Chapter Ten

Suppressed Memories

"Well I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with them," Paige said, holding a pyrite crystal in one hand, and fingering with her other, a freshly healed, one. "But I think you managed to short circuit it or something, Phoebe."

"So you're saying the crystals won't hold a charge..." Piper said slowly.

"Making us down a defensive weapon," Paige said, finishing the thought.

Phoebe, though she was aware of the conversation her sisters were having, she wasn't listening. Instead she was looking into the living room where Leo and their "guest" were.

Kayla was sitting hunched over on the couch, hugging herself tightly, and staring intently at the floor. Though Phoebe could see Leo was saying something to the stricken girl, she couldn't hear what he was saying, nor did whatever he was saying seem to have any effect on the girl.

"Yoo-hoo, Phoebe."

"Huh? What?" Phoebe jumped as Paige's passed a hand up and down in front of her sister's face.

"Can-you-sense-anything-demonic," Piper said, emphasizing every syllable, making it quite clear that this wasn't the first time she had asked.

"Well..." She bit her lip and wrinkled her brow in conversation. "It's pretty much the reverse of what it was before. I can sense lots of dominant good, but a nagging evil in the background."

"But how do we get rid of the evil?" Paige asked, "I mean without..."

"Without?" Piper inquired, but Phoebe understood.

"Without destroying the good. I wish I knew."

The sisters stood in silence for a moment, looking into the living room, the soft mumble of Leo's voice the only thing audible.

Finally Phoebe broke the silence.

"I think you should talk to her." She said, staring at Paige.

"What? Why me?" She was taken aback by the sudden suggestion.

"I think she could relate to you more easily," Phoebe said, attempting to keep her tone that of complete innocence.

"And how do you figure that exactly?" Paige crossed her arms and gave her sister a suspicious look.

"Well, you're younger for one," she said, visibly struggling to come up with reasons. "You were in high school more recently than the two of us."

"Hey, I don't know what logic you are using here, but keep me out of it," Piper said. She had a feeling she knew where Phoebe was going with this, and she didn't like it.

Phoebe gave her sister a scathing look and then continued.

"So you're the youngest, and you can relate to her orbing power, and, you were, um..." Phoebe was running out of reasons, but Paige had realized the main one.

"And I was about her age when my parents were killed in the car accident." Paige said bluntly.

Phoebe bit her lip and waited for an outburst of some kind of from Paige, but it didn't come. Instead, Paige glanced into the living room, suddenly feeling much more sympathetic to the girl whom, she suddenly realized, she been thinking of as just another demonic problem.

"There is one subtle difference Phoebe," she said softly, then turned her head sharply to give Phoebe an uncharacteristically intense stare. "My parents didn't die because of me or my powers." She returned her gaze back to Kayla.

There was a short moment of silence that, for Phoebe atleast, felt like an eternity. Just when Phoebe was about to apologize and say that Paige, of course, didn't have to talk to Kayla, and that it was merely a suggestion, Paige spoke again.

"You're right though," she said softly. "I might be able to get through to her." She watched as Leo continued rambling, probably about nothing of consequence, and as Kayla continued ignoring him.

Without another word, Paige strode resolutely into the living room. Leo at first didn't notice her, and Kayla didn't seem to be aware of anything other than that spot on the floor.

"The balance of the Universe is really a very complicated thing," Leo said lightly, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on Kayla, almost as if he expected her to suddenly attack him and he needed to be ready.

Paige cleared her throat loudly.

Leo's eyes flicked from Kayla to Paige and back again, only looking long enough to recognize which sister had enter.

"Leo, I think I've got it from here."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow without looking.

"Yeah, so..." she waved her hands in a shooing motion.

Leo stared at Paige, and then glanced behind her at Phoebe and Piper who promptly began signaling from the Hall. "Right..." He said, standing up.

Paige sat down in Leo's pre-warmed seat, and stared at Kayla. She attempted to make some sort of eye contact, but the only thing she could really stare at was the part in the girl's hair.

"So... How you feeling?"

No response. Paige felt dumb for asking such a question. She too probably would have ignored anyone who asked her that under the given circumstances.

"You certainly look alot better." Paige mentally kicked herself again. Yeah, that was a brilliant thing to say too... "You aren't a crazed acid drooling monster right at this moment! That's great!" It was worse than when people say "Gee! You've lost a lot of weight!" As if you were and over weight cow and needed to lose some in the first place.

