As the sisters pulled up in front of Mindy's house, Piper glanced up in the rearview mirror at Paige. Her youngest sister was staring out the window, concern and worry swimming in her eyes. "It's all going to be okay," she said, turning off the engine.

"I keep trying to tell myself that," Paige sighed as she climbed out of the car.

Piper gave her a sympathetic smile and slung her arm around her sister's shoulders as they walked up to the front door. After Paige refused to be the one to ring the bell out of fear of what they were about to do, Piper made Phoebe go up and push the small button by the ornate wooden door. Phoebe was just about to ring the bell again when a young woman who looked only a few years older than Piper opened the door. "Can I help you?" she asked.

Piper felt Paige tense up when she saw the woman's face. Her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were tear-stained. It looked as though she hadn't stopped crying in days. "Mrs. Carrington?" Piper asked.

"Do I know you?" Her eyes darted warily from one sister to another.

"No," Paige said softly, "but I know your daughter, Mindy."

The woman's mouth dropped open, but she quickly recovered. "Do you know where she is?"

Piper winced at the pain in the woman's voice. "We think we do, but it's kind of a long story. May we come in and talk to you?"

She cautiously glanced again at the three women standing on her doorstep, trying to decide if she should trust them. After a moment, she stepped back from the doorway, allowing them to step into the house. "Come on in."

Piper smiled a thank you and followed Mindy's mother into the living room. Gazing around, Piper couldn't help but smile. While the outside of the house was classic Victorian, the inside furnishings were decidedly modern, with sleek glass tables and smooth, plain couches and chairs. The sisters settled onto the sofa as Mindy's mother called her husband into the living room. The woman shook her light brown hair out of her eyes as she and her husband settled themselves into the easy chairs that were one either side of the couch, facing each other. "My name's Rebecca and this is my husband, Daniel," she said, remembering that she hadn't introduced herself to the sisters.

"I'm Piper," she said with a gentle smile, "and these are my sisters, Phoebe and Paige."

"Nice to meet you," Daniel said, nodding at them. Piper could tell that he was trying to keep any emotion that could be deemed weak out of his voice. "How did you come to know Mindy?"

"Well, I'm the only one who really knows her," Paige said quietly. She cleared her throat, hoping that she would be able to explain the situation without sounding accusatory and without lying. "One day a couple weeks back, the three of us were in the park, and Mindy and a bunch of other kids from her school were there as well. I happened to see one of her classmates tease her and she got a little upset. I went to go see if she was okay, and we just got to talking. We decided to meet when she got out of school just so she'd have someone to talk to."

Rebecca smiled. "Mindy's always been more comfortable with adults than with kids her own age. But you said you think you know where she is?"

Piper met Paige's eyes and nodded. Paige was doing perfectly well with the explanations so far and Piper could see no reason to take over for her. "This is the part that's a little hard to believe. The last day I saw her, she wound up telling me about her power, her clairvoyance. As it turns out, the three of us are witches and have powers of our own, so if anyone can understand powers and their effects, it's us. I actually showed her my power, too, just so she'd know she could trust me."

Piper gasped and whipped her head around to face her sister. "You never told me you--"

Paige just held up her hand, cutting Piper off and indicating that they could fight about it later. "Then she told me that she knew she could trust me anyway because one of the ghosts she talks to told her she could. Do you know who the ghost is?"

Rebecca shook her head, blinking back tears. "All I know is she's a woman with long dark hair who died a little over a year ago. I don't know her name. I don't even know if Mindy knows her name. She just calls her her guardian angel. But for the past year, she's done such a good job protecting my baby and boosting her confidence that I don't question it."

Paige smiled. The Carringtons had taken the news of the sisters' powers easier than she had expected. They hadn't even batted an eye. It actually felt good to be able to talk about her powers like they were commonplace. "Anyway, I hadn't seen her for three days, and I was worried. Part of my power is kind of a psychic sensing ability, so I tried to sense her. From what we could determine, it's sounds like she's in a dimension called--"

"You think she's in Twilight," Rebecca said softly.

"Well," Phoebe said, clearing her throat, "our information is secondhand from our Whitelighter, but yeah, we do."

"Oh, I was afraid of this!" she cried. "This is why I haven't told the police anything. I was afraid this was supernatural."

"You know about Twilight?" Piper asked, somewhat surprised. She was beginning to wonder why she and her sisters had never heard of the place up until now. That's something Leo's going to have to answer later, she thought.

Rebecca nodded and swiped at the tears in her eyes. "I only wish I had taken the time to tell her about it. I just thought she was too young, but maybe if I had, she wouldn't think it's safe . . ." She trailed off, biting her lip to keep from crying.

Phoebe wrinkled her brow, wondering how Rebecca knew that Mindy thought she was safe. "What happened the night she disappeared?" she asked.

