Disclaimer: Don't own Charmed or anything. This is all my stuff.
Reminder: The group are together again -not for long- he he he!!! They are journeying towards the kitchen to find weapons, the group decide to try and protect themselves to the best of their ability. Oh yeah and this absolute psycho decides he likes Carla, that one won't end well.
Apology: I'm sorry for offending Drew Fuller fans, I did not mean to say he was weedy, but Chris is. :P Drew is hot.
Frank sat alone in the video room, not long now Kea. Nope not long at all, he thought softly. Soon he would have his prize, then he would surrender to death after destroying her, he would kill her, hear the screams relish in her agony.
He was salivating, but first he had to make his personal calling card to her, he set to work, she would know what he wanted, not too long Kea, not too long now… she was coming and Kea would be satisfied. Frank would be satisfied, Frank would die, so would the girl, it would be as God wanted it.
God, the voice that told him to kill Sam, the one who told him what he wanted was good. He was doing as God wanted, God wanted the girl dead, Frank wanted her to scream in primal fear. God allowed it, he was showing him the path to next life.
"That's right, make your calling card for her, bring her to you!" Barbas whispered in the man's ear, "God wants this. I want this!" He melted away, now to get the girl to him, to hear his calling card.
Craig leaned in a cupboard in the kitchen throwing pans and pots out disregarding the absolutely deafening clattering, Paige was an enigma, he wanted to crack her before they died. He knew he was going to die, he didn't have magic, or powers as his friends called them. The strange thing was he wasn't scared at all. He hadn't made anything of his life but he was satisfied he had done all he could, he had after kissed Paige, that was one thing he had wanted to do from first seeing her. Wow was she a great kisser.
"You guys are great letting me go around with you even though I haven't got any powers." He said pausing from throwing stuff from the cupboard.
"Yeah sure," Paige threw a large knife to the floor towards him.
"I have powers you'll need that more than me." She explained as he grasped the handle uncertainly.
"Thanks… I think…" He looked at the glinting blade uncertainly.
"Careful with that." Carla warned swinging open some drawers by the double swinging doors.
"I don't ask much just separate the firestarter from them." Barbas told the three Trok demons the Head of the Council had sent in.
The demons nodded and walked away silently.
Barbas clasped his hands together.
Once she was gone the rest would drop like flies, she was the only one with emotionally connected powers, then without her the other demons could easily take out the rest.
A firestarter would never hurt a human no matter how much they would try to hurt them.
Craig stared at the knife still hypnotised by the steel blade.
He heard a scream and scrambled to his feet, Carla was backing away from two mean looking thugs, they held pretty nasty weapons as well, the thing that gave Craig the biggest shock was the two heads on one set of shoulders they seemed to possess, they wore grungy, tattered rags as robes. Craig let animal instinct take over and threw the knife with all the strength he could muster at one of the hideous heads, one of the demons howled in agony as the knife sliced through one of it's necks, it's head fell to the floor with a sickening thud, the disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Nice one!" He heard Chris shout.
Carla made a dive for the door as the other demon tried to throw Chris across the room with it's telekinetic power.
"What are these?" Craig screamed.
"Trok demons," Chris replied loudly, and scrambling to his feet, "They have my powers, telekinesis." He explained as he tried to dodge a demon stalking towards.
"Craig's knife!" Paige called and sent the knife hurtling towards the one now approaching Chris, it hit it squarely in the back causing it to burst into flames, the remaining one headed demon used it's weight and leant against the door hinges then propelled itself towards Craig at alarming speed, Craig felt like a bunny in the headlights, he raised his arms as it hurtled towards him.
It screamed as it was thrown against the wall.
"Now you owe me!" Chris yelled to his fellow male.
Carla ran into the hallway to be confronted by a 3rd Trok demon, before she could do anything it pinned her arms to her sides and threw her into the stairwell, she hit her head hard off the banister, from this distraction the demon picked her up and carried her hurriedly up the stairs, as much as she kicked the demon it didn't let go or loosen it's grip, once they reached the 3rd floor it threw her to the floor, she raised her arms over her head in fear, the demon's distorted voice ran through the hallway.
