Chapter 14
Twilight was falling as they traversed the flagstones of Craven Street. The house was situated in one of the shadier districts. Although the city was alive and bustling for the time of night. Vagrants and people of the night inhabited this area.
The trio turned and looked around at the dirty, grimy, brown-rust buildings. With broken glass windows and bits of paper hanging from the gutters. Damp, smelly and spongy. Everything was dingy and the place didn’t look quite prepossessing at all. None of them could contemplate how the place would appear during the daylight hours. Piper was doubtful. But with baited breath and a long sigh, she climbed the shabby steps after the others.
“Prue.” Piper called out in soft, dulcet tones. Her voice echoed around the hollow fixtures of the rooms.
“Ssh!” Phoebe whispered. “We don’t want to give ourselves away.”
Perdita suggested they spread out and search the house. It would be quicker than creeping about the place together.
They each went their separate ways but Piper wasn’t pleased with having to snoop around the house on her own. Not with cobwebs and dusty floor coverings; and especially weary of meeting some towering beastly demon.
Kane came silently, slithing from behind Phoebe and grabbed her by the shoulder. Tagging savagely at her hair.
”At last you’ve come. I was wondering how long it would take you to figure out the pieces of the jigsaw. You being the intelligent of the Charmed Ones, I figured it wouldn’t be too vast a time span.”
“Ow!” Phoebe yelped with shock.
Arms of steel and iron were locked aimlessly around her waist. A superior demigod lifted her from her feet. A vast, solid crane.
Phoebe wasn’t one to be beaten. She fought back. Struggled. Kicking out using her kick boxing skills. Panting. Gasping. Heaving her sweaty, limber body up and down; she lashed out in desperation. Kane fell back for a second losing his footing. He hadn’t expected her to be so strong or so worthy an adversary. But amazingly he leaped back up again and grabbed her arm.
“Where’s my sister?” Phoebe demanded between shallow breaths.
“Now that would be too easy. Where’s your sense of adventure? The fun’s in the challenge. Of deducting answers for yourself don’t you think?” Even in their fight, Kane was still a most charming opponent. An ardent advocate. But this wasn’t a courtroom. It was life and death. Phoebe’s life and his death.
The saturated words just seemed to roll off his mellow tongue. Still the smooth-talker. Without even looking at him, Phoebe could understand why Prue could have fallen for his deadly, snake-like charms.
“You’re evil. No one can be free from the grasp of evil unless his or her own will is strong. Or until they knew they’re actually dealing with true, unadulterated evil. Then they must fight, just as we do and Perdita too in her own way.”
“Don’t talk to me about Perdita. For months now I have attempted to win her over with my wild, sexy charms and sweet talk. But she never came round.”
“She has sense that’s why.” Kane pulled his clammy hands tighter about her neck.
“No it’s something else, something more powerful within her and around her.” Kane seemed uneasy.
She pirouetted. Parried. Pinning back her arms. Dropping her weight to the lowest point of her body. Pressing against him as though slow dancing, she punched her elbow back into his stomach. It felt like lead weight.
Phoebe’s head dripped with perspiration. Dispatching him would be hard. Her face ran with large spots of sweat and her hair untangled itself in her mouth and around her cheeks. She could only imagine where Piper and Perdita were. If only they were here. Why couldn’t Perdita read Phoebe’s thoughts now?
Kane was huge. Massive, strong and heavy. A real demon, unlike any she had encountered before. What could she, a small girl, compared to him, do? This meeting brought back a brief recollection of battling their arch rivals and foes. Her memories of helplessness in the past opened up again. But her sisters always helped save the day. She was alone now in this violent, aggressive death match.
Feeling a gnawing, sharp pain in her chest. Enraged. She bellowed out. Jumping to her feet, feeling like Buffy The Vampire Slayer; she hooked her leg around his knee. Jerking counter clock wise she pounced and threw him backward with all the strength in her tiny-framed body.
Kane spun. Fell back and she kicked him again with the power of a steam train. This time he somersaulted back against the wall and seemed to pass out.
“Obviously he’s never read Shelley.” Phoebe unceremoniously remarked. Throwing her hair back with her hand. “Although Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein would be a suitable adage here and ironic. I mean Percy Bysshe Shelley when he wrote: ’All spirits are enslaved which serve things evil’. So we’ll just have to free you and send you back from whence you drifted!”
Everyone loved Phoebe’s dry wit and it certainly was needed at this point in the proceedings. As it proved most refreshing.
She heard a noise beyond the door. Hope it’s not another one she told herself, as she crept behind the jarred door. Piper and Perdita arrived at the same time. Phoebe’s arms ached from where she’d grabbed his body. Her face glowed. Bright scarlet.
“About time you guys got here.” Phoebe gasped breathlessly.
“I sensed you were calling out to me,” Perdita explained but I got stuck in the basement. The door handle fell off.”
“We need all three of us to vanquish him. Without Prue here I hope using Perdita in her place will work. Quickly the spell Piper! Piper you could have frozen him if you were here. Then I wouldn’t have needed to fight him like an old boxer out of retirement. He really took my breath away; and I don’t mean in the romantic sense of the word either!”
“It wasn’t my idea to split up!” Piper snapped back as she searched her backpack for the scrap of paper.
“But you’re OK aren’t you?” Perdita fretted.
Kane jumped up and pounced at Perdita.
“Quick Piper freeze him!” Phoebe commanded.
Piper threw up her hands in a waving motion and directed them at Kane who immediately stood frozen in his tracks allowing Perdita to escape his gloomy clutch.
“Now the spell.” They all joined hands and repeated the spell they’d found in Perdita’s book.
To remove the power of a fearsome slave
Encircle hands; join together on a glistening plane
Count to three; let the chaos begin
Wither thee hence dark knave.
Shafts of moonlight fell onto Kane’s body where he had frozen solid. Piper reached into her pocket for the elderflower water and poultice whipped up earlier by Phoebe. Each of them hoped the spell would work with Perdita in place of Prue. Piper crossed her fingers. They said the spell over and over three times.
As they were vanquishing. Kane unfroze. He felt the clammy fingers of fear probing his chest. A sound that tightened the muscles of his stomach and sent shivers down his bony spine, as Kane knew the end was nigh for him.
“Evil does as evil says. Kane must have found his darkside and succumbed to it. Revelled in it. That’s why he was able to do what he did. What he did best. Steal bodies. Be a total creep.” Phoebe was remorseless.
“Now you’ll never find Prue,” he sniggered as the last remnants of his hollow voice echoed about the room rebounding off the walls. He vanished in a puff of sulphur and silvery flame.
The spell worked. Phoebe was now certain that Perdita was a part of them; part of their family and she knew Perdita was right they must be long-lost, distant cousins. Several generations removed of course.
“Good riddance to bad garbage.” Perdita mused. She wondered how his strange, untimely disappearance would affect chambers. They were in the middle of an important criminal trial with Kane as head honcho.
“Maybe now, after being in his shadow, I’ll get the recognition I deserve!” she grinned.
But little did she know that the forthcoming events of the night were going to change her life forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment