The Newcomer
Chapter 4
The sore was now covering the majority of his body. And they were helpless to stop it.
Leo was still tirelessly reading books on medical treatment, and the book of shadows was no help at all.
So the sisters cried for their friend whose life was hanging by a thread.
Falin was dreaming. In his painful sleep he dreamt of many things. He dreamt of being a fierce tiger, hunting without mercy, yet caring for his young with tenderness and passion.
He'd come back hunting a deer to find his mate dead and his cubs missing.
And he slowly awoke.
'Falin! Are you there!' said Phoebe anxiously. He saw her, smiled, and fell back into slumber. Phoebe lay her head on the sheet over his chest and cried.
'Falin! Don't give up!' Falin heard the faint voice of Morlfan. 'Listen to me! The scab is not growing because of normal means! Maggots are eating away at it, and they can only be seen through a special lense. This lense is the lense of Carthite. It can see things that the naked eye cannot. The maggots are demons in themselves. Get Leo to find it.'
Falin awoke slowly again. Phoebe again talked to him. But he didn't fall asleep. He instead told her to get Leo.
He told Leo about the lense, and the maggots. Leo understood, and immediately got to work on it. Prue and Piper tore themselves away from him and looked in the book of shadows.
The book of shadows told them that Carthite was a demon of huge power and was locked away in a special prison. In the battle beforehand, Carthite lost an eye, and it was made into a lense to see the problem with certain demonic wounds.
The lense was with a head doctor in heaven. Leo found him, and brought the lense to Falin with a needle made out of ganthrite, a metallic compound used in the treatment of demonic wounds.
Leo reached Falin and looked through the lense, to see hundreds of huge, black maggots crawling over the wound. One by one, with a sick feeling in his stomach, he speared the maggots with the metal needle, and dropped them into a fire.
'So that's that? He's cured?' Phoebe asked anxiously.
'I guess so. But I only got the full-grown maggots. There may be thousands of microscopic eggs waiting to hatch. Keep looking through the lense onto the wound, and spear any more maggots with the needle. The wound will heal faster than normal, as these people have very high constitutions,' Leo explained.
'Well, it's a start,' Prue mumbled.
Leo was right. He did heal quickly. Although the maggot death count increased, the wound healed well, and surprisingly, no scar was left, although he was very weak.
He rested in the attic, and he dreamed of being a tiger; fast, deadly and cunning.
* * * *
Piper was shaken awake to see a masked man cover his hand over her mouth and mutter two words.
'Demon Killer.'
She didn't know what he was talking about, so she shrugged and shook her head.
'The one you call Falin.'
'In the attic,' said her muffled voice.
She sat up and ran to wake Prue, then Phoebe. The three ran up to the attic to see…nothing. No one was there. The masked man dropped down behind them.
'Ahhh, Piper. You know lying is bad for you,' he said slyly. He advanced on the three.
'Piper,' Prue said out of the corner of her mouth. 'Now would be a good time!'
'That's exactly what I'm thinking. It's not working!' Piper mumbled back.
Falin materialized behind the masked man and sent a cut downwards, aiming for the enemy's neck. He dodged and Falin turned to meet him. His vision was blurry.
'Ah, yes. Just who I was looking for,' said the figure as Falin groggily swayed.
'Then come and get me, you genderless donkey,' mumbled Falin.
'I said I was looking for you. Not anymore. I want one of these valuptuous women standing before me and at random I choose…eh, what do you know. I choose Phoebe.'
And they disappeared.
* * * *
Pure rage filled Falin as he screamed out Phoebe's name through tears. For the two sisters it was one tragedy after another.
Leo appeared. 'I know what happened, and I have some more bad news. Heaven is being directly assaulted. Phoebe has been brought here. This isn't really me, this is just a message, but with this message I will bring a portal to heaven. Please save us. You are our only hope.' Leo disappeared.
'I'm off,' Falin said, still groggy. 'This is a chance to save Phoebe, but it will be very dangerous.'
'I'm going,' said Prue.
'I will too,' said Piper.
They dived into the portal. On the other side, Piper recognized heaven, but the main difference was that now it was burning.
