A Charmed Story - Part Three:
Double Demons
Chapter 8
Cole wanted to run away, run away from that pain, form that fear. But when he turned around, there was no way. He was there, in the middle of that place, alone.
Someone hugged him from behind. It was his mother, he knew it; he could smell it.
He closed his eyes wishing that she went away. But she didn't.
She turned Cole around, and when he opened his eyes, again he saw her red demonic face. "I love you, baby. I'm so proud of you my little Belthazor," she said smiling.
"NOOO! Cole yelled. Then he freed himself and went a few steps backwards falling down...
He fell over a little dead body. Cole was looking at that boy, swallowing. "Charly..." he muttered.
The kid was dead, killed by a demon...
His mother smiled at Cole: "You killed your first human, baby... That's a day to celebrate!"
"NO!" Cole yelled in pain, remembering that day, "He was my friend, we were just playing... This was an accident!"
The man started to cry, seeing that scene from his past again in his mind.
He had killed his best friend. They were playing and then... in that action, he had killed him with a fireball.
His mother went over to him, hugged him: "You did a good job."
"No...No-ooo-ooo," Cole cried, unable to get away from her. He was sobbing and whining and crying into the arms of his mother.
After a while he calmed down a little and she let him off. Cole was swallowing, the kid's body was gone. But his mother was still there.
Cole wanted to hide his face in his hands, just to cry a little more on his own. But when he raised his hands, they were red.
Cole stared at them shocked. Those were not his hands, those were demonic hands... Belthazor's hands... his hands...
"Why? Why are you doing this to me?" he yelled in anger. But when he looked up, his mother was gone. He was alone.
He rose and turned a few times around himself. Then he saw something else... What was that?
On the grass a few steps away, there was another body lying. Cole felt his heart beating strongly, he felt his fear. But something inside him was pushing him to get closer.
Step by step he went nearer. It was a woman, lying on the grass... covered with blood... killed by a demon...
Shivering he went closer. She was lying with her face on the ground, so he couldn't see who she was. Her hair had a few grey streaks. He was wondering about that, he didn't know anyone with grey streaks.
Swallowing and breathing strongly he knelt down next to her. Fearful and shivering he put his hand on the body, and turned her around. Then he looked into her eyes, the eyes of Phoebe.
"NOOOOOO-NOOOOOO-OOOO!" he cried in pain. 'That couldn't be true, that couldn't be true' he thought! He felt as if someone was stabbing his heart.
"No this can't be true... not you!" he yelled. He broke down over her crying, helpless... fearful... hopeless. He felt the pain killing him little by little, just to let him suffer a bit more.
'This can't be true!' he yelled in his thoughts while sobbing into her clothes.
He wasn't able to move, he wasn't able to think, he wasn't able to feel anything else than pain.
And in the middle of all that pain, he heard some soft steps, which stopped next to him. When he rose his eyes full of tears, he saw two little girls, maybe around 6 and 4 years... They were looking at him with sadness, holding each other by their hands.
"Why have you done this?" the older one asked.
Cole was unable to answer, still unable to think... He wanted to ask who these girls were, but he couldn't speak.
"Why have you done this, daddy? Why have you killed mommy?"
Cole felt as if his heart had stopped to beat.
°°°°°°°°°°
"So..." Paige sighed after the long explanation by Veronica and Tom's father, "I get from this that... Tom is a Double Demon..."
"Mestizo, call him mestizo," Mr. Marsden begged, "that name sounds too rude... please."
"Whatever," Paige continued, "he's a mestizo, right? And according to you, mestizos are not evil, nor good."
"Well, that's the concept..." Nicki said, now she knew what they were talking about, "which should mean that they can adapt themselves... If they are raised as good, they should be good. If they're raised as evil, well... They'd be evil."
"But they missunderstood it," Veronica took the word, "they just... assumed that they're the balance. They're in the middle, and that THAT is the correct position. They thought they could prevail over good and evil... So they want to destroy the two extremes."
Sarah's sobs together with these discoveries, made Paige shudder, as well as Derrick.
But at that moment Paige frowned: "And why are we talking about this stuff now?" She asked: "Do you believe that all this... has something to do with them?"
Mr. Marsden sighed: "I have been thinking about that all the time I've been here. And after their coming, and selection of those witches and whitelighters... and their speech, of course... I can hardly believe that they could be someone else..." He made a break to took a breath. "Besides," he added before anyone else could intervene, "they took Steve... He's also a Mestizo, as well as Tom. We discovered that because of their telepathic powers. That connection is only so strong among them. We had to bind their powers... I have lived with the fear of losing him... all my life."
