"Witchcraft is the use of supposed magic powers, usually to harm people. But what if all of this time, we've been thinking of witches all wrong? I mean, what if most witches were good, and used their powers to fight evil and help people? There are people all over the world who claim to be able to cast spells and all of that stuff. Actually, witches appear all the way back in Greek and Latin literature. Picture a witch in your head right now. You probably see someone with a black hat on a broom. But have you ever thought that they didn't look like this at all? That they were, in fact, among us?"
Fi.
"Hey, Mrs. P! Can we go to that big red bridge thing?" Clu asked.
My mom sighed. "It's called the Golden Gate Bridge, Clu. And yes, we can go see it and walk on it or whatever, but not today. They're expecting to meet us today. We'll do a sound check today too."
"Who's they?" I wondered aloud.
"Well, the owner of the club we're playing at runs it with her two sisters."
"Oh. That cool."
I twisted a little bit to stretch and then looked back down at the never-ending problems on this math worksheet.
We had already entered the California border a few miles back. We were on our way to San Francisco to play at a small club called "P3". The owner was supposedly only in her twenties. But from what I heard, the club was booming and very popular.
Maybe some kind of a "break" for my mom.
"What song do you think we should start off with?" Carey asked. He sat on the couch behind me, strumming his guitar every now and then – as if he was in the process of writing a song.
"Well," she hesitated, "I was thinking 'In the Darkness'. Then maybe Rebecca. Are you writing a song right now?"
"Sort of. It's kind of another piece to add to your new song."
"You guys think you can pull this off in two days, when you have to perform?" I asked.
"They always do," Jack laughed.
"Everyone's okay, right?" Ned asked from the front of the bus. "I mean, no more stops, right?"
"Right," Jack answered.
"I think we're all good," Carey added.
"Okay," Ned said. "We'll be there in a couple of hours."
I put down my pencil and looked at my mom. "Well in that case, I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when we get there."
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"Fi. Fi, wake up."
I opened my eyes slowly. Jack was shaking me awake.
"We're here, Fi."
"Okay. Thanks, Jack." I stood up and used my hands to try and straighten my hair a little bit.
I stepped off the bus. It was late afternoon; the sun would be going down in a few hours. But San Francisco sure was loud.
As soon as the door of the club closed, all of the city sound disappeared. They were replaced by loud music and the clattering of silverware.
"Hello?" my mom called out.
A short woman with long hair walked over to us. She outstretched her hand. "I'm sorry. Hello, you must be Molly Phillips. I'm Piper." I heard the music being turned down.
My mom took her hand. "Nice to meet you. This is my daughter, Fi." Then she turned toward Club, who was on her other side. "This is –"
She was interrupted by another girl who came running over, almost falling. "Ooh, who's the hottie?" She was looking at Clu.
Piper elbowed her. "This is my little sister, Phoebe. And…hm…my oldest sister, Prue, is around here somewhere…"
"Here I am!" a voice called out. Prue walked over and stood next to Phoebe.
Phoebe grabbed Prue's arm. "Look, sis'! Hottie at twelve o'clock." Clu just stood there smiling. Then Phoebe's gaze switched to Jack, standing next to Clu. "Two hotties." Then she looked at Carey, right behind Jack. "Three hotties."
Piper kicked Phoebe. "Please excuse my –" her voice raised "-extremely rude sisters. Besides, they're too young for you guys."
"I'm not," Carey said.
My mom laughed. "Don't worry about it. I was once in my twenties too, you know."
"Well, here. Let me show you around." Piper led us to their 'band room'.
I was amazed by all of the posters on the wall. I said, "Wow. Have you had all of these bands here?"
"Yep," Piper answered. "It's kind of a tradition. All of the bands leave something behind. Like this one." She pointed at a signed picture of the Barenaked Ladies. "Do you like the Barenaked Ladies?"
"Oh, I love them!" I said.
"Hm…you guys probably want to do a sound check tonight, huh?"
"Actually, yes," my mom answered. "We were all kind of hoping we could do one now."
"Oh, sure. Any time you'd like. Just bring your stuff in."
"Thank you. Boys, do you think maybe you could start unloading stuff off of the bus?"
