Synopsis: My latest fic links the television show Charmed and the horror movie The Grudge. The Charmed Ones must help their new innocent, Karen, a young American nurse living in Japan. Karen, as we learned in the movie, is haunted by a curse laid upon her while tending to a client at a spacious house. Now, our Halliwell Witches must help her after Phoebe gets a premonition of her.

Timeline: This story takes place right before "The Courtship of Wyatt's Father".

Disclaimers: I do not own any of the characters or storylines from Charmed or The Grudge, I'm just using em' peeps!

Please review, and tell me what you think!

San Francisco

"Phoebe, get the hell out my way!" Piper Halliwell yelled with frustration as she placed her hands in a familiar position. She of course, was ready to explode the demon that she and her sisters' were already fighting.

Levitating and kicking the demon straight in its wooly face, Phoebe Halliwell got the best of it and quickly did as she was told. The demon fell backwards toward the foyer and crashed into the window by the staircase. Reminding you of a haggard Hulk Hogan with a large brown beard, the demon quickly got up and dodged Piper's explosion. Nearly most of the staircase suffered from the attack and Piper was seriously ticked off.

"Son of a bitch! And I just got that damned staircase dusted and cleaned!" Piper yelled as she stomped loudly in the living room. Getting close to her, Phoebe and her sister both took a glance at the demon. In the palm of its large hand, was a blue and electrical like energy ball, and quickly he landed it toward the two. Bracing themselves for what seemed to be like their swan song, Phoebe and Piper suddenly looked up once they heard the voice of their other sister.

"Energy ball!" came the voice of Paige Matthews from the doorstep. Orbing the ball with her magic, Paige now had it in her grasp and launched it at the demon. Yelling as his body turned into flames, the demon was vanquished, and both Phoebe and Piper gave a sigh of relief.

"Damn, that's the third one today." Piper said under her breath as she flopped onto the couch.

"What, third demon?" Paige asked stepping over pieces of wood from the broke down staircase.

"No, third broken household item! This morning a demon attacked and the grandfather clock was on the receiving end; the stereo was exploded when I missed another demon; and now the staircase is splinters!" Piper yelled as her rant came to an end. Laughing at their older sister, both Phoebe and Paige took seats at opposite ends of the couch and each put their heads on Piper's shoulders.

"Maybe we could apply for Extreme Makeover, and get some new stuff." Paige joked as she stifled a slight chuckle.

"Forget that, we need a vacation. Maybe some place far off like Hawaii, The Cayman Islands or Japan!" Phoebe said with some level of enthusiasm.

"What are you smokin' sis?" Piper asked her sister with a raised eyebrow.

"Eh, nothing. Just daydreaming, but it would be nice if we could go away for a while. Just the three of us, no babies, no Leos, no Chris, just…us." Phoebe explained. Though they did not verbally admit it, both Paige and Piper thought that it would be a great idea. But escaping from San Francisco even for just one day would be open season for the underworld, and demons would easily get the upperhand.

"Hey why don't we watch a DVD? I have nothing to do, Chris is gone for a while with his thing, and Leo and Wyatt are having some father-son time, and Phoebe has the day off." Paige said. Not thinking that it was a bad idea, her sisters agreed.

"Hey, let's watch The Ring! It's hilarious." Phoebe said.

"Hilarious, in what sense? It's a horror film, Phoebe." Piper asked her.

"Please, do you see that tacky demon in the film? I would so love to vanquish her in real life, just for the hell of it!" Phoebe said excitedly as she went to grab the movie from their little collection of flicks. Watching a movie together for the Charmed Ones was a rarity as well as a family pleasure after an afternoon of demon-fighting.

Tokyo

Karen thought she had finally made it. Scratch that, she knew that she was there. Karen had made it to the depths of Hell along with her lover Doug, but, somehow she was the sole survivor. Doug was the one who had made it into the afterlife, and for an obvious reason, Karen wished that she was right there with him in death. Bruised, battered and also bloody, Karen was in a Japanese morgue after being taken there by the police force. Clad in her hospital gown, Karen stepped over to Doug's corpse and looked at the face of her former lover.

'I don't have him, I have nobody now.' Karen said to herself as she crossed her arms over her breasts. Her golden hair shimmered in the light, and the chill of the morgue was getting to her. Looking at Doug's body, a solitary warm tear flowed from her eye, and others followed. Silently sobbing, Karen's mourning was interrupted once she heard an oddly familiar clicking sound. Gasping, Karen's eyes went big and she stood frozen.

'God, please not here! She can't be… it couldn't be her!' Karen thought to herself as she felt lightness in her stomach.

Turning around rather slowly, Karen came face to face with the demon that started all of this. Adorned with long black hair, large eyes, and deathly blue skin, the demonic woman-ghost named Kayako Saeki continued the clicking and prepared to do her worse to Karen.

Feeling a sense of revenge coming over her, Karen quickly and fiercely shoved Kayako to the floor and began to kick her repeatedly until she finally stopped her clicking. For all the times she and Doug were supposed to be together, and for the fear and death she brought, Karen continued to strike Kayako and once she was done, she quickly fled from the morgue.

"Dammit!" Karen said aloud as she continued her brisk run in the hospital. Knocking down countless little Japanese doctors and nurses who got in her way, Karen just knew that she was getting out alive, or at least she was not dying without putting up a fight. This demon laid a curse on her, and made her life a living hell tonight. She silently promised that Kayako would have hell to pay.

San Francisco

Halfway into watching The Ring, Phoebe began to pant and tried to catch her breath. A premonition had hit her and it seemed really weird to her.

"Phoebe, what's wrong?" Paige asked.

"A premonition?" Piper continued.

"No…I mean, yeah. I saw this girl running in a hospital gown, and then she was enveloped in this blue, blackish, smog thingy and she was dead I guess. Then there was this demon woman looking with an evil smile on her face. She kinda reminded me of Shax."

"Do you know her name?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, the tag on the gown said…" Phoebe tried hard to trace back, and she already came up with the name. "Karen. Her name was Karen. We have to help her, I really feel weird about this guys."