Project Aur

2004

Winnie Radley slumped down into his trusted red leather arm chair; it was the only piece of furniture he had unpacked. He used his unopened boxes full of books as a footrest while he got his breath back. Radley wasn't a young man; in fact you wouldn't even say that he had a young soul. He was by all accounts an old man, his clothes were old, his books were old and his armchair was old.

Yet old was something that Radley did well, he was a collector. Collecting items that had been pulled out the ground by archaeologists and sold to him before the museums could even get a sniff at it. The boxes in the hallway were filled with Egyptian treasures, Incan riches and Roman valuables.

Radley's long white beard rose and fell as it rested on his large belly, his eye brows were so thick that he could have been asleep and you wouldn't be able to tell. Small in height and large in size, Radley wasn't a man who people saw as threatening and yet he was a man who had kept his riches as close to him as he did his privacy.

The van that had delivered Radley's items grumbled as it drove away down the road, but the noise didn't seem to disturb Radley as he slipped away into a light sleep. There were items in those box's that people would kill for and Radley knew it – and yet little did he know that a wooden box still bubble wrapped from the people he brought it from would bring him and his attempted retirement crashing down around him…..

2015

When Dean said that he was going to sleep for four days he meant it, he spent much of his time in bed and when he did wake up he would eat, drink and then go to sleep again. Answers to questions only came in a muffled mumble and Sam would get nothing more than a wave or slight smile when his brother was standing up right.

For the seventh time today Sam had his head in his hands as he flicked his way through the latest book, it was nothing he hadn't read before and the conclusion was the same. There was no way to get rid of the mark. When Sam was in college he would joke to Jess about how much he had to read to get the answers to his papers, he would laugh at his younger self for his naivety now! "You think you had to read a lot about criminal law? Wait till you have to find a way to save your brother from the mark of Cain"

When he slept he thought of pages of books he had misread, when he ate he thought of books he hadn't read yet and when he woke up in the morning he wondered how long it was going to be until they finally found something.

The current book he was on was one Dean had read the week before, but believing that two pairs of eyes was better than one Sam took to it again and so far had come up with nothing. It was only 10am and already he was wishing the day would be over, just another bum day alone in the bunker.

On the table beside him his phone began to vibrate springing the hunter back into life, he looked at the caller id. Cas.

'Morning Cas…' Sam greeted as cheerfully as he could, his voice was a little raw as he hadn't talked to anyone else in so long.

'Hello Sam, how are you?...how is Dean?'

'….i'm good and Dean….he's fine, I guess'

'Sam, I think I've found something'

Sam's heart sank, they had been here before. Only two days ago they thought they were on to something but all it led to was disappointment, he was only thankful that they didn't tell Dean.

'….right, okay Cas. Bring whatever you've found over and we'll have a look at it' Sam told him trying to sound positive.

Cas had brought an image, drawn in a 15th century style of a woman. It wasn't the best drawing in the world and therefore the poor woman who was the subject didn't come across all that flattering, she was drawn sitting on what looked like a throne with gold cloth and bling dripping off her.

'What am I supposed to be looking at here, Cas?'

'Myfi Mairwen' Cas said simply, he was stood looking down at the image with his arms folded obviously seeing something Sam wasn't. Registering Sam blank expression he continued 'she was a well-known noble woman who lived in Wales during the early 15th century. But what's more important is the jewellery she's wearing….'

'…yh, I noticed, she looks like she's been dragged backwards through a pawn store' Sam commented

'….why would anyone want to drag her backwards through a pawn store?...'

'Never mind, so what's significant about her jewellery?'

Cas pointed down at Myfi's wrist 'her bracelet, she wrote a letter about it to her brother in France. In the letter she said that the bracelet had been originally made for Eve….'

'Wait, Eve? As in Adam and Eve, Eve?'

Cas nodded 'she said that god made it for her to represent the mother's guilt…'

'Guilt over what?...' Sam interrupted

'I'm getting to that. guilt over the sins of her sons' Cas took a deep breath 'there's more….Myfi's son locked her up, he chained her up in a dungeon or some other. But she broke free and disowned him, but the scars from being tied up still remained. It was said that when she wore the bracelet and confessed her own sins as a mother that the scars disappeared'

Sam looked at Cas desperately 'but Dean isn't Cain's mother….or any relation. How do you know it would work? And how do you know that old Miffy here isn't just showing off to her brother?'

Cas sighed unfolding his eyes and looking as his friend 'I tried to find the bracelet before I came to see you, I found that a bracelet known as the "Aur Band" went missing from an English church in the 18th century, stolen. They too believed it had been Eve's bracelet'

'The "Aur Band"?'

'What do you think?...' Cas asked

Sam looked down at the image again, finally he shrugged 'we'll I'm running out of options so it's going to have to be this'

Listening in from behind the door Dean rolled his eyes, they thought he didn't know about the disaster they had had two days ago, when they thought they were onto their big break and it only ended in tears. With a glass of water in his hand he said nothing and simply went back to bed.

2004

Having collectors holding powerful supernatural objects in their basements was not a thought that appealed to John Winchester, and he had been waiting for Radley to come back to the US for so long. The man was a prominent name in the hunter community; many a hunter would have loved to have ripped those powerful and dangerous objects from his grasp. All it would take was one demon to get into Radley's house and they would have access to a treasure chest of possibilities.

It almost seemed to perfect, Radley almost asleep in his chair and the van rumbling down the street. John smiled, five more minuets should do it and then he would go in.