"Now, I kill you!" It cackled in triumph, she wasn't some prize for some bad smelling demon to catch! He was making her seriously pissed off, oh boy, her power activated when… the demon began to be doused in flames… when she got mad. It began to howl in agony, then burst into a thousand pieces. Carla raised her hands to her head for protection from the remains. She slowly got to her feet, then she heard the PA system crackle to life, she heard a faint voice resound from it, she strained to hear it.
"Where is Carla?" Paige asked angrily as Chris finished off the second Trok demon with Craig's knife. He plunged it into the demon's back and burst into flames.
"She went through the door," Craig replied, his knife was thrown at his feet by Chris who was now dusting off his hands with a tea towel.
"Well, let's go find her." Paige said nobly and headed to the door.
"She's not out here." She yelled.
"Well, she can't have gone far!" Chris replied following her, Craig copied.
"Well the only way she could have gone is up! Or… along the corridor." Craig said looking fervently out down the corridor.
"Fine Chris, you go up and look down every corridor and then come straight back down here, me and Craig will look around down here, if she isn't in any of the corridors we concentrate on each floor separately. Ok?" Paige said in a firm tone.
Neither man could argue, it was the only thing they could do, she couldn't have gone that far. It also meant splitting the group but, they needed to, there was a good reason behind it.
Chris jogged up the stairs as Paige grabbed Craig's arm and dragged him through the nearest door beside the canteen.
Chris stared down the corridor on the first floor, nope she wasn't standing down there. Barbas materialised behind him in his astral form, "Hey, it's time to bring your fear to life," He hissed behind Chris' shoulder, "How about a trip down good old memory lane?" He asked.
Chris almost heard him, Barbas could swear he had shook his head.
Barbas wove his hand over Chris' eyes.
Chris rubbed his eyes, he felt something go in them. Once he had finished rubbing his eyes he looked down the corridor again, there was a person standing down there. It was a boy, in a black suit, he was staring at the ceiling unblinkingly. The corridor melted away and was replaced by a street somewhere in San Francisco, Chris vaguely remembered it. It was raining the sky was a colour of lead, rain pelted of the boy's face, he ignored it and continued to stare at the sky. He was soaking wet, the white shirt under his black soaking jacket was sticking to his skin, his tie was pulled loose, the man's dark hair was plastered to his head, his dark trousers were hanging off him from the weight of the water, he was missing a shoe, he wore a grey sodden sock on his left shoeless foot. Chris' couldn't see the boy's face.
"Hey!" Chris muttered walking over to him.
The boy bowed his head, then looked straight at Chris, Chris fell backwards, a set of deep green eyes glared at him. He was staring at himself.
Piper and flipped through the Book, they had to be a way to move the wall off the building, so far she had found that either all the people in the said building had to be dead, this was not an option at all, or, they had to over come their greatest fears.
Somehow Piper didn't want to know how they were going to do this, if she was stuck in an insanely white building full of freaky-geek scientists she would, her self not be able to give in to her fears.
Phoebe walked in a holding a pot of coffee, she had been researching what was so important about the building on her laptop, she had found no reason for any demons to want the entire building eliminated. So she had paused for a coffee break.
Piper squealed in triumph, "I found something!" She squealed.
Phoebe raced over to her sister.
"Overcoming fears," Phoebe read out her eyebrow raised.
"We cast it on them." Piper said excitedly slapping the page.
"Ok…" Piper knew what this meant, Phoebe was going to tell her she was wrong.
"Honey, that is a power of 3 spell, which we don't have, and we need to say it in the building they are in. And did you forget that was a personal gain spell?" Phoebe patted her sister on the back.
Piper felt so angry, she wanted to rip the pages out of the Book, she had been staring at it for 5 freaking hours and this had been her best shot, not that wouldn't work.
"Ok Book, this is IT! You tell me how to save my sister, or so help me God I will blow you up!" Piper seethed.
