Hey
Feline-Feral (thankyou, and hope you enjoy this one too!)
X3 (yeah I agree, souls should stay in the body! Yeah I mentioned that the Leo thing would be dealt with, and it is in this chapter, thanks!)
Dark Fires (loved it? Thanks so much!)
Melissa (thanks so much, yeah I hate exams, I'm sitting my AS-levels, and they are so spread out, so my last exam ain't 'til the 28th of June! yuck! Anyway thanks, and hope you like this!)
Exploded Pen (thanks so much!)
sci fi fan (thanks, yeah I agree the american stuff can get confusing!)
Kandie-Spirit-Dragon (thanks, and that's so like me, lately I keep trying to say stuff but forget mid-sentence what it was...that can't be good, maybe I'm getting old!?!)
lil-whitelighter111488 (thanks so much!)
buffspike (thanks for reviewing!)
Gryffindor620 (thanks, hope you like this chapter too!)
Xxaninsomniacsnightmarexx (hehe this is a viscous cycle, cos I feel guilty about making you feel guilty that I feel guilty! God that's confusing, anyway, lets just calls it even and thanks for reviewing!)
Random insane person (yeah I know poor Casie...thanks so much, hope you like this one!)
Pheniox-skye (I know Casie isn't having a very good day! Thanks so much for reviewing!)
Charmed Fan (thanks so much!)
Thanks everyone, and on with the story...
Chapter 9
"What the HELL is going on?" Casie demanded as she paced the small cage she now occupied with Chris.
"Well if you stop yelling, I could try and explain it to you!" Chris shot back. Casie took a deep breath and stared at him, willing him to continue.
Once satisfied that Casie was going to let him talk, he asked. "Ok where do you want me to start?"
"How about the fact that I can see right through you...and myself, and who the hell was that guy and where are we and why did he call me a witch?" Casie was having a hard time keeping the anger out of her voice.
"Well, you probably are a witch." Chris stated but was meet with an icy glare from Casie, so he continued to answer her other questions. "And we're...sorta..." But he quickly realised he didn't really know how to put it in words.
"Yes?" She urged.
"Basically you're looking at my soul, and I'm looking at yours!"
"Oh!"
"That guy was a demon, and we're in the underworld." Casie just stared at him for a moment, before she let loose.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Casie screeched, was this guy crazy, did he really expect her to believe him?
Chris had anticipated this reaction, and decided that to make her understand, he was going to have to explain everything, witches, demons, the whole story. So he took a deep breath and started at the beginning.
Meanwhile in the manor...
Paige was finishing off the spell, while Phoebe went to get some candles. Walking past Piper's room, she saw Leo asleep on the bed, and thought to herself 'isn't he at the hospital?' Then it came flooding back.
"Oh crap, Paige?" She called to her sister.
"Yeah?" Paige asked as she appeared, but when she saw Leo, she understood why Phoebe was calling her. "Oh yeah, kinda forgot about that problem." With what was happening to Chris, she had forgot about how there were two Leos.
"You and me, both!" Phoebe said as rounded the bed, and crouched down in front of Leo. Looking back at her sister. "Why did the spell backfire? I know it wasn't one of my best, but it wasn't that bad."
"I might not have been because of the spell, it could be whatever evil that is going on right now. Cause it can't be a coincidence that Piper starts losing time, Leo gets really sick and Chris' soul goes MIA, all at the same time."
"You're right, something's planned all of this. But don't the big bad usually appear by now? You know to gloat and all?"
"I dunno but this one is definitely covering it's tracks." Paige paused; she looked lost in thought. "What about the demon that attacked earlier?"
"Yeah but Paige you read the book, he doesn't have any powers, how could he do all of this without powers?"
"Good point, but he might know who is doing this." Paige turned around and marched back up to the attic.
Phoebe gently pulled the covers over Leo's weak form, and left the room, grabbing the candles on Piper's dresser on the way out. When she got to the attic she found Paige setting out the crystal cage.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to summon the demon and find out what he knows." Paige said as she put the last crystal in place.
"But what about the spell to get Chris' soul back?" Phoebe asked, trying to make sure her sister had her priorities straight.
