I was
standing in a phone booth after getting out of Quake.
"Phoebe,
pick up the phone!" I muttered under my breath. There was still no
answer, so I hung up the phone and headed out towards my car. And
bumped into Jeremy.
"Oh God,
Jeremy, you scared me!" I exclaimed.
"I can
see. I'm sorry. Are you okay?" he asked, almost as scared as I
was.
"Uh,
yeah. Wha, what are you doing here?" I asked, and then realised I'd
just asked the world's stupidest question.
"Well, I
want to be the first to congratulate you on your new job." He
replied,
"You
always surprise me," I smiled, "How did you know?"
"Because
you made your specialty," he replied, a cute lopsided grin
appearing on his face. "And anyone who's ever sampled your work can
truly see how talented you are."
"I just
get so turned on when you talk about food." I said, as he started
to sweep me in his embrace.
"Hamburgers…
Pizza." He laughed and then kissed me softly.
He had to
run and organise something at the paper, and I had to get home and
get changed, so we organised to have a celebration dinner at seven.
When I got
home, there was no sign of Phoebe, and her bike was gone. (No, not a
motor bike, my sister Phoebe was riding a push bike.) I
assumed she had gone out for a ride to refamiliarise herself with the
neighbourhood. I looked at the calendar as I poured myself some iced
tea. 'Hmm, Phoebe was right; it was a full moon last night.'
I had
dinner with Jeremy at a very swank Chinese restaurant down town.
While overlooking the Bay Bridge, we sat, and ate, and we talked. Not
about anything significant, just about my new job, and the huge story
he was working on. Apparently the women who were killed in the past
three weeks were being killed in front of altars of some sort, and
all had similar tattoos on their necks. He drew the symbol on a
napkin for me; it was three interlocking arcs on a circle. A
triquetra, he called it. He said it was the symbol for the Wicca Holy
Trinity or something, the virgin, the mother and the crone. To which
I replied that it stood for the Christian Holy Trinity. The
explanation he gave was very long winded and I still had no idea what
he was on about. We got some fortune cookies and noodles for later
and decided to head off to his place for the night. We were in a cab
on the way there and I suggested we open our Fortune Cookies.
"Go
ahead, open it." I teased him
"Soon
you will be on top." He read, smiling
"It
doesn't say that," I replied
"Yes it
does," he teased me back.
"Give it
here." I took the piece of paper off him, "Of the world."
I finished. "Soon you will be on top of the world."
"Hey,
take a left at seventh," he indicated to the driver.
'Seventh?'
I thought to myself, 'Jeremy's apartment is at the other end
of town to seventh.'
"I
thought we were going to your place." I questioned,
"We
are," he replied, "But you reminded me of something. I wanna show
you the old Bowler Building. The view of the Bay Bridge is amazing
from there."
After
about five minutes in the cab, we arrived outside a large, dark sort
of building. I thought it might have looked friendlier during the
day, but at night, it was just creepy.
"Here we
are," he announced for theatrics."I don't
care how amazing the view is, I'm not going in there." I told
him.
"C'mon!"
he replied. "It'll be fun!"
I
reluctantly followed him into the darkness of the building, almost
jumping upon spotting a rat. In my mind, I tried to keep calm in case
I accidentally froze something in front of Jeremy and scared him off.
We came to the elevator, an unstable looking platform near the other
end of the building. We stepped in and Jeremy closed the gate.
Halfway up the building, he pressed the elevator stop button.
"Why
have we stopped?" I asked him.
"I have
a surprise for you," he answered slyly, beginning to scare me. "I
bet you'll tell Prue and Phoebe as soon as you get home."
"Hold
on, I never told you Phoebe came back for New York!" I said,
surprised.
He pulled
a double edged steel knife out from behind his back.
"Wha-
what's that?" I asked him panicking.
"It's
your surprise." He replied, an air of darkness to his voice.
"Stop
that! It's not funny!" I practically screamed at him. "I'm
serious!"
"So am
I." he said calmly, "See, I've waited six months for this. Ever
since Grams went to the hospital. I've known for some quite time that
the moment that old witch croaked that all your powers would be
released. Powers that would reveal themselves as soon as the three
of you got together again. All that was needed was for Phoebe to
return."
"You,
you killed all those women!" I replied, extremely scared.
"Not
women," he started before almost shouting, "Witches."
I felt
like I was going to be sick. My boyfriend, the killer. "But, why?"
"Because,"
he held up his hand and flames shot up out of his fingertips, "It
was the only way to get their powers." His voice suddenly changed
at this point to something deep and scratchy, almost animal, "And
now I want yours!" he shouted at me.
He lifted
the knife up to stab me, and I screamed and put up both hands. All of
a sudden, Jeremy froze.
'Thank
God,' I thought, 'My Powers saved me.'
"OK,
think, stay calm." I said to myself, "I gotta get out of here."
I began to
climb out of the still elevator and just as I was almost out, Jeremy
unfroze. He grabbed at my leg and was pulling me towards him, I
reached out.
I grabbed
a two-by-four and managed to hit him in the face with it before
running over and taking the stairs down.
I took a cab home, worrying about what other ungodly powers my demon boyfriend from Hell had.
I ran in
the door, and locked it on my way in.
"Prue!"
I yelled instinctively.
"In
here!" Phoebe replied, catching me off guard. "Piper?"
Prue came
walking toward me as I went into the Parlour where the two were
standing.
"Oh my
God," she said, noticing my panicked face, "What is it?"
"Lock
the doors, check the windows. We don't have a lot of time." I
said in one breath, "Phoebe, does it say anywhere in the Book of
Shadows how to get rid of a -"
"Warlock?"
she finished for me.
"Oh my
God." Prue said, looking like she was going to faint.
Phoebe
went running up towards the attic whilst I held Prue up, giving her a
moment to recover.
"I'm
calling the cops." She finally announced.
"And
tell them what?" I almost screamed at her, "That we're witches?
That some supernatural freak with powers beyond our comprehension is
trying to kill us? Even if the cops did come, they'd be no match
for him, and we'd be next!"
Phoebe
appeared at the top of the stairs, "I've found the answer," she
announced worriedly, "Come on."
