Leo had never felt so uneasy before. He couldn't access his abilities, was separated from the sisters and was following a strange man he didn't trust to get out of reach of a screeching creature that seemed to be nearing them. He kept close to Benjamin, though he wasn't sure how he was supposed to protect his nephew in his current powerless state.

"What's after us?" Leo asked David.

"Running now, questions later!" David replied, though he started fumbling in his bag. He pulled out a wooden whistle and handed it to Benjamin. Unthinking, the child grabbed the item, looking it over and caressing its edges with his fingers.

"No time for that kid, just…" David breathing was getting laboured, "blow the whistle...when… you see... the creature."

Leo didn't like this one bit, but he wasn't in a position to argue. No matter whether they could trust David or not, he couldn't deny something was after them, probably something dangerous. So when Benjamin turned towards him, questioning, Leo only hesitated a second before nodding. He prayed he didn't regret this.

A few minutes later and Benjamin was starting to lag. He was trembling slightly from the effort of running at full speed. Even David's breathing was getting more laboured, though he didn't waver. Leo had the advantage of being dead and not really needing to breathe, so he picked up his nephew and tried to keep the pace, despite carrying his nephew's weight.

"Almost… there..." said David. "Three more… blocks… the white… blue… house…"

Unfortunately, the trio was running out of time. From the comfort of Leo's arms, Benjamin could take a closer look at their surroundings. This enabled him to spot one shape hurling themselves in their direction. Though its contour seemed blurred somewhat, the creature seemed to resemble a woman. It was very tall and very thin, almost skeletal. Its long hair was unkempt, curling in all directions and its naked body revealed a pair of full breasts. However, the creature was clearly not human, as its skin was a literal white and its mouth was stretched open, far beyond human capabilities. Benjamin was vaguely reminded of an alligator with sharp teeth. It was also surrounded by an aura that made Benjamin nauseous with fear. It screamed and suddenly, the creature had halved the distance between them.

Benjamin thought faintly he should warn Leo and David that the creature was within sight, but his fear paralyzed him. It was the kind of paralysis he sometime suffered after first waking up from a particularly bad dream.

Feeling how tense his nephew was, Leo quickly glanced back and swore. "David," he called. "Whatever it is, it's right behind us."

David didn't turn back. "Don't look!" he screamed. "Ben… the whistle."

But Ben could not register David's instruction. His eyes were glued to the creature. His head was filled with terrifying thoughts. His mom was dying. It was his fault, because he was a demon. She was his first victim, the first of many as Benjamin would never be able to fight off his demonic nature. His dad hadn't been able to. Why would he? He was disgusting and unworthy of his family's attention, and as soon as Phoebe died, Piper, Paige and Leo would have no need to pretend to like him anymore. They could go back to hating the thing that destroyed their family

"Benjamin!" shouted Leo. He was frantically pushing something against Ben's mouth. Benjamin blinked slowly in confusion.

"Blow the damn whistle!" he heard from somewhere near. The whistle? He couldn't think clearly, but maybe it had something to do with the thing between his lips.

"It's okay, Ben. It's okay, just blow the whistle," said Leo soothingly.

Feeling like he was slowly waking from a dream, Benjamin warred against his limbs that seemed to weight a ton in order to adjust himself and make it easier to breathe in a nice lungful of air. It took a few long seconds, but he managed and he gathered all his remaining strength to blow as loud as he could in the whistle. Doing so, he shut his eyes and immediately felt better. His body felt as light as a feather and he had no trouble drawing in another breath and blowing again. And again.

Each time, he felt more brave though he kept his eyes shut. The dark thoughts were chased away and he conjured up an image of his mother, deep shadows under her eyes, but smiling warmly. He remembered that night. He had had a terrible nightmare about a red face demon who'd tried to eat him. He woke up screaming and she'd been there. Smiling and petting his hair, murmuring reassurances. When he refused to go back to sleep, she told him a story about a woogyman and taught him a protective spell.

Though the spell had been created to defeat the woogyman, Benjamin thought that the wording was vague enough to apply to any sort of monster, including red face demons. Since that night, he'd whisper the spell to himself whenever he had a bad dream to soothe himself back to sleep. In this moment, conjuring up that image of his mother, he remembered the spell and muttered it under his breath.

I am light,
I am one too strong to fight,
Return to dark where shadows dwell,
You can not have this Halliwell!
Now go away, and leave my sight,
And take with you this endless night.

When he finished, he realized Leo had stopped running. He ceased blowing the whistle and carefully opened his eyes.

"It's gone," said Leo. "The wraith. It's gone. The whistle worked."

Wild eyed, Benjamin looked behind Leo's shoulder and sure enough, there was no trace of the creature he'd seen before. He whipped his head towards David.

"Why didn't we use the whistle before?" he asked.

Leo frowned. "I was wondering the same thing," he said as he turned an expectant glare towards David.

David was a couple meters ahead and was scratching his head, looking slightly bashful. "The whistle was… an impulse? I wasn't sure it would work."

Benjamin wasn't sure he understood. "Is it a magical whistle?"

David shuffled his feet. "It's… not. Magical, I mean. I, ugh… The creature you just saw, it's called a mara or a mere. Or at least, I think it was. It didn't really act like any mara I know. Anyway, they're a demon that both feed on and cause nightmares. What people think is sleep paralysis is usually the work of a feeding mara. They don't usually attack in the day… or attack people who are awake."