"When we came home, she wasn't in her room like she normally is," Daniel explained, gently taking over for his wife. "Sometimes she gets mad at us for not being here and she hides to make us worry. We know we should be here more for her, but neither one of our bosses has children and they're not exactly understanding about family-friendly policies. At first, we thought she was just hiding on us--"

"I was hollering for her," Rebecca broke in, "telling her that it wasn't funny, and that's when I heard her. She was saying that it was really dark but there were these areas that were really bright. I knew right then she was in Twilight, but I couldn't talk to her to tell her to find someone to let her out."

"How were you hearing her?" Piper asked, once again surprised. "Have you heard her since?"

Rebecca shook her head. "I heard her that once. I don't really know exactly how I was hearing her. Maybe it was just telepathic or maybe it was through some medium. I just don't know."

"Wait, what do you mean someone has to let her out?" Paige asked, finally picking up on what was said earlier.

Rebecca sat back in the chair and sighed, trying to find easy way to explain it. "Twilight isn't made for people who are still alive. However, there is a little loophole that someone figured out ages ago. A ghost can open a portal once they get there and call his or her Counselor into the dimension with them. Usually all the ghost wants is an explanation as to where they are, why there're there, all things like that. The portal is very specific for that one person and can only be opened from the inside. The portal is opened in Twilight and here on Earth, anything reflective acts as the doorway. Once the ghost gets his or her information, they reopen the portal and send the Counselor back the same way. Since it can only be opened by a ghost on the inside, there's no way for us to get her back without the help of someone in there with her."

Piper sighed as well, running her hand through her hair. "And that's not going to be easy with him keeping such a strong hold on her and everyone else." She noticed both Daniel and Rebecca flinch at what she had said. Before they could ask what she was talking about, she explained what Paige had seen and that they thought Mindy was being held by some sort of cult or religious leader.

"So where does that leave us?" Daniel asked, panic jumping into his eyes.

Piper just shook her head and tried to smile positively. She wanted to say something supportive, but the truth was, now that she knew just how the portal in and out of Twilight worked, the five of them were now left hoping for a miracle.

**********

Piper followed Paige as she hurried up the attic stairs. "Paige, slow down!" she called after her sister.

"Piper, I can't slow down!" she yelled back, whipping the door at the top of the stairs open. "She's going to die in there unless we think of something to do, some way to get in there . . ." She trailed off and hurried to the Book of Shadows. She opened it and furiously began flipping pages.

"Listen to me," Piper said, gently placing her hands on her sister's shoulders. "We can't do anything for her from here--"

"The hell we can't!" Paige exclaimed, shrugging Piper's hands off her shoulders. "Piper, I--"

"Honey, I know she means a lot to you and I know you want to help her in any way you can," Piper continued, once again resting her hand on Paige's shoulders, "but we have to face the fact that there might not be a way to help her--"

Paige shook her head and ducked out of Piper's reach, backing away a little bit. "No, Piper, no way. I will not believe that we just have to leave her there and hope that someone smartens up enough to help her! We can't leave her there and just let her die. I can't do that and I won't." She turned back to the Book and began paging through it again.

Piper softened when she saw the tears glistening in her sister's eyes. "Do you want some help?"

"No," Paige said a little angrily as she read the pages over carefully.

"Paige, I'm sorry--"

Paige looked up and smiled at Piper. "I know, and thanks. I'd just rather do this on my own, if that's okay."

"Okay, sweetie." Piper smiled and headed out of the attic, leaving Paige to do her research. On her way downstairs, she sighed. Paige was so worried. She was so upset that Piper didn't even have the heart to yell at her for showing Mindy her power in public. And she totally understood why Paige didn't want to give up. Hell, she found Paige's tenacity admirable. She just didn't want Paige setting herself up for a huge disappointment. She also didn't want to see Paige blaming herself if they failed to rescue Mindy.

"How is she?" Phoebe asked, jarring Piper back to reality as she emerged from the attic stairwell.

"In complete denial," Piper said with another heavy sigh. "She refuses to believe that there's nothing we can do."

"It's not exactly something I want to believe," Phoebe said somewhat uncomfortably.

"I don't, either, Pheebs, but . . ." She shook her head, leaving her thought unfinished. "I just don't want her setting herself up to get hurt."

"I know--" A loud scream from upstairs interrupted Phoebe before she could say anything else. She met Piper's eyes for a quick moment then dashed up the stairs, Piper on her heels.

They ran into an empty attic. Looking around frantically, Piper saw a faint ripple of movement in the old mirror in the corner. "Oh, God, no," she muttered, her mind jumping immediately to the worst possible scenario. "Leo! Leo, we need you!"

Leo orbed into the room, the soft blue glow lighting the dark corner of the attic. "Piper? What's the matter?"

"Where's Paige?" she asked, trying not to panic. Leo closed his eyes and tried to sense the youngest Halliwell. After a minute, his eyes snapped open, his face losing just a little color. Piper knew she didn't even have to ask. His face had confirmed her fears. "She's in Twilight." Leo just nodded solemnly.

"What?" Phoebe exclaimed. "How the hell did she get there? Who pulled her in there?"

"That's not the worst of it," Piper reminded her. "Now that she's there, we have no way to get her out."