Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Witch? (Chapter 5)
by CharmedRyan2000@aol.com
The headless horseman quickly drives his knife down to Phoebe as she screams in absolute fear. Suddenly, the horseman flies off and hits the wall, bouncing onto the floor. Phoebe, who has her head cowered down thinking she was going to die, looks up slowly and sees the headless horseman lying on the ground next to the wall. She looks to see who did this and sees Prue, who stands on the other side of the hallway. She has a large bandage wrapped around her head where she was bleeding, and she was standing there in her light blue and white hospital gown.
Phoebe slowly tries to stand up as Prue rushes over to her, helping her up quickly. "Prue." Phoebe starts off, "you're ok! How come the sleeping spell didn't work on you?!?" Prue, appearing somewhat dazed still, replies, "Well, I don't know why the spell didn't work on me, but I feel ok. I only had a small cut on my head but was knocked unconscious, and when I came to, I found myself lying in a hospital bed. I went outside and saw everyone asleep, and then I heard your screams through the hallway and traced it here to find a headless man after you"
Phoebe, now noticing the horseman was getting up, motions Prue to run. Phoebe and Prue both run out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. "Yeah, I don't know which demon or warlock is doing this, but whatever it is sure has a hankering for fairy tales and folklore. That guy looks like the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow, and Piper was poisoned by apples, which was out of Snow White." Phoebe explained as she ran.
"Well, we need to get home and go to the Book of Shadows," started Prue. Phoebe replied, "Sure, but I still wonder why the sleeping spell didn't work on you. I mean, I thought it worked on everyone but me!" Prue, having a slightly confused face as she ran, grabbed her own neck and pulled out a necklace. "Well, right after Piper died, I went to my room to get the good luck necklace mom gave me when I was four. She always said that it would bring me good luck. I never wore it because I thought it was stupid, but I blamed myself after Piper died, thinking maybe if I had worn it I would've brought good luck to myself and all of you. And I was hoping that maybe, somehow, the necklace would bring Piper back."
Phoebe, trying to hear Prue as best as she could as she ran through the hallway, replied, "Well, it may not have saved Piper, but I am pretty sure that charm was what sent away the negative energy from the sleeping spell so it wouldn't affect you. And if you never had woken up, I would be in eight pieces probably right now, so it did save ME." Phoebe smiles as she looked at Prue. Prue smiles back.
"Ok, do you have any idea where we're going?" asked Prue. "Well, the whole hospital is blocked by some magical forcefield or something, so we can't break out of here with anything psychical. But I am pretty sure, if we combine our energies, we can break out of here magically by battling the magic of the forcefield!"
Prue looked at Phoebe and said, "Ok, so what spell do you have?" Phoebe lighted up and replied, "Remember that spell you told me about that you and Piper cast that time you went into the future? You know, to create a door or something to break me free from jail? You told me about it." Prue thought and her eyes suddenly widened, "Yes! And I remember exactly how it went! But I need a pen or something to write with to draw a door!" Phoebe quickly saw a desk and ran to it, grabbing a pen. She ran with Prue down the stairs and to an open, white wall. Phoebe quickly drew a picture of a door on the wall and turned to Prue, saying, "Ok, cast away!"
Suddenly, the headless horseman came into the hallway and walked to Phoebe and Prue. Prue looked at him and laughed, "You know Mr. Horseman, that no-head thing is so old!" Prue waves her hand and sends the horseman flying to the wall. She turns back to the wall and chants, "When you find your path is blocked, all you have to do is knock." Prue then knocks at the drawn door, but nothing happens.
"How come nothing happened?!?!? It worked that time we used it!" Prue exclaimed. "It's the magic of the barrier surrounding this hospital," started Phoebe, "there is a lot of magic surrounding this hospital which makes the barrier. We need to fight it together with our magic if we want the spell to penetrate through the magic of the barrier."
Phoebe and Prue held hands and closed their eyes, chanting diligently, "When you find you path is blocked, all you have to do is knock!" They both knocked loudly on the drawn door. The ground shook as the part of the wall in the drawn door backed up and led outside. The horseman got up and raced after Prue and Phoebe. Phoebe quickly ran out the door and Prue followed. Prue looked back to the running horseman and said, "Later horseman. Enjoy your stay!" as she waves her hand to send the horseman to the wall again. Prue ran out of the door as the door closed slowly and became part of the wall again.