"Sure, mom," Jack sighed. "Come on, guys." Clu and Carey followed him outside.
"Hey, Fi. If you want a Coke or something, Phoebe or Prue could take you to get one. You can stay with your mom too, if you want, I'm just going to continue this little tour," Piper said to me.
"Actually, a Coke would be great. Thanks," I told her.
"Ooh, come on. I'm thirsty too." I followed Phoebe. Prue also came with us.
I sat down at the bar. Phoebe placed a Coke in front of me, then opened one up for herself and sat down behind the counter. Prue sat down next to me with a glass of water.
Phoebe smiled. "So, is one of those cute guys your boyfriend?"
I almost choked. "No. One of them is actually my brother – the one with the darkest hair. The oldest one is in the band, and his little brother Clu comes with us sometimes."
"Speaking of boyfriends…" Prue started. I followed her gaze and saw a young guy in his twenties walking down the stairs. He was actually kind of cute…
"Oh, hi. I'm sorry. I didn't know you had company," he said.
"Fi, meet Leo – Piper's husband."
"Hello," I said.
"Hi. Wow. It's been a while since I've seen someone as young as you in here."
"Actually, Leo, Fi is Molly Phillips' daughter. Piper's showing Molly around right now. She'll be back soon. Do you want to sit down and have a drink with us, while you wait?" Phoebe asked.
"Sure, why now?" He sat down next to me. "Can I just have some water, please?"
"Okay. Since it seems like me and Fi are the only ones who want sugar," Phoebe said, placing a glass of water in front of Leo.
Prue laughed. "Yeah, sis'. The only difference with you is that you don't need any sugar." We all laughed.
Then Prue turned to me. "So, Fi. Are you guys always on the road?"
"Most of the time," I answered.
"Well, is that hard on you? I mean, not being able to talk to your friends all of the time and everything?"
"Yeah, I guess that part's kind of hard. But there are a few friends who I talk to online sometimes. And Jack's always great. We don't get along all of the time, but most of the time I can talk to him. He just doesn't believe me all of the time."
"Believe you?" Phoebe asked curiously.
"Well, you see, I'm into a lot of paranormal stuff. Weird things always seem to find me."
"Cool! What kind of weird things?"
"Hm…old Scottish legends, evil spirits, aliens, bigfoot, the Angel of Death – " I stopped because Prue started choking on her water. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry."
"I have a website, actually. With pictures and stuff. You guys want to see it? I could go grab my laptop right now."
Prue shot Phoebe a look. "Sure."
My mom and Piper suddenly walked in the room. "Hey," Piper said. "Did I miss anything?"
"Nope. We were all just having a drink," Phoebe answered.
"Oh, Molly. You've met my sisters, but this is my husband, Leo."
Leo stood up and shook my mom's hand. "Nice to meet you."
"You too."
"Oh, mom? Can I go get something from the bus really fast? I'll be right back," I said.
"Sure, baby."
I ran up the stairs and outside toward the bus.
Piper.
"Actually, I'm going to go to the bus too. I'll help the guys unload," Molly said.
"Sure!" I answered. I noticed Prue still watching Fi go up the stairs. She had a puzzled look on her face. I knew that look. As soon as Molly and Fi were gone, I turned to Prue. "Okay, what is it?"
Phoebe spoke before Prue, "Fi claims that she always finds weird things. One of the things that she mentioned was Prue's Angel of Death."
"Yeah," Prue started. "I mean, it's probably nothing… But it's still kind of weird."
"She mentioned evil spirits too." Leo added.
"I don't know, maybe it's just some teenage thing," I said.
"Probably," Prue agreed. "But none-the-less, she's going to go get her laptop out of the bus. She says she has a website or something. She's going to show it to us."
I sighed. "You guys, there are a whole bunch of people out there who are interested in weird things. And I bet there are a bunch of people who claim to have seen things like the Angel of Death. Hell, you see the tabloids."
Phoebe nodded. "I know what you mean. She did seem pretty convinced though."
We silenced as Fi walked in the room. "Hi, guys." She carried her laptop.
"Hi, Fi. Let me help you hook that up," Leo offered.
"Thanks, Leo." Leo hooked up the laptop into the phone. He was looking good today, in his dark jeans.
Not the time, Piper.
