Sam, Dean, and I sat there watching Jay as he began to explain his trick. He was standing up there with a noose around his neck wearing a straight-jacket. I was terrified I was going to watch an innocent man unintentionally commit suicide. "Now, sir, as you can see, this jacket is the real article. Thank you, sir. You may take your seat. Now, I will have one minute - 60 seconds -To escape certain death. Let's see if I can do it." He said dismissing the man who was helping him. I looked over at Sam worried and I could feel that I wasn't the only one, Dean and Sam were too. From what I could understand Jay had a minute to get himself loose from the straight-jacket or when the timer struck zero he would fall through the platform and be hung. "Sam, I don't like this. I'm not sure he's gonna make it." I said. He wrapped his arm around me and rubbed my arm in a comforting manner.
The curtain closed and we all watched as Jay struggled to get out of the straight-jacket before being hung. I always thought magic shows were supposed to be fun and entertaining, this was completely nerve-racking and I didn't really want to watch it. However it was like a horrible car wreck you just can't seem to look away. "I don't think he's going to make it," Dean said. I grabbed Sam's hand terrified for Jay. Why was he doing such a deadly trick in the first place? Sam squeezed my hand trying to comfort me. Next thing we know Jay steps out from behind the curtain perfectly fine and I release a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Oh! That was amazing! That was freakin' amazing!" Dean exclaims. While Jay surviving was pretty amazing, I was still confused because it looked like he hadn't made it. "That was...not humanly possible." Sam said voicing my own thoughts.
We returned to our hotel room after the show to do some research. Sam was on his laptop and I was on mine. Dean sat to the side drinking a beer waiting to see if we found anything. Sam spoke up before I had the chance, "Looks like this guy Jay was a pretty big deal in the '70s." Dean looked at him a little confused, "Which in magician land means what, exactly?" he asked. I smiled at him and the fact he really didn't know anything about this stuff. "Big enough to play radio city music hall." Sam answered. "Which is pretty cool if ya ask me." I said. Sam nodded his agreement and sent me a small smile. "What got him stuck in their 'where are they now' File?" Dean asked. I looked at him with a raised brow. "That's one way of putting it I guess." I said and Dean gave a small chuckle in return. "He got old," Sam told us. It's sad to think that because he got old people didn't want to watch Jay as much. I personally feel that if he was a good magician his age shouldn't matter.
"Okay, so maybe incredible Jay is using real magic to stage a comeback." Dean said. It would make sense considering Jay was starting to get more attention. "It's possible. Some kind of spell that works a death transference." Sam replied. I sighed and shook my head. "While the whole thing is awful it's also kind of sad." I said. The boys both looked at me completely confused. "What do ya mean babe?" Sam asked. "I just mean I find it sad that Jay felt so desperate he started killing people. He was no longer relevant and so he probably became broke and in a last ditch effort to be famous again he cast a spell. I almost feel sorry for him." I explained and it was the honest truth. "Alright say that's true. How does the tarot card mix into it?" Dean asked. "I don't know." Sam replied. I wasn't sure on how the card played into it either.
"Man...hope I die before I get old. Whole thing seems brutal, don't it?" Dean asked. I was surprised at how serious he was and a little confused. "You think we will?" Sam asked. Being hunters it is a great possibility we would die before we got old. "What?" Dean asked. I'm confused on how he didn't understand what Sam meant. "Die before we get old." Sam said. I was going to say something, but Dean beat me to it. "Haven't we both already?" Dean asked. I had to frown at that. I knew being a hunter was a dangerous life, but for some reason the thought of the boys being permanently gone never crossed my mind. "You know what I mean, Dean. I mean, do you think we'll still be chasing demons when we're 60?" Sam asked. Sam was being serious, but Dean seemed to be getting a little aggravated. "No, I think we'll be dead...for good. What? You want to end up like - Like travis? Huh?Or Gordon, maybe?" Dean asked. "There's Bobby," Sam replied. I looked at him like he was crazy. "Oh, yeah, there's a poster child for growing old gracefully." Dean replied.
"Maybe we'll be different, Dean." Sam said. I really hoped he was right. "What kind of Kool-Aid you drinking, man? Sammy, it ends bloody or sad. That's just the life," Dean told him. I hated that Dean could only see our lives ending in those two ways. "True Dean, but how often do hunters get what Sam and I have? Maybe we are different." I said and I hoped with everything in me that I was right. Sam reached over and grabbed my hand; I smiled up at him and squeezed his hand letting him know I truly believed what I said. "What if we could win?" Sam asked. His question threw me for a loop and now I was super confused as was Dean. "Win?" Dean asked. "If there was a way we could just...put an end to all of it." Sam explained. While the idea sounded wonderful I didn't think it was possible. "Is there something going on you're not telling us?" Dean asked. I really hoped Sam wasn't keeping secrets from us. That was the last thing we needed. "No," Sam replied, but I could feel he was holding something back and was nervous for some reason. "Sammy," Dean said giving him a stern look.
