Seeing With His Eyes Closed
Paige sat next to the little boy who was proped up against a pillow in his hospital bed, it was nine o'clock in the night but unlike the other five year olds, Seth didn't sleep well.
"Hi there Seth, what are you doing up so late?"
"Can't sleep, it's too dark and I don't like the shadows."
"I know what you mean, when I was a kid I also couldn't sleep in the night."
"I bet your mom was there for you, she would make you feel better, or she'd show you how to make the shadows go away."
"Maybe, but I can do the same thing for you; when I was small I'd close my eyes think of all of the things that I would like to do and then I'd imagine I was doing them.I wanted to eat cake in the morning for breakfast, drive a car that could go under water, skate on the moon and turn my babysitter into a monkey. What about you Seth, what would you like to do?"
"I want to be Batman with all his cool stuff and the batmobile, I want to eat the biggest bowl of ice-cream in the world, I want to fly like a rocket and most of all I want to be able to walk." He smiled broadly at her and she smiled back, but on the inside her heart was aching from the one thing he wanted the most but he couldn't get; he wanted to walk.
"I also want to have different magical powers." He added matter of factly, Paige almost had to take a mental take back.
"You want different magic powers, do you have a magic trick you can show me Seth?" She asked quietly, just in case someone was listening or was watching them. He smiled sheepishly and held out his hands.
"It's not so great like the magic tricks you see on TV; and I don't show anyone my magic trick, only my daddy knows about it and he said I mustn't show anybody."
"Well you can trust me, I won't tell any body and I'll show you a magic trick if you show me yours."
"okay, close your eyes and give me your hands. You mustn't say anything or open your eyes, the trick won't work if you do, okay?"
"Okay Seth, I'll be very quiet and I promise I won't peek." She took his hands and closed her eyes, in a second the darkness was replaced by light. She was wearing a short white dress ending above her knees checkered with a red and pink flower print, her red hair was in a ponytail tied up with a red ribbon she touched it with a white lace gloved hand, she was wearing short red high heals standing on manicured green grass. She turned around and saw a cosy open caffe with other people slightly older than her, they weren't over dressed but something about them said money in big dollar signs, the ocassional boy or girl sitting next to their parents or grandparents eating slices of cake, muffins or sipping pink lemonade from crystal glasses. A large green yard streched out before her filled with childrern chasing each other, flying kites kicking balls from one to another, one boy probably five or six with dark brown hair wairing a school uniform ran up to her smiling.
"Do you like my dream!" He said happilly, even though she couldn't believe what she was seeing she smiled and nodded, Seth was standing without any assistance looking like anyone of the boys running around on the field.
"Come on, my friends and I are playing tag and none of the other parents want to play with us."
"If you don't Paige then I will, who's it!?" It was Richard wearing a grey suit and tie, he took off his shoes and socks.
"I'm it, and I'm the fastest, uncle Richard, now you're it!" Seth said and he touched Richard on the arm and ran like the wind, this scene was so perfect so picturesque and it felt real. She wasn't going to be the odd one out so she took off her shoes as well and ran to catch up with them, she found herself laughing and soon without a warning Richard caught her from behind and kissed her cheek. She turned around and smiled at him. There was a scream, then a shout for help from a little boy and it sounded like Seth, she turned around and saw a dark figure with a terrible snarl dressed in a black suit with a sleek and old fashioned haircut, he was chasing a dark haired boy and it was Seth, she ran to him with all she had and finally found Seth's hand she pulled him and then the light was extinguished. She opened her eyes and gasped for air, she was back in the hospital sitting next to Seth's bed, he was fast asleep spread out like an eagle on his back, but one tear fell down his cheek even though he was asleep. Seth wasn't just a human boy, he was a witch with something or someone who wanted him, whether it was a dream or a nightmare Paige knew that she wouldn't find it easy to sleep as well. After the thought had run its course she realised there was an unpleasant feeling in her hands. She opened them and looked, there was a small red stinging handprint on them that was slowly fading away.
"There are other posibilities, he could be somekind of faerl creature, or he could be a demon child for all we know."
"I'm telling you, he's not anything like that, he's just a little boy that happens to be a witch. He said he never showed anyone because his father told him to keep it a secret, just like we keep our powers a secret and the last time I checked, Prue also had to save a kid who was a witch and two guys were after him. We know that there is always a magical reason why I get all of my jobs, I think he's my innocent."