"Oh yeah, lets do that one first." Paige grabbed the piece of paper from the table, took Wyatt in her arms, and orbed the all to the hospital.
Meanwhile at the hospital...
Piper was on her way back to Chris, with the two cups of coffee in her hands, when she saw Dr. Harris and other nurses rush past with an unconscious Casie, on a gurney.
"What happened? Is she ok?" Piper asked one of the nurses.
"Are you family?" The nurse asked.
"Next-door-neighbour."
"She fell down the stairs, and banged her head pretty bad..."
"Is she going to be ok?" Piper interrupted.
"We're doing our best." The nurse smiled sweetly, as she rushed off after the other nurses and doctors.
Piper couldn't believe this, it probably just an accident, but with their history, Piper couldn't help but feel that it wasn't just a simple accident. She quickly walked back to Chris' room.
"Hey." Leo greeted her as she sat down, handing him his coffee.
"I just saw Casie, she fell down the stairs."
"What?"
"I know, the doctors are with her no..." Before Piper could finish, Paige, Phoebe and Wyatt orbed in. What stood out the most was that Phoebe had three large white candles in her arms.
"Wha..." She began to question, but Paige cut her off.
"How is he?" She handed Wyatt to Piper.
"Mama." Piper smiled at her son.
"Still the same." Leo glumly replied, as Phoebe placed the three candles around Chris' bed, and set them alight.
"Phoebe! You'll set the smoke alarms off!"
"We'll be quick." Phoebe said as she and Paige began to recite the spell.
"Powers of light,
Magic of right,
Return his soul,
Once again make him whole."
Everyone held his or her breath, waiting for the outcome. But nothing happened, not even a flicker of the flames.
"Great!" Phoebe moaned, as she quickly blew out the candles, before she actually did set the smoke alarms off, knowing it would be pretty hard to explain this one.
"Ok, plan B." Paige grabbed Phoebe and orbed out.
Piper sighed as she sister disappeared, it was a good spell, it should have worked. Leo could no longer sit and do nothing. Kissing Piper on the forehead, he turned to Chris.
"I'll save you Chris, I promise." With that he was gone in a blanket of white light, Leaving Piper alone with her sons.
Meanwhile in the attic...
Leo orbed in just as the girls began to chant.
"Magic forces black and white,
Reaching out through space and light,
Be he far or be he near,
Bring us the scavenger demon here."
A wind swept through the attic, and a demon - dressed all in black, with a slight greenish tinge to his skin – appeared inside the crystal cage. Phoebe instantly recognised him as the demon that had thrown Chris out of the window in her vision.
"Where am I?" He demanded.
"What are you doing?" Leo cried, they had enough problems, without adding another demon to the pile.
"What did you do to Chris' soul?" Paige sneered at the demon, ignoring Leo.
"Well it should be on its way to the afterlife by now." The scavenger demon stated.
"But how? Chris isn't dead!" Leo asked as he joined in the interrogation.
"He's still alive?" The demon boomed as he took a few threatening steps towards Paige and Phoebe.
"What?" Paige was baffled; he had walked straight out of the crystal cage. "How?"
The demon looked down at the crystals on the floor and smirked.
"Didn't you read your little book?" He questioned as she gestured to the Book of Shadows. "I may not have any powers of my own, but I am resistant to witches magic."
Phoebe got into her fighting stance, sensing this was about to get ugly but Leo beat her to it. In two large steps he arrived in front of the demon, punching him square in the jaw.
The demon wasn't expecting this and stumbled backwards, where Leo continued to attack. Ramming the demon against the wall, choking him.
"What did you do to my son?" Leo shouted as he through him across the room, where the demon landed painfully in a pile of boxes.
"I merely punished him for his betrayal. He thought he could fool me, pretending to be a demon, trying to protect the twice-blessed child! Ha, he got what he deserved." He replied as he forced himself to his feet.
Phoebe narrowed her eyes at the demon, using her empath power she knew he was telling the truth, he was only after Chris. He wasn't the one who had made Leo sick, and definitely wasn't the one who was making Piper disappear.
"Then who is after us?" Phoebe asked.
"How should I know witch?"
