Author's Note – Thanks once again for you reviews AussieKazza14, charmed-greek and Laurie Lu. I never thought other people's opinions about what I write would mean so much - but they do! You make all the time and effort writing this worthwhile.
Chapter 10. – Days of Our Charmed Lives, Part III – Paige
Benny's Report, Day 109 – around 9.00 (a.m.)
To fully understand what happened this particular day we have to go back to the early morning of the same day, just a couple of hours after the meeting Benny had with the Ripper Demon family- before the attacks on Piper and Phoebe.
This is where Annifrid's report on what happened to the youngest sister begins…
Paige stood outside her boss Jenny's apartment and knocked on the door with shaking hands. It was too early to make a social visit but she didn't know whom else she could turn to. An hour ago she had gotten the last phone call from the man of her nightmares - the man who she knew all to well, the man who had harassed her at the mall. Somehow he had gotten hold of her mobile number. He had been calling since four o'clock that morning screaming incoherent obscenities at her. Now the mobile was shut down and she had a new, secret phone number. She had also decided to get that restraining order Jenny had been talking about. Finally the door opened.
"Hey Paige, what brings you here?" Jenny was standing in the door with nothing but a bathrobe on, smoking a cigarette. She looked relaxed and had that "after-sex-glow" going on. This was a different Jenny - not at all the professional and businesslike woman Paige knew from work.
Paige started to ramble while she fought to not cry. "He… he called me on my mobile phone! I don't know how he gotten hold of my number but… but I think I want a restraining order and I don't know who else to turn to… "
Paige must have looked extra pathetic because Jenny put out her cigarette and gave her a hug. "Oh Paigey! Come on in! " Jenny ushered Paige into her apartment.
She placed Paige on the sofa in the living room and went out to the kitchen to fix them some coffee and breakfast. Jenny's apartment was light and expensively furnished in a modern style. Paige liked it. She could hear that someone else was also in the apartment - probably Jenny's lover. She felt very embarrassed for barking in the way she had, because she obviously had interrupted something in Jenny's private life. From her viewpoint in the sofa Paige could look into the bedroom and the bedroom mirror. She didn't mean to look but she did it anyway and caught a glimpse of Jenny's naked lover in the bedroom mirror. He seemed familiar to Paige somehow… For two seconds she couldn't quite put the man and her memory together but she was sure that she had seen him somewhere before. Then she realized who the man was.
Jenny showed up in the living room with a tray filled with bread, butter, all different kinds of jam and fresh coffee. "Heeeere we go! Breakfast coming right up!"
"He… Who… who was that?"
"Who honey?" Jenny looked at her with an amused expression.
"The guy in your bedroom. I know it's totally not my business but I think my sister is seeing him too." Paige remembered him clearly – the man in Jenny's bedroom was the same guy who had been making out with Phoebe during the Christmas Dinner a month ago – Phoebe's new ghostwriter-boyfriend.
"What are you talking about? Who? What guy?"
Paige pointed at the bedroom door. "The guy! The guy in your bedroom! I know it sounds like a pretty weird coincidence but… "
Jenny's voice interrupted her: "There are no coincidences darling." Something new and different in Jenny's voice made Paige turn around towards her friend just as the ashtray came crashing down on her forehead. Everything went black.
When Paige came to she was lying in the same spot where she had fallen. She was nauseous and had a pounding headache. The feeling of disorientation was overwhelming at first, just like in the old days during her drinking years when she used wake up in strange places with no recollection of how she had gotten there.
Paige heard voices in the background. She couldn't make out the words but it sounded like the people the voices belonged to were in some kind of argument. She tried to open her eyes and focus on the closest thing in front of her. It turned out to be an ashtray made of marble. It took Paige one minute to connect the huge dent in the ashtray with the sore spot on her forehead. She rose slowly into a sitting position and looked around. When she saw the rest of Jenny's living room it all came back to her. Her friend's betrayal stung – Paige had admired and idolized Jenny, trusted her and told her things she never had confided in anyone before. Without Jenny as a friend Paige would have no one to talk to.
