A Wisp Of A Thing
"Caleb where are we going?" Melinda asked as she followed him through the forest.
Caleb had shimmered the two of them to the near by woods but Caleb would not tell Melinda why they were there or where exactly it was they were going.
"Come on its just a bit further." Caleb called back to Melinda who was lagging behind.
"What is just a bit further?" Melinda asked, slightly annoyed that her boyfriend had shimmered them to the middle of nowhere at night. "Come on Caleb this isn't funny. We shouldn't be out here."
"Stop worrying. We are here." Caleb said abruptly stopping, causing Melinda, who was not paying attention to where she was going, to run right into him.
"And where exactly is here?" Melinda said, looking around.
"It's the highest spot in San Francisco. You can see all of the lights from the city at night." Caleb said pointing out to the bright city in the distance.
"Its beautiful." Melinda said, admiring the view. "How did you know about this place?"
"My dad use to take me up here as a kid." Caleb said, sitting down on a fallen tree near by. Melinda joined him and rested her head on his shoulder.
"It's so peaceful up here." Melinda mused. "I can't believe how bright the city is. What's that light over there?" Melinda asked pointing to a bright yellow light that seemed to be moving closer to them.
"I don't know. Must be from the glare of the street lights or something." Caleb said not really paying attention to what Melinda was looking at.
Melinda was mesmerized by the light however. She couldn't help but feel like the light was alive. She got up from where she and Caleb were sitting and began walking towards it. As she got closer to it she could have sworn she heard sounds emanating from it. She reached out her hand to touch it but it moved just out of her reach. She was so captivated by its beauty. She found herself following the light. Her arm stretched out to touch it but it kept moving just out of her reach.
"Melinda, what are you doing?" Caleb finally said noticing his girlfriend slowly walking away.
"What could you possibly be?" Melinda smiled looking in awe at the glowing ball of light and completely ignoring Caleb's question.
"Melinda stay away from it." Caleb said jumping up and pulling Melinda's hand away from the light. The orbs passive nature suddenly changed and it shot right at Melinda and Caleb nocking them both to the ground. The two lay there unconscious while the yellow orb buzzed around them.
Alice was glad to have the apartment to herself for the night. It was Saturday so she didn't have school the next day, and she had decided to stay in and watch the horror movies she couldn't watch when Melinda was home because she was chicken. She thought it was funny that someone who fought big scary demons on a regular basis would be scared of fictional demons in horror films.
"No don't go in there stupid! Call the police!." Alice yelled at the television.
Just as the young girl in the film was about to open the door to the basement in the creepy old house to reveal the killer standing right on the other side, there was a loud knock at the door. Alice jumped, spilling popcorn everywhere. Alice paused the TV and looked up at the door. She knew it wasn't Melinda because she had a key and wasn't supposed to be home for hours. If it was a demon they would have just knocked down the door already and almost everyone else she knew never had the curtsy to knock because they could all just teleport in. Alice ran into the kitchen and grabbed a big cutting knife before slowly making her way towards the door.
"Who is it?" She yelled through the door, knife at the ready to kill any monster that might try to attach her.
"It's me. Roman." Roman yelled through the door.
Alice sighed in relief and quickly undid the locks to open the door.
"Hey Roman, what are you doing here?" Alice said as she swung the door open with her free hand.
"Were you planning on stabbing me to death?" Roman asked pointing to the knife that was still in Alice's hand.
"Oh no sorry." Alice laughed a little embarrassed and put the knife down on the side table where they kept the mail. "I was watching a horror movie. Just made me a little jumpy."
"Oh." Roman nodded, laughing a little at his best friends behavior. "Well can I come in?"
"Oh ya." Alice said moving to the side to let Roman come into the apartment. "So what are you doing here?"
"I came to speak to Melinda, is she here?" Roman asked looking around for their other best friend.
Alice was disappointed that Roman hadn't come to see her, though she wasn't entirely sure why. "No, she is out for the night but I am sure I can help you with whatever you need."
"Actually its not a magical problem. The lead singer for my band bailed on us and we have a gig tomorrow night. I wanted to see if Melinda would fill in." Roman explained. Roman loved music and had been playing guitar for as long as he could remember. He and a few of his non-magical college friends had formed a band but their lead singer always flaked out on them. Roman had asked Melinda if she would be her replacement permanently but even though Melinda had a beautiful voice, she was rather shy and not a fan of the spotlight.
"Well sorry, she is not here." Alice said rather bitterly.
