A/N: Well, this chapter wasn't intended, but it's very necessary. It's a short chapter though, but I hope it's enough to spark a review out of you guys. This is pretty much a Paige-Peter chapter, and it won't be long before we move further into magical chapters, but I really had to develop Peter some more. Enjoy the chapter and please review.
Chapter 16- Speak of Evil
December 27th, 2006
Orbs appeared in Paige's bedroom and revealed both Paige and Peter. Peter let go of her hand and tried to catch glimpses of the orbs, but failed. His excitement didn't die down and he looked up at Paige, speaking with his slight 's' addition at the end of words, "Dat was cool! Cans we goes again?"
Paige looked down and gave a disapproving nod. "Sorry, that's enough orbing for today. Are you sure you're not dizzy, Petey?" She often took into account that some people aren't used to instantaneous teleportation and the fact that they could be in a living room one second and a bathroom of another home in the following second was an amazing rush.
"I am fine!" Peter exclaimed, not completely understanding what being dizzy was. Even if he did, he wouldn't have admitted to it as he enjoyed the sensation of losing control of balance after the amazement of orbing. The more he orbed though, the more he began to grow accustomed to the feeling.
"If you say so," a pregnant Paige replied, making her way over to her bed to rest. Orbing since being pregnant seemed to take a toll on her. Paige felt gassy and felt something running up her throat. A burp was forced out of the Witchlighter's mouth and accompanying the released air were a small collective of orbs which vanished quickly.
Peter loved it when this happened. Every time it did happen, his reaction remained as the first. His mouth slowly gaped and would come back together before he dragged on, "Wooow!" The little boy walked over to Paige and put his palms around Paige's kneecaps. "Do it again!"
Paige brushed her red hair out of her face and said, "It only happens by accident." She yawned greatly and eventually fought through the involuntary reflex after covering her mouth with her hand. "You wanna take a nap with me?"
Although it was the early afternoon, Paige and Henry were up all night with Peter who was having a stomachache on account of eating too much of Piper's leftover fudge cake and Christmas cookies when he wasn't supposed to. This resulted in changing of diapers and Paige having to gently sing Peter back to sleep. Henry went to work exhausted and Paige tried to help a healthy Peter get used to orbing in the case she would ever have to orb out with him if a demonic visitor appeared.
"Okay!" An excited Peter answered, removing his hands off of Paige's knees. He hopped onto the bed and slid under the covers to protect himself from the December temperature with snow that continued to pile occasionally since Christmas, which was weather generally bizarre in San Francisco.
The foster mother was glad he was so receptive to the idea of a nap. She really needed it but with Henry at work, she couldn't leave him unattended as she slept. She crawled onto her side and kept a hand on her stomach as she fought to find a comfortable position to rest in. When she finally found the spot on her back, she held onto Peter's shirt with the panic of having to do an emergency orb with him if she found a demon hovering over her when waking from her sleep. These were thoughts that often ran through her lately troubled mind.
(X)
Paige rose from her bed and let out a great yawn. This was the yawn of a woman who regained some of her lost sleep, but could've gone for another hour or two. She turned over to look for Peter on the side of her bed and didn't see him. She instantly panicked and looked up to the door of the room and her soft brown eyes immediately fought through any semblance of being tired into full shock.
A demon in a black trench coat with a scruffy brown sweater underneath and a grim expression stared at Paige. In his arms was Peter and the demon had his hand clasped over the little boy's mouth, preventing him from screaming. Peter's gentle face was now one of great fear as he was red from the fear and all the blood rushed to his face. He could barely move his hands or feet as he was so frozen in fear and the demon held him elevated in the air with his arm hooked under his neck.
Paige nearly cried at the sight of Peter whimpering and she rose as fast as she could out of bed. "Please, don't do anything to him. I'll give you anything. I'll give you my powers! Just let him go!"
"No can do," the demon slyly remarked. His expression grew to be really grim and he let out a low growl. "For too long, witches have offered great power to demons in the exchange of lives and demons are constantly screwed over! If I wanted to kill you, I could've done it while you were sleeping. That's not what I want though. I want you to suffer in the name of revenge for all the demons that died to your kind!"
Peter bit the demon's hand and was nearly repulsed by what he tasted. Even at a young age, he knew he had to ignore that for the moment. "Paigey! Paigey, help me! This bad man-"
The demon smacked his hand over Peter's mouth once again and Peter cried in pain.
"You bastard!" Paige shouted. She held out her hands and prepared to call for Peter...