"Ok, now, let's get home!" Prue said to Phoebe.
"So, where's the car?" asked Prue.
"Um, Leo sort of orbed me here, so we didn't take a car." Phoebe responded.
"What? You mean we have to run home?" Prue shouted.
"Yes, but it's not that far. It's only 5 miles or so. We could use it as a workout before we kick the demon or warlock's butt!" Phoebe said to try to lighten up the situation.
"Come on!" Prue said as she grabbed Phoebe's hand, starting to run.
Back in the wicked witch's house, the old lady saw Prue and Phoebe running home in her crystal ball and shouted, "Those blasted good witches!!!!!!!!!!! Prue is still alive, and that horseman couldn't even decapitate Phoebe like I asked!!!!! Now they're heading home!!!!!!!" The old lady grabbed her wooden cane with a glass ball on top and waved it. Green light flashed from the glass ball and came out, forming green smoke. As the smoke cleared, the headless horseman appeared with his horse in front of the old lady. "You fool! You couldn't even kill that good witch Phoebe like I asked! You're useless!!!!!!!!!" The old lady waved her cane at the horseman and he disappeared in a rage of fire.
"Well, if they are so committed to going home to check their little Book of Shadows, then by all means, I'll let them! They'll be getting a nice surprise at home! Hahahaha!"
The old lady looked at the stove to see if her gingerbread child was done cooking yet. She turned back and sat in a chair, saying to herself, "Little do they know that their dear old sister Piper can be revived by a simple kiss from the man she loves, just as Snow White! But I put a different kind of potion in the apple for Piper than I did for Snow White! If Piper doesn't receive a kiss of true love in three hours, she will be stuck in her eternal sleep forever! Hahahaha! So she is probably now forever trapped in her eternal sleep! And even IF she did already receive a kiss of true love, they do not know that it takes over two hours alone for her to awaken, since everyone thinks she will wake instantaneously like how they told the Snow White story! Far from the truth my dears! And by now, they probably put her in a coffin or body bag, and when she awakens, she will suffocate to death! Hahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!"
Back at the Halliwell manor, the sound of the old lady's cackling laughter can be heard clearly. Piper lay in the kitchen still, eyes closed and white as snow. Suddenly, a gust of warm air fills Piper's surrounding, and her finger moves a little. Her eyes, weak and fragile, slowly flicker open. Her body slowly moves, and she gets up slowly. "W..what happened? The last thing I remember was talking to Phoebe after she kicked an apple out of my hand," Piper said to herself weakly. She put her cold, sweaty hands over her head as she thought. Her skin was no longer white, and she was sweating all over now. She slowly stood up and walked around.
"Hello? Is anyone home? Hello?" She looked out the window and saw that the sun was setting. It was seven-thirty PM already, and she was confused. "Why is the sun setting? Isn't it morning? Where have I been?" Piper slowly leaned against the kitchen counter and held her hand to her forehead, saying "Oww..my head hurts!"
Piper suddenly heard a cackle outside. She turned around, scared and slightly trembling. "What was that?" she said to herself. She continued to hear the loud, screeching cackles and walked outside to investigate. She heard it from the neighbor's house and said to herself, "Hmm. It's coming from there! But no one lives in that house! They moved last month! Or wait, didn't they sell it a few days ago? I remember seeing a SOLD tag on it."
Piper slowly walked over to the back of the neighbor's house and held her hand on the doorknob. She slowly opened the door and crept in, trying to find out the source of the noise. Slowly, she walked into the living room and beheld the old lady, cackling. Piper quickly ducked under the couch as she spied on the old lady.
"Hahahahaha! Well, I guess I have worked up an appetite! Let's see if my gingerbread girl is ready!" The old lady opened her oven door and took out a large gingerbread girl, the same girl she had killed and began cooking earlier. As she set the gingerbread girl on the table, she took out her wooden cane with the glass ball on top. The cane glowed green and a little girl's voice could be heard from within the ball. This voice was the same voice as the girl the old lady had killed earlier. The voice screamed, "Help!!! Mommy!!!!!!"
The old lady looked at her glass ball and laughed harder as she heard the girl scream. "There's no use screaming little girl! You're dead! The big bad witch killed you! Hahahahaha! Your soul will be trapped forever in my glass ball! You see little girl, that's how I have lived all these years. I have kept in possession all my victims' souls. Together, these souls give me youth so I will never grow too old and die! Hahahaha! Have fun for eternity suffering in my magical ball!"
