It had begun at dawn when, upon waking from a most peculiar dream that evaporated like mist from her mind the moment she woke, but she knew had been unnerving, Cassie had glanced in the mirror and nearly broke her neck looking over her shoulder rapidly for something that simply wasn't there. She had turned back to the mirror, only to see her own tired face looking back and, frowning, moved on.

The thing in the mirror she could ignore, the clump of tea leaves at the bottom of her cup that she looked at habitually and usually gave her a clue as to something mundane that was due to happen to her, made her drop the cup in fright.

"Miriam!" She screamed, running to the kitchen cupboard as she called for her sister again, knowing her son would sleep through anything in his small bed next to hers. "Miriam! Wake up!"

She rummaged through their cupboards, sparse though they were usually there seemed to be a plethora of things blocking her way and she pushed aside a number of things that had no business being there - a few bottles of whiskey probably stolen from Abe, a folded up tablecloth that needed airing after it's long sojourn inside, a few candles, a bottle of rose water and- ah! there!

Cassie pulled out her emergency sage and immediately raced back to the kitchen table, grabbing her wand to light a fire despite the warm weather outdoors. Upstairs she could hear movement and immediately fell to her knees, only just coming short of singeing her hand as she thrust the sage into the flame to let it take then pulled it towards her face, puffing out the flame and blowing the ember steadily, watching the smoke that rose off it with watering, intent eyes.