INNER DEMONS

(X)

Parker's portal opened into his mother's new rental house. He found his mother at the dining room table searching frantically through the Book of Shadows while tears ran down her face.

"Mom, what's wrong?" He asked and then became puzzled when she gave no indication that she heard him. "Mom," he called louder snapping his fingers in her face to get her attention. He watched as her eyes focused on him.

"Parker?" She cried tremulously, jumping up and enveloping her son in a fierce hug.

"What's wrong?" He asked again.

Priscilla shook her head as her vision cleared. The demolished house again restored and the dead bodies no longer evident. Suddenly she remembered, "Barbas!"

"Barbas was here?" Parker gasped.

His mother nodded, "It's worse than that…he knows."

She had no need to go into details. Priscilla Bennett had only one secret she was afraid the world would discover.

"Mom," Parker started hesitantly, "Would it be so bad for your sisters to know that you're really Prue and that you're under a glamour? I mean they all know that you…we came from an alternate reality. I bet somewhere in the backs of their minds they're hoping you are Prue." He remembered when Chris had told him that as soon as he'd found out that Priscilla Bennett was under a glamour he'd had a flicker of hope… If Chris had, why not Piper, Phoebe or Paige? Even if the thought hadn't entered their minds, Parker knew enough about the family now to know that they would accept them all as the family they were.

"I know that it would be a good thing to tell them, Parker. It's just…I failed them all in my reality; I don't want that bad luck following me here. Besides, now I worry that I've waited too long and they will be more angry than happy. I've been lying…."

"And that's what Barbas used against you?" He asked, his concerned eyes searching hers. "Mom, you have to stop giving him that ammunition to use against you. You know that it doesn't matter what reality you're in, your sisters love you."

"I know," she nodded. "I'm just not ready yet.

"If you won't tell them who you are, can we at least help them?" Parker asked his mother.

Priscilla looked at her eldest in confusion.

"I was attacked by an invisible demon, you were attacked by Barbas…who knows who you are. Don't you think there could be a connection?"

"You think everyone's under attack; the whole family?" She asked fearing it was true.

Parker nodded, his shaggy hair falling into his eyes as usual, he flicked his hair back impatiently, "You always said that Halloween was the night when the veils thinned, when magic was at its most potent, evil at its most vile…"

"The human world at its most vulnerable," Priscilla concluded. "If I was attacked by a demon who knows that I'm a Charmed One…"

"Then it makes sense that your sisters have been attacked too," Parker finished for his mom, inspiring her to move.

"Call your brothers, have them meet us at the manor," Priscilla looked uncertain for a moment, "Parker, tonight is a night for battles not… the truth."

He nodded his reluctant acceptance, wishing his mother felt otherwise.