each person stood before her."

Sam steps back and shrugs off the urge to tap himself on the back as Nina stands up and gives him a proud hug followed by a kiss.

"Don't mind me guys. I'll just sit here and try to figure out how to kill this thing."

"Well I think I have already figured that out too. I started to think about the last vision you had Nina, and do you remember what happened when you knocked the pendant off from around her neck."

"Yer she started to scream, as if in pain."

"I'm betting that the pendant is acting like some sort of portal that lets her come and go into different generations so she can fulfil her curse. If we destroy the pendant then I'm pretty certain we will destroy her."

Sam sits down in Nina's chair and looks at Dean as if waiting for him to confirm his theory.

"Ok, so we go to this Mrs Porters house tomorrow night and wait for the bitch."

"How are we going to do that Dean? Knock on the door and then say 'Hi, we believe a witch from 300 years ago is going to kill you tonight because your great, great, great, great, great Auntie burnt her at the stake'"

"Well I can only think of one other option Sam, but you know what that means?" Dean leans back in his chair and looks at Nina and then back at Sam raising his eyebrows.

"Oh no, no way." Nina remains standing looking at the brothers slightly confused. "There's no way we are going to do that Dean, it's too dangerous."

"Sam it's the only way."

"She's not being bait."

"Wait a minute. What are you guys talking about?" Says Nina joining in on the conversation.

"There's a spell…"

"Dean, no."

Nina holds up her hand instructing Sam to be quiet while she fixes her eyes upon Dean.

"There's a spell we can do which will trick Elizabeth into believing that someone else is this Porter lady."

"Yer, but we've never actually done it yet alone seen it be done?" Sam says with his voice slightly raised as he prepares for would could be an entire night of arguments and disagreements.

"That's not true. I've seen it done." Says Dean.

"Oh really when?" Sam looks at Dean ready for his brother's sentence of excuses and lies.

"When you was at college. A month after you left, Dad and I were fighting this poltergeist which was terrorising young males in a small town just East of Texas. We figured out the next victim, and Dad remembered this spell he was shown from some old Witch who dealt in Black Magic."

"Dad used himself as a guinea pig?"

"No…..I did." Sam looks at Dean in disbelieve. "Nothing happens when you take it. You feel slightly light headed but then nothing. Did the job though, and Dad wrote it all down in his journal."

"What does the spell involve?" Nina asks.

"Just some herbs, lock of the woman's hair, a few hocus pocus words and then you've got yourself a nice tasting potion to drink. Whoever drinks it won't turn into the intended victim, you just steal their aura for a few hours tricking the spirit, or witch in this case, into believing that they are the person their after."

"You want me to drink the potion?"

Sam goes to speak but is beaten by Dean.

"We wouldn't ask unless we had too. The victim is a woman and so we need a woman to drink it."

"But we're not going to do that though are we Dean?" Sam says almost spitting through his gritted teeth. "There are other options we can take."

"I'll do it." Sam and Dean look up at Nina in surprise. "I'll do it. Like you said Sam, we can't exactly knock on her door and tell her that a witch is out to kill her. This is the only way."

Bowing his head and running his hands through his hair Sam looks back up at Dean and nods.

"Well that's sorted. I'm going to head out into town and pick up some supplies. Sam you try and find us a place where we can trap this witch. Somewhere private and isolated, hopefully no witnesses if you get me." Dean says as he stands up and begins to put on his jacket. "I'll go get us some coffee as well. Got a feeling it's going to be a late night."

As Dean begins to look for his keys Nina walks over towards the bed and puts on her favourite grey hooded jacket while Sam remains seated. Just as Nina zips up her jacket she begins to feel the all too well sensation shooting up the back of her head. Clutching her head in her hands Nina falls to her knees.

"NINA!" Sam says jumping up but finds himself being held back by Dean. "Dean let me go."

"Not this time Sammy. I'm not letting you go again."

Sam can do nothing but watch as Nina holds her head in her hands and shakes with pain on the floor. Suddenly Nina stops shaking and tries to catch her breath as she sits herself up. Knowing that it is now over Dean let's go of Sam and watches as he helps Nina up and sits her on the bed.

"Nina….Nina are you ok?" Sam asks as he wipes away the beads of sweat from her forehead.

"Sam….." Nina looks at Sam as a wave of fear fills her face. Pulling Sam closer she wraps her arms around his neck. "Oh Sam."

"Did you have another vision? Was it the same woman?" Dean looks at Sam who shakes his head in anger at him for holding him back.

Nina slowly lowers her arms and looks at Dean.

"Err yer….the woman."

"What happened?" Dean asks still ignoring Sam's deadly stare.

"Just the same as before only this time I couldn't stop it. It killed her."

Nina looks back up at Dean but then quickly diverts her gaze as he looks back at her as if he suspects she's hiding something.

"You got this sorted Sam while I head out?" Sam gives Dean a nod and then watches him leave while Nina tries to fight back her tears and clutches on to him even tighter.