"Well do you know when she will be back?" Roman asked.
"No sorry." Alice said, walking back over to the couch and picking up all the popcorn she had spilled.
"Well I can always just wait for her to get back." Roman said, walking over to Alice and helping her clean up the last few pieces of popcorn. "As long as you don't mind."
"Why would I mind?" Alice remarked. She actually did mind. It wasn't that she didn't want to hang out with Roman. It just annoyed her that he was only there for Melinda.
"Great." Roman smiled and sat down on the couch. "So what are we watching?"
"Scream 6." Alice told him sitting down next to him.
"How can you watch this junk?" Roman joked. "Everyone knows the original is the best."
"Well I have it if you would prefer to watch that one." Alice said, growing rather annoyed with Roman.
Roman just smiled at her. He loved how her nose scrunched up when she was angry. "No, Scream 6 is fine."
Alice just rolled her eyes and pressed play on the remote.
Caleb's eyes shot open and he bolted up right. He looked around to find Melinda was still unconscious on the forest floor. He ran over to her and began shaking her to wake up.
"Melinda. Are you ok?" Caleb asked as he gently shook her back and forth.
Soon Melinda's eyes began to flutter open and finally focused on Caleb's face.
"Where am I?" She asked, still a little disoriented from the fall.
"It's alright. You are safe. Something attacked us but it is gone now." Caleb said soothingly.
Melinda shot up, causing Caleb to fall back a bit. She began examining her body with her hands. Touching every last inch of herself, as if to make sure she was real.
"Are you ok?" Caleb asked, concerned that maybe she had hit her head or something.
"Just fine." Melinda said with a smile, though Caleb couldn't help but feel that something was off about her. "Should we go home now?"
"Uh, ya. I'll shimmer you back to your apartment." Caleb said.
"Great." Melinda said jumping up.
Caleb stood up and took his girlfriends hand and shimmered them out of the forest.
They reappeared in Melinda's apartment to find Roman and Alice fast asleep on the couch, Alice resting her head on Roman's chest.
"We should be quiet, don't want to wake them." Caleb said, gesturing to his younger brother and Alice.
Melinda had other ideas. She walked up behind the sleeping pair and yelled, "boo" as loud as she could.
Alice and Roman jumped at the nose. They both looked around for a couple of seconds before realizing they had been cuddling and quickly moved away from one another.
"Morning sunshine." Melinda said with a giddy smile.
"Hey, Mel." Alice said, a little confused by her roommates behavior. "Where have you been?" Alice asked looking at how dirty she and Caleb looked, as if they had been rolling around in the dirt.
"Just hanging around." Melinda told her.
"Well I think I better be heading out. Roman how bout I give you a lift home?" Caleb said to his brother.
"Actually Melinda there was something I wanted to ask you." Roman said. "Now I know you hate this but you would be doing me a big favor. See my band has a gig at P3 tomorrow and the lead singer dropped out and I would really love if you could fill in and…"
"I would love to." Melinda said before Roman could even finish.
"Really?" Roman asked surprised. He had been sure that she would have said no or at least taken a lot longer to convince.
"Of course." Melinda beamed. "I love to sing. The sounds, the rhythms, I love it all."
"Ok great!" Roman said excitedly. "Well I will see you tomorrow then. Be there at eleven a.m. sharp."
"Ok we really should be going now though." Caleb said.
"Not without a goodbye kiss." Melinda said, walking over to Caleb and pulling him in for an extremely passionate kiss. After a few seconds she let go of her grasp, smiled and headed back to her room. Roman and Alice just stared in astonishment.
"Uh, Mel. That's my room." Alice said, noticing she was going into the wrong room.
"Right." Melinda said casually and headed to the correct bedroom.
"What the hell is going on?" Alice asked once she thought Melinda was out of earshot.
"I don't know but I intend to find out." Caleb said, his head still spinning from the kiss.
Chris had been at the Police station all night. He had been pulling a lot of all nighters at the station lately, doing research on the recent murder investigation. He was still not convinced that the recent murders had not been magical. He didn't care what Daryl or anyone else said. He knew all of those victims had been witches and their was no way that was just a coincidence.
"Halliwell, what are you still doing here?" Daryl asked as he walked out of his office.
"Just doing some research." Chris said, never once looking up from his computer.
"Are you still on this murder investigation?" Daryl asked, though he already knew the answer. "I told you Chris, we got the guy who did it. You need to give this up."
