Disclaimer: The Charmed characters do not belong to me. They are the creation of Constance Burge and Aaron spelling. I just borrow them for your enjoyment
The cool cloth felt chilling against her heated forehead. She didn't even know where she was anymore. Everything had happened so fast. The shots, the yelling, the loud explosions. It was like a war zone. But then everything in her life had been a war zone for the past few years. Ever since they had discovered their power and that they were witches. They, them. Where were they? Why hadn't they come for her? Or had they? Maybe they were there now. The ones caring for her. She had lost track of how many times she had heard voices in the distance and felt someone near her.
She felt the movement of a vehicle on a bumpy road and then she felt stillness. She could feel the heat her own body gave off, or was that from outside?
She tried to remember anything that had happened. She remembered sitting with her sisters at P3. As the music danced around them, the laughter of the crowd. She remembered the smell of the Manor, the smell of her mother and grams filling each crevice. It was subtle but she knew it was there. Now all she could smell was dirt and sweat.
"She is waking." A soft voice spoke out as she felt movement beside her and heard the shuffle of people switching places.
Nothing more was said as she listened to hushed voices, again none of them making sense. She fought to waken and open her eyes. But as she did everything was still a blur. And inside she felt a need for something she knew was not normal for her.
Fighting, she finally opened her eyes to a blur at first then things slowly came into focus. She saw the canopy on the supports above her as the bed underneath her felt each bump in the road.
"Easy. It's ok now." The cloth was placed back on her forehead as she tried to brush it away. "You need rest. Let your body recuperate from what has happened."
"What? Where am I?" she tried to push herself up.
"Not now." The hand eased her back down to the blankets as she felt the cool cloth wipe the sweat from her brow.
She fought to push herself back up but the hand was stronger as she felt the weakness in her own body.
She let it relax but the natural guard in her stayed alert. As she let them care for her once again. She felt the pain to many parts of her own body and knew how she got them as everything came back to her. Closing her eyes she felt sleep nearly over take her again as she drew her thoughts to her sisters.
She walked through the Manor like she had any other time. But this time it was different. Everything she felt in her heart was missing. Ripped out by a demon and there was nothing she could do about it.
The silence around was almost too much even after three months. Three months of nothing but silence around the Manor was more then any one should be asked to handle.
Leo walked into the living room and saw her standing by the window. He knew she was looking for any sign of her sister to come home. "She'll be back."
"I know. But it gets later every night."
He had no hidden answer, only to be there for her. She was his charge as much as the other was. He looked over to her as he saw the lone tear trying to escape. "She'll be fine."
"We don't know that."
"Inside you do. You have to trust her to do what's right. She needs time to let go as you do."
"She pushed it aside. Ever since we got home."
"She needs to deal with this the only way she knows how. But we both know in the end she will come to you." He wrapped his arms around her, comforting her in the only way he knew how.
Silence once again filled the Manor as the two of them stood there wondering where she was.
The music blared around her as she felt her body reacting to the music. It was something she did every night since; every night since her world was torn apart.
She swayed to the music as the hand of the man she danced with moved over her body. But she didn't care. She didn't care about anything anymore. She knew it was selfish, after all she had her sister, but there was that one part of her that was missing, and all she felt was emptiness.
She stayed on the dance floor as the grundge music continued to play. She lost track of the men she danced with or the drinks she had. But it was something she did every night. She came to the one spot no one would recognize her and dance till the sun came back up. Another illegal Rave she had found through her own connections.
The beat of the music entered her very soul as she felt the hand tug her off the floor. Leaning against the wall she heard the whispers in her ear over the loud music. It was all she needed to hear to take away the pain. A pain she felt responsible for, that rested in her heart.
She took his hand as they weaved their way through the crowd to the exit. As soon as they were outside she felt the wall slam against her back as he kissed her. She reacted with her own kiss feeling his hand move up her leg.
She reached down and gripped his hand in hers as she felt it slowly move up her inner thigh. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. But at the last moment she pulled away.
"Come on baby, you want this as much as I do." He leaned in and nuzzled into her neck as he held her against the wall.
"No." she tried to push him away, but all she felt was the back of his hand across her face and the death grip on her throat.
He moved his hand up to her as the other held her against the brick wall. "Just enjoy it honey."
Pain was all she felt as the lights flickered in the alley. She didn't even want to register what had happened as she tried to push herself up from the ground. She held herself against the wall as she heard the voice around her. Suddenly feeling the gentle hand on her arm she looked at the kind face before her as she pulled away. She only wanted one person: her sister.
She ran down the hall as she made her way through the crowd. The phone call was still fresh in her mind. Sister, attacked, hospital. Those were the only worlds she recalled.
She approached the nurse's station and asked about her sister. Her heart beat fast as she thought of the one she had lost; she couldn't lose another one.
She then followed the hallway in its own darkness, as she made her way down. She felt scared as she approached the room that held her last family member. Bracing herself for what was on the other side of the door, she quietly pushed it forward ready to face anything.
Taking her sisters hand in hers she spoke to her softly. She knew why she was doing what she was. Pushing everyone away as she had. She pushed away for the sister that was lost. It had been a hard few months on the two of them. Each one denying and excepting what had happened. But in the end, one was more excepting then the other and the other was the one hurting.
She held her close as the hours ticked by. The drive home was longer then either expected as they made their way up the steps to the Manor. A home they had shared for year's prior.
The two sat curled on the couch as the one protected the other, just like she always did. But somehow this was different.
Sleep over took them both as the sun settled under the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
The images stirred around in her mind. Images of pain and torture. It was more then her mind could take as she bolted up trying to shake the feeling she had but with no success..
The embrace soon enveloped her as she buried her head in the shoulder where she felt the safest.
She looked down towards the one sleeping in her arms. What she wouldn't do for her. Protector her, lie for her and must of all: Kill for her.