Fi turned on the laptop and waited for it to load up.
Molly walked in carrying an amplifier. "Oh, Fi. Are you boring them with your paranormal things again?"
"Oh, it's really no problem, Mrs. Phillips. We can watch her while you set up. Besides, this sounds kind of interesting," Phoebe said.
"Thank you. Be good, Fi."
I turned to Fi as she signed on. "So…um…my sisters tell me you find weird things?"
"All the time. Here's my site." She turned the laptop towards me. "There's pictures, information, all kinds of stuff."
"Do you have anything about that Angel of Death?" Prue asked. "That sounded pretty interesting."
"Well, I don't have any pictures. But here's my experience."
I read the screen with interest. Wow. It sounded so real.
As if reading my mind, Leo said, "Wow. That's really detailed."
"Yeah," Phoebe nodded. "Wow. That's amazing. So have you ever run into anything like, oh, I don't know…witchcraft?"
I kicked Phoebe. So did Prue.
Fi was about to speak, but all of a sudden, sparks started flying out of the laptop. Right before it exploded, I brought my hands up and froze everything.
"Great," I said sarcastically.
"Whoa," Prue said. Fi was frozen with wide eyes, just as she had been a second ago. "Leo, what did you do when you hooked it up?"
"I didn't do anything!" His gaze suddenly shifted upward.
"You have to go," I said.
"Um…yeah."
"What about Fi?" Phoebe asked.
"Sorry, but they say it's urgent."
He walked over to me, pressing his lips against mine for a few seconds. "Okay. Go. They're waiting."
He nodded, smiled softly, and disappeared.
"Okay!" I said. "Everyone get ready to duck. Who's got Fi?"
"I will," Phoebe offered.
"Alright. Three, two, one." I unfroze everything and hit the floor. The laptop exploded above us. I saw Phoebe, also down on the ground, covering Fi's head.
"Holy crap!" Fi yelled. "It's never had problems before. What happened?"
I shrugged. "If I didn't know any better, I would say that someone is trying to kill us." The realization of my own statement hit me. I looked toward Prue, but she was getting up and brushing herself off.
"Hey, where'd Leo go?" Fi noticed.
Think fast. "I think he went to go get a fire extinguisher."
"Um…alright. Hey, listen, I'm really sorry about all of this."
"Oh, don't worry about it. If I didn't want anything broken, I wouldn't ever let Phoebe in here."
"Hey!" Phoebe said.
"Fi! Can you come here real fast?" Someone yelled from outside. She looked at me.
"Go," I said calmly. "We can figure this all out later, okay? We'll clean up the mess later too."
"Thank you. And thanks Phoebe, for saving me."
"No problem, babe," Phoebe answered.
Fi walked up the stairs quickly, unsure.
"Sister meeting!" Prue exclaimed. We all walked into one of the backstage rooms and closed the door behind us.
"Okay! What the hell was that?" Phoebe screamed.
"Maybe it just overloaded or something."
"Do you really believe that, Prue?" I asked. "It overloaded, so it blew up? Maybe it's just me, but I don't think so. Do you think someone planted something into her laptop?"
"What are you saying? A demon?" Prue.
"Well, I don't know. I mean, would a demon sacrifice Fi to get to us?"
"That was a really primitive demon trick," Phoebe commented. "Shouldn't he have known that you could just freeze everything?"
"Hey, um…maybe we're missing something here. What if Fi set that up?"
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, come on Prue. Why would she kill us? She's like fourteen or fifteen years old. Even if she really were a demon, she would have come up with a better plan to kill us – like Phoebe said. Besides, I think she was really freaked out. Did you see how fast she ran up those stairs?"
A shimmer appeared out of the corner of my eye, and Leo was suddenly standing next to me.
"What happened?" Prue asked with worry.
"The elders have informed me of a new demon in town," he answered.
"Is that what tried to kill us back there?"
"Uh…no, you see, that's the thing. The demon isn't trying to kill you guys."
"What are you talking about, Leo?" I asked.
"The demon is actually after Fi. The three of you have to protect her. I know it sounds weird, but apparently, there are a lot of people in the Spirit World that aren't too happy with her."
"Why?" Phoebe wondered aloud.
