Charmed
Season 4, Episode 4
"Crime is of the Essence"
By P3Nathan
It was night time and a restless Prue Halliwell sat on the sofa in the Manor living room, flipping through an old photo album. She smiled as she reminisced, looking at various photos of her young self; mostly with her sisters. Despite being reminded of some of the questionable fashion choices of her youth, she had successfully calmed her agitated mind.
Piper entered the room with a cup of something steaming. “Hey, sleepless night for you too?”
“Yeah, it’s looking that way. I just can’t seem to switch off at the moment. At least Phoebe seems to be doing okay tonight.”
Piper sat across from her sister. “I was starting to worry how it might affect her physically if she didn’t start getting a few hours at night. That a photo album?”
Prue smiled. “Yeah, I figured looking back to simpler times might relax me. Then again, really thinking about it, I’m not sure ‘simple’ was ever the right word to describe our lives.”
“Hm, it’s true. In a lot of those photos we would’ve still have been adapting to life without Mom, right?”
Prue nodded, sadly. “Not sure we’ve ever not been adapting to life without Mom. I guess it’s always been a case of us against the world, one way or another.”
Piper moved next to Prue. “Well, we got a lot of strength from you.”
The look on her sister’s face told Piper that Prue wasn’t convinced.
“I mean it,” Piper insisted. “Phoebe and I would’ve been a lot worse off without your courage and solidarity.”
Prue gently closed the album and laid it down on the table before them. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course”
Prue took a breath. “I saw a note you made about a doctor’s appointment. I wasn’t snooping; I swear. I was just looking for my glasses and I came across it. Is everything okay?”
Piper tried to look as calm as possible, hoping to hide the fact that it was that very appointment that was depriving her of sleep. “I don’t want you to worry; it’s probably nothing.”
“What’s probably nothing?” Prue asked, clearly ignoring the first half of the sentence.
“I found a lump, so I’m getting it checked. That’s all.”
Prue sat quietly, unsure of what to say.
“With everything you and Phoebe were going through, I just didn’t want to add to the stress when it’s probably just a harmless bump.”
“What do you mean?” Prue asked, totally confused. “What am I going through?”
“Well…” Piper hesitated. “It’s just I know it’s been hard for you recently; feeling like you’re not doing enough. Obviously this is out of our control, so I didn’t think it’d do any good to bring it up unless I had to.”
“I’m here for you.”
Piper could hear the disappointment in her sister’s voice, but didn’t know how else to respond besides saying, “I know.”
“So please, let me be.”
Piper nodded.
“Does Leo know?” Prue asked.
Piper nodded, “He’s coming with me to the appointment.”
Prue looked down at the closed photo album. She couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed that Leo knew and she didn’t. She realised how illogical it was to begrudge her brother-in-law that; but it didn’t help her current feelings of inadequacy.
Piper noticed her sister’s demeanour. “I’m going to be okay.” She reached out to take her sister’s hand. “We all will be.”
“I love you, ya know?” Prue asked, a little teary eyed.
“Love you, too, Sis.”
Phoebe was in bed when her eyes suddenly popped open. Beads of sweat trickled down her face and body. She had to get up; the cold sweat was very uncomfortable and her mouth and throat felt dry as sandpaper. As she got out of bed, she didn’t realise that The Source was watching her.
“Another nightmare?” he asked, feigning concern.
Phoebe jumped a little at the sound of her lover’s voice. “Yep, another nightmare.” She sipped a bottle of water that she had left on her dresser for such occasions.
The Source got out of her bed and wrapped Cole’s body gently around her. “What did you see?”
Phoebe sighed, uncertain whether she wanted to talk about it. “I was under water, surrounded by those bodies from the tunnel. It always feels so real; I can even smell it.”
The Source kissed her cheek. “Have you thought about using magic?”
Phoebe turned to him; she hadn’t for a very specific reason. “To get rid of nightmares? Sounds like personal gain.”
The Source shrugged. “You were held captive by the worst evil there is; I’m sure Fate would make an exception.”
Phoebe thought about it. “I guess it wouldn’t affect anyone else. I’ll look in The Book tomorrow.”
He held her tightly. “Just remember that you’re free, and we’ll make sure you stay that way.”