"I can't Daryl." Chris said looking up from his computer. "A demon did this and it is still out there. I can't just give up."
"Chris I am not telling you this as your friend, I am ordering you as your boss." Daryl said.
Chris sighed. He knew Daryl wasn't going to let this go. "Fine." Chris said though he didn't really mean it.
"Good. Now go home Chris." Daryl said motioning for Chris to walk ahead of him and leave. Chris did as he was told but once Daryl had driven off, Chris orbed himself back into the Police station. If Daryl was going to force him to stop his investigation, then he would just have to be more sneaky about.
He orbed himself into Daryl's office where all of the files on witnesses, victims, and suspects where kept. He quickly began searching the room for the witness files and after a few minutes he found the drawer where they were kept. He used his telekinesis to open the lock and began thumbed through the files till he found Bianca's file. He was thankful she had a unique first name because she hadn't told him her last name. He pulled out her file and found the address before returning it to its place and orbing away.
Caleb shimmered over to the Manor the second he dropped Roman back at his own apartment. The sun was already beginning to rise but he didn't care, he had to figure out what was wrong with Melinda. Even though Caleb was a demon, the book did not view him as a threat and allowed him to touch it. He began flipping through the pages trying to ID the mysterious light he and Melinda had encountered in the forest.
"Caleb what the hell are you doing here this early in the morning?" A voice said from the other side of the attic. Caleb looked up to see it was coming from Wyatt.
"I could ask you the same thing." Caleb said, relieved it wasn't Piper or Leo. "Don't you have your own apartment?"
"I worked a late shift tonight and I didn't want to wake Gwen so I decided to just crash here for the night." Wyatt explained. "What are you looking for anyways?" Wyatt asked walking over to look at the book with Caleb.
"Something attacked me and Mel tonight, Just trying to figure out what it was." Caleb said.
"Are you both okay?" Wyatt asked, in his older brother worried voice.
"Well I am, I am not so sure about Melinda." Caleb sighed.
"Does she need to be healed?" Wyatt asked, the concern growing in his voice.
"No physically she is fine, it's just…" Caleb said trailing off.
"It's just what?" Wyatt asked.
"Well we were attacked by this weird ball of light that knocked us unconscious and when we woke up, well Melinda just wasn't acting like herself." Caleb explained
"Like she had a concussion or something?" Wyatt asked, not fully understanding what Caleb meant.
"No. Not like that. She was just acting weird." Caleb said. He wasn't sure exactly how to describe it.
"Well have you figured out what it was yet?" Wyatt asked peering over the book to see Caleb was on the page about imps. Clearly he had not found it yet.
"No, this thing is too big. You really should index it or something." Caleb said with frustration.
"You say it was a small ball of light?" Wyatt asked and Caleb nodded. Wyatt then moved closer to the book, causing Caleb to step out of the way. "A small ball of light." Wyatt said a bit louder then necessary as he looked up at the ceiling. All of a sudden the pages began to flip themselves and landed on a page entitled 'Will O The Wisp.' Wyatt smiled. "Works every time."
"That's it." Caleb said pointing at the picture of the small floating lights. "Will O The Wisps are mischievous beings of light, known for leading travelers off the beaten path and possessing their bodies. The only way to banish then is my invoking their one true name, expelling them from our world forever." Caleb read. "Oh my god, I think that thing possessed Melinda. What do we do?"
"Ok don't panic." Wyatt said. "Melinda can't orb so she wont be that hard to track down. All we have to do is find her and bring her to magic school so she can't escape."
"And then what?" Caleb asked.
"And then we figure out how to get that thing out of her." Wyatt said. Sure it wasn't a great plan but it was all he could come up with at seven in the morning.
"Ok well she is probably back at her apartment." Caleb said.
"Ok you go get her and I will go talk to my mom and aunts, see if they have any ideas. Just find her and take her over to magic school. She can't get away once she is there." Wyatt said before orbing out.
"Right." Caleb said and shimmered out of the attic.
Bianca lived in an apartment building not far from where the most recent murder had occurred. Chris walked up to the front door and pressed the buzzer with the last name 'Fawkes'.
"Hello, who is it?" A voice said through the speakers.
"SFPD, I have a few more questions I would like to ask you, if you don't mind." Chris said back to the speaker.
"I already IDed the murderer and they said that was all they needed from me." The voice from the speaker said.
"I promise I just need to ask you a few more questions and then I will go." Chris said.
