Chapter Seven
Today you were wearing forget-me-not blue,
I held you and said, "I'll never forget you."
You smiled at me and stroked my hair,
But you were never really there.
Now we stand in the eye of the storm,
Hold me close and keep me warm.
For there are things we can't explain,
Our lives will never be the same.
"I'm not going," Piper pulled away from the spirit board and hugged herself, shivering. She pulled her knees towards her and buried her face in her arms. Prue had never seen her like this. It was like she had given up.
"Piper, what is it?" She reached her hand towards her little sister's trembling body and rested it on Piper's knee.
"I don't want this to happen – I don't want any of it. Prue, that pointer was moving! Santiago is a-a…I don't know what he is but whatever he is it isn't good and I hate it," she looked up suddenly, a single tear falling from her eye. Prue's throat tightened – all she could do was pull Piper towards her and hug her as tightly as physically possible. Phoebe sat, wordlessly staring at her sisters and wondering how they were going to fix everything this time. It seemed beyond that now, terrible things were happening to them and no-one was left to explain why. She got up suddenly, causing Prue to look up at her.
"I want to know why, sis. There's something in that attic that somebody seems to think will help." She looked down at Piper who hadn't moved from her position in Prue's arms, she sighed quietly and walked towards the stairs.
Phoebe's POV
I wasn't surprised it was locked – I had just hoped that for once it would be easy to get an answer. Just once, is that too much to ask? I twisted the knob and threw my body weight against the stupid door but it wouldn't open, after a few times I had a very sore hip and no results. I shrugged and walked away, trying to think of a way to explain all this to Prue and Piper who I knew had been hoping that I'd find something, even if they hadn't said anything out loud.
That was when I heard it – a slight creaking from behind me, like a mouse squeaking or a door opening? I turned around quickly and stared at the open door – how the hell had that happened? It was locked for God's sake! Oh well, I guess I should check it out. I walked hesitantly back towards the door and peered inside- there was a ray of light shining down on a chest near the window, illuminating it. I felt strangely drawn to it, moving towards it almost against my will and yet not. I lifted the lid up slowly and saw a huge book with a weird symbol on the front – like something I'd seen on a Led Zeppelin poster. I took it out and opened it to the front page.
"The Book of Shadows…The Book of Shadows…Huh, weird." I picked myself up from the floor where I'd been sitting and headed downstairs to my sisters.
Piper's POV
I wasn't sure how I felt about the whole thing – was I glad to finally be getting answers? Or was I pissed off at Phoebe for going further into something I was beginning to hate? Was she making it worse? Or was she doing the right thing? There were so many questions screaming in my head: I just wanted to know. I heard footsteps coming back down stairs and looked up to see Phoebe carrying a huge book towards us. She placed it in front of me and Prue and sat down behind it.
"Check this out," she said, turning the book around so I could see the front cover without getting a huge crick in my neck.
"Where'd you find it?" I felt a brief moment of pride at how even my voice sounded, considering everything.
"In the attic," Phoebe replied, nonchalantly. I could practically see the surprise on Prue's face, even though she was behind me.
"That attic's been locked for years; Grams hated us going in ever since you went dust bathing there when you were six!" I had to smile at the memory of Phoebe covered in dirt with dust bunnies in her hair and a huge grin on her face.
"Hey! That was one time, alright?" Phoebe tried to sound offended but her smile ruined the effect a little.
"Um, no. If I remember correctly, we had to give you a bath everyday for two weeks before Grams just put a lock on the door." I grinned at Prue's words before turning my attention back to the book. I flicked to the first page and raised my eyebrows slightly at Phoebe who just shrugged.
"The Book of Shadows – well, that explains the inscription on the back of the spirit board," Prue mused. I nodded in agreement but Phoebe just looked confused.
"What inscription?"
"I think you must have been about four when we used it last, so you might not remember." Prue reached over to the spirit board, picked it up and turned it over.
To my three beautiful girls,
May this give you the light to find the Shadows.
The power of three will set you free.
Love, Mom.
I tried not to feel the emotions that inscription still reminded me of – I'd had enough loss and pain today, I just waited for Phoebe's response.
"Oh," she said simply. She nodded and flicked a page over in the book, my eyes widened when she suddenly gasped.
