Chapter 11

"How's she doing?" Phoebe asked when her and Coop got home. They had gone to a magical village to get more ingredients for potions they were going to make to get Tristin out of Bella. The more that I thought about what Pat and Pearl had said, though, the worse I felt about trying to hurt Tristin. I knew Pearl would never trust me after that; she probably wouldn't trust anyone in her family. I just hoped she wouldn't want to join him if/when he was gone.

"Everything is ready." Piper said, standing up from where she had been squatting on the ground. She was setting up a square of crystals to catch Bella- Tristin- when he came.

"Now all we have to do is wait." Chris said. That was it; I had to tell someone about Tristin before he really did get exercised. But who could I trust? I looked around the room at all the candidates. Piper, no. Paige didn't know her well enough. Phoebe, definitely not. What about Chris? Surely he would understand what Pearl had been thinking.

"Chris, can I talk to you?" I asked and motioned out of the room. Everyone was leaving anyway. They were going to take shifts watching.

"Is this the part where you suck every drop of blood out of me?" he asked jokingly, I think.

"No." I said. "I need to talk to you about Pearl."

" What about?"

"You know her boyfriend, Tristin? I think he was the one that took over Bella."

He thought about it. Did he know that spirits could take over people? It seemed like something an amateur witch would know. "It's possible." He said. "But what makes you think that?"

This was the question I had hoped he wouldn't ask. I hesitated. "Pearl was talking about him in her sleep, then Pat told me that he died and I just thought that if I were him, I would try to get close to Pearl. How do we get him out, then?"

"We would have to do a exorcism. But we would need Pearl to help and she never will." He replied.

"Why do we need her? Aren't there enough witches here to get rid of a spirit?"

"Yes, but she was the closest to him." Chris replied.

Philip came bursting in the door of the attic. "She's here." He said. Chris didn't hesitate to follow him out of the room.

Downstairs, fireballs were flying everywhere. There was definitely more than just Tristin and the Halliwells. There were at least three demons I could see from the top of the stairs. They saw me too. Fireballs came shooting at me and I had to dodge back behind the wall of the up stairs. The fireballs hit the wall were I had been standing and left scorch marks behind.

"Don't shoot at him!" Bella's voice yelled. The demons immediately lost interest in me and went back to fighting off the witches.

Phoebe and Piper were behind the wall that led to the front door. I didn't see Paige. Pat was in the large plant/ sitting room, hiding behind a couch. They were all throwing the potions they had made earlier. One met its target and the demon went up in flames, just like the one in Forks. When they didn't have any more potions, they used their powers. It was so cool. Piper used her hands to throw the demon back against the wall, then blew him up just like the potion had. Chris ran down the stairs when they others had the demons distracted. I followed right behind.

We made it to Phoebe and he whispered something in her ear. She stopped what she was doing and gave Chris a look of disbelief. Then, Chris orbed out of the room.

"Tristin!" Phoebe yelled out to him. "Stop. I know it's you." He held up a hand to the demons and they stopped. Then, he glared at me in anger.

"What are you doing?" Phoebe asked." Why did you take over that poor girl?"

"Because I wanted to be close to Pearl. It's only until I can get a real one; one I will keep."

"What do you mean?" she asked. "You can't just take someone's body!"

"What's going on?" Pearl asked, emerging weakly from down the hall. She stopped at the edge of the stair when she saw Tristin. "Tristin." She said weakly and lost consciousness, her body plummeting down the stairs.