There was a long pause before the voice from the speakers came back. "Fine. Wait there I will come down, I don't want some creep in my apartment if this is a trick."
Chris laughed a little. She was a smart girl. Even though he was legit, their were a lot of crazies in San Francisco and it wasn't safe to let just anyone in to your home.
After a few minutes Bianca emerged out of the front door of the apartment building.
"You." Bianca said, seeing Chris' face and recognizing him from the crime scene.
"Yes, now I just have a few questions…" Chris began, but Bianca cut him off.
"Look I don't know what you think you are trying to get at here but you should leave before I call the police." Bianca threatened.
"Well actually I am the police." Chris said rather cocky. Bianca turned to go inside but Chris grabbed her arm and forced her to stop. "Listen I know you know something, please I just want to make sure who ever is behind these murders is stopped."
"They already found the guy." Bianca said, pulling her arm away from Chris' grasp. "Listen…"
"Christopher Halliwell." Chris said filling in the blank for her.
"Halliwell?" Bianca asked.
"Yes." Chris said hoping she would recognize the name and open up to him.
"Listen Christopher, I have nothing left you say so if you don't mind." Bianca said as she attempted to go back inside but Chris grabbed the door so she couldn't leave.
"Bianca please. I know you know who I am and why I am really here. Please I could really use your help." Chris pleaded.
Bianca sighed and turned back to look at Chris. "Lets say for a moment that you're right and I do know who you are, why would it make a difference. I already told you I have noting more to say. The man who murdered my friend is behind bars and now I would really like to just move on."
"Do you honestly believe there is nothing 'magical' going on here." Chris said in hushed tones so he would not be overheard by anyone passing by.
"Yes I do." Bianca said rather defiantly. "Sometimes bad things happen to good people and there is nothing magical about it." Bianca then pulled the door out of Chris' grasp and headed back inside. Chris tried to follow but the door shut too quickly. This was getting ridiculous. He would just have to try a different approach.
Wyatt orbed into his mother's restaurant. He figured if anyone would be able to help save Melinda it would be her. She had been fighting demons for years and she was always willing to share her knowledge with her children and nieces and nephews.
"Wyatt what are you doing?" Prue asked pushing him into a corner so no one else in the kitchen would see him. "You can't just orb in here. How many times have I told you that?"
"Sorry, it's an emergency." Wyatt defended. "Have you seen my mom?"
"Hang on." Prue said rolling her eyes at her oldest cousin and walking off to get her aunt.
A few seconds later Prue returned with Piper, "Wyatt, sweetie what is going on?" Piper asked in a motherly yet stern voice.
"Its Melinda, she has been possessed." Wyatt said in hushed tones so no one else in the kitchen could hear.
"She has been what?" Piper said a little louder then necessary, causing everyone in the kitchen to turn and look. "Sorry, everyone just go back to what you were doing." Piper said with a smile before turning back to her son. "What do you mean she has been possessed?" Piper asked, this time in a whisper.
"Her and Caleb were out in the woods last night and they ran into this creature and it possessed her. We think it is a Will O The Wisp but the only way to get rid of it, is to invoke its one true name which we don't know." Wyatt explained.
"Well where is she now?" Piper asked.
"I am not sure but Caleb went to go find her. He is going to bring her to magic school when he does." Wyatt explained. "She couldn't have gone that far though because she can't orb so I am sure it wont take him too long."
"Good because we need to get that thing out of her as soon as we can. We ran across one of these years ago when you guys were young. Did not end well for the host body." Piper said, the worry apparent in her voice.
"What do you mean?" Wyatt asked.
"Well if we don't get it out of her soon, it will kill Melinda and take over her body." Piper explained.
"Well how did you get it out before?" Prue asked her aunt.
"We didn't." Piper said rather solemnly. "We were working on a power of three spell to extract the wisp, but the poor girl died before we got a chance to try it."
"And you just let the thing have the body?" Prue asked, it didn't really sound like something her mother or aunts would do.
"No, we vanquished it. Once it has full control of the body, it becomes as vulnerable as the host." Piper said sadly. "We are going to need your aunts for this. Prue can you stay here and look after the restaurant?"
"You can count on me!" Prue said and skipped off to go help in the kitchen.
"Okay, lets go." Piper said taking her son's hand and Wyatt orbed the two of them out of the kitchen, completely unnoticed.