Paige had fallen down on a soft, Oriental rug – in every corner of the mat was a glowing crystal placed, forming a force field that held her captured. She tried to orb out of the field but it was impossible, she tried to break the field by orbing one of the crystals but none of the stones moved. The only thing that happened was that she became dizzy and more nauseous. She was trapped.
Suddenly a bottle of wine was hurled through the room. Paige ducked. It crashed on one of the walls making a huge red stain. Paige heard something else crash in the hall.
"Don't tell me what I think!" A dark, beautiful woman came into the living room. She was followed by Phoebe's boyfriend/Jenny's lover - soon to be Phoebe's ex-boyfriend Paige hoped (and boy was she right!). He looked as angry as the woman he followed.
Jenny was the last to enter the living room; she was dressed now and looked happy. She smiled when she saw Paige sitting up. "Hey you! How are you feeling?"
The dark woman and Phoebe's boyfriend stopped arguing and turned around to watch Paige with interest. Paige felt like an animal in a cage under their scrutiny.
Phoebe's boyfriend chuckled to Jenny: "Wow, she actually woke up. You clocked her so hard that I thought she would be in a coma for the rest of the week."
"She really messed up your Afghan rug, Jenny." The dark woman made a disgusted face.
Paige looked down and discovered for the first time a large bloodstain where she had fallen. She touched her forehead and discovered more blood.
"Let me go and get you something to freshen up with." Jenny walked out of the room as if nothing had happened. The dark woman and Phoebe's boyfriend lost interest in Paige almost instantly and continued their fight. Paige began to suspect the two were siblings.
Jenny came back with a wet towel and a glass of water and gave them to Paige. Jenny seemed to have no problem with moving in and out of the force field. The wet towel felt wonderful on Paige's sore head.
"You missed a spot." Jenny gave her the glass of water and took the towel and wiped Paige's face tenderly. The towel quickly turned red.
Paige downed the water in one gulp and looked at Jenny with hatred. "You did this to me!"
Jenny seemed to take no notice of Paige's hostility towards her; she simply smiled and turned her attention towards the arguing brother and sister. Their fight had taken a turn for the worse and the two siblings were now on the verge of exchanging blows with each other. Jenny took neither sides or tried to calm things down. As the fight continued Paige realized that Jenny rather goaded the two siblings on.
Finally the dark woman, whose name was Esmeralda, had enough and walked out of the apartment, slamming the door after her.
Phoebe's boyfriend kicked the sofa. "Aaaargh! She's driving me nuts! I can't wait till she's dead and buried! What a bitch!"
Jenny patted the distraught man on the arm. "Temper temper now Emilio, darling. In all due time, ok?"
He suddenly smiled, turned around and kissed Jenny passionately. When the kiss broke he looked honestly apologetic. "Sorry! She just gets on my nerves and I can't help myself."
Jenny gave him a dirty smile. "You can never help yourself, can you?" They kissed with even more passion and moved quickly to the bedroom.
As the door to the bedroom closed Paige tried to contact Leo several times. No one came. Paige shut her eyes and lay down on the rug where she fell asleep.
When Paige woke up, Jenny had redressed and whatever had happened between her and Emilio was now over. The two lovers were talking with hushed voices as if they didn't want to wake Paige. She saw Jenny give Emilio a small bottle.
"Make sure that she drinks it all."
Emilio pocketed the bottle. "Ok. No problem." Then he felt Paige's eyes on him and said to Jenny while nodding towards Paige: "She's up. "
Jenny gave her a warm smile: "Feeling any better? Sometimes sleep is the best cure."
Paige was speechless; she didn't understand how Jenny could be so casual around her, as if nothing had happened and they still were friends.
Emilio watched her with interest. He turned to Jenny: "This one is really cute! When all this is over can I have her too?"
The question seemed to annoy his lover. "No! This one is mine. Now get out and do your job."
