Chapter 3: The Story of Rachel
"Wh-where's Darryl?" Sheila asked, in a shocked and scared voice.
"It's okay, Sheila," Phoebe said soothingly. "We'll find him, and Leo."
"Hey," Paige said. "The man that made the portal dropped something." They walked over to it. It was a book on time travel. "Oh my God," Paige said once she saw what it was.
"What is it?" Phoebe asked.
"This book," Paige said. "I saw a girl reading this exact book at the witch craft store when I was there earlier."
"Who was reading it?" Piper asked.
"Some girl," Paige said.
"Well that really doesn't help us much," Piper said.
"Let's go talk to the shopkeeper," Phoebe suggested. "Maybe she knows who it is." They drove the shaking Sheila home and then went on to the store Paige had been at earlier. It was even gloomier in the night than it had been during the day.
"Hello," Paige said. "Remember me?"
"Yeah," the shopkeeper answered. "Nutmeg Girl." Paige smiled
"We need your help. That girl, who bought the book on time travel, who was she?"
"I'm not sure," she answered. "I know she lives in an old apartment building down the street though."
"Thank you," Phoebe said. "Let's go." Once outside, they looked down the street.
"I think that's it," Piper said, pointing out an old building. They started to walk towards it. The street was poorly lit and had an eerie feeling to it.
"How do we know which apartment it is?" Paige asked.
"We'll just knock and ask people I guess," Phoebe answered. They started knocking on doors. No one answered. "Does anyone live in any of these apartments?" Finally, an old lady answered one.
"Hi," Paige said. "Do you know a girl that lives somewhere in this building? She has long, curly blonde hair."
"Oh, you must mean Rachel," the old lady answered. "She lives two doors down on the left."
"Thank you," Paige said back to her. "Nice lady," she said once they lady closed her door.
"Yeah, she was," Phoebe said. They knocked on Rachel's door. She answered, she had a bruised eye and she looked as though she had been crying. "Rachel? What happened?"
"Oh, nothing," she said, trying to cover something up. "Do I know you?"
"No, but we need to talk to you," Piper said. She let them in.
"What about?"
"You were at a witchcraft store earlier today, right?" Paige asked.
"Yeah…"
"You bought a book on time travel. What did you do with it?"
"That's none of your business."
"Did he threaten you?" Phoebe asked.
"Who?" Rachel asked, getting defensive. "I think it's time for you to leave." She stood up and started towards her door. She held it open and motioned for them to leave.
"We can help you," Piper said.
"Out!" The sisters reluctantly got off the couch they had been sitting on and walked towards the door. Paige stopped in front of her. She reached inside her pocket and got a piece of paper and pen. She wrote her number on it.
"Call this if you need me for anything. I will come any time. Call." Rachel took it and shut her door.
"What do you think?" Piper asked Phoebe.
"Something happened," Phoebe told them. "Something very sad and painful. She knows she needs our help, but she's scared. Really scared."
"How can we help her?" Paige asked.
"I have a feeling she'll come to us when she's ready."
"How long will that take?" Piper said. "We don't have the time. Leo and Darryl are stuck God who knows where. We need to get them out."
"We just need to be patient." Together they walked back to the car and drove back to the manor.
"Where are we?" Darryl asked.
"I don't know," Leo said to him. They looked around. They were on a crowded street. There were poor people looking at them. Leo noticed they were all wearing a band with a star on it. "The star of David." Leo looked suddenly noticed what he and Darryl were wearing.
"Um, Leo," Darryl said. "Why are we wearing Nazi uniforms?"
"This is taking too long!" Piper suddenly exclaimed. "I'm going over there right now."
"Piper, no," Phoebe said. "She's too scared and insecure. She needs time to sort things out." Paige's cell phone suddenly started to ring.
"Hello," Paige answered. She put the phone to her shoulder. "It's her." She put it back to her ear. "You need help? We're on our way." She shut it off. "She needs help." Once again, they took another trip to that shady part of town. They went up to her apartment. Piper knocked on the door.