Kayla continued not responding, as if not hearing. She didn't seem to be blinking either, not that Paige could see enough of her face to know for sure.

"Look, Kayla, I know what you are going through." She said softly. "I went through almost the exact same thing when I wasn't much older than you are."

Paige came to the conclusion that she was going to have to just keep talking, and just hope Kayla was hearing.

"I was only in high school when my parents died in a car accident," she said slowly. "I use to think it was my fault, but eventually I learned it wasn't." Paige noticed that Kayla's eyes had gotten distinctly wider. The first movement she had seen from the girl, even if it was so small. "I eventually found out that my magic saved me from dying in the crash."

Suddenly Kayla's head snapped up, and she made full on eye contact with Paige.

Paige was so startled by this sudden movement that she almost orbed.

"Why are you telling me this?" Kayla whispered. Her voice dry and harsh, most likely because she hadn't spoken (or in fact moved) for such an extended period.

"Because I understand what you are going through," Paige said, her tone some where between sympathy and wanting to say "Duh!"

Her face flushed red, "What, exactly do you think I'm going through?" She said softly, almost hissing.

This was an odd reaction, Paige hadn't been expecting anything like this. "Well... When my parents died, I felt lost... and I blamed myself when I shouldn't have... Kayla?"

She wasn't paying attention anymore, as Paige had been speaking Kayla's lower lip began trembling, soon her whole body was shaking, and she kept turning her head sharply as if she meant to look at everything in the room except Paige.

Suddenly Paige realized where she had erred. She had been trying to comfort the girl over the sudden and unnatural death of her parents. However, it suddenly became quite clear that Kayla was either unaware of her parents untimely demise, or she had been consciously telling herself it wasn't true. Now that Paige had spoken of her own parents death... Kayla was now painfully aware of the murder. The memories started as brief flashes of what had happened, then they suddenly broke through the unconscious barrier she had erected in her mind, and she was suddenly mentally reliving exactly what had been done.

What she had done.

Her mother had torn away the protective blankets. Kayla attacked. Brutally slashing at her attacker, making sure it could not attack her as it probably would have. There was a noise from behind the door. She lunged through it. Another enemy stood at the base of jagged floor. Kayla scampered down what she humanly knew as a staircase, but in her possessed form, knew only as a place to make a running start. The male creature's eyes grew wide in terror a moment before she lunged and dragged it's unconscious body across the floor. As she tore at the body with her unsheathed claws, her vision began to fade. The demon had fully taken over her mind by then, and she couldn't remember anything more.

"Kayla?" Paige's voice broke through her horrified thoughts. "Kayla? Can you hear—"

"I killed them," she whispered.

"No!" Paige said quickly. "You didn't do anything wrong Kayla, you weren't in contro—"

"Yes I was!" she snapped. "I could have stopped it but I felt so... so... angry." As she spoke her breathing became faster, and her face grew steadily redder.

"Kayla, you have to listen to me. You didn't do anything."

"Don't blame it on some freaky demon!" She snapped, suddenly on her feet. "God Boy already said all that crap! Not controlling my actions! Supernatural leaches! I know what I could have controlled! I didn't try to stop myself! I—"

"Want to kill you."

These last words were not spoken aloud. They were spoken directly into Kayla's mind.

Paige instantly saw the change in Kayla. She didn't know what was wrong, but she knew something had changed. Paige had never seen anyone go from turning a brighter and brighter red in a rage, to suddenly turning deathly pale. That is unless they then promptly began throwing up afterwards, but Paige was quite sure that wasn't the case.

"Kayla, I want you to listen to me," Paige said slowly standing up.

"Shut up! Shut up!" Kayla yelled, holding her head in her hands, frantically looking around the room.

Paige was correct when she assumed Kayla wasn't talking to her.

"She is your enemy!" The cold voice snarled in her head. "She and her sisters will kill you if you let them!"

"That's not true!"

"They don't know how to stop me, they'll kill you when they realize it!"

"I'll stop you!" Kayla shouted.

"No, you won't."

Suddenly Kayla found she couldn't move. She couldn't even breath. It seemed the demon had decided to prove to Kayla the power it held over her.

Kayla had a strange, disconnected feeling, as the room moved around her, or to be more exact, she moved through the room. She had no control over her body, but was forced to watch as she suddenly lunged over the coffee table straight at Paige.

[A/N Some review replies!]

sugarbox: Hmm... she might be savable... I dunno... heheh