Notes: Chapter three right here for ya peeps! Things get serious for the Charmed Ones and Karen, and the threat of the curse is realized. Tell me what you think, I love feedback (positive or negative, but positive mostly!) – Xtreme Slayer
San Francisco
'This girl is hurt, and hurt badly.' Phoebe thought to herself as she as well as her sisters watched as Leo began to heal Karen with his Whitelighter magic. The bruises and cuts began to melt away under the golden light, and Karen's face became a beauty once more.
"Wow, you're very pretty. You know, once you take out all those bruises." Piper said as she held onto her toddler son at her hip. Wyatt on the other hand, was busy playing with his mother's shiny auburn hair, and looking around at the attic.
"Yeah, you kinda look a lot like Buffy the Vampire Slayer!" Paige said as she took a seat near a now healed and clothed Karen.
"Ha! That's a first." Karen said as she playfully rolled her eyes and laughed for like the second time today. It was amazing to her, it was the dead of night in Tokyo, and here she was in the afternoon light of San Francisco. Also, she was around seemingly good people, no wait, not people witches. In the short time that she was there, Karen had gotten to know what Phoebe, Paige and Piper were all about. They were magical witches who helped good people in danger. In addition, Karen realized that they were for real and genuinely wanted to help her.
"Now that we all know each other, let's get down to the real problem. What's wrong with Karen that could possibly affect the world?" Piper asked as she placed Wyatt in his playpen and joined her sisters, Karen and Leo.
"That's where Karen comes in. Could you explain you're situation to us?" Leo asked Karen.
"Oh yeah sure, but please don't think of me as some basket-case." Karen said as she put a hand through her golden hair.
"Please, if you knew what we have gone through these past years, you'd sign us to a mental ward." Paige said as she placed a hand on Karen's back. Karen looked with disbelief, and Phoebe could feel it.
"Oh yeah honey, we've dealt with countless demons, wendigos, woogies, spider-demons, sea creatures, you know! Everything under the sun, but just know you're among friends." Phoebe said with a soft smile trying to comfort Karen. A little more at ease, Karen too smiled, and tried to recount this traumatic event in her young adult life.
"Okay, at my nursing agency, my boss assigned me to take care of this old woman named Emma at this really big and nice house. Now, even before I entered the home, I felt something….I don't know….like dark. When I went into the house, it was well kept but it felt abandoned. So anyway, this lady was very bizarre. She never spoke to me, and always had this sad look on her face. I felt really sorry for her, but there's nothing I could do to help her. Then the most odd thing happened, a little boy, really creepy and Japanese and demonic, was hiding and said his name was Toshio. Later at night, she just went crazy like and that's when the demon came. In a smog of black smoke and, Emma was finished, dead. Then, I came to realize after some research, that the boy Toshio Saeki and his mom Kayako Saeki used to live there, until Kayako's husband found out she was having an affair and killed her, his son and their cat, and himself. Somehow, Toshio and Kayako's spirits were resurrected and they haunt that house. Anyone entering the house had a curse laid on them, and they are doomed to die. I was a lucky one, once my boyfriend came by the house to get me; he died at Kayako's hands. I burned down that house, and Kayako attacked me. I ended up in the hospital but she was there too, and in my apartment. Then Leo came and now I'm here."
The Charmed Ones had to sink in what they just heard about Karen and her story about the curse and the slain Saeki family. Why would any man kill his whole family just over one skirmish between he and his wife was something beyond the girls. However, they knew this curse was serious business, and they were going to help Karen Davis, no matter what.
"If Kayako gets her way, the curse will manifest over time, and the whole world could be exposed to it, causing death and pain to all." Leo explained with an expression.
"She won't get the chance to." Piper said raising her eyebrow. "We'll stop her before she has the chance to spread the curse."
"But how are we going to stop her though?" Paige questioned as she looked at her sisters.
"Only one possible solution, we lure Kayako here somehow." Phoebe said as she rested her chin on her hand.
"Let's check the book to see how we could summon a dark spirit." Paige said as she ran over to consult the Book of Shadows.
All of this magical talk was confusing and equally surreal to Karen. She was in here with true to life witches, who looked experienced in their craft as well. However, Karen had this lingering feeling that finding and putting Kayako's spirit at ease would not be as easy as the Halliwells made it to be. Thinking about it, Karen suddenly asked aloud "There's something I don't understand. How can you just say a spell and then have Kayako dead?"