I squeezed his hand and gave him a look of my own. "No. Look, I'm just saying...I just wish there was a way we could...go after the source. That's all. Cut the head off the snake," Sam replied. While he was telling the truth I could tell he was holding something back. Was he worried about losing us? Is that why he was acting this way? I decided to let it go for now as we had more important things to worry about. "Well, the problem with the snake is that it has a thousand heads. Evil bitches just keep piling out of the Volkswagen." Dean said. I nodded in agreement and said, "Ain't that the damn truth, worse than freaking clowns." Sam looked at me when I mentioned clowns, but I just gave him an innocent look and he let it go. "Yeah. Guess you're right" Sam replied. "Why don't you go see if you can track down Jay? I'll see what I can dig up on this tarot card." Dean told us. I was going to go with Sam seeing as I went with Dean earlier in the case. It's nice to switch it up from time to time.
Sam and I met up with Dean in the hotel lobby. "Hey," Sam and I say. "Maid found Jeb hanging from the ceiling fan. Police think it was a suicide-" Dean pulled out another tarot card, this time it was the hanged man "-I beg to differ. Pulled a little sleight of hand myself" Dean says. Well that's certainly interesting. "On Dexter's body?" Sam asked. I looked at Dean as he replied, "Yeah, so I'm thinking if this spell is a death transference, then these cards work like black-Magic targets." That theory actually made a lot of sense. "Any connection between the victims?" Sam asked. "Jeb was a total douche bag to Jay yesterday," Dean replied. I looked at Dean like really man a douche? "More like complete and total asshat." I said. Dean chuckled why Sam gave me a look. I shrugged my shoulders in a way that said 'what ya know I'm right'
"What about the first vic? Uh, Vance?" Sam asked. Knowing the connections helped. "Asked around. Apparently, Vance was heckling Jay at the bar the day he was killed," Dean replied. Okay so I was starting to feel less sorry for the guy; clearly he was picking targets and this wasn't an accident in anyway. "Okay, so Jay sneaks a card into Vance's pocket, does the table of death..." Sam starts. "And Vance takes 10 swords to the chest." Dean finishes. I made a look of disgust. "Then Jay slips a noose and Jeb doesn't. Hell of a trick." Sam says. I shake my head and look at Dean then him. "That maybe true, but it's still gruesome and awful." I say. Dean gave gives me a small smile showing he agrees. "Yeah, I think it's time we had a little chat with Jay. Any luck tailing him?" Dean asked. I looked around not wanting to answer the question and kind of whistled to myself. "Sam?" Dean questioned. "He slipped me," he replied. "He's a 60-year-old," Dean replies wondering how we lost him. I point at Sam putting all the blame on him. I don't think Dean bought my innocent act though. "He's a magician," Sam says like that explains everything.
Sam, Dean, and I wait for Jay to show up and then follow him toward his room. "Up against the wall," Dean yells. Jay gets extremely flustered. "God, who are you? What do you want?" he asks. I can feel his fear and confusion and it confuses me. "NOW!" Dean exclaims. Jay leans against the wall and he is beyond scared at this point. "We know what you've been up to." Sam tells him. His confusion starts to come back. "You been working some real bad mojo to jump-start your act." Dean tells him. At this point I'm even more confused. "What? I don't know what you're talking about." Jay says. I try to get the guys attention, but it doesn't work. "Look, we know you put a spell on those tarot cards." Sam says. "Messing with real magic?" Dean asked. I looked at Jay and then the boys. "Guys I don't think it's him," I say. However the boys either didn't hear me or decided to ignore me. "'Real magic'? Come on, there's no such thing as real magic." Jay tells them. Now I know he isn't our guy; his emotions are scared, confused, and he thinks were crazy. If I didn't know the things I do, I would think we're crazy. "Oh is that so?" Dean asks. I look at him. "Seriously Dean I think he's telling the truth." I say. Once again I'm completely ignored by everyone which is starting to piss me off. "Yeah, believe me. I've been around this stuff my whole life. It's all just -It's - It's illusions. It's tricks. It - It's all fake," Jay tries to explain. "Jeb Dexter strung up -was that just an illusion?" Dean asks. Jay's fear jumps again this time mixed with worry. "What? Something happened to Jeb?" Jay asked. "He was found hanged in his room. Right after you slipped the noose last night." Sam tells him. Jay then becomes sad, even though Jeb was a jerk to him, he didn't want him dead.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Please...Just let me go." Jay pleads with them. The poor man honestly feared for his life. "Something's not right." Dean says. Well no duh Dean how long it take you to figure that one out? "Usually they're whipping some badass hoodoo at us by now." Sam says. At this point the boys have tied poor Jay to a chair in his hotel room. "Well guys if you would have listened to me, the girl who can feel emotions, a few minutes ago you would know he isn't the one performing the magic." I tell them pretty pissed off. "All right, so, if it's not him, who is it?" Sam asks. I had a pretty good idea on who it was, but I was mad at them for not listening to me so they can figure it out themselves. They looked over at me waiting for an answer. "Oh so now you want to pay attention to me," I said throwing my arms in the air.