The demon was quicker though. He darkly chuckled as he dropped Peter to the floor, bruising his little body. He reached down with his hand clawed around Peter's neck. With a violent twist, he cracked-
Paige shot up from her bed, panting in fear from the nightmare. She turned to her side where she saw Peter resting undisturbed from her forced awakening.
"Just... a nightmare," Paige breathed, pressing her hand to her heart. There had to be a reason for it though. Witches never just got bad nightmares, but were often given warnings of the future. Especially to Paige who had a history of nightmares about great threats. What greater threat could there be than one endangering your child?
(X)
"It was terrifying, Henry," Paige spoke into the cordless phone as she continued to watch Peter rest. "The demon just snapped his... I can't even bear to think about it. That image will forever haunt me and I think I finally have to be brave enough to make the next step."
"Paige, do you want me to leave work to be there?" Henry asked on the other end. "I just have a couple of things left to do and I can do them when I get home. Just say the word."
"No, it's alright. You just do what you have to do and I'll handle this," Paige replied. "It scares me that I'm supposed to have this demon talk so soon."
"Better than the sex talk, right?" Henry joked, hoping to cheer her up.
It worked. A small grin curved on Paige's face and she said, "I would hope so, he's one. That's what bothers me as well. He should be worrying about not falling off of his bike and not falling into some deep paranoia about actual monsters living under his bed."
"Yeah, but you never met a monster under your bed, have you?" Henry asked.
"No, the demons I battle are normally scarier or extremely cocky. They also outrank the typical boogey monsters that kids freak out about. Peter's now going to have to worry about mischievous spirits, warlocks, evil witches and-" Paige stopped as she thought about greater threats such as Avo and Rose. She hadn't seen them since reclaiming Magic School and they couldn't be up to any good if they were laying low for so long.
"Paige, maybe you don't have to go into all these specifics with him right now. We talked about this before. Just let him know what he should do to defend himself. This isn't the first time you had to teach someone about demons," Henry reminded, "Unless you've really been exchanging phone numbers and flirting away with your charges and haven't been telling me."
His humor kept Paige grinning and cooled her down from the nightmare. "If that's the case you should be concerned as to whether these twins are yours or not."
"Paige, I know I started the joke, but hearing you play along concerns me. They are mine, right?"
"Of course, Henry! Look, forget about that. Are you okay with me telling Peter? I know you let me decide when I would expose my secret, but a magical snowball fight won't result from this," Paige said, still staring at Peter. "I was given some sort of vision that showed me how scared that little boy can get and a part of me doesn't want to be at fault for that. The other part of me doesn't want to be blamed for when he doesn't know why there is a demon trying to kill him."
"Paige, as hard as it may be, it'll be tougher to deal with Peter not in our lives than scaring him. These are dangers in our world. This is a life you lead and we can't walk around that. I don't know much about magic, but I do think that the nightmare was some sort of vision. Have you given your sisters a call on this?" Henry asked, knowing they would be of more help.
Paige walked to the end of the bed and gently sat down. "No, I haven't. I don't want to get everyone too excited. Piper would scold me for not telling him sooner and Phoebe would be here waiting for a demon that isn't coming. I feel like I should cast a truth spell on him..."
"Isn't that the spell you told me you used on that sleazy guy last year? The one that should've been charged on many accounts of theft, impersonation, and a list that goes on?" Henry asked, remembering when Paige explained the dynamics of the truth potion she used after confessing to him.
"Yeah, that's the one," Paige answered, frowning when she thought of a hole in her plan. "My following problem would be that what if I see that he can't handle it? By casting the spell, I'm left with the consequence of remembering his fear and even though he'll forget, I'm still left with the problem as to what to do with him." Frustrated, she ran her hand through red hair and bounced it around. "This makes me think we made the wrong choice, Henry. We brought a poor, defenseless mortal boy into a home where we would expect him to be able to hide himself from demons. What kind of parent does that?"
Henry quickly followed on the other end, "We've been good parents, Paige. This just happens to be one of the toughest things we'll have to do when it comes to Peter. Look, do you want me to come home now? I can be there in a few if I flip my badge around to avoid traffic cops."
Paige sighed, "No, I need you to make that money." She saw Peter stirring and nodded, "He's waking up now. Just wish me luck."
"Good luck, Paige. Call me if anything," Henry said. "I love you."
"Love you too," Paige replied as she hung up the phone and placed it on the bed. "How we doing over there?" she gently asked, tickling his feet. The young boy laughed and Paige stopped. "Are you hungry?"
Peter slid up from the covers and rubbed his eyes with his fists. It was something he saw Henry do often and he began to take after him. "Yes," Peter answered.
Paige got up from the bed and walked over to him, extending her hand. "Why don't we go downstairs then and I can make you something to eat?"
