sensethevisions | Time To Have A Little Chat -- Thursday Night

Phoebe hung up after talking to Lana and grabbed her sweater. Her hair swung around her face as she looked around the Attic once more and then headed to the door. She was on her way to Caritas because there were some things that she needed to say to Veronica before much more time had passed. Lana and Kiki were going to meet her there so that way she wouldn't have to be alone afterwards.

As she walked down the stairs, she bit her lip. Cole didn't want her walking around after dark by herself, but this was something that just couldn't wait. He had spent a week in jail for no reason and that wasn't something she could just brush away. She waved to a few friends and then stepped outside.

The night was cool and quiet and even though she was still kind of wrecked, she was doing better now that Cole was back where he belonged.

She was almost smiling as she headed into town.

	As she walked into town, an attractive woman with long reddish hair approached her. "Are you Phoebe Halliwell?" she asked hesitantly.
	Phoebe cocked her head and smiled at her. "Yes, Ma'am. Is there something I can do to help you?"
	The woman looked around to make sure there was no one else in sight. "Can I talk to you?" she asked. "I...I heard that you're a witch."
	Since practically everyone in the school knew she was some kind of witch, she didn't see anything strange about the question. "Sure, we can talk. I'm on my way to the town if you'd like to walk with me."
	"Thank you," the woman said happily. "I need your help. I feel silly talking about this. I never believed in witches or magic before, but, well, things have changed recently."
	Phoebe smiled, trying to gauge if something had happened to the woman who seemed to need her help. "Things often do in sudden ways," she said sympathetically. Boy did she ever know that. "Do you mind me asking what happened to change that perception?"
	"My son," she said softly. "He used to be such a good boy. Always did what he was told. Then he entered that rebellious teen phase. I thought it was just normal teenage things until I went into his room and found things like books about the occult and knives and animal skulls. I know, I know, teenagers play at that kind of thing all the time. But..." She dropped her voice to a whisper. "I think he really is possessed by a demon."
	Phoebe froze and her eyes widened. "Ma'am... what has happened that makes you think he's really possessed by a demon?" She swallowed. This was so not good.
	"I heard him talking one night," the woman said. "I didn't think he had anyone in his room so I pressed my ear to the door and listened. There was someone there, and he was telling my son that it was now his duty to go out and kill witches in the name of the Source."
	The poor woman couldn't possibly know why Phoebe's face suddenly went a deathly shade of white. "The... Source? You're sure that's what he was told?"
	The woman nodded. "I’m certain that's what he said. My son is supposed to serve the Source. Does that mean something to you?"
	Phoebe was definitely shaken, but she tried to fight the panic down. It would no good to scare the poor woman before she was sure what was going on. "It might," she said as she reached for her cell phone. She had to call Cole. "I need to make a call to ask someone who knows stuff like this a question."
	"And I just realized I've been terribly rude," the woman said, laying her hand on Phoebe's arm to stop her. "I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Elizabeth." Her lips tightened into a cold smile. "Elizabeth Turner. I think you know my son, Cole?"
	Now she was not only scared, she was terrified. Cole had told her about his mother and what she had thought of him. However, training from CJ, and protectiveness of Cole gave her the strength to jerk her arm away from the other woman. "C-Cole," she said. "Yeah, I know him. Everybody here knows him." She tilted her head. "If you're looking for him, you'll have to go to the administration office." She took a step backwards. She didn't want to be anywhere near this woman because not only was she a demon, she was also Cole's mother and he might frown on her trying to fight his mother. "Have a nice night, Ms. Turner," Phoebe said, not trying to keep the ice from her words. "I have to go to my appointment with the uh..." No, not going to lead her to where friends were just in case... "Troopers." Yes. She'd go to Tex and the Troopers.
	Elizabeth shifted her form, abandoning the normal-appearing guise, and now looked more appropriately like an evil sorceress. "I'm afraid you'll have to cancel," she said with false sweetness. "It's time I got to know the witch my son has seen fit to ruin my life with. After all, we're practically family." She waved her hand in front of Phoebe's face. "Somnus." Phoebe's eyes closed, and she sank to the ground. Elizabeth caught her, looking around again to make sure no one had seen. She shimmered away with her captive. When Phoebe woke up, she was lying on a cold stone floor, her hands tied behind her back, and her ankles bound as well. Elizabeth stood over her. "You're as pathetic as my son," she said scornfully, kicking Phoebe. "So easy to lure and capture. And now you'll be bait so I can deal with Belthazor once and for all."
	If Phoebe hadn't already been attacked by three demons this year, she might have gone into full-scale panic mode. However, she tried to keep calm. Kiki and Lana... when she didn't show up at Caritas, they'd alert someone. She knew that Cole could probably already feel that something was wrong and she didn't want to panic him. But there was so much hate coming off of Elizabeth Turner that it was causing physical pain. The kick caused her to make a small sound of pain, but when Elizabeth said she was going to use her as bait to hurt Cole... that wasn't something she could be calm about. "I won't let you hurt him," Phoebe said determinedly, and then she swung out at Elizabeth's legs with her bound ankles. Okay, note to self... next lesson, get CJ to teach me how to fight if I'm tied up... if I see CJ again.