"Sweetie you can't blow the Book up." Phoebe pointed out, moving slowly away from her sister, she was worried about Paige too but when Piper got in a rage normally things were blown up, Phoebe didn't want to be in the way.
"Well, it doesn't know that!" Piper argued.
The pages began to flip automatically.
"That's more like it!" Piper said raising her hands out of the way and stepping back to let the Book settle on a page titled.
"Piercing Fear's armour." Piper read, "What the crap?"
Phoebe now interested returned to the podium, "Oh! I get it, the building is it's armour." She smiled.
"I know what it means!" Piper snapped.
Phoebe backed away again.
"Well, there is a potion to remove electrical barriers from buildings of fear! Isn't that nice." Piper smiled, then leant forward to read the fine print at the bottom of the page, "All we need is a minotaur's foot and 200 hundreds hours to brew it!" Piper knocked the Book off the podium to the floor.
It the cover snapped shut.
"Piper, you upset the Book." Phoebe said angrily.
"It deserved it!" Piper growled menacingly.
Darryl had never had to cover up a mess as big as this one for the sisters and he had to admit, he was getting pretty sick of it. They had not only caused the whole city to go crazy over a science building, the armed forces were finding it harder and harder to actually stop people going anywhere near the building, and since the two deaths this morning more people were appearing to look at the building, probably hoping for another demonstration. He had called the manor several times and each time the girls had still been lost on how to stop it. All he had to do was keep a million people as far away as possible and try and convince the army not to blow the entire thing up.
Easier said than done.
For the past 5 hours the White House had been meeting to discuss whether or not to blow the entire building up for the safety of others.
Darryl's first argument to his sergeant had been, it was a science building and toxic gases could be blown into the air and that would cause more harm than good. Then there was the innocent people stuck in there, Paige and Chris were in there, still alive.
He prayed they were still alive. For if not the fact he cared for them, then the fact that he couldn't bare to let the girls go through losing another sister, or Chris for that matter.
"The firestarter will be gone first." The Trok demon hissed.
"I agree." The Fury replied.
The council watched the projection of Chris standing staring at himself.
"I think the one with no powers should die first." Dalia the Harpy seethed angrily.
"Fine, I bet you three of my warriors that the firestarter dies first." The Fury hissed angrily.
"Hmm, I bet the same but I say the whitelighter." Dalia replied.
"I say the witch!" The Gremlock shouted.
Everyone cheered.
"If, she doesn't die first would you give me all your aura?" The Trok demon asked.
"Deal." The Gremlock slammed his hand on the bench.
"SILENCE!" The head screamed again.
The room fell silent, all the demons finished bartering their warriors and powers and watched Chris relive his worst memory.
The death of his mother.
Chris stared at himself, he remembered why he was standing in the street, he knew why he was so dishevelled. That day was Piper's funeral, after they had buried her he had ran, ran as far away from the empty apologies, the thousands of people who barely knew and ran anywhere. Just as far away from it all as he could. He had stopped in this street, by the time he had gotten there he had lost his shoe. He didn't care, all he wanted was his mother back. He stared up the sky waiting for her to come back and take him in her arms and squeeze his arms to his sides and tell him everything would be ok, and big boys didn't cry. When he thought about her lying in the ground a tear rolled down his cheek. He hadn't truly experienced death till that moment.
Death was like in cartoons, like coyote and road runner, it didn't matter how many times the coyote was killed, he still came back. Death wasn't a big deal when kids watched cartoons. Chris expected the same to happen, mom would reappear and help him with a math problem or tell him to tidy his room. Death only lasted a short space of time.
He didn't realise in reality it lasted forever, that his mom gone was a permanent thing, he never accepted she was gone.
He was only 14, he had been sheltered as much as possible from demons and death, now it had finally caught up with him, Chris had been lost.
That was one time when he had been open to himself about his feelings. The rain didn't stop for three days, he didn't leave for three days, no one came past him. The street remained barren for 3 days. No one in his 'family' came to find him. They left him.