"So what did the whistle do?" asked Leo sharply.

"Nothing," said David. He quickly elaborated when Leo narrowed his eyes. "They roam dreams and feed on fear. They're not tangible. So, they're easily defeated by hope, calm and conviction. If Benjamin believed that the whistle would have an effect on the creature, if believing so was enough to free him from his terror and give him hope, than it was likely it would cause some harm to the mara. At least, I hoped so."

"But you weren't sure," coldly stated Leo. He couldn't believe David had so recklessly put their lives - Benjamin's life - in danger, on the off chance belief would be enough to chase away a demon.

"I... I had a pretty good idea," defended David. "I know a lot about demons."

"I'm sure you do," said Leo in a dry tone.

The two men were staring at each other, one distrustful, the other annoyed.

"I know you don't trust me, but I did save us -"

"Benjamin saved us!" interrupted Leo.

"Fine! He saved us! But with my help. Geeze, if all your family is like that I can see why Phoebe stayed away so long."

Leo wavered for a second; he stumbled under the sudden wave of fury that seized him. "You shouldn't speak about matters you don't know about."

He gently let Benjamin down and looked him over. His nephew's eyes were open wide and he kept looking between the two men.

After a tense silence, David slumped his shoulders. "Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I'm just stressed and you acting like I'm scum is not helping me calm down." He looked at Leo, but the whitelighter remained silent. "My house is just around the corner. Well, not a house really… I rent out the basement, but um… we're almost there and there might still be some demons after us. We should go inside to be safe."

Leo discreetly tried to activate his orbing ability. When it didn't work he nodded once stiffly and, keeping a gentle hold on Benjamin's arm, walked in the direction of David's house.


David's living area was interesting to say the least. Books on myths and mythologies, demonology, spells and curses, monsters and other magical creatures were piled on every surface and in every corner. Where there weren't books, there were notebooks and loose sheets of paper covered in notes and weird equations, or amulets and potion ingredients. David's room could easily have been mistaken for a magic shop.

Benjamin jumped on an old couch, one of the only piece of furniture devoid of paper or books, feeling exhausted from the high emotions of this morning and the wild chase they'd just gone through. His small body seem to melt into the old couch, but Benjamin's eyes were curious and kept moving across the room. Leo had moved in more cautiously, keeping one eye on Benjamin and another on David.

"Can I get you some coffee or tea?" asked David who pointed towards the kitchen. "Ben, I have some ice cream -"

"That won't be necessary, David," answered Leo abruptly. Seeing David tense at the interruption, Leo tried to soften his tone. "But thank you. Just, please explain what you know about Phoebe and the mare that attacked us. Are these incidents related?"

"I don't know much. Just that Phoebe was investigating a case. She asked me for help a few times. I'm a sort of demonology expert if you will. So I told her about the mara, but she wasn't convinced. She thought it might be something bigger than that, so I gave her a few references that might help. And then, there was the accident. Or at least I thought it was just an accident until I visited her at the hospital and she woke-up when I touched her."

"Mom's awake?" shouted Benjamin. He jumped on his feet and ran to his uncle. "Leo! We've got to go see her!"

"I promise we'll go as soon as I can orb again," said Leo, bewildered. He turned to David. "We were at the hospital, why not tell us then?"

David sighed. "There was no time. You saw how quickly the mara moved. And I couldn't be sure they wouldn't go after Ben if they caught sight of him. Phoebe would never have forgiven me if he'd been hurt."

"You said she woke when you touched her?" asked Leo.

"Yes. I…I'm a curse-eater," said David.

Benjamin didn't think that explained anything though Leo started at David's confession.

"I thought curse-eaters were extinct," he said.

"They are. I'm a… special case if you will." David turned towards Benjamin. "You may have felt it already, but I'm like you. A half-demon, though my mother was mortal."

Benjamin was floored. Another half-demon? He wasn't the only one? Well, of course he wasn't, but the idea hadn't really occurred to him before.

"Many half-demons are able to sense others like them. Half-demons also tend to have an affinity for evil, not necessarily to do evil," he specified quickly, "but to sense it. My abilities go a bit further. I'm able to absorb magical energy - good or evil." He turned towards Leo. "That's how I was able to prevent you from using your abilities, and how I managed to wake Phoebe up, though I'm assuming it won't be for long."

"So, she was cursed?" asked Benjamin in an uncertain voice.

"The energy I accidently absorbed wasn't evil in nature, but I could sense it wasn't the result of a voluntary action," replied David.

"Alright, this narrows down our search somewhat," said Leo hesitantly. The caster of the spell couldn't be a demon or another being whose essence was evil, though someone could be acting on their behalf. David had also said that Phoebe had been conducting an investigation. That was more information they'd had since this entire thing started, even if that hardly mattered if Phoebe was awake. She would hopefully be able to explain everything to her sisters.

"Oh, I have some ideas who could've done it," said David.

Leo wanted to press him for more information, but at this exact moment he heard Piper calling for him. Probing their connexion, he felt her distress. It seemed his whitelighter abilities had returned and he was faced with a decision - keep interrogating David or respond to Piper's call.


A.N. The spell presented in this chapter is from the Charmed episode "Is There a Woogy in the House?" (S1, E15).