"I think that's something that we have to ask Fi ourselves."
Fi.
I ran up the stairs as fast as I could. Laptops can blow up though, right?
"Fi, over here," Jack called. I walked over to him. "Have you seen Mom's guitar?"
"No, why?"
"We can't seem to find it." He turned to my mom. "Weren't you just playing it this morning?"
"Yes, I was! I don't get it. I mean, where could it have possibly gone?"
"Maybe Carey or Clu already unloaded the guitar," I suggested.
"Nope," Jack said. "They're looking for it right now too." I climbed into the bus to once again check if maybe it was in there. Nothing.
"Fi?" It sounded like Phoebe was calling me.
"Yeah?"
I noticed her behind me. "Can I talk to you for a second?" My mom had enough to worry about without knowing about my laptop. So I followed Phoebe back into the club.
She led me into a room with Piper, Prue, and Leo.
"Is everything okay up there?" Piper asked me.
"Well, no. My mom can't find her guitar, even though she was playing it this morning…she's like really starting to freak. I'm really sorry again, about that laptop thing."
"Actually honey, that's what we wanted to talk to you about," Phoebe said. "Um…has anything ever tried to kill you before? Like evil spirits or anything?"
"Yeah, several times. But my family doesn't exactly know everything."
"We have to tell her," Prue said.
"Tell me what?" I asked.
Phoebe looked at Prue, then back at me. "Fi…we're witches."
Excitement flowed through me. "Really? Like real witches? Whoa, cool!" I looked at Leo. "So are you a warlock or something?"
He laughed. "No. Actually, warlocks are usually evil. I'm a white-lighter. Sort of like a guardian angel for witches."
"Can you keep secrets, Fi? You can't tell anyone about us," Prue told me.
"I won't," I said. "I promise. I understand. People are afraid of what they don't understand."
"Exactly."
"Look, Fi," Leo began. "Sometimes my white-lighter bosses tell me things. And, well, do you know why there would be any evil spirits or demons that might be after you?"
I felt like I could trust them. I hadn't really known them for that long, but it already felt like I knew them well. So I said, "My dad told me that a lot of them are jealous of the living. I was also warned that some of them are upset with me for interfering with their world. Wait – are you saying that there are demons after me?"
"One that we know of. His name is Corfe."
"The laptop?"
"Yeah," Phoebe answered. "And possibly your mom's guitar. Maybe the demon's trying to get you away from us. You're safe though, with us. We can protect you."
Did I believe them? Yes. Was I afraid? Yes. But I didn't really want to show them my fear.
"I have a guitar here," Piper told me. "You mom can use that for a while."
"Thanks."
"Okay," Prue said. "Piper and I will stay here. Leo – go and find out whatever you can about this Corfe guy. Phoebe – go home and see what you can find out from the Book of Shadows."
"Book of Shadows?" I asked.
"Yep!" Phoebe smiled. "It had information about different demons and stuff. Hey – do you want to come?"
"Pheebs, are you sure that's such a good idea?" Prue interrupted.
"Oh, come on, Prue. Fi deserves to know what's going on."
"Do you think you can protect her on your own?"
"Yeah. Plus, I doubt the demon would strike right now. So do you want to come?" she asked me again.
"Sure!"
The five of us went outside to the bus. My mom was standing there with her had in her hands. "Mrs. Phillips?" Piper called.
My mom looked up. "Yes?"
"I heard about your guitar. I have an extra one here that you could use for a while, until you find yours."
"Oh, thanks! You're a life saver."
"Mom? Phoebe needed to go home and pick up something for Piper really fast. Can I go?" I asked.
"Yeah, I suppose."
Phoebe excitedly led m to her SUV. She put her keys in, started the engine, and pulled out of the parking lot. I put on my seatbelt.
"So," she said. "You said something about your dad. Is he into paranormal stuff too?"
"Was. My dad died when I was real little."
"Oh. My mom died when I was real little. And we just barely found our dad not too long ago."
"Have you been a witch ever since you were little?"
"Sort of. We had lost our powers for a while, but we got them back recently." She laughed. "Totally screwed up our social lives. Ha, I'm even in love with a demon right now."
"A demon?"