"Hi," she said when Rachel opened the door.
"I'll tell you what happened," she said. She let them in. They sat down on the same couch. "My boyfriend, made me buy him that book. He told me he wasn't allowed in the store. He threatened to kill my family if he told anyone." She started to break up in tears. "He hit me once I bought him the book. Then, he… he just disappeared. I tried to call my mom after that, and no one answered. I've been trying to get a hold of her since."
"Oh no," Paige said. "Where does she live? I'll go check on her." Rachel told her and Paige orbed.
"No!" Rachel yelled. "You're like him aren't you?"
"No, no," Phoebe said. "We're good witches. We're here to help you. And we need you to help us." Rachel didn't seem to convinced but agreed anyways.
"Why did he want that book?" Piper asked.
"He never told me. He just hit me. He used to be so nice to me, until now. I haven't seen him since."
"Do you know where he'd go with it?" Phoebe asked.
"He just kept saying, "Time to set things right," over and over again." Paige orbed in.
"Can I talk to you two?" she said. Piper and Phoebe left Rachel crying on the couch to talk with Paige in the kitchen.
"What is it?" Phoebe asked.
"There were scorch marks everywhere in the house," Paige said.
"Oh no," Piper said. "What do we tell her?"
"She's not ready for news like this," Phoebe said.
"What did she tell you guys?" Paige asked.
"Nothing of use really," Piper said. "We have on idea where they went."
"Where does that leave us?" Paige asked. "We have nothing left we can do."
"There's one thing left," Phoebe said. "First we need to get her back to the manor." They walked back into the living room.
"Rachel, will you come with us tonight?" Paige asked.
"Where?" she asked.
"To our house," Phoebe said. "We need you to point out your boyfriend for us." She agreed and they went back to the manor.
"Here," Piper said, handing her the Book of Shadows. "Will you look through that and tell us if you see him?" She started to look through it.
"How do we tell her about her family?" Paige asked.
"I have an idea about that," Piper said. "But it will have to wait until after we're done with this."
"Here he is!" Rachel said. She pointed to a picture. "Mikelus. He told me his name was Mike."
"Wait," Piper said. "It says here that he's a lower level demon. How could a lower level demon use time travel?"
"If he uses a spell from this time travel then maybe it's possible," Phoebe suggested. "It still doesn't tell us where he went though."
"Wait, there's a little side note," Paige said. "He has an apprentice."
"I'm sure he knows where Mike went," Piper said.
"It doesn't say who his apprentice is though," Phoebe said.
"Rachel," Piper said. "Is there any friend that Mike had that hung around a lot?"
"Yeah," Rachel said. "Jeff."
"Where does he live?"
"I don't know where he lives, but he does hang out at this one bar a lot." The once again, traveled across town to another place. "There he is," Rachel said, pointing out a man with shoulder length blonde hair, sitting on a bar stool.
"Well, Piper," Paige said. "Why don't you calm things down in here." Piper froze the bar. Jeff started to look around. He saw Piper, Paige, Phoebe, and Rachel standing in the doorway.
"Witches," he said. He started dodging for the back door. Paige orbed in front of it.
"I don't think so," she said. The others cornered him. "Where did your friend go?"
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"Where did Mike go?" Rachel asked.
"None of your business, bitch," he said to her.
"That's no way to talk to a lady," Phoebe said, kicking him where it counts. "Tell us what we want to know."
"I don't know what your talking about," he insisted.
"Fine," Paige said. "Just vanquish him, Piper." His eyes widened.
"Wait! He went back to December of 1941."
"What's so big about that year?" Paige asked.
"The Holocaust," Phoebe said.
"That and Auschwitz," Piper said.
"What's Auschwitz?" Paige asked.
"The biggest concentration camp of the Holocaust. If Mike changes anything from that year, the whole world could be changed."