°°°°°°°°°°
"So does none of you know who's the missing brother or sister? Someone that comes from the magic school?" the woman in grey asked, after seeing her men disappear, in search for that person.
Steve trembled a bit, but wished that she hadn't seen him.
Many heads shook upset, and the woman sighed: "He's in a great danger out there. He'll be persecuted and killed, if we don't find him... or her. That's what happened to us in the past. That's what we're gonna stop now. But we need to find him, to bring him home..."
The woman's voice was so sweet, so soft, that Steve had to fight hard not to believe her. He had to keep silent.
"Let's do something..." the woman went on, "all of us have a connection... Just close your eyes... relax... and think about our missing sibling. With our telepathy we'll find him, and we'll help him to bring him home." Her intention was to transmit her knowledge, once she had it, to her men, so that they could find the missing piece. They didn't have time to lose.
Everyone closed its eyes... Everyone except Steve. He was scared, and didn't know what to do.
°°°°°°°°°°
"I tried... I promised I tried... And I need you to tell me what's wrong with you now, baby... Because if you don't... I'm gonna die. If something happens to you and I can do nothing to stop it..." Chris had tried to calm down, little by little, thanks to the latest words of his love, encouraging him to fight. Her smile, her look, were unique. But even so, he was still feeling he had failed everyone.
"You'll never be able to save any of us, Chris." These harsh words were again coming from an icy Bianca. "If you're really worth it, if you were really the man I thought you were... You'd not need me to tell you what's wrong with me. You'd be able to discover by yourself. But I was wrong with you... You'll never save any of us."
"No..." Chris moaned, and fell over Bianca's body desperately devastated, crying like a little baby.
He hugged her tightly, with all the strength left in his arms... But she vanished right in front of his eyes, and he found himself embracing the very same air...
"No, no, no..." he repeated, believing he'd finally go crazy.
Her words hit his mind repeatedly: "You'll never save any of us, you'll never save any of us, you'll never save any of us..."
Her voice was changing; it was becoming maler, ruder, stronger... and eviller. He uselessly tried to embrace something, but there was nothing there. Only the voice...
When he raised his shocked eyes, he saw him... The gigantic well-built man with long blonde hair, his brother, staring at him with an evil smirk on his lips.
"You'll never save me," Wyatt said in an icy tone, with his arms folded on his chest.
Chris's breath was cut off. He couldn't believe his eyes. There, kneeling on the ground, he just couldn't take his eyes from the huge man that he had learnt to fear and love above all things.
There was a moment of silence. Chris was about to collapse.
All of a sudden, Wyatt orbed Excalibur to his hands, and approached him slowly, with the evil smirk on his lips.
"Be prepared to die, little brother..." he said, looking at his neck completely exposed to the harsh metal.
Chris wouldn't move... He breathed heavily, trying to calm down. That was all a trick... All a trick of his mind. He knew that, and he needed to fight, as Bianca had said before. Still with his eyes closed, he rose to speak. "You're not gonna do this, Wyatt..." he said with a trembling voice.
"How can you know that?" was the cold question coming as a response.
"Because I did... I saved you..."
No answer.
"I saved you already, and thus I saved mom... She'll not die. I killed the demon that was gonna kill her. I killed the demon you had inside..."
Silence.
Chris didn't dare to open his eyes. He shivered when the metal touched his neck.
"You can not help Bianca..." his brother's voice said.
"I can... and I will. Because whatever happens to her, I love her, and I'll always be there. And what I'm doing now... is to save her, too. So I will. It doesn't matter what you say. I know I will. And you won't kill me, because you don't exist anymore..." he continued.
Again silence. But even though he still could feel the cold on his neck, he had the feeling that nothing was there, actually.
He swallowed, and then he opened his eyes slowly...
In front of him stood his beloved brother, Wyatt, with his eyes welling up in tears, and smiling at him. "I knew you'd do it, baby brother..." he said.
Chris stared at him, confused.
By his sides, Bianca and Piper were also smiling at him: "Go ahead now..." Their voices weren't their voices actually, they were like magical voices soft and sweet, and nothing to do with human voices.
Chris nodded and smiled weakly, still shivering. He saw how the three figures just faded away, and he found himself looking at the front in the middle of a thick rainforest.
Suddenly he heard another voice behind him: "I didn't do that. I can't have done that..."
Cole had knelt on the ground, and was crying desperate. He seemed to be caressing someone lying on the ground, but there was no one there.