	"Feisty," Elizabeth said, stumbling back as Phoebe kicked her. "The Source will like that. If I let you live long enough to bring you to him. I may decide it's more fitting to watch the expression on my son's face as I kill his pretty little witch." Elizabeth began to pace the stone cavern they were in. "A seer once told me that my son was destined for greatness. That he would become the most powerful force of evil the world has ever known. I hope she meant another son, because the half-human brat that I gave birth to has done nothing but make me a mockery of the Underworld. I should've killed him like I wanted to after I was done with his father, but Raynor and the Source wanted to keep him alive. Potential, they said. Well, they've been proven wrong now. Belthazor has betrayed them and the Underworld for a witch. And now he'll pay the price."
	From somewhere, Phoebe got up the courage to laugh as she fumbled with her bindings, trying to get free so she could beat the hell out of this woman. Scared? Oh hell yes. But she was also angry. This was the woman who had taken Cole's father from him and the woman who had been such a... well, she couldn't say the word... well yeah she could. "I see what's wrong with you," Phoebe snickered. "You're frelling angry and jealous because The Source favored Cole and Raynor paid too much attention to him. Hrmm... guess even an ugly harpy like you can have jealousy issues. It goes along with the bad hair."
	"You don't like this form?" Elizabeth said. "Perhaps you'll like this one better." She shifted into demonic form, hairless and red with black markings, just like Cole's demon form. The markings were slightly different and her build was slimmer than her son's, however, but only someone familiar with one or the other might be able to tell the difference. "This is what I am," Elizabeth said. "This is what my son should be. But his human blood let him be tamed. I gave him the chance to prove himself. If he had resisted the humans arresting him or accepted his dreams as the truth of what he was, I might have let him live. But he's too far gone now, thanks to you. So when he comes to save his precious witch, I will kill him."
	When Phoebe saw her shift into demon form and she saw what she looked like, she had to fight the fear that rushed through her. She had only seen Cole in demon form a couple of times, but she had always known that he wouldn't let the demon in him hurt her. Now, seeing Elizabeth for what she really was, anger and fear were hitting Phoebe -- along with all of the hate and anger coming off of Elizabeth. "It was you! You attacked Allie and set Cole up. You caused all of us to go through hell... it was all you. When I think about what we all went through... what Cole went through because of you... I could fucking kill you myself!" Phoebe forced herself awkwardly to her knees, still trying to get her hands and feet free, anger blazing in her eyes. "You're not even half the demon Cole is." When Elizabeth said she was going to kill Cole, all common sense flew right out the window as she launched herself at Elizabeth.
	Elizabeth easily sidestepped Phoebe. "You witches don't know when to accept defeat, do you?" she sneered. She kicked at Phoebe, knocking her into the wall. As Phoebe lay stunned, Elizabeth conjured an athame and knelt beside Phoebe, using the blade to slice off a lock of her hair. "That should be enough for my son to know I have you...but maybe a finger would be more meaningful. Might get you to behave more, too." She forced Phoebe on to her stomach and pressed the athame against her fingers.
	When Phoebe fell into the wall, she tasted blood. And when she saw that Elizabeth had summoned an athame, that's when the real terror spread through her. It only got worse as she listened to her talk about cutting off one of her fingers. She was now scared enough that tears were streaming down her cheeks. If his mother started sending him pieces of her... she felt sick. When she felt the knife against her fingers, Phoebe couldn't help herself and she screamed. "Please, don't," she choked on her fear as she tried to talk. "If you send him body parts... he's not going to believe I'm still alive and he won't come to step into your trap." Phoebe's mind was filled with all of the things this demon might do to her. She had tried being brave, she had tried, but now this demon was threatening to cut her fingers off and as much as she wanted to have the courage to slam her head back and hope to hell she hit Elizabeth in the face, there was the chance that the knife would slip... and do worse damage. In that moment, Phoebe did a lot of wishing. She wished she had telepathic powers like some of her friends. She wished for all three of her sisters. She wished for Cole. She wished for Angel. She wished for anyone who might hear her screaming and come help her. Hell, she even wished for Logan and his gun. "Please..."
	Elizabeth laughed. "There are few things a demon likes more than the sound of a witch begging and the taste of her tears." She drew the athame away from Phoebe's hand and instead scraped it lightly against her cheek, catching her tears on the blade. Elizabeth then licked the teardrops from the athame with a hungry sigh. "Behave and you'll stay intact," she said, vanishing the athame. "If you're too bothersome, what I did to that other girl will seem like nothing compared to how I'll burn you. It's a myth that witches were burned in your Salem. It's not a myth for me."
	Phoebe bucked, trying to get Elizabeth away from her so she could put space between them. Cole's mother had her terrified and when she talked about burning witches it just got worse. Phoebe wanted nothing more than to huddle in a ball with her back to the wall where she could watch the bitch's every move, but it was kind of hard to. "When word gets out that you've taken me, you're going to have more than Cole to deal with," she gasped out between the tears and the terror she was trying to get under control. "There are others and my sister is going to kick your ass for this."
	"There's no human or witch I fear," Elizabeth said. "You, however, are full of fear." She closed her eyes as if drinking in the essence of Phoebe's terror. "I should introduce you to Barbas someday. I think you two are made for each other. But if my son is foolish enough to bring others with them, I'll slay them as well. I am not alone, either." She snapped her fingers, and two demons appeared. "Guard her," Elizabeth said. "I have a message to deliver to my son." She shimmered out of the cavern.