"That's what you thought about that guy who sold his soul to a demon, for all we know the dad probably made one and didn't keep his end of the deal. You don't follow the rules and someone you love suffers the consequnces, his wife died and now a demon is chasing the son."
"All the more reason to save Seth, if his father got mixed up with the wrong demons, why should the kid suffer the consequences. Why are you so deadset on not saving a little boy."
"Since the last time this kind of situation arised, you sold your soul for someone you bearly knew and we were so close to losing you and I don't want to lose another sister." Piper said with more anger than she intended, there was a moment of silence as the tention began to settle which Phoebe took advantage of.
"Let's just look at it this way, there's a boy who's in danger and there might be someone who knows why, if that's the case one or two of us needs to find that person and it's most likely the father. He will know more about what's going on. Paige, you find out whatever you can about the father and give it to me, I'll try to scry for him. Piper , you are the best at making potions, you can make the truth potion and the two us will go and visit him. Paige try and get some information from Seth as he already trusts you; I'll be able to get a read on the father and if it seems as if we're going nowhere we'll use the truth potion. Is that okay with anyone, because I can work my day around it, Paige if you are going to find some information around the father you're going to have work fast; and Piper I know you have the day off, we have the nany and everything is undercontrol at the club.
"Something could happen, there might be a power failure and all the lights, blenders, the amps and the credit card…"
"No excuses, if Seth is Paige's innocent then we owe it our assistance to her, you're not the only one who has a job you know."
"Do you recognise anyone of them?" Phoebe asked Paige while Piper was downstairs making the potion, Wiat had taken to orbing around the house and having to repremand him constantly wasn't going to improve Piper's temper.
"I don't recognise anything from the Book, maybe he's something that's more recent…"
"Or maybe he isn't a demon maybe he's a warlock or another witch who's possessed by a demon. It's possible that the demon could be working through the witch, using his powers to enter the Seth's mind while he's asleep."
"Astral projection, he could still be inside the witches mind and use his powers to astral project into Seth's mind. But he'd have to know a witch that could astral project and the person who can astral project is either near Seth or also in the hospital."
"Now I have to find the father's records and all of the patients in the hospital, that could take forever and we don't know how long it's going to take to save Seth from whatever it is that is after him."
"It could be happening now as we speak, we could be too late. It's already half past eight and don't the small kids in hospital have to be asleep before eight o'clock?"
"No he's okay for now, he finds it difficult to sleep; and I was in the dream with him for at least two hours before he fell asleep and that was something to one in the morning."
"I want to know what happened in the dream, because maybe it was more than a dream maybe there was something you missed a certain detail. Try to think back, not while you were wake, but when you were asleep."
"It was the afternoon, I was at a kind of park maybe a botanical garden. I was standing infront of a field filled with children playing and doing all kinds of things; behind me was an outside tea house full of rich people, I was wearing a shortwhite dress with flowers on them and white lace gloves, my hair was tied with a ribbon and I was wearing short red high heels. Then Seth came running towards me, he wasn't in a wheel chair he was running and then he asked me to run with him and then Richard ran after him while they were playing tag, Seth called him uncle Richard and then I ran after them and played as well. Richard kissed me and that's when the black thing appeared chasing Seth, I ran towards him to save him before that monster in a black suit caught him, the minute I grabbed his hand the dream ended." Paige's head began to spin from exhaustion as if everything had happened again. Phoebe watched her in silence and finally asked a question, one that Paige had failed to adress.
"Did Richard visit you while you were with Seth?" Phoebe asked and then she felt Paige's shock and confusion from the realisation that there was one thing that she hadn't noticed until Phoebe had brought it up.
"No, he didn't I never introduced Richard to Seth, I didn't even mention him. I only pay attention to what is happening while I'm working in a specific place."
"If Richard didn't visit you while you were at the hospital; and you didn't even talk about him, or mention his name, how did Seth know about him. Did Seth even see him?"
"No, besides wearing a suit, the Richard in the dream looked exactly like the real Richard, from top to bottom, how could Seth do that?"
"Maybe Seth doesn't only share dreams with others, but he can also bring in some of their thoughts and memories into the dreams. What if Seth shared a dream with someone he wasn't supposed to and then some of their thoughts or memories was added into Seth's dream. Seth probably knows something that someone else doesn't want to share."
"But there was nothing out of the ordinary, the only thing that was different was the time, everything seemed out-dated, there wasn't a cellphone insight or any type of electronics." There was the sound of something crashing into the father clock, then there was a sound of an explosion.
"How many times are we going to have that clock fixed?" Phoebe said with frustration