Well, this is actually a little late. Heh, but I tried to make it up to you by making it extra long! So here's chapter 11, with a special half-a-page bonus! Don't act like you're not excited…

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters that have appeared on Charmed, it's kinda sad actually.


Ew. There's a spider on my ceiling.

Unfortunately, that was one of my more interesting thoughts this evening. Seriously, you'd never guess that I was actually a witch with these weird, supernatural powers. I could be outside chasing down demons and just generally painting the town red. But no, I had to have totally paranoid and unfair parents, so instead of having fun, I'm grounded.

Oh, you heard right. I found a body and suddenly my parents think they have to lock me in my room for the night. Did I murder Zach? No! Their apparent reasoning for this stupidity being that I was walking in the park in the first place, when I should've been coming straight home.

So, no sympathy for this "poor, innocent bystander". My only consolation was that my parents weren't home. They would've been, but my dad had a really important meeting with some client or another, which my mom was also invited to. So, I guess I wasn't really grounded at all.

I sighed and watched as the little spider crawled slowly across the ceiling. Usually I hated spiders but right now he was my only company.

I had nearly nodded off when a familiar and comforting sound reached my ears. It was someone orbing into my room.

"Leo?" I said, shooting up in my bed and wondering if it was all a part of my dream. A cruel and sadistic dream, but one nonetheless.

"I'm here." Said a voice, I think it came from my bathroom.

"The bathroom?" I asked, looking at him strangely as he stepped into the main part of my room. He blushed and then explained,

"I wanted to make sure your parents weren't around. Anyway, I just got back from talking to the Elders and I was thinking maybe you wanted to hear what happened?"

"Sure!" I said, enthusiastically. I'd be willing to go anywhere now if it meant getting out of my prison…I mean room. I grabbed Leo's hand as the sensation of orbing came over me.

Bye-bye Mr. Spider.


Once again we didn't orb onto the street, or into the attic. Rather, into the nice room with tons of windows all around and abounding plant life. I was a tad jealous, seeing as how I tend to kill all things that I have to take care of.

"Piper?" Leo called out, looking around the room for the sisters.

"Still at the club, she called a couple minutes ago to say she would hurry back. However, the exploding pipes were not an exaggeration." Paige said as she walked into the room, Phoebe followed trying to dry off her shirt with a hand towel.

"Damn, your kids sure do splash around, Leo. Luckily, they're safely in bed and asleep." Said Phoebe, throwing the hand towel over a chair and trying to straighten her top. "That's where the good news ends though, we didn't have much luck with the demon hunting."

"That's an understatement." Interrupted Paige, "I don't know what's up with the past generations but there's absolutely nothing on this demon in the Book of Shadows. I mean, we found some who steal the powers of witches, but none who operate on the dream plane."

"Understandable…" Murmured Leo, who started pacing around the room. All the attention was turned to him, but he still didn't say anything.

"Umm, what was that Leo?" I said.

"Oh sorry, " he said, coming out of a trance-like state. "The Elders did have something on him, but it's not necessarily a good thing. I wish Piper were here though, so I didn't have to repeat myself. This is going to be complicated enough…"

"Ask and you shall receive." Came a voice walking into the room, we all turned and sure enough it was Piper. Her hair was completely soaked and her clothes, likewise. "Sorry I'm late, but the plumber apparently had car troubles. Tonight is so not our night."

"Ok Leo," said Phoebe. "Time to dish, what did the Elders tell you about this demon?"

"Well, to start off with, Michael isn't actually the demon. He's being possessed by one, named Szalack, the Elders have been keeping tabs on him for centuries but he's been imprisoned in the Underworld until now."

"Whoa." I said, Michael wasn't actually the one to blame? That sucked, how was I ever going to look him in the face again? " So you're telling me that Michael isn't the one doing all these things, and he's just an innocent guy that was taken over by a demon?"

"Well, not really." Answered Leo. "The only way for Szalack to possess someone is if they're ready, willing and able. Michael knows what's going on and is in agreement with it, or else he could try and fight Szalack. The Elders are guessing he was a lower class demon who just wanted more powers, as do most of them." I was somewhat relieved; at least there was still a bad guy in this fairytale.

"Ok, back to the point." Said Paige, "how did this guy get out of the Underworld and back to Earth?"

"Well, either Michael or some other demon released him, and served as a body so he could return to Earth. You see, Szalack doesn't really exist on this plane, he's really the ruler of the dream plane, which is the only place you can successfully vanquish him. If you only got rid of his host, in this case Michael, he'd just be free to go looking for another willing candidate."

"This is bad." I whispered quietly, the pieces of this puzzle were all coming together for me, and the end result wasn't looking very good. " The dream plane is also the only place where this Szalack can steal our powers. So he could just take them and kill us all like little flies."

"That's crazy!" Protested Piper, "there must be some other way, did the Elders say anything else? What about a Power of Three spell?"

" I asked Them about that too, in reality this is one of the only confrontations we've had with Szalack, so we're in uncharted territory. They said it might work, but this is all guesswork. You may be the Charmed Ones but Szalack has got the powers of countless witches, the Elders aren't sure how many times he's killed."

There was silence around the room. I couldn't believe it was about to end like this; it was like I had just failed Zach…a second time even. And all those other witches around the world, I had no idea how many there were but if the Charmed Ones couldn't stop Szalack…

Then who could?

I let out a frustrated growl and sank into a nearby chair, I was a total failure of a witch. Leo probably wouldn't be my whitelighter anymore, and Zach's murder was probably all my fault anyway. I'd probably switch places with anyone in the world if it meant not having to deal with demons anymore…

That's it!

I jumped from the chair and onto my feet. " I know, I know how to vanquish him!"

I yelled, half ecstatic and half scared for my life. The sisters and Leo looked at me like I was crazy, but I wasted no time in running out of the room and up the stairs…to the attic.


Whooo, possibly the second to last chapter right there. Well, expect that the next one will be extra long too! Pleeaasseee review and thanks to everyone who already has!