THREE

"You're what?" asked Phoebe.

"I'm ready to be vanquished," said the demon, looking at them.

"Listen, you're the Charmed Ones. Every demon knows that just coming

here is reason enough for you to vanquish one of us. So, do your

thing. Vanquish me."

The demon closed his eyes again.

"Leo," said Prue, "do you have any idea what's going on here?"

"Not a clue," said Leo.

"Well, demons don't just pop in here and asked to be

vanquished," said Phoebe.

"Maybe it's a trick," offered Piper. "To draw our attention

away from something else."

"Hey," said the demon, a bit annoyed, "I came a long way for

this. All my friends know I came here to get vanquished by you. A

little less chatter and a little more vanquishing if you don't mind."

"Keep your pants on," snapped Piper.

"I'm not wearing pants," said the demon. "What's the matter?

I'm a demon. You're the Charmed Ones. You vanquish demons. Is there

something I'm missing? Is there a rule or something that says you

can't vanquish a demon unless it attacks you? Okay, fair enough."

Before any of them could move, the demon formed an energy ball

and cast it at Phoebe. The energy ball struck Phoebe and almost

immediately dissipated. Phoebe didn't even flinch.

"What was that?" asked Phoebe.

"It was an attack," said the demon. "Hey, what did you expect?

A fireball? I'm a very low level demon. Now, I've attacked you.

Vanquish away."

"That was an attack?" questioned Phoebe. "I've hurt myself

worse than that blow drying my hair."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," said the Demon. "So what is it now?

You need to write a spell or make a potion or something? I'll wait."

"Leo," said Piper, "why don't you go see if you can find out

what's going on?"

"Yeah, I think I'll do that," said Leo.

As Leo orbed out, the little demon looked on in surprise.

"Is he a White Lighter?" asked the demon. "Say, can we wait

until he gets back? I've always wanted to meet a White Lighter."

""Listen," began Piper. Then she looked at her sisters. "What

do we call it? We can't just say 'hey you'."

"I've always been partial to the name Clarence," said the demon.

"Clarence the demon?" questioned Phoebe.

"Why not?" asked the demon. "Like she said, it's better than

'hey, you'."

"Listen, Clarence," said Piper. "Why don't you go wait in the

kitchen until we get this sorted out, okay?"

"Okay," said Clarence. "Only don't take too long."

The sisters just watches as the demon turned and walked into the

kitchen.