"Wrong answer!" Leo said as she swung at him again, the demon tried to shimmer out, but he wasn't fast enough, and received the blow to the stomach.
Paige and Phoebe were both shocked by Leo's behaviour; he was a pacifist after all, yet he was tearing the demon apart.
"Leo he doesn't know anything." Paige said, as Leo struck the demon again, never giving him enough time to fight back
Leo's headed snapped round to the sisters' upon hearing his name, this gave the demon all the time he needed and he shimmered away.
"Dammit!" Leo cursed.
"Wow Leo, since when did you kick ass?" Phoebe asked, inwardly she was slightly impressed.
"Err...I don't know." Leo said as his anger slowly dissipated.
Paige chuckled. "Warrior." She said to Phoebe as if that word meant something.
"Huh?" Phoebe asked slightly lost.
"The spell." Paige said.
Phoebe thought back to the spell she had used to heal Leo. The line 'heal this warrior' standing out in her mind, as it slid into place.
"Oh."
"Oh...what?" Leo asked, he clearly wasn't on the same page as them.
"The spell I used to heal you, that split you in two."
"Yeah?"
"Well in it I said to 'heal this warrior', and I think that's what it did, we healed your warrior side, and your pacifist side is still unconscious downstairs."
"Well how do we fix it? How do we make me whole again?"
"That's a good question."
Meanwhile in the underworld...
"And how do I know you're not evil too?" Casie asked, part of her wanted to laugh at what Chris had just told her, because magic didn't exist...right? But another part of her sensed that he was telling her the truth, of course the fact that she could see right through him, kind of made his story more believable.
"Because...I'm just not!"
"You gave a very convincing argument there." Casie replied sarcastically.
"Give me a break ok? I'm having a really bad day." Chris said as he slid down the glass until he was sitting on the floor, his legs spread out in front of him.
"And I'm not? I try to be a good Samaritan and help you, only to get pushed down the stairs, my soul stole, told I'm a witch and..."
"I get the point." Chris said interrupting her flow.
"I'm not finished! Casie snapped.
"Look, we could continue arguing over who has had the worst day, or we could you know try and figure a way to get ourselves out of this mess!?!"
"Fine." Casie replied, calming down slightly.
Chris then realised he didn't have any clue how to get out of this cage. He'd tried orbing, but he didn't seem to have his powers in this form, Leo couldn't hear him, and he quickly found out that pummelling the glass didn't help either, so what else was there to try?
"Any ideas?" Casie looked at him in shock.
"Kinda new to this, so I'd go with no!"
"Well if you are a witch, which you most probably are, you have been a witch your whole life, you just didn't know it." Chris said, smiling slightly at how many times he had managed to say 'witch' in that sentence.
"That's very reassuring." Sarcasm creeping into her voice again.
"Anyway back to our escape plan..."
"Which would be?"
"I'm thinking."
Casie chuckled. "Oh so that's what that noise is."
"If you're not going to help...god you are so annoying!"
"And you are so easy to wind up." She teased.
"Hello? We're facing imminent death if we can't get out of here soon and you're making jokes?" Chris cried in disbelief. Casie's confidence suddenly seemed to vanish, her brave facade she had going crumbled as she back away, crossing her arms protectively around herself.
"I tend to make fun of things when I'm nervous, or scared...or both..." She said in a small voice.
"I have a feeling you tend to ramble too!" Chris said, but Casie then looked directly at him, and he saw the fear in her eyes. He suddenly felt sorry for her, she had just gotten thrown in head first, with no clue what was going on.
"Look don't worry we'll get out of this. I'm sure my family are already working on a way to find us as we speak. It'll be ok." Chris said trying to reassure the poor girl, as she sank to the floor beside him.
"I hope so, would be nice to see my 21st birthday!" She said, again trying to make the best of a bad situation.
"I'd just settle with seeing tomorrow!"
"Yeah tomorrow..."
.................
Wow I'm so proud, this is the longest story I have written yet, oh and this is officially the longest chapter too! Anyway I hope that answered some of your questions! I had so much fun writing this, so I hope you enjoyed reading it!
PS sorry about the spells being so spread apart, it was the only way i could get them on seperate lines!!