"Yeah. He's half-human. It's a long story, but all of the other demons want to kill him for being in love with me, when he was supposed to kill me. Now he's always hiding."
"Wow. And you sisters know about this?"
"Yeah. They knew I was in love with him. But when we found out he was a demon, we had to vanquish him. It ended up that I was left alone to vanquish him. So I staged his death. They thought he was dead for a long time. When I finally told them the truth, they were furious. Now he's back. He doesn't really bother Piper too much, but I can tell that Prue doesn't like him. We're really a messed up family, huh? One sister in love with a demon, one sister in love with an angel."
I laughed.
"How about you?" she continued. "Do you have a boyfriend or anything?"
"No. It's kind of hard to really get to know a lot of people, since we're almost always on the road. One time, though, I fell for a clone."
"What happened to him?"
"I don't really know," I answered truthfully.
The car came to a stop in front of a tall, beautiful house. "We're here!" Phoebe exclaimed. She led me inside. There was a lot of antique furniture and old pictures. The house looked almost haunted. It was cold.
We climbed up a long staircase to the attic.
The attic was messy, except for a small stand with a book on it in the middle of the room. "Is that the Book of Shadows?" I asked.
"Yep. Sorry I'm not like giving you a tour or anything. As soon as we get this demon creep off our back, I'll show you around where ever you want."
She walked over to the stand and started flipping through the pages of the very large book. She mumbled things as she searched.
"Corfe, right?" she asked me.
"Yep."
After a few minutes, she said, "Here it is! It says he's a spirit demon. You can only see him sometimes. And you can't fight him. Hm…it doesn't really say that much, but I think I can make an incantation really fast."
"Do you do that a lot?"
"All the time. Here, you can help me." She took out a piece of paper and a pen. Then she sat down on the ground. I sat down next to her, very interested.
She continued, "Let's see…we could use some of your mom's lyrics. When demons come from every side, in the darkness is the light."
"With our power and not our fists, we banish you without a fight."
"Wow, that was good! Okay, last line…for jealous Corfe to leave us alone, we banish you with all our might."
"Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
We jumped up and hugged. Then I said, "Geez, that was incredibly lame."
"It sure was, wasn't it?" Phoebe laughed. "But, hey, it works and it was done in less than two minutes. So, are we good or what?"
I was about to speak, but then the carpet below me was pulled and I fell flat on my back. I was suddenly being dragged outside the door.
"Phoebe!" I screamed, but the door shut right after I went though it.
I began tumbling down the stairs, as if someone had thrown me. There was pain throughout my body as arms, legs, my back, my head, and everything else bounced off of the steps.
I finally stopped rolling. I had reached the bottom of the steps.
But then I heard a door being kicked open at the top of the stairs. It was Phoebe! She ran down the stairs. She stopped in front of me with her fists up as I slowly got up.
"Are you okay, honey?"
"I'll live," I answered.
Then Phoebe started yelling, "Come on, coward! I know you're freaking here!" She mumbled, "Okay, astro-Prue…where are you?"
Silence. The air was dead. So I decided to help her out. "Yeah! Come on! You want me, here I am!"
"Duck!"
Phoebe and I hit the floor as a bunch of glasses exploded above us.
We began running across the room. A couch suddenly came flying at me. Phoebe and I dove out of the way, in opposite directions. It crashed into the wall.
Phoebe made a whimpering noise as she dragged my arms and took me to another part of the room.
"Incantation! Incantation!" I screamed.
Phoebe yanked the piece of paper out of her pocket. "We need to do this together!"
We both began reading the incantation. "When demons come from every side, in the darkness is the light. With our power and not our fists, we banish you without a fight. For jealous Corfe to leave us alone, we banish you with all our might!"
There was a huge flash of bright light, and all of a sudden, something – disappeared into thin air. It was like something in the air exploded.
I paused for a second and almost passed out. "Was that it?" I asked. "We rocked!"
Phoebe shrieked with delight. "Yeah! We really kicked some demon ass! Let's go tell Prue and Piper!"
"Okay!"
She hugged me. "You know Fi, you're like the little sister I never had. In fact, if I ever have a daughter, I want her to be like you."
"Thanks. If I ever had an older sister, I'd want her to be you too."
She laughed, I smiled, and we walked out to the car.