The little girl's voice can be heard screaming as her voice slowly fades. Piper gasps and holds her mouth, trying not to make a peep after what she has seen. The old lady set her cane down and got out a knife, beginning to cut her gingerbread girl as her meal. Suddenly, the old lady looked up and began sniffing the air. She has an eerie look on her wicked face as she sniffed the air.
"Fee, fi, fo! I smell something fishy. My scent hasn't been as good since the 1800's, but I know when I smell someone of goodness in my presence. I smell not a child, for their scent is slightly different! Ahh, I smell a good witch among us kitty!" The black cat slowly walked around, appearing to be helping her master look for the intruding good witch.
"I wonder where that good witch can be!" the old lady asked herself with a wicked smile as she walked around. Piper hid there, trying to crawl away to the kitchen and go out the back door. "Beware the big bad witch little good witch! Or I'll eat you up!" said the old lady as she cackled. Suddenly, the old lady shouted "GOTCHA!" as she pounded her hand on the couch, and Piper jumped up, screaming. The wicked witch observed Piper, and laughed.
"Well, I thought you were in a deep sleep, little good witch. You must have received a kiss from true love! Curse, now I have all three of you to deal with once again!" said the evil witch. Piper backed up and shouted, "You're.you're a wicked witch!"
The old lady laughed and replied, "Guilty as charged! The most powerful witch of darkness and black magic you will ever see! So don't get any thoughts about actually defeating me! Hahahaha! You have no idea how many good witches have tried to stop me and how many I have killed and eaten. Their souls are now in my glass ball on top of my cane for eternity. You and your sisters will join them shortly!"
Piper grew scared and backed, "That's where you're wrong, because we're going to stop you!"
The old lady laughed and replied, "You, stop me? I don't think so! See, I have been around since the 1400's my dear, terrorizing civilians, including my favorite groups to terrorize innocent children and good witches! All of the fairy tales you have ever heard, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretalwell, they are all very true. And I was always the wicked witch behind all those fairy tales! See, a good witch named Isabella knew she couldn't stop me! So the next best thing she could do was record my evil deeds and tell others, passing news of my terror to people so they would gather to defeat me someday, or warn them to avoid me at least! She was given permission by the powers of goodness to report my evil deeds throughout the centuries, and so, the powers of goodness gave her eternal youth so she would live to follow me around to record my evil deeds. Among the deeds she recorded of mine was when the evil queen hired me to kill Snow White, when I killed and ate Hansel and Gretal, when I put Sleeping Beauty in an eternal sleep, when I raised the headless horseman from his grave to haunt Sleepy Hollow, when I turned a frog into a prince, and many, many more! She recorded all those stories and spread them among people, trying to warn them of me. However, the people never believed her, but thought the stories would make good tales. So, over time, people changed all the endings to those stories so that the evil witch died and was defeated, when, in reality, I conquered all! So, those tales this stupid good witch spread of my evil deeds were never taken seriously, but rather, changed to make the evil witch die instead of how she truly triumphed, and became your modern-day classic fairy tales!"
Piper backed away and gulped, saying, "You mean all the fairy tales we have ever heard, YOU were the evil witch behind it?" The old lady laughed and replied, "Every one! And you thought they were just tales! Thanks to that good witch Isabella for helping spread my terror. I only regret people changing the stories to make the evil witch die! And thirty years ago, I killed Isabella finally, having found out her location. I killed and ate her, and now, her soul is mine! That was about the same time I went up against Penny Halliwell!"
Piper gulped again and backed, saying "Grams?" The old lady laughed and replied, "Yes! Your grandmother. But I'll be frank. I was defeated by your grandmother. I will have to admit, she was the strongest and the most powerful witch of good magic I had ever seen, and she used all her strength to defeat me! But in the end, she did not have enough power to finish me off, so I took that chance to escape, swearing one day to return to feed on her three granddaughters!"
Piper shouted, "Grams will always be able to defeat you! She was a powerful good witch, and she could defeat you! The same with her three granddaughters, The Charmed Ones!" The old lady started laughing uncontrollably and said, "The Charmed Ones! Please! That is only legend little girl! I am a powerful witch of evil that not even The Charmed Ones like you can defeat! Besides, if I remember the legend correctly, it says you WILL grow to be the most powerful witches ever known! You will not grow to that level of power until FAR into the future my dearies, and even then, you will not be able to defeat me!"