Maniacal screaming echoed through San Francisco County Jail. Other inmates could be heard groaning and shouting for the culprit to shut up.
Two guards walked down the corridor of cells to see what the fuss was about. Once they found the cell from which the screams were emanating, they stood apprehensively.
“What’s going on in there?” one of them demanded.
No answer; the screaming just continued unabated.
The guards cautiously unlocked the cell door and slowly opened it. It was hard to see in the darkness. Suddenly a man drenched in blood jumped out from the shadows and launched himself at one of the guards. Blood was streaming down his chin and his body as he wrestled with the guard on the floor. The second guard got out his gun, ready to put an end to the commotion, but before he could do so, the prisoner stopped moving.
The attacked guard calmed himself and felt for a pulse. “He’s dead.”
The other guard looked inside the cell to see if there was any sign of what had happened. He shone a flashlight around the space and found a symbol painted in blood high on the wall. Three cat-like eyes, stared down at him.
Meanwhile, the other guard shoved the prisoner’s body off of himself and was finally able to stand up. His uniform was now covered in blood.
He didn’t realise that there was someone watching all of this happening. He also didn’t notice a purple light flickering from the prisoner’s body ever so briefly. The person watching all these events did see it and knew full well that something supernatural was afoot.
“Hey!” the observer shouted.
The guard jumped. He got out his gun.
“Relax. You need to contact Darryl Morris.”
“What?”
“Inspector Darryl Morris. He’ll know people who can help.” He stopped watching through the bars. He’d done all he could. If they didn’t take his advice, it would get worse. He sat on his bed and looked up at the ceiling. The same cat-eyes symbol was carved above him.
Bane Jessup closed his eyes, too tired to not take the risk that sleeping invited. “Hurry, Prue” he mumbled sleepily. “Please hurry.”
(Opening Credits)
Piper sat on the table in her doctor’s examination room, waiting anxiously. Leo stood beside her, trying to hide his own nerves. Dr. Wallace tapped on his computer keyboard while they waited. They had been in the waiting room for two hours and Piper couldn’t help but notice how many people were sitting without anyone next to them; many sporting scarves or bandannas, covering their presumably bald heads.
Piper took her top off and Leo took a seat to the side as Dr. Wallace felt the area in question. Piper held her breath through the strangely intimate and yet very clinical examination. Dr. Wallace addressed his young female nurse, who sat at the opposite side of the room. “When can we get her in?”
Piper’s stomach turned.
Dr. Wallace’s nurse thumbed through a file. “We have…the morning of the 16th.”
“That’ll work” he responded.
He finished examining Piper and went back to his computer.
Leo stood. “Is there anything you can tell us now?”
Dr. Wallace’s phone rang and he picked it up, annoying Leo.
“Yeah, okay well don’t jump to conclusions until we get Mr. Coldwell’s results, okay?” the doctor said into the phone. “Yeah, call them; tell them it’s urgent.”
Piper and Leo waited quietly and anxiously as Wallace put the phone down and turned to them.
“Alright, Mrs. Halliwell, your cancer is 1.6cm and is located in the lower-outer quadrant of your left breast chest wall. There’s no sign of it being anywhere else in the breast.”
“So it’s…” Piper gaped.
“A small tumour,” the doctor finished.
“She might not need chemo then, right?” Leo asked. “I looked online and it said…”
“We can’t say that for sure,” Wallace corrected. “A small tumour can be very aggressive; we’ll need to take a closer look. But either way we’ll need to schedule a lumpectomy.”
Piper’s eyes filled. Everything was happening so fast and there were so many conflicting emotions spiralling through her mind. On the one hand, she was somewhat comforted by how pragmatic her doctor was being, yet on the other hand, she was petrified and just wanted to go home and pretend she’d never found anything. “So…surgery…”
“We’ll remove the lump, but we should be able to preserve your breast. You’ll have a scar. We’ll also remove two sentinel lymph nodes from your armpit. We’ll analyse them and that’ll indicate whether the cancer has spread to your lymphatic system.”
Piper couldn’t speak, so Leo did. “And if it has?”