°°°°°°°°°°
Leo sighed: "Our plan is just easy... we want to kill those double demons."
"You can't kill all of them, there are two many," the source remarked.
"No, we only want to vanquish the grey dressed people," John explained, "only they are the danger."
The demon let out some air with a deep breath. Piper and Bianca turned a little sick by that smell. "But how do you plan to get there?" he asked then.
"Well," Piper went on, "we know that they are still missing one person, so if we could make them believe..."
"No!" Tom interrupted her. "We..." he looked at Belthazor, "they have a special connection... all of them... they will find out that it's a lie."
"This boy is very clever," the source remarked. But nobody reacted on that.
"O.k., so we need a distraction... Any idea?"
"We could free the witches," Phoebe suggested, "then we have also Paige back, we could need her."
"Yeah, and we should free the demons, too." Bianca added. Odin, Leo and John were looking at her with suspiction. Phoebe frowned, Piper sighed... and Belthazor smiled.
The Phoenix knew what they were thinking, but she had to follow her heart. "In that case, those demons are as innocent as the witches, right?" Piper was the first who nodded. The others did the same.
"So we need one group for the witches and one for the demons," Odin remarked.
"Maybe Piper should stay here," Leo replied, and Odin nodded.
"What?" Piper yelled.
"Piper, in your situation...I..." While Odin discussed that with the witch, Tom turned to Leo.
"Please. Bind my powers... all of them... I'm too dangerous," he whispered.
"But... I don't think that..."
"Leo, please," he pledged. Then he frowned.
"Tom? What's going on?" the Elder asked. Also Phoebe noticed that something was wrong.
Tom held his head; he heard thousands of voices in his head. "Leo, please, help me," he whispered.
"What's wrong with this boy?" Belthazor asked.
"Oh, he has just a kind of witch-cold," Piper lied.
"Leo, help... they are tracing me," Tom muttered, while the voices in his head became louder and louder.
Leo nodded. He put his hand on Tom's forehead and mumbled a few words.
°°°°°°°°°°
"Damn!" the woman in grey yelled all of a sudden.
Steve opened his eyes again. 'What was that?' he thought. Seconds before he had joined the others, searching for the 'missing one'. He had no other chance, or they would have found out, that he was a double-agent.
When he was connected with the others, he could feel his friend, he was there... no longer in the school, but somewhere outside... somewhere down there... But then, suddenly the connection broke off.
"What happened?" the woman looked around at the others in that room. Then, one of them, one looking like a demon, raised his head: "Maybe they bound his powers."
Steve swallowed. He had tried to contact his friend after that 'shut down', but he couldn't reach him.
"But how can they know?... The only reason could be..." she stopped and looked around, "the only reason for that could be, that someone of us told those outside to hide 'the missing one' from us... So we have a traitor in our group!"
°°°°°°°°°°
"Are you feeling better?" Phoebe asked.
Tom looked at her a little scared. He was helpless now. He could feel it. He was nothing else but an innocent, hidden in a demon's cave.
He nodded and turned to Leo: "Thanks, I think that was the right decision."
"I hope so," Leo replied.
Piper sighed: "So I have to stay here with the boy, right?" Leo and Odin nodded to her. "Wonderful," she muttered and sat down on a kind of chair made of stone.
Tom went next to her: "I'm sorry."
"Never mind," Piper said, "maybe it's really the best to stay away from the action this time." She caressed her womb.
"So I'll go with Bianca and Belthazor to free the demons, and you'll go with the witches," Leo said to Odin and the others.
"No!" Bianca exclaimed. "We will go alone."
"What?" Phoebe and Piper yelled.
"Don't worry, I'm feeling good," she said, noticing the confused look of the others.
"But for how long?" Phoebe asked.
"I don't want to let you go alone with him," Leo said pointing at the source.
"You can't come with us Leo. If they are free, the will kill you as soon as they can," the Phoenix explained, "I know what I'm doing, believe me."
Piper sighed: "Sweetie, come over here for a moment." Bianca went to her, while the others went on discussing. "Here," Piper said, and handed the new potion for Belthazor to the Phoenix, "it might be necessary."
"Thanks," Bianca answered, and hugged Piper lovingly.
"Take care of yourself," the witch added, "and also... well... you know." Bianca nodded and went back to the group.
"So everybody is ready now?" Leo asked.
"What about Chris? I mean... we need the potion, otherwise that will not work." John remarked.
Leo looked to Tom. If he was able to bind his powers completely, they could possibly do their reunion without him... If not, they would come and search for him, sooner or later. "I think we don't have the time to wait. We can only hope that they catch up with us by time." Odin nodded.