"Ok." The lovers parted with a long smoldering kiss. Just as Emilio was about to go he winked at Paige. "I'm going to kill your sister now. Have a good day!"
Paige became frantic; she was trapped in here on the Oriental rug with absolutely no way of warning her sisters.
Jenny turned to Paige with a smile: "They are a little hot-headed but they actually mean well. You want some herbal tea for your headache? I have this great Chinese herbs that… "
"Mean well? He said he was going to kill my sister!"
"Yeah, well ok… I guess that can seem a little bit hard."
"'A little bit hard'? Who are you! Why are you doing this!"
Jenny crossed her arms and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You haven't figured that one out yet? I thought you were smarter than that Paige."
For half a second Paige didn't understand what she meant until dawned on her. "You are the Ripper Demons. You have been playing us all along. My God, I can't believe how stupid we've been!"
"Yep. We figured the easiest way to kill you and kidnap the boys would be to get close to the three of you and pretend to be your friends. We paid other demons to attack you all the time, to be able to know your weaknesses. Turns out that your biggest weakness is your trust in your friends."
Paige felt like she was going to throw up. This was just too much!
"Now you look so pale that you have me worried. I'm going to get that cup of herbal tea and some painkillers. Be right back." Jenny went to the kitchen and came back with a cup of steaming tea that smelled lovely and a couple of pills.
"How do I know that you won't poison me with that?" Paige gave her a dirty look.
"You don't. That's a risk you have to take. Beggars can't be choosers. Now be a good girl and drink some."
Paige did as she was told while she glared angrily at her ex-friend who sat down in the sofa in front of her. The tea tasted great and the painkillers made her head hurt a little less. For a while they said nothing, Jenny looked slightly bored so Paige finally decided it was time to break the silence. "So… have you been planning this for long?"
"Well, we had been discussing who we would adopt and take the last place in our family ever since our 'Nana' died some years ago. Eventually we all agreed that one of your nephews would the best choice. Either of those two would make us the most powerful Ripper Demon family in the world."
Paige couldn't help herself. "IF you succeed… "
Jenny gave her an amused look where Paige sat on the Oriental rug, trapped in a very efficient force field. "Well by the looks of it, we probably will."
Paige changed the subject. "So you all are in the same Ripper Demon family? Does that mean that you and Emilio are… ?"
"… brother and sister? Yes, in a way, but not by blood - I am adopted just like you, remember? Emilio and Esmeralda on the other hand are real brother and sister though. Twins actually. They have been doing this Ripper Demon gig for 120 years when they adopted me."
"So you never really told your adoptive family to fuck off - you just fuck them."
Jenny gave her a dark look. "Very clever. Look, you don't understand how things work in Ripper families. The weakest link always gets replaced by someone more powerful. That's the rule we live by. When Emilio and Esmeralda adopted me into their family they had high hopes for me to become a very powerful demon with Avatar powers. When that didn't happen they would have killed and replaced me if I didn't turn useful. So I took control of our little family by every means necessary
Paige was disgusted. "Even if that means you have to sleep with them?"
"Oh please! Come off your high horses. You are just as bad as me. You would do anything just as long you are a valuable member of the Halliwell household. In that sense we are a little bit alike you and me."
"I'm nothing like you! I don't sleep with any of my sisters! I don't turn them against each other for my own amusement."
"But you ARE like me darling! Aren't you always overcompensating because of your fear of rejection? Aren't you always scared that you will be replaced by the 'Oh So Holy Prue' as soon as your so-called sisters find a way to bring her back?"
Paige hated the way Jenny always seemed to be able to tap into her worst fears and insecurities. Was she really that transparent? "That is not the same!"
Jenny raised an eyebrow mockingly. "It's not?"
"No. Besides they wouldn't do that."
"Yeah right. As if they hadn't already rejected you. They have only put up with you because it's necessary, convenient! You should give up on them because from where I'm standing they have given up on you."