“Well then we might have to take out more surgically and you’d also need a course of either radio or chemotherapy. It really depends on the level we’re dealing with, which I’m afraid is hard to say until we get in there.”
Piper steadied her breathing. “Okay, well, if you think surgery is best, I can try and get some time off work. I own my own business; it might be a little difficult to…”
“Ms. Halliwell, the lumpectomy really needs to be done sooner rather than later. I have a free slot on the 16th.”
“At 8.30 am,” the nurse specified.
“8.30 am,” Dr. Wallace repeated.
Leo nodded. “Okay, Doctor, we just…”
Before Leo could finish his sentence, Dr. Wallace’s phone rang once again and he was speaking to someone else.
Leo turned to Piper and looked into her scared eyes. She rested her head on his shoulder as he held her.
Prue entered the police station to find Darryl waiting for her.
“Hey thanks,” he smiled. “Glad you could make it.”
“No problem; it sounded urgent… and frankly if you have a demon that I can punch, that wouldn’t suck right now.”
“Don’t say the d-word here!” Darryl muttered as he looked around anxiously to make sure none of his colleagues were paying too much attention. He took Prue over to his desk and showed her a photograph of the bloody symbol painted on the cell wall.
“An incident at County Jail,” Darryl explained. “Prisoner went nuts, ate his own tongue, painted this on the wall using his blood and attacked a guard before bleeding to death.”
Prue cringed at the description of events.
“Apparently this isn’t the first time recently that a prisoner has gone crazy, but they’ve been able to manage it up until now so they haven’t bothered to report anything.”
Prue looked at the photo. “Well, the symbol certainly looks…suspicious,” and Darryl smiled, grateful that she hadn’t said the ‘d-word’ again. “I’ll check The Book for it.”
“Thanks Prue. Captain’s out at the moment, but he’s still really breathing down my neck. We could do with this being as quiet as possible. In fact, no offense, but you should probably get out of here before he comes back.”
Prue agreed; the last thing they needed was to exacerbate things by hanging around the station.
As the two parted ways, neither one of them had noticed Sinead Griffith waiting in a chair not far away from them. The very suspicious woman hadn’t been able to hear everything they had said; but certainly enough to raise her concerns, concerns that she was determined to voice to the Captain upon his return.
Phoebe had left The Book of Shadows open to a page about dreamcatchers. She began to route through the various boxes lying around the attic.
The Source walked in. “Any luck?”
“I’m going to try a dreamcatcher. I’m sure Grams had one boxed away in here somewhere. Figured it might be safer than casting a spell, especially considering how out of whack my emotions are right now.”
She continued looking until she eventually found what she was searching for. She brushed the dust off the old dreamcatcher, which she’d always assumed was just decorative. “Gotcha,” she smiled.
The Source smiled back. “Great. I’ll go hang it up in your room.”
Phoebe handed it to the man she thought was Cole, who she thought she could trust. He left the room just before Prue rushed in. “Hey, can I use The Book?”
“Of course,” and Phoebe stepped aside.
Prue showed Phoebe the photograph of the symbol.
“Is that blood?”
“Yep,” Prue nodded, then explained. “It was found at a prison along with a very dead prisoner.”
“Define ‘very dead’.”
“He ate his own tongue and bled to death.”
Phoebe’s eyes widened. “Wow, that’s pretty dead.”
Prue flipped through The Book. “How are you? You sleep any better last night?”
“Not really,” Phoebe admitted. “But that’s why I’ve been looking through The Book. Cole suggested I try and find something to help manage the nightmares.”
Prue stopped for a second. “Did he?” she asked, but the pause was long enough for Phoebe to notice.
“I take it you don’t approve.”
Prue sighed. “Just be careful, okay? I’m worried about you, and honestly, I’m not sure a magical band-aid is the best solution.”
“Well what am I supposed to do, Prue?” Phoebe scoffed. “Go to a therapist and tell them about my stint in The Underworld?”
Prue continued flipping as she spoke. “Look, please, don’t be mad at me; I’m just looking out for you.”
There was an awkward silence.
“So it’s not just that Cole suggested it?”
Prue rolled her eyes. “No, Phoebe, it’s not. I would’ve said the same if Leo or Piper had suggested it. We just have to be extra cautious right now.”
