"Would you like some tea? It's great for this weather," the woman asked.

"Sure that would be great, thank you," Cassandra answered but she didn't really feel like having a drink of tea. She was in a hurry. She needed to know what the woman knew as quickly as possible, but she just accepted her offer to be polite.

"Okay, I'll be back soon," the strange woman said and then left the room, to go to the kitchen.

Cassandra shifted in her seat, anxiously. She couldn't help but worry about her daughter. How was she? Was she worse? She shouldn't have left her unattended but what else could she have done? The doctors couldn't safe Angela so it was the up to herself.

The woman returned with a mug full of tea and walked towards the sofa. She handed the mug to Cassandra who took it smiling, courteously. "Thank you," she said. She then took a sip of the hot liquid. It was too scolding to drink just yet. She almost burnt her lips and tongue. It was best to let it cool down before trying to drink more.

Cassandra then turned to face the woman and asked her, "so what do you know? How can you help me?"

"OK well, it's a long story. You see my great great great grandmother used to live in that town when the witch was alive. She had thought the townsfolk were crazy.
That woman wasn't a witch. Witches didn't exist in real life, she had told herself over and over again. There was no way she would let herself believe that, even though it had been drilled into her head since childhood. Even though she never believed the tales, she was still frightened to go near that house.
Anyway, when she was old enough she left to go to University and everything had been great right up until she received that letter. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary her mother often wrote to her to see how she was doing but as she read this one letter guilt overcame her. It read like a plea, like the writing of someone in danger. The letter told her not to return home, that it was too dangerous that the witch had begun murdering citizens of the town, but she couldn't sit by knowing that her mother and the rest of her might be dead.
A few days later she managed to get transport that could take her to the town. What she was greeted with was a mass of blood, carnage and police tape. It had looked like the police were off duty so she snuck under the tape and made her way towards the witch's house.
Somehow she found the courage to go there. The door was open so she stepped inside and explored. It was a normal looking house except for the blood. After a while, she found her way to the cellar.
It shook her to the core.
There was a table filled with bloody knives, a cauldron and lots of candles. On the walls, there were shelves filled with a variety of herbs and poisonous plants, human and animal body parts. It almost made her gag. She had seen enough. Now she knew the townspeople had been right and were mad that she hadn't believed them.
She turned to leave and her eye caught something else. There were chains attached to the wall. They were probably used to tie her victims so they couldn't escape.
As she started to leave she caught a glimpse of a transparent figure that she could have sworn looked like the witch.
"Excuse me miss you're not allowed to be here," she had heard someone say. It caused her to jump and it had been a police officer.
"I'm a sorry officer. I use to live in this town. I received a letter from my mum a few days ago and rushed her as soon as I could. I was trying to find my family. Did anyone survive?" She asked not very hopeful.
"I'm sorry but there were no survivors," he answered. She had thought as much and his confirmation finally made tears come. "Come on let's get you out of her," the officer said and escorted her back to her University housing. She had sworn to herself then that she would get revenge somehow," the woman explained to Cassandra.

"I'm sorry that happened to your family but how will any of it help my daughter?" Cassandra asked.

"Well she wrote everything down that day and everything that happened after that as she tried to get her revenge and I have her journal," the woman answered.

"So her journal has the answer to helping me save my daughter?"

"Yes, I believe it might," the woman answered. Cassandra smiled in relive. She was close to knowing how to save her daughter.