"You are talking bullshit! Besides, I will never give up on my family!"
"Am I? Paige, you are the one that's talking BS right now. They are not your family! You have this idiotic unrealistic dream that you belong. But you can't, because you are like me: adopted, unwanted, no roots, no real connection to anything. We are also both half-breeds, I'm half avatar and you are half whitelighter - we can't even count ourselves as humans. I bet that bitchy sister, the one with the brats, looks down on you for that."
"No! Her sons are just like us… I mean like me!"
"Fathered by the lovely but boring Leo… "
"Awfully lot you know about my family."
"Everyone in the Underworld loves to gossip about The Charmed Ones. So there is very little I don't know about you and the Halliwell bunch. You know as good as me that you were never a part of the Halliwells. You are and will always be a total outsider."
Paige said nothing so Jenny continued.
"I will give you an example: My siblings Emilio and Esmeralda, you saw them fighting in here today. They are always fighting like that – passionate, like it was for life and death, throwing things at each other, saying the worst, hurtful things. And suddenly the next minute they are best friends. Only real family members can do that to each other. I bet you've seen Pepper and … "
"Piper."
"Oh yeah right, … Piper and Phoebe rip into each other's throats just like that a couple of times. Am I right?"
Paige thought of a couple of times when Piper and Phoebe had been fighting like that and Jenny had described it perfectly. "What's that got to do with anything?"
"Could you fight with any of them like that? Like they fight with each other?"
Paige looked down completely defeated because she realized what the Ripper Demon meant. Even though she had been in what almost could be called a fight with Piper twice the last couple of weeks it was nothing like she had seen her two sisters behave towards each other when they were really mad; Piper always started to talk between clenched teeth and swear like a sailor when that kind of fighting started and Phoebe had a penchant for breaking china. Paige would never be able to fight, scream, swear and break china with Piper or Phoebe in the same way - they were just not close enough. "No."
"Exactly!"
Esmeralda suddenly shimmered in. She looked as furious as she had done when she had left the room a couple of hours ago. "The damn bitch tackled me! She also burned my arm and I think she broke one of my fingers! She was just about to strangle me when I got away!"
Paige was very relieved by the dark woman's angry rants; at least she knew that Piper was still alive.
Jenny got up. Her tone changed into a cold and businesslike tone. "So I take it that you failed to kill her?"
Esmeralda looked down, ashamed. "Yes."
"Did you take care of the boys? Are they where they supposed to be?"
Esmeralda started to blush. "I think something went wrong… They are in the Mouyawan Dimension for sure, waiting for us… but I just can't find them."
Jenny sighed. "How did that happen?"
"I think something was wrong with one of the ingredients; maybe The Last Urn of Moth was damaged. I don't know… "
"Ok ok, how do we find the kids now?"
"I think we can track them down with the help of Piper actually. We can use a Double Burger Triple Dimension Jump Spell using her blood relation with the boys. So you see, it was a good thing that she's still alive."
Jenny started to pace on the floor, planning for the next steps to be taken. "Yes thankfully everything worked for the best. We were lucky. We better prepare ourselves because Piper will definitely show up here and demand her sons back." Jenny stopped and gave her sister a grave look. "I told you not to underestimate the sisters so this time I hope you take better precautions."
Esmeralda didn't like to be told of her mistakes. She nodded annoyed towards Paige. "How come this one is still alive?"
"She is alive because we need to have a backup if any of you two mess up. Now go and do what you are supposed to. When the Halliwell sisters show up we will give them a welcome that they will never forget!"
Paige felt completely powerless – her sisters were walking into a trap and she couldn't do anything to stop it.
Benny finally put Annifrid's notes down on the table. What he had read made him uneasy. Maybe it was all the years of experience as a Kalla Bong agent reading between the lines… he just had a very bad feeling about what was about to happen. All he knew was that the lives of the Halliwell sisters would never be the same.
To be continued in "Chapter 11. – Days of Our Charmed Lives, Part IV – Finale"…