Phoebe's POV
It was Grams, she seemed to be doing some kind of ritual. I could feel my power draining away but somehow I knew that I didn't really miss it at the time. Piper and Prue were there too and they seemed so confused. Grams stopped chanting and I felt that the ritual had finished, she muttered one last phrase, holding out her arms to encompass all of us…
"Grams," I gasped, my eyes snapping open and the headache from the vision fading away into the background. Piper was staring at me with Prue's head resting on her shoulder and her arms around Piper's waist – they wore almost identical expressions of worry, I held back the urge to smile: there were more important things to do. "It was Grams, she was doing some kind of ritual – I think she was taking our powers, or making it so we couldn't use them or something. I think she made it so we couldn't remember."
Piper looked down at the page I was touching. "To bind one's powers…" she read aloud, she looked up at me. "That makes sense – your visions are affected by what you're touching at the time. Your last one was when you were sleeping with us, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"We were all in your vision – we must have triggered it," Piper replied.
"I always knew you were the brainy one," Prue teased lightly, smiling.
"Hey, shut up!" Piper lightly slapped her hand in mock-punishment, I grinned at their banter.
"So how did the spell stop? I mean, she didn't tell us anything about it so it obviously wasn't intentional…" I wondered aloud causing Piper to look down at the book again.
"It says the power of the spell weakens with the caster's health and if binding especially powerful witches, it can be broken completely when the caster is particularly ill." She looked up at Prue. "That must have been how that camera got smashed – you must have broken the binding spell on us." Prue frowned slightly, thinking.
"I always thought that was a bit strange…I didn't think about it much cuz other things happened after that that were kinda more important." I frowned at her.
What are they talking about? She noticed my expression and blushed slightly before explaining.
"We kind of…got caught," she looked down into Piper's lap and fiddled with her trousers as if they were the most interesting things in the world.
"Where? By who?!" Piper and Prue shared an embarrassed look.
"Er…by Amy in the…" – her crimson face was now completely hidden in Piper's shoulder and her voice was muffled as she continued – "…Janitor's closet…"
I felt my mouth drop open in complete surprise: My sisters? In the CLOSET? I was especially shocked as I thought they were the sensible ones, the sisters that always thought things through whilst I ran in head-first. I couldn't help giggling.
"Oh my God." I clutched my sides – I was laughing so hard. "I wish I'd been there!" That was when Prue got over her embarrassment and looked up, opening her mouth to retort. She quickly gave up when she saw my expression and just fiddled with Piper's hair until I stopped.
"Moving on." She raised her eyebrows at me, indicating that the subject of being caught in the janitor's closet was well and truly over. "Piper, sweetie, I know you don't want to think about it right now, but we have to talk about Santiago. Are you okay with that?" Piper twisted the ends of her hair around her fingers, thinking, before nodding slowly. I watched as Prue took her hand and squeezed in comfortingly – I suddenly wished I had someone who would support me as much as they did for each other.
"He said he was gonna kill us," I prompted, subtly. Prue looked up and couldn't seem to help grinning at how crazy it all seemed.
"Right, death threats aside: does the book say anything about him?" Before Prue had even finished speaking, a wind whipped through the room, turning the pages of the book until it landed on page entitled "Truco." It was illustrated with pictures of a man that looked a lot like Santiago.
"So he didn't even tell us his real name," Piper looked so crushed – I understood: she thought she'd known this guy but it turns out it was all a complete lie.
"It says he traveled Europe stealing witches' powers before traveling to South America and then up into the U.S. – that explains how he knew so many languages," Prue said sadly. I knew she must have been thinking about how finding all this out was hurting Piper.
"So that's what he wants? Our powers? Why?" The book's pages turned again and landed on a page about something called 'Warlocks.' I turned the book around so I could see it and read out loud.
"These followers of evil can travel the world for eternity, stealing the powers of witches unless they are vanquished – be wary of them as they can be anywhere and anyone." The words on the page seemed to echo in my head and we all sat wordlessly for several minutes, trying to absorb what we had just found out.
"We can't trust anyone," Piper whispered mournfully, Prue's arms tightened around her at the words.
"We have each other," she replied. "We're all we've got and that's enough."
Prue's POV
I could tell they wanted to argue with me, I had to change the subject – and quickly.
"Phoebe, does it say anything about how to vanquish a warlock?" She looked down at the page before shaking her head at me, helplessly. "What about on the page about Truco?" I watched as she flicked back through the book but it wasn't any use either – there was nothing.