"Even if Jay's not working the magic, he's still getting the reward. His shows are selling out," Dean said once he realized I wasn't going to help them out any. "All right. So, then, whoever it is, they're obviously in Jay's corner." Sam says. "All right, so we got Vernon and Charlie on the list. Anyone else?" Dean said. Jay had escaped while they were trying to come up with ideas, but I didn't say anything cause I knew he wasn't going to help them after they scared him half to death. "Uh...We could always ask him." Sam says. They turn and notice he is gone. "Guess we should have seen that one coming." Dean says. Sam looks at me disappointed which is almost enough to calm my anger. "Why didn't you say anything Cassidy?" Sam asks. "Well for one I didn't think you guys would pay attention since you didn't earlier and two he wouldn't have gave you any answers anyway." I tell him. Sam and Dean both look at me apologetically. "I'm sorry we should have listened to you. Forgive us?" Sam asks giving his famous puppy-dog eyes. Ugh like I can stay mad at him when he does that. "Yes you're forgiven now come on." I tell them. We walked down the lobby and I could feel Jay's anger. He comes up behind us as the cops enter the lobby. "That's them! Those are the two nut jobs that just broke into my room!" he yells. Shit, looks like the boys have got to run. Wonder why he didn't include me in this? The boys go to take off, but end up caught "Umm Jay if you don't mind me asking why didn't you include me?" I ask him. "Well I figured since you were trying to get them to stop you weren't involved in it." He explained. I left to go try and get the boys out leaving Jay behind not knowing I was definitely a part of it.
Later that night I was sitting in the police station waiting on the boys to get released. It seems that Jay had a change of heart and dropped the charges. Once we got back to the hotel Jay was waiting for us in the lobby. "Jay. Thanks for dropping the charges" Sam said. "You mind telling us why you did it?" Dean asks. I was curious as to why Jay had done it myself. "We have to talk," Jay said leading us toward the hotel bar. We all sit down and Jay begins to explain, "I was just a kid when we first met. All I knew was how to cheat at cards. Charlie got me out of more scrapes than I can count. Hell, I would have been dead by the age of 20 if it hadn't been for him.-" he sighed "-he was more than my friend. He was my brother" Jay is so upset and I feel even sorrier for him than I did before. "I'm sorry Jay," Sam said. I put my hand on his arm trying to offer my condolences. "Look, I should have listened to you guys when you told me that my show was killing people." Jay said. I sighed and shook my head. "You can't blame yourself Jay anyone would think we were crazy if they were in your shoes." I tell him honestly. "Well, you weren't the one pulling the trigger." Dean tells him trying to make him understand my point. "Yeah, but someone did, and I want to find out who did this to Charlie, so I'll do whatever you guys say. Just tell me what to do." Jay said feeling sad and angry.
"Jay, whoever's doing this...They like you. They're probably close to you. Did Charlie and Vernon get along?" Sam asked. I could tell Jay didn't even want to entertain the thought that it could be Vernon. "No. No, it's not Vernon." Jay told us. "I'm sorry but who else could it be?" I asked hoping he would give me someone else's name. "He's the only one that makes sense." Dean told him when he didn't answer me. "Charlie and Vernon were your family, Jay." Sam started. "And now Charlie's gone." Dean finished. I looked at Jay and felt so horrible for him. It was hard to lose the ones you love, but finding out one maybe a murderer I could only imagine how bad that hurt. "Yeah, but...they butted heads sometimes, but Vernon could never do something like this." Jay said. He honestly couldn't wrap his head around one of his best friends being a killer. "See, the thing about real magic is it's a whole lot like crack. People do surprising things once they get a taste of it." Dean tells him. Unfortunately he was right. "You better be damn sure about this. Vernon's all I got left." Jay told us.