"Good luck," Phoebe said. Then, the good ones orbed away.
Belthazor murmured something, while Bianca sighed. Then they shimmered out.
"Now it's only you and me," Piper remarked. Tom nodded and sat down next to her.
"I wish I would know who my father really is," he said after a while.
"Whatever he is, he loves you, I'm sure."
Tom smiled: "I would never doubt that... I mean he raised me good, even if my mom wasn't around that much... I'm just curious who I really am."
Piper nodded; then she frowned thinking hard: "Do you have any kind of sign, or birthmark? I mean... I can know what a lot of demons are by those signs... maybe..."
"Yeah," Tom answered and rolled up the left sleeve of his shirt, "do you know this?" On his wrist there was a red birthmark which looked a little like a half moon or a sickle.
Piper frowned: "No... I have never seen that... not exactly that...but..."
"But what?" Tom asked.
"Well..." Piper said rising her eyebrows, "it looks a little like the sign of the Phoenixes, have you ever seen Bianca's?" Tom shook his head.
"The sign of the Phoenixes," Piper explained, "is like a bird..." The boy frowned. "And this one," she explained, pointing on his birthmark, "just looks like the 'wing-part' of it."
"You mean... my dad is a Phoenix?" Tom asked a little confused.
"Maybe," Piper answered. Then she smiled and thought out loud: "Maybe my little grandchild will have the same one..."
"Your what?" Tom asked surprised.
"Ups..." Piper turned red, "yeah... but no word to Chris... he doesn't know it yet."
"Bianca is pregnant, and Chris is the father? Do you know what that means?" Piper was just looking at him. "That means there is another one of us, another one they need to get, for their reunion!"
°°°°°°°°°°
"You did it dad," the youngest of the two girls said with hatred showing on her childish face. "You killed mommy..." she sobbed.
Cole stared at the dead body unbelieving. Then he turned to the girls.
"I hate you dad!" the oldest of the two remarked. "She hated you too! She said she didn't know why, but she needed to be with you. But she hated you so much! She always hated you, and you know that. And we also hate you because you're evil, you can not be good, never!"
"No..." he whispered, exhausted.
"I wish you were dead," the youngest said, weeping.
"No..." he said again, breaking down. "I didn't do that... I can't have done that..." he cried and cried, and felt as if the world was spinning. "I'm good now... I'm good, she knew that. She... she can't be dead. I loved her so much! I... I didn't do that..."
"Maybe..." the younger girl said with a childish voice, "maybe you loved her before you became the demon again."
Cole was speechless. He looked down on him, at the skin on his hands, his arms... It was red, completely red... He was a demon... Again he was a demon...
"No," he whispered subbing, "no."
"You have always been Belthazor. It's your fate, your destiny," the older girl said.
Cole was unable to answer. He was lying over Phoebe's dead body. He was crying. He was crying so hard that he was nearly unable to breathe. All what he had loved, all what he was living for, was gone. Phoebe was dead... away... always and forever.
Now he wished he had not returned. He wished to be back in that damned ghostly plane.
°°°°°°°°°°
Chris was looking at him, a little scared by that scene. By his words, he could imagine a little what his uncle had to go through.
He closed his eyes, and sighed...
Then he remembered the words he heard from the illusion of Bianca... Those which had been so different from the other things she had said. And now he realised that it hadn't been her voice, it had been Cole's voice. He must have been able to utter these words to him, before being caught by those demons of fear, too.
And now, Chris was about to do the same for him. He wanted to step a little closer but then there was a fairy-like woman in front of him, barring his way.
"No," she just said.
Chris narrowed his eyes: "You can't stop me."
"You can't help him, he has to face his fears alone," the woman replied.
"Really? That's your opinion?" Chris asked with a cheeky smile. Suddenly he thought about what his brother had told him up there on the bridge, short before he left.
The woman nodded, not moving out of his way.
"So there is one thing you should keep in mind," he said, going a little closer to her, "I'm a Halliwell. And the Halliwells are strong witches. And do you know why? Because they always do everything together. A Halliwell is never on its own, never!" And then he pointed at Cole, while his voice was getting louder and louder with every word: "And that guy is a Halliwell, too. So... STEP OUT OF MY WAY!"
The woman looked at him without showing any emotion. Then she disappeared.
Chris knelt down next to his uncle, caressing his hair. "Uncle... Uncle Cole, can you hear me?" he whispered to his ear, "you have to fight uncle. Fight against your fears, 'cause these images aren't real."
(Chapter 8 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)