Phoebe raised her hands. “Alright, just checking. Truce.”
Prue smiled as she nodded, glad her fib had fooled her younger sister. Then she cried out in victory as she found what she was looking for. The three feline eyes looked at her from the illustration of a rather nasty-looking demon. Its face was wrapped up in bandages like a mummy and the eyes were emblazed onto the material. She could just about see its grey skin and rotten teeth underneath.
“ ‘Asharoth, the Demon of Madness’,” Prue read aloud. “ ‘Magnifies the madness in others and feeds on their souls when they inevitably self-destruct. Asharoth will often target those who are in some way cut off from the world. He usually avoids places with a high number of people.” Prue was confused. “Well then, a prison seems like a weird choice. But it’s got to be him; everything else is too spot on for it not to be!”
“Do you need help?” Phoebe offered.
“Um, I appreciate the offer...but a prison, don’t you think...”
“I’d be asking for another episode?” Phoebe sighed unhappily. “Yeah you’re right. Besides, the Demon of Madness; I’d probably be an all-you-can-eat buffet to him.”
Prue laid her hand on Phoebe’s shoulder.
Phoebe smiled. “I’m sorry for snapping at you; I’m just tired. I know I haven’t made things easy for you guys recently.”
“Hey, we’ll get through this together. I promise.”
The Source hung up the dreamcatcher just above Phoebe’s side of the bed. He slowly waved his hand over the netting. It shimmered with a crimson red glow and crackled with energy. He put down his hand and the dreamcatcher seemed back to normal. He smirked. “Sweet dreams, Phoebe.”
Prue and Darryl sat in a San Francisco County Jail waiting area. A uniformed man stood at the main desk.
“You can just go right through, Inspector Morris.”
“Thank you.”
Darryl and Prue went into an office and were greeted by another uniformed man (portrayed by George Newbern).
He rose and shook hands with the two of them. “Hello, I’m Officer Michael Radcliffe. How can I help you?”
“Hi I’m Inspector Morris, this is my civilian consultant, Ms. Halliwell. We wanted to follow up on the incident here that was reported. Are you the correction officer here?”
“Yes I am. I also act as a sort of counsellor to some of the inmates,” Radcliffe told them with a smile. “I have a Masters in social work.”
“Perfect,” Prue started. “Did you hear anything from the inmates that might be relevant?”
“No, nothing that I can think of. It was mostly pretty innocent stuff; helping through loneliness and missing loved ones.”
“Would you mind if we took a look at the cell where it happened?” Darryl asked.
Prue and Darryl entered the cell in question and looked at the symbol on the wall.
“Wow, that’s bigger than it seemed in the photo,” Prue commented. “Must’ve taken a lot of blood.”
“Prue?” a voice asked from behind.
Prue and Darryl turned around, but nobody was behind them.
“In here,” the voice called.
Prue approached the cell opposite, surprised to see Bane Jessup looking through the bars. “Bane? You’re here? Did you see what happened?”
“Yeah, I’m the one who told the guard to ask for Morris.” He smiled. “I knew he’d bring you here.”
“Hm,” Darryl warned. “Just don’t make me regret it, Jessup.”
Bane nodded.
“It’s okay, Darryl,” Prue reassured her friend. “Really.”
“I’ll just be here,” and Darryl continued to inspect the cell while Prue and Bane spoke.
“What made you call us?” she asked.
“Ah, come on, I know when something demonic is going on by now. Things have been getting weird here at night, Prue. It’s like there’s this strange vibration through the place; it messes with your head. Hits some more than others,” and he gestured to the cell across.
Prue nodded. “I think there’s a demon here that causes madness.”
“Well, that would certainly explain it. Everyone here wants to deny the feeling, but I knew something was seriously wrong. When he died, I saw some kind of light come out from him.”
“That might have been the demon claiming his soul.”
This distressed Bane. “I’ve been having nightmares, Prue. I think they’re linked to whoever’s doing this. My dreams are my only escape in this d@mn place. Then again, with everything I’ve done, maybe I deserve...”
“No. Bane, don’t even go there,” Prue interrupted. “You’re already accepting the punishment for the things you did. That doesn’t mean this demon gets to take advantage.”