Caleb shimmered in Alice and Melinda's apartment to find that it was in shambles. There were feathers everywhere and all of the cabinets in the kitchen had been opened and emptied of all their content, which was now lying on the floor. The television had been smashed in and one of the windows was also broken. He saw Alice on the floor attempting to clean up the mess.
"What the hell happened hear?" Caleb asked as he looked around.
"Why don't you ask your girlfriend?" Alice said rather bitterly.
"My girlfriend?" Caleb said a little surprised. Sure Alice had seen Melinda and him kiss last night but it wasn't enough for her to suspect anything.
"Oh don't play dumb with me." Alice said picking up some of the plates from the kitchen floor. "You two are horrible liars. I have been suspicious for months and this morning pretty much confirmed it."
"Oh." Caleb nodded. "So what exactly did Melinda do?"
"Well, about thirty minutes after you and Roman left she decided she wasn't tired and thought it would be fun to dance around the apartment and destroy everything." Alice recounted.
"Its not her fault." Caleb said. "She's possessed."
"Oh she better be because other wise I am going to kill her." Alice practically screamed. Alice was a bit of a neat freak and couldn't handle such a large mess in her apartment.
"Well where is she now?" Caleb asked, noticing Melinda was not there.
"Oh she left about an hour ago. Said she wanted to explore a bit." Alice said rolling her eyes as she attempted to pick up all the feathers that Caleb could only assume had come from the ripped up couch cushions.
"And you let her leave?" Caleb yelled.
"Well sorry. I didn't realize she was possessed and she was bugging me." Alice argued.
"Well now how am I supposed to find her?" Caleb said half to Alice and half to himself.
"Well she was going to sing for Roman's band so she will probably have to head over to P3 eventually." Alice said.
"That's right!" Caleb said excitedly and shimmered away.
"Hey, you could have at least offered to help clean." Alice yelled at the ceiling, but Caleb was already far-gone.
Chris was done fooling around. He knew Bianca was a witch just like all the other victims and he knew she could help him solve this case. He wasn't keen on orbing into strangers apartments unannounced but she had left him no choice.
Chris orbed into Bianca's apartment just as she was returning from speaking to him downstairs.
"Oh my god." Bianca yelled, startled by Chris' sudden appearance.
"Listen I am really sorry but you left me no choice." Chris said.
"I am going to say this one last time. I don't care who you are or what you are but you can't just harass people like this." Bianca yelled. "I told you all I know and there is nothing more. To be perfectly honest with you I think you are just blaming this case on magic because you cant seem to wrap your head around the fact that mortals can be killers to."
"Of course I can I am a cop after all." Chris argued. "And besides all the victims were witches."
"Yes and they were all from the same coven and lived in the same are and frequented the same places making them all targets for the same killer." Bianca explained.
It didn't make perfect sense because it still seemed stranger the killer only killed witches but even Chris had to admit it was a feasible theory.
"Now if you don't mind I would really appreciate it if you left me alone or I really will call the cops." Bianca threatened.
"Ok, I am sorry I bothered you." Chris said and orbed out of the apartment.
Wyatt and Piper orbed in to Phoebe's office at the Bay Mirror. After Elise had retired, Phoebe had taken over as editor of the paper while still devoting time to write a weakly column giving advice on love.
"Hey, I told you guys no orbing in here unannounced." Phoebe said, getting up to look out her office window to make sure no one saw her nephew and sister magically appear.
"Sorry Aunt Phoebe, its an emergency." Wyatt said.
"You remember the Will O The Wisp, we battled years ago?" Piper asked and Phoebe nodded. "Well one possessed Melinda."
"Oh no." Phoebe said, her demeanor all of a sudden changing from annoyed to panicked
"Do you remember the spell we were going to use to extract the spirit?" Piper asked her sister.
"No, not off the top of my head." Phoebe said. "But maybe Paige will. She is much better at remembering this kind of stuff."
"Good idea, do you know where she is?" Piper asked. Paige was not the easiest to pin down these days. She was either off helping a charge, or at home playing housewife, or at magic school where she worked as a teacher.
"I am pretty sure she is at magic school." Phoebe told her sister. "With midterms and everything coming up she practically lives there."
"Ya Leo too." Piper said a little annoyed.
"Ok well lets go then." Wyatt said beginning to worry that with every second that passed his sister was getting closer to death.
"Wait can you leave?" Piper asked her sister.
"Oh Ya, its Sunday. They wont miss me." Phoebe said and took her sister and nephews hand and the three of them orbed off to magic school.
