They stood in Piper's bedroom after a lengthy discussion of the best place to be in order for their spell to work. Prue had suggested that since a portal had already been opened in Piper's room, they at least knew it was possible in there. It was not mentioned that whether they could manage to recreate one on their own or not was still up for debate.
"How exactly did you come up with this spell?" Prue asked, looking at the paper and reading her youngest sister's familiar penmanship.
Phoebe smiled slightly. "I sort of combined a summoning spell with the lost and found one and that spell you and Piper used to create a door when we were all sent into our future lives. I just modified them a little."
Prue raised her eyebrows. "Okay. Let's do this." She took the potion and drew the symbol of the doorway on the wall, wincing when the liquid left a dark stain. "Piper's going to kill us when she sees what we've done to her wall."
"At least she'll be here to see it… and besides, I'm not to one defacing her bedroom. She'll only kill you."
"Thanks so much for your support." Prue stepped back from her handiwork and took a deep breath.
Together, they read the words of Phoebe's patch-worked incantation and looked expectantly at the wall in front of them.
Nothing happened.
"Candles!" Phoebe cried suddenly. "We need candles."
Leo exited the room before either Phoebe or Prue could turn around. They listened to him quickly ascend the stairs.
Prue brushed her hair back from her face with her fingers. "We're going to get her back, Pheebs."
"I don't know how, not without the Power of Three."
"We'll manage," Prue said with determination. "We haven't always been able to use the Power of Three in the past and we still did what needed to be done. We've overcome too much now, suffered too much, for it to have all been for nothing."
Phoebe sagged against the bed, her face obscured by the thickening shadows of the evening. "I miss her. At least when she's been gone before we knew, more or less, where she was. But this not knowing is killing me."
"It's killing all of us. You, me, Leo… I've never known him to be so unsure about anything as he is now."
Phoebe reached out to snag one of Piper's pillows and hug it to her chest. "She's all alone, Prue."
"Not for long." Prue's breath caught as she watched Phoebe be pulled into another premonition.
~~~
She leaned heavily against the doorframe and paused to catch her breath. It was getting worse but she was determined to not be beaten down by her strange new physical condition or the growing despair that accompanied it and so she had forced her legs to carry her up the stairs. She would allow herself to rest once she was in her own bed.
Leo had never answered her call although she had refused to give up trying until her voice was so hoarse she could barely speak. She had hoped he would come despite her lack of powers, after all, hadn't he watched her and her sisters all through their childhoods? She remembered him once saying that he had, surely he hadn't given up on them. They were the Charmed Ones, damn it!
She trudged to the bed, staring down at the lonely expanse of sheets and blankets. She couldn't remember ever feeling so lost and alone. Not even when Phoebe had moved to New York and Prue was so wrapped up in her wedding plans.
Stepping closer, she turned down the covers. Her bare toes brushed against something solid beneath the dust ruffle. She crouched down onto her knees and pulled the object out into the dim light. She wasn't the type to sweep clutter out of sight and she couldn't imagine what she would have wanted to hide from view.
The Book of Shadows.
Tears sprung to her eyes unbidden as she gently brushed her hand across the familiar embossed symbol. She had become so wrapped up in just surviving the day that she had completely forgotten about her earlier determination to research an answer. She turned on the bedside lamp and sat down on the bed with the book in her lap.
"Okay," she whispered harshly and wiped the tears from her eyes before she opened the book.
Flipping through the book, she found a good number of blank pages but she ignored them. How many times had spells and potions magically appeared on the pages just when they needed them most? She paused at each entry that referred to a demon, scanning what was written before discarding it to move on further in the book. She drew a sudden breath when the book took on a life of its own, its pages rifled by an unseen hand.
Gallfrek. He must be the cause, she knew, otherwise she wouldn't have been led to the entry. But there was no spell, no vanquishing potion, no means of fighting him or his deeds at all.
"Leo," she rasped, frustrated beyond reason. What good did it do her to know who was behind her predicament if it didn't provide her with a solution?
She could barely hear the knock on the front door. Praying that she wasn't getting her hopes up just to find the newspaper boy on her front stoop, Piper shoved the book aside and staggered toward the stairs. She tripped twice on the steps when her legs threatened to go out from under her, but she managed to catch hold of the railing each time and divert disaster.
She fell against the door heavily and tried to calm her breathing before discovering who her visitor was. She could see a figure standing on the front step but couldn't tell who it was through the stained glass. Surely it was Leo, who else would pay a visit so late at night except for the whitelighter she had been trying to call all day?