Bane smiled, his distress relieved. “I knew I could count on you”
Prue couldn’t deny that she felt the spark between them quickly reigniting. “You said it happens at night?”
“Seems to.”
“Okay. I can work with that.”
Later that night, a guard did one last walk down the prison corridor and announced lights out, leaving the jail in darkness.
Bane waited patiently on the end of his bed. Right on cue, Prue’s astral self materialised before him. “You made it,” and he hopped up and hugged her.
Prue was taken aback a little by this and Bane noticed. “Sorry. Just, ya know; not much contact,” he explained, a little embarrassed.
“Oh, it’s fine,” Prue insisted. “Don’t worry about it.”
“So you can get into the other cells if the demon attacks someone else?” he wanted to know.
“Yep, perks of astral mode. I think of somewhere and bam - I’m there. Meanwhile my actual body is safe at home in bed.”
“Handy,” Bane smiled, impressed.
“Only problem is I can’t access my other power at the same time, but hopefully I can avert any disasters tonight while my sisters come up with a plan on how to vanquish this thing.”
“How are your sisters?”
Prue hesitated. “Um...ooh, boy, that’s a loaded question. Erm. To be honest, they’re not so well.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“No need; they’ll be okay,” Prue shrugged, suddenly feeling a wave of emotion wash over her. “They’re survivors; always have been.”
Bane smiled. “I’m thinking Big Sis helped to instil some of that.”
Prue was about to shrug off the compliment when a strange feeling came over her.
“Do you feel that?” Bane asked nervously.
Prue nodded. “Definitely”
Wailing emanated from down the hall.
“Prue?”
“I’m on it.” Prue closed her eyes and willed herself to where the screaming was coming from. When her eyes opened, she was in a different cell and saw an elderly man literally bouncing off the walls. As he did, he let out almost-animalistic cries. Spotting Prue’s sudden appearance didn’t help his state. He charged towards her, but thinking fast, Prue flipped him over onto his back.
He ran to the corner of the room, now afraid of her.
“I’m here to help you,” Prue said, as softly as she could; which wasn’t all that soft, what with the amount of adrenaline pumping through her. “I just need you to calm down.”
The prisoner began giggling maniacally and the laughter then turned into sobbing and then screaming. He opened his mouth and held out his hands. He furiously bit into his own wrist.
Realising what he was doing, Prue jumped into action. “No!” She ran towards him and had no choice but to give him a swift blow to the head, knocking him unconscious.
Prue looked down. He hadn’t managed to bite too deeply, but there was some blood. Prue tore a strip off one of his thankfully very thin bed sheets and tied it around his wrist.
She let out a sigh of relief. However, her calm was short-lived, as she heard groaning behind her. She braced herself and turned around. To her horror she saw Piper and Phoebe on the ground, lifeless. Her heartbeat began to race.
“It’s not real; it’s not real” she repeated to herself, eyes closed, hands clasped to her head.
As she did, Asharoth hovered out of the shadows and leered in behind her. He slowly reached out with his grey, skeletal hands. Just as he was about to make contact, they heard locks shifting as a guard unlocked the door.
But before the guard could open the cell, both Asharoth and Prue had dematerialised
The next day, Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Darryl sat around the kitchen table.
“If I hadn’t been there, that guy would’ve killed himself for sure,” Prue told them. “I could feel Asharoth’s essence; I still haven’t gotten over it. I thought that in my astral form, maybe he wouldn’t be able to get to me...” She rolled her eyes at herself. “So much for that theory.”
“Well, in that case, next time I’ll go with you” Piper suggested. “I can control my powers now, so I can freeze anyone that needs freezing. Or anything.”
“Piper,” Prue pleaded, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
Piper shook her head. “Not up for discussion. Together, remember?”
Prue nodded, now kicking herself for not remembering.
“I’m still trying to get a premonition from the photo,” Phoebe told them. “Leo went to ask the Elders if they have any idea why Asharoth is suddenly targeting busy places.” She clasped her cup tighter. “If you guys want me to go with you, I can suck it up.”
Prue firmly shook her head. “Like you said before, Phoebs, I think being in a prison of all places might be a little too much right now.”