"Stop, just stop." Roman said to his band, who was in the middle of rehearsing one of their songs. They had been doing sound check for almost an hour now and it wasn't going so well.
"Why are we stopping?" Melinda asked, annoyed by yet another pause in her singing. "I thought that was really good!"
"Melinda, you aren't even singing the right words." Roman told her.
"Oh but my words just sound so much prettier!" Melinda said with a giddy smile.
"You know what lets just take five." Roman said to the band before pulling Melinda over to the side. "What the hell is going on with you?"
"Nothing I am perfect!" Melinda said with a twirl.
"Listen I don't know what you are on or if you hit year head last night or something but we have to go on in a few hours and you can't be acting like this." Roman scolded his friend.
"Okay, I will try to be better." Melinda assured him. "Oh look my boyfriend is here!" Melinda said excitedly, seeing Caleb shimmer in behind one of the stage curtains.
"Hey there hot stuff, ready for another make out session?" Melinda asked once she had walked over to where Caleb was.
"Yes, but first do you think I could talk to you out back for a moment." Caleb said with a smile. He was hopping he could lure her out to the back and then shimmer her to magic school without anyone seeing.
"Of course lover." Melinda said with a smile and took Caleb's hand and led him to the back of the club.
As soon as they got out back though Melinda began to run away. "I am not that stupid you slithering demon." The wisp yelled back as it made its get away.
"Dammit." Caleb cursed as he took off after his possessed girlfriend.
Piper, Phoebe and Wyatt orbed into Paige's office at magic school to find her hard at work writing her midterm for her advance magic class.
"Hey guys, sorry whatever you need I am a bit busy now so it is going to have to wait." Paige said not even looking up from her work.
"Paige this is an emergency." Piper said putting her hand on top of what Paige was writing, forcing her to stop. "Melinda has been possessed by a Will O The Wisp. Do you remember the spell we were going to use to extract one years ago?"
Paige shook her head sadly. "No, I don't."
"Well maybe you could write a new one." Wyatt suggested.
"It's not that easy, sweetie. To banish a spirit that powerful without using its name, well it takes very careful wording and planning. It takes time and that is something we just don't have right now." Piper explained.
"So what are we going to do?" Wyatt asked, real fear beginning to set in.
"Go up to the elders, maybe they will have an idea." Piper said to her son. "In the mean time we will try our best to come up with a new spell."
Wyatt nodded and orbed off, up to the elders.
"Ok guys, lets write a banishing spell." Piper said smiling at her sisters.
Caleb had chased Melinda for a few blocks now and finally had her cornered at a dead end.
"You have no way out. Melinda can't teleport which means neither can you." Caleb shouted to the wisp who was looking around for a way out.
"Fine you caught me, now what?" The wisp teased. "You can't get rid of me unless you know my name and since I am still in this body you obviously don't know it."
"Why do you want her body anyway?" Caleb asked the wisp.
"I am sick of being a floating ball of light. I want to be able to smell and feel and see." The wisp explained.
"But why her body? Why not mine or one of the countless hikers that go through the forest every day?"
"I wanted power, ultimate power. And she knows where to find it, and now I do too." The wisp sad with a wicked smile.
All the time Caleb had been questioning the wisp, it hadn't noticed that he had been moving closer and closer to it until he was an arms length away.
"Well too bad cause you aren't going to get a chance to find it." Caleb said and reached out to grab Melinda's body and shimmered the two of them back to Magic school.
"I remember the spell had something to do about casting the wisp into the astral plane." Phoebe said as she paced back and forth in her younger sister's office at magic school as she, Paige and Piper tried to remember the spell to vanquish the Will O The Wisp.
"Maybe it would help if we put a part in about calling upon or ancestors." Paige suggested. "You know if this thing is a spirit then maybe other good spirits can help defeat it."
"That's not a bad idea but will it work. I mean who's to say the spell we made before was going to work. The book says the only way to get rid of this thing is by invoking its one true name. Maybe we should put our efforts into figuring out what it is." Piper said. She was feeling so helpless and desperate at the moment. She couldn't let what happened to that poor innocent all those years ago happen to her daughter.
"But how?" Phoebe asked her sister. "Its not like we can read minds. The only person who could do that is…"
"Melinda." Piper finished her sister's thought. She was right though. Unfortunately the only person who might have been able to figure out the wisps name was currently the person being possessed by it.
All of a sudden the sisters heard a bunch of yelling coming from the library.
