The Great and Narrow Divide

Chapter One

Catherine Ansen sat back at her desk, surveying her essay on demonic possession. It wasn't going to be the longest in the class, but she wasn't going for simply quantity, after all. Trying her best wasn't just an option, anymore; it was a necessity. Witches like her needed to prove their worth, as well as the worth of Magic School. With Gideon gone, the very future of the school - as well as that of the students and magical beings that resided within the school – hung in the balance...

Catie shook her head angrily and crossed out one word on her paper, replacing it with another. She couldn't think about Gideon. Not right now, at least. She had set aside special time to deal with the former headmaster of Magic School. Everything had to be calculated, planned out, or there would be serious consequences, indeed.

She was interrupted by a knock at the door, followed by a youthful, feminine voice. "Cate? Hun, there are... People. Out in the main hall. They want to talk to you."

"I don't feel like talking," Catie declared stubbornly, glaring at the door as if she could see who was behind it. It had only been a month since Gideon's death, and Catie was still supposed to be "in mourning."

"What the heck am I supposed to tell them, then?"

"Tell them..." Catherine hobbled weakly to the door and opened it a crack to peer out at the familiar face watching her. "Tell them I don't feel well. It's the truth, isn't it?"

Mena looked at her friend as though Cate had sprouted wings through her long, straight, amber-colored hair. "I can't tell them that."

Catie was getting annoyed, now. "Well, why the hell not?"

"Because," Mena told her, equally perturbed, "they're the Charmed Ones."

"Have a seat," Piper told the unusually tall female in front of her. She watched carefully as the girl – she couldn't have been more than eighteen or so, despite her height – quietly dropped into a chair across from the sisters.

"So, Catie, huh?" Paige questioned, raising a currently brown eyebrow.

"Yes. With a 'C'" Cate told them in a small voice.

"How old are you?" Phoebe asked. "Eighteen? Nineteen?"

"I'll be twenty in a month." Catie didn't like the sudden rush of questions, but wasn't sure how to stop the Charmed Ones from asking them.

Paige was quick to continue the onslaught. "Twenty, eh? A bit old to still be in Magic School, isn't it?"

"I want to teach here," Cate said solidly. "I was supposed to take my teaching exams a week ago, but Gideon..."

"Yeah, speaking of Gideon..."

So that was it. They wanted to talk to her about Gideon. Cate sat there, tightlipped, eyes narrowed. "I'd rather not speak of him, if you don't mind."

"Oh, we do mind," Piper spoke up, a hint of fury in her voice. "He killed my son."

"If what the school's heard is true, you have both your sons, safe and sound, Miss Halliwell." Cate knew all about what Gideon had done to Piper's children; killing one and nearly missing the other. Realizing what she had said came out as quite insensitive, she added, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said – there's nothing I can do, anyway. I don't understand why you wanted to talk to me."

Phoebe took a deep breath and leaned forward in her chair. "You and Gideon were close."

"Not in this lifetime."

Paige almost giggled, and Piper rolled her eyes. Phoebe just continued. "I'll take that as a 'no,' then."

Cate folded her hands in her lap and let her gaze rest on them. "He didn't – we didn't really chat it up when he was around, no."

"So you wouldn't have any idea what's going on, now."

"What?" Cate's eyes widened. "What's going on?"

"We're not sure," Paige confided. "That's the problem. We heard from a reliable source that Gideon wasn't... Where he was supposed to be."

"Hold up. Wait a second," Piper interjected. "Are you sure we should be telling her all this? What if she is involved?"

"I'm not getting any sense of lying," Phoebe told them, sternly.

"Hello, dummy, you don't have your power of empathy anymore, remember?"

"Rub it in. Thank you."

"I don't know anything."

The three sisters turned to look at Cate. "You don't?" Paige asked in confirmation.

"Not a thing." Cate said a silent prayer that they believed her. "I'm sorry."

They had barely heard her when Paige came up with another theory. "Maybe he's crossing over or something. You know, fully to 'the other side.'"

"No, you know what Leo said: he got some clear readings that a dead Elder was crossing back into the earthly realm." Piper looked toward Cate. "It's almost definitely Gideon."

"Well, who's to say someone's helping him?" Phoebe asked.

Piper sighed. "We've been through this. If he came back, he'd be weakened. There's no way he could enter this plane on his own."

"So, why would you be asking me about it?" Cate inquired. "Like I said, I didn't even really know who he was."

It was almost as if she'd been ignored. "Are you sure you got it right?" Phoebe asked her sister.

Paige shook her head, confused. "Yes, yes; I knew what the hell I was doing. She's who the spell pointed to."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, maybe you should have done the damn spell, then!"

Catie couldn't take much more of this. "Listen, I really have to be going."

"Wait, just a second."

"Piper, there's no reason for us to keep her if she has nothing to do with it." Phoebe gathered her things and stood as Catie did. "We're really sorry for the inconvenience."

Catie informed them that it was no trouble at all, just to be polite, and left under the scrutinizing gaze Piper shot in her direction. As she rounded the corner and entered the school's main corridor, she still heard the voices of the Charmed Ones.

"Why would a spell go wrong?"

"How should I know? But it wouldn't be the first time it's happened."

"Come on, we have to get back to the house. Leo might be trying to contact us."

Cate stumbled as quickly as she could to her room, deep in contemplation. Was Leo in hiding? Served him right if he was. What Gideon had done was inexcusable, but there were good intentions behind it. Leo's revenge was plain reckless and hardly associated itself with the goodness he was supposed to stand for.

She closed the heavy wooden door behind her, and muttered a silencing spell to soundproof the room. Every word, every action she knew by heart – after all, she'd been performing them for an entire month.

Candles were carefully placed in a circle and lighted. Catie knelt in the middle, her expression betraying the excitement she felt within. If all went well, this would be the last time she'd have to perform the spell.

Slowly, whisper-quiet, she began to speak.

"Hear my words, departed lover
Appear to me and no other
I lend you strength as time you bide
Cross now the great divide."

Sitting back on her heels, Catherine watched as mist swirled up out of the air and thickened until she could no longer see the room in front of her. It took a few seconds, but at long last, Gideon's head appeared.

She smiled.