Phoebe gave a sympathetic smile to Karen. For some reason, she liked this girl far better than anyone of her previous innocents, and desperately wanted to help her. She knew that Karen was confused, skeptical and afraid, but she sensed that Karen, like many others was a fighter.
"It's our magic behind it Karen. My sisters and I are powerful witches, and we have vanquished many demons that seem much worse than Kayako. Don't worry about a thing." Phoebe said with compassion as Karen felt reassurance surge through her. Suddenly, Paige yelled out "Eureka! Instant spell."
"You found the spell to summon the demon?" Leo asked.
"Yup, and if my sisters would be so kind, gather round and let's say this spell." Paige said as she called for her sisters. Together, Piper, Phoebe and Paige stood together.
"Wait, don't we need the crystals to cage her?" Piper asked.
"One step ahead of you!" Phoebe said as she pointed to the crystals that she aligned.
Karen held onto Leo as they both stood looking at the Charmed Ones, who began to chant the incantation.
"Powers of the witches rise,
Darkness unleashed within the skies,
We call upon a creature,
Old but strong,
To help right its terrible wrong."
Looking up from the Book after reciting the spell, the three sisters called out Kayako's name. Suddenly, the same fog of darkness that Phoebe had seen in her premonition became animated within the attic. As it began to materialize, it did not take the form of Kayako, but that of a really large black cat. Standing upright, the cat looked like a horrid version of Sylvester the cat, from Looney Tunes. As it found it's way in the crystal cage that the Charmed Ones keep their demons in, it gave a way a terrible inhumane shriek. Behind him though, came a demon boy that Karen knew all too well.
"That's…that's…Toshio." Karen pointed as she looked at the boy with great disdain and fear. Holding up his tiny little hand, Toshio broke free of the cage and looked from Karen to the Charmed Ones. Then, he muttered something in Japanese tongue, which Karen understood.
"What the hell did he just say?" Piper asked as she felt Phoebe come closer to her.
"He said we will all die." Karen translated. Next, the demon cat of Toshio's leapt toward the Power of Three, who quickly moved away, yet in a frantic manor.
"Dammit, Piper freeze that overgrown cat!" Paige instructed as the cat made a large leap for her. Doing as she was told, Piper froze the cat, which stayed in the air for as long as the magic would hold it. Seizing the opportunity, Phoebe ran up to the frozen cat and struck it with a fierce kick, knocking it out its frozen state. Roaring now, the cat threw its tail like a whip, and knocked Karen and Leo into three bookshelves.
Looking around for something she could use, Paige quickly brushed her hair from out of her face and noticed that a well-sized athamé was across the room. Smirking with delight, Paige knew this was her chance.
"Athamé!" Paige called out as the ceremonial knife orbed into the direction of Toshio's cat's abdomen. Roaring with anger once more, the cat held onto its side, but Piper sought to finally do something about it.
"Bad kitty!" Piper yelled out as she raised her hands and exploded the demonic cat. Suddenly, the black fog it popped up in when it materialized appeared, but it proved that the cat was vanquished. All that was left was Toshio, who looked at the Charmed Ones. Karen and Leo got up from crashing into the bookshelves, and Leo went over to grab baby Wyatt.
"Paige, call for Toshio's heart!" Karen yelled out.
"But…" Paige began to argue why, but realized the boy was still a demon, and an evil creepy one at that. "Heart!" Paige called as she extended her hand to take Toshio's heart. Falling over in agonizing pain, Toshio grabbed his chest and gave numerous cries.
"Tell me what you know about that house." Karen said in fluent Japanese as she looked at a hurt Toshio.
"All that you need to know……is that the way to defeat the curse……lies within the walls of my home." Toshio said in between gasps as he doubled over in pain.
"But how, I put you're house on fire you little bastard!" Karen spat out in Japanese.
"A simple fire won't work…my mother is too strong…just let me die again!" Toshio yelled out with a bloodcurdling scream. But after doing so, Piper used her magical power and exploded him into a dark smog, finally vanquishing him.
"So what do we do now?" Leo asked holding a testy Wyatt.
Karen sighed and put her hands across her chest and said "We have to go to Japan, the answers lie within that damn house."