"What was that?" Paige asked.
"I think Caleb and Melinda are back." Piper said running off to the library, her sister's close behind.
Caleb shimmered in to the library at Magic School with Melinda. It was Sunday so the place was deserted.
"Hey let go of me." The wisp yelled, pulling away from Caleb's grasp. "That wasn't very nice."
Hearing all the commotion Piper, Phoebe and Paige ran into the library to see what it was all about.
"What is going on in here?" Piper asked looking from her daughter to the half demon.
"Nothing Mom, everything is just fine." The Wisp said with a smile, trying to impersonate Melinda.
"You are not my daughter." Piper said bitterly to the wisp.
"But I will be soon. See your precious daughter is slowly dying and soon I will be all that's left." The wisp said with an evil grin. "And there is really nothing you can do about it."
"If you don't leave her body, I swear to god I will kill you." Caleb said to the wisp.
"Ah, but then you would just be killing her and I would find another host." The wisp said.
"Then possess me instead and just let her go." Caleb said. "You know where to find whatever power you were looking for. You don't need her body anymore.
"True but why would I want to trade?" The wisp asked.
"Because she can't teleport and I can. In her body you are stuck here and there is no way out but in mine you will be able to shimmer anywhere you want to go." Caleb explained.
"Interesting. You would give up your own life for hers? Why?" The wisp mused looking Caleb up and down with a malicious smile. "You love her don't you?"
"Are you going to take the deal or not?" Caleb asked forcefully.
"The ability to go wherever I want whenever I want? You have got yourself a deal." The wisp said and suddenly a small ball of yellow light sprung forth from Melinda's chest and flew over into Caleb.
"Mom, freeze him now." Melinda yelled.
"What, no" The wisp yelled from Caleb's body but it was too late Piper had already froze him.
"Briciu, I banish you from this mortal body." Melinda shouted and reached her hand out toward Caleb as if reaching for the evil spirit.
Caleb's body unfroze and began to shake violently. After a few seconds the yellow light left Caleb's chest and dissipated into nothingness.
"What just happened?" Phoebe asked in astonishment.
"Well you couldn't freeze the wisp while it was in my body because I am a witch but Caleb isn't so he wasn't immune to it." Melinda explained
"And how did you know its name?" Paige asked her niece.
"I heard its thoughts when it was inside me." Melinda said. "Telepath, remember."
"Caleb did you know Melinda would know its name?" Phoebe asked, amazed that the half demon had risked his own life for her nieces, though she had a suspicion as to why.
"Not for certain but I was hopping she would." Caleb said.
"You saved me." Melinda said smiling up at Caleb.
"It's no big deal." Caleb said with a dorky grin.
Melinda grabbed Caleb by his shirt and pulled him close to her and kissed him gently on the lips. "Thank you."
"Um, Melinda…?" Caleb said, shocked that Melinda had kissed him in front of her family.
"Oh, don't worry about it we already know." Phoebe said smiling at her niece and Caleb.
"You do?" Melinda said in shock. She though she had done a good job at keeping their relationship a secret but apparently not.
"Sweetie, we all know. Have for a while." Piper said walking over to hug her daughter.
"All? As in everyone?" Melinda asked still surprised.
"Well not everyone…" Piper said. Her eldest son had been so busy between the engagement and long hours at work that he hadn't caught on yet.
"So Wyatt still doesn't know?" Melinda asked. She didn't have to be a telepath to know who her Mom was talking about.
"What don't I know?" A voice on the other side of the room asked. It was Wyatt returning from speaking with the elders.
"How long have you been standing there?" Melinda asked, worried at what her brother might have seen.
"Just a few seconds." Wyatt said. "What exactly don't I know?"
"That we didn't need the elders help after all because Caleb figured out a way to save Melinda." Phoebe said, sensing her niece was in need of a rescue. Melinda smiled at her in thanks.
"Really?" Wyatt asked a little stunned.
"Don't act so surprised." Caleb said a little offended by Wyatt's tone.
"Well I am glad you are ok sis." Wyatt said giving Melinda a big hug. "By the way what were the two of you doing in the forest at night anyways?"
"Nothing." Melinda said. She was glad her family all seemed to know about her and Caleb but she wasn't ready to tell Wyatt just yet.
"Well I have to get back to writing my midterm. I am glad you are ok sweetie" Paige said to her niece before walking back to her office.
"And I should probably get back to work. Do you mind?" Phoebe asked her nephew who took her hand and orbed the two of them out of magic school.