Piper smiled and replied, "That's where you're wrong!" Piper quickly threw her hands up to freeze the evil witch, but the evil witch stood their, unfrozen and smiling. "Oh please! You think you could actually freeze me?"
Piper threw her hands in the air a few more times, panicking as her freezes do not work. "Why can't I freeze her!!" Piper said to herself. The wicked witch laughed and said, "Foolish good witch! Do you know how many times I have been frozen since my existence! You're certainly not the first time-freezing witch I've come across! I have been frozen many times before, and just like the chicken pox, the more you're frozen, the more you become immune to it. Hahahahaha! Combine that fact with the amount of souls I have to strengthen me and your power is basically useless against me!"
The wicked witch pointed both her fingers toward Piper and out from her fingers came fizzy green light, resembling green-colored electricity. Piper shrieked as the light came to her and threw her hands up, freezing it in its path. The wicked witch grunted evilly in anger and hurled another bolt of the green light again, and again, Piper threw up her hands to freeze it in the air as it came to her.
"Stupid white witch!!" the old lady shouted as she threw out a huge gust of green light from her fingers to Piper again. Piper, again, threw her hands up to freeze it in its path. "I may not be able to freeze you, but I can certainly freeze your attacks," Piper said as she smiled. The black cat jumped over Piper's face and Piper fell, screaming as the cat tried to scratch her face.
The wicked witch quickly took this opportunity to shoot the green light at Piper. The green light hit Piper and sent her flying to the wall. She bounced off the wall and crawled on her stomach, crying in pain. The black cat ran by the old lady and gave an evil grin. The wicked witch shot another bolt of surging green light at Piper. Piper slowly floated in the air as the green light, which was shooting at her stomach, held her airborne. Piper screamed in pain as the green light shot at her stomach constantly, and she wiggled violently as she hung in the air because of the light. The old lady then recoiled her hands and shot them forth again in a great motion, sending a powerful surge of light which sent Piper to the wall again. Piper, this time, stayed pinned to the wall, floating there as the green light continued to shoot at her, holding her there. Piper screamed in pain as the light continually surged at her stomach.
Suddenly, the wicked witch brought down her hands and the light disappeared. Piper fell to the ground unconscious and wet with sweat. "Hahaha! I won't kill her now kitty. I will kill her along with her two sisters together when they get home!" The old lady waved her hand at Piper, and Piper disappeared in a gust of green gas. Piper's room filled with green gas back at the Halliwell Manor, and as the gas cleared, Piper reappears lying on her bed, hands folded over her chest and eyes closed. The old lady smiled and awaited Prue and Phoebe's return to the Halliwell Manor.
A while later, Prue and Phoebe, breathing heavily after a long walk, arrive at the manor. It is completely dark now, and the full moon shines with its brilliant light. "That was a long run!" exclaimed Phoebe. "Yeah, I really need to get into shape," commented Prue. They both open the manor door and walk inside. As they close the manor door, the door locks by itself, without them knowing. The windows are all closed and locked now, mysteriously, and the Halliwell sisters walk into the kitchen.
"Oh my God! Where's Piper?" exclaimed Phoebe. "Her body is gone. We left it in the kitchen this afternoon!"
Prue walked over to where Phoebe was and exclaimed, "Where is she?"
"I don't know," replied Phoebe, "we left her body here after you fell out the window, and now, now, now she's gone!"
Prue and Phoebe stood there, confused and bewildered. "I'll go check upstairs! Maybe Piper woke up! Leo said fairy tales were changed, so maybe his kiss didn't have immediate effect on Piper until later while we weren't home!"
Phoebe ran upstairs and walked slowly through the hallway. Suddenly, a gust of cold wind whistles past Prue and Phoebe and they shiver. The heat rises in the house and out of nowhere, fire ignites on the stove of the kitchen. "Oh my God, fire!' screamed Prue. Fire ignites by itself on the couch in the living room as well, and the walls start to ignite with fire on its own. Phoebe sees the walls catch fire on their own in the hall upstairs and screams "Prue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Meanwhile, next door, the old lady laughs as she sees the Halliwell house on fire through her crystal ball. "Nighty night good witches! Hahahahaha!"