Phoebe sighed. “I just feel like I’m deserting you guys.”
“You might still get a vision from the photo” Darryl suggested.
“Exactly” Piper smiled. “And let’s not forget who saved the day when I got attacked by the magic spider!”
Darryl raised his eyebrow. “You fight magic spiders now?”
The sisters all nodded.
Darryl had to gather himself after that. “Man, I thought that snake-tongued woman was as weird as it’d get.” He took a deep breath. “Don’t worry; I’ll go with you guys too. I might not be much help with the demon, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a cop in sight just in case somebody catches you around the prison.”
That made Phoebe smile. “Thanks, Darryl.”
Just then, Leo orbed in. “Hey. The Elders think Asharoth must have been summoned.”
Phoebe gave him a perplexed look. “Who on earth would summon that?”
“Well...” Leo began, clearly uncomfortable. “The Elders also mentioned that Bane Jessup is being held in that very prison.”
Piper and Phoebe’s eyes widened and they both turned to look at Prue.
“Oh, did I not mention that?” Prue asked sheepishly. She turned to Leo. “The Elders are wrong; Bane willingly went back to prison to serve his sentence.”
“Prue, far be it for me to side with The Elders, but…” Piper took a deep breath of her own before reminding her older sister, “he has worked with a demon before.”
“Yes, and he’s also been the victim of a demon before. Remember Litvack?” Prue countered. “Bane really came through for us.”
Piper raised her hands in surrender. “Okay, well if not him, who would?”
Phoebe got up. “I don’t know, but I’ll try the photo again. Now that I have something more to focus on, I might have better luck.”
“And we’d better get to the club,” Piper told Leo before turning to Prue; “I will be there tonight!”
Prue sighed nervously as Piper left the room.
“Are you okay?” Darryl asked. “You seem on edge.”
“Asharoth got to me a little last night, and he made me see Piper and Phoebe dead. I know it was just a delusion, but with everything that’s been happening recently, I just...”
Darryl thought for a second. “You know, when my son started school, I was so nervous letting him go and start living his life without me. On his first day, he ended up with a huge cut on his knee. Then when Sheila gave birth to our second... things didn’t look so good for a while; something to do with his heart.”
A little confused as to why he was telling her this now, Prue gave him a sympathetic smile. “I never knew. Sorry you had to go through that.”
Darryl’s eyes began to well up a little. “That feeling...that powerlessness; it’s just spirit-crushing. Life had dealt my son a crappy hand and all I could do was hope that he’d pull through. I just had to have faith. I didn’t have anything else.”
Now Prue understood what he was trying to say.
“I know you helped raise them after you lost your mom. I know that in many ways you’re the guardian of the family.” Now he reached out to hold her hand as he looked her in the eyes. “But Prue, you can’t protect them from one hundred percent of the world. And that doesn’t make you any less strong or any less important to them. It just makes you a human being.”
Prue choked up “But I...”
“You’re allowed to be a human being. Be there...but don’t let it crush your spirit.”
Prue nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes.
That night; Prue and Darryl went back to the prison, but this time Piper went with them. She froze the guards on the way in.
“Okay, you guys head down,” Darryl whispered. “I’ll stand watch in case anyone shows up.”
Prue and Piper crept down the corridor and they felt a strange sensation come over them.
“He’s already here” Prue moaned.
“No, please!”
“Bane!” Prue grabbed Piper’s hand and they ran.
Phoebe sat on the sofa with the photograph of Asharoth’s symbol in her hand and The Book of Shadows open at his page next to her. She focused on both, trying to get a flash of anything useful. “Come on,” she muttered. “Show me who summoned The Demon of Madness.”
She gasped as a premonition flooded her mind. She saw what looked like a Voodoo doll on big desk. It had the mark of Asharoth painted on it in blood and it was surrounded by black candles. The vision ended and Phoebe didn’t hesitate to pull out her cell phone.
Poor Darryl almost jumped out of his skin when his cell phone suddenly began to ring in the dark, creepy setting. “Hello?”
“Hey, Darryl; it’s Phoebe. I had a premonition. There’s an effigy used to summon Asharoth. It’s in a room with a big desk, maybe in an office. It was surrounded by black candles.”