Peter took her hand and asked, "Cans we orb?"
The foster mother stared down at him and released another sigh, "Considering what I have to tell you, I'll throw you a bone." The two were consumed in orbs and carried downstairs.
(X)
After receiving a head rush from all the orbing and walking too fast, Paige decided she would continue to slowly move around the house and this applied as well when she approached Peter at the kitchen table with a plate of chopped vegetables.
Peter was sitting on the chair on his knees and his arms were folded on the table as he stared into the mixed vegetables. He picked up his plastic red spork and immediately went straight for the green beans, pushing the carrots to the side for later. "Thanks, Paigey."
"No problem," Paige replied, grinning at her foster son before she would confess something dark. She feared she would now corrupt his sincerity with this new knowledge. It was still necessary though. "Petey, we actually have to talk about something. Do you mind if we do so right now?"
"Talk 'bouts what?" Peter asked, chewing on the chopped stalks of his broccoli.
"About magic," Paige replied, resting her chin on her fist. She saw a smile on his face and she said, "I figured you'd like that. This is really serious though and not a joke, so you have to understand that. Although you may think magic is fun, I told you before that my powers aren't used to play around. They're meant to protect people, but now is the time I tell you who I protect them from."
Peter continued to eat his broccoli, not necessarily fazed by her information. He nodded along and picked out another chopped stem.
"I tend to fight bad people with my powers," Paige started, hoping to keep it simple. "These bad people are very similar to monsters."
The young boy looked up and didn't seem to believe. "My mommy said monsters does not exist."
Although Paige was well aware this wasn't her blood child, hearing Peter mention his real mother did some damage to an already downcast Paige. She always wanted to respect both Keith and Liberty's memory, but she had grown so accustomed to Peter as her son. This was one of the challenges with adopting a child. "Your mother may have been right, but there are other monsters that exist. They're called 'demons'. They're really bad and like to hurt good people."
"Like the bad people who hurted my daddy?" Peter asked, returning to the day where he was hiding under his blanket in Henry's car, listening to all the explosive bullets unleash around the place.
"Yes, just like the bad people who hurt your father. These people are..." Paige watched her wording, as she wanted to explain how demons were worst, but in a child's eyes, nothing could be worst than a person who would kill your father. "just as bad. The thing we have to be careful with is that these monsters have powers like me. They can come in here when they want too, so I want to teach you what to do when bad monsters come in here."
"Why would dey come in here?" Peter asked, looking down at his vegetables and moving them around with his spork. "It is not nice."
"You're right, Peter. It's not nice, but demons are bad monsters and they like to hurt people. That's why I have powers, why Aunt Phoebe has powers, and why Aunt Piper has powers."
"Wyatt and Chris too," Peter reminded, unaware Paige purposely left them out.
"Them too, but Aunt Piper is going to teach them to protect people for when they get older. I don't mean to scare you, Peter, but you need to know that demons are really bad. I don't want you to get hurt because I love you so much, so we have to make sure you know how to hide yourself from demons."
"How does I do that?" Peter asked, finally eating his way through the chopped carrots.
"First of all, are you familiar with stop, drop, and roll?" Paige asked.
"Yes!" Peter put down his spork and hopped onto the floor. He lied down on the floor and began to roll back and forth. While rolling he said, "See?"
Paige chuckled, "I see, now get on up. Now, I have a new method for you that you have to follow just as much as you need to follow stop, drop, and roll for fires, okay?"
Peter looked excited to be learning a new precautionary method and nodded rapidly.
"This will be the..." Paige stopped and thought about it. "The... shout, run, and hide method. First you call out my name or anyone else in the house, then you run to the crystals and hide with them."
"What crystals?" Peter asked.
"I'm going to go show you now," Paige answered, rising from her seat. She took his hand and the two slowly began to the stairs.
(X)
Paige opened the altar room which was new to Peter as she lied to him and told him it was a locked closet. Although Paige felt ashamed in lying, it was easier to do so instead of telling Peter this is where she kept her potions and tome of evil beings.
"I thought dis was locked," Peter commented.
"Yeah, not really. I told you that because I didn't want you to get in here. This is the room where I keep all my witch stuff," Paige explained, opening the door. "Sorry I had to lie to you, but I just didn't want you going in here and getting hurt. Some of the potions in here are very dangerous, so I ask that you don't touch them, okay?"
"Okay... but what's a potion?" Peter asked, never familiar with the nature of the witches as he was more associated with classic super heroes.
"Come on in and I'll show you," Paige invited, holding the door open for him. Her foster son entered and looked around the room in interest. "For now on, I'll be keeping this door open, but you cannot come in here without permission, okay? It may not be safe for you."