The hinges groaned, complaining of their sudden activity as she swung open the door.
"Damn, girl. You look like shit."
Piper gaped at the woman who faced her. It couldn't be who she thought it was, but somehow it had to be. "Pheebs?"
"Sheesh, next thing you know, you'll be calling Prudence by her old nickname," the woman said with bemusement in her eyes. "And we both know what that'll do to her. So, are ya' gonna let me in or not?"
Piper stepped aside as Phoebe pushed past her and dropped a backpack on the floor of the entry. "What are you doing… here?"
Phoebe tugged a slim hand through her short-cropped white-blonde hair and pinned Piper with a gaze. "I got this completely whacked-out call from some guy named Matthew. He said something about me needing to come back right away because you were in trouble. Looks like you're way beyond trouble to me…" She walked further into the house. "I told him I couldn't because I was broke but he paid for the ticket. That's when I figured it was more serious than some crazed practical joke."
Piper stared at her little sister. Only one word sprang to her mind, leather. From the micro-miniskirt to the halter-top to the biker jacket slung across her shoulder, Phoebe wasn't wearing anything that hadn't started as part of an animal. "Um…" She couldn't think of a single thing to say.
Phoebe's eyes lost some of their hardness. "Your Matthew was right, sweetie. You need help. Who was he anyway? A boyfriend?"
"No, just a friend," Piper answered. "He's gay."
Phoebe grinned. "Figures. Come on, I'm starving." She snagged Piper's arm to pull her toward the kitchen but flinched when her fingers made contact with the too-thin wrist. "Where's Prue?" Phoebe asked with a voice that reeked bitterness.
"Um… in Baltimore?" Piper allowed herself to be pulled away from the front door when Phoebe gently kicked it shut. "I called her this afternoon."
"Guess that figures too. Too busy with Mr. Fortune 500 and that perfect job of hers to come back when she's needed." Phoebe snorted in disgust.
"She said she'd try to come."
"Oh yeah, I'm sure she did. I wouldn't hold your breath, honey." Phoebe wrapped an arm around Piper's shoulder and gave her and gentle hug. "But for what it's worth, I'm glad I'm here. I've missed you."
Piper closed her eyes and tried to suppress the longing that rose up in her soul for the sisters she had known. "I miss you too."
~~~
Phoebe gasped as the premonition ended and she lifted her face to Prue's expectant expression. Words failed her in the face of all she had felt; the overpowering waves of deep depression and the sure knowledge that no salvation could possibly exist were crushing to the extreme. "Where is Leo with the damned candles?" she choked out at last.
"I'm right here."
Both women turned toward the voice and saw the love of Piper's life clutching a dozen or more tapers and looking as lost as they were.
"I didn't know which ones you needed," he explained, tilting his head to indicate the candles.
"Here." Prue accepted the offering and selected the ones their portal would require.
"I think, there in front of the doorway. If we form a half-circle, it should work in conjunction with the potion. Hurry, Prue, there isn't much time."
"You're not going to tell me what you saw, are you?" Prue gripped Phoebe's hand tightly.
"Nope."
Once again they stood facing the wall in Piper's bedroom and read the spell aloud. For a split-second, Phoebe feared they had failed again but then a swirling green smoke enveloped the semi-circle in front of the potion painted doorway, slowly rising until it took the form of the symbol Prue had drawn. In a blinding flash, a hole formed at the center of the image, tearing outward to its edges. A rush of wind threatened to tear Prue and Phoebe's grip apart until Phoebe felt Prue's other hand strengthen the physical connection.
"Prue?" she called above the rising wind. She felt, more than heard, her sister's agreement. Phoebe spared Leo a quick glance. "We'll be back," she promised, "with Piper."
Stepping through the portal was, remarkably, like walking through a simple door. One moment they were in Piper's room with Leo, the next, they were… in Piper's room only it was altered slightly and had a scattering of toys across the floor.
Prue and Phoebe paused, taking note of the sudden changes. The bed had been moved as had the dressing table, new paint covered the walls and the rug they stood upon was as foreign as the little girl who stared up at them with huge eyes from the bed.
"Mommy!"
The loud cry startled them as did the sound of hurrying feet in the hall.
"Sweetie, Mommy's not here," a voice soothed from behind the shut door.
The doorknob turned as the child replied, "But, Aunt Piper, she's standing right here!"
to be continued…