Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or any of the characters. Any resemblance in the plot is purely coincidental.
Chapter Two
It took two minutes before Phoebe decided to stand up. Another three full minutes before all three sisters sat down in a dumbfounded state. And another minute before one of them spoke out.
"It's not like this hasn't happened before." Piper said.
"Maybe a demon is trying to mess with us again," Phoebe squirmed in her seat. "How many times do they have to do this before they realize it'll never work? We always find a way to get past things like these."
Paige rested her head on her hand, which was propped against the backrest of the couch. The other hand was rubbing her temples.
"I don't think I'd like to discuss this right now. I'm really physically, mentally and emotionally drained." Paige sighed.
"Well, we have to figure this out before any more demons attack. We don't want them to catch us powerless." Piper said approaching the Book.
She stood before the podium and hesitated before opening the Book.
"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked noticing her older sister's uncertainty.
"Nothing. I just thought something was odd with the Book."
Indeed something was strange. Piper's eyes widened and her mouth was half open while skimming the pages. Soon, she was frantically flipping through the Book, which worried Phoebe and Paige.
"Alright, something's wrong." Paige said walking towards Piper immediately followed by Phoebe.
Paige furrowed her eyebrows at the sight of their magical book. Apparently, it was no longer magical.
"It's blank." Phoebe whispered.
Piper stopped searching the Book when she realized it was in fact blank. She rested her hands on either side of the book and thought hard. Something about this situation was vaguely familiar.
"Oh and I thought this was just a normal day." Phoebe cried sitting back down. Suddenly, their world couldn't get any more normal. She put her face in her hands and took a deep breath hoping this was all just a tiring dream. When she uncovered her face though, she was still in the attic with a downcast Paige and a seemingly unfocused Piper. She hid her face again.
Piper was trying hard to remember when she had come across the Book blank. She was sure it happened before…just recently. She closed her eyes trying to picture herself standing before the Book staring at its blank pages.
She needed the Book. Wyatt had a fever and Leo wasn't answering her calls. She should have just let Leo heal their son. Now she's panicking. Screw the healthy immune system, I need to have my son healed she thought to herself.
The music from downstairs wasn't helping her growing headache. She had to have that normal day and invite her friends over for a small get together. As it turned out, it wasn't that small after all.
She climbed up the stairs and walked into the attic with a crying baby in one arm. She walked towards the Book of Shadows and hoped there was something on it that might help her son.
To her surprise, the Book's pages contained nothing. She flipped through it and found no single spell.
"This can't be happening."
"Piper?" Paige asked putting a hand over hers. "Any thoughts?"
Piper opened her eyes and remembered everything she needed to remember.
"This has happened to me before." She said slowly.
"What's that?" Phoebe asked lifting her head from her hands.
"This has happened to me before." Piper repeated.
"Losing our powers? Yes it has honey. It has happened to all of us."
"No, I mean the Book."
"Sure it has. A number of demons have been and still are after it. Maybe they found a clever spell to render it blank."
Her sisters weren't listening. She had a pretty good idea what was going on and they weren't listening.
"I think I know what happened," Piper said. "But we vanquished him how can he be doing this again?"
"What? Who?" Phoebe questioned.
She looked at her sisters as if realizing for the first time that they're actually in the room. She pointed her finger towards Phoebe then Paige then looked at the Book again.
"I'm afraid she's finally cracked." Phoebe said while attempting to hug her sister. Piper refused though.
"But you're here. If this is my fantasy, you two shouldn't be here. We obviously have different desires." Piper said to herself.
Paige and Phoebe shared looks of concern. They were convinced their sister has gone mad.
"Piper I think you need some rest." Paige suggested pushing her sister towards the door.
"No, listen to me," Piper said whipping around. "This was my fantasy."
"What fantasy?"
"Back then. A demon messed with us creating worlds of our fantasy. This was mine: a world without magic."
Paige and Phoebe looked equally confused. Piper was just not making any sense.
"A world without magic? Is that even possible?" Paige asked.
"Evidently it is." Piper said exasperatedly throwing her hands in the air in frustration.
"So you're saying the demon's back? He created this 'world'?" Phoebe said using air quotes to nail down her point.
"He can't be back. We vanquished him remember? You were there!"
Suddenly the truth hit Phoebe and Paige like an eighteen-wheeler truck running a red light. They remembered. Paige had tried to orb the athame to her hand but it did not work. Piper had told her there was no magic in her world.