“Black candles, huh?” Darryl looked at a door as he remembered seeing something that seemed just a bit off. “I might have an idea. Thanks, Phoebe.”
Prue waved her arm at the entrance to Bane’s cell and the locks gave way under the force of her power. They rushed in to find him huddled in a corner and floating over him, arms and bandages dangling down eerily from above; was Asharoth.
“Back the hell off!” Prue threw the demon to the other side of the room with her magic.
Bane squirmed and rambled to himself.
“Piper, watch him,” Prue alerted her sister, “He might try to hurt himself.”
Piper waved her hands and Bane froze. “Now he won’t.”
Asharoth swooped towards Prue, and she repelled it again with another shot of telekinesis. Her power wasn’t quite as effective against him as she would’ve liked, but it would have to do. After exchanging looks, the two sisters tag-teamed the demon, Prue hitting it with her telekinesis and Piper repeatedly attacking it with fiery blasts of explosive magic. Their magic was clearly hurting the demon, but its recovery seemed to take no time at all.
Darryl kicked open the office door. After Phoebe’s phone call, he was not in the least-bit surprised by what he saw. “I knew there was something off about you.”
Corrections Officer Michael Radcliffe stood before a desk covered in various pieces of creepy paraphernalia; including an effigy surrounded by black candles. “Well, that’s rich coming from a guy lurking round a prison at night.”
“Why would you summon that demon here?”
The man just shrugged. “Just doing my bit for the greater good. One day these scumbags would’ve been freed and someone else might get hurt...so, much better that we end them while they’re here.”
Darryl was a bit freaked by how casual Radcliffe sounded. “This is murder!”
Again Radcliffe shrugged, unconcerned. “You never heard of a social cleansing? If you heard some of the stuff I have while counselling some of the whack jobs sent to this place, you’d understand. My cousin is a witch, so I just took one of his books about demons and I learned all about Asharoth. He’s fascinating, really. You know he’s so mad that he’s beyond pain? He’s just too crazy to really process it so he keeps going! I imagine your witch friends will be having a tough time figuring that out.”
Darryl drew his service revolver and pointed it at Radcliffe.
“You won’t shoot me, Inspector,” Radcliffe smirked.
“Won’t I?”
Darryl fired a shot just to the side of Radcliffe. Radcliffe wailed and crashed to the floor, stunned, as the bullet lodged in the wall. Darryl seized the opportunity. Running to the desk, he grabbed the effigy and held it in the flame of one of the candles.
“No!” Radcliffe screamed as the effigy started to melt. He tried to stand up and tackle the inspector, but Darryl first dodged his efforts and then knocked him out with an elbow to the face. With Radcliffe lying motionless on the floor, Darryl continued melting the effigy. “Seen enough creepy dolls in horror movies to know how this crap works.”
Prue and Piper backed away, having done little damage to the demon. Suddenly, Asharoth let out a blood-curdling screech as his body began to smoke. He flailed about as the bandages wrapped around him started to burn away, revealing his hideously disfigured face. He dropped to the floor and began to melt down into a puddle of bile that eventually sank into the floor.
“Did we do that?” Piper asked, totally confused.
Prue shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“I better go check on Darryl, make sure he’s okay. You take care of him,” and Piper gestured at Bane, removing her freeze.
Bane looked around the cell, much calmer now, but emotionally frazzled.
Prue kneeled beside him. “We did it,” she smiled. “We got the demon. You can go back to dreaming again.”
“Thank you,” Bane whispered.
Prue was about to say her goodbyes, when Bane asked: “I never asked. How are your dreams coming along?”
It took Prue a moment before she remembered how Bane had helped set her on her path to fulfilling her dream of becoming a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer. “Well, I quit my old job and I’m doing what I love, taking photographs...”
“So when do I get to see the Pulitzer?” Bane teased, a smile in his eyes.
Prue sighed. “Somehow winning the Pulitzer doesn’t seem to be as important as it once was.”
“So what does seem important, Prue?”
Prue took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Usually she hated talking about her dreams, but for some reason doing it with this man was easier. “Well, I’m beginning to think that maybe I should look to my own future a little bit more. Maybe take some extra risks for myself.”