"Okay," Peter responded, inspecting the room for the danger Paige was trying to warn him about. All he saw were small glass vials with different color liquids in each of them, a big dark blue book with dirty pages on some bookstand, two big pots, and other little things like boxes and rocks on strings. Nothing seemed dangerous about these things.
Paige held onto her stomach as she fought back another burp, knowing the orbs would distract and amuse Peter. She couldn't fight it off and quickly put her hand to her mouth and covered it. She burped and her hand shone in a soft blue light and she took a deep breath, successful from hiding it from Peter. She moved over to the table and picked up one of the potions, "Peter, this is a potion. Anything that looks like this, is a potion. Sometimes there might be a couple in the fridge, so make sure to never drink them."
"What's it taste like?" Peter asked.
Paige reflected back to some of the potions she was forced to swallow over the years to allow some effect to occur. "Really bad, Peter. Really bad. Nothing like apple or orange juice. So now we know potions are bad, right?"
"Potions bad," Peter recounted, nodding his head. He turned to the cauldron and asked, "Why does you have cookin' pots in here?"
"These are cauldrons and although they are very similar to pots, they aren't used to cook chicken and stuff like that. I use them to cook my potions," Paige explained, moving over to the copper cauldron and tracing her finger around in a circle. "And with these potions, I generally use them to beat up the bad demons." Paige walked over to a box and pulled out two protective crystals and held them up. "These are the crystals I was telling you about. By using five of these, you'll be able to hide yourself from the demon and he won't be able to touch you."
"How does I do it? Puts them anywheres?" Peter asked, confused. He walked over to Paige and took one of the crystals and examined it. He tossed it back and forth and missed it during one catch. The crystal fell to the floor and rolled in-between Paige's feet and Peter bit his lip, guilty. "Sorry," he murmured.
"Don't worry about it, honey. It belongs on the floor," the foster mother informed. "Now what you're going to do next is make a circle out of them, okay?"
Peter nodded, "Okay."
Paige walked over and grabbed the box of crystals and handed them one by one to Peter. He set them all on the floor and began to figure out how he was going to attempt this. First Peter created an awkward triangle, then a square with an out of order crystal, and eventually came to a circle. As he set down the last crystal, white lights ejected from each crystal and formed a protective barrier for anyone inside of it.
Peter jumped back, startled and up at Paige. "What was that?"
The barrier's energy vanished from sight, but its protection remained in the circle it was set in. Paige grinned at her foster son and his first successful time putting up a crystal cage. She hoped that his interest would grow and she could later teach him to make potions and help create spells. "That was a sign that your crystal cage worked."
"Crystal cage?" Peter repeated.
"Yes, that's what it's called. Now, it can be used in two ways. You can either use it to protect yourself from demons or you can trap a demon in it. In other words, you cage them like an animal." Paige knew there was far more information about the cages including how it formed a pentagram, but she figured this was a simpler approach until he was much older. "If you're inside, the demon cannot touch you. If the demon is inside, he still cannot touch you, but always make sure to call for who...?"
"You or anyone else," Peter answered correctly. "Paigey, how bad is dese demons? Is dey like real-ee bad monsters?"
"Some are bad, but others are really bad," Paige answered, walking over to her her Book of Shadows and removed it from its podium. She pushed one chair next to the other with her foot and sat down on one, welcoming a place to sit for Peter on the other. "This here is my Book of Shadows, which is basically a book that teaches me about demons and other monsters."
"Cool," Peter managed to get out, after staring at the golden gemini glyph for a matter of seconds.
"The information in this book has managed to save the lives of all my old family members. It's really magnificent and keeps us safe since we can learn about all the bad guys here," Paige patted on the cover of the Book of Shadows. "Do you wanna look through it with me?"
"Yeah!" Peter exclaimed, more excited than he should be. His excitement concerned Paige that he wasn't understanding the full danger of demons and probably wouldn't until he first encountered one of his own.
Paige opened the great tome that she would later pass down to Peter and his yet to be born twin sisters and showed him the illustrations on each page. While Paige had done some during her spare time in bed, others were passed down from countless ancestors. Paige pointed at several aged pages with illustrations of demon and told him little stories.
Watching from the threshold, Henry listened in on his wife teaching their foster son about demons and he seemed to have an understanding about it. It appeared his rush to come home to assist wasn't needed as much as he thought it was.
End of Chapter.
I hope you all enjoyed this short, but necessary chapter. The magic in this series returns when a magical prankster plays tricks on the house. It's honestly a ridiculous chapter that was fun to write.