Piper smiled as she noticed the look of realization dawning on her sisters faces.
"Then how can this be happening if the demon was vanquished?" Paige asked confused.
"That I don't know. There could be another demon doing this."
"And how come we're here? You're right this isn't our fantasy." Phoebe added.
"We might not be dealing with the same demon specie. He might be a whole different one with similar powers but varying procedures." Piper explained.
The three were silent for a few moments. Now Piper was making sense. Somehow they were stuck in a magic-free world. In a way it seemed liberating and limiting at the same time. None of them sure if they want to stay in a world like this.
"Do demons exist in this world?" Paige asked the question lingering in everyone's minds.
"Magic does not exist. Meaning demons don't too." Piper hoped her answer was right.
"Then how did that demon get in your world back then?"
"He created it. He had control over it so he can enter anytime he wants."
"Then that doesn't stop this demon from doing the same."
"Yes but we aren't even sure if a demon did this."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Phoebe was confused yet again.
"It would be a bit stupid to create a world without magic and attack us there."
"What are you talking about? It's the perfect plan! We're more vulnerable here than in the normal world." Phoebe wasn't quite sure if she used the word 'normal' in the appropriate situation.
"Well, if there's no magic, they can't have either. Even demons are restricted by the limitations of this world."
"Not if they created it."
"I'm not sure that's true. I mean, that fantasy demon wasn't able to use his powers. He could've just easily sucked us into a vortex and get it over with. Instead, he brought an athame with him and hoped to kill us with that."
"Huh, makes sense." Paige frowned not liking this discussion. She rubbed her temples furiously in an attempt to relieve the pain.
"And even without our magical powers, we still managed to vanquish him. Any demon would be stupid to try the same tactic again."
"We were able to vanquish him thanks to Chris." Phoebe said out of the blue.
Piper glared at her refusing to go back to the argument that might have started this mess.
There was a long pause before any one of them spoke up. This time it was Phoebe who broke the silence.
"Who else could've done something like this?"
"Well, if not an evil entity, then a good one." Paige suggested.
"Meaning?" Piper asked for an explanation.
"Meaning an extremely powerful group of good beings did this." Paige replied nonchalantly.
"Like who?"
Paige looked to the ceiling as an answer to Phoebe's question.
"The Elders? You think the Elders would want us to be stuck in a world where we are extremely vulnerable and most likely to die? I don't think so Paige." Piper said unconvinced.
"No. They most likely don't want us dead. Maybe just to teach us a lesson." Paige shrugged at the idea.
"What kind of lesson?"
"I don't know. Maybe because we are abusing our powers and they decided to take it from us for the meantime."
"We do not abuse our powers. You do but we don't." Piper said referring to Phoebe and herself.
"True. But you are neglecting your powers."
There was a brief moment of silence before one of them admitted to the fact.
"Maybe a little bit," Phoebe said. "Piper has neglected a little more than her own powers."
Piper eyed her stubborn sister.
"What are you implying?"
"Oh, I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about."
Piper raised her eyebrows in question.
"Chris!" was the only word that escaped from Phoebe's lips as a reply.
"We are not talking about him."
"See!" Phoebe gestured towards Piper looking at Paige.
"The Elders may be teaching us a lesson about him too." Paige said taking Phoebe's side.
Piper stood up. "I am not getting involved in this conversation."
Paige continued anyway addressing her words to Phoebe.
"This world has no magic. Meaning there are no whitelighters. No Leo, no Chris."
"Oh," Phoebe uttered in realization.
Piper wasn't reacting. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest and her back towards the other two sisters. It was either she didn't care or she refused to believe it. It was most likely the latter one. She may not care about Chris but she has a whole lot of care towards Leo.
It was almost two o'clock in the morning. They have been in this predicament for almost two hours. Two hours of talking and now a long silence.
"You have been so engrossed in your work you hardly use your powers anymore." Paige shattered the silence.
"That's not true. I always use empathy." Phoebe said in her defense.
"That's because you can't control it yet."
Phoebe frowned at the fact that what Paige said was true.
"And you," Paige said facing Piper. "You actually wish you never had them!"
"I do not wish I never had them. I only wanted a normal day. One day." Piper turned to face her sisters but looked at the floor instead. Suddenly, she found the old attic floor boards extremely fascinating.
"Well, you finally got that one day."
Excerpt from "My Three Witches" / "Fantasies of the Flesh"