Bane smiled proudly. “There’s that spark that I fell in...that I remember. Life is a precious thing, Prue; if anyone has the courage to make the most of it, that’s you.”
Prue reached out to take Bane’s hand. “I also wondered if every once in a while, you’d like a visitor. Maybe help a little with the lack of contact.”
Bane nodded, trying to look as cool as possible despite his excitement. “I’d really like that.”
Prue, Piper and Phoebe sat around the dining room table. Each had a glass of wine in front of her.
Piper took a big glug of her wine, set down her glass, then took a deep breath, let it all out slowly. By this point she had both of her sisters’ full attention.
“What’s up, Piper?” Phoebe asked.
Piper slowly stood up addressed her sisters. “Okay, so, I have something to tell you guy. It’s not good news, but it could be a lot worse, okay?” she began nervously. “So I don’t want you to freak out, because I’m trying to stay positive.”
Prue and Phoebe prepared themselves; Phoebe drinking wine; Prue nibbling at her fingernails.
“I have a small tumour, a little bit of cancer,” Piper told them. “I’m already booked in for a lumpectomy and we’ll take it from there. It looks like I found it early, so all in all, things are looking good.”
Piper exhaled and sat down while her sisters tried not to gawp at the news.
Phoebe spoke first, a little croaky. “Piper, I don’t know...I’m so sorry. I love you.”
Even as Phoebe rose from her chair and hurried over to hug Piper, Prue stood up and walked over to the CD player in the corner of the room and inserted a disc into the machine. The music began to play at a soft volume.
Piper and Phoebe turned to look at Prue and the source of the music, surprised to hear ‘Time After Time’ by Cyndi Lauper, both looking at Prue, totally confused.
Prue smiled at her sisters. “That photo album reminded me. Remember when we went to the concert and sang along to this? It was practically our anthem.”
Prue returned to the table and sat with her sisters again. She looked at Piper and Phoebe as the words ‘When you’re lost, you can look and you will find me’ played and Prue mouthed the lyrics to them. ‘When you fall, I will catch you; I’ll be waiting’.
All three sisters stood up. They danced and swayed to the music and ended up embracing each other in a family hug as the music played out.
Prue sat on the porch with her glass of wine. She looked up at the night sky and breathed in the crisp air. Leo appeared beside her.
“Hey,” she greeted.
“Mind if I sit out here?” he asked.
She shifted to the side a little and tapped the bench. Leo sat.
“Piper told us.”
“Yeah, she said she was going to.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Piper and Phoebe are having a sleepover in Piper’s room,” Prue told him. “Don’t think Phoebe was ready to let her go yet.”
Leo released a very heavy sigh. Prue turned to him. “How are you doing?”
Again he sighed. “I don’t know. I just keep remembering before the time reset. I couldn’t save her, because I wasn’t here. Now I am here...and I still can’t save her.”
Prue nodded. “Powerlessness,” she whispered.
“I already said I’d try healing her if she wanted me to. I mean, it probably wouldn’t work anyway; The Elders have really cracked down since last time. But she won’t let me. Says she won’t risk me having my wings clipped and putting innocents at risk.”
Prue smiled slightly, proud of her sister’s strength.
“I just...” Leo stopped.
“Say it,” Prue insisted.
“I just don’t know what I’d do if I lost her,” Leo sobbed. “I’m sorry...”
“Don’t be,” and Prue wrapped her arms around her brother-in-law’s shoulder. “I know you want to stay positive for her, but if you need to cry, or scream, or punch a few walls, just come to me and odds are I’ll be ready to do the same.”
“Thanks, Prue.”
“You’re family,” and she reached out to hug him. As she did, Prue smiled, finally understanding what Darryl and Bane were both trying to tell her. Now she knew that even though the others had their own lives, she was still needed and that she would still be there for them.
It was what families did.
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Next time on 'Charmed'-"And Then There Were Three"The Halliwell sisters invite friends and family to the Manor for a Halloween party, hoping the season will bring some cheer. However, things get out of hand when a seemingly harmless party game takes some sinister and supernatural turns.
I guess she'll know or be closer to knowing by the next episode.