"No more wondering through the woods at night ok?" Piper said rather sternly to her daughter who just nodded. "I am glad you are okay honey." Piper said pulling her only daughter into a hug.
"Okay is a relative term." Melinda said rather grimly. Sure the demon was gone but there would always be more and on top of it she still had to figure out how she was going to tell Wyatt she was dating his best friend.
"Don't worry so much, sweetie." Piper said kissing her daughter on the head. "Now I am going to go find your father and drag his but home because he has been locked up in his office all day and hasn't even noticed all the chaos going on. I think midterms are starting to get to his head." Piper said and walked off to go find her Husband.
"So." Caleb said with a smile, pulling Melinda close to him once Piper had gone.
"So." Melinda said smiling back.
"Quite an eventful day." Caleb laughed.
"Thank you for saving me." Melinda said smiling up at her boyfriend.
"Don't mention it." Caleb said.
"No, but you could have been killed. You couldn't have known I would know the wisps name."
"I had faith in you." Caleb said and kissed Melinda on the forehead before pulling her in closer so her head lay on his chest.
"What are we going to do about Wyatt?" Melinda asked after a few seconds.
"I think there has been enough excitement for one day. Maybe we wait a little bit to tell him." Caleb suggested.
"Ya I guess you are right." Melinda sighed. "You should probably take me home."
"Actually I think for your safety you should probably sleep at my place tonight." Caleb said.
"Why?" Melinda asked a little confused. "The wisp is gone, what other possible danger could there be?"
"Alice." Caleb said with a laugh and shimmered the two of the out of magic school.
Alice walked up to the back door of P3 to find Roman sitting on the steps looking rather bummed.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Roman asked as he saw Alice approaching.
"I came to see you play but the line out front was too long so I decided to try and get in around back." Alice said, sitting down next to Roman on the step. "Why do you look so blue? Isn't your band going on soon?"
"Melinda ran off and now we have no one to sing lead." Roman explained.
"Oh ya, she got possessed by some demon thing." Alice said.
"What? Why am I the last to know these things? Is she ok?"
"Ya she is fine now, though she destroyed are apartment so I may still kill her. Caleb just called to let me know she was okay and was going to be staying over at his place for the night." Alice said.
"Are they dating or something?" Roman asked. He had been suspicious about the two for a while but the past few hours made it pretty obvious.
"Ya I think so." Alice laughed. "Can you imagine?"
"What do you mean?" Roman asked.
"Well they have just known each other forever, they are like siblings, you know it would be like you and me dating." Alice explained.
"Ya, I guess." Roman said with a sigh. "I don't know what I am going to do about a lead singer now, it would take too much time to go get Mel."
"Well I could do it." Alice offered.
"You?" Roman asked a little surprised.
"Ya, I know all your songs and I mean I don't have as great a voice as Mel but my shower head never seems to complain." Alice said with a smile.
"Ok, why not!" Roman said, standing up from the step and extending his arm to help Alice up. "Lets do this!"
Chris had gone back to the station after speaking with Bianca and given over all his research on the murder investigation to Daryl. He still did not feel 100% secure in letting it go, but there was not much else he could do. He had exhausted all his resources both magical and mortal and had come up with nothing. The murders also seemed to have stopped once the suspected murderer had been locked away, so at least for now Chris was going to let it go.
After work he orbed himself back over to Bianca's apartment building. He was not exactly sure what compelled him to go back but he couldn't help but feel drawn to her somehow. Chris pressed the buzzer labeled "Fawkes" and waited a few seconds before a voice on the other side asked who was there.
"It's me Chris, from earlier." Chris said into the intercom.
"What do you want now?" Bianca's voice said rather annoyed.
"Look I just wanted to apologize. You were right, sometimes things just happen and there is no magical explanation." Chris apologized through the speaker. Chris waited a few seconds but Bianca did not respond. "Listen let me make it up to you, how about I take you out for dinner? I don't know about you but I am starving."
There was another long pause before Bianca answered. "Are you asking me out?"
"Just let me take you to dinner. It doesn't have to mean anything. Just me saying sorry for harassing you." Chris said.
"Fine, I will be right down." Bianca agreed.
Chris smiled, maybe this investigations waste a complete waste after all.
Bianca smiled a wicked grin. She grabbed her purse and put her jacket on, concealing her tattoo of a small red Phoenix that was right under her wrist, and left to meet Chris downstairs.