Piper didn't come back. He waited for her to come back and she didn't.
That was his fear, his raw fear.
Losing Piper.
If she was gone now, in the present, he couldn't live, he didn't care when she called him and yelled at him. She was there after all. She was alive. If she died he would die too. He could let it happen. That sheer determination made him want to save Wyatt. That would protect mom, that would protect the world.
Carla stood in the corridor, the PA continued to crackle, she heard a voice whisper through the system.
Then loud and clear she heard her own voice.
"I'm a firestarter." She remembered saying Chris in the corridor when he had helped her out of the vent, that meant someone was alive in the building, they were operating the PA system and apparently the cameras, she remembered when she said that Chris had pointed out the cameras.
Then she heard Craig's voice,, it sounded determined, she liked it Craig sounded like that and not making stupid jokes, "I'm going to move the wire!" His voice rang along the corridor.
Ok, hearing her own voice like that was freaking her out, now her friends too, this was weird. She looked around, that meant someone had been watching them, Chris was right, they were being watched. By a good guy? Or a bad guy?
"Let's just hope no one tries to kill us on the way!" Craig's statement rang along the corridor. That was when they decided to go to the canteen. Craig had said that after the Harpy had attacked them.
Carla walked along the corridor, was it her or was it getting cold?
"Where the HELL are you going?" She heard Paige screaming angrily, Carla jumped, was that directed at her? She stopped, all she could hear was the crackling of PA system, ok it was safe to move now? She wondered. She slowly continued to shuffle along the corridor.
"Hello? This isn't funny, you can stop it now!" She yelled to the camera that was ahead of her, it whirred and pinned her to the spot, she froze.
The PA system crackled and another phrase spluttered from it,
"Why is this an argument with you?" Chris asked irritated, she remembered him saying that in the stairwell, he was annoyed when she said they had to find Paige and Craig, he knew they had to, she had been pointing out the obvious. It had annoyed Chris.
"Quit it!" She yelled, waving her arms by her sides like a spoilt brat.
"Find… find…" Her voice crackled through the PA system, "something like a knife." She had said they needed to find a knife or something in the canteen, to protect themselves.
"A knife… a knife… a … knife." Her own voice repeated over the system, it continued to repeat it, "A knife… a knife…"
"STOP IT!" She screamed falling to her knees.
"I'm…" Her voice repeated, "I'm…I'm…" Her voice continued to crackle.
"Going… going…" Craig's determined voice rang along the empty corridor.
"A knife…a knife…" Her voice repeated.
"I'm… going…a knife." A Frankenstein voice said, each word coming from the mouths of different people.
"Kill… kill … kill" Craig repeated.
Carla pressed her fists against her ears, what was it trying to say? What were they doing why wasn't she listening, she ignored the noises angrily, the crackling continued, she heard faint breathing into the microphone, the breathing got heavier and quicker. Someone was excited. Even through her fists she heard someone breathing into the microphone.
What the hell was going on?
"Why are you doing this?" She whimpered.
"A knife… a knife… a knife… kill… kill… you… a knife… kill … you… with… a knife…"
"I'm…"
"Going to…"
"Kill… kill…"
"You…"
"With…"
"a knife… a knife…"
"I'm… going to… kill… you … with… a knife…"
"I'm… going to… kill… you … with… a knife…"
"I'm… going to… kill… you … with… a knife…"
"A knife… a knife… a knife…"
The Frankenstein voice rang through the corridor, repeating it's message.
Carla screamed and ran to the stair case, bricks began to build up in front of her at an alarming speed. She ran into it hoping to break through.
"I'm… going to… kill… you … with… a knife…"
She was thrown back by an electrical current.
She was hurled to the floor. She rolled over and scrambled to her feet.
At the end of the corridor a large man stood brandishing a 12'' knife.
"Did you hear that?" He screeched hysterically.
The message played again.
"I'm… going to… kill… you … with… a knife…"
Carla screamed with all her strength.
Frank began to advance on her.