"What do we do, Prue?" Piper turned around in my arms to look at me pleadingly- hoping I would have the answers, begging me to but I had nothing. I had never been in this situation before: My sisters and I were in danger and there was nothing I could do about it.
"I guess we wait," I said quietly, I knew it wasn't enough – it couldn't possibly ever be enough to just have to wait and hope that nobody died in the process because that was how bad it was getting: that thing had threatened to kill us. It was life or death; kill or be killed.
MONDAY APRIL 10TH, 1989
Piper's POV
This is insane. Grams was dead, we had freaky bunch of magical powers, some psycho Warlock-guy was going to kill us and I was sitting here eating cereal. Prue wandered in – she had already gotten dressed, packed and fed, of course.
"Morning, sweetie," she greeted, hugging me tightly before sitting down. "Have you seen Phoebe yet?"
"I'm here! I'm up, I swear." My little sister padded into the kitchen barefoot and bleary-eyed.
"Pheebs, it's half past seven: we've got to be out in ten minutes." Prue looked vaguely amused at our sister's antics. I could barely summon up the will to care.
Prue laughed openly as Phoebe sprung into enthusiastic action – making breakfast, eating and running off to get dressed and brush her teeth: all in a record time of five minutes. I plodded through my cereal until it was gone, then I stared contemplatively at the bottom of the empty bowl. I could feel Prue's eyes on me but I couldn't be bothered to act as though I were okay, she reached her hand out towards mine under the table and held it tightly. I glanced at her and that was enough to register the worry and love written all over her face and in her eyes.
"Right, I'm ready!" Phoebe strolled in and struck a pose before bowing to an imaginary audience. "Thank you, thank you, I couldn't have done it without you…" She giggled and pulled her bag onto her shoulder, looking at us expectantly. Prue got up and pulled me with her towards the door and school.
I didn't really connect much, I just kind of drifted through the day: doing the work with the least amount of concentration required, staring vaguely at the teacher as they spoke and avoiding questions where possible. I had hoped I would be able to carry on like that but that was before I walked into Spanish class and saw Santiago – Truco – sitting there like nothing had happened. As if he hadn't said he was going to kill us. I couldn't believe the audacity of that guy! I did my best not to show how shocked I was and sat down quietly next time, my legs practically shaking with the urge to run.
"Morning, Piper," he greeted nonchalantly; I couldn't bring myself to reply so I just stared resolutely at the front – avoiding any kind of contact with him. He wouldn't let off with just that, though. "So you think you and your sisters are going to defeat me? I have traveled the world over for hundreds of years and I have more power than you could ever imagine and what are you? A bunch of high school girls with a little bit of magic and no idea how to use it! It would be merciful to kill you – I'm not the only one out to kill you. There are millions of us: everywhere and you'll never survive. Face it bitch: you're dead." He whispered this all into my ear and I felt my insides freeze in fear, but he continued.
"It was so easy to kill your poor, stupid grandmother – just a little slip and oh no! There's a huge bleed in the aorta! You should have seen that idiotic doctor's face. It was hilarious."
I felt a fire start in my stomach: thawing away at the icy fear – I felt furious. I stood up so suddenly that the teacher stopped talking and just stared at me. I didn't care: this man – no, this evil bastard had murdered Grams and he was going to pay. I smiled down at him but I could feel the fire in my eyes – his widened in surprise and…was that shock? I leaned towards him slightly conspiringly and spoke with every emotion I felt lacing my words.
"You think you've got us all figured out, don't you." It didn't sound anything like a question. "But let me tell you something: we're not stupid and we're never weak – you're messing with the wrong family and it's gonna come back and bite you in the ass." With that I walked out, leaving him with a slightly bewildered expression on his face. Nobody came after me – I was glad.
Prue's POV
It was like a sixth sense. I knew something was happening but when I looked around all I could see were the students falling asleep at their desks and the teacher droning on regardless. That was, until the door slammed open and I saw her- I felt my knees go weak at the sheer power and determination written in her eyes. I realized my mouth was open and shut it quickly, looking around to check nobody had seen me panting.
"I need to see my sister." It was a statement letting Mr. Miles know that she would not be taking 'no' for an answer.
"R-right, well, er…Prue, you can go." He gestured at me randomly and I tried not to grin. I glanced over at Amy for a second and saw her nod slightly at me, almost like she understood. Almost like an approval. I decided not to think on it too much, just packed and followed Piper out.