Falin's weakness had left him. He felt replenished. He drew his sword and ran through the gates into heaven.
The fights against the lizards were easy now that he had his sword, but he still made sure that the lizards scratched no one.
They came to a three-way intersection. Leo was there, nursing a wound in his chest.
'Leo!' Piper cried as she ran over to him. Leo looked up at her and smiled. 'Are you alright!' she asked him as she tended to his wounds.
'I'll live. It looks worse than it really is,' Leo said, the lie rolling off his tongue easily.
'What happened!'
'A…a lizard…attacked me…its just a flesh wound,' Leo lied. His breathing was shallow, and his heartbeat was erratic. He was dying.
'Falin…Prue…Piper…they mustn't destroy the…the white-lighter crystal…' and his shallow breathing ceased altogether. And Piper buried her face in his shirt and cried.
'Prue, stay here with Piper. If I'm not back within an hour, assume that I'm dead, and leave,' Falin said. Prue nodded, too tired to argue.
Falin raced off, looking for the one he lost.
Phoebe felt Leo's death, although she didn't know what it was. An immense sadness, as if she had just realized that she would always be alone. All of her senses were active, but she couldn't move.
She had strange dreams. She was lying on the ground, soft grassy ground, bleeding, dying, and a man walked up to her and knelt down beside her. He was bathed in light, and he lay his hands on her stomach…
And that was when she usually woke up. She didn't know what it meant, whether it was a dream or just her 'ability' working.
She waited for someone to come and rescue her. She could see Carthite, the demon, walking about in swirling cloaks of light blue smoke, black steam rising from the empty eye socket.
Falin cut his blade through the lizard, and it fell to the ground. Falin saw the monolithic castle not far away, and he felt something coming from there.
Phoebe.
Only death could stop him now.
And death won't touch me, he told himself.
He ran towards the castle, wondering about the source of this destruction. He slowly fought his way up to the top of the castle, letting nothing survive. His rage built as he finally reached the top of the castle.
'So you've come,' said a slurring voice, deep and majestic.
'Phoebe!' Falin yelled as he saw the blue stasis prism. 'Who are you!'
'You should be thankful. My loss was your gain…'
'The hell?'
'I am Carthrite. I will be your death. '
'Yeah, maybe if stop being a wuss you will kill me.'
Phoebe saw the man, her saviour standing there, being a smart-ass to the most powerful lesser demon there is.
'Cocky aren't we. Well, I'll have to change that.'
Carthite appeared out of thin air as a tall lean man, perfectly proportioned, and much shorter than Falin. Falin made the first move. He slashed downwards, Carthite parried and reversed a cut to Falin's belly, but he leapt out of the way in time.
'Mph. Better than I thought. Let's play.'
'Have a go, dick.'
Carthite just smiled. His rapier began to glow and burst into flames. He slashed at Falin, who flipped back. Carthite slashed at Falin, even though he was far out of his reach. Flames lanced from the blade and Falin rolled to his left. In response, Falin began a warm spell, but held it back until he could no longer. White flames leapt from Falin's fingertips, slamming into Carthite. Carthite exploded with a bowel-emptying cry.
Phoebe dropped from her prism. She ran into Falin's arms, and they embraced.
'Not time to celebrate yet,' came Carthite's voice. He stepped from the shadows as the floating torso in a swirling blue cloak. Blue thunder flashed from his fingertips and Falin threw Phoebe out of the way. The bolt struck Falin and he crashed through the wall, just grabbing onto the ledge, swinging above a fall to certain death.
'Gee, I hardly put anything into that. I expected more of a challenge. Oh well…'
Phoebe kicked Carthrite in the back, pushing him out the window, and he just kept floating there.
'Silly, silly, silly girl. I might've let you live. Your choice.'
Falin threw his sword, still in his hand, into Carthite. Carthite exploded.
'Noooo! After so long! Millennia and millennia of growing power! I…'
And Carthite exploded.
'He wasn't all that hard, really,' said Falin after pulling himself up onto safer ground.
'I guess he wasn't,' Phoebe giggled, and they walked back to where Piper and Prue were waiting with Leo…