We left the lobby and went to Vernon's room. Jay had called him to get him out so we could check the place. "Wow. It's like a...magic museum." Sam said looking around. "You must be in heaven. This guy doesn't travel light." Dean replied. I looked around pretty amazed myself and I was never big into magic shows. "This is pretty amazing," I said. "He's been on the road his whole life. Probably everything he owns is in this room." Sam told us. While being famous would be nice, never having a home was a little depressing. "Well now I'm kinda sad," I told him. Sam gave me a small smile while Dean shook his head. "Let's get started," Dean told us. I looked around the room hoping to find something proving Vernon's innocence. I wasn't sure if it was because I wanted to have faith in friendship or because I didn't want Jay to lose someone else. "I hope we don't find anything," I tell the boys. The both stop looking for clues and look at me. "What?" Dean asked. "Why it would mean the end of the case?" Sam asked. I looked at the ground and took a deep breath and let it out. "I just feel sorry for Jay. He only made a come back because people were dying, he lost his best friend, and if Vernon is the culprit he's going to lose the last person he has." I explained. Sam came over and gave me a hug which instantly made me feel better.
So far we hadn't found anything and I couldn't be more grateful. However, not finding anything meant the bad guy was still out there and had the chance to kill again. The thought of that didn't sit to well with me. "This is just a bunch of old-Timey magic stuff -None of it magic." Dean said. And he was completely right all we had found was fake magic crap, "No herbs, no candles, and no tarot cards. Looks like you get your wish Cassidy," Sam said smiling at me. I smiled back happy that Jay didn't have to lose someone else. "I'll be damned," Dean said. I looked over at him confused. "What?" Sam asked. Dean then held up a poster from years ago. As soon as we saw the poster we knew Charlie was the real culprit and headed to the theater.
"The three of us together - Vital and alive...forever," Charlie said. Why would anyone want to live forever if it meant having to kill others? Don't get me wrong the thought of not having to die is an interesting one, but I wouldn't do it at the expense of others. "Not so fast! I ain't Guttenberg, and this ain't 'Cocoon.' Immortality. That's a neat trick." Dean said. I could the evil coming from Charlie and I don't know how I missed it earlier. Maybe I didn't have as good a handle on my powers as I thought. "It's not a trick. It's magic," Charlie said just as a noose dropped down around Dean's neck and lifted him up. Sam and I fired at Charlie but he caught them in his teeth. "Hey, bullet catch -Been working on that." He said and he honestly was amused with himself. "Get him," Dean said. "Let him go - Now!" Sam yelled. I snarled at him in warning, I would not hesitate to drop him if he didn't let Dean go. "Just leave me and my friends alone. All right, I will give it up -The spells, the hexes. This is the last time. I promise." Charlie said. "Yeah right like we would trust you," I said when I felt how devious he was being. He grabbed me and pushed me on the table of death, but I wasn't hurt instead he clutched his stomach that was bleeding in the same spot I should have been. "Jay...You picked these strangers over me?" Charlie asked before he died. Sam ran over to me and hugged me full of relief. Dean had been released as well so Sam asked him, "You okay?" Dean nodded his head and replied, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm all right"
Later on we saw Jay in the bar. "Hey, Jay. We wanted to thank you for what you did yesterday." Dean told him. I looked at him and shook my head, sometimes Dean didn't think things through. "I killed my best friend yesterday, and you want to thank me?" Jay asked. "Listen Jay I'm so sorry about all this," I told him and he offered me a sad smile in return. "Where's Vernon?" Sam asked. I was wondering the same thing; I would have thought they would be mourning together. "Oh, he's gone. He said he didn't want to speak to me again after what I did to Charlie." Jay replied. His sadness seeped into my very bones making me feel as if I was the one who had suffered the loss. "Listen, Jay...you know Charlie was never gonna give up what he was doing. Ever. You did the right thing." Dean told him. While Dean was right that wasn't what Jay needed or wanted to hear. "Are you sure about that? You know, Charlie was like my brother. And now he's dead... because I did 'the right thing.' He offered me a gift, and I just threw it back in his face. So now I have to spend the rest of my life old and alone. What's so right about that?" Jay asked as he got up and started to walk away. I wish I could find the words to make him feel better, but I couldn't. "Jay...your cards." The bartender said. "Throw them away," he replied. This whole situation was heartbreaking. "Well, I don't know about you two, but...I could go for a beer." Dean said. "I could use a drink," I told him sitting down beside him. "I'm gonna take a walk." Sam told us. Something was going on with him and I really wanted to know what it was, but he wouldn't talk about it. Maybe what the angels had said to him or the talk earlier about things ending bloody had got to him. If only I had known then how wrong I was.
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