Ooer. Im updating so soon. Well im not sure how many of you are going to like whats nextie but, we'll have to see now wont we.
It was not long before Prue came back into her senses and began a frantic search for Paige. It was apparent she would not rest until the baby of the family was back at the manor safely. The hours passed , punctuated by fruitless scrying attempts, and unrewarding orbs down to the underworld to see if Leo could somehow sense Paige. He couldn't though. Which alerted the sisters to the fact that Paige was still not yet in her adult form. Although it killed them to have to do so, the Piper and Phoebe realized they would probably go to bed tonight without Paige and have to wait until morning to begin a complete, intense search. They tried to tell Prue this, but she was not having it.
" Prue please." Phoebe pleaded for what seemed like the hundreth time " Can't you wait until morning? Don't make us feel guilty for leaving you up here by yourself."
Prue turned to Phoebe from her place, standing in front of the book flipping the pages looking for some sort of soloution. Her eyes were bloodshot and she looked seriously disturbed. It made Phoebe want to break down so much. But Piper needed her. And so did Prue and Paige. She would just have to suck it up for the time being, and cry when she was alone.
" Phoebe" Prue choked out in a scratchy voice that was nothing like her own. " Paige is all by herself. You should feel guilty about her, not about me. "
Phoebe turned to Piper for support. But she just shook her head, and led Phoebe out of the attic and down the stairs. " We can't leave her up there by herself!" Phoebe cried " She needs us!"
" She needs to be alone" Piper explained
" We need to help her"
" Look Pheebs. This is as hard on me as it is on you and Prue, but we can't save Paige unless we give it our all, and we wont be able to do so if we are sleep deprived and barely functional. That's what will happen to Prue, so we need to be there to take over. just try and sleep, and if you can't sleep, just rest. Remember my doors always open." Piper finished with a sad smile, giving Phoebe a hug and a peck on the cheek before shutting herself into her room.
The second that door shut, Phoebe found herself curled up into a ball, collapsed on the floor crying against its hard wood surface. She stayed this way, for who knows how long,until Piper came out and silently managed somehow, to lift Phoebe up and carry her into her room, where she was comforted until she drifted off to sleep, and Piper did too.
The next morning it was obvious Prue had not given up her search all night. It was as if she believed the more she searched for Paige, and the more effort she put into it, no matter how poor, would bring her sister back. That day she sent Leo down to the underworld, and when he would try and come back up without Paige, Prue would send him back down. She made her sisters do several " To call a lost witch/sister spells that day and so many others that failed, They lost count. But by the time they went to sleep that night, Paige was still not home nestled under her covers in her bed like she should be. Days with such failure and so many attempts went on for about a week, and then slowly, the the sisters, well except for Prue, were drained of energy, and stamina. They just couldnt keep living their lives in such a way. Leo was tired too. Instead of orbing down to the underworld for extended periods, he began going down every hour, then every two hours, and so on until he only paid such a horrible place a visit, once a day. No one said it, but everyone, again except Prue, who was killing herself looking , had a tugging, nauseating feeling that Paige might be gone forever.Dead.
That was, until one day, where Leo went down for his daily visit and was suddenly able to sense Paige. It was nothing less than a miracle.
He immediatly orbed back to the surface, grabbed the sisters in a haste, without explanation, and orbed them back down. His read on Paige had been faint, so she must have been hurt pretty badly. There was no time to waste.
And right before them, there she was. She was not her normal self though. Her body was smaller than it had been when she was an adult before, and she was so thin it looked like she would break if touched, or die of starvation any minute. The horrible truth was, if she had eaten anything at all during the month she was missing, you wouldn't be able to tell. That was hardly the worst part though. Her body, which was unclothed lay covered with bruises and welts , some still bloody. Her face and body were streaked with dirt and in whole the picture did not scream that their Paigey had been okay.
The sisters reacted in the only way they could. Phoebe gasped and let out a whimper as tears welled in her brown eyes. Piper pulled Phoebe into her and buried her face in the latters shoulder. Prue was in utter disbelief but didn't hesitate to run over to Paige and cradle her in her lap as Leo healed her. It took a while, but she eventually murmered something incoherant and was then whisked away in a cloud of orbs back home.
When they got back to the manor, Leo didn't stick around because he knew it would be sisterly care Paige would get from then on. She was still fairly unresponsive, to the worry of her sisters,but Leo assured them she would be back shortly. The healing hadn't cleaned the dirt off of Paige and oddly, the injuries she had left gruesome scars. Leo had been suprised at this as well and had explained to the sisters that such a thing would only happen if the wounds had been reopened over and over again. Basically, it was a sign of long term abuse.
Prue decided that they should give Paige a bath before she woke up to get her cleaned and reclothe her so she would immediatly realize she was back home and safe.
It only took one of them to lift Paige into the tub, she was so much thinner now. It made Piper sick.
' What do you think happened to her?' she whispered mostly to herself , the first one to speak since they had retrieved Paige.
" I was wondering the same thing" Prue responded as she washed the dirt off Paiges frail form.
" She doesn't look twenty two anymore." Phoebe pointed out, straing intently at Paige's face and reaching out to stroke her cheek.
" No, she doesn't. " Piper agreed
" She looks only about 18 I would guess." Phoebe continued " Right on the border of being a kid and an adult."
Prue choked out a sob, and the sisters who had been conversing looked at her.
" Prue?" They questioned nervous
She shook her head. " I think I might know what happened. The demon, he must have reaged her slowly, every day adding on a few years, recreating her whole childhood , and abusing her through it. I think you're right Phoebe and he did it until she hit eighteen, when she technically became an adult. Then, he left her to die today." She was sobbing now
Piper and Phoebe knew this explanation fit, but also realized it could be worse, or better. They consoled Prue and told her that nothing was definate until Paige told them the truth.
Soon, they had Paige fully clothed, in her favorite pajamas from before this whole mess happened. They layed her down in Pipers bedroom, because hers was still fit for a baby, and just watched her be unresponsive, desperately trying to wake her, doing everything from rubbing circles on her back to whispering words of comfort to her. They didn't speak, too absorbed in their own versions of the nightmare Paige must have lived through. After waiting for what was an eternity, she awoke with a start, eyes wide.
" Welcome home, Paigey girl" Prue said with a grin as she stroked Paiges hair and looked into her eyes.
And Paige, who just a short time ago had loved her sisters more than anything, and had no trouble showing it, shrunk back againt the headboard and buried herself into a ball crying.
" Oh baby, what did they do to you?" Prue gasped as she tried to reach out to comfort her sister once more. But all her touch brought was a shrugging off from Paige and more